In this article, we would peep through the mysteries of Vedic Philosohpy. Vedas are considered to be the oldest compilation work of Aryans & Indus Valley Civilization. The language is very obscure & uses personification extensively. Like the idea of Trinity. Brahma- the creator, Vishnu- the preserver & Shiva- the destroy. Now the idea behind this is that any form of matter (dravya) passes through three states- it originates, it persists & it ceases (or extincts) . It is same as the tripadi (Uppaneyi Va, Vigameyi Va , Dhuveyi Va) given by Jina to his Ganadharas. Thus, we can say that Vedas emphasized the cycle of matter in a symbolic form which was later deified.
Of all the great ancient religions, only Hinduism gives an age of the universe with numbers resembling those obtained by modern science. According to the Bhagavad Gita, one kalpa or (12-hour) day of Brahma lasts for 4.32 billion years. The Brahma lasts for 311.04 trillion (3.1104x10^14) years overall, after which the universe is destroyed. Hindu texts are very specific and precise in their description of the relevant time intervals. They are also unique in their description of the creation process and of forces of nature in often inanimate terms or, at most, personified in a highly sophisticated symbolic representation of inanimate forces. The means by which the Hindus arrived at this information is equally mysterious. The Hindu monks would purify their minds by depriving themselves of food, and then meditate in silence, in effect inducing a form of sensory deprivation. The belief was that in so doing, sensory input from the outside world would be eliminated, and information from the Universe would then become accessible. Unfortunately, finding the original sources for these beliefs is difficult because of the large amount of original material. Also, most of these ancient writings are quite difficult to interpret, as they are written in a poetic, symbolic language in which forces of nature are personified, and they are full of obscure literary allusions. The end result is that to a contemporary Westerner, these works appear as mostly gibberish. Thus is is no surprise that the Rig Veda, Upanishads, and Bhagavad Gita are accompanied by an extensive commentary, and it should also not be surprising that different commentators derive opposite meanings from the same text. For instance, the gunas (three properties of Prakriti or Nature) are described as fundamental forces of matter in The Bhagavad Gita (as translated by S. Nikhilananda), but as personality characteristics in The Principal Upanishads by S. Radhakrishnan. Commentators often try to impose their own views on the text. The editor of The Principal Upanishads, for example, interprets each paragraph in terms of how similar it is to some passage in the Bible or works by Aristotle and other Greek philosophers. The Rig Veda is generally regarded as the most obscure of the Hindu writings, and consequently is the most misunderstood. Compounding this is the fact that the Rig Veda is a little weak in biology. For instance, one verse says that cows descended from horses, and goats and sheep descended from cows. This is not even taught in Kansas. However, even a cursory reading of the Upanishads, which elaborated and explained the Rig Veda, will reveal that the Hindus had a sophisticated concept of space and time. For example, Brahman is not the name of a deity but is a term for the extended space-time continuum which supposedly has attributes resembling a sort of consciousness. The Rig Veda is also full of statements like "emanating from the unmanifest", suggesting that rather than being about cows and sheep as it first appears, it is actually describing the ancient Hindu cosmological beliefs. There is clearly some physics, or something like it, in the Rig Veda. It is therefore reasonable to ask, whether any other beliefs in this work may resemble theories and facts that have been arrived at scientifically. If so, it would have great significance not only for understanding the people of the Indus Valley region but, if the information is as accurate as their chronology of the universe, may even provide ideas of possible use as hypotheses worthy of scientific investigation.
Very Thought provoking......wonderful
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