Deepam - Lighting the Oil lamp

Deepam:
Deepam means an oil lamp. Here, the oil can be any ghee, butter or any type of oil. According to Sanatana Dharma, there is a tradition that every hindu has to lit a lamp every day before the God. Hindus believe that lamp before god makes us travel from darkness to brightness.

Cultural Beliefs:
According to Agni purana, lamp should be lit by pouring Ghee or Oil by keeping cotton wick in it. Sesame oil is considered as auspicious when compared to other types of oils. Ghee which is extracted from Cow milk is considered the most auspicious than sesame oil. Oil is considered as our negative emotions , the cotton wick represents our ignorance and lighting the lamp represents suppressing negative emotions and ignorance with knowledge.

According to Rig-Veda, Goddess Lakshmi will visit the place where the lamps are lit. Lightening lamp before holy basil is considered auspicious.

One of the ancient stories tell us the power of lightening oil lamp. Due to the curse of Sage Durvasa, Lord Indra lost his power, wealth and kingship. He requests Lord Vishnu to give a solution for his problem. Later Lord Vishnu told Indra to worship a lamp by considering lamp as Goddess Lakshmi. After performing the same, his powers were restored.

Some Hindus say that huge lamp with bright light was originated while churning milky ocean by demons and gods using a giant snake as rope.

Interesting facts:

• According to Hindus, when a drop of cow ghee in any oil which is used to lit a lamp is considered as ghee lamp.
• Need to pray Lord Ganapathi before lighting a lamp.
• Need to offer flowers to the lamp.
• Need to lit a lamp before sunrise and after sunset.
• Akanda deepam(Lamp of continuous light) is considered as the most auspicious.
• Diwali and month of Karthika is celebrated by lightening different lamps.
• Gods or Goddesses (Aliens) use this oil lamps and vapors to make telepathic connection with the worshiper. 
• Lightening a lamp means in inviting God to clear the darkness in mind.
• ISKON a religious sect, magnificently celebrate's Deepostav(Festival of lights).
• Hanukkah a Jewish lamp's festival,Tazaungdaing lamp festival of Buddist also celebrate in marvellous manner.

Scientific Reasons:

• Lightening a lamp will kill virus, bacteria which causes diseases. Indirectly an oil lamp will keep us healthy.
• The oil lamp vapors hardens the ozone layer which acts as a protection layer for environment. 
• The oil lamp vapors increase magnetic field of earth which act as a protection shield from the attacks of meteors or hard rocks from universe. Due to this shield, meteors always diverts to fall on places with lesser magnetic field which causes lesser damage or no damage.
• It is believed that India is never hit by a meteor from decades. Think how many people who lit a lamp daily in their places and temples directly or indirectly contributing in saving earth.
• People also visit temple to worship as the temple would be decorated lightening the lamps which enhances their creativity.

Gayatri Mantra

Gayatri Mantra:

Gayatri mantra is a Sanskrit verse of a hymn in Rigveda (3.62.10).  Gayatri Mantra creates a resonance in the nerves which connected to several important parts of body. when a person repeats the mantra, certain pressure points on lips,tongue, vocal cord and palate got elevated to give excitement on extrasensory energy centers.

Cultural beliefs:

Gayatri devi was an incarnation of Saraswati Devi which have powers of Goddess Sri Lakshmi and Goddess Shakti. The Four vedas(ancient texts) was given by her to creator(Lord Brahma).Hence Gayatri was called as Veda-Mata (Mother of Vedas). Gayatri mantra was repeated 3 times in day by Hindus. This mantra will remove all obstacles , dispel darkness and increase wisdom from one's path.It is believed that Sage Vishwamitra arranged these hymn in his meditation.It is believed that the words are arranged carefully which conveys meaning and creates specific powerful vibrations in the body through utterance.

Interesting facts:

• It was praised in popular ancient hindu texts such as Manusmṛti and the Bhagavad Gita.
• Gayatri Mantra was recited as part of daily rituals(Sandhyavandanam) in hinduism. It was introduced for every Brahmin in upanayam.
• Hindus majorly believed that reciting the mantra bestows intelligence and awareness, through the vehicle of the Sun (Savitr), who is the source of the universe.
• There are multiple citations describing this verses as manta of mother goddess, mantra of Sun, Mantra which is a definition for sacred word OM.

Scientific reasons:

• Dr.Howard Steingeril, Who was an american scientist, collected Mantras, Hymns and invocation from all parts of the world and measured their strength in his Physiology Laboratory. Approx 1,10,000 sound waves/second were produced by Gayathri Mantra .This was the highest count and was found to be the most powerful mantra in the world. Gayatri Mantra is claimed capable of developing specific spiritual potentialities though the combination of sound waves of a particular frequency.
• The Hamburg university,Germany initiated research into the potency of the Gayathri Mantra both on the mental and physical plane of creation.
• The power of brain was utilized only to 4% by humans.when practicing or listening Gayatri Mantra will excite trillions of neurons in the brain and gradually expands intelligence.  
• The Gayatri Mantra recited on a mass scale creates powerful sound waves which affect every human being like heat and cold waves in a subtle way, and the result is instantaneous.
• When we see this mantra as science we can draw a conclusion that KE = 1/2 MV2 = PV when Mass of galaxies(M),Velocity(V) Momentum (P),Kinetic Energy(KE) .The amount of kinetic energy when an object was moving has half the mass multiplied by the squared velocity i.e The total kinetic energy produced by the motion of galaxies acts as an umbrella and balances the total energy consumption of the cosmos. 

Bhagiratha - King or Engineer

Bhagiratha - King or Engineer:
Bhagiratha was a great king of Kosala-nadu kingdom which is approximate region of Awadh in the state of Utter Pradesh,India. It is believed that he is forefather of Lord Rama. Hindus believe King Bhagirath made crucial effect to bring River Ganga to earth from heaven.

Several Hindu holy places lie on the banks of river Ganga. Ganga raises at Himalaya mountains and touches Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal states in India and empties at Bay of Bengal. It is  trans-boundary river of countries Bangladesh and  India. Hindus believe that taking a dip in this river will liberate them from life-death cycle.

Traditional story:
Sagara, the king of Kosala-nadu chose to perform Aswamedha yaga. His servants lost the track of ritual horse. According to his sources, he believed that Lord Indra took the horse and kept it hidden under ground(pathalalokha). King Sagara ordered his 60,000 sons to track the horse. They went to underground by digging earth. At last, they found horse at Sage Kapila's place. His sons thought that Sage Kapila had theft the horse and attacked him when he was doing meditation. By this act, Sage Kapila got angry and turned  60,000 sons into ashes. To make their souls rest in peace, king sagara decided to do cremation rites by immersing their ashes in Ganges. Then he called grand-son Anshumanthu to bring river ganga to the kingdom. He did severe penance and died without succeeding the request of Sagara. Later, his son Dilipa also died without succeeding the request. Finally, Bhagiratha who is the son of Dilipa performed penance to please Ganga-devi and got succeeded on a condition to make Ganga fall on Lord Shiva  matted hair locks and then proceed to earth. Later, he done penance to Lord Shiva for stopping ganga flow using his hair locks. He got succeeded to bring Ganga river to earth from heaven with the help of Lord Shiva.

Later, Ganga river followed King Bhagiratha. On the way it immersed Sage Jhuhnu's place. Due to anger Sage Jhuhnu swallowed ganga with mouth. Bhagiratha pleased Sage Jhuhnu to release ganga. Upon his sincere request, Sage Jhuhnu released ganga from his ear and ganga went through on ashes to release 60,000 souls from Sage Kapila's curse. Hence river Ganga is called by names Bhagirathi and Jhuhnavi.

Interesting Things:

• Aswhamedha-yagam : Sacrificial horse was left freely, when ever the horse captured by others they need to fight with king or else need to leave their land.
• Unbelievably, King Sagara of the Surya Dynasty have 60,000 sons.
• Sage Kapila was meditating at underground. How a person can live beneath the earth?
• Sage Jhuhnu swallowing river which is impossible.
• Doing penance for life time by king Dilipa and Anshumanthu.
• Why do they penance for getting river Ganga to flow on earth instead of asking directly to liberate their sins?

Scientific Assumptions:

• Ashwamedha yagam was done when there is a severe drought in the place.Here 'Ashwha' means Horse but there are so many synonyms for the word Ashwha like Color,Water. Yagam means fire ritual and also have synonym 'Experiment'. When we consider Ashwamedhayagam as experiment to search water, it gives new dimension to the story.
• King Sagara have 60,000 sons represents the total population in his kingdom Koshala-nadu.
• The word Kapila mean in the synonyms as Vishnu, black color, coal.But, characterized as sage.
• When 60,000 people used to search for water by digging the land.They sighted coal mines instead of water. They went through digging the coal mines for water.This act was described as hiding horse at Sage Kapila place. Unfortunately, from the two holes big volumes of natural gas came out. Due to misfire 60,000 people turned into ashes. It can be described as Blow-out.  After blow-out they came to conclusion that there is no source of water and decided to divert river ganges to bring it to their land from highest place called heaven, which can be assumed as Himalaya mountains. In this diversion, king Anshumanthu and his son King Dilipa were died in the mean of work. King Bhagiratha succeeded with the help of Lord Shiva.
• Lord Shiva with-standing to the flow of Ganga river on his head, represents King Bhagiratha built a great dam to control the flow of Ganga river. 
• Sage Jhuhnu swallowing ganga river and releasing through ear represents, constructing a diversion channel to change the direction of ganga river.
• Sagara, Anshumanthu,Dilipa and Bhagiratha are not only kings they are also good Engineers according to my view.

Niyoga - Miraculous birth Conceptions

Niyoga - Miraculous birth Conceptions
Niyoga is a process of conceiving a child, when a person is dead or incapable to attain fatherhood can  designate or request another person to make her women to conceive a child. The selection of appointing person for this duty likely be elected on the basis of respect and admiration towards concern.This process of conceiving is to protect 'dharma' or righteousness of family. It is not to fulfill the pleasure.
Artificial insemination without joining any intercourse and Cloning the fertilization of egg in laboratories,Stem cells are the other methods which comes parallel with niyoga process.
 

Traditional Stories:

• In the epic Ramayana, Kalmashapada who is ancestor of Lord Rama. Kalmashpada was the son of Raghu from his name Raghuvamsh name originated.Rama is a descendant of Kalmashapada. Kalmashapada queen Madayanti done niyoga process with sage Vashista to bear a child named as Ashmaka.
• In the epic Mahabharata, Bharata kingdom queen Satyavathi called her son Sage Vyasa to do Niyoga process for her widow daughter-in-laws Ambika, Ambalika and her maid Parishrami to produce Dhritarashtra, Panduraj and Vidura as sons. Again Panduraj was incapable to give a child to her wives Kunti and madri, they got pandavas by performing Niyoga process.
• Again Vyasa protected unfertilized egg which came out from Queen gandhari womb by keeping them in Ghee pots to give births to 101 Kauravas.
• In Bhagavatha- 4 skanda, Their is a story of King Vena, Due to Vena curel intentions and evil activities great sages killed him. But to establish a king or legal heir for kingdom, sages churned thighs and arms of king vena to give births to Prithu, Archi and a demon. These children were born without intervention of female.
• Another story which revolve on birth of King Balarama who is brother of Lord Krishna.In the presence of Vasudeva( father of Krishna & Balarama) Devaki 7th womb was transferred to Rohini by Yogamaya. Balarama was taken birth from Rohini.

 Interesting Facts:

• Kshetrabijam, to beget a son on his wife was also explained in Kautilya Arthasastra.
• Child who born in this niyoga process is considered the child of Wife and Husband. The selected person for niyoga process will not become father of child.
• The born child was called as kshetraja - child of wife and husband.
• The selected person will not allow to make relationship with mother or child in future.
• The selected person will allow only three times for niyoga process in his life time.
• The persons who participate in niyoga process, their whole bodies will be covered by ghee to eliminate lust from their minds.
• According to Manusmriti this process was forbidden. And treated it as social custom, not as religious custom.

Scientific Assumptions:

• In Ramayana, the origin of Ashmaka may give an idea of Artificial insemination. Injecting a sperm in womb to fertilize egg without any physical intercourse. Even pandavs birth may be related to Artificial insemination.
• The story of Kauravas will remind us Test-tube baby. Which means an egg is fertilized by sperm in outside environment.
• In Bhagavatham, The story of king Vena will raise thoughts on Cloning. Reproducing genetic xerox copy of a person by propagating an organism or cell.
• Balarama birth may be taken place with technology of surrogate baby or rent a womb. When health related issues arouse in pregnant lady she can transfer womb to another womb to protect the baby which is called as Surrogate baby.
• In this criteria Foster father differs from biological father. But child remains as a son of foster father.