Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Hindu units of measurement - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ever heard any one say 'Thruti lo tappina pramadam'.
It means 'accident just missed'.

Thruti, infact is a measurement of time.
It is equal to 1/1687.5th of a second of a second.

paramanu is time taken for a person to blink his eye once. approx 4 seconds
vighati is 6 paramanu's approx 24 seconds.
.......

Time metrics according various Hindu scales are given here.
Hindu units of measurement - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Monday, October 02, 2006

Turning Brahminical.

Who is a Brahmin?
A brahmin is a person who realizes Bramhan.

Who is Bramhan?
The ultimate body of knowledge. Both spiritually and physically.

So, a brahmin is a person who gains knowledge.
Any person who gains knowledge is a Brahmin.

In the olden days, knowledge was gained by learning and reciting vedas, which are massive bodies of knowledge. The rigor to learn vedas was very difficult and hence only few people chose to learn it the formal way. One learnt about nature, animals, conduct, relationships, righteousness and etc.

People with interest were initiated into education with Upanayanam, meaning a raw human being taking rebirth as a person with quest for knowledge.

In today's world many people are spending time and putting in the required effort to gain knowledge. May be not from vedas, but from other sources.

In today's caste consideration, if a person who gained knowldge by way of formal education is not born into a brahmin family, he would not be called a brahmin. But he is still a brahmin given the knowledge he acquired.

India as a society, is becoming Brahminical because of the importance given to acquiring knowledge by means of formal education.