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Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Science and Hinduism

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JAY SHREE POOJYASHREE SHREE AMMA
JAY MAHAN BRAHMASHREE GOPALAVALLIDASAR
JAY SHREE RADHEKRISHNA SATHSANG


Dear readers,

Our blog on science and hinduism completes its one year today.
On this occasion here are the remarks of our Guruji,
Mahan Brahmashree Gopalavallidasar

Radhekrishna

Hinduism is a great ocean. No one knows the limit of it. If u have any question abt anything, there is a answer in hinduism. The so called great 'science', is there in hinduism. Nowadays people are giving much importance to the science. Nothing wrong in that. But people are thinking that there is no science in the hindu Upanishadhs and puranaas. Its a wrong mental attitute. Otherwise its an ignorance of the people who dont know the real depth of the sacred hinduism.

If u go through the world history, the first civilised and technologically superior religion is the sacred ancient hiduism. Hinduism has given many great sciences to the world. Radhekrishna!

Hinduism illustrates each and every principles with science. Every pooja has its own rituals and sciences. The design of every temple has its own architectural science in it. Every manthra has its own science.
Every ritual has a basic science. The important days which are celebrated in this hindu relegion are based on the movement of sun and moon{astronomy}. Radhekrishna! Likewise there are many sciences available in our ancient sacred hinduism. Radhekrishna!

Everyone must realise the real science in hinduism. Thats why we, radhekrishnasathsangam have started this blog. Many people have written about the science in hinduism. But the uniqueness in this website is, the articles are presented by a non-science student with the help of other sathsangam members.

This guy has got many good experiences after he started chanting. He is the true devotee of Poojyashree Shree Amma. He is much interested and careful in writing these articles. He is also enjoying the articles and realising the real science in hinduism. radhekrishna...

He is able to do this because of the blessings from her holiness Poojyashree Shree Amma. Thats the power of a guru. Guru can make a non-science student to write articles about Science in Hinduism. So have a strong faith in guru and enjoy the real bliss. Radhekrishna

Now this blog is completing its first year with the blessings of Lord Sri Radhekrishna. You people are also enjoying this site because its so simple in its explanation that even a layman can also understand.
I wish this service from him should last long throughout his lifetime. I wish all the readers a great happy journey in reading the articles about the positive sciences of hinduism.

radhekrishna

So enjoy the articles and send us your feed back without any hesitation.
Radhekrishna

Let us light the lamp of positive sciences in hinduism around this universe.....

Gurujiamma's disciple
Mahan Brahmashree Gopalavallidasar.


...the articles will continue from the next posting onwards as usual on the 6th and 22nd of every month


Tuesday, February 07, 2006

Science and Hinduism

0 comments
JAY SHREE POOJYASHREE SHREE AMMA
JAY MAHAN BRAHMASHREE GOPALAVALLIDASAR
JAY SHREE RADHEKRISHNA SATHSANG

Dear Readers,

In our last article, we concluded with the topic on why the name Krishna has been mentioned time and again in all the articles of this blog.

The purpose of this blog was to tell our readers the way in which ‘Science’ and the ‘Hindu religion’ are related. Nowadays people who attain even basic levels of education start believing that everything that happens in this world has a scientific reason behind it. They feel that if anything is done without having a scientific reason then that thing should not be done.

In fact each and every ritual and the ways of living life that are prescribed in our Hindu dharma have a very definite logic behind them. The only fact is that because of ignorance, we people, the residents of ‘Hindustan’, have lost track of that invaluable knowledge which is the real treasure of our motherland ‘India’. One of the reasons for this can be attributed to the fact that the English ruled over our country for nearly a hundred and fifty years. But even then, they could not entirely wipe out our traditions and customs. Even then they have had some effect on our people and few aspects of the western culture can be seen today in the country. A simple example would be the clothing worn by the people nowadays. This problem is more intense as far as females are concerned. A fair percentage of females nowadays feel that the lesser clothes they wear the more attractive they would look. They have forgotten that exposing bodies is the fashion of the west whereas wearing clothes adequate to cover the body has been the ornament of our country since time immemorial. Another reason for people having forgotten the hindu traditions is that earlier this knowledge was imparted in schools by the rishis who were well versed in it. But nowadays whatever is being taught in schools are pure academics. This is not incorrect but it is insufficient. Students along with learning mathematics, history and geography etc. also must be taught about the ‘Hindu dharma’.

This would include stories of great personalities like prahalad, dhruva etc who showed to the world the method of doing bhakti. They achieved the real purpose of the human life i.e. salvation in such a small age! Children need to learn to do bhakti and know about Bhagawan during their childhood itself. This is because this is the age when anything and everything can be learnt easily. And ‘the science of the self is the most important among all the sciences’ was told by Lord Krishna in the Bhagawat Gita. So learning this science is more important than learning any other science. But the exact reverse is happening. The children learn all other sciences except this all-important science.

People who feel that there is no science behind the methodologies of Hindu dharma are ignorant. They lack the knowledge about the subtlety of Hinduism.

As life has been made physically comfortable and comparatively effortless by modern inventions, the ease-loving man is prone to disregard the place of religion in his life and exalt the values of materialistic civilization. But events have always disclosed the unreliability of the purely objective views and methods of physical science, the experience of man that he is not really happier, and the world is not in fact better, even after his arduous attempts at extracting out of external nature its latent resources in order to utilize them for his own purposes. Where is satisfaction, where is happiness, and where is peace then?

Some wise scientists are fully conscious now of the limitations of science, and of its methods, in the investigation of phenomena in planes of subtler states of matter. The reality of the spiritual world is closed book to them. They are equally conscious of the limitations of science in the regeneration of unregenerate human nature, and in the attainment of the Supreme Good or Eternal Bliss, the summum bonum of life.

Scientists are very, very busy in studying the external world. They have entirely forgotten to study the internal world. Science gives you knowledge only of the phenomenal appearances, and not of the Reality behind them. Science has not been able to solve the ultimate questions: What is the ultimate stuff of the world? Who am I? What is the ultimate truth?

Science tells us that the ultimate goal of everything is unknown, and unknowable. But, Srimad Bhagavatham teaches that the ultimate goal is Brahman or the Infinite, and that It can be realized through hearing, reflection and meditation.

Science has got its limitations. Science does not have an instrument by which they could just collect the super sensual or spiritual data, or those divine facts which exist in a subtle form but which we cannot see. True experiences include the experiences of the three states, namely, the waking, dream and deep sleep states.

The soul is beyond the realm of physical science. The soul is beyond the reach of material science. Man is a soul, wearing the physical body. The soul is extremely subtle. It is subtler than ether, mind and energy. Consciousness and intelligence are of the soul, and not of the body. Consciousness is evidence of the existence of the soul. The soul is the immortal part of man.

Science is a systematic study of facts. It tries to reduce observations or observed facts into a system. In order that the fact may be valid for science, it must be perceptible to the senses. Sensing is false knowledge. Intuition is right knowledge. Intuitive knowledge alone is the highest knowledge. It is imperishable, infinite knowledge of Truth.

Both religion and science are engaged in the search for Truth. Their attitudes are essentially the same. But the fields of applications vary. Raja-Yoga described in Bhagavatham is an exact science. Its methods are very scientific. A scientist is an external Raja Yogi. Hindu Rishis, seers and sages have recognized the harmonious relation between religion and science. The divorce of science from religion is the cause of confusion and conflict. Science is religion as applied to the investigation of Truth in the finite nature outside - the object. Religion is science as applied to the realization of the Infinite, the Brahman, the Truth that underlies all objects - the Subject.

Science interprets on the phenomenal plane the One as energy. Religion interprets the One as the Self, "the Atman". Science analyzes, classifies and explains phenomena. But Brahma-vidya (divine knowledge) teaches you to transcend phenomena and attain immortality.

The scientific and the religious approaches to Truth are really complementary, and not contradictory. Religion and science are the twin-brothers. They should help mutually and harmoniously to search Truth and live the life of Truth here.

Science has to do with facts; religion with values. Where science ends, religion begins. A close study of the observations and revelations of science brings a man nearer to God. Who gave power to electrons? What is at the bottom of these electrons? What is that power that has combined four parts of nitrogen and one part of oxygen? Who has framed the laws of nature? Nature is blind. What is that intelligence that moves nature? A study of the physical forces and the physical laws, an understanding of the mental forces and the mental laws, are not sufficient to make us perfect. We should have a thorough knowledge and realization of the substratum that lies hidden behind these names and forms and all physical and mental phenomena. Then only we will become perfect masters or full-blown adepts or Arhatas or Buddhas.

Mind and intellect are finite instruments. They cannot realize the infinite Reality. But, they are a means. When the intellect has passed through the various stages of reasoning, and when it has been completely purified, then revelation dawns. True religion begins where the intellect ends.

Let it not be thought that religion is dogmatic, otherworldly, a pet tradition of blind believers or irrational emotionalists. Religion is the most rational science, the science of life itself, the science of man as he essentially is, not merely as he presumes himself to be. The basis for all the secular sciences is Brahma-vidya or the Adhyatmic science (i.e. spirituality). Brahma-vidya is the foremost among all sciences, because by it one attains immortality. Secular experiences are partial, while spiritual experiences is the experience-whole. If you know this supreme science of Brahma-vidya through direct intuition, you will have knowledge of all otherworldly sciences; just as you will have knowledge of all articles made of clay, if you have knowledge of clay itself. You cannot learn this Science of sciences in any university. Matter cannot be totally ignored; but matter should be subordinated to spirit. Science should be subordinate to Brahma-vidya. Science cannot be the be-all and end-all. If you end your life in the laboratory alone, you cannot enjoy the eternal bliss of the Soul. You cannot attain the supreme wisdom, which can free you from births and deaths. Science cannot give you salvation.

Those persons who are educated with specializations in one of the several sciences like physics, chemistry and astronomy etc. feel very difficult to digest the concept that science has limitations and that it cannot provide reasoning for everything. However they have to finally accept this fact. Questions like ‘is it possible for science to bring life back in a small ‘dead’ mosquito?’ show the helplessness of science.

However all this should not be interpreted as a discouragement to people to learn science. It is not wrong to learn the various sciences. However, along with this, it is also important to learn the most important science, i.e. the science of the self (atman).

….concluded

Sarvam Guruvarpanam
 

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