Untold Vedic Culture: Vedic Culture, #1

Untold Vedic Culture: Scientific Description of Main Concepts in Vedic Culture and Spirituality

P&J Publications

First Edition: Aug 2016

Second Edition: October 2020

This edition of Untold Vedic Culture (Eva and Shiva) is first published in 2020.

Author and Publisher Details

Gaurish Borkar

Teerth Towers B 903

Behind Mercedes Benz showroom

Near VIBGYOR school, Baner Pune 21

Contact details

Phone number: +91 7719926102

E-Mail Address: gaurishb@gmail.com

Web site: http://www.prosperitynjoy.com

For sale in India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Maldives only.

Not for export to other countries.

Copyright © Gaurish Borkar

All rights reserved by the author.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the author, nor be otherwise be circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent publisher.

ISBN: In the process

DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to all the spiritual masters in the past present and the future who played a key role in the evolution of this planet and almighty God, the creator of the universe.

Other books by the author of

Untold Vedic Culture: Scientific Description of Main Concepts in Vedic Culture and Spirituality

Untold Vedic Astrology: Deeper Understanding of Essential Principles in Vedic Astrology

Vedic Astrology Practitioner Manual: Exclusive Excerpts from Various Classical Texts

Untold Nakshatra Jyotish: Your Guide for Prosperous and Joyful Lifestyle

Vedic Math: Primary School Arithmetic

Vedic Math for 8th: CBSE Curriculum (2nd Edition)

Vedic and Creative Math for 7th: CBSE Curriculum

Vedic Math: Mental Math for Everyone (2nd Edition)

Mental and Creative Math for Class 2

Creative Math for Class 1

Creative Math for Class 3

Simplified Vedic Math

Yes and What’s the Purpose? : Purpose Centric Model of Lasting Change

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I HAVE BEEN STUDYING various aspects of Vedic culture for at least the last 28 years. During this period, I came across many people and learnt a lot from them. I don’t even remember all of them but certainly, remember the learnings. At a high level, I worked with the spiritual master, Ayurvedhic Vaidya (doctors), my grandfather who was a hobby astrologer and very rational person. I have also come across many spiritual texts and other texts that made me wonder so much about Vedic culture. I want to acknowledge all of them for their contribution to the evolution of Vedic culture. I also want to personally thank them for providing various ideas that I could connect. Without the contribution of so many people, this book would have been impossible. I bow in front of all of them and request their blessings.

On the Occasion of the Second Edition

IN AUG 2016 WE PUBLISHED the first edition of this book and it was named ‘Eva and Shiva’. Many of our friends expressed their inability to connect with the name of the book and suggested us to rename it.  As time passed by even we realized the challenge that our readers faced and for the second edition we decided to change the name of the book to ‘Untold Vedic Culture’. We made many changes in this book in the 2nd edition based on the feedback and added a few more chapters. All the topics are presented in the form of short essays. Even if you read 1 chapter every day, you will complete the book in a month. We request you to share your feedback on gaurishb@gmail.com and we will certainly review your valuable inputs.

1. the Purpose

YOU MIGHT HAVE FOUND many people mentioning that ancient Indians knew everything. Even though traditionally people used to accept this statement, nowadays it is being challenged with positive intent. The quest shall be responded with the same intensity to keep the learnings alive.

According to me, Indians were way ahead of modern science in certain areas that they focused on. All the sciences developed in India were around just one theme and that is human evolution. All the attempts were on various social levels and without any personal benefit. Therefore, in this book, I have attempted to connect modern researches to traditional Vedic theories.

You would wonder why human evolution was the focus of Vedic culture and here is what Lord Shree Krishna told Arjun in Bhagvadhgeetha.

{wrodatmanaa##tmaanaM naatmaanamavasaadyaota\ |

AatmaOva Hyaatmanaao banQauratmaOva irpauratmana: || 5 ||

Uddhredhathmnathmanam nathmanamavasadhyet |

Aathmayva hyathmano bandhurathmaiva ripurathmanah || 5 ||

- Bhagvadhgeetha 6

Meaning: One shall raise oneself and let not one lower oneself. One is his brother and is his enemy.

When you raise or evolve yourself, you are a brother of yourself and when you lower yourself, you are enemy of yourself. This suggests that Bhagvadhgeetha tells us to be on the path of evolution. Being on the path of evolution eliminates inner conflict. Evolution has been a theme of most religions and spiritual texts in India.

Another question that might have come to any inquisitive mind is how Indians developed sciences like Ayurvedha and Yoga that are popular even today. I have also answered that question here. All of us need to understand it first to appreciate it.

Vedhic culture is around the idea of god. Many are rejecting the idea of god nowadays whereas many more are being connected through various means. At least once, you might have got into the debate about whether God exists or not. All of us also have our concept of god. I intend to explain the idea of god in the perspective of Vedhic culture.

Indians combined all scientific learnings with the culture to make it easily reachable to everyone. Over the period, they became customs and as the rationale was not explained, nowadays they are being challenged by few. I have attempted to explain the rationale behind a few of these traditions.

Idol worship has been an integral part of Vedhic culture. The idea is also unique. There have been many questions and few objections about idol worship. I have discussed this idea at length almost throughout the book.

Most of the ancient Indian literature was developed in Savskruth. The language is very uniquely developed and I have demonstrated scientific aspects of the language.

Finally, Bhagvadhgeetha and Paathanjal Yoga Suthra have been two important spiritual texts in Vedhic culture and various spiritual groups have followed them in almost all parts of the country. I plan to connect them with certain concepts in modern science.

As I mentioned, the purpose of this book is to explain various ideas in Vedhic culture and I wish to keep it open for you to take them to the extent you wish in your life.

2. the Eva

THIS IS THE STORY OF Eva. This story is some 100 years ago. Eva was an innocent, bubbly girl from London. She spent most of her childhood in the city of London. Somehow, she did not enjoy life in cities and she wanted to try something different. Eva always loved adventures and people. She thought she should visit a calm soothing place. She was looking for something scenic and virgin. She wanted to live in some remote secluded place; something other than Europe, but beautiful. Someone suggested her to try Asia. Even she liked the idea and she decided to go on an adventurous trip to Asia.

While travelling she was deeply attracted towards India and she decided to travel each part of the country and learn more about the country. While travelling throughout the country Eva had interesting observations. The customs and traditions in every region were very different. Neither she heard about so many languages nor did she knew so many cuisines.

She wondered why this country did not have rulers who pushed their culture on the country. Why didn’t they standardize the language? Then she thought the people of this country must have spent most of the time in wars. To her surprise, many of her understandings were incorrect. She also realized that there are many common things across the country. Surprisingly people of different regions have common understanding!

Finally, she decided to increase her stay further and understand more about the country, its culture, history and almost everything.

As she learnt more, she liked India much more. To her surprise, Eva was searching for something similar. She liked India and enjoyed every moment of her travel. This book is about everything Eva learnt about India and Vedhic culture.

Eva first thought of learning from the oldest literature of the world. She knew that Mr Max Muller recorded on phonogram the first hymn ‘Agnimeele Purohitham’ from Vedha, the oldest literature of the world. She also knew that Albert Einstein said: We owe a lot to the Indians, who taught us how to count without which no worthwhile scientific discovery could have been made. She found out that British historian Grant Duff said: Many of the advances in the sciences that we consider today to have been made in Europe were made in India centuries ago. Another British Historian Dr Arnold Toynbee thought "It is already becoming clearer that a chapter which has a western beginning will have to have an Indian ending if it is not to end in the self-destruction of the human race... At this supremely dangerous moment in history, the only way of salvation for mankind is the Indian way. She somewhere read that T. S Elliot, great American poet, philosopher and Nobel Laureate said: Indian philosophers’ subtleties make most of the great European philosophers look like schoolboys". Finally, she got to know that Mark Twain said India is the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend, and the great grandmother of tradition. Our most valuable and most constructive materials in the history of man are treasured up in India only. As she was very curious about the Indian cosmology and theory of evolution that she decided to first explore more about these topics.

3. Vedic Cosmology 

COSMOLOGY IS AN INTERESTING topic. There are many theories scientists have put forth that try to explain the formation of the universe. The most popular is the big bang theory. You might realize that ancient Indians could develop accurate scientific theories so I want you to get conversant with Indian theory of cosmology.

There are many different versions in Purana and I want to stick to one that is most acceptable and mentioned across Vedhic literature. According to this theory, the universe always existed and it goes through three states, Uthpatthi (formation), Sthithi (existence) and Laya (dissolution).

As we are learning about the theory of cosmology, we shall also learn about related theoretical concepts. First is Brahma