On World Meditation Day, the Associate Centres and Member Institutes of the Indian Yoga Association came together to honour the profound practice of meditation. Across various locations, our community gathered to reflect, connect, and deepen their meditation journeys, fostering a sense of unity and inner…
by Shri Nitin Tawde, Yoga Vidya Niketan
The he Nobel Prize for Physics for the year 2020 was awarded together to three eminent scientists, Dr. Roger Penrose, Dr. Genzel and Dr. Ghez for their remarkable studies on Black Holes. These revelations are very useful in understanding more about the creation of the Universe. The trio of the scientists mentioned above have a remarkable contribution in this research.
However, thousands of years ago, the Indian rishis and yogis with their remarkable mental faculties have found out about the creation of Universe through meditation and contemplation. Samkhya Darshan mainly comments about the creation of the Universe and evolution of the man. It is said that they resolved it through intuitive knowledge; the answers were revealed to them through meditation. Therefore, perhaps it is rightly said that the Vedas are ‘Apourusheya’, means they were not created or written or taught by any mortal men. This knowledge has descended down to these great rishis from the cosmos. It is also said that this knowledge was heard by these Yogis directly from the ‘Supreme Reality’. The knowledge in all the Vedas and all other ancient scriptures is so enormous that till today, not everything has been understood completely; and therefore, it makes us believe that this wealth of knowledge certainly is not the work of any mortal men.
The scientific community doesn’t believe in philosophical deductions, logical arguments or discussions. The repeated experimentations are expected to yield exactly the same results consistently. This is how modern scientific research is done. However, whatever these ancient scriptures have stated thousands of years ago, is somehow matching with modern scientific inventions and discoveries. It cannot be just coincidental and hence should not be ignored or brushed aside labelling as myth.
Then what could be the answer for this? Is it true that this knowledge was really told to them by the Supreme Reality? How and who will believe such a claim? Is it possible to acquire knowledge only through meditation and through the deep and thorough contemplation? If it is true, then where this knowledge is coming from? What is the source of this knowledge that we are talking about?
Modern medical science tells us that human brain is an amazing creation of the Nature. Scientists say that an average intellectual individual uses not more than 1-2 % of this capability. Maharshi Patanjali in his Yoga darshan also stated that the knowledge is already present in Citta of every one of us and it is not revealed because of Avidya; it is covered with Tamas Guna. Taking into consideration this fact, we can deduce that our great Rishis must have exploited great portion of their brain capacities through meditative powers and hence through meditation they acquired this eternal knowledge. Instead of talking hypothetically, if we talk in terms of scientific language then it will be easier for the readers to think over it and possibly believe this claim of knowledge descending from the cosmos. It is said that the Universe and all the matter in this Universe that exists today, was once packed in an extremely minute entity or singularity and at some time, around 13.8 billion years ago, came into existence through a Big-Bang. All the matter that exists today including components of all living and non-living beings were packed into that singularity. Exactly the similar theory has been put forward by Samkhya Darshana thousands of years ago. Samkhya goes one step further and says that Knowledge was the very first evolute that was created from Prakiti. We may therefore deduce in other words, that it is the same knowledge exploited by our great Rishis by opening up the dormant parts of their brains or in Yogic language the Citta, by meditation; where this knowledge was already stored. It is therefore, said to have been told to them by the Supreme Reality.
Modern medical science also tells us that certain unexplained riddles can be resolved by intuitive intelligence. What is this intuitive intelligence then? It is said that it is ‘not a normal form of intelligence’, but it is from the nonconscious part of our mind. It means, such hidden knowledge is obtained instinctually. Then, certainly there is enough room to believe that this Vedic knowledge too has been obtained through meditative powers by our ancestors. Meditation or Dhyana is the practice by which all such nonconscious parts of mind or brain can be exploited and thus the doors of this cosmic intelligence were opened to them. This is nothing but the enlightenment, described in Yoga; the acquisition of superior knowledge – Vivek-Khyati. However, modern science may find it difficult to believe but if we give few well-known examples from history of science, then it might be helpful to understand.
Let us consider the most famous example of Isaac Newton and his remarkable discovery of gravity. Was it so much simple to derive about an abstract entity such as gravity just by seeing the apple falling from a tree? Number of people had seen apples falling from trees but they couldn’t think of such possibility. Isaac Newton started thinking on this event and started focussing deeply on this simple looking phenomenon. He concentrated on this problem and it is said that he used to contemplate on problems so intensely that he used to forget everything around him. He would forget all his daily chores too, would forget eating, drinking, bathing etc. One pointed concentration is nothing but meditation or Dhyana and it may not be incorrect to say that what Isaac was doing was also meditation and this meditation only led him to the solution of the problem with intuitive knowledge.
Such is the power of Dhyana – meditation and now the science too has taken note of this and all across the world numerous experiments are being conducted to understand this process. If we just do the literature survey on internet, we will find thousands of papers published about it. So many experiments are being conducted to understand the process of meditation or Dhyana. However, again the science is forgetting that the science of Dhyana cannot be fitted in empirical or conventional framework. Yoga is an ‘Experiential Science’. One has to experience it and how can anybody describe the indescribable experiences about the Dhyana process in words? So, the answer is to experience it and then there will not be any need to describe it to anyone.
