MYTHOLOGY, SCIENCE and SUPERSTITION

                                                                          By Vijayanta N Chitale

One day I had gone to weekly market to fetch vegetables. While returning, bumped into Madhu a good old friend of mine. She sarcastically retorted,” Tu kya poora bazaar utha ke le ja raha hai “ (are you carrying whole market with you). After exchanging pleasantries we walked our ways. Her simple words left a dent in my mind. Could the story of Hanuman carrying Dronagiri be a case of misinterpreted linguistics running down the ages?

The recent controversy of Setusamudram should really make one sit to understand superstition of mythology in backdrop of scientific reality. Let us start with birth of Ram. Epic Ramayana says Dashrath performed a yagnya. God Agni emerged at sacred altar. He gave bowl of Payaas and said by consuming the Payaas, the queens will conceive. The story is going on for eons. Nobody knows what were the contents of Payaas.But in Catering Technology, Payaas is a preparation with some ingredients processed in some specific manner. Nonetheless it is a preparation. In early fifties a beautiful lyric was composed on Ramayana in Marathi, the words of which,” Ranyaa kartil Pataas bhaksan, udaree hoyeel Vaunsha Roopun”. It means when the queens will consume the preparation, pregnancy will take place. So in so far all this can be drubbed as a superstition. Three decades later world’s first test tube baby was born by process called Artificial Insemination. Here the mother was injected with hormonal preparation. When the preparation was injected into her obviously she consumed it. Whether it was eternal (eating, gulping, chewing) or paraenternal (injection). The consumption was anyway consumption. Even in Ramayana there is no specific mention of Paayas being eaten as such. It only indicated a process by which the preparation had to go inside the body of queens. Therefore even by height of superstition Rama must not have been born simply by eating the sweet preparation as we believe today!

Of lately there is lot of propaganda by government machinery to promote breast feeding after some researches abroad confirmed infants do not even need water till age of six months if properly breast fed. In India in may part there is a ritual of Annaprashan performed on infants after around six months. On this occasion the child is to be fed with kheer, in terms of Catering Technology a semi solid preparation. The ritual is going on for ages. Were our ancestors who developed and followed the rituals in any way superstitious? If so then the scientist who conducted such research on infants too aren’t superstitious?

George Bernard Shaw, a playwright once said” we are made wise not by the recollection of our past, but by the responsibility for our future” Our responsibility towards future lies not in recollecting the past but understanding the past. Politics of today is going to be history of tomorrow. The epics have much to offer us. If only we could display the wisdom and humility to truly comprehend them.

Sai Baba a renowned saint from Maharashtra was refused oil to burn earthen lamps on occasion of Diwalee. Fable goes, he asked water to be put in lamps and lit them. This type of fable is told from some other parts in our country also. Today, when it is confirmed that our natural fuel reserves are to last not for very long time we need to develop alternate fuels. Recently it was reported that a cancer researcher John Kanzius accidentally discovered that as long as salt water was exposed to radio frequencies, it would burn. He was trying to desalinate seawater with radio frequency generator he has developed to treat cancer. The scientists are excited by the prospects of using salt water, which is in abundance on planet Earth. The region from where Sai Baba hailed too is hard water belt stretching from Ahmednagar, Shirdi, Shirur and Malegaon. Hard water is nothing but water mixed with various salts of phosphate etc. Could fable of Sai Baba be just a miracle? Are we not shrugging our responsibility towards future, without comprehending past? ?

Myth presumed to be reality is another facet we need to examine to shoulder responsibilities of future. We have a Child Marriage Prohibition act 1929, also known as Sharada act. The law had to be brought in as children were married at too young age. As per present provisions a girl ought to be 18 years old while the boy has to reach 21 years. If children were really married of at very young age then ritual of Upanayana which is present still in many parts of country is a myth. Upanayana was performed around 8 years of age after which child use to go to Guru (teacher)’s place for learning.  The learning period use to stretch over 12 years. That itself adds to 20 years. Even after marriage, couple could not copulate unless the ritual of Garbhadaan was performed. There is ritual of Gohana in many parts. Is then the concept of Child marriage not a myth even in the past? If child marriage was at all a reality in past, why is country facing the problem of termination of teenage pregnancies. This problem is confronted even abroad.

Have we not distorted science to suit vested interest at various levels and unduly created mythology….