Understanding God: Vedic and Scientific Perspectives

• Understanding God involves exploring scientific and Vedic perspectives.
• The exploration includes a scientific perspective toward God.
• An introduction to the Vedic scriptures will be studied.
• A Vedic perspective toward God will be explained as well as the path to God.
• Understanding the importance of human life in realizing the absolute.

Key Questions Explored

• What is the origin of the universe?
• How did life begin?
• What is the purpose of life?

Acquiring Knowledge in Vedic Tradition

• Two broad methods exist for acquiring knowledge in the Vedic tradition

Ascending and Descending Process

• The descending process offers complete information about God.
• The ascending process offers an indication about the existence of God.
• Both ascending and descending processes are recognized and accepted in the Vedic tradition.
• The ascending process is considered inferior and tedious.
• Stephen Hawking stated, it may not be possible to formulate the theory of the universe in a finite number of statements and the theories are inconsistent and incomplete.
• Charles H. Townes believed the question of origin seems unanswered from a scientific view alone necessitating religious or metaphysical explanations.

Religions

• There are 11 religions currently on Earth.
• Shintoism is prominent in Japan.
• Taoism or Laozi, and Confucianism are religions rooted in China.
• Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, Zoroastrianism, Christianism, Judaism, and Islam originated in India.

The Vedas

• The Vedas are essential to understanding reality.
• The Vedas include Atharva Veda, Rig Veda, Sama Veda, and Yajur Veda.

Introduction to Vedic Scriptures

• Vedic scriptures are a repository spanning more than five millennia.
• IKS refers to indigenous sources of knowledge generated by Indian society geographically in the Undivided Indian subcontinent (Akhanda Bharat).
• IKS is from those born and/or lived for a substantial amount of time, integrating with the native culture and practices.
• Many accounts from travellers and translations by non-Indians are about IKS, not IKS.

Knowledge

• Knowledge emanates from wisdom and insights from experiences, observation, experimentation, and analysis and is validated, improved, and augmented.
• Knowledge is available in literary sources and informally.
• It pervades spiritual, religious, and social domains.
• IKS as a system provides a structured methodology and a classification scheme to access the available corpus of knowledge.

The IKS Corpus Includes

• Literary forms such as Sanatana Dharma and other Dharmic traditions like Buddhist and Jain texts.
• Basic & Applied Sciences such as; Engineering, Technology, Architecture, Alchemy, Aesthetics, Kavyas, Arts, Health, Wellness, Psychology, Public Administration, Code of Living, etc.
• Non-literary forms such as Oral Traditions, Art Forms, Health, Food & Life Practices, Folklore, and Regional wealth of religious and other literature in major Indian languages.
• The core includes 14 vidyasthana with works of religious leaders and philosophers.

Process of Knowledge Acquisition

• Three types of Pramanas include; Pratyaksa, Anuman, and Sabda, are means of acquiring Vedic knowledge.
• Pratyaksa is direct perception.
• Anuman is inference.
• Sabda is revealed knowledge.
• The Sabda method is perfect and independent of imperfect senses.

Direct Perception

• It depends on senses and mind.
• Sophisticated instruments are being built to observe microscopic and macroscopic.
• Some examples are that food maybe tasty, or weather maybe warm.
• Flowers give fragrance, and stream water is naturally cool through direct perception
• Too much bright light is painful to see through direct perception.

Logical Inferences

• This process indirectly infers using logical arguments.
• Direct perception, logical inference, and historical evidence form the basis of logical arguments

Examples of Logical Inferences

• If there is smoke, there may be fire.
• If the sky is cloudy, it may rain.
• If someone works hard, they may qualify in an exam.

Historical Evidences

• One accepts information recorded by historical personalities.
• Archeological Excavations.
• Carbon Dating.

Historical Evidence Examples

• Akbar ruled India from 1556 to 1605.
• Britishers ruled India from 1757 to 1947.
• Chanakya founded Maurya Dynasty in 322 BCE.
• Human civilization started some 40,000 years ago

Relative Knowledge vs. Absolute Knowledge

• Modern epistemological approach results in relative Knowledge.
• Previous understanding light rays have Angle of incidence = Angle of reflection.
• Present understanding of rays is that light takes all possible paths.
• Absolute Knowledge represents information, understanding, and realizations never changed or modified.
• An example of absolute knowledge is self-identification as Atman, indestructible, eternal, full of knowledge and bliss.

Epistemology and the Way of Life

• A School of Scientific Epistemology views a human being as a bag of chemicals.
• It is a modern epistemological understanding that off-spring through breeding may become extra-ordinary.

Accepting Authority

• Accepting knowledge stems from teachers, parents, community, books, and education.
• Modern epistemology has underlying principles on modern epistemology.

Vedic Epistemology Includes

• Pratyakshya
• Anumana
• Pramana
• Shabda-brahma i.e. the Authentic process
• Shabda Brahma is revealed knowledge from God to genuine seekers of Truth.

Shabda Brahma Supersedes All Other Processes

• Pratyakshya, anumana and pramana may be used to understand sabda-brahma, however such revealed knowledge are always infallible.
• Vedic literatures headed by Srimad Bhavad Gita and Srimad Bhagavatam are revealed.
• All ancient texts are compiled by the great sage Srila Vyasadeva.

Revealed Knowledge Examples

• Cow dung, accepted as sacred based on the authority of Veda is an example.
• The antiseptic properties of the cow-dung can corroborate, an example of revealed knowledge
• Cow dung has been used as an organic manure in India for millions of years.
• The post-independence era has encouraged in-organic farming while branding Vedic knowledge as mythology
• Applications of fertilizers and pesticides will make all lands barren within another 20-30 years
• Animal bones are generally not sacred, requiring purificatory bath upon contact.
• However, Conchshell which is also an animal bone has been used in India to invoke auspiciousness.

Other examples of Revealed Knowledge

• Present Indian sub-subcontinent is referred as Bharata and the entire world is referred as Maha-bharata in Veda.
• The first human civilization (aryan culture) started in Bharata varsha.
• There are always 8.4 million species since creation.
• Lord Rama appeared in Ayodhya approximately 2 million years ago.
• Lord Krishna appeared in Mathura 5000 years ago.
• An ancient Vishnu idol was found during excavation in a village in Russia's Volga region dating back to VII-X century AD.
• A 1995 book (In Search of the Cradle of Civilization: New Light on Ancient India) argues against the theories that Indo-European peoples only arrived in India in the middle of the second millennium BC and supports the Out of India theory.
• The first significant African discovery related to human origins occurred in 1913 when Professor Hans Reck, of Berlin University, found a human skeleton in the upper part of Bed II at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania with a date of 1.15 million years
• The Hidden History of the Human Race pushes back the origins of our amnesia not just 12,000 or 20,000 years, but millions of years into the past.
• It is estimated that the bridge connecting India and Sri Lanka is 1.7 million years old.
• According to Veda, Lord Rama appeared approximately 2 million years ago.
• Findings in Dwaraka and underwater evidence are compatible with the Mahabharata tradition removing doubts about its historicity.
• In Katapayadi sankhya, alphabets have numerical values so a sloka can be read with rules given by coding techniques.
• In Rg-Veda, Mandalam 1, Suktam 50, Mantram 4 (6000 BCE), it is remembered that; salutation to thee (sun), the traveler of 2,202 yojanas in half a nîmisha.
• Calculations reveal that a dist traveled of 2202 yojana = 21,144,705 miles and time taken: ½ nimish = 0.114286 sec
• Yields speed of light = 185,016,169 miles/sec (6000 BCE) compared versus the modern value = 186,282,397 mile/sec (in 1887 AD)
• Physical science; gravitation from – Siddhanta-siromani, and Electricity by cell - Agstya-Samhita (14th century BCE) are detailed in the Vedas
• Explosives -Sukra-nitih, Chap-4, section 7,sloka 194-196, By Sukracharya (8th century BCE)
• Also in plastic and many other shophisticated surgeries from – Susruta-Samhita, Sutra-Sthanam, Adhyayah 16 (6th century BCE)
• There are uncountable examples of scientific knowledge present in our scriptures.

Conclusion

• Not all information is knowledge, and not all knowledge is wisdom.
• Proper knowledge is to know a thing as it is, while improper knowledge is to know a thing differently than it is.
• Ancient Indian knowledge is infallible

Sabda Pramana

• It has defects in knowledge acquiring processes rendering it difficult to ascertain validity for the common person
• Imperfect senses (karanapatava) include four human defects which have flaws of mistakes, illusions, cheating and sensory inefficiency.
• Sabda Pramana has no doubt in the words of someone that know the truth.
• Sabda Pramana are two types: Anadi (without beginning), example Veda and Sadi (with beginning) example Vedanta, Ramayan.
• This knowledge is apauraseya, i.e. divine origin and was that the Vedic knowledge was revealed within the hearts of the first created being (SB 1.1.1.).
• The Vedas are emanations from the breathing of the Supreme Personality of Godhead -Brihad-aranyaka Upanishad, 4.5.11
• Vedas are the topmost authority and, any spiritual principles (present, past and future) should be confirmed on the authority of vedas -Manu-Samhita of ancient India.

Vedic Scriptures

• There are four subdivisions: The Samhitas, Aranyakas, Brahmanas and The Upanishads.
• The subject matter of the whole Veda is divided into three parts: Karma kanda (80,000 verses), Upasana Kanda (16,000 verses) and Jnana Kanda (4,000 verses) .
• Important Upanishads include: Īśā , Kena , Katha , Prasna, Mundaka, Māndūkya, Taittirīya, Aitareya, Chandogya, and Brhadāranyaka.
• The three aspects of Brahman are the enjoyer, the enjoyed and the power that brings about the enjoyment.
• There are verses known to those who accept those verses, and otherwise cannot be understood without it such as is detailed with Katha Upanishad.
• The Vedic scripture shruti describes what has been heard which is authorless, and the smriti describes what is remembered which is written by sages, and has its wordings changed from age to age.

Explore scientific and Vedic viewpoints, including human life's importance. Understand God by studying Vedic scriptures and exploring various perspectives. Two methods of acquiring knowledge in Vedic tradition: ascending and descending processes and the origin of the universe.