Fool’s Paradise

Come April 1st, every year, we celebrate what’s known as April Fool’s Day. And while I was busy reading through a serious technology blog today, a post that appears to be a prank on the audience, few would like to delve into the truth around why this day is marked so, on the calendar. We all simply just laugh it off.

I would like to retrace the origins of the modern calendar. That was commissioned by Pope Gregory in 1582. Little known to most, the calendar was designed around whimsical fancies, that a year must have precisely ten months, because the decimal system is easy to follow, and because the unscientific couldn’t follow how many days a month must have, each month was designed to have just 28 days. Which to them, seemed scientific, because while women in western society were subjugated to being the machines that produced children, the 28 day cycle which was also in sync with the phases of the moon was a good indicator for when a man must return home from the hunt, in order to have opportunity to father more young.

Life in the roman west was primarily barbaric. What we read today, as history about “The Stone Age” and the caveman, was just about how “man in the west” led his life. Feeding off the carcass of dead animals, often not knowing how to cook, and the woman was none other than the home-bearer who was the “pride” of the hunter, thus, often fought for, while she was relegated to a life without strength. Thus, referred to as “the weaker sex”.

And this was also true, because much of life was spent in expecting and fostering the young, and expanding families, that the man became a natural protector of the household.
Meanwhile, in the east, the Mughals had begun their journey of taking over the Indian sub-continent, which had largely been a peaceful and spiritual state, known all over the world for its development, growth and progress. The land known as “Aryavratta”, or the land of light, was home to saints and seers, of people who would follow religion, spirituality and implement Vedic sciences in education, medicine, communication, travel, transport, agriculture and every other aspect of what can be called “civilised living”. Women have been regarded with the highest status. And the 16th Century mystic and Saint, Guru Nanak is remembered to have quoted, “From Her, Kings are born.”

It was this time around when the west, that had set it’s eyes upon invading India, and conquering the land and its value systems for personal vested interests, that they attacked every valuable science that the continent had to offer and replaced it with their own. And the calendar was a first among the attacks.

The Indians celebrated New Years according to Chaitra Shukla Pratipada – marked as the Day of Creation, of when the Universe came into existence. Although the years of the newly commissioned Gregorian calendar were not very different from Vikram Samvat basis, but it grew quickly apart because of the difference in the length of the months.

Now, this is the time, if you are not akin to the history of India, when you will start calling me regressive, and start questioning, what is this Vikram Samvat, and what difference does it make, if we follow the Gregorian calendar or not. But then, often many of us are concerned about sun-signs and astrology – and we must at least know that the dates we are following are actually baseless and non-scientific, if we do not know what is reality.

King Vikramaditya, in who’s namesake, the Vikram Samwat calendar has been named was an enlightened and legendary emperor around 57 BC. Now this number 57 is just about as precise as the difference between the years of the Gregorian calendar and Vikram Samvat today. With us entering soon into Vikram Samvat 2073, according to Chaitra Shukla Pratipada. If you want to take it further, then the scholars at the time of King Vikramaditya, and astrologers and astronomers, and all those who had knowledge of the working of the universe, would use a number that would be something like 13,799,874,000 years, and although modern science has still not been able to validate this number, spirituality converges this time period very close to what modern physics refers to as the Big Bang. In other words, the time when the universe was created.

Now, those who have studied even a little bit of higher modern physics, and the theory of relativity, would easily understand that the unit of time isn’t an independent variable in one dimension. Which means, that the absolute measure of time that has elapsed from the day the universe was created, to our present point in observation, is also governed by what is relative time (from the perspective of the observer) to absolute time which is the dimension of the universe that we are measuring. This is also commonly known as time dilation. I am iterating this, for the sake of those who believe that dates have a consequence on our destiny, and believe in the sun-signs and astrology and a lot of other modern micro sciences, which have lost their accuracy in a lethal mix of digression, with the use of the modern Gregorian calendar.

If you want to really think about it, then from the time of creation of the Universe, as time has “evolved” and I am using the word very carefully here, there will be a matter of consideration of entropy, which has ever been increasing, governed by furthermore laws of physics, which are indeed sacrosanct, but only if you consider the formulae in absolution, as provided in the study of relativity. This study of relativity and the study of the Universe has been repeatedly highlighted by many saints, sages and scholars including Adi Shankracharya, Aryabhatta who talked about the origin of the universe from point zero.
From this point on, Chaitra Shukla Pratipada, has been the Vedic definition of calculation, and the Vikram Samvat was nothing but a namesake representation of a modern calendar in honour of the legendary king, and thus we know it today as Vikram Samvat 2073, that we are ready to step into.

But, what’s so wrong in following the Gregorian calendar? The world is following it, and if 7.2 billion people in the world believe in something, it will not be correct to believe in something that was followed 500 years ago…. Do you really want to belong to the dinosaur age or what?

Now, let’s pay attention to how the west looked upon India, when they came and invaded India – from first the spread of Mughal influence in the 16th Century, and then on later by the British and their entry into the continent using the East India Company. While it is believed that the company began trading cotton, silk and indigo from India, the company had large slaughterhouses in India, that would be engaged in large scale killing of Indian cows, much because the cow that was regarded as the mother of household prosperity, was also the reason for the strength and nourishment of Indian population. On an average, the per capita ownership of cows was in the range of 6 cows per person. Which means, every family of 4 would have approximately 2 dozen cows. With each cow, providing something like 20 litres of milk a day when lactating, and there would be enough milk, cow dung for fuel and other products that cow dairy can produce in vegetarian and sustainable living, for every family to be nourished and live a prosperous life.
As read by Lord Macaulay in his speech to the British Parliament, he admitted after having travelled across the length and breadth of India,

I have traveled across the length and breadth of India and I have not seen one person who is a beggar, who is a thief. Such wealth I have seen in this country, such high moral values, people of such calibre, that I do not think we would ever conquer this country, unless we break the very backbone of this nation, which is her spiritual and cultural heritage, and, therefore, I propose that we replace her old and ancient education system, her culture, for if the Indians think that all that is foreign and English is good and greater than their own, they will lose their self-esteem, their native self-culture and they will become what we want them, a truly dominated nation.

Lord Macaulay in his speech to the British Parliament

If you look at this speech very carefully, this man has clearly admitted that he has traveled across the length and breadth of India… I ask, how? On a hoverboard, that he carried in from the west?

The Indian empire during those times, had extended from the far reaches in the middle east, from the borders of Iran, all the way to the ends of modern Myanmar (formerly known as Burma) with very friendly and peaceful relations with Thailand, Malaysia and other parts of South-East Asia. Now, this man wasn’t really a back-packer or foot soldier who could travel and make such an in-depth study of Indian culture and living, if he did not have access to what we would refer to as “world-class transport”. Yes, I mean it here. The Vedic sciences were enough for Indians to have created their systems of transport that were not only efficient, but also eco-friendly, non-polluting and having no environmental impact, thus being peaceful citizens, living in harmony with nature. But obviously, Mr. Macaulay didn’t have the guts to reproduce that before an audience in the parliament. What he did divulge though, were more interesting facts. Facts that say, he has not seen a thief or people with low values. Yes, we were indeed a society of high evolution. It has been noted, that for more than 800 years when the Mauryan empire had extended its far reaches, and Buddhist influences had been at their peak in the Indian sub-continent, people did not have locks on their doors. There was prosperity, and there were no robberies, or rape. The first universities of the world – Takshashila and Nalanda were established here, where students used to travel to and learn about Vedic sciences, from all over the world. Yes, the world’s very first true education universities were here, on our very own land. And if, Mr. Macaulay had not seen a beggar or a thief in India – then where did he learn the definition of who a beggar was, or who a thief was? It is evident that he learnt the reference in his own society. In their very own barbaric west. But obviously, why would he quote that in his speech of “leadership” in the parliament.

The west, that included the Romans, and the British wanted to destroy India, its culture and its value system. And replace it with their own. It was such a great pursuit, that once they had achieved control over the region, Queen Victoria was known in the world as “The Queen of India” and no longer as the Queen of England. May I ask why? Because, it was simply a matter of great pride. From, what had started as the defeat of Alexander, and what the Mughals had only partially accomplished, the British did, with their meticulous planning of destruction of Indian spirituality, Indian values and cultural systems.

And thus, when the time Indians celebrated newness and festivities while bringing in the New Year according to Chaitra Shukla Pratipada, Pope Gregory induced 1st January as the date of the New Year, which was contrary to the natural system or welcoming in the New Year during the spring season.

Let us look carefully now, at the facets of the Gregorian calendar. While according to Vikram Samvat, let’s assume every year, New Year happens on 1st April – this is just about the time, when Good Friday and Easter are also celebrated – The Resurrection of Christ – The Second Coming. And King Vikramaditya was in power at just about the same time, thus, having complete sync with the Saint of the times, in that age, approximately 1BC. But the Gregorian calendar begins the year close to Christmas. The complete explanation for this will follow, just ahead.

The initial calendar had only ten months. January, February, March, April, May, June, September, October, November and December. Now read the names of the later months carefully.

September, is very closely pronounced as “Sapta-ambar”, ‘sapta’ meaning seven in Hindi.

October, with ‘octo’ meaning eight, and ‘Nav’ in November meaning nine. The ‘Dus’ in December, means 10, the tenth month, and also the very same reason, as the end of the year being marked as a celebration to mark the birth of Christ, with X-Mas as the roman numeral will call it, the tenth month.

As time followed, and the romans realised that their calendar years were falling apart, and the seasons – summer, spring, fall and autumn, were all going out of sync from when the New Year is brought in, they added more days to each month. Initially, they made each month 30 days instead of 28, but that alone was not enough. Later they realised, that the Julian calendar was more precise, and they added two more months – July and August – the latter in honour of Saint Augustus. Since these were the correcting months, their length was 31 days each. And the name chronology of ten months was thus lost. To finish it off, a day to alternate months, and thus the Gregorian calendar was completed – with every 4th year having an extra day to compensate for Earth’s revolution around the sun.

But, in this process of unscientific addition of days and correcting what was absolutely opposite to nature, the entire science of astrology, astronomy, the creation and existence of the universe, was all lost. New Year on 1st January is brought in with forms of devil worship. While according to the Indian system, people would wake up at 4AM to welcome in the New Year on 1st April, and offer prayers to the forces of nature that would bring in freshness in the month of spring, the barbarians believed in devil worship at the darkest hour of the night, and named the midnight hour as the hour of the changing year on 1st January. From intoxication to exhaustion, the 1st day of their year was brought in with hangovers, throw-ups and darkness. While the Indian “fools” as they were referred to as, would bring in the new year with prayer and devotion and festive celebration.

And, what more is there to validate?

Every year, if one observes carefully, the New Year according to Chaitra Shukla Pratipada, (or Gudi Padwa) as celebrated in some parts of India, is the day when the fall season comes to an end. Nature itself embraces the day of creation. Spring happens, and a new year of freshness and prosperity brings it in.

In comparison, to the size of the Universe, the Milky Way is not even a fraction that your ordinary calculator can equate in the decimal system. And the solar system, and further the Earth, is another such fraction in comparison to the Milky Way. And if you are still believing, that the existence of gravitational forces in the Universe has no bearing upon your destiny, what actually governs the movement of all stars, planets, asteroids, meteors and anything that could strike the surface of the earth, at any time, and create a large crater (but doesn’t), you must believe in what the natural course of creation.

From the Big Bang to your existence today, is accurately measured according to this calendar. Thus, Chaitra Shukla Pratipada. And thus, fool’s paradise. Play the fool on April Fool’s Day, and greet one another a very Happy New Year.