Stray Thoughts of Dr. Y. V. Rao- 13
Dr. Yerneni Venkateswara Rao
M.Sc., Ph. D
Retired Principal
GUDIVADA-
A.P
yernenivrao@gmail.comh.
Science
is knowing how nature works and technology- imitating, innovating and improving upon its
methods. Everything in science is precise, reproducible and hence verifiable.
Sameness and universality are the hallmarks of this domain affording ample
scope for common exploration and concerted effort. The paradigm of science is
well established and the paths of scientific investigation are well laid out;
it is easy for anyone with the right attitude and inclination to pursue
science.
On the other hand, spirituality is touching
the deepest layers of one’s being and experiencing one’s very core- an
endeavour to transcend the here and now and an attempt to reach out to the ultimate reality.
Distinctness and particularity characterize this realm demanding unique
endeavour from each spiritual aspirant and seeker after truth. Being intuitive,
every step of the spiritual journey involves value judgment, and faith is our
only guide and support. There is no such thing as a unique path that all can
tread. Every seeker finds him/herself all alone in his /her lonely pilgrimage.
It is perhaps because of this that every attempt at achieving a meaningful
synthesis of all that has come to light so far and finding an acceptable path
to spiritual truth has ended up as another milestone along the road to nowhere
. for, the ultimate reality being infinite could not probably be contained
within the narrow confines of any human conceptual framework, however grand and
magnificent it be. That is as may be. Even if the underlying pattern of
spirituality is dimly discernible as yet, and the road map still to be readied
as it were the irresistible inner urge that impels certain individuals , albeit
certain exceptional ones, who have set themselves free from the thraldom of
their fickle minds to take a headlong plunge into spirituality is too palpable
a fact of life to be overlooked or ignored.
Thus , both science and spirituality explore
truth, but truth of different orders , one external, finite, experimental,
hence observer independent and relative and the other internal, infinite, experiential
hence, individual based and absolute.
While science is an intellectual pursuit aimed at understanding the
objective reality and through technology, its hand maiden, making man prevail
over circumstances or external nature , and making life more comfortable
spirituality is an intuitional approach to experiencing the subjective reality,
the truth within, and returning to one’s original abode of bliss infinite and
peace beyond words. Just as the latter helps us to see deep within ourselves
right down to the deepest layer of our
very own being and leads us to a state of supreme tranquillity(mounam) that
passeth all understanding , the former
aids us in seeing far beyond ourselves , all the way up to the brink of the
visible universe. While science seeks to arrive at truth through careful
observation, precise measurements and logical thinking, spirituality does so by
exploring the inner world of meaning and value through supernatural leaps based
on intuitive experience.
Science doesn’t deal with nature as it is but
is concerned with what we can say about nature in the form of great theories
(Niels.Bohr). On the contrary, spirituality is more interested indirectly
seeing, indeed experiencing the whole of reality including nature as it is
rather than saying things about it though the spiritual masters too say something about it to guide others in
exploring and perceiving reality to a greater or lesser degree depending on the
depth and clarity of insight of the spiritual seeker. Science is the most
rational religion of mankind whereas spirituality is the most intuitive science
of man. While one is dialectic of reason, the other is dialectic of feeling.
One speaks the language of the mind while the other finds it more felicitous to
use the idiom of the heart. In the former, the ideas are dictated by logic or
reason, while in the latter they are determined by intuitive intelligence .In
any case, they both appear to be inalienable facets and profound manifestations
of the human psyche. Each relies on premises and practices, logic and criteria
and adopts procedures and methodologies, modes and mores, and chooses
preoccupations and priorities, idiom and language, appropriate and natural to
its unique pursuit. Quite unsurprisingly, what is valid in one level or area of
exploration may turn out to be invalid in the other. This being so, to try to
adjudge one from the perspective of the other and to extol one at the cost of
the other instead of accepting them as two distinct disciplines with character
and contours specific to each and both equally valid in their respective
domains is an exercise in futility. Either way of looking at nature is unique
and caters to a slightly different aspect of our being. They actually call upon
different parts of our being and invite us, nay, challenge us to become
inwardly large enough for both to find a place in us and become more and more
whole by integrating even the great arts and harmonizing all knowledge, which
is the true goal and ultimate purpose of our earthly sojourn.
We need both of them.; by rejecting
one, we become blind; by rejecting the other we become lame ( with apologies to
Einstein) either alternative being equally disagreeable.
Although all humans are human each is
distinct in his/her own way. Just so is the spiritual truth; although one, it
manifests itself uniquely to each individual , striver according to his level
of attainment as a sadhaka. Just as it seems impossible for social science to
come up with a single theory or formula to encompass every human individual so
it appears inconceivable to come to terms with every experiential encounter
with the spiritual truth in one comprehensive philosophical system however
ingenious and intellectually exalted its proponent may be for, although the
spiritual truth is one and eternal, human perception of it, in principle, is
coloured and conditioned, with all its diverse implications. .That at least has
been the case so far. Hence the bewildering number of belief systems and the
full complement of ever warring religions constantly compete for man’s
attention and patronage. Yet the search for such an integral system goes on.
Even as furious efforts are on in science to
integrate all that is known about the physical reality into a grand unified
scheme, the so called theory of everything, attempts at integrating everything
known in the spiritual realm into an equally grand philosophical system, which
started ages ago, have since been going on relentlessly. Man’s inherent
exploratory nature and innate investigative urge keep on driving him from truth
to truth until he attains to that all-encompassing and all-comprehending truth.
Whether these efforts will be crowned with success and hailed or greeted by
defeat and jeered at is a moot point. But the hope is that they would succeed
and what is more, culminate in the grand reconciliation of science and
spirituality through the emergence of an even grander theory, which not only
subsumes these two theories but actually encompass all that is known and
knowable. In spite of the apparent divergence in their approaches to their
respective goals there is a stunning similarity/parallelism between what each
has already discovered. Treading the spiritual path one discovers forcefully
the inextricable interrelatedness , interconnectedness and inseparableness of
everything in the phenomenal world even as one pursuing the path of science
sees the universe as a vast network of dynamic patterns of energy and through
it , the ultimate unity underlying the apparent multiplicity and diversity.
More fundamentally, the convergence of these
two seemingly divergent approaches to truth appears both inevitable and
unavoidable on the basis of scientific inferences with spiritual overtones and
spiritual insights with scientific connotations that have come to light till
date. Studies in the quantum domain
unfailingly drive one to the conclusion that consciousness invariably enters
theory and by modifying the quantum wave function changes the physical
universe. In other words, our thoughts about the world and the way the world
appears are inextricably interrelated and interconnected. As the Nobel Laureate
Eugene Wigner tellingly says “…physical objects and spiritual values have a
very similar kind of reality..at any rate, it is the only known point of view which
is consistent with quantum mechanics.” Resonating with this observation are the
revelations of Sri Arobindo’s Integral Nondualism (Poorna Advaitam) which brooks no
contradiction between Spirit and Matter, Brahman and the Cosmos. Matter, Life
and Mind are created out of the involutions of Spirit and hence all realities
are but modes of spirit. According to Sri Arobindo (The Life Divine, p41b) “
The universe is real…it is a progressive self expression, a manifestation , an
evolving self-employment of That in Time which our consciousness cannot yet see
in its total or essential significance .” ‘That’ is Sacchidananda [ Existence-
consciousness-bliss] Brahman.
Thus. While Quantum Mechanics recognizes
consciousness as a factor of immense importance and has integrated it as vital
element in its conceptual framework, spirituality regards the physical universe
as an important facet of consciousness to deal with physical reality. If one
adds to these insights, the not-so-well-known fact that intuition, though
certainly super sensuous is definitely super rational but not irrational as
many erroneously conclude, one gets to
see a more complete picture of the shape of things to come. Seeing all these ,
one gets the feeling that the divergent paths these two disciplines have chosen
to tread are but segments of a single circular path and they have ended up
meeting at a point in it as they ought to although they appear all the time to
be inexorably moving away from one another in opposite directions. If true, this
will be a moment of profound significance in mankind’s evolutionary progress
because it will afford a golden opportunity for the scientists and the
spiritual preceptors and masters to come together on a common platform to
appreciate each others endeavours for unravelling the secrets of the mother
nature, to discern the complementary nature of the findings so gleaned by them
to the mutual advantage of both through enrichment of their knowledge and
wisdom, and finally to launch a concerted assault on the ultimate mystery of
who we are and where we stand in relation to the Ultimate Reality.
So the hopes, expectations and aspirations
about these efforts at melding and integrating science and spirituality in some
higher synthesis culminating in the emergence of a grander theory—a single all-
encompassing theory of the universe—may not be all that unfounded or misplaced.
Standing as we are in the present, we should keep ourselves open to eth
infinite future waiting to reveal the truth in all its glory and splendour when
we are fit to receive it and hold it in our hearts/ bosoms. Such a time may not
be too far off in the future for the much sought after genuine synthesis at a
higher plane of science and spirituality in place of the present contradiction
or even superficial reconciliation between the two, one hopes, will be part of
everyday reality before long.
As man’s exploratory progress picks up speed
and continues to advance at an ever accelerating pace towards the far frontiers
of enlightenment, and as man attains to greater and greater awareness , he may
yet hold a mirror for spirit to see itself. Even granting that such a
resplendent dawn of understanding and realization is still in the womb of time,
isn’t it enough to know in the mean time that there is such a truth and that it
can be experienced intuitively , though not apprehended intellectually provided
one strives earnestly enough?
Just as we are able to discern the common
humanity through our separate interactions with human individuals of disparate
and often contradictory natures, so should we able to have a glimpse of the
ultimate spirituality through our knowledge of the wide variety of mystic
visions, perceptions, realizations and
lived experiences of, and/or interaction with, sages and saints. Though the
mystic insights and apperceptions of the seers and their experiences of
communion with that effulgent truth appear to be contradictory at times , they
do not invalidate the spiritual truth just as the contradictory nature of human
individuals do not negate the reality of their common humanity. As Dr. Brian
Weiss so aptly put it, “ The experience of luminosity and transparency of
objects , the state of detached loving
kindness, the great peace and joy, the feelings of patience and happiness, and
interconnectedness with everything is a gift of grace that comes unbidden. When
one relaxes into a feeling of love without asking for anything in return and
one senses that the state is close by.”
Once this happens , the next step is to
firmly fix our faith on that radiant truth, contemplate on it , meditate on it
, in short, steadfastly strive to grasp it.
After all, what counts ultimately in life is
to believe in something meaningful and to live it.
There comes a stage in many a life when faith
replaces or better still complements reason and provides the much needed sucker
and support and guides one along the path of enlightenment to the ultimate
source and goal of all.
