Video Information: 12.01.23, BITS, Goa
Context:
~ Were modern discoveries already made during the Vedic period?
~ Is modern science already part of scripture?
~ Do religious fundamentalists understand their own religion?
~ Distance between earth and sun already written in Hanumanchalisa?
~ Why are Indians so ashamed of their history?
~ Vedas contain secrets about nuclear energy?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
#acharyaprashant #science #spirituality #vedanta #religion #superstition
Context:
~ Were modern discoveries already made during the Vedic period?
~ Is modern science already part of scripture?
~ Do religious fundamentalists understand their own religion?
~ Distance between earth and sun already written in Hanumanchalisa?
~ Why are Indians so ashamed of their history?
~ Vedas contain secrets about nuclear energy?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
#acharyaprashant #science #spirituality #vedanta #religion #superstition
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00So, you might have come across a lot of these Qatar Hindu media outlets right, who say that
00:14everything that science has proven today was already there in the Vedas and all the Sanskritic
00:19texts and all the ancient texts. For example, one of the common things that they claim is
00:22that the distance between the earth and sun was already written in Hanuman Chalisa and
00:26many other things which have time and again been disproven and all of these are certainly
00:30coming from confirmation bias. So, but my very big problem with this is that this is
00:36actually undervaluing the real contributions of people like Aryabhat, Panini, Pathani Samant
00:42and all of these legends who have contributed, who have made groundbreaking contributions
00:46to arts, music, science, philosophy and everything else. So, how do we teach this average Hindu?
00:52Education, nothing else. You want to be proud of your past, right? Yes. That's okay. For
01:00the right reasons. Yeah, but be proud of the right things and the right people and the
01:06right works and the right reasons obviously. It's alright to try to look at the past and
01:16search for reason and meaning and dignity and highness there. It's okay. You want to
01:26love something that's worth loving, which is very much okay. But if you, you know, you
01:38have a friend and he is let's say 5'6 and you go to a couple of strangers and you introduce
01:50your friend as 6'2, what have you communicated to your friend? You are ashamed of his height.
02:00Is that not what you are communicating? Please tell me. Your wife earns, let's say, 30k a month.
02:12She is just a beginner, let's say, 30k a month. You introduce her to your friends saying she earns
02:25lakh rupees a month. What does that mean? You are not quite proud of her. When you are needlessly
02:37and foolishly exaggerating things from your past, that simply means that you are ashamed of your
02:45past. And that is even more foolish because there is genuine stuff in your past that you can reason
02:54nimbly, genuinely, sincerely be proud of. But you are not proud of those things because you don't
03:04know of those things. That's why I said education. He talked of Aryabhatta, he talked of Panini.
03:14People don't know of them. People don't know of, they haven't heard of Sushruta. So they start
03:23saying, well you know, all the secrets, the entire cosmology is contained in the Vedas. Now
03:33interestingly these are people who not only do not know Sushruta and Aryabhatta, they also do
03:42not know the Vedas. All they know is their hollow, vain pride. This is an insult not only to the
03:57great scientists and mathematicians that we have had, this is also an insult to the Vedas. If I
04:08say certain things are there in the Vedic literature which are not there at all, am I
04:12respecting the Vedic literature? You are ashamed of it. The thing is you need not be ashamed of it.
04:19The beauty, the glory of Vedas lies not in the fact that they contain all the secrets of the
04:25material universe. Their glory lies in Vedanta and the Vedas are de facto immortal because what
04:34Vedanta is talking of is stuff that is applicable to all times, all people, all ages. The stuff that
04:43I have spoken to you of over the last two hours is nothing but Vedanta. So Vedanta is very much
04:51relevant even today and it will continue to be relevant 500 years from today, 1000 years from
04:56today. I am speaking to a very young audience and I am speaking to an elite audience and Vedanta
05:04is very meaningful to you and that's what should make you proud of the Vedas. Instead of that you
05:11are saying you know Vedas contain secrets about nuclear energy. Well there is nothing in them
05:21about nuclear energy. The thing is you have never touched a Veda and why have you not read the Vedas?
05:28The reason is simple. When you were in class 10th, you barely managed to clear your boards. I'm speaking
05:37to the people who spread this kind of nonsense. They are all half-educated, semi-literate people.
05:45They could barely clear their boards. Why? Because they could not even read their basic
05:55textbooks. Now these are the same people and the Rig Veda has 10,000 verses. Actually 10,000 verses
06:02Rig Veda. This fellow could not read a 100 page textbook in class 10th. Do you think he is going
06:08to really read the Rig Veda? No, he will not read the Rig Veda. But he is interested in blabbering,
06:16in propagating all kinds of nonsense just to establish that his community is great and
06:27superior to all other communities. So he will say you know this is written in the Veda. You ask him
06:32which Mandala, which verse? Tell me the Prakaran, the Adhyaya. Tell me please. Coming from the
06:40Sankhita, coming from Aranyaka. Where is this coming from? Then then no no no. There is a lot
06:56in India that is worthy of not just your pride, but it actually deserves your worship. Nonsense
07:16is not that. Truth is to be worshipped. Nonsense is to be discarded. Just as I say there are great
07:26things in your past, equally there is a lot in your past that deserves to be discarded. What
07:34must be discarded has to be discarded. What must be respected must be respected. Keep a clear
07:47distinction between the two. Simple. And do not make it a rule for yourself to not say anything
07:56without having researched reasonably into it. Don't accept anything as factual if you have
08:09not done your own research and you will be surprised. A lot of things that thousands of
08:17people, millions of people believe in are actually just hot air, fluff. There's nothing in that.
08:27This is information age, right? Basic kind of research is very easy. Do that.