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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Veiled altruism?

Plague of Corruption (2020)
Restoring faith in the promise of Science
Authors: Judy Mikovitz, Kent Heckenlively

The domain of caring for the sick is no longer solely in the hands of medical care professionals. Policies of treatment, prevention strategies and cure are not decided by the doctors and policymakers with a medical background. In the modern world, businessmen, philanthropist and Big Pharma are the ones who determine what best strategies to lay for mankind and where the budget for health should go to. These people are the new saviours of the world and pledge to have only altruistic reasons for the heroic journey. There is no business interest, they say. For this, they employed the might of media, print and cyberworld, to spin and repeat the mantra of doom and gloom that only these people can avert. The paternalistic approach of doctors and nurses is so passé.

The traditional advice of good food, fresh air and adequate physical activities is so archaic. Modern-day controlled studies show old preventive non-pharmacological measures so out of tune with modern living. Now, one needs to load oneself with chemicals, innoculate with a myriad of foreign antigens and compounds to spur immunity. Modern man is living in such a bubble that getting soiled with dirt and soil is unthinkable. If possible, he wants his gut to be sterile.

Judy Mikovits gained notoriety during the Covid-19 outbreak. A virologist by profession, she made many bold assertions about mismanagement of the viral epidemic by WHO, CDC and specifically Dr Anthony Fauci of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Her personal spat with authority goes way back to the early '80s with the discovery of the HIV virus. She was in the first American team of Robert Gallo and Frank Roscetti that isolated Montagnieu's HIV sample. Differences arose regarding wanting to publish the discovery. Along the way came patenting rights. In 2009, another controversy happened when Mikovitz suggested that XMRV
(Xenotropic Murine Leukemia Virus-related Virus), a retrovirus, which is linked to prostatic cancer to be the causative agent of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome or Myalgic Encephalomyelitis. Accusations of stealing intellectual properties from the laboratory she was working landed in her arrest, frequent brush with the law and subsequent fall from grace.
She (and her co-author) hit the headlines again when they linked autism to the early administration (9 months) of MMR. The previous proposal of gut-brain connection in autism by Andrew Wakefield in a 1998 BMJ article was shot down as fraudulent.

Mikovitz claims not to be an anti-vaxxer but raises the possibility of our vaccines being contaminated as it goes through animal cell lines during its production. Monkey kidneys and other animal tissues are potential sources of retroviruses, and they can potentially cause many untoward side-effects to predisposed individuals. Vaccines also carry nickel, chromium, formaldehyde and antibiotics. Do vaccines with the zoonotic additives make human more prone to other viral infections, like the pandemic we are having now?

She highlighted the existence of special vaccine courts to pay out compensations to victims of vaccine injury. If vaccines are so safe, why is there such a court? Apparently, the vaccine producers are immune from prosecution by victims, but the court will weigh on the damage.

Dr Judy Mikovitz is not the only crusader around on a mission to expose the concerted effort by the scientific and political elite who run the scam that is our global health system. They hold patents to products and run pharma conglomerates to push vaccines and specific treatment modalities with vested interests on their minds. They manipulate research findings to suit their agenda. Despite holding honourable posts trusted to take care of the people's wellbeing, they are turning their high office into money-spinning ventures.

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What is life all about?

Star Trek: Picard (2020)
Miniseries, Season 1, E1-10.

I did not grow up appreciating the original Star Trek TV series. Hence, I do not qualify to identify myself as a Trekkie. I, however, managed to catch up Star Trek: The Next Generation when it made its way to the terrestrial TV channels. I remember the series not as much of an action-packed series but more of a cerebral one discussing life issues. I never did follow the ensuing Trek series or the silver screen productions. So, to me, Picard is only Starfleet Captain that I know.

More than a decade after his last mission and his unceremonious departure from USS Enterprise, Admiral Picard has to go to back to space. He does this clandestinely against the orders of the authorities, with a ragtag assembly of crew and space ship. In his previous mission, Data had caused the destruction of Mars. Because of that, androids, or synthetics as they were known in 2399, were banned. Picard had resigned in protest.

Enjoying his retirement in his chateau, Picard comes to know of a girl who may be the 'daughter' of Data as she was developed from Data's positronic brain. She is, unfortunately, assassinated. There is a vast conspiracy, from the Romulans mainly, as they had to bear the bunt of USS Enterprise's destruction of Mars earlier, to wipe out all synthetics. Picard's mission is to find Data's other twin daughter and save all synthetics from annihilation. 

Keeping with the characters who are all senior citizens trying to save the Universe, the series progresses slowly with a lot of dialogue and intellectual discourse.

The last two episodes are the most exciting part of the season for an occasional Star Trek fan like me. Perhaps at that time, earthlings have eradicated poverty and abated their fixation for material wealth, their discussions seem to focus more philosophical issues. People still try to create schisms and have pre-conceived ideas about 'the other' even though he never had the chance to meet or interact with them. They fail to realise that all these animosities will eventually cause self-destruction. Is it necessary for species to kill each other to survive? Is sacrifice the highest form of deed one can offer to a fellow kind? Is there logic in sacrifice or is life too precious to be wasted?

Picard, Riker and Troi (after retirement)

The finale discusses death and purpose of life. The past is already written. The future is for us to pen. How is the narration going to be? It is fear and suspicion of the unknown, which is the destroyer. Is believing that openness may allay these problems naive? To say that we do not have the choice is indicative of our lack of imagination. We are beyond all these. Our collective intellectual should be able to overcome adversities.

Being alive is not a licence to indulge. It is not a choice, but it comes with specific responsibilities. It is the price we have to pay for building consciousness. It expects us to think for the future. Mortality gives meaning to our time on Earth. Developing peace, friendship and love help us to appreciate the gift of life. At the end of our lifetime, we are left with only memories.

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A false flag disease?

Inventing the AIDS Virus (1996)
Authors: Peter H Duesberg and Bryan J Ellison

With all the controversies surrounding Coronavirus, whether it is a man-made virus or a naturally occurring one, the debate is just proving to be so convoluted. On one side, the Americans are accusing the Chinese of sending a bio-weapon out to the world to screw up everybody's economy. On the other end, the Chinese are alleging the USA sent the genetically altered virus to China, but the virus has come back to bite them. The situation becomes murky as the rest of the world are taking the Chinese government to court as they concur that Chinese underplayed the seriousness of the disease when it hit them.

Throwing a spanner in the work of discovering the origin of the virus is the suggestion that the novel Coronavirus, COVID-19, could be a retrovirus, just the most famous retrovirus of all - HIV. For recollection, a retrovirus is a type of RNA virus that inserts a copy of its genome into the DNA of a host cell that it invades, thus changing the genome of that cell.

This fact brought about the discussion about HIV-AIDS and how this disease is denied by a significant group of activists. They vehemently deny the virus named HIV as the causative agent of a collection of manifestations, or syndrome called AIDS.

The story of microbes causing ailments came about in the 1890s after Robert Koch, the German physician and bacteriologist, laid down his postulates as the groundwork to prove a particular agent in the genesis of disease. The microbes must be identified in the sick, it must be isolated and grown outside the body and induce sickness when introduced to a healthy subject.

The world was excited that they could give an explanation to many of the maladies around them. Unfortunately, in the earlier part of the 19th century, scientists without much scientific basis, lumped many sicknesses to have a microbial origin. It was thought that pellagra, scurvy and beriberi was caused by germs. This was before vitamins were identified.

The scientific community was all relieved when Jonas Salk discovered the polio vaccine. The idea of viruses causing all unknown illness became vogue. With the splurge of finances in the USA after benefitting most from the post WW2 era, many research facilities and funds were made available for virus research. A link between cancer and any other explainable sickness was attempted. Virologists became the new superstars and viruses their nemesis.

In the 1960s, a polio-like paralytic condition named SMON (Subacute Myelo-Optic Neuropathy) was a big menace. It even threatened to cancel the Tokyo Olympics. Scientists went from gut bacteria to mycoplasma to viruses as the causative agent. When they could not pin down their suspect, they started creating new entities like slow-viruses. Finally, it came to light that it was probably related to the consumption of Clioquinol, an anti-amoebal, anti-shigella medication. Hence, toxins were the cause here.

The world, through its many agencies, like the National Health Institute (NIH) and the Centre for Disease Control (CDC), took the virus approach in investigating many afflictions. The 1976 unexplained pneumonia was attributed to a common pathogen named Legionella when it was discovered during a legionnaires' conference. Kuru, a debilitating brain infection, was blamed on a slow-virus which in most cases remain undiscovered. The same story, according to the author, is present in SSPE, multiple sclerosis, hepatitis C, Epstein-Barr virus in Burkitt's lymphoma and even when Coxsackie-B virus was implicated in Type I diabetes. Also though many in the scientific community accepted these findings, the question of reproducibility often arose.

The story of retroviruses started way back when it was suggested in 1975.

Most microbiologist view at Koch's postulate as the holy grail in pinpointing a particular organism in infections. In the case of viruses, it had to be modified as culturing microorganisms was not easy.

When a mysterious collection of symptoms started among a particular segment of a population in the early 1980s - homosexuals, haemophiliacs, heroin users and Haitians, the CDC sprung into action. Pioneers in the filed on HIV include Luc Montagnier of Paris, and Robert Gallo of Cancer Institute in Bethesda are said to have discovered the offending virus. Montagnier published the identity of the virus which turned out to be identical (to the genomic sequence) of Gallo's. A court case ensued which was settled amicably out of court through Jonas Salk who had similar issues with Albert Sabin over polio vaccine. There were rumours of Gallo stealing Montagnier's work!

From the word go, some sceptics were wary of the convenient association of HIV (initially named HTLV) to the collection of symptoms called AIDS. Doubters questioned whether HIV was just a passenger particle. The diagnosis of HIV is made by testing for antibodies which shows that the immune system is intact, but the very disease weakened the immune system. Are we just testing the innocent bystander here?

The possibility of overlooking exposure to toxins was put forward. The failure to identify the virus in organs affected by AIDS was apparent. Even though Kaposi's Sarcoma was unheard before this epidemic has become the sine qua non of AIDS. Unfortunately, there also were HIV-negative patients with Kaposi's Sarcoma. The other manifestations are Pneumocystis Carinii and HIV dementia.

Homosexuals subjects in their epidemiological studies show that their abuse of intoxicants like amyl nitrite as aphrodisiacs and muscle relaxant as well as IV heroin usage. These habits were suggested for their pulmonary affliction, rather than a viral aetiology.

Haemophiliacs who started receiving purified Factor VIII had a lower transmission rate of HIV positivity. The possibility of other viruses like CMV was put forward.

People like the author and those who are labelled 'HIV deniers' (like the Holocaust deniers) are not saying that it is a fictitious disease. It is just that the world could be barking up the wrong tree. These controversies never stopped the unwavering political support for the virus hypothesis.

The spread of any viral infection usually follows a particular pattern, a bell-shaped distribution curve, as described by William Farr in 1840 (for smallpox). In the case of HIV-AIDS, this type of peak never materialised. The threat of epidemic which was predicated in the mid-80s never emerged; the numbers never reached pandemic proportions. Is it because of the preventive measures like condom usage and needle exchange programmes or the use of Zidovudine (AZT) in HIV + patients with deteriorating symptoms?

Coming to AZT, it is said to the classic case of where the treatment is more damaging the disease. AZT, a failed cancer drug, was promoted to be the mainstay of treatment. It is thought that since retroviruses cause sarcomas in chickens, there must be a basis for viruses in human cancers. This is where the role of big pharmaceutical giants like Burroughs-Wellcome come in. Many accused of the drug being fast-tracked to clinical use without proper double-blind studies and deceitful trials. The name of Anthony Fauci, who is the headlines of late, as the director of NIH who is fighting the COVID-19, appears as a facilitator. The role of the media (print and cable news networks) and its practical usage by the powers that be cannot be overstated in creating public anxiety as well as securing public approval cannot be underestimated.

The book quotes many instances where asymptomatic HIV+ individuals becoming gravely ill after commencing AZT. It helps to tip an HIV+ person into becoming a full-blown AIDs patient with its immunosuppression. Hence, is there a place for usage of AZT as prophylaxis?

HIV and AIDS have become a big business that generates income from the third world. Many corrupt governments also benefit from aids that are channelled to their countries to combat AIDS.

40 years into HIV and we are struggling to keep this condition under wraps. Perhaps the people who are entrusted to protect our affair are lured away by other personal interests. Media is a convenient tool towards this end. We should be careful that COVID-19 may follow the same path. One day it is a man-made virus, then the next day, scientists swear that it cannot be man-made but a freak of Nature. Later yet another day, like a science-fiction script, the virus mutates within a single season. It is mind-boggling. There is a push for the creation of a vaccine by the drug companies and philanthropic organisation who tend to benefit most from such an exercise.

The forward of this book was written by the inventor of PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) and Nobel Laurette, Kary Mullis. He believes that climate change and climate change and the HIV/AIDS connection are due to a conspiracy of environmentalists, government agencies, and scientists attempting to preserve their careers and earn money, rather than scientific evidence.

This book was brought to attention via the YouTube videos of Dr Shiva Ayyadorai, who is on a crusade to expose the malicious intents of Big Pharma.

Kary Mullis interviewed.

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Mere coincidences?

The Eyes of Darkness (1981)
Author: Dean Koontz (aka Leigh Nichols)

This book has been making its rounds recently after the current outbreak of the feared novel coronavirus Covid19. The excitement (paranoia) grew as it was mentioned that the said virus was developed as an experimental bug in a research facility in Wuhan, China. On top of that, the virus in the book is reported to have a 100% mortality rate. The hysteria reached a feverish pitch as more pictures allegedly coming out clandestinely from there dropping like flies after contracting the disease.

This story is a simple one narrating the tale of a grieving divorced young mother. She lost her son during his school trip accident. Even a year after his demise, she had not really got over him. She kept seeing him around town. Many unexplained events made her conclude that her child was somehow trying to contact her telepathically or via telekinesis. 

With her newfound love interest and a lot of help from her gifted son who is still alive in captivity,(surprise!), they discover a secret government facility and their secret experimentation with a killer bug.

There are some interesting facts about this book. The writer, a prolific one, wrote under many pseudonyms - Leigh Nichols when he wrote this 1981 novel. In the original edition, the biological agent was produced in a Russian lab, named 'Gorki-400', probably after Gorky Park in Moscow. 

There was a reprint in 2008. By the time the Iron Curtain had fallen, and it was not thrilling to put Russians as the villains. The events surrounding 1989 Tiananmen Square made China the perfect bogeyman. Hence, 'Gorki-400' became 'Wuhan-400'. The rogue scientist Ilya Poparipov became Li Chen.

People are questioning whether the mention of a biological weapon arising from Wuhan from a nearby laboratory is mere coincidence or is there something more that is present in this interplay?

There have been many instances when such a fluke event happened. Think 1912 Titanic and its disastrous maiden voyage and you have 1898 Morgan Robertson's novel 'The Wreck of Futility', renamed 'The Wreck of Titan'. The book chillingly describes many striking similarities between the ill-fated ocean liner, Titanic and the ship in the novel, Futility (a disastrous name, if you ask me). Of course, as conspiracy theorists would go, the company that managed the Titanic was running at a loss and got their inspiration to make insurance claims from this book.

Then there are Jules Verne's many classic novels - '20,000 leagues under the sea', 'Around the world in 80 days', 'In the year 2889' and 'From Earth to the Moon'. This Father of Fiction sitting in the cosy chair of the late 19th century could conjure up devices that are of highly complexed inventions. Captain Nemo had his electric submarine, which was a reality more than a century later. His other novels spoke of helicopters, hologram, newscasts, video conferencing and space suits. Can you imagine, he even mentioned solar sails for interplanetary travels, which are only theoretically possible even in this age and time?

Are these people clairvoyants? Are they endowed with some kind of extra-sensory precognition that can tap events from an alternate universe or foresee events of the future? Perhaps, like Ramanujan, mathematician extraordinaire, they just attuned their brain wavelengths to the correct frequency to pick up information from the Master Intellect that controls every nook and corner of the Universe. 

Do their works form a template for other great minds to work on a prototype or perhaps improve their ideas? 

Did Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek implant the idea of creating such designs like iPad, Flip phone, BlueTooth headset, command-obeying Siri, Flat TV panels, communication badges, hand-held Universal translators or Google Glass? Or was it is just part of human's general technological evolution? If that is the case, in no time, teleportation will be a reality. 

Hey, what do you know, successful teleportations of information on computer chips have been reported through quantum entanglement in laboratory conditions.

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It never ends!

Darwin's Doubt: The Explosive Origin of Animal Life and the Case for Intelligent Design (2013)
Author: Stephen C. Meyer

Alert: For Mature Readers Only

Discretion Advised

What triggered to look into this book was Zakir Naik's emotional argument with a self-professed atheist who was born Muslim on the theory of Evolution. The atheist challenged the rejection of Darwin's theory in Islam. The discourse went personal as Dr Naik started questioning the seeker's basic understanding of science and its terminologies. Then on, it became farcical, and the session had to be terminated. It was harbouring on diabolical issues like whether the theory of gravity was a mere theory or a fact and how scientific facts differ from theories.

A paragraph in sciencemag.org succinctly summarises the journey a scientist goes through in his thirst to know the truth. The intentions are nevertheless always altruistic, but sometimes personal agendas come in the way. They cherrypick what they want to see to prove their assertions. The beauty of it all is all these are subject to debates and changes as more information is obtained with newer instruments being their disposal.

The power of scientific reasoning derives from the complex interplay between the desire to know, the ability to reason, and the ability to evaluate ideas with data. As scientists, we have learned how to make ideas dance with reality, and we expect them to be transformed in the process. We typically add to what we already know, often showing along the way that old ideas are incomplete or, occasionally, wrong. And so we collectively build an understanding of the world that is accurate, reliable, and useful. 

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/341/6152/1344.1

In the greater scheme of the genesis of life on Earth, there was an era named Cambrian explosion. It is said organisms before this time were very rudimentary in morphology and function (beginning 4.6 billion years ago). Fossils from the Cambrian era (541 million years ago) are complex and have morphed into multiple phyla. The point the author is highlighting is that these changes are too profound for it to happen by mere chance. Subtle changes in genetic take a mighty long time and are gradual to perfect. Many significant alterations in DNA sequence and protein productions lead to lethal outcomes anyway.

To produce a groundbreaking change in archetypal design, pure random mutation is not sufficient. The presence of intelligent design is required, according to the author.

It is a point to note that when Darwin proposed his theory, the knowledge about Mendelian trait of inheritance and of DNA was not at his disposal. All he was offering was that organisms morph to adapt and to survive in an environment that only caters for the fittest.

Many of the theories proposed by Neo-Darwinists who have incorporated state of the art knowledge and suggestions do not satisfy the author. He tries to show that approaches like Punctuated Equilibrium (with rapid changes in speciation), trans-generational epigenetic inheritance and Shapiro's Natural Genetic Engineering do not nullify the need for an intelligent designer.

It is clear that when he means an intelligent designer, he says God, but a cheeky atheist like Richard Dawkins would ask, who designed the Designer? Meyer challenges that if gravity can be accepted as a scientific fact, why not the concept of intelligent design? Scientists, however, look at it as a lazy way of throwing in the towel. The likes of conservative thinkers see it as an opportunity to legitimatise the concept of God in science and start teaching Biblical Creations in schools as a scientific fact.

The Cambrian seas teemed with new types of 

animal, such as the predator Anomalocaris (centre)

© John Sibbick/Natural History Museum

Cross-referencing with other science-related websites is a revelation. At the beginning of times, lifeforms were simple self-sufficient ones. They divided by simple division, and the oceanic oxygen concentration was extremely low. With the marginal increase in oxygen concentration in the oceans, cells, which mainly thrived in an anaerobic environment, found aerobic respiration more efficient. Organisms became bigger. For sustenance, for the first time, the concept of preys and predators came forth. Living beings developed exoskeletons and other means of survival.

The beauty of science is that it can be challenged but supported with equally thought-provoking pieces of evidence. Admittedly, Man's knowledge is limited, but our desire to entertain new thoughts and ideas is a single fact that managed to springboard our species as the de facto leader of the planet. Or is it because He created us in his mould?

https://www.nature.com/news/what-sparked-the-cambrian-explosion-1.19379
https://science.sciencemag.org/content/341/6152/1344.1

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