Modern Science and the Vedas

In 1959 two American atomic scientists, Dr. Emillo Segre and Dr. Owen Chamberlain were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery of the antiproton, proving (theoretically) that matter exists in two forms — as particles and antiparticles. According to one of the fundamental assumptions of the new theory, there may exist another world, or an anti-world, built up of anti-matter. This anti-material world would consist of atomic and subatomic particles spinning in reverse orbits to those of the world we know. If these two worlds should ever clash, they would both be annihilated in one blinding flash.
That same year (1959) A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada published a small essay Easy Journey to Other Planets. He began this work by quoting the above information and went on to say that indeed, two worlds did exist, the material and the spiritual, but the nature of the spiritual world was that it could never be annihilated.
I first read Easy Journey to Other Planets in 1969 and for many years after that I wondered why there hadn’t been further research into the concept of antiparticles or anti-worlds. Almost 40 years later I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the theory of anti-worlds has been a hot topic of physics research all those years and remains so even today. In fact the anti-world theory now occupies a prominent place in theoretical physics as the Multiverse Hypothesis, sometimes known as Parallel Universes.  
Progress however in the Multiverse Hypothesis hasn’t been much to write home about. Concepts keep changing and no one has yet to make actual contact with a Multiverse or Parallel Universe. In other words there haven’t been any tangible results in the field of Multiverse research. But of course, the scientists (physicists) who are doing the research are worthy of respect, honor, great laudations and sizable salaries because, even though unable to actually ‘prove’ their theories, they are great and deserve the perks of greatness, because they are able to think about such lofty concepts. They are great minds.
But what about the writers and commentators of Vedic literature who spoke of the anti-material world (Paravyoma and Vaikuntha) many centuries before the great minds of the west even realized that the Earth wasn’t flat! Aren’t those Vedic seers worthy of being counted as great thinkers, great minds and men of scientific fiber? If so, then why do we not give them their due and, more importantly, why do today’s scientists, physicists and researchers not pay closer attention to their ancient achievements? I don’t have the answer for that.
Lets look at some of the Vedic concepts and achievements in addition to Parallel Universes that have become trends in modern scientific disciplines and even quintessential to science itself.
In Kapila-deva’s system of Sankhya, the analytical study of material nature, matter develops from subtle to gross. The qualities of an element exist before the gross manifestation of the element. That is quite different than the way most of us think of matter. For example, aroma is the quality of earth and we therefore think that first there is the substance earth and then the aroma. But in the Sankhya, or Vedic way of thinking, it is just the opposite. First there exists the quality of aroma and then earth is manifest – everything begins from the subtle plane and moves toward the gross.
The subtlest aspect of matter in Sankhya is ‘vibration’ – also thought of as a sound vibration or frequency. That most subtle existence that precedes every and all aspects of matter is a vibration or sound called tan-matra. In layman’s terms, in Sankhya, a vibration or sound lies at the basis of matter. Everything springs from that original vibration — the basis of everything lies in sound.
Respectively, String Theory (a developing branch of theoretical physics that combines quantum mechanics and general relativity into a quantum theory of gravity) has connotations similar to the Sankhya conception of tan-matra or sound vibration being the basis of matter.
Then there is the theoretical physics concerning Dark Matter or the missing mass in the universe. Physicists conclude, based on research, that as much as 80% of the mass of this universe has gone missing or is undetectable. Simply put, to account for the amount of gravity in the universe, 80% more matter than is visible is required. Where is it?
The first person to provide evidence and infer the existence of a phenomenon that has come to be called ‘dark matter’ was Swiss astrophysicist Fritz Zwicky, of the California Institute of Technology in 1933. Zwicky applied the viral theorem to the Coma cluster of galaxies and obtained evidence of unseen mass. Zwicky estimated the cluster's total mass based on the motions of galaxies near its edge and compared that estimate to one based on the number of galaxies and total brightness of the cluster. He found that there was about 400 times more estimated mass than was visually observable. The gravity of the visible galaxies in the cluster would be far too small for such fast orbits, so something extra was required. This is known as the "missing mass problem". Based on these conclusions, Zwicky inferred that there must be some non-visible form of matter that would provide enough of the mass and gravity to hold the cluster together. That was the beginning for the search for Dark Matter.
Seventy-six years later, science is still looking for Dark Matter. They know it is literally everywhere, but it escapes detection and thus they are unable to observe it. Millions of taxpayer’s dollars are spent every year by western super powers in the search for Dark Matter. Nothing has turned up yet.
On a parallel platform, Sankhya identifies a material element that among its other qualities is, for the most part, elusive (emphasis on elusive). It is everywhere (all-pervading) but at the same time undetectable (ethereal). That element in Sankhya is called nabhas, or as mentioned in Bhagavad-gita, kham.
The activities/qualities and characteristics of the kham element in Sankhya can be observed as accommodating space/room for existence. Space itself, both internal and external, is the element kham. This then, if taken notice of by physicists, may very well fit nicely into the ‘missing mass problem’. Kham, being a material element, could theoretically be assigned a numerical code in the periodic table of elements like everything else – then they might find what they are looking for.
In the Vedic way of thinking the physical element is secondary to its qualities — when the qualities of a particular thing are understood, it is as good as or better than having the grosser subject at hand. In that sense modern science has already discovered Dark Matter, because they have understood something of its qualities… they just haven’t realized it yet.
In the Srimad Bhagavatam we find the following verse:
In his purport to this verse, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada says that the Sankhya understanding of nabhas or kham (that he has called in English ‘the ethereal element’) is the basis for great scientific research:
This verse is the potential basis of great scientific research work, for it explains how subtle forms are generated from the ethereal element (nabhah), what their characteristics and actions are, and how the tangible elements, namely air, fire, water and earth, are manifested from the subtle form.
Sankhya does not simply list the basic material elements, but it explains quite scientifically how those elements evolve from the subtlest plane of existence up to the divisions of the universe — this is quite elaborate and scientific indeed.
Yet for science to take full advantage of the Sankhya understanding of matter and to discover how the universe came into being, they will have to do more than just add kham/nabhas to their list of elements, they will have to add ahankara (ego), mana (the mind) and buddhi (intelligence) to their table of elements for, indeed, Sankhya lists these as material elements. However, these elements ahankara, mana and buddhi are categorized as even more subtle than kham, because they are closer in character to atma, consciousness.
Beyond the gross and subtle material elements being added to the scientific table of elements, Sankhya says that a complete understanding of existence, of reality, is not possible without adding two transcendental, anti-material concepts – namely atma and Paramatma (consciousness and super-consciousness). This, it seems, science struggles with even more than Dark Matter. We have dubbed it ‘Light Matter’.
The most intriguing physics discovery by far has to be the theory of the Warp Drive or the Alcubierre Drive, named after its inventor, the Mexican theoretical physicist Miguel Alcubierre Moya. Most of us know about the Warp Drive from science fiction movies like Star Trek and Contact, but Moya had the real deal.
In his 1994 physics paper Moya proposed a method of stretching space in a wave that would in theory cause the fabric of space ahead of a spacecraft to contract and the space behind it to expand.
The ship would ride this wave inside a region known as a warp bubble of flat space. Since the ship is not moving within this bubble, but carried along as the region itself moves, conventional relativistic effects such as time dilation do not apply in the way they would in the case of a ship moving at high velocity through flat space-time. Also, this method of travel does not actually involve moving faster than light in a local sense, since a light beam within the bubble would still always move faster than the ship; it is only ‘faster than light’ in the sense that, thanks to the contraction of the space in front of it, the ship could reach its destination faster than a light beam restricted to traveling outside the warp bubble. Thus, the Alcubierre drive does not contradict the conventional claim that relativity forbids a slower-than-light object to accelerate to faster-than-light speeds.
Pretty neat stuff – and NASA certainly thought so, mounting their ‘Time Warp’ program at a cost of many millions of dollars for more than a decade before they finally gave it up. “Yes, Time Warp is possible.” they said, “We just can’t do it!” Shucks!
But we are not surprised to find this same theory mentioned many thousands of years ago in the Vedic literature as a siddhi, or mystic perfection, by which one can travel to another planet or another galaxy without conventional propulsion and in zero time.
One may argue that although this is mentioned in the Vedas, it is doubtful that they were able to do it. That argument could be applied, but first one should realize that they could think about it thousands of years before NASA. Whether they could do it or not is irrelevant. After all, NASA was only thinking about it – they never actually did it either.
See the fun – the Vedic knowledge is easily dismissed or not recognized at all. These are simply stories and myths they say, but theoretical physics/science — now that’s something you can believe in!
It might be fair to ask, “Who writes this stuff?” Have the intelligent people in this world forgotten how to think for themselves? Have we simply become the faithful followers of whatever ‘science’ has to say? Have we lost our reason and logic? Apparently some have!
If we were to list all the scientific discoveries that Vedic civilization has given to the world, some in common use today like the one, the zero, the binary system, calculations regarding astronomical phenomena and more yet to be discovered or understood like the Warp Drive theory, then this article would become a book. So here we stop.

Timingila – Myth or Fact?

The above verse is quoted from Caitanya-caritamrta, Madhya-lila 13.142, wherein Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu equates the Gopis as having fallen into a great ocean and that they are being devoured by their ambition to serve Krsna. Mahaprabhu compares their ambxition to the legendary Timingila fish. The Timingila fish is said to have lived in the oceans of this planet as the greatest predator ever known.
This article is not about Krsna, the Gopis, or their intense desire to serve Him. This article is about the Timingila fish — myth or fact? [So if you were expecting to read something rasika you can stop reading here.]
The Srimad Bhagavatam, Ramayana, Mahabharata and other Vedic literatures often speak of fantastic places and of creatures that may have once lived on this planet. One such creature was the Timingila fish. The Timingila is said to have been the most formidable predator in the oceans. It was enormous in size and its favorite food was said to have been whales. Whales are also very big creatures of the ocean, but unlike the Timingila, the whale has yet to become extinct. Some whales of our time reach up to 60 feet in length, like the Whale Shark of the Indian Ocean. The Whale Shark is actually a whale that physically resembles a shark but is not a predator. The Timingila, on the other hand, was a fierce predator and used to eat whales in one giant gulp! But did the Timingila actually exist on this planet or did it exist only in the poetic imagination of the writers of the Vedic literatures? Certainly many mundane scholars would have us think so
The etymology of the word ‘timingila’ is as follows: in Sanskrit ‘timi’ is the word for ‘whale’ and ‘gila’ means ‘to swallow'. Thus timingila literally means ‘to swallow a whale’ – not just to swallow, but to swallow in one huge bite!
References to the Timingila fish of antiquity are to be found in numerous places. In Srimad Bhagavatam, Markandeya Rsi encounters the Timingila in his fantastic experience in the waters of devastation and survives the ordeal by the grace of the Supreme Lord.
In Ramayana the Timingila is mentioned as inhabiting the waters between Lord Rama and Lanka, the capitol of the demon king, Ravana.
Similarly, Mahabharata mentions the Timingila as being deep within the ocean, along with other huge sea creatures.
The Ayurvedic text of the 6th century BCE known as Susruta Samhita also lists the Timingila as being amongst the formidable species of marine life.
Are these various accounts of the Timingila to be taken as factual or are they simply a part of fiction?
The Makara is also mentioned in several of these verses and according to scholarly opinion the Makara, like the Timingila, is more or less a fantastical, mythical, fiction. However, in Bhagavad-gita Krsna says that of aquatics He is the Makara.
From the story of Markendeya we can deduce that the Makara was a predator or at least aggressive, since Markandeya was attacked by Makaras in the ocean. Temple art in India generally depicts the Makara as being a combination of several wonderful animals. Such renderings show the Makara as having the jaws of a crocodile, the trunk of an elephant, the tusks of a boar, the scales of a fish, the tail of a peacock and the eyes of a monkey.
Although translators of the Bhagavad-gita usually render the word ‘Makara’ as shark, this is for simplicities sake and for the ease of the reader. If Krsna was simply comparing Himself to a common shark then He would have used the Sanskrit word for shark, namely graha, but He didn’t. Krsna Himself is certainly not ordinary and can only be compared to the most extensive and wonderful things within our experience, and yet He is even beyond that. The Makara, like the Timingila, is certainly something more wonderful than just a shark – something difficult for us to imagine in this day and age.
If someone were to ask why Krsna compares Himself to a Makara rather than a Timingila, we would probably reply that the Makara is more wonderful than the Timingila in that it is a combination of many wonderful and beautiful creatures.
So, are we to gather that in Bhagavad-gita, Krsna has compared Himself to a creature that does not exist, and if so, are we then to conclude that Krsna Himself does not exist? Should we also conclude that the wind, Rama and the Ganga are all fictional?
After all, has anyone actually seen any physical evidence of one of these monsters of the deep blue? Well, in fact they have – meet the Megalodon!
Early accounts of large triangular teeth found imbedded in rock cliffs first appeared in Europe during the Renaissance period, but were believed to be the petrified tongues of dragons and snakes. In 1667 a Danish naturalist, Nicolaus Steno, recognized these findings as ancient shark teeth. In 1835 a Swiss naturalist, Louis Agassiz, gave this mysterious creature the name by which it is known today, Megalodon — which in Greek means ‘big tooth’.
Thought to easily reach 82 plus feet in length, weighing in at 70 plus metric tons, with teeth measuring 18 plus centimeters in length and capable of exerting a bite force of 40,131 pounds plus per square inch — the Megalodon is easily recognized as the greatest predator of all time.
Fossil remains of the Megalodon, have been excavated from many parts of the world, including Europe, North America, South America, Puerto Rico, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Africa, Malta and India. Forensic studies of Megalodon fossils reveal that the predator was capable of eating anything in its path, but favored whale meat.
According to scientific evidence it is estimated that the last of the Megalodons lived on this planet around 1.5 million years ago, give or take a few thousand. That is a long time ago, especially considering that the estimated age of the first human being was only 250,000 years ago. That would mean that the Megalodon became extinct 1,250,000 years before the first human being walked upright, spoke a coherent language, kept records or attempted to write anything.
By comparison of the size, haunt, predator behavior and dietary habits, the Megalodon and the Timingila appear to be the same creature. But what is so amazing or interesting about that and what is our point?
Our point is that western scholars assert that the Bhagavatam was only written in the 9th century CE, the Ramayana in the 4th century BCE, and the Mahabharata between the 8th and 4th centuries BCE. But if this were a fact, then how did the writers of these books know about an ocean-dwelling creature, its size, its vicious aggression and its diet that had been extinct for 1.5 million years? Bhagavatam, Ramayana and Mahabharata all mention the existence of the Timingila/Megalodon. Where did they get this information?
When (by scientific estimation) human beings have only been on this planet since 1,250,000 years after the Megalodon/Timingila became extinct — who told them about these creatures? If there were no humans present on this planet between the period when the Megalodon/Timingila became extinct and 250,000 years ago, how could the writers of the Vedic texts have known such things?
The scientist and scholar will have to answer this question, but for us it is simple — there have always been human beings on this planet from its very creation and the knowledge of all such things has been passed down thru the ages via the disciplic succession of gurus and disciples.