"All modern science is already in our scriptures!" || Acharya Prashant, at BITS Goa (2023)

Acharya Prashant

Video Information: 12.01.23, BITS, Goa  Context: ~ Were modern discoveries already made during the Vedic period?  ~ Is modern science already part of scripture?  ~ Do religious fundamentalists understand their own religion?  ~ Distance between earth and sun already written in Hanumanchalisa?  ~ Why are Indians so ashamed of their history?  ~ Vedas contain secrets about nuclear energy?    Music Credits: Milind Date  ~~~~~  #acharyaprashant #science #spirituality #vedanta #religion #superstition

Transcript

00:00So, you might have come across a lot of these Qatar Hindu media outlets right, who say that

00:14everything that science has proven today was already there in the Vedas and all the Sanskritic

00:19texts and all the ancient texts. For example, one of the common things that they claim is

00:22that the distance between the earth and sun was already written in Hanuman Chalisa and

00:26many other things which have time and again been disproven and all of these are certainly

00:30coming from confirmation bias. So, but my very big problem with this is that this is

00:36actually undervaluing the real contributions of people like Aryabhat, Panini, Pathani Samant

00:42and all of these legends who have contributed, who have made groundbreaking contributions

00:46to arts, music, science, philosophy and everything else. So, how do we teach this average Hindu?

00:52Education, nothing else. You want to be proud of your past, right? Yes. That's okay. For

01:00the right reasons. Yeah, but be proud of the right things and the right people and the

01:06right works and the right reasons obviously. It's alright to try to look at the past and

01:16search for reason and meaning and dignity and highness there. It's okay. You want to

01:26love something that's worth loving, which is very much okay. But if you, you know, you

01:38have a friend and he is let's say 5'6 and you go to a couple of strangers and you introduce

01:50your friend as 6'2, what have you communicated to your friend? You are ashamed of his height.

02:00Is that not what you are communicating? Please tell me. Your wife earns, let's say, 30k a month.

02:12She is just a beginner, let's say, 30k a month. You introduce her to your friends saying she earns

02:25lakh rupees a month. What does that mean? You are not quite proud of her. When you are needlessly

02:37and foolishly exaggerating things from your past, that simply means that you are ashamed of your

02:45past. And that is even more foolish because there is genuine stuff in your past that you can reason

02:54nimbly, genuinely, sincerely be proud of. But you are not proud of those things because you don't

03:04know of those things. That's why I said education. He talked of Aryabhatta, he talked of Panini.

03:14People don't know of them. People don't know of, they haven't heard of Sushruta. So they start

03:23saying, well you know, all the secrets, the entire cosmology is contained in the Vedas. Now

03:33interestingly these are people who not only do not know Sushruta and Aryabhatta, they also do

03:42not know the Vedas. All they know is their hollow, vain pride. This is an insult not only to the

03:57great scientists and mathematicians that we have had, this is also an insult to the Vedas. If I

04:08say certain things are there in the Vedic literature which are not there at all, am I

04:12respecting the Vedic literature? You are ashamed of it. The thing is you need not be ashamed of it.

04:19The beauty, the glory of Vedas lies not in the fact that they contain all the secrets of the

04:25material universe. Their glory lies in Vedanta and the Vedas are de facto immortal because what

04:34Vedanta is talking of is stuff that is applicable to all times, all people, all ages. The stuff that

04:43I have spoken to you of over the last two hours is nothing but Vedanta. So Vedanta is very much

04:51relevant even today and it will continue to be relevant 500 years from today, 1000 years from

04:56today. I am speaking to a very young audience and I am speaking to an elite audience and Vedanta

05:04is very meaningful to you and that's what should make you proud of the Vedas. Instead of that you

05:11are saying you know Vedas contain secrets about nuclear energy. Well there is nothing in them

05:21about nuclear energy. The thing is you have never touched a Veda and why have you not read the Vedas?

05:28The reason is simple. When you were in class 10th, you barely managed to clear your boards. I'm speaking

05:37to the people who spread this kind of nonsense. They are all half-educated, semi-literate people.

05:45They could barely clear their boards. Why? Because they could not even read their basic

05:55textbooks. Now these are the same people and the Rig Veda has 10,000 verses. Actually 10,000 verses

06:02Rig Veda. This fellow could not read a 100 page textbook in class 10th. Do you think he is going

06:08to really read the Rig Veda? No, he will not read the Rig Veda. But he is interested in blabbering,

06:16in propagating all kinds of nonsense just to establish that his community is great and

06:27superior to all other communities. So he will say you know this is written in the Veda. You ask him

06:32which Mandala, which verse? Tell me the Prakaran, the Adhyaya. Tell me please. Coming from the

06:40Sankhita, coming from Aranyaka. Where is this coming from? Then then no no no. There is a lot

06:56in India that is worthy of not just your pride, but it actually deserves your worship. Nonsense

07:16is not that. Truth is to be worshipped. Nonsense is to be discarded. Just as I say there are great

07:26things in your past, equally there is a lot in your past that deserves to be discarded. What

07:34must be discarded has to be discarded. What must be respected must be respected. Keep a clear

07:47distinction between the two. Simple. And do not make it a rule for yourself to not say anything

07:56without having researched reasonably into it. Don't accept anything as factual if you have

08:09not done your own research and you will be surprised. A lot of things that thousands of

08:17people, millions of people believe in are actually just hot air, fluff. There's nothing in that.

08:27This is information age, right? Basic kind of research is very easy. Do that.

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