How the cucumber connects with cosmos?

Maha Mrityunjaya Mantra -
- from Rig Veda 7.59.12 (1500-1200 BCE)
https://greenmesg.org/stotras/shiva/mahamrityunjaya_mantra.php

Om Try-Ambakam Yajaamahe

Sugandhim Pusstti-Vardhanam
Urvaarukam-Iva Bandhanaan
Mrtyor-Mukssiiya Maa-[A]mrtaat ||

Meaning:
1: Om, We Worship the Tryambaka (the Three-Eyed One),
2: Who is Fragrant (as the Spiritual Essence), Increasing the Nourishment (of our Spiritual Core);
3: From these many Bondages (of Samsara) similar to Cucumbers (tied to their Creepers),
4: May I be Liberated from Death (Attachment to Perishable Things), So that I am not separated from the perception of Immortality (Immortal Essence pervading everywhere).

http://mk.skycoded.com/watch/DIrvM1gcnPU#

Squirting of cucumber seeds
Ecballium elaterium

We have been reciting this mantra since young without actually knowing its meaning. We were told it is dedicated to Lord Siva and is recited during anxiety or ill health. It was a kind of a shield to be used in precarious and life-threatening situations. No one actually taught us what the whole Sanskrit recital actually meant, what more its deeper meanings. 

Now there is guy, Praveen Mohan who has delved into the secrets of lost temples and many of the forgotten pearls of wisdom in Hinduism. He is quite prolific in making videos. Some of his claims are quite outlandish and got chaffed by content providers. Youtube and Facebook, at one time, even temporarily suspended his account. Nevertheless, they are food for thought and totally worth considering. He brings out mostly the marvel of ancient Indian builders, their building techniques which were way ahead of their times and how these technologies predate modern Western knowhow but somehow got forgotten in the annals of time.

In one of his presentation, he ventures into the Maha Mrityunjaya Mantra. It is one of the oldest mantras, taken from the Rigveda which was composed as way back as between 1500-1200 BCE. Of course, it is paying homage to Lord Siva but it does not request to save us from death or danger. The way I look at it, it is making us realise that life and death is a continuum, an essence of the soul. Now, what is the 'cucumber' (Urvaarukam) doing in all these, of life and preservation of life?

Here is where it becomes profound. Uruvarukkam is a poisonous variety of cucumber that explodes when ripe to extrude its seeds of life. This, in a way, can be viewed as immortality as one transmits his elixir of life, the DNA, to the next generation. His body dies but his legacy lives on forever.

There are other things related to this mantra. The pattern of seed distribution and the placing of the seeds in the fruit suggests that the ancient Hindu scholar knew about Fibonacci numbers (which was actually thought of by a 2nd century Sanskrit scholar, Pingala). Fibonacci sequencing in nature ensures the best placement of leaves of the trees for sunlight and seeds on a flower for best dispersion.

Fig 1
ratio of the length of the longer 
segment to the shorter one is φ

Another intriguing thing about the recital of this mantra is that, on special occasions, it is recited 108 times. Why 108 times one may enquire? Besides having 108 beads on prayer beads, it has much more significance than that.

The diameter of the Sun is 108 times the diameter of Earth. The distance from the Sun to Earth is 108 times the diameter of the Sun. The distance from the Earth to Moon is 108 times the diameter of the moon. In ayurvedic practice, it is said that there are 108 vital points in our body.

Fig 2

In certain prayers involving Lord Shiva, elements of nature are invoked and are represented in the form of a pentagram. Even though the Western world dismisses this as invoking of satanic worship, there is much involved in it. Again, the outer angle of the pointed star is 108.

As seen in the diagram in Fig 1 and Fig 2, the ratio between intersections of shorter and longer lines corresponds to the golden ratio, φ, of 1.618. The golden ratio, in turn, is seen everywhere in Nature. The ratio between subsequent numbers in the Fibonacci sequence is also φ. The pentagram, hence, is the visual representation of life much like how Fibonacci numbers represent the pattern of sustaining life.

So, in short, the take-home message, at least me, in all these prayers is not to change the course of Nature but instead endeavour to use our intelligence to fight the offending agents whilst appreciating that death is not the be end. Life continues with or without us.

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The blind leading the blind!

Sathyathai Thedi  (Seeking the Truth; @Asothoma Sathgamaya, 2013)

First, it was Zakir Naik who was heard telling his congregants that the old Hindu scriptures did indeed quote of the arrival of a messenger of God. In his usual style, he went on ranting his references to the said inscriptions. Just that people are too set in their mindsets to accept that, he alleged.

Now I hear the same pitch being repeated. This Christian evangelist film tries to sell the idea that the Ama Veda did hint of Prajapathi, the Lord of the Universe, being Jesus Christ himself. Somewhere in it, it was apparently mentioned of the Creator who needed to be sacrificed for atonement. In their eyes, it fits perfectly in their narrative that Jesus, who is God himself, had to be sacrificed to wash the sins of Man.

The whole film can be described as a hermeneutical gymnastic as the protagonist goes on rattling verses after verses from the Veda, Upanishads and even Kural to drive home the message that the Bible is indeed version 2.0 of the ultimate Truth.  

Imagine the audacity...

The alternative title of the film is Asotha Sathgama. As we know, it is an ancient mantra, also named Pavamana Mantra, is from the Upanishad. It is recited during offerings, and it encourages us to open our inner realisation to come out of our ignorance to embrace the transcendental reality. A fourth line of 'Om Shanthi, Shanthi, Shantihi' is often added to emphasise us to be at peace with the Universe.

asato mā sad gamaya,tamaso mā jyotir gamaya, mṛtyor māmṛtaṃ gamaya

"from the unreal lead me to Truth, from the darkness lead me to the light, from death, lead me to immortality."

I gather that the makers of the film refer them to belong to a new denomination called 'Indian Christians'. Unlike the Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox Churches or Protestants who garnered knowledge from the respective areas that they prospered, these Indian Christian have no qualms in appropriating pearls of wisdom of the Hindu tradition. After all, Hinduism is not a religion but a way of life. Hindu, in ancient times, referred to the civilisation around the Indus Valley. 'Indians Christians' just cherry-pick the knowledge of their ancestors to seek their perceived ultimate Truth of their Maker.

St Thomas' arrival 53AD

The story revolves around a retired Brahmin Sanskrit scholar who comes out from being a closet Christian, much to the ire of his son with whom he is staying. His conversion soon becomes an embarrassment to his family and the members of the Brahmin community where he is respected. The scholar slowly teaches everyone in the community his own understanding of his new religion. Pretty soon, everyone in the community sees the light and embrace Christianity one by one, including the short-fused son.

The filmmakers are hoping to connect to the segment of the population who see the practice of Hinduism as a ritual filled archaic meaningless practice. These ignoramuses, in the lowest ebb of their lives, when they are vulnerable and are looking for straws to clutch, see evangelists as their saviours. Unlike practitioners of the Hindu faith who are seekers of knowledge, these Christian soldiers are out in the field to attend to the nitty-gritty nut-and-bolt issues of daily life. With the threat of death or sickness, a hand in prayer goes a long way in gratitude and seeing things in a different light. This is how faithful lieutenants are made.

All these do not make sense. We claim to respect each other's religion, but yet we are quick to run each other's faith down to proclaim that our's is superior. In reality, we are all groping in the dark trying to put two to two to paint a composite picture is what life, the journey and the reason for our existence are all about...

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.