great and you know financially or however it is many of them are very driven you know come from like middle class families and low-income groups which it's a mixed crowd but they have wushu is the national sport of china like i said so they have um they don't want to compete they want to have a part where they want to diversify by learning and through teaching so they want to learn by living the monk life they want to do that warrior monk uh duty because in china every every every second boy every boy one sorry every boy wants to be a emotional martial artists so for them it's like you know they won't they don't want to be a mushroom they want to be a warrior monk they want to study the shaolin culture just the same way my approach is that you know i want to study the culture as a whole for them also it's like that i think yeah all right and my shifu story is very similar to iklavia's story he actually doesn't have


similar to iklavia's story he actually doesn't have his index finger his right index finger so whenever he's uh you know when i came back from guangzhou to learn archery so i was telling i was like shifu you know like your finger is not there how are you gonna pull like you know you need your index finger to hold your thumb to draw the string like we have a thumb draw rule so he's like oh no don't worry i'll use my middle finger and everything and then once the first time when we were going for a mountain run when i was a foreign student this was in my sixth or seventh month that time i felt very scared to ask him i was like why does what's the story behind him not having his finger he told me it's very similar to this indian mythology mythological story of eclavia how he gave his thumb to his master you know are they are they aware of ramayana and some of them are yeah they've read in the sutras wow


them are yeah they've read in the sutras wow they have it in their sutras they have read you know like a lot of books are there ebooks are there uh we have a big library in our temple it's called the shaolin or the shaolin library which has like a lot of you know like relics and books and just amazing amazing knowledge just filled with tons and tons of like wisdom and just treasure it's a treasure you know i have like one i have so many questions for you honestly maybe one last question for this particular episode because i'm sure you're going to be back on the show and you know i have so much more to ask you brother um but if you could go back to just one memory from your time at the temple which kind of overshadows every other memory which is your best memory from that temple because i feel so much of you and so much of your journey was about being at that temple even what you're going to do going forward the origin of


what you're going to do going forward the origin of that happened at the temple so it was such an important phase of your life i'm sure it was the most important phase of your life but in that entire phase if you had to pick just one moment which stands out more than anything what would that moment be the day i got adopted as a warrior monk nothing changes that that was like very life changing for me because i honestly thought that um my time is up like you know my time's up i have to go back now savings oh what to do so that's when i was um just in the zone that oh when will i come back next and what am i going to do but that's one moment i would go back to and when the news was broken out to me i was being adopted as a warrior monk and it was it was i i didn't know how to celebrate it so i just celebrated it by just uh just by thanking my shifu that's all i did


just by thanking my shifu that's all i did gratitude yeah it's thankful do you feel closer to this there's so there's a there's a small uh statue of a buddha head oh foreign do you feel closer to this at the end of your journey uh yeah i i feel um when i look at it it's it's uh it has a sigh of relief to it no but what is your relationship with the buddha my relation with buddha my relation with buddha is like i said before everybody has a buddhahood in them and it's about cultivating that inner light that inner buddha inside of you but my my thing with buddha is um there are times i actually feel like what if i didn't come out of the temple what if i was just living a life or buddha life just walked and traveled and you know just did that but obviously we all have our journey we all have a purpose and we all live by our purpose so i know my purpose


all live by our purpose so i know my purpose of life i know what i'm going to do so buddha has had his purpose and he did that and i want to live by my purposes i want to spread the shaolin culture i want to um you know i want to be as good or probably better than what master bruce lee and jackie chan and gently were i want to be like the next action figure in india and globally and i want to like do some kick-ass stunts and some action and you know traditional knowledge will be given at my school i'll be having a lot of teacher training programs and you know many martial artists who can come and teach if they are qualified um so that's my purpose i just want to spread the knowledge and give the best to you know the people and you know and spread positivity and inspire people you know because um like we said we're speaking about breadth so i think taking up anything as a discipline is very important but going in the depth of


discipline is very important but going in the depth of it is um you will only know you're doing it right when you go in the depth of it otherwise you will just be on the surface level so um i'm just looking forward to being out there whether it's just at my school or in front of the camera uh in any possible way and um i will be fulfilling my purpose and it's just journey that's it embracing it it'll happen it was such a blessing likewise likewise thank you for having me and thank you to your team thank you youtube we've been talking for almost four to five hours now yes yes and uh i still have at least 50 hours of questions left in me for you and your journey please call me again i would love to be back here and have some lemon tea you know but uh thank you thank you for bearing with my laughing about this it was all in all in good luck it was it was a lot of joy man no likewise like this podcast


lot of joy man no likewise like this podcast was started for conversations like this and you've left me with inspiration like thank you so much and you left me with everybody has left me with an inspiration and i personally feel that what you're doing out here what you guys are doing out here is amazing that you're trying to get people you know tell their story share and you know it's all about um just sharing and you know inspiring people and just doing good for and service to others that's all that is up i think everyone's life purpose is the same just the path is different and what we choose like a choice that we make as to how to reach that purpose is different but our purpose everyone's purpose is is the same yeah 100 also i'd like to highlight that uh if the listeners want to know harsha's story in more detail this was sort of a more conceptual podcast you know it was a breakdown of your mind but if you wish to know the story please check out the hindi


wish to know the story please check out the hindi episodes we did with hash there's a whole angle which kind of describes why he came back to india to spread the culture of the shaolin temple here again the culture was originally from india and harsh is that one medium through which the culture was coming back so definitely check out harsha's handles we link it down below any last message for our listeners till this point i would i would just say that people who invest time in listening to the show i feel they are getting so much of knowledge out of whether it's through you through me through the people who are coming and i i think you should never ever stop crediting yourself you should always credit yourself because sometimes we always crediting the teachers we're crediting you know our family uh we sometimes forget to credit ourselves uh because in the end we are the one who are living in our mind and body and we are the one who take the decision and take the action so just don't forget to credit


and take the action so just don't forget to credit yourself as well that's all beautiful thank you thank you so much brother full brotherly energy from you and uh just glad to meet you in this life likewise thank you thank you thank you brother for me this was one of the most enjoyable episodes i practiced martial arts when i was a child and there's certain things that martial arts does to your mind your body your emotions that only martial artists understand and i think this episode for me was an attempt at putting out those changes be it physical mental or emotional out there for you guys the audience for me this podcast is a medium to relay information to relay knowledge to relay wisdom into relay experiences these are the kind of conversations i enjoy the most where we're taking someone's experiences and laying them out for the masses i truly truly hope that you enjoyed every aspect of this conversation in the same way that i did of course hashpai is going to be


that i did of course hashpai is going to be back on the show the next time take part in our twitter first round where you guys can send him your questions and please make sure you follow this legend on his social media handles i think there's very few souls like him in the world who are that pure and at the same time that disciplined at the same time that determined that's the energy that rubbed off on me and honestly he's a serious man crush now i love him like an elder brother he's my big bro and i'm just glad that this podcast gives me these kind of life experiences so make sure you follow our journey especially on spotify every episode's available on spotify 48 hours before it's available anywhere else in the world this was one of my most fun conversations and i hope it was the same for you thank you guys [Music] you


the word mythology a lot of people actually get offended by this word and i understand the idea of offense it was like imperialist europeans came to us and said that no all this stuff your culture your history it's not true it's a myth and we're gonna call this stuff mythology now that's one part of india another part of india looks at the word mythology and places the ramayana the mahabharata the vishnu puran the shivpuran in that category of mythology personally i prefer to call all these things indian history indian culture that's how i look at it but i also feel that the youth of this country and not just the youth maybe even our parents generation doesn't know enough about the subject of indian culture speaking to experts like amish tripathi or dr vinit agarwal this is what is required for the youth this is what is required even for our parents generation this conversation goes beyond the world of just the ramayana and the mahabharat we


of just the ramayana and the mahabharat we speak about everything you can think of all the science fiction style stuff like viman's all the astronomy related stuff that was written about in ancient hindu culture a lot of stuff about monsters rakshasas devas all these kind of subjects this conversation was enjoyed a lot by myself by my team i hope that you're also going to enjoy this conversation as much remember to follow the run video on spotify but it's spotify exclusive now which means that every episode is available on spotify 48 hours before it's available anywhere else in the world indian culture my favorite subject with one of my favorite guests that we've had on the show honestly it was a joy talking to this man and i hope that you sense some of that joy through this conversation dr vinita garwal on the runway show [Music] dr vinit agarwal one of the coolest experts on hindu culture indian history and the ancient sciences of this country welcome to the runway show thank you


of this country welcome to the runway show thank you so much randui for that guy introduction i think you're one of those soft-spoken atom bombs when it comes to knowledge we'll see about that so you authored three books which has entered around hindu and i read a part of one of those books about parshuram and i realized how much you know the depths of your knowledge and you're running this sort of blog which is based on the marriage of science with ancient hindu culture which i find so fascinating because i think what a lot of young indians don't know is that a lot of our historical records of this country were burnt were lost were destroyed because of all the invasions that we had over the last 1 000 years uh probably if we rewind the clock to 1 000 years back at maybe 1 bc or 2 bc uh india was maybe even more knowledgeable than it is right now most definitely i think that that's a that's a point a lot of people don't


a that's a point a lot of people don't appreciate that you know there's a disconnect between the civilization uh the knowledge the civilizational knowledge rather that we had and how you see people behaving today there's a huge disconnect why because people are not aware of their own culture their own history their own uh civilizational values you know you see very small things you know related to our daily lives you see indian cities struggling to keep up right in a city like mumbai you know you see the city's crumbling it's bursting at its seams and when you go to history you see indian cities were one of the most well-planned cities in the world at that time you know the at the time of the indus saraswati civilization you know those cities were not matched anywhere in the world so from there we've come to this point because of this disconnect and there's a lack of interest in exploring that culture the knowledge that the culture and the history provides yeah i think that's that's a major drawback


yeah i think that's that's a major drawback for us right now i think that interest is kind of rising uh as we speak honestly um you know that's that's honestly what we've built out the podcast on that there is this new found interest people have in indian history ancient culture you know i'd love to know some of the science or for lack of a better word science fiction aspects of this ancient culture because you've ran that blog you know we have talks about demons we have talks about vimanas we have talks about aliens we have talks about dark energies in our culture uh wars atom bombs all this right where would you like to begin this conversation for our audience uh so i think when we to begin with we need to have an open mind about the stories that are told so a lot of people have criticisms about and a lot of doubts about the historicity of these epics or the stories that are told the legends that are told but i don't think


the legends that are told but i don't think that matters it's the lessons that we need to learn from these the knowledge that we need to glean from these you know there's so much historical knowledge there's so much uh scientific knowledge that is existing in these legends and stories and these have to be understood with an open mind if you go with the the you know political bias in your mind that these things couldn't have happened or you know uh these things are just not possible in a previous era i i think that's just doing yourself a disfavor because you are not not really approaching it with the scientific outlook that's what science teaches you right question everything and i think the very beginning of indian scriptures with the rigveda it's the beauty of curiosity so i would say indian religion has always been about curiosity it is about knowing more trying to find out more about the world about yourself about god the creator of the world so the upanishads and the vedas are full


so the upanishads and the vedas are full of such verses that uh encourage you to find that journey for yourself you know to to initiate the spiritual journey so the as the openness should say you know brahma at least start asking questions now right you have got this beautiful human form and you know the concept of 84 000 birds that you need to take if you believe in the legends after that you get to the human form and even now if you're wasting this human form which has the intellect to grasp those concepts which has the uh you know the availability of opportunities to do it you know you have access to scriptures you have access to gurus you have uh access to the religious teachings of for thousands years old civilization and even now if you're not doing it it's a waste of an opportunity so i would say that scientific inquiry starts from there who are we as a species you know what are we doing on this planet who's the creator any intelligent species in


this planet who's the creator any intelligent species in the universe and i'm not just talking about humans if there's life existing on other planets if there's aliens any intelligent species would have that question who are we are we alone and who created us right where did life come from and these questions are the birth of religion yeah you know so we've had scientists on the show and something that uh big brother to me abhijit chawda he keeps talking about is that most advanced astrophysicists or most advanced scientists eventually in life gravitate towards vedanta because they realize that all these mathematics have studied over the years suddenly i see parallels with this particular culture which people call the subcontinent which people call india their culture has already figured out some higher level of mathematics or physics they've written it in their vedas they've written it in their rig and now i'm seeing parallels and i'm rediscovering some stuff that's already written there so if my some stuff is already written there can


so if my some stuff is already written there can i go deeper in that culture and figure out theories to bring out for the western world now through my work completely keeping that in mind i'd love to ask you about aliens let's begin there okay uh and vimanas we've actually had us on the show as well right he spoke basically about aliens he didn't call it that but he spoke about multiple planes multiple planets hellish planets heavenly planets uh i'd love to know your perspective on aliens sure so aliens have always been fascinated with you know as a kid you know i i used to watch all the science fiction movies that came out on aliens species aliens terminator predator whatever and i think the again that comes from a civilizational question are we alone in this world okay we've always been fascinated with other worlds and religious teachings or religious stories are no different right some of the people tried to figure out the same questions and they uh decided to explore the universe


questions and they uh decided to explore the universe now of course the scientific exploration was not possible given the uh you know lack of technological which we are not able to do even today you know we we can't even cross the solar system to actually visit another galaxy or a constellation or a planet so uh this comes from the mystical visions of the seers so you know the mantra drasticas we so the authors who's the author of rigveda if i ask you there's no single person right these are collections of hymns that were seen by the rishis they were visions that came to them and that is why these people are called mantra drishtas they saw the visions they saw the mantras they saw the mantras the mantras came to them how would you explain what a mantra is to a westerner listening to this podcast so a mantra is a collection of words that has uh you know that's generally set in a particular meter uh and this is supposed to be pronounced


meter uh and this is supposed to be pronounced in a specific way and generally they are recited at a certain specific time of the day so they have some they a lot of people believe that mantras have power like you can transform you can probably compare it to a spell in harry potter exactly exactly expecto petronas exactly exactly these are like spells but they are so uh interestingly there are spells like that in the vedas as well vedas also but these mantras are more of hymns or praises or eulogies to the gods okay and these mantras were seen by the seers so there's no single author of the vedas there are ten mandals of the of the rigveda and all of these have collections of verses and hymns that were seen envisioned by different rishis and this amongst these visions were the visions of how this universe is so this is not really detailed too much in the vedas but in the purans you see this description coming to fruition and


purans you see this description coming to fruition and you see a full blown uh explanation of how the universe looks for example you know gaurangas prabhu is i have heard his lectures in iskcon and he's a very uh good speaker orator uh so is khan believes in the srimad-bhagavatam right and srimad-bhagavat of lokas into different planes of the universe into a different plane so there are 14 lokas and now 14 lokas existing in the universe which is not earth earth is just the middle level earth is the madhya loka and then you have the adho lokas which are the lower lokas seven lokas below and you have six lokas above so earth and six above is the uh higher locals when you're talking about these different lokas they have to be different planets they have to be in different locations across the universe that automatically makes the denizens of these planets aliens by definition alien is just somebody who does not live on earth right it's a species


who does not live on earth right it's a species who did not originate on earth so by definition because these are locals different planets different galaxies probably in the universe they become aliens that's my thought on it not to say that god is an alien but a lot of these divine beings that we're talking about right the devas who have these outer world technology they have a much much more scientifically advanced civilization right they have access to these divine weapons that are like our wmds they have spaceships they travel across they travel to different locals in those spaceships same same goes for the asuras even the adho lokas the lower planets so to say they're just geographically located in the low half of the universe according to the branch but that doesn't mean that they are lower in any other aspect they also have advanced signs and these asuras can also travel like that okay so so there's an interesting story about tripura there are three different cities floating cities that's how they have been described they're


floating cities that's how they have been described they're three different floating cities of asuras and they received a boon from lord brahma that they cannot be destroyed except when the three cities come in a single line they have to be aligned perfectly that is the only time when these cities can be destroyed so when you talk about floating cities what does it mean it's either three different spaceships like arcs you know that contain everything sustainable or it's three different satellites of a planet or something to that effect right and the possibility of three different satellites revolving around a planet coming in one conjunction is very very rare so it's probably a scientific event you know scientific uh principle that they're talking about and then these cities are destroyed by lord shiva and at that opportune moment the smallest fraction of time when these three cities are aligned or these three satellites are aligned that's when shiva shoots the narayanastra and it's a grand description okay shiva has bhumi as the chariot the sun and the


has bhumi as the chariot the sun and the moon are the wheels of the chariot and he he takes mount meru as the bow and from there he shoots the narayanastra to destroy these in one single explosion and this was a big event in the scriptures it's called the devde pavali okay so this we don't even know of right but the shiva temples the major shiva temples in the country kashi and the southern temples they all celebrate this event and this comes two weeks after diwali okay so when we celebrate deepavali two weeks later is the day of de pavali because this is when the devas rejoiced it did not affect the denizens of earth but it affected the devas living in their lokas because these asuras who were living in these floating cities they used to conduct raids on the deva cities on their spaceships so i mean there is no other way to explain this right except for science maybe it's like evil aliens versus good aliens exactly exactly


like evil aliens versus good aliens exactly exactly my point intergalactic wars intergalactic wars and that too you know people uh maybe the aliens who were more friendly towards us we started considering them as uh gods and the aliens that were enemical to us they were they became the villains so when i was a kid i watched a show called vishnu buran which we were tripping out over in the other room you know there was a beautiful show by br chopra mahabharata right and after that mahabharata show got done they had reruns of it until about 1998 maybe where they started airing vishnu puran and i remember the whole country got very gripped to vishnu and i remember being gripped to it as a kid right and then i re-watched i think the first two episodes later on in life when i re-watched them as an adult i realized whoa this show is extremely deep yes and i forgot that there's no way the writers could have sat and


that there's no way the writers could have sat and had you know written by penned on these dialogues completely they had to have taken them from somewhere because the dialogues were too heavy right uh that's also why the show may have may not have caught on as much as mahabharata or ramayana which are very simple stories yes yes i won't say simple stories but they're linear yeah yeah linear story they're not philosophical like this yes so vishnu puran talks about the birth of the universe right the birth of parabrahma which is god in general yes uh but from there i'd love for you to explain uh it in brief you know where does vishnu brahm shiva fall into this birth of the universe theory right and also why is there a hierarchy in terms of gods like why is it okay god then vishnu brahma mahesh then the devis then all the other gods then indra etc etc what is this logic right i think that's a very good question a lot of people


think that's a very good question a lot of people have these questions i had these questions you know when i started researching and um the confounding factor here is that different qurans called different gods are supreme so in the shiv quran you would find shiva as the most supreme god and whereas in the vaishnavite quran you would find vishnu as the supreme god so in terms of bhagavatam krishna is a supreme god right so i think there's some confusion there that happens in the mind of people but if you want to understand the broad hierarchy you don't see so it comes again none of the qurans or any later scriptures have uh anything to say which is different from the vedas so in the rig way there is this purush sukta and this talks about the aadhi purush who's the first person you know purush of course it's a it's a masculine term but it basically implies that this is the first person in the universe and it is


is the first person in the universe and it is from him that the entire creation comes the purush sukta talks about another being emerging from the puros who starts the creation which is viraj so there you have the beginnings of the story of lord vishnu being presented as the adi purush from whom emerges brahma who's viraj and from brahma starts the rest of the creation now if you go by the shivpuran descriptions it's shiva who's in there in the beginning and then he emerges as the lingam of fire so very interestingly a lot of people worship shiva lingam but they don't know what it means right so the shiva lingam actually represents a lingam of fire it's a pillar of fire and this pillar of fire suddenly emerges and there's brahma and there's vishnu and they don't know where it's coming from so both of them they decide to explore the ends of it so vishnu takes the form of a vara and brahma takes the form


the form of a vara and brahma takes the form of a swan and he flies up and vishnu digs deeper into the lower half of it but none of them can find it find the end so finally they meet at the mid point and that's when uh shiva emerges from it that's called the link of the verb shiva so a lot of some of the southern temples have this depiction of shiva emerging from the lingam so that's where shiva tells them that i am the supreme one and i created you so there are different versions but again you know a very beautiful point to understand is that all the purans refer to different kalpas so for this i'll have to go a little bit backwards into what a kalpa is and what the timeline is right so this universe is just according to our scriptures this universe is just one of the multiple universes so our scriptures actually talk about a multiverse this is not the only universe in the world earth is not the only place


universe in the world earth is not the only place that is inhabited there's millions and millions of inhabited worlds out there and these uh so according to srimad-bhagavatam there's a spiritual universe which is almost like a clear sky blue sky and on one corner of it there's this cloudy place which was the material universe it's one-fourth of the entire portion like a quadrant like a quadrant one quadrant is the material universe so like dragon ball z yeah anyway so three-fourths is the spiritual universe where krishna resides the vishnu forms reside uh in the vacuumed planet and one-fourth one quadrant is the material universe material creation it's a material realm okay within this material realm there is a form of vishnu which is the karnaugh the vishnu okay this might get a little complicated but this is i mean this is the easiest way to understand okay there's this karnaugh dakshai vishnu who's just lying in that material realm and


vishnu who's just lying in that material realm and every time he exhales there's a universe that pops out of his pores so there's millions of universes coming out of khanna dakshai vishnu's pores okay each of this universe again has a form of vishnu inside it which is the vishnu from whom emerges brahma for that universe okay and that brahma creates all the lokas within that universe but imagine that this entire universe exists only for one breath of this maha vishnu the karanadak shai vishnu so this entire process of creation by brahma of multiple yoga is coming and going all of this is just a single breath of maha vishnu that's how grand the vision is so within this universe when brahma starts creating he generally for our universe the story is told we don't know how it is for the other universes but for our universe so brahma has a lifespan of close to 311 trillion human years okay and currently


of close to 311 trillion human years okay and currently do you know where we are right now so this is the 51st year of brahma of our current 11 trillion no so that is in the human years that is equal to 100 years okay so 100 years is the lifespan brahma is for 100 years okay so we have 51 out of 5. we are at 51 right now so it's close to 155 trillion human years if you compare if you convert it in human years and currently we are in the afternoon so we are in the seventh manhunter so each day of brahma within this year hundred hundred uh years of brahma each year has 360 days a night and each day is called a kalpa okay so in this lifespan of brahma each kalpa has had different entities being created lord vishnu has appeared in different avatars it's not just the ten main afters that we know the various afters that have happened these different beings have come and gone and brahma has recreated you know everything


and gone and brahma has recreated you know everything again and again and again multiple times he's been doing it every day every morning brahma starts creating and every night it gets dissolved again every morning he starts afresh with some inputs from the previous experiences so uh each quran belongs to a different kalpa and in each kalpa because creation happens differently sometimes brahma emerges first sometimes vishnu emerges first and sometimes shiva appears first that is why the stories are different a lot of people don't understand this that the qurans belong to different time periods and in each kulper the creation began in a different way so for current uh day of brahma which is the varaha kalpa vishnu purana was told narrated in this kalpa so vishnu puran actually is relevant for this kalpa lot of other puranas are telling stories that happened in the previous kalpas or future kalpas different time periods different time periods so that is what the stories differ but primarily it's


that is what the stories differ but primarily it's brahma vishnu and mahesh who are the holy trinity they are the holy trinity of hinduism the three murthy they are the highest level of gods you know probably to encapsulate everything you said which i possibly can't encapsulate but i'd bring up three subjects thanks to the podcast i figured these three subjects so the three subjects are firstly astrophysics again where if you go into the deep realms of astrophysics there is a theory of infinite universes yes which is again parallel with what you said right i've spoken about it with abhijit on this show the second is a historical theory that i've learned from studying ancient human history we've only started writing probably around 10 000 years ago right the first human being uh the first homo sapien i think it's around 70 80 000 years ago i i think this form of us was um like homo sapiens since i think it was about 75 80 000 years ago yeah because they


was about 75 80 000 years ago yeah because they started moving out of africa around 60 000 years ago so then i think it's like all the the precursor to that probably um you know with which is the ancestor to homo sapiens was there around two lakh years ago but my point is there were there were stories yes of history that happened even in that place yes and so much of history is lost because uh you know in these kind of timelines even skeletons erode even rocks erodes definitely so we don't even know where to begin the archaeology right that's just the last two lakh years probably yes yeah imagine what has happened you know even before that yes um and the third subject i'd probably like to highlight is spiritual studies again philosophy where at the end of the day that question of who are we yes every single spiritual school in uh the world pretty much says that you are a part of god and your job other than your actual material duty is to reconnect with


than your actual material duty is to reconnect with god that's why they say be a good person treat people as you would want yourself to be treated uh do good work um try you know growing spiritually try learning about god because you want to reconnect with that uh and and the theory about god is that imagine that uh all of us have universes inside us god was just as one creature which was like us once upon a time but it evolved to the degree where it could create many universes through itself right so think of god as existing like a person but to understand its own nature it had the ability to take a cell take it away from its brain and place it maybe on its palm and observe it yeah now the palm could be one universe where that little cell gets to experience sadness happiness food sex uh trauma yes sweating fitness all these human concerns meditation spirituality philosophy knowledge yeah and then slowly rediscover itself which is why when we're kids and i'm


itself which is why when we're kids and i'm sure this has happened to you when you were a kid you looked at your hands you looked around you and you said what is this wood yeah what are these colors what is what is happening here right now yeah everyone has had those questions at some point in their child exactly and then over time as you grow older you kind of get lost into the realms of materialism right the realms of tension the realms of western sciences and uh you forget these questions of what is my stop you may still have those questions you just stop asking you just take them for granted right i mean we use mobile phones today how many people understand the principle or that they work on right yesterday the um you know whatsapp and facebook and instagram i mean they were down so to say why you know we don't really understand what happened so we just stop asking questions but that basic curiosity is what we need to inculcate in i think that's why


we need to inculcate in i think that's why planets and these celestial bodies exist in the first place to remind humankind that you know there is this massive yes you're not alone yeah that's so much larger than that and you're like infinitesimal in front of the universe yeah that's why i said you know this entire universe is just one breath of maha vishnu who are we we are even we are not even existing for the entire length of this universe you know there are there are speculations uh in in cultures all over the world that there was some sort of alien input in the human story right so i just pulled out uh google it was the cognitive revolution that happened at around 70 000 bc when sapiens uh evolved the imagination because in order to discover science first you have to imagine science which is what so many scientific minds today forget and by scientific minds i don't mean scientists right i mean the people who say oh i'm a man of science yes


people who say oh i'm a man of science yes and they run science pages they criticize philosophies like this yes they don't understand that science is basically research completely you're trying to find something that already exists yes but in order to find that first you have to imagine it yes and they kind of let go of imagination they let go of the inner child in that search for research papers yes research papers are beautiful they're weapons for the future but they're not everything there's a seed of thought from which research papers emerge and you're a doctor yourself you've done your mbbs you work in pharma right now yeah so i mean i'm sure these are just a huge part of your life but you've kept the child alive inside you and i've seen this with philosophers authors scientists all these people keep their inner child alive it's all these pseudo you know oh look at me i'm a cool science and these are the people who forget to keep the inner child alive so anyway the cognitive revolution happened


child alive so anyway the cognitive revolution happened at around 70 000 bc the agricultural revolution happened at around 10 000 bc so there was a span of 60 000 years where we were nomads we were experimenting basically we were trying right but they say that the so i think i read read theories about the cognitive revolution um it's linked to something called behavioral modernity in terms of the behaviors we have today why do we find someone's ass hot uh boobs hot why do we uh why are we attracted to a certain person why are we thinking in a certain way why do we chase money why do we like tasty pizzas and burgers right all those things uh all our behaviors in the modern day are caused because of that period of like 60 000 years that's what evolutionary psychology is also based on um but there are theories that say that uh no one knows why it began right so some people link it to psychedelics like graham hanbok is this historian who


like graham hanbok is this historian who links it to ayahuasca he says that we discovered ayahuasca we started experimenting with magic mushrooms yeah that's why we could uh imagine suddenly uh imagination the minds opened up yeah which might be true i've had an ayahuasca experience in my life and i've been a different person since um so and and we have so many in our culture as well yes what is song though uh som is a very very misunderstood and misrepresented uh chemical actually i would say you know as a doctor and uh somebody who's working in pharma i would say some was not a psychedelic som was an invigorant okay like viagra no not really so it you know the adrenaline rush yeah that comes right so so was probably something which gave you the adrenaline rush which was better than that so actual adrenaline you know the chemical adrenaline okay so some was something that triggered the release of adrenaline in your body that's what my theory is and in fact


your body that's what my theory is and in fact a lot of people had earlier in earlier days they had done research on what the soma plant could have been and there was a very close contender which was some people had the view that probably it was a mushroom that had psychedelic properties but the descriptions of some and the way you know the entire ninth bundle of the rig way this is dedicated to soma the one whole formed a very important part of the ancient culture and we don't understand it unfortunately maybe this was a part of the cognitive revolution precisely precisely but so much it actually gave you the adrenaline rush and if you see if you read the ninth mandal you would find the hymns that talk about soma being pressed out of stocks so it was a creeper most probably or a shrub whose stalks were used not the fruits or the flowers probably but these are like jointed stems that's how the description is so the jointed stem so they're nodes


description is so the jointed stem so they're nodes in it so probably it was a longer uh than a mushroom uh you know a plant and these stalks were used the stems were used they were crushed and the juice that was uh you know extracted it was filtered in sheep's cloth okay and then it was and this juice that came out was slightly bitter these are all the descriptions in the rigveda okay and therefore it was mixed with uh either milk or curd to be made fit for the consumption of the gods and when was it offered to the gods the scriptures talk about indra drinking pots of soam you know pawns of some lakes of some you know so much some he drank and when did he do it not when he wanted to relax when he wanted to go to war so it does not make sense to have a psychedelic or an intoxicant when you're going to war maybe you know okay one small bit of an alcohol you know can probably


one small bit of an alcohol you know can probably release your inhibitions but not pots of it right you will what will you fight you know you you will lose your judgment so this was an invigorating substance that probably gave an adrenaline rush to the person who was drinking it and that is why you know the pupils are dilated when you have an adrenaline rush your pupils are elated your breathing is faster your uh muscles get more oxygen your blood vessels are dilated you know so you get the energy to either fight or run away the fight or flight reaction it's called in medicine so the body prepares you to do either of these now it's your call either you can run away for which you need energy or you can fight for a for which you again need energy so body's preparing you for it and soma was a plant that allowed you to get that adrenaline rush just by ingesting it so like you know a lot of athletes or sportsmen take steroids or


a lot of athletes or sportsmen take steroids or you know they take chemicals and ephedrine is one of those chemicals which is banned this again is supposed to give you an adrenaline rush so soma was probably something similar some natural parallels natural exactly exactly yeah i think what people don't understand about botanical sciences and this i learned from dr mark plotkin one of the world's most well-renowned botanists so much of ancient botany is now lost what i also found out from a himalayan explorer on the show that's why i love doing this podcast because things cool knowledge like this just stays with me what i found out from the himalayan explorer was that there are a lot of shrubs and plants right hidden deep inside the himalayas yes probably under the snow that are still not uh rediscovered right but you talk to the locals and they have something about the obstacles not complete knowledge but they have some knowledge of course they know that this plant does this this plant does that and


that this plant does this this plant does that and those plants have probably not even been discovered by science yes yes yes uh and there is research ongoing about those plants right uh now maybe some could be derived from one of those unknown plants definitely i think we just lost the identification it definitely still exists and you know there's very interesting descriptions where it's found it's found in the mountain regions that is why it's difficult to access so it's it's found in the himalayan mountains and it probably extended right from you know tibet to afghanistan you know the range like the story in ramayana uh for of the sanjivani but sanjivani was a different herb what do you think that was as a doctor i'm not really sure but again there's not just one herb that's described in the ramen hanuman is actually sent to bring four different herbs okay and he goes twice okay to the mountains to get the herbs and so one of these is sanjeeviri but there are three


one of these is sanjeeviri but there are three other herbs that are described in the valmiki ramayana we just get the you know so the ramen that we know is more of that mana's version has many many different differences you know which are from the which is the actual original depiction of the ramayana so there are four different knobs that no one goes to get but soma was uh till recently and you know it's very interestingly the persians the parsees we have in mumbai they have a houma ceremony which is similar to the soma ceremony that used to be done by the vedic people and you know the indian and the iranian the vedic and the iranian civilizations developed almost at the same time but they were probably antagonists oh really yes they they were enemies they were enemies more or less yes because uh for us the asuras are the demons right for the parsys for the zoroastrians devas were the demons oh yeah so they were probably enemies enemy


demons oh yeah so they were probably enemies enemy tribes but they grew in the same environment you know they were from the same stock of people same languages the indo-european languages indo-european culture that's why the stories are similar the language is very similar and uh the parsees even today have a houma ceremony okay and again it involves extracting juice from a stock from a plant which is again filtered there's very specific apparatus to do that and it's a proper ceremony it's the same soma ceremony in the vedas okay and again this stock that they use for this it till recent times it used to be imported from afghanistan so there was a very specific geography where soma was available and that is why we've lost the connect and since partition of course we would not have had access and i don't think a lot of people were even interested in finding out you know which is very unfortunate that a lot of people in india we turned so westernized immediately right after independence that you know


so westernized immediately right after independence that you know being educated in english became the parameter for your knowledge and all the knowledge that the regional languages had the literature that regional languages had all the knowledge in sanskrit it was forgotten today how many people know sanskrit but if you can read sanskrit if you can understand sanskrit and you can read the scriptures there's so much more research that can happen right so i think uh that's where soma comes from it's a definitely a lot of people again interpret it in a different way that it was a metaphysical concept it was more about you know the joy of discovering yourself when you're in meditation it may be so because soma has a dual entity it's it's also called soma is also the name of the moon god chandrama is also called soma but this there is definitely a plant because the entire ninth mandal is dedicated to its extraction it's filtration it's and you know it's so poetic the rigveda is


you know it's so poetic the rigveda is very poetic beautiful verses that talk about uh you know the um the sieve that is used to filter the extract it's supposed to have 10 holes probably that's why it's called the 10 maidens and you see the parsees use a similar apparatus a similar sieve used today so even though soma extraction and the ceremony did not survive in our country did survive in the neighboring civilization yeah you know and and also speaking specifically about asuras what people don't understand is if you actually get into vishnu puran or just the study of the puranas asuras aren't painted as completely evil yes they're grey yes just like us if you think you are white that sounds pleaser you're also great completely so it was just probably two warring tribes which are lost in that seventy thousand bc to ten thousand bc completely completely and you know again coming back to science there were also the ice ages that happened in between and a


the ice ages that happened in between and a lot of history got lost because of the ice ages as well so one second like uh the earth has cooling periods and warming periods but currently in a warming period that's why global warming is catching on as much as it is we are just accelerating it through pollution it is bound to happen even otherwise yeah but uh the earth has scientifically speaking bombing periods and cooling what i do know is that the ice age was the peak of a cooling period and then therefore it melted away which began the warming period right what i want to ask you is that are you saying that um we actually probably our culture like indian culture went through a warming period even definitely definitely so um and again ranveer you know they're very fascinating verses in the rig way you know and uh who's a known well-known freedom fighter he was also a scholar and he wrote this amazing book called uh the arctic home of the


amazing book called uh the arctic home of the vedas so according to him and his analysis of the vedic verses the some of the depictions are possible only if these people lived and lived on the north pole or in the arctic zone wow because there are descriptions of nights being six months long days being six months long which happens only at the polls right there's descriptions that of you know multiple dawns emerging and that's a phenomena apparently that is witness at the pole that you know sky gets lighter one arc at a time and the colors uh keep switching from one part of the sky to another yeah as in the brightness starts coming one arc at a time because you're the top of the globe so you see a circle of light emerging dawn is a circle of light okay so so and similar verses he's he's interpreted and uh i don't have any comment on his interpretations but he was a well-known scholar right and he's according to him he believed that if not


he's according to him he believed that if not the entire tribe of vedic people at least the rishis used to live there at the north pole or in the arctic zone so that is where the civilization used to be but when the ice age happened people had to obviously move southwards towards the equator just want to stop you then like throw in some science yeah uh if if people are thinking that these kind of descriptions are beyond their uh perception i want to highlight someone called wim hof who's called the iceman who has learned to use pranayama and breath control to control body temperatures right and he's known to actually visit arctic regions places with a lot of snow sub-zero temperatures right and roam around shirtless there very comfortably and he trains people in these breathing techniques and how you can alter your own body temperature you see sadhu is doing that he attributes it to what he's learned from indian culture right and breadth work makes sense so go on but not even


breadth work makes sense so go on but not even that you know you don't really need to get into that as well because before the ice age the poles had a much more temporary climate they were not covered with snow so the poles had a very very habitable zone so the northern politely southern pone pole i'm not really sure what happened to antarctica but at least the arctic zone was much more habitable there was a possibility of civilization being there but as the winter would have started people would have started migrating and you know people say that you know how could uh ancient civilizations have traveled so far vedas are full of descriptions of rides on boats in the oceans you know there are gods like the ashwini kumars who are specially prayed to when people are going out into the sea so and you know of course there are descriptions of long journeys etc so a lot of people uh a lot of scholars believe that you know it was a habitable zone when the ice


you know it was a habitable zone when the ice age started probably people started moving downwards and again there's a very fascinating story of uh a theory rather you know there's this out of africa theory of the uh humanity origins of humanity it is believed uh geneticists believe that you know the first human beings came out in east africa the proper homo sapiens the chromosomes that we have for homo sapiens they emerged first in east africa and from there humanity started moving out so now very interestingly if you if you go back into indian history genetics you see that the hominids the african uh uh origin uh human beings they came to india around 60 000 bc okay and a lot of genetic studies show that it was these indi uh populations that were living in india that they started migrating to the other parts of the world there would have been branches that went to europe they would have been branches that went to the northern part but most of these did not


to the northern part but most of these did not survive because of the ice age so it was this the branch out of africa branch that was in the tropical zone that survived and it is responsible for populating the entire world so people who came out of africa into the middle east and india the tropical zone these were the ones who further migrated into other countries like russia siberia from and you know america and russia they were connected before the ice age they were connected with the bering straight yeah i'm betting it's bearing straight now but used to be the used to be bearing bridge and this is a scientific concept that you know human beings passed from there into the american continent and that is why you see the native americans they look so much like the japanese exactly like the japanese or the chinese the mongolia races right so and also it's not just the native americans that migration happened all the way down to south america into chile you see modern


down to south america into chile you see modern chilean people yes you see so many south americans yes uh they are like i'm talking about the ethnic uh south americans yes there was also a lot of european african influence but you have this whole looking uh the original inhabitants of the continent and this happened just about 14 000 years ago so imagine india got people living here at least 60 000 years ago whereas this actually became the new world because human beings reached there about 14 15 000 years ago the americas you know so between this duration a lot of stuff happened there was ice ages and whenever there's an ice age water is drawn back from the seas from the water bodies right because it gets frozen it gets frozen so the sea levels go down imagine if there's a period when there is about you know say about a 5000 or 10 000 period the sea level is down and there's civilizations that spring around the coasts civilization always starts near water sources


around the coasts civilization always starts near water sources right it's always along the rivers or along the coasts biggest cities in the world historically have been along the coast or along major rivers the entire indus valley civilization was around indus and saraswati river which was now discovered so uh these civilizations which would have emerged in those coastal areas as soon as the meltdown started water level started rising and these places would have got flooded and that is the reason you have the story of a global deluge in all world mythologies atlantis everywhere dwarka and these are still later but even the earlier religions you know mesopotamia sumeria african uh native uh uh mythologies um the native american mythologies right up to philippines from uh you know south america everybody has a story about the global deluge because it clearly points out there's a scientific thing right that i say do happen i say just do happen meltdown does happen and the water levels do rise and we've still


and the water levels do rise and we've still not discovered so much of even recent history so imagine how much ancient history exactly so definitely our culture uh i believe was one of those they're called anti-diluvian before the flood culture so this was definitely one of the anti-diluvian cultures and you know whatever remains so we have this beautiful story of manu where uh the matsai of that of lord vishnu so manu is the leader of mankind okay and there's this story of uh the uh vevasvat him being visited by a small fish when he was doing his prayers in the sea okay he was somewhere in the southern part of the country and he was doing his morning prayers and he just takes water in his palm and do the morning prayers and he sees this tiny fish in his hand and the fish is talking to him and the fish says that listen i'm very tiny and i don't want to be in this water body they have bigger fishes who can eat


water body they have bigger fishes who can eat me please take me home manu is a kind soul he takes the fish home puts him in a puts it in a commandal okay within a few hours the fish is big enough to pop out of the commander and she's like i will not survive here put me in a bigger vessel he keeps changing the place where he puts the fish from a bigger vessel to ultimately a pond and ultimately he has to take the fish through a water body to the ocean and then he has this question in his mind that who are you in one day you grew so much you know you're definitely not a fish and that's when the fish says that i'm vishnu and i've come here to warn that there will be a global deluge and everything as you know it will get submerged so you have to get all the relevant you know plants and animal species and i'll send a boat so it's very similar to noah's ark story but no one


very similar to noah's ark story but no one was supposed to build a boat in this story vishnu says i'll send a boat but you get everything ready and you get the saptarishis with you because they are responsible for passing on the knowledge so if you even if you have all the raw material but you do not have the knowledge to use it what good is a civilization right imagine what would happen today if we have a nuclear war and we do not have any records left right just as what you said happened with our civilization you know thousands of years ago because of invasions the nalanda university was i think burning for 11 or 13 days or so yeah right so imagine the number of books the manuscripts the paper that was burnt there so much knowledge lost what happens when we lose that knowledge you have to start again from the beginning i also want to highlight the modern day internet people visualize the internet as this ball in the air or you know these electronic


this ball in the air or you know these electronic bits in cloud yeah in the cloud yeah what they don't understand is that the internet is made up of servers and bios yes and they say that there are actual threats to the nature of the internet because of solar winds right so the sun if you actually wear you know those what are those really dark glasses called where you look at the sun and you know what i'm talking about like during an eclipse weather yes there's the x-ray glasses uh solar uh something it's called forget it nevermind those super dark glasses so if you look at the sun with those glasses you'll actually see these big rings of fire around the sun right you know like kind of like yes which are just like coming out yes yes they also emanate a lot of heat a lot of uh nuclear energy they emanate uh just a lot of basically radiation a lot of radiation which this which can easily disrupt the satellite communication that we have today yeah and now if


satellite communication that we have today yeah and now if one of those loops is strong enough which is totally capable of being there because the sun is a nuclear reactor and there are random nuclear reactions that are happening inside yeah now one of those radiations are strong enough and they make their way to earth and they make the way through the earth's atmosphere and it hits all our electric lines our wires our servers we'll actually probably lose land in the uh dark zones dark ages again so these podcasts everything we stored online which we think is there forever everything is gone hold up never know if that's gonna happen yeah what happened in my career but uh and just wanted to highlight that all these things that we hear about this crazy uh brain exercises that we do don't think that it's beyond reach nothing is permanent yeah don't don't think that just because we scientifically advance so much that we can't be destroyed in a second right you know there's a i think it's a


right you know there's a i think it's a kabir ka doha which says that uh if you take your life for granted remember that for god or for the universe life is like one hair on a scalp and it can just be plucked out yeah yeah easily so that's the actual nature of human life but go on this became philosophical i know that's good because it's quite relevant right i mean it's it's very it tells you again you know how infinitesimal you are just in in your own solar system you're nobody right and just once emission from the sun which is actually as you said a nuclear ball right it can send us back to the dark ages yeah if if dinosaurs went extinct exactly who are we so with all our scientific intellect and developments and evolution of technology and everything we are still susceptible to it so imagine when that happens when that loss of uh or transmission happens then you are left with nothing that is why vishnu says keep the


with nothing that is why vishnu says keep the saptarishis with you so the so when vishnu emerges as the matcha again and he has a hot the fish has a horn on its head okay and with which they tie the boat uh using masooki and uh that that discussion that vishnu gives them in that night of darkness where it's water everywhere that's the matsapuran that's the most recent quran to have come to us so in which they talk about everything of creation of you know how things have been how things will be so this clearly if you go scientifically even if you don't believe in a giant fish saving humanity there is a definite uh you know point towards a geographical event where there was inundation all over the globe and some lucky people survived and they had the knowledge to continue their civilization it must have been a solar flare must have been could be tectonic upheavals could be again as i said ice age meltdown could be anything right


as i said ice age meltdown could be anything right our globe earth is such an unpredictable entity you know suddenly you have uh you know there's this ring of fire in the pacific ocean there's where these tectonic plates meet wherever the tectonic plates meet there's a more likelihood of earthquakes and volcanoes emerging and again interestingly just because i got reminded of this so there's this the scriptures talk about something called a mere shaped mare is a female horse a mare shaped fire under the water this was stored under the water to prevent um destruction okay so there was a rishi called aurova because of various reasons and it's related to the book that you were reading pashuram so uh some circumstances happen and this rishi he he's he's released this massive destructive energy which can burn the entire planet and it needs to be taken care of so it is buried under water and what do you think scientifically it could represent the submarine volcanoes right so and it says


represent the submarine volcanoes right so and it says you know the scriptures say that when praline happens ultimately when destruction happens it is it will be this underwater fire that will engulf the planet so it probably predicts such a catastrophic volcanic event emanating from the water bed not from the land but from the oceans that will probably give rise to tsunamis it can give rise to earthquakes it can actually lead to emissions in the air you know if just the atmosphere is blocked we can't get sunlight everything will die i think that's also happened in ancient history exactly where there's been a volcanic eruption i believe somewhere in indonesia or philippines yes where uh the earth was covered in ash yes yes because sunlight was work everything exactly so that has happened you know so imagine if such an event happens you know what is the continuation that we have we talk about knowledge nothing survives yeah again i'm a huge graham hancock fan who's


again i'm a huge graham hancock fan who's uh i'm sure you're familiar yes considering the amount you read so graham hancock talks a lot about how the ancient amazonian culture was way more scientifically advanced than us the argument that people usually throw at him is if they were that advanced where is the plastic yes but what if that culture was so advanced that they realized the bad outcomes of plastic that it harms the earth and they decided not to even make it but instead they made other things like a super uh soil which is capable of growing any plant anywhere in the world which is the actual records of the soil the soil is found even today in those local tribal cultures and obviously all the architecture you see the pyramids which are hidden in the amazon right and the botany the botanical sciences that they discovered um you know maybe they work towards creating a very positive form of human life rather than just oh let's create weapons and let's create plastic in fact


let's create weapons and let's create plastic in fact that reminds me you know of a sort of a debate i had with another author in a lit fest and uh where i was saying that you know people were they were these scientific advances and he said they they fought on chariots how could they be scientifically advanced and immediately the thought that came to my mind was just because we have fossil fuel does not mean we are advanced right fossil fuel is causing so much damage to the environment even if they were not aware of the fossil fuel does not make them primitive yeah you know they were using the technology which was in line with their environment and indian civilization has always been about having a balance an equilibrium with their environment it's not just you know philosophically if you go to the upanishads there's the balance between the inside and the outside world and it is between the atman and the brahman and the prakriti around you so that beautiful equilibrium was maintained using a chariot yeah


that beautiful equilibrium was maintained using a chariot yeah which will not happen using a jet uh today you know which is guzzling fossil fuels and throwing so much of carbon dioxide emission into the atmosphere so i mean people when they start using you know this they judge the ancient civilizations using 21st century glasses that's something which again as i started you know you have to have an open mind you cannot judge things based on your present perspective you know you have to look at the bigger picture and just because they did not have cars or fossil fuels does not mean they did not have technology there's mention of iman's like you said you know vimance and not just one pushback is the one that everybody knows there are other multiple demands that are mentioned you know in fact pushback was not with ravan it was with his step-brother kuber it's where and kuber was a ruler of lanka a lot of people again don't know the story you know so raven actually usurped


know the story you know so raven actually usurped the throne he threw kuber out of lanka he took his pushback and he basically took over everything that kuber had built and kuber was saved using two other flying machines you know and this is from the uttar khan of the valmiki ramen there were two other machines two other spaceships or airplanes whatever you want to call them uh that were used to take kuber away from there uh his minions yakshas they basically helped him escape from there to the himalayas there is uh such flying machines mentioned in the mahabharata so there's this king called shalwa who attacks dwarka in a flying machine and again so a lot of people have this question how could they create something like this and you know the answer that i have is that they did not create it they were given the knowledge to create this by an advanced civilization again possibly aliens who were the devas so these people the ancient the advanced civilization of devas


these people the ancient the advanced civilization of devas they provided the knowledge to create this because whenever you find mention of iman's it's never a human that's creating it the pushback was created by vishwa karma who's architect of the gods the uh plane that the shalva uses in mahabharat was created by maya dhanav who is the architect of the asuras so these are two other advanced civilizations who provided these machines to us for use you know it's like an advanced country you know a western country providing arms and weapons and artillery to a third world country it's the same thing yeah you know and uh this talk about viman's got me thinking that okay can you actually build a plane without fossil fuels and then you think of birds right like how do birds fly yeah they basically have a certain kind of bone structure right and a certain kind of material that makes them up which are the feathers which probably hold which is aerodynamically yeah and just because the planes that we use


yeah and just because the planes that we use in the modern day use fossil fuel it probably means that yeah there were definitely scientific advancements uh with respect to those planes right but maybe no one just took a step back and thought let's engineer them this other way yes um and you said different kinds of demands that's basically what it is some would have been flown using fossil fuels some would have been flown using some other kind of engineering right there's no limit to what engineering can achieve and that's one thing i've learned as an engineer yeah that we had the again who thought 50 years back that you know we'd be able to do so much with our phones completely so what stops you from thinking that maybe someone will engineer play in some at some point in the future which are completely independent of us in fact these demands were supposed to have a mercury vortex so they were supposed to run on mercury so imagine mercury is uh it's not a very easily available metal


is uh it's not a very easily available metal so how did they use it that's the challenge to uncover and somebody can try it because these there are people who have tested the models that are given so there's something called the vermonica which mentions a different type of planes the different shapes and some people especially in the western countries they have tried building those shapes small ones and testing whether they are even aerodynamically stable whether they can even sustain the wind currents and can fly in the air that is possible but they haven't found the uh technology to uh you know um decipher the mercury vortex but the shapes are aerodynamically possible so there is knowledge which is available but we need to dig deeper yeah technology and technological advancements always a reflection of nature right like cameras are a reflection of the human eye uh in so many ways planes are a reflection of birds completely can we make a deeper reflection that truly is like a bird uh you know maybe another woman could have been flown using


you know maybe another woman could have been flown using megafauna like we had that flying dinosaur i think it was called arrow something uh pterodactyls yeah pterodactyls yeah i think so um i don't know but i just remember because my nephew is very fond of dinosaurs i'm sure you are as well i i am and i'm sure that you know there must have been some overlap in that sixty thousand seventy thousand year time period right where there was megafauna present which are large animals present at the same time as humanity probably in fact again that brings me to another um mythical creature called a sharab okay okay there's a creature called a sharab who's supposed to be sort of this um climatic being and which has multiple animals limbs or structures you know the face is like that of a lion the tail is like that of a peacock or stuff like that the limbs are different and all but that is i mean beyond the description what it is supposed to do


beyond the description what it is supposed to do it it is the call of all animals so it is supposed to be the ultimate predator in the food chain so who could this be scientifically it has to be a dinosaur right who can even eat lions and tigers there's only one animal who could have done that scientifically historically it's the dinosaurs so the description might be different in fact you know so i traveled for work and i um was once in cambodia at angkor wat and again fascinating place it's the biggest religious temple complex in the world it's bigger than the vatican and this is the 11th century hindu temple which was now buddhist because the country is buddhist but this is the 11th century hindu temple which was the biggest religious complex in the world at that time and even today okay and there you know in one of the temples i think that's angkor thom uh there's a carving on one of the doorways of a dinosaur of a


one of the doorways of a dinosaur of a stegosaurus so who would have known a stegosaurus you know even if it was done later maybe 14th century 15th century even till then the dinosaurs were not discovered right so the discovery of dynasty and all the different varieties of dinosaurs happened much much later in the 19th century 20th century but there's a clear cut carving of a stegosaurus on a temple wall what do you make of it so there has to be some megaphone which survived you know i think we've discussed so many wide variety of uh topics and people have got a nice introduction to doctor vinnie the girl but i hope it was not too technical no it was the audience beautiful like this is one of the most fun podcasts i've done uh i think the podcast which kind of force you to kind of rethink history and rethink the way the world works are the most fun thought experiments and that's what the listeners listen in to uh


and that's what the listeners listen in to uh the redmi show for they want thought experience they want to be able to think and be stimulated also this is one of the episodes which will keep growing with time which will be discovered by people 10 years later 20 years later maybe let's end this particular conversation with one topic that intrigues me immensely um this is a whole other podcast but maybe you can give us a brief kind of you know outlook on what this topic is all about so those are my favorite topics yeah i think we need to have a separate podcast it can be a separate hindi podcast at some point but maybe maybe you can brief us a little bit so you know interestingly again as i said you know a lot of world mythologies are very common features you know there's this great deluge which is there in all world mythologies most world mythologies a lot of world mythologies talk about the thunder god which is thor and norse mythology you know indra in


thor and norse mythology you know indra in hindu mythology zeus in greek mythology a lot of world mythologies talk about the universal egg the brahman that we call so very very um common threads running in most of the mythologies and one of these is the return of a messiah okay so the return of a savior because a lot of religions they realize and in even modern religions even islam and christianity you know we're not talking just about the greek and the romans and the egyptians but a lot of modern religions also all of them they have this concept of the messiah returning so kalki even buddhists you know in tibetan buddhism they believed that there would be a um a king uh i think they're called the kulika kings not kalki exactly but cooli cookings and there have been a succession of these kings and the last of these would bring in a change would usher in the golden age exactly like our


change would usher in the golden age exactly like our kalki is supposed to do so kalki is a very fascinating um um concept i would say and so various people look at it in different ways some people believe that you know humanity is just so discouraged with its own efforts that they need an external savior right to save themselves you know from themselves they need an external savior so again that's a psychological concept that we or philosophical concept that we don't really need to get into but the scriptures do mention the return of kalki they do mention the return of the lord as the last and final after for this yuga which would be kalki and kalki is supposed to return towards the end of the kaliyug so for hindu timeline it's a long long long way away but when you're going to the buddhist buddhist scriptures you know it's somewhere it's supposed to happen somewhere around 2 4 2 4 80 so it's not that far you know


2 4 80 so it's not that far you know maybe another 400 years or so and um christianity also talks about the coming back of the messiah buddhism talks about the future buddha's maitre buddha you know who would be coming if you've been to ladakh there's this massive statue of maitre buddha there you know which is which is a tourist spot and um same uh similarly you know even in islam there's this concept of a messiah coming i'm forgetting the name but there is a concept not prophet muhammad but another prophet you know returning to bring back civilization into the uh and give it the right direction so a lot of these concepts are there so again it either is a prophecy that was heard by humanity when it was a when it was all together and not broken up into different uh cultures and communities or it is a hope for a better future that somebody will come someday to save us from what we are doing to us so i


us from what we are doing to us so i think that's my take on kalki but scriptures do mention that this is an event that would happen yeah i think i think this is worth a whole other podcast yeah so this is the first time you and me are talking uh to each other and uh we were already kind of doing our own mini podcast in the other room and i said no hold up we'll do all this on screen right uh i think let's head into our hindi conversation and for all the english listeners i hope you enjoyed it i hope you share it uh and uh also now that you know doctor maybe the next time he's uh coming on the show ensure you engage on our twitter section and send in your questions because again i've just scratched the surface based on my own interests right so you've been running this blog for 10 years i can't imagine the amount of knowledge you've accumulated yes i think i think that's been my journey of learning you know i never say


been my journey of learning you know i never say that i'm an expert in any of these uh you know topics but it's just it's been a process of learning for myself because the more you dig and there's so much more to read there's so much more to learn we have thousands and thousands of scriptures and all of them encourage you to ask questions that's the beauty of our religion that's the beauty of our scriptures that you know you are encouraged to ask questions you're not told this is how it is and you have to follow it no e the i i would just wrap it up with you know this beautiful verse the mention of the beautiful verse uh uh called nasa in uh rigveda and you know this verse it ends that the god who's made all this you know this i'm just paraphrasing that you know the god who lives in the highest heaven who's made all this maybe he only knows you know how creation happened what happened how did things progress but


happened what happened how did things progress but the next line is or maybe even he does not that's such a beautiful scientific thought you know which the supposedly religious scholars are making i think that's the scientific inquiry we have to live with true knowledge is knowing that you know nothing exactly let's end this episode see i told you guys there's so much more in this world of indian culture slash indian mythology that's way beyond the world of the mahabharata and ramayana alone there's so many more concepts there's so many more theories there's so many more aspects to history which is very likely lost history where we've not discovered the archaeological evidence associated with it history that was burnt away when our libraries and our universities were burned during invasions that's the kind of history that our generation and every indian generation that follows us needs to rediscover it begins with content like this that's available on the internet free of cost hopefully forever and this mission about spreading knowledge


cost hopefully forever and this mission about spreading knowledge about indian culture will get accelerated by your shares on whatsapp on social media platforms make sure you share this podcast as much as possible and make sure he follows it and we show in spotify every episode is available on spotify 48 hours before it's available anywhere else in the world dr vinita garwal will be back on the ranveer show very soon but for now check out some of our dirt and we show hindi episodes that we created with this man if you enjoyed this conversation thank you lots of love [Music] bye


if you want to know the present and future of india you've got to talk to people who've actually helped build the present and have helped build the building blocks for the future of this country that's the ias officers the people who work with the government in order to solve all kinds of problems that are currently present in the country and that will be present in the country going forward we've done a hindi episode with the former is officer viveka and i recommend that you check out that episode if you have no knowledge about what the upsc exam is about what an is officer's job is like but if you have checked out that episode if you have knowledge about those subjects this episode is going to be extremely stimulating for you from an india perspective from a patriot autism perspective make sure you follow the renovation spotify with a spotify exclusive now which means that every episode is available on spotify 48 hours before it's available anywhere else in the world and for now this is a conversation all about taking


and for now this is a conversation all about taking india to the next level with is officer vivek atrei [Music] welcome to the runway show absolute honor having you on the show thank you so much it's a pleasure delight um so the way we record these podcasts for the listeners is that we try packing in maximum episodes on one shoot day we just did a hindi episode which was centered around uh upsc just entered around the life of an ias officer um so this particular episode is a part of the english podcast the english podcast is primarily consumed by uh super urban indians you know and i wouldn't say this for urban indians from delhi but i would definitely say this urban indians from bombay bangalore chennai i feel there isn't as much inclination towards even taking the upsc exam or knowing much about what iis officers do what ips officers do so there's two questions to user the first is why do you think uh that this is the mindset of most


you think uh that this is the mindset of most people in bombay or bangalore or chennai um i personally feel it's capitalism because everyone's like chasing or business businesses like probably you know even until the time i turned 25 i hadn't heard too many conversations about is growing up in the city the second question to use to introduce this whole world to people who don't know what an iis officer does what what the how the whole system works how administration works generally so yeah see firstly let me say that your reach is much more than you think i know that there are people all over the country who listen to the english podcast watch it on this point two questions you asked the first thing is that the urbane indian is slightly cut off from the civil service because of the background and yes the business orientation plus i think there's a trend towards going in for corporate careers studying abroad and making a career in a startup or in entrepreneurship because that's the craze or


or in entrepreneurship because that's the craze or that's the trend in earlier times it could have been the civil services for that segment of society also but today like the indian cricket team the ias officers and the civil servants are coming from small towns villages because they've come through that grind much more than coming from any sophisticated family or an english-speaking family also if i can say so so this is a trend which is noticeable for the last couple of decades and now we find that the civil servants are more connected to the roots and reality it doesn't mean that the english-speaking indian the urban indian is not connected to reality but it could be that they don't have the perception of the civil services that that rural person or the common person has so i think that there is a minuscule percentage of that society also coming but yes maybe through the podcast this podcast we can actually clear a lot of doubts that they might have about the civil services so what


that they might have about the civil services so what is that picture like could you paint that whole picture of that world like in terms of what does an iis officer actually do like if you had to describe your jobs to a six-year-old how would you this is a lovely question because i had one video by a tv channel a 14 year old came to me and said one day with the dc punch cool i was deputy commissioner of a district of panchakula so an ias officer's life is very diverse firstly you might be receiving about 150 calls per day from politicians officers public representatives media even judiciary at times so any segment of society is connected to you if you're posted in the field you are an all-rounder you will not be doing any one thing like if you're in the headquarters in sports or cooperation or agriculture or industries obviously you're dealing with that department but if you're in the field like a dc or an ssp then the person walking into your room or


an ssp then the person walking into your room or the diversity of your role is tremendous the diversity is really widespread the whole of india is potentially your meeting person so what happens in that case is that you start your day with let's say planned meetings eleven o'clock i'm going to do this three o'clock i'm going to do this but often that agenda goes for a toss because problems come up there may be a fire somewhere the chief minister might call a meeting somewhere nowadays video conferences also take place in the government a lot so your day is not your own that's number one number two the diversity is actually very challenging and also very interesting so you won't be doing any one particular type of thing it's not like you are plotting uh some strategy to rehabilitate people so therefore you need to get into this you might be doing some sports related yoga related event management also yoga day is coming or something else is coming you'll be busy with that


or something else is coming you'll be busy with that then protocol you know the chief justice of india wants to visit your district for some reason or a minister wants to visit a garden very nearby with his family so that you the ias officer is there to look after the minister and his family so protocol firefighting organization planning public dealing lots of things go on at the same time is it true that is officers are possibly the most powerful people in the country yeah it's true because ies officers and ips i would say they form the backbone of the bureaucracy and the government structure so it is said that three people in the country can do anything that is pm dm and sdm and you can add the cm also but the thing is that these people dm sdm etc become powerful because they have a wide split role in that they have a jurisdiction and they have powers which are all around they don't just have one particular power so an is officer's role is very powerful very


so an is officer's role is very powerful very important in nation building in service delivery in regulation in law and order control also because sometimes you work with the police closely so i think they are the foundation of the system in the country simple question or not what is powers because this took me some time to understand i know what wealth is i know what money is i know what fame is once someone came and told me do you realize that your job is giving you a power and i said i don't even know what that means and then someone had to break it down specific to my job but i think that what is power as a question is very wide so i'd love to ask an ias officer i think it's a good question i it's good you talked about fame and money as well because i often say that the goal of life is not power money or fame it is inner happiness and inner peace we'll come to that but power in itself is something firstly it's fleeting


power in itself is something firstly it's fleeting and it is connected to the chair in which you are mostly so an ias officer's power is because he's director of so-and-so department he's he's director of or dc of a particular area or she is looking after this particular task an is officer's position gives authority and power which is defined under the rules a minister of agriculture his powers are defined under the rules ministry of agriculture he might have other clout the power to call up somebody and say mother mother that is also power which flows from that so is it fair to say powers a reduction for your own actions that's how i look at it that you just do make a call and get it done or you think of something and it gets done i think the ability to get things done the inherent uh power to call up somebody and influence them or the inherent ability from your position or authority to influence the trend of something that is happening i would say that somebody


something that is happening i would say that somebody who's the indian cricket captain he has power his personality will influence millions if he starts a particular trend ronaldo shifted the coke bottle had the water bottle in front power the power to influence mindsets and thinking so power is something which comes from position also from personality also from fame also from being rich so they're all integrated yeah uh in the last podcast we spoke about honor as well so basically spoke about doing the right thing staying humble after you receive power in life and that's what i call good power you know that doesn't get corrupted uh and of course we can add all these spiritual angles to it but the question i have for you is because you've been an is officer i am 110 percent sure you've seen the evil power of all sorts as well we spoke about the chair you sit in that gives you power i'm sure there are certain chairs which have spikes on the side and you


chairs which have spikes on the side and you know which are which are like dark chairs uh i'm sure you've uh kind of encountered criminals i'm sure you've encountered uh people who do the wrong things corrupt human beings what have you learned about that world that dark power so dark power or white power or bright power basically it's shades of grey nothing in the world is black and white so a person who's very dignified powerful might also indulge in certain practices which are not correct it could be just one percent of his role it could be 90 of his role he might be sitting there in order to do something very you know self-driven and self-motivated and his agenda is only to benefit the self and family so it is shades of gray secondly nobody's perfect but largely i've seen that in government power is something which is often abused but not as often as is perceived by the public so people are generally working generally doing their job and maybe misusing the power


generally doing their job and maybe misusing the power at times it's not the other way round so generally people are functioning diligently and there are not as many corrupt people as it appears from outside in the system there are not as many badmaj type people also so it is basically a perception where again the government is at fault they have not reached out to the society or powerful people have not the king never reached out to the common man and said see i'm there with you he was the king in olden times and the public used to not really love their kings and queens because they were not like them so it is the it's incumbent upon the powerful to reach out and gain the trust and love of that populace then power becomes humane yeah so we've been having a lot of army men on the show veterans uh and one common theme that all of them bring up is that the indian army the indian armed forces in general is in need of branding like


armed forces in general is in need of branding like is in need of the average indian getting to know that okay we have a crazy powerful army we have a crazy capable army and i see that this is a parallel problem that probably government officials as well as maybe even the ruling parties need better branding they need to come out on podcast and showcase what's actually in there because this is what we see as a difference in america america is a society that's built on sales that's built on personal brands everyone projects themselves larger than they actually are which i actually admire about that country that everyone's built out this sort of false personal brand but it still carries that punch uh the army there we keep hearing about marines we see movies about marines uh we've just started to see some good war movies in india similarly politicians there people who wish to become the president of america one day they appear on the joe rogan podcast that's what i'm hoping that


rogan podcast that's what i'm hoping that starts happening in india and the issue is now even sometimes when we do bollywood podcast indians have this habit of sort of sitting on a pedestal they want to be given that level of importance so they don't even open up you know when they're sitting on a pedestal like you're one of the few guests who has seen so much power but you're still talking to me at like the same level you know and that's what i love about speaking with you sir uh but do you see that changing do you see like the average politician kind of becoming friendlier going forward just a minor point about the americans which you mentioned you're absolutely right they will have a small mountain in the town they'll say rocky mountain climb they'll send their ticket for twenty dollars india maybe magnificent things which we can't market as well as them we can't sell them but coming to power in india i think it's something about you being


in india i think it's something about you being a human being or not being a human being so that insanity if it is there that humane touch if it is there you will remain humble wherever you are of course you are tested there are times you will become so popular i have had my picture in the papers and stuff and you know dc is this that and everybody's trying to spoil you with all the attention and the adulation nobody says anything against you and then film stars cricketers people in the spotlight face it more that is when you're tested but then great people are those the greatest is that person who is humble in power who can that cut above everybody else energy you should be balanced you should be humane you should be understanding of others and it is said that you should be nice to people on the way up because you'll meet the same persons on the way down so be like that yeah and power just reveals whatever is actually on the inside absolutely it's not like you change


on the inside absolutely it's not like you change it's like you become more of what's on the inside absolutely and i've seen this across like across industries um so speaking about power uh specifically is officers have the power to sort of build up the nation you know when you see houses being constructed so you sort of see those laborers who are laying bricks i feel is officers do that for india you know they're laying bricks for the future so keeping that in mind sir i believe you resigned in 2017 that's right that's pretty recent so what was the mood of the country like in 2017 what did the government want for the country and has kovid and the pandemic and this whole new world that we're in has that changed the scenario over what we want to do going forward as a country are the goals still the same see the country and the is officers the goals have to be aligned so 2017 or now 2021 the goals have to be aligned with the nation