Divyastra

By Nimish Bipin Tanna

Thousands of years ago, Indian Yogis possessed the knowledge to obtain the weapons of the gods. However, this knowledge could only be transferred from a Guru to his disciple by word of mouth. In today’s world, one mystic, who calls himself Guruji, still possesses this knowledge and is using it to empower an innocent person’s life. Only, this empowerment could be a deception and the innocent person is a thirteen year old boy with a stutter...
In this intertwining tale, an ambitious yet unsuccessful Shankar, in search of his identity, is manipulated to embark on a never-told-before fantasy tale; only to rediscover the father he never knew and unmask the mystical Guruji.
Amidst this confounding concoction of ancient myths, deluding personas and dispersed emotions, will Shankar ever be able to separate fact from fiction and find his true identity?

• Language: English
• Publisher: One Point Six Technologies Pvt Ltd
• Release date: Jan 9, 2019
• ISBN: 9789388573795

Nimish Bipin Tanna

Having authored his debut novel ‘Moments of Truth’ in 2014, Nimish has managed to juggle the pressures of his full-time work commitments, migrating to a new country and starting life all over again in order to find enough time to complete his second book – ‘Divyastra’.Nimish has been invited at various colleges & institutions viz. IBS Mumbai, ITM Business School, K.J. Somaiya college of Engineering, Vidyalankar Institute of Technology, Ruia College of science, Fazlani Altius Business School etc. to interact with students and share his insights and experiences on motivation, leadership, presentation, communication and creative writing.With active interests in, camping, hiking, movies, and herpetology; Nimish is currently learning the art of screenwriting.He is happily married and currently works with a leading media giant in Auckland, New [e-mail]

Book preview

1. THE POLYMATH

The Dr. S Bhagwanth auditorium was buzzing with murmurs as attendees kept pouring in from the bottle-necked entrances. With a seating capacity of a little over a thousand, the hall was falling short of chairs, but it did not affect the impending audience as they consumed every nook and corner of the hall. The auditorium doors had to be shut whilst many more aspiring attendees were trying to scurry through the security checks at the main gate of the Defence Research and Development Organisation, better known as DRDO. No more spectators were allowed in, not because the hall did not have room to squeeze in a couple more, but only because the speaker of the day, Dr. S. Vyas, was obsessed with punctuality.

Dr. Vyas’ talk was the highlight and nothing less than a crowd-magnet of the three-day ‘Weapons Symposium’. Born in a small town of Southern India, Dr. Vyas migrated to the United States with his family at a young age. His father, a renowned mathematician, was the only Indian at that time to be selected to be a part of a niche team of intellectuals and researchers for a seven-year project for NASA. Well, the seven years flew by but the project was not even close to completion, so it was granted an extension, which eventually led the budding Dr. Vyas to complete his education from some of the finest schools there. Since then, there was no stopping this genius.

A Nobel laureate in Physics was the most recent mark of honour in his extensive profile of achievements. Contradictorily, the audience today was not present to listen to a talk about physics, or mere physics, as Dr. Vyas preferred to call it. Well known for his sharp wits and agreeable countenance, Dr. Vyas was equally feared by the whole fraternity for his unpredictability, haughtiness and mood swings.

However, he still managed to charm anyone who was privileged to enter his circle of influence with his eccentric humour, subject matter knowledge and teaching abilities.

He was credited for inventing numerous ground-breaking technologies of modern times. Using his findings, some of the most advanced weapons were designed and built. His work was closely followed by more people than the collective number of Harry Potter fans across the world. He was the Tony Stark of academicians.

The present day saw afull house for Dr. Vyas’ lecture on ‘The future of weaponry’.

As the clock ticked nine, it was time for the talk to commence and Dr. Vyas walked on to the stage. Amidst the huge uproar of welcoming applause, standing six feet tall, Dr. Vyas looked distinguished. Appearing to be a pinnacle of active grey matter, he took his own sweet time to look at his audience. He saw faces of students, professors, delegates, scientists and senior military officers. Some highly influential people from Indian Space Research Organization, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre and other esteemed research organisations were present too. They all were in the august company of the man who never failed to astound people by his work, knowledge and perspective, in the same order of importance.

However, there were few cynics present in the audience who had debatable qualms on the subject of the lecture. After all, having lived all his life away from his own soil and spoiled by progressive western education, how much could he know about Indian Vedic science?

The audience settled as he began his lecture with a question, ‘How many theoretical physicists does it take to change a light bulb?’

Many attendees itched to answer but no one dared. As simple as the question appeared, the guests looked at each other through the corners of their eyes as they knew that if the question has come from Dr. Vyas, it could not be predictable.

‘Two!’ Dr. Vyas was forced to answer himself. ‘One to hold the bulb and the other to rotate the universe.’

The audience burst into laughter. He continued, ‘You know if it bites and scratches, it’s biology. If it stinks or pops, it is chemistry. And if it doesn’t work,’ he took a good look at the audience before completing his sentence, ‘it is bloody physics.’

Another round of laughter decanted. Dr. Vyas continued, ‘Can anyone present here tell me what is the most difficult aspect of sinking a submarine?’

This time all the military and naval officers looked at each other, waiting for the speaker to reveal.

‘Getting a submarine in the first place. They are so damn expensive!’

He interrupted the pandemonium. ‘But I have not flown from Florida to crack silly jokes on physics, have I?’ he asked rhetorically, this time with a grime expression.

The hall fell silent as a cemetery at night

Dr Vyas spoke, ‘The roots of Vedic science go far deeper than we can fabricate. About 10,000 years ago, the Varaha avatar of Lord Vishnu is shown in Vedas rescuing Earth from drowning in deep ocean waters merely by balancing our planet between his tusks,’. The huge projector screen at the back of the stage showed a colourful sketch of that episode from the Vedas where a wild boar was seen holding our Earth between his sharp tusks. ‘Now, for time being, let’s skip such unimaginable and what seems like impossible accounts from Indian mythology and look at simple things in this image. What is the shape of Earth in this picture?’ he threw the question to the audience.

The answer seemed obvious as it was right in front of them on the screen. ‘Spherical,’ said someone from the audience. ‘Round,’ said another.

‘Correct,’ Dr. Vyas responded and continued. ‘So, we all agree that Earth is round or spherical, to be precise.’

Heads bobbed in the audience.

‘And when exactly did we discover that Earth was round?’ This time there were no takers to the question. Dr. Vyas smiled.

‘Pythagoras is claimed to be the first one to suggest this in sixth century B.C. But Vedic science showed this many years before Pythagoras was even a sperm.’

Faint chuckles were heard from a few, but most of the audience seemed astonished. Dr. Vyas now knew he had their attention.

He continued, ‘This is not proved just from this image. The Hindi name for Geography is Bhugol, the etymology of which suggests the word comes from amalgamation of the words Bhumi which means Earth or land and Gol which means round. So, round Earth! Our planet is also called Jagat in Hindi -- the one that has Gati, which means speed or motion. So we not only knew that Earth was round, but we also knew that it moved much before the Western Renaissance thinkers claimed it.’

After a brief pause, he continues, ‘In 1903, the first airplane was officially successfully invented by the Wright brothers. However, our Vedas have documented proofs that Vimanas existed thousands of years ago in the form of Maharshi Bharadwaaja’s Vymaanika Shaastra, translated as Science of Aeronautics in English. The Vedas have descriptions of the designs, technologies, metals used, fuel and power sources, electricity generation, pilot protocols and even flight manuals,’ Dr. Vyas said.

After a brief pause, he continued, ‘Not so surprisingly, the aeronautical designs depict the take-off principles of a modern day spacecraft. Not only the scriptures, but experts like David Childress, author of the acclaimed Technology of Gods book; Michael Cremo, author of Forbidden Archaeology; Dr. Steven Greer, director of the Disclosure Project; and many more have validated them,’ he added, pointing towards the screen behind him.

The audience reverberated in agreement as they all saw drawings of ancient Vimanas exhibited in front of them.

Dr. Vyas continued, ‘There is a bright red star in the sky called Antares. Our ancient sages or Rishis called it Jyeshtha meaning the oldest, the biggest and the eldest. Now, I wondered why they would name it the biggest until I found out that Antares is 40,000 times bigger than the sun!’ Seeing the audience’s reaction, Dr. Vyas stated, ‘If this is surprising you, wait till you hear this. Do you know about the Big Bear, popularly known as the Great Bear constellation?’ The slideshow exhibited the constellation on the big screen.

Everybody nodded recognizing the image.

Pointing at the second star from the top, he continued, ‘Now, this particular star that you see is not really a single star. It is actually a pair of stars. Now, to be honest I am horrible at spotting these tiny dots in the sky, but our ancient scientists managed to find out that this tiny dot is actually not one, but two stars; they are called Arundhati and Vashistha. It does not end there. Most twin star systems in the universe rotate in a particular way like this,’ Dr. Vyas said pointing at the screen where an animated flash demonstration showed one star stationary while the other star revolving around it.

After giving a couple of seconds for audience to comprehend the pattern, he continued, ‘But our Arundhati and Vashistha stars do not follow the regular pattern. They move in this pattern,’ he said while pointing at the animation now visible next to previous one. This new animation showed that both stars moved and revolved around each other as if they were chasing each other slowly in a circular motion. ‘I like to call it a Tom and Jerry motion,’ Dr. Vyas commented. The audience found it amusing that a man of such stature was so simple in his analogies.

He further said, ‘Figuring out that a tiny sparkling dot in the sky is not one star but twins and then also knowing the pattern in which they moved without a telescope is phenomenal I would say.’

The audience clapped in awe, except one person. The exception raised his hand to ask a question. Dr. Vyas could not see the face clearly due to the beaming spotlight focusing on the stage. However, he nodded and a microphone was passed.

‘Would you eliminate the possibility that the sky that we see today is different than the sky these sages and Rishis saw 10,000 years ago?’

‘What is the point of your question?’ Dr. Vyas enquired. The questioner spoke again, ‘I mean isn’t it possible that without an ounce of pollution or environmental disturbances that modern life has contributed today, the sky was much clearer back then and maybe these cosmic sites were easily seen to the naked eye?’

Murmurs spread in the audience. Dr. Vyas, usually was not fond of premature questions but this one had spiked his interest. He tried to get a better look at this chap by blocking the beam of spotlight with his hand. In comparison to Dr. Vyas, he seemed like a young man. In his early thirties, the lad was fair, lean and confident. His unkempt beard at such a prominent event could only mean two things – either he was a vagrant or confident enough to simply not care. From his fatigued deep brown eyes, one could tell he has not slept in weeks. Atleast, not peacefully. Although not very commanding, his voice did not bare any signs of apprehensions.

After a few moments of introspecting silence, Dr. Vyas answered, ‘Well, so far no texts or scriptures have mentioned anything in this reference because they didn’t have today’s sky as benchmark for reference. But I wouldn’t deny that as a possibility.’

The young boy settled in his seat and Dr. Vyas directed the audience to look at the screen, which showed an image with a Sanskrit shloka about Krishna, one of the most popular Hindu gods.

Gopibhagya Madhurvrata Srngisodadhisandhiga|

Khalajivitakhatava Galahalarasandhar||

Meaning...

The fortune of the Gopi,

The destroyer of the demon Madhu,

Protector of cattle,

The one who ventured into the ocean depths,

Destroyer of evil doers,

One with plough on the shoulder and the bearer of nectar,

May you protect us.

Dr. Vyas gave his audience enough time to read through. ‘Now, as regular as this shloka seems, it followed a protocol called Katapayadi Sankhya where each alphabet was allotted a number. For example, Ka, ta, pa, ya are numbered one, two, three, four, and so on. If you substitute these alphabets in this shloka with their corresponding numbers, do you know what you get?’ he asked pointing towards the screen again which now displayed a new slide.

3.1415926535897932384626433832792

‘ The value of Pi correct up to 30 decimals! So, our ancient poets knew encryption.’

A round of applause filled the large auditorium.‘Indian physician Sushruta practiced plastic surgery in sixth century BC. About four hundred years ago, we learnt to calculate speed of light but Rig Veda explained this math thousands of years ago. Moving on closer to our times, India was the only place where zinc could be separated from Zinc Ore and this was kept a secret for almost 4000 years before a Britisher laid his hands on the technology and started the first Zinc distillery outside India in 1543. About 2000 years ago, India had managed to build rust-proof iron pillars. The most popular one being the one erected in front of Qutub Minar in Delhi. The pollution in Delhi has not touched it so far. The other one in Kollur near Bangalore faces about 750 centimetres of rain every year for almost six months but that has not managed to rust the pillar even an inch. The incredibility is that these were designed and built by local aboriginal Indian tribes and not some learned scholars. Even these local simple folks had access to such advanced metallurgical technologies!’

Dr. Vyas paused to drink some water as the audience was hooked and hungry for more. He said, ‘Now, you must be wondering how these guys had access to such immense knowledge of scientific technologies that we still struggle with today.’

Heads nodded in the audience.

Dr. Vyas went on, ‘The answer is pretty simple. All our scientists were saints and spiritual masters. This enabled them to see, reach and do things beyond fathomable limits of today’s so called modern era. Are you guys following me?’

The audience in unison replied in affirmative. ‘Good! Now, let’s talk about future of modern weapons. How many of you have seen Ramayana and Mahabharata shows on television?’

A few hands were raised. Dr. Vyas clarified, ‘This is not a test. It is ok if you don’t remember all episodes. I am not going to ask you questions about it.’

People laughed and more hands went up. ‘Good. Now, do you recollect the scenes where the Gods fought with the evil forces using strange weapons that took ages to reach their targets and sometimes even experienced mid-air collisions and emitted fireworks?’

For the benefits of those not in the know, Dr. Vyas then played a short video clip from Ramayana where Lord Ram prays to the supreme power before releasing a special arrow towards his