Why Hinduism is Scientific

This write up will discuss two points how Hinduism is scientific and how even if something wrong written doesn’t actually matter.

Before we start let us discussing how Hinduism is scientific, let us look at aspects which makes something scientific in nature.

1. Verifiability: Whatever you claim has to be verifiable by everyone.

2. Universality: Your claim has been universal in nature, what this means is that it should be applicable in all scenarios under all circumstances.

3. Repeatability: It should be repetitive in nature.

4. Falsifiability- This is very important in science today and it states that your principle should be open for everyone to try and prove it wrong or improve it.

Let us start looking at each of these points. We will start with the last and most important point which is falsifiability. This aspect is available only in Hinduism. In Abrahamic religions be it Christianity or Jews or Islam it is simply not possible to have debates. Islam used to have debates during the time of Ahmadias which later became one separate sect but later on it is not permitted to have debate over any topic. Debate is simply not allowed. Word of god or what is written in the book is final judgement.

But does Hinduism allow debate?

Let us look at shloka from Rigveda (oldest scripture ever written)-

Nasadiya Sukta

“Then even non-existence was not there, nor existence,
There was no air then, nor the space beyond it.
What covered it? Where was it? In whose keeping?
Was there then cosmic fluid, in depths unfathomed?”

Just look at the beauty of the questions asked here. Aren’t these the questions that we are asking while talking about theory of everything? When modern scientists are trying to understand big bang, aren’t these the question that they are pondering upon?

Let us look at one from shloka from Rigveda only which is as follow:

“Who knows whence this creation had its origin?
He, whether He fashioned it or whether He did not,
He, who surveys it all from the highest heaven,
He knows — or maybe even He does not know.”

The beauty of this Sukta is that it is asking the question whether the creator was before the creation or whether the creator was after the creation. What this tells us is that there is no concept of blasphemy in Hinduism. Hence, you are safe to ask the question. Are we creation of god or we created god? In fact, in Hinduism we say that the gods themselves are later than creation.

Now just contrast this with Abrahamic religion where the god or supreme is in the limit of the intellect. Allahu Akbar which means Allah is greatest simply means that god or supreme is in the limits of the intellect.

Next logical question that should arise is that why falsifiability is so important?

The reason is simply let us take example of newton’s law which were reversed. Newton’s concept of time was that time is super linear. What this means is that it will start at t=0 and at some t=T it will end. Later on, Einstein changed it and proved that time can have curve or loop. Basically, what he meant was that the time is cyclical in nature, i.e., time is cyclical. So, if something is wrong you challenge it and change it to what is right. This gives answer to the second part of the question that whether we can change what is written in the scriptures if we can prove that they are not right.

Speaking of time concept becomes important because this is the reason why there is no doomsday in Hinduism. We don’t talk about doomsday we talk about eternal cycle of destruction and reconstruction. In fact, we have god of destruction. If we look closely than that is not even destruction but constructive destruction. Explanation- when a leaf dries it will fall down and will become manure this is natural course of life.

What this does is that it gives a being to be fearless of a supreme being. Since there is no eternality and everything is cyclical you don’t have fear from a supreme being. Everything that you do and outcome of it the onus will fall on you. Hence, Hinduism is description rather than prescription. In Gita lord Krishna says to Arjuna in 18.63 (last chapter) the following shloka-

“I have told you that you should need to know, now think about it, and do as you wish.”

Now the Arjuna has the choice of whether he would want to go into war or not it is not like that he has commended him that he should go to war. This is ultimate of level of freedom wherein you are free to choose your course of action. It just so happens that Arjuna went to war, it was his choice. Isn’t freedom to do what we like follow what we like is of paramount importance in current situation, the world that we are living in, isn’t this the point for which we keep on fighting for, just imagine a philosophy that is giving you the choice to not follow what is being said by someone having a very high status in the scriptures, Krishna was manifestation of Narayana himself. Now for a moment contrast this with philosophy of Abrahamic religion, can any one dare to make a choice which is against of what is prescribed by Prophet Mohammad or in Christianity can someone go against the word of god? Therefore, Hinduism gives a right to everyone to choose whatever they want to choose.

When in philosophy the universe is going around in time what it means is that manifest being will also move around and will have opportunities to escape the cycle. That is the concept of Moksha in Hinduism. Which means to become one with god or supreme or as it is generally said that Atma ka Parmatma or Brahman se milan that is to unite the soul with the supreme. While on the other hand, the last judgement day concept will arise only when time is not cyclical but linear. This in turn give result to eternal after life which is why there is fear. Now this cyclical nature of time is the reason why we also call this philosophy as Sanatan which essentially means eternal. And one more application of this concept is Karma principle only when concept of time is cyclical.

But does Hinduism allow to go beyond what is written in the scriptures?

In Gita 2.46 following shloka is mentioned-

“All purposes that are served by the small pond can at once be served by the great reservoirs of water. Similarly, all the purposes of the Vedas can be served to one who knows the purpose behind them.”

Here Lord Krishna is telling Arjuna that you need not to follow what I have said or what is written in the scriptures whatever you feel is right on the basis of experiences that you have had, you are free to choose them, you don’t even need Vedas for it. What this means is that if you have experienced something than you don’t even need Vedas. Just contrast this with someone in Abrahamic religion saying that you don’t need Quran in Islam or that Bible is not necessary in Christianity. And more interesting point is that in Hinduism there is concept of proof in which there are 6 proofs that are mentioned in hierarchical order and what is written in book is given last priority that is priority number six. Contrast this with Abrahamic religion wherein word of god or what is written in book is full and final.

Therefore, we can claim that Hinduism is a religion which allows one to have falsifiability.

Now let us look at universality. In Hinduism Atma or soul is all pervasive. In Gita there it is written in one of the shlokas that Vyaptesu Bhuteshu Akhileshu Cha Atmanah- what it means is that the super being is present in each and everything. Even in a pole, rock, animal and everything. Adi Shankracharya’s famous incidence with a Chandal wherein Chandal says that the source of soul is same for both you and me which is followed by five stanza commentary from Adi Shankracharya in which he explains how everything has come from one. And this proves that Hinduism has universality in its nature. One consciousness in all is the same. Hence, you need to have any fear of god or supreme book or anything. In fact, in Abrahamic religions the divine is outside the cosmos. God sits outside the cosmos that you can not question anything that is said to be said by the god himself. Also, whatever concepts are written in scriptures will be true for all scenarios and under all circumstances, and the beauty of Hinduism is in the very fact that if something that is not universal and if it can be proven that something is not universal in nature it can be changed by using the concept of proof. w

Coming to verifiability the ability to have debates about something that one disagrees upon gives the opportunity to Hinduism to be verifiable in nature. Also, nearly all the concepts that have been written in scriptures of Hinduism are either proved scientifically or they are yet to be proven. Just to give an example, Ashwin tara a couple of stars is only one pair in which both the pairs revolve around each other, apart from them in every other pair one is stationary and the other one revolves around it. This is proven in around 2008, just take a moment and think how they have identified that one pair from billions of stars out there. If we talk about the creation in that case Hinduism has open ended questions while in Abrahamic religion like Christianity, they have said that god created universe in seven days. And in creation process written in bible plants and animals came first and sun came later which is essentially unscientific. And this discussion can go on forever in which I can take various example showing the scientific acumen of the people who have written the scriptures but like various other things this also does not matter reason being that if something which is not right, an individual has the power to change it as it can be changed and it will be will be changed in a long run.

Reason why one should read this write up- No where in the whole write up, I have talked about any religion all I was talking about was the philosophy underlying the religion. You can believe in whatever you want to believe. But this write up will give you an opportunity to scrutinize the philosophy that you are following as to whether it is scientific in nature or not. It will force you to ask the question whether you are free and responsible for the choices you make or not, whether you have the power to challenge what is written in scriptures of the philosophy that you are following.

Mindmap

This mind map will help an individual to judge whether a given philosophy is scientific in nature or not.

Philosophy that you follow-

Is it verifiable?

If no — it is not scientific.

If yes, does it have universality?

If no — it is not scientific.

If yes, does it have repeatability?

If no — it is not scientific.

If yes, does it have falsifiability?

If no — it is not scientific.

If yes, does it allow you to have debates?

If no — it is not scientific.

If yes, does it allow you to have freedom of choices?

If no — it is not scientific.

If yes, your philosophy is scientific in nature.