Between Science and Vedic knowledge

Whenever we talk about the revolution of the earth, its spherical shape, heliocentric model of solar system or speed of light, our mind tends to relate these discoveries with some western scientists like Galileo and Copernicus. We often fantasy Isaac newton sleeping under a tree, suddenly he witnesses an apple falls on the ground and discover gravity. But, only a few people are aware that famous Hindu scholar Bhaskaracharya, in his book “Surya Siddhanta” had mentioned: ‘Objects fall on the earth due to a force of attraction by the earth. Therefore, the earth, planets, constellations, moon and sun are held in orbit due to this attraction.’ It was not until twelve century later (in 1687) Sir Isaac Newton discovered (or rediscover) this fact and named it ‘the law of gravity.’ Bhaskaracharya also calculated the time taken by the Earth to go round Sun up to the 9th decimal place, and according to his calculation, it’s 365.258756484 days. Today’s science admitted the value of the same time as 365.2596 days. The difference between the two somniscient of Pythagorean Theorem centuries before the birth of Pythagoras,tudies done by the ancient Hindu brain and today’s NASA’s high tech computer is only 0.00085.

Hinduism discoveries exist as a transit point of many scientific inventions, half- achieved, and all our Vedic knowledge are in the process of preadaptation with some western discoveries, and many are‘not yet discovered.’ Indeed, Hindus were metaphysically omniscient of Pythagorean Theorem centuries before the birth of Pythagoras, they were Darwinians hundreds of years before Darwin, and spiritual scientist (sages) many years before science was even introduced.

Only in 1543 AD, Copernicus formally proposed his theory of revolution of the Earth around the Sun. But during 5th century, Aryabhatta in his book “Aryabhatteem” had stated that the Earth revolves around the Sun in these precise words: ‘Just as a person boarding on a boat feels that the trees on the banks are moving, people on the revolving earth also feel that the sun is moving’. In the same book, he had also mentioned about the globular shape of earth and its rotation on own axis and orbited the Sun.

Who was the first to discover the heliocentric model of the solar system? Was it actually Copernicus? Many specific excerpts from Veda _i.e. “The sun moves in its own orbit but holding earth and other heavenly bodies in a manner that they do not collide with each other through force of attraction.” ( Rig Veda 1.35.9) clearly claims the sun as center of the solar system. Similarly, Rig Veda 5.40.5 has a phrase in Sanskrit, which decodes to “O Sun! When you are blocked by the one whom you gifted your own light (moon), and then earth will be surprised by the sudden darkness.” The occurrence of same phenomena is what modern science calls solar eclipse these days. According to scientific records, Jean Richer and Giovanni Domenico Cassini were first to measure the distance between earth and sun, but to our surprise, approximate distance between sun and earth is mentioned by Tulsidas in one of the excerpts from “Hanuman Chalisa,” ‘Juga Sahastra Yojana Par Bhanu ,Leelyo Taahi Madhura Phala Jaanu’ which means Sun is at a distance of Juug Sahastra Yojans (Distance Unit in Hindi). According to Hindu conversion practice, 1 Juug = 120001, Sahastra= 1000 1 Yojan = 8 Miles, accordingly, 12000 X 1000 X 8 = 96,000,000 miles now converting miles in Kilometer, it appears to be 153.6 million km, which is much closer to the calculation of the modern scientists.

The speed of light is said to be discovered by Danish astronomer, Olaus Roemer in 1676 however, in one of the hymen addressed to the sun by Vedic scholar Sayana clearly states these words : “with due respect , I bow to the sun, who traverses 2,202 yojanas in half a nimesha.” Now, if we calculate the speed of light in modern units based on the value given by Sayana, it appears 189547 miles per second, slightly different from modern science, which calculates 186000 miles per second. This slight difference may possibly be because of the error in translation from Vedic units to SI/CGS units. Nobody knows how 14th-century Vedic scholar did it, but it’s assumed that his source of information must have been the Vedas, which further authenticates its cosmologic credibility.

Then, Hindus had an intellectual civilization with knowledge of astronomy long before Egypt, Greek or any other western world .As they claim, was this a spiritual knowledge acquired form divines? Was there a inter-galactic travel system? Did those ancient minds make contact with beings from other planets? We don’t know, yet incredible fact lying before us is that they had mathematical/ cosmological understanding that counts extremely precise and coincides with many of modern astronomical discoveries. I find no other way to explain how these ancient intellectuals acquire such knowledge other than the fact that they were living in an era of meta-technology or possessed some kind of divine knowledge beyond our present understanding.

References

1. Trikha, J. K. Rig Veda: a scientific and intellectual analysis of the hymns. Bombay: Somaiya Publications, 1981. Pdf.
2. Doniger, Wendy. The Rig Veda: an anthology: one hundred and eight hymns, selected, translated and annotated. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England: Penguin , 1981. Pdf.
3. Sastri, Bapu Deva, Lancelot Wilkinson, and Bhāskarācārya. Translation of the Surya Siddhanta. Osnabrück: Biblio Verlag, 1981. Pdf.
4. Kapur, Banwari Lal, and Tulasīdāsa. Hanuman chalisa: the descent of grace. New Delhi: Trimurti Publications, 1974. Pdf.
5. Mācave, Prabhākara. Hinduism, its contribution to science and civilisation. New Delhi: Vikas, 1979. Pdf.
6. Khanna, D. R., and Dev Raj Khanna. Science in Veda. Delhi: Daya Pub. House, 2009. Pdf.