- This topic has 4 replies, 2 voices, and was last updated 4 months, 2 weeks ago by
.
-
Posts
-
Hello Sir
The way to expand the frontier of knowledge in modern academia is based on mental speculation. Researchers try to search for the right solutions by starting from a certain point, discarding branches based on certain assumptions (such as physicalism for eg.,) and many researchers traverse the rest of the branches to find a solution that works.
To develop a new weapon today for eg., we use computers to run simulations over a large space of designs and select one which optimally satisifies our requirements. The programmer does something similar (mentally searching for best program design) while writing the simulator itself.
But from our mythological stories, we hear of heroes undergoing austerities or worshipping demigods to acquire new knowledge/skills/weapons.
What is the Vedic way to expand the frontiers of knowledge?
But from our mythological stories, we hear of heroes undergoing austerities or worshipping demigods to acquire new knowledge/skills/weapons.
The problem is not limited to others, is it? You are using the term “mythological” which means “the study of false ideas”. The correct word is śāstra, which means a treatise. And related to it is the word śastra, which means weapon. You would have heard the saying “the pen is mightier than the sword”. So, śastra is the pen, and śāstra is the output of the pen. The pen is also a sword or śastra. This is why the pen is also worshipped as an āyudha before Deepawali. The Brahmana worship the pen and the Kshatriya worship the sword. Both pen and sword are instruments or āyudha. Both can be used to fight a war, and both can be used to establish peace. The distinction between pen and sword exists in Western thinking. But for us, they are both instruments. A treatise is the output of a pen.
One principle in Sanskrit is that something is coming out of something else when the big-A (ā) is used. Just like if you open your mouth wide, and say āāāāāā then something is coming out whole-heartedly and continuously. It is not constrained, like in uuuuu or in eeeee. It is not for a short while like in “a”. It is not modified into various other forms as in the case of other alphabets. It is a plain and simple whole-hearted expression. Similarly, śastra is the instrument and śāstra is the output of the instrument, open fully and whole-heartedly, and not constrained or modified by it.
Similarly, āyudha is the output of ayudha which means “non-war”. What is non-war? That which has no internal contradictions. It is self-consistent, self-satisfied, and self-sufficient. The original person who is like that is Balarāma, which means He has all the power, and He enjoys the simple fact of being that all-powerful. But that power is self-satisfied. It is not waging war on others due to internal contradictions. It is not trying to prove its superiority over others. Hence, the power is ayudha. And that self-satisfied and internally consistent power produces āyudha as instruments that are used only when there is a need to create more internal consistency and self-satisfaction. So, all instruments, whether they be pens or swords, are meant to bring peace and consistency. War is waged only to bring peace, destroy contradictions, and establish the self-consistent truth.
When śāstra is embraced whole-heartedly, without any modification, without ulterior motives, and without cessation, then we become the śastra that can produce even more śāstra. That is, we become the pen that can produce more truth. This is the science of accepting śāstra, then becoming śastra, and then producing more śāstra. Thereby, śāstra expands into more śāstra through some śastra, namely, an instrumental person who accepts the śāstra whole-heartedly, without modification, and ulterior motives. That purification of the person by accepting śāstra is a precondition to expansion. Otherwise, those who misuse śāstra by taking something, modifying it, or using it for ulterior motives other than the purpose of śāstra, may get some temporary success but it is also very limited. After some time, they exhaust their capacity to expand the śāstra into even more śāstra. And whatever was previously expanded as “śāstra” dies because it is falsified either by other lies or by truths.
Vedic texts are not “mythologies”. A mythology was created in the West to deceive people, tell them an embellished story of their origins, talk about various gods that had many bad qualities of the humans that worshipped them, to make humans think that gods were merely powerful men. Thereby, a king was a god on earth, because despite his numerous bad qualities he was powerful. The god in heaven also had many bad qualities like jealousy, retribution, entitlement, etc. But he was god because he had power. Being a god did not mean having good qualities. It was simply the acquisition of power. For over 2000 years, this false dogma has been repeated over and over in the West. They tell a false story that you become a god if you acquire power, without getting good qualities.
The Vedic texts instead teach that you have to acquire good qualities of tolerance, patience, austerity, sacrifice, truthfulness, generosity, duty, respect, and love. The more good qualities you acquire, the more powerful you are. Power is a corollary of good qualities. Power is not an end in itself. Power is given to those with good qualities so that they can love and serve others to develop good qualities. Power is not for subjugating and ruling over others. It is for protecting them from bad qualities.
Those who cannot understand this difference between Vedic texts and mythologies, or want to deliberately confuse the two, equate Vedic texts with mythologies. Obfuscation and false equivalence are used as a śastra to denigrate the śāstra. But the truth is always more powerful than the lie. Therefore, you can defeat the śastra of lies with the weapons of śāstra or truthful treatises. If one lie dies, the next one will be born, because the lies are germinating from other lies. They are like weeds growing in a field of crops. It is not easy to kill weeds. We have to persist, and it takes a long time to kill all the weeds. If we rush, by pouring some pesticide, then we may kill some weeds but we will also poison the crop. Some weeds even look like the crop. But we have to use the śāstra to understand what is a weed and what is a crop. Then we can uproot the weeds using the śastra of śāstra.
What is the Vedic way to expand the frontiers of knowledge?
By planting the tree of śāstra in the ground of your heart. When the tree is planted, it makes the ground more fertile, rich, and wet. Then the fertility and wetness of the ground make the tree grow automatically. The growth of the tree is the expansion of the śāstra. It produces more leaves and fruits, which then produce more seeds, which are then planted in other hearts and they make those hearts fertile, rich, and wet, and so the process keeps going until a single tree becomes an entire forest of trees. Each person is one ground with one tree, and other persons are other grounds with other trees. And collectively, all these persons together become a forest. And this forest of trees sustains all trees within it by enriching all the grounds to make all the trees grow faster.
Then there is also rain from above. They are provided automatically when the śāstra is used in Lord’s service. That Lord’s service is the purpose of śāstra. Knowledge is not for control, domination, exploitation, and selfishness. It is for Lord’s service. It was given by the Lord so that we can serve Him appropriately. Therefore, if the knowledge is used for selfish purposes, then the tree doesn’t get rain from above. It dries up and then dies quickly. However, the tree grows rapidly when the śāstra is used in Lord’s service due to rain from above. Therefore, the first step is to plant the śāstra in the heart and use it in Lord’s service. When that is done, the tree automatically grows by rain falling upon it.
Many thanks for your response Sir. I apologize for using the word mythology. I didn’t intend the meaning of a false story.
It seems the bar to cross to even start is very high! Can we only start after our motivations have been perfectly rid of all selfishness?
Also, in the last section of this blog post, you describe how a modern gurukula system could look like. You mention that we’ll study the same fields as we do today but using a different conceptual framework. But will the process of research in these fields (say finding ways to treat cancer) be methodologically similar to the current way research is done using trial and error (but in the vedic conceptual framework) or will it look different?
It seems the bar to cross to even start is very high! Can we only start after our motivations have been perfectly rid of all selfishness?
We treat Saraswati as our mother and we serve the mother. When we serve the mother, then the mother gives us much more. You approach your mother with pure intentions, not with the intention of exploiting her. Exploitation of the mother is a demoniac conception. When we get such an idea, then we cannot find the mother.
But will the process of research in these fields (say finding ways to treat cancer) be methodologically similar to the current way research is done using trial and error (but in the vedic conceptual framework) or will it look different?
Knowledge reveals herself when your intentions are pure. Hence, knowledge is called darshan. It is a vision obtained by revelation. There is no “research” in the sense of trial and error. That trial and error are for trying to grab the truth by force. But you don’t get the truth like that. In the trial and error method, you will get false positives and false negatives. It may be due to instrument error, unaccounted variables, or changes in test conditions you are unaware of. Then you will interpret them with a false theory because you are eager to publish a paper and for getting accepted, you need to cite the papers of others or serve some other agenda. Otherwise, your paper will not be published. In this way, you will accumulate papers, but only you know their true worth. At the time of death, you will ask: What did I really achieve? And the answer will be “nothing”. Of course, you can tell everyone that you published many papers. But deep within, you know what you really did.
Thank you Sir. That makes a lot of sense. In fact it is very evident that all the so called research is taking people in the opposite direction toward atheism, materialism, nihilism and impersonalism instead of toward a personal and semantic undertanding as you have explicated.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.