Shabda Media

Conceiving the Inconceivable

October 28, 2020 17:54 - 1 hour - 61.9 MB

This episode discusses my latest book entitled "Conceiving the Inconceivable", and topics surrounding the understanding of Vedanta philosophy, with special regard to the achintya-bheda-abheda understanding given by Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. The central contentious issue is whether reality is achintya or inconceivable, and if so, why should a book exist about something that cannot be understood? The short answer to that problem is that inconceivability arises due to the use of conventional lo...

Mathematical Novelties in Vedic Philosophy

September 08, 2020 05:07 - 1 hour - 45.7 MB

In this episode we talk about a number of unique problems that arise in trying to make Vedic philosophy more rigorous in a logical and mathematical sense. I have been presenting some of these ideas while discussing the theories of creation, cosmology, linguistics, the nature of space and time, etc. But there is no single place where we have collected them so far. This is what this podcast achieves to do.

Reason, Experience, and Authority

September 08, 2020 05:05 - 57 minutes - 44.2 MB

In this episode, we will talk about the problem of epistemology or how do we know. We will go over some historical material regarding the methods of knowledge prevalent in Western philosophy and then look at the same problem from the perspective of Vedic philosophy. We discuss the problems of rationalism and empiricism in Western philosophy and then the metaphysics by which these problems are resolved in Vedic philoosphy making empiricism and rationalism valid methods of knowledge. We then t...

Semantic Atomic Theory

September 08, 2020 05:02 - 56 minutes - 42.3 MB

In this episode we talk about the semantic view of atomism. Semantic atomic theory or the semantic interpretation of atomic theory is the idea that atoms are symbols of meaning and instead of the classical physical properties such as energy, momentum, angular momentum and spin, these atoms possess semantic properties which are called beauty, power, wealth, and fame. Once we change the properties by which matter is described, we also change the nature of forces. Instead of the mechanical push...

Karma, Reincarnation, and Divine Justice

September 08, 2020 05:00 - 59 minutes - 43.6 MB

In this episode we talk about the nature of karma and how it is created. We discuss how karma is created a consequences of actions, different from cause and effect, and to the extent that science only deals with causes and effects, it is incomplete. The episode goes on to talk about how how time only creates possibilities out of which our desiring (guna) and deserving (karma) create actual events for an individual observer. So karma is a natural concept and morality that deals with consequen...

The Vedic Evolutionary Model

September 08, 2020 04:57 - 58 minutes - 44.6 MB

This episode talks about an alternative model of evolution based upon the notions of matter derived from quantum physics rather than classical physics. In classical physics, a particle established continuity between successive states, but in quantum physics there are successive states but no continuity. The episode discusses how in Vedic philosophy this continuity is established by the presence of the soul due to which even though the bodies are changing through birth, childhood, youth, and ...

The Incompleteness of Science

September 08, 2020 04:53 - 52 minutes - 42.4 MB

In this episode we talk about the problem of incompleteness in science and how this problem is not limited to physical theories but goes way deeper into mathematics and logic itself. The root cause of this problem is traced to the fact that nature has duality and opposites, but inducting opposites creates contradictions in science. The problem is also caused by the existence of figures of speech in ordinary language which are missing in mathematics and logic. Finally, the problem is also rel...

The Tree of Meanings

September 08, 2020 04:51 - 46 minutes - 36.6 MB

This episode discusses how space and time are treated as trees of three kinds of meanings in Vedic philosophy. The idea of tree of meaning has been described at various places in Vedic texts, as well as in other religions such as Christianity and Judaism. The relation between this tree and ideas of form and substance in Greek philosophy are relevant to this coversation. The episode also talks about how the higher level branches and trunks are visible from the level of the leaves, but cutting...

From Science to Religion and Back

September 08, 2020 04:49 - 52 minutes - 45.2 MB

This episode discusses the relation between religion and science from the perspective of Vedic philosophy, and how an original meaning embodied by God expands into symbols which include both the soul and their material experiences. This relation between meaning and symbols requires us to treat the material world as a representation of meaning. The podcast discusses how this ideology about matter provides the incremental steps through which the study of pure matter transforms into the study o...

What is the Soul?

September 04, 2020 04:04 - 1 hour - 63.8 MB

The tripartite nature of the soul, how the soul's three aspects create inner conflicts, how the resolution of these conflicts requires choices about what to compromise, how these choices must be balanced over time, and how each situation requires the right kind compromise, these constitute the Vedic philosophical description of the soul.

Truth, Existence, and Possibility

August 28, 2020 05:34 - 1 hour - 59.8 MB

This episode discusses how the world exists as a possibility, from which a reality is manifest. This manifest reality can then be known or experienced. But the manifest reality can be true, right, and good, or false, wrong, and bad. We then discuss how the difference between true, right, and good vs. the false, wrong, and bad is its incompleteness. When claims are incomplete, then to complete them, the opposite claims are incorporated, and these opposites then create cyclical change, as each...

What is God?

August 27, 2020 13:05 - 1 hour - 47.4 MB

In this episode we talk about the nature of God. In Vedic texts, God is described as paramam-satyam, or the highest truth. He is also described as jnanam-advayam, or non-dual knowledge. What is duality, and what is non-duality? And do these ideas about the nature of daulity influence the definition of non-duality? How both duality and non-duality exist in this world? And what are the differnet kinds of non-duality, which lead to differnet conceptions of God? These are all interesting questio...

Why is God a Person?

August 27, 2020 12:43 - 59 minutes - 86.9 MB

The three aspects of God in Vedic philosophy, and how they encompass the basis on which everything else is understood in the world. Philosophy, Religion

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