Beyond the obvious

First, a little bit of a background about why this post was written. I was reading the book – “Autobiography of a Yogi” which described feats such as levitation, appearance of the form of a person when the person is physically located at another place, healing of a severed hand in 3 days and other such happenings. Naturally, my first reaction was that the author (an accomplished Yogi) was interspersing facts with imagination and I took the book to be a little more than a tabloid. But then Balaji gave me a hard rap on the head through an email exchange and asked me to come out of my “Western” style of thinking which postulates that ONLY those things which can be scientifically proven are the ones that exist. This style of thinking is a purely materialistic interpretation of the world and leaves very little space for “belief”, which is what basically predominates the “Eastern” thought process. If this belief is carried too far, it is called superstition. However, in many cases, having this “belief” is a display of humility. Humility which comes from the realization that the physical abilities of most men may be far too limited and slow to understand the power and reach of consciousness. Humility which acknowledges that our ancestors thousands of years ago could have had superior scientific abilities that our present day scientists have not yet achieved.

Yoga offers a way to get into a state where one is supremely aware of his or her consciousness and can tap into the collective consciousness of the Universe to perform acts which present day science cannot explain – because such acts are not “materialistic”. If you believe that this Universe is made up of ENERGY, and to achieve desired results, you have to simply readjust these blocks of energy (this thought again coming from Balaji) – then you will realize that everything from reading a person’s thoughts (what the world calls ESP) to producing rain by performing “havans” is within the realm of human actions. You will then also realize why prayers work. Imagine hundreds of ordinary people focusing their prayers on one object (as in a Christian mass) - their thoughts are ENERGY and when we have so much energy directed towards one person, do expect so-called miracles to happen. Alternately, an evolved Yogi should be able to generate and focus such high level of energies that materially or physically impossible outcomes are achieved with ease.

Here are some documented examples of what is possible - from www.amazingabilities.com (I acknowledge the copyright of the author):

1. Kuda Bux - The Man with X-ray eyes: He could read with his eyes closed. Any book any paragraph. He could also trace any letter written on the board in any language. Of course, announcing the color of dress the subject was wearing or balloons that he was being presented with were completely within the ambit of his abilities. 
2. Rakesh Pandey – mind reader. The “subject” would write down his thoughts (say some questions) and Rakesh Pandey would read the subjects mind and spell out those questions. Rakesh could also implant a thought in the head of the subject. 
3. Unnamed Gentleman – clairaudience. This gentleman was another mind-reader over telephone! The subject could write down ten questions with a specific answer of yes-no, then think about those questions on telephone and the unnamed gentleman would read back top you what the answers were. Just imagine – reading thoughts over a telephone! Goes on to show how interconnected this world is beyond the physical level. 
4. Swamy Lakshmanjoo – master over laws of nature. In 1991, when Los Angeles was experiencing its fifth year of drought, Swami Lakshmanjoo, traveling for the first time outside India, decided to perform a Homa (sacred fire ceremony). This lasted for over an hour and was designed to affect rain. In Swamy’s casual words – The flames in the fire are same as flames in the Sun, and the small fire has sent a message to the Sun. The Sun, in turn, is controlling all the heavenly bodies, so it will pass our message on to the moon, because it is the moon’s responsibility to create rain. It may take some time, but rain will come since we did this ceremony in good faith and without selfish motive”. And rain did come down in two days time, which was record breaking because it does not rain in Los Angeles in July! The rain continued over next several weeks until all lakes and all culverts were full of water.  
5. Prahlad Jani – no food for 65 years. Prahlad Jani is 76 years old and lives in a cave near Ambaji Temple in Gujarat, India. He does not eat or drink, nor does he pass stool or urine. In November 2003, Prahlad Jani was finally persuaded to participate in scientific research study, in which he was kept in a sealed room for 10 days with round the clock surveillance. Surprisingly, Prahlad Jani did not take any water, did not pass any urine and did not eat any food – and yet his vitals remained constant over the 10 days of observation 
6. Tat wale Babe – Youthful at the age of 85. A class mate of Tat wale Baba was born in 1890, which would be around the time when Tat wale Baba took birth as well. Baba used to practice transcendental meditation, and stopped ageing when he was around 35 years old. He was shot dead on 2^nd Dec 1974, something that he had predicted more than 3 years back. Research done on long term meditators indeed shows that people practicing transcendental meditation for more than 5 years were physiologically 12 years younger than their chronological age. 
7. Devraha Baba – 250+ years old. Can humans live forever? One observation is that animals with slow metabolism (e.g. turtles, elephants) can live for much longer than animals with fast metabolism. Transcendental meditation slows down metabolism. Another theory suggests that growth hormones production by pituitary gland slows down with age, which then produces signs of ageing. Still another theory of aging is free-radical theory – basically toxins – which damage cells over a lifetime. Cells produce anti-oxidants to fight the harmful effects of free radicals. If production of such anti-oxidants can be buffered, then cell damage will reduce and so will signs of ageing. Caloric restriction is another approach scientists have discovered which extends longevity. Researchers found that by reducing food intake by 30% to 70%, there was an increase in the life span of various creatures by up to 40%. What if a person does not eat at all, but is able to switch his body metabolism into living directly off of sunshine, can he prolong his life? Recent studies made on behalf of NASA, as well as other prior scientific research studies, have proven that humans can live without food. They do not understand why or how, only that it is possible for humans to do so. That is how Devraha Baba could have easily lived for many hundred years.
8. Yogi Pullavar - Self Levitation. On June 6, 1936 in Southern India, an Indian yogi, Subbayah Pullavar, levitated for five minutes in front of about 150 witnesses. This was widely photographed and videographed. 
9. Yogic Flying - In 1978 a six-month long study was conducted by MERU in Switzerland on human consciousness, where advanced Transcendental Meditation techniques were taught. After this, most subjects were able to do the first stage of Yogic Flying. There are various stages of Yogic Flying. The initial stage is "hopping." The second stage is "floating," and the final stage is "flying. 
10. The stone levitating monks – in Tibet. Tibetan monks were seen lifting heavy boulders up mountainsides by using sound waves. This was witnessed by Dr. Jarl, a Swedish doctor, in 1939, who also made two films on the same.  Also, see http://coralcastle.com/ - which describes a coral castle built by one man, Edward Leedskalnin. From 1923 to 1951, Ed single-handedly and secretly carved over 1,100 tons of coral rock. Features of the Coral Castle Museum include a 9-ton gate that moves with just a touch of the finger - something that modern science cannot re-create. Ed claims that he learnt about the techniques used in building pyramids - where many hundred tons of stone was moved to complete the wonder of the world.

Why do we have armpit hair?

You know how it is these days - you can afford to be inquisitive and know that all your questions will be answered - by Google of course!

    Recently, I wondered about the difference between POP and IMAP (both email access protocols) - and bingo "Google hai na". I was clear after 10 minutes of Googling

    Then again, I heard about GOP's opinion on joblessness (in US politics context) - and was surprised to know that GOP expanded into "Grand Old Party" (which is a nickname for Republican Party).

    Yet another time, I was researching on why we have the "pre-open" session on BSE and NSE stock exchanges since 2010 - and Google dished out a really nice article from indiabulls.com.

    Today, I got curious about why we have armpit hair. Some search results giving me reasons for armpit hair brought a smile. Here are some of the non-obvious ones:

• You know, when you put the hand under your arm, and close your arm down on it, and make that farting sound? The hair changes the quality of the farting sound, so when you have less hair, well, it just don't sound so good. But if you have a lot of hair, and it's nice and wet and sweaty, preferably as smelly as possible, why then, at summer camp, you can make the fake farts with the best of them. You haven't lived until you've been around ten guys all arm-farting at each other, especially when they get into a rhythm!
• It's there for babies to grab onto. Ouch!!
• One explanation for armpit hair is that it acts as a cushion to prevent skin to skin friction when our arms rub to our body. But this seems unlikely to be true. If it were, we should have a lot of hair on the bottoms of our feet.
• It's evolution. You used to be a monkey.
• I use mine to floss!
• To make you ask why  :)

(Ok, so there are two "real" answers for armpit hair - those I will leave to you to discover from Googling)

But really, the bottom line to this note is - Google is really that disruptive app that has completely redefined the scope of our access to information. May be, rather than teaching so many myriad subjects in school, they should teach just high level basics and a new subject called Googling.