The Moon's Pull on the Sea: A Truth Recorded in the Mahabharata - Ancient Knowledge of Tides
The Astika Parva is part of the Adi Parva of the
Mahabharata. In it, Kadru and Vinata go to see the divine horse Uchaishravas,
to check whether its tail is black or not. On the way they see the great ocean,
called the treasury of waters. The description says the ocean is beaten by the
winds, its shoreline keeps changing, and it seems to dance everywhere with
waves like raised hands. Then it adds one important point: its waves rise and
fall with the changes of the moon. (Astika Parva Mahabharata Chapter 19)
This is a simple observation, but it is the same pattern
that modern science calls tides. The text says the movement of the sea is not
random. It follows the moon.
When Did Modern Science Notice This?
People who lived near the sea always saw that high tide and
low tide have a rhythm. In the Western world, the Greek traveller Pytheas wrote
in the fourth century BCE that tides are connected with the moon. Much later,
in the seventeenth century, Isaac Newton gave the explanation by gravity: the
moon pulls on the water of the Earth, and the sun also pulls, though less. Full
moon and new moon bring the highest tides, and half moon brings the lowest. A
full mathematical theory of tides came still later, in the eighteenth century.
So the scientific explanation is only a few hundred years
old. But the observation itself is recorded in the Mahabharata, which belongs
to a much older tradition. Hindu seers did not give a formula of gravity here,
but they saw the relationship correctly and noted it in the history of their
own people. This shows how carefully they watched nature.
Moon, Water and Mind
Hindu teaching does not look at the moon only as a heavenly body. The Purusha Sukta of the Rig Veda (10.90.13) says "chandrama manaso jatah", meaning the moon was born from the mind of the Cosmic Being. For this reason, the moon is linked with the mind, and the ocean is linked with the moon. Both are always moving and both change with time.
Meaning and Symbolism
The ocean in the Mahabharata represents the world of life,
with its waves of joy and sorrow, gain and loss. The moon represents time and
the mind, because it grows and shrinks in a fixed cycle. When the moon changes,
the ocean also changes. In the same way, when the mind changes, the whole inner
life of a person changes.
The Bhagavad Gita gives a very good teaching on this. In
Chapter 2, verse 70, Bhagavan Krishna says that a wise person is like the ocean
which is filled from all sides by rivers but stays steady and does not cross
its limit. The waves are many, yet the ocean stays in its place. A person who
understands this does not get shaken by every change of mood or situation.
Importance for Hindus Today
This knowledge is not only for books. Hindu festivals and
rituals follow the moon. Amavasya and Purnima are important days, and sea
bathing, river bathing and fasting are done according to the lunar calendar.
Fishermen on Indian coasts also plan their work by the tide and moon phases, as
their ancestors did for generations.
Vyasa's Saying
The Mahabharata itself says, in Adi Parva (1.56.33), that whatever is found here may be found elsewhere, but what is not here is nowhere else. The ocean and moon description is one small example. It shows that the Mahabharata is not only a story of Kauravas and Pandavas. It is also a record of how Hindu seers understood nature, mind and dharma together.