In plain words
They knew far more than what is known in today's science. The scientist of that age was very great indeed. Who? Hiraṇyakaśipu. He brought the five elements under his hand. Today's scientist has not gained even a tenth of what that scientist gained. He was one who knew so much. He moved about even on the floor of the ocean. He searched the whole earth. He travelled the pathways of the sky. He carried out research into every atom. He brought the five elements under his hand, but though he knew so much, he could not know himself. That is why the vision of the great ṛṣis of that age cannot be compared in this way. What tapas each great ṛṣi practised, and what divine power they went on gaining! All of today's doctors have gone on performing operations. After how many kinds of training, after going to how many countries, after taking how many lives, they become the great doctors of today. They have gone on taking up instruments of every kind. But in the medicine of that age, the great master of surgery was the great ṛṣi Bharadvāja. The great ṛṣi Bharadvāja went on giving surgery to the world, well and very simply. This is the healing of Nature. They came to call it Āyurveda. What does it mean? Āyuḥ + vedamu: Āyurveda. The Veda that gives long life: that is Āyurveda. But because it does not work quickly for us, we grow impatient to some extent. We always want quick results for everything. In what are called quick results, it turns out the opposite of quick. Today antibiotic tablets have arrived. Quick results. If a temperature comes on and you take two tablets, the temperature goes down. But afterwards it keeps rising higher still. Its reactions grow stronger. But in what was called the power of tapas in that age, there is no reaction, reflection or resound at all. That comes about through the power of tapas. Though they did tapas thousands of miles away, the sight of things far off came to them. They held converse face to face, in Nature.