Science of the Sacred PDF

163 Pages·2010·19.59 MB·English

Science of
the Sacred
Ancient Perspectives
for Modern Science
Compiled by
David Osborn
Enquiries welcome:
Email: [email protected].
http://www.vedicsciences.net/
Compiled by David Osborn
Edited by
David Osborn
Adam O’Hara
ISBN # 978-0-557-27724-7
Copyright © 2009-2010 Vedic Sciences
All Rights Reserved
Published by LuLu.Com
Contents
Acknowledgements 4
Forward by Dr. David Frawley 7
Introduction 13
Scientific Verification of Vedic Knowledge by David Osborn 17
A Brief History of Indian Science by Dr. Subash Kak 29
Modern Science and Vedic Science by Dr. David Frawley 35
Vedic Mathematics or Not? by David Osborn 43
Physics to Metaphysics — The Vedic Paradigm by David Osborn 53
Has Science Failed Us? by David Osborn 65
East Meets West — Oriental Seeds in Occidental Soil by Jack Hebner 77
Architecture of the Vastu Shastra — According to Sacred Science
by Jack Hebner 85
Sacred Dance by Jack Hebner 93
The Science and Art of Ayurveda — The Eternal Science of Natural Healing
by Dr. M. B. Shiva Kumar 101
Transcendental Sound by Sridhar Dev Goswami 121
Positive & Progressive Immortality by Sridhar Dev Goswami 127
Subjective Evolution of Consciousness Supplements by Sridhar Dev Goswami
Fossilism, Hypnotism & the Cosmos 131
Consciousness & Evolution 139
The Plane of Misconception 145
Thesis, Antithesis & Synthesis 151
Biodata 159
Acknowledgements
We would like to express our thanks to Dr. David Frawley, Professor
Subash Kak and Dr. M. B. Shiva Kumar for contributing their articles to this
book.
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We would also like to thank the staff photographers of India Stock Photography:
www.indiastockphotography.com for providing many of their pictures for use in
this publication.
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6
Forward
by Dr. David Frawley
We live in an age in which science and technology acting with their computer terminals than with the
continue their rapid progress, that has been going living world around them. Clearly science is opening
on almost non-stop for the last two centuries. There new frontiers that are also causing us to question the
are great advances in diverse fields, from genetics nature of physical reality. But science has not yet, it
to physics, with practical applications through high seems, broken through the barrier of the materialistic
tech and computer science, that has reshaped our way of life to a life of higher awareness.
daily lives in amazing ways.
What is the nature of external reality that we con-
Yet science has unlocked not only many of the won- tact through our senses? Are physical objects little
ders but also many of the dangers of the outer world. more than force fields created by subatomic energy
In spite of all the scientific development, our civiliza- particles in the void of space? Is there an underlying
tion appears to be sinking further into a worsening universal intelligence or consciousness that is behind
crisis, with increasing ecological disruptions, health the marvels of the laws of physics or biology and their
and psychological problems, spreading violence, gestalt patterns?
hatred and brutality. Even with all our advances in
Are we living in some greater cosmic mind or just
communication, we seem to lack any true leader-
in an accident of life in a strange array of inanimate
ship, or any overriding spiritual or ethical direction
forces, a happenstance of random chemical combi-
that can bring peace and happiness to humanity. Our
nations? These are some of the deeper queries at the
advanced global media seems happier to broadcast
cutting edge of science that we need to face.
violence and promote divisions between people than
to serve as a force for peace. Science does not seem to
While science has done well in terms of physics, its
have the vision or the compassion necessary to link
understanding of life and the biological sciences re-
us to the greater universe and the whole of life in a
mains problematical. Its medicine, based largely
meaningful and harmonious manner. If science is
upon drugs, does not seem able to create positive
not entirely the cause of our current world problems,
health for humanity. Its psychology, also increasingly
it does not seem to have the solution either.
drug based, seems to be causing more depression and
unhappiness. In addition, the social sciences, includ-
Under the influence of science, we have moved from
ing accounts of human history, remain questionable,
the age of matter and its solid forms into the era of
caught in an outer model of the human being that
subtle energy and information technology. Science
lacks any deep spiritual meaning.
has progressively mentalized our world in the com-
puter age, leaving the fixed realities of time and space
However, the ‘outer’ sciences that dominate our
far behind as we communicate quickly and transfer
present culture are not the only measure of human
ideas and commodities worldwide in a matter of
knowledge of the universe. As we push the limits
moments. Many people now spend more time inter-
of science, another type of science is emerging —
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or reemerging — that can grant us a more authentic identity but has only given impetus to the ego’s pur-
understanding of the true nature of ourselves and suit of power and control.
the vast cosmos in which we live.
The Vedic sciences, on the other hand, open the door
Many ancient cultures and spiritual traditions to a cosmic intelligence, to a sense of self and real-
speak of a higher science, an inner ‘self-knowledge’, ity that is universal, not bodily based but rooted in
through which we can know the cosmic reality not awareness, love and bliss. The Vedas reveal that we
as an outer array of phenomena but as the very are a mini-universe, a microcosm of energy and intel-
consciousness at the core of our own being. These ligence, with all the secret forces of the greater cosmos
sacred sciences have probably been best developed at work within us and accessible to our greater being.
and preserved in India as the ‘yogic’ or ‘Vedic’ sci- We are meant to function as a species to evolve a high-
ences, which remain to the present day well-re- er consciousness on the planet, not simply to enjoy
searched, with clear teachings and practices, an ex- ourselves at a mundane level.
tensive literature, millennia of experience, and can
Our current science is incomplete, a fragment of a
be made accessible and applicable to all humanity.
greater way of knowledge. It is not entirely wrong
Unlike Europe, India was not a country that denied as far as it goes, but it is but one level or aspect of a
science in favor of religion, contrasting knowledge greater view. Modern science tends to pursue outer
and faith as conflicting opposites. India viewed details and misses out on the underlying wholistic
spirituality as the highest science through which forces that create unity and individuality. For ex-
we can directly know the true nature of reality, ample, in pursuing the detailed chemistry of life, we
which itself is conscious and aware, not simply an have forgotten the life-force, the yogic Prana, which
inert external object or force. On this basis, even is the overall integrating power and intelligence be-
India’s outer sciences like medicine and astronomy hind these discrete and transient chemical reactions,
have an inner basis as yogic paths, ways of under- weaving their diverse patterns into a consistent and
standing the cosmic mind, energy and processes. enduring web of life and consciousness. Without un-
derstanding how consciousness can imprint outer
phenomenon with a sense of being, purpose and real-
ity linked to the universal and divine, merely to gather
external data will only increase our confusion about
the nature of the whole.
The following book, Science of the Sacred, addresses
both the limitations of science and also charts a way
beyond to these higher spiritual or sacred sciences.
First, it contains a critique of modern science, ex-
amining both its strengths and weaknesses from the
standpoint of Vedic science. Second, it provides vari-
ous perspectives and updates on different Vedic sci-
ences along with the Vedic view of the world. Relying
on a number of important experts in their respective
fields, the book provides both detailed information as
This ‘inner science of consciousness’ now beckons us well as deep insights that can help the reader expand
with a futuristic vision, not as a mere relic of ancient their horizons of knowledge and understanding.
speculations but as the critical need of our times. Our
As a kind of ‘yogic critique’ of the limitations of mod-
culture has moved from matter to energy and infor-
ern science, the book provides extraordinary insight,
mation but still preserves the same outer view of the
showing how current views of history, biology and
world, and with it an external seeking bound by time
cosmology do not provide us with a real knowledge
and space, that ends up with a destructive consumer-
of our species, its place in the universe or its higher
istic model of life. We still look at ourselves in terms
evolutionary potentials.
of a socially defined bodily identity, a confused mass
of conditioned desires wandering between birth and
death. In short, science has not questioned our ego-
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Relative to the different Vedic sciences, the book be-
gins with a history of civilization and science in India
and its value and then gradually introduces such spe-
cific topics as Vedic mathematics, Ayurvedic medi-
cine and Vastu. It brings in the relevance of India’s
forms of art, dance, music and sacred sound, as we
cannot separate science from art or spirituality and
still have science be meaningful or address the whole
of life.
Most importantly the book charts a way through
which we can integrate both modern science and Ve-
dic science, link the material sciences with greater
spiritual sciences that unfold our real purpose in life.
It does not reject science for a blind religious faith
but looks to a greater intelligence in the universe in
Such ideas as the Aryan invasion or migration into
order to explain not only the laws of physics but the
India around 1500 BCE – which to date have no ar-
laws of life.
chaeological evidence to support them – remain in
The book begins with how our culture’s view of his- our textbooks more as an article of faith, a belief in
tory shapes its approach to science and its estimation the superiority of western civilization, rather than
of non-western traditions, particularly the spiritual any fact on the ground. They are often used to dis-
traditions of India. Many of us tend to believe that credit older spiritual traditions, whose teachings they
the views about history that we find in modern text- present only in distorted translations, and do not
books are proven truths on par with the laws of phys- represent any real effort to understand the philoso-
ics. Unfortunately social sciences do not have the phy or world view of the ancients. Once we remove
simple exactitude of physical sciences. Our culture’s these Eurocentric ideas, we can discover the spiri-
dominant view of history – which is still largely tual or yogic heritage of humanity that India has pre-
rooted in colonial preconceptions – is not a scien- served for all of us. We can reclaim the common roots
tific truth but largely a Eurocentric bias that often of true science and true spirituality. The Vedas con-
has little hard evidence to support it. tain a mantric code of higher knowledge that modern
scholars have failed to uncover, laboring as they are
We ignore the eastern under the idea that culture is materially based and
achievements in science, true knowledge is only of the outer world.
like the mathematics, phys-
ics, astronomy, biology and In the West, we associate religion with faith and sci-
medicine in the Vedas. We ence with true knowledge. In India, true religion
have created a view of history or the discovery of the cosmic reality is a matter of
that makes larger and older knowledge, not an outer knowledge of the senses but
civilizations like India and a direct perception with the meditative mind. Ordi-
China into little more than narily we rely upon our senses and their extensions
footnotes to events in Europe for our knowledge of reality. Yet our senses are limit-
or the Middle East. ed at best and extending them, even by sophisticated
technology, cannot correct their fundamental errors
Our historical time lines have not expanded much or their outward view. However, the mind itself has
beyond the time frame or location of Biblical chro- a capacity of direct perception if we can bring it into
nologies. Though our current species is now scientifi- a calm and silent state. Our individual consciousness
cally speaking more than 150,000 years old, our so- has an ability to link itself with the universal con-
cial sciences are still largely working on a 5,000 year scious and access a much deeper level of knowledge,
historical time line, with a bias towards Europe and through which we can know the entire universe with-
the Middle East that ignores the greater portion of in ourselves. This is the approach of yogic science.
humanity, its achievements and its historical records.
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