Ancient Wisdom of India

India’s past was highly disputed by western Indologists till 1920 when excavations at Mohanjodaro and Harrapa threw new light on India’s past. Various books available were labelled as mythological with no historicity behind them. After Mohanjodaro excavations, these historians had to rewrite India’s history. Now they agree Indus Valley Civilization existed around 3300BC—1300BC. This civilization matured around 2600BC – 1900BC. Now problem for Indologists was to fix date for Vedic civilization. A theory was invented that Aryans came to India from outside around 1500BC. There are many pointers against this invasion theory namely:

1. How could nomads unsettle and conquer an advanced society?

2. Genetically haploRIa genes originated in India and spread outside, not vice versa.

3. Nowhere in Indian ancient scriptures foreign invasion is mentioned?

4.Nowhere  home of  Aryans has been established outside India.

Indologists who invented Aryan invasion theory postulated that Rigveda was written in 250BC—300BC. There  are documents which state that Brihadratha dynasty ruled India  around 1600BC. Its last king  was Ripunjaya who ruled, 849BC—799BC. Haryanka dynasty ruled between 544BC—413BC, Bimbisara was dynasty’s important king. Lord Buddha( 563BC—483BC)  was his contemporary. In available Buddhist literature, Vedic culture is mentioned number of times.  Infact, Lord Buddha denounced various Vedic practices. This clearly shows Vedic culture antedated Buddhism. How can then we postulate that Rigveda was written around 250BC—300BC? Taking all Buddhist, Jain other available literature in to consideration, time frame of Rigveda was fixed around 3000BC by many authors. They dated Mahabarata around 2800BC. Whatever may be time frame fixed for these events, it is clear India had a culture which had peaked long before other Civilizations came on this earth. How this Vedic Civilization ended is a matter for great debate, similar to extinction of Dinosaurs? Till over 100 years back, man did not know dinosaurs existed on earth. After fossils were unearthed, their existence could not be ignored. Then came various theories of their extinction, even a hit by a Comet.

India’s ancient past cannot be like wise ignored especially in view of excavation findings ,written literature and continued cultural practices .More excavations and more research needs to be done. Puranic stories store ancient wisdom in them, like cover of a fruit preserving delicious fruit inside.

Following pages will highlight very small aspect of that ancient wisdom. People today are carried away by modern science which is just 300-400 years old and attribute all human progress to it and to west.

Let us talk what modern science says about this Universe. Big Bang theory says from nothing came matter with no mass. This matter had a big bang and whole Universe came into existence. There is talk of multiple Universes with different laws of Physics. String theory proposed is not a proved theory and is based on lot of assumptions. 11 dimensional theory proposed requires space and time to have 11 dimensions as opposed to usual  3 dimensions; 4^th dimension being time. This Big Bang occurred around 13.77 billion years ago and Universe is 93 billion light years in diameter, so says science.

Now let us examine what Vedic literature has to say about this Universe, Time and Planetary system. Srimad Bhagvat Puran mentions that life of this Universe is 100 Universal days/nights. Each Universal day/night is about 4320,000,000 earth years. It also mentions that Creation is of two types---partial and total. According to Vedas,  there are 14 planetary levels in this Universe, top most being Satya Loka And at bottom is Patala Loka. Earth is at 7^th planetary level[Bhurloka]. Below these 14 planetary systems is Pitra Loka. Narkh Loka is next to it. Consciousness of Souls at Narka Loka is squeezed to extreme low levels. Bhagvat further states that Sun travels  95,100,100 Yojanas at the speed of 2000 yojanas and two Krosas in a moment. When converted , traversing distance becomes 760,800,000 miles and speed of one revolution comes to be 16004 miles/sec which is very close to modern science.

Bhagvat Puran also talks of Elementary time; Great time [time which covers unmanifest aggregate of the Elementary particles]. It also narrates story of a man who went in to highest planetary system, stayed there for 20 minutes and found on his return to Earth that 116,640,000 years had passed on Earth. This means authors were aware of Time dilation, a concept of Einstein’s special theory of relativity resulting in time dilation for inertial systems.

There is fascinating account of time measurement too:

·         2 Elementary particles make one double particle

·         3 Double particle=1 Hexa particle

Time duration needed for integration of 3 Hexa particles is Truti

·          100 Trutis make 1 Vedha

·         3 Vedhas make 1 Lava and 3 Lavas make 1 Nimesa

·         3 Nimesa = 1Kasana

·         5 Kasana = 1 Kastha

·         15 Kastha = 1 Laghu[minute]

·         15 Laghus=1 Danda 

·         2 Danda = 1 Muhurat

·         6 Danda = 1/4of day or night.

There are 4 Praharas[yamas] which is equal to one day/one night.

Life of Humand on earth  = 100 years. One day and night  of Satya Loka is 8,640,000 years on earth. This Universe exists in 4 time cycle. One year Deva = 360 Years of humans. Time frame of 4 Yugas is given as:

  ·  Satya Yuga=4800x360=1.72 million earth years.

·         Treta Yuga 3600X360=1.296,000 Year

·         Dvapara  2400x360=864,000 years

·         Kali yuga  1200x360=432000 years

Vedic physics says time is a subtle energy which manifests before cosmic manifestion. Time controls movements of Universe. This Universe is multi-dimensional [64 main] with many subdivisions. Since humans perceive only 3 dimensions hence has no access to other realms of this Universe. A yogi can achieve access to other dimensions by sadhana . He can even transgress time.

Regarding nature of matter, it states that it exists in two forms –Manifest and Unmanifest  Behind this  matter is conscious being which  is cause of this matter.

Bhagvat says that life evolves from complex to simple unlike Darwin concept which states from simple evolved complex.

It is pertinent to note how much Vedic man had insight into the knowledge of Universe, its creation, space\ time,  etc long before modern science came into existence. Besides this cosmology, ancient seers of India gave many other things to mankind, a few of them are mentioned below:

1.  Atomic Theory

Modern science gives credit to Dalton for atomic theory. Instead father of this theory is Rishi Kashypa also called Kanada . Kashypa lived around 600BC. He was first to tell that Atom is indestructible and also gave theory of Gravity[Gurutva] long before Issac Newton. He also said all living beings are made of 5 elements [water,fire,earth,ether,air]. Details of his work can be got from Vaisheshika sutra.

2 Medicine

Two seers Charaka and Sushrata did pioneering work in this field long before present medical science. Charaka who lived around 600 BC [some say 300BC] wrote treatises on human embryology, diseases of heart, Diabetes T.B. He also wrote on hundreds of herbs, their medicinal value. Many of the  herbs mentioned in Charak samhita are in use even today. Sushrata,  who lived around same period wrote on nearly 300 surgical procedures like Caesarean, Cataract,Urinary stones, Rhinoplasty etc. His work on Rhinoplasty is being quoted by plastic surgeons even today. He also wrote on various suture materials and surgical instruments.

3. Aviation Technology

Saint Bhardwaja, who   reportedly lived around 800BC not only wrote Atherveda but also wrote on Aviation science, flying machines, space science in Yantra Sarvasva. One can easily say that ancient people living in India were aware of  flying machines. In his book, saint discusses various types of Flying machines.

4. Cosmology

Saint Kapila can easily be labeled as father of cosmology. He said Prakriti with inspiration from Purusha forms this Universe. He gave Samkhya philosophy detailing how this world that we see was formed. This philosophy is also quoted in Holy Bhagvat Gita.  HE wrote in great detail on Primal matter and process of creation  long before Big Bang theory was proposed by modern science. Kapila is reported to have lived around 3000BC.

5. Planetary System

Baskara in his book Siddhant Shiroman talks of Planetary positions, Eclipses, Cosmography and Gravity. He lived in 12^th century. Varamihira [499AD-587AD] writes in Surya Sidanta about constellations, geography.  He also wrote on animal science.

Aryabatt [476AD] wrote first time that Earth is round, rotates on its axis ,orbits Sun---------1000 years before Copernicus. He also gave Trignometry, Decimal system calculating Pi up to 4 decimals, Zero , to name a few out of his wide contribution to science of mathematics.

Nagarjuna[100AD] discusses Subject of  and Metallurgy and chemistry. Patanjali[200BC] developed science of Yoga, wrote a treatise on Kundalini Shakthi and how to awaken it.

Binary system,Hashing ,concept of zero were other notable contributions .

It is quite obvious from above that science in India had developed long before  present science.