As many people know, Hinduism and Science are not really opposed. More than that, they go together. I think this is one of the major reasons why we were indifferent to Science, unlike the church upheavals that happened during the period of the Renaissance (and it is still happening). While "The origin of species" by Darwin is receiving several controversies from the west even now, we hardly raise an issue on this theory. This is because of the following reason.
The Upanishads speak of five layers that things are made up of, and the difference in the objective world is just the difference in the degree of manifestation of these layers. These layers are called koshas and they are anna-maya kosha, prana-maya kosha, manon-maya kosha, vijnana-maya kosha and ananda-maya kosha. These sheaths correspond with domains of matter, energy, mind, intellect and bliss. And the evolution proceeds from annamaya kosha to anandamaya kosha. These koshas can also be considered as the levels of consciousness present in the things. For instance, gross matter (like atom) is annamaya kosha by itself, plant life has both annamaya kosha and pranamaya kosha (matter and energy), animal's have annamaya kosha, pranamaya kosha and manonmaya kosha (matter, energy and mind), man's consciousness is made up of all that of animals plus the intellect (vijnanamaya kosha) and saints are blessed with anandamaya kosha as well. Our ancient seers (read scientists) unlike modern day scientists were able to comprehend the wide spectrum of nature. Present day Science is an analysis through division while Vedanta is an analysis through unification. Its high time we realize that we already posses the Grand Oneness Doctrine (GOD), which Science is eagerly pursuing now in the name of grand unification theory.
Coming back to Darwin, rephrasing in the language of Upanishads, he proposed the evolution from manonmaya kosha to vijnanamaya kosha (in other words, from monkeys to man). Did he study Vedanta before ? May be, may be not.
The Upanishads speak of five layers that things are made up of, and the difference in the objective world is just the difference in the degree of manifestation of these layers. These layers are called koshas and they are anna-maya kosha, prana-maya kosha, manon-maya kosha, vijnana-maya kosha and ananda-maya kosha. These sheaths correspond with domains of matter, energy, mind, intellect and bliss. And the evolution proceeds from annamaya kosha to anandamaya kosha. These koshas can also be considered as the levels of consciousness present in the things. For instance, gross matter (like atom) is annamaya kosha by itself, plant life has both annamaya kosha and pranamaya kosha (matter and energy), animal's have annamaya kosha, pranamaya kosha and manonmaya kosha (matter, energy and mind), man's consciousness is made up of all that of animals plus the intellect (vijnanamaya kosha) and saints are blessed with anandamaya kosha as well. Our ancient seers (read scientists) unlike modern day scientists were able to comprehend the wide spectrum of nature. Present day Science is an analysis through division while Vedanta is an analysis through unification. Its high time we realize that we already posses the Grand Oneness Doctrine (GOD), which Science is eagerly pursuing now in the name of grand unification theory.
Coming back to Darwin, rephrasing in the language of Upanishads, he proposed the evolution from manonmaya kosha to vijnanamaya kosha (in other words, from monkeys to man). Did he study Vedanta before ? May be, may be not.
12 comments:
True. Darwin might have studied vedanta :).
Jokes apart, Dasavathara is the simplest and most ancient form of depiciting evolution. Starting from a marine, to amphibion, to a boar, to a beast, to a pigmy, to angry young man, to composed rational man, to super human..
Purshasooktham talks abt creation of the universe, which is again an intersting topic for a new post.
Exactly!!. TJ took the words out of my mouth!.
I am sure Darwin studied Vedanta!! :) Looking forward to reading about Purushasooktham.
kasthuri
you seem to have a lot of interesting ideas. I personally think science can in no way contradict vedanta because science is restricted to the phenomenal universe and arguably is still a positivist enterprise. vedanta says parabrahman or Narayana ( i prefer the latter but the former is just the same), is apraakritam or beyond the reach of nature. in case of an intelligence that transcends nature empirical methods rooted in and evolved out of nature can do very little in determining its truth.
we can only hope that the mysterious faculty known as intuition is given due respect and science freed from dogmatism unique to itself.
@tj : You pointed out right Dasavathara points to evolution.
@tt_giant : Doesn't it look like thoughts are connected ? :-)
@ranj : Although little heavy, purushasuktam is an interesting topic for a post. Let see if we can take it out of the box...
@anand : I too think science in no way contradicts the search for truth, but the ways and means are far more restricted. Finally it has to arrive at the same truth but it has to go a very long way. Studying the mind seems to be the simple option around.
kasthuri
check out my latest post
I think you'll have something interesting to say about it.
"Present day Science is an analysis through division while Vedanta is an analysis through unification."
Very very beautifully put ! :-)
But indeed yes, Darwin studied vedanta - as vedanta is analysis through unification :-)
nice post, enakku inda connection teriyala.
present day thinking in the west, esp things like deep ecology draw from vedanta. they believe 'sum of the parts is not equal to the whole' which is wat vedanta also says in a way.
namba ooru aalungalellam romba advanced pola irukku!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_ecology
tat is the wikipedia link on deep ecology, have a look wen u have the time
@anand : I'll visit your blog often. Nice things.
@satyaus : ennakum onnume puriyala :-)
@arvind : Thanks man...ellam Avan pannradhu
@vatsan : Thank you so much for the link. I didn't know such a thing existed. It is very very interesting.
Opened the comment page with readymade thought. But tj beat me to it :(
@ jayan : Thanks for visiting.
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