AFVOA Newletter August 2020

Section 6 – eConnect Reviews CV 2 No. 02 / 2020 Page 198 of 237 4 Gaganyan & The Indian Space Warrior (Meeting with Prof Dr K Ganapathy) Wg Cdr C Ravishankar Genre: eConnect Review Straight from the Heart Series #5 ractice makes perfect, doesn’t it? Spurred on by the lively interest shown by the participants in the earlier meetings, the Managing Committee of AFVOA is super charged to line up engaging interactions week on week. The members of the Managing Committee will all agree that the energy and enthusiasm of its President are infectious. Starting May 17 this year, every Sunday (except May 31) had an interesting event lined up, making us wonder if the Covid19 lockdown is bad after all! The frequency of veterans’ interaction is steadily moving northwards. ‘More the merrier’ is the new mantra emerging. As we read this report today, events for the next 2 to 3 weekends have been lined up already. The journey commenced with fine arts, moved on to local history and the ever widening net brought science and technology under its focus this week. The members acquiring a good handle on attending virtual meetings along the way is another significant milestone. Super celestial knowledge and ancient India, more aptly Bharatvarsha, are very closely linked. Isn’t it amazing that the scriptures that originated during the Vedic Era (Circa 1500 BCE to Circa 500 BCE), while describing Varaha Avatar of Lord Vishnu, describe the earth as “ भूगोल “. This was many centuries before the Greek mathematicians / astronomers Pythogoras and Eratosthenes who prophesized about the Earth’s spherical shape. While the Pushpak Viman of Emperor Ravana (5000 BCE) may be dismissed as a mere mythological suggestion, it was indicative of human imagination that manned flights are indeed possible. The civilized world had to wait till the 17 C E for conclusive scientific proof of the shape of the Earth. The age old practice of casting the Indian almanac is another solid example of our ancient wisdom. It takes elaborate mathematical work involving high level of spherical geometry and sound understanding of astronomical phenomena, such as sidereal movements of heavenly bodies. All these without the help of Calculators, Computers and Super Computers. Our scriptures also talk about few more cosmic layers above Booloka (aka Jambudwip) such as Pushkardwip, Lokaloka, Buvaraloka, Swargaloka, Dhruvaloka, Mahaloka, Janaloka, Tapaloka and Sathyaloka. It may take a few centuries of human scientific advancement to get an idea about what these are. Backed by such rich legacy of cosmic knowledge, Bharatvarsha had a very strong case for being in the forefront of research on space science but successive invasions during the middle ages, followed by colonization by foreign powers killed the momentum for centuries. Though the post P