Illusion of Taste

B Premanand The four primary sensations of taste are sweet, sour, salt and bitter. Although some taste buds are situated on the palate, tonsils and in the upper throat, the tongue is the central stage. Its tip is more sensitive to sweetness than any other part because the highest concentrations of sweet taste receptors are located there. Saltiness and sourness hold sway at the sides, the former near the tip, the latter more centrally. All tastes are combinations of the effects by food on the...

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Illusion of Hearing

B Premanand The outer ears designed to collect sound waves, and channel them through a can one inch in length until they reach the ear drum, a thin membrane that vibrates in response. These vibrations pass directly on to the adjacent middle ear, a cavity no more than a third of an inch wide and a sixth of an inch deep, dominated by three small bones hinged together and whimsically named hammer, anvil and stirrup after the ironmongery they appear to resemble. The ossicles, as they are collectively...

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Optical Illusion

B Premanand What happens when we see? Information in the form of light waves is projected from the external world via the opening in the iris onto a highly sensitive screen called the retina, a layer of cells extending over virtually the whole of the inside of the eye. These cells translate the light stimuli focused upon them into nervous impulses and transmit them to the brain for interpretation by means of the optic nerve. Only then can the ‘seeing’ really begin and concepts such as color,...

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Faith versus Universal Compassion - Part III

P L Rao (Part I and Part II of this Essay are here) Flourishing field of Religion                  Religious field is flourishing today due to the vast scope of earning fame and power.  Scandals and Babas sail together. But the institutions survive due to political patronage enjoyed by the community as a whole. None bothers if the stated objectives of these institutions are flouted as people are just...

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Indian Materialism

August Thalheimer  [This essay is Chapter 6 of August Thalheimer's 'Introduction to Dialectical Materialism -The Marxist World-View'] August Thalheimer The Greeks played the leading role in the foundation of science and philosophy, and in the detachment of these from religion, but they are not alone in having made this progress. It is no more than just to mention the great intellectual labor performed by the people of the East, even though this labor was not as consequential...

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Illusion of the Senses

Chapter II Illusion of the Senses There may be millions of devotees of godmen and avatars who have witnessed the apparent creation of objects from “nowhere” and are prepared to stand witness to the alleged creation. Can their testimony be taken at face value as true? No, because they are unable to see the phenomena from all the six sides. Moreover they fail to observe carefully because the creation of objects is done without their previous knowledge. The act is so swift and sudden that the observer...

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Ashta Siddhis through Sponge Balls

Experiment -2 Effect: Making a match box disappear and appear Props: One match box Method: With the movement of the hands and the fingers one can make an object appear, disappear or change to another. Take a match box in the palm between the small finger and the index finger. While moving the hand vertically palm side, with the match box to the audience, push the match box to tips of the fingers, simultaneously pushing the match box to the other side of the hand by using the ring finger and the middle finger and holding it by the little finger...

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Creating Holy Ash – Sai Baba Style

Experiment – 1 Effect: Creating Holy Ash – Sai Baba Style Props: Perfumed Vibhui, starch water extracted from cooked rice, a plate to make the pellets with vibhuti. Method: The perfumed ash is mixed in the starch water and made into small pellets and dried. This pellet is hidden between the thumb and the index finger. One has to learn to keep the hand relaxed without keeping the fingers stiff. One must also be able to use the fingers and hands to say “namaste”, shake hands, drink coffee and...

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Kashmir, Ultra Nationalists and Path to Peaceful Solution

Ram Puniyani Prasant Bhushan The condemnable attack on Supreme Court Lawyer and ‘team Anna’ member Prashant Bhushan on 12th October 2011, threw up many a questions. To begin with the attackers were congratulated by ‘ultra Nationalists’ like Bal Thackeray of Shiv Sena, showing the gross intolerance around certain issues in our society, more particularly those related to Kashmir and other issues being raised by those who have been practicing the sectarian politics. It does reflect the growing...

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Faith versus Universal Compassion - Part II

P L Rao (Part I of this Essay is here) History of growth of "Faith" in some important religions Faith as an entity is the backbone of any theology. We now examine how true this statement is by taking example of few religions. Hinduism was born in about 2000 BCE as a blend of emigrant Indo Aryan and earlier existing Dravidian culture. The latter were basically nature worshipers and the Aryans brought in a cult of assigning each such natural event as sunshine, flood, rain, wind, sickness, fire,...

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U.S. Evangelist Held for Violating Visa Norms

(The Hindu, October 15, 2011) William Lee, the U.S.-based evangelist, who went into hiding after police spotted him violating visa norms by addressing a gospel convention in the city on Wednesday, was arrested and produced before the Judicial First Class Magistrate Court-I here on Saturday. He was remanded in judicial custody till October 18.Mr. Lee arrived on a multiple-entry tourist visa, which was valid till March 20, 2012.  Following information that he would be addressing the convention named ‘Musical Splash 2011,' organised by the...

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Communal Violence (Prevention) Bill

Ram Puniyani In a recently held meeting of the National Integration Council, in September 2011, the discussion on The Prevention of Communal and Targeted Violence (Access to Justice and Reparation) Bill 2011 was on the top of the agenda. While the leaders of opposition of both the houses of parliament, Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley, came down heavily on the draft Bill, there were not too many members of the council speaking in support of it. The ruling party members were quiet as most of the opposition leaders criticised the proposed draft....

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Delhi University scraps Ramanujan's essay on Ramayana

Under protest from Hindutva fanatics, the top academic body of the Delhi University has decided to withdraw an essay by eminent scholar A K Ramanujan on the Ramayana. We reproduce two news reports on this retrograde steps of the university. Deccan Herald (October 15, 2011) Delhi University's top academic body has decided to withdraw from its History syllabus an essay by eminent scholar A K Ramanujan on the Ramayana that had run into a controversy and even sparked...

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Philosophy Is Dead: Long Live Science

Innaiah Narisetti In their latest book, The Grand Design, Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow declare positively that philosophy is dead. Alarming to philosophy lovers, of course. During 1940s, M.N. Roy, the humanist philosopher, warned that unless philosophy took into consideration the philosophical consequences of modern science, it would not survive. That is exactly the reason why Stephen Hawking emphatically says that philosophy is dead. Philosophy has to answer the questions faced by modern...

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Sufi Islamic Sect Warns Against Hardline Wahabi Extremism

The All-India Ulama & Mashaikh Board (AIUMB), a Sufi Islamic branch claiming to represent 80 per cent of Indian Sunni Muslims, has come out strongly against hardline Wahabism, holding the ideology responsible for radicalisation of young Indian Muslims. The AIUMB counts itself among the significant Sufi Khanquahs in India, among them Ajmer Shareef and Dargah Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya. “Wahabi-influenced terrorism has taken a section of Indian Muslim youth in its grip,” said Maulana Syed Mohd Ashraf Kachochavi, AIUMB general secretary at...

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