Maheshvar and Krishan Bhoomi

[satay]

This piece of land known as Bharata is sacred and 'mahan'. These facts alone that GauriShankar resides with us on Kailash for jagat kalyan and krishn blessed us with his birth on this land make it 'mahan'.

satay

[Gill Harley]

Oh dear - I don't want to start a row when I've only been on this discussion board for five minutes, but I do find this 'my country is better/more holier/greater than yours' stuff a little off-putting. The Jews have been telling us for thousands of years that they are the Chosen Few, the Americans call their country "God's Own Country" and so it goes on. But it's not helpful to creating peace in the world, or peace anywhere else for that matter.

Of course Bharatavarsha, which stretched from the Antarctic to current day Turkey, was a great place too, full of holy people whose writings most of the major world religions eventually sprung from, imho.

But one of the attributes of God is that he is omnipresent - He manifests His Glory in every country of His world - the world that He created - and there are no special cases or Chosen Fews.

Do you know the Bob Dylan song, With God On Our Side?

Oh my name it is nothin'
My age it means less
The country I come from
Is called the Midwest
I's taught and brought up there
The laws to abide
And that land that I live in
Has God on its side.

Oh the history books tell it
They tell it so well
The cavalries charged
The Indians fell
The cavalries charged
The Indians died
Oh the country was young
With God on its side.

Oh the Spanish-American
War had its day
And the Civil War too
Was soon laid away
And the names of the heroes
I's made to memorize
With guns in their hands
And God on their side.

Oh the First World War, boys
It closed out its fate
The reason for fighting
I never got straight
But I learned to accept it
Accept it with pride
For you don't count the dead
When God's on your side.

When the Second World War
Came to an end
We forgave the Germans
And we were friends
Though they murdered six million
In the ovens they fried
The Germans now too
Have God on their side.

I've learned to hate Russians
All through my whole life
If another war starts
It's them we must fight
To hate them and fear them
To run and to hide
And accept it all bravely
With God on my side.

But now we got weapons
Of the chemical dust
If fire them we're forced to
Then fire them we must
One push of the button
And a shot the world wide
And you never ask questions
When God's on your side.

In a many dark hour
I've been thinkin' about this
That Jesus Christ
Was betrayed by a kiss
But I can't think for you
You'll have to decide
Whether Judas Iscariot
Had God on his side.

So now as I'm leavin'
I'm weary as Hell
The confusion I'm feelin'
Ain't no tongue can tell
The words fill my head
And fall to the floor
If God's on our side
He'll stop the next war.

Just thought I'd mention it.....

[satay]

Oh dear - I don't want to start a row when I've only been on this discussion board for five minutes, but I do find this 'my country is better/more holier/greater than yours' stuff a little off-putting. The Jews have been telling us for thousands of years that they are the Chosen Few, the Americans call their country "God's Own Country" and so it goes on. But it's not helpful to creating peace in the world, or peace anywhere else for that matter.

I know what you are saying. Still you can not blame me for having some pride in the country that I was born in.

But one of the attributes of God is that he is omnipresent - He manifests His Glory in every country of His world - the world that He created - and there are no special cases or Chosen Fews.

You are right, I wasn't saying that hindus are chosen few, to the contrary, I think "everyone" born on this planet is a hindu by default!

Do you know the Bob Dylan song, With God On Our Side?
Just thought I'd mention it.....

no, I didn't but thanks for sharing it.

satay

[Gill Harley]

Thanks for that very nice reply. You're obviously a much more sattvic person that me.

I thought you might be interested in this. A Vedic scholar who lives in Chennai told me that one of the Puranas (I think!) says that, at one time an ishthmus connected the modern continent of Antarctica with the Mount Gantothri in the Himalayas and so Bharatha-varsa was connected with Antarctica. He says that Bharatha-varsa stretched as far north as Kazaksthan and also included all the islands in between in the Indian Ocean, including Sri Lanka. He also said it stretched as far west as to include the whole of Iran and as far east as the Indonesian islands.

Anyway, I have put his coordinates on to a map:



As you can see, it does a bit of wiggle at Australia, which leads me to believe that perhaps Australia, or the western part of Australia was included. There is certainly a significant proportion of Australoid genes amongst the southern Indians.

Also, this map shows the submerged isthmus:



Hope this is of interest.

[Namo Narayana]

Gill, your knowledge of bharatvarsha is correct as far as i know. In ancient tamil scriptures there is literature written about kumari aaru ( river) . there was a river called Kumari than flowed south of kanya kumari. there was also theory that india was connected to africa and australasian islands. The Madurai currently north of the cape kumari is not the original madurai burnt down by Kannagi in Silapathigaram. This Madurai was situated south of the existing cape kumari. It was the crade of development of Tamil Language. ancient tamil literature say tamil was developed in three stages Mudhal Sangham ( First Council ) , Idai Sangham (Middle or second council) Kadai sangham ( Last council ). What is not clear to me is why there need different levels of councils ? My theory is sea erosion could have caused the destruction of Madurai and evertime they founded a new city madurai and marked it by different phases.

I have read elsewhere that evolution of earths geography made India drift from africa to ram into Asia Minor long before the human beings.

The andaman nicobar islands that east of india are nothing but tips of mountains submerged ( possibly by tsunami ? )

Certain western researchers have a view that Hinduism spread all over globe once.

Once Ramana Maharishi who lived in Thiruvannamalai and worshipped Lord Shiva there, said there should be a corresponding one on the other side of the world exactly opposite to thiruannamalai. It turns out to be a holy site of Mayans. there is a website that talks about this inconclusively though.


southern india also extended into bay of bengal. there used to be a city called poompuhar which was destroyed by a tsunami. the tsunami is documented in silapathigaram one of the five big literature in tamil. poompuhar was also called Kaveripoom pattinam. it was at the mouth of river cauvery where it flows into bay of bengal.

what we have now is a poompuhar that is a remnant of this huge city.

if you travel Mahabalipuram 50 kilometres south of chennai downtown, there is only remaining pagoda. the other six pagodas are submerged in the ocean. the fishermen have witnessed these. BBC has a report on it. conducted a joint sea search and documented it. Unlike USA, the Indian or Tamil Nadu government doesnt have the vision to make this place an underwater museum of architecture. there exists in sculpted form of various mahabaratha scenes.

Hinduism is egalitarian. Like christianity or others we dont proclaim we are the sons of god or the chosen ones. Hinduism is nothing but a guide to live yuor life in the planet.

it is important from an indian perspective to feel proud about being a Hindu and Indian because hindus are being belittled everywhere around the world and we are seriously in need of some morale booster. this should not be taken as if we are alienating western hindus.

Majority of indians dont realise that how india is great while living in India. you realise it only when you move out of it and see. I realised how great is india only when I moved to states.

[Ram]

I know what you are saying. Still you can not blame me for having some pride in the country that I was born in.

Bharat is unqiue for her spiritual heritage. No other nation has produced thousands of sages and mystics like her.

[Namo Narayana]

Bharat is unqiue for her spiritual heritage. No other nation has produced thousands of sages and mystics like her.

we do keep producing. I was amazed that Hawaii Hindu Mutt was originated by a caucasian hindu. He is also succeeded by another satguru who happens to be a western hindu.

[sarabhanga]

Namaste Gill,

What Sanskrit term is used in the Puranas for “Antarctica” ?

Satellite scans of the ocean floor clearly reveal the imprint of the Indian sub-continent’s northward travel. The V-shaped notch that lies to the north of modern Antarctica indicates the starting position for India, when she broke away from the ancient super-continent that once included India, Antarctica, and Australia, and also Africa and South America (i.e. Gondwana).

When India was directly connected with Antarctica, the Himalaya did not yet exist ~ since the entire range was created when India ran into the northern continent of Asia. India is still moving northwards, and that is what keeps pushing up the Himalaya (and causing earthquakes) as the two continents grind together.

In human history, Bharatavarsha has probably extended as far north as the Aral and Caspian Seas and including modern Iran, and stretching as far as Indonesia and possibly even Australia (which were all virtually connected by land-bridges during the last ice-age). And Lanka was only cut off from India in the last few thousand years ~ indeed, the Setubandha from Rameshvaram still remains almost useable today, given a very low tide and favourable winds.

[Namo Narayana]

Sarabanga, I dont see how one can interpret that satellite pictures showing that India has moved up north. But it is less important.

All these could have happened before human set foot.

But I forgot to mention about the eruption of Toba valcano which deposited six metres of ash on Indian continent allegedly. toba erupted 73000 yrs ago and the primitive men living in nicobar islands are there for last 70000 years. There are many riddles in the story that are not answered.

[sarabhanga]

During the late Cretaceous period, the Indian Plate was moving north at about 18 or 19 cm per year. And when the collision of India with Asia happened (about 55 million years ago) the speed slowed to only 4 or 5 cm per year.

India has travelled about 9,000 km in the last 180 million years, and India is still moving north at a readily measurable rate.

And the tectonic movements of the various continental plates have NOT been deduced from the satellite pictures that Gill and I have presented here ~ they only serve to reinforce the validity of the theory.

The images do show exactly the imprint in the earth’s crust that might be expected to remain for some time after the weight of a whole continent has passed over it. The track is deepest and most even in the middle part, with edges that are submarine ridges which formed as the northward path was ploughed.

And you CAN see exactly where the Indian fragment of ancient Gondwana is predicted to have started its independent journey away from what is now called Antarctica.