Whenever I heard people talk about how India gave everything to the world- yes, everything including salt, pepper, zero, OM, yoga, pranayama, planetary motion theory, rocketry, boson, yes, everything- I laughed. I said to myself, what kind of people are we who must constantly need to stress that we are better than everyone else and we invented everything the world has seen. Well. Let me tell you, I just discovered today - somewhere near Trinity Circle during a bumpy auto ride - that I was wrong and India was INDEED THE MOST INVENTIVE NATION ON EARTH.
When India came back from Montreal Olympics with zero medals, someone had joked: INDIA GAVE THE WORLD ZERO AND THE WORLD GAVE IT BACK.
Jaggi the Sadhguru often jokes that we are free with zeroes when we tell mythology stories because we after all invented zero -Dasharatha ruled for 60000 years - and he gives a big cinematic chuckle.
But let me give you JUST four examples to prove the point that Indians have been in fact the MOST inventive. If you have questions after this, come back and I will give you more examples.
WHY INDIA INVENTED ZERO
To start with, whatever number of things you have, say 'n', this number is bound to change over time. Sooner or later, you will encounter a number called ZERO. Zero means nothing. Like zero rate of growth etc. Like zero down payment, zero interest rate etc. So it is better to be acquainted with zero. We invented it therefore. By the way we also invented INFINITY - 'ananta'.
WHY INDIA INVENTED YOGA
Try squeezing into a railway berth. Or a peak hour train in Bombay. Or a school kids-ferrying auto. Or one of our cheap-fare plane seats. Or some public utility places. You will understand the need for developing a skill to contort your body. Our ancient seers foresaw that we would far exceed a billion population quickly and we would then need to have a way to squeeze ourselves into the available space of the land. So they invented YOGA. When you see a yogi doing an impossible twisted pose, you will understand that he or she will be able to negotiate any kind of space in India.
WHY INDIA INVENTED OM
We Indians often brag, in the International Arrivals hall to our overseas guests, that India has hundreds of languages and dozens of scripts. They begin to wonder whether we are a nation of mad people, speaking so many languages and hence barely understanding one another. Take the simple word Shiva. They say Shiv in the North, Shibo in East, Shiva in the west, Siva in the South. We can never get to agree on any name or word nationwide. So they invented a mystic syllable which would be hard to corrupt with spellings and accents : OM. They said whatever word you start with, you end up with Om. And also, since we Indians are so fond of eating sweets, they made all sweets round so that we can say Om and pop in a nice gulab jamun, rossa gulla, laddu or gol gappa in the mouth. What a great idea sir-ji!
WHY WE INVENTED PRANAYAMA
Try taking a walk on any street for more than five minutes. You will have to close your nostrils to some indescribable smell. I will not say it is stench. In fact I once read that we create these bad smells in street corners to ward off evil spirits. Surely these smells will ward off any kind of life or after-life. So how do you deal with this?
We invented special methods of holding your breath, called PRANAYAMA. The result? We can manage any kind of air quality or smell. In any kind of location from fish markets to Bangalore streets. I heard that when Bhopal had the gas tragedy, people did pranayama and survived with no bad effects! What a brilliant solution to a global problem!!!!!
Come on. You have to agree we are the most inventive nation on earth.
When India came back from Montreal Olympics with zero medals, someone had joked: INDIA GAVE THE WORLD ZERO AND THE WORLD GAVE IT BACK.
Jaggi the Sadhguru often jokes that we are free with zeroes when we tell mythology stories because we after all invented zero -Dasharatha ruled for 60000 years - and he gives a big cinematic chuckle.
But let me give you JUST four examples to prove the point that Indians have been in fact the MOST inventive. If you have questions after this, come back and I will give you more examples.
WHY INDIA INVENTED ZERO
To start with, whatever number of things you have, say 'n', this number is bound to change over time. Sooner or later, you will encounter a number called ZERO. Zero means nothing. Like zero rate of growth etc. Like zero down payment, zero interest rate etc. So it is better to be acquainted with zero. We invented it therefore. By the way we also invented INFINITY - 'ananta'.
WHY INDIA INVENTED YOGA
Try squeezing into a railway berth. Or a peak hour train in Bombay. Or a school kids-ferrying auto. Or one of our cheap-fare plane seats. Or some public utility places. You will understand the need for developing a skill to contort your body. Our ancient seers foresaw that we would far exceed a billion population quickly and we would then need to have a way to squeeze ourselves into the available space of the land. So they invented YOGA. When you see a yogi doing an impossible twisted pose, you will understand that he or she will be able to negotiate any kind of space in India.
WHY INDIA INVENTED OM
We Indians often brag, in the International Arrivals hall to our overseas guests, that India has hundreds of languages and dozens of scripts. They begin to wonder whether we are a nation of mad people, speaking so many languages and hence barely understanding one another. Take the simple word Shiva. They say Shiv in the North, Shibo in East, Shiva in the west, Siva in the South. We can never get to agree on any name or word nationwide. So they invented a mystic syllable which would be hard to corrupt with spellings and accents : OM. They said whatever word you start with, you end up with Om. And also, since we Indians are so fond of eating sweets, they made all sweets round so that we can say Om and pop in a nice gulab jamun, rossa gulla, laddu or gol gappa in the mouth. What a great idea sir-ji!
WHY WE INVENTED PRANAYAMA
Try taking a walk on any street for more than five minutes. You will have to close your nostrils to some indescribable smell. I will not say it is stench. In fact I once read that we create these bad smells in street corners to ward off evil spirits. Surely these smells will ward off any kind of life or after-life. So how do you deal with this?
We invented special methods of holding your breath, called PRANAYAMA. The result? We can manage any kind of air quality or smell. In any kind of location from fish markets to Bangalore streets. I heard that when Bhopal had the gas tragedy, people did pranayama and survived with no bad effects! What a brilliant solution to a global problem!!!!!
Come on. You have to agree we are the most inventive nation on earth.
