meyyjgnaanamaa?vigjaanamaa?-en?eppdi?
all scientific inventions and discoveries have aided to promote social welfare of the humanity; had there been no invention from thomas alva edison we would not have elecricity; result no television, computer etc;
religious saints have recused themselve from [COLOR=#009900 !important]society
and stayed away in penance and spiritual austeries only;
how do you account for that spirituality is far better than [COLOR=#009900 !important]scientific theory[/COLOR]
vigjaanathaikkattilum meygjaanam siranthathu -eppadi-en-vilakkavum
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Shri kesavan,
This is a very important topic,imho.
As you know, our country has had a very long history of abstract thinking and abstract thinkers. So much so, there is even a funny legend (fictional story?) of one Namboodiri besting an acrobat who entered and came out of smaller and smaller rings with the remark, "what is so great about this? I can go to the very end of your "vitthai" and enter and come out of a ring with zero dimensions (வளையம் இல்லாமலெயே நுழைந்து வருவேனே!)".
That being our tradition, it is not surprising that we have a large baggage of philosophical and spiritual knowledge. Due to the overarching importance given to such scriptures, by the only group in the society which was ordained (once again by the scriptures) to adopt learning and teaching as its occupation, viz., the brahmins, they were practically curtailed from any scientific thinking of the modern kind. The brahmins were not generally adept at anything other than performing yagas, learning and teaching vedas; their skill in designing, physical experimentation, etc., was nothing much to talk about. Those who could assist them in these matters, viz., the artisans (including those who sculpted the idols and images for the temples, at a later date), were demoted to low-caste status generally, and social intercourse between the erudite class and the artisans declined as a result.
Due to these and many such factors, India "missed the bus", so to say, in reaping the benefits of the scientific thinking and technological exploitation of nature, which was experienced by most of the western countries. And when the westerners, and before them a host of others with some meagre scientific advantage (like cannons) invaded our land, we were caught napping in the glorious euphoria of our ancient heritage only as our best weapon of defence, with the result that practically every invader found this to be a soft underbelly. Thankfully, the British who came in last, for trade and then conquered the whole of this land, including Malaya, Burma, Pakistan, Afghanistan, were reestablishing the long-lost Bharat, so to speak. They (the British) were comparatively enlightenend colonialists and invaders, and so gave us many of the benefits of modern science, like the Railways, electric power supply (may be in negligible areas, but it served to familiarise some of our people in all those engineering skills), printing press and, above all, English education. Whatever progress we have achieved as independent India will have our familiarity with that colonial language as an important sub-stratum, imo.
For the first 60 years or so after Independence, our country was just struggling to raise its neck above water and for the last few years, we have had a very strong middle class with considerable purchasing power at its command. Part of this emanates from our youth working in foreign countries like the Gulf, US & Europe - the last two in the wake of the IT explosion. Our people, without exception, are very shrewd in enjoying the fruits of the benefits showered on us by science (விஞ்ஞானம்) but, strangely, that too among tabras, there seems to be a strong psychology of nostalgic mania of reconquering the old glories of the ancient Indian society, may be because brahmins then reportedly enjoyed unquestioned supremacy in all respects and were eulogized as bhūdevas, bhūsuras, etc., (devas, celestials of this world). Such people who exhibit a strong tendency for this "throwback" are not unhappy in showing a certain "positive hypocrisy", as one of our esteemed members tried to justify it; they enjoy all the materialistic comforts and advantages provided by science, engineering & technology (SET), but berate those in order to glorify the metaphysical and religious achievements of our ancients as the aim to be followed by Man.
In the light of this brief (is it?) account, I will say வீட்டில் விஞ்ஞானம் வெளியில் மெய்ஞ்ஞானம் (SET inside home, religion & metaphysics outside) will be a somewhat realistic appraisal of what is correct as per many in the tabra community.
I have no intimate knowledge about comparative situation in other communities/castes, please, and that is why I am confining my remarks to our community.
