india

Updated: Sep 23, 2015 18:20 IST

Defence minister Manohar Parrikar told DRDO scientists on Wednesday that ‘rishis’ in mythology were “probabaly great scientists” and that they should learn from these ancient seers the art of being humble.

Stating he would not like to get into a controversy on whether ‘rishis’ were scientists or spiritual, he said in mythology it was rishi Dadhichi who gave Lord Indra the ‘vajra’ weapon.

“They say that he made it out of his bone but I think he would have probably done some scientific research to develop a metal which provided that kind of superior technology. So you can classify him into a scientist,” he said.

“But the major difference that I find in those days and today is that rishis had control over ego, control over anger. These are very important for educated person,” Parrikar said in his address at the 39th directors’ conference of DRDO in New Delhi.

Before he spoke about ‘rishis’, Parrikar said one of the major issue which he would like to identify, this should not be taken in a wrong sense, “I always believe that power enhances with restraint and education enhances with humility.”

This is not the first time that members of the NDA government at the Centre or in states have tried to link modern scientific progress and Indian mythology.

In October 2014, Prime Minister Modi raised quite a few eyebrows by giving examples of Lord Ganesha and Kaurava warrior Karna from mytholgy to claim that cosmetic surgery and reproductive genetics were practiced thousands of years ago.