(AGGS M 1 P 5).
The first portion of this stanza is mostly interpreted erroneously as if it is of Guru Nanak whereas these are findings of Vedas and Semitic books. And “patal” is interpreted as the netherworld underworld the world of the deeds or the world of pygmies living under the earth etc. There is no such world however scientifically the netherworlds (Holland). Nevertheless when Guru Nanak used the word “patal” it means the central portion of the earth:
“The Almighty created day night season air water (on the earth) and fire in the center of the earth (patal).”
(AGGS M 1, P 7)
The word “patal” used here by Guru Nanak means the core of the earth with a temperature of 10000 F that is why the word “fire” was used for this high temperature and energy found in the core of the earth.
According to geophysics the upper portion of the earth above sea water continental raft and its lower level submerged under the seas is called lithosphere. The lithosphere is made up of silicon rocks such as granite andesite and various grades of metamorphic rocks. The thickness of lithosphere (Tectonic plates) varies from 4080 miles and the width of each plate may be as wide as thousands of miles. The Himalaya for instance is the result of a head on collision between the Indo Australian plate and the Eurasian plate and they are still rising. Next layer is composed of magma (molten rocks) and is called Asthenosphere Next to Asthenosphere is a layer about 1800 miles thick followed by another layer of 1200 miles thick. This layer is composed of mostly molten iron. Finally the core (center) of the earth with a radius of about 850 miles has a temperature of 10000 F. This center of the earth is the “patal” used by Guru Nanak here. ‘The molten material which comes out from the earth in the form of lava from a volcano is the “fire” referred by Guru Nanak.
He (Nanak) again mentioned that there is no limit to the vastness of the Universe and it is very difficult to estimate the distance from one end to the other:
“There seems to be no limit to the creation of the Universe.
There seems to be no limit to the expansion of the Universe.”
(AGGS M 1P 5)
Origin of the Solar System:
Guru Nanak described the primordial stage of our solar system as following:
“More than a billion years ago there was only a mass of gases.”
(AGGS M 1 P 1035)
[arbad narbad means a period more than arb (billion) years. The present estimation of origin of solar system is about 10 billion years G1121)}
Guru Nanak further elaborated the above phenomenon in very simple words as following:
“There was no earth or sky (space)
but the laws of the Nature.
There were neither night nor day;
neither moon nor sun; and
The Almighty (Nature) was in a
trance.
There was no eating no sound (speech)
no air no water no creation
no destruction no birth and no
death
There was no continents
nothing under the continents
(patal)
no seven seas
no water was flowing in rivers.”
(AGGS M 1 P 1035)
Modern Concepts of Stars and Galaxies
In 1609 about 150 years after Guru Nanak Galileo saw more stars with his telescope as compared to unaided eye. In 1784 more than 300 years after Guru Nanak William Herchel concluded that there are 300 million stars in our galaxy The Milky Way.
Stars: Stars are the basic element in the universe More than 90% of the mass of our own galaxy the Milky Way is in the form of stars; the rest of the mass is interstellar hydrogen gas and dust that form stars. The mass of the sun the star of our solarsystemis2X10 30kg. ‘The range of masses of stars in our galaxy varies from 0.05 to 60 times the sun’s mass. Our solar system consists of one sun 9 planets Mercury Venus Earth Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune and Pluto.
Galaxies: Galaxies are the largest stellar system and are regarded as the basic mass elements of the universe Galaxies which occur in clusters contain from a billion to many thousand billion stars each It has been estimated that there are at least 10 billion galaxies in the universe As man probes deeper into the universe the number of galaxies may still increase (21).
Our galaxy the Milky Way contains about 16 billion sun like stars with a useful exosphere for life. The numbers of planets which are habitable are 650 million (21). Using Drake’s equation optimists like Carl Sagan and Drake himself have calculated that there could be one million civilizations in the Milky Way alone. The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) with the help of NASA is setting up big cars (radio-telescopes) to examine emanations (communications) from 773 stars within 80 light years from the earth. Some scientists envision tapping into an interstellar radio and computer network that function as a kind of galactic library linking cultures across unbridgeable gulf of space and time broadcasting information about races that have been dead for millions of years. SETI pioneer Frank Drake has speculated that the most likely interstellar communicators would be races of immortals who could wait nearly forever for return messages (9).
Guru Nanak has mentioned that there is unlimited number of earths or earth-like planets in the Universe:
“There are many more earth-like planets far away.”
UFO: There is every possibility that intelligent lives in the outer space are trying to visit the earth through their space vehicles commonly known as unidentified flying objects (UFO). These are called so (UFO) as none of these have been proven to be a space vehicle from the outer space although there were some records of such objects which remained as mysteries even after all scientific verifications (57).
Thousands of pages of UFO documents generated by the CIA the FBI the Air Force the State Department and other agencies have been released under the Freedom of Information Act. But Government agencies still have hundreds of UFO documents that they refuse to release to UFO researchers The National Security Agency (NSA) admits to withholding more than 100 related documents the CIA refuses to release about 50 and the DIA (defense Intelligence Agency) says it’s withholding six. There is some controversy about the with holing of information which leads to the speculation that extraterrestrial intelligence might be trying to visit our earth.
We are also exploring planets of our solar system. About 13 years ago two spacecraft’s called Voyagers were launched from NASA’s the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. They contain information about people political situation places languages music message to the people of other worlds etc. Voyager 1 was launched on September 5, 1977. After surveying Jupiter on March 5, 1979 and Saturn on November 12, 1980 headed into abyss.
Voyager 2 was launched on August 201977. It surveyed Jupiter on July 9, 1979 Saturn on August 261981 Uranus on January 241986 and finally Neptune on August 251989. It has transmitted tremendous amount of information and beautiful colored pictures of these planets and of their rings and moons back to the earth.
The Pluto’s eccentric orbit will keep these spacecraft’s (voyagers) close to Neptune until 1999. Thereafter they would pass beyond the Oort cloud of cometary nuclei on their way to other stars for about 60000 years. Just possible we may receive a message in 40000 years or so from some distance solar system: “Send more Chuck Berry.” (419).
Movement of Stars:
The clusters of stars (including our sun) move as units within their galaxies (3). Guru Nanak says in this context as following
“The sun along with (its planets) moon is moving by millions of miles to their undefined destination.”
(AGGS M 1 P 464).
Distance between Celestial Bodies of his advisor McLeod (who accuses the Gurus of being insincere and one Guru changing the philosophy of the previous Guru etc.) should not be surprised to read this.
McLeods writings were judged by Sikh scholars as bundle of assumptions and imaginations. His student is supposed to be following the same path.
Note: Before closing it may be said that all this has been written under the clock of research and freedom of speech A great author needs to be quoted here. In his book Six great Ideas Martimer J.Alder writes that freedom has to be regulated by justice. When freedom violates justice it becomes a license and has to be restricted.
Here is an ideal case where some writers have converted their freedom of speech and writing into a license to make false accusations against the Sikhs faith and distort their history.
This issue needs to be discussed among the scholars who had been fed for more than two decades on assumptions and imaginations of the biased writers as history of the Sikhs and their faith.
Article extracted from this publication >> November 27, 1992
