Page 595 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

376 SAMAGRA TILAK - 2 THE ARCTIC HOME
through tapas, reproduced poets, who had inherited the
in substance, if not in form, knowledge or contents there-
-the ante-diluvian Vedas, of in an unbroken tradition
which they carried in their from their ante-diluvian
memory by the favour of god. forefathers.
On a comparison of the two columns it will be found that
the tradition about the destruction and the reproduction of
the Vedas, recorded by Vyasa in the Mahabharata verse referr-
ed to above, must be taken to have been founded substantially
on a historical fact. It is true that according to the Puravic
chronology the beginning of the current Kalpa is placed several
thousands of years before the present time; but if, according
to the estimates of some modern geologists, the post-Glacial
period is, even now, said to have commenced some 80,000
years ago, if not earlier, we need not be much surprised at the
Purapic estimate, especially when, as stated above, it is found
to disclose a real tradition of 10,000 years assigned to a cycle
of the four yugas, the first of which began with the new
Kalpa, or, in the language of geology, with the present post-
Glacial period. Another point wherein the two views may be
said to differ is the beginninglessness ( andditva) of the Vedas.
It is impossible to demonstrate historically or scientifically that
Vedic religion and worship is absolutely without a beginning.
All that we can say is that its beginning is lost in geological
antiquity, or that the Vedic religion is as old as the Aryan
language or the Aryan man himself. If theologians are not satis-
fied with the support which this scientific view accords to their
theory about the eternity of the Vedas, the scientific and the
theological views must stand, as they are, distinct from each
other, for the two methods of investigation are essentially
different. It is for this reason that I have stated the views in
parallel columns for comparison without mixing them up.
Whether the world was produced from the original WORD,
or the Divine Logos, is a question which does not fall within
the pale of historical investigation; and any conclusions based
upon it or similar other doctrines cannot, therefore, be treated
in this place. We may, however still assert that for all practical
purposes the Vedic religion can be shown to be beginningless
even on strict scientific grounds.