Vedanta & Science by Sri Raghupathy Rao

University of Madras and Miami University, USA

Paper presented at the Seventh International Congress of Vedanta

“Vedanta and Science”

By Sri Raghupathy Rao

Institute of Gita Studies

Dharmaprakash

Madras 600 084

On Tuesday the 2nd January 1996.

The aim of humanity is to seek happiness and avoid misery1. Every activity is undertaken towards the pursuit of happiness. Even though this is the aim, humanity is unable to assure for itself happiness or avoid sorrow which

often comes unsought. Hence, the thinking section of humanity raises this query as to whether at all it is possible to have only happiness and no sorrow whatsoever.

The answer to this query is in the Vedas, the eternal sources of knowledge.

Vedas are the faultless eternal scriptures of mankind eternally enshrined in the mind of Vishnu, the eternal Lord of the Universe. It is He that creates the universe to give opportunity to souls to workout their salvation and enjoy the eternal happiness due to them.

Sorrow stares the souls in samsara and it is the aim of humanity to get rid of it and enjoy happiness. In the migratory state, the soul has happiness mixed with sorrow and the effort has been throughout, to avoid it.

The Vedas give the value system of God, Dharma and Satya. Just as the father is known by the word of the mother, the Lord is He who is revealed by the Vedic mother. And a critical study reveals that Vishnu is the Lord revealed

in the vedas4. He has all the names and He gives them to each as He creates them and withdraws those names unto Himself at dissolution.

Generally the Vedas reveal three meanings. Primarily they refer to Vishnu. Secondarily, they refer to the presiding deities in the cosmos and the third meaning refers to matter and its evolutes.

Our experience of the world brings home to us sentient entities like ourselves and also material entities like earth, water, fire and so on, that are not sentient. Vedas reveal that there is the Lord, who controls both material entities and sentient souls always.

It is therefore necessary once and for all times to reject the false theory fed to us ‘that the Vedas ‘are the compositions of wandering Aryans on nature gods’ and learn to live in accordance with directions given by them such as ‘Satyam Vada’ and Dharmam Chara’ and so on.

The general understanding of Vedanta is the upanisadic message as the crowning portions of the Vedas.There is also another understanding which brings home the great contribution of Bhagavãn Vedavyãsa , who codified the Vedas into Rg, Yajus, Sãman and Atharva, composed the brahmasûtras - terse aphorisms - by application of which to the Vedas, he gave humanity the incomparable nectar as the Bhagavadgitã.

The Bhagavadgitã tells us that the material entities are eight fold in the universe. They are Earth, Water, Fire, Air, Space Mind, Intellect and Egoism. Above these are sentient souls and their controller is Goddess Laksmi. And controlling all these is the Lord, as the prime mover of the entire universe in all its states of existence, extension and dissolution. There is no higher principle in the universe than the absolutely independent Lord. And it is He that holds the entire cosmos and all entities in it, in unity as the thread holds the beads. Leave Him, the entities fall apart and none else can hold then together.

Sankara Vedanta requires no elucidation as the proponents are happy to lull themselves to sleep by terming everything other than their nirvisesa Brahman as mithyã and then concluding that this nirvisesa Brahman of their concept as avãcya (non referable), ajneya (not knowable) and nirguna (charecterless) making serious scrutiny a futile exercise of searching for a black cat, in a dark room , which is not there.

What I am concerned is about Madhva Vedãnta, which he has built up meticulously on the foundations of perfect perception, perfect inference, and perfect words. And hence it is that he comes to the irrefutable conclusion that the study of vedantã is in fact , the pursuit of Vishnu, not just gossip sessions. It is a serious moment of the given 24 hrs of the day, throughout the month, year and one’s span of life. In such a pursuit there are any number of saints, who have had the direct vision of Visnu and thereby have found the fulfillment of their pursuit of finding eternal happiness without the taint of sorrow.

Einstein is reported to have said:

“Science without religion is lame

Religion without science is blind”

and one can be sure, he had no access to the religion as given in the

Bhagavadgita.

Science deals with systematic study of matter and its evolutes. There are basically four steps in scientific study.

a) Postulation

b) Experimentation

c) Observation

d) Conclusion

The knowledge derived from such a study is systematically stored so that it could be retrieved for verification at any given time, should there be a necessity. This method is applicable only to material entities and the conclusions arrived at are based on

(a) imperfect perception and

(b) (b) imperfect inference and hence cannot match the conclusions of Vedanta as this method has no means of verification of their findings.

Hence these sets of rules do not apply to matters relating to the spirit in man, for it cannot be seen nor brought to the laboratory, for experimentation.

Acarya Sri Madhva defines this spirit in man as follows:

“He who suffers and enjoys, who is subject to bondage and is to be liberated and is known as jiva or soul. He cognises himself in all his states as I”.

But what we see today is that the material scientists squandering colossal amounts in trying to prove that man is matter. One has to straightway reject their contention as happiness and misery are the attributes of no material entity. It is the living man who feels miserable and not the dead man’s body that is consigned to flames or buried under the earth and yet it does not protest!

Eternal Vedas are given by the Lord to Humanity at the beginning of creation for its guidance giving the value of darma and satya. Darma is that value which ensures human happiness. Its counter adharma is that value which ensures human misery. The 2 Indian epics of Rãmayana and Mahãbhãrata show these values in practice and the result thereof.

Hence our ancients took special care to make these values known to humanity so that it may practice these values in their day to day life and enjoy happiness and avoid misery. Any confusion in knowing these values correctly will ensure mixed results.

The validating experience of the sãksi (internal organ of the soul and

identical with it) is the sure test of all validity ascertained after

sufficient verification, in case of doubts. And this principle of Sãksi in unknown to all systems of philosophy other than Madhva’s. The material science is woefully groping in the dark as its conclusions are that man is matter. Does it matter whether it lives?

5. Material Science:

Material Science deals with matter and its evolutes. This study falls

entirely within the eight fold evolutes of matter. Material science has not yet discovered the entity that studies its formations and reactions.

Presiding over the material entities as well as the souls are the deities controlling the various functions in the universe. Controlling them all is Mukhyaprâna, presided over by goddess Laksmi and Lord Sri Vishnu.

Scientists have no means of studying the mind, intellect and ego. How much short it is in its study of soul and God, neither of which is accessible to laboratory studies, yet revealed through the scriptures based on the Vedas.

Hence to rule out these entities just because they are not accessible to direct vision, would be to deny oneself vast knowledge, which is basically required to ensure human happiness.

Due to incorrect understanding of these entities modern scientists rule out God and equate soul to body and mind to brain! Can scientism descend to lower depths? The body and the brain are still there in the dead. But where is the person, who used to answer the query ‘Who are you?’.

Material science, for all practical purposes knows the contents of the body. It also knows the enormous cost of replacement of parts. Should the material scientist not stand apart and think a little as to how the Lord gets all this done, at almost no cost to any individual?

Material science has only multiplied human wants and hence its worries.

First it pollutes the environment and then it tries to purify it. Added is the high cost of services made available by technology, resulting in the services being not available to vast majority of people, who clearly cannot afford the cost and are unwilling to run the rat race to amass the wealth to afford the services.

One would like to know as to what method material science has to refute the conclusion of Vedanta?

As revealed in the Vedas, mans options are clearly two.

A) Preyas - What is convenient to him

B) Sreyas - What is good for him

Generally man chooses what is convenient for him and hence he violates the codes given for his guidance. This he does in search of immediate pleasures.

Therein lies the sliding course for the destruction of humanity and the Bhagavad Gita recounts this journey of the fall of man in G II 62/63.

There is the other path of linking oneself to the Lord 10 and pursuing Him as the sole aim of life. Our ancient Rsis were such scientists wedded to truth at all times.

Not so, for our current material scientists. They have to per force deviate from the path of truth to accommodate those who sanction funds for their antics, praising all the time but performing paltry little, compared to the funds squandered to glorify their display.

I am told that it cost s$ 37 billion to put a satellite on the orbit. For what benefit? As if man who is unable to live in peace on earth, will conquer space and colonize it to find happiness?

When such large sums are squandered on wasteful exercises, what should be the lot of those who inhabit the earth than perish in penury and pestilence?

The material scientist speaks of reason as if it be the end all of life. Does the mother love the child by reason?

So is the Lord. The Lord has nothing to gain by His work of creation, sustenance and dissolution of the universe. It is a thousand pities that scientists are trying to prove that the universe had its origin in the ‘Big Bang’ or ‘Steady State’. Both are guesses no doubt. <font color="red"> But then fiction convinces more than facts! That is because humanity has lost its greatest asset and that is the faith in the Lord. And if under such conditions humanity chooses to suffer, it can blame none but itself for ditching the Lord, the greatest benefactor. </font color>

We have seen in our own times, the prosperity enjoyed by USA, whose constitution states “In God we trust” and the break up of the state of USSR.

Does it not show us that the Lord is ever awake to the call of humanity.

Madhva Vedanta is the highest point that any philosophy could aspire to reach, assuring happiness here and hereafter, provided people are willing to scrutinize and depend on the Lord to lead them by reposing their faith in

the value of Dharma and Satya which He has given humanity through Vedas.

These were the parameters of the ideal state - Ramarajya - and the great people of this land had the benefit of enjoying such a life in this very land and it is my fervent appeal to all those who care for human happiness to kindly study the Bhagavad Gita in which the Lord Himself has condensed and given, all that is necessary for humanity to live happily on earth and even in the kingdom of the liberated - Vaikuntha.

For all times to come:

Remember Vishnu ever

Forget Him never.