Upanishads Vs Science

Meeta asks me to tell more about how the Upanishads' gyan would be tomorrow's science, as stated in the movie Banaras.

Some people may have wrongly interpreted it to be my mere enthusiam towards Upnishads and now, fotunately for me, Meeta gives me the chance to explain.


I am going to introduce you to the first Shloka of
Ishavasya Upanishad, which is a kind of prayer, to demonstrate the deep understanding of the creators of Upanishads.Even though they must have lacked the research facilities of today to be able to make statements on their understanding of the creation, the Shloka clearly demonstrates their ability to have been able to overcome their limitations, by ways unfamiliar to us today, and understand the truth that we yet struggle to comprehend.


purnamadah purnamidam purnaat purnamudachyate
purnasya purnaamadaya purnameva vashishyate.

There was this Englishman, who was something of a scholar, asked a pundit to teach him the Upanishads. The pundit, agreeing, began the course of study with Ishavasya Upanishad, the text traditionally studied first by a new student. The text begins with the prayer verse: "Om purnamadah purnamidam….."

The pundit carefully translated the opening verse into English:

That is whole; this is whole;
From that whole this whole came;
From that whole, this whole removed,
What remains is whole.

The Englishman stopped his study at that point and did not go
further! He said that the Upanisads are the "prattlings of an
infantile mind."

The incident was not very unlike the movie Banaras. If you look at the mere surface and make a judgment, it too is “"prattling of an infantile mind."


The first two lines of the verse reads:

Purnam adah - completeness is I, the subject Atma, whose truth is
Brahman ("Soundles, touchless, colourless, immutable and also tasteless, timefree,odourless is that (which is Brahman)

Purnam idam - completeness is all objects, all things known

purnat - from (adah) purnam, completeness, which is limitless
Brahman, the content of aham-I, the efficient and material cause of
creation;

purnam - (idam) purnam, completeness, which is the known and
knowable objects comprising the world, idam jagat, the effect called
creation;

udacyate - comes forth.

Purnasya purnam AdAya - taking away purnam from purnam, adding
purnam to purnam
Puruam eva avashishyate - purnam alone remains



I am Purnam. ( Aham Brahashmi)

The reality of I is limitless purnam. I, as the observer of a stone, am
but an appearance, no more real than the stone I see. In reality I
am limitlessness alone, one nondual existent boundless consciousness -
purnam. Subject and object are nothing but passing projections
superimposed upon I; they neither add to I, nor take anything away
from I. I, unconnected to any appearance, am the one unchanging,
non-negatable formless reality - Purnam - into which all appearances
resolve.

I am Purnam, completeness, a brimful ocean, which nothing disturbs.
Nothing limits me. I am limitless. Waves appear to
dance upon my surface but are only forms of me, briefly manifest.
They do not disturb or limit me. They are my glory - my fullness
manifest in the form of waves. Though the Waves may seem
to be many and different but I know them as appearances only; they
impose no limitation upon me - their agitation is but my fullness
manifest as agitation; they are my glory, which resolves in me.

In me, the brimful ocean, all resolves. I, Purnam, completeness, alone
remain.

To be continued...




(ref: Swami Dayanand Sarswati's commentary)