PART III: LEGENDS
by Anthony Forwood (2011)
19: Ancient Indian Texts
Probably the most well known ancient texts to come from India are the Vedas, which are said to have originally been composed by the gods themselves. These texts are filled with tales of the Hindu gods that bare a close similarity to those of the earlier Sumerians as well as the later Greeks. In all three, a pantheon of twelve gods are attributed to twelve planetary bodies. The similarities reveal that the Greek tales were later versions of the earlier texts from Sumer and from the Indus Valley.
The original Aryan race, although its origins are little known about, are described in ancient Indian texts as being ‘noble men’ who came from the northwest (the Caucasus region) and brought with them the Vedas, at around 1,500 BC. However, whether or not they are the original bringers of civilization to the Indus region is disputable, and there is evidence that the Indian people have lived in that area for more than fifty thousand years.
Another much older race that existed in ancient India were known as the Nagas. They were a white-skinned people who, according to the Ramayana, were the first to arrive in India, between 70,000 BC and 30,000 BC. They came from the east, some suggesting the lost continent of Lemuria, and after having spent some time in Burma, finally settled on the Deccan Plateau in northern India. Interestingly, they are also referred to as the Maya in the Indian texts. They were experts at navigation as well as architecture, sailing all the seas and building great cities and palaces. The Ramayana states that the Nagas established the Rama empire in India, and introduced their religion to Babylon and Egypt. These Nagas are also reported to have been able to fly, and possessed paranormal abilities. Their underground world is also said to be filled with great treasures, reminiscent of later myths regarding dragons and their treasures.
Many ancient texts from India speak of a past civilization that once existed on Earth, and reveal the advanced technologies that the people of this ancient civilization had. Not the least of these were flying machines, the descriptions of which sound very much like the flying saucers of modern-day legend. In fact, these ancient texts don’t just provide descriptions of these machines, but actual design specifications and operating instructions have been discovered as well. It’s very hard to conceive why such meticulous descriptive details would have been written and preserved if these had just been fanciful stories.
These flying machines were known as vimanas or vailixi, and are discussed at length in such ancient Indian texts as the Vedas, the Ramayana, the Samara Sutradhara (Samarangana Sutradhara), the Vaimanika Sastra (Vimanica Shastra), the Dronaparva (a chapter of the epic Mahabharata), the Samar, the Mahavira of Bhavabhuti (compiled in the eighth century from older texts), the Bhagavata Purana, and others.
The Vimanica Shastra, or ‘textbook of space travel’, is traditionally believed to have been written at about 3,000 BC by a man named Maharishi Baradhvaja, although western Indologists claim he lived during the more recent date of 700 BC. Whatever the case, this text describes vimanas as being self-powered, and able to travel equally well on land, in water, or in the air. Not only that, but it states that they were able to travel to other planets, to become invisible, to have the ability to overhear conversations in enemy craft, as well as to see inside and to know the course of other craft, and even to be able to render unconscious the pilots of other craft.
In the Samara Sutradhara, vimanas are described as operating on mercurial energy. It describes the ability of these craft to vertically ascend or descend, move backwards and forwards, and that the velocity increases with distance. It also states that with these machines, heavenly beings can visit the Earth.
In the Ramayana, a vimana is described that had two decks and many chambers with windows. It is said to make a tremendous noise as it ascends into the clouds and flies over the ocean like an arrow shot from a bow.
In the Dronaparva, vimanas are described as spherical in form, able to hover motionless in the air, and to fly in swarms.
The Bhagavata Purana is one of the oldest holy texts of Vedic India, and within it is described an aircraft that was built for King Salva. It’s written that the craft could appear as though it were a number of craft when in the sky, and at other times it was rendered invisible. It is described to be on the ground one moment, and in the sky the next, which is similar to the sudden and rapid movements that modern day UFOs are described as being capable of.
In this same text is described a sacrificial celebration that was attended by the demigod rulers of various planets, as well as other sages, patriarchs, and personalities from other worlds. During the celebration, the city’s domed palaces are described as being lit up “even as the domes of the beautiful aircraft which hover above the city”.
Virtually all of the attributes described in these ancient texts sound remarkably similar to those described in modern-day UFO reports.
In the Purana texts, the origin of spiritual knowledge of India is ascribed to the teachings of visitors from other planets. This supports and runs parallel to what’s written in the Sumerian texts, and, like the Sumerian texts, it explains human civilization’s sudden explosion from a hunter-gatherer state sometime between 8,000 and 5,000 BC. In the Sumerian texts, the reader will remember, the gods were called the ‘Anunnaki’, which literally translates to “those who came from heaven to Earth”, and were similarly described as traveling about the planet and in the heavens in flying craft, which the Sumerians called ‘mu’ or ‘shem’.
These craft described in the Indian texts were said to be the vehicles of the gods and demigods that came from the heavenly planets, and only a few Earthlings were ever given possession of one. This indicates that the time in question in the Indian texts may be the same early period of human civilization that’s described in the earlier Sumerian texts.
Many of these ancient Indian texts also describe a terrible war between the gods that took place thousands of years ago, which left devastation not at all unlike that of our own modern nuclear weapons. In fact, signs of this ancient devastation can still be found in the area where this war was said to have taken place. Evidence includes extremely high radiation readings at many ancient sites, as well as bricks and stones that have been unnaturally fused together by an intense heat, globs of glass that are the remains of melted pottery, and the skeletal remains of people who apparently died so suddenly that their remains were found positioned in the various activities they must have been engaged in at the moment of their sudden death. These descriptions are paralleled in the Sumerian texts as well.
Descriptions of weapons within the Indian texts include projectiles that were described as being brighter than a thousand suns when they exploded, and which made hair and fingernails fall out of those people who were lucky enough to not have been reduced to nothing more than ash. Foodstuffs became contaminated by these weapons, and within only hours, the feathers of birds turned white. It was written that the only escape for a person was to immerse oneself in water and to wash any belongings in order to decontaminate them. The similarities to modern nuclear weapons are very apparent and cannot be ignored.
The time that this war is said to have taken place matches the records or legends from other civilizations around the world. When taken together, the similarities between these separate stories give convincing and irrefutable support to the actual existence of a lost civilization such as Atlantis. They also support the idea that Earth has been visited by at least one extraterrestrial race in the long distant past.
The Purana texts, which are some of the oldest of the Indian legends, describe a time when there were great floods that destroyed coastal habitations, forcing the people to move inland. They were said to be guided by ‘rishis’ or sages, who were known to possess great knowledge. There have been found the remains of ancient civilizations under the waters off the coast of India, indicating that this coastal area was heavily inhabited before the glaciers of the last ice age melted and caused the ocean’s waters to rise up and engulf it. This supports claims that have been made that the Vedas were not brought to India by an Aryan race, which is simply a distortion of the truth imposed by later conquerors from the west (the British), who wished to maintain their modern understanding of human history while relegating the more ancient history of these people to mythical stature. The main argument against the extreme age of the Vedas (as these texts themselves state they are) is the fact that these texts claim civilization in India is far older than contemporary science and history would allow.
One of the most amazing things about the ancient Indian texts that relates to the discussion of this book is their understanding of cosmic cycles. According to the ancient Hindus, Brahma, the creator-god, creates and destroys the world with each cycle of breath. One day in the life of this god is equivalent to a ‘Kulpa’, which is divided into four smaller parts or cycles known as ‘Yugas’. These are:
· Satya Yuga – Age of Wisdom
· Treta Yuga – Age of Ritual
· Dvapara Yuga – Age of Doubt
· Kali Yuga – Age of Conflict
We are currently five or six thousand years into the last of these ages, the Kali Yuga, which began around 3102 BC, which is remarkable in that it is only twelve years earlier than the beginning of the Mayan calendar in 3114 BC (more on this in the next chapter). The Indian texts tell us that n past Yugas, beings were more than human and of godly stature, but have since receded into the shadows to watch over mortal men during the Kali Yuga. These beings do not age or even experience time as we do, nor do they suffer disease or death. These beings are said to have retreated to a subterranean place here on Earth – the city of Shambhala in ancient legends.
How long is a Yuga? This is described in certain commentaries on the Bhagavad Gita as being measured by divisions of the life span of the Divine Mother, which is equivalent to the duration of the entire cosmos (in Indian cosmology, this equates to eternity). The Divine Mother lives innumerable lives (thus eternity continues forever), and each is measured as one thousand life spans of Lord Shiva. In turn, one life span of Lord Shiva is one thousand life spans of Lord Vishnu, and one life span of Lord Vishnu is one thousand life spans of Brahma, the Creator. A single life span of Brahma is measured as one hundred years of Brahma, which are broken down further into twelve months of thirty days each. One day in the life of Brahma is equal to a Kulpa, and one Kulpa is made up of fourteen ‘Manus’. One Manu is equal to seventy-one ‘Chaturyugis’, and one Chaturyugi comprises the four Yugas listed above. Each of these Yugas are measured in terms of the first of them, the Satya-Yuga, with the Treta-Yuga being three-quarters of the Satya-Yuga, the Dvapara-Yuga being one-half the Satya-Yuga, and the Kali-Yuga being one quarter the Satya-Yuga. The Kali-Yuga is 432,000 years of Earth time. To make this easier to understand, I have listed the four Yugas again, as well as the complete Chaturyugi cycle, Manu cycle, and Kulpa cycle, with their corresponding lengths in Earth years:
· Satya Yuga – 1,728,000 years
· Treta Yuga – 1,296,000 years
· Dvapara Yuga – 864,000 years
· Kali Yuga – 432,000 years
· Chaturyugi – 4,320,000 years (one full cycle)
· Manu (71 Chaturyugi) – 306,720,000 years
· Kulpa (14 Manus) – 4,294,080,000 years
As can be seen, the periods comprising these Vedic cycles are longer than could possibly fit with our contemporary understanding of human history, yet it can be seen that the length of a Kulpa is very close to our modern scientist’s best theories as to the age of the universe (4.3 billion years). Is this just a lucky coincidence, or could the ancient Indian sages have known more than we give them credit for? Of course, the length of these periodic cycles that the ancient Indians describe in their texts extend even beyond the length of our human existence, and the texts claim that they refer to ages when material beings were not in existence. This means that these texts were derived from some higher intelligence. The texts themselves tell of an age when what we would refer to as gods were living on Earth. These gods, as we’ve seen, had what appear to be advanced technologies, and they were familiar with traveling to other planets and solar systems in the galaxy. Although the fact that they appear to have been material beings themselves, they were still more than human, and may have received their knowledge of these periodic cycles from beings that were still more godly and less material in form.
According to these ancient Indian texts, the Kali-Yuga is the most debased and materialistic of the Yugas, and when it ends and a new cycle starts with the beginning of a new Satya-Yuga, all will be rejuvenated into a higher spiritual form. The Puranas describe many things that will mark this age, which are exactly what we see taking place in our society, including the familiar acts of lying, cheating, stealing, coveting, murdering, warring, polluting, etc. Greed, hostilities, exploitation, and materialistic pursuits mark this age.
The Hindu religion incorporates the concept of reincarnation, which in turn involves the concept of karma, and together these regulate our ascension to a higher plane of existence or, alternatively, dissension to a lower plane, depending on our actions on this plane. The Hindu gods were themselves reincarnated many times, having lived through these great ages and acquiring the knowledge that they have imparted within these texts. Should we doubt what these texts say, and instead accept what we’re told by lesser beings who cling tightly to their self-importance and to the interpretations they devise as explanations for the evidence of mankind’s history and origins? I personally believe that these ancient texts have much more truth to them than do our recent theories.