Ancient Science behind Gotra system (Genetics)

Few questions:

What is Gotra system ?

Why do we have this ? 

Why do we consider this to decide marriages ?

Why should sons carry the gotra of father, why not daughter ?

How does gotra of a daughter changes after she gets married ?

What is the logic ?

In-fact this is an amazing genetic science we follow.

Let's see the science of genetics behind gotra systems.

The word GOTRA formed from two sanskrit words GAU (means cow) and Trahi (means shed).

Gotra means cowshed.

Gotra is like cowshed protecting a particular male lineage. We identify our male lineage / gotra by considering to be descendants of the 8 great rishi (sapta rishi + bharadwaj rishi). All the other gotra evolved from these only.

Let's see why human body has 23 pairs of chromosomes (one from father and one from mother) on these 23 pairs, there is one pair called sex chromosomes which decides the gender of person.

During conception if the resultant cell is XX chromosomes then the child will be girl, if it is XY then it is boy.

In XY - X is from mother and Y is from father.

In this Y is unique and it dosn't mix. So in XY, Y will supress the X and son will get Y chromosomes. Y is the only chromosome which gets passed down only between male lineage. (Father to Son and to Grandson).

Women never gets Y. Hence Y plays a crucial role in genetics in identifying the genealogy. Since women never get Y the gotra of a women is said to be of her husband.

They are 8 diff Y chromosomes from 8 rishis. If we are from Same gotra then it means we are from same root ancestor.

Marriages betwen same gotra will increase the risk of causing genetic disorders as same gotra Y chromosomes cannot have crossover and it will activate the defective cells.

If this continues, it will reduce the size and strength of Y chromosome which is crucial for the creation of male.

If no Y chromosome is present in this world, then it will cause males to become extinct.

So Gotra system is a method to avoid genetic disorders and attempt to protect Y chromosome.

Amazing bio-science!

NHGRI - Karyogram of a human male

Author: Gajanan Hegde
Picture: Sourced from Wikipedia (www.wikipedia.org) for educational purpose only.

#gotra #ancientscience #hinduism #hindu #genetics #marriage #life #system

प्राण (Pran) - Interpreting the misinterpretation

'प्राण' word is grossly misinterpreted by West started with Germans. प्राण is not breathing as most of us misinterpret/understand as we associate with word प्राणायाम because the meaning is interpreted through a very narrow prism of breathe-in and breathe-out, that is incorrect. The reason is, there are exact words for breathe-in (श्वास) and breathe-out (उच़छवास).

The meaning of word 'प्राण' goes beyond breathing-in/breathing-out, because, it consists of 'expression of life' through body and mind or manifestation of life. This is controlled by 5 senses along mind in the form of intellectual and emotional expression.

When we say his प्राण is gone simply means he is dead. His life is gone along with all physiological activities (seeing, hearing, eating, smelling, touching, sleeping, breathing, moving, excreting, grasping) knowingly/unknowingly and expressions in various forms.

प्राणायाम precisely means we exhale and inhale life. When we exhale an old breathe, we do it along with all the expression, perception and thoughts related to the past i.e. we are leaving out the past memories and feelings associated with it.

When we inhale a new breathe, we do it along with new expression, perception and thoughts i.e. welcoming the new life. This is a practice of letting go the past and welcoming new life to reduce stress of past burden and bring in peace and freshness in our life.

Morning - New Beginning (picture taken in Bali, April, 2015 (C) Vedic Gyan)

(Source: interpreted from Chinmayswami's discourse on Gita)