Vedas are called Apaurusheya meaning ‘NOT of human origin’, and only the contents of which were directly revealed to man.
If it is not of human origin, then who wrote it? God? Well, it is said that the vedas came out directly from the mouth of Brahma, and Brahma as we know represents the physical universe . And that Brahma got it from Vishnu, who represents the eternal multiverse that exists beyond our local temporary universe Brahma (which was a product of Bigbang). So? what does it really mean?
The very meaning of the word “veda” is knowledge, complete knowledge. The root word is “vid” which means ‘to know’ or ‘knowledge’ in Sanskrit.
It refers to the universal knowledge which is timeless and eternal. It is like saying quantum mechanics or relativity is Apaurusheya, and we can certainly say that because it is the ever existing law of nature, humans only discovered it, and it existed even before we discovered it. So are the vedas which are encyclopedia of ancient knowledge which was compiled together by Vyasa. Vyasa is NOT the original author of vedas, he only collected and compiled it. Just like the way today anybody can collect and compile all the knowledge we humans have in different fields of science like physics, chemistry, biology etc.
So when we say that vedic texts are apaurusheya meaning not of human origin, all it means is that they are scientific laws, the laws of the universe. Which is why we also see in the vedas references to various authors (both male and female) who wrote different parts of the vedas. There are also numerous references of female authors (about 27 of them) like Ghosha, Maitreyi, Gargi, Lopamudra etc who authored many of the vedic hymns. Yet the vedic texts are called Apaurusheya i.e being eternal without any author. Why? Obviously because we never say Einstein wrote relativity, Einstein only discovered relativity, he wrote what he discovered. So did the ancient vedic authors, seers who were the scientists and researchers of those days. So when we say Apaurusheya, it is in reference to the contents of the vedas. Oxygen existed even before it was discovered, so did the vedic contents
Having said that, there is a large difference between modern science and vedic science. Modern science to a large extent is incomplete and is completely materialistic in nature, except for the recent swing towards consciousness in quantum mechanics and related subjects.
Vedic science on the other hand is NOT materialistic science, instead it is a science which is in the form of a constant interaction between mind and matter, mind over matter. Dont think it to be some boring philosophy, the person who understands the vedic science can experience higher dimensions which the string theory talks about. As you read the vedic texts you get an intuitive feeling of how the universe is functioning, and it is really difficult to put it down into words, and sanskrit is the best language to try to do any such attempt, and vedas are the best form of such an attempt to make humans understand the real science.
What we think to be modern science is bound by our physical limits, vedic science is not, for it takes a completely different approach to explore the universe, an inward journey where there are no physical barriers, your mind can do it all. The best theory till todate in modern science, the Theory of Relativity , my most favorite in modern science, was discovered and formulated by Albert Einstein purely based on his Thought Experiments , by an inward journey into his mind, by thinking about the possibilities, by asking questions and searching for answers within the thoughts, all physical experiments related to the theory were done much after he published it!!
In other words, the theory of relativity is the best theory till to date, answering most of the questions unanswered till it was discovered, and also answering and predicting a lot after it was formulated, and is the “star” of all physical theories in modern science, and that is because it was discovered using a “Vedic approach” of thinking inwards free from all the prejudices (termed as common sense) and our physical limitations.
To put in Einstein’s own words, “Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age 18?. Go deep within to come out of it
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One thing which is predominantly seen in the modern days Vedic scholars is that, whenever some concept of science is brought out by astronomer / cosmologist / physicst , like string theory, M Strings etc, immediately we see them coming up with something stating that this was already told in Vedas
When there was talks about Big Bang most vedics were talking about mahapralaya and Yugaas and quoted them as a comparison to Big Bang. Now when the concept of multiverse is catching up, they will definitely come up with some Sutra etc….
Ancient vedics might have or have done intense scientific research but modern vedics act as Police in a Bollywood movie, arrive after climax
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True Rishi, vedic texts have always been saying what they have said, but so called scientific minded people (who are actually popular science readers not actual field equation solvers nor have read vedic texts) come across it only after modern science discovers these facts.
Vedas have always said that the entire universe is filled with vibrations represented by the symbol Om, now isnt it exactly the same thing which String theory is saying? So what is the issue here if vedic scholars say that the concept of string theory is nothing but the concept of Om? Vedas have always said that, In the beginning there was nothing and everything came out of nothing, and this is what even Big Bang theory and modern cosmology says isn’t it? Nobody went and modified the vedic texts after these discoveries were made, did they? So who is arriving now after the climax?
If modern science in just last 5 centuries or so could invent and discover so much of technology and science, is it surprising if the vedic civilization lived for 5-6 millennium knew much more than us? And isnt it surprising to believe that human species who have had the same intelligent brain as today for over the past two million years or so started inventing and discovering things only recently?!
Your comment actually prompted me to write two articles after a long time, thanks for that
Vedic Science and Modern Science
The Myth of Western Scientific Outlook and Eastern Blind Faiths
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Hi,
I see that in vedas the black matter in the universe is also referred to Brahman. we have just started the investigation of what it is, but may be these are the channels or medium to communicate. Could you shed some light on your findings…
Thank you,
Manikant
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I am a Hindu(I guess, I was born in a Hindu family, which I found out is nothing , its actually Sanatana Dharma), I don’t get it. Could you explain how are the scientific things in Vedas related to Ramayana, Mahabharata, Krishna, Bhajans, Puranas, all our rituals(hawans and all)? I mean from all I’ve read about Vedas, they sound like agnostic or rather atheistic to me. Like pondering over what exists (or mediatation in other words). So how is it related to what we normally practice. In Vedas, is it anywhere mentioned that chanting “Hare Krishna” will solve your problems/bring you closer to GOD. And what is GOD according to Vedas? All the mantras, could they be just something like “the law of attraction/subconscious mind”? I have a lot more questions but I guess they’ll be answered with these. Sorry for troubling you
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Well, true that the vedic basis makes Hinduism neither a theistic nor an atheistic religion, its a culture where the existence of the supreme consciousness is acknowledged, but at the same time this supreme universal consciousness is NOT defined in the way abrahamic religions describe GOD, as some superhuman being who can punish and reward humans.
You can probably read these two articles
Hindu Concept of God
Vedic Concept of God
Its not the mere chanting of the mantras, it is about trying to establish a connection of our consciousness with the supreme consciousness and it is said that establishing such connections successfully is what makes a normal human being a divine person – which is why again you will find so many holy persons, saints, sages etc who are worshipped equally with God – those who were able to establish a connection with the supreme consciousness. This supreme consciousness is all pervading the universe, which is why hinduism treats every aspect of the universe as a living divine entity – animals, plants, planets, mountains, river, air, water etc.
As Mark Twain once said “India has two million gods, and worships them all. In religion all other countries are paupers; India is the only millionaire.”
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Excellent post, Gurudev! I really appreciate the vedic philosophy and would love to study further.
But it is hard to believe a comparison you have done to prove that Vedas are not authored. When you compare it to Einstein’s relativity, it is a concept and hence was discovered. But Vedas are not just the concepts but they are the composition of words and hymns which cannot be there unless human intelligence is involved in composing this. How do one prove its apourusheyatva in that case?
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Well, vedas themselves say that which part of the vedic hymns were written by whom. Each part of the vedic texts has a human author. The greatness of the vedic texts is that large parts of it are also written by female authors like Gargi, Maitreyi, Ghosha etc.
The vedic knowledge which existed as independent texts was compiled into the four major vedas by veda vyasa.
Coming back to its apourusheya origin, its the knowledge in these texts that is referred to as apourusheya. The very term veda means knowledge. So while relativity for instance has Einstein as its author or discoverer (just like the authors of the vedic texts), the truth of relativity is apourusheya meaning Einstein didnt create relativity. He only discovered its existence. So did the vedic seers who composed the vedas.
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I just happened to visit your site and found this article. Very interesting and thought provoking. Good work!
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Thank you very much Suresh.
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Here is something that every Indian should know:
Whatever parts of Veda have been studied and analyzed scientificcal, have proven to be correct – including the science behind the Tandav of Shiva – now being hailed as the cosmic dance of the smallest sub-atomic particle. Nothing that has been understood from the Vedas has proven incorrect. What is now being accepted is that maybe the Vedas were brought to the earth by intelligent aliens. We have been lucky in that we have managed to preserve the books and above all Sanskrit, the language of the Vedas. A second point I would like to make is that western researchers have over the last few hundred years travelled to India, to have sections of the vedas translated. I know from first hand experience that the Germans researchers use to come to Lucknow University to study Ayur Veda, a lot of allopathic drugs that have emerged in Germany were arrived at a lot of research on Ayurveda. Ok, recently, the Chines government found ancient texts in the region of Tibet, the text was sent to Chandigarh University for translation. The text when translated revealed the principles of anti gravitation, the same technology that the UFOs use in their inter-galactic/space travel. Thre are books like the Vaimanika Shastra and Samara Sutradhara that talk about anti-gravity theory and ancient indian aircraft technology.
Why didnt the Indians apply this knowledge when it was handed over to us – I think basically we are thinkers. To us the aliens were Gods and we still beleive so. But the west analyzes and applies knowledge. Oh by the way the rocket boosters of American space crafts look exactly like the ones described in Vaimanika shastra. Do the research on the internet. You will be amazed.
All knowledge is derived from Vedas, and other ancient books. Dont be mistake. Remeber we studied about Mohenjodaro and Harappa in school. The never told us that it is also one of the most radioactive sites in the world. Maybe they died in a nuclear war… Think…
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Very well said Blue Lotus, we need more researchers who look into the ancient Indian sciences and apply them to these days. We actually have a lot of them in this country but they just dont get the required media publicity.
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the question is wrong.
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Prashant
Vedas clearly say “”Ekam Sat Vipraha Bahuda Vadanthi”" meaning “”God is one, learned scholars call him with different names/worship him in different ways”". It is this basic essence of vedas which makes all religions equally acceptable to Hindus, unlike the abrahamic religions (Islam, Christianity etc) which say, holier than thou, meaning that only theirs is the true path!
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Nobody has studied the four vedas completely. I strongly believe that there is not a single person who can claim, with all honesty, to have studied them completely. The reason is simple: many parts have been lost.
Let me mention a few things that I have read from secondary sources:
We speak not only of the shapeless formless God (nirAkAra nirguna parama brahma) but also identify with that God in the mantra (and this is perhaps one of the most fundamental mantras in Hinduism), soaham ahamsah, which means “”that is me, i am that”". Another mantra, equally important and equally fundamental in Hinduism is tat tvam asi, which means “”you are that”". In both these mantras, “”that”" is meant for the shapeless formless God mentioned above.
Worship of forms of nature is not at all forbidden. Who told you this absolute nonsense? Vedas encourage respect and veneration for nature. It is a general phenomenon in Hinduism throughout. So much so that mArkandeya purAna calls passing urine or feces into flowing water (rivers, etc.) is as serious a sin as committing murder.
If we all worship nature the way our shAstras have advised us to, all the problems of modern world such as global warming, ozone depletion, etc. will go away. It seems strange, but there are strict rules in Hindu texts forbidding exploitation of nature. A true Hindu is actually the planet’s best friend!
It is good that you asked this question because this answer can serve as a continuation to my previous answer where I delve in the differences of oriental and occidental thought processes. Now we can guess why an industrial revolution never took place in India.
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i m really proud of the above people who have answered so well to the fired quetions.i am a hindu sudying in a minority university.i want to know whether vedas have mentioned that
god is one and has no shape and worship of forms of nature is forbidden by the vedas as i am often asked about it and i have to say “”i have not sudied the vedas to tell this.
please answer his quesiton so that i can answer them the next time.
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Hi Gurudev & Ritwik thnks for the nice thoughts. I really liked the thoughts put forth here.
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Really wonderful Ritwik. Very well said.
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That is a good reply! Retaining knowledge and/or information requires a continuity of culture. It is hard to expect a continuity for several thousand years in a world where countries get divided due to petty politics every ten years or so (Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, former USSR, Tibet, etc). Entire libraries have been burnt and razed to the ground when one king has invaded another kingdom (library of Alexandria). The only reason such ancient knowledge continues to exist in India, in however corrupted or weakened form, is that in this civilization, knowledge was always associated with spirituality. That is why the puraanas survive while Indica does not. No matter how many libraries you burn down, the knowledge that flows from one generation to the next purely on the basis of faith cannot be snapped out. Sooner or later, people will discover reason beyond faith and the knowledge that is apparently lost will resurface.
Another point that I want to make here is a fundamental difference between oriental and occidental thought. In civilizations such as India and China, things are not done simply because they can be done. The consequences are first contemplated upon. Even though a kung-fu master can kill a man with a single punch, he doesn’t do that in every fight. Even though railways enable us to travel faster, Gandhi opposed its introduction in India for several reasons (if you are interested in this, please read Hind Swaraj). Another spiritual stalwart J Krishnamurti says, “”things that are possible to do are already done. Psychologically, there is no future. Only those that are impossible require time.”" (from Beyond Violence).
If the reader has read these books, I hope s/he understands the basic point I am trying to make here.
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Roshan
We know that the ancient Egyptians built those giant pyramids. But why dont we have that technology today?
We know that they preserved dead bodies as mummies for millenniums. Why are we trying to reinvent that technology today? Why did that original technology get lost?
We know that there are huge ancient Iron pillars in India which have resisted rust for centuries. But where is that technology lost today?
After Baghdad battery was discovered, we know that ancient Mesopotomian civilization might have had electricity. But why did we lose that technology later and had to reinvent the wheel again in modern times?
The answer to all is also the answer to your question about vedic knowledge. Over a period of time when a civilization has reached its technological/social peak there have been large scale destructions natural/man made that have resulted in almost complete loss of knowledge/memory that civilization had. Same would be the case of our present civilization if there is a world wide nuclear war tomorrow. As Einstein said, ‘If there is a third world war, then the fourth one will be fought with sticks and twigs’
In ancient India there was such large scale destruction by the Mahabharatha war and the great floods that followed it, and a lot of knowledge was lost in this process.
We dont even have the complete text of recent greek works like Indica! So one can imagine about texts as ancient as the vedas.
Very rarely some knowledge survives, but lacks proper means of interpretation. Even today we dont have the complete text of vedas, a large portion of it is lost. Even though there was continuity of civilization in Egypt, yet we had to do research to know what those hieroglyphics meant! Same is the case with ancient Indian texts too.
As for the thinking, there have been scores of such examples in India even after the vedic period till recent times.
Let us take the example of Einstein himself, Satyendranath Bose of India worked with Einstein to formulate what is today known as Bose-Einstein statistics. Of the two fundamental groups of quantum particles called fermions and bosons, bosons are named after this same Bose from India. Chandrashekar Limit is the minimum mass required for a star to become a black hole, and the Chandrashekar who discovered this limit is from India, in whose honor NASA named its recently launched telescope Chandra. These are just 1-2 examples of recent times
Einstein himself has acknowledged the concepts of time, the concepts of cosmology, the concepts of creation of the universe etc described by the ancient Indians.
Look at this quotes like
“”When I read the Bhagavad-Gita and reflect about how God created this universe everything else seems so superfluous”"- Einstein
“”We owe a lot to India who taught us how to count, without which no worthwhile scientific discovery would have been made”"- Einstein
So have almost all the famous modern physicists, especially quantum physicists and cosmologists.
Please see http://hitxp.wordpress.com/hinduism/quotes-on-vedic-culture/
As for the aeroplane, even in modern times it was an Indian who first tried to build one, which flew for few minutes, just like the way wright brothers initial plane flew. Please see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shivkar_Bapuji_Talpade
http://www.ivarta.com/columns/OL_040312.htm
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Well, I always wondered what people meant by “”Its all in the Vedas”". I mean I am glad I get to see the world in an Eastern and Western perspective. Well my question is if Vedas had it all, then.
1.Why the concept of Submarines didn’t root out of India?
2.If the Vedas had concepts about objects flying, read Aircrafts, then why since 4000 years of Veda compilation in place, this proto/concept of planes came from some Westerner, read Wright brothers not any contemporary Indians?
3. Why the concept of wave/sound read communication take shape in India if it was already in the Vedas?
PS: I really find it difficult to understand when people say its all in the Vedas man. because if Vedas had it why didn’t we use it? Why didn’t we use the idea of inward thinking like a Westener Einestien did for 4000 odd years?
Well I do credit Vedas for several contributions to modern science like zero, number system, functions ,etc
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Yes Ritwik
I agree with you, a more appropriate term would be “”realizers”" than “”authors”", for we cannot say that Newton “”authored”" gravity, he only “”discovered”" it
About Einstein’s thought process, its a fact that he discovered the entire theory of relativity by his genius “”thought”" experiments, experiments that used his mind as a lab to realize the way universe functions.
Its a theory which was proposed first, and only then actual experiments were done on the ground to validate it.
In fact his thoughts were so perfect that it also correctly predicted an expanding universe which he himself didnt believe in earlier! Even the mathematical formulation of the theory was done only after the theory itself was proposed. A lot of new mathematics had to be invented to simplify the representation of the mathematical equations of his theory.
Even today there are many features of relativity like wormholes, time travel, singularity etc that exist only in theory in relativity and have not yet been tested practically since the required experimental setup is currently out of reach for us. The actual experimental setup for his theory is the universe itself!
All this to be achieved by only thinking within one’s mind is definitely the vedic approach of understanding the universe. Isnt it?
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I have an objection to the phrase “”authors who various parts of vedas”" …. in the foud vedas, there are rishis who are called “”drstA”" (beholder) of a sloka, not author. Just as you expound that vyAsa merely compiled all knowledge, these rishis only realized knowledge. You yourself say that such knowledge is apaurusheya, so I thought of mentioning this in a comment.
Great post otherwise! Although I personally think you went a little overboard by saying Einstein’s thoughts were the Vedic approach.
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Thanks Shiva.
As for the comments on vedas by Sri Chandrashekarendra Saraswati, all I can say is that, while we dont even have the complete set of the original vedas available today, a lot of which is lost, how can one make a comment like this
Rig Veda has 21, Yajur Veda has 108, Sama Veda has 1000 and Atharva Veda has 9 shakhas. However today
only 1 of Rig, Veda, 6 of Yajur Veda, 3 of Sama Veda and 2 of Atharva Veda are available. Without reading the
other shakhas I dont think its wise to comment on the entire vedas!
About the parallels between vedic science and modern science, yes, the way we look at things today need not
be the same (and in fact was not the same) way in which our ancestors looked at them. In other words the
symbolic language used by them is completely different from that of ours in modern science. Now its upto our genius to understand the symbolism used by the ancient vedic scholars and map it to the symbols we use today. For instance different names given in the vedic texts to Sun depending on the time of the day!
Another example, today we record historical dates using gregorian calendar as 2005, 2008 etc, where as the our
vedic ancestors used astronomical positions of planets and stars to record historic events. Infact the genius lies in the past. They used astronomical dating system which can be used anytime in the future to get back to exact date of the past, where as the current Gregorian system will in no way be able to tell in the future for instance, when did India get freedom, because say two millenia from now if there is a new calendar system then what on earth does 1947 mean??
Einstein said, “”We must be grateful to Indians who taught us how to count without which no worthwhile scientific discovery would have been made”", and this basic mathematics of place value system and the concept of zero has its roots in the vedic texts.
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“”The very meaning of the word veda is knowledge, complete knowledge.”"
According to Sri Chandrashekarendra Saraswati, the last eldest head of the Kanchi Mutt, there is knowledge even outside of the Vedas ie., the Vedas do not capture all of the knowledge that could possibly be known to man.
Thought you’d like to know.
I found it interesting the way you have drawn parallels between contemporary science and Vedic science. It is pretty difficult to do this because the way the Vedas describe concepts (that are profound, IMO) using easy-to-relate-with, everyday artifacts like egg, water, serpents etc makes it hard to guess what is being described. Yet the use of such artifacts is precisely why the Vedas have been understood at a basic level and passed on down the generations for thousands of years.
Good work, dude and keep it coming.
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