The Scientific Basis of Hinduism - Volume I

The Scientific Basis of Hinduism - Volume I PDF

Author: T Muralidharan

Publisher: Notion Press

Published: 2016-05-04

Total Pages: 150

ISBN-13: 1945400250

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The doctrine of Sanatana Dharma acquired a tag, Hinduism during the passage of time, when or why, no one seems to be sure. The word Hinduism is a misnomer – the word Hindu is mentioned nowhere in the scriptures as is the term “Hindu mythology.” When comprehension became difficult, all that is inexplicable found refuge under the term mythology. Were the ascetics who lived in forests and mountains foolish enough to portray the picture of a God, who finds His perch on top of a serpent in an ocean of milk? Or a creator finding His work place atop a lotus that springs from the navel of Vishnu? Or that Lord Shiva should be polymorphic with the visage in one form, sporting all sorts of weird articles as ornaments, half feminine in another and a phallus in yet another form? If such descriptions defy comprehension, it only means the inability to understand allegory. The author has tried to unravel all these in layman’s logic and is not trying to masquerade in mysticism when confronted with the inexplicable. The book begins with the Pranava mantra and then it cruises through the Trimurthis, their significance, the mahavakyas and ends in the soul and the advaitha philosophy with an insight on how Science sees all these.

Scientific Bases of Hindu Beliefs

Scientific Bases of Hindu Beliefs PDF

Author: Dr. Bhojraj Dwivedi

Publisher: Diamond Pocket Books Pvt Ltd

Published: 2016-05-02

Total Pages: 163

ISBN-13: 9352610474

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Sanatan Hindu Dharma is like a huge tree. Different kinds of assumptions have, merged into it from time immemorial. As human population grew and time changed, beliefs and faiths changed as a result of continuous thinking of scholars and growing maturity in their ideas. As a consequence,? the branches and sub-branches of Hindu religion also grew. Is there any scientific basis of beliefs and faiths propagated in Hinduism? This question agitates the minds of intellectual readers again and again. Now, that time has come to an end, when you cited from the religious scriptures and said, ?Babaÿvakyaÿpramanam? (here is the statement from the author as evidence). Comprehensive thinking about religious beliefs has become the most essential call of the age today. First of all, the average reader has to understand what is science. The word ?vigyan (science) is formed by prefixing ?vi to ?gyan? (knowledge). ?Vishishta gyanam iti vigyanam, ?Vishesh gyanam iti vigyanam?, ?Vishuddha gyanam iti vigyanam (Specific knowledge is science, Special knowledge is science, Pure knowledge is science), these definitions are clear in themselves. Science, in fact, is based upon cause and effect relationship. ?Karya karan sarnbandh iti vigyanam?, ?punah punah parikshanam prayoganch kritam? (Science is cause and effect relationship. Experiment is made again and again). Where we come to know the cause and effect relationship, then that knowledge automatically passes into the category of science. True knowledge of an object, based on facts, is a part of science itself. ?Punah punah nirikshit gyanam iti vigyanam,? When the results are the same on repeated observations, then those facts become science. Ancient Rishis-Munis (seers and saints) formed some rules and principles under the cover of religion to civilize humanity. They offered the charms of heaven and fears of hell, so that, men adopted them in their conduct. Today, in the age of computer, no one accepts heaven or hell, piety or sin, religion or irreligion. It is a transition period. Innumerable questions are cropping up in the minds of the intellectuals. To clarify the scientific basis of Hindu beliefs has become a need of the day.

Ancient Hindu Science

Ancient Hindu Science PDF

Author: Alok Kumar

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2022-05-31

Total Pages: 197

ISBN-13: 3031794028

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To understand modern science as a coherent story, it is essential to recognize the accomplishments of the ancient Hindus. They invented our base-ten number system and zero that are now used globally, carefully mapped the sky and assigned motion to the Earth in their astronomy, developed a sophisticated system of medicine with its mind-body approach known as Ayurveda, mastered metallurgical methods of extraction and purification of metals, including the so-called Damascus blade and the Iron Pillar of New Delhi, and developed the science of self-improvement that is popularly known as yoga. Their scientific contributions made impact on noted scholars globally: Aristotle, Megasthenes, and Apollonius of Tyana among the Greeks; Al-Biruni, Al-Khwarizmi, Ibn Labban, and Al-Uqlidisi, Al-Ja?iz among the Islamic scholars; Fa-Hien, Hiuen Tsang, and I-tsing among the Chinese; and Leonardo Fibbonacci, Pope Sylvester II, Roger Bacon, Voltaire and Copernicus from Europe. In the modern era, thinkers and scientists as diverse as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Johann Gottfried Herder, Carl Jung, Max Müller, Robert Oppenheimer, Erwin Schrödinger, Arthur Schopenhauer, and Henry David Thoreau have acknowledged their debt to ancient Hindu achievements in science, technology, and philosophy. The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), one of the largest scientific organizations in the world, in 2000, published a timeline of 100 most important scientific finding in history to celebrate the new millennium. There were only two mentions from the non-Western world: (1) invention of zero and (2) the Hindu and Mayan skywatchers astronomical observations for agricultural and religious purposes. Both findings involved the works of the ancient Hindus. The Ancient Hindu Science is well documented with remarkable objectivity, proper citations, and a substantial bibliography. It highlights the achievements of this remarkable civilization through painstaking research of historical and scientific sources. The style of writing is lucid and elegant, making the book easy to read. This book is the perfect text for all students and others interested in the developments of science throughout history and among the ancient Hindus, in particular.

Vedic Physics

Vedic Physics PDF

Author: Raja Ram Mohan Roy

Publisher:

Published: 2023-02

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781637545690

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The ?igveda is the first book of humankind and the most sacred scripture of Hinduism. It also happens to be the most ill-understood book of our times. Despite the extensive study by academic and religious scholars, the purpose and meaning of the ?igveda and many ancient Hindu scriptures remain unclear. In this pathbreaking book, the discovery of the ?igveda as a book of ancient cosmology is described, and related to the seals of ancient Indus Valley Civilization, thereby challenging our perception of humanity."The Vedas have always been lauded as containing the secrets of cosmogenesis. Raja Roy in his remarkable book shows how this is true not only from the yogic vison but according to the latest insights of modern physics. The book takes the reader on a vast panoramic journey through the universe of matter, mind and human history as well."David Frawley (Vamadeva Shastri), Director, American Institute of Vedic Studies"Roy presents a new framework for the understanding of the Vedic hymns from the point of view of physics and then he draws parallels with recent theories on the nature of the universe. We celebrate the new path he has hewn through the bush of old scholarship."Professor Subhash Kak, Oklahoma State University

Unifying Hinduism

Unifying Hinduism PDF

Author: Andrew J. Nicholson

Publisher: Columbia University Press

Published: 2013-12-01

Total Pages: 282

ISBN-13: 0231149875

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Some postcolonial theorists argue that the idea of a single system of belief known as "Hinduism" is a creation of nineteenth-century British imperialists. Andrew J. Nicholson introduces another perspective: although a unified Hindu identity is not as ancient as some Hindus claim, it has its roots in innovations within South Asian philosophy from the fourteenth to seventeenth centuries. During this time, thinkers treated the philosophies of Vedanta, Samkhya, and Yoga, along with the worshippers of Visnu, Siva, and Sakti, as belonging to a single system of belief and practice. Instead of seeing such groups as separate and contradictory, they re-envisioned them as separate rivers leading to the ocean of Brahman, the ultimate reality. Drawing on the writings of philosophers from late medieval and early modern traditions, including Vijnanabhiksu, Madhava, and Madhusudana Sarasvati, Nicholson shows how influential thinkers portrayed Vedanta philosophy as the ultimate unifier of diverse belief systems. This project paved the way for the work of later Hindu reformers, such as Vivekananda, Radhakrishnan, and Gandhi, whose teachings promoted the notion that all world religions belong to a single spiritual unity. In his study, Nicholson also critiques the way in which Eurocentric concepts—like monism and dualism, idealism and realism, theism and atheism, and orthodoxy and heterodoxy—have come to dominate modern discourses on Indian philosophy.

The Book of Hindu Imagery

The Book of Hindu Imagery PDF

Author: Eva Rudy Jansen

Publisher: Binkey Kok

Published: 1993

Total Pages: 164

ISBN-13: 9789074597074

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Hinduism is more than a religion; it is a way of life. Its rich and multicoloured history has made the structure of its mythical and philosophical principles into a highly differentiated maze, of which total knowledge is a practical impossibility. This volume cannot offer a complete survey of the meaning of Hinduism. It is an extensive compilation of important deities and their divine manifestations, so that modern students can understand the significance of the Hindu pantheon.

Religion, Science, and Empire

Religion, Science, and Empire PDF

Author: Peter Gottschalk

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 442

ISBN-13: 0195393015

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Peter Gottschalk offers a compelling study of how, through the British implementation of scientific taxonomy in the subcontinent, Britons and Indians identified an inherent divide between mutually antagonistic religious communities. England's ascent to power coincided with the rise of empirical science as an authoritative way of knowing not only the natural world, but the human one as well. The British scientific passion for classification, combined with the Christian impulse to differentiate people according to religion, led to a designation of Indians as either Hindu or Muslim according to rigidly defined criteria that paralleled classification in botanical and zoological taxonomies. Through an historical and ethnographic study of the north Indian village of Chainpur, Gottschalk shows that the Britons' presumed categories did not necessarily reflect the Indians' concepts of their own identities, though many Indians came to embrace this scientism and gradually accepted the categories the British instituted through projects like the Census of India, the Archaeological Survey of India, and the India Museum. Today's propogators of Hindu-Muslim violence often cite scientistic formulations of difference that descend directly from the categories introduced by imperial Britain. Religion, Science, and Empire will be a valuable resource to anyone interested in the colonial and postcolonial history of religion in India.

The Roots of Hinduism

The Roots of Hinduism PDF

Author: Asko Parpola

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2015-07-15

Total Pages: 385

ISBN-13: 0190226935

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Hinduism has two major roots. The more familiar is the religion brought to South Asia in the second millennium BCE by speakers of Aryan or Indo-Iranian languages, a branch of the Indo-European language family. Another, more enigmatic, root is the Indus civilization of the third millennium BCE, which left behind exquisitely carved seals and thousands of short inscriptions in a long-forgotten pictographic script. Discovered in the valley of the Indus River in the early 1920s, the Indus civilization had a population estimated at one million people, in more than 1000 settlements, several of which were cities of some 50,000 inhabitants. With an area of nearly a million square kilometers, the Indus civilization was more extensive than the contemporaneous urban cultures of Mesopotamia and Egypt. Yet, after almost a century of excavation and research the Indus civilization remains little understood. How might we decipher the Indus inscriptions? What language did the Indus people speak? What deities did they worship? Asko Parpola has spent fifty years researching the roots of Hinduism to answer these fundamental questions, which have been debated with increasing animosity since the rise of Hindu nationalist politics in the 1980s. In this pioneering book, he traces the archaeological route of the Indo-Iranian languages from the Aryan homeland north of the Black Sea to Central, West, and South Asia. His new ideas on the formation of the Vedic literature and rites and the great Hindu epics hinge on the profound impact that the invention of the horse-drawn chariot had on Indo-Aryan religion. Parpola's comprehensive assessment of the Indus language and religion is based on all available textual, linguistic and archaeological evidence, including West Asian sources and the Indus script. The results affirm cultural and religious continuity to the present day and, among many other things, shed new light on the prehistory of the key Hindu goddess Durga and her Tantric cult.

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