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Proposal: Hinduism

As I heard a speech about science in Hindusim yesterday, I wish other people get a brief introduction about this great ancient Indian culture and know how much it is related to science. If you are interested to know about new things, you will realize that science. This is not a religion, a scientific way of living without disturbing the nature. With my very basic knowledge I understand that there is that much amazing scientific facts behind each of the traditions in Hinduism. I am also not aware of hundreds of scientific facts behind these traditions. I hope discussing or listing some of them will be quiet useful for the users who commit to Hinduism.

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    A few years ago, I didn't have much interest in the religious matters. But through my father I came to know about some of the scientific aspects of Hindu religious beliefs. From then I developed deep interest in this great dharma. This is not a religion, a scientific way of living without disturbing the nature. Well said:)
    – TheLoneKing
    Commented Oct 17, 2013 at 19:58
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    I think we should create one answer, which contains all the useful answers in this discussion at one place.
    – DroidDev
    Commented Oct 22, 2013 at 8:05
  • Add one more tag- hinduism
    – Sudhi Sr
    Commented Nov 11, 2013 at 10:09
  • This thread has long since veered from being about the proposal process or getting this proposal launched. If the site gets created, you may be able to continue your Q&A there, but I have to close this as 'off topic' for this forum.
    – Robert Cartaino
    Commented Nov 13, 2013 at 14:18
  • The discussion is within the proposal, the discussions on answers may be veered. But it is not a reason to close the whole thing. This is to help the proposal to get supporters, it will naturally include some out of topic discussions, but in all together can't find a reason to close the thread.
    – ArhsaBharatha
    Commented Nov 17, 2013 at 19:29

8 Answers 8

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While worshiping Lord Ganesha, it is a general practice (especially in Tamilnadu) to strike the sides of the forehead. Lord Ganesha is regarded as one who gives buddhi (intelligence). Scientifically, the practice of striking the sides of forehead stimulates the nerve endings that are present there. Those nerve endings are in some way connected to the intelligence of a person. Hence that stimulation is believed to increase our intelligence. So, Lord Ganesha does give us buddhi.

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Science behind word OM

Chanting Om repeatedly clears out your lungs, increases the surface area of lungs and makes the organs that helps you in breathing more efficient.

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    You can write 'Chanting' instead of Speaking. Science behind Om (its frequency, cosmic sound, vibrations inside body) should be interesting here.
    – Pradeep S
    Commented Oct 22, 2013 at 9:13
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Why dead bodies are cremated in India?

The culture of one region is based on that region's weather conditions and nature. This is a real example of this fact. Soil in India is wet type and have more water in it. If dead bodies are buried under soil, the bio degradation take place and body fluids come out. Since the soil is wet enough, it is very much sure that those fluids will mix up with the water in soil and hence the drinking sources like wells and rivers will get polluted. This will lead to diseases. That is why 'cremation' followed in India.

Update

Also cremation helps in not wasting the land. After cremating the bodies, there is practice in which some grains or rice seeds are put in the place of cremation(It is still followed in Southern part of India, not sure about other parts). This practice is a straightforward way in pointing out the importance of agriculture in Hinduism. This is practiced to make sure that the agricultural land is not wasted. The same land is again used for agricultural purposes. So in this culture there are no cemeteries(Note:a), the same land is again used for the farming. This is written in the Smrithies(eg.for Smriti is Manusmrithi and I don't know in which specific smrithi this practice is mentioned), which contains the code of conducts to be followed by people following a culture. Each Smrithi is followed in a region for a particular period according it's nature and weather conditions. (Note:a In the present days, most of the people may not be aware of this , as the culture is not followed properly by it's all means. Also now in India the agricultural lands are converted to industrial lands massively).

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  • I think a better solution is to ban throwing garbage on the roads.
    – dimension10
    Commented Nov 9, 2013 at 7:20
  • When cremation was introduced in Sanatan Dharam, at that time garbage on roads was not a big problem. Well but now it is a problem.
    – DroidDev
    Commented Nov 11, 2013 at 9:20
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    @DIMension10: Dead bodies and garbage, both are far too different in the way they are handled. Also Sanathana dharma doesn't teach you to throw garbage in roads. Garbage is the product of modern culture which doesn't have the sense to protect the nature. There are other scientific reasons too behind the cremation, this is only one reason which I came to know recently, hope somebody will add the rest in future.
    – ArhsaBharatha
    Commented Nov 12, 2013 at 7:29
  • @arun: Oh, come on, you said "India", not "Hinduism", firstly. By the way, I am neither religious (nor completely atheist), but I do see one advantage of cremation, and that is that land is not wasted as much. I downvoted your post due to your narrow-minded confusion of "India" and "Hinduism".
    – dimension10
    Commented Nov 12, 2013 at 10:03
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    @DIMension10: "the culture of one region is based on that region's weather conditions and nature", may be you see hinduism only as a religion, but my point of discussion is on a CULTURE, not on a RELIGION. So here the discussed region is India,where the culture Sanathana Dharma is followed and also originated.
    – ArhsaBharatha
    Commented Nov 13, 2013 at 3:23
  • I forgot to mention about your point, 'not wasting the land', completely agree with you on that and have updated answer.Thanks for the point.
    – ArhsaBharatha
    Commented Nov 13, 2013 at 7:24
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I'm very happy to see people talking about to science in Hinduism, but I'm equally sad to see that Hinduism site is not getting into Beta. We're struggling to find ~400 people who're interesting in talking about Hinduism. Let's get that into Beta and share great things about Hinduism. We as a youth have responsibility to make people aware of the truth of Sanatan Dharma.

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    Before getting this into Beta we need to have a strong base with more discussion and proof from ancient original Sanskrit scriptures which we can quote whenever come across questions related to it. Hoax information must be avoided. Getting numbers to reach Beta will take time.
    – Pradeep S
    Commented Oct 22, 2013 at 9:10
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    We will wait,it's not a big deal because 1000 SE != 1/2 of the teachings of Swami Vivekanda.
    – ArhsaBharatha
    Commented Oct 24, 2013 at 15:04
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    My point was not just for increasing number of users. What I meant was that we struggle find people who are proud of being associated with Hinduism. If we can somehow spread awareness about great things of Hinduism and fill 'Asmita' (Pride) in people's heart.
    – AksharRoop
    Commented Oct 28, 2013 at 11:39
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Hinduism in modern days is only treated as a religion. In fact Hinduism is not a religion, it is said has Hindu Dharma which tells which is correct and which is not and how a person should be living to lead a happy life.
And regarding the scientific aspect of Hinduism, its there in every aspect followed. For an example turmeric is pasted at entrance of the door to see that unwanted bacteria does not enter the room. This is only a very basic example I give.

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    To be very precise, it is Sanathana Dharma which formed the Hinduism.
    – TheLoneKing
    Commented Oct 17, 2013 at 19:55
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    The extensive usage of neem products in religious rituals also serves similar purposes.
    – TheLoneKing
    Commented Oct 17, 2013 at 20:00
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    Similar example can be seen in villages where cow(indigenous breed) dung is sprinkled and spread over the surface in front of their house. This will also avoid harmful bacteria thriving around the house. Cow-dung as it is now scientifically proven, has high anti-bacterial properties and it protects from harmful radiations.
    – Pradeep S
    Commented Oct 22, 2013 at 6:14
  • The name which we are calling 'Sanatan Dharma' actually means 'very ancient culture', The 'Hindu' is given to set of people with similar beliefs in devas, and usual followers of 'Bhagwat Geeta', and the vedas and upnishads. Sanatan Dharma is same as Hinduism, the only difference being it was named Hinduism by the Mughals. And its treated as a religion but its not, its a set of teachings for more better life. Religion is for set of people with same ideology but we can see a lot of diversity within 100Kms.
    – K Cloud
    Commented Nov 4, 2013 at 21:22
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I always viewed our Dharma as source knowledge be it astronomy, mathematics, physics, chemistry, metallurgy, grammar, medicine etc. Every ancient scripture has hidden knowledge of science. I never refer to any westerner's translated books because they have that straight translation (like Google translate) which looses its meaning. So the modern world does not know this and blame our scriptures as source of blind beliefs.

So in order to let the world know what science is hidden in our Dharma, first of we should stop "copy paste" stuff from Google. Instead we should look at the original Sanskrit scripture and find the exact quote which gives a solid proof to all people. There are number of amateurs who have done some kind of research on some areas of Sanatana Dharma and have shown amazing knowledge of our ancient saints. I will definitely contribute from my side and ask others to do the same.

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    I totally agree with you. There is no need to get the stuff from google or wikipedia to understand the Sanathana dharma. But we can share our knowledge which was shared by people through speeches and classes related to Sanathana dharma. I can assure that what I answered here is not from any online resources, I happened to attend a class on "Shodasa Samskara"(16 samsakra) where I got these informations from.
    – ArhsaBharatha
    Commented Oct 22, 2013 at 3:53
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    And in order to know other people that such sanskrit scriptures exists and those scriptures contains valuable info, we must have discussions on that and share some examples.
    – ArhsaBharatha
    Commented Oct 22, 2013 at 4:50
  • @arun: The reason why I said that we should stop copy-paste is I have seen several hoax or fake data trying to prove that hindus have invented this and that long before other civilization etc.. This will not be convincing and hence we, youngsters should check all the ancient scriptures available and then bring out the proof to the audience. And the idea of listing ancient scriptures is good but it might take huge effort to list and give sufficient links to the original text !
    – Pradeep S
    Commented Oct 22, 2013 at 6:07
  • @PradeepS Agreed, we should have facts ready. I've always been hearing that we had invented airplane much before wright brothers, but never heard Who did it. Recently I was reading about Science in Hinduism and found that it was Bhardwaj Rishi who wrote Vaimanik Shashtra on this.
    – AksharRoop
    Commented Oct 22, 2013 at 6:36
  • @AksharRoop: Regarding aeroplane the book Vaimanika Shastra was written by Pandit Subbaraya Shastry (1866–1940) who claims that those shlokas were dictated to him by Sage Bharadwaja. This book collects all the informations on planes that could have been there in the ancient days but there is evidence as such that these planes could actually fly as it is conceptual. 'Ancient Aleiens' theorists used this topic in one of their episode but claimed that these aeroplanes lack certain aerodynamic functions.
    – Pradeep S
    Commented Oct 22, 2013 at 9:07
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The 'Shankh' which we embark in our festivals and poojas, has a sound of OM ommitting through it, and through becomes a reason for most of the bacterial killer.

Same there is a lot'f science in the Trishul connected at the top of the Mandirs, this is connected to a pot below, which imprints Jal on holy ShivLing.

Even there is a science in why you should join your hands while praying. You are very much correct about science in it, all the vedas are science books, having a vast knowledge about Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Mathematics, so vast that they are very much popular between modern scientist, who are regularly following them for there new experiments, or actually copying them with some proofs, to patent the science to there name.

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    as a proof of popularity of our ancient knowledge among westeners, you can see the popularity of YOGA among most of them for health.
    – DroidDev
    Commented Nov 11, 2013 at 9:15
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Science of life: Ayurveda

Ayurveda has an important role in the scientific aspect of Sanathana Dharma. It is derived from Vedas.Ayurveda can be defined as a system, which uses the inherent principles of nature, to help maintain health in a person by keeping the individual's body, mind and spirit in perfect equilibrium with nature.

Ayurveda is a Sanskrit term, made up of the words "ayus" and "veda." "Ayus" means life and "Veda" means knowledge or science. The term "ayurveda" thus means 'the knowledge of life' or 'the science of life'.

The first surgery in the history of medical field was done by Ayurveda practitioners long time ago. This traditional medicines will out weigh the modern medicines in treating many diseases. It also includes the daily routines to be followed to live long with a healthy body and mind. As the medicines are made from nature, there will be no side effects in the body. Please add more points or examples .

See the proposal: Ayurveda

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