Vedic-Upaniṣadic Foundation of Science and Spirituality

Abstract

Spirituality and Science are regarded by many thinkers as two separate realms. What we normally call Science is that in which we have hypothesis, we can observe and experiment and we are able to analyze, measure, prove and predict. From that perspective, Spirit or spirituality may be the last thing to be found in any microscope. Spirituality may not be so easily measured from the parameters used in normal science. I propose the insight into this proposal from Rta in Ṛgveda and Upaniṣadic distinction between parā vidyā and aparā vidyā, between the higher and the lower knowledge. Spirituality is often mistakenly thought to be abstract and unworldly, as if it has little or nothing to do with our world of sense and science. The distinction between abstract and concrete, common sense 
and science, and science and spirituality, is a matter of degree and not of kind. In order to organize my presentation, I propose to divide the paper into two parts. In Part- I, I will discuss the philosophical implications of the Ṛta as cosmic order and the distinction between Parā vidyā (Spirituality) and Aparā vidyā (Science). I will develop conceptions of matter, material entities/ elements, etc. to show the foundation of science in Upaniṣads. In Part-II, I will present the notion of Spirituality in the Upaniṣads in the context of some of eastern and western thinkers.