Medical Sciences
Modern traditional medical science studies the physical and chemical patterns in a large number of people and makes a broad standard for healthy people. For example, after the measurement of the blood pressure of large number of people, a broad standard can be made. Ailments are associated with departure from these standards, and they can be corrected by appropriate physical and/or chemical means.
According to Indian medical science, called Ayurveda, life is a dynamical system in which in the healthy state, there is a harmony of many chemical and physical processes. The number of these processes have been broadly classified into three called Dosh: Kaph, Pitta, and Vata. Every food and eatable can be classified into many categories depending upon which Dosh or combination of Doshas, it decreases or increases or maintains in balance. The symptoms of disease indicate which of the Doshas have increased or decreased. The administration of the compensating remedy gives the cure. Ayurveda claims to have discovered the basic principles of many other systems of treatment like allopathy, homeopathy, acupuncture, etc. But these systems were not developed to higher levels in ancient India.
The surgery described by Dhanvantari and Sushrut has become obsolete with the advent of sophisticated tools and equipment in modern surgery. But the basic principles of Ayurveda hold. They are like phenomenological theory of matter. For example, the mechanical and thermal properties like elasticity, density, specific heat, etc of gold are determined by the atomic structure of gold atoms. But a goldsmith need not go into all these details. For him the bulk properties are sufficient to make a beautiful ornament. In the same way, simplifying all the chemical process of the body in terms of increase, decrease, or balance of three Doshas suffices to restore health in a large number of cases. That is why the medical formulations of Charak Samhita still have relevance. But, in the light of changed environment, many of the ancient formulations need verification and standardization. However, Ayurvedic thumb rules for longevity and good health have withstood the test of time.
Cosmology
Modern theoretical cosmology begins with the application of general relativity to the universe as a whole by Einstein in 1917. The experimental cosmology begins with observation of red shift, proportional to distance, in the light of galaxies by Hubble in 1929. The red shift has been explained in terms of Doppler’s shift of receding galaxies. This explanation means that the universe is expanding isotropically. It implies that if we go backwards in time, then the universe was smaller, and at a certain time, the entire mass energy was concentrated at a point. G. Gamow in 1946 postulated that the universe was not only smaller but also hotter in the past. In the point like state, the temperature was infinite. With a sudden big bang, the energy was thrown out which subsequently led to the formation of stars and galaxies. What was prior to big bang, cannot be answered by physics.
To eliminate the big bang singularity, a steady state cosmology was put forward by Bondi and Gold in 1948, in which it was postulated that the universe has been like this all the time. But to maintain a constant density of matter in spite of the expansion, creation of matter as hydrogen atom into free space was postulated. A comprehensive C-field cosmology and a new theory of gravitation was developed by Fred Hoyle and J. V. Narlikar.
However, the steady state cosmology, though intellectually satisfying, did not satisfactorily explain the cosmic background radiation, predicted earlier by G. Gamow, and experimentally detected by Penzias and Wilson in 1965. Since then the steady state cosmology has gone into oblivion. The present standard cosmology is that of the hot big bang. It explains three main cosmological observations: receding galaxies, thermal background radiation, and nucleosynthesis of light elements. But suffers from the problem of singularity and many other inconsistencies.
Turning to the Indian ancient view on this subject, Mahabharat says (Adi-Parva, 1st Chapter, 40-41): "This beginningless and endless time cycle (Kal-Chakra) moves externally like a perpetual flow in which beings take birth and die but there is never birth or death for this. The creation of gods is briefly indicated as thirty-three thousand, thirty-three hundred, and thirty- three."
Again in Mahabharata itself, Bhagavad Gita describes a cyclic universe as (VIII-18): "All embodied beings emanate from the Unmanifest at the commencement of Brahma’s day; at the commencement of his night, they merge in the same subtle body of Brahma, known as the Unmanifest."
These and many other statements imply that the Indian ancient view is that the universe is eternal as well as of finite age. The inference depends upon the point of view of the observer. If one observes the universe as a contemporary observer, then on the whole the universe is found to be like this only. But, if it is explored archaeologically, then it will be found to have a beginning at a point of time. Hence a unified cosmology, integrating the essential elements of steady state and big bang cosmologies, conforms better with the Indian view.
In ancient India, this integration was achieved by the concept two extra time-like dimensions. Thus the universe is a six dimensional continuum of three space, one time, and two time-like dimensions. This concept gives a logical symbol for the universe: that is two interpenetrating triangles. This figure has been verbally indicated in the above statement of Mahabharata that the creation is briefly indicated as thirty-three thousand, thirty-three hundred, thirty-three. Six times repetitions of three is the indirect technique of communication of Ved Vyas. The 5th and 6th dimensions have been called Chittakash and Chidakash in Yogavasishtha. The six dimensional universe represents higher symmetry in the two basic extensions of nature, space and time.
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