GITA and SCIENCE

When the entire world civilization was in the cradle, the sages of
India had already recited the Vedas. The ancient texts of India are
considered to be a treasure of knowledge. The scriptures in ancient
India were penned with extraordinary scientific temperament. The
Bhagavad Gita, among all, is studied, analyzed and interpreted the
most.
भू मिरापोऽनलो वायु : खं िनो बु द्धिरे व च |
अहङ्कार इतीयं िे मभन्ना प्रकृमतरष्टधा ||
(Ch 7 verse 4)
Earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intellect, and ego—all together
these eight constitute My separated material energies.
The verse mentioned above throws light on mass and energy
relations. Almost the same theory was announced by Dr Albert
Einstein- centuries after the Bhagavadgita was recited.
The same theory was used by Robert Oppenheimer to make ‘little
boy’ a nuclear bomb containing tremendous destructive potential.
After a successful experiment, he quoted the following shloka:
कालोऽद्धि लोकक्षयकृत्प्रवृिो
लोकान्सिाहतुु मिह प्रवृत्त: |
ऋतेऽमप त्ां न भमवष्यद्धि सवे
ये ऽवद्धथिता: प्रत्यनीकेषु योधा:
( Ch 11, verse 32)
I am powerful Time, the source of destruction that comes forth to
annihilate the worlds. Even without your participation, the warriors
arrayed in the opposing army shall stop existing.
Even the words ‘ मिमव सूयुसहस्रस्य भवेि्यु गपिु द्धिता ‘ (a thousand
suns were to blaze forth together in the sky) indicate the generation
of enormous illumination during the bombardment on Hiroshima
and Nagasaki.
Even the existence of the soul is frequently mentioned in Gita.
वासां मस जीर्ाु मन यिा मवहाय
नवामन गृ ह्णामत नरोऽपरामर् |
तिा शरीरामर् मवहाय जीर्ाु
न्यन्यामन संयामत नवामन िे ही |
( Ch 2 verse 22)
Just as a man removes worn-out clothes and puts on new ones, so
also the embodied Self leaves worn-out bodies and adopts another
body which is new.
The immortality of the soul is considered to be the permanence of
energy in the universe which is neither generated nor destroyed.
The examples are, thus, endless. One can conclude with a quotation:
“Gita can be seen as the main literary support for the great religious
civilization of India, the oldest surviving culture in the world.”
Thomas Merton
Late Catholic theologian, and a monk