Sunday, November 14, 2010

वक्रतुण्ड (vakratuNDa) ...

Almost all Ganapthi Slokas highlight his ability to remove obstacles and the following Sloka is no exception:

वक्रतुण्ड महाकाय​
सूर्यकोटि समप्रभ​।
निर्विघ्नम् कुरु मे देव​
सर्व कार्येषु सर्वदा॥

vakratuNDa mahAkAya
suryakoTi samaprabha |
nirvighnam kuru me deva
sarva kAryeshu sarvadA ||

वक्रतुण्ड  - One with a twisted trunk
महाकाय​ - mighty body
सूर्यकोटि - 10 million suns
समप्रभ​ - equivalently bright
निर्विघ्नम् - free of obstacles
कुरु  - make
मे देव​ - my Lord
सर्व कार्येषु - in all my endeavors
सर्वदा - always

O' Lord with a twisted trunk and a mighty body, One whose brilliance is equivalent to the brightness of 10 million suns, my Lord, always make all my endeavors free of obstacles.

This is the conventional explanation to this Sloka. I recently came across a different explanation that maintains that this Sloka contains a much deeper scientific theory. To paraphrase the explanation:

The only place in this universe where we can witness a brightness of 10 millions suns in one place is a supernova explosion of a massive star. For a star to undergo a supernova explosion it has to be much more massive than an average star like Sun (thats why its said Mahakaaya, not just Kaaya). So whats the imbalance then? Well, thats what causes a supernova explosion!! A star is always balanced against its continuous nuclear explosions (which is an outward force) at the core by its massive gravity (which is an inward force), in huge stars as the nuclear fuel is spent and the explosions move outwards from core towards the surface of the star, this creates an imbalance as the explosions are no longer able to counter balance the gravitational inward force, this in massive stars (whose mass is above the chandrashekar limit) causes an explosion resulting in the star releasing so much energy that its brightness outshines the brightness of its entire galaxy during the explosion, some documented supernovas witnessed from earth were so bright (like the supernova in constellation Taurus recorded by the Chinese in 1054 ) that the supernova star was visible even during day in the sky (which meant it was brighter than sun inspite of being 1000s of times far away than sun!!). So the first line when explains a supernova explosion as When the balance of two forces that hold a massive star together is lost, the result is an explosion with a brightness equivalent to that of 10 million suns.

I have always felt that our Vedas contain significant revelations about the origin of the universe and about all scientific phenomena in general. The above piece of explanation seems like a very compelling analogy between a simple Sloka and a major cosmic occurrence. However, I cannot see the connection between the first two lines of the Sloka and the final two. Also, without taking anything away from the explanation itself, I cannot comprehend why such a deep scientific theory would be explained in such encrypted fashion without no explanations leading into it or following it. Maybe I will figure it out over time!

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