By Prof PB Sharma
Much of the discussion on university education in ancient India has been centered around the glory of Takshshila and Nalanda universities. While these were undoubtedly in global prominence in the post-Buddhist era, none of them provide even a trace of what the India of ancient truly was in respect of science and technological advancement of the level that even to date remains a mystery to the modern-day scientists and technology innovators. Takshshila and Nalanda have been undoubtedly great attractions for scholars from around the world but were in no way the gateways for gauging the eminence in science and technology that great centres of Bharatvarsha of Vedic times had achieved to qualify Bharatvarsha as a Viswa Guru for deep learning and scholarship in pathbreaking science and technology innovations. The wide gap in appreciation of ancient Bharatvarsha’s science and technology prowess became even more pronounced after these centres of learning and scholarship of post Buddhist era got destroyed by foreign invaders and looters for whom learning and scholarships were the arch enemies of their lust and greed.
Ramayanik and Mahabharata Era of Advanced Science and Technology of Glorious Ancient Bharat
The glory of scientifically advanced and technologically empowered ancient Bharat would require us to go back as far as the Ramayanik and Mahabharata times to get the glimpses of super-science and mind boggling technology innovations that the centres of education in science and technology, that the universities of ancient Bharat had accomplished then. The ashramas of Vishvamitra where Lord Rama along with brother Laxmana was mentored and trained by Maharishi Vishvamitra in super-science of ‘mind to mind connectivity’ and it’s applications for firing of the lethal missiles like Brahmashtra and Agniashtras from remote locations by simply recalling in mind the secret digital codes of these weapons. What more, as mentioned by Goswami Tulsidas in Ramcharitmanas, one fine morning on completion of the internship, Maharishi Vishvamitra asked Lord Rama to sit in front of him some eighteen inches away and transferred these secret digital codes for firing lethal weapons using the most advanced communication technology, namely, the mind to mind connectivity, similar to the modern day blue tooth transmission of data and files from one computer to another. This came in handy to Lord Rama during the war with Ravana in firing missiles from remote locations that were devastating to demon king Ravana as described in the narration of the Rama- Ravana war.
Similarly, the ashramas of Sandeepni in Ujjaini where Lord Krishna studied with Sudama and the Dronacharya Ashram in Gurugram where Pandavas were trained by great guru Dronacharya, were, in fact, great centers of education in advanced science and technology of the order that is yet to be scaled by modern sciences, given great capabilities of scientific research and technology innovations that we have today in the era of AI and Smart and intelligent machines and devices.
Ridiculing the Indian Science Congress as a Circus was a Grave Mistake of the Modern Scientific Community
In a recent article in Nature in May 2024 on Brain Reading devices for decoding the internal speech of the brain, it is reported that “Scientists have developed brain implants that can decode internal speech — identifying words that two people spoke in their minds without moving their lips or making a sound”. It is, in fact, the beginning of catching the thoughts and what is in the mind of a person well before these are communicated in the form of speech or other forms of communication.
The present Brain Reading device is still not near to what Telepathy, the mind to mind connectivity could do as a super science but a step in the direction of making mind to mind communication possible one day through modern scientific advancements.
Telepathy and other Vedic sciences were ridiculed by some, including a Nobel Laureate of science, way back in 2016, when the grand display of Vedic sciences including Ayurveda and Vedic Mathematics were presented at the Indian Science Congress in 2016. The Nobel Laureate of Science present at the Indian Science Congress dismissed these Vedic sciences as non-science and even went on to describe the Indian Science Congress as a Circus!
In a subsequent seminar by the same Nobel Laureate in Delhi, the ridicule to Vedic sciences was further voiced and India’s love for Vedic sciences was labelled as “Placebo Effect”. I remember questioning the Nobel Laureate by saying that “if the present day science is unable to explain telepathy, or Vedic Mathematics it does not mean that telepathy is no science and Vedic Mathematics has no scientific foundation. Maybe the current science is not yet advanced enough to replicate the mind-to-mind connectivity for person-to-person communication that telepathy provides”. I even mentioned that young innovators at Amity University Gurugram at that time had put together a device using micropulse sensors and telemetry to transmit without wire, brain signals that allowed gestures to be replicated from one person to another without looking at each other. But for those who dismiss the Vedic sciences as no science, it made great headlines to destroy the credibility of the Indian Science Congress that was established by no one less than the greatest of the great scientists of India namely, the Nobel Laureate CV Raman whose love for science for decoding the mysteries of nature enabled him to discover ‘Raman Effect’ that till date continues to empower modern scientists with scientific tools and devices to unearth the secret of life and origin of creation.
Viksit Bharat vision requires establishing Vishvamitra, Bhardwaj, and Sandeepni Ashram Gurukul Universities to revive the ancient Glory of Vedic Science and Technology
Now that the vision of Viksit Bharat@2047 is being translated into a reality, the time is right to revive the great centres of learning and scholarships like Vishvamitra Ashram (University) in Tapovan near Ayodhya, Bhardwaj Ashram( University) in Chitrakoot, Sandeepni Ashram( University) in Ujjain and Dronacharya Ashram( University) in Gurugram to revive the glory and eminence of ancient Bharat, that then was in true sense the brightest lighthouse of knowledge and enriched wisdom for the global humanity.
The Government of New Bharat is well advised to draw a blueprint of action to go beyond Takshashila and Nalanda to Ramayanik and Mahabharata times to revive the lost glory of Vedic science and technology and lead the world community in path-breaking Science and Game-Changing Technologies so vital to realise the Viksit Bharat vision. The best of the brains in science from all over the globe shall then converge towards Bharat to these great centers of Vedic Sciences to unearth the hitherto hidden treasures of Vedic science and its translation into new science that shall have an inbuilt spiritual Instinct for use of science and technology for the larger collective good of the humanity.
About Author:
The author Prof PB Sharma is the former President of the Engineering division of the Indian Science Congress and Founder Vice Chancellor of DTU currently Vice Chancellor of Amity University Gurugram.
