Vedic science
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Vedic science is what some call the recent attempts to systematize ancient, pre-scientific thought found in early Indian scriptures, especially the Vedas. Some find these writings to anticipate Western science. Others see them as a pseudoscience promulgated by right-wing Hindutva (Hindu nationalist) politicians.
Adherents to Vedic science describe it as the science of self (atmavidya). Veda means knowledge and Vedic science asserts that there are four kinds of it: lower or outer, and higher or inner. Further, the Vedic system asserts that one needs traditional modes of reasoning to obtain outer knowledge. But to obtain inner knowledge, special study, discipline and practice is recommended.
Vedic science claims that there is a connection between the outer and the inner and this connection manifests itself in our awareness. Vedic science is another name for the science of consciousness. It also claims that such a science cannot be like any standard science, since it deals with the experiencing subject and not objects.
External links
- Greek and Indian Cosmology: Review of Early History (http://uk.arxiv.org/abs/physics/0303001) Comparison between Indian and Greek science. (Not actually an endorsement of "Vedic science", but an interesting academic paper in the Cornell University Library comparing and contrasting the ancient Vedic and Ptolomeic world views, and exploring their influences on modern, western science.)
- "Postmodernism, Hindu nationalism and `Vedic science' " Part 1 (http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2026/stories/20040102000607800.htm)-Part 2 (http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2101/stories/20040116001408700.htm) : An essay (in two parts) by Meera Nanda regarding "The mixing up of the mythos of the Vedas with the logos of science must be of great concern not just to the scientific community, but also to the religious people, for it is a distortion of both science and spirituality."
- "Calling India's freethinkers" (http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/thscrip/print.pl?file=2004052201691000.htm&date=2004/05/22/&prd=th&): An opinion piece by Meera Nanda that calls for secular "free thinkers" to "bring what we know about the natural world through science to bear upon the cosmological assumptions of such 'Vedic sciences' as astrology, vaastu, Ayurveda, yagnas, Vedic creationism, 'consciousness studies' and the like. Indian secularists must sow seeds of doubt in the popular imagination about these 'sciences' so that the masses reject the worldview of Hindutva on rational grounds."