Semantic Atomism
A Scientific Commentary on Vaiśeṣika Sūtras
Vaiśeṣika is one of the Six Systems of Vedic philosophy, and Vaiśeṣika Sūtra is the oldest and most authoritative text on this philosophy. This book translates and comments on this ancient text. Vaiśeṣika describes all things in the world as Padārtha—pada denotes a symbol and artha denotes its meaning. These symbols of meaning are created by the combination of Samānya and Vaiśesa or universals and individuals. These Padārtha are connected to each other through a relationship of inherence called Samvāya, which we can call the whole-part relationship. This whole-part relation creates an inverted tree in which the root is the whole, the branches are the parts of the root, etc.
Semantic Reasoning
A Scientific Commentary on Nyāya Sūtras
Nyāya is one of the Six Systems of Vedic philosophy, and Nyāya Sūtra is the oldest and most authoritative text on this philosophy. This book translates and comments on this ancient text. Nyāya presents a system of logic in which reality exists as a potential, and it manifests an answer based on a question. This question is called “absence” and the answer is called “presence”. Everything is a combination of some presence and absence—i.e., some answers and questions. All interactions in the world are thus described as conversations between two people. Hence all reality is studied as a text. It is like sentences comprised of words and letters, not physical matter, force, or deterministic laws.
The Journey of Perfection
A Scientific Commentary on Yoga Sūtras
Yoga is one of the Six Systems of Vedic philosophy, and Yoga Sūtra is the oldest and most authoritative text on this philosophy. Yoga Sūtra describes how conscious experience stems out of a repository of past impressions, and why the purification of these impressions is the goal of life. To achieve this goal, the Yoga Sūtra describes an eight-step process called Yama, Niyama, Āsana, Prāñayāma, Pratyāhāra, Dhārana, Dhyāna, and Samādhī. The last three involve a meditation on the Paramātma in the heart. The text discusses eight mystical perfections, which enable a Yogi to become light or heavy, small or big, walk on fire, water, or air, travel to distant places in a moment, or change his or her body instantly.
Material and Spiritual Natures
A Scientific Commentary on Sāñkhya Sūtras
Sāñkhya is one of the Six Systems of Vedic philosophy, and Sāñkhya Sūtra is the oldest and most authoritative text on this philosophy. This book translates and comments on this ancient text. Sāñkhya describes a process of material manifestation in which the world springs from a primordial idea called pradhāna which means “I am the master”. This pradhāna then manifests into many other elements all the way to gross material objects. As the idea of mastery is false, the soul’s efforts to realize mastery are constantly wrecked by nature. If, however, the soul accepts the Lord as the true master and renounces its desire for mastery, then it is liberated from the clutches of material laws.
Conceiving the Inconceivable Part 1 and 2
A Scientific Commentary on Vedānta Sūtras
 |
 |
|
|
It is well-known that no present theory of reality is both consistent and complete. As we make the description of reality more complete, we get more contradictions. To resolve these contradictions, we can remove some aspects of reality, resulting in incompleteness. This book discusses how Vedānta Sūtras presents a semantic conception of reality to solve this problem. In this conception, reality is known completely through multiple perspectives, as each perspective reveals some aspects of the complete truth, and hides others. Contradictions emerge if we try to combine many perspectives into one. Incompleteness appears if we try to universalize one perspective. The semantic conception of reality solves these problems.
The Science of God
The Twelve Principles of Perfection
This book defines God as perfection and discusses the 12 attributes that constitute perfection. These 12 attributes are consistent, complete, simple, parsimonious, necessary, sufficient, empirical, rational, operational, instrumental, stable, and novel. They divide into six pairs of antinomies, called knowledge, beauty, renunciation, power, wealth, and heroism. Thus, the search of God is the search for perfection. It exists partially in everything, it exists more completely in things that are more perfect, and it exists completely only in God. Thus the scientific study of God is the study of perfection—What makes something perfect? What is missing in imperfection? Why are there trade-offs in creating perfection? And what is that which is devoid of all the tradeoffs of perfection?
Time and Consciousness
Cyclical, Hierarchical, and Causal Views of Time
This book discusses eight questions about time:
• Does Time Pass?
• How Does Time Pass?
• Do the Past and the Future Change the Present?
• Does Time Pass Uniformly?
• Is Time Absolute or Relative?
• Is Time Discrete or Continuous?
• Is Time Reversible or Irreversible?
• Is the Universe Eternal or Cyclical?
Conceiving the Inconceivable
A Scientific Commentary on the Vedānta Sūtra
It is well-known that no present theory of reality is both consistent and complete. As we make the description of reality more complete, we get more contradictions. To resolve these contradictions, we can remove some aspects of reality, resulting in incompleteness. This book discusses how Vedānta Sūtras present a semantic conception of reality to solve this problem. In this conception, reality is known completely through multiple perspectives, as each perspective reveals some aspects of the complete truth, and hides others. Contradictions emerge if we try to combine many perspectives into one. Incompleteness appears if we try to universalize one perspective. The semantic conception of reality solves these problems.
The Balanced Organization
The Surprising Science of Non-Living Organisms
The book draws from the functionalist theories of organizations which treat it as an organism and discusses how they comprise objects, structure, and intention, but the conflict between these three causes organizations to evolve. It discusses a minimal complete structure of four functional divisions, organized across seven levels, which evolve internally and externally through five kinds of ‘forces’ by altering the strengths of their connections to other organizations. It discusses how conflict across the hierarchical levels, the functional divisions, and in between organizations forces choices that balance these priorities. The evolution of systems based on conflict, contradiction, and competition presents a new dynamical model that can be scaled from the smallest to the largest systems.
The Yellow Pill
Conceptual Basis of the Varṇa System
The book discusses the foundational ideas of the Varṇa system in the context of modern social, economic, and political theories showing how stability is more important than growth, how localization is more important than globalization, and how society organized hierarchically based on merit is better than one where everyone pretends to have equal rights. It introduces the Vedic ideas on sociology, economics, and politics and contrasts them to those in modern sociology, economics, and politics. It demonstrates why a four-fold system of dividing and organizing society is a natural rather than merely a man-made system of organization.
Cosmic Theogony
The Personalization of Nature
Cosmic Theogony describes the Vedic trinity comprising Vishnu, Shiva, and Brahma, which reflect the three aspects of the soul–cognition, emotion, and relation. The trinity led to the worship of the sun, the moon, and the stars, and then to monotheism, monism, and polytheism. From this trinity has sprung many religious ideologies. The study of the trinity, therefore, presents a method to understand religious diversities, and how these diversities represent partial understandings of a singular unity. The conflicts between many diverse religious ideas are apparent and can be resolved if a fuller understanding of the whole truth was obtained.
Emotion
A Soul-Based Theory of Its Origins and Mechanisms
This book discusses the three aspects of the soul called ananda (emotion), chit (cognition), and sat (relations) and describes how they play complementary roles in creating experience, and why they must always be combined. The combination produces inner conflicts and contradictions which are then resolved by a choice that creates a dominant-subordinate relation between the three aspects. The dynamics of this dominant-subordinate relation presents interesting contrasts to modern thinking in psychology because either of cognition, emotion, and relation can become causes while the others are compelled to become effects.
Mystic Universe
An Introduction to Vedic Cosmology
This book describes Vedic cosmology in light of the Vedic theory of matter called Sāńkhya, presenting how a different view of space, time, matter, causality, and lawfulness changes the model of the cosmos, even when observations are unchanged. It discusses various aspects of cosmology ranging from hierarchies of space and the cycles of time, the motion of the luminaries, the nature of stars, and why they are associated with meanings. Thereby, it describes a different theory of space and time which is organized as an inverted tree with roots above and leaves below, and how different kinds of living entities reside on different levels on this inverted tree.
Gödel’s Mistake
The Role of Meaning in Mathematics
This book connects Gödel’s Incompleteness and Turing’s Halting Problem theorems to the question of meaning in mathematics. It shows that a type theory of numbers can overcome incompleteness and undecidability in mathematics. The problems of incompleteness are shown to stem from categories like name, concept, and thing, which are present in everyday language due to the existence of meaning but are missing in current mathematics. It discusses how different classes of numbers (natural numbers, rational and irrational numbers, complex numbers, and prime numbers) represent different classes of meanings organized hierarchically.
Quantum Meaning
A Semantic Interpretation of Quantum Theory
This work presents a Semantic Interpretation of Quantum Theory where atomic objects are treated as symbols. Problems of statistics, uncertainty, and non-locality are solved in the symbolic view. It covers a range of topics, such as the origin of probabilities, how quantum experiments should be seen as measuring many different properties through simple location measurements, and how classical dynamical and kinematical properties (such as position, momentum, direction, angular momentum, time, energy, spin, and time direction) can be understood as meaning representations. It presents how quantum theory can be reconciled with relativistic mechanics.
Sāńkhya and Science
Applications of Vedic Philosophy to Modern Science
Sāńkhyā is the Vedic theory of matter, and it describes matter quite differently from modern science. This book discusses applications of Sāńkhyā to unsolved problems in physics, mathematics, chemistry, biology, and computing. It delves into the nature of the five gross elements, besides the mind, intellect, ego, and the moral sense. It discusses how scientific epistemology must evolve to the study of objectification of our sense perceptions (instead of physical properties) before we can understand thoughts and other deeper experiences. It describes how science can progress from gross to subtle matter (from bodies to minds).
Is the Apple Really Red?
10 Essays on Science and Religion
This book argues that religion and science will not be opposed, not even different, but identical from a Vedic philosophical view, when science is redefined as the study of symbols with meanings rather than meaningless objects. It covers a wide set of topics ranging from the nature of free will, how God is both transcendent and immanent in the world, why the world appears to be ‘designed’ due to the presence of mind, and why a personalist approach to religion is essential to not just understand religious symbolism, but also make progress in the study of matter as a symbolic representation of meaning originating from a subtle conscious and unconscious reality.
Signs of Life
A Semantic Critique of Evolutionary Theory
This book critiques evolution using ideas in mathematics, physics, computing, game theory, and non-linear systems theory, showing that there is evolution but it does not involve random mutation or natural selection. It goes on to present an alternative to modern evolutionary theory in which the environment evolves deterministically due to the effect of time, and the living entities adapt to this changing environment. The causality of evolution is therefore not from random mutations becoming larger changes, but in the larger changes percolating down to smaller ones. It discusses the contrast between this idea of evolution and other modern alternatives.
Moral Materialism
A Semantic Theory of Ethical Naturalism
This book reconciles the age-old conflict between free will and determinism, showing that science needs a notion of causality that incorporates not just effects but also consequences of actions. The universe is shown to be deterministic in the events but enables free choices about participating in these events. These choices, however, come with consequences, which then become the subtle causes that produce subsequent experiences. The book discusses why this approach overcomes the problems in epistemology which doesn’t have a method guaranteed to produce knowledge. It shows why questions of epistemology are tied to the questions in ethics.
Uncommon Wisdom
Fault Lines in the Foundations of Atheism
This work shows why all the ideas underlying atheism—reduction, evolution, determinism, materialism, and relativism—are false, and why a new science of meanings in matter will entail a new understanding of God. God in this new understanding is not just a being who controls the world, but also one who creates the world from His person. Like a car can be created from the idea of a car, similarly, when the world is treated as ideas, then God becomes the original idea from which all other ideas are subsequently created. This approach modifies our view of matter and God. Science has to be defined as the study of meaning to overcome its contradictions with religion.
Six Causes
The Vedic Theory of Creation
In the Vedic view, the universe meaning created from the creator’s person through a creative act. The creation can thus be understood as the process of creativity. This book describes the Vedic theory of creation as an act of meaning creation through conscious activity. Creation follows the steps of psychological processes involved in ordinary creativity, and these psychological processes are described as activities in the mind of a Supreme Person. The creator creates to know and express Himself, like an artist or author creates works of art and literature. The creation is meaningful because it results from the personal need for expression and knowledge.
Western Questions, Eastern Answers
A Collection of Short Essays
The book adopts a unique approach to East-West dialogue, providing answers to Western scientific and philosophical questions by drawing from answers that were previously provided in relation to transcendental questions. It conducts an interdisciplinary dialogue across Western and Eastern philosophy, and the Western and Eastern approaches to the study of life, mind, consciousness, and matter. By contrasting these approaches, we can see how the modernist approaches can be improved by inculcating the ideas from an ancient viewpoint. The interdisciplinary approach is useful in understanding the current limits of science.