Sunday, December 31, 2023

Vibhūti Yog: Yog through Appreciating the Infinite Opulences of God

Chapter 10: With 42 verses or shlokas, the tenth chapter is one of the lengthier chapters, and it describes the opulence of Lord Bhagavan Sri Krishna.

Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead (Shloka 1-11,19-42): 35 Shlokas

Arjuna (Shloka 12,18): 7 Shlokas

Brief Summary: Initially, the lord explains his opulence to Arjuna by stating that he is the source of demigods and is unborn. All the qualities, good and bad are created by him (Intelligence, freedom from doubt, happiness and distress, fame and infamy, fear and fearlessness, etc.). Four great sages were followed by seven great sages, and the manus came from Krishna's mind. He is the source of the spiritual and material world. 

The inquisitive Arjun further requests the lord to explain his mystical powers. In response, lord Krishna says his opulence is limitless, yet he will highlight the prominent aspects.
  • Supersoul- seated in the heart of all entities.
  • Aditya's: Vishnu
  • Lights: Sun
  • Stars: Moon
  • Maruts: Marichi
  • Vedas: Sama Veda
  • Demigods: Indra
  • Senses: Mind
  • Living beings: Consciousness
  • Rudras: Shiva
  • Yaksha: Rakshas
  • Lord of wealth
  • Vasu: Fire
  • Mountains: Meru
  • Chief: Brahaspati
  • Generals: Karthikeya
  • Bodies of water: Ocean
  • Sages: Brigu
  • Vibrations: Trancendental Om
  • Sacrifice: Chanting of holy names (Japa)
  • Immovable things: Himalaya
  • Trees: Banyan
  • Sages among the demigods: Narad
  • Gandarva: Chitarta
  • Perfect beings: Kapila
  • Horse: Uccahsrava
  • Lordly elephants: Iravat
  • Men: Monarch
  • Weapons: Thunderbolt
  • Cows: Surabhi
  • Procreation: Kandarpa, the god of love
  • Serpents: Vasuki
  • Nagas: Ananta
  • Aquatics: Varuna
  • Dispensers of justice: Yama
  • Demons: Prahalada
  • Beast: Lion
  • Birds: Garuda
  • Purifier: wind
  • Wielders of weapons: Rama
  • Fish: Shark
  • River: Ganga
  • Conclusive truth
  • Letters: A
  • Inexhaustible: Time
  • Creators: Bramha
  • Women: Fame, fortune, fine speech, memory, intelligence, steadfastness, patience
  • Hymns: Brahatsama
  • Months: Margashira
  • Seasons: Spring
  • Splendour, Victory, Adventure
  • Strong: Strength
  • Splendid: splendour
  • Pandavas: Arjuna
  • Sages: Vyasa
  • Great Thinkers: Usana
  • Descendants of Vrisni: Vasudeva
  • Culprits: Punishment
  • Victorious: Morality
  • Wise: Wisdom
  • Generating seed
No end of the lord's divine manifestations. Only a few are described here.

Favorite Shlokas:

Shloka 4-5:

buddhir jñānam asammohaḥ kṣhamā satyaṁ damaḥ śhamaḥ

sukhaṁ duḥkhaṁ bhavo ’bhāvo bhayaṁ chābhayameva cha

ahinsā samatā tuṣhṭis tapo dānaṁ yaśho ’yaśhaḥ

bhavanti bhāvā bhūtānāṁ matta eva pṛithag-vidhāḥ

Shloka 34:

mṛityuḥ sarva-haraśh chāham udbhavaśh cha bhaviṣhyatām

kīrtiḥ śhrīr vāk cha nārīṇāṁ smṛitir medhā dhṛitiḥ kṣhamā

Tuesday, December 5, 2023

What happens when journals close after operating for a few years

More than a hundred or Hundreds of journals have disappeared from the internet. Journals provide a  record of scholarly work and are supposed to last for posterity. The by-line says that researchers have identified dozens of open-access or OA journals that went offline in the two decades spanning 2000-2020, and hundreds more could be at risk. Notably, the articles published by these OA journals have also vanished without any trace. These are not just articles published by "predatory journals" but even those published by journals associated with a "scholarly society or a research institution". Journals have sophisticated systems to back up and archive the scholarly record. The LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe) Program launched by Stanford Libraries in 1999 is a pioneer in such efforts that have emerged over the years. 

Each of these options exists on the internet. For instance,

  1. CLOCKSS
  2. Portico
  3. Public Knowledge Project’s Preservation Network (PKP PN)
A record of which journals have archived their content on which repositories is available at the Keepers Registry. Recently, we published an article about "Hundreds of independent midsize deletions mediate DNA loss in wild relatives of Red Jungle Fowl" in the journal Animal Gene (previously known as Agri gene). Soon after the article appeared online, the journal announced, "This journal will be closed after December 31, 2023. Authors are invited to submit their manuscripts to Gene Reports or Gene." While not associated with any society, the journal published by Elsevier can be considered an honest-to-god, non-predatory journal. Nonetheless, it will stop publishing articles at the end of this year. Our article may be the last or one of the last five articles to be published by this journal. One could even argue we killed this journal as our paper marked the end of this journal. 

With the ISSN of 2352-4065 and the title "Animal Gene." the journal is preserved on both the CLOCKSS Archive and Portico. Moreover, the pre-print of the manuscript was posted on bioRxiv before it was submitted to the journal. Given the availability of such multiple backups, it would appear our precious manuscript will survive the end of the world.