It8217;s all in our head

Let8217;s check out this postmodern physics. He quotes his guru 8212; Shri Shri Ravi Shankar 8212; to back his views. Now, much of Shankar8217;s reputation rests on a misunderstanding: He knows more about life than you and I do. Does he? He certainly does not know physics. He8217;s got it all wrong. They say the moon affects our minds and bodies just as it affects the oceans. This is the classic line of all pop astros 8212; if the moon can create tides, imagine what it can do to you. Any kid who has read Halliday amp; Resnick would know that the gravitational force of sun and moon does not work on individual bodies. It acts on the earth.

If Gautier8217;s laws of gravity are right then our weight should increase at night as the sun8217;s gravitational pull is absent then. And, as a logical corollary of it, our weights should be different on full-moon and moonless nights. But that doesn8217;t happen. The reason is simple: the impact of gravitational force of sun and moon on individual bodies is negligible.

Shankar, according to Gautier, says that 10,000 years ago the Rig Veda perceived the earth as round. We all know that the Vedas were written not more than four to five thousand years ago and it8217;s texts like the Upanishads and not the Vedas that address questions of astrology. He also claims that the ancient rishis were the first to know that the sun was at the centre of the solar system. In reality, astrology began as an agricultural calendar in Sumeria in 4,000 BC. The Sumerian calendars depended on what is known as the Heliacal rising of stars, a concept fundamental to astrology. By 3,000 BC the Sumerians had named four constellations that marked the turning of the seasons. At that time Gautier8217;s great rishis were probably hunting andgathering on the fringes of the Indus Valley civilisation.

He says the West discovered these facts only 300 years back. What about Homer and Hesiod who described a connection between the sun, stars, moon, earth and time? In the 6th century BC, Thales utilised the heavens for designing accurate calendars and sundials. And Plato, in his Timaeus, declared, quot;The sun, moon, and8230; planets were made for defining and preserving the numbers of time.quot;

The fact is that Indian astrology is full of defects. Its charts are based on seven planets, two of which are invisible. The sun and moon are viewedas planets in Indian astrology. Gautier should know that the sun is a star and moon a satellite and there are nine planets in our solar system. He even quotes Einstein8217;s theory of relativity to describe the universe. Even this is not true. Today, scientists describe the universe in terms of two basic partial theories 8212; the general theory of relativity and quantum mechanics. Gautier says the West is committing an injustice by not giving Indian astrology due credit. For what? Probably Gautier himself does not know the difference between astrology and astrophysics. While in our astrology, the nose is linked to Jupiter and the eyes to Saturn, astrophysicists like Stephen Hawking are trying to crack the ultimate time-space puzzle.

In other words, Gautier8217;s piece was a brilliant mix of moon madness and theChaos Theory. Everybody has a right to be stupid but some people abuse the privilege.