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Oppiliappan List Archive: Message 00019 Apr 2002

 
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Dear friends,
Adiyane read a lot of mails in the last few days about the New Year
(Tamil and Yugadi). adiyane enjoyed a private one received from a
highly respected family-friend (a very high-ranking official in the
Government of India, New Delhi, whose name adiyane is not able to
divulge) which is being reproduced below for your information and
delight too.
dAsan,
Sudarshan


>Subject: new year distortions-result of long colonialism- an
analysis 
>Date: Tue, 16 Apr 2002 23:34:09 +0000 
> 
>A yugaadi is not a mere 'Telugu New Year's Day' or 'Gudi Padwa' and 
>another is not a mere 'Tamil New Year's Day' or a 'Baisaki,' as we
see characterized >by us the English schooled. And the day after
Deepaavali is not the >beginning >of the samvatsara or Gujarati New
Year's Day (but it is a reckoning >used by >merchants, and for the
beginning of Vikrama era), or Baisaki is not >mere >Punjabi New
Year's Day. Such were the 'six blind men and an >elephant'
>distortions introduced by the British, who never understood our
>calendar or 
>our traditions, during their colonial rule over India, while we 
>forgot and >slept (and we still are practically in deep coma);
whatever little >the 18th >century European writers grasped, they
freely distorted, debased, >and then >taught it to the ?heathens? of
India, and we the children of those >?heathens? now put down each
other using their same cliché >methodically >imbibed in our sacred
westernized schools! 
> 
>Ultimately history may judge all such distortions and 
>trivializations as a >great loss in enhancing the spiritual life and
real happiness of >almost 70% >of humanity, unless we sincerely learn
and properly teach India's >hoary >traditions following the
Upanishadic dictum ?svaadhyaaya >pravachanaabhyaam na >pramadi
tavyam.? 
> 
>Moreover, it is astonishing that in our temple calendars and Hindu 
>religious >activities shaped by Hindus all over USA and the West, we
call the >Roman/Christian Gregorian new year's day as 'THE New Year's
Day', >Hindu >chaandra yugaadi as 'Telugu New Year's Day' or 'Gudi
Padwa', Hindu >saura >yugaadi as 'Tamil New Year's Day' or 'Baisaki'
-- just as the >British had >taught us. This reflects our deep-rooted
mental slavery to British >colonial >distortions and no familiarity
with, and even some hidden contempt >to, our >real history, shastra-s
and scriptures. We somehow consider >ourselves experts >on such
subjects by reading faulty 18th century European >interpretations and

>their carbon copies, almost all of them quite primitive to my humble

>grasp, >and pooh-pooh anything natively Hindu! 
> 
>Some Other New Year's Days and Mix-ups: 
> 
>Truth is: January 1 is the seasonal Gregorian new year's day 
>tradition about >2,000 years old while the others cited above flow
from the >all-encompassing >cosmic new year's day traditions well
over 8,000 years old and still >thriving. The former strokes the ego
(cf. the wild parties); the >latter helps >us touch our inner
divinity. It is the sura-asura tussle within and >without >like day
and night, and it is immaterial or in spite of our >religions. Thanks
>to our slave educational laurels, I am yet to see even a single
>Hindu temple 
>calendar in the West that prints this truth! 
> 
>It is seen in Tamil Nadu that every year on January 1 people visit 
>temples, >wish ?Happy New Year? to each other and offer puja, but on
saura >yugaadi >day, the celebrations are mostly home-centered, or
even derided as >'brahminical'. During British rule in the then
Madras Presidency, >the alien >rulers imposed January 1 New Year's
Day celebrations on their >government >employees, who were mostly
tradition-bound Hindus, so as to 'teach' >them >Western culture and
thus bury the native culture. Our social leaders >saw >through this
British game of cultural conquest, and advised the >government
employees to use the day to go to temples as a protest! But these 
>days very >few in Tamil Nadu or anywhere know why some Indians have
the habit >of going >to temples on January 1st! It started as a
protest against the >imposition of >an alien culture, but now many
among us wonder what all these >'confusing' >Yugaadi-s are since
January 1 is THE new year's day! We have become >frogs in >a new
pond! How much lower can we the English-schooled Indians >reach? We
need 
>to rise ourselves up -- uddharaet aatmanaatmaanam. 
> 
>As noted already, the Gregorian calendar is a seasonal calendar -- 
>January 1 >of the Gregorian new year's day is based on seasons on
earth, moving >in >reverse about a degree in 70-71 years with respect
to the fixed >nakshatra-s >(due to earth axis precession, ~26,000
years). This renders the >Sun's >position with respect to the
nakshatra-s on every January 1 not the >same, and >moon is just not
considered. 
> 
>Moreover, January 1 was Roman dictator Julius Caesar's birthday, 
>and, in 45 >BC, he decreed it as the new year's day! No one should
object to or >can stop >giving undue prominence to January 1 as THE
only new year's day, but >I feel >it reflects how we humans are still
slaves to some bygone brutish >ego >disconnected from our real inner
divinity. 
> 
>Islamic calendars are lunar calendars -- strictly based on the 
>moon's phases: >New Moon to New Moon is one month, and 12 such
months form a year. >Muhammad >decreed so, and hence the tradition.
We just celebrated Moharum new >year's >day on March 16 (Hijri era
1423) after the first moon. It appears to >be based >on the Vedic
tradition but got disconnected from the full scheme of >time
>tracking. 
> 
>Chinese and some Jewish calendars use Sun and moon in their 
>reckonings but >not the nakshatra divisions, and they are often
described as >'lunisolar' >calendars. Westerners have used this term
'lunisolar' to describe >the Hindu >calendar (called panchangam) --
this is a misrepresentation. Least >of all, >the two yugaadi-s have
little to do with purely lunar and solar >calendars. 

>Hindu panchangam is not merely 'seasonal', 'lunar' or 'solar' or 
>mix-ups but >nakshatra based only. Simply, we can say that the Hindu
calendar, be >in >Kerala or Kashmir, Gujarat or Manipur, is not
seasonal, not solar, >not lunar, >and not lunisolar! Yet it is
totally based on natural cycles, and >hence truly >secular, and is
astronomically correct -- it is based on the >nakshatra >divisions,
since they alone are relatively 'fixed' references in the >sky. 
>Even our modern astronomers use the fixed stars to figure out 
>precise time >cycles and celestial events. 
> 
>Beauty of our World and Reach of Rishi Wisdom: 
> 
>The other day I was checking the planetary positions in a NASA 
>website. Then >I crosschecked them with a panchangam I have --
matches within a >degree are >amazing. I wonder how those ancient
Pandita-s in India knowing not a >cent of >English
orNewton's/Keplar's Laws developed such scientific and >analytical
>methods without modern science gadgets, supercomputers, and reams of
>software! 
> 
>The very nakshatra names depict the Cosmic Being's various limbs -- 
>beauty of >the finest creation and the very beauty of the Veda-s!
Similarly, >the month >names in Hindu calendar (chaitra, vaishaakha,
etc.) connected to the >respective months' paurNami nakshatra zones
say it all -- they are >not tied >to seasons. Hence equations such as
'chaitra and vaishaakha make >vasantha >ritu', etc. are not permanent
-- this specific phrase was quite true >some >1,600 years ago but now
we are off by about 23 days. And in about >400 years, >the real
vasantha ritu will be in the months of phaalguna and >chaitra! This 
>suggests that possibly this Hindu scientific tradition got frozen 
>1,600 years >ago -- a time labeled as 'India's golden age' by
Westerners! India's >history >does need re-writing from A to Z! 
> 
>Thus, yugaadi point (i.e., beginning of a samvatsara) is not tied to

>seasons. >Instead, seasons ?cycle? through the yugaadi point in
24,000 years >due to >earth axis precession (period of one precession
is about 26,000 >years but >earth orbit itself moves due to gravity
of the giant planets and >hence net is >24,000 seasonal years -- so
say the astronomers, and also yes, a >very ancient >Hindu shastra
book long before Lagadha, 1500 BC). Presently vernal >equinox is 
>close to Yugaadi. In about 10-12,000 years, fall equinox will move 
>close to >it, and so on. 
> 
>There are 60 consecutive samvatsara names - prabhava through kshaya,

>the >upcoming being 'chitrabhaanu', 16th in the 60-samvatsara cycle.
As >noted >above, varsha is the seasonal year, such as from equinox
to the same >equinox >or solstice to the same solstice. From Vedic
times, celebrating the >solstice >days (beginnings of uttara and
dakshiNa ayana-s) and equinoxes >(vasantha and >sharad vishuvam-s)
existed and exists in our society. There is no >evidence >indicating
that this was different from other India based >traditions; they >all
sprang from Veda samhita mantra-s long before Maxmuller's >assigned
time >of 1500-500 BC. 
> 
>Seasonal, solar, lunar, lunisolar, stellar -- all these real 
>considerations >taken together had been India's way of time-keeping
and festive >celebrations >from quite ancient times. In India's
scheme of social life, Sun, >Moon, earth, >stars, life, and
everything around always play their due roles for >reasons >that are
plainly secular as well as deeply spiritual. Yugaadi or new >year's
>day celebrations thus rekindle this oneness among us and our oneness
>with >nature and with It. 
> 
>In summary, I have presented a scientific basis for Yugaadi 
>signaling the >arrival of the secular new year's day as well as
spiritual renewal >-- it is >based on worldly and cosmic cycles in
our breathing and connected >universe as >declared in the Veda-s. The
rest are really not so secular (kind of >pseudo-secular indeed) but
are shaped by human decrees and >religions. 
> 
>On this New Year's Day called Yugaadi, I wish you all a happy, 
>healthy, and >prosperous new year. May our inner divinity spring
forth from us, >and cement >us all into one whole. 
*******************************

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