19Jan2012-QA8

Guruji, there has always been a conflict between spirituality and science.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Not at all. Where is the conflict between Spirituality and Science? Spirituality begins where Science ends. The conflict hasn’t been in our country. It has only been in the western countries, where religions were against science, therefore these areas had been in conflict. In our country, we first attain the ‘Tattva Gyan’ (Metaphysics, knowledge of the essence lying under everything) and then the ‘Atma Gyan’(knowledge of the self). What is tattva? First attain the knowledge of these five tattvas; earth (prithvi), water (apa), fire(tej/ agni), air (vayu), ether (akasha), then attain the knowledge of the mind, intellect and ego, and then the knowledge of the self. It has been very systematic in India. ‘Gyan Vigyan Triptatma Kutastho Vijitendriyah, (Yukta Ity uchyate Yogi Samaloshtrashmakanchanah’: Srimad Bhagavad Gita; Chapter VI Verse 8) You should be satisfied through knowledge and science, this is the knowledge of the self. So, we have never been against science. That is why ours was a forward country. Did you know that the first plane was made in India? There is a village called Anekal near Bengaluru. There was a person named Subbaraya Sharma Shastry in that village. He was told by a saint as to how to construct a plane. He made the first diagram for the plane. Then, he went to Mumbai where he met Dadabhai Navroji who funded his plan. He flew the first plane at the Chowpatty Beach. The plane was in the air for fifteen minutes. This news was published by a newspaper in England titled, ‘First plane in space took flight from India’. Then both of them were imprisoned by the British. The British forced them to reveal the blueprint they prepared for making the plane. And thirty years later, the Wright Brothers flew the plane based on that blueprint. The flight wasn’t successful because he revealed the plan only in parts, not fully. He did not pass on the entire knowledge. The Wright brothers had to work a lot on that plan; only thirty years later did they take flight. But the fact that the first plane was flown in India is not known to Indians, and our children. They think that science has come from the west. They say, ‘Galileo was the one to find out that the Earth is spherical and revolves around the sun’. Ask our pundits (scholars), they call it ‘khagol’ and ‘bhugol’ (Bhu-Earth; Gol-Spherical); it is spherical and therefore they call it ‘bhugol’. We knew it first. The leftists who prepare the curriculum should be sent to China. They destroyed the education system of our country. And they have dashed the self-confidence of the people of our country. Our country has borne the biggest loss because of this. Nobody knows that steel was first manufactured in India. Our children are not taught this. The first surgery was performed in India. Sushruta performed the first surgery here when nobody in this world knew how to do it. We have started a website, www.bharathgyan.com ; check that website to know more about India.