Science and the vedic ritual of athirathram

apr 16th, 2011 CE

there is actual science in hinduism, and it is not at all anti-science, unlike, say christism. 

there was also the case of the farmer in bihar i think who used various homams to induce particles into the air in his mango? orchards -- these have been pest-free and highly productive, although all his neighbors were initially sceptical. 

hinduism is science-friendly, as it is not pure dogma that some bigot cooked up. see bart ehrmann on the howlers in the bible, eg. 

much as hinduism has a view of the life of the universe that is billions of years old (cf. xtist belief that the world was created on oct 14, 4004 BCE at 10am -- i kid you not, this is what bishop ussher calculated and max mueller believed), or as hinduism has a proto-evolutionary theory in the dasa-avataras, and the astonishing coincidence that sayana had a rough idea of the speed of light. 

if ever we discover intelligent life in the universe that doesn't look a human, does that mean xtism is totally negated? they do claim that yhwh made man in his own image. thus yhwh would turn out to be nothing more than a limited, tribal god of humans (and in fact only of xtists -- he went around brutalizing canaanites, eg).

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: sri 

Age-old Kerala fire ritual a natural purifier?

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/travel/Age-old-Kerala-fire-ritual-a-natural-purifier/articleshow/7970930.cms

IANS | Apr 13, 2011, 03.34pm IST

Age-old Kerala fire ritual a natural purifier?
The spotlight is on the confluence of science and the Vedas at the
4,000-year-old ritual of 'athirathram' - fire invocation - in the
village of Panjal in Kerala's Thrissur district.

Scientists are trying to establish that the ancient Vedic ritual is a
natural purifier of air, soil and micro-biological life - impacting
plants, animals and man - through an extensive network of research in
the lush village and in neighbouring Kochi.

The 12-day ritual started April 4.

"The ritual of athirathram could open up a new branch of scientific
study if the results of the experiments being carried out by a team of
40 researchers prove that human intervention can affect growth and
cell-division in microbes," said V.P.N. Namboodiri, head of the
research team of the Panjal Athirathram.

Namboodiri is a former director of the International School of
Photonics at Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT) and
emeritus scientist at the Council of Scientific and Industrial
Research (CSIR).

The scientist said, "The new science of socio-microbiology will probe
how society's intervention acts on the microbes positively through
rituals involving medicinal herbs, fire, chants and smoke that can
neutralise toxic microbes (micro-organisms) in the atmosphere, living
objects and soil with new non-toxic ones."

Microbes as a genre include a variety of unicellular organisms like
bacteria, fungi, archaea (an ancient form of life) and plankton.

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