Articles - Page 173 of 537 - Young World Club

Meghnath finds the city of Tripura, on planet Sukra (Venus), very exciting. He meets many scholars who live in diverse and rough climatic conditions. They’re also known by the name ‘Asuras’.

Sukracharya: What is eating your head, Meghnath?

Meghnath: Guru, I recently met my Uncle Kubendra. He was telling me about all the rishis (sages) and ethereal beings he has met.

Sukracharya: What about them?

Meghnath: He told me that they live for hundreds and even thousands of years. And that they never age! How is that possible? Don’t they ever get old?

Sukracharya: They do get old but at a much much slower rate than normal beings.

Meghnath: How??

Sukracharya: Let me explain the phenomenon with an anecdote that took place a really long time ago during the Satya Yuga.

Meghnath: We live in the Treta Yuga, the second of the four Yugas (Ages or eras). The Satya Yuga lasted for 17,28,000 years. Currently, we live in the end of Treta Yuga which is around 12,96,000 years long. So this story took place over 30 lakh years ago?!

Sukracharya: Even before that! The four Ages keep occurring in a cycle. They call it the Pulsating theory in modern science. According to this theory, the universe keeps expanding up to certain point then contracts, and then expands. This process keeps repeating in a cycle.

Meghnath: Woah! But this sounds different from the Big Bang theory in which I learnt that the universe as we know it started with a single dense point that inflated and stretched. In fact, experts say that the universe still continues to expand.

Sukracharya: Both theories are different, but there is a connection too. I will tell you about it another time, but now let’s come back to our story… In one of the Satya Yuga cycles, there lived a king called Kakudumi, who ruled a kingdom called Kusasthali. It is considered to be one of the seven sacred countries that have secret gates to access Lord Brahma.

Meghanath: Why is it hard to access the Gods in this Yuga?

Sukracharya: The answer to this question and your first question about the ethereal being not ageing are quite close. At present, it takes time to access them because they are too far and too fast.

Meghnath: But I asked you how they live for so long without ageing and you are telling me that they are too far and too fast. This all very confusing! Can you please explain?

Sukracharya: It’s called time dilation. Let me give you a simple example: Run 100 steps, and then come back and tell me how much time it took you to do that.

Meghnath runs as told and comes back.

Meghnath: It took me two minutes, guru.

Sukracharya: Now take this horse and cover the same distance.

Meghanth rides the horse and returns.

Meghnath: It took me 30 seconds.

(Illustration: Sahil Upalekar)

Sukracharya: From a layman’s perspective, the faster you move, the more time you can save. From the perspective of quantum physics, it means the rate at which time passes actually slows down the more you’re moving. Many experiments have been done to prove that; for example, light from a moving source has a lower frequency.

Meghnath: So time slows down for those who travel fast. So these ethereal being keeps traveling at very high speeds such that time is almost frozen for them. Am I right?

Sukracharya: Exactly. In the future, a scientist named Albert Einstein will come up with these concepts explaining whatever I have just told you.

Meghnath: Can anything travel faster than light?

Sukracharya: Till now nothing has been discovered, but I believe it’s possible and probably known to the higher beings.

Meghnath: Wow! There is so much to discover and learn! But you are yet to tell me the story of King Kakudumi.

Sukracharya: Go have a short break and come back. I will tell you the story and also about the shortcuts to reach the Gods from whom you can learn more.

Meghnath: That is awesome!

Meghanth runs. Sukracharya smiles, knowing that whatever he is going to teach Meghnath will help him to learn the secret being the most powerful technologies.

The author is the founder and CEO of Vaayusastra Aerospace, an IIT-Madras incubated ed-tech startup that offers Air Science workshops for children between five and 14 years.