Vedanta and Science 4

Why is then Vedanta, despite its extremely logical construction, an anathema with scientific world? The answer is not far to seek. Just as religions are characterized by dogmas, science also has its own dogma. That dogma prevents scientific world from acknowledging anything remotely connected with spirituality as scientific, even if it is perfectly logical and rational. Science inhabits in the realm of nature. Vedanta, asks us to transcend nature and go beyond. The perceptions are Vedanta are outside sensory perceptions while science deals purely with the world of senses, proofs and tangible evidences. Unless there is any evidence, science considers an explanation as a hypothesis, i.e. acceptable subjected to testing. Now the question is, can Vedantic assertions be ever tested.

The answer is a resounding Yes. Vedanta had been and tested and proved even though it is beyond the sense world. The Vedic Rishis, who were actually scientists, did not accept anything without tangible evidence. The forest was their laboratory, mother nature supplied their equipment and they would only accept something as fact when they realized it in the depth of the meditation. The same Truth was arrived at by various rishis at various points of time. It was not a one off attempt of a crackpot. It was not even an intellectual process. The abilities of the scholars and scientists today are limited by their intellect. They cannot go beyond intellectual reasoning. Rishis went far beyond intellect, in the realm of super consciousness, where mere reason cannot go. Realization is a deep subject, it is the discovery of  a pre existing natural law, just as Newton "discovered" the law of gravitation. Rishis did not theorize Vedantic formulas, they just rediscovered them and identified them as Natural Laws. Some among them were not even contented to define formulas but discovered various paths by which the formulas could be tested. The Yoga system of Pathanjali, the Ashtangik Marga of Lord Buddha, the Sermon on the Mount by Christ, the fourfold Yoga in Gita by Lord Krishna, are all practical ways to attain the same. The sages and the great teachers taught the ways by which the esoteric Vedantic knowledge can be proved. Indian ancient science was in perfect harmony with these teachings. But modern science still refuses to accept.

Another astounding feature of Vedanta is the the theory of evolution. As Swami Vivekananda lucidly explains in his Complete Works, Vedanta completes the theory of evolution by incorporating involution, defining the ultimate objective of evolution, and redefining the role of mother nature in the whole process. Involution and evolution are cycles. Just as a man is an evolved ape, an ape is an involved man. Pathanjali in Yogasutra describes evolution in a way which is not different from the explanation of science, but is far more advanced. Pathanjali said that just as a farmer inundates his field by river water, by opening the sluice gates of his mud wall and the water channel, so also the mother nature fills in the deficiency in creatures through evolution. Thus an ape evolves into a man in order to become more advanced, more perfect and the process of evolution is not merely struggle for existence and survival of the fittest, but a march of beings towards perfection.