Indian Culture: Not anti-science

We have experienced Indian culture at macro level, which is compatible with the laws of science.

What is essential is to familiarize ourselves with the finer aspects of it.

According to the Yajurveda, for a happy life discoveries of science are essential. Why Eastern culture, which means India and its culture are richer than the

Western culture. Th is question keeps on poking at the youth of the country. Some of our aged people, discarding the knowledge of science, assume religion, spiritualism, recitation of hymns, fasting, ascetic practices and worshipping as the Indian culture. And, when any young person does not go to the temple or doesn’t wear vermillion on his or her forehead, these aged people, out of despair, speak out the same cliché. What to do, times have changed children are blindly following West forgetting Indian culture and tradition.

On the other hand, others take pride in terming Indian religion, spiritualism and noble Hindu tradition as superstitious, orthodox, hypocrisy and relics of the past. Th ey think they have progressed and laugh at religious people, calling them idiots, simpletons and dimwits.

According to the fortieth chapter of the Yajurveda, people, who assume the development of science and technology to be the only aim of life, are living in the dark. And people, who are living their life by engaging themselves into devotion, worshipping, reading scriptures or spirituality, are even worse.

Yajurveda suggest that for living in happiness, discoveries of science are also essential. And on another level, for the contentment of self, peace, devotion, meditation, higher level of concentrations and spirituality are also very important. Th at means in the Indian culture materialism and spiritualism have been considered as complementary to each other. In the absence of knowledge, thinking and refl ection, Indian culture has been dwarfed to visiting temples and other religious places. Th is is injustice to India and Indian culture. Knowledge, rites and rituals, science and prayers are all comprehensively included into Vedas. Indian

culture in not uni-dimensional rather it is holistic.

Our ancestors were experts in astronomy, geology, weaponry and scriptures. They were well versed in aero-sciences, long distance communications, education and health sciences. Unfortunately after the Mahabharata, Indian culture declined.

Many streams got dissipated and over a period of time definitions of religion and culture were abused to serve the self interests of the people. And a religion founded on science was confined to the outer signs and appearances.

Today again, there is an urgent need to throw light on the scientific aspects of Indian values, traditions and its culture. And this is an inadmissible and absolute fact that India and Indian-ness were always compatible with science.

What is needed is to have complete studies and research done on Vedic socialism, caste system, Vedic education, Vedic astrology, Vaastu and other streams of Vedic laws. Only by understanding and experiencing the basics of Indian culture, we would be able to proudly claim that the Indian culture is far superior to the Western system.

Swami Ramdev