The Earthquake in Christchurch on September 4 brought the message of the fragile nature of our lives too close for comfort. Fortunately, we did not lose any lives, although the cost of damage is expected to run in the billions. The majority of people only want one thing in the aftermath of the Earthquake – get back to their normal lives as quickly as possible.
One message that the Earthquake again failed to impress on our minds is the reality of how we as a species are inter-related, that we live in the interconnected world of nature and are as open to the vagaries of nature as anyone in any part of the world.
However, much and which ever way we protect our borders and our way of life, natural disasters don’t recognise these demarcations. Nor does something like global warming or climate change or any other global event like El Nino or La Nina.
While the Earth has been divided up in countries and regions, oceans and stratosphere and other spheres, it remains for all intents and purpose a ‘single operating system’ – connected in so many ways that we only starting to understand. It is rightly said that the fluttering of a butterfly’s wings in Wales will eventually lead to a storm in the Amazon, that is how interconnected we are.
Why the Earth is continually changing
The Earth has been around for some time now and in that time it has experienced change that is not only mind-boggling but beyond our scope (science or otherwise) to truly understand.
Several ice ages, dinosaurs, mass extinctions, different species of humans and hominids, secrets deep in the ground, under the seas, pole reversals, and other climatic ‘disasters’ – the planet is in a state of continuous change, all the time.
It is the nature of things, or, if you will, the nature of the Earth to do these things to maintain its balance. After all, it is but a satellite of the sun, and has to keep up pace and decorum with the others in the grand design of things.
Forget the universe, the Earth is a very tiny entity in the galaxy itself. In the solar system, it has to play a role in the general balance of things, spinning at great speed around the sun while itself spinning at head-snapping speeds on its axis. On top of it, it is wobbly and slanted in its circuit around the sun.
Every planet circulating the sun exerts its own force on every other planet in some way, influencing their movement one way or another. Imagine the solar system as a three dimensional freeway, with lanes marked out for each planet and traffic management and traffic lights in place. Then imagine an acrobat whirling a number of dinner plates on sticks, getting the balance just right and ensuring the rotating plates do not collide as he moves the sticks around on his hands and forehead. Put the acrobatics and freeway image together and you can get an idea of how the solar system operates.
When Sir Isaac Newton was talking of gravity, it was this balance, poise and movement of the planets that he was talking about. (And we have taken this great man’s computations of the planets and shoved it in the inane illustration of an apple falling on his head to illustrate what gravity is.)
As the Earth continues its relentless, yet varying, march around the sun with the other planets, and the sun spins around in the galaxy around some other pivotal point (many agree it is the galactic centre), and the galaxy itself travels in its relation to the other billions of galaxies in the universe, this gravitational pull, working in so many different ways, keeps a tight rein in the movement of planets, solar system and galaxies.
All this while, what happens on its surface has to be noted and attended to by the Earth. In the past millions of years, the Earth survived the dinosaurs, and it survived the extinction of the dinosaurs. It is still here, 65 million years after the dinosaurs, sustaining us. It has seen several races of people live and become extinct, seen civilizations start, dominate and fade away from memory, has spawned several species of flora and fauna, lost them, had more species come up to replace those lost.
At different stages of its journey in the cosmos, the Earth is a different thing at different times. What it is now is near-perfect for the life forms on it. What it will be next (whenever this happens) may not be as good for us (or it could be better, who knows?). We, the human race, may just be a passing phase for the Earth however much we want to believe that we are the rulers of Earth.
So, who is in charge?
The Earth, apparently, is in charge here. If we believe that we, as a species, have dominated the Earth and wrought our changes on its face, we are sorely mistaken. The day we control the weather or stop dead a natural disaster is the day we can claim to have a semblance of control over the Earth.
Until that day comes, we can only say we have been given leave to live on this planet, that we are here at the tolerance of Mother Earth. What we really do is exist within the bounds of the conditions that have been established by the Earth.
And she is a marvellous host, giving us the bounty of her land and seas, allowing us to go forth and multiply, and multiply, and multiply. As a species, we have ‘conquered’ almost all kinds of obstacles and made a good life for ourselves amid conditions detrimental to our existence including the heat or the cold, the dry or the wet.
But at all times we remain but a subset of the entity we call the Earth. There is little or no chance of this species surviving outside of the Earth, however much we may want to live on the moon.
Just another disaster?
Disasters on Earth is always a given – from our point of view. For the huge entity that is Earth, it is only a matter of maintaining its poise and balance. It has a habit of reversing its poles to balance its magnetic fields – the Earth has reversed its poles 200 times in the past 178 million year, the last one being 730-750,000 years ago. After all, the Earth is also a dynamo, with its solid inner core using solar magnetic energy to throw up a deflecting field against the solar winds that could burn the Earth to a crisp.
But there are disasters that even the Earth may not be able to take in its stride.
Now science is telling us that the solar system is careening towards the centre of the galaxy, where, it is believed, awaits it a supermassive blackhole. So say scientists who have been keeping a extremely close eye on the workings of the galaxy. They also say that this supermassive blackhole could be benign – meaning it is well-meaning and perhaps may not swallow up the Earth, or the solar system.
NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory revealed in 2000 what was long-suspected - a black hole does exist at the centre of the galaxy. Instead of the highly active monster that most other galaxies have, our blackhole is less active. Apparently a supernova exploded close to it sometime back and masked its pulling capabilities with enough dust to make it a starving blackhole.
Nevertheless it can still eat up a comet or two if they come close enough, as was shown in 2001 when the blackhole swallowed a comet and released enough x-rays to brighten a nearby star by 45 times its normal brightness. So its devouring capabilities are largely intact. By the way, blackholes cannot be seen and so are only discerned by the x-rays they emit.
On the face of it, careening headlong towards a blackhole is a mother of a disaster. Maybe not. The galactic centre is a massive area – a radio signal associated with the centre and called Sagittarius A emanates from an area with a diameter of 44 million kilometres.
There are a thousand stars and systems already very near the galactic centre, including a ‘sun’ that is seven times as big and 15 times as heavy as our sun, called the S2. It is so close to the centre that it only takes 15.2 years to orbit it (our sun does it in 50,000 plus years). In fact there are some 100 new stars, ‘born’ and evolved near the centre and scientists are baffled as to why this happened if a blackhole exists near to them.
No-one is absolutely sure how far away the centre of the galaxy is away from us presently. In the great scheme of things it could be trillions of kilometres away or ‘just around the corner’. For all we know, it could take the solar system a twinkling of time to cover the enormous distance, or it will not never happen in our lifetime. So far, so good as far as science is concerned
The creation of our galaxy
Now, our ancients had a good idea of what’s happening in the galaxy. Let’s look at our so-called mythology and see what these ancients have been trying to tell us.
Our galaxy is called the Milky Way, because of the dusting of the white that accompanies its spiral formation. And Lord Vishnu, the all-pervading, lies in the ocean of milk (Ksheer Sagar) on the endless coils of the serpent Anantha/Shesha Naag. The allegory is so right: the Ocean of Milk for the Milky Way, the coils of the serpent to indicate the spiralling nature of the galaxy. And Vishnu (the name means that which pervades all) right in the middle of it all, or forming the basis of it.
Vishnu in his preserver role, is either non-active or active, depending on whether creation (shristi) is in progress, or is in abeyance. When creation is in abeyance, Vishnu rests and the serpent lies coiled. Come creation, the serpent uncoils and everything starts happening, including the spinning off of solar/star systems and galaxies.
To start creation, a lotus pops out of Vishnu’s navel on which is borne Brahma, the creator. This is called Vishnu Naabhi and correlates to the centre of the galaxy (the seat of Brahma). And planets, suns, star and systems are spawned out of this centre. It is all a matter of expansion, for creation is expansion. As the systems evolve, they start their elliptical journey from the centre in an outward direction, growing, spawning and ‘living’.
For our solar system, this journey takes some 26,000 years before it comes back to the periapsis or pericentre( the point of closest approach to the centre) and it will take a similar timeframe to do the circuit in the opposite direction. Many of our astrologers are saying the elliptical journey for the sun is halfway done now and it is approaching the centre, where the solar system will be the closest to the Naabhi in the past 26,000 years.
Now all this galaxy creation is a microcosm of the greater role of creation, where Vishnu pervades the universe and Brahma starts creation of the galaxies and systems (or lokas). The process of creation is passed down intact to the lowest level so that any small creation is similar to the ultimate creation and vice versa. What is above is below and what is inside is outside. Or is our galaxy really the centre of the universe if it actually has the Vishni Naabhi at its centre?
The end of creation
And with creation comes dissolution, as it should be. The Naabhi started the creation and its here where dissolution must take place. As stars and systems spawned out of the centre, so must they come to the centre to be ‘consumed’.
The blackhole can be said to be the destroyer of the trinity, Shiva. The tandav dance of Shiva is the crackling, electrifying, super heavy, all-swallowing, x-ray emitting processes of a blackhole. It is the ultimate dissolution and destruction. Nothing escapes Shiva when he sets out to destroy something, not even light.
But dissolution is an ongoing business, not a one-time event only. Of course, for a planet about to be destroyed, it is a one-off thing but there are myriad of planets and each will eventually be destroyed. And each destruction will be termed a pralaya (dissolution).
Alternatively, followers of Shiva believe it differently. Shiva is the creator, preserver and destroyer all rolled in one, as represented by Natraja. The Tandav is itself the ongoing story of creation, preservation and destruction; a creation ringed by fire, keeping rhythm to the Anahat Sound, represented by Shiva’s damaru (drum).
Each of Natraja’s four arms symbolises the four aspect of divinity: beating the rhythm of the universe with the damaru; blessing us and telling us not to fear anything (abhayahasta); holding fire to show the destruction of both the universe and the ego; and, most importantly, pointing to the demon pinned under his foot that is not upraised in dance. The demon Apasmera represents ignorance, especially ignorance that is an offshoot of dualism. Others call the dwarf demon, Mara (illusion) or Maya (illusion).
Whichever way one will have it, the ancient knew a thing or two and tried their best to pass it on to us. Wrapped in allegory, metaphor and downright-in-your-face imagery, the workings of the universe was told to us. Yet, we failed to understand them.
Now, as science counts down the headlong rush of planet Earth to the centre of the galaxy, it is an apt time to look to our mythology and see what happened in such situations, and find counters to it, if we can. And to ask questions that we have dared not ask before.
Are we heading right into the jaws of this suppermassive blackhole? Is it Earth’s time to experience pralaya?
According to our scriptures, NO. The benign blackhole will certainly exert a force, a tremendous force but not enough to break the sun’s orbit of the centre. There is a great chance of survival for the Earth. But for the people and the other species that reside on Earth, it may be another thing.
Like I said, from the point of view of Earth, the adjustments to the planet may be minor indeed. But the trickle down effect on things living on it may be enormous. What awaits mankind as we speed ahead to this tryst?
The things that have been predicted could happen to us:
Cataclysms – major upheavals, including monster volcano eruptions (there is talk of the nine mountain gods erupting in several mythologies), Earthquakes, tsunamis of giant proportions. A vast majority of humanity will suffer and the planet will reface itself (resurfacing).
Cleansing - a virtual wiping out of many species without much damage to the planet itself. This includes solar winds that pass through the Earth’s protective magnetic shield and change the very molecular structure of things on the planet. It may also just burn every thing up, leaving no chance of cultivation on the surface, and thus little chance of civilisation surviving for very long. Electrical storms would disrupt communications and cut off everyone from everyone.
Consciousness – several cultures and several noteworthy scholars believe the closer we come to the centre of the galaxy the more in tune we become to the pervading consciousness of the universe (God, Brahman, Vishnu, Shiva, Shakti, etc). This rise in consciousness will, of course, come at a price. We will need to give up our body awareness (maybe even our bodies?) – either voluntarily or be forced to do so.
Our ancients have been calling for a new way of living for millennia, in which we are to go beyond body consciousness into the unified field consciousness. Our body is only a vehicle and we have to realise our real self to understand the part we must play in understanding the workings of the universe.
Has the time arrived for major upheavals to take place in our lives, in our very existence? If yes, are we ready for it? Most probably, no. The unrelenting sequels of natural disasters taking place on Earth should teach us something but we are too enamoured by life to see the deadly destruction. It is Yuddhistar who said (when asked by Yama) what was the most astounding thing on Earth: “Thousands are dying everyday but people believe that they will go on living forever. This is the most astounding thing”.
It is the killing of ignorance, especially of the duality of this world, that Shiva’s tandav is teaching us. Maybe it is time to actually look at what we really need to do and see how we can actually live while we still have a body and a mind to understand things.
Asato maa, Sad gamaya
Tamaso maa, Jyotir gamaya
Mrityo maa, Amritam gamaya
NOTES
Black holes
The intense gravity of the black hole prevents any light from escaping it, and it is therefore invisible. Its vicinity, however, contains a fairly high density of stars, including one big star--about 15 times the mass of the Sun and 7 times its radius--which was recently found to go around the centre with an orbital period of only 15.2 years. That star, designated S2 by astronomers, follows an ellipse which at its closest comes within about 124 astronomical units (1 AU=mean Sun-Earth distance) of the centre of the galaxy. At that time it speeds up to about 5000 km/sec--close to 2% of the velocity of light! Its side facing the black hole is somewhat closer to the black hole than the side facing away, and is therefore pulled more strongly; on a very close approach, such a difference could tear a star apart, but S2 would have to get some 70 times closer before that would happen, at a distance comparable to the orbital radius of Mars.
Galactic Centre of Milky Way
The central parsec around Sagittarius A* contains thousands of stars. Although most of them are old red main sequence stars, the Galactic Center is also rich in massive stars. More than 100 OB and Wolf-Rayet stars have been identified there so far. They seem to have all been formed in a single star formation event a few million years ago. The existence of these relatively young (though evolved) stars was a surprise to experts, who expected the tidal forces from the central black-hole to prevent their formation. This paradox of youth is even more remarkable for stars that are on very tight orbits around Sagittarius A*, such as S2.
A world-ending prophesy
Pope Leo IX (Pope from 1513-1522) wrote in 1514 of what is coming: "I will not see the end of the world, nor will you my brethren, for its time is long in the future, 500 years hence." 500 years hence would be 2014, just two years after the Mayan Prophecy End Date, and as Leo was obviously rounding the date to a full sum, it is very possible he is even referring to the year 2012.
Mayan Calendar and yuga separation of the Hindus
The now famous date December 21, 2012 is the date that the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar, used by the preColumbian Maya civilization, and known by them and by the Aztecs as the Fifth Sun, completes a "great cycle" of thirteen b'ak'tuns. This means that since the last creation date on August 11 3114. or 13.0.0.0.0 in the Long Count calculation, the "clock hand" will have reached 13.0.0.0.0 again for the first time, marking the completion of this cycle.
Yet this period, lasting c. 5125 years, is just one last (fifth) part of an even longer cycle that turns out to be the same as the Great Year. Knowledge of the Great Year is found in other ancient astrological-astronomical records (i.e. in India) and so with further study the Mayan 2012 calendar end finds roots in other cultures too. With the ending of the last part of this age, the Mesoamerican cycle of five ages also completes. Herewith a large time period of five x 5,125 (c. 25,625 years) is also drawing to a close.
The second coming?
Mention of nine godlike figures is found in many ancient cultures - Maya, Egyptian, Chinese and Tibetan and if you do enough reading of the ancient texts it is quite clear that these nine were volcanic mountains.
They were connected to a very ancient plan that has been copied and kept alive in different areas of the world (you can begin to recognize the connection by reading on Nine Tibetan Mountain Gods). The Return is, then, of fallen or lost mountains, which might cause a certain amount of Earthquakes, tsunamis and eruptions. Moreover they were connected in the plan to one central volcanic mountain that marked the centre of the whole Earth, a mountain that has completely disappeared, sunk below the seas and into our own subconscious
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