Hey Sufimaster,
A bit long, but this is a good place to start:
Title: TOWARDS UNIFICATION OF MODERN SCIENCE AND INDIAN
ANCIENT SCIENCE
By: D. N. Srivastava, Control Instrumentation Division
Source: Bhabha atomic Research Center
URL: http://www.barc.ernet.in
Introduction
Science is a secular discipline. Here the term secular
has to be taken in its broadest sense. This means that
the scientific study of the nature is not dependent upon
any particular nation, race, colour of the people,
geography, religion, social customs, ways of living,
language, and the era. Thus the scientific exploration of
nature may be expressed in different languages, in
different terminology, in different systems of
measurements. But internally the laws pertaining to a
given aspect of nature have to be equivalent. From
this point of view, really one cannot classify Western
science or Indian science, modern science or ancient
science. But because of long separations of time and
distance between the two groups of humanity
exploring nature and expressing in different ways, a
distinction of modern science and Indian ancient
science is appropriate. When we talk of modern science,
it means the science that evolved in the West after
the renaissance. And when we talk of ancient science, it
means the science evolved in India prior to the
arrival of Britishers.
The Problem of Communication
The initial writings of modern science were mostly in
Greek and Latin. But subsequently English language
picked up the field of scientific writing. And now,
although scientific articles and books are written in
Russian, French, German, Japanese, and Chinese, the bulk
of the scientific literature is in English, and
reliable translations of important works from other
languages into English are readily available.
But Indian ancient science was written mostly in
Sanskrit. Works of Buddhists were written in Pali. A
great
deal of books were burnt in the mediaeval period.
Whatever is available, raises question of authenticity.
Sanskrit grammar, though systematic, is found difficult
by novices, the conceptual meaning of many words
have changed over the millennia, and many times the
authors have deliberately written in a style such that
the apparent meaning of the text is different from the
hidden scientific meaning. Sage Veda Vyas says in the
beginning of Mahabharat (Adi-Parva, 1st Chapter, 80-81,
published by Gita Press, Gorakhpur) that in this
book 8,800 Shlokas are such that their real meaning was
known to him and Sukdeo, and it was doubtful
whether Sanjay knew them or not.
In Mahabharat this point has been clearly stated but in
respect of many other books it is implied.
Commentators and translators have added more confusion
than enlightenment. Students studying ancient
literature in Gurukul through Sanskrit medium do not
understand modern science, and students studying
modern science in colleges and universities are not
familiar with ancient concepts and vocabulary. The
result is that these two noble fields of human endeavour
have remained in water tight compartments.
But, with all these limitations, now enthusiasts need not
be disappointed. There are two guidelines in
deciphering Indian ancient science; first of all, a
conviction that a view of nature from one point always
compliments the view from another point, and secondly,
the description of any scientific principle involves
some patterns of concepts, symbols, and logic. If we try
to penetrate deeper, then the intended meaning of
the author becomes apparent. For example, Panini while
defining vowels short (Hraswa), long (Deergha),
and very long (Plut) says, “According to the time taken
in ?oo?, any vowel is short, long or very long”
(Astadhyayi 1.2.27). But what is this sound ?oo? and what
is the measure of time, is not described
throughout the Astadhyayi. In fact this refers to the
Cock-a-doodle-doo (Kuk-roo-koo). Here the three
vowel sounds are- short ?u? in ?ku-?, long in ?-roo-?,
and very long in the last ?-koo?.
Empowered with these two techniques, it is possible to
decipher many secrets of Indian ancient science of
relevance to the present age. Some concepts of the Indian
ancient sciences pertaining to different branches
of knowledge are interpreted in accordance with modern
concepts in the following sections.
The Different Routes of Modern Science and Indian Ancient
Science
There is one very fundamental difference between the
routes adopted by modern science for the exploration
of nature, and that adopted in ancient India. These
routes have evolved due to different climatic conditions
in the West and India. The main feature of the Western
climate is that their environmental temperature is
much lower than the human body temperature. This made
life difficult there and needed plenty of food,
strong house, many layers of clothing and other warming
material. In such a situation, arises a basic
question: given difficult conditions, how to make
survival easier. This drew their attention to study
space,
light and matter. Modern science starts from geometry
from the time of Pythagoras to Euclid; then study of
light by Newton, Huygen, and others; then comes atomic
theory. This space-light-matter route can be
called horizontal route.
The main feature of the Indian climate had been
environmental temperature close to the human body
temperature. So here necessities of life were much less.
Here the question was not how to make the survival
easier because it was already easy. Here the question
was: given easy survival, how to make life happier for
longer and longer times. Happiness is a mental phenomena.
And the state of happiness or unhappiness of
the mind is most affected by sound out of the five
senses. Hence the Indian study of nature took the route
of
time-sound-mind. This may be called vertical route.
On this route evolved the art of achieving harmony in
one’s life with times of day and night, and seasons,
development of systems of vocal and instrumental music,
detailed study of sound or phonetics, research on
sound patterns and finer study of mind through Yoga. The
basic concepts of the two routes are quite
different. Even if the same language is used to describe
them, the descriptions that will emerge will not have
many common points. This difference has been the basic
cause of wide gap between the two sciences.
However, in spite of these major differences, one should
not forget that the apparently sophisticated
structure of any branch of knowledge is built upon small
number of basic principles. And one basic
principle of nature is related to another basic principle
in some subtle way, due to the inner harmony of
nature. This is an article of scientific faith, about
which Einstein says, “Without the belief in the inner
harmony of our world, there could be no science. This
belief is and always will remain the fundamental
motive for all scientific creation.”
So the path of unification of the two sciences can be
found through the fundamental principles. We have to
sort out the fundamental principles of the modern science
on one side and comprehend what order or
regularity of nature they describe. Similarly the
fundamental principles of the Indian ancient science have
to
be sorted out, and they have to be put up into precise
axiomatic language, and the order of nature they
point to, has to be found. By the correlation of these
orders, one can hope to bridge the gap between the
two.
Logic
Modern logic, as founded by Aristotle, is based on three
laws of thought: principle of identity (A is A),
principle of contradiction (A cannot both be B and not
B), and the principle of excluded middle (A either is,
or is not, B). Although these three principles are like
statements of facts of common experience, they have
exceptions according to Indian philosophies and logic.
They are not universally true. When applied to the
ultimate reality of Vedanta, only the first principle
holds, the other two breakdown. This is because the
properties of that reality are stated as conjunction of
two contradictory statements such as smaller than the
smallest and bigger than the biggest.
Here it may be added that, though modern logic or
mathematics do not accept contradictions, Physics does
accept some apparent contradictions specially in
non-classical mechanics. This is well illustrated by the
dual (wave-particle) nature of quantum particles.
Accepting the necessity of coexistence of certain
contradictions, Niels Bohr states, “If you have a correct
statement, then the opposite of a correct statement
is, of course, an incorrect statement, a wrong statement.
But when you have a deep truth, then the opposite
of a deep truth may again be a deep truth”.
Now in this respect, modern logic and Vedanta can be
reconciled with a general statement, “If X is true
under a set of specifications Y, then there has to be
another set of specifications Y? under which -X is true.
The difference between Y and Y? goes on decreasing as we
approach the fundamental; and in respect of the
limit of the ultimate reality, the difference between Y
and Y? vanishes so that X and -X are true under the
same specifications.”
Mathematics
The science of mathematics starts from counting of
numbers. The present versatile system of decimal
numbers needed two fundamental discoveries: the concept
of zero and the principle of place value in
powers of the radix. And both of these were discovered in
India. The place value system made the
sexagesimal numbers of Babylonians obsolete (its only
remains are 1 hour=60 minutes, and 1 minute=60
seconds). And now the Roman numbers are also getting
gradually replaced by Arabic numerals on the
place value pattern. The present numerals are called
Arabic not because they were invented in Arab but
because Indian things had to go via Arabian countries to
Europe.
Similar to these two concepts, there is a very
fundamental concept of infinity. In modern mathematics,
infinity has been taken as an infinite extension of large
numbers. The symbol ¥ for infinity was introduced by
John Wallis (1616-1703) in seventeenth century, in
connection with the summation of non-ending series.
The logical definition of infinity was given by Cantor
(1845-1918) in the nineteenth century in connection
with his theory of transfinite numbers. Now the
mathematical definition of infinity is that it is a set
which has
one to one correspondence with a proper subset of itself.
In India, the concept of infinity was given deep
attention in ancient times. It was found that infinity is
not just
a number but it is as tangible as any reality of general
experience, and many of its properties were
enumerated. In mathematical language, it can be defined
as a universal set which is a proper subset of its
every proper subset. Modern mathematics may enrich itself
by working out the implications of such a
definition of infinity.
Phonetics
Very extensive work was done in the science of phonetics
in ancient India, and finer shades of sounds
produced in the pronunciation were standardized. The
entire Panini?s Shiksha and most of his grammar is
phonetics only. However, in the West, the science of
phonetics came up only recently. The application of
sound recording systems and techniques of observing vocal
organs in action through X-rays, have given a
good deal of clarity to its concepts. The Indian ancient
phonetics can benefit significantly if it employs some
modern concepts and terminology. For example, many
ancient Acharyas struggle with words to define what
is Udatta vowel, and Un-Udatta vowel. Their round- about
definitions do not accurately communicate what
they intend. Following modern terminology, we can define
simply that Udatta is high frequency vowel sound
and Un-Udatta is low frequency vowel sound.
Similarly in Shastriya Sangeet, the relations of Saptak
and the change of sound from sa to ni can be more
clearly explained as ascending frequency in geometric
progression; and the various Tals can be described
as chrono-patterns of sound pulses with partial symmetry.
Such applications of modern scientific
terminology, instead of the vague and round-about old
descriptions, can simplify the comprehension of
this valuable Indian ancient art which also has
scientific foundations.
The unification of Indian ancient science of Phonetics
with modern information theory and the binary
computer logic has led this author to evolve the Phonetic
Number System of radix 128 with mono-sound
numerals and word-like numbers. Based on this system, a
merely six digit self-checking Phonetic Code,
pronounced though six soft sound characters, can identify
about 6000 crore population, uniquely and
perpetually.
Metaphysics and Philosophy
In modern times, the subject of philosophy is considered
to be speculation into the unseen and mostly
unknown or unknowable. It has very little concern with
tangible things of relevance. But in ancient India,
philosophy (Darshan) was treated at par with science. Its
study was supposed to give clear vision of life and
nature as a whole, leading to a more coherent theoretical
knowledge and harmonious practical living. The
culmination of Indian philosophy is said to be Vedanta.
Its sources are Brahma Sutras, Bhagavad Gita,
Upanishads, and the voluminous book Yoga Vasishtha.
Vedanta claims to have reached such a high state
of unification of nature beyond which no further
unification is possible.
In physics, unified theories, with tremendous efforts,
have got only partial success in unifying some forces
of nature. In this background, it may be asked if the
ideal of Vedanta, the highest state of unification, is
ever
achievable. Such an objection can be circumvented by
redefining Vedanta, that it is Asymptote to
Knowledge. It describes that most fundamental concept
towards which all the basic concepts of various
branches of knowledge approach and meet at infinity. But
that state of unification can be intuitively grasped
in a finite life-span. It is like the asymptote to an
open curve which is tangent to the curve at infinity but
remains at a finite distance from the origin.
Much of the confusion in Vedanta, employing mostly
contradictory statements, can be removed by
developing it as an axiomatic theory starting from a
single postulate. In respect of its relation with the
empirical world, Vedanta is supported by Sankhya. It
represents the practical limit of unification in terms of
two basic elements: Consciousness (Chetan) and Inertness
(Jada). These two concepts make it possible to
design binary computerizable models of basic physical or
metaphysical entities.
The interrelationship of these concepts has a good deal
of analogy with the modern field theory. There is
one basic abstract field of the ultimate entity which has
two states, consciousness and inertness. These
different states behave as two distinguishable entities.
Their interplay has dispersed as well as localized
aspect. Its dispersed aspect is mind, and the localized
aspect is body-consciousness. The system is
incessantly dynamic and is represented by repetitions of
many processes. Analogous to this is the
electromagnetic field which has two kinds of forces:
electrical and magnetic. Its dispersed aspect is
undulations of wave and localized aspect is photon which
is always dynamic. Now arises a question,
whether photons have consciousness? However, experiments
done in the University of Denver, Colorado,
to test this have remained inconclusive.
Life Sciences
The evolution of life from inorganic matter, as
conjectured by modern science, is that in the primordial
earth, the lightening discharges in the atmosphere
consisting of nitrogen, water vapour, and
carbon-dioxide, produced organic molecules such as amino
acids and nucleotides. Peptides (proteins)
were formed from the amino acids which had catalytic
properties and could perform several synthetic
functions. From the nucleotides, Ribonucleic acids (RNA)
were first formed. Even today some living
systems like HIV, have RNA as their genetic material.
Later on Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) which
constitutes the genetic material in all cellular forms of
life, was formed. Deoxyribose sugar in the nucleic
acid gave a greater stability to the living system. This
was an important milestone in the evolutionary
process. From the primordial soup consisting of nucleic
acids and proteins, unicellular organisms were
evolved. They acted like seed for multi-cellular
organisms and higher species. But what is that inner
force
which ultimately designs the life pattern of childhood,
adolescence, old age and death, reproduction,
metabolism, urge for survival, love for beauty etc,
remains a mystery.
According to the Indian ancient science, in the field of
consciousness, there are many levels. Every material
system, whether apparently living or non-living, is at
some level of consciousness. The so- called
inanimate matter occupies the lowest level at which there
is a very small zero-point consciousness. The
direction of evolution is towards higher and higher
freedom. Its manifestation starts from freedom of
movement, and culminates in the freedom of selection of
one?s own destiny.
The ancient and modern views can be reconciled if the
randomness in physical systems arising due to
energy-time uncertainty relation of quantum mechanics, is
interpreted as expression of inner freedom. In
fact, such ideas were discussed in the early days of
quantum mechanics. However, they remained
undeveloped.
The most important thing in this respect is that to
explain higher freedom of living systems, a multiplier
freedom factor has to be introduced with the Planck?s
constant in the energy-time uncertainty relation
such that its value is unity for physical systems, and
very high for biological systems. Investigation of
dynamics of such a system may explain the basic features
of life.
Medical Sciences
Modern traditional medical science studies the physical
and chemical patterns in a large number of people
and makes a broad standard for healthy people. For
example, after the measurement of the blood pressure
of large number of people, a broad standard can be made.
Ailments are associated with departure from
these standards, and they can be corrected by appropriate
physical and/or chemical means.
According to Indian medical science, called Ayurveda,
life is a dynamical system in which in the healthy
state, there is a harmony of many chemical and physical
processes. The number of these processes have
been broadly classified into three called Dosh: Kaph,
Pitta, and Vata. Every food and eatable can be
classified into many categories depending upon which Dosh
or combination of Doshas, it decreases or
increases or maintains in balance. The symptoms of
disease indicate which of the Doshas have increased or
decreased. The administration of the compensating remedy
gives the cure. Ayurveda claims to have
discovered the basic principles of many other systems of
treatment like allopathy, homeopathy,
acupuncture, etc. But these systems were not developed to
higher levels in ancient India.
The surgery described by Dhanvantari and Sushrut has
become obsolete with the advent of sophisticated
tools and equipment in modern surgery. But the basic
principles of Ayurveda hold. They are like
phenomenological theory of matter. For example, the
mechanical and thermal properties like elasticity,
density, specific heat, etc of gold are determined by the
atomic structure of gold atoms. But a goldsmith
need not go into all these details. For him the bulk
properties are sufficient to make a beautiful ornament.
In
the same way, simplifying all the chemical process of the
body in terms of increase, decrease, or balance of
three Doshas suffices to restore health in a large number
of cases. That is why the medical formulations of
Charak Samhita still have relevance. But, in the light of
changed environment, many of the ancient
formulations need verification and standardization.
However, Ayurvedic thumb rules for longevity and good
health have withstood the test of time.
Cosmology
Modern theoretical cosmology begins with the application
of general relativity to the universe as a whole by
Einstein in 1917. The experimental cosmology begins with
observation of red shift, proportional to distance,
in the light of galaxies by Hubble in 1929. The red shift
has been explained in terms of Doppler?s shift of
receding galaxies. This explanation means that the
universe is expanding isotropically. It implies that if
we
go backwards in time, then the universe was smaller, and
at a certain time, the entire mass energy was
concentrated at a point. G. Gamow in 1946 postulated that
the universe was not only smaller but also hotter
in the past. In the point like state, the temperature was
infinite. With a sudden big bang, the energy was
thrown out which subsequently led to the formation of
stars and galaxies. What was prior to big bang,
cannot be answered by physics.
To eliminate the big bang singularity, a steady state
cosmology was put forward by Bondi and Gold in 1948,
in which it was postulated that the universe has been
like this all the time. But to maintain a constant
density of matter in spite of the expansion, creation of
matter as hydrogen atom into free space was
postulated. A comprehensive C-field cosmology and a new
theory of gravitation was developed by Fred
Hoyle and J. V. Narlikar.
However, the steady state cosmology, though
intellectually satisfying, did not satisfactorily explain
the
cosmic background radiation, predicted earlier by G.
Gamow, and experimentally detected by Penzias and
Wilson in 1965. Since then the steady state cosmology has
gone into oblivion. The present standard
cosmology is that of the hot big bang. It explains three
main cosmological observations: receding galaxies,
thermal background radiation, and nucleosynthesis of
light elements. But suffers from the problem of
singularity and many other inconsistencies.
Turning to the Indian ancient view on this subject,
Mahabharat says (Adi-Parva, 1st Chapter, 40-41): “This
beginningless and endless time cycle (Kal-Chakra) moves
externally like a perpetual flow in which beings
take birth and die but there is never birth or death for
this. The creation of gods is briefly indicated as
thirty-three thousand, thirty-three hundred, and thirty-
three.”
Again in Mahabharat itself, Bhagwad Gita describes a
cyclic universe as (VIII-18): “All embodied beings
emanate from the Unmanifest at the commencement of
Brahma?s day; at the commencement of his night,
they merge in the same subtle body of Brahma, known as
the Unmanifest.”
These and many other statements imply that the Indian
ancient view is that the universe is eternal as well as
of finite age. The inference depends upon the point of
view of the observer. If one observes the universe as
a contemporary observer, then on the whole the universe
is found to be like this only. But, if it is explored
archaeologically, then it will be found to have a
beginning at a point of time. Hence a unified cosmology,
integrating the essential elements of steady state and
big bang cosmologies, conforms better with the
Indian view.
In ancient India, this integration was achieved by the
concept two extra time-like dimensions. Thus the
universe is a six dimensional continuum of three space,
one time, and two time-like dimensions. This
concept gives a logical symbol for the universe: that is
two interpenetrating triangles. This figure has been
verbally indicated in the above statement of Mahabharat
that the creation is briefly indicated as thirty-three
thousand, thirty-three hundred, thirty-three. Six times
repetitions of three is the indirect technique of
communication of Ved Vyas. The 5th and 6th dimensions
have been called Chittakash and Chidakash in
Yogavasishtha. The six dimensional universe represents
higher symmetry in the two basic extensions of
nature, space and time.
Physics
The physical world, consisting of matter in solid,
liquid, and gaseous forms, moving in space and time, is
the most tangible of all objective realities. For the
present discussion, it suffices to take only two aspects
of
the physical world: constituents of matter and motion of
matter. The ultimate constituents of matter are
elementary particles whose motion is described by quantum
mechanics. For the motion of matter in larger
scale, classical mechanics is quite sufficient. The
essential differences between them is that whereas
classical mechanics is deterministic, quantum mechanics
is probabilistic.
In classical mechanics, there is a concept of thing in
itself. A classical particle moves in its own strictly
determined path, whether observed or not. The behaviour
of a quantum particle is dependent on the
observer and method of observation. For the classical
particle, velocity of light is the limit for action at a
distance. Quantum particle, under some conditions, can
interact with another particle instantly. A classical
particle is always localised, has well defined position
and velocity. Quantum particle has dual nature of
particle and wave. There is a probability that the
quantum particle before observation existed anywhere in
the universe, and actualises at a point just at the
moment of observation. If a quantum system has multiple
states, then one observed state is realised in our world,
others are realised in many other worlds.
The Indian ancient view classifies the visible world into
five elements: space, light or fire, and three states of
matter (solid, liquid, and gas) represented by earth,
water, and air. They are related to five senses and their
five subtle forms called Tanmatra through a process
called Panchikaran. Everything, irrespective of size
and shape, has besides its physical body, a subtle body
which is a bundle of abstract qualities and exists
conceptually in the non-physical space called Chittakash.
The subtle body in the Chittakash behaves like
mind, and is free from many limitations of the physical
space.
It is obvious to see many conceptual analogies in the two
views of matter at the fundamental level. In
quantum mechanics, the dynamics of a system is conceived
in the abstract Hilbert space; in ancient India, it
was conceived in the abstract Chittakash. Near the limit
of fineness, inferences of the horizontal route
(space-light-matter) and the vertical route
(time-sound-mind) come very close to each other. Some
experimental investigation into the interrelation of
consciousness, mind, matter and light have been
reported from Princeton University, Standford University
(California), and University of Denver (Colorado).
Chemistry
The science of chemistry in India has been a great
sufferer due to the destruction of the Indian ancient
literature. The long heavy iron pillar near the Kutub
Minar at Delhi, standing in the sunshine and rain for
more than about 2000 years without getting rusted, is
ample proof that chemistry and metallurgy were
sufficiently advanced in ancient India. Similarly, the
long and heavy statue of Buddha in the lying pose at
Kushinagar near Gorakhpur, which still shines like gold
in spite of remaining buried for many centuries, is a
challenge to metallurgy. Similarly, many other monuments
also hide great chemical secrets.
Much of the chemical knowledge is empirical rather then
deductive. This is true of modern chemistry as
well. Hence simply knowing a few basic principles is not
enough to arrive at the process of producing the
desired material. The actual method has to be either
rediscovered, or may possibly be found in some
hidden literature after extensive and minute survey.
Military Science
The biggest loss of ancient skills have been in the field
of military science. The main reason for this loss was
perhaps the Mahabharat war. There was so much loss of
life in that war that people became allergic to
things related to war. A large number of warriors were
killed. Those who survived were demoralized. Almost
the entire war skills, which needed regular practice and
refinement, died out. Now we can get only very
superficial descriptions of those weapons from Ramayan
and Mahabharat which are basically literary works,
and not scientific.
The weapons of ancient India can be put up into three
broad categories. First is that of conventional
weapons like swords, spears, bows and arrows, etc. Being
simple, they survive to this age. The second were
explosive based, delivered either through some projective
system, or other means. They were called
Agniban. The third were super weapons called Brahmastra,
etc. Brahmastra was a sure hit weapon from
which there was no escape. It had to be used in the
rarest of the rare circumstances.
Brahma means creator of the universe. In the context of
the war, it indicates a weapon designed through the
knowledge of the creation of matter. According to
Yogashashtra and some other writings, every particle of a
block of matter is being incessantly created and
dissolved. In between two occasions of creation, it
remains
momentarily in Chittakash in its subtle form. There its
properties are more mind-like. Hence it can be acted
upon by the mind of an aspirant provided it can go to
that subtle state at which the matter particle has
reached.
In any lump of inorganic matter, the creation and
annihilation of particles is random. By mental command,
they can be brought into coherence. The coherent lump can
behave as a single quantum particle. With the
coherence, all the constituent particles of the lump are
created or annihilated simultaneously. They go to
the Chittakash, and appear in the physical space,
collectively. When they are in the mental form in
Chittakash, they can be induced to have their next
appearance in the physical space at the desired location,
may be the body of an enemy. This travelling of the lump
of matter is through non-physical space, so
physical obstructions of walls and bunkers or long
distances are no protection against this weapon.
Quantum teleportation recently reported by some
physicists, is the nearest analogue to the working of
Brahmastra. It is speculated by physicists that perhaps
quantum teleportation may be the ultimate process
in the control of dynamics of matter. However, so far the
technique of quantum teleportation has reached
the level of transmitting only states of photon. But even
that has generated much excitement among
physicists and has become a hot topic of research. It is
anticipated to have applications in developing
extremely fast computers, and communication of secured
information making eaves dropping almost
impossible.
In ancient India, some similar process seems to have been
realised to the level of transmitting bigger
masses through the phenomena of matter coherence. Just as
coherence of electromagnetic waves
produces very powerful laser light with unusual
properties, in the same way coherence of matter can
produce objects with unusual properties.
Conclusions
This brief comparative survey of the fundamental
principles of modern science and Indian ancient science
shows that the two are neither contradictory nor
incompatible. The difference lies mainly in their
vocabulary, interpretation, methods of approach, and
levels of development. Much of the confusion and
inconsistencies of the Indian ancient science can be
removed by introducing more appropriate modern
terms with precise definitions. Modern science can also
hasten its progress by accepting some of the
concepts of Indian ancient science. Such a unified
science can eliminate many tortuous rediscoveries of
facts already known in some form or the other. In this
context, the words of Werner Heisenberg are quite
assuring: “It is probably true quite generally that, in
the history of human thinking, the most fruitful
developments frequently take place at those points where
two different lines of thought meet. These lines
may have their roots in quite different parts of human
culture, in different times or different cultural
environments or different religious traditions; hence if
they actually meet, that is, if they are at least so
much related to each other that a real interaction can
take place, then one may hope that new and
interesting developments will follow”.