QNA WITH SRI SRI

FRIDAY, JUNE 10, 2016

Q: What is dark matter? Is this mentioned in the Upanishads?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: No, it is mentioned in the Rig Veda. In the Rig Veda, there is a chapter on creation in which this is one of the verse – In the beginning, there was a darkness that was covered by darkness.

This the pundits could never interpret - the darkness enveloped by darkness. That’s how it starts. So that Nasadiya Sukta is called the sukta (chapter) of creation, and it has many parallels to the modern day dark matter and dark energy.

It’s astonishing when a particle scientist reads this. His eyes are spellbound to know that this sort of thing existed so many years ago! When I went to the CERN in Zurich; the scientist invited me there, I presented them with some of the Suktas and they were really startled. They said, "Wow, people knew about this. Other than the four elements, there is the space as an element!"

The scientists were of the opinion that since the Egyptians knew only four elements - Earth, Water, Fire and Air, and they didn’t know that Space is an element, so rest of the world did not know and mankind didn't know about the fifth element.

I said, "Hey, wait a minute! We have always known about the Panchabhoota (the five elements), the fifth element being space from centuries ago". They were really surprised to know this. See the challenge is people who knew Vedas knew nothing about science, and people who knew science have zero knowledge about the Vedic wisdom. So we need to bring these people together so that they both benefit from each other. Our Vedic pundits also do things that they do not understand scientifically.

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