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Here is a series of Emails that one or more of you might find interesting. They have to do with creation of the universe in hindu and jewish tradition:
It is said that Shiva appeared to Panini and played the drum for
>Panini; and said that if you can understand these rhythms, then you
>will understand sanskrit grammar and well as all science and art and
>ye even the creation of the world (Loose translation). As a
>cosmologist and rudimental drummer I have always wondered exactly
>what Shiva meant. Do any of you have insight here?
>>
>> Richard Ruquist
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>
>Some may be interested in the attached excerpt & link. From the
>little I know, the transliteration is far from good. Also
>interesting, from this & from what Richard says above, that the
>Panini grammar appears to have its roots in a direct revelation?
>
>Nick
>
>
>The story of Panini is told in the Katha-sarit-sagara. In Pataliputra
>(modern Patna), in Magadha, there were two men called Varsopadhyaya
>and Upavarsopadhyaya - the second was the younger of the two.
>Upakosala was Upavarsopadhyaya's daughter. Panini and Vararuci were
>Varsopadhyaya's students. Panini made little progress in his lessons.
>So his teacher asked him to go to the Himalaya and practise
>austerities. The student did so and through the grace of Isvara
>received the power to witness the tandava dance of Nataraja. With
>this divine gift of the Lord, Panini indeed saw the tandava and heard
>the fourteen sounds at its conclusion. For him these sounds meant the
>fourteen cardinal sutras of grammar and on them he based his
>Astadhyayi. As its very name suggests, this work, which is the source
>book of Sanskrit grammar, has eight chapters.
>
>The fourteen sounds are recited at the upakarma ceremony. Since they
>emanated from the drum of Mahesvara(Nataraja), they are
>called "Mahesvarasutras". Human beings can produce only inarticulate
>sounds on the musical instruments played by them. The hand of
>Paramesvara is verliy the Nadabrahman and Sabdabrahaman incarnate, so
>his cappu on the damaruka at the conclusion of his tandava sounded as
>a series(garland) of fourteen letters:
>
>1. a i un; 2. rlk; 3. e on; 4. ai auc; 5. hayavarat; 6. lan; 7. nama
>nana nam; 8. jha bha n; 9. gha da dha s; 10. ja ba ga da da s; 11.
>kha pha cha tha tha catatav; 12. kapay; 13. sa sa sar; 14. hal-iti
>Mahesvarani sutrani.
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Thanks for the information and the link. It does not say anything about how the world was created or how that could be understood from the sounds of the drum. But it relates the sounds of Siva's drum to grammar quite well.
In this regard it reminds me of the jewish kabbalistic 'Book of Creation', supposedly authored by Abraham, the father of Judaism. This book seemingly predicts many features of string theory. The book has two sections.
The first section discusses the ten dimensions of god and how six of them roll up. It is a very close description of the compactification of six of the ten dimensions required to make matter in string theory. Six dimensions have to be compactified, to become invisible, to obtain 4-D space-time.
The second section is the one that correlates with Siva's drumming. Here it is claimed that the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet were used by god to create the world. So sound is instrumental in the creation process. I think the 22 letters are the number of dimensions that become compactified in going from a 26-D world to a 4-D space-time. There are two versions of string theory. One can only exist in 26 dimensions and that version cannot contain matter- only force, presumably the unified field so well known in TM. Two of the 26 dimensions are time like, and some particles, tachyons, can travel faster than light.
For lack of matter and because of the tachyons, physicists never had much regard for the simple non-supersymmetric 26-D string theory. In the 1980s, Max Green then found a 10-D super symmetric string theory that allowed for matter (fermions) as well as force (Bosons) and string theory took off since then.
The 26-D theory has essentially been forgotten. But I believe that it is the source of the unified field, which should be of interest to TM. I had discussions with John Hegelin in the late 1980s about this, but nothing much came from them.
So the Book of Creation correlates well with string theory, and both jewish and hindu tradition suggests that sound and/or grammar can be used to understand creation. If so, then how do the 14 sounds of Panini fit into this picture. I cannot think of a numerology that works very well.
For instance, if the world is 26-D, then 16 dimensions must first compactify to get to the 10-D required for creation of matter. I would be quite pleased if Panini had heard 16 cuppu sounds. Then it would be clear that the blueprint of the world (i.e., its natural laws) is incorporated into the 16 compactified dimensions.
By the way, these 16 dimensions seem to be the source of Dark Energy and the 6 later compactified dimensions seem to be the source of Dark Matter, for those of you familiar with those concepts. [I make this claim because the ratio of 6 to 16 is just the ratio of dark matter to dark energy now observed. Schwarz, the so-called father of superstring theory (I guess Max is not old enough) finds this "amusing", and Guth (the father of inflation theory despite his youth)claims it cannot be]
So if anyone can clear up the 14/16 numerology discrepancy, I would be overjoyed. Here are my thoughts. Two of the 26 dimensions are time like, with one time going into the ten for matter and the other staying with the 16. So that leaves 15 for compactification. Now Witten, the presently considered genius of string theory, claims that 11 dimensions are required for matter creation. So that brings the number of dark energy dimensions down to 14, and we would associate each of these dimensions with the 14 sounds of Siva. However, that is not consistent with drum rudiments.
Here is what I see the connection to US military rudimental drumming is: In the system of this kind of drumming, which uses two sticks on one head, I can only produce three basic sounds- the single stroke, the double stroke and the flam, which is striking the drum with both stricks at the same time. Hindu drumming may have more basic sounds.
These basic sounds are like letters in an alphabet. In my drumming they are combined into strings of sounds that are called rudiments. In language they are called words. For instance, the flam is a rudiment by itself, the only basic sound that is a rudiment. Combine a double stroke with a single stroke and you get the drag or ruff. Combine several double strokes with a single stroke and you get a roll. Combinations of single strokes, flams and ruffs yield many rudiments with interesting names like flamacue, paradiddle, double drag, ratamacue, whose names are reminders of the sound produced. In military drumming there are 26 accepted rudiments. But many more are currently used, borrowed from Swiss and Scottish drum rudiments. The number of possible combinations are actually infinite.
The sounds of Siva in this regard appear to be like rudiments or words. Now if we claim that each basic sound or letter is a dimension in the universe, then we are seemingly being told by Siva that the 14 first compactified dimensions are combined in different arrangemnts, rudiments or words, to create the natural laws that govern and guide the creative processes in the universe.
The 14 Siva sounds found in the link below:
http://www.kamakoti.org/hindudharma/part7/chap2.htm
seem to indicate combinations of basic sounds or letters into words. There are two basic sounds, rlk and lan, that are words in themselves and all the other Siva sounds are more like combinations of letters. There seem to be 32 or more separate basic letters making up the 14 Siva sounds. No idea what that means.
Any way, I wold appreciate a link to Panini's grammar and how it is based on the 14 Siva sounds.
And my guess is that as far as the creation process is concerned, these sounds are descriptions of the mechanics of Dark Energy. But that is all speculation.
I would appreciate any thoughts on these ideas, especially inspired ones.
Richard Ruquist |
