I guess it is going to be a monumental day for ISRO with the countdown for the launch of PSLV C11 carrying Chandrayaan already begun. This is one live event I am not going to miss for sure. ISRO is all set to broadcast it in its website. Hope all goes well.
Read more...A sudden bout of spiritualism forced me to go to the temple yesterday and it coincided with Sankatahara Chathurthi. The very thought of going to the temple on this day filled me with a sense of fulfillment that I had done something good after a long time, though I had no idea of what the occasion means. An effort at 'googling' for the explanation did not make me any the wiser except for the fact that its a monthly event. So I stuck to the ritualistic praying for well-being.
I was wondering about the meaning of some mantras and it set me off on a tangent that eventually ended with me questioning about the rationality in believing the existence of God. All the slokams and mantras I know unequivocally praise the God. If God does exist, does He wish to us to spend a considerable part of our time praising Him? (or Her, lest I am branded as a male chauvinist) I mean if He really is God what is the point in Him expecting us to praise Him.
If the above line of thought is considered blasphemy, then one would succumb to the ideas of living in Kali Yuga wherein the human race is supposed to be most distanced from God. Atleast the scriptures say so! But then how much veracity can one attach to the scriptures. To be fair, its difficult to believe in miracles. And to believe something that has been written and passed over generations, describing incidents that happened hundreds of years ago as to the deeds of the Gods is tough. After all truth distorts over time and historians were not in much abundance in the earlier days so as to give an accurate recounting of things that happen. For example, what if they all started off as eulogistic narrations of the deeds of Kings and then got modified over generations, with the subsequent additions of unearthly powers to the deities. It is possible.
When one goes to some places that have spiritual connections it makes us feel exhilarated. Is that because one truly feels the divine power or is it the subconscious mind that tells us we are in a place that has some spiritual significance and makes us feel something inexplicable? I visited many South Indian temples last year and I started off by thinking that it should be interesting as I would see new places. But when I went to places like the Thanjavur Kovil, the Madurai Meenakshi Amman Kovil or the Chidambaram Kovil, I felt a heaviness which overwhelmed my senses. They mad(k)e me believe that there is an aura about these places that have reasons beyond plain architecture and massiveness. I suppose same should be the case with Kailash and places like Badrinath, Kasi etc.,
But, sometimes I tend to believe that the concept of Religions were created to bring about a sense of orderliness in man's life. Being the only creature endowed with the power to think, we have spent a lot of our time in trying to find out the reason for our existence. Some people answer that spiritually and attribute man's existence to God and some answer that scientifically citing evolution, the primordial soup, etc., I suppose our ancestors predominantly would have belonged to the former group. The fact that misdoings and improper conduct would invoke the wrath of some supernatural power would serve as a deterrent to many people from straying in their lives. And over a period of years, these would have coalesced into a coherent set of stories that gave way to the myths (or the epics as we would have it). One need not be astute to perceive the regional based differences in the stories of Gods. Even epics like Mahabharata and Ramayana have parts that are narrated in different ways in different places. And same is the case with the Old and the New Testaments. When someone like Mother Teresa who has been an embodiment of devout worshipers, says that her life has been devoid of the influence of God, then 'lesser' beings are bound to relapse into self doubts.
Having said all this, it leaves me in a confused state of mind. To believe in the existence of God and devote a part of my time to prayers or to be a heretic. As the questions remain unanswered, I guess I have no other option but to tread the path of several skeptic-believers and continue to believe in God with the occasional doubts rearing its head. After all as many people say, it is better to err on the side of safety.
In his book titled 'Prey', Michael Crichton talks about evolution in organisms initiated by the pressures of survival. He has elaborated more on this topic in his more famous book, 'The Lost World'. The Darwinian theory of life evolving to adjust to the environment has been studied at large, with the implications of behavioural changes now emerging as a major cause of evolution. Peer pressure has been acknowledged to majorly contribute to the changes a species undergoes.
A scientific report of an isolated female shark giving birth at a zoo in Nebraska has been filed recently. The report cites the case of a female Hammerhead shark which came to the zoo as a baby and been grown ever since in isolation from male sharks. This report gains significance as it is the first recorded event of its kind. But the phenomenon could be more common in the natural world. Pressures induced by humans coupled with natural threats could result in many such changes occurring in the ecological system. The deprivation of a male partner or the rapid dwindling of a population might mount pressure on the females of a species, forcing it to evolve an ability that enables it to reproduce on its own. Scientists feel that such evolutionary actions to sustain life could be against the principle of natural selection, which emphasizes the concept of the survival of the fittest. In an environment where natural order prevails, the passing on of genes to the next generation is reserved for the mightiest of the lot. It is a well documented fact that males compete with one another to establish dominance. Females mate more frequently with dominant males than the others. These natural orders ensure that during the course of evolution, the genes of animals that are most healthy and most adapted to conditions, are passed on more frequently than that of animals that are not. Thus over a period of several generations the dominant genes take over from the lesser ones and this also allows the species to have a natural tendency to adapt to the surroundings as they have acquired the dominant genes.
But artificial pressures created by factors such as humans increase the survival pressure on every species, leading to such instances of 'parthenogenesis'. Hermaphroditism is not uncommon in nature. But it is not widely prevalent either. Suppression of life could force characteristics like hermaphroditism to surface. This reminds me of the classic scene in Jurassic Park, where Alan Grant (Sam Neill) states that 'Life finds a way', when they discover that some of the female Dinosaurs released from captivity begin to change sex and starts to reproduce.
Genetic studies have shown that the difference between the genes of many animals are so few. So the question of how two widely different species could share as much as 90% of genes (if not more) is largely unanswered. It is reasonable to suppose that between species that share genes, differences in characteristics and behaviour are influenced a lot by the living environment. So a radical change in the environment could activate the hitherto inactive genetic characteristics bringing about an evolution in the species.
A conception that Crichton seeks to remove in 'Next' is the common understanding of the time period of evolution. Contrary to popular beliefs of evolution occurring over a period of million years, he states that evolution is continuous. Life continuously evolves in tune with dynamic changes of its environment, which is true.
Humans have altered the environment in a large way. Rainforests have been destroyed, water bodies polluted, air composition being changed. Many species have become extinct or are on the brink of it, thanks largely to mass killings by humans for reasons of profit and the likes. We have been altering the face of the earth and changes have been happening right before our eyes. An interesting outcome of the behavioural theory is that the changes in the behaviour of one species will alter that of every species that interacts with it. Thus no change is isolated and behavioural alterations are bound to have worldwide repercussions. Maybe its the turn of the humans to bring about another major shuffling of the Earth's biosphere.
Why is it that I never get to see the natural spectacles? Chennai is probably one of the dullest places to be if you want to see any natural event like an eclipse. Well, chennai has the Birla planetarium. But inspite of all my purported interest in astronomy, I have never took the pains of going there to witness a celestial event. And there were many, namely the crashing of shoemaker levy onto Jupiter, Mercury appearing against the sun, etc., for which the planetarium made special arrangements for viewing. But for some reason, total eclipses have always eluded chennai. Especially, a few years back I was very dissapointed, when a total solar eclipse was visible in north India, but not in the south. I guess being closer to the tropics puts it a disadvantage for viewing total eclipses(the very reason that makes Sriharikota an ideal place to launch rockets).
So it was with glee I heard today(March 3) that Eastern US will be witnessing a lunar eclipse, a total one at that. I happened to chance upon a picture taken of the eclipse a few minutes back, and immediately ran out to see the spectacle, unmindful of the subzero temperature. The sky was reddish as the description said. But the moon was nowhere to be seen. I guess it was near the horizon. The surrounding buildings were awkwardly tall and blocked the view. And my house was not tall enough to offer me a view over other buildings. In the end, I missed out another total eclipse.
Dont know why, but eclipses always miss me. Rather, the other way around.
Sigh!!! Anyways, I hope to have better luck on August 28.
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