Regional Secretary, Dada Gunamaya, and Nirainjana attended the first ever Northeast Climate Confluence that took place at the Epworth Methodist Retreat Center in High Falls, New York. Dada taught yoga classes every morning and Nirainjana taught Kaoshikii to the participants: http://www.flickr. com/photos/ nirainjana/ sets/72157606890 536981/show/
Dada Narada Muni’s video “Introduction to Proutist Economics” was shown to 25 participants followed by a lively discussion and a request to see his most recent video “Cooperatives in Venezuela”. Both videos were very well received with interest in learning more about Progressive Utilisation Theory.
Approximately 250 people came together in High Falls, New York for the Climate Confluence. The Confluence ran from July 31st to August 3rd, with workshops, trainings and panels ranging from immigration raids and the prison-industrial complex to mountain top removal and disaster relief. This wide range of workshops aimed to address, as the organizers put it, “the root causes of climate change.”
“The same system that wages a daily war on our communities is poised to destroy our very life blood: the earth, the water, our food, and our culture,” says Sundeep Sood, Confluence organizer. “By combining our knowledge and energy we will create real solutions and decrease our dependence on the institutions that are attacking the planet and all life.” With these ideas in mind people of all ages and backgrounds from across the Northeast came to the Epworth Center in High Falls to create the kind of world they want to see.
The Confluence opened on Thursday night with a speech from Tom Porter, the elder of the Mohawk Nation. He blessed the event and gave permission for the Confluence to take place on land that had once been part of the Mohawk Nation. In his beautiful speech he expressed hope for the future and a willingness to work with those attending the Confluence to help build a better world.
The three workshop streams, Ice Storms to ICE Raids, Self Sufficient Communities and Connecting Grassroots struggles all had a great variety of workshops and came up with concrete action plans for future activism on a variety of issues. Most people would agree with Dan Cabrera when he said, “I was able to learn so much about important issues at the Confluence, and also meet so many great people to network with. It was definitely the highlight of my summer.”
The Confluence occurred concurrently with convergences in Oregon and England, and other climate convergences are planned for the coming weeks in Australia, Virginia, Quebec and Hamburg, Germany. There are already plans in the works for a 2009 Northeast Climate Confluence, which promises to be even larger than this year’s.
All Margiis and Acaryas are welcome to attend the house blessing ceremony of Dinesh and Nirainjana scheduled for 6:30pm on Saturday, September 27th in White Plains, New York.
Come early at 5pm to hear Robert Hoch of the White Plains Historical Society talk about the historical significance of the hill where we are located, Horton’s Mill, used by George Washington for storing ammunition during the Revolutionary War and the Battle of White Plains in October of 1776. Learn also about the First Peoples who were here before the colonialists arrived.
RSVP is required at nirainjana@yahoo. com. We will send the address and directions to those who RSVP. Thank you!
A Mayan Example by Tapas
MAYAN EXAMPLE BY TAPAS
We should use the Mayans as an example of this. They created a
society in the Americas very similar to India during its time, in
culture, science, and strength. They created Maha-Master-Units. They
created a society so great that researchers are now wondering if the
Mayans didn’t help to influence India’s culture (At least in
Architecture). I believe many of the great mayan temples were
institutes for learning and maintaining their knowledge and spirtitual
practices. Likely selected children were brought there to learn and
meditate from an early age.
Apparentely in Ancient Times, back when the European’s were still
living in the dirt and hitting themselves with sticks, Asia and the
Mediterranean Countries were trading via sea with each other and with
the Mayans. The Surya Siddhanta, a textbook on Astronomy from India,
talks about the America’s and called it Patala or Pataldesa, which
means the underworld. Not because they believed it to be underground,
but because the other side of the globe appeared to be straight down
or underneath them.
It further explains that the Americas were called Surya and Asia was
called Devas. The Surya Siddhant says that the Devas and Asuras live
on the earth. The Devas live in the northern hemisphere (we now call
EAST or Asia) and the Asuryas live in the Southern hemisphere (we now
call WEST or the Americas) and have a tradition of enmity against each
other. It further says that the ocean which surrounds the poles of
the earth has divided the planet into two great continents; the
continent of the Devas and the continent of the Asuryas. The
Brahmanas of India write the Deva-Serman after their names thus
describing themselves as the Devas.
Hindu records say that a member of a great race which preceded ours
was a highly developed personality known a Asuramaya. He learned all
the basic cosmic cycles and used his knowledge to determine the
durations of the various geological and cyclical periods of human
evolution. The chronology and computations of the Tamil calendar, say
the Brahmans, are based upon the work of Asuramaya and upon carefully
maintained collateral zodiacal records. The name Asuramaya is
compound of the two Sanskrit words, Asurya and Maya. The personage
himself is Maya, the prefix Asura signifying that Maya was of the
Asuryas, a name given to a certain caste or people of Ancient times.
The word Asurya derives from surya, Sanskrit for the sun. The
astronomer named Maya was said to have gained his knowledge from
studying the sun. The sun and its encircling planets also occupied
the central attention of the Mayan astronomer caste in Central
America.
In ancient “Vedic” times there were two great architects, Visvakarma
of the demigods or Aryans, and Maya of the Asuryas. Surya Siddhanta
was gifted to Mayasura by the Sun (Or Brahma). The Mayan people, also
known as technicians, were no doubt named as such because of being
connected with this person named Maya or Mayasura or Maya Danava.
They were part of his clan or tribe. They had fallen away from the
Vedic way of life and were sent or escaped to the region of Central
America. They carried with them much of the science of astronomy and
navigation for which this Mayasura was known.
In the “Brahma-Vaivarta Purana”, Lord Krsna tells Ganga Devi that a
Golden Age will come in the Kali Yuga- one of the four stages of
development that the world goes through as part of the cycle of eras.
Lord Krsna predicted that this Golden Age will start 5,000 years after
the beginning of the Kali Yuga, and will last for 10,000 years.
The Mayan Calendar Prophesizes the Golden Age to start on 2012 and it
supposedly matches with the Hindu Calendars when their prophesized
Golden Age will start.
Arjuna one of the heroes of the Mahabharata was a friend of Maya, an
expert architect and he had also married a Naga princess. Maya
himself is described as an Asura, as contrasted with Devas (literally
bright ones), another fact of significance.
MAYAN ARCHITECTURE AND VASTU ARCHITECTURE
It is noted in the Vastu Shastras that the creator of its architecture
is named Mayan. Apparently Mayan is written in the architecture plans
of many of the great temples in India and around the world. I will
copy part of an article written about Sri V. Ganapati Sthapati
research.
It is Sthapati’s theory that Mayan, the creator of Indian
architecture, originated from the Mayan people of Central America. In
Indian history, Mayan appears several times, most significantly as the
author of Mayamatam, “Concept of Mayan” which is a Vastu Shastra, a
text on art, architecture and town planning. The traditional date for
this work is 8,000bce. Mayan appears in the Ramayana (2000bce) and
again in the Mahabharata (1400bce)-in the latter he designs a
magnificent palace for the Pandava brothers. Mayan is also mentioned
in Silappathikaram, an ancient Tamil scripture, and is author of Surya
Siddhanta, one of the most ancient Hindu treatises on astronomy.
The fundamental principle of Mayan’s architecture and town planning is
the “module.” Buildings and towns are to be laid out according to
certain multiples of a standard unit. Floor plans, door locations and
sizes, wall heights and roofs, all are determined by the modular plan.
More specifically, Mayan advocated the use of an eight-by-eight
square, for a total of 64 units, which is known as the Vastu Purusha
Mandala. The on-site inspection by Sthapati was to determine if the
Incan and Mayan structures did follow a modular plan and reflect the
Vastu Purusha Mandala. He also intended to examine the stone working
technology-his particular field of expertise.
Machu Picchu
The moment Sthapati approached an ancient Incan residential building
at Machu Picchu on March 15th, he pointed at the wall and said, “That
is a thickness of one kishku hasta”-33 inches, a standard measure in
South India first promulgated by Mayan. He proceeded to measure the
buildings in detail and discovered each was indeed built on a
module-based plan, following the system of Mayan’s eight-by-eight
squares. The module method was followed within small fractions of an
inch. The buildings were oriented toward certain points of the
compass, also a principle of Mayan, rather than randomly placed. Also
the lengths of buildings were never more than twice their width, as
Mayan stipulated.
CHICHEN ITZA
At Chichen Itza, Sthapati, Deva and Thamby again unsheathed their tape
measures and closely examined the Pyramid of the Castle. It too
conformed to the Vastu Vedic principles of Mayan. The temple structure
at the top was exactly 1/4th of the base. And the stepped pyramid
design derived from a three-dimensional extension of the basic
eight-by-eight grid system. The temple room at the top was also
modular in design, with the wall thickness determining the size of
doorways, location of columns, thickness of columns and the width and
length of the structure.
Most interesting was the name of this structure-chilambalam, meaning a
sacred space. It is Sthapati’s theory that the Mayans worshiped the
very concept of space, specifically a space made according to the
modular system. This same idea is found in Hinduism in the sacred room
in the center of the Chidambaram Siva Temple in South India, where
space or akasha is worshiped-there is no idol. Chidambaram, Sthapati
finds suspiciously like chilambalam, means “hall of consciousness.”
The concept of sacred space is at the center of the mystical shilpi
tradition of India
The richly decorated Mayan buildings provided a feast for a sculptor’s
eye. There is a very common feature called a “mask” by the
archeologists, but known to the Mayans as “Big Nose.” A nearly
identical face is a common feature of Hindu iconography, seen, for
example, at the top of the arch placed behind a deity. “It is the very
same thing in India,” we call it `Maha Nyasa’-Big Nose! Several other
details of the sculptures were similar or identical to India, such as
the earrings, ear plugs, teeth, head dresses, even buckles around the
waist. There are bas reliefs of priests sitting in lotus posture
meditating.
Sri Ganapati Sthapati concluded that after a lifetime study of South
Indian architecture, that Mayan, the divine architect of Indian
tradition, came from Central America.
LANGUAGE
Linguistic Similiarities between Mayan and Sanskrit.
Chacla in Mayan refers to force centers of the body similar to the
cakras of Hinduism. K’ultanlilni in Mayan refers to the power of God
within man which is controlled by the breath, similar in meaning to
kundalini. Mayan chilambalam refers to a sacred space, as does Tamil
Chidambaram. Yok’hah in Mayan means “on top of truth,” similar to yoga
in Sanskrit.
Southern Persia, Afghanistan, and Pakistan had several different
names: Sivapuri (The Region of God Shiva), Sivabhu (Sacred Land of
Shiva), Sivapuni (The Purity of Shiva), and Shivulba (The Womb,
Origin, or Cave of Shiva). The Pueblo Indians called their underworld
or place of origin Sibapu or Sibapuni; for the Mayans, it was
Shibalba, their “underworld” and place of the gods. The linguistic and
functional similarities of the Hindu Sivabhu, Sivapuni, and Shivulba
with the Puebloan Sibapu, Sivapuni, and the Mayan Shivalba (Xibalba)
are too nearly exact to be coincidences.
Guatemala derives from Sanskrit Guadhaamala, meaning Guha (Cosmic
Intelligence) + Dha (Serpentine) + Amala (Umbilical Cord). (the
Sacred Umbilical Cord Linking India with America?)
There is a Mayan holy book, Chilam Balam. Chilan or Chilam is a title
of Mayan priests. Balam is the Mayan name for Jaguar. In Sanskrit,
Cheilan = Ceylonese and Vyalam = tiger; lion; hunting leopard.
“Jaguar” probably stems from the Sanskrit Higkara, meaning Tiger-like
or “sounding like a tiger.”
Linguistic Similiarities between MAYAN and CEYLON.
They gave several names that directly and indirectly identified
Ceylon: Shilanka (Xilanca) – an ancient name of Ceylon (Zeilan-Ka).
Shikalanka (Xicalanca) – Ceylon. In Tamil, Shikalam.
Itzamna was one of their culture heroes. He claimed to have come from
a western country. Isham, meaning ‘Tiger, “”Land of Gold,” was a
Dravidian name of Ceylon. The Na in Isham-na is an honorific.
Ishbalanka (Xbalanca), another culture hero. In Tamil, it means “Shiva
of Lanka.” India’s God Shiva was supposed to have made the footprint
on top of Adam’s Peak in today’s Sri Lanka.
Shibalba, The Mayan underworld. This word stems From the Sanskrit
Shivulba, meaning “from the fountainhead of God Shiva-Mt. Meru, in
India.”
Palenke (Palenque). This name derives from the Tamil Pal-Lanka,
meaning “Protectorate of Lanka.” Ancient Lanka was India’s “Atlantis.”
The Yaxilan (Yakshilan) Mayan ruins. This name means “The Ceylon
Yakhs” in Sanskrit.
Ceren, a name of Ceylon. Some Mayan ruins in El Salvador are called Ceren.
Lacandon, a tribe of Yucatan. India’s god Kubera banished the Laks, a
Tartarian Huna or Rakshasha tribe from Northern India to Ceylon,
giving the country one of its many names and becoming the Lakan or
Lakam people. The Don in Lacan-don derives from Dan (Tannu or Dannu?).
(See the online Cologne Sanskrit and Tamil dictionaries for comparison
of ancient Ceylon names with those of Mayan tribes and places.)