True ‘Gyan’ from Bharath Gyan – II

"Ours is the most ancient civilisation and the Vedic Heritage of our nation is beyond compare. Our ancient texts have a wealth of information, which need to be passed on to the next generation, which is slowly & steadily and unfortunately & sadly getting alienated from our cultural heritage and traditions. The present day youth must be made aware of the greatness of our heritage and they must be fed with the wealth of knowledge present in our ancient texts."

by B.R. Haran

(November 02, Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian) ‘Bharath Gyan’ doesn’t need an introduction at all, as it has become a very familiar player now in the intellectual arena with regards to cultural aspects and their scientific truths of Barathavarsh. It is almost five years since D K Hari and Hema

Hari started Bharath Gyan and the efforts, which they have put in these five years are so great that Bharath Gyan has acquired a niche on its own. But, before the conceptualisation and intiation of Bharath Gyan, both of them have undertaken monumental activities of extensive travel, vivid reading, unparalleled visits to museums, libraries, expositions, pageants and special cultural events the worldover. These activities have encouraged them to visualise a unique concept of collecting information and distributing them in such a manner that the generation next is able to recognise, understand and appreciate the glorious past of this great nation.

Hari & Hema say, ‘Ours is the most ancient civilisation and the Vedic Heritage of our nation is beyond compare. Our ancient texts have a wealth of information, which need to be passed on to the next generation, which is slowly & steadily and unfortunately & sadly getting alienated from our cultural heritage and traditions. The present day youth must be made aware of the greatness of our heritage and they must be fed with the wealth of knowledge present in our ancient texts. What all have been told in our scriptures are being proved beyond doubt by modern science and such facts must be taken to the generation next. Bharath Gyan is one such attempt’.

Our ancestors, the Maharishis, Siddhars and Munivars have mastered anything and everything under the sun and the immense knowledge, which they have obtained through sheer grit, determination and years of penance, have been passed on to generation after generation for ages only orally. It is only a few thousand years since, a part of that vast knowledge have been compiled in the form of written texts. In fact, we are left with very little now and even that is ‘vast’ in today’s parlance!

The ancient system of education, the ‘Guru-Sishya Parampara’ has taken a heavy beating at the hands of the invaders, who have plundered this great nation. They have not only looted our material wealth, but also destroyed our wealth of knowledge. They have created divisions among the people and ruled them for over thouand years and unfortunately even after independence, we are continuing the systems, which they have established here, instead of going back to our glorious tradition. But then whatever said and done, we have to adopt ourselves to the modern methods to impart the wealth of information and knowledge available in our scriptures in abundance, to the generation next.

Bharath Gyan has taken the right step of collecting information on the scientific knowledge in our scriptures and the practical methods in our tradition and distribute them to the generation next through the modern method of ‘Multimedia Format’, so that, the targeted audience could easily and quickly grasp them for effective utilisation in future. Squarely focusing on our ancient civilisation and cultural heritage, Bharath Gyan works with a range of subjects as follows.

Tracing a civilisation: Here Bharath Gyan has studied in deep the Bharathiya culture, analysed the Puranas & Ithihasas, proved the historicity of Rama and Krishna, dvelved into the ‘pan global’ similarities, researched the evolution of Vedic civilisation along Saraswathi river and analysed the so-called Aryan Inavasion theory, Alexander-Porus episode, Tamil cultural prosperity and Hindu society and religions.

Seeking its knowledge source: Here Bharath Gyan searches for the source of knowledge going deep into the Vedas and their compilation by the Veda Vyasas and finally finds them by demystifying the Vedas and analysing the technique of transmission and ancient systems of education.

Knowing its knowledge: Here Bharath Gyan gives us a wealth of information regarding Creation, Time, Calendar, Astronomy, Om (meaning & significance), Evolution, Ayurveda, Vichithra Janana (Unusual birth), Vimana (Ancient Flying Machine)Metallurgy, Chemistry (Rasayana), Geography (Bhusastra), Architecture, Mathematics, Warfare, Engineering and Technology.

Understanding its wealth: Bharath Gyan focuses on water management and agricultural practices, the history of Ganges (Bhagiratha Prayatna), water grid, the jewels of India, Geology and Trade.

Learning from its governance: Here a clear comparison is made between the so-called ‘Modern Management’ (western) and our ancient systems and Bharath Gyan establishes the fact that our sages knew everything and that there are indeed new ways of identifying and implementing things based on times and its needs. It also studies Administration and Law. Bharath Gyan presents ‘Rama Rajya & its components’ through an analysis on the 56 questions asked by Rama when he taught Baratha on how to govern his empire during his absence.

Apart from the above subjects, Bharath Gyan has compiled data and is in the process of completing a few other topics such as Language, Pleasure and Harmony in connection with our ancient civilisation. The enormity of Bharath Gyan’s research and analysis could be understood from the fact that it has collected authentic and specific information on 64 different subjects concerning India’s civilisation to understand its cultural richness. Bharath Gyan has brought out the ‘science’ hidden in our ancient texts with a rational approach. It has put together the information inherent in our culture, data available with the traditional scholar community, native knowledge of the locals, authentic travelogues of the foreign visitors to our land, historical notes from the archives of other countries and research works of the modern scientific community.

When the objective is clear, achievement is certain! Bharath Gyan has clearly set its objective of focusing on the generation next and enriching them with knowledge on the ‘science’ of our ancient civilization, cultural heritage and tradition with a rational and modern outlook. The official logo of Bharath Gyan itself is a wealth of information! By looking at its logo, one can see a ‘meditating person’, a ‘bell’ or even a ‘few numbers’! Every version has its own meaning behind it and the symbolic representation of ‘zero’ and ‘infinity’ (at the top and bottom of the ‘Bell’ respectively) conveying the message that this great land has got everything from zero to infinity. Ancient Maharishis knew from creation to infinity, which they had expressed in the language and understanding of their times. We need to re-understand it in accordance to our times and use it for our own needs now.

It would be more appropriate to conclude this essay with the words of D K Hari and Hema Hari: ‘we present as is, the data and facts in a rational, logical and wholistic manner before the people and allow them to draw their own conclusions. Our main objective is to encourage people to ask their own questions and look for answers themselves. These data and facts are to help them reach towards their answers or undertake further exploration on their own. We, at Bharath Gyan, look at ourselves as catalysts by helping to bring together the inaccessible, unreadable by all and widely spread, but related data with scholars, researchers, common man and in old texts and records, together in a single platform. We go by the ancient Indian temper of, ourselves asking and triggering others to ask, questions that lead the way for exploring the universe of science, nature and knowledge. In our study, we have discovered that this has been the way our ancient knowledge grew and spread and we would like to bring back this temper amongst the Indians and rightfully we call our effort as Universal Questions, Indian Answers! Our view of the ‘I I’ of the ‘Incredible India’ slogan is ‘Inspiring Confidence in Indian Knowledge’ and ‘Initiating Applications and Inputs to Scientific Research’. That is our way of ensuring that the knowledge of the past is made available to the present to take to the future’ - Sri Lanka Guardian