Issue 91 - How 'Vedic' is vedic Mathematics?

VEDIC MATHEMATICS NEWSLETTER

ISSUE No. 91

A warm welcome to our new subscribers.

Vedic Mathematics is becoming increasingly popular as more and more people are introduced to the beautifully unified and easy Vedic methods. The purpose of this Newsletter is to provide information about developments in education and research and books, articles, courses, talks etc., and also to bring together those working with Vedic Mathematics. If you are working with Vedic Mathematics - teaching it or doing research - please contact us and let us include you and some description of your work in the Newsletter. Perhaps you would like to submit an article for inclusion in a later issue or tell us about a course or talk you will be giving or have given. If you are learning Vedic Maths, let us know how you are getting on and what you think of this system.


 

This issue’s article is written by Kenneth Williams and discusses the validity of the use of the word ‘Vedic’ in Vedic Mathematics.

 

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NEWS

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NEW BOOK – THE CROWNING GEM

This new book by Kenneth Williams shows a beautiful, unified and comprehensive approach to finding powers and roots of numbers and solving polynomial equations. It uses an application of the Vertically and Crosswise formula, which means all these solutions can be found with great ease using a single elegant pattern.

See more details at: http://www.vedicmaths.org/15-the-crowning-gem

 

ONLINE VM COURSES FOR FIRST HALF OF 2014

1) Introductory Certificate Courses, 4-weeks: starting 5th January, and 6th April.

2) Diploma Courses, 5-weeks (follows on from the certificate course): starting 9th February, and 11th May.

3) Advanced Diploma Course, 6-weeks (for those who have completed the Diploma or Teacher Training Course): starting 23rd March.

4) Teacher Training Course, 9-weeks: starting 5th January (tentative date).

Courses are from Pasyanthi Academy of Holistic Sciences, E-gurukul and the Vedic Maths Academy.

More details are available at: http://www.vedicmaths.org/community/calendar-of-events

 

TEACHER’S MANUAL IN HINDI

It is a great pleasure to announce that the Vedic Mathematics Teacher’s Manual (already available in 3 languages) will very shortly be available in Hindi. Since this is the main language of India, from where the reconstruction of Vedic Mathematics originates, it is particularly gratifying that this book will now be available for free in India and elsewhere.

 

TEACHER’S DIRECTORY

With more certified VM teachers being trained it is proposed to create a directory of such teachers. In this way it will be easy to put qualified teachers in touch with students. The location of this resource will be announced when it is available.

 

“APPLICATIONS AND CHALLENGES IN VEDIC / ANCIENT INDIAN MATHEMATICS"

This is the main theme of the 5th International Vedic Science Conference to be held at Bangalore, 20-22nd December 2013.

We know that Dr Rajiv Babajee will be giving a presentation related to his new book “Vedic Mathematics Proofs” (http://www.vedicmaths.org/14-vedic-mathematics-proofs).

And James Glover will be giving two papers:

“Extending the application of Vedic Mathematics sutras” and

“The psychology of Vedic Mathematics - Examples of universal thought patterns”.

 

THREE NEW ARTICLES IN THE ONLINE JOURNAL

http://www.vedicmaths.org/resources/journal-of-vedic-mathematics

“Powers and Cyclicity” by Debasis Basak shows how to get the last digit and last two digits when raising any number to any power.

“Observations from ‘Figuring’ by Shakuntala Devi” by Sarwan Aggarwal. This article notes and discusses some connections between this book and Vedic Mathematics.

“One line method for calculating digits to the 3rd, 4th ,5th , 6th and 7th” power by Stephen Mogomotsi Modisane of South Africa. This extends Bharati Krsna’s method for squaring and cubing near a base number.

 

VM TEACHER IN BOSTON

If there is a VM teacher in the Boston area of USA please contact us on . There is another teacher who wishes to collaborate.

 

PEBBLE MATHS TEACHER TRAINING COURSE

This course by Vera Stevens is open to primary school teachers, high school teachers, special needs teachers, aides, home school parents, parents, in fact anyone who wishes to learn beautiful Mathematics.

Date:          Monday 6th - Friday 10th (inclusive) January 2014.  

Time:          9am - 4pm daily

Address:    35 Natan Court Ocean Shores NSW Australia

Cost:          $A 400

Vegan lunch supplied daily

Please contact Vera Stevens at  for more information .

For more on Pebble Maths see: http://www.pebblemaths.org/

 

VM COURSE FROM DR KAPOOR

This free course: ‘Vedic Mathematics, Science and Technology Discipline’ can be accessed at www.vedicganita.org where you will need to register.

For details see http://www.vedicmaths.org/community/calendar-of-events

 

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ARTICLE for VM Newsletter 91

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How ‘Vedic’ is Vedic Mathematics?

The system given by Sri Bharati Krishna Tirthaji and known as “Vedic Mathematics” is sound mathematically, but there are those for whom the name creates extreme mental reactions. How can it be called ‘Vedic’, they say, when these sutras are not in the Vedic texts?

In this article the answer is reiterated: that ‘Veda’ does not just refer to a set of writings from ancient times but has a much wider meaning.

Swami Bharati Krishna Tirthaji himself discusses the word ‘Veda’ at some length in his Author’s Preface:

“The very word “Veda” has this derivational meaning i.e. the fountain-head and illimitable storehouse of all knowledge . . . .”

It is clear from this that the word ‘Veda’ is not considered as confined to written texts.

At a press conference on 11 August 2004 with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, a reporter at The Washington Post asked Maharishi to explain the term Vedic.

Maharishi replied, ''Veda means 'knowledge'—Veda means knowledge. Vedic means 'pertaining to knowledge.' Now when we say Veda is knowledge, we say Veda is total knowledge. Then what we present is the unified state of knowledge with the knowledge of all the diversified components of the unified structure of knowledge. 

''So: unified field of knowledge and diversified components of the unified field of knowledge. That is why, in every area, when we find Vedic this and Vedic this and Vedic this and Vedic this, what does it mean? It means this aspect of knowledge is connected to total knowledge—Vedic knowledge: Vedic education, Vedic health care, Vedic defence, Vedic architecture. Vedic administration: that means administration, the knowledge of administration, with reference to total knowledge of administration. When we say
Vedic health then that'll mean all aspects of health with reference to the total knowledge of health. So all aspects of health are the different constituents of the one unified, holistic character of health.'' 

At the end of his discourse Maharishi said, ''Beautiful question—very beautiful question.'' 

You can read the full text here

By “Vedic Mathematics” we therefore mean mathematics approached in a holistic and unified way. The techniques shown by Swami Bharati Krishna show how this can be done: though mostly at an elementary level. This approach has however been applied with great success in more advanced areas of mathematics.

On the basis of this understanding of the word ‘Vedic’ we can say that Bharati Krsna’s “Vedic Mathematics” is indeed Vedic. It brings out and uses the natural unified structures of mathematics, in contrast to the conventional approach which is fragmented.

Kevin Carmody (a colleague involved in an advanced research program at the Maharishi University of Management), in a private communication, puts it like this:

“One objection to the Ganita Sutras is that Swami Bharati describes them as belonging to the parishishta (supplement) of Atharva Veda, while the text of the sutras does not appear anywhere within the known parishishta of Atharva Veda. This is not a serious difficulty, because each branch of Veda and Vedic Literature is not just a text but a field of knowledge. Saying that some expression is from one of these branches is analogous to saying that a formula is from physics or chemistry or mathematics. If someone publishes a new math formula, we don’t reject it just because we don’t find it in existing math books. Likewise, if we do not find the text of the sutras in the text of the parishishta of Atharva Veda, this does not mean that they do not belong to that field of knowledge.”

So even when reference is made to a particular Veda or portion thereof we cannot assume that the author is referring to actual physical texts.

It is wrong then to believe that Vedic Mathematics is confined to the contents of ancient texts. That is not the full meaning of the word ‘Vedic’ or what Swami Bharati understood by the term. ‘Vedic’ refers to “the fountain-head and illimitable storehouse of all knowledge” which is unified and holistic in nature.

 

End of article.

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Your comments about this Newsletter are invited.

If you would like to send us details about your work or submit an article or details about a course/talk etc. for inclusion, please let us know on

Previous issues of this Newsletter can be viewed and copied from the Web Site: www.vedicmaths.org

Please pass a copy of this Newsletter on to anyone you think may be interested.

Editor: Kenneth Williams

Visit the Vedic Mathematics web site at: http://www.vedicmaths.org

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9th December 2013

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