Ram
Puniyani
One of the best
parts of childhood for me was to enjoy the mythological tales and become aware
of the world where Lord Hanuman could fly, as the emergency herbal treatment is
to be delivered to his master’s brother; Laxman. Lord Ram travelling by Pushpak
Viman (aero plane), Lord Ganesha being planted with the head of elephant as his
human head was chopped off by his father, all this was uncritically digested.
Karna is born from the ear of his mother; Kauravas are born from the mass
delivered by Gandhari, the mass being divided into 100 pieces and being
preserved. Such fanciful imaginations were so engrossing that questioning them
never came to my mind. With growing up years, some exposure to science and then
rigorous training for close to decade in a medical school forced one to revisit
the childhood fantasies built around mythological fictions. Realization
gradually dawned as to how to distinguish between fact and fiction, history and
mythology. The beauty of imagination; fiction of the pre-Historic times, does
still remain etched somewhere but is not a guiding principle for understanding
of social phenomenon and processes.
While going
through the tough medical discipline, one came to see the complexity of human
body, histopathology, immune systems, blood groups, bio-compatibility and what
have you. A mere thought that Lord Ganesha could carry an elephant head if taken
logically will lead you to so many questions. If the head is severed from the
body; for how many minutes one can survive? The head houses the brain with
higher centers for control of breathing and heart pumping amongst others, so how
long can one remain alive to be a recipient for other’s organs, and that too the
head of an elephant? What is the difference in the immune system of human body
and elephant? Even while transplanting kidney to one human being to another
there are battery of tests carried on meticulously to assess the compatibility
between recipient and the donor. So there was all this paraphernalia, if Mr.
Modi is to be believed?
A mass delivered
from uterus; can it be divided into 100 pieces? What type of micro surgery is
required for splitting the fertilized ovum? Can uterus be located near ear? I am
sure all these questions must have cropped up in the minds of the doctors, who
had the privilege of listening to their Prime Minister in person when he was
inaugurating their hospital. They heard, “We can feel proud of what our country
achieved in medical science at one point of time. We all read about Karna in
Mahabharata. If we think a little more, we realize that Mahabharata says Karna
was not born from his mother’s womb. This means that genetic science was present
at that time. That is why Karna could be born outside his mother’s womb… We
worship Lord Ganesh. There must have been some plastic surgeon at that time,
which got an elephant’s head on the body of a human being and began the practice
of plastic surgery”.
Hope
the hospital he inaugurated is not planning to undertake such miraculous
surgeries and splitting of the ovum in to hundred pieces! Many in the country
surely must be feeling happy that their PM has given glory to ‘our’ past
achievements! By all accounts it was a pastoral society or might have been the
beginning of agricultural times, with hunting stage still lurking somewhere. The
facts are very different from the utterances of the PM.
The
practical impossibility of these fictional tales being true cannot be
overemphasized. As understood with great pain and scientific enterprise the
fictions of mythology of Mahabharata or Ramayana do not stand even a chance of
being actualized. All this requires a huge infrastructure, body of scientific
knowledge of human body, physics, astronomy, and myriad other components of
knowledge which have been growing from the past but have taken definitive
contours in last few centuries only. With all this progress in scientific
enterprise today none of these ‘glorious achievements’ can even be dreamt of
even today. The World of science has taken giant strides and built up on the
cumulative knowledge of human society as a whole. Surely there are many
contributions which came up in ancient India, and they need to be underlined,
and their wisdom and logical method highlighted. Some of these are the ones
related to Charak Samhita (Medical science), Sushrut (Surgical techniques);
contributions of Aryabhatt in astronomy and discovery of zero. What is important
is to build a method of thinking and logic which can take us to the next step of
the knowledge, ultimately leading to techniques and applications, which in turn
can be used to enhance and enrich existing scientific knowledge.
It’s
not that it’s only in our country that such mythological fantasies developed.
All old civilizations have such interesting myths. In Egypt, in
prehistoric times the tales of Cleopatra tell us that she had belief, like
probably many other Egyptians, in the supreme power of many gods who had
animal’s heads, like Baboon God head Hedj-Wer and Annubis the jackal headed God.
Had the likes of Modi known about this Egyptian belief, the claim of ‘export of
our knowledge’ claim would have been registered by now. What a coincidence with
our own Lord Ganesh? Is it again a case of plastic surgery or flight of
imagination? In
Greek mythology, Chinese mythology and many other traditions such fictional
characters do merrily abound.
The
hope and prayer is that in order to prove the point, those in seats of power do
not divert and waste social funds for investigations of these fantasies. While
an average person can believe in Lord Ram’s travel in Pushpak Viman or someone
else travelling on a flying mat, if those in power believe in these things; the
danger of public money and state funds being diverted for ‘research’ in these
fantasies is very frightening. One recalls that during Zia Ul Haq’s regime in
one of the conferences was on ‘how to solve the power shortage’. Encouraged by
the atmosphere where it is supposed that all knowledge is already there in our
holy books, one ‘scientist’ presented a ‘research paper’ which argued that
jinns are an infinite source of energy and that should be harnessed to
solve the power crisis in Pakistan! Mercifully, one hopes that state did not
allocate funds for such a research! Any way science is a universal knowledge not
owing allegiance to any country or religion. There cannot be anything like a
Hindu science or a Muslim science!
While
individuals can harbor the reality of mythology, the matters will be difficult
if the chief of state has belief in these fictions being part of History. That
will be a big set back to the progress of scientific, rational thinking and
enterprise. This combination of mythology, religion and politics will make the
matters worse. Many competing mythologies will be struggling with each other for
their acceptance and being encouraged by such utterances. And the fantasies of
power of jinn’s and plastic surgery for Lord Ganesha will a have field
day.
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