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There are two traditions of Indian, essentially Hindu, spiritual thought - Shruti (direct experience) and Smriti (recollection). The mystical discourses of the Upanishads and the revelation of the Rig-Veda are part of the Shruti tradition. With the recital and methodical translation of appropriate mantras from the Rig-Veda and passages from the Upanishads, Prof. Saraswat explains in this talk how the ceremonial fire (AGNI) of Vedic worship symbolizes the sacred and supreme spirit that Generates (G), Operates (O) and eventually Destroys (D) the universe. In the Rig-Veda, AGNI is called the "first born of creation," and represents the pure and primordial energy of the universe that was created at the moment of Big Bang. At this moment two "numinous" forces, "Prakriti," the creative power of the Supreme Spirit of the universe, and "Purusha," the omniscient and all-pervasive mind of the cosmos, united to create the "phenomenal" universe. The Rig-Veda tells us that this primal energy later transforms into (1) the energy of life (Vaishvanar Agni), (2) the energy of thought (Pragya Agni), and (3) the Radiation energy (Taijas Agni).

As opposed to the almost pervasive contemporary scientific belief that mind is an epiphenomenon of matter, the mystical doctrine of the Rig-Veda posits that Mind and Matter both are eternally present, even before Big Bang, as the "inspiring" and the "creative" powers of the Supreme Spirit. Motivated by time, their union creates the Big Bang. Space and Time, created with the Big Bang, thus become inextricably interwoven into the fabric of existence. Noble prize winning scientists such as Steven Hawking and Steven Weinberg explain in their theories and books what happened after the moment of creation, how hot the universe was 1/1,000 seconds after the Big Bang, how rapidly the universe expanded, and how hydrogen and helium atoms synthesized from the primordial soup of electrons and positrons. But the discussion of what happened before the moment of the Bang is considered completely outside the realm of science. Professor Saraswat's presentation will shed some light on how the Rig-Veda addresses this issue.

Examining the historical evolution of Hindu spiritual tradition, Professor Saraswat will explain why the wisdom of the Veda is lost to modern society. Before the first millennium BC, when the Vedas were composed in their present form, the learned sages that transmitted this wisdom to mankind directly experienced this reality and had three kinds to commitments to it: (a) experiential, (b) emotional, and (c) intellectual. Due to the changes in social structures with the progression of history, from 500 BC to 1000 AD, the experiential commitment was lost and the Pundits maintained the emotional and intellectual commitment by composing the mythical stories of the Purans and epics. In the third stage of evolution, Professor Saraswat provocatively argues, a new breed of custodians of this wisdom was born in the 18th century when India was a colony of Britain. This category includes the academic scholars, mostly from England, Germany and France, who translated Vedas and Upanishads into Latin, French, and English. The academic scholars of Europe, due to their understandable lack of emotional or experiential commitment to this wisdom, tended to criticize it with their "little learning" that is considered a very dangerous thing. This approach inevitably led to the misrepresentation and misinterpretation of the temporal symbols used in the Rig-Veda to contemplate transcendental truths. The limitation of the vocabulary of English as the language of international business, technology and finance is another reason why it is difficult to translate the code words of Sanskrit such as AUM, SAT, or Udgeetha. A new interpretation of the Vedic wisdom that will integrate mystical thought and scientific facts into one unified doctrine is now needed in the 21st century to generate a comprehensive spiritual dialog among the followers of diverse faiths.