It is not difficult to “explain” how the
“grahayas” affect the destiny of people (bipedal hominids) in terms of an
Astrological field exerted by the former. It has to be emphasized that the
“grahayas” are not “graha vasthu” or planets though in certain cases we may
identify the “grahayas” with the planets. In the case of “Hiru” and “Sandu” the
objects associated with them are not planets, and “Rahu” ad “Kethu” cannot be
identified with any physical objects as such, as we have mentioned in the
previous installments. Now in the case of a planet such as Saturn, or Sun or
Moon we may say that it exerts a gravitational field, an electromagnetic field
and an astrological field in addition to many other fields we have not been
able to create. Systems of knowledge including the phenomena are created by
human beings and theories are nothing but stories created to “explain”
phenomena that we observe or create. All concepts and theories are relative and
are created within cultures based on chinthanayas. Rahu and Kethu being the
points of intersection of the paths of the Sun and the Moon relative to the
Earth we may say that they exert astrological fields but neither gravitational
fields nor electromagnetic fields.
There are so many factors that affect
the lives of the bipedal hominids, the astrological fields exerted by the
“grahayas” being only one such factor. The self confidence, free will are also
such factors in addition to political, economic and cultural factors not to
mention “kamma” which the Buddhists the
Hindus believe. It is not the resultant of all these factors or “forces” that
affect the lives of the bipedal hominids but one or few of them as the case may
be. The resultant of forces is a concept that belongs to the Newtonian Paradigm
in which we are not interested. One of the factors would become the significant
factor putting all the others into the oblivion. For example the Buddhists
believe that when a bipedal hominid or even an animal for that matter dies it
is the Cuti Citta that decides where the animal has its punabbhava and not
whether the animal or the bipedal hominid is treated by the best western
surgeon or the best western physician, or whether the government has supplied a
dialyzer of so called international standards.
The electromagnetic field does not
influence neutral bodies but affect only bodies that are amenable to
electromagnetic fields. It is different from the gravitational field which is
said to be universal, in the sense that all bodies and particles are affected
by the gravitational field. Not all people can “observe” gods bhootas and such
“pranins” (living beings not biological systems) and many people are neutral as
far as these “pranins” are concerned. It is two such “pranins” who told our
team that worked on CKDu that Arsenic is the main cause of the disease and that
has been accepted by western scientists in El Salvador and Cuba who studied the
Kidney Disease prevalent among sugar cane farmers in some South American countries.
The South Americans had called their Kidney Disease that due to non traditional
causes before they also found that Arsenic is the main cause. As the bhootas
and such “pranins” could be observed only by those with some kind of spiritual
power to do so, it may be that the astrological field is not universal and some
bipedal hominids are not affected by the field.
In the absence of all the other factors one
may say the astrological field decides the fate of the some bipedal hominids
but when the other factors are also active the astrological factor could
predict the destiny of the hominid bipedal only on a statistical basis. Some of
the predictions may become true but others not true. In western sciences even
when other factors are not considered statistical methods are used in arriving
at conclusions. Western science that depends on generalizations from few (even
if it is thousands of observations it is only a tiny fraction of the possible
observations) observations using induction has to depend on statistical
methods. However these very same people who use statistical methods even when
prescribing medicines would demand that Astrology should predict with hundred
percent certainty if it is to be believed. Western Science is nothing but
induction and storytelling.
This brings us to Cullahatti Padopama
Sutta that Dr. Waidyanatha had mentioned in his article. This Sutta was
conveyed to the Sinhala people by Ven. Mahinda Thero and is supposed to be the
first Sutta by the Venerable Thero to the former, though it is certainly not
the first Sutta to be conveyed in this island. Even before the arrival of Ven.
Mahinda Thero there had been people who had attained Nibbana (Rahathan Vahanse)
and Bhikkus who belonged to the Yaksha Gotra (not the tribe in the sense of
English and other westerners who refer to African tribes), according
Vargapurnikava, a book of the Yakshas, and we would say that before the arrival
of Ven. Mahinda Thero there was what we could call the Hela Vihara and Bhikkus
who could be called Hela Viharavasins. The pioneer Bhikkus of Hela Vihara had
listened to Budun Vahanse according to Vargapurnikava, and what we received
from Ven. Mahinda Thero was the Bududahama of the third Sangayana (Council). Ven.
Mahinda Thero went on to establish a Vihara which became the dominant Vihara in
time to come and came to be known as the Maha (great or dominant) Vihara with
Hela Vihara losing its influence.
In any event what Ven. Mahinda Thero
conveyed in the Cullahatti Padopama Sutta is that “prathyaksha” is the mean of
knowledge and inference (anumana) should be discarded. The Thero pronounced “Do not reach judgment on the identity of the
elephant merely on the basis of the size of its footprints or the tusk marks it
has made on tree trunks or the height of branches it has broken”. The identity
of the elephant should not be inferred based on the footprints etc., but should
be made after seeing it by “prathyaksha”. Western Science relies on induction
and storytelling and not on “prathyaksha”. As I have mentioned in my previous
installments western science first rejects “prathyaksha” though not in the same
sense as in Bududahama, and then use induction to generalize observations, and
construct a story (so called theory) to explain the generalized observation and
then use “prathyaksha” to verify or test the theory. There is a contradiction
in this so called scientific method that uses Statistics to generalize a
observation to the whole population using some arbitrary samples, though the
western scientists calim that the samples are selected in a scientific manner.
29-05-2013
Nalin De Silva