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Re:The Best is yet to come

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Venkat Nagarajan • December 10, 1999 


Dear Bhagavatas,
Namo Narayana.

Sri. Sampath writes:

1.  There seems to be a serious schism in the basic outlook here isn*t it? 
Science seems essentially "forward  looking" while Religion seems forever  "backward-looking"?

Response:

-Whether one thinks the *best is yet to come* or not is a  function of his or her notion of the nature of reality.  Given an ordered array of notions about the nature of reality, from most pragmatic to most idealistic, one can fit the materialistic notion of reality into the slot designated as most pragmatic and Vedantic notion of reality into the slot designated as most idealistic (all other notions fall somewhere in between.)  

-Thus, a schism is natural; however, the characterization of the schism is not as simple as outlined in your post (i.e., science versus religion.)   While the materialistic notion and the vedantic notion coincide with the endpoints of the ordered array, the religious notions falls somewhere in between.  Both the vedantin and the leaders of western religions (Islam and Christian) may not feel that the best is yet to come, but their reasons for having such an opinion differ.  

Aside: (Vedanta is more than a religion; It is a combination of philosophy and  religion.  The philosophy of Vedanta represents a rational and systematic theory, on the nature of the ultimate reality, which gives the Vedanta texts absolute authority in matters beyond the realm of perception. The religion of Vedanta is concerned with the means of realizing the ultimate reality. Both are essential.) 
     
ramanuja dasan,
Venkat
KrishNarpaNam