RAMA'S BRIDGE TO LANKA IS REAL (NASA PHOTOGRAPH FROM SATELLITE IMAGERY) In a startling discovery, archaeologists have found that a bridge - currently called Adam's Bridge - made of chain of shoals, c.18 miles (30 km) long, in the Palk Strait between India and Sri Lanka, is man made. Satellite images (courtesy of NASA Digital Image Collection) show that the bridge's unique curvature and composition by age indicate that it is almost certainly man made. The discovery ties in with the Hindu Mythology of 'The Ramayana' in which Rama builds a bridge between Rameshwaram (India) and Lanka to rescue his wife Sita who had been kidnapped by the evil Ravana.The legends as well as Archaeological studies reveal that the first signs of human inhabitants in Sri Lanka date back to the a primitive age, about 1,750,000 years ago and the bridge's age is also almost equivalent. This information is a crucial aspect for an insight into the legend of the Ramayana, which was supposed to have taken place in tretha yuga (more than 1,700,000 years ago). This information may not be of much importance to the archaeologists who are interested in exploring the origins of man, but it is sure to open the spiritual gates of the people of the world to have come to know an ancient history linked to the Indian mythology.

Science sheds more light on Spirituality. Berkeley physicist Charles Townes shared the Nobel Prize in Physics for fundamental work in quantum electronics based on the laser-maser principle.However, the distinguished scientist also shocks purists by saying that "advancing our understanding of spirituality is more important, ultimately, than physics." According to Townes, science is an effort to understand what the universe is made of and how it works. Religion, on the other hand, he says, is an attempt to understand the meaning and purpose of the universe. Understanding how the universe works should give us a good deal of information about what is its purpose and meaning. "Thus, science sheds more and more light on spirituality," says the researcher who became the first Nobel laureate to win the John Templeton Prize for Progress toward Research about spiritual realities. The Duke of Edinburgh will present the $1.5 million award at Buckingham Palace on May 4 2005. What about the view that science and spirituality are polar opposites that cannot or should not meet? Doesn't it bother him? Townes responds by presenting a holistic view of faith. We usually associate faith only with religion and spirituality.However, even scientists would flounder without faith,he writes in his autobiography, Making Waves. "Faith is necessary for the scientist to even get started,and deep faith is necessary for him to carry out his task." Townes describes himself as a man of faith in three distinct senses: he has faith in the scientific method and in the continuing advance of science. Secondly,his life demonstrates a quiet yet profound religious faith. Less common than either of these convictions, he has a deep faith that science and religion will gradually converge in the future. He does not merely believe in the compatibility of science and religion. Repeatedly he has sought to convince scientists why it's crucial that they work together. I remember watching as he addressed an audience at the Indian Institute of Science,Bangalore. "Given these parallels, we should never treat these two great dimensions of the human spirit as fundamentally different or opposed. As our understanding of each increases, my own faith is they will increasingly grow together. If there's a purpose in the universe it must be related to structure and it determination (which is science)."