Mythology is not science

Birth of Karna (my favorite character from Mahabharat) was a marvel of genetic engineering in ancient India, Ganesha's head replacement was an example of plastic surgery; these are meanings that students might derive from some of the statements that India's PM Mr. Narendra Modi made recently. There are already people who believe that whatever great discoveries are made in the area of science are already described in ancient Indian scriptures, and such statements only validate such unscientific thinking. It is a different issue that such people fail to explain if those discoveries were already mentioned in those books then how come Indians failed to report it to the rest of the world and how come only when someone else reported them then only these people suddenly realize that it was already mentioned in their holy books. The only agenda these people have is to push their own ideology and religion as a superior force and claim credit for others' hard work. Anyone who really studied science and with a real scientific temperament would feel amazed by the sheer ignorance of these people. These people fail to understand the difference between mythology (which is fiction) and science (which is based on reproducible data and verifiable evidence). 

Mythology is full of very interesting and inspiring stories. Among these stories, Mahabharat is my favorite one. Many stories from this great epic are full of interesting characters and incidents. To make them entertaining authors have included many fictitious incidents like they do in all fiction books like Harry Potter. It is to the credit of the author's great imagination that these books are so entertaining and popular. Many of the incidents mentioned in fiction books are also inspired by some real-life incidents, they make use of real city names or dates just to make these stories sound real. But at the same time, we all know that no one can fly on a broomstick, people can not defy gravity without any external help, unicorns don't exist, and animals don't talk in any human spoken language, but we all love to read these stories and watch these things on the screen. However, if scientists discover some invention, for example, a touch screen or the wireless phone, already mentioned in some story or movie like Star Wars after a lot of hard work and research, we don't give credit to that book or movie for inventing it. Maybe scientists or inventors get some idea from these movies but to make these things a reality is an altogether different ball game. It requires a lot of study, planning, hard work, and many experiments (most of which fail), to make any invention work. It is not easy to bring fiction into reality but the hard work of many scientists makes some of these things possible. Flying was considered impossible just a few centuries ago but now we have so many devices which one can use to fly in group or solo. This was possible due to the hard work of many people who worked tirelessly to develop this technology. These are the people who should get the credit for this invention, not someone who might have mentioned in some story that humans can fly without any technical details about how can they defy gravity and fly.

Such statements coming from a person like Mr. Modi who is the prime minister of India are very surprising if not shocking. He can have his personal opinion about any issue but as a prominent public figure, he should know that his statements are going to have a huge impact on many impressionable minds who follow him. Mythology is not science. They are different and one should not try to mix them as none of them will get any benefit from such mixing, it will only breed ignorance and stupidity.  

Thanks for reading and please share your views on this topic.

[Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing]

Links:
1. PM Modi takes leaf from Batra book: Mahabharat genetics, Lord Ganesha surgery
2. Indian prime minister claims genetic science existed in ancient times

Did Mahabharat really happen?

Many times I see people arguing about whether some events from some epic books really happened or not, especially from scriptures like Mahabharat, Ramayan, Bible, etc. Normally these arguments are really passionate and heated because many people are really emotional about these things, with both sides trying to make their points furiously very often without any reliable evidence. I find this a totally unnecessary ordeal, a total waste of time unless its whole purpose is to do a time pass. I often wonder why people waste their time arguing about whether stories or incidents mentioned in these books really happened or not? Why does it matter to them? What will they gain or achieve if they prove or disprove that these incidents really happened? I read many of the stories mentioned in these books but I read them like any other book. It's not at all important whether these stories or incidents are real or not. If they teach me something useful they are relevant to me, I am totally fine even if it's a work of fiction. If they don't teach me anything useful or relevant then I just read them for the sake of entertainment, whether they really happened or not is not at all relevant to me. 

History is documented for many reasons, one of them is to have it stored for future generations so that they can get some clue from past incidents and learn relevant lessons which will help them not to repeat the same mistakes again. But many of these scriptures are not history but they are classified under mythology or theology and that's why I think it's a waste of time to discuss whether they are fiction or non-fiction, whether they really happened or not. I like many characters from these epics. I relate to many of them, for me it's really insignificant whether they really lived in flesh and blood on this planet or not, even if they didn't then also it doesn't reduce my attachment or affection for them even a little bit. The message that the authors of these books wanted to deliver is the most important thing for me. I take whatever is relevant for me and leave the rest, I don't get into unnecessary technical details like how humans flew without airplanes, how the bird or snake spoke, and how a person became alive again after being killed. These all are semi-fiction stories written long back over a long period, the main purpose was to educate and entertain people at the same time. Some of them are so old that it's very difficult even to find out who wrote them, but they all have something useful in them that's why people still read them. But when people try to enforce these books as a rule book for everyone, there is a problem, there is a conflict and unnecessary tension. I am against this practice. Many of these books no matter how good, were written thousands of years ago and many things mentioned in them are no longer relevant, some of the things are outdated. Even many scientific papers published in journals many years back are no longer relevant anymore, some of them are even proven to be wrong. These books are the same, they can be used as literature but they are not rule books or science journals so to follow them or to expect others to follow them blindly is absurd, wrong, and unreasonable.

So let's not worry or argue about the technical details of these books. Read them as ancient literature. There might be many technical glitches in them but that should not be a deterrent for anyone to read them. These books are treasures from the past, they actually don't belong to any particular religion or sects but belong to all humanity. Linking them to any particular religion or sect limits their use and is a gross injustice to their potential. The story of Mahabharat is one of my all-time favorite stories, all the characters in this are so human that anyone can relate to them that's the reason I like it more than any other story. Stories and characters from these books have inspired me during various stages of my life and they still continue to do so. I love Mahabharat stories, some biblical stories, and some concepts from the Quran. Let's not worry about the technical details of these stories, let's try to catch the real essence of them, this will be a great tribute to all those authors and the real use of all these books.

[Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing]

Links:
1. 5000 year old Viamana craft was found in Afghanistan
2. Were Our Ancient Ancestors Scientifically Advanced?

New Beginning

This is a new beginning for me; I used to write my diary on regular diaries. I have so many of them stacked here and also in Pune my hometown in India. I started writing a diary when I was in school and have most of my diaries with me telling some stories at different stages of my life and its always very interesting to go back and read a few chapters from your own life. My life has been a very incredible journey so far full of very interesting encounters and experiences.

Since the last few months, I have been reading a lot in the field of mythology. My aim is to understand the deeper meaning of life. What is religion? What is God? Why do people believe or don’t believe in God? What is Moksha? Why do different people or sects advise different ways to achieve Moksha? What are the incarnations of Vishnu? Why they were necessary? And many, many questions like this, I can’t list all of them, but I have many more questions and they keep on popping up in my mind so many times whenever I read a particular text or listen to some seminar on mythology, or attend any religious gathering. I see people around me and always think why do most people follow certain rituals without understanding the logic behind them? Most of these rituals when introduced did have some sort of reasoning or logic behind them, but rarely people try to understand it and analyze if it’s still a valid or reasonable thing to do. Why do they believe in scriptures blindly without even trying to understand their meaning? Why?? I also wonder why these doubts or questions, don’t come up in other people’s minds?…either they know the answer or they are ignorant or they don’t care or they are incapable of thinking like I can…but I am also a normal person like most people around me, born and brought up in a very humble atmosphere so why do these questions keep on coming to me? My parents didn’t force me to follow any particular belief, they were busy setting up their life as immigrants in Pune they tried to provide us (me and my two brothers) a decent life to the best of their ability and I am really grateful to them for that. They gave us a lot of freedom to choose our careers and also the way we want to live. I read many Marathi books during my college and school days maybe these books had a profound effect on my thinking and behavior, so I consider myself lucky in this aspect.

I am reading and thinking a lot these days and trying to find answers to these questions myself and I think I am heading somewhere, I am sure I will reach my destination and I am determined to walk until I reach there. This is not a road map or guide or mantra to achieve self-realization instantly, these are my thoughts and you have all the right to agree or totally disagree with them, debate about them, raise questions or concerns about them to me, and be sure that I will try to answer them to best of my ability.

I don't promise to answer everything. I am here merely to help you seek the right questions along with me. The answers lie within us. Wherever I interpret the scriptures or any writing whether I understand their real meaning or not is not my concern, if they help me and you uncover our minds and discover our reality then this effort has served its purpose….Let the discovery begin...let's enjoy this journey together.

(Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing)