Quotations

Quotations from/on Hindu scripture, History etc.

??? ?? ?????? ????? ???????" RV 1:164:46

ekam sad vipraa bahudha vadantya

Truth is One, but sages call it by many names.

p:ÜN:üm:dH p:ÜN:üem:dø p:ÜN:aüt:Î p:ÜN:üm:Ødcy:t:ð
p:ÜN:üsy: p:ÜN:üm:aday: p:ÜN:üm:ðv:av:eS:\y:t:ð
S:a¡nt:H S:a¡nt:H S:a¡nt:H

Om poornamadah poornamidam
Poornaat poornamudachyate

Poornasya poornamaadaya
Poornamevaavashishyate

Meaning:

That (pure consciousness) is full (perfect); this (the manifest universe of matter; of names and forms being maya) is full. This fullness has been projected from that fullness. When this fullness merges in that fullness, all that remains is fullness.
- Peace invocation - Isa Upanishad

Another interpretation

This translates as follows : THAT is Infinite. THIS too is Infinite. And though it is from THAT which THIS has manifested, THAT alone remains unchanged. Peace ! Peace ! Peace !

The meaning is as follows :THAT refers to the one ultimate
eternal existence. THIS refers to this transient existence which
subsists in and which manifests from THAT. Yet all such transient manifestation does not alter THAT which remains infinite and eternal.

Aum Bhadram Karnebhihi Srunuyaama Devaaha
Bhadram Pashyemaa Kshibhirya Jatraaha
Sthirai Rangai Stushtuvaamsa Stanoobhihi
Vyashema Devahitam Yadaayuhu Swasti Na Indro Vriddhashrava Swasti Na Pusha Vishwavedha|
Swasti Nastarkshyo Arishta Nemihi Swasti Nobhrihaspatirdhaatu||
Aum Shanti! Shanti! Shanti!

(Mandukyopanishad)

Meaning: Aum Hey Devaas, who are in the form of light, let our ears hear all good things. Hey worshippable Devas, let our eyes see good and holy things. May we spend this life given to us by God in continued prayers to You with a strong body, sound in health.

Sarve Sukhinah Santhu
Sarve Santhu Niraamayaah
Sarve Bhadraani Pashyantu
Maa Kaschid Dukhabhaag Bhavet
Aum Shanti Shanti Shantihi

Meaning: May all possess happiness. May all be healthy (free from all diseases). May all see beauty. May there be good fortune and no misery anywhere. May there be peace everywhere.

Brihadaaranyaka Upanishad 1.4.14

Aum Saha Naavavathu Sahanau Bhunaktu
Saha Veeryam Kara Vaavahai
Tejasvi Naavadheetamastu Maa Vidwishaavahai
Aum Shantih Shantih Shantihi

?? ???????? ? ?? ????????? ????????? ??????? ?
??????? ??????????? ? ?? ??????????? ??
?? ??????? ??????? ??????? ??

Meaning: May the Lord protect us both, may He nourish us both, may we work together with great vigor (divine strength). May we both acquire brilliance of our intellect through our studies, may we not hate each other. Let there be peace, peace, peace.

Katha Upanishad (Invocation)

???? ?? ?????? ???? ?? ???????????

???????????? ??????????

Meaning:

Lead us from the unreal to the Real
From darkness to Light
From death to Immortality

Theory of creation of the universe:
A 9th century Hindu scripture, The Mahapurana by Jinasena claims the something as modern as the following: (translation from [5])

Some foolish men declare that a Creator made the world. The doctrine that the world was created is ill-advised, and should be rejected. If God created the world, where was he before creation?... How could God have made the world without any raw material? If you say He made this first, and then the world, you are faced with an endless regression... Know that the world is uncreated, as time itself is, without beginning and end. And it is based on principles.

Theories of the creation of universe are present in almost every culture. Mostly they represent some story portraying creation from mating of Gods or humans, or from some divine egg, essentially all of them reflecting the human endeavor to provide explanations to a grave scientific question using common human experience.

Shuklam Baradaram Vishnum, Sasi Varnam Chatur Bhujam,

Prasanna Vadanan Dyayet, Sarva Vignoba Sandaye 1

??YsÉÉqÉç pÉUSUqÉç ÌuÉ?????ç, zÉÍ? uÉlÉïqÉç NûiÉÑUç pWÒûeÉqÉç,

TëüxÉ³É uÉSlÉqÉç ZÉrÉåiÉç, ?uÉï ÌuÉ???????????? å

Dressed in white you are,

Oh, all pervading one,

And glowing with the colour of moon.

With four arms, you are, the all knowing one

I meditate on your ever-smiling face,

And pray, “ Remove all obstacles on my way”.

Saraswathi namasthubyam varadhe kaama roopiNi
Vidhyaarambham karishyaami Siddhir Bhavathu me Sadaa

??????? ??????????? ???? ??? ??????
???????????? ????????? ???????? ???? ?? ??? I
I Prostrate my self before Saraswati, who fulfills every wish. Praying to her, I commence my education. I pray to her for its successful completion

Other Quotations

GeorgeJoseph Gheverghese c.v

Finally, if we accept the principle that teaching should be tailored to children's experience of the social and physical environment in which they live, mathematics should also draw on these experiences, which would include in contemporary Britain the presence of different ethnic minorities with their own mathematical heritage. Drawing on the mathematical traditions of these groups, indicating that these cultures are recognized and valued, would also help to counter the entrenched historical devaluation of them. Again, by promoting such an approach, mathematics is brought into contact with a wide range of disciplines,including art and design, history and social studies, which it conventionally ignores. Such a holistic approach would serve to augment, rather than fragment, a child's understanding and imagination

Max Müller dated the Rig Veda to 1200-1500 BCE, but he also said that these dates were provisional and that he has "repeatedly dwelt on the hypothethical character of the dates... All I have claimed for them has been that they are minimum dates." (Müller 1892). And he also asserted: " Whether the Vedic hymns were composed 1000, or 1500, or 2000, or 3000 years BC, no power on earth will ever determine." (Müller 1891:91). Max Müller's contemporary critics have pointed out that "the whole foundation of Müller's date rests on the authority of Somadeva.. [who] narrated his tales in the twelfth century after Christ [and] would not be a little surprised to learn that "a European point of view" raises a "ghost story" of his to the dignity of a historical document." (Goldstücker 1860; Bryant 2001).

The common heritage of the Indo-European languages is one of the most powerful and unexpected discoveries of modern science and elicited incredulity which is still to be encountered today. Max Müller recounted that any remarks on Sanskrit were treated with contempt by his teachers and that "no one was for a time so completely laughed down as Professor Bopp, when he first published his Comparative Grammar of Sanskrit, Zend, Greek, Latin and Gothic. All hands were against him." (Müller 1883).

Bhartrihari is the author of vairagya satakam (hundred verses on renunciation). In the verses, he reflects the inner struggles an aspirant faces in his sadhana. He was a king of Ujjaini and was said to be an extremely powerful and rich king. However, he renounced everything and became one of the great yogis. The reason can be traced to one of the verses (verse 31) in his vairagya satakam

???? ?????? ???? ????????? ????? ?????????????
???? ???????? ??? ??????? ???? ????? ???? ?

???????? ??????? ????????????? ???????????????

?????? ????? ????????? ???? ??? ???????????????? ??

bhoge rogabhayaü kule cyutibhayaü vitte nçpàlàdbhayaü |
màne dainyabhayaü bale ripubhayaü råpe jaràyà bhayam ||
÷àstre vàdibhayaü guõe khalabhayaü kàye kçtàntàdbhayaü |
sarvaü vastu bhayànvitaü bhuvi nçõàü vairàgyamevàbhayam ||

Verse 31,Vairagya Satakam

With enjoyment, comes fear of disease
With social position, fear of disfavor
With riches, fear of hostile people (kings)
With honor, fear of humiliation
With power, fear of enemies
With beauty, fear of old age
With scholarship, fear of challengers
With virtue, fear of traducers
With the identification with body, fear of death
Everything in this world is done with fear
Renunciation alone makes one fearless.






In a later verse (35), he brings out the beauty of self-surrender

Life trembles, like a drop of water on the edge of a lotus leaf then it is swallowed by the wind The wise fix their mind in Truth, which comes to all in the calm of self-surrender achieved by renunciation

Surprisingly, although it is language that primarily connects all the IE peoples, linguistic evidence on its own is completely inadequate in determining absolute dates (Kazanas 1999: 17-8); one must resort to archaelogical and cultural evidence. I have seriously changed my mind on this subject; I have no axe to grind, as it were, no position or reputation to maintain; I can and shall change my mind again if strong and sufficient evidence emerges. Prof Witzel raises many points for discussion some useful, some wasteful but offers no evidence other than conjecture. Conjecture or hypothesis is not admissible as evidence in any impartial Court of Law. (Nicholas Kazanas, The Date of the Rig veda, 2001)
The Harappans were obviously a literate and highly civilized people who maintained their 1000 year old culture with peaceful means through trade and perhaps religion rather than conquest and expansion. The area they inhabited was, according to Rao (1991: 1), ³1.5 million square kilometers² though I suspect it was much bigger. Then at about 2000 down to 1800, because of ecological and environmental changes including the alteration of the routes of some rivers and as a result, the desiccation of the SarasvatI river, they, or many of them, began to move eastwards to the Gangetic basin while their culture was breaking down. At about this time, then, enter our illiterate barbarians, the Aryans. Here the Allchins (Parpola and Witzel) fail to notice the glaring contradiction in their theory: if the Aryans had acquired the ³material culture and lifestyle² of the Harappans before they entered into Saptasindhu, then the RV hymns ought to reflect Harappan elements (urbanization, fixed fire-hearths, bricks, silver, cotton, rice); but it is the later texts (BrAhmaNas and sUtras) that do so, and not at all the RV hymns. Anyway, the Aryans take over and after 2 or 3 centuries produce a most astonishing collection of hymns, to be followed by other collections, various prose works about cultic rites and codes of social behaviour. Lord Renfrew (ignoring the archaeological evidence he cites) suggests they came as mounted bands and formed an élite (1989: 197) presumably with their horses alone since in all else they were just like the natives. All that the natives left were their ruined brick-built cities and some seals with inscriptions the nature and use of which is still unknown. In this Region of the Seven Rivers, then, we have an archaeologically well attested culture that seems to have no literature at all (other than the briefest inscriptions) no code of laws, no religious hymns or secular songs, no fables and tales, and then an illiterate people that is not archaeologically attested yet produces, in quick succession, all the kinds of literature that the previous culture lacked. It is a most amazing paradox, an astonishing coincidence of space, time and people. All this is, of course, possible just as it is possible to be struck by lightning in one¹s bed, or to fall from the 10th floor on the lawn below and live with only a few concussions. Many wondrous things are possible in life, but the question is do they really happen?