Palaeontologist Paul Sereno—explorer-in-residence
at the National Geographic Society and professor
at the University of Chicago—and his team recently
discovered India's first predator dinosaur, named
Rajasaurus narmadensis, or lizard king of the
Narmada. It was the first Abelisaur, the predator
of the southern continent—comprising South America,
Antarctica, Africa, Australia, Madagascar and
India—to be discovered in India. It is believed
to have lived 67 million years ago, during the
Cretaceous period. Until recently, most of the
dinosaur studies were confined to the northern
continent, Laurasia—the primordial grouping of
North America, Europe and Asia that broke away
from Pangea. Now, world attention is shifting
to hitherto neglected southern continents. India—especially
the Narmada Valley and the entire state of Gujarat—has
been the largest source of dinosaur eggs and fossils,
over the years, which remained concealed beneath
the crust of lava.
"India's dinosaurs could have a larger role
to play in not only understanding why dinosaurs
died out but also how the continents split apart....The
Rajasaurus was closely linked to dinosaurs like
Majunga tholus of Madagascar and Carnotaurus of
South America," writes Sandeep Unnithan (India
Today, September 1). "Don't forget," says Sereno,
"dinosaurs were the only large-bodied animals
that lived, evolved and died when all the continents
were united."
The Secret Doctrine teaches that the Secondary
Age, comprising Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous
periods, was the age of gigantic reptiles. "This...is
the age of the Third Race, in which origins of
the early Fourth may be perhaps also discoverable,"
(II, 713). Further, "Lemuria," the continent of
the Third Race, was a gigantic land. It stretched
south from the foot of the Himalayas across what
is now India, Ceylon and Sumatra; then going further
south it embraced on its way Madagascar and portions
of Africa on its right and Australia, Tasmania
and the Pacific Ocean on its left, further stretching
to include a few degrees of the Antarctic Circle
(S.D., II, 323-24) We also learn that "Lemuria
was not submerged by a flood, but was destroyed
by volcanic action and afterwards sank." (S.D.,
II, 141fn.)
We seldom think creatively.
Creative thinking is exploring various methods
of solving a problem. It consists in readiness
to rethink—not being satisfied with the first
answer. Ordinarily we think reproductively, hence
our response is based on our previous experience
on a similar occasion. We need to think productively
taking into account alternative possibilities
and approaches. "Thinking in new ways opens the
mind to boundless possibilities and creative solutions,"
writes Michael Michalko (The Futurist, September-October,
2003)
The greatest obstacle to innovative thinking
is education....We are taught how to handle
problems and new phenomena with fixed mental
attitudes based on what past thinkers thought....In
short, we are taught what to think instead of
how to think....
Creative ideas, like pearls, occur infrequently.
So the sensible thing to do is to produce many
ideas. Just as a good idea may stop you from
going on to discover a great one, a great idea
may stop you from discovering the right one....
The key is to move beyond logic to creative
thinking by learning how to blend dissimilar
concepts deliberately and consciously....Consider
Einstein imagining objects in motion and at
rest at the same time. Consider Niels Bohr imagining
light as a particle and wave....These examples
give a sense of the meaning of conceptual blending....
Creativity requires a lot of energy and hard
work. In the physical world, objects resist
change: Objects at rest remain so, and objects
in motion continue in the same direction unless
impacted by some force. In the same way, ideas
resist movement from their current state. This
is why, when people develop ideas, those ideas
tend to resemble old ones.
The Voice of the Silence suggests that the creative
mind is the mind with breadth and depth. Depth
of mind comes from knowing the "why" of everything.
It is the ability to link effect to cause. It
is also the ability of going from the particulars
to universals. But, above all, depth of mind comes
by cultivating a general love of truth. There
must be continued quest for truth—replacing the
question "Is this the correct answer?" with "What
is truth?"
Mr. Judge writes in Letters That Have Helped
Me:
The Masters have said that the great step is
to learn how to get out of the rut each one
has by nature and by training, and to fill up
the old grooves. This has been misconstrued
by some who have applied it only to mere outer
habits of life, and forgotten that its real
application is to the mental grooves, and the
astral ones, also.
According to an international
study, the Arctic ice cap will melt completely
within the next century if carbon dioxide emissions
continue to heat the earth's atmosphere at current
rates. Satellite observations show that the polar
ice cap has shrunk by one million square kilometres
over the last 20 years. According to Ola Johannessen,
a professor at the Nansen Research Institute in
Bergen, Norway, the total melting of the ice cap
could adversely affect the climate and ecosystem
of the European continent. It would result in
a massive flow of cold water, which in turn may
strongly reduce the effect of warm surface ocean
currents, which help to maintain temperate climate
in Europe. (The Times of India, August 15)
Regarding the polar regions (arctic and antarctic)
H.P.B. has this to say:
The polar lands...have changed form several
times, at each new cataclysm, or disappearance
of one continent to make room for another. The
whole globe is convulsed periodically; and has
been so convulsed, since the appearance of the
First Race, four times. Yet, though the whole
face of the earth was transformed thereby each
time, the conformation of the arctic and antarctic
poles has but little altered. (S.D., II, 776)
Technological developments in
the field of entertainment seem to spell doom
for the make-believe world of children. An article
in Newsweek (August 25 / September 1, 2003) explores
the pros and cons of electronic entertainment.
In many countries children devote 40 hours a week
to television, videogames, CDs and Internet. There
is growing concern that these have an adverse
effect on the intellectual development and creative
thinking of the children.
When children play make-believe, they get a chance
to exercise their imaginations, to socialize,
to express emotions and to practise motor skills.
"If you take the box that the washing machine
came in, it's a space-ship, a submarine, a train,"
says Michael Mendizza, cofounder of Touch the
Future, a nonprofit resource and learning centre
focused on children and play. "Time is taken away
from human relationships, playing, wrestling,
hugging, kissing, pulling each other's hair,"
says Paolo Crepet, a psychiatrist at the University
of Siena in Italy. Sandra Russ, a psychologist
at Case Western Reserve University, says that
children who play imaginatively in their early
years are more likely to think creatively and
are better problem solvers as they grow older.
The defenders of high-tech toys and video action
games argue that these "benefit the kids by honing
their reflexes and visual skills." They help prepare
children for the 21st century. To help cultivate
imagination in children, researchers at the MIT
Media Lab in Cambridge, Massachusetts are trying
to merge technology with fantasy.
Yet, it is simple toys and games that seem to
enrich children and their imagination, and must
be given priority. Since electronic entertainment
is here to stay for a long time it is crucial
to ensure that children are not deprived of entertainment
that gives play to simple human emotions and human
relationships.
"Why do physicians need to learn
about spirituality?" asks Dr. Aniruddha Malpani
(Housecall, January 2003). It is amazing that
now, more than ever, a physician is being told
to be aware of "man as a living whole." Some 2500
years ago, Hippocrates, considered to be the father
of Medicine, made that principle the basis of
the study of Medicine in his Academy. Hippocrates,
the priest-physician and teacher, is even today
recognized as one who anticipated modern medicine.
The article suggests to the physician: Before
you address your patient's spiritual needs, you
need to understand your own spiritual beliefs.
One way to promote self-understanding is to perform
a formal self-assessment by taking a spiritual
history of yourself! Thus, honest self-examination
is now rightly prescribed for the healers. It
means also, "physician, heal thyself!" Malpani
writes:
Learning about spirituality will help you become
a better physician. It will help you find meaning
in your daily work as you appreciate the importance
of your primary role—to serve your patients.
It will also help you become more compassionate,
and teach you the importance of hope, and why
you need to support your patient's spiritual
needs. Finally, it will help to keep you humble,
because it will teach you to realize that there
is so much about the human body that we do not
understand and cannot control, and that the
human spirit can perform miracles that modern
medicine still cannot comprehend.
While medicine as an art and a science of healing
advocates objectivity, i.e., an impersonal examination
and judgement, it can easily slide down to indifference,
cold concern, and now even to commercial motives.
Originally, Ayurveda was rightly called the science
of healthy living and was considered an art of
healing based on the knowledge of the whole man.
That knowledge was supposed to be gifted by the
gods who preside over health and healing.
Today, medical practice tends toward compartmentalization,
encouraging superspecialities to flourish. It
makes the patient more confused and his burden
painfully more complicated.
A sensitive physician will not ignore the complete
man, and not just treat the body. In times of
yore, medical practice was conducted by the physician-priest
who understood the mind-body relationship besides
the spiritual need of the sufferer. Preventive
measures included community and family involvement,
meditation, yoga, etc.
These days, the chanting of
mantras, especially the Gayatri, is gaining popularity.
Few, however, understand the real meaning of this
Mantra. "Vedic rishis, sages and scholars have
sung the glory of the Gayatri Mantra," writes
L. R. Sabharwal (The Times of India, July 21)
The Gayatri Mantra is a universal prayer;
chanting it leads to wisdom and illuminated
deeds....Our greatest heritage, this mantra
is also known as the Guru Mantra, Savitri Mantra
and Maha Mantra....
Aum is the way towards salvation of soul and
it is the support of soul. God is addressed
as Bhu because he is the support of all life
in the universe....God is addressed as Bhuvah
because He is free from all sorrow. Man's soul
becomes free from all sorrow in His company.
God is called Svaha because He is spread through
the entire universe in all its diversely coloured
forms and maintains it. Savitah is another name
of God....
The word "Gayatri" means to pray and sing the
glory of God to direct our intellect in an honest
and just direction.
In an article, "A Commentary on the Gayatri,"
Mr. Judge writes:
The three first words, Om, Bhur, Bhurvah, draw
attention to and designate the three worlds....The
request made in the verse to unveil the face
of the True Sun is that the Higher Self may
shine down into us and do its work of illumination....The
sun we see is not the true sun, and signifies
too that the light of intellect is not the true
sun of our moral being. Our forefathers in the
dim past knew how to draw forth through the
visible Sun the forces from the True one....
Unveil is the cry of the man who is determined
to know the truth and who perceives that something
hides it from him. It is hidden by his own Karmic
effects, which have put him now where the brain
and the desires are too strong for the higher
self to pierce through so long as he remains
careless and ignorant. (W.Q.J. Series, No. 17)
H.P.B. explains in Isis Unveiled that the effect
produced by any mantram is determined by the numbers,
syllables, rhythm and intonation of the sacred
metre.
This great significance of the metrical speech
is derived from the number of syllables of which
it consists, for each thing has certain numerical
proportions....The Gayatri metre, for example,
consists of thrice eight syllables, and is considered
the most sacred of metres. It is the metre of
Agni, the fire-god, and becomes at times the
emblem of Brahma himself, the chief creator
and "fashioner of man" in his own image. (II,
410)
Would the scientists succeed
in understanding the mystery of love and romance?
Having identified the region of "fear" on the
map of the mind, they are now trying to do the
same for "love and attachment". "Like all emotions,
love originates in the brain," writes Steven Johnson.
Thus:
We feel the passions of love because our brains
contain specific neurochemical systems that
create those feelings in us. We are not torn
between the heart and the brain but rather between
different parts of the brain....
A new portrait of love has begun to emerge,
and at its centre lies a fascinating hormone
called oxytocin....People under the influence
of oxytocin have smaller, briefer stress responses
than others do; bad news seems to roll off them
more readily....In terms of brain chemistry,
you can load up on adrenaline and fight or flee,
or you can cool down with oxytocin and tend
and befriend.
Folklore and literature are filled with tales
of love potions, but the story is far more complicated
than that. There is a biologically grounded
brain system that creates and maintains the
feeling we call love, but its cause can't be
reduced to a single molecule....Love may not
reside in the heart, as folk wisdom would have
it, but neither does it reside in a single molecule.
When we feel the stirring of romantic love or
parental attachment, we are sensing complex
interplay of brain chemicals, triggering activity
in specific regions of the brain. Oxytocin is
critical to that interplay, but it is not the
whole story. (Discover, May 2003)
Can Love—earthly or divine—be explained in terms
of a single molecule? Finite love is the shadow
and distortion of Universal Love. Fohat, Eros
or Kamadeva represent Universal Love which degenerates
into Cupid—the power that gratifies desire on
the animal plane.
H .P. B. observes in her article "Psychic and
Noetic Action," (reprinted in Raja Yoga or Occultism):
"Every Theosophist must understand when told that
there are Manasic as well as Kamic organs in him,
although the cells of his body answer to both
physical and spiritual impulse....Occultism teaches
that the liver and the spleen-cells are the most
subservient to the action of our 'personal' mind,
the heart being the organ par excellence through
which the 'Higher' Ego acts—through the Lower
Self."
Your race boasts of having liberated in their
century the genius so long imprisoned in the
narrow vase of dogmatism and intolerance—the
genius of knowledge, wisdom and freethought.
It says that in their turn ignorant prejudice
and religious bigotry, bottled up like the wicked
Jin of old, and sealed up by the Solomons of
science, rests at the bottom of the sea and
can never, escaping to the surface again, reign
over the world as it did in days of old; that
the public mind is quite free, in short, and
ready to accept any demonstrated truth. Aye;
but is it verily so, my respected friend? —Mahatma
K.H.
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