Inquiries Into the Absolute: Digest 188 Archaeological Evidence andRamayana

[Guest guest]

Digest 188, October 4th 2006. Answers by His Holiness Romapada Swami Maharaja

You are welcome to send in your questions to His Holiness Romapada Swami at

iskcondc with the word "Question" included in the subject line.

 

Archaeological Evidence and Ramayana

************************************

 

483) There seems to be archaelogical proof of a civilization during Lord

Krishna's time (about 5 thousand years ago) in India. But if you calculate back

to Treta-yuga when Lord Rama was on the earth (earliest would be 2 x 432

thousand = 864 thousand years ago), archaelogicalists or the concept of human

evolution says that at a couple million years ago there was not human-like

skulls on the earth (only a degenerated homo-species).

 

Was some of the things in scriptures then in fact on a different "plane" of

existence that did not materially exist on this earth? Or is there something

wrong with the dating system of evolution scientists?

 

\Answer: I requested Drutakarma Prabhu to assist by providing the answer to

this question. Here is his response.

 

"I would answer something like this: According to Vedic epistemology, the

shabda pramana (shastra, transcendental sound from perfect sources, as recorded

in the Vedic literature ) is superior to the pratyaksha pramana (material sense

evidence) and the anumana pramana (conclusions from logical inference), because

the senses and mind are imperfect. So if there is some contradiction between

the evidence of shastra and the evidence in the form of archeological

discoveries and theories, then we accept the evidence of shastra, and assume

that there is some imperfection in the archeological evidence and theories.

 

In this case, if we have evidence from shastra (Ramayana, etc.) that there were

humans in the Treta Yuga, then we accept that as true, no matter what

archeologists may say. There is no need to prove shastra by material evidence,

for that would mean that material evidence is superior to shastra, and that is

not the case.

 

In the case of the Ramayana, it is true that archeologists believe that only

primitive apelike human ancestors existed at that time. But, as shown in my

book Forbidden Archeology, there is also evidence that humans of our kind

existed in the Treta Yuga. For example, Reck's skeleton, from Bed II of Olduvai

Gorge (at least 1.15 million years old) is anatomically modern. Of course, all

material archeological evidence is imperfect, and one can always raise

questions pro and con. Nevertheless, there is archeological evidence that

humans were present at the time of the Treta Yuga.

 

But the superior evidence is the evidence from shastra, and there can be no

doubt about that.

 

There is not any suggestion in shastra that the events of the Ramayana refer to

some other planet or level of existence. Shastra makes reference to places that

can still be identified on earth."

 

**************************

Past Questions and Answers: All previous digests with responses to about 480

questions can be accessed at http://www.romapadaswami.com/Inquiries/

 

Related Sites: http://www.romapadaswami.com

Lectures: http://www.caitanya.com (username: guest password: caitanyacom)

Brief biography of His Holiness Romapada Swami:

http://www.romapadaswami.com/bio.html

Forbidden Archaeology

http://www.amazon.com/Forbidden-Archeology-Unabridged-Cremo-Michael/dp/08921329

49/sr=8-1/qid=1158705582/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-8964507-5247121?ie=UTF8&s=books

 

**************************

 

Receiving Messages: To , change/add your email address please send

email to iskcondcr Please reply to this email at iskcondcr

if you choose to discontinue receiving these digests. If you have received the

"Inquiries Into the Absolute" digests despite requesting removal in the past,

please let us know immediately by emailing us at iskcondcr . If you

happen to be receiving these messages at multiple email addresses or your work

address, please let us know which email address you prefer to keep for the

longest time and let us know which ones we should delete.

 

Contact information for the purpose of "Inquiries Into the Absolute":

Email: iskcondcr

Postal Address: 10310 Oaklyn Drive, Potomac, MD 20854-3932