51 - Vedic Maths - the Way Forward

VEDIC MATHEMATICS NEWSLETTER

ISSUE No. 51

A warm welcome to our new subscribers.
Vedic Mathematics is becoming increasingly popular as more and more people are introduced to the beautifully unified and easy Vedic methods. The purpose of this Newsletter is to provide information about developments in education and research and books, articles, courses, talks etc., and also to bring together those working with Vedic Mathematics. If you are working with Vedic Mathematics - teaching it or doing research - please contact us and let us include you and some description of your work in the Newsletter. Perhaps you would like to submit an article for inclusion in a later issue or tell us about a course or talk you will be giving or have given.
If you are learning Vedic Maths, let us know how you are getting on and what you think of this system.

This issue's article is by Dr Abhijit Das, a surgeon in Mumbai, India. Dr Das has a keen interest in many subjects including Vedic Mathematics, magic, accelerated learning, music, yoga, acting, origami etc.


VEDIC MATHS - THE WAY FORWARD

MATHPHOBIA! I have always felt that mathphobia is probably the most common phobia in the world of students surpassing arachnophobia, claustrophobia etc. It is universal, and I feel to a certain extent 'taught'. Though I did not hate math in school, I definitely did not like the way it was taught. I found it too be complex, and boring!

Fast track 20 years; another generation, but math has not changed. It is still being taught the same way as it was during my school days. Therefore I feel there is a need for change and Vedic Mathematics does just that. Its changes the perspective, you can see it from another angle, it makes it more interesting and, I believe, its makes your concepts clearer.

I have now given about a hundred lectures in vedic maths to a wide spectrum of people; from students in schools to the 'ordinary Jane' wanting to know a bit more about this interesting subject to mathematics lecturers. Everytime I have felt that the response to the introductory lecture has been overwhelming. The interest it generates is far from ordinary and I still remember a three day workshop that I took in Kolkata, India, where there was no room for the participants to sit! The organizers expected about a hundred people and double that amount turned up. It was mayhem, chaotic, disorganized, but at the same time, for me, it was fulfilling.

Another incident which I recall was in an up-market school in Mumbai where I was asked to demonstrate the use of vedic maths. I had asked all the teachers to be present, most importantly the maths teachers. I asked for a final examination question paper of class VIII (2 years prior to O level). It was a 2 hours question paper and I asked one of the maths teachers as to how long would she take to complete this paper excluding the geometry construction part. She told me about an hour. I completed the entire paper (arithmetic and algebra) in 20 minutes without writing down a single sum!!!!

What distinguishes vedic mathematics from pure mathematics? Its amazing subtlety, its clarity of concept, its tremendous flexibility and innovative and brilliant structure. You often wonder what unparallel insight Tirthaji, the rediscover of vedic math had, to come up with such a unique vision. As the Hindu scriptures mention,

'whatever is consistent with right reasoning should be accepted, even though it comes from a boy or even from a a parrot; and whatever is inconsistent therewith ought to be rejected, although emanating from an old man or even from the great sage Shree Shuka himself.'

All said and done, the real beauty and effectiveness of Vedic Mathematics cannot be fully appreciated without actually practising the system. One can then see that it is perhaps the most refined and efficient mathematical system possible.

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NEWS

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VEDIC MATH FRANCHISES IN USA

A major initiative has been launched in the U.S.A. to make after school Vedic Math classes available to children aged six to ten. Children will be taught in groups of up to 12 and they will be taught Vedic math as a mental system. Franchises can be obtained from the organizers, Vedic Math Development Corp., which is based in Miami where the first Center is opening. You can find out more at www.mathmonkey.com and if you are interested in owning/running such a Center anywhere in the world you can apply from there.

KOLKATA NEWSLETTER

The new edition of Vedika - the Newsletter of the Vedic Maths Forum India is out. Gaurav Tekriwal has been organising many inspiring events in Eastern India, as you can see in the newsletter. You can click http://www.geocities.com/smits_lov/vedikanew.htm to download the new newsletter May-June 2006 edition. The download is in two parts.

VEDIC MATH STUDY GROUP

My name is Richard Blum and I am an Actuary in the United States. I have studied Vedic Math (VM) for about 8 years. For the last several years, I have been a member of most VM newsgroups on the internet and have noticed that many people were asking for help in learning VM with many their requests going unanswered. I decided that I would form a study group to learn VM. To me it appears that this type of study group will fill a great need. There are many people out there who want to learn VM, but, didn't have either the money and/or the guidance to accomplish their goal. There will be no charge for this study group and we will all help one another. I anticipate starting the group with several applications of VM as it applies to squaring and multiplying certain numbers together as well as the multiplication and division of fractions. Starting in this way, I will demonstrate the power VM and empower the participants with the ability to do math problems in their head that they, before having Vedic Math methods explained to them, would have felt were impossible. We will then study general VM methods to enable the solution of all arithmetic problems to be done with little or no written work and in probably 20% of the time it would normally take. The next area of study will be the application of VM methods to algebraic and geometrical problems. Eventually, we will examine how VM methods can be used in trigonometry to make the solution of most problems simple, easy and very quick.

It is anticipated that this study group will begin towards the end of this month. If you are interested in participating, please contact me at .

SIMPLE SUMS IN IRELAND

Brian McEnery in Ireland has sent us the following. He can be contacted at

There is more interesting news, as we are just about to begin development of a set of modules which will enable VMaC to perform symbolic computation. The initial goal of this development is to enable the performance of the methods for solving the types of Equations which are covered in Chapters XI to XIV of Vedic Mathematics. The methods which are being developed are based on extending the set of Perl modules based on Math::Symbolic. Currently this open source system does not implement the types of algebraic manipulations required to resolve equations but it provides an excellent platform for their development.

There has been some interested responses from the Perl community of software developers to the VMaC proposals. To this end I feel that one of the most important next steps is to design a series of presentations aimed at software developers. I would like to create a number of examples showing how the Vedic sutras may be used either as a means of interpreting, designing or implementing specific algorithms. therefore if anyone has any examples, in whatever area, they might send them to me so that they can be included as part of this initial correlation.

The way in which these presentations will be designed, is to develop examples in arithmetic, which illustrate the core principle exemplified by a particular interpretation of the sutra, then generalise a little to algebra, or geometry, and then show how this links with the particular computer based algorithm which is being discussed. I feel that this approach is important, as it illustrates the core principle of simple sums and vedic mathematics which is to fill in the current gaps in our educational system. I feel that a lot of software developers already practice vedic mathematics, in their own way, as a set of implicit heuristics, but without any necessary formal language. Moving from the language of arithmetic to the language of software development is a means of developing a very strong correlation between current techniques in software development and the principles of computation as exemplified in vedic mathematics.

VEDIC MATHS ARTICLE IN INDIA

Vandana Singhal, an expert on Vedic Mathematics who frequently gives talks and courses, had an article published in the Maharashtra Herald on 23rd April. She writes: "A student's creativity and grasping power increases after s/he has learnt vedic maths".

EMAIL ADDRESSES

Please note that email address ending in vedicmaths.com and vmacademy.com are no longer in use. Our addresses all now end in vedicmaths.org. For example .

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CORRESPONDENCE

Email: Hello, I am chitra nanda kumar, a homemaker. I have come across Vedic maths in newspapers and seminar. I used to teach abacus in Chennai and used to wonder if there is any method which is easier and affordable to all. Then I came across this beautiful method. I fell in love with this system. though my son has already finished his schooling, I try and collect as much material possible so that I can help other children. Now I purely learn for the joy of learning. I would be grateful if I can receive the newsletters.

Email: I actually found the explanation of pi to 32 places on page 348 of Sri Bharati Krsna Tirthaji's book Vedic Mathematics. During the 90s I studied Sanskrit and still continue with my Sanskrit interest and with practice of Pattabhi Jois' Ashtanga Yoga. I believe Vedic Math, which I am just beginning to learn, is a yoga for keeping the mind strong and alert. Thank you again. Namaste. John van der Does
Vermont, USA.

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WORLD ACADEMY FOR VEDIC MATHEMATICS - contact details

Registered Address: Vishwa Punarnirman Sangh, Raval Bhawan, Near Telankhedi Garden, Nagpur-440 001, India.
Contacts in other Cities in India :
Delhi R.P. Jain, MLBD bookstore
91(011) 2385-2747 / 2385-4826 / 2385-8335 / 2385-1985.
&
Varanasi 91 (0542) 2352331
Kolkata MLBD bookstore 91 (033) 22824872
Mumbai MLBD bookstore 91 (022) 2351-6583 / 3092-2105
Nagpur Alka Sahani 91 (0712) 2531363 / 2550906 / 2545637
/
Pune MLBD bookstore 91 (020) 24486190
Dr. Bhavsar 91 (020) 25899509 / 21115901
Bangalore School of Ancient Wisdom - Devanahalli, 91 (080) 768-2181 / 7682182 / 558-6837
/
MLBD bookstore 91 (080) 6533729 / 6542591
Chennai 91 (044) 24982315

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Editor: Kenneth Williams

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9th June 2006

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