Vedic India - the most scientific society

Indian Science destruction by British – the biggest loss to humanity!

I was recently going through a TED video on antibiotic immunity / drug resistance and the key reason behind was the contaminated food chain. We are using chemicals in almost every kind of food production, from farming to poultry to cattle to dairy to fishery. Undoubtedly, our food chain today is contaminated. And it’s all because of us, for our greed to grow more, for our ego to interfere and tame nature.

Science was focused to understand the nature, but we had our own Dr. Frankenstiens, who were impatient enough to create monsters. But there’s a difference between fiction and real life, as they say fact is stranger than fiction. The mistakes of year 1965 create a monster in year 2000, so the original sinner is either no more, or is in no position to make any difference either.

Possibly, when India was invaded by west for the first time by Alexander in some 325 B.C. that continued till year 1700s by numerous attempts from west & north, from Muslim invader of Central Asia till Mongols, Mughals, Spanish, Portuguese and British, the ideas of Indian philosophy were too ahead of time for the western world to understand and follow. Thus they took the available scripture along with them to study it later and try to decode the past. For example the concept of “Vasudhaiv Kutumbukam” (?????? ?????????) wasn’t understood by the world till the maturity of Internet era. It is only now that the world realizes that a Chinese stock market crash can make someone homeless in US. A blast in Virginia, spoils a future of a person in Pakistan. That’s how connected we are today.

Similarly, our concept of living in “harmony with nature” hasn’t been understood by the world till now. After Industrial revolution 1760, harming nature has done almost all the developments, though the development doesn’t necessarily be done that way only, there are and there were better ways. For example, a 1000 sq. kms. Angkor Wat Temple complex built in 12th Century by King Suryavarman II, had a man-made inland water ways canal construction route for the complete complex ensuring irrigation as well as transport, but without any pumps or motors. The construction was done in such a marvelous architecture that there was a natural flow and is the same is working even 1000s of years later in the 21st century. That was science. But in the quest for supremacy all that was thoroughly destroyed by the British rule, post the revolt of 1857, and that was the biggest harm to humanity.

The Vedic India had built such a wonderful system of knowledge, philosophy, science, arts and culture that it could’ve led the world to a different level of development today. A world without the monsters of Dr. Frankenstiens of the modern world of destructive science. What we face today is a resultant of human greed, ego, race to supremacy and hypocrisy – where we have created such massive harms to the nature that the very existence of life on the planet is on the stakes. Global warming, melting polar ice, endangered flora & fauna, food chain contamination, air pollution, water pollution, plastic menace and the never ending arms race.

But it’s never too late to correct the mistakes. The moment of realizations itself is the first step towards correction. The Paris Agreement on Climate Change – is nothing but realizations by the world that we are on the path of destruction.

Ancient Vedic science had not just envisaged such issues, but has built solutions for such issues. That is why we had a specific ritual, a culture and a unique way of life. We had mastered the art of living in harmony with nature. But due to human negligence, we kept following rituals and forgot the science behind. Now we still have time to go back and learn from past. Some of the greatest policies of the Vedic India, that are still very relevant are – the massively researched and practiced doctrines of Ashram Vyavastha, Varn Vyavastha, status of Cow in the society, status of Tulsi in the society, use of jaggery instead of Sugar, principals of Ayurveda accepted and converted to a way of life, the Bhagwat Gita, The construction science, the astronomy, the spirituality, the human body, the ecology and so on.

The Ashram Vyavastha – In ancient India, we had four ashrams. The human life was taken to be 100 years, which is still not achieved by modern medicine. Out of these 100 years, there were four ashrams of 25 years each, namely brahamcharya, grihastha, vanprastha and sanyas.

• Brahamcharya – the 1st 25 years were dedicated to individual self. 5 years of education at home and then 20 years at gurukul, wherein the mind, body, soul, arms, ammunitions, philosophy, spirituality, science & arts, everything was taught to them, away from home in a boarding school called gurukul, often situated in midst of a nature park, away from the urban / rural society.
• Grihastha – the next 25 years were dedicated to the family. A grihastha was supposed to raise a family, get married, have kids, set up businesses, and build empires, but leave everything to their next generation by the end of the 50th year of his life and move to the next stage.
• Vanprastha – the next 25 years of the life were dedicated to the society, wherein a person was supposed to leave the reins of his family to the next generation and start focusing on the society, social structure, growth of the society etc. He was to dedicate himself to the social causes like healthcare, environment, education, livelihood etc.
• Sanyas – and the last 25 years of his life were spent in Sanyas, away from the urban / rural social structures, in a nature park, teaching the young ones in Gurukul. Thus the minimum age of the teacher used to be 75 years, a person having a rich experience of life used to teach a 5 year old. And the entire education was done with physical practice and listening. As the dissipation of knowledge was all through group discussions, presentations and practical’s, nothing was documented / written to be copied later. Thus it was more effective and retained to the core.

The Varna Vyavastha – This was the social structure of the society that was a horizontal system based upon the nature of work and interest areas of the individuals. The free will of the individuals was a practice for choosing their area of interest and making their passion as their job. The whole society was divided into four occupational categories of work – knowledge (Brahman), defense (Kshatriya), business (Vaishya) and safety (Kshudra). Knowledge occupation included everything related to science, technology, research, education, training and all the aspects related to knowledge. Similarly, defense for the society included army, police, spy network, intelligence, crime and criminal network tracking and so on. Business occupation included trading, mass production, selling, marketing, accounting and taxation. Safety had sanitation, healthcare, disinfection, and sewage management, waste management and so on.

The focus of life was to practice a healthy way of life, thus physical exercise was a mandatory part of everyone’s life to keep fit. Agriculture was done to ensure physical labor, as it was a zero investment continuous engagement occupation. Cow was considered the holy animal, for the milk, curd, manure, fuel, sanitation, medicine, construction material and agricultural labor that it provided to the mankind. Tulsi (Holy Basil), Ocimum tenuiflorum, was considered a holy plant and planted in the center of the courtyard of every home, as it emits oxygen throughout 24 hours a day. For sugar, Gud (Jaggery) was used instead, as it does a biological cleansing of all pollutants in body, is a rich mineral supplement and works as a digestive catalyst. Turmeric was considered auspicious its medicinal quotient of building defense against Cancer, Arthritis, Alzheimer and many other ailments. Ayurveda – wasn’t a stream of medicine, but a way of life. The idea behind was not develop a stream of medical science, but to keep healthy living as a habit for all citizens, believing in the thought process of prevention instead of the need for cure. The Bhagwat Gita, was the original text for teaching and preaching principles of management, spirituality, work ethics, business ethics and so on. A Tilak on the forehead between the eyes was a usual practice, that was to protect the pineal gland from infrared rays, and keep the sleep and the season cycles of the body in order. 

Each and every ritual of the past had a reasoning, a scientific fact, but people could only catch hold of the rituals and forgot the reasoning behind, because of the systematic sabotage of the evolved culture. else we could have solution to all the global crisis situations today. even if now a proper research is done upon the ancient text, that is available, the science would be able to grow in leaps and bounds. The basic facts that the ancient astrology had already documented, which science is now able to discover clarifies how developed the world was. and the entire course of ancient science was eco friendly. we should now bring that old science back for the benefit of the human race.