Steve Jobs’ death deeply affected many people and triggered a media frenzy. One of the most interesting comments made was: “Three Apples That Changed the World”. But not many people knew that there is an interesting story behind each of the three apples:

Eve’s apple
Newton’s apple
Steve Jobs’ Apple

No doubt they changed the world to a great extent.

Biblical Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit and committed the original sin. They fell from the grace of God and all the sufferings started from that day onwards. Not only Christians but also Jews and Muslims believe in the story.

Adam and Eve’s apple story is actually a Hindu Upanishad story. Wise people of the ancient world made up lot of mythology just to help the layman understand high philosophy. If philosophy was given directly it would have been rejected by many as a bitter medicine. So they gave it as a sweet coated capsule - called mythology. Unfortunately in the course of thousands of years, people forgot the principles behind the stories and stuck to the literal meaning. For a student of science or astronomy all these mythologies would appear as superstition or absolute stupidity.

There are lot of striking similarities between Hindu and Christian scriptures. They cannot be discounted as coincidences because the sheer number. There are good proofs to show that they are borrowed from common sources.

The Bible begins with a story from the Upanishads. It is the story of two birds eating the fruits, but instead of two birds, the Bible has Adam and Eve.

The very name reveals the Hindu origin of the story. In the Upanishads the two birds are the symbolic representation of Atma (atam) and the Jeevatma (Jeev - Eve). Any student of linguistics can easily recognise the transformation of Atma into Adam And Jeeva into Eve. This Parallel has been pointed out by Sri Chandrasekarendra Saraswathy, Sankaracharya of Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam in his lectures in Chennai in the 1930s. The story of the two birds is in the oldest religious record of human beings - the Rig Veda (RV 1-164-20) - and it is repeated in the Mundaka Upanishad and Svetasvatara Upanishad.

Mundaka Upanishad:

“Two birds, beautiful of wings, close companions, cling to one common tree: of the two, one eats the sweet fruit of the tree; the other eats not but watches his fellow” - Mundaka Upanishad.

The bird that eats the fruits is Jeevatma (ourselves-human beings). The bird that enjoys without eating the fruit is the Paramatma (the Supreme being).

The Bible says that Eve (Jeev-atma) ate the apple in the Garden of Eden and this was the cause for the fall of humanity. This is nothing but the above Upanishad story with some changes. The Upanishads say that it was a fig tree.

The Bible says Eve was created from Adam’s rib. This is once again the Hindu story of Uma/Parvathy forming the left part of Shiva. Nowadays we call our wives and husbands our ‘other half’. It is very interesting to note that this expression has come from the Vedas. Kalidas and other Sanskrit poets also use this expression freely. In all Shiva temples of Tamilnadu one can see Ardhanareeswara (half female and half male –Parvathi Parameswara) proving men and women are equal.

Another interesting fact is Bible never mentioned the word apple. Genesis of Bible says that Eve ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The word for evil in Latin is ‘malum’. The same word is used for apple in Latin.

When we call a married woman by name we put the woman’s name first followed by her husband’s name Eg. Michelle Obama, Samantha Cameron. This was also started by Indians. We worship our gods in similar pairings - SITAram, RADHAkrishna and so on. When the greatest Sanskrit poet wrote his epic Raghuvamsa two thousand years ago he prayed to Parvathy-Parameswara in the very first couplet. Ladies first, again. There are too many similarities to mention in this short article.

Sir Isaac Newton(1642-1727)

Newton is considered the most influential scientist who ever lived. He described universal gravitation and the three laws of motion. We are only able to send vehicles into space because of his discoveries. It is said that he discovered the law of gravitation when an apple fell onto his head. Though the apple analogy is partly correct, the fact was it did not ‘fall on his head’. But cartoons drawn after some time showed apple hitting his head. Buddha attained wisdom simply by sitting under the papal tree. However, nothing hit his head to allow wisdom to dawn upon him. In both the cases, it was actually the meditation on a particular subject that helped them to acquire such wisdom.

Steve Jobs (Feb 24, 1955 – Oct 5, 2011)

Steve was co-founder, chairman and chief executive of Apple Incorporated until his death. Apple’s iPod, iTunes, iPhone and iPad changed the entire world. Now no-one can think a world without these gadgets. We will feel handicapped without these equipments. Steve was the force behind these technological innovations. But what was the cause of his charming and composed personality? If the idea that Apple changed the world is not an exaggeration, then we can boldly say that India changed Steve Jobs! Steve Jobs was greatly influenced by the Beatles. Like the Beatles, he also took a spiritual retreat in India. He became a Buddhist and his wedding was done according to Buddhist custom. Like monks he used to walk bare footed in his neighbourhood and in the office. His sober views of life reflected his beliefs in rebirth and karma. He took his terminal pancreatic cancer like a Hindu saint.