Why Aren't the Vedas Taught in Schools Today?

Question: These days, why we aren't taught Vedic studies in schools? Shouldn't this knowledge be imparted in the modern schools?YouTube

 Pujya Jagadguru Shankaracharya ji responds:

The answer to 'why?' is pretty simple, I shall explain it to you gently. The Education system in independent India is not our own. The Military establishment is also not really ours. The institutions of Agriculture, Cow protection and Commerce are also not our own in free India, neither are those of Labour and Industry. Even the fundamentals of the Constitution and the Judiciary are not our own. So as you sow, shall you reap. If you plant seeds of Babool tree, how can you expect to enjoy fruits of Mango, Guava or Grapes! Along the same lines, the way post-independence India has been moulded by our leaders, in this setup it is impossible to introduce knowledge and science of the Vedas.  

 I do not wish to take names of any former or current Education Ministers and I know very well that the likes of Nehru ji and others were much elder to me in terms of age, but having lived in this country for 58 years, since my childhood I have keenly observed every Prime Minister we ever had, and I understand very well how India has been deprived of Vedic system of Education to keep the country ideologically chained for ages.  

 Let me draw your attention to the fact that the Education system which today prevails in the world including India, is based on considering the Mortal body as the self and not Atman, while Vedic philosophy and Vedic system of education are based on the principles that destruction of one's body does not destroy a 'Jivaatma' (living being) and taking up a new body does not indicate a new living being. Our fundamentals of education itself have been corrupted. I would suggest one more thing, which may prove to be a boon for many people. You must have heard of Macaulay. His policy included 5 things, 3 of which I shall explain briefly. From 'a b c' of the English alphabet take the 3rd letter 'c' 3 times, that is 'c c c'. The first 'c' stands for Class and Co-education, second one means 'Club', third is for 'Court'. Using these 3 C's he planned to destroy the Indian education system.

This was Macaulay's policy, which the HRD and Prime Ministers of modern India failed to recognise, how can they ever secure our country? I shall give one more example. His Holiness 143rd Jagadguru Shankaracharya of Puri Peeth, Shri Bharti Krishna Teerth ji Maharaj, who presented Vedic mathematics to the world, through a text in English which has 16, 13 and 3 sutras which sum up to 32 sutras in Sanskrit. These are in the form of small formulae in Sanskrit. The foreign mathematics students of His Holiness and their students went on to invent the Computer. So theCcomputer which is available to the world today is possible only because of 143rd Jagadguru Shankaracharya of Puri Peeth and his efforts to revive Vedic mathematics.

 "Ekaadhikena-poorvena" (By one more the than the previous one), "Ekanyunena-poorvena" (By one less than the previous one), "Shishyate-sheshasangyah" (What remains, is the remainder). On the basis of these sutras only, his students and the students of his such students could build the computer. His work is highly regarded in the institutions of Mathematics or Space Research in other countries, but in India even this is deemed communal. In a country where even a Mathematical work is regarded as communal, how can such a country progress? We had one Education or HRD Minister Murli Manohar Joshi ji who had taken up the task of formulating a curriculum based on Niti, Adhyatma and Jyotish, but all that work was reversed by the Minister who succeeded him from the other party. Both of them are acquainted to me, only one of them is alive. The other one said that this was a 'communal' education curriculum which we cannot accept!

 This means that our traditional knowledge and sciences too are classified as communal, and is discarded based on such narrow-mindedness. India's academic, military, commercial and labour prowess have been feeding the entire world with their might. If India begins using these 4 resources for its own progress with the intention to benefit all, then even today India can rise above all.

 Even today if you read the newspaper, a leading Economist of the western world who is a Nobel laureate, has claimed that, "The economic progress which England made in 150 years, has been accomplished by India in 30 years straight."

 This means that if you multiply 30 by 5 that gives 150, so a person regarded as a leading Economist in the west, not even our own Manmohan Singh, has stated this fact that the pace of economic growth in India has been 5 times that of England. What England could do in 150 years, India achieved that in only 30 years. I suggest that even today India's academic, military, commercial and labour strength are so capable that if India begins using them to its favour, it can reign supreme across all sectors.

 But does India have the ability to use all its Academic, Military, Business and Labour might for its own development? This is a question for all of you too, what would you do after completing your studies in the present scenario? Our pool of intelligent students are bonded to getting sold for foreign companies. Our best brains are accustomed to going abroad and work for foreign institutions! The country which does not care about its own bright minds, how can it ever progress?

 I give an example of NASA, a space-research based commercial organisation. When Sanskrit scholars in India are not given due respect in their home country, NASA invites them for its own benefit, where they make the inventions and the credit is taken by NASA. I shall not talk about others and I wish for no fame or wealth, but a disappointing fact is that the knowledge related to Mathematics which was lost to the world for at least 5000 years, of which we used to find only sutra-s mentioned in some places of Vedic literature, that knowledge I have rediscovered and compiled into 10 books of Mathematics, 3 of which are still in the computer, this knowledge is not given any importance in India just because I do not affiliate to any political party. This means that a nation which actively tramples upon its own scientific knowledge, and schemes to destroy its own intelligence, how can it ever prosper?

 I do not wish to indulge in self-praise but the insult to our traditional knowledge pains me. You would be surprised to know that esteemed Mathematicians from Oxford university, Cambridge university, from North Korea and South Korea have come to me twice to seek guidance, Mathematicians from 104 countries have attended my Pravachan-s in Jaipur and Raipur, but in the Indian Government's eyes and in the eyes of our esteemed politicians, all this has no significance. Why is there no significance? Because those are Vedic sciences, and because I am without any political support or affiliation.

 What does this mean? In this age of the Rocket, Computer, Atom and Mobile, I say with full confidence that the scientific knowledge inherent in the Vedic literature of Sanatan Vedic Arya Hindus, even if a fraction of that is put into the academic curriculum, then even in this age of mega-machines our principles would not only prove to be supreme but in fact the only credible source of knowledge.

 For example, the knowledge of Dharma-shaastra, Kaama-shaastra, Moksha-shaastra, Food, Garments, Housing, Education, Health, Travel, Festivals, Defence, Law, Services, Marriage etc. which we have, each one of these are supreme in their own right. In fact I must point out that didn't we have knowledge of 32 sciences and 64 art forms taught in our educational institutions? A poor Brahmin like Sudama and Shri Krishna both could study in the same Gurukul in Ujjain, in Sandipani ji's Ashram. In our education system, we classified the cumulative art forms of the world into 64 types. All the sciences present in the world were categorised into 32 subjects. By deceit, all this knowledge is now being made extinct.     

 In such a situation, if a system of education based on Neeti and Adhyatma begins functioning today in India, then nothing could be better than that. I have respect for the scientific progress made in the western world, but even they would accept (the intellectual brilliance of India). We had a President-cum-Scientist in Kalam ji, who used to declare without any hesitation that the Missile technology which we have created today has been obtained from the Mahabharata. He had no reservations on these matters as he was a patriot. I once had a conversation with him for 45 minutes regarding protection of Shri Rama setu while he was President. He never held back his views on such matters, never talked about anything else.  

 I shall give you another example with due respect, when Mr. Bush was about to become the President of America for a 2nd term, I read one of his interviews. I thought after reading it that now the Christian world would pounce upon him for making such a statement, but there wasn't even a whimper! Do you know what did Mr. Bush say? He said about himself that, "I am a Christian by birth and have faith in the Bible, but the description of Genesis as explained in the Bible is scientifically false and I do not have believe in those aspects."

 These are not my words but those of Christian-born President Bush. But here I must draw your attention to the fact, that even if you leave alone the voluminous Vedic literature, leave alone our libraries in places like Ujjain, in Nepal where few years ago Prachand burnt down an entire library, for 6 months our epics were burning, such vast is the ocean of Vedic literature! But leave all of that for a moment, and take only the Bhagwad Gita of 700 verses. Even 700 verses are too many. Take just 7 verses of the Nasadiya Suktam, which is a part of the 10th mandal of the Rig Veda. The supreme and infallible knowledge about the mechanism, nature and science behind creation of the Universe inherent in these 7 verses alone make the whole world bow down to the greatness of Vedic philosophy.

 Can any scientist ever claim that the description about creation of the Universe or the practical and theoretical knowledge present in the Gita, the Nasadiya sukta or the Mahabharata is false or without scientific basis? The secrets of Space presented by Maya danava, the entire world including NASA is fascinated by it even today. India should be proud of the wealth of scientific knowledge it holds, but the few scholars of this knowledge which are alive today, they are not going to be around for long. They would carry all this knowledge with them when they leave the mortal plane, because sadly for such bright men, India has no system in place to earn them enough bread which could fulfil their appetite. Ignoring them means all our scientific and technological prowess is going to the bin. And the entire world….I know very well, put all your intelligence agencies behind me (I don't care), but I know that crores of Rupees are being offered to experts of ancient science of Indian agriculture to exploit their knowledge in the Western world while these same forces are pushing trash worthy modern agricultural concepts on us.

 Their corporate establishment knows very well that the techniques of modern agriculture they are bringing to India would make our people starve for even a grain of food. These forces are buying out Vedic methods of farming from the inside. All this means that India is in an unconscious and blind state right now. If any sense of consciousness still prevails in this country, then we can still march forward provided we design our academic curriculum and textbooks as per Vedic design and then we could emerge as a boon for the entire world.