Two Indians, and Herbs

[Guest guest]

It's interesting what you mentioned about going to a site to collect herbs.

 

That's something American Indian Lakota Medicine Men are supposed to be able

to do, recognize the plants for a particular persons problems by listening to

nature while walking therein, somehow. Your words made me see Aryan Sidhas

walking to collect herbs, and then American Native Elders doing the same

thing. Hmmm.

 

I was told as a kid in school that the reason the white folks found America

was that they were looking for India. Pretty significant fact if true, and

that this is why they called the natives here "Indians". Further, the reason

they were looking for India we were told was the exotic stuff, cloth and

spices etc.

 

So we call a whole race by a mistaken name still, and we live on their

homeland, which we found while lost on a shopping trip. Is this correct? Just

trying to brush up on history. ;-)

[Guest guest]

goravani wrote:

>

 

> That's something American Indian Lakota Medicine Men are supposed to be able

> to do, recognize the plants for a particular persons problems by listening to

> nature while walking therein, somehow. Your words made me see Aryan Sidhas

> walking to collect herbs, and then American Native Elders doing the same

> thing. Hmmm.

 

Dear Raghu,

 

I had promised not to pollute your list with non-astrological or controversial

matters. but of late you have yourself started "polluting" the list with

WONDERFUL thoughts, which simply drag me into the stream!

 

 

I have read somewhere that the teachers and students of Nalanda and Takshasila

did just that: went looking for herbs by instinct. Sushrutha said that wherever

a sickness was prevalent, the curing herb would be growing in the same area.

admirably shown by the discovery of the cinchona bark as a cure for malaria. The

stupid part is that quinine was separated from the bark and leads to deafness: a

thing the jungle dwellers could hardly afford! But the entire bark has the

antidotes to quinine itself, so that drinking a decoction of the bark prevents

malaria, but no side-effects are felt.

 

 

>

> I was told as a kid in school that the reason the white folks found America

> was that they were looking for India. Pretty significant fact if true, and

> that this is why they called the natives here "Indians". Further, the reason

> they were looking for India we were told was the exotic stuff, cloth and

> spices etc.

>

> So we call a whole race by a mistaken name still, and we live on their

> homeland, which we found while lost on a shopping trip. Is this correct? Just

> trying to brush up on history. ;-)

>

 

 

Even your last reference to history was a provocation for me, but I resisted the

temptation to write at length. It is so necessary to understand history to

understand the present! I have a dear friend whose private life is in a mess,

because his children are ignorant of the history of the last century and he

himself has not understood it enough to explain things to them!

 

Ameriqua! It started with pepper, ivory and silk.

 

Actually much earlier, very much so! Alexander was searching for the "Spring of

Eternal Life". This led him to the oasis of Siva in Libya, then to the pyramids

of Egypt, then to Arabia. But the legends kept telling him to seek in the east -

the spring had been shifted! Alexander and Napoleon are the two historic

persons who spent a whole night in the King´s chamber of the Great Pyramid. Both

refused to talk about their experience, only said "Things were revealed to me

about which I cannot talk!" .... or words to that effect. Both were conquerors

who ruled over great empires, which fell apart in a very short time - but their

influence has survived! Both took scholars and scientists with them in their

campaigns, both invited philosophers and holy men to come and teach in their

lands.....

 

The greeks and Romans had colonies in India. Even today the farmers find their

coins and other relics when ploughing the fields. These colonies flourished by

exporting spices to Europe. Roman senators (esp. I think it was Cicero) pleaded

against this import, for it was depleting the Roman economy. It was one of the

reasons for the fall of the Roman Empire. Charlemagne etc. inherited this empire

- and its lust for pepper, ivory and silk! In those days food was mainly a kind

of bread, but mostly meat. Vegetables were rarely consumed. Fridges were not

there! Pepper was a good preserving agent for meat - at least it overcame the

smell of rotting meat! So pepper was imported at a cost almost equal to gold! If

any of the knights gave a dinner party, the food was spiced with enormous

quantities of pepper and cloves - to show off! If one ate anything cooked

according to the recipes of those times, one would burn holes in the tongue and

stomach. This actually led to many princely houses going bankrupt.

 

And this pepper came through the Mediterranean Sea. Caravan routes had become

unsafe and were too slow to supply the demand. So sea-routes were chosen. But a

new problem arose: Venice became a great naval power, patrolled the

Mediterranean, demanded heavy tolls from all the ships for their merchandise.

Not only was it difficult to sail past without being detected, it was often a

necessity to go to Venice to get fresh provisions and water! So they paid

through their noses and the price of spices went up to suit!

 

So Columbus decided to get to India by sailing west and not through the

Mediterranean. He seems to have got a copy of the map known as the "Piri Rei´s

Map". Rei was an Arab navigator. Piri means "Captain" and is the root of the

word "pirate"! This map is remarkable in that it shows the earth in a strange

perspective: it looks like a picture of the earth from a satellite above Spain!

It does not show the entire earth, but only half of it. Columbus seems to have

thoght it was a complete picture of the earth, and believed that the American

coast shown was that of India.

 

Columbus never landed on the mainland of America. It was Alberico Vespucci who

did this and gave America its name. A stupid german publisher of one of

Alberico´s books wrote in the introduction that Vespucci´s first name was

Americus - and therefore America! He later retracted this mistake, but by then

the idea had taken root. Even today this myth is retailed in all books. I found

this impossible:

- if at all the country was named after the discoverer, it should have been

Alberica!

- no place is ever named after the first name of the discoverer, only by the

surname: Rhodesia, Hudson bay, Cabot peninsula, Cook islands - NOT Cecilesia,

Henry Bay, John peninsula or James Islands! So it should have been Vespuccia!

 

Finally Natabara gave the answer:

 

Vespucci met people in swift ships near the American coast, which he had not yet

seen. He asked them from where they came (sign language, I guess!) and they

answered, "Ameriqua". It meant "Land of the Winds". If Japan or Turkey is the

land of earthquakes, America is indeed the land of the tornadoes!!! ... And the

Wind of America sweeps across the world!

 

This may also explain why so many of you Yanks are now Vaishnavites: you are all

"Vayuputras", little Hanumans!

 

regards

Mani