(CNN-News18) Oct. 24, 2024: Unlocking the secrets of one of the world’s oldest civilizations, this cryptanalytic decipherment of the Indus script takes us on a journey through ancient symbols. Through rigorous analysis, we move closer to unraveling the mystery behind the enigmatic script, shedding light on a civilization that has fascinated scholars for centuries. Yajnadevam unpacks insightful wisdom. Join a conversation that sparks thought.

Vote for me or there will be trouble. Namaskar.

(LastWeekTonight on HBO) June 6, 2024: John Oliver discusses the elections in India, the world's largest democracy and now the world's most populous country (now even bigger than Buddhist China), what Prime Minister (racist, nationalist dictator) Narendra Modi has been doing in office, what he might do next, and the proper way to eat a mango.

UPDATE: Narendra Modi has fearmongered and bribed his way into a third consecutive term. Trump must be very happy to hear it

It was a very strange meeting of minds at the annual "Festival of the Chariots" on the Venice Beach Boardwalk.

The morning began with KPFK (90.7 FM) playing Alan Watts on the topic of the Bhavagad Gita, devotional-Hinduism "Song of the Lord."

It's a world-famous text that attempts to tell an unbelievable story about how "God" on Earth, Lord Krishna (the "Dark One") argues with Arjuna (the best of men) to kill.

Hare Krishna vegetarians party on the beach

Arjuna doesn't want to kill, particularly not his friends an relatives. But Krishna insists it's the right thing to do.

It must be some kind of metaphor. Surely, it's a metaphor. It can't be literal. No religious text would tell its devotees to KILL or that it's right to kill as long as you're "just doing your job," aka social "duty" (innate obligation under the Vedas' strict caste system) and obeying the Lord.

It turns out it does. These mainly white Hare Krishna converts each said they would kill if God told them to. They weren't kidding. They urged me to kill if instructed. I said, "You must be out of your mind." It's like the satirical Jello Biafra of the Dead Kennedys opening that song from Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables with the line, "God told me to skin you alive."

Krishna and Krist are pro-gun?

We think of conservative, Republican, gun-toting Jesus freaks eager for war with Russia -- or whomever the Pentagon is designating as the enemy of the moment, which as in Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, changes from time to time. Sometimes we're told to hate/fear the communists of China, other times the Muslims of the Middle East, or the Ruskies or the liberals or the Satanists or the unpatriotic or, worst of all, those damned Unbelievers.

No wonder India gets so much "communal violence," which is when Hindu mobs practice ahimsa (non-violence) to the utmost -- murdering Muslims, Christians, members of other castes or creeds or ethnicities -- because they, as the majority, are whipped up into believing the "other" is harming their interests. Indian Prime Minister Modi is accused of inciting ethnic violence and getting tens of thousands murdered to promote himself and his political party, the BJP, and Indian patriotism above all.

At no time did Alan Watts say the central dialogue between the Lord (a kind of "all-attractive" Krist figure) and the ideal man Arjuna was a metaphor. And everyone to a man today said, "It's not a metaphor. It's literally true. I would kill if God (Krishna) told me to."

Expect someone to come down from space ("heaven") and tell the Indians it's time to kill those darn, pesky, Muslim Pakistanis...and they'll do it with Christian Crusader gusto, "Praise the Lord, and pass the ammunition." Un be liev a ble. So much for only being a cult aggressively panhandling for cash donations, ISKCON (the International Society for Krishna CONsciousness) is so much more and eventually will be a willing arm of the Indian Army.

Travel to India while staying in the U.S. at the 47th Annual Los Angeles Ratha Yatra or "Festival of the Chariots."

On the first Sunday in August, three deities (Lord Jagannatha, Baladeva, and Subhadra) take their annual trip, or Yatra, on three 40-foot-tall chariots down Main Street in Santa Monica and onto the iconic Venice Beach Boardwalk.

The Ratha Yatra Festival includes a colorful Indian parade in addition to a festival at the Venice Beach Windward Plaza, featuring cultural performances, a FREE feast, kirtan (spiritual chanting), food stalls, and Indian gifts.

On March 21, 2023, a magnitude 6.5 earthquake struck Badakhshan Province, Afghanistan [ancient "Shakya Land," Kapilavastu, Gandhara, Sakastan, Central Asia], with an intermediate depth of approximately 187 km (116 mi) [1].

The epicenter of the earthquake was 40 km (25 miles) south-southeast of Jurm [1].

The Himalayas [as this area of the Hindu Kush is part of the Himalayan range], partially formed by the collision of tectonic plates, are prone to devastating earthquakes.

Afghanistan is situated near the southern extent of the Eurasian Plate [2] in Central Asia next to the subcontinent.

Most of these earthquakes are associated with reverse, thrust, or strike-slip faulting. Large earthquakes with magnitudes of up to 7.5 have occurred in the region with an average recurrence interval of 15 years.

Kapilavastu: Bamiyan, Kabul, Mes Aynak (Shakya Land)

These earthquakes correspond to reverse faulting at a depth of 170 to 280 km (110 to 170 miles) [3]. These earthquakes, rather than occurring at a plate boundary, are sourced from within the Indian Plate as it dives beneath the Hindu Kush [mountains].

As the tectonic slab of the Indian Plate descends at a near-vertical angle into the mantle, it stretches and begins to "tear," eventually leading to a slab detachment [4]. This action results in stress accommodation along faults that produces earthquakes when ruptured.

Smaller shallow focus earthquakes are also observed in the region, particularly associated with north–south trending zones of right lateral strike-slip, such as the Chaman Fault, with an increasing degree of shortening to the north, together accommodating the highly oblique convergence between the Indian and the Eurasian Plates [5].

The United States Geological Survey reported a magnitude of Mww 6.5 [1], while the Pakistan Meteorological Department said the earthquake had a magnitude of 6.8 [6].

The earthquake was initially reported inaccurately as Mw 7.7 [7]. Shaking was felt over an area 1,000 km (620 miles) wide by approximately 285 million people in Pakistan, India, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan, and Turkmenistan, according to the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre [8].

At least 10 people were killed [9], 80 others were injured [10], and more than 665 houses were destroyed in nine provinces of Afghanistan [11, 12]. Two people died, 25 others were injured, and 22 houses collapsed in Laghman Province [13, 14, 15].

In Takhar Province, 20 buildings collapsed, one person died, and five others were injured [16, 17]. In Panjshir Province, three buildings were seriously damaged, and three people were injured [17].

In Badakhshan Province, where the epicenter of the earthquake was located, one person was injured, 70 buildings were destroyed, and 50 were damaged [18, 19].

In Kabul Province [ancient Kapil'vastu], one person died and one house was destroyed [11]. Five houses collapsed in Nangarhar Province [15].

Tremors were felt in Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore, Quetta, and Peshawar [20]. In Swat District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a teenager was killed from a collapsing wall and a police station was damaged [8, 21].

Two people also died due to a wall collapse in the district [22], while a falling wall killed another child [23]. In Swat District, there were power outages, severe damage, and 250 injuries. More

(Storytrails) Premiered March 6, 2023. CHENNAI (Madras), India - How old are the oldest settlements in South India?

What did the recent excavations at Keeladi (aka Keezhadi) and other places along the Vaigai and Porunai (Thamirabarani) rivers reveal?

For a long time, it was believed that South India had no ancient urban civilizations like in the north [where the Indus Valley Civilization and the Vedic Civilization thrived near Gandhara, now in parts of Pakistan and Afghanistan, which were formerly parts of the Indian Empire].

While the Sangam Period (dated 300 BCE–300 CE) literature talks of a sophisticated Tamil civilization, there was no concrete archeological proof to back it up…until the path-finding/groundbreaking Keeladi excavations that started in 2015.

A series of digs carried out by the Archaeological Survey of India in a little village near Madurai unearthed artifacts dating back at least to the 6th century BCE [the time of the Buddha].

This included pottery fragments with graffiti marks very similar to the Indus Valley Civilization script. But Keeladi isn’t the first or only place to offer evidence of ancient settlements in Tamil Nadu.

Adichanallur, Korkai, Pallavaram, Attirampakkam, and many more sites have produced an array of amazing artifacts over the last 100 years or so, including the oldest human tool to be ever discovered in India -- a hand-axe that was discovered in Pallavaram, part of present-day Chennai.

It’s only in recent years that the pieces of the jigsaw have started coming together. Archeologists believe that many more exciting discoveries, possibilities, and answers are waiting to be found at this site.

(The 5th Kind) How long have anatomically modern humans been present on this planet? How far back does the Vedic civilization in India (previously called Great Bharat) go? Were certain gods and deities (brahmas and devas) worshiped within the Solar Dynasty in India as long as 20 million years ago?

Michael Cremo (mcremo.com) reveals all in this video presentation, in association with Portal to Ascension (ascensionconference.com) for information on the upcoming 3-day portal to ascension conference in San Diego, California, April 21-23, 2023.

It will feature Michael Cremo, Linda Moulton Howe, Caroline Cory, Barbara Lamb, and many other amazing presenters. Special thanks to Neil Gaur @portaltoascension for this collaboration.

Check out PTA on YouTube (youtube.com/channel...). Were there Vedic designs inside Indus Valley Civilization sites? Is there any archeological evidence that humans like us have been present on earth for millions [even hundreds of millions] of years? Were humans like us on earth 20 million years ago?

The Puranas: Vedic history tells a version of human history that is much, much older than the one currently accepted by mainstream science. Michael Cremo is a journalist, whistleblower, and researcher of human origins and an international authority on archeological anomalies (out of place artifacts).

He has authored several books, including the bestselling Forbidden Archaeology, in which he argues that humans existed on earth as long as 40 million years ago.

The Forbidden Archeologist: Human Devolution, Forbidden Archeology's Impact, and the Hidden History of the Human Race was co-authored by Richard Thompson. His published works are highly endorsed by academics and researchers around the world.

Michael Cremo has been invited to present his research in some of the leading scientific institutions of the world. The royal institution of London, the Russian Academy of Science, the Moscow Department of Anthropology, the Indian Institute of Science, and many others. He has also appeared widely on television shows such as the History Channel’s “Ancient Aliens” and the Gaia TV series “Ancient Civilizations.”

Michael Cremo’s work in archeology and research of the ancient Sanskrit writings of India (and proto-India) has revealed a long and mysterious history of human origins, spirituality, and paleocontact.

Find more information about him, his research, and his published works by visiting his website mcremo.com.