Veda is a Sanskrit word meaning “knowledge.” There are numerous ways we acquire knowledge about the world around us. Broadly speaking, there are two categories of knowledge: knowledge we discover for ourselves, and knowledge we receive from others.
Due to our limited experience and fixed duration of life, we will never be able to achieve perfect knowledge without taking help from others. In Sanskrit, this is known as avaroha-panthā, or the path of descending wisdom. However, perfect knowledge can only come from a perfect source. The Vedic scientific method enables anyone to access the perfect knowledge contained in the Vedic scriptures and realize the Truth of the Vedic teachings in their own life.
Three Applications of Vedic Science
Your consciousness is like a crystal. It reflects its own qualities onto the people and circumstances around it. Here are three ways to transform the quality of your consciousness to have a better experience of life:
- Meditate. The most powerful type of meditation is mantra meditation, because it harnesses the power of sound. In all the Vedic texts, the mahā-mantra, or great mantra, also known as the hare krishna mantra, is considered to be the best. Try softly chanting the hare krishna mantra for ten-twenty minutes per day to see the results for yourself:
hare krishna hare krishna krishna krishna hare hare
hare rama hare rama rama rama hare hare
(Pronounced: “huh-ray” “krish-nuh” “huh-ray” “ra-muh”.) - Hear about the Absolute Truth, Sri Krishna. The Vedas are full of instructive lessons and histories of sages and kings who sought to understand the Absolute Truth. Among all Vedic texts, the Srimad Bhagavatam stands out for its clear and comprehensive presentation of the various paths of self-realization. To read Srimad Bhagavatam online, visit vedabase.io. Or you can purchase Srimad Bhagavatam translated into English with an enlightening commentary by Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, one of the greatest Vedic teachers of the past five hundred years.
- Connect with serious spiritual seekers. There are many sangas or associations of spiritual seekers who have dedicated their lives to the pursuit of self-realization and God consciousness. Spending time with others who want to elevate their consciousness will enable you to learn more quickly, and you will also be able to develop spiritual qualities, such as equanimity, tolerance, simplicity, and compassion
The Purpose of Scientific Inquiry
Everything we do in life has an underlying purpose. For example, we go to work because we need money to pay for food and other living expenses. Or we go hiking to enjoy the peaceful atmosphere of nature.
When it comes to science, there are a number of purposes driving our research work. Unfortunately, it’s often the case that research projects are largely determined by available funding. For-profit corporations often require scientific studies in order to market their products. Military research aiming at inventing new weapons is another common type of research that takes place in the scientific communities of today.
One may argue that scientific research aims to improve the material conditions of life for the human race. Thanks to the scientific breakthroughs of the 19th and 20th centuries, we now have faster modes of transportation and communication, larger homes, a wider selection of foods to eat, as well as many new types of entertainment. It would seem that human society in general is now far better off than ever before. But have these technological achievements truly helped us?
Vedic Science: Solving Life’s Real Problems
The Vedas describe four fundamental problems of life that cannot be solved by any amount of material scientific advancement:
- Birth. Although most of us have no memories of what it felt like to be birthed from a womb out into the world, it is described in the Vedas as being an excruciatingly painful experience. This sets the tone for what is to come — in the words of the Buddha, dukkha ariya sacca. “Life is suffering.”
- Disease. Illness is unavoidable, no matter who you are, where you live, or what standard of medical care you have access to. When you’re really sick, you feel so miserable that nothing seems enjoyable. You can only wait and hope that your body will recover.
- Old age. As the body ages, you lose your stamina, your mental fortitude, your memory, your physical beauty — in short, you appear like a dying plant. Growing old is a painful and frightening experience.
- Death. Life’s final frontier is like a disappointing conclusion to a movie you regret watching. Death robs us of everything we hold dear, even our very sense of identity, as our consciousness is forced to vacate our material body.
Is life really all bad? No — there are many wonderful gifts of being alive. We can have relationships, create beautiful things, and appreciate the natural beauty of the universe. However, the four inevitable problems listed above spoil the entire experience. The net result is that life is more painful than pleasing. But it’s not meant to be that way.
Realizing the Purpose of Human Life
The Vedas teach that our human life is a precious opportunity to put an end to all suffering through self-realization (ātma-vidyā) and devotion to God (bhakti-yoga). Who you are is more than just a material body and mind. You are an eternal spark of spiritual energy, pure consciousness. The human form of life is specifically designed to enable us to directly experience this truth through the linking process of yoga, syncing up our minute consciousness with the Superconsciousness.
How Vedic Science Works
Many people mistakenly think that the Vedas espouse a type of religion. This couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact, all of the world’s religions can be analyzed in terms of the psychological framework provided in the Vedas.
Vedic science shares three important characteristics with contemporary scientific thought and practice:
- A robust theoretical framework,
- Necessary and sufficient conditions for the success of experiments, and
- Independent evaluation and confirmation of results by a community of experts.
Many scientific claims found in the Vedas have already been verified by independent third-parties. However, because the primary subjects of the Vedic science are consciousness and Superconsciousness, your participation is required in order to directly experience the scientific nature of Vedic thought.
Material vs. Spiritual Science
Modern materialistic science views the natural world as a product of natural laws or fixed mechanisms. This belief rests on two critical assumptions:
- Matter can be represented by numbers that correspond directly or indirectly to experimentally measurable properties.
- The behavior of matter can be described by mathematical expressions called the “laws of nature.”
In his book, Mechanistic and Non-Mechanistic Science, Dr. Richard Thompson points out that the ultimate view of the mechanistic paradigm of contemporary science is that you, as a person, are 100% a product of natural forces. There is no higher meaning or purpose to human existence. He writes, “You will simply do whatever your bodily chemistry drives you to do.”
Non-mechanistic science — the spiritual science of the Vedas — on the other hand, accepts as its a priori principle that consciousness, not matter, is the fundamental stuff from which our universe originates. Unlike the piecemeal approach of the modern scientific method, where individual discoveries are collated together over hundreds of years to form a coherent understanding of reality, the Vedas of India offer an already complete picture of the universe.
Descending Knowledge Through Transcendental Sound
If we examine our position carefully, we will have to admit that we are fallible beings. The Vedas explain that human beings have four defects which prevent them from arriving at perfect knowledge on our own:
- We have faulty senses.
- We make mistakes.
- We adopt false beliefs and prejudices
- We exaggerate our knowledge, thus cheating ourself and others.
Perfect knowledge must come from a perfect source. The Vedas are composed of mantras infused with transcendental energy. They are unlike the ordinary sound vibrations of the material world. By regularly exposing our mind and heart to Vedic sound, our consciousness is cleansed of ignorance and illusion, and we are gradually able to perceive our pure self and the Superconsciousness.
Branches of Vedic Science
The Vedas form a comprehensive manual for understanding the universe and our position in it. There are numerous branches of knowledge within the Vedic canon, including: the Vedic wisdom.
- Health sciences
- Social sciences
- Military arts
- Physics
- Psychology
- Philosophy
- Logic
- Political science
- Cosmology
- Business
- Mathematics
- Architecture
- Astrology
- Spirituality
- Art
At Popular Vedic Science, we aim to present these diverse branches of knowledge as well as novel discoveries in Vedic research, so that all of humanity may benefit from the Vedic wisdom.
Empirical Research Validates the Vedas
Recent breakthroughs in cosmology, archeology, embryology, and other fields have enabled researchers to validate numerous aspects of Vedic science and history. Facts recorded in ancient Vedic texts have been proven true by modern science, including:
- The date of the “Big Bang.”
- The date of the formation of our solar system.
- The date of Earth’s most recent mass extinction.
- The stages of fetal development of a human infant within the womb.
This and other information shows that the Vedas are neither mythological nor man-made. The Vedas have been extant in human society since long before modern science developed the technology to understand the cosmos, the neurological development of the human fetus, and other areas of knowledge that the Vedas deal with in great detail.
Check It Out
In his book The Big Bang and The Sages, author Sidharth Chhabra presents astonishing findings from his research in the cosmological presentation of the Puranas of ancient India. Although compiled by sages thousands of years ago, these texts contain stunningly accurate data for key events in the creation and development of our universe, as well as the history of our planet Earth.
Get the book on Amazon or check out our book review for more information.
