THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE

According to a very conservative estimate there are one billion known galaxies in this seemingly infinite universe. “Milky way” our galaxy is one of the very small galaxies in the universe. Every galaxy has billions of stars. Our Sun is just one of those billions of stars in a corner of the Milky Way with a bunch of insignificant rocks orbiting around it.

It is scientifically untenable to assume that our earth is the only place in this infinite universe with life forms. We do not have any reason to believe that only our earth has some special qualities to evolve life. If favorable conditions exist and enough time was given, the universe would be teeming with life.

Well-known scientist and nuclear physicist, Enrico Fermi, famously asked in the year 1950 in a scientific gathering in Los Alamos “So where is everybody?”

Mankind was always obsessed scientifically and philosophically with the question whether we are alone in this vast universe. This question was addressed and popularized by some leading modern-day astronomers including Dr.Carl Sagan, who had contributed significantly to the research of extra-terrestrial life. He has also written some great books on the subject. I firmly believe “We are not alone”.

  

The Fact, Fiction and Fantasies

The stories of visitors coming from their heavenly abodes to earth could be seen in abundance in ancient traditions and mythologies of various countries. In ancient civilizations like India, Egypt, China and Latin America there are mythological references about the heavenly visitors landing in our earth using flying machines and performing many miracles. In the year 1968, Erich von Daniken, a Swiss, wrote a hugely successful book called “Chariots of Gods”. In that book he had proposed a theory that the earth was visited several times by ancient astronauts from other galaxies. He had cited many ancient structures like pyramids of Egypt and Mayan temples, astronaut-like figures and flying machines in the ancient paintings, stone carvings and other artifacts as proof of his theory. The book was quite entertaining and an instant hit. The fact that it was a bestseller for many months was a clear indication of people’s interest in the topic of alien visitors. In the wake of the success of this book many others followed suit with many crackpot theories of ancient astronauts.

Another phenomenon connected to the mankind’s obsession with extraterrestrial intelligence, was the UFO and Flying Saucers. In the year 1953, George Adamski, a self-proclaimed “ufologist” published a book called “Flying saucers have landed”. He claimed that he had witnessed the landing of a spacecraft with the shape of a flying saucer. According to Adamski an alien visitor from the planet Venus had emerged from the spacecraft, wearing a golden space suit, and communicated telepathically with him. Suddenly he became a very popular figure with a huge cult following. He had published a few more books, in which he claimed the he had been taken for space travel to other planets by the alien visitors. With these wild claims he had started loosing his credibility.

The subject of UFO (Unidentified Flying Objects) still continues to excite people all over the world. Hardly a day is passed without a report on UFO citing or abduction of people by the extraterrestrial visitors. The Web is full of stories about UFO visits, photographs of mysterious flying objects and alleged crashing of alien spacecrafts on earth etc. The word UFO is one of the most popular search keywords in Web search engines.

Even though most of the UFO citing could be explained as optical illusions or having natural causes, we cannot deny the fact that some of the UFO events remain mysterious without any possible scientific explanations. Some serious investigations have started taking place in many parts of the world about the UFO phenomena and the reported cases of abduction of people by aliens.

In addition to the popular books, there is some serious writing also on the topic of extraterrestrial intelligence. The list of authors includes eminent intellectuals like Carl Sagan, Arthur C.Clarke, Arthur Koestler and Colin Wilson. Dr.Carl Sagan was instrumental in setting up an institution called SETI (Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence). Sir Arthur C.Clarke had theorized a strong possibility of presence of life in two places in our immediate neighborhood - in Europa, one of the moons of Jupiter and Titan, one of the moons of Saturn.

One of the all-time great movies “2001, a space odyssey” written by Sir Clarke, presented a scientific and philosophical approach to the theme of alien intelligence.  Other important movies with this theme are “The War of the Worlds” (based on the classic novel written by H.G.Wells), “ET, the Extraterrestrial” and “Close Encounters of the third kind” by the Oscar winning director Steven Spielberg. Of the above four movies “The War of the Worlds” provided a frightening scenario of Martians invading and attacking Earth. This novel had four movie versions (the latest one was made by Spielberg). The “Star wars” movies made by George Lucas approached this theme as scientific fantasy in the backdrop of a futuristic fictional universe.

“Star Trek” and “X-Files” are the two most popular TV serials, which dealt with this subject - the first one being exclusively about inter-galactic adventure. Both of them were phenomenal hits and have left indelible mark in the history of Television entertainment.

“The Truth is out there” is a very famous and popular slogan shown with every episode of “X-Files”. This was selected as one of the 100 greatest TV catchphrases along with “Space, the Final Frontier”, the slogan of “Star Trek” series.

Are we from other planets?

Dr.Fred Hoyle and Dr.Chandra Wickramasinghe two great astronomers of modern times had proposed a revolutionary theory called “Panspermia”. The hypothesis of Panspermia says that the “seeds” of life is already present in the universe and they are carried by interstellar cloud, interstellar travelers such as comets, meteors etc and delivered to other destinations. Then the life had started thriving in favourable environment like our earth. One of the arguments, for this assumption, was based on the comparative study of the time of the appearance of earliest signs of life on the earth and the estimated time of origin of earth itself. The result has shown that only a very narrow window of time was available between these two events and the time was not sufficient for the complex life forms to evolve. They speculated that new life forms continue to enter our atmosphere and this may be the reason for epidemic outbreaks and new diseases caused by previously unknown causes. This theory still remains untested. Fred Hoyle had written a science fiction novel called “Life Cloud” based on this idea.

Nobel Laureate Francis Crick, who had discovered the structure of DNA, was the proponent of a much bolder theory of “Directed Panspermia”. Dr.Crick with Dr.Leslie Orgel, another eminent scientist had proposed that the fertilization of life on earth might have been done with deliberate seeding by a technologically advanced extraterrestrial civilization. They argued, “If life on earth sprang from some “primeval soup”, as many biologists believe, why various organisms with a number of different genetic codes don’t exist? Why there is only a single code for all terrestrial life?”

The Search 

The earnest and a systematic attempt to search, for extraterrestrial life and intelligence, were started with the establishment of SETI in 1960 at Cornell University. Later it was expanded in 1971 with the funding by NASA. In the year 1984 SETI institute was set up in California. “Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence” and “Life in the Universe” are the two areas of research undertaken in SETI institute.

Dr.Carl Sagan warns us about the possible gap in the level of intelligence and evolution between an advanced alien civilization and us. In the CETI conference of 1971 Dr.Sagan summed up this situation as follows: 

“Advanced extraterrestrial civilizations will be inconceivably in advance of our own. We have only to consider the changes in mankind in the last 10,000 years and the potential difficulties, which our Pleistocene ancestors would have in accommodating to our present society to realize what an unfathomable gap 100 million to 1 billion years represents. Such societies will have discovered laws of nature and invented technologies whose applications will appear to us indistinguishable from magic. There is a serious question about whether such societies are concerned with communicating with us, any more than we are concerned with communicating with our protozoan or bacterial forebears. We may study microorganisms, but we do not actually communicate with them”.

To design a foolproof experiment, we need to have a clear understanding about the nature of life and the definition of intelligence. What is life? How do we define life? How do we detect intelligence, even if we encounter an alien life form? - These are the important fundamental questions we have to address. Unfortunately we still do not have an absolute understanding about the concept of life and the signs of intelligence. Our understanding is quite inadequate and limited within the framework of earth. We try to detect life or intelligence in alien environments based on our limited earth-bound definitions. 

We tend to make a lot of assumptions when we plan our experiments to communicate with the extraterrestrial intelligence. We believe since mathematics is a direct reflection of the structure of the universe, it would be safe to assume that other advanced civilizations also would have the same understanding. We cannot be sure about this. We rely too much on mathematics as a means of communication with extraterrestrial intelligence. This belief may be misplaced. We perceive the world with our primary senses and locate objects in a three dimensional space. This need not be universally same.

In 1972, Carl Sagan together with Frank Drake had designed a plaque to be placed on the Pioneer 10 space-craft. The plaque was intended as a message for any extraterrestrial intelligence who might intercept the space-craft in future in a far off region of space. Pioneer spacecraft left the solar system in the year 1983. This year another spacecraft, the Voyager 1, had become the first manmade object to enter the interstellar space, continuing its journey into the unknown expanse of the inter-galactic frontiers.

Sir Arthur C. Clarke in one of his scientific articles raised this very pertinent question: “Is there intelligent life on earth?”

Mariamman Temple and the Kingdom of Champa

Before the reunification of Vietnam in 1975, there was a significant Indian population in Saigon. They had migrated during 19th century from the French territories of Pondicherry and Karaikal in South India. The Indians mainly belonged to the Tamil speaking “Chettiar” (Nagarathar) community. Most of them were involved in trading, money-lending and gold-loan business. They had become very powerful and had close links to the US supported government of South Vietnam.

They built a few Hindu temples in Vietnam.  The Mariamman Temple in Saigon was one of the most important places of worship for the Hindus. The Mariamman Temple in Ho Chi Minh City (new name of Saigon), dedicated to the South Indian Hindu deity Mariamman, was built in the late 19th century. The architectural style of the temple was exactly like the temples in Tamil Nadu.

After reunification and with the formation of communist government they had to flee the country leaving behind their riches. Only a tiny population of Tamils remained in Saigon. The Hindu temples were closed down.

The Saigon Mariamman temple was reopened in 1993 after the diplomatic negotiations between India and Vietnam. At present it is the only functioning Hindu temple in Ho Chi Minh City. The Mariamman Temple was very popular among various communities of Saigon. Even Vietnamese and Chinese come there to worship the Goddess. The presiding deity of the temple Mariamman is another aspect of Goddess Parvathy. I went to that temple with my friend Krishnan.

Inside the temple we could see the installed statues of deities including Goddess Paravati, Her sons Ganesha and Muruga, Siva, Lakshmi, Vishnu and various Devas.  Several colourful statues of Goddess Parvati could be seen on the surrounding outer wall in various incarnations such as Meenakshi Amman, Karumari Amman, Sivakami and Kamatchi etc. The temple also has a beautiful porcelain statue of Aandal, the only female Alvar who belong to the group of 8^th century Alvar saints of Tamil Nadu. The tower at the entrance stands more than 12 meters high.

It was really interesting to see a large number of Vietnamese and Chinese coming to the temple and praying with lighted incense sticks, like they do it in a Buddhist temple. There was a caretaker to look after the affairs of the temple. But there was no priest to conduct the religious ceremonies. 

                                                            (Mariamman Temple)

Like other South East Asian countries such as Thailand, Cambodia and Laos, Hinduism was nothing new to Vietnam. Archaeological expeditions during the last century discovered many monuments, sculptures and various religious artefacts in the Quang Nam region of Vietnam. This region was believed to be the land of ancient kingdom of Champa. The Cham people were civilized and had a highly evolved artistic tradition. The study of Champa arts revealed that they had a very distinct culture from other parts of Vietnam.

From further archaeological studies it was established that their religion was nothing but Hinduism. The language of Cham people was found to be a variation of ancient Sanskrit. The Hinduism had come to this region directly by the same route through which it had spread to Cambodia, Laos, Siam, Bali and other places during the fourth century AD.

The Cham people now live as an ethnic minority group with a population of only around 70,000. They still try to maintain their distinct cultural characteristics. A lot of research is going on regarding their roots and about their possible connection with ancient India. Now this entire archaeological area is included in the World Heritage List by UNESCO. My friend Dr.Vinod was one of the scholars doing UN funded research about the Cham people and their cultural links with ancient India.

Important thing that baffles my mind is that why in this entire region, Hinduism had ceased to exist as a functioning religion, in spite of a glorious past it had in all these countries.  Now what remains of those majestic and massive Hindu religious structures are hundreds of ruins protected as symbols of a historically important heritage. In some places we can see the temples were converted into Buddhist shrines, making them structurally and religiously incompatible hybrid monuments. Many other places the temples were simply ignored to deteriorate into ruins covered by vegetation. Only recently, importance of those structures was recognized by World bodies such as UNESCO and restoration works had started taking place. 

                                           (Buddha in a Temple in Angkor, Cambodia)
                                            

                                                     (Spirit worship house)

The question remains how Hinduism could attain glory as national religion in these countries ruled by Hindu Kings and suddenly how it had gone out of favour and Buddhism taking its place. How Hinduism was totally forgotten as a religion, even though an unmistakable cultural imprint of Hinduism could be seen even now in the life of people living in these countries. Even the mythological traditions such as Mahabharata and Ramayana are strongly embedded in their religious and cultural heritage and the symbols of the same could be seen in everyday life.

Hinduism had become the official religion for various South East Asian countries from the 5^th century AD. During this time, Mahayana Buddhism also had slowly spread in the region and existed in parallel with Hinduism. Hinduism was the most powerful religion and it gave rise to several religious and political centres of power in Champa kingdom (in Vietnam), Bali and Java (in Indonesia) and at Siem Riep in Cambodia and in various centres in Thailand.

Hinduism began to lose its influence in South East Asia and the period from 12^th to 14^th century saw its decline. In comparison, Buddhism gained popularity and by the end of 14th century, it replaced Hinduism as the religion of the State in most parts of the region.

One of the explanations for this transformation is the growth and increased acceptance of Buddhism in China, which could yield a strong influence on other countries of the region. This contributed significantly for this change. According to scholars and historians the most important reason was the elitist doctrine based on the caste system of Hinduism. There was no divisive concept of four castes in Buddhism or other later religions. The attractiveness of new philosophical concepts and teachings of the Buddhism, and its simplicity and identifiable humanistic ideologies made the rulers of the region to readily accept the new religion of Buddhism as the official religion of the state in place of Hinduism.  

Animism was also a widely followed religious alternative in South East Asia. People believed in spirit worship and had a tradition of ancestor worship. They could continue to follow their tribal tradition of animistic worship easily in compatible with Mahayana Buddhism. Even now we can see small “spirit houses” installed in front of most of the households in Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand.

But Buddhism could never grow more than Hinduism in India, even though India is the birth place of Buddhism also. Hinduism is in many respects unique in comparison with other major organized religions of the world. Hinduism is more than a religion. It is a way of life. It had evolved over several millenniums with a broad space for inherent cultural diversity within an abstract concept of loosely knit unity. Hinduism is pluralistic in nature and broad enough to accept and adapt new ideas and new Gods.  That is the main strength of Hinduism and that is why Buddhism in India could not overshadow Hinduism.

SLAVE FACTORY OF ELMINA CASTLE

During my school days, I had the opportunity to read “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”, the most popular bestseller about the slavery in America. I also read about how this book strongly influenced President Abraham Lincoln, who succeeded in abolishing slavery from America. 

The slavery was introduced in America centuries ago and the main slave trade route was from sub Saharan Africa to America. The first batch of slaves to leave Africa was from the Elmina Castle of Gold Coast. Gold Coast was colonised by Portuguese, Dutch and finally by the British invaders.  They named it Gold Coast, because of the abundance of gold in its soil. In 1957, Gold Coast had become the independent nation of Ghana.

A very long time after reading “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”, when I visited Ghana, in the year 2006, I was very particular about seeing the Elmina Castle and told this to my friend George Annan from Ghana. He arranged a trip to the central region of Ghana that included cities of Kumasi, Obuasi and the town of Elmina.  I could visit the infamous Castle of Elmina situated in the picturesque fishing town of Elmina. Elmina is around 140 kilometres from Accra, the capital city of Ghana. 

Portugal was the first colonial power to reach Ghana in the 15^th century (almost during the same period when they reached India). When they decided to set up their first trading post in the Ashanti region of Ghana, they chose the small fishing village of Elmina.  They built the castle of Elmina in the year 1482. It was the first permanent structure built by the Europeans in the sub Saharan Africa. What initially intended to be a trade post settlement for exporting gold, cocoa etc. was gradually transformed into a major hub for the trans- Atlantic slave trade.  By the seventeenth century, most trade in the region had deteriorated only to the trade of slaves.

The slaves were captured from the interior villages and also were bought in barter from the local tribal chieftains. They were sold to Portuguese traders in exchange of materials such as clothes, alcohol and other goods. The captive slaves were brought to the coast like a herd of animals on a very difficult journey which lasted many days. Many of the slaves did not even make it to the castle. The slaves were kept in the dungeons of the castle and were subjected to inhuman treatment.

Elmina castle had comfortable living quarters for the Europeans in the upper level. The slave dungeons below were filthy and cramped.  Each cell was used to house more than 200 slaves at a time. There was not enough space even for lying down. The filth and human excreta made the situation even worse. Diseases such as Malaria and Yellow fever caused many deaths. 

Women’s cells were accessible from the officers’ quarters and many young women were sexually abused and tortured. 

The slaves would wait, often, several weeks, for a ship to arrive. They were then traded for goods to the trans-Atlantic slave traders. The slaves in the castle went through the castle’s now- infamous “Door of No Return” without knowing the worse fate awaiting them. The ships would carry them on a treacherous journey across the Atlantic Ocean to North America, Caribbean, and Brazil and other destinations for reselling them as slaves. They were transported in such an unhygienic  and bad condition that several slaves were dead before arriving at the destination. By the 18^th century almost 30,000 slaves per year were traded through the Elmina Castle.

Elmina Castle is now preserved as a national museum and a historic structure. It is designated as a World Heritage Monument by the UNESCO. 

Getting inside the castle through the “Door of no return” I started my tour of the “Slave Factory” of the Elmina Castle. Once Inside the Castle, walking through the dark dungeons and cells, I could imagine how and in what condition those cells were used to house the slaves as herds of animals more than five hundred years ago. I could almost hear the cries of the tortured slaves. It was really a shocking experience.

US President Obama visited the castle in the year 2009 with his family. Inside the castle, he told the CNN correspondent "You almost feel as if the walls can speak. You try to project yourself into these incredibly harrowing moments".

The slavery was officially abolished in America on June 19^th 1865. After 144 years, a few weeks before Obama’s visit to Ghana, on June 19^th 2009, the American senate passed a resolution that acknowledged the fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality and inhumanity of slavery and apologized to African-Americans on behalf of the people of the United States for the wrongs committed against them and their ancestors who suffered under slavery. It was a historic resolution.

The fact, that the President and the first family of USA- descendants of Africans, with roots connected to the enslaved Africans - visited a slave trade port in Ghana, is itself a more significant occurrence than an apology.

Slavery was abolished in India in 1843 by the British Empire. That was 170 years ago. Is it really abolished from the Indian society? I believe slavery remains in India in different forms.

As Rousseau said "Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains”.