Introduction

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Does our High-Tech Modern World need the Wisdom of the Ancient Vedic Sages?:

“When psychologists have investigated precisely what we resolve, it appears we are terribly self-centered, primarily preoccupied with our health and looks.” – Dr. Raj Persaud [Ref 1,Pg 56-in the context of the ‘kind of resolutions’, we moderns make].

It is inherently difficult for people of one civilization to be able to swing into the perceptions of people of another, especially when the two civilizations are poles apart, as in the present circumstances in which we find ourselves. As moderns, who have a strong sense of pride in our marvellous scientific & technological achievements, as also a concomitant feeling of ‘self-sufficiency’ arising there from; the basic question of whether we really need all this wisdom of the Vedic Sages for bringing light into our supposedly ‘disconsolate’ lives, must certainly have troubled our conscience at some time or the other. It is therefore natural for us to address ourselves first of all to this touchy question – which seems to remain ever in the background.

As our world-wide ‘modern civilization’* has addressed itself primarily only to the challenge of bringing happiness & fulfilment to man’s physical and mental appetites; and falls silent – whenever it has to either grapple with our sufferings & misfortunes or lead us to Divinity & peace in our inner-life – we may safely conclude that it has really nothing much to offer, in these subtler spheres of life. We must realize in the first instance that it has not been ‘designed’ to deal in a purposeful way with either our spiritual appetites or with the deeper philosophical questions of our human existence – concerning the nature of ‘Divinity’, death & the ending of our physical & psychological suffering.

By the time we come to recognize its spiritual inadequacy & bankruptcy, half of our life is actually over and done with. It is at this stage that we may ‘wake-up’ to become serious seekers and start looking for various means to bring about inner peace and contentment- since this has been the one thing, which has been constantly elusive in our lives-in spite of the apparent fulfilment of our physical & mental appetites!

Having arrived at this impasse, if we would have knocked on the doors of Vedic astrology of India; then, it is at this point that the wisdom of the ancient Vedic Sages, would have begun to reveal itself to us – in the form of the Remedial Measures. Not that Vedic astrology is the only source of wisdom and blessings from the ancients. Everyone should have heard of Yoga & Ayurveda; in addition to a whole host of other ancient-therapies & remedies – both Eastern, as well as Western – for bringing fulfilment for the deeper yearnings of man’s soul. In the light of this self-critical introspection into our modern civilization, we will now turn to our real objective.

* The term ‘modern civilization’ will acquire deeper and well-defined meanings as we go along. [See Sec. 3 of Part I below, as also Sec. 2 of Part II].