Science and Religion

October 15, 2014

Religion means unity with the Divine. The basis of religion is the assumption that there is
something within us which can be unied with the Divine consciousness. This something is
known as the soul or atman. Unlike the Buddhist philosophy which does away with the atman, in
Hinduism atman is fundamental to understanding. Following Adi Shankaracharya, we say that
Atman is Brahman.
What exactly is Atman. Suppose you take a person just before death and weigh him and then
weigh him after he has expired. Will you nd the missing weight of the Atman? No. Obviously
not. The atman is a non-material something that is running the whole body throughout life.
How can we know Atman. By the process of Kriya meditation, particularly the yogasana called
Mahamudra, we stimulate our senses to go inward. When they go inward, that is, opposite to
their natural outgoing activity, we learn to dissociate the mind from the senses. Then the mind
comes in control of the atman, our true self. It is the presence of the Atman which lends to the
mind the feeling that it knows. Otherwise, the mind is unable to understand or know anything
by itself. In the scriptures it is also said that the mind goes with the atman from life to life.
Actually, the atman goes no where. It is the body which comes and goes. It is the material
universe which changes and transforms from one form to another around the atman or self. The
self stays as such. Einsteins idea of relativity also suggests this primacy of the observer.
Now when the Atman is given up, led up along the path of meditation to the inner sanctum
sanctorum, the cave of the cranium, it happes upon a spot, a place where from is constantly
emanating an `Om sound. There the whole universe touches the body. All the stars, planets, all
space and all time are visible; this spot is like a window to the universe. The universe, thus
visible within, is nothing but Brahman. It is a fully conscious, omnipresent, omnipotent entity. In
self realization, the Atman is thus cognized as being one with Brahman.
Lets come to science.
The scientist studies the universe that is visible to the senses; a noble task indeed, for it gives us
an idea of the vastness and reality of the sense-based universe. Many interesting phenomena
happen in this physical cosmos, but almost all are law-governed. In the modern science of
quantum mechanics for example, strange things such as entanglement of matter over long
distances can happen. Two entangled particles, one here, one on the moon, can instantaneously
inuence one another. All this is a subtle indication of the underlying connecting reality, or God.
The spiritualist can learn from the scientist: he can be inspired by the vastness of the observable
universe. He can be inspired by the `oneness of the universe, as it originated from the singularity
at the Big Bang about 15 billion years ago. At that time, all space, all matter, was condensed to a
single point. Then there was a rapid expansion, which is known as the Big Bang and which has
resulted in the present state of the universe. Thus all so-called `separate things that are visible
and observable by us today are part of a `mass that was all at one point in the past. Thus trivially,
physically, we are all one. Even without invoking cosmic love we ought to know that we are all
one with each other and ought to love one another as our own selves.
When Albert Einstein showed in the early part of the twentieth century that matter and energy are
actually one and the same thing, he drove a further nail in the cofn of separatism, of separate
identity, of `meum and `teum, mine and thine. When all is one, how can these petty concepts
exist? They must be rooted out from the collective mind of the human race if we are to have
lasting peace in the world. Even the ancient, practical, Sanskrit subhashitani or maxim says the
same thing, Ayam nijah, paraha iti, na korti, na karoti. This is mine, this belongs to others,
dont think thus, dont think thus.
At the same time, the scientist has a lot to learn from the spiritualist. He may know in theory that
all is one, as indicated by science, but if his life is narrow, self-contained, isolated, instead of
expansive, one-with-all and ego-less, he cannot experience this oneness within. He may know
intellectually but he must know experientially. He must nd the way within that shows to him,
directly, the oneness of Being. The oneness of the soul with the cosmos. His oneness with all.
Then and then alone will his life become large, will his ardors and sympathies expand. Will he
come to know and love his brethren. Will he give up competitive spirit, the so-called rat race, the
coveting of prizes, name, fame and money. He will come to know that as a man he is on the
Earth for a short period, as a soul he is journeying through the Universe, and as God he is one
with the All. His life will be complete.
Thus it may be said that science and religion are the two legs of a biped. The organism is
unstable without either one. Both are essential for it to move forward, expand within and plumb
the depths of the Cosmos within.