Thursday, March 4, 2010

Time Dilation in the Vishnu Purana



"Scientists generally have little historical sense, so that each single generation knows little of the struggles and inner difficulties of the former generation. Thus it happens that many ideas at different times are repeatedly conceived anew, without the initiator knowing that these subjects had been considered already before." -- Albert Einstein, mathematician, May 22nd 1954

"So it's a proof of no cosmology at all if it can be predicted by all of them." -- Jean-Claude Pecker, astronomer, 2003

Vishnu Purana, Book IV, Chapter 1

The son of this prince [Revata] was Raivata or Kakudmín, the eldest of a hundred brethren. He had a very lovely daughter [Revati], and not finding any one worthy of her hand, he repaired with her to the region of Brahmá [outerspace] to consult the god where a fit bridegroom was to be met with. When he arrived, the quiristers Háhá, Húhú, and others, were singing before Brahmá; and Raivata, waiting till they had finished, imagined the ages that elapsed during their performance to be but as a moment. At the end of their singing, Raivata prostrated himself before Brahmá, and explained his errand. "Whom should you wish for a son-in-law?" demanded Brahmá; and the king mentioned to him various persons with whom he could be well pleased. Nodding his head gently, and graciously smiling, Brahmá said to him, "Of those whom you have named the third or fourth generation no longer survives, for many successions of ages have passed away whilst you were listening to our songsters: now upon earth the twenty-eighth great age of the present Manu is nearly finished, and the Kali period is at hand. You must therefore bestow this virgin gem upon some other husband, for you are now alone, and your friends, your ministers, servants, wife, kinsmen, armies, and treasures, have long since been swept away by the hand of time." ...

Being thus instructed by the lotus-born divinity, Raivata returned with his daughter to earth, where he found the race of men dwindled in stature, reduced in vigour, and enfeebled in intellect. Repairing to the city of Kuśasthalí, which he found much altered ....
Einstein, Born, and Møller invoked gravitational time dilation to explain the empirical experiences and aging described in the Vishnu Purana.

9 comments:

Quantum_Flux said...

True Einstien quote there.

OilIsMastery said...

Ironic isn't it?...=)

Quantum_Flux said...

I like that quote because, while I'm not really a scientist, I do think it applies to me perhaps as well. Do you think that is because people aren't taught historical science and technology in their classes?

....or perhaps it is because religious indoctrination when they are young teaches them to close their minds too much?

OilIsMastery said...

I like it too.

I think that it's because people aren't taught the proper history of science. Even though some people are indoctrinated, they are still capabable of changing their minds if exposed to alternatives.

KV said...

OIM,

Hindu scriptures are full of travels to far away places... and many travels were so fast that one must think of travel faster than the fastet known to man: speed of light. I believe, when yogis claim to transport in their meditations, they are talking about such travels. We are very, very fascinating creatures of either the imagination or truly surreal that we do not grasp our potential in the mundane inertial frame of the Earth.

Secondly, I would like to suggest all to read the book OIM cited in the last link of this post: it is a recent work published by Johns Hopkins University Press and it is a fascinating work. Link:
http://books.google.com/books?id=vuTXBPvswOwC&pg=PA165#v=onepage&q=&f=false

KV said...

OIM,

Albert Einstein was not a mathematician; he was the tinkerer of and on reality, perceived and imagined. I think he had to learn the math for general theory of relativity so that he can express the stuff of his reality concisely and calculable to me, Qunatum Flux, and many others, while failing to understand the whole shabang.

OilIsMastery said...

Nice comments KV. I like it when you play nice...=)

KV said...

OIM,

If you post objectively and for a dialog like the ancient Greeks and many other cultures, I support it. It is when you go on peddling stuff with unprovable and unsupportable absolutes (i.e. tabloid style headlines, and unfounded observations)that is when you rile up not just me but many of us.

I just would to add that many of the issues and topics will not be answered in our lifetimes, so we must strive for a dialog to exchange ideas and views with full understanding that nobody is going to be always right or even logical, etc.

Quantum_Flux said...

By some, OIM, I'm sure you mean most.