BABYLONIA, THE CROSS AND CRUCIFICION

by Sam Wickramasinghe

Learned scholars of antiquity and past history agree in the deduction that Egypt was colonized from India , and the cross migrated with those migrating people. “Proofs in adequate confirmation of this are found,” says the knowledgeable Dr. G.G. Ditson, “in waifs brought to light in ancient lore.

‘Waif’ originally signified goods a thief, when pursued, threw away to avoid detection. Many of the facts relating to, the cross, were doubtless intentionally scattered and put out of sight to prevent apprehension of the real subject to which they belong.”

In pictorial history of bygone civilizations, the cross was found near the Nile. A horizontal piece of wood fastened to an upright beam indicated the height of the water in flood. This cross formed what was known as the nileometer. If the waters did not rise to a certain height at the proper season, no crops were the result. Hence, with famine on the one hand to plenty on the other, the cross, in time, came to be worshipped as a symbol of life and regeneration, or feared as an indication of decay and death.

In India, long before this usage on the Nile, the cross was a symbol of life and regeneration, and also for a non-mundane reason, closely connected with religion. Owing to these three facts -- of life, death and regeneration – and to its connection with religion, the cross bad a revered place in India, Eygpt, among the Buddhists , Babylonia, Phoenicia, Assyria, and among Buddhists and Hebrews long before it assumed universal renown with the Christ saga of the Christians, the historicity of which is indisputable, going on the evidence we have.

Christ could correctly be termed an avatar, a direct descent from the Infinite (or whatever else one may call it) , into human form to fulfill a certain function at a turbulent and troubled time in human history, with the specific purpose of directing distressed mankind to nobler aspirations, veering away from the temporal to the spiritual.

The crucifixion of Christ and all what followed, apart from being considered as events in recorded history, carried arcane, symbolic meanings, found in many other traditions, long before Christ was born. And for this very reason the cross doesn’t belong exclusively to any one particular tradition, solely as some might be tempted to assert, vehemently, dogmatically and fanatically, losing sight of their symbolic nature and importance, regarding them as nothing else but historical occurrences in time and space.

This could be comprehended better when it is remembered that symbology is the language of the Infinite, available to express itself in finite forms — different outward garments, hiding one and the same Truth, and in essence speaking of the same essential unity underlying the diversity of these forms, which differ from time time, to suit the varying intellectual and emotive climate of the milieu or epoch in which they are destined to appear.

The late, Dr. G. Higgins, the learned English judge, who for many years made an in-depth study of antiquarian history, writes in his Anacalypsis (1836) of sculpture and other evidence found in Tripetty and Elephanta depicting cruxificion of Wittoba, Buddha and Krishna centuries before the Christian Era, differing in no respects from the crucified Jesus with which we are fami1iar.

In the Wittoba drawing, a halo of glory shines upon his head, on which there is a crown, serrated with sharp angles on its upper margin. The hands are extended, the feet are slightly separated, and all are marked with stigmata—the notable nail prints. These are pictures of imagination, instead of pictures of reality!

The legends and sculpture of the Hindu deity Krishna are more remarkable in lending a striking parallel to the Christian tradition. Again from Higgins: “He is represented as the son of Brahma and Maria. In Chaldean, Mare or Mar meant ‘lord’ and ri signified the Celestial Mother.

Ri is also the name of an Assyrian goddess, and when these two words are united we get mar-ri, or Mary, apart from its other meaning, connected with the sea.

To continue Higgins: “And as son of Brahma and Maria, Krishna is usually called the Saviour, or the Preserver. He, being an avatar, became incarnate in flesh. Soon after birth, he was saluted by devatas (angels). In. the birthplace, he was cradled among shepherds, and then spirited away by night to a hideout, for fear of a tyrant, Kansa, who ordered all male children to be slain.

(An episode in the sculpture at Elephanta; and over the head of this tyrant, surrounded by weeping mothers and murdered male infants, are the mitre, a crosier and a cross!)

Though born in a dungeon, Krishna was said to be of royal descent. He is said to have descended into Hades before returning to Yiacontna. One of his names is ‘the Good Shepherd’.

An Indian prophet , Nared Saphos, or Wisdom, visited him, consulted the stars, and pronounced him a celestial being. He cured a leper; a woman poured some ointment on his head, and was cured of her disease. Fellow shepherds chose him to be their king, and he washed the feet of Brahmins. He had a dreadful fight with the serpent Caluga. He was crucified between two thieves, went to hell, and afterwards to heaven…’

This narrative of Krishna, named as Christna by Higgins, is so identical with that of Jesus in name, origin, office, history, incidents and death, that some think the latter is a repetition of a perennial presentation and enactment, in human form, occurring as an event in history, of traditional principial truths, issuing in myth form, or, as real events; from the collective unconscious, time and again, for the benefit of humanity, referred to by psycho1ogist Carl Jung in his study of analytical psychology.

Of course this manner of thinking may hurt feelings of reverent sympathy some entertain when this is told, and try vehemently to vindicate that the Christna story is subsequent to Christ’s.

Higgins further writes, “It has been satisfactorily proved, on the authority of a passage in Adrian, that the worship of Christna was practiced in the time of Alexandra the Great (330 years B.C.), at what remains in one of the most famous temples of India, the Temple of Mathura, on Jumna, the Mathura Deorum of Ptolemy.

Further, the statue of the God Christna is to be found in the very oldest caves and temples, the inscriptions on which are in a language used prior to Sanskrit, and now totally unknown to mankind. This may be seen any day in the city of Seringham and at the temple at Malvalipuram.” (Higgins, Anacalypsis, 1836).

Writer, S. Gamage draws attention to all this in his presentation of the connection of the Christian passion play to something similar in ancient Babylon.

There, the crucified is referred to as Bel, which was another appellation the ancients had for God—whose names were many in different languages, among which we find others like Al, El,On, Brahma, Elohim, Jupiter, Jehova, etc.

It is therefore not surprising that these people sacrificed their gods too in plays and dramas, to demonstrate perennial wisdom, transmitted to them from times immemorial, millennium to millennium, to give them a meaning and purpose in life.

The modern age dismisses such history as paganism, forgetting that the very word pagan means villager or rustic, and today it has acquired many connotations through usage, deprecatory and derogatory, mainly by the influence certain religions had on this word.

We should remember that most of the economies of bygone civilizations were agricultural, and these villagers were their mainstays, taught to celebrate the principle of life’s rhythm -- generation and regeneration, birth and death -- by the elite to relieve and understand the monotony of change, by feeling both on the temporal and spiritual order.

Therefore, these plays and passions are timeless, soaring above the boundaries of culture, race and religion.

GOOD CONDUCT IS RIGHT THOUGHT, RIGHT SPEECH AND RIGHT ACTION

VIRTUOUS DEEDS IN HARMONY WITH DIVINE LAWS

Good conduct is right thought, right speech and right action. It is virtuous deeds in harmony with divine law, reflecting the soul's innate purity. As a staff is used to climb a mountain, so must virtue be used in life.

Good conduct, sadachara, determines our behavior in day-to-day life. We should be uplifting to our fellow man, not critical or injurious. We should be loving and kind, not hateful or mean. We should express the soul's beautiful qualities of self-control, modesty and honesty.

We should be a good example to others and a joy to be around, not a person to be avoided. Good conduct is the sum of spiritual living and comes through keeping good company. When heart and mind are freed of baseness, when desires have been tempered and excesses avoided, dharma is known and followed, and good conduct naturally arises.

The Hindu fosters humility and shuns arrogance, seeks to assist, never to hinder, finds good in others and forgets their faults. There is no other way to be called a true devotee, but to conduct ourself properly within ourself and among our fellow men.

The Vedas say, "Let there be no neglect of Truth. Let there be no neglect of dharma. Let there be no neglect of welfare. Let there be no neglect of prosperity. Let there be no neglect of study and teaching. Let there be no neglect of the duties to the Gods and the ancestors."
Cremation And Dispersal Of Ashes

Devout Hindus always cremate their dead. Burial is forbidden by tradition. Embalming is never permitted, and no autopsy is performed unless required by law. Ashes are ceremoniously committed to a river or ocean.

Experience Odic Prana

Fill six glasses with water. Place them on a table before you. Take one of these glasses of water and hold it in one hand while with the other hand you shake the fingertips into the glass but without touching the water.

Feel the odic prana falling from the hand and fingers into the water, being absorbed into the water and held there. Thus we have mixed two forms of odic power, that of the physical-health odic prana and the odic manifestation of water.

This creates magnetism when these two forces come together in the external, odic water. Mark the glass of water that you have magnetized so that only you will later be able to identify it, then place it with the other five glasses. Switch the glasses around so that it is not apparent which glass was magnetized. If you are doing this exercise by yourself, you may close your eyes when you switch the glasses so that you do not identify the glass that has been magnetized.

Now, the test. Close your eyes and drink from each glass. You close your eyes so that your taste will be most keen, and you will not be distracted by anything you see, having your entire mind on your taste buds.

As you taste each glass of water, you will notice a distinct difference in the taste of the water in the glass you magnetized with odic prana.

You will achieve a great control over your pranic sheath by learning to breathe diaphragmatically. The following experiments, coupled with diaphragmatic breathing, will help you awaken your own knowledge of the controls over odic prana and your own odic pranic sheath.

Take a deep breath through the nostrils, at the same time holding a mental picture of taking odic prana into the body from within the air. You may visualize it in the form of a vapor, like the odic prana you perhaps saw around your hand.

Visualize the odic prana going all the way down to your solar plexus, while the air is only held in your lungs. The odic prana stays in your solar plexus while you exhale air from the lungs. From the solar plexus area, the odic prana will automatically flow through the muscle tissue to the blood and begin to store up in various nerve centers in reserve for future use.

In mastering this exercise, you will build up the vital body energies and calm the nerves. It is not necessary to do this often, only when you feel the need of storing up odic prana. Odic prana is often used unknowingly for healing various physical distresses, emotional upsets and mental strains.

A child runs to his mother; the odic prana coming from the mother, freely flowing toward the child, comforts any distress the child may be going through. The child runs off vigorously, taking a good supply of odic prana from his mother through absorption. You can supply odic prana to any part of your body that may be ailing, and gain some relief.

For emotional distress, store odic prana in the solar plexus, and to relieve mental strain store it in the upper back and chest area. As you inhale odic prana, draw a mental picture of the process. When you make a mental picture, you are also employing odic force to form the picture, for all mental pictures are made out of odic force.

After the mental picture of the physical area in your body that is in distress is well formed, visualize the odic prana being sent to that particular organ or part of the body. Inhale, then hold your breath a few seconds as you visualize the odic prana flowing from the solar plexus to that area of your physical body.

When you manage to flow enough odic prana into the distressed area of your physical body and the health body becomes more vibrant, you will notice the distress ease. Do this for short periods of time. Remember, inhale, hold a few seconds while sending the energy to the distressed area, then exhale the air, holding the odic prana in the part of the body that needs extra energy most.

"Where awareness goes energy flows."

All breathing should be through the nostrils, not the mouth, deep and slow, natural and rhythmic.

MARVELS OF KASHMIR

RISHI WARI OF OLD

The happy valley of Kashmir is well known throughout the world for its Natural beauty. Here nature has been prodigal enough in crowning this ancient land with all its splendour and glory. Gulmarg, Pahalgam and Mughal gardens attract visitors from all over the world. Its lakes, green meadows, dancing and foaming streams, majestic forests full of fir and pine, snow-capped peaks are common attractions to the outsider as well as to the native.

Besides this, the valley being sacred and called Rishi wari till now, abounds in sacred places, Tirthas and Asthans. Long ago at the dawn of civilisation when the sons of Rishi Kashyapa from plains came to settle here they brought with them their traditions, religion, mythology etc. etc. These early settlers named the confluence of river Sindh and river Jhelum as Prayag, equal to holy Prayag at the confluence of the Ganga and the Jamna in India.

They named the tallest mountain peaks here after their Gods and deities such as Brahma, Vishnoo and Mahadev. These settlers must have felt surprised to see the hide and seek of water in the Spring of Trisandya; melting of snow around the spring of Bedaba Devi and other marvellous places .

With the passage of time, these places became Tirthas or places of worship and has continued so upto the present time. The tradition being like this R. L. Stein who has translated Rajatarangini into English writes,

"Kashmir is a country where there is not a place as large as a grain of seasam without a Tirtha. Time and conversion to Islam of greater portion of population has changed but little in this respect. "

Pandit Kalhana while writing introduction to Rajatarangini names the miraculous springs of Trisandya Saraswati lake on the Bheda hillock, Self created fire at Soyambhu etc. etc. "

In the vale of Sonamarg people refer to a cow carved out of a rock and from whose uddersmilk-white water issues forth. The locals also claim a couple, of waters lying transformed into stone far up in the Jungle. In the village of Seer Kanligund on way to Pahalgam people claim that a stone-head lying on an allevation gives out water by the right Nostril during the bright fortnight and by left Nostril during the dark lunar fort- night. Nakwar in Kashmir means Nostrils and therefore the name Nakwaribal.

The Holy Spring At Tullamulla (Kheir Bhawani)( Its water changes colour )

One marvel of Kashmir is the mysterious holy spring of Kheir Bhawani which is widely known to change its colour from time to time. It is towards the north of Srinagar at a distance of about 14 km. and can be reached within an hour by bus.

Before we enter the main islet to have Darshana of the holy spring of Bhawani we come across two important sites - one is Ziarat of Mir Baba Haider (a Muslim saint) and the other is the Samadhi of Shri Labhu Shah, a saint who lived some 150 years ago in Kashmir.

The main spring dedicated to Goddess Kheir Bhawani hasan irregular septagonal shape with its apex called Pad ( feet ) to the East. The northern and the southern sides are longer than the western side which is called Shir (Head). In the centre of the holy spring where once stood a mulberry tree, there is one marble temple which enshrines some idols found at the time of cleansing the spring.

In January 1970 an electric pump was installed to conduct the cleansing operation of the spring. Besides removal of mud and mire which had accumulated since long at the bottom of the spring a number of gold ornaments and silver pieces offered to the Goddess were recovered. As a result of the silt clearance a huge volume of milky white water bubbled out. During recent times regular clearance is being made after each festival when huge quantities of floweres, lotuses, mentha sylvestries (Vena) offered by devotees collect at the surface of the holy spring.

The water of the Spring changes its colour from time to time. It takes on various hues like red, pink, orange, green, blue and has often light green, red rosy and millky white shades.

Abul Fazal in 16th century and Swami Vivekananda in the year 1894 have testified this fact. Any shade of black colour is supposed to be inauspicious for the inhabitants of the valley. This colour was prominent in the year 1947 when the Pakistani raiders attacked the peaceful valley. Many times rising of bubbles has been observed which form the mystic Chakra on the surface of the water.

Such a sacred and mysterious spring is found nowhere else in India. The people living round the holy spring have great veneration for the holy shrine. A Hindu or a Muslim will not enter the premises of the holy spring if he happens to have taken meat on the day. In 1947 when the Pakistani marauders attacked the valley the local Muslims led them astray to save the shrine from their unholy hands.

Various legends and stories are current among the people regarding the holy spring. One such legend is that when Ravana was killed at the hands of Bagwan Rama the Goddess Bhawani ordered Hanuman to carry her to Satisar-Kashmir along with 360 Nagas. Hanuman selected the site and installed the Goddess in the Northern part of the valley. She came to be known as Kheir Bhawani or Ragyna Bhagwati as her favourite offerings consist of rice cooked in milk and sugar, and all other vegetarian forms of diet.

How did the existence of the holy spring come to light among the people ? It is related that one pious Brahmin named Krishna Pandit of Habba Kadal in Srinagar had a vision wherein he was informed by a Deva to offer Puja to Kheir Bhawani in the swamps of Tullamulla. How shall I locate the Goddess and her holy abode was the query on behalf of the saintly Brahmin. Thereupon he was asked to hire a boat at Shadipora wherefrom a snake would guide him to the destination. Krishna Pandit did the same and was extremely happy when the snake guided him through the swampy and marshy land, until he reached the hollow trunk of a mulberry tree.

The snake made a dip and disappeared from sight. The saint took the clue and after performing Puju poured milk which he had brought for this purpose. It is thus that the holy spring was discovered and was known to Kashmiries. It is believed that the discovery of the holy spring has been made on Ashadha Saptami, the 7th day of the bright fortnight of the month of June-July. Kashmiri Hindus come here on every Ashtami - 8th day of the bright fortnight of each lunar month and majority of Kashmiri Hindus consider Kheir Bhawani as their guardian Goddess.

Such is the brief history of the holy spring, the abode of Goddess Kheir Bhawani which has been eulogized by a poet in the following words :

"I make obeisance to that one Goddess, who having taken the position of the supreme God is the Queen in reality, whose form is made of light and is adorned by the lustre of 12 suns who cannot be observed through senses, who is seated on a throne and is wrapped with serpents ."

The Cave At BeerwaTo the south of Gulmarg there is a village known as Beerwa which is the tehsil headquarters of the surrounding area. The village is flanked by a mountain range on its southern side. At the eastern super of this mountain is located the celebrated cave connected with life of Acharya Abinav Gupta, the greatest Shiva philoiopher of Kashmir. The Acharya was called Bairwa meaning the fairless one. The village comes to be known after this title of Bairwa and has now become Beerwa.

The celebrated cave is located at the height of nearly 300 meter on the super of the ridge overlooking the crescent shaped narrow valley of evergreen Jungles with a Sukh Nag Nalla flowing through it.

One Haji Mohd. Sultan Dar ( 75 years ) said " Hindus used to assemble here upto year 1947 on the 12th day of the bright fortnight of the month corresponding to the month of June. In 1947 the valley was attacked by Pakistani raiders and so the tirtha was given up for security reasons. Since then a Government employee or some research scholar is seen occasionally visiting the cave."

The entrance of the cave is like a rectangular room where some 8 or 10 persons can accommodate themselves. Going further, the cave begins to narrow and opens to another smaller room where a stone Shiva lingum is visible. One can go further sideways but nobody proceeds further because of darkness and narrowness of the passage. On right and left vermilion covered rocks-adds can be seen.

Nearly one thousand years ago Acharya Abhinav Gupta who flourished at the beginning of the 11th century A. D. and is the exponent of Kashmir Shivaism known as Trika, entered this cave. The locals and the Hindus in the valley hold the legend that the Acharya entered the cave with 1200 disciples following him.

None of them returned. Even at present while offering prayers, the Kashmiri Hindus recite the same prayers which the Acharya and his followers recited while entering the cave. It is believed that they entered Shivaloka in their earthly bodies through the cave. It is since then that the cave is held in great veneration by the Hindus of the valley and till recently it was the place of annual pilrimage.

Shankerun Pal or Boulder of Lord Shiva

On the way to Mahadeva the pilgrims leaving Harwan behind, come across a huge boulder which they shower with flowers as token of reverence. This huge boulder is known as Shankerun Pal meaning the boulder of Lord Shiva.

In Shivsutra Vimershima, it is recorded that sage Vasugupta - the founder of Shiva philosophy of Kashmir - lived in Harvan in a hermitage. One night he saw lord Shiva in a dream who seemed moved with compassion at Vasuguptas helplessness in arguing before Buddhistic scholars. To enlighten him the Lord disclosed to the sage, the existence of a rock on which some sacred Shiv Sutras were inscribed.

Vasugupta was further directed to proceed on spot early before sun rise, when by his mere touch, the rock would overturn by itself and expose four Shiv Sutras to him which he should learn and teach to worthy pupils. The huge boulder with almost smooth surface is still pointed out as one on which the sage Vasugupta found the inscription.

At present there is no trace of any inscription on it, and it is believed that the boulder over turned after the inscriptions were copied by Vasugupta. According to Kshemendra the very sutras became the foundation of Advaita Shaivism of Kashmir known as Trika.

Budbrari Or Beda Devi Spring(Where snow does not fall within a radius of 350 ft. )

Towards the south of village Kellar, high up in the small valley of Birnai Nallah which connects Drubgam by a direct route with the Pir Panchal pass of the old Moghul Road, there is a stone lined spring bubbling with milky water. It is situated on a hillock with low-lying area on all sides and so is free from mountain torrents. It is 7800 ft. above thesea level in the Romeshi Forest Range.

Snow does not fall within 125 Hastas a radius of 350 ft. from the spring. The holy spring is square shaped and in measurement is 50 ft square. The water is milky white and is shallow near the banks. The source of the water is in the centre and is very deep, so much so that once a buffalo got swallowed there leaving no trace behind. Because of this incident shepherds do not let their cattle stray near the holy spring which accounts for the clean and tidy premises of the fount.

The spring is full of water through out the year. It has a beautiful forest full of fir and pine for its background. While going up to reach the holy spring from Keller one comes across a small hamlet known as Shukroo. From the hamlet upto the sacred spring a number of mounds can be seen under which bricks lie buried which show that long ago thereexisted some human habitation near the holy spring.

Some three chains away from the sacred spring there is a small waterfall which emits a sulphuric smell. The local gojars told me that patients suffering from rheumatism and skin diseases get relieved by having a bath in this water. Lime is also found buried here and there. There are no idols nor any ruins of any temple here except a boulder on which Shiva Lingas are carved.

The sacred spring must have been a very popular Tirtha in the Kashmir Valley. Kalhana in his Rajatarangini writes: "There the Goddess Saraswati was believed to have shown herself as a swan in a lake situated on the summit of the hill ". Though in the present era it is forgotten by people, the old Mahatmya of the sacred lake has survived and Shri.M. A. Stein who visited the Valley in 1890-95 and has translated Rajatarangini into English has identified the site known at present as Budbrari.

At the end of 16th century when Hindus still made pilgrimage to the Tirtha, Abu Fazal has recorded; "Near Shukroo is a low hill on the summit of which is a fountain, which flows throughout the year, is a place of pilgrimage for the devout. The snow does not fall on this spur."

It is related that in ancient times Rishi Pulastya performed long penance here and made the holy Ganga push forth near Ashram. He further craved for a boon that it may rest forever by his side which was granted. It is thus that Ganga Behda Tirtha got created. The Goddess Saraswati (Goddess of speech ) appeared to him in the shape of a swan which the Rishi worshipped on the 8th and 9th of the bright fortnight of Chitra of each year.

Ever since the Goddess Saraswati has been receiving worship at the Ganga Behda Tirtha. Nilmat Purana recounts the Tirtha as Ganga Behda and is included in the list of Tirthas mentioned in the epic of Mahabharat. This establishes the antiquity of the Tirtha.

From Srinagar via Pulwama regular bus service is available up to village Keller wherefrom one is to cover a distance of 9 km. either on horseback or on foot. The enchanting scenery, the green meadows with Nallah Birnai flowing at the foot of the hillock, the spring bubbling with milky white water is a thing to be ever remembered. The site if connected to a pucca road from Keller Masapora will prove the greatest attraction for tourists and will provide means of livelihood for poor Gujjars who inhabit the neighbourhood of the sacred spot popularly known as Bujbrari.

The Chinar of Prayag Which Neither Grows Nor Decays With Time.

Early settlers in Kashmir named their new places of settlement after the names which they cherished most in India. Such a place is Prayag at Shadipur, situated at a distance of 18 km. in the north west of Srinagar city. It is situated at the confluence of the river Sindhu and the river Vitasta, similarly as Prayag in India stands at the confluence of the river Yamuna and the river Ganga.

The place has enjoyed exceptional sanctity as a Tirtha since times immemorial. Here, as a Prayag in India, Hindus immerse the sacred ashes of their deceased relatives. Opposite to Shadipur village once there stood a temple dedicated to Lord Vishnu.

At the confluence of the river Sindhu and the river Vitasta there is a small island built of solid masonary on which an old chinar stands, which shelters a few idols and statues. The chinar neither grows in size nor decays with time. It has taken the place of the famous Ficus Indica.

There is a popular legend among people here that the island rises when the rivers get swollen with flood waters so as rising tides cannot touch the Chinar. The Chinar has found its place in the vocabulary of Kashmiri dialect and is referred to when the size of a boy or a girl is found stunted !

Kah-Kah-Pal

The stone which rises up when persons numbering 11 touch it with their index fingers. At a distance of 32 km. towards the south of Srinagar city on the National Highway there is a town-Bijbehra on the left bank of the River Jhelum. At the southern tip of the town there is a massive stone temple dedicated to Lord Shiva. In the compound of the same temple there is a conch shaped stone tapering at one end which is popularly known as Kah-Kah-Pal.

The stone does not weigh more than 60 kilos or more and one adult person can move it from side to side. The marvel of the stone gets apparent when 11 persons encircle it, and apply their 11 index fingers to the base of the stone. While repeating Kah-Kah (eleven-eleven) the stone gets lifted above the ground. The stone is popularly know as Kah-Kah-Pal which in Kashmiri means the digit eleven.

The stone is in the custody of the pujari of the temple. Many stories and legends about the stone are attributable to it. For example it is related that once it was thrown into the river and next day it reappeared on the bank of the river.

Takshak Nag

At a distance of 10 km, towards the east of Srinagar city there is a village known at present as Zewan. The spring known Takshak Nag is situated in this village. It is said that saffron has originated from the spring and that its cultivation has spread in its neighbourhood. It is related that the Lord of the Spring offered Hakim Waga Bhat, the saffron bulbs as a token of reward for curing his eye ailment.

Bilhan the great Sanskrit poet who flourished in 11th century and was born at Khunmoh ( a village at a distance of 5 km. towards the east of Zewan ). He described the spring as "A pool filled with pure water sacred to Takshak the Lord of snakes ", Abdul Fazal records the facts that this spring is held to be the place wherefrom saffron originated and flourished in the neighbourhood.

In the time of Akbar, the cultivators worshipped at the spring at the beginning of each spring season. To get successful crops it was customary to pour cow's milk in it. As a local divinity Takshak Naga retained sanctity and importance for long with cultivators. Pilgrims when on their way to Harishwar cave offer Puja at the spring on the twelfth of the dark fortnight of Jeth corresponding to the month of June.

Where relating the story of Chander lekha-the beautiful Naga damsel-the great poet Historian, Kalhana mentions the name of the spring in the Rajatarangini as a place of pilgrimage. The inclusion Or the spring as a Tirtha in the list of Tirthas recorded in Mahabharata signifies its antiquity.

At present the spring stands intact with embankments of chiselled stones full of pure and sweet water. The spring measures 50' x 50' and has depth of 3'. The water source is in the North east corner of the spring.

Lal Trag at Pampore

In the South of Srinagar at a short distance there is a small town as Pampore, at present famous for saffron cultivation. In the centre of this town there is a pond measuring 50' x 250' with varying depths of 2' to 5'. It is known as Lal Trag. The pond is held in great reverence by Hindus as well as Muslims of the locality, since the tank happens to be connected with an important event in the life of Laleshwari popularly known as Lal Ded in the valley.

Laleshwari flourished in the 14th century. She sang of divine love, tolerance, secularism and universal brotherhood when Persia lay prostrate under conquering feet of Timrlane and Black Death hovered over the British islands.

The great mystic poetess chose the common man's language for expression of her subtle spiritual ideas. She was the harbinger of new patriotic awakening and laid the foundation of Kashmiri song and poetry. Her couplets are so popular even at present times that a Kashmiri gets spell-bound when he hears some village minstrel singing them for some audience.

Lal Ded was born at village Sempore in the year 1317 A. D. and was married at Pampore. Her married life was most unhappy. She had initiation from her spiritual Guru known as Sedu Mole as the practice in vogueat that time. Her mother-in-law at the time of serving meals would keep a round stone in the dish and cover it with a little of boiled rice for Laleshwari.

She was subjected to this mal-treatment of near starvation for not less than 12 years, untill her father-in-law came to know about it. Her husband under the provocation of his mother would always find fault with his saintly wife. One day when Lal Ded returned from the river with one earthen pitcher full of water on her shoulder, her husband hurled a stone on the pitcher which broke into pieces and fell on the ground.

To the amazement and horror of mother and son, the water remained intact like a frozen piece on the shoulder of Lal Ded. Instantly all the empty pots got filled with water and the rest of the water was thrown away from the window on to the ground where it assumed the form of a pond and is existing there till today.

The tank became known as Lal Trag. The fame of the miracle spread like wild fire in the valley and Lal Ded began to shine like a pole star over the spiritual firmament of the Kashmir Valley.

Among Hindus of Pampore, on a marriage ceremony the bridegroom offers Puja at the tank before he enters the house of the bride. Muslims pour cow's milk into it as a token of respect. Some locals bathe their children in order to cure them of scabbies and other skin diseases. The elders in the locality saw that the tank never get dried even when the valley happened to be in the grip of severe drought. This holy pond is in dire need of repairs and renovations because of its national importance in the valley. Such is the legend of Lal Trag at Pampore.

Harmukh

Towards North-East of Srinagar city there stands one conspicuous hoary headed mountain overlooking the Gangabal Lake. It is known as Harmukh meaning thereby that the peak appears same from all sides. It is situated at an elevation of 16890ft.

The reverence which ancient Greeks had for Olympus,the Kashmiris have for Harmukh since they believe that on its top is the abode of Lord Shiva. Shamus-Faqir a well known Kashmiri poet in one of the songs says, "Thou knower of truth if you want to see Him face to face you can see Him at Harmukh."

Sir Walter Lawrence, the Settlement Commissioner of J & K State, has recorded about 100 years ago in his book "Valley of Kashmir" that Kashmiris in general believe that there is a mine of jewels and rubies in Harmukh. The inhabitants of the valley believe that wherever the Harmukh peak is visible in the Valley, the serpents of the place happen to be quite harmless, and on the other hand, the peak is not visible the serpents of the locality are poisonous and their bites are fatal. In Illaqa Pulwama where the peak is visible the snakes are quite harmless and at village Lar where it is invisible the serpents are poisonous.

At the foot of Harmukh there is one beautiful lake known as Gangabal Lake. In the month of September corresponding to the bright fortnight of Bahadun, Kashmiri Pandits immerse the urns ( ashes ) of their dead relatives in this lake after performing their Shraddha.

No sooner are the ashes cast in the crystal clear water of the lake, than swarms of small red worms appear on the surface and render the water unfit for drinking purposes. The pilgrims know it, and therefore, cook their meals before casting ashes in the lake.

Long ago some pilgrims said that they saw a small channel with mercury flowing down the mountain side into the lake. Having no container with them they collected a little quantity of the same in a dried piece of cowdung. On reaching their destination they found ~he mercury slipped down somewhere on their way back.

Once a hermit tried to reach the summit of the Harmukh to see Lord Shiva face to face. For twelve years long he tried to scale the summit, but failed until one day he saw a gojar descending the summit. When the gojar approached him, the hermit enquired as to what he saw there. The gojar whose goat had strayed and for whom he had been searching, said that he saw a couple milking a cow and drinking the same in a human skull. They had offered some milk to him, which he refused to drink and when they departed they rubbed a little of the milk on his forehead.

As the gojar indicated the spot on his forehead where the milk was rubbed, the hermit was extremely joyful and rushed to lick his forehead. It is said that the hermit got Nirvana and diasppeared from the place, to the entire surprise of the gojar. The legend is known as Hurmukhuk Gosoni.

HINDUISM AND JUDAISM - TWO ANCIENT RELIGIONS

Apart from each having suffered the shared history of Islamic genocide, Hinduism and Judaism are clearly the two ancient most religions surviving on earth today. Millennia before Christanity or Islam were born, Israel was the land of Judaism and India the land of Hinduism.

In contemporary times as well, the histories of both Israel and India run closely paralell. Both were the victims of Islamic occupation for centuries together.

And just as thousands of Hindu wonders such as Taj Mahal were plundered and rechristened by the Muslims in India, so too were scores of Jewish structures such as the beautiful Temple on the Mount, plundered and grabbed by the marauding hordes of Islam.

What stands out about the history of these two peoples however, is the fact that all along they have stubbornly clung to their roots and painstakingly maintained their pride in their ancient languages, customs, traditions and spiritual practices. In spite of all odds, the greatest disasters have always somehow strengthened the Jewish people's faith in themselves.

Hinduism, which has suffered the longest record of inhumane crimes and genocide against it, by the Muslim invaders, still brims over with the unalterable confidence of its believers. The unshakeable foundations of both of these massive spiritual traditions have braved many earthquakes and landslides, but never caved in. Trees which are entrenched as deeply in the soils of India as Hinduism and Judaism in Israel, simply cannot be uprooted.

Judea and Samaria are consistently referred to as "West Bank" in a deliberate attempt to distance the region from its Jewish past.

The Indian state of Kashmiri is presented as "the land of the Great Islamic Sufi Tradition". Not a mention is made of the fact that Kashmir has been home to Hindus for over 5000 years. The Hindu sect of Kashmir Shaivism was exerting its beneficial influence all over India, millennia before Islam was even born! Hinduism is constanly referred to as an alien religion, brought to India by the conquering hordes of "White Skinned Aryans" wheras the Muslim invaders are referred to as the "harbringers of culture, arts and peace".

The Mughal rule of India was the bloodiest and most wretched period of India's history. During this period thousands of temples, idols, universities, libraries, etc were razed to the ground and millions massacred.

Thousands of Hindu palaces and treasures like the Taj Mahal were captured, defaced and renamed with a Muslim name. And yet the Aryan Invasion Theory which has been thoroughly rescinded and rejected by the world, still holds hypnotic sway over the minds of India's Journalists.

However, this type of unfair portrayl has not gone unnoticed and added to both nations' experience of decades of unrest, rioting and murder by mobs . Consequently Jews and Hindus feel more and more threatened and frustrated in their own lands.

As always, this direct attack on Judaism and Hinduism has only motivated their respective followers to reassert their individual and collective confidence in their ancient spiritual traditions.

The desire to reassert what is their rightful pride in land, culture and religion has awakened in the heart of the common Israeli and Indian. The results are obvious, the unabashedly Jewish Likud Party was voted into power in Israel and the political party that represents the re-emergence of Hinduism; the BJP, has been voted into power in India.

These developments have of course caused untold heartburn and anger in Pro-Islamic circles. Therefore the media onslaught has begun in dire earnest. European, American and Islamic media have started unleashing their tide of anti-Jewish and anti-Hindu bombardments.

What has really set the alarm bells ringing internationally however, is the emerging closeness between the two nations.

ARABIC SCIENTIFIC TEXTS AND THE EUROPEAN RENAISSANCE

by George Saliba Cambridge & Reviewed by Toby E. Huff

Saliba has been studying Arabic scientific texts for many years, mainly those written by astronomers, and this volume offers his account of astronomical studies in Islamic civilization to the end of the sixteenth century. He argues that Islamic civilization, with no mention of Muslims, Christians, or Jews, hosted a "brilliant scientific production" in astronomy, medicine, and optics into the sixteenth century.

This is, however, a highly problematic and exaggerated story.

In an illustration from a 16th-century Ottoman manuscript, an astronomer calculates the position of a star with an armillary sphere and a quadrant.Saliba begins by casting a skeptical eye on "the classical narrative," which describes the process by which Greek astronomy—that is, Ptolemaic astronomy—was translated into Arabic and, thereby, became a preoccupation of Arabic-speaking scholars.

The classical view holds that the Arabic translation movement was launched by the Abbasids under Caliph al-Mansur (r. 754-75) and that the majority of the translators were Christians and Jews in Baghdad, especially in the ninth century. This was also the time when the polymath Al-Kindi (d. ca 873), known as the first Arab philosopher, and his circle of translators established a whole new lexicon of specialized philosophical and scientific terms in Arabic.

Saliba challenges this view by suggesting that high-level translations of some works in astronomy were completed prior to Abbasid rule, raising the possibility in his mind that such specialized competence by Arabic speakers must have predated the Abbasids. Saliba further insists on Arab priority as opposed to the Persian influences that clearly predate the Arab ascendancy of the seventh century.

Islamic Science and the Making of the European Renaissance will disappoint a reader seeking a subtle, probing discussion of Islamic thought and Greek philosophy, or an understanding of how these two worlds came together. One significant defect is the author's reluctance to discuss the religious affiliations of his protagonists. Astonishingly, he makes no mention of "Muslims" in the book, nor of Christians or Jews. All the participants engaged with science and natural philosophy are anachronistically called "scientists" (a term not invented until the nineteenth century).

That there is no Arabic word for "scientist," nor indeed for science itself other than ‘ilm (knowledge), raises the fundamental question of how one can speak of "scientists" everywhere when the basic terms are absent in Arabic.

Saliba's scholars may have been proto-scientists or "philosophers" (the Arabs coined the loan word faylasuf, philosopher), pursuing "natural philosophy," but this was recognized as something clearly borrowed from ancient foreigners.

The dominant intellectual leaders in Islamic civilization were not the faylasufs, but the ulema (religious scholars), who formed the core of the madrasas (Islamic schools)—but this word, too, is never mentioned. The author does acknowledge that many of the famous astronomers, sometimes associated with mosques as muwaqqits (timekeepers), were religiously trained scholars, members of the ulema.

Saliba's refusal to deal with any of these questions results in a reduction of Islamic civilization to a colorless simulacrum of Europe or China. The discussion of "Astronomy and Religion" never gets beyond this nice heading, and "religion" becomes an empty placeholder leading the reader to think that the religious aspect to the field is irrelevant. Such a homogenizing falsifies history and social life; any serious effort to understand what happened to scientific activity in the Middle East over the centuries must acknowledge that Muslims had a different orientation to worship, timekeeping, and education than their Christian and Jewish contemporaries.

Furthermore, it is essential to acknowledge that until the end of the tenth century, Muslims were a minority throughout the Middle East. That means that their particular concerns were not the salient ones in Middle Eastern communities. In addition, the distinctive form of Islamic higher education, the madrasa, did not come into existence until the end of the eleventh century. Taken together these basic historical facts suggest that the "golden age" of Islamic civilization took place during a time when Muslims were a minority and Islamic institutions such as madrasas had not yet had a significant impact on educational training.

Saliba reduces the distinctive Islamic modes of education that were designed to preserve the Islamic faith, teach Arabic grammar and genealogy, and so on, to "educational institutions," leaving the reader to imagine that whatever educational process was going on in "Islamic civilization" was the same as in Europe. Very clearly this was not so. Similarly misleading, the author finds "scientists," "fellow scientists," and "tens of scientists," churning out an outstanding if not revolutionary scientific production.

Such excess of praise leads to the false conclusion that scientific activity was fully institutionalized in the Muslim world and that it suddenly collapsed at the end of the sixteenth century when in fact scientific inquiry was excluded from the madrasas and gradually declined after the thirteenth century.

As noted, the first of Saliba's difficulties is accounting for the way in which Greek astronomy was incorporated into the emerging Islamic civilization in the eighth and ninthcenturies. He posits that some early twentieth-century scholars have distorted the story, giving too much credit to the Greeks and the ambient culture of the Middle East and too little credit to the vague group of Arabs who, according to the author, preternaturally understood what was being translated.

The Hellenic tradition had waned, leaving no outstanding scholars, and so the author asks how it was possible for these new arrivals to understand the foreign ideas.

Just who these Arab scholars were, religiously and ethnically, is never clarified, except that the author rejects any account that gives a strong role to the "Persians," described as a "racial" group.

Still it is not difficult to find Iranian scholars who claim that most of the scientific advances claimed by "Arabs" were accomplished by Persians.

Given the novelty of the foreign materials, Saliba finds it remarkable that the eighth-century Arabs were able not only to understand the complicated text of Ptolemy's Almagest but also to criticize and improve upon it. This could only happen if they had an unknown tradition of learning, independent of the Greeks and superior to that of the former Byzantine scholars.

The upshot is what he calls the new science of ‘ilm al-hay'a (that is, astronomy as the science of the "configuration of the heavens") that he claims had no Greek equivalent. Historians of Arabic science will spill much ink over that claim because the general view is that there would be very little Arab astronomy without Euclid and Ptolemy.

The second difficulty the author confronts is the notion that Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (d. 1111), probably the greatest Muslim religious philosopher, put an end to scientific activity in the Muslim world by his attack on the philosophers. This simplistic formula is also a nineteenth-century view first put forward by Edward Sachau.

Here again the reader is given no background on the debate, no clue about what Ghazali argued, how Muslims reacted to the arguments, nor the century-long debate that culminated in a rebuttal by Averroes (Ibn Rushd) in the twelfth century.

At issue was Ghazali's denial of natural causality and his marshaling of Greek philosophy to the aid of "Islamic occasionalism," the view that all events, human and natural, are controlled by God instead of through the blind workings of natural processes.

Whatever impact that doctrine had on Muslims, Saliba's exaggerated imputation to Ghazali claims too much. At the same time, he fails to draw an obvious insight that applies to astronomy. The author notes that one objection to Greek astronomy in the Muslim world was its association with astrology, as astrologers claim to predict the future.

Such a claim is profoundly at odds with the Islamic view that only God knows the future, encouraging the extreme reluctance of Arab astronomers to work out ephemerides, tables listing the positions of the sun, moon, and planets on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. Saliba acknowledges the surprising absence of ephemerides but declines to comment on the deeper issues.

In optics, Saliba mentions the explanation of the rainbow by the early fourteenth-century scholar, Kamal al-Din al-Farisi, but the same explanation had been simultaneously invented in Europe by Theodoric of Freiburg in about 1310 while eye glasses had been invented in 1286 in Florence.

In medicine, Saliba mentions the surmise of the thirteenth-century physician and religious scholar Ibn an-Nafis that there is a lesser circulation of the blood from the heart to the lungs. The standard Galenic view was that the pulmonary vein from the lungs to the heart carries air and spirit (pneuma) that cools it. That lesser circulation stands in contrast to William Harvey's discovery in the early seventeenth century that blood circulates throughout the body from the heart through the arteries, returning via the veins.

Ibn an-Nafis's conjecture was surely a brilliant guess, but the ban on human postmortems remained in the Islamic world (and among orthodox Jews) into the twentieth century blocking further discovery while, in Europe, autopsies were routinely practiced from the thirteenth century onward. Saliba ignores these topics in order to spin his Arabic-centric narrative.

In the last chapter, the author discusses the decline of Arabic science—perhaps, he speculates, after the sixteenth century, but he offers little guidance. The lack of any significant innovations by Muslims in the science of motion after Ibn Bajja in the twelfth century, in optics after the early fourteenth century, or in astronomy after Shatir suggests that scientific inquiry in the Muslim world has long been moribund.

When the telescope arrived in the Middle East shortly after its invention in 1608, and with the publication of Galileo's Starry Messenger in 1610, Europeans were on fire with curiosity. But in the Muslim world, the device failed to excite astronomical interest and was not used for astronomical research until centuries later.

The scientific curiosity Saliba trumpets in his book had inexplicably vanished. The author wishes exceedingly desperately to show a "seminal impact" of Arabic science on Renaissance Europe, but science in Europe had already moved far beyond the last innovations of Islamic civilization.

Toby E. Huff is a research associate in the department of astronomy, Harvard University, and chancellor professor emeritus in policy studies at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth.

WHAT IS "UNIVERSAL DHARMA"

Universal law, known in the Vedas as rita, is cosmic order, God's rule at work throughout the physical province.

It is the infinite intelligence or consciousness in nature, the sustaining cosmic design and organizing force.

Rita is the underlying divine principle and universal law regulating nature, from the voyage of stars in vast galactic orbits to the flux of infinitesimal subatomic energies.

Rita is the Tao.

It is destiny and the road to destiny. When we are in tune with universal dharma, and realize that man is an integral part of nature and not above it or dominating it, then we are in tune with God.

All Hindus feel they are guests on the planet with responsibilities to nature, which when fulfilled balance its responsibilities to them.

The physical body was gathered from nature and returns to it.

Nature is exquisitely complex and orderly. The coconut always yields a coconut tree, a lotus a lotus, a rose a rose, not another species. How constant nature is, and yet how diverse, for in mass producing its creations, no two ever look exactly alike. Yes, the Hindu knows himself to be a part of nature and seeks to bring his life into harmony with the universal path, the sustaining cosmic force.

The Vedas proclaim, "Earth is upheld by Truth. Heaven is upheld by the sun. The solar regions are supported by eternal laws, rita. The elixir of divine love is supreme in heaven."

Sadly, we are developing a generation--or two generations, for one is already established--of heartless children, deprived of love: an unhugging, cool, calculating, computer generation exposed to worldly sights that even most adults did not encounter ten years ago. Where will it all lead? That is a question Hindu families around the world are beginning to ask.

Forgiving And Seeking Forgiveness

Siva's devotees facing death perform vasana daha tantra, reconcile with and seek forgiveness from anyone they have offended, lest they leave unresolved kukarmas to go to seed and bear bitter fruit in future births.

Expressions of Actinic Force

Did you know that the physical body reflects the higher states of your consciousness and actually registers the flow of actinic force?

There are advanced yogis who can look at the physical body of a beginning seeker and observe how evolved he may be on the spiritual path.

He would also be able to intuit from his observation the remaining subconscious seed experiences that yet must be worked out either physically or mentally. Your physical body will express the highest that is within you when the actinic forces are flowing freely through it.

Often the physical body reflects the lower nature when the odic forces are turbulent and in or out of control. The best way to keep the actinic force flowing through the physical body is practicing the art of giving, doing little things for others that you have not been asked to do. This keeps you creative, and being creative is actinic, superconscious and religious.

Giving, doing without thought of return, affectionate detachment, creates an odic vacuum which your actinic, spiritual forces flow into and fill. As you practice this bhakti and karma yoga art, your relatives and friends, even strangers, will recognize your unfoldment, for the actinic forces, the real you, will permeate your physical body, making each of your features alive.

You can only detach yourself from your odic physical body when you know that a higher you exists, when you have gained stability by identifying yourself as actinic force. Don't mistake your personality or ego for your actinic individuality. Often the two terms individuality and personality are taken to be synonymous, but this is far from true.

In classical yoga teachings we look at individuality as being the actinic energy, or the clear white light, the pure energy substance of the mind, which is constant, ever unfolding itself, peaceful and controlled. The personality we consider as the various masks or personae which cover the individuality.

The personae which are heavy, dark and glued on to one's face, so to speak, are those of an intense ego, congested odic force. They are most difficult and rather painful to drop off, or even to pull off. The personae which are transparent allow the clear white light from the actinic being to shine through.

One can have many of these personalities and have fun using them constructively in the world, doing things of the world, always recognizing that the clearness of actinic vision shines through the mind-constructed personality of the individual's race, occupation, social background and various accomplishments.

DUTIES TO FATHER, MOTHER, TEACHER AND GUEST

Let there be no neglect of the duties to the Gods and the fathers. Be one to whom the mother is a God. Be one to whom the father is a God. Be one to whom the teacher is a God. Be one to whom the guest is a God.

Krishna Yajur Veda, Taittiraya Upanishad 1.11.1-2. upr, 537-8