I had read about 4-5 of Erich von Deniken's books quite a while back. INcidentally I think he is thought of as some sort of a crackpot by the intelligentia in the US. I think Carl Sagan wrote some sort of refutation of his ideas. Also, there was this other gentleman called Velikovsky who claimed that the "parting of the red sea" mentioned in the Bible occured because Venus, which was supposedly a part of Jupiter, was torn apart and made its way past earth to an inner orbit. Carl Sagan also refuted his claims.
Dear SPS always ahead of the youngsters as always...You just took the words out of my mouth that was a glorifying statement about our heritage But was Adithan not Rajakesari I have a feeling he was I may be wrong
kalki is very much interested in fine arts and more so in baratham .music and paintings, that is why ss took more time to incubate. This all marattam is very popular in movies those days, to be moreinterestting he might have added that sowmya
I think that we the ancients were not as dumb as we moderns seem to think they were. They were quite well developed at least in mathematics and also in medicine (eg Susruta's works on surgery etc). I think they were fairly good chemists too but I don't believe they were anything more than that. That is of course the rational side of me talking.
The romantic side would of course want to acknowledge that all the Gods were extraterrestrial aliens who visited the earth :)
I think that the ancients were not as dumb as we moderns seem to think they were. They were quite well developed at least in mathematics and also in medicine (eg Susruta's works on surgery etc). I think they were fairly good chemists too but I don't believe they were anything more than that. That is of course the rational side of me talking.
The romantic side would of course want to acknowledge that all the Gods were extraterrestrial aliens who visited the earth :)
Our ancient people were more than anything than what we think them to be. Today we claim that current day people are great because of the technological advancement. We only have technology today, and our ancient people didnt had ONLY technology then. Otherwise they had everything, what we cant even imagine today. Go through this link. Not sure about its authencity, but its quite convincing.
We have mention about pushpaka vimanam in Ramayanam, but we civilized people think its fiction. Somebody said after 100 years people will say that, people in 2005 were great. Yes thats for sure,because human race is detoriating day by day. Today 1000 AD (RR's era) is golden, in 3000, 2005 will be golden.I would say even a decade makes a lot of difference. 19th Century gave great poets like Barathiyar and great writers like Kalki. Can we compare anyone of todays writers or poets with them? As maha Periyava of kanchi said, as Technology advances, humanity detoriates.
Don't compare always. Don't counter, that only by comparing we can improve.
it is not advisable to compare greats. There are people who are great even today. Butt he thing is that the greatness would not be accepted when the person is alive. Only when he is no more people realise any person's contribution.
When Bharathiyar was alive, he was called as "Paithiyam". My Grandfather who had seen Bharathiyar in the streets of Thiruvallikeni, used to say so. Now we call him Maha purushan and all those things and the poor fellow's funeral was attended only by a handful of people.
So don't come to a conclusion every now and then , saying today's world is not as good as what it used to be sometime back.
Also whatever Mahaperiyava said may not be true always. It is said that He did not want to meet a widowed mother of a devotee , because it was considered inauspicious to meet a widow( this is hearsay only, not sure how fat it is true)
Just cos HG Wells wrote about the time machine, doesn't mean it existed at that time. Similarly, just because Valmiki mentioned the Pushpaka Vimanam is NO proof of the existence of a flying contraption at that or any other time. The ancients all had vivid imaginations and yes, I think manking has been dreaming of flying for ages and ages now. Valimiki's was just one such dream. We can't really take literal interpretations of old texts. I am sure you will agree that heck Lord Hanuman could NOT have jumped across the palk Straits to reach Lanka. The poet in Valimiki was just painting a picture for us IMHO.
Thanks for your supporting mails. I feel, its belief, if you belive its true, if you dont its false. Most of our people are not ready to belive.
Arun,
things which I belive and you dont. Lets come to something concrete. Today we have great advancements in all fields. Construction has reached unimaginable heights. Tunnels are build under sea, sky scappers all aroud, great technologies to aid such constructions, space ships being built etc. etc. But even today, even the top architects of the world could ot find out how the Tanjai periya koil was built. I am not saying this, but Dr.Kkvan himself said this. He himself have personally brought in top architects from all over the world, everyone admired the construction, but no one could tell how it was built. What all these tech. developments we have today be of use, when we cant find out how things were done 1000 years back. And we call that our ancestors are not so great as we think.
"oru panai sotrukku oru soru patham". oru soru pothuma ennum koncham venuma...
You got me wrong. I never said that our ancestors wereńt great. At the same time I am against attributing most/all scientific advances/knowledge to the ancients. Sure they were good engineers and like I said their mathematical skills were very advanced but I am against the ´´ Oh Arjuna used the Brahmastra which could cause universal destruction and hence we can conclude that the ancients knew about nuclear weapons since the Brahmastra really was a nuke ´ Hope you see where I am coming from.
As to your point regarding the periya kovil, I agree. It is amazing to think that they built that over a 1000 years ago without the help of modern architectural equipment. Simply amazing.
Again my friend, its upto one to belive. As SPS said, since we dont have the proof, we cant say it never existed. Whatever mankind has invented or discovered, everything was already there but it only took time for them to identify it. So there is every chance that the ancient people did find out nukes and threatended the world. You dont belive, I do. I have heard that there is great descriptions about Pashupatastra in our ancient scriptures(not sure which one).
Leaving apart everything, our ancestors knew how to live like a Human being. Today we live like animals, and its called a Dog eat dog world..uh...So I will strongly say that our ancestors were much much gerater than we are and I belive it. Am not forcing you to belive it. And this is not the forum again to discuss, and this arguement will go on for ever.
So let me conclude.
Satish
>I am against the ´´ Oh Arjuna used the > Brahmastra which could cause universal destruction and hence we can conclude > that the ancients knew about nuclear weapons since the Brahmastra really was > a nuke ´ Hope you see where I am coming from. > > > Cheers, > > Arun >
That argument was very similar to George W. Bushś viz, there is NO proof that Iraq does NOT have WMD and hence they must have WMD. That is circuitous logic. The burden of proof lies on us. Sure we can believe anything we want, but to convince people we have GOT to have proof. Anyway, like you said, these are two varying views and this might not be the forum to go into this :) Although I think the members of this forum wont mind if we carried this on *grin*