Vedas

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The Vedas have guided Indian civilization for thousands of years. They are the

pillars of Hinduism. "Veda is the source of all Dharma" declares Manusmirti

(2.6.) There is no major religion on the planet, which has not been influenced

by the Vedas. The creation stories of all major religions are based on Vedas.

Though all other religions have forgotten their Vedic root or have been

forgotten, there is one religion, Hinduism, that has kept the flame of the

Vedic wisdom burning continuously. Vedas which means ' knowledge' contain a

good deal of scientific knowledge that was lost over millennia, which needs to

be recovered. The Vedic sages had discovered the subtle nature of reality, and

had coded it in the form of the Vedas. According to Raja Ram Mohan Roy, author

of Vedic Physics, "The knowledge contained in the Vedas is very abstruse, and

is well beyond the comprehension of ordinary human beings. Therefore Vedic

sages coded the knowledge in a simple form in which it could be understood by

everyone. The Rig Veda itself testifies that it has a hidden meaning in verse

4.3.16. Sage Bharata in his Natyasastra 2.23 refers to the sages who knew the

hidden meaning of the Vedas. This coding of knowledge proved to be very

successful in disseminating the knowledge to common folks. This would also

explain why extraordinary steps were taken to preserve the Vedas, and the honor

given to the Vedas by Hindus, even though its meaning is little understood

today. "On the eve of the "Mahabharata War" our ancestors believed that their

knowledge was in danger of being lost. They could have written it down, but

writings could be destroyed. Therefore, it was memorized and passed on orally.

Today, the Avesta, religious scripture of ancient Iranians, only a fraction of

it is available. Alexander captured Iran in 326 B.C. and after a bloody war,

destroyed each copy of the Avesta available." Author Dick Teresi says "Indian

cosmologists, the first to estimate the age of the earth at more than 4 billion

years. They came closest to modern ideas of atomism, quantum physics, and other

current theories. India developed very early, enduring atomist theories of

matter. Possibly Greek atomistic thought was influenced by India, via the

Persian civilization."