05-08-2006, 11:16 AM
I think therefore I am, averred Rene Descartes. I wll go further,,that i am (present ) is a great achievement and testament to our past.There is simply no other civilization that has withstood the onslaughts of time, natural disasters, invasions and holocausts to the degree the indics have and have survived to live and tell the tale while retaining their ancient traditions.
At the same time, we have never claimed we are the greatest ,or that we have invented everyhting .
In any event,nobody should accept anything as valid unless it meets the test of reason and logic .But such tests should be uniformly applied.For example if one said i believe English Historians when they write about India but i will not believe the ancients,that is not a credible stance. Neither is it very credible if one says i find Homers Illiad very engrossing but i find the mahabharata fulll of superstition and myth and not believable.
Pythagoras was a mystic and he believed in the secret mystical world of numbers but the west has no hesitation giving him credit for Pythagoras theorem - wrongly i might add, but are dismissive when Hindus talk about Baudhayanas theorem or the mystical code of numbers that is hidden away in the structure of the Veda. For example the special place that 108 (and 18 and 9 and 27 and 360 and 432000 plays in the sacred texts.
It also happens to be a number that pops up in astronomy and = distance of the sun/diameter of the sun = 93000000/865400=108 ( with less than 1% error).
Let us calculate the same number for the moon 238860/2160 = 110,6 well not quite 108, but remarkably close. But it explains why the moon looks like it is the same size as the sun.
The point is all this was known to the ancients . They had no sophisticated instruments but they were keen observers. aryabhattas values for the astronomical constants( i will be presenting this in Part III , which is mostly a Astronomy 101 ) are correct to several decimal places. . The indic approach to gaining knowledge is extremely rational and could in fact be taught in a class in an engineering lab and would make perfect sense.
as for being selective in what i believe, i take that as a compliment. we better be selective and exercise viveka, because the world is full of charlatans and who knows which ancient book was tampered with
At the same time, we have never claimed we are the greatest ,or that we have invented everyhting .
In any event,nobody should accept anything as valid unless it meets the test of reason and logic .But such tests should be uniformly applied.For example if one said i believe English Historians when they write about India but i will not believe the ancients,that is not a credible stance. Neither is it very credible if one says i find Homers Illiad very engrossing but i find the mahabharata fulll of superstition and myth and not believable.
Pythagoras was a mystic and he believed in the secret mystical world of numbers but the west has no hesitation giving him credit for Pythagoras theorem - wrongly i might add, but are dismissive when Hindus talk about Baudhayanas theorem or the mystical code of numbers that is hidden away in the structure of the Veda. For example the special place that 108 (and 18 and 9 and 27 and 360 and 432000 plays in the sacred texts.
It also happens to be a number that pops up in astronomy and = distance of the sun/diameter of the sun = 93000000/865400=108 ( with less than 1% error).
Let us calculate the same number for the moon 238860/2160 = 110,6 well not quite 108, but remarkably close. But it explains why the moon looks like it is the same size as the sun.
The point is all this was known to the ancients . They had no sophisticated instruments but they were keen observers. aryabhattas values for the astronomical constants( i will be presenting this in Part III , which is mostly a Astronomy 101 ) are correct to several decimal places. . The indic approach to gaining knowledge is extremely rational and could in fact be taught in a class in an engineering lab and would make perfect sense.
as for being selective in what i believe, i take that as a compliment. we better be selective and exercise viveka, because the world is full of charlatans and who knows which ancient book was tampered with