NASA Images Discover Ancient Bridge between India and SriLanka

Srikrishna Ghadiyaram srikrishna_ghadiyaram at YAHOO.COM
Wed Oct 16 01:38:13 CDT 2002


Hari Om !!

It is not difficult to express doubts. I am sure some
interested people will investigate using all the
available techniques.

For me it was a news of joy. I did not concern whether
it is true or not. Just a mention of a (even if it
were imaginary) link to the past was a news of joy. To
remember the Lord, as if he was really amidest us.  Is
it not ? Let that happiness be ours !!

Om Namo Narayanaya !!

Srikrishna

--- Rajesh Sarin <Rajesh_Sarin at RIL.COM> wrote:
> Personally, I too have a few apprehensions about the
> theory of finding a bridge through Photographs !
>
> 1     How can one exactly date the exact age of the
> rock
>       by simply a photograph ?
>       As far as I know, carbon dating and chemical
> analysis
>       of the material from rocks is needed to
> determine
>       the age of rocks !
>
> 2     Has anybody reached the rock physically to
> determine
>       the age of rock ?
>
> 3     If it is only Clouds seen as a bridge in the
> Astronaut's
>       photos, how can one be so sure about these
> being
>       'Shoals' and 'age of 1750000 years' !
>
> regards - Sarin Rajesh
>
>
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>
> > --- Bobby Aiden <BobbyAiden at hotmail.com> wrote:
> > > This is to reply to Sonal's Mail, here is the
> exact
> > > version of this story on
> > > NASA website and the picutre is attached
> herewith.
> > >
> > > STS-75 EARTH VIEW (SRI LANKA) --- This 70mm
> frame is
> > > of an area seldom
> > > photographed by Space Shuttle astronauts. The
> view
> > > is northwestward across
> > > the "teardrop" of Sri Lanka, along Adam's Bridge
> (a
> > > sandbar that nearly
> > > closes the Palk Strait), and southern India.
> Strong
> > > westerly winds show the
> > > effects of evapotranspiration; there is enough
> > > moisture generated by
> > > vegetation on Sri Lanka to form streets of
> cumulus
> > > clouds relatively near
> > > the eastern shoreline. In contrast the dry
> plains of
> > > southern India provide
> > > little cloud-forming moisture, even over the
> > > Southern Ghats (the range of
> > > hills along the western edge of the Indian
> > > Peninsula. A few plumes of smoke,
> > > probably from seasonal agricultural burning, can
> be
> > > seen north and south of
> > > China Bay (Trincomalee) on the east coast of Sri
> > > Lanka.
> > >
> > >
>
>
>
>
>
> S Jayanarayanan
> <sjayana at YAHOO.COM>@LISTS.ADVAITA-VEDANTA.ORG> on
> 11-10-2002 23:45:29
>
> Please respond to List for advaita vedanta as taught
> by Shri Shankara
>        <ADVAITA-L at LISTS.ADVAITA-VEDANTA.ORG>
>
> Sent by:    List for advaita vedanta as taught by
> Shri Shankara
>        <ADVAITA-L at LISTS.ADVAITA-VEDANTA.ORG>
>
>
> To:    ADVAITA-L at LISTS.ADVAITA-VEDANTA.ORG
> cc:
> Subject:    Fw: NASA Images Discover Ancient Bridge
> between India and
>        SriLanka
>
>
> The website
>
> http://www.indolink.com/Religion/r091702-130924.php
>
> has some photographs (courtesy of NASA), revealing a
> man-made bridge under the ocean between India and
> Srilanka. The photos are for real, as links to the
> official NASA images site bring up the same
> pictures,
> e.g.
>
http://images.jsc.nasa.gov/iams/images/earth/STS033/lowres/20003372.jpg
>
> Article:
> -------------------------
> Space images taken by NASA reveal a mysterious
> ancient
> bridge in the Palk Strait between India and Sri
> Lanka.
> The recently discovered bridge currently named as
> Adam´s Bridge is made of chain of shoals, c.18 mi
> (30
> km) long.
>
> The bridge´s unique curvature and composition by age
> reveals that it is man made. The legends as well as
> Archeological studies reveal that the first signs of
> human inhabitants in Sri Lanka date back to the a
> primitive age, about 1,750,000 years ago and the
> bridge´s age is also almost equivalent.
>
> This information is a crucial aspect for an insight
> into the mysterious legend called Ramayana, which
> was
> supposed to have taken place in tredha yuga (more
> than
> 1,700,000 years ago).
>
> In this epic, there is a mentioning about a bridge,
> which was built between Rameshwaram (India) and
> Srilankan coast under the supervision of a dynamic
> and
> invincible figure called Rama who is supposed to be
> the incarnation of the supreme.
>
> This information may not be of much importance to
> the
> archeologists who are interested in exploring the
> origins of man, but it is sure to open the spiritual
> gates of the people of the world to have come to
> know
> an ancient history linked to the Indian mythology.
> ------------------------
>
> Regards,
>
> Kartik
>
> __________________________________________________
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>From  Wed Oct 16 00:05:27 2002
Message-Id: <WED.16.OCT.2002.000527.0700.>
Date: Wed, 16 Oct 2002 00:05:27 -0700
Reply-To: sanjay1297 at yahoo.com
To: List for advaita vedanta as taught by Shri Shankara
        <ADVAITA-L at LISTS.ADVAITA-VEDANTA.ORG>
From: Sanjay Verma <sanjay1297 at YAHOO.COM>
Subject: Re: Distortion of history
In-Reply-To: <Pine.LNX.4.44.0210150010270.26264-100000 at samadhi.braincells.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

Namastubhyam,

Does anyone have a citation for Dayananda's
comments on the Puranas being bogus and the
product of evil minds?

Without having examined the comments directly, I
am reticent to either agree with or disagree with
them. However, for the purpose of framing a
discussion on such issues, I have a few
suggestions and/or comments.

1) Are not the Puranas, along with the epics and
the dharmashastras, etc.,  considered smriti
(i.e., passed down through the memory of man) and
hence fallible? So, while using the word "evil"
may be too much of an extreme, haven't Hindu
philosophers throughout our heritage placed more
emphasis on shruti (ie, revealed works such as
the Vedas and Upanishads) as more valid sources
of knowledge and edification? My point is simply
that if we get beyond the academic politics of
authenticity and dating of texts, that even in
the Hindu tradition Puranic compositions are
deemed less authentic than the shruti
compositions. Case in point: there are various
recensions of the epics and Puranas, whereas the
shruti compositions do not present with such
variety. My Sanskrit professor (who is currently
working on the Ramayana translation project at UC
Berkeley) shared with me that when the European
scholars came to India and began the daunting
task of translation of Sanskrit compositions they
encountered the following: For the Vedas and the
Bhagavad Gita, no matter where they went in India
(ie, to various pandits in various regions of
India), there was 100% agreement on the verses
that comprise that work. This is to say that in
all parts of India, the 700 (or 701) verses of
the Bhagavad Gita are the same. However, there
are hundreds of recensions of the epics (ie, not
an agreement on the authentic verses that
comprise the work).

2) I believe Dayananda believed only in Nirguna
Brahman, and not in Saguna Brahman. The point is
not what Dayananda believed, but that there are
two such traditions in India, and the two have
been at odds with each other long before the
arrival of the Muslims. So, if one prescribes
only to a Nirguna Brahman, the Puranas do not
make much sense, do they? If one prescribes to a
Saguna Brahman, then the Puranas are the stimulus
for bhakti (the ultimate goal of many traditions
believing in Saguna Brahman), right?

My point with the above two comments is simply
that  much of what we deem valid or invalid,
authentic or inauthentic, revealed or distorted,
etc. often depends on our own philosophical
orientation within Hinduism. Since this
discussion group is intended to be discussion on
Advaita Vedanta as taught by Adi Shankaracarya,
then perhaps we would be better served to
exchange ideas on what Sri Shankara had to say
about the Puranas.

Om Shanti,
Sanjay

--- "Jaldhar H. Vyas" <jaldhar at BRAINCELLS.COM>
wrote:
> On Tue, 8 Oct 2002, Venkataramani K. wrote:
>
> >
> > There is another school, typified by Swami
> Dayananda Sarasvati [19th century
> > CE], which considers all the purAnAs as bogus
> and as products of evil minds,
> > which concocted them during the Muslim rule.
> This argument too is not without
> > its sets of merits.
>
> No it is utterly without merit.  Recently we
> discussed the distortion of
> history in India and this is a prime example.
> While some parts of some
> puranas may be datable to Muslim times, there
> is wide agreement (as there
> was even amongst Indologists of the 19th
> century) that the core of the
> presently available texts are much older,
> probably during Gupta vamsha (~
> 1st - 2nd centuries AD) and maybe older.
> Stories such as that of Indra
> and Vrtra are mentioned in the very earliest
> Vedic texts.
>
> God only knows what was going on in the mind of
> this nastika Dayananda but
> isn't ironic that if some Christian or Muslim
> had poured such vile slander
> on our shastras we would be up in arms but if a
> so-called "Hindu reformer"
> says it there is only silence?
>
> --
> Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>
> It's a girl! See the pictures - http://www.braincells.com/shailaja/

=====
_______________________________________

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with a single step.--Chinese Proverb

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