Vedic Physics

The present volume on Vedic Physics by Keshav Dev Verma is indeed a unique attempt to interpret ancient Indian literature by defining various symbols, concepts and terminology occurring in Vedic hymns and other texts. While accepting Maharsi Dayananda's view that Vedas are the repository of all true sciences, the author does examine this statement with a view to test it on the hard rock of truth.

Shri Verma has selected the Sankhya-Patanjala system that explains the physical world (Universe) on the basis of Cosmic evolution; the Vaisesika-Nyaya expounds the methodology and elaborates on the concepts of physics, chemistry and mechanics. Shri Verma has very systematically tried to interpret the Sankhya aphorisms and concludes that the ultimate ground to which the manifested world can be traced is Prakrti having three attributes-Sattva (existence), energy at rest or Rajas (energy that which is efficient in a phenomenon and is characterised by a tendency to move and overcome any resistance) and Tamas (mass or inertia) which resists the Rajas to do work and also resists Sattva from conscious manifestation.

Review(s)

• This work will certainly inspire other serious-minded scholars to undertake further research on this count and provide a deeper understanding of 'Atom' and the 'Universe'. I congratulate Sri Verma for producing this book.-Murli Manohar Joshi, in his Foreword
• K. D. Verma has demystified the Vedic hymns by decoding the symbols, technical terms and concepts, thereby many of the mute problems, some fundamental issues in Indian scientific tradition in general and in particular mathematics, astronomy, physics, material and life sciences, ...This being highly commendable, puts him in the list of illustrious predecessors.-Dr.S.N. Bhavsar, in his Introduction
• This book leaves undeniable marks and impressions that linger and recycle in the mind suggesting that there is something unique and novel that needs to be pursued. ...It compels one to continue to think.-Dr.B.D. Kulkarni, Director, National Chemical Laboratory, Pune
• This is a bold and brave book that will evoke and provoke both modern scientists as well as researchers of ancient Shastras to test their models in the light of the Vedic model which the author believes is the only valid and irrefutable model of reality.-Dr.Vijay Bhatkar, Renowned Computer Scientist, Pune

Although difficult to comprehend at first reading, both to the people in the East and West trained in the modern methods of learning, this book leaves indelible marks and impressions that linger and recycle in the mind suggesting that there is something unique and novel that needs to be pursued. The book lays down an alternative original framework and template for enquiry of the human mind. The framework is generic and based on the Sankhya philosophy and school of thought. It elaborates on the fundamental notions such as (Prakriti, Nlahat, Ahankar, Rita and Satya, Bramha and Prajapatis, the universe creation, sphota, tanmatras, panch mahabhutas, purush, yagna, kala, pralaya etc) and endeavours sometimes unnecessarily labour to link them to what we built now in modern physics. In its own right, the framework is sufficiently exciting to be pursued to an eventful conclusion. The framework is far more than encompassing physics alone. Modern physics, as we understand it, deals with matter, at all locations, and in all its aspects including its state, composition, characterization, properties such as magnetic, electric etc, energy states levels and forms, evolution and transformation, motion and dynamics interactions and force fields and so on so forth. The basic settings, as assumed and occasionally verified, allow for sometimes building exacting relationships between cause and effect, while for some others the relationships are at best approximate and for yet others the situations could even be paradoxical. The conventional approach understands this as events occur at all possible length and time scales and according to their importance contributes to the net outcome. Integrating the chain of such events together spanning a range of scales as wide as 10-12 to 1012 has always been a problem. The curse of dimensionality and the presence of nonlinearity may as well be the creation of our own basic premises and perception.

The question is: Can the alternative approach propounded here pave the way? If so – how does one quantify the causal relation and predictability? Shri. K.D. Verma, the author, has laid down the foundations using unobstructed and free-flowing language. I am sure this will excite the nascent minds to take it further. The type set is free of trivial errors and the book – even, if not understood clearly by all uninitiated persons like me, is certainly a pleasure to read. It compels one to continue to think.

Said al—Andalusi, a noted Arab scholar, stated that "India is the first nation to have cultivated science" and praising Indians for their knowledge further says, "India is known for the wisdom of its people. Over many centuries, all the kings of the past have recognized the ability of the Indians in all branches of knowledge. Referring to theology he writes, "Some of them (Indian people) believe in the creation of the world, while others believe in its eternity...the majority of the Indians believe in the eternity of the world because it is created by the creator of the creators." As regards the cosmology of Indians Andalusi remarks "...(they) say that all the seven planets and their apogees and perigees meet in the head of Aries once every four thousand thousand thousand years and three hundred thousand thousand years and twenty thousand thousand solar years. They call this cycle the ‘period of the universe’ because they believe that when all the planets meet in the head of the Aries everything found on Earth will perish, leaving the lower universe in a state of destruction for a very long time until the planets and their apogees and perigees disperse back to their zodiacs (constellations). When this takes place the world returns to its original state. The cycle repeats itself indefinitely." (Book of the Category of Notions by Said al-Andalusi — ed. by Sema an I. Salem and Alok Kumar, the University of Texas Press, Austin, Texas, 1991)

It appears that some aspects of Indian cosmology, particularly the cyclic nature of creation and annihilation, had travelled to the Arab scholars and probably through their writings to the European world. But Indians had a much deeper insight and an equally strong system of correlation of cause and effect in interpreting natural phenomena. The scientific perceptions of ancient Indian genius are reflected in concepts regarding the ultimate structure of matter, which were first propounded by the Indians. The evolution of elements which are the building blocks for forming diverse compounds has been discussed in various schools of philosophy in India. Ancient Indians had a fairly good understanding of measuring and mapping, investigating the course of heavenly bodies, agricultural techniques and of analyzing the constitution of matter. The sources of various scientific perceptions are traced to Rgveda. One is simply wonderstruck to find in certain hymns a searching enquiry into the creation of the world. The song of creation is described in the 129th Sukta of the 10 “Book of Rgveda which says:

Then was not non—existent nor existent;
There was no realm of air, no sky beyond it.
What covered in, and where? and what gave shelter?
Was water there, an unfathomed depth of water?

One, who goes through the book, is sure to exclaim, Remarkable! Marvellous! notwithstanding an apparently polar tradition of the Vedas and modern science, the subject of the book is undoubtedly remarkable and wonderfully dealt with. Rarely indeed one comes across such a grand exposition of the Vedas, of Indian scientific and philosophic traditions in the light of modern science, that reflects the comprehensive grip over both the disciplines, singly and jointly, on the part of the author. The natural outcome is a step ahead towards cherished Grand Unification Theories (GUT) like that of Quantum Field Theory due to clues and insight, especially from Vedic tradition. It also is an attempt of uniting the East and the West which are also diametrically opposite to each other. But at the deep, fundamental level or at the top transcendental level, we see that this opposition gets dissolved or gets evaporated. However, these two extremes may appear to be two poles apart like the two faces of the Greeko-Roman divinity Janus or the Vedic twin divinities of Asvini Kumaras, the Physicians of Gods.

The Vedas stand for self-revelation, cosmic revelation, self-realization and cosmic realization - an inner journey towards the Reality, the Truth. Modern science follows an external journey towards the same. The Vedas, however, are subjective, experiential, continuous, analogous, qualitative, supra-sensory and supra-rational yet direct the field of Spiritual Energy. Science is materialistic, and objective, . experimental, digital, logical, and rational with its source in axioms, postulates, basic principles and laws of Nature - the field of Matter and Energy.

The knowledge gained by Vedic seers is called Yogaja-pratyaksa, and that of scientists is called Indriya pratyaksa, i.e., both are direct perceptions (pratyaksa = directly through eyes, i.e., sense faculty in general), but belong to different orders. One is a sudden explosion and the other is a step-by-step exposition. The one implies the other, the personal and impersonal aspects of the same reality. Both could mutually conform or confirm; the unification or integration of both would be the cherished height of the human profile.

The Sankhya, on the other hand, is the bridge in the Indian context between Vedic or Yogic perception, and scientific traditions as well, and also between Eastern and Western epistemologies. It has its source and base in the principle of duality, primarily binary, numerical (sankhya = number, while Sankhya as a school implies proper expression which is quantitative and numerical as well) knowledge representation.

The major thrust of modern science, not to exclude the classical and pre-classical one, is the theory of the creation of the universe, its beginning (Big Bang), sustenance and dissolution (the big crunch) - the evolution. It addresses inter alia, the four natural forces, the world of matter and anti-matter, the microcosmic (Quantum mechanics), and the macro-cosmic (General Relativity) including space and time. The Vedas and Sankhya (i.e., Indian philosophical and scientific tradition as a whole, notwithstanding internal differences and distinctions) also centre around the same issue. However, evolution in the Indian context also anticipates involution (cyclicity). Sankhya, within its duality or binary algorithm, floats a total of twenty-five principles scheme, wherein Purusa (Cosmic person) is one, and the other is Prakrti (Creatrix) which contains twenty-four principles with eight major and sixteen secondaries, evolved out of these eight. As compared to Prakrti as One, Purusa is also One, but in the process of evolution. He inspires Prakrti to transform itself into a cosmic system. Prakrti comprises Mahat (lit. the Great One), Ahankara (individuality/ego), three gunas (qualities/ properties), five subtle elements principles (called panca tanmatras) like sound, touch, colour, taste, smell, five gross elements (panca- mahabhutas), which correspond to Akasa (ether), Air, Fire, Water and Earth, respectively to the former group. The present author includes some more concepts, principles or categories from Vedic lore like ritam (dynamic principle), Satyam (essential, existential principle), Brahma (Atom, the creation ten in number), yajna (cosmic sacrifice as well as the smallest version of it), kala (Time), pralaya (dissolution), mahat sphota (the Big Bang). In principle, this scheme covers implicitly the concepts, and the theories of Creation from pre-classical, classical and modem science as well.

In fact, as the title itself implies, there have been three major drives in this direction of interaction between ancient Indian cultural tradition and Western thought that goes back a few centuries starting from Europe. The first is that of a derogatory approach to condemn the Indian tradition in every respect, as against the Western, especially the modem materialistic one. The other is the positive one which discovers that there had been no antagonism between religion (church), philosophy and science (mind and matter, science and spirituality) conspicuously present in the West, but absent in Indian tradition. The third is the one that is due to the very rich and profound Vedic and Yogic heritage followed by philosophical and scientific tradition that tries to find out the clues and get insights from it, then to unify not only science in general, but the two most powerful, seemingly contradictory and competitive parallel theories of Quantum Mechanics and General Relativity, that have been desperately cherished and tried out by no fewer figures than Max Planck, Einstein, Niels Bohr, Schrodinger, Heisenberg, David Baum, not to speak of Abdus Salam, Penrose, Hawking etc. In India Swarm Dayananda Sarasvati was the first powerful person followed by Swami Vivekananda, then by Maharsi Aurobindo, equally powerful figures, attested by their works, available in print. The second and the third drives also were addressed by them. Their lives and activities were examples of this spirit of unification. The second and the third drive is found reflected in the works of the Indologists in the West, and numerous other Western scholars, researchers and scientists during the last few' decades. Such prominent works are; Tao of Physics, The Dancing Wu Lie Masters, Physics as Metaphor, Brahman is Equal to Me, etc. Therein, an attempt has been made to see parallels between ancient Indian tradition (Vedic/Buddhist/ Jain), philosophical, scientific and others, and Western tradition, both religious and scientific. Sincere effort is made therein to get some light, some glimpses, some breakthroughs to overcome the antagonism between science and religion, spirituality and materialism, matter and consciousness, and at the end, a royal road to unify, integrate the Quantum Mechanics and General Relativity. A number of Indian scholars too have started treading on this path.

In the post-Independence era, there have been many strides in this direction, the most powerful of which has been that of Maharsi Mahesh Yogi and his team of scientists, Swami Ranganathananda of Ramakrishna Mission, Swami Satyaprakasha, Bhagavaddatta, ISKCON group and recently Prajapita Bramha Kumari Group. For Shri Keshav Dev Verma the source of inspiration is Maharsi Dayananda Sarasvati, who stood against the committed serious attempts to deride Veda undertaken by a few Western scholars and those Indologists who followed them blindly. His lineage was continued by some of his followers. With this zeal and inspiration, keeping pace with those who are engaged in Grand Unification, has come this work. Shri Verma's mission, all this, is the result of his last thirty-five years' efforts.

Modern science actually begins with Galileo, Copernicus and Kepler, grows with Newton, matures, transcends and reaches height with Max Planck, Einstein, Niels Bohr, Schrodinger, Heisenberg and others. Historically from Newton onwards, Nature, the Reality, were encapsulated in formulae, equations, and derivations, and were thus brought down on the slate and pencil, subject to various transformations in the hands of the scientists.

Till then Indian scientific tradition, that followed the Vedas, was ahead in almost every field, the world over, and the Vedas did reflect definitely the then sciences and scientific tradition. There are some problems, however, that are posed while understanding and translating them due rather to their being very much ancient, couched in a most ancient version of Sanskrit, loss of continuity and communication, the very cryptic, mystic and codified form of Vedic lore itself. For those who are not initiated into it, nor exposed to the tradition, this is very much the truth. In the case of modern science, excepting those who are not directly in it, a similar is the case.

Science accepts an observer, a witness, albeit outside the lab, outside the office, the realm of science, built up by him only. Neither can it locate him nor can accept a priori, as India did long back in the past by positive and negative (anvaya and vyatireka siddhi) epistemological deliberations as consciousness, the very property of the soul, that is concomitant with existence and bliss. That is the true nature of the soul. It turns out to be the self, the soul. The Quantum Mechanics, notwithstanding this, has let it enter inside its kernel, as something more than the observer, the participant, the very component of the experiment. Sankhya following Vedas accepted Prakrti (the Supreme Creatrix) as the material cause, and Purusa, (the Supreme Person) as the efficient cause of the universe, thereby forming the link, the bridge between Vedas, Indian scientific tradition, as well as modem science in general.

K.D. Verma has demystified the Vedic hymns by decoding the symbols, technical terms and concepts, thereby many of the mute problems, some fundamental issues in Indian scientific tradition in general and in particular mathematics, astronomy, physics, material and life sciences, have been resolved, interpreted properly, and this is the most positive contribution of the present author. Many other occult, esoteric, enigmatic, obscure ideas, concepts and terms in Indian culture have been made intelligible, meaningful, significant, relevant, and even scientific by the author for the first time, so lucidly. This being highly commendable, puts him on the list of illustrious predecessors.

With this background, one can appreciate the author's venture, when he retrospectively interprets Vedic and Sankhya traditions in the light of modem science. Contextually he then envisages five basic principles (panca tattvas or panca tanmatras) associated further with their respective evolutes, the five gross, structural elements (called panca mahabhutas), sound and ether, touch and air, form and fire, taste and water, smell and earth (sabda-akasa, sparsa-vayu. rupa-tejas, rasa- jala, gandha-prthivi) inclusive not exclusive. They address themselves by their permutations and combinations at various levels. To the author the first group satisfies the Quantum state, the microcosm, and the other satisfies the General Relativity state, the macrocosm. This is simply a stupendous exposition in the book.

His exposition of prakrti (the material cause)- the field of matter, and of Purusa (the efficient cause)- the field of consciousness, the witness (the observer), the brahma, the atom, the symbol of the smallest and biggest form of Reality, that of Prajapati (ten in number) of the Vedic pantheon, is superb. Equally illuminating is the exposition of rtam, satyam, the dynamic and static, kinetic and potential character of the Creation, the Reality, and is no less provoking. Similarly, the interpretation of the cluster of stars, Saptarsis with their female counterparts in terms of matter and anti-matter world (the phenomena of positive and negative sub-elementary particles) is very much revealing. No less interesting is the explanation of yajna (the sacrificial institution), of kala (time, the comprehensive one ), mahat-sphota (vis-à-vis Big Bang) and of pralaya (final dissolution-the Big Crunch).

The most salient feat of this exposition and interpretation is that he has thrown a new light, the unprecedented one, on those and other vital ancient Indian issues which, at the same time, support, complement or confirm the modern scientific discoveries and also advance the endeavours of the scientists’ communities, at their initial (the fundamental) and at the top (the metaphysical/philosophical levels) not certainly at the middle (the objective) rational, the field proper and unique to modern science, wherein both, at lower and upper levels we find limits and scopes, of the ancient and modern physical (science) and metaphysical (the philosophical) tenets of the Western and the Eastern traditions (i.e., the expression of the unity and the diversity principle).

The most outstanding outcome of the work by Shri Verma is the Vedic model, the Vedic calendar, expressed in mathematical terms formulated as an equation, that is at Quantum Mechanics and General Relativity and their unity. It is a Unified Algorithm and Unified Equation. For scientists, Indologists and researchers, the book would be a source of great inspiration.