VEDAS and SCIENCE

[Sarma sasthrigal]

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Vedas and Science
Many of us are often seized with a doubt: do Vedas reflect scientific knowledge? Can Vedic pronouncements be proved scientifically?

I firmly believe, as also the traditionalists, that Vedas are meant for spiritual practice only and are not to be evaluated with reference to modern science. I say this because Vedas are far beyond our thinking and imagination, far too vast for human comprehension. Why are we then trying to bring it down to modern science, which is at best ephemeral knowledge? The findings and recordings of modern science and technology are always susceptible to alteration. The progress is ongoing and never final. A scientific theory said to be valid at a given point of time is quite often rejected or modified after some time. Thus we cannot be sure of the correctness and perfection of scientific theories and facts.

On the contrary, the knowledge embedded in Vedas is eternally valid and permanent - it has seen no change, and will see no change.

The interpretation of Vedas should be carried out with aadhyatmika or spiritual orientation. It does not lend itself to scientific analysis. People interested in search of scientific aspects in Vedas stretch the meanings of Vedic Mantras with great difficulty to fit modern research findings to them. The intentions of such scholars are good but I would submit that their work is like carrying a candle to the Sun. Many such analysts, despite proficiency in Sanskrit, chant mantras with a lot of distortion and do not know the significance of Vedic words. One should not attempt to interpret the Vedas unless one has thoroughly studied Vedanga, Sastras, Darshanas, Itihasas and Puranas. One should besides have a fair command over the Vedic commentaries of Sri Sayanacharya.

That said, we need not ignore the work of modern scholars, both Western and Indian, which try to prove that several branches of science are traced to Vedas. These research studies, which establish close ties between the Vedas on the one hand and modern sciences from Mathematics to Medicine to Computers and Cosmology, are very interesting and satisfy our modern mind. Let us not undermine the hard work and enthusiasm of these scholars. But let us also remember the eternal truth that the Vedas cannot be commented upon from a scientific point of view. Vedas are divine.

God’s work cannot be interpreted by the sciences created by man.

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The above excerpts are taken from the chapter titled 'Veda Prabhavam' from the book THE GREAT HINDU TRADITION
authored by me and released by Pujya Swami Dayananda Saraswati at Chennai.

 

[renuka]

Dear sir,

I get your point and agree with you to a certain extent but would like to just highlight this:

One should not attempt to interpret the Vedas unless one has thoroughly studied Vedanga, Sastras, Darshanas, Itihasas and Puranas. One should besides have a fair command over the Vedic commentaries of Sri Sayanacharya.

This I totally agree but I feel we need not take a too rigid stance cos this makes many people believe that Hinduism is NOT User Friendly and hence easily convert to other religions.

I have been reading the Veda Samhita with Bhasya of Sayancharya and I am no expert but when I read it I feel there is a lot open for interpretation as Vedic Sanskrit grammar is totally different from Conventional Grammar and some Grammar are even Pre Paninian.

It is not easy to even say that one understood reading it in one life and it might take the average person like me a couple of lives to even really feel that I understood a needle's tip.

But what I would want to say is learned people should make Vedic Text user friendly to the common man.
Everyone is saying that we can not interpret Vedas etc but learned people themselves are not imparting knowledge in simple words.

We see the same recycled "Right Click Copy Paste Syndrome" that has been passed down from generation from generation and hardy anyone is teaching too.
It only sounds like "one should do this and not do that" and it all just looks like some standing order and nothing more.

The well known excuse is "the candidate is not a deserving candidate" and hence knowledge can not be imparted.

This is the actual cause of decline in our own Hindu Dharma understanding...no one wants to teach anymore.

I can only think of Lord Krishna and Lord Buddha who attempted making religion user friendly and poor Lord Buddha got misunderstood as a Naasthika(not conforming to the Vedas)

Adi Shankara made Sanathana Dharma direct to the point through Advaitic Philosophy and re established Vedic understanding once again.

To me if you ask me I would say that Vedas is all about the gross and subtle which involves both Science and Spirituality.

Science is not Anti God..only half baked Scientists are Anti God.

There is no knowledge which not from Vedas.
In fact there is nothing actually even new to start with, we are only Dis-Covering(Uncovering) the cosmic blue print of eternal knowledge.

If we feel that these days we are fighting with nuclear weapons I can say that so did our ancients in the Mahabharat!
We use a nuclear reactor for fission and fusion to generate nuclear energy and our ancients were harnessing the power of atoms and their nuclear reactor were mantras.

They were harnessing nuclear energy via subtle means(through mantras) and we are harnessing nuclear energy via physical means.

Best known Weapon of Mass Destruction is the Brahmaastra which was used by Ashwatthama to harm the unborn Pariskhit.
The very fact that Lord Krishna had to protect the unborn fetus Pariskhit showed that it would have had genetic mutative radioactive effects..just like effects we see in nuclear disasters of these days.

So technically speaking when we say anything is Divine..there is always valid explanation and basis.

Lord Krishna Himself gave us Geeta which is a logic in Q and A form.

Sometimes when we say..

God’s work cannot be interpreted by the sciences created by man..

that sort of makes people think religion has no logic and hence God does not exists.

I get what you mean that not everything can be understood by the human mind cos some knowledge are experiences and revelations but I feel we Hindus should not close doors to any analytic understanding of Vedas/Religion etc.

 

[mkrishna100]

I get what you mean that not everything can be understood by the human mind cos some knowledge are experiences and revelations but I feel we Hindus should not close doors to any analytic understanding or Vedas/Religion etc.

Renukaji

I agree behind the spirit of your post .No one close the doors for analytic Understanding with regard to Vedas /Religion .The biggest problem is "Intellectual Laziness" of many people who want to Understand about Vedas /Hinduism etc .
There is enough literature now available now regarding Hindu dharma /Vedas /Vedanta etc and many are also available online for easy access but very few people are interested in going through these things . There are many people no doubt buy the books related to our Dharma but hardly study the same . Today lot of talks are available on Vedas ,Vedanta ,Bhakti for free download on the net .Except for a select few not many are keen on serious study of the same .
Today we have instant coffee ,instant noodles , fast food etc etc and people want the same with regard to learning about our Vedas and Dharmas etc .
Sringeri Acharya Sri Bharati Teertha Mahaswamigal who is now in Chennai said in one of his talks that some people ask him how to get moksha with minimum effort as they are too busy to study Bhagawat Gita , Upanishads etc .For which Sringeri Acharya replied if they calculate how much time they spend mindless hours on TV /Cell Phone /Internet etc daily in spite of their so called busy schedule then they can use some of those mindless hours for Scriptural study .

But first thing is people should take interest in study of Sanskrit before they undertake any serious study of our Dharma as without knowledge of Sanskrit many things they find difficult and drop the study of our Dharma altogether . So we need to focus on first making learning Sanskrit more easy and interesting .Already Samskrit Bharati is doing lot of work in this regard but more needs to be done .

 

[N.R.Ranganathan]

In ' Thiruvadi mahaimai ', Vallalar has spoken about modern sceince, particularly particle physics. Some devotees
have done research work and this is available in the website :

View Article -Vallalar, the Particle Physicist, Research Articles