Scientific Brilliance in Ancient Tradition

Introduction

One of the false impressions that create a disbelief in the customs that are followed from the very old days is that the present day educated community is advanced in knowledge than our forefathers.

The perception of things not from the usual standpoint is always a speculation. For an instance, the earth revolves around the sun is a speculation for us and this is what is perceived from an inertial frame of reference inside the Milky-Way galaxy. The same might not be true as seen from outside of our galaxy which itself is in motion.

Before the world was introduced with the Special Theory of Relativity by Einstein, the educated community was unaware of the fact that the laws of science change relative to reference frames. The advent of this theory surprised them and shook the very basis of their understanding of behaviours of entities. One very simple inference out of this theory is that, things not only look different but they really behave different when perceived from different reference frames.

This dependency to the perspective of observation is very important. All our scriptures have recorded observations from our point of view which is the most relevant one. But this is now very easily taken to be accounting for the ignorance of our ancestors.

Moreover, Vedas and Upangas to them gave us a philosophy of life and the accessories that help living a meaningful life based on this philosophy. The sophistications that we enjoy now off the technologies cannot help for such a living, rather they would act against it.

With the blessings of the all pervading supreme Lord, I am intending to make a series of postings listing some references from the scriptures bringing out the scientific thought in them.

Dhaasan