Are the Scriptures (Vedas) Scientific?

Scientific Enquiry

Till recently, people accepted the Vedas, ritualistic and followed a religious lifestyle. But today religious lifestyle faces a threat in the form of scientific inquiry. People with inquiring minds want a scientific explanation for religious activities and practices – even the existence of God.

People question any and every religious practice and, in the absence of convincing scientific and logical explanations, consider performance of religious activities such as rituals, to be blind belief. A superstitious person is considered inferior to a rational or scientifically oriented person.

This has become such a big issue that people well-versed in the scriptures (Vedas), including religious leaders, have started offering “scientific explanations” for various religious practices. For example, while performing Rudra abhishekam on Sivarathri, why do we offer 11 dravyams (materials), why not 10 or 12? What is the significance of 11? Invariably some religious leader offers an explanation.

A Major Mistake

We must understand and realize that in trying to give scientific explanations for religion, scriptures, rituals and God, we are making a major fundamental mistake.

Why this is a mistake? The scriptures say so. We should understand that we should not give scientific explanations to the contents of the scriptures.

When a subject matter is introduced, the scriptures make a fundamental statement that is usually either not noticed or is ignored by most people. The scriptures say many aspects of religion are beyond scientific explanations or scrutiny.

Then, Why Accept it?

Why must we accept the claim of the scriptures that there is something beyond science? In the past, scientists believed that anything and everything could be explained by science. But today scientists are discovering that there are fields which are not available for scientific investigation.

Creation of Universe

An example is the creation of the inverse. How did it all begin? Not only can science not answer this question, but scientists also say that science could not even approach this issue. Great scientists such as Newton, Max Planck, Einstein and Stephen Hawking (an atheist) say there are certain areas which were found to have religious implications beyond the scope of science.

Is It a Blind Belief?

Again the question arises: why must we accept that which is beyond science, which cannot be scientifically proved or verified? If science cannot prove the scriptures, will not our acceptance of the scriptures become blind belief? And, if we take to blind belief, will we not become unscientific and irrational persons?

New Source of Knowledge

We have five sense organs – ear(sound), skin(touch), eyes(vision), nose(smell) and taste(tongue). Each sense organ can function only in its field and is therefore, an exclusive and limited source of knowledge. The ear cannot sense “colour” or the nose cannot sense any “sound”. So one sense organ cannot verify (or disprove) what is revealed by the other sense organs.

Now consider a blind person. Throughout his life, he has lived with only four sense organs. When he is told about colour, he says “I cannot accept colour unless I can verify with my (four) sense organs! At best I will accept colour only as a BELIEF and not as a fact. I will accept something as fact only if I can verify with my (four) sense organs!”

But we know that colour can be never be proved or disproved by the four sense organs other than the eye. We have lived with five sense organs. And science has lived only with sensory data. The scriptures point out that other than sensory data, we have a new source of knowledge – the scriptures themselves!

The scriptures may be considered the sixth sense organ that reveals facts not provable or disprovable by the sense organs or sense organ – based science. If we use the five sense organs – loukika (worldly) chakshu (eye) – we get knowledge pertaining to the fields of the sense. If we use the “sixth sense organ” – shastra (scriptural) chakshu (eye) – we gain the knowledge pertaining to a totally new and different field.

Drop Scientific Approach

What the scriptures reveal is a fact and not a matter of belief. We accept it as knowledge without verification from sense organs or sense-organ-based science. The scriptures are not scientific; they are not designed by science or proved by science. So, we drop the scientific approach to prove or disprove the scriptures.

Scriptures are neither logical nor illogical but trans-logical. The scriptures are neither scientific nor unscientific but trans-scientific.

What do the scriptures reveal? They reveal God! The scriptures say God is beyond science. So, science can neither prove nor disprove God. The scriptures are the ONLY source of knowledge of God.

For worldly and materialistic living we do need science. But for religion and God we turn to the scriptures! One should remember that man is just not a bundle matter but is a combination of material + spirit.