It is wonderful to hear that the students are taking a lot of initiative .When the institution moves with an idea to bridge wherever it feels to have some gap - among people, among ideologies, among sciences, among cultures; it needs to be welcomed. That’s what is needed today.
Humanity as a whole is part of one divinity. When I say part, I don’t mean they are apart. Science and Spirituality or Humanity are not apart at all. It is all looking at the reality from various different angles. In the Upanishad it is said, “Avidhyayam mrutyum teerthava vidyayam mrutamashmeta”. It is two sides of the same coin. Avidhya, doesn’t mean ignorance, Avidhya means the knowledge of the relative, of THIS. The knowledge of THIS takes you away from death and knowledge of ME, of the self, gives you immortality. It’s like saying either one thing that darkness vanishes, or by saying the other thing that light comes in. It cannot happen one after the other, it is a simultaneous happening. Darkness comes when light goes ; and light comes when darkness goes. It is a simultaneous happening.
Same with Humanity and Science; The Science is there for human beings, and science is understood by humans, animals don’t understand the science. So in that sense Humanity cannot be the perceiver, the observer cannot be separated from the seen or the observed. Science is all about the observed, about the seen and Humanity is about the seer. And now let’s see what the seer consists of. The seer consists of all that is abstract. Love, Beauty, Peace, Joy, Intelligence. And the seen consists of all matter including our own physical body, physical existence. This understanding is because of ‘Vivek’, discrimination, the seen and the seer.
Then seeing that the seen and the seer are all part of one whole. “What is this?”- is Science and “Who am I?” - is Spirituality or, if you want to call it as Humanity, its the same. ( may be lighter and a softer word! ) Spirituality looks a little up in the air, Humanity looks a little down on the earth. But it matters the same. It means the same. But when we think they are separate even while trying to bridge them up also, you know, we will keep them separate. All that we need to know and notice is that there is a link or that they’re all the same. In our ancient scriptures they have “Padhartha Gyanadh Moksha” They didn’t insist you must believe in God. One of the Darshanas, Vysashika Darshanas said this – ‘ padhartha ….’ That is : even if you understand or know one tiny particle of this creation, you will be liberated. Because in that one tiny particle of creation the entire creation is reflected, is present there.
The more we know Science, the more we know that we know very little. It leads us to a place that I know very little about the creation. The mystery deepens. And the same happens when you try to ponder upon “Who am I?” The deeper you go, you find you are much vaster than what you thought you were. So this is the unending mystery in both sides, if you go within or out, the mystery of the ‘Self’ and the mystery of the creation. And it is a welcome idea to ponder more on this, bringing in the dialogue. This dialogue would help us to understand THIS and ME better. THIS meaning, which creates the world around us and ME is the depth that you are. Very nice !
It is said that Vyas, formed the Humanities. I would like to tell you a story. {Are you all here? Is everyone here? You know, usually when you keep listening to some talk there is a tendency for the attention to go away. We take several coffee breaks in between. Unofficial, mental coffee breaks !! So I want you to be here.}
Here is the story about Ved Vyas. The creator created the world and Vedas then Ved Vyas was asked to categorize them, make them into proper curriculum for the people to study and he agreed. Because Vedas are infinite.( Veda means the knowledge and it is infinite)-there is no beginning to it and there is no end to it , he was asked to categorize them. Then he was shown, where was the Vedas. They showed a huge mountain-bigger than Himalays. Ved Vyas asked how much he could take? He went and took handfuls of .. just handful of that mountain. And from that one handful of mountain he created all the Vedas. He categorized them all. The Vedas were already present, it was not created. But he took just handful from that mountain and what did he make? He made the four Vedas - The Rig Veda, ten thousand verses-written by many thousands of Rishis; ‘Yajur Veda’, ‘Sam Veda’ and ‘Athurva Veda’. And then he made four Upavedas - the Ayurveda -science of life, all about medicines, herbalogy ; Dhanurveda, Sthapasyaveda - diagrams ; and Gandharva Veda –about music, phonetics (the origin of music ).
From the four Vedas which are more like Pure Science or abstract, came four Upavedas which are more practical and applied science, for day to day life. And then the six Darshanas (even more applied science): Vaishaishika, Nyaya, Mimamsa, Sankhya, Yoga and Vedanta- these six applied sciences were derived from it. And then more humanities, more arts and science followed by the epics Ramayan and Mahabharat which have the cultural part or the heritage part .And then the Puranas. The word Purana indicates just the opposite what we think it means. In Hindi language also when we say purana we mean old. Purana in fact means “Puree Nava Ithi Purana”. That which is the new in the town is Purana. Pura means the town and nava means new. That which is new, the latest fashion is called purana. See, how over a time that has lost its whole meaning ( the meaning became different rotated by 180 degree !) So these aspects of humanity need to be brought into our awareness.
We need to be aware of our own selves, our body, our breath, our mind, how the mind works. In the gurukul as initiation ,the first thing a student was given was to make him realize Who you are and to get confidence in oneself . They called it ‘Brahmopadesh’. Brahmopadesh means what? The greatest advice, initiation. And what was said- You are not what you think you are. You are bigger than this whole universe. ‘Thou are that’ - you are that.! -That was the first knowledge imparted to a student before he could understand and study more. So increasing the capacity of a student to study more, to instill the confidence in him. the teacher would look into the eyes of the student and say, “Look, who do you think you are? You are not just somebody. You are more than that somebody you think you are. You have infinite possibilities , Potentiality in you. Wake up.
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