(Image Courtesy : www.space.com)
Yesterday Chandrayaan (Moon Vehicle in Sanskrit), successfully sent a probe to the moon with the Indian tricolor painted on all sides making it the 5th country to have a presence on the moon. The world has received this with a mixture of admiration, support, suspicion and downright derision. Nevertheless this represents a proud moment for all Indians - a country of 1 billion plus representing a sixth of humanity and the world's oldest civilization.
I read several articles on this great event leading from the launch all the way to the probe's impact on the Moon's surface but a couple of them touched me more than others. Not because they reported the event well but because they underscored how easily science and spirituality mix in India.
NY Times Piece :
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/29/opinion/29varadarajan.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink
Times Of India :
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Though_probe_crashlanded_tricolour_intact/articleshow/3715205.cms
(ISRO chairman Madhavan Nair said on Friday: ‘‘We have planted the national flag near the Shackelton crater. In the month of Karthikeya, Chandrayaan has been wonderful to us and the Moon has been favorable.)
Astrology cheek-by-jowl with Astronomy :) :) ? A touch of Faith ?
In India the moon has a special significance in life. Every month the full moon day "Poornima" represents something beautiful - Krishna's Birthday,Buddha'a enlightenment, Guru Nanak Jayanti....... The effect of the moon on the mind has been understood by sages and seers since times immemorial.
The west has often struggled with these 2 pillars of modern day society. In the US, concepts such as intelligent design, creationism and Darwin's theory of evolution all fight pitched battles all the way from school board meetings to the US Supreme Court.
In India however, there is seldom any conflict. I grew up in the colony of a primer scientific institute in India and watched my father do his pooja every morning and head to work thereafter. The colony celebrated all festivals in a big way with no conflict whatsoever.
Who is more advanced - the West or India ? May seem like a moot question to most but I'd like to think that advancement of a civilization comes from advancement of its spiritual thought - not just by putting out more gadgetry (sophisticated and necessary though they may be) .
As Guruji Says :
Science and spirituality are like two ways of looking at the creation. Science regards life as matter and spirituality regards even matter as life. Spirituality elevates matter to the level of life, level of divinity and adds a sense of honour. While science brings us material and physical comfort, spirituality gives comfort to our souls. Science cultivates logic and spirituality develops intuition, another faculty of inquiry. Ancient rishis (sages) recognized this interplay between science and spirituality and said true fulfillment in life can come only through gyana (spirituality) and vigyana (science).
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The time has come for India to reclaim her rightful place on the world stage. In order for this to occur, we need to become more confident and take pride in our cultural and spiritual roots. The spiritual wisdom, which was her glory in the past, has been almost forgotten and needs to be revived.
Sri Sri Ravishankar
Jai Guru Dev,
Posts
We are all born as humans and try to live as humans and not as ghosts. There are so many religious practices for each and every religion, there are good and bad practices. Most of them give positive effects on the human mind and body. Just take only positives. Science we have to take all positives and negatives to build some theories which mainly depend on mathematics, which are again assumptions of theories. Most of the science is built upon the theories more precise we go nearer to the start of the elements and the life the more crazier the theories, then we have to doubt about our own existence.
ReplyDeleteMost of religious practices couple few things like building the resistance and immunity of the body and mind along with positive mentality, which in turn helps in making one to feel that we are together and not separate, the feeling of separation comes only in science and it becomes individuals effort, the ego builds up and the self destruction starts.
Presently we are in the verge of self destruction, probably entire human community is at stake due to some of these individuals who wanted to control the world for their greed and creed which has only one end that is self destruction and also destroying entire community of humans along with the nature.
Only the positive that can help us to overcome such eventualities is the spirituality, which is nothing but thinking that we are all humans and wanted to live as long as this earth stays, in peace, harmony and serene conditions.
Only one religion is great which advocates that we are all humans, irrespective of race, religion, region etc. Such a religion adopts all others, all religions converge into that.
Such a promoter is only one in the entire world that is HINDUISM.
simple and powerful post, that is making me think deep.
ReplyDelete@bheemeshwar : well put. yes hinduism is more spiritually evolved and secular in practice and it is this essence that Guruji takes so beautifully to far corners of the world through the Art Of Living.
ReplyDelete@kiran : lovely. do the Art Of Living course when you have a chance. Takes you very deep experientially.
Good question at the end! Yes, indeed science and spirituality are the same thing...just looking at them with different eyes. Very well said! Am a listener of Guruji, we(me and my family) listen to him everyday on the AOL channel on the Worldspace network. Beautiful. :)
ReplyDeletetara : thanks for your comment. I have to get a Worldspace subscription ! Seems like something worth having .
ReplyDelete