India is the world leader in science, economics as well as consciousness – Bhagavad Gita ch2:51

This is a big week for India. Data shows that India has just become the most populous country on the planet, overtaking China in population levels. And this demographic alone suggests that India will continue on its path toward becoming one of the fastest growing economies in the world, since a growing work force and consumer base is part of what drives any economy.

Image: https://www.grownxtdigital.in/lifestyle/travel/chandrayaan-3-mission-update-india-aims-moon-landing/
Secondly, this week India just launched its third mission to the Moon. She is one of only four nations to have ever reached the moon, which is a formidable achievement in itself. Besides Russia, USA and China, India has already landed a vehicle on the surface of the moon, as opposed to simply crashing onto the surface in total destruction. Back in 2008 India’s space agency launched the lunar orbiter called Chandrayaan 1 (Chandra is the original Sanskrit name for the moon). It orbited the moon for 312 days and then deployed a lunar probe which impacted the surface and released enough debris to confirm, after analysis, that there was a presence of water. This was specifically on the moon’s south pole, which made India the first nation to land a vehicle at the south pole of the moon.

In September 2019 a second lunar vehicle, Chandrayaan 2, crashed during a soft landing attempt, although the orbiter remained in tact. And now this week, as I write this, Chandrayaan 3 was launched, as the next attempt to not only reach the moon but also succeed in a soft landing. We will have to wait just over a month to see if this mission will succeed. If it does, this will make India the first nation to achieve a soft landing of any vehicle at the south side of the moon specifically. Apparently the possibility of water there is worth investigating, considering the desire to build a colony on the moon in time.

Thirdly, although less positively, India this week is experiencing some of its heaviest monsoon flooding in modern history. North India specifically, as well as Pakistan (which was traditionally part of greater Bharata), have seen loss of life as well as temples submerged and bridges swept away by the current floods. I mention this less significant point as a reminder that India was once much larger than it is today geographically. The traditional name of India is Bharata, named after a great king, Maharaja Bharata. This is where the epic narration Mahabharata (the history of greater Bharata) originates.

India may be an up and coming world leader today, but she was historically already the mightiest nation on the planet millennia back already. The nation or empire included Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan as well as the smaller northern kingdoms and eastern neighbors, if we go back far enough. Bharata was the ruling empire of the planet, from what I can deduce, based upon the Vedas and histories of ancient India.

(original source unknown)

India’s role as an economic leader or space pioneer today is actually not her primary gift to the planet though. Her real treasure and pioneering leadership role comes from her gift in the field of consciousness and metaphysics, as revealed in the Vedas and yoga literatures from ancient history. These texts, which include Mahabharata – the oldest and longest poetic literary work in the world, past or present – reveal the science of consciousness, something unknown to most other nations, and something more important than any space exploration, demographic or economic development.

This science of consciousness is found in the yoga traditions and teachings, which give detailed and elaborate techniques in raising consciousness to such a level that miracles become possible, or what we may call miracles today because we cannot understand them with our limited scientific achievement so far. This wisdom of ancient India, which reveals the path of mysticism and the mystic siddhis available to the yogi, has been the greatest gift of Bharata or ancient India known to humanity ever. From her shores both Buddhism and the traditions of ancient China and Japan all emerged originally, migrating north over time. Bharata was the empire of the globe if we take the Vedas at face value.

Not only reclusive yogis, but also martial artists were able to manipulate energy to such a degree, without machinery and using only mantra or sound vibration, that they could cause ballistic missiles to strike the enemy in battle, either targeting a single person in a crowd, or targeting a crowd with just one weapon or “brahmastra” as the Sanskrit text calls them. What we see today in science fiction movies like Star Wars, used to be the skills of kshatriyas (warriors) like Arjuna and others on the battlefield of Kurukshetra, where Bhagavad Gita was spoken 5000 years ago. The mystic martial arts of the Jedi knights in Star Wars or Dune were all gleaned by the director and writer of those film stories from the Vedas.

Thus the clear leader in the mystical arts is ancient India, or Bharata varsha. And no one can compare with India in the science of consciousness and particularly the journey of liberation from our bondage to this material world. Escaping the gravity of the earth by rocket to reach the moon is a fine skill. The greater skill, however, is escaping the bondage of this material existence altogether. The material world has all living entities entrapped in its bondage. Yet India has long ago already presented the art or science of liberating consciousness from matter entirely.

(original source unknown)

Going to the Moon is an elevation of humanity in today’s modern perception, yet even the moon is a place of struggle, misery and death, especially if you get your landing wrong. However, India has presented, via the Vedas and yoga literature, the ability to transcend this material cosmos entirely and return to the Vaikuntha planets, as they are called. There the living entity resumes their eternal existence without having any gravity to pull them back to earth.

Once you achieve real liberation from the gravity of earth and all the other heavenly planets, you will be in the place with no anxiety, which is the meaning of the name Vaikuntha, a title for the eternal spiritual world. India may be about to qualify for residence on the Moon, but millennia ago she gave the techniques to enter the eternal Vaikuntha planets, also known as the kingdom of god, or the spiritual world. We may have forgotten this or neglected to focus on it due to modern civilization’s tendency to prefer other more mundane sciences, but India or Bharata has presented the world with this information from the start. There is yet to be another nation on the entire planet that has been and currently is such a leader for humanity on all levels, both material and spiritual.

Let us remember the wisdom of her ancient past while we become preoccupied with her leadership in the space science and economics of today. India’s greatest gifts are already with us in the form of the Vedas and Mahabharata, of which Bhagavad Gita is a primary part. Liberation from earth requires rockets and escape velocity if you’re going to the Moon. But it requires the knowledge of consciousness and the mercy of Mukunda, the giver of liberation (mukti) and speaker of the Gita, if you wish to escape the bondage of the material world altogether.

Bhagavad Gita ch2:51

कर्मजं बुद्धियुक्ता हि फलं त्यक्त्वा मनीषिणः ।
जन्मबन्धविनिर्मुक्ताः पदं गच्छन्त्यनामयम् ॥ ५१ ॥

karma-jaṁ buddhi-yuktā hi
phalaṁ tyaktvā manīṣiṇaḥ
janma-bandha-vinirmuktāḥ
padaṁ gacchanty anāmayam

karma-jam—because of fruitive activities; buddhi-yuktāḥ—being done in devotional service; hi—certainly; phalam—results; tyaktvā—giving up; manīṣiṇaḥ—devotees who are great sages; janma-bandha—the bondage of birth and death; vinirmuktāḥ—liberated souls; padam—position; gacchanti—reach; anāmayam—without miseries

TRANSLATION
The wise, engaged in devotional service, take refuge in the Lord, and free themselves from the cycle of birth and death by renouncing the fruits of action in the material world. In this way they can attain that state beyond all miseries.

COMMENTARY
The liberated living entities seek that place where there are no material miseries. The Bhāgavatam says:
samāśritā ye padapallava-plavaṁ
mahat-padaṁ puṇya-yaśo murāreḥ
bhāvambudhir vatsa-padaṁ paraṁ padaṁ
paraṁ padaṁ yad vipadāṁ na teṣām
(Bhāg. 10.14.58)
"For one who has accepted the boat of the lotus feet of the Lord, who is the shelter of the cosmic manifestation and is famous as Mukunda or the giver of mukti, the ocean of the material world is like the water contained in a calf's hoofprint. Param padam, or the place where there are no material miseries, or Vaikuṇṭha, is his goal, not the place where there is danger in every step of life."
Owing to ignorance, one does not know that this material world is a miserable place where there are dangers at every step. Out of ignorance only, less intelligent persons try to adjust to the situation by fruitive activities, thinking that resultant actions will make them happy. They do not know that no kind of material body anywhere within the universe can give life without miseries. The miseries of life, namely birth, death, old age and diseases, are present everywhere within the material world. But one who understands his real constitutional position as the eternal servitor of the Lord, and thus knows the position of the Personality of Godhead, engages himself in the transcendental loving service of the Lord. Consequently he becomes qualified to enter into the Vaikuṇṭha planets, where there is neither material, miserable life, nor the influence of time and death. To know one's constitutional position means to know also the sublime position of the Lord. One who wrongly thinks that the living entity's position and the Lord's position are on the same level is to be understood to be in darkness and therefore unable to engage himself in the devotional service of the Lord. He becomes a lord himself and thus paves the way for the repetition of birth and death. But one who, understanding that his position is to serve, transfers himself to the service of the Lord, at once becomes eligible for Vaikuṇṭhaloka. Service for the cause of the Lord is called karma-yoga or buddhi-yoga, or in plain words, devotional service to the Lord.

Reference: Bhagavad Gita As It Is, translation and commentary by Swami A. C. Bhaktivedanta, original 1972 Macmillan edition (www.prabhupadabooks.com)