Spirit_Warrior
Active Member
I was inspired by the thread religion adapting to scientific discoveries to start this thread. The idea that science and religion are mutually exclusive, which has its roots in Cartesian thought, is not something which occurs in Hinduism. In Hinduism science and religion compliment one another. It is the only religion that has its own systems of philosophy, the so-called 6 systems(sad-darsanas) and it the only religion that actually has science as a part of it -- like the science of politics economics(arthashastra) science of medicine(ayurveda) science of linguistics(vyakarana) --- and hundreds more. The Hindu scriptures teach that we need both material knowledge(apara vidya) and spiritual knowledge(paravidya) Hence, why science was cultivated by Hindus as a religious principle. Sounds strange, that doing science is actually a religious practice! Maybe that may explain why Hindus even today have a reputation for being patrons of science.
But there are some scientific facts and claims in Hinduism which are so staggering that are they are unbelievable, and yet completely true. I wanted to present just 5 examples of of these, which are taught as fully developed doctrine in Hinduism.
1. Evolution: Hinduism teaches that life evolves over billions of years of evolution from the first form of life produced by water and heat, over 8.4 million(they even quantify it, that's amazing) life forms. Remarkably, this number includes hundreds of thousands of humans living on other planets. It goes beyond humans though too, beyond humans are higher dimensional entities(gods basically) and beyond them is the creator lord(Brahma) The mechanism of this evolution is sort of like modern epigenetic theories, the life form reacts with its environment, and evolves those features that it needs to survive in the environment. However, it does not do this necessarily intelligently(so it is not intelligent design) its intelligence evolves too over a long time, it is more through a process of trial and error that these features -- or mutations appear.
There is some new research now that suggests that Darwin knew about Hindu theory of evolution, through Buddhist sources. Hindus also made attempts in zoology and botany science(another science that is a part of Hinduism) and enumerated thousands of types of plants and animals, long before origin of species was written.
2. Big bang: Hinduism teaches that the universe constantly expands and contracts, known as the doctrine of evolution and involution, represented with the metaphor of the life of Brahma. 100 years of the life of Brahma is the entire life span of the universe and that is 311.08 trillion years. In those 311 trillion years many universes form(brahmandas) and in those universes stars and planets form(surya mandala, pritvhi mandala), each with the life span of 8.64 billion years(1 day and night of Brahma). It describes that towards the end of that period(after 4.32 billion years) the sun starts to swallow the Earth, the sky turns red, the oceans boil away and the Earth can no longer support life. I mean seriously, where did they pull these numbers from accurate to two decimal places. This even impressed Carl Sagan, who noted they are staggeringly close to modern estimates.
Another startling revelation in Hinduism is the notion of an age of Manu(Manvantara) which lasts 306.72 million years, at the end of this all life on the planet is destroyed. It is taught we are 7th life on this planet, there have already been 6 mass extinctions of life on this planet. There will be 14 such Manus in the day phase of Brahma. The current Manu is called Vaishvata Manu.
It still gets more amazing. It describes the universe coming into being from nothing(well not exactly nothing, some sort of fuzzy state between existence and non-existence) which sounds like something from inflation and supersymmetry though. It says that in the beginning the three fundamental qualities of nature or the gunas are in a state of super-balance(meaning they have not yet diverged) The first one to break away is the guna responsible for activity, expansion(rajas). It causes the universe to expand rapidly, then the guna that is responsible for inertia, contraction acts against it, and the expansion slows down. The final guna, responsible for balance(sattva) acts on both to maintain harmony. In the end(after 311 trillion years) the gunas will resolve back into a state of super-balance and the universe will be destroyed. The cycle then repeats forever. This great cosmic cycle is mirrored at the atomic level, where every moment atoms are being created and destroyed. This atomic dance, is represented beautifully by dancing Shiva image(nataraja) and has been adopted by CERN which has a giant version outside of it.
3. Atoms: Hinduism teaches the existence of atoms as a matter of fact basis. I think it is the only religion(the other one being Jainism) that actually fully accepts doctrine of atoms. But this atomism is far far superior to the one of Democritus(some research shows that Democritus probably learned it in India, as there are Hellenic records of his contact with India -- who knows?) Hinduism teaches the classical doctrine of 5 elements as what matter is made of, but it is more sophisticated then the classical Greek version; the 5 elements range from subtle to gross, with the subtle part being atoms of the element. So fire for example is only the most gross version of the subtle fire atoms. The subtle atoms are characterised by the property they are responsible for --- so fire atoms give the property of colour(its a dead ringer for photons) and these atoms are infinitesimal, described as having point like dimension and imperceptible. Atomic aggregates gain magnitude not because of different size of atoms, but because of clusters of atoms. Akasha(often translated as ether) is the only element which is non-atomic, it is described as propagating through waves and it the most fundamental state of physical matter -- this is why Hindus believe it is in fact sound that creates all physical mater.(It is not sound in the audible sense, but the inaudible sound(pranava) that yogis claim to hear in meditation --- AUM
The most amazing part is even how atoms combine is described. The Greeks said atoms combine through random collisions, and they joint together through micro-nuts and bolts. In Hinduism atoms do not combine randomly, they combine according to precise laws. Primary atoms combine to form binary atoms, binary atoms to form trinary atoms and so on, until the most gross visible atom, motes of dust in a sun beam. So central are atoms in Hindu thought, that even classical Hindu measurements of time and space begin with the time and length of primary atoms, then binary and so on.
They combine though exchange of energy(doctrine of paka, means cooking) and the chemical properties of the compound change based on its atomic combinations. There are three types of reactions 1) where atomic bonds are broken and recombine to form new products 2) Where atoms bonds are not broken, but molecular changes take place. The third type of reaction is just a state change, where neither atomic bonds are broken or molecular changes take place, but the atoms gain or lose more fluidity to become either solid, liquid or gas.
It is wrongly thought that by some Indologists(like A L Basham) atomic theories of Hindus were just pure speculation that just happened to get it right(like epistemic luck) in fact they were based in empirical observation. The texts describe observations of say colour changes of how bricks change when heated, and then explain it terms of atomic and molecular changes. There are entire treatises written on chemistry(rasashatra) and lab equipment described, including chemical tests like flame tests to identify elements.
4. Gravity: Hinduism teaches the cause of falling to be Sanskrit "gurutva" literally translates to heaviness. Interestingly, the word gravity has the same etymology. In the Vaiseshika sutras, the laws of gravity and motion are stated in a matter of fact aphorisms. The most startling of these aphorisms(sutras) is the description of why an arrow follows a parabolic path. It goes something like this: The energy transferred from the bow to the arrow causes the arrow to course forward in proportion to the energy, this is reproduced at every moment causing its forward motion, the arrow would course forward forever were it not for gravity, the arrow gradually loses energy at every moment because gravity acts against it. The most startling revelation here is that motion is instantaneous not continuous. Later, this understanding was used by Brahmagupta to explain that things fall towards the centre of the planet Earth due to Earth's gravity, in order to explain why we don't fall of the Earth though it is spherical and spins on its axis. Later differential calculus to calculate the instantaneous motion of a body was developed by Bhaskara II (see Bhāskara II - Wikipedia) .
5. The equivalence of energy and matter: Many don't actually know this, but before Einstein published his theory of relativity, Tesla inspired by his meetings with the famous Hindu guru Swami Vivekananda who taught him the Samkhya philosophy(one of 6 schools of Hindu philosophy) tried to prove all energy and matter were equivalent. In an unpublished essay he tried to prove this using Sanskrit terms Akasha and Prana. Samkhya basically teaches that all matter, including light and energy manifests from a single substratum(moolaprakriti, means root matter) which is infinitely subtle, hence imperceptible, and remarkably it says at this level all matter is undifferentiated, non-dual and unified(avyukta) How matter goes from this level to the manifest level(where it is particular) is the subject of great debate in Samkhya and later Advaita philosophy. It is either a real change(parinam-vada) or an apparent change(vivarta-vada) In Samkhya the explanation will literally astound you: It is the observer that observes the root level of matter that causes the state to collapse into the manifest particular state(it also collapses the super-balance state of the gunas)
If you think this sounds like quantum physics, then you then are right. Just as many don't know Tesla's Hindu connection, many do not know that Schrodinger(considered the father of quantum mechanics) developed his theories after reading Samkhya. He was so convinced that Samkhya was true, that he wanted to give empirical and mathematical proofs of it -- his biographer confirms it. He converted to Hinduism, often used Sanskrit terms in his writings to describe concepts in quantum physics, kept a copy of the Bhagvad Gita on his bedside table and even named his cat Atman. It is even confirmed, that his famous Schrodinger's cat paradox(to show the absurdity of observer-collapse theory) was based on an old debate of the same observer paradox. Just as observer collapse is controversial today in quantum physics, it was controversial back then too, almost 2000 years ago. Schrodinger was not the only one, all the pioneers of quantum physics all made huge studies of Samkhya, including Heisenberg, Wigner and Bohm(who sided with apparent change doctrine of Advaita, and even had an Advaita mentor, the illustrious Krishnamurthy)
I would like to add some words of caution. We cannot overstate that Hinduism is all science, what I have presented above is a distilled version to extract only the scientific part. In Hinduism science, spirituality, mythology, history, ritual, art all are mixed with each other.
But there are some scientific facts and claims in Hinduism which are so staggering that are they are unbelievable, and yet completely true. I wanted to present just 5 examples of of these, which are taught as fully developed doctrine in Hinduism.
1. Evolution: Hinduism teaches that life evolves over billions of years of evolution from the first form of life produced by water and heat, over 8.4 million(they even quantify it, that's amazing) life forms. Remarkably, this number includes hundreds of thousands of humans living on other planets. It goes beyond humans though too, beyond humans are higher dimensional entities(gods basically) and beyond them is the creator lord(Brahma) The mechanism of this evolution is sort of like modern epigenetic theories, the life form reacts with its environment, and evolves those features that it needs to survive in the environment. However, it does not do this necessarily intelligently(so it is not intelligent design) its intelligence evolves too over a long time, it is more through a process of trial and error that these features -- or mutations appear.
There is some new research now that suggests that Darwin knew about Hindu theory of evolution, through Buddhist sources. Hindus also made attempts in zoology and botany science(another science that is a part of Hinduism) and enumerated thousands of types of plants and animals, long before origin of species was written.
2. Big bang: Hinduism teaches that the universe constantly expands and contracts, known as the doctrine of evolution and involution, represented with the metaphor of the life of Brahma. 100 years of the life of Brahma is the entire life span of the universe and that is 311.08 trillion years. In those 311 trillion years many universes form(brahmandas) and in those universes stars and planets form(surya mandala, pritvhi mandala), each with the life span of 8.64 billion years(1 day and night of Brahma). It describes that towards the end of that period(after 4.32 billion years) the sun starts to swallow the Earth, the sky turns red, the oceans boil away and the Earth can no longer support life. I mean seriously, where did they pull these numbers from accurate to two decimal places. This even impressed Carl Sagan, who noted they are staggeringly close to modern estimates.
Another startling revelation in Hinduism is the notion of an age of Manu(Manvantara) which lasts 306.72 million years, at the end of this all life on the planet is destroyed. It is taught we are 7th life on this planet, there have already been 6 mass extinctions of life on this planet. There will be 14 such Manus in the day phase of Brahma. The current Manu is called Vaishvata Manu.
It still gets more amazing. It describes the universe coming into being from nothing(well not exactly nothing, some sort of fuzzy state between existence and non-existence) which sounds like something from inflation and supersymmetry though. It says that in the beginning the three fundamental qualities of nature or the gunas are in a state of super-balance(meaning they have not yet diverged) The first one to break away is the guna responsible for activity, expansion(rajas). It causes the universe to expand rapidly, then the guna that is responsible for inertia, contraction acts against it, and the expansion slows down. The final guna, responsible for balance(sattva) acts on both to maintain harmony. In the end(after 311 trillion years) the gunas will resolve back into a state of super-balance and the universe will be destroyed. The cycle then repeats forever. This great cosmic cycle is mirrored at the atomic level, where every moment atoms are being created and destroyed. This atomic dance, is represented beautifully by dancing Shiva image(nataraja) and has been adopted by CERN which has a giant version outside of it.
3. Atoms: Hinduism teaches the existence of atoms as a matter of fact basis. I think it is the only religion(the other one being Jainism) that actually fully accepts doctrine of atoms. But this atomism is far far superior to the one of Democritus(some research shows that Democritus probably learned it in India, as there are Hellenic records of his contact with India -- who knows?) Hinduism teaches the classical doctrine of 5 elements as what matter is made of, but it is more sophisticated then the classical Greek version; the 5 elements range from subtle to gross, with the subtle part being atoms of the element. So fire for example is only the most gross version of the subtle fire atoms. The subtle atoms are characterised by the property they are responsible for --- so fire atoms give the property of colour(its a dead ringer for photons) and these atoms are infinitesimal, described as having point like dimension and imperceptible. Atomic aggregates gain magnitude not because of different size of atoms, but because of clusters of atoms. Akasha(often translated as ether) is the only element which is non-atomic, it is described as propagating through waves and it the most fundamental state of physical matter -- this is why Hindus believe it is in fact sound that creates all physical mater.(It is not sound in the audible sense, but the inaudible sound(pranava) that yogis claim to hear in meditation --- AUM
The most amazing part is even how atoms combine is described. The Greeks said atoms combine through random collisions, and they joint together through micro-nuts and bolts. In Hinduism atoms do not combine randomly, they combine according to precise laws. Primary atoms combine to form binary atoms, binary atoms to form trinary atoms and so on, until the most gross visible atom, motes of dust in a sun beam. So central are atoms in Hindu thought, that even classical Hindu measurements of time and space begin with the time and length of primary atoms, then binary and so on.
They combine though exchange of energy(doctrine of paka, means cooking) and the chemical properties of the compound change based on its atomic combinations. There are three types of reactions 1) where atomic bonds are broken and recombine to form new products 2) Where atoms bonds are not broken, but molecular changes take place. The third type of reaction is just a state change, where neither atomic bonds are broken or molecular changes take place, but the atoms gain or lose more fluidity to become either solid, liquid or gas.
It is wrongly thought that by some Indologists(like A L Basham) atomic theories of Hindus were just pure speculation that just happened to get it right(like epistemic luck) in fact they were based in empirical observation. The texts describe observations of say colour changes of how bricks change when heated, and then explain it terms of atomic and molecular changes. There are entire treatises written on chemistry(rasashatra) and lab equipment described, including chemical tests like flame tests to identify elements.
4. Gravity: Hinduism teaches the cause of falling to be Sanskrit "gurutva" literally translates to heaviness. Interestingly, the word gravity has the same etymology. In the Vaiseshika sutras, the laws of gravity and motion are stated in a matter of fact aphorisms. The most startling of these aphorisms(sutras) is the description of why an arrow follows a parabolic path. It goes something like this: The energy transferred from the bow to the arrow causes the arrow to course forward in proportion to the energy, this is reproduced at every moment causing its forward motion, the arrow would course forward forever were it not for gravity, the arrow gradually loses energy at every moment because gravity acts against it. The most startling revelation here is that motion is instantaneous not continuous. Later, this understanding was used by Brahmagupta to explain that things fall towards the centre of the planet Earth due to Earth's gravity, in order to explain why we don't fall of the Earth though it is spherical and spins on its axis. Later differential calculus to calculate the instantaneous motion of a body was developed by Bhaskara II (see Bhāskara II - Wikipedia) .
5. The equivalence of energy and matter: Many don't actually know this, but before Einstein published his theory of relativity, Tesla inspired by his meetings with the famous Hindu guru Swami Vivekananda who taught him the Samkhya philosophy(one of 6 schools of Hindu philosophy) tried to prove all energy and matter were equivalent. In an unpublished essay he tried to prove this using Sanskrit terms Akasha and Prana. Samkhya basically teaches that all matter, including light and energy manifests from a single substratum(moolaprakriti, means root matter) which is infinitely subtle, hence imperceptible, and remarkably it says at this level all matter is undifferentiated, non-dual and unified(avyukta) How matter goes from this level to the manifest level(where it is particular) is the subject of great debate in Samkhya and later Advaita philosophy. It is either a real change(parinam-vada) or an apparent change(vivarta-vada) In Samkhya the explanation will literally astound you: It is the observer that observes the root level of matter that causes the state to collapse into the manifest particular state(it also collapses the super-balance state of the gunas)
If you think this sounds like quantum physics, then you then are right. Just as many don't know Tesla's Hindu connection, many do not know that Schrodinger(considered the father of quantum mechanics) developed his theories after reading Samkhya. He was so convinced that Samkhya was true, that he wanted to give empirical and mathematical proofs of it -- his biographer confirms it. He converted to Hinduism, often used Sanskrit terms in his writings to describe concepts in quantum physics, kept a copy of the Bhagvad Gita on his bedside table and even named his cat Atman. It is even confirmed, that his famous Schrodinger's cat paradox(to show the absurdity of observer-collapse theory) was based on an old debate of the same observer paradox. Just as observer collapse is controversial today in quantum physics, it was controversial back then too, almost 2000 years ago. Schrodinger was not the only one, all the pioneers of quantum physics all made huge studies of Samkhya, including Heisenberg, Wigner and Bohm(who sided with apparent change doctrine of Advaita, and even had an Advaita mentor, the illustrious Krishnamurthy)
I would like to add some words of caution. We cannot overstate that Hinduism is all science, what I have presented above is a distilled version to extract only the scientific part. In Hinduism science, spirituality, mythology, history, ritual, art all are mixed with each other.
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