I attended course Hinduism 101 and am now attending classes of the Hinduism 201 course.
I learned new things such as Vedic Maths and other ancient science. Vedic Maths is a very quick and easy way of multiplication. The amazing thing is that you don't need a calculator for it.
Significance of 1008
I have also learned the significance of the number 108 and 1008. If you take the average cycle of the moon which is 29.6 days and multiply it by 1008 then you get 82 years with 2 years of error margin, Hindu Rishis of ancient times predicted average life expectancy at 84 years. Humans go through 1008 moon cycles on average in their life.
Significance of 108
The other thing that I learned is the significance of the number 108. If you were to build a line of suns until you get to the earth. You will end up with 108 suns. Indian scientists already knew this thousands of years ago. This is proof that Indian scientists were more advanced in all branches of science than modern scientists.
Ancient Discoveries by Rishis
I also found out that Indian scientists discovered the decimal number system, pi, zero, infinity. They also produced the first theories of atomic structure. India was so advanced in aspects of medicine and surgery. Susruta was renowned as ‘The Father of Plastic Surgery’. He reconstructed the body of parts of people whose body parts were cut off as a punishment back then.
Ancient Universities of India
Afterwards we learned about Nalanda. It was a proud feeling that people from Korea, Japan, China, Indonesia, Turkey, Tibet and Central Asia came to study in India. It was running with 2,000 teachers and 10,000 students during its peak time. Subjects taught in the university were Vedas, Sankhya, Sanskrit grammar, Ayurveda, Vedanta, Buddhist, philosophies, etc. University had a huge library of books on the subjects taught in the university.
A Turkish invader “Bakhtiyar Khilji '' was too proud of his Islamic culture and refused to get himself treated by a person out of his religion but his health was worsened and he was left with no other option but to invite Bhadra from Nalanda but Khilji put a condition and asked Bhadra to cure him without any medicines. Bhadra asked Khilji to read some pages from the Quran as a remedy to his illness and to everyone's surprise he got cured. Bhadra had put a paste of medicine on the corners of the Quran. Every time Khilji flicked the pages of the Quran he licked his fingers, and this caused him to consume the medicine. He was very jealous and did not like the success of Hinduism so his warriors burnt the Nalanda’s university library and most of the books were a single copy of its time. He burnt all the books so no knowledge would be left to be taught further.
We normally finish the class by reciting a few mantras.
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