Science in Veds

Blind faith in the Vedas has led the hindus to consider them as an unlimited source of knowledge and even trace their authorship to God.

In the last century, when discoveries and advancement of science began fast changing life patterns around the world, the reaction was varied. Some were for all out support to the scientists to go ahead, while others preached caution. And even as the controversy continued, the expanding horizons of science encouraged the spirit of competition and generally increased apetite for knowledge.

But in India the reaction was quite different. For the followers of the Veds tried to establish that all scientific knowledge had already existed in the Veds. The western scientists, they claimed were only rediscovering the truths.

Some of their co-religionists, influenced by Western education and culture, ridiculed these absurd views and as a result, Hindus began developing inferiority complex and losing faith in religion.

To counter this feeling, the religious teachers and the educated elite, which itself was steeped in orthodoxy, started giving scientific interpretations to the absurd beliefs. The main purpose of such interpretations was to instil self-confidence among the hindus and make them stick to their religion firmly. However, the expalnations offered were not scientific but were concocted to suit specific purposes.

Plenty of examples of such scientific explanations can be given. Among them are:

The tuft of hair on the crown of the head, a religious mark of devout hindu possesses electromagnetic power.

A dip in the Ganga is benificial because certain Western scientist has proved that its waters posses therapeutic qualities.

The 'Satyanarayan Vrat' a vow observed during full moon day, has the power to reduce the gravitational force between the sun and the moon.

The illumination by oil lamps in the Diwali night helps to burnaway a poisunous gas which is emmited on that particular evening.

Swami Dayanad, too, tried to extract the scientific knowledge frofm the veds by interpreting them to suit his purpose. Slowly, many began to believe that all scientific knowledge already existed in Veds. And to make their claim more impressive, some even suggested that the west has derived its knowledge of science through Veds.

Unscientific Statements

Such statements proved not only a stumbling block in the path of scientific enquiry but also helped create a sense of complecency among the people. Also people became more interested in ruminating ove rtheir "glorious past" then looking towards bright future.

However doubt still persisted about claims that scientific knowledge existed in vedas and even people like Swami Dayanand proved unable to clear them.

Among the doubts that persisted were:

If knowledge about science had really existed in the Veds, why then those who had been reading, memorizing and expounding them for thousand of years could not make any scientific discovery? Why was it left to the Western scientists to make discoveries when we had knowledge with us all along ?

Why did the vedic scholars of yore not mention anything about such knowledge ? Numerous old commentries exist but none mentions anything about science. Why ?

When Hindus themselves whos had been learning and reciting Veds could not contribute anything in the field of Science, how did the germans sucdeed ? After all, the germans had taken away the Veds from India.

There is no answer to these searching questions. A thorough study of Veds will reveal that they contain no scientific knowledge at all. In fact what is said is generally opposed to the scientific laws. Can anyone point out a single word from the veds which can represent any of the following machines: telephone, telivision, rocket,tape-recoreder, gramophone, refrigirator, atom bomb, hydrogen bomb and teleprinter.

Even a fourth standard student knows that the earth rotates on its axis causing day and night. But according to Vedas, the earth is static and this statement is repeated several times. The following are some of the examples:

1. Oh Man ! He who made the trembling earth static is Indra. (Rig Ved 2/12/12)

2. The God who made the earth stable (Yajur Ved 32/6)

3. Indra protects the wide earth which is immovable and has many forms (Atarv Ved 12/1/11)

4. Let us walk on the Wide and Static earth (Atharv Ved 12/1/17)

As the Veds Claim that the earth is static and so they tried to prove that the sun moves around the earth. The following statement from the rig Ved tries to clarify it:

"Sun is full of light and knows all the human beings, so his horses take him to sky to look at the world" (Rig Ved 1/50/1)

"O, Bright sun, a chariot named harit with seven horses takes you to sky" (Rig Ved 1/50/8)

Innumerable passages from the 'Rig Ved' can be quoted to show how poor knowledge of science our Veds had.

A Universal Fact

While proving the existence of scientific knowledge in Veds, some go to the extent of claiming that the sun has magnetic powers or powers of attraction of gravity.

"O, man, the sun who is most attractive, takes round of the earth, on his golden chariot through the sky and removes the darkness of the earth" (Yajur Ved 33/43)

As for the moon, the Veds have only to say that it runs in the space, which is full of water - a universal fact that no one can deny, hence nothing new. (Rig Ved 1/105/1)

Veds also refer to eclipses - Lunar and solar - but in most imaginative and illogocal form, leading to blind faith. The explanation of a lunar eclipse is given as a demon Rahu apturing the moon. About the solar eclipse, it is said that the demon named Swarbhanu stops the sun in his round. It was released by Attri,a rishi and his son, who rescued the sun from the demon.

The admirers of the Veds have claimed that even the knowhow of the aeroplanes existed in holy scriptures. But the irony is that one hymnm which has been cited to show the existence of aeroplanes has been interpreted differently by various scholars.

Pandit Shiv Shankar Kavyatirth, a staunch Arya Samajist, has writtena book entitled 'Science in Vedas' in which he has made an attempt to prove ancient knowledge of aeronautics by quoting the following mantra:

"He looks like an aeroplane placed in the sky. He travels continuously through the three worlds earth, space and sky. Seated in his airborne vehicle, who traverses the whole universe, and who can travel high above the clouds, beholds the light spread everywhere" - 'Yajur Ved 17/59'

After giving the meaning of the verse, the author gives the following explanations in support of his contention:

"It is evident that the word aeroplane does occur in this verse. The verse also gives description of its movements as well as of its rider. Therefore it is evident that the 'rishis' were familiar with aeronautics in those days".

But it is intersting to note that Swami Dayanand, who was the teacher of Pandit Kavyatirth, interpreted the meaning of the same verse in a different way. He gives the meaning as follows:

"The sun who is moving fast like the swift moving 'aeroplanes' is going to settle after spreading his light on the earth and the space." ('Vide Yajur Ved Dayanand Bhasya 589.')

Besides, many other scholars have also explained the verses as related to the sun. For example Acharya Gopal Prasad Kaushik gives following meaning:

"The Surya (sun) who is the maker of the world stands in the centre of the heaven. He pervades the three worlds, namely the earth, the space and the sky, by his brilliance." ('Vide Yajur Ved page 327')

Swami Dayanad gives some more examples to prove that the knowledge of the celestial vehicles existed in the Veds. He gives and elaborate expanation of the meanings of the words that occur in the hymn in the 'Rig Ved' ('vide Rig Bhashya p 200')

The explanations read:

"An industrious man does not attain a sorrowful death after securely possesing the material wealth. Prompted by whom the vehicles like boats move. They acquire the quality of motion from the elements like earth, space, air etc. which in here in themselves the quality of movement which is known as Ashvi. The movements of vehicles like boats aeroplanes chariots etc are made possible in all directions. "

Incoherent explanations

By such elaborate explanation, the swami can only impress person who has not gone deeply into Veds. In the name of elucidation, he has written something which has nothing to do with the actual meanings of the words. In fact the words in the question simply mean "like man who parts with his wealth at the time of death." The lengthy and incoherent explanation of the Swami presents an example of clumsy thoughts of biased minds.

He gives overstreteched meaning to another verse from 'Rig Ved' (1/1164). It reads:

"It becomes quite impossible to cross the earth, the ocean and the space by means of boat, aircraft or chariot."

In Vedic lexicons, the word 'Dhanvan' has the meanings of bow and desert. Mention of oceanic deserts can also be found in them. Therefore, in this context 'Dhanvan' applies to oceanic deserts. But the swami has made it deliberately to mean sky and added the word 'Viman' meaning aeroplane of his own.

Would anyone explain which word in this verse denote 'viman' meaning aeroplane ?

Therefore, pandit Ramgovind Trivedi, author of Hindi version of 'Rig Ved' is right when he says that there does not occur any word in the Veds meaning Aeroplane.

Before i conclude my discussions on the Science in the Veds, I would like to deal with one more subject, namely the science of telegraphy.

In the name of telegraphy Swami Dayanand has tried to prove that the knowledge about electric wires and Telegrams did exist in Veds. He cites the following Verse as an example:

"Learn the secret of telegraphy the benifits of which are manifold. It helps to produce extremely quick locomotion to acheive best results. The wire must be made of pure metal charged with electricity. It can be used again and again after charging with electricity. In order to attain the best results and to bring about complete victory over the enemies, one should acquire the knowledge of the telegraphy. Just as the sun illumines the near and the far objects alike, this telegraph machine also accomplishes near and distant transactions.

But even an ordinary reader would not fail to notice the deliberate attempt has been made to stretch the meaning of the verse too far.

For example, two different meanings are given to the word 'Shwetres'. Similarly the word 'Pedve' means white, whereas it has been taken as to mean "that wire must be pure".

In another example, the meaning of the word is twisted to mean 'a telegraph machine' simply because it contains the word 'thar'. In sanskrit the word 'thar' means a metallic wire or string. It is never used to mean telegraph.

The swami rejected the conventional meaning of the Vedic words and gave them arbitrary meanings to suit his purpose. But such literary aerobics fail to prove the exsistence of science in Veds.

Now let us examine the exact meaning of the verse in the question.

"Oh, ashvi you gave the king Pedu the white horse which was desired by all and which was capable of defeating the enemies. That indefeatable, brilliant and multipurpose horse was like Indra who truimphed over man" ('Vide Hindi Rig Ved P. 177')

Another tall claim is about the existence of powerful rocket which could reach even the Sun. The following hymn from the Yajur Ved is put forward in support of the claim,

"I reached the space from where i went to heaven. I also reached the lustrous region situated at the auspicious back portion of the heaven."

Evidently there exists nothing that even smacks of science in this hymn, the subject matter of which is fire god. From the commentaries of Uvvat and Mahidar and also from 'Shrouts Sutra of Katyayan' it become clear that this verse as well as its preceding and its succeding verses are in the praise of the fire god.

In the preceding verses, it has been mentioned that the priest and the 'sacraficer' should carry the fire from the mortar to the heaven and live there among the gods. Later the 'sacraficer' says that he reached the heaven from the earth after passing through the space. The succeding verses eulogise such rituals saying that those who perform the auspicious rituals attain the heaven which is free from all sorrows. (Yajur Ved 17/68)

Conclusion.

The logical conclusion from the forgoing statements is that the Veds do not contain even elementry knowledge of Science.

The attempts that have been made to prove the existence of science in the vedas are mere superimpositions of facts and lack conviction.

Therefore, let it be known to the science crazy enthusiasts of the Veds they cannot fool all people all time.

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