What was the technology used in the Pushpaka vimana described in the Ramayana?

From: Rishiraj

What was the technology used in the pushpak vimana in the ramayana and is there any research being carried out on the advanced technology that was used at that particular time?

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
And Question from Rishi Rajkum.
What was the technology used in Pushpaka Viman in the Ramayana? Is there any research being carried out on the advanced technology that was used at that particular time? Answer in the Ramayana and in the Vedic scriptures in general the feats that are performed some of which we can perform using our modern technology they are described as endowments or gifts or powers that come from some higher source. They are not described merely as manipulations of material mechanisms to get to the powers that underlie those mechanisms. So there is a bottom up approach and a top down approach to harnessing the resources that are there in nature.
So modern science largely follows the bottom up approach in which we assume I have answered elsewhere about methodological naturalism. So in methodological naturalism it is assumed as a matter of methodology that nature is all that exists and there are no supernatural or intelligent factors acting in nature. And because of this assumption nature is seen as a entity which does not have any conscious being supervising or interacting with it.
Now this understanding is true at one level but it is not entirely true. As we can find in the case of increasing incidence of psychosomatic diseases the body is a mechanism but then and we can find out that if some improper say poison or toxic substances are put into it the mechanism gets disrupted. But beyond that there is a conscious being who is in the body and the feelings, the positive or negative emotions of that conscious person have been repeatedly and strongly found to affect the health of the person.
So this is like the psychosomatic diseases which have spawned the whole field of mind-body medicine indicate that treating things as mere mechanisms is inadequate in getting a holistic understanding. So just as this applies to the human body and science is discovering it nascently right now the same applies to the universe also. So in general whether it is the Pushpak Viman or whether it is the Brahmastra or other astras which are talked about in the Vedic literature they are having the powers within them say like flying or enormous structure power or whatever those powers are endowed to them those things because of the connection with the beings who are supervising those aspects of nature.
That means Pushpak Viman was a was a plane of Kuvera and Kuvera is a Devata and Devatas have higher powers which human beings don’t have. So corresponding with their higher powers the things which they have are also endowed with capacities which we don’t have. So what was the technology? Surely there was some material mechanism which brought that about and that mechanism was harmonious with nature or not disharmonious with nature.
By harmonious means that there is no description that when the Pushpak Viman was flying there was a tail of smoke behind it polluting the environment. No when we divorce nature from its connection with superior beings and then try to tap its powers then that tapping is disharmonious because we don’t perceive the holistic harmony that is there in nature. We just take one aspect of nature and try to find mechanisms and control it.
So modern technology often has disruptive effects because of this fragmented view on which it is based. Now is any research being carried out on the advanced technology? Sri Prabhupada eventually wanted to have the whole gamut of Vedic knowledge made accessible to humanity to the extent that it was relevant today. So he focused only primarily on the transcendental aspect because he felt that that is what is most essential for society.
That is what is primarily lacking in society and as ISKCON spreads and there are intelligent individuals who take up practicing of Krishna consciousness and they can study the scriptures and look at the commentaries and look at the associated Upashastras and see what can be found. Much of the literature that was there at that time has been destroyed during the intervening Mughal and other rules of various invaders but still much is unresearched and devotees can themselves do research and there are many other nationalistic scholars who are also doing this kind of research. So devotees can network and see if this technology can be made re-accessible for humanity.
So it will not just be a technology that is made accessible, it is a different approach to technology that will be made re-accessible and actually Prabhupada formed the Bhaktivedanta Institute for doing scientific research and there are individual devotee scientists who are also doing that kind of research. So ISKCON is just 40 years old right now and it is barely in the second generation. So as ISKCON spreads more and more the other branches of knowledge which were there in the Vedic culture will also be explored and gradually they may also become available for humanity in future and if you are interested you can also connect with those relevant devotees and become a part of the team that does the research.