| Science, 20 centuries after Christ | Vedas and Darshanas, many centuries before Christ |
| The universe we observe constitutes reality. Nature of universe must be established by experiments. | The universe is an appearance. Don’t bother with it. |
| Brain is the organ for producing consciousness and mind. Intelligence can be artificial. | Soul (Brahman) is the reality. Consciousness is its trait. Mind, intelligence and brain are its toys. |
| At the time of death mind and consciousness disappear. Life is finished. | Soul is eternal. Its lives will not be finished until its own karma is resolved. |
| Universe was produced from a big-bang. Everything came from nothing. | Universe was created by an intelligent infinite energy to be used as a playground for souls to act till they realize the futility of their actions and return to God. |
| Life comes from a chemical soup. Chicken comes from setting the right temperature on an incubator. | Life happens so as to improve the soul progressively. A chick will be born and be dead according to its own karma. |
| Reality is understood by looking outside at everything from the sub atomic particles to galaxies. | Reality is understood by looking inside at the soul. |
| We can use the Higgs field to search for dark energy, dark matter, supersymmetry, extra dimensions and multiverses. | Nature of maya is such that if you chase anything that exists, you will learn that it is does not. |
| String theory of 13 dimensions with 10^500 possibilities of compactification may present a unified theory of everything. | This universe is God’s play. (Dice, Mr. Einstein?) |
| Science can help human activity, colonizing other planets and win wars to establish world order. | All universe is eternally under divine order. Live with the universe without affecting it. |
| For science, the starting point of the study is the world around us. It attempts to observe, understand, theorize and verify reality with experiments. There is still much to be known. | In the Vedas, the starting point for study is the unverifiable soul (Brahman). The entire universe is an expression of the unmanifest energy. If one understands the nature of the soul, there is nothing else to be known. |
For many years, I have felt that science is a natural extension of the Hindu religion. Not understanding the universe, or not knowing the physical reality has never been a cause of concern because this material universe is considered to be maya and a veil that hides reality. Study of science is the study of the veil. No matter how intricate, it needs to be put away so that the light of the eternal truth can shine.
When studying digestion, it is almost natural progression to understand the need to eat first, the food next, the digestion later and the examination of the fecal matter as the last step. Similarly, studying the Vedic thought first and the scientific thought later provides a natural advantage that the learner will be able to assign the right perspective to science.