Is Vedic cosmology verifiable and relevant today?

How can we trust the knowledge given in scripture if even the basic knowledge it offers about the world around us seems to be counter-intuitive to our common sense? is knowledge fixed and immutable that it can never change?

If its irrelevant to the understanding of core spirituality, why is it so emphasized in ISKCON?

To read Dr Thompson’s article, please click here

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Yes. Thank you. Yes.
Question on Vedic cosmology by Sagar Kutum. How can we trust the knowledge given in the scripture if even the basic knowledge it offers around the world, about the world around us, seems to be counterintuitive to our common sense? Is knowledge fixed and immutable that it can never change? While meditation, mantras and yoga are scientifically verified as beneficial to their practitioners, what about cosmology? Is cosmology of the past relevant now? If it is irrelevant to the understanding of our spirituality, why is it so emphasized in ISKCON? Answer, even if the scriptural, some aspects of scriptural knowledge seem counterintuitive to us, that doesn’t at all mean that they are invalid or incorrect. All that it means is that our intuitions are not on the same frequency as the scriptural insights.
As we have come into the postmodernist times, we have moved beyond simplistic notions of judging things as right or wrong. The mainstream intellectual ethos has recognized that reality is neither singular nor fixed. Reality itself is multivalent and we have access to only a small portion of the reality.
So, for example, even if we look at quantum physics, we don’t see a table or a car as comprised of subatomic particles. Although at one level it is comprised of that, we don’t see it as comprised of that. Why? Because we are given the vision to see what is necessary for us.
If we saw subatomic particles instead of a car while traveling and crossing a road, we would be knocked over. If while living in a jungle, we saw blood capillaries and blood vessels and instead of a lion, we would be eaten alive. So, we are given a vision that is suitable to our purposes, but our vision does not reveal us the totality of reality.
And there is much to reality that is beyond our vision. This is an acknowledged fact even in modern science. And that’s why I say that a car is a car at one level and a composite of waves at another level are both true at their respective levels of observation.
So, the Vedic scriptures, especially the cosmological information given in them, is at another level of perception. So, it may be counterintuitive, but that doesn’t mean it is false. It is just that we are not able to perceive it.
So, what about its scientific verification and benefit? There are pioneering researchers like Dr. Cheryl Thompson, who wrote his book, The Mysteries of the Sacred Universe. In my earlier talk on this, I mentioned Vedic cosmography. So, that explains how from a higher dimensional perspective, the concepts of Vedic cosmography make sense.
But in The Mysteries of the Sacred Universe, Dr. Thompson goes further and explains and how the measures and the sizes given in the fifth canto of Srimad Bhagavatam match to a remarkable degree of accuracy the measurements of various cosmic distances given in modern cosmology for us. So, the question begs itself, how do these matches actually take place? I have pasted the link to the article by Dr. Thompson from his book, which shows the remarkable correlations between the distances of the various planets as calculated by modern science and as given in the Bhagavatam, when we understand the Bhagavatam properly. So, when this book was published, there were scholars all over the world who appreciated the insights found out in this book.
So, there are surely solid indicators that there is wisdom in the Bhagavatam if we can understand it properly and that requires in-depth study. So, there are subsequent generations of scientists who within this corner are continuing on the work that Dr. Thompson pioneered and which he left for the future generation when he departed from the world. So, why is it emphasized within ISKCON if it is not unimportant? It is not of no importance.
Our mind has a tendency to go between extremes, to think of something as all-important and to think of something as unimportant. But, there are many things which are in-between the range. If we consider it to be all-important and obsess our mind with thinking about that instead of thinking of Krishna, then surely that is counterproductive for our spiritual advancement.
On the other hand, if we just dismiss it as unimportant, then that is also counterproductive because that comes in the Srimad Bhagavatam, which is considered by Shri Jiyogoswami and other great saintly scholars as the ripened fruit of all the Vedic literature. So, we have to understand a balanced medium between of no importance and of all importance. So, why did Srila Prabhupada want a Vedic planetarium based on the Bhagavatam cosmology? Because Srila Prabhupada felt that the modern cosmology which was materialistic and mechanistic promoted atheism and he wanted that cosmology, that understanding of, that interpretation of the world which facilitates atheism to be countered.
So, if it can be shown to intelligent people that the materialistic cosmology is inadequate and that there is more than adequate intellectual reasons to rethink our cosmological conceptions and foundations in a way that is theistic and incorporates spirituality, then that will lead to the promotion and the propagation of spiritual vision of the cosmos and spiritual vision of our place within the cosmos. So, the emphasis on the Vedic planetarium and the Vedic cosmology was meant by Srila Prabhupada for certain people to be able to pioneer a new age where cosmology is rescued from the clutches of materialism and atheism and brought into its true understanding of being harmonious with theism and spirituality. So, the purpose of my answer was not to say that Vedic cosmology is unimportant but that those who have a particular service need to focus on that service for spiritual advancement.
Srila Prabhupada entrusted some of his disciples and his followers to focus on Vedic cosmology and to build the planetarium. They are doing that and when they do that they will also give us a proper understanding if we so seek it. So, the research and the study is going on for this purpose and it doesn’t just require research and study, it also requires spiritual advancement by which we can penetrate into the esoteric understanding of the 5th Canto cosmology and then share it with the world.
So, for those who do not have that as their explicit mission or service, they don’t have to obsess their minds with concepts that are difficult to understand and which dishearten them and disturb them in their practices of the central process of Krishna consciousness. So, yes, gradually there is a trend all over the world to challenge scientism. Scientism is science when it turns fanatical and claims to be the only way to acquire knowledge.
When science claims to have a monopoly on human knowledge, that form of science which is actually not science but science overstepping its limits, that is called a scientism. Science is beneficial and desirable. Scientism is not only harmful and undesirable but it is untrue.
There is nothing within science that can prove that science is the only way to acquire knowledge. The basic claim of scientism that science is the only way to acquire knowledge is scientifically unprovable. So, scientism is unscientific and not only is it unscientific, it often has anti-human consequences and to combat these anti-human consequences of scientism, we need to introduce a spiritual and a theistic paradigm within science.
And that is what Srila Prabhupada wanted us to do through various ways, through introducing the paradigm of consciousness, through helping us to rethink our understanding of our own identity, through inspiring us to revisit our preconceptions about the nature of the cosmos and of course, to rethink the role and the position of God in the unfoldment and design of the cosmos. So, all these are part of a long-term process for the gradual re-spiritualization of human consciousness and human culture. We need to play our role within it and if we obsess ourselves with those aspects of the scripture which are not our role, we are doing a disservice to ourselves.
At the same time, if we minimize and denigrate other aspects of the scripture just because they don’t seem relevant to us, that is also improper because that could be offensive because that is a part of the scripture and they are also going to play their role in the re-spiritualization of human society.