HINDUS, BE SCIENTIFIC!

HINDUS, BE SCIENTIFIC!

The greatest threat to irrational, absolutist Abrahamic religions is science. Science will ease these religions out by the sheer power of reason and evidence. Hence, Hindus must be unreservedly scientific if they wish to combat Islam and Christianity.  

So far as Hinduism is concerned, it has nothing to fear from science. Welcome science increasingly into the chambers of the Sanatan Dharma whose pristine principles are all so very scientific, albeit relating primarily to the depths of the inner world.

And the Sanatan Dharma has contributed and can as yet contribute much to empirical science as well with its rich repertoire of rational thinking that is embedded in its scriptures. For instance, the Vedanta, the Sankhya, the Yoga and the Nyaya are four of the six schools of the Vedic Dharma which can inform and enlighten modern science much about the cosmos, its macrocosmic and microcosmic understanding, the study of existence, psychology and consciousness, the rigour of rational thinking, methods of verification and proof, and the theory of knowledge itself.

Hindus, if they wish to rise again, must welcome science in every possible way, never in a negative and destructive manner but in an affirmative way that will conduce to the growth of the system that the Sanatan Dharma is and the Hindu civilisation is. This is the surest way to defeating fanatical cults which even today hold sway over vast millions primarily because these masses are ignorant of the principles of rational reasoning along the scientific mode.

And be forewarned. Science is not all materialism today but is delving deep into the study of consciousness itself. Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism, the three great Indian dharma traditions, have much to contribute in this sphere but not Islam or Christianity which are faith-based systems with not much philosophical depth to them. Whatever philosophy they present in discourse is borrowed from the Greeks primarily whose logic and thought they have conveniently adopted to somehow prop up their failing 'philosophies'.

The European Enlightenment dealt Christianity the death-blow but Islam survived its onslaught as it fell beyond the terrain of the rational awakening of Europe. Hence, it has proliferated elsewhere since. But if Hindus take to science in a big way, sincerely and not merely to serve political ends as practising Hindu communists do, then the community will so grow in knowledge that Islam and Christianity will be vanquished within India and our enlightened spiritual civilisation dating millenia will receive a fresh lease of life that will not only invigorate the motherland but the whole world. Swami Vivekananda had, thus, exhorted the Hindus to take up the study of Sanskrit and science with utmost reverence and not in a superficial manner whose mode is to mock and method is to pursue sensual pleasures.

Hindus must adhere to high morality and pursue truth, both empirical and transcendental, if they wish to save their civilisation from the inroads of irrational cults.

Hindus, be scientific! The Sanatan Dharma is the science of the Spirit. It will flourish if science in all its depths of enquiry and analysis is practised more by the body politic of the Hindus.

Like the Sanatan Dharma is true in the spiritual realm, so is science true in the material realm. It is an integrated whole, each transiting into the other seamlessly, and artificial divisions need not be made between the two. Spirit and Matter -- these are the obverse and reverse of the same coin. Knowing this, stop brooding over your impending demise as a civilisation and start rebuilding it along spiritual-scientific lines. Embrace reason, not like a 'rational' fanatic with a political agenda to serve but like an enquirer into the true nature of things. One reasonable man armed in the scientific way of thinking can do far more to dispel the darkness of unreason among the masses who are being perverted by irrational religions than masses of unreasonable men who are attempting to win this ideological war by foul-mouthing these medieval tribal systems of absolutist thought. I reiterate, Hindus, be scientific! 🕉 

Written by Sugata Bose