DHYAN FOUNDATION

There would hardly be anyone who has not heard the Gayatri Mantra — Om bhur bhuvah svah, tat savitur varenyam, bhargo devasya dhimahi, dhiyo yo nah prachodayaat. Maybe a few thousand people also understand what it means. But there would be hardly anyone who knows of the rishi — Brahmarshi Vishwamitra — who got this mantra from the Divine. It is such a powerful mantra that Krishna called it the mother of all mantras — mahamantra — and Ram himself protected the yagyas of this great rishi. Hardly anyone would relate this mantra to Vishwamitra, who is mostly remembered for his love affair with Menaka. This is the first mantra of the Rigveda, the first veda, but for some reason, Vyas, who compiled the Vedas, put it later, like so many other mantras given by Vishwamitra. But why? Vishwamitra was a Kshatriya king with vast resources and power. However, after realising that physical powers and siddhis were just a trap of the physical world and tapo bal (the yogic power of penance)...

When we read the Puranas or the Upanishads, we find descriptions of great scientific advancements; stories of people with paranormal abilities and direct interactions with Gods. When we consider monuments left behind by the ancients, we see amazing engineering feats and advanced architectural knowledge. Most modern day discoveries already exist in our ancient texts. Ancient Indians were proficient in geometry, grammar, physics, medicine and spiritual quest. Panini introduced grammar to the world for the first time in a complete manner. Literary masterpieces like Kalidasa’s Shakuntala and Kena Upanishad inspired legendary works such as Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe’s Faust. Religious studies scholar Huston Smith, while asserting the supremacy of Vedic sciences over modern astronomy, says: “While the West was still thinking, perhaps of 6,000 years old Universe, India was already envisioning ages and eons, and galaxies as numerous as the sands of the Ganges.” The German philosoph...