Political Science

A recent headline caught my attention "Pluto loses status as a planet" ( http://www.physorg.com/news75645703.html)

So there is only eight planets and pluto got reduced to a status of a dwarf planet. Bunch of scientists (people) got together, discussed; some of them proposed another planet as a tenth planet. Since majority of them (now the buzz word is democracy) felt that the tenth object didn't quite fit the definition of a planet, they all agreed to change the definition! Thus when all the planets were revisited, the other group argued that even Pluto is not a planet according to the new definition. Nobody could come to a consensus, but anyway we need not worry - we all have democracy. Hence they conducted a polling of the scientific folks and thus pluto lost its position! Poor Pluto, didn't have enough time to muster (indulge in horse trading) support.

According to the Hindu civilization there are nine planets (two of them actually are not planets -Raghu, Kethu). While the western (current scientific community) scientists were fighting over earth was flat, thousands of years before that - a thousand miles away there was a vibrant civilization with great advancements in all fields including astronomy. They knew not only that the earth is round but also knew about the solar system and each of the planets positions etc.

In the eastern thought process (Asia), if someone doesn't understand an issue explained by a second person, then that someone is deemed "not shrewed enough". However what I noticed in my experience with the western thought process, the second one is deemed "not shrewed enough"! Since the western scientific community could not understand the eastern philosophy, they term that concept as "idiotic"! It should be the otherway around.

All that is required by us or current civilizations is to affirm what was discussed in the Hindu civilization. Either there are only seven planets or there are nine. The task for the scientific community is to knock one more planet or agree on the ninth one!

Is this called Political Science?

India’s Diabetes problem

"Rich man's disease" is really becoming a disease of the Rich! NY Times had an elaborate article on this exploring the genetic aspect Sept 13th (that Indian genes are attuned to retaining fat to take care of famine times than process them when they get it). Since historically India faced food shortage over generations, our Genes are attuned to storing fat for famine times and processing less of the fat. Thus with the economic growth, more people are having more wealth, reduced physical work and enjoying more. Thats the reason that diabetes is growing more among the Indians in america too! This is leading to the onset of diabetes. Folks with few years into the work-life 26, 28 years old are developing diabetes. Diabetes is also growing faster among the Indian american community here.

For a comprehensive story either click the following link or copy paste the URL in the address bar.

Modern Ways Open India's Doors to Diabetes

http://www.nytimes. com/2006/ 09/13/world/ asia/13diabetes. html?ei=5087% 0A&en=6077926f386d5e42&ex=1158379200&pagewanted=print

Vishnu Sahasra namah Meaning

Adi Sankaracharya's meaning for Vishnu Sahasranamam
I stumbled upon this wonderful jewel when my wife insisted on knowing the meaning of vishnu sahasranamam to recite. You never know what you could find in Internet! This is the first work of Shri Adi Sankara in his quest to compile the vedic works. His Guru Shri Govindapadar instituted Adi Sankara to perform this work to evaluate his readiness to begin his Journey of Life. By reading this, one doesn't get just the meaning or gist of Sahasra Namam but also the meaning for simplistic rituals / procedure we perform on a daily basis. To quote one, Why do we touch our ears followed by our toe to do a namaskaram / abhivadhayae? Because while doing our nithya karma (Sandhyavandanam, reciting vishnu sahasranamam) we install GOD on our body and if we have to do a namaskaram to GOD, basically you have to do it for ourself as GOD is installed on ourselves!

Apart from the Shri Adi Sankara's work, by far the person has done a wonderful translation to English and I've never come across one such work before.