A COMPARISON OF MODERN SCIENCE WITH VEDIC SCIENCE PART 6
START 14 10 24 K RAJARAM IRS AND HIS READSHIPS
38 According to tantra the chakras of the body are the centers of the
different elements as well as cognitive capacities and rhythms related to
“internal planets.” The knowledge of these rhythms appears to have led to
astrology.
4 Cosmology We have seen how the logical apparatus that was brought to
bear on the outer world was applied to the analysis of the mind. But the
question remains: How does inanimate matter come to have awareness? This
metaphysical question was answered by postulating entities for smell,
taste, form, touch, and sound. In the Sankhya system, a total of
twenty-four such categories are assumed. These categories are supposed to
emerge at the end of a long chain of evolution and they may be considered
to be material. The breath of life into the instruments of sight, touch,
hearing and so on is provided by the twenty-fifth category, which is
purusha, the soul. The recursive Vedic world-view requires that the
universe itself go through cycles of creation and destruction. This view
became a part of the astronomical framework and ultimately very long cycles
of billions of years were assumed. The Sankhya evolution takes the life
forms to evolve into an increasingly complex system until the end of the
cycle. The categories of Sankhya operate at the level of the individual as
well. Life mirrors the entire creation cycle and cognition mirrors a
life-history.
39 Surprisingly similar are the modern slogan: ontogeny is phylogeny,
and microgeny (the cognitive process) is a speededup ontogeny .
5 Concluding Remarks Weare in the midst of a paradigm shift in our
understanding of Vedic science and cosmology. We now know that measurement
astronomy is to be dated to at least the third millennium B.C.E. which is
more than a thousand years earlier than was believed only a decade ago; and
mathematics and geometry date to at least the beginning of the second
millennium B.C.E. Indian mythology is being interpreted in terms of its
underlying astronomy or/and cognitive science. We find that many Indians
dates are much earlier than the corresponding dates elsewhere. What does it
all mean for our understanding of the Indian civilization and its
interactions with Mesopotamia, Egypt, China and Greece? Was Indian
knowledge carried to the other nations or do we have a case here for
independent discovery in different places? Contemporary science has begun
to examine Vedic theories on the nature of the “self” and see if they might
be of value in the search for a science of consciousness .Man has mastered
the outer world and Vedic science formed the basis for that enterprise; it
is now possible that the exploration of the inner world, which is the heart
of modern science, will also be along paths long heralded by Vedic rishis.
2 In the earliest period of Indian science, it is exceptional when we know
the authorship of a text or an idea. For example, although Lagadha (c. 1400
B.C.E.) is the author of Vedanga Jyotisha we do not know if its astronomy
was developed by him or if he merely summarized what was then well known.
Likewise we are not sure of the individual contributions in the Shulba
Sutras, of Baudhayana, Apastamba, and other authors, which describe
geometry, or Pingala’s Chhandahsutra which shows how to count in a binary
manner. The major exception to the anonymous nature of early Indian science
is the grammatical tradition starting with Panini. This tradition is a
wonderful application of the scientific method where the infinite variety
of linguistic data is generated by means of a limited number of rules. With
Aryabhata of Kusumapura (born 476), we enter a new phase in which it
becomes easier to trace the authorship of specific ideas. But even here
there remain other aspects which are not so well understood. For example,
the evolution of Indian medicine is not as well documented as that of
Indian mathematics. Neither do we understand well the manner in which the
philosophical basis underlying Indian science evolved. Thus many texts
speak of the relativity of time and space—abstract concepts that developed
in the scientific context just a hundred years ago. The Puranas speak of
countless universes, time flowing at different rates for different
observers and so on. The Mahabharata speaks of an embryo being divided into
one hundred parts each becoming, after maturation in a separate pot, a
healthy baby; this is how the Kaurava brothers are born. There is also
mention of an embryo, conceived in one womb, being transferred to the womb
of another woman from where it is born; the transferred embryo is Balarama
and this is how he is a brother to Krishna although he was born to Rohini
and not to Devaki. There is an ancient mention of space travellers wearing
airtight suits in the epic Mahabharata which may be classified as an early
form of science fiction. According to the well-known Sanskritist J.A.B. van
Buitenen, in the accounts in Book 3 called “The Razing of Saubha” and “The
War of the Yakshas”: the aerial city is nothing but an armed camp with
flame-throwers and thundering cannon, no doubt a spaceship. The name of the
demons is also revealing: they were Niv¯ atakavacas, “clad in airtight
armor,” which can hardly be anything but space suits. Universes defined
recursively are described in the famous episode of Indra and the ants in
Brahmavaivarta Purana. Here Vishnu, in the guise of a boy, explains to
Indra that the ants he sees walking on the ground have all been Indras in
their own solar systems in different times! These flights of imagination
are to be traced to more than a straightforward generalization of the
motions of the planets into a cyclic universe. They must be viewed in 10the
background of an amazingly sophisticated tradition of cognitive and
analytical thought (see e.g. Staal 1988; Kak 1994). The context of modern
science fiction books is clear: it is the liberation of the earlier modes
of thought by the revolutionary developments of the 20th century science
and technology. But how was science fiction integrated into the mainstream
of Indian literary tradition two thousand years ago? What was the
intellectual ferment in which such sophisticated ideas arose? I do not
answer these questions directly. My goal is to provide a survey so that the
reader can form his or her own conclusions. I begin with an account of
Indian mathematics and astronomy from the time of Aryabhata until the
period of the Kerala school of astronomy. Then I consider material from one
randomly chosen early text, Yoga-Vasishtha, to convey basic Indian notions
about time, space, and matter. Yoga-Vasishtha has been dated variously as
early as the sixth century and as late as the 14th century. It claims to be
book regarding consciousness but it has many fascinating passages on time,
space, matter and the nature of experience. We present a random selection
that has parallels with some recent speculations in physics. Lastly, I take
up the question of the conceptions behind the Shri Yantra, whose origins,
some scholars believe, go back to the age of Atharvaveda.
6 Mathematics and astronomy One would expect that the development of early
Indian mathematics and astronomy went through several phases but we don’t
have sufficient data to reconstruct these phases. A certain astronomy has
been inferred from the Vedic books, but there existed additional sources
which have not survived. For example, there were early astronomical
siddhantas of which we know now only from late commentaries written during
the Gupta period ; this period provided a long period of stability and
prosperity that saw a great flowering of art, literature, and the sciences.
Of the eighteen early siddhantas the summaries of only five are available
now. Perhaps one reason that the earlier texts were lost is because their
theories were superseded by the more accurate later works. In addition to
these siddhantas, practical manuals, astronomical tables, description of
instruments, and other miscellaneous writings have also come down to us .
The Puranas also have some material on astronomy. Aryabhata Aryabhata is
the author of the first of the later siddhantas called Aryabhatiyam which
sketches his mathematical, planetary, and cosmic theories. This book is
divided into four chapters: (i) the astronomical constants and the sine
table, (ii) mathematics required for computations, (iii) division of time
and rules for computing the longitudes of planets using eccentrics and
epicycles, (iv) the armillary sphere, rules relating to problems of
trigonometry and the computation of eclipses. The parameters of
Aryabhatiyam have, as their origin, the commencement of Kaliyuga on
Friday, 18th
February, 3102 B.C.E. He wrote another book where the epoch is a bit
different. 11Aryabhata took the earth to spin on its axis; this idea
appears to have been his innovation. He also considered the heavenly
motions to go through a cycle of 4.32 billion years; here he went with an
older tradition, but he introduced a new scheme of subdivisions within this
great cycle. According to the historian Hugh Thurston, “Not only did
Aryabhata believe that the earth rotates, but there are glimmerings in his
system (and other similar systems) of a possible underlying theory in which
the earth (and the planets) orbits the sun, rather than the sun orbiting
the earth. The evidence is that the basic planetary periods are relative to
the sun.” That Aryabhata was aware of the relativity of motion is clear
from this passage in his book, “Just as a man in a boat sees the trees on
the bank move in the opposite direction, so an observer on the equator sees
the stationary stars as moving precisely toward the west.” Varahamihira
Varahamihira (died 587) lived in Ujjain and he wrote three important books:
Panchasiddhantika, Brihat Samhita, and Brihat Jataka. The first is a
summary of five early astronomical systems including the Surya Siddhanta.
(Incidently, the modern Surya Siddhanta is different in many details from
this ancient one.) Another system described by him, the Paitamaha
Siddhanta, appears to have many similarities with the ancient Vedanga
Jyotisha of Lagadha. Brihat Samhita is a compilataion of an assortment of
topics that provides interesting details of the beliefs of those times.
Brihat Jataka is a book on astrology which appears to be considerably
influenced by Greek astrology. Brahmagupta Brahmagupta of Bhilamala in
Rajasthan, who was born in 598, wrote his masterpiece, Brahmasphuta
Siddhanta, in 628. His school, which was a rival to that of Aryabhata, has
been very influential in western and northern India. Brahmagupta’s work was
translated into Arabic in 771 or 773 at Baghdad and it became famous in the
Arabic world as Sindhind. One of Brahmagupta’s chief contributions is the
solution of a certain second order indeterminate equation which is of great
significance in number theory. Another of his books, the Khandakhadyaka,
remained a popular handbook for astronomical computations for centuries.
Bhaskara Bhaskara (born 1114), who was from the Karnataka region, was an
outstanding mathematician and astronomer.
39 Amongst his mathematical contributions is the concept of
differentials. He was the author of Siddhanta Shiromani, a book in four
parts: (i) Lilavati on arithmetic, (ii) Bijaganita on algebra, (iii)
Ganitadhyaya, (iv) Goladhyaya on astronomy. He epicycliceccentric theories
of planetary motions are more developed than in the earlier siddhantas.
Subsequent to Bhaskara we see a flourishing tradition of mathematics and
astronomy in Kerala which saw itself as a successor to the school of
Aryabhata. We know of the 12contributions of very many scholars in this
tradition, of whom we will speak only of two below. Madhava Madhava (c.
1340-1425) developed a procedure to determine the positions of the moon
every 36 minutes. He also provided methods to estimate the motions of the
planets. He gave power series expansions for trigonometric functions, and
for pi correct to eleven decimal places. Nilakantha Somayaji Nilakantha (c.
1444-1545) was a very prolific scholar who wrote several works on
astronomy. It appears that Nilakantha found the correct formulation for the
equation of the center of the planets and his model must be considered a
true heliocentric model of the solar system. He also improved upon the
power series techniques of Madhava. The methods developed by the Kerala
mathematicians were far ahead of the European mathematics of the day.
40 7 Concepts of space, time, and matter Yoga-Vasishtha (YV) is an
ancient Indian text, over 29,000 verses long, traditionally attributed to
Valmiki, author of the epic Ramayana which is over two thousand years old.
But the internal evidence of the text indicates that it was authored or
compiled later. It has been dated variously as early as the sixth century
AD or as late as the 13th or the 14th century (Chapple 1984). Dasgupta
(1975) dated it about the sixth century AD on the basis that one of its
verses appears to be copied from one of Kalidasa’s plays considering
Kalidasa to have lived around the fifth century. The traditional date of of
Kalidasa is 50 BC and new arguments (Kak 1990) support this earlier date so
that the estimates regarding the age of YV are further muddled. YV may be
viewed as a book of philosophy or as a philosophical novel. It describes
the instruction given by Vasishtha to Rama, the hero of the epic Ramayana.
Its premise may be termed radical idealism and it is couched in a fashion
that has many parallels with the notion of a participatory universe argued
by modern philosophers. Its most interesting passages from the scientific
point of view relate to the description of the nature of space, time,
matter, and consciousness. It should be emphasized that the YV ideas do not
stand in isolation. Similar ideas are to be found in the Vedic texts. At
its deepest level the Vedic conception is to view reality in a monist
manner; at the next level one may speak of the dichotomy of mind and
matter. Ideas similar to those found in YV are also encountered in Puranas
and Tantric literature.
41 We provide a random selection of these passages taken from the
abridged translation of the book done by Venkatesananda (1984).
Time • Time cannot be analyzed... Time uses two balls known as
the sun and the moon for its pastime.
• Theworld is like a potter’s wheel: the wheel looks as if it stands
still, though it revolves at a terrific speed.
• Just as space does not have a fixed span, time does not have a fixed
span either. Just as the world and its creation are mere appearances, a
moment and an epoch are also imaginary.
• Infinite consciousness held in itself the notion of a unit of time equal
to one-millionth of the twinkling of an eye: and from this evolved the
time-scale right upto an epoch consisting of several revolutions of the
four ages, which is the life-span of one cosmic creation. Infinite
consciousness itself is uninvolved in these, for it is devoid of rising and
setting (which are essential to all time-scales), and it devoid of a
beginning, middle and end.
Space • There are three types of space—the psychological space, the
physical space and the infinite space of consciousness.
The infinite space of individed consciousness is that which exists in all,
inside and outside... The finite space of divided consciousness is that
which created divisions of time, which pervades all beings... The physical
space is that in which the elements exist. The latter two are not
independent of the first.
• Other universes. On the slopes of a far-distant mountain range there is
a solid rock within which I dwell. The world within this rock is just like
yours: it has its own inhabitants, ...the sun and the moon and all the rest
of it. I have been in it for countless aeons.
• The entire universe is contained in a subatomic partice, and the three
worlds exist within one strand of hair.
Matter
• In every atom there are worlds within worlds.
• (There are) countless universes, diverse in composition and space-time
structure... In every one of them there are continents and mountains,
villages and cities inhabited by people who have their time-space and
life-span.
Experience • Direct experience alone is the basis for all proofs...
That substratum is the experiencing intelligence which itself becomes the
experiencer, the act of experiencing, and the experience.
• Everyone has two bodies, the one physical and the other mental. The
physical body is insentient and seeks its own destruction; the mind is
finite but orderly.
• Ihave carefully investigated, I have observed everything from the tips
of my toes to the top of my head, and I have not found anything of which I
could say, ‘This I am.’ Who is ‘I’? I am the all-pervading consciousness
which is itself not an object of knowledge or knowing and is free from
self-hood. I am that which is indivisible, which has no name, which does
not undergo change, which is beyond all concepts of unity and diversity,
which is beyond measure.
• I remember that once upon a time there was nothing on this earth,
neither trees and plants, nor even mountains. For a period of eleven
thousand years the earth was covered by lava. In those days there was
neither day nor night below the polar region: for in the rest of the earth
neither the sun nor the moon shone. Only one half of the polar region was
illumined. Then demons ruled the earth. They were deluded, powerful and
prosperous, and the earth was their playground. Apart from the polar region
the rest of the earth was covered with water. And then for a very long time
the whole earth was covered with forests, except the polar region. Then
there arose great mountains, but without any human inhabitants. For a
period of ten thousand years the earth was covered with the corpses of the
demons.
Mind • The same infinite self conceives within itself the duality of
oneself and the other.
• Thought is mind, there is no distinction between the two. [41] • The
body can neither enjoy nor suffer. It is the mind alone that experiences.
• The mind has no body, no support and no form; yet by this mind is
everything consumed in this world. This is indeed a great mystery. He who
says that he is destroyed by the mind which has no substantiality at all,
says in effect that his head was smashed by the lotus petal... The hero who
is able to destroy a real enemy standing in front of him is himself
destroyed by this mind which is [non-material].
• The intelligence which is other than self-knowledge is what constitutes
the mind.
41 Complementarity • The absolute alone exists now and for ever.
When one thinks of it as a void, it is because of the feeling one has that
it is not void; when one thinks of it as not-void, it is because there is a
feeling that it is void.
• Allfundamental elements continued to act on one another—as experiencer
and experience— and the entire creation came into being like ripples on the
surface of the ocean. And, they are interwoven and mixed up so effectively
that they cannot be extricated from one another till the cosmic dissolution.
Consciousness • The entire universe is forever the same as the
consciousness that dwells in every atom.
• Thefive elements are the seed fo which the world is the tree; and the
eternal consciousness if the seed of the elements.
• Cosmic consciousness alone exists now and ever; in it are no worlds, no
created beings. That consciousness reflected in itself appears to be
creation.
• This consciousness is not knowable: when it wishes to become the
knowable, it is known as the universe. Mind, intellect, egotism, the five
great elements, and the world—all these innumerable names and forms are all
consciousness alone.
• The world exists because consciousness is, and the world is the body of
consciousness. There is no division, no difference, no distinction. Hence
the universe can be said to be both real and unreal: real because of the
reality of consciousness which is its own reality, and unreal because the
universe does not exist as universe, independent of consciousness.
• Consciousness is pure, eternal and infinite: it does not arise nor cease
to be. It is ever there in the moving and unmoving creatures, in the sky,
on the mountain and in fire and air.
• Millions of universes appear in the infinite consciousness like specks
of dust in a beam of light. In one small atom all the three worlds appear
to be, with all their components like space, time, action, substance, day
and night.
• The universe exists in infinte consciousness. Infinite consciousness is
unmanifest, though omnipresent, even as space, though existing everywhere,
is manifest.
• The manifestation of the omnipotence of infinite consciousness enters
into an alliance with time, space and causation. Thence arise infinite
names and forms.
• The Lord who is infinite consciousness is the silent but alert witness
of this cosmic dance. He is not different from the dancer (the cosmic
natural order) and the dance (the happenings).
42 YV appears to accept the idea that laws are intrinsic to the
universe. In other words, the laws of nature in an unfolding universe will
also evolve. According to YV, new information does not emerge out the
inanimate world but it is a result of the exchange between mind and matter.
It also appears to accept consciousness as a kind of fundamental field that
pervades the whole universe. One might speculate that the parallels between
YV and some recent ideas of physics are a result of the inherent structure
of the mind.
The Shri Yantra Although our immediate information on the Shri Yantra
(SY) comes from medieval sources, some scholars have seen the antecedents
of the yantra in Book 10 of the Atharvaveda. The Shri Yantra consists of
nine triangles inscribed within a circle which leads to the formation of
little triangles . Whatever the antiquity of the idea of this design, it is
certain that the yantra was made both on flat and curved surfaces during
the Middle Ages. The drawing of the triangles on the curved surface implies
the knowledge that sum of the angles of such triangles exceeds 180 degrees.
The question that the physicist and historian of science John Barrow (1992)
has asked is whether these shapes intimate a knowledge of non-Euclidean
geometry in India centuries before its systematic study in Europe. It is
possible that the yantras were made by craftsmen who had no appreciation of
its mathematical properties. But scholars have argued that the intricacies
of the construction of this yantra requires mathematica knowledge.
KR IRS TO BE CONTD 141024
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