The Right Angle of Everything

Take a long look at the following picture.  You see a frog . The frog is sad of course. Maybe it is hungry. What

do you think the frog is going to do? Wait there or start moving. A frog is a slow creature. It lives on insects. Whatever thoughts that run around this picture is likely to be based on your knowledge of the frog. Though this is just an image of a frog you have started thinking about the frog. If you live in China you may probably start getting hungry.

Frogs are considered delicious for many people in the world. For the biology students frogs bring home memories of the dissection they did. Some of those students who ripped apart the frog became doctors. For children who read bed time stories the frog is their wonderful friend who put them to sleep. Frogs live usually on insects and is an essential link in the food chain.

Please take one more long look at it. Do you see any other creature on the picture? The longer you see the frog lesser is the chance of seeing anything else on the picture. That is because your thoughts are already fixed on whatever you saw for a long time. The more you see a frog the more you see the frog.

Now look at the following image.

This is a lovely horse. A horse is a fine creature. Everyone loves a horse. The horse is known for its speed and beauty. Before the vehicles came in, men were proud of owning horses and even today people are proud of the horse they own. Whatever angle you look, the horse seems to be a lovely creature. Especially if you have a graceful man or woman riding the horse.

 

 

Now go back a little and see the frog again. Is there something similar to the frog and the horse? Well. It is the same picture tilted to the right angle. Tilt the picture by 90 degrees and will see the horse in the frog, Tilt it back again and you will see the frog. So do not jump to conclusion because that is not an sign of true intelligence. Patience is a great virtue. Anger and fanatic consistency is detrimental to us. Keep looking at things from a fresh angle and life will be more interesting.

Let us move on to a colorful discussion.

Following is the picture depicting the 3rd Avatar of Lord Mahavishnu – the main God of Hindus (one of the Trinity – Brahma, Shiva and Vishnu).

In this Avatar, Mahavishnu took on the form of a wild boar. The wild boar has tusks. See the picture for at least 10 seconds (not only to be blessed but to get smarter).

The background info: Varaha, the boar, is the 3rd avatar of Maha Vishnu appeared in the Satya Yuga. Sri Varaha appeared in order to defeat Hiranyaksha, a very powerful demon who had carried the Earth to the bottom of what is described as the cosmic ocean. The battle between Sri  Varaha and Hiranyaksha is believed to have lasted for a 1000 years, which of course was finally won by Sri Varaha who carried the Earth out of the ocean between his tusks and restored it to its place in the universe.

What do you see here? If you are a Hindu, you know so much about the 10 avatars of Lord Mahavishnu like the back of your palm, that you may say, “what’s the big deal”?

Until about 700 years ago, all the scientists and the most intelligent people in the world thought that the earth was flat until a few intelligent scientist came up and said that the earth was actually round. That was breaking news. That made headlines in the world of science. Now take a look at the same picture of Sri Varaha again.

In the picture you will see the earth is held in between the tusks. Did it occur to you that the earth is round? 

When you speak of different view of how the earth was visualized in ancient times we will find the following texts on the internet. “The Flat Earth model is a view that the Earth’s shape is a flat plane or disk. Most ancient cultures have had conceptions of a flat Earth, including Greece until the classical period, the Bronze Age and Iron Age civilizations of the Near East until the Hellenistic period, India until the Gupta period (early centuries AD) and China until the 17th century. It was also typically held in the aboriginal cultures of the Americas, and a flat Earth domed by the firmament in the shape of an inverted bowl is common in pre-scientific societies”. This is an extract from Wikipedia – Thanks to them.

Those who believe in the 10 Avatars of Mahavishnu know that the 3rd Avatar happened in a different yuga (a long period of time). Kaliyuga is the 4th yuga of the current kalpa is believed to have started around 3200 BC which is when Lord Sri Krishna the 8th avatar of Lord Vishnu lived. Varaha Avatar was 3 yugas prior to current Kaliyuga.

The 4 yuga are:

Satya Yuga (also called Krita Yuga): This first age is 1,728,000 human years. Also known as the Golden Age or age of Truth. The qualities of this age are: virtue reigns supreme; human stature is 21 cubits; lifespan is a lakh of years, and death occurs only when willed.

Treta Yuga:This second age is 1,296,000 human years. Also known as the Silver Age. The qualities of this age are: the climate is three quarters virtue and one quarter sin; human stature is 14 cubits; lifespan is 10,000 years.

 

Dvapara Yuga: This third age is 864,000 human years. Also known as the Bronze Age. The qualities of this age are: the climate is one half virtue and one half sin; lifespan is 1,000 years.

Kali Yuga: The fourth and last age is 432,000 human years. Also known as the Iron Age. This is the age in which we are presently living. The qualities of this age are: the climate is one quarter virtue and three quarters sin; human stature is 3.5 cubits; lifespan is 100 or 120 years.

Though the above information may look irrelevant to the knol, I have provided this information to let you know that the Hindus of India knew that the earth was round as early as billions of years ago.

to be continued….