India, which is considered the oldest country to have a well-planned city with the oldest civilisation in the world, has some hidden truths that not many know about. This country has created wonders in every field, including science and arts.
All of us know that India was the country to establish the first mahaviharas or universities namely Takshila, Nalanda and Vikramshila. The entire philosophy of having a well-planned education system had already emerged in India even before universities came into existence. Also, these universities taught subjects that the world came to know about much later. We are all aware that zero was invented in India, which means the very base of mathematics was founded here.
In Hanuman Chalisa, composed by Saint Goswami Tulsidas in Kashi during 1532-1623, a particular shloka consists of the approximate distance of the sun from Earth. The shloka is — Yug sahastra yojan par bhanu/Leelyo Tahi madhur phal Janu. The first line consists of a mathematical calculation which, when simplified in the following way, gives the distance.
1 Yug = 1296000 (duration of Treta Yug, the time when Ramayana actually happened); 1 Sahastra= 1000; 1 yojan= 7.64 miles; 1 mile = 1.6 km. Now when we calculate this we get;
Yug * sahastra * yojan = par bhanu (bhanu is the Sanskrit word for the sun). That is, 1296000 * 1000 * 7.64 miles = 9,901,440,000 miles. One mile is 1.6 km, and hence, 9,901,440,000 miles would be 15,931,416,960 km.
The distance that has been stated by NASA is 150 million km, which is close to what the Chalisa has stated. It is surprising that how our scriptures have given such meaningful contents which can help us attain the knowledge about our universe. It is quite unfortunate that it is hardly recognised and accepted. The worst is that any research provided in the present time by scholars consisting of such scriptures is considered supporter of fundamentalists.
If we start considering our scriptures as research books and historical texts, we might be leading the world towards an entire new scenario of development and help our country grow alongside. When NASA recorded the vibration of the sun the sound created was OM! OM is the sound that the universe produces, and hence, it is used while performing yoga. Some people make it a religious issue and restrain themselves from performing Yoga.
Let us not bring religion into everything and let us not be divided in the name of god. Because I strongly believe that God can never divide, he can only unite. Let us not be deceived by the irrational scenario presented to us and once again become that one incredible India that we always were.
(Contributed by Sanskriti Singh, Loreto Convent)