Science is our child but ancient knowledge, tradition & culture are roots of our family

Like if science is a blessing or a curse is a matter of debate, it is also a matter of argument whether the religious, spiritual, and traditional activities rooted to our deep Indian culture and ancient knowledge are all superstitions or have any scientific basis! It is a fact that if a scientist worships God before launching a rocket or if somebody claims that “Panchanka” is astronomy or applied mathematics as it gives the precise planetary events centuries before the modern astronomy came in existence, people raise controversy and it will not hunt those scientists throughout their lifetime. But the point is, the modern science is started maximum 300-400 years ago. Therefore, the questions are, before this time people had no knowledge of science? They did not give birth or get treatment for any illness as probably there was no modern day’s hospital and had no idea about the mathematics, physics, chemistry, or astrology! But they survived! Further, in modern days, we called it “Research” not “Search”, mean things already exists, probably in a different form or format and we are trying to re-establish or re-define them for their applications as per current needs. It is the same concept: “Brahma-Satyam Jagan-Mithyā” or “Vasamsi jirnani yatha vihaya navani grhnati naro 'parani | Tatha sarirani vihaya jirnany anyani samyati navani dehi ||” of Bhagavad Gita: Chapter 2, verse 22, means Atma or energy is always existing, not destroyable, but can be found in different forms or formats depending on the time and place. In this context, are our ancient Vedic scripts or ancient knowledge all baseless and unscientific? Or can we get various ideas, theories, and hypothesis from them and convert them into scientific discoveries required to fight the odds that the mankind is facing in this 21st century?

In general we assume “Dharma” means religion or spirituality i.e. adhering to God or religiousness. But form scientific point of view; spirituality can be defined as: the non-material things that give one's life a personal meaning and purpose. If a doctor bow in front of God or worship before surgery, it is nothing but to boost his/her own confidence or to make himself optimistic about his success. It is spirituality, but it is also neuroscience! Spirituality is also an attempt to explain the unexplainable and to find its acceptance, which in scientific terms we call philosophy (theory) or hypothesis (assumption). And without hypothesis we cannot do any scientific discovery by conducting precise experiments.

If we translate the word “Dharma” as property, it will give us a wide range of meanings and it cannot then be limited only to spirituality or religion. If we consider this view, the “Dharma” or property of water could be liquid, solid, gas, sign of life, like several things depending on the situation or environment. That means some total of characters or characteristics of a specific thing is the “Dharma” or property of that particular thing. If we apply the same logic to human, a person's “dharma” or property will be the sum total of his or her overall characters - such as temperament, behavior, food habits, disease tendencies, hobbies, humanity, spirituality etc., which we scientifically term as phenome, and this phenome is largely governed a by the person’s genetics or genome. Therefore, spirituality or religiousness is a part of a person’s “Dharma” and cannot be the complete characteristics of the person as per science. In other way, even if we limit “Dharma” to spirituality or religiousness, it can be said that every human being is having this character, while somebody expresses and someone does not, depending on their gene-environmental interactions.

We can get the basic concept of genetics and heredity if we scientifically translate the sloka “śharīraṁ yad avāpnoti yach chāpy utkrāmatīśhvaraḥ | gṛihītvaitāni sanyāti vāyur gandhān ivāśhayāt ||” (Bhagavad Gita: Chapter 15, verse 8) that provides the concept of reincarnation. Expression of dopaminergic genes make someone naturally spiritual or optimistic. There is a "God gene" theory also which suggests that the vesicular monoamine transporter-2 (VMAT2) gene controls one's spirituality. However, in our research we found that spirituality and Reward Deficiency Syndrome (RDS) or in simplified form pleasure seeking behavior are linked through neural connections and genes. Some RDS - related genes such as DRD-4, 5-HTTLP R, and 5-HTR1A are directly linked to a person's spiritual mentality. We can use genetic tests to tell who is spiritual or confident. Again this genetic test may also tell you who is ultra-spiritual or fanatic. Similarly, we have the genes for selfishness and in the future, genetic engineering could make someone very selfish or highly spiritual or self-confident. But what is desirable mentality of a person is what is cited in our ancient texts like "Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam”–(Earth is one family or everyone as one's own) and “Sarve bhavantu sukhinaḥ” (May all be happy). This quality of mentality may also be explained by genetics and neurology!

Our science is not yet advanced enough to provide acceptable explanations of each phenomenon found in the universe. If we do not see our Vedas, Puranas, Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita etc. as mere religious books, but try or translate these scripts to find various scientific hypotheses from them and conduct research based on them, we can probably find solutions for many problems of our present era. It may be surprising and you may not believe that these scripts are the source of inspiration and hypothesis of many eminent scientists across the globe for their research and innovations.

A few more examples of our own researches may make the matter a little clearer!

Piper betel (Paan) is a well-known plant since Vedic time. The leaf of Paan is essential for any auspicious Indian occasion/ritual and is taken after meals in our Indian tradition. What is there to find science in this? As per our tradition, Paan leaf is chewed or consumed after a meal and if we hypothesize that Paan may fight against food poisoning or having anti-bacterial properties; then much can be done with it. About 10 years ago we found in our research that 6 to 8 molecules (secondary metabolites) of Piper betel leaf can kill the bacteria responsible for cholera, tuberculosis, plague, and urinary tract infections even they kill their multidrug resistant (MDR) strains. Due to emergence of MDR strains of some pathogens; WHO has included them under the Priority-1 list of pathogens for which new drugs should immediately be developed. You will be surprised to know that recently three countries have allocated funds under BRICS-STI framework for research to make our identified Piper betel compounds possible effective drugs against those WHO Priority-1 pathogens. I am one of key members of these research groups.

Another example: turmeric is used since the era of Atharva Veda (~ 4,500 years) and is an essential ingredient for several rituals in Indian traditions. It is used in cosmetics, medicine, and our every day’s foods. Turmeric is not used any Western countries like we use it. In one of our studies using nutrigenomics (we are the first to apply in COVID-19), we have shown how the use of our Indian lifestyle especially use of traditional food habit and turmeric in our daily foods have probably saved Indians to a large extent from the high death rate from COVID-19 pandemics compared to the Western and European countries.

Ancient Indian scripts are rich in Numerology and Astronomy. You have heard about “Pancha Bhuta” (Khiti/Earth, Apa/Water, Tej/Fire, Marut/Air, and Byom/Atmosphere) described in our Vedic texts. If we considered scientifically, life cannot be habitable without the “Pancha Bhuta” and in this modern era astrologists are searching such planets having the “Pancha Bhuta” characteristics to find possible existence of human-like species in the universe/multiverse and for future human colonization. In our astrobiology works, we have also conceptualized many things from our ancient scripts. From scientific point of view if we try to translate the sloka “Sarvataḥ pāṇi-pādaṁ tat sarvato ’kṣhi-śhiro-mukham | sarvataḥ śhrutimal loke sarvam āvṛitya tiṣhṭhati || (Bhagavad Gita: Chapter 13, verse 14.), the idea or definition of life will change a little bit and will be more wide. Thus, we can hypothesize that life can be found in different forms or dimensions. Therefore, water may not be the only of sign of life in the universe. Our international research team of astrobiology (consisting of scientists from 12 to 15 countries) where I am the lead researcher in genomics and bioinformatics of the team, we have shown that cellulose may be bio-signature of life on other planets and this cellulose may be the key for space colonization. So, are our ancient cultures or scripts all unscientific? Or they are rich source of hidden facts or philosophy and hypothesis!

I can give some more examples.  Most of my researches are related to genes, genomes, and genomics. The term genome (gene + om) has been used since 1920 and the term genomics (gene + omics) since 1986. But many will not believe knowing that these suffixes “Om” and “Omics” are derived from our Sanskrit word “OM” or “AUM”, which means wholeness or completeness or entirety. When we consider the sum total of the genes or genetic material of an organism, it is the organism's genome and the subject is called genomics.

I teach Bioinformatics and Precision Health. The United States of America took the Precision Medicine initiative in the year of 2015. Precision Medicine is a sub-discipline of Precision Health. The main concept of Precision Medicine/Health is that, a person's overall character or characteristics (i.e. temperament, behavior, eating habits, disease tendencies, hobbies, spirituality etc.) or the phenome is the result of the interaction of the specific person’s 1) genes, 2) lifestyle, and the 3) environment in which the person lives. We call it gene-environment-lifestyle interactions. This idea is embedded in a sloka of the Mahabharata, but we have never thought of this sloka from this point of view. The sloka is “Janami dharmam na cha me pravrittihi, Janamyadharmam na cha me nivrittih | Tvaya Hrishikesha, hridi sthitena Yatha niyuktosmi tatha karomi || Duryodhana told this to Lord Sri Krishna. Further, Precision Medicine/Health is also an individualized approach, i.e. person specific. The concepts of personalization we can also get form one of the facts (of Yuddakanda) of Ramayana. How this sloka of Mahabharata and the fact of Ramayana give the concept of Precision Health and personalization, respectively I will explain another day!   

Solar and lunar eclipses occur every year. These are cosmic events that affect our Earth's environment, and we live in the Earth's environment. In Precision Health, the environment is a very large and strong determining factor that controls the phenome through its interactions with our genome. So it is usual that these cosmic events will greatly affect our overall health and mind. In the modern era, we are trying profiling the omics from organism to the single cell level, i.e. we are trying to understand the facts at nano level. Many of our scripts describe the dos and don'ts during such eclipses. It may not be true that we understand everything correctly and similarly it cannot be said firmly that everything is wrong or superstition. Because we still do not understand most of the precise science hiding behind these traditional rituals or practices mentioned in our Vedic scripts. Other way, in explaining them with our yet to mature science, we fail in most cases, and regard them as unscientific and superstitions! Therefore, we probably need to be more patient!  

In conclusion, debates are essential for the advancement of science and innovation. Some people suggest that the beginning of industrialization is given the birth of science by suppressing the knowledge of holistic approach of leaving life by understanding the nature and the universe of our ancestors. This may be true or may not, we don’t know! But the way the “colonial hangover” makes us to view our Vedic culture, heritage and ancient knowledge as superstitions and made us to feel to be ashamed, is probably not expected and it needs to be overcome. As I gave some examples of our own research works to explain how we have got those ideas from our ancient scripts and cultures; I feel that we can develop many scientific theories and convert them into scientific discoveries towards simple solutions to important problems we are facing currently or will face in near future.

(Debmalya Barh; PhD is a Genomic Scientist and Professor in Bioinformatics and Precision Health at UFMG, Brazil. He is an expert in integrative omics-based biomarker and target discovery in infectious, lifestyle, and neuropsychiatric diseases, genetic diagnosis, and precision/personalized health. He also works on astrobiology. Dr. Barh works with more than 500 researchers from 40-45 countries and has above 215 research publications and 25 books on various advanced omics technologies and applications in healthcare, biomedicine, cancer, single-cell, bio-engineering, plant science, sports, exercise, nutrition, Covid-19, biotechnology, artificial intelligence and precision/personalized medicine)