Hinduism greatness quotes by famous philosophers and scientists
India is the motherland of spirituality where traditions, customs and festivals are the essential part of everyone daily life. Hinduism is not a religion but the 5+ millenniums of rich cultural heritage for all Indians. Unfortunately, being whitewashed of the poison injected by foreign invaders in our ancient scriptures, most of the Indians are not aware of their affluent cultural heritage. Last week, when I posted an article on ayurvedic embryology, I got a response from one of the ignorant guest that “all religions including Hinduism are fantasies and scientific concepts in Hinduism- a joke”. That was a very offensive comment which I can easily refute by confidently stating that none of the scientific verses in authentic Indian scriptures have been proven false. In fact, religious philosophies and scientific concepts including astronomy in Hinduism scriptures continue to amaze scientists all over the world. Below are some of the videos on scientific concepts in Hinduism
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In this article, I would be posting quotes on Hinduism stated by famous philosophers, historians and scientists (also check Bhagavad gita quotes by famous people>)
Adolf Seilachar & P.K. Bose, American and Indian paleontologists said:
"One Billion-Year-Old fossil prove life began in India: AFP Washington reports in Science Magazine that German Scientist Adolf Seilachar and Indian Scientist P.K. Bose have unearthed fossil in Churhat a town in Madhya Pradesh, India which is 1.1 billion years old and has rolled back the evolutionary clock by more than 500 million years."
Albert Einstein, German physicist (14 Mar 1879 - 18 Apr 1955) best known for theory of relativity said:
"When I read the Bhagavad-Gita and reflect about how God created this universe everything else seems so superfluous" (Also read Conversation between Einstein and Tagore-Science vs religion> and Science in Hinduism-Einstein Theory of relativity >)
Carl Edward Sagan (November 9, 1934 - December 20, 1996) was an American astronomer, author, astrophysicist and cosmologist. He said
"As far as I know, Hinduism is the only ancient religious tradition on the Earth which talks about the right time scale. In the West, people have the sense that what is natural is for the universe to be a few thousand years old, and that it is billions of years is mind-reeling, and no one can understand it. The Hindu concept is very clear. Here is a great world culture which has always talked about billions of years. A millennium before Europeans were willing to divest themselves of the Biblical idea that the world was a few thousand years old, the Mayans were thinking of millions and the Hindus billions. The Hindu religion is the only one of the world's great faiths dedicated to the idea that the Cosmos itself undergoes an immense, indeed an infinite, number of deaths and rebirths. It is the only religion in which the time scales correspond, to those of modern scientific cosmology. Its cycles run from our ordinary day and night to a day and night of Brahma, 8.64 billion years long.
Longer than the age of the Earth or the Sun and about half the time since the Big Bang. And there are much longer time scales still."
He further added “The most elegant and sublime of these is a representation of the creation of the universe at the beginning of each cosmic cycle, a motif known as the cosmic dance of Lord Shiva. The god called in this manifestation Nataraja, the Dance King.(also read Why lord shiva is known as king of dance>) In the upper right hand is a drum whose sound is the sound of creation. In the upper left hand is a tongue of flame, a reminder that the universe, now newly created, with billions of years from now will be utterly destroyed.
Alan Watts (6 January 1915 - 16 November 1973) was a British-born writer, philosopher, and speaker. He said
To the philosophers of India, however, Relativity is no new discovery, just as the concept of light years is no matter for astonishment to people used to thinking of time in millions of kalpas, (A kalpa is about 4,320,000 years). The fact that the wise men of India have not been concerned with technological applications of this knowledge arises from the circumstance that technology is but one of innumerable ways of applying it.
In the morning I bathe my intellect in the stupendous and cosmogonal philosophy of the Bhagavad Gita in comparison with which our modern world and its literature seem puny and trivial.
Mark Twain (November 30, 1835 - April 21, 1910), American author said:
"So far as I am able to judge, nothing has been left undone, either by man or nature, to make India the most extraordinary country that the sun visits on his rounds. Nothing seems to have been forgotten, nothing overlooked. India had the start of the whole world in the beginning of things. She had the first civilization; she had the first accumulation of material wealth; she was populous with deep thinkers and subtle intellects; she had mines, and woods, and a fruitful soul.”
He also said “Our most valuable and most instructive materials in the history of man are treasured up in India. It is already becoming clear that a chapter which had a Western beginning will have to have an Indian ending if it is not to end in self-destruction of the human race. At this supremely dangerous moment in human history, the only way of salvation is the ancient Hindu way. Here we have the attitude and spirit that can make it possible for the human race to grow together in to a single family.”
Henry David Thoreau (July 12, 1817 - May 6, 1862) was an American poet, author, philosopher, historian, and leading transcendentalist. At the age of 28, after reading bhagavad gita and other vedic scriptures, he said
“In the morning I bathe my intellect in the stupendous and cosmogonal philosophy of the Bhagavad Gita, since whose composition years of the gods have elapsed and in comparison with which our modern world and its literature seems puny and trivial."
He also added “The Gita's 'sanity and sublimity' have impressed the minds even of soldiers and merchants. The Vedas contain a sensible account of God. The veneration in which the Vedas are held is itself a remarkable feat. Their code embraced the whole moral life of the Hindus and in such a case there is no other truth than sincerity. Truth is such by reference to the heart of man within, not to any standard without. The Hindus are most serenely and thoughtfully religious than the Hebrews. They have perhaps a purer, more independent and impersonal knowledge of God. Their religious books describe the first inquisitive and contemplative access to God.”
Will Durant (November 5, 1885 - November 7, 1981) was a prolific American historian and philosopher said:
“Hinduism will teach us the tolerance and gentleness of mature mind, understanding spirit and a unifying, pacifying love for all human beings."
He further added "It is true that even across the Himalayan barrier India has sent to the west, such gifts as grammar and logic, philosophy and fables, hypnotism and chess, and above all numerals and the decimal system. (also read Science in Hinduism-Place value and Decimal number systemScience in Hinduism-Large numbers and infinity> and Science in Hinduism-Invention of numeral system>) India was the motherland of our race, and Sanskrit the mother of Europe’s languages: she was the mother of our philosophy; mother, through the Arabs, of much of our mathematics; mother, through the Buddha, of the ideals embodied in Christianity; mother, through the village <> community, of self-government and democracy."
W. Heisenberg(5 December 1901 - 1 February 1976), German physicist on quantum mechanics, said: "After the conversations about Indian philosophy, some of the ideas of Quantum Physics that had seemed so crazy suddenly made much more sense."
Alfred Brush Ford (born 1950), a.k.a Ambarish das, is the grandson of legendary businessman Henry Ford, founder of ford motor company. He said
"For me the most important thing is to spread the Hindu knowledge about the soul. This is more important than any other knowledge and is my main priority.”
Alfred ford at inauguration ceremony of world largest Vedic temple (400 acres)
Annie Wood Besant (1 October 1847 - 20 September 1933) was a British born socialist, women's rights activist, writer, theosophist and orator. He said
“After a study of some forty years and more of the great religions of the world, I find none so perfect ,none so scientific, none so philosophical and no so spiritual that the great religion known by the name of Hinduism. Make no mistake, without Hinduism, India has no future. Hinduism is the soil in to which India’s roots are stuck and torn out of that she will inevitably wither as a tree torn out from its place. And if Hindus do not maintain Hinduism who shall save it? If India’s own children do not cling to her faith who shall guard it? India alone can save India and India and Hinduism are one.”
He glorified ancient traditions of India through the following words “India is the mother of religion. In her are combined science and religion in perfect harmony, and that is the Hindu religion, and it is India that shall be again the spiritual mother of the world. This is the India of which I speak - the India which, as I said, is to me the Holy Land. For those who, though born for this life in a Western land and clad in a Western body, can yet look back to earlier incarnations in which they drank the milk of spiritual wisdom from the breast of their true mother - they must feel ever the magic of her immemorial past, must dwell ever under the spell of her deathless fascination; for they are bound to India by all the sacred memories of their past; and with her, too, are bound up all the radiant hopes of their future, a future which they know they will share with her who is their true mother in the soul-life.”
Jean-Sylvain Bailly (15 September 1736 - 12 November 1793) was a French astronomer and mathematician. He said
“The motion of the stars calculated by the Hindus before some 4500 years vary not even a single minute from the tables of Cassine and Meyer (used in the 19-th century). The Indian tables give the same annual variation of the moon as the discovered by Tycho Brahe - a variation unknown to the school of Alexandria and also to the Arabs who followed the calculations of the school ... The Hindu systems of astronomy are by far the oldest and that from which the Egyptians, Greek, Romans and - even the Jews derived from the Hindus their knowledge.”
Swami Vivekananda, born Narendra Nath Datta (12 January 1863 - 4 July 1902), was an Indian Hindu monk and is known for introducing the Indian philosophies of Vedanta and Yoga to the west.
I am proud to belong to a religion which has taught the world both tolerance and universal acceptance. We believe not only in universal toleration, but we accept all religions as true.
(Also read Why hinduism is the most tolerant religion>)
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Mahatma Gandhi (2 October 1869 - 30 January 1948) was a freedom fighter of Indian independence movement. His birthday is celebrated internationally as non-violence day. He said
Hinduism has made marvelous discoveries in things of religion, of the spirit, of the soul. We have no eye for these great and fine discoveries. We are dazzled by the material progress that Western science has made. Ancient India has survived because Hinduism was not developed along material but spiritual lines. Hinduism is a relentless pursuit of Truth. "Truth is God" and if today it has become moribund, inactive, irresponsive to growth, it is because we are fatigued; and as soon as the fatigue is over, Hinduism will burst upon the world with a brilliance perhaps unknown before.
The Geeta is the universal mother. I find a solace in the Bhagavadgeeta that I miss even in the Sermon on the Mount. When disappointment stares me in the face and all alone I see not one ray of light, I go back to the Bhagavad Gita. I find a verse here and a verse there, and I immediately begin to smile in the midst of overwhelming tragedies - and my life has been full of external tragedies - and if they have left no visible or indelible scar on me, I owe it all to the teaching of Bhagavadgeeta.
I am a Hindu because it is Hinduism which makes the world worth living. I am a Hindu hence I Love not only human beings, but all living beings.
I have no other wish in this world but to find light and joy and peace through Hinduism. Hinduism insists on the brotherhood of not only all mankind but of all that lives. Hinduism is like the Ganga, pure and unsullied at its source but taking in its course the impurities in the way. Even like the Ganga it is beneficent in its total effect. It takes a provincial form in every province, but the inner substance is retained everywhere. Hindu Dharma is like a boundless ocean teeming with priceless gems. The deeper you dive the more treasures you find.
It is impossible for me to reconcile myself to the idea of conversion after the style that goes on in India and elsewhere today. It is an error which is perhaps the greatest impediment to the world’s progress toward peace ... Why should a Christian want to convert a Hindu to Christianity? Why should he not be satisfied if the Hindu is a good or godly man?
Niels Henrik David Bohr (7 October 1885 - 18 November 1962) recieved Nobel Prize in 1922 for his contribution in quantum mechanics and physics.
This life of yours which you are living is not merely apiece of this entire existence, but in a certain sense the whole; only this whole is not so constituted that it can be surveyed in one single glance. This, as we know, is what the Brahmins express in that sacred, mystic formula which is yet really so simple and so clear; tat tvam asi, this is you. Or, again, in such words as "I am in the east and the west, I am above and below, I am this entire world."
Erwin Rudolf Josef Alexander Schrödinger (12 August 1887 - 4 January 1961) was an Austrian physicist who discovered numerous theories on quantum physics and wave mechanics. He said
Vedanta teaches that consciousness is singular, all happenings are played out in one universal consciousness and there is no multiplicity of selves. Nirvana is a state of pure blissful knowledge.. It has nothing to do with individual. The ego or its separation is an illusion. The goal of man is to preserve his Karma and to develop it further - when man dies his karma lives and creates for itself another carrier.
The multiplicity is only apparent. This is the doctrine of the Upanishads. And not of the Upanishads only. The mystical experience of the union with God regularly leads to this view, unless strong prejudices stand in the West.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer (April 22, 1904 - February 18, 1967) was an American professor and physicist, commonly known as “father of the atomic bomb”. He said
Vedas is the greatest privilege this century may claim over all previous centuries”. On his successful launch of first nuclear weapon, he quoted the following verse from bhagavad gita “Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds.”
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Wheeler Wilcox((November 5, 1850 - October 30, 1919), American author and poet. said:
"India - The land of Vedas, the remarkable works contain not only religious ideas for a perfect life, but also facts which science has proved true. Electricity, radium, electronics, airship, all were known to the seers who founded the Vedas."
Sir W. Hunter (23 May 1718 - 30 March 1783), British anatomist, surgeon and Physician said:
"The surgery of the ancient Indian physicians was bold and skilful. A special branch of surgery was dedicated to rhinoplasty or operations for improving deformed ears, noses and forming new ones, which European surgeons have now borrowed."
(Also read ;Science in hinduism-Embryology in Garbhopanishad and Charaka samhita>)
William James (January 11, 1842 - August 26, 1910) was an American philosopher and physician. He said: "From the Vedas we learn a practical art of surgery, medicine, music, house building under which mechanized art is included. They are encyclopedia of every aspect of life, culture, religion, science, ethics, law, cosmology and meteorology."
Max Muller (December 6, 1823 - October 28, 1900), German-born scholar said:
"There is no book in the world that is as thrilling, stirring and inspiring as the Upanishads." ('Sacred Books of the East')
Dr Arnold Toynbee (14 April 1889 - 22 October 1975), British Historian said:
“So now we turn to India. This spiritual gift, that makes a man human, is still alive in Indian souls. Go on giving the world Indian examples of it. Nothing else can do so much to help mankind to save itself from destruction.
There may or may not be only one single absolute truth and only one single ultimate way of salvation. We do not know. But we do know that there are more approaches to truth than one, and more means of salvation than one.’’‘‘This is a hard saying for adherents of the higher religions of the Judaic family (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam), but it is a truism for Hindus. The spirit of mutual good-will, esteem, and veritable love ... is the traditional spirit of the religions of the Indian family. This is one of India’s gifts to the world.
All god is one
Arthur Schopenhauer (22 February 1788 - 21 September 1860), a German philosopher said
"Vedas are the most rewarding and the most elevating book which can be possible in the world."
Paul Deussen January 7, 1845 - July 6, 1919), was a German Orientalist and a disciple of Arthur Schopenhauer also known by an Indian Sanskrit name ‘Deva-Sena’. He said:
"Whatever may be the discoveries of the scientific mind, none can dispute the eternal truths propounded by the Upanishads. Though they may appear as riddles, the key to solving those lies in our heart and if one were to approach them with an open mind one could secure the treasure as did the Rishis of ancient times. The Upanishads have tackled every fundamental problem of life. They have given us an intimate account of reality."
He further said "And then India appears to me in all the living power of her originality. I traced her progress in the expansion of her enlightenment over the world. I saw her giving her laws, her customs, her morale, and her religion to Egypt, to Persia, to Greece and Rome. I saw Jaiminy and Veda Vyasa precede Socrates and Plato, and Krishna, the son of the Virgin Devajani precede the son of the Virgin of Bethelehem." (Also read Did Greeks worshipped lord krishna>)
On Vedas, he added: “It is now, as in the ancient times, living in the mind and heart of every thoughtful Hindu. In its noble simplicity, in the loftiness of its philosophic vision it is possibly the most admirable bit of philosophy of olden times. .. .. .. No translation can ever do justice to the beauty of the original"
Amaury de Riencourt , (12 June 1918 - 13 Jan 2005) , French scholar said
Hinduism is life style, where human beings are exalted to God himself. Thereby it is atheistic religion, no God, everyone is God. All living beings, human, animals and plants do have an element of God, the soul and again a part of a kind of suzerainty. The Hindu trinity, the creator, Brahma, did not create the human being on one fine morning at 5 o’clock, but a thought is created, an action is taken, a possibility opens up by Brahma, and Vishnu sees it conducted perfected, while Shiva ends it.
Then all start again, that is how mathematical zero, was born in Hindu thinking. Karma ones behavior, decides ones future. Hinduism has provided a complex and sophisticated philosophy of life and a religion of enormous emotional appeal. Hinduism also inspired and preserved, in Sanskrit and the major regional languages of India, the vast literature that is India's priceless literary heritage."