Classical mechanics developed by Descartes, Galileo and Newton provided reductionist mechanical view of the world because they could never accept possibility of perpetual motion, they could never understand the fact that mechanical elements by their mutual balance, harmony and synergy can create a 'whole' which is greater than sum of its parts, they lacked the same insight  to have the wider   view of the world. They considered Universe an assemblage of solid and independent objects, reducible to their fundamental simple elements and therefore possible to predict future events. These objects, separated by empty space, are subject to certain immutable laws of Nature, forces imposed by a God, Creator of these same basic elements. According to Newtonian physics, the universe is a machine made up of parts based on firm, solid, local and objectively verifiable matter independent from the observer. In Newton’s view the world is like a clock which requires periodical rewinding and supervision by the god. But according to Orffyreus, world is not just a clock or machine but a perpetual motion machine which makes a huge difference to the world because once started, it does not require rewinding and supervision by god.

Deva Ramananda required evidence of perpetual motion from Man’s history of technology as he has been in constant search for a new scientific paradigm which compliments mechanical worldview as well Vedantist worldview. The answer is laid down in the works of Orffyreus on perpetual motion and deliberation on them in the light of Vedic knowledge by Deva Ramananda explicitly, yet they do not catch everyone's attention for so many reasons. Almost three century ago a series of perpetual motion wheels were constructed by Councillor Orffyreus that could not be explained by classical Newtonian physics and that, if taken seriously, require a paradigmatic change in the way we understand nature of energy, basic concepts and fundamental laws of science. Now, it has taken three century until Deva Ramananda created this new paradigm so that it could enter the sphere of popular knowledge. His mission is really capturing momentum because we are under the grip of energy crisis and as we have gradually become more skeptical about the truths of fundamental laws of physics.  We need to explore perpetual motion and start to recognize the need for a more integrative worldview. When truth of perpetual motion is known, physics is thrown away like the dark when there is light. The basic concepts of perpetual motion are likely to enter the popular culture through efforts of Deva Ramananda.

Fundamental Mistakes of Vedantists

The failure of the scientists to understand perpetual motion has resulted into establishment of erroneous concepts and laws of physics. It is natural that a perpetual motionist has a philosophy parallel to Vedanta but contrary to the worldview held by the physicist based on law of conservation of energy and reductionist Newtonian mechanics. Similarly, the philosophy of absolute monism (non-duality, Advaita Vedanta) stands in contradiction to the rational philosophy of scientific materialism and its methods of inquiry. Vedantiist have become critical of mechanical worldview and reductionist approach of the science as it has impoverished our vision and undermined our essence mere as chance combination of molecules. It has failed to explain the moral values and the enormous creativity of man in science, arts and literature.   The reductionist approach has relegated the human potential to a random biological occurrence with no potential for spiritual evolution. Vedantist thinks that the reductionist theory is responsible for the nihilistic, and cynicism we find in ourselves in today's materialistic society. However, Deva Ramananda’s and Orffyreus’ perpetual motion together have not caught the proper attention of Vedantist that can rescue man out of these problems in various ways. Vedantists are as ignorant of perpetual motion as the physicist and therefore, ‘cannot’ comprehend many of implications of perpetual motion which are parallel to their own doctrine of Vedanta.  Traditional Vedantists have even become critical of the machine itself as if it is totally unworthy of attention, an artificial materialistic thing devoid of any value and incapable of providing any enlightenment to their soul. They also need to learn that the perpetual motion machine is as natural as perpetual motion of the universe operated by the same natural forces and the principles of harmony and synergy. Today many scholars are tempted to synthesize science and religion through implications of quantum theory and relativity. Vedantist also alludes to modern theories of physics as if they want to prove truths of Vedanta by comparing it with them. They have come to agree that science is heading towards a non-mechanical reality; the universe has begun to them look more like a great thought than like a great machine. They jump to modern physics because they are ignorant of perpetual motion and also of the great thoughts to which perpetual motion can lead, they hardly know that perpetual motion   reconnect us to the absolute source of energy. Instead of debunking perpetual motion, they need to hail perpetual motion as the creator and governor of the realm of matter—not of the mind in which the machine exist as thoughts. If they do it, they would learn more about perpetual motion and the rest secrets of perpetual motion. They would cease to hate machine and restore their faith in mechanical realm and its worth.

The downfall of Vedanta in India is  partly due to the fact that it got into the hands of intellectuals  for whom it was never intended, they failed to turn it into a vibrant practical philosophy aimed to perfect the life by appreciating and realizing the working of mechanical realm as well as spiritual realm. These intellectual were like Greek philosophers who induldged in excessive speculations and intellectualism, they hated action, experiment and manual labour to test their tenets. Unfortunately, in the hands of intellectuals, Vedanta turned into an arid dry and formal philosophy similar to the scholasticism which posed as philosophy in medieval Europe. People there misunderstood it because they were unripe.

These orthodox Vedantist have also failed to explain Perpetual motion as explained by Deva Ramananda in his scientific, rational, modern and unsectarian manner instead of expounding it in the ancient archaic ways, which are so remote from twenty first century understanding. By blindly relying on western science that rejects perpetual motion, we Indians have lost much of our ancient spiritual and philosophic heritage of perpetual motion. Now, we have to recover the basic treasure that lies in it. First, I recommend perpetual motion to use it for obtaining free energy as much as you want; then, I want you to understand its metaphysical implications parallel to Vedanta. I hope perpetual motion will be a link in bringing both science and religion spiritually nearer to synergize in the future evolution of a superior humanity. I am convinced that Deva Ramananda is one of the chosen instruments to re-interpret the half-lost wisdom of the East to those caught up in fascination with science of West.

For its simplicity and economy, methods of perpetual motion are likely to circulate widely amongst the new generation of Indians.

Deva Ramananda wrote:

“Genuine perpetual motion spirit is regarded now-a-days as insanity and we perpetual motionists are spoken of in contempt as crackpot, but who has better insights into the working of forces of nature than perpetual motionist? Who has better ability to copy arts of nature than the perpetual motionist? In this world, who knows the majestic art of ‘creating something from nothing’ better than us which we perform like miracle and render life secure?” We are masters of secret mechanical arts that have occupied very special position in all cultures of the world by transforming the lives of the people. Common man has shared the benefits of mechanical arts. While fine arts have remained confined to rich and they also became the servants of the rich, the mechanical arts have remained the faithful servants of the poor. The fine arts are but one page in the history of civilization, but mechanical arts will take volumes to delight us. We have been the creators of link between religion, commerce and labour. A fine art demands not the qualities of brain and hands which is paramount to our various mechanical arts, which conduce to save labor and aid of thought, or add to the power after which we strive. The destroyer of art, science is summoning the world to the funeral of all that is grand, genuine, and original in perpetual motion. O ye lovers of art, the ‘Nature’ have indeed been propitious to the perpetual motionist. She is our best guide. We have never sacrificed Nature to speculation, but holding it as divine, have honoured her natural beauties by the erection of works of art, such as our perpetual motion machine that scientist could never produce even in dream. We are never satisfied with our spectacular achievements in the mechanical arts. We demand more of our technical skills. Not only must our machines be structurally sound and serve the purpose for which we intend but in addition they must have harmonious proportions pleasing to the eye. Civilizations may disappear, Empires may fall, Fine Arts may fade, science may perish, the Muse become dumb, a moral lethargy may lock up the faculties of a nation, the nation itself may pass away and leave only the memory of its existence but our reverend art, the perpetual motion, will endure for ever. Perpetual motion will remain immortal.”

Whatever difference of opinion may exist about the statements of Deva Ramananda, it is true that arts like alchemy, perpetual motion along with many other mechanical arts have exercised unbounded influence on our cultural history.  Alchemy and perpetual motion are now seen by historians of ideas as an important shaper of the world view of various philosophers, writers, and artists.  The early ideas of the mechanical arts, their Gods, angels, friends and foes are best depicted in mythology. Their stories represent fascination of people for mechanical arts.  Even the evolution of the human nature, from its brutal aspect to God like aspect, has been and continues to be in accord with fantasies expressed in mythology. By practice of mechanical arts, man has striven to perfection and always desired to equal powers of God. Our most basic concepts- of who we think we are, what we can achieve and where we think we’re going – have their roots in mythology.  In nut shell, mythology represents journey of man from his brute nature to divinity and feats of mechanical arts found in them play a key role in the progress of technology. 

Without prejudice, the need of time is to listen with attentive ears to tales of classic legends of antiquity, to stories and allegories of Bible, Quran, Ramayana and Mahabharata, to flying chariots of Veda, in all of them  human soul by sheer force of its intuition has expressed the most profound sublime thoughts and craved to ascend to ultimate heights either by way of religion or technology, or through a blend of both. The concept of god as great architect of Universe occurs in all religions Christianity, Freemasonry, Rosicrucianism, and Gnosticism. In brief, let us remember our predecessors, who taught to the world mechanical arts at the beginning of our civilizations.

A perpetual motionist is always the man of action even amidst adverse circumstances. He is a practical Vedantist- a perennial source of inspiration. Even if his experiment of perpetual motion does not yield the required result, he would continue to stick to his experiment for many years no matter if the rest of the world comes to perceive him as a crackpot. He has tremendous resolve.  A perpetual motionist is ready to do it happily to serve the mankind. Obsessed with perpetual motion, he is happy to tolerate the ridicule of the world. They who are afraid of action and consequently indifferent to the troubles of the world and unconcerned about mankind’s well-being are not preaching a true Vedanta to the world. For the perpetual motionist the suffering of others is his; for the yogi it is not, he is too much selfish as he is only concerned about his own salvation. He would least bother even if whole world is set on fire, he can watch it with indifference as long as it is not going to affect his own salvation. Deva Ramananda says that the sage and mystic can watch with indifference the suppression of the art of perpetual motion and inventor by the physicist, the prevailing corruption in the government, and exploitation of common man by the government, capitalist, oil companies who impose high cost of energy. That is quite true of the yogi but it will never be true of those perpetual motionists who have sacrificed every moment of their lives to explore methods of generation of free energy to save mankind. Perpetual motionists have left their wife and children stranded on road for the sake of perpetual motion. They would never have devoted to perpetual motion to this extent if they did not feel for others. They alone are entitled to the term sage; who are worried for happiness of all human beings.

The Vedantist Guru has impressed upon his disciples that The Mind has the power of creating or dissolving the whole universe in the blink of an eye. Just as gold is purified by heating it on the fire, so also mind is purified by the fire of meditation. Slay this mind through enquiry, destruction of Vasanas and have a control of its perpetual motion. Vedantists have come to consider perpetual motion as “Maya” and as the enemy of the ‘soul’ that causes mind to vacillate. The mind through its power of perpetual motion generates countless temptations (Vasanas) and desires (Sankalpas). They want to destroy this fluctuating power of the mind through constant meditation on Brahma (Brahma-Vichara) so that perpetual motion of the mind ceases completely. But in doing so, they throw baby out of water bath.  The principle of Perpetual motion is universal; it governs matter, mind, consciousness and life. It has many dimensions. It is all right to meditate to cease perpetual motion of mind but it is wrong to cease the creative thoughts of perpetual motion and deny the creative power of perpetual motion in mechanical realm because meditations on perpetual motion can bring untold benefits to mankind. Vivekananda stressed that it would be a mistake to overlook the material side of life. He believed that renunciation and a monastic life were the paths to salvation; however, he deplored the idea of pacifism.

Deva Ramananda respected man of perpetual motion for the energy, vigour, perseverance and perpetuity amidst adverse circumstances and suggested a combination of perpetual motion and Vedanta that would draw from the best of both. In perpetual motion there is no scope for conflict between the mechanical and the spiritual as the realization of perpetual motion also leads us to ‘inexhaustible’ and ‘infinite’ source of energy with our leap of consciousness to experience the ultimate reality –“Brahma”.  Orthodox Vedantists are crying that reality is unknowable beyond description but perpetual motionist strongly believes that Reality is not beyond formulations as Vedantist erroneously thinks. Perpetual motion is the art we can cultivate, practice, and develop and realize us; Rbhus are our models to follow who obtained salvation through practice of mechanical arts. We cannot have perfect understanding of spiritual world without understanding of mechanical realm. They who are afraid of action are unnecessarily criticizing machine and matter, arts and material science. They want a short cut to salvation and in doing so propagate false doctrine in the world. The Mechanical realm is as supreme as the spiritual realm. Make no mistake to undermine mechanical realm, its worth and value.  Self realization is impossible without knowledge of matter and the arts by which we can manipulate it for our own upliftment of our consciousness and welfare of mankind. Orthodox Vendatist forget what Veda (Isopanisad) emphasized equally the importance of ‘Vidya’ and ‘Avidya’.

“They enter the region of the dark who are occupied solely with the AVidya (finite). But they fall into a region of still greater darkness who are occupied solely with the (Vidya) Infinite.”

Dualist and nondualist vie with each other as to what is real. Both of them are quite correct when they apply their teaching in its proper context and place, but quite wrong when they misapply their tenets to hold their point of view supreme. Thus, dualists who offer dualism as ultimate are wrong, but then nondualist Vedantists are also misconceiving the proper application of their tenets when they turn into hardcore and insist on applying their maxim “Braham satyam , Jagat Mitya, “Aham Brahamasmi”, doctrine to human life generally. ... the maxims... such as the Vedantik "That thou art", the Persian "I am God", and the medieval European "union with God", are merely exaggerations of the truth, which is that God is immanent in us, [so] that through realization of our higher self we can move towards God, but God will remain the Unattainable, the Incomprehensible to all- spiritualist, Vedantist, mystic or perpetual motionist. Perpetual never claims that “I am God”, only he humbly claims that by learning the majestic arts of god and understanding the handiwork of nature, he is gradually marching towards the powers of God.

In Deva Ramananda’s view of an ideal perpetual motionist, we find again the notion of the intermediary which he held so dear. (he saw himself as an intermediary between East and West, and his ethical teachings advocate intermediary positions between asceticism and hedonism, mysticism and intellectualism, etc.) Deva Ramananda’s ideal perpetual motionist as exemplified by Vedic Rbhus position as “a link between the commonplace world of ordinary living and the sublime world of mystical being,” having attained the perfect balance of all his strengths in the synthetic faculty of insight: The ideal perpetual motionist tries to achieve perfect obedience to this fundamental Law of Balance in himself, in his life, and in the universe.

Nature operates on the principle of balance, harmony and synergy. We must have a balanced view of reality. Maya is illusion, however, illusion is also a part of reality as no one is a born yogi, we spend greater part of our life time interacting under the veil of Maya. In fact, Illusion and reality compliment each other. Perpetual motion is as real as ‘Brahama’. Perpetual motion is not illusion; Vedantist himself can construct a perpetual motion machine for himself to see the errors he committed in not taking a scientific approach to realization of ‘Brahama’. 

Creation is real as well as apparent. Since energy created by perpetual motion is capable of performing work, we believe that it is real. Since energy created by perpetual motion comes from no-thing, no perceptible source, we believe that it is apparent.

‘To be’ is to be in the perpetual motion. My perpetual motion is my ‘being’. Without perpetual motion, there cannot be any existence or creation. Creation signifies that things potentially present in the fabric of space-time have been rendered perceptible to our minds, and not that unknown substances have come into being. In all theory, there is an enigma in Creation, but here we experience the reality of perpetual motion.  The creation of energy out of nothing is more surprising than the production of energy from matter. In addition, the evidence of energy independent of matter strengthens our conviction in spiritualism.

Slow Progress of Technology in India

Over reliance on western technology and failure to understand perpetual motion and develop it further is responsible for the slow progress of technology in India.  The philosophy of Upanishads and Vedanta is largely responsible for developing pacifism in Indians. Dr Raghavan (vide Yantras or Mechanical Contrivances in Ancient India p 310 wrote:

“The tradition pertaining to this lore was, however, neglected and lost. The vogue that these mechanical contrivances had over a sufficiently long period was indeed enough to foster the development and spread mechanical technology on a national scale; but it was just like the civilization of this country not to have taken to it on such a scale. The reason is not too far to seek: the religious and spiritual preoccupation was such that machines , which in other countries ushered in a civilization that increasingly became materialistic in outlook were useful in this country only to reinforce the idea of God and Spirit.

If material yantras did not take root or multiply in India, spiritual yantras, which took one to still higher religion, developed and multiplied on vast scale. Even writers who actually dealt with the yantras, like Somadeva and Raja Bhoja Bhoja, saw in the machine operated by an agent an appropriate analogy for the mundane body and senses, presided over by the Soul, and for the wonderful mechanism of the Universe, with its constituent elements and planetary systems, requiring a divine master to keep it in constant revolution.

Jadanam spandane hetum tesam chetanmekkam /

Indriyanamivatvamanamdhistatritya sthitam  //

Bhamyadvineshshimandalchakrashtmetajjgatitayyantramlaksyamadhyam /

Bhutani bijamkhilanyapi yah santatam bhramayati smarjitsvo avyat //

And, as early as the Gita, the machine became apt simile for man being but a tool in the hands of almighty that sits in man’s heart and by His mystic power makes man not only move but also delude himself into the notion of his being a free or competent agent!

Ishawarah sarvabhutanam hridayeshuarjuna tishthat i/

Bhramyan sarvabhutani yantrarudhhani mayaya // Bhagvadgita18.61

The Lord abides in the heart of all beings, O Arjuna, causing all beings to act (or work out their Karma) by His power of Maya as if they are (puppets of Karma) mounted on a machine. (18.61)…”

Vedantists and physicists both have a very narrow view of perpetual motion and machine. On the other hand, a perpetual motionist’s notion of "perpetual motion” views the cosmos as a continuum of wheels within the wheels in dynamic space. No wheel exists in isolation, and the connections between macrocosmic wheels on cosmic scale and microcosmic wheels on the atomic level are independent on space and time. Even our human minds can be considered as small circles rooted or contained in the larger circle of the Cosmic Mind, which is their common ground. All the individual minds, which appears to be separate because the veil of Maya  are linked to each other on their deepest level; their roots eventually reach to universal Mind. Deva Ramananda has shown that one whole is the part of another wheel; this is still part of another wheel.  Since all of them are connected to their infinite source like various spokes to the central hub, wheels separated by great distances behave nevertheless as a coherent Whole.  By using principle of resonance, harmony and synergy, they can react simultaneously in an ordered fashion without having time to signal information to each other. It is like as if every region of space serves as a conveyor belt to interconnect them with each other  that ensure  separate parts of the Whole to have an  instantaneous connections of a mysterious nature, which seems to be of non-local and non-causal nature. In this manner, a perpetual motionist classically conceives his perpetual motion.

Ja’far as-Sadiq (a.s.) said, “Each star is a small Universe within the great Universe. It is a collection of heavenly bodies, i.e., a sun and its satellites. They are in perpetual motion so that they may not fall down and break up. If their movement stops, the Universe will come to an end. It is perpetual motion, which creates life. In other words, perpetual motion itself is life. If the motion stops, life would cease to exist.”[i]

 Nature is an undivided whole, an unbroken unity. It is like an organism containing organs that functions in a synergetic way to cause nature thrive forever.  Deva Ramananda shows that Gravity is the ‘soul’ of nature, while ‘electromagnetic force’ is the mind of the nature, heat the ‘heart and blood’ of the nature and nuclear force ‘ego’ of the nature.  Within nature we have order and disorder complementary to each other. Order represents design or a pattern, disorder represents friction, contradiction and conflict. They are opposite but still they are in harmony with each other within the whole which is our Universe. Neils Bohr got so much fascinated with complementary Yin and Yang that he chose it for coat of arms as shown in figure.   

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