Science vs. Spirituality

 

You find science and spirituality often being contradictory and leading in opposite directions. Common questions you usually ask yourself are; whether to believe science or spirituality as the basis of life? What is the truth of existence – science or spirituality? Can science and spirituality coexist?...

You seem to be pulled apart figuring out whether the logic of science or age-old spiritual traditions is right.

We live in the same world of realities. We share the same sun, moon, and stars. At the individual level, we all feel hunger, sleep, and emotions. Our experiences of the physical world and the emotional world are the same. Then why this difference in defining the truth of the same life?

Maybe the whole picture is being viewed in a fragmented manner and the WHOLE truth is not clear to us.

Science is the systematic study of knowledge through observations and analysis. Science is dependent on the physical senses and intellect to conclude. It considers the physical existence as the basis of the entire creation with Matter as the core.

Science has gone to all extents –from space missions to LHA (Large Hadron Accelerator) to find the origin of creation. The theories of ‘Big Bang’ and ‘God Particles’ (Bosons) have been postulated to explain the creation at the cosmic as well as the sub-atomic levels. The results are yet inconclusive and based more on the involvement of “Gravity”, which itself is not clearly understood and explained by science.

Like gravity, the facts about “what electricity is?” are also not known or exactly explained. And there are many more.

Science has observed, categorized, analyzed, and concluded working principles of our physical world at the cosmic and individual levels. It has been able to reasonably answer our normal curiosities about the phenomenal world on ‘HOW? And WHY?’ things work. 

Science has been able to convert mass into energy by inventing deadly atom bombs. Going by it, we can’t even imagine the quantum of energy packed into the mass of our entire cosmos, in the form of stars, planets…Now what is the source of all that energy, and where is it contained?

Science has not been able to create mass from energy, which even a blade of grass is doing effortlessly by converting the energy of the sun into food for itself. Millions of stars and planets are formed in this cosmos without any human intervention. What is at play?

 

 

You experience the three states of consciousness on daily basis: Awake, Dream state, and Dreamless State.  Science has been able to measure brain activities as alpha, beta, theta, and delta waves in these three states of an individual.

We, as an observer, are constantly present in the awake and dream state. But, in the dreamless state, there is no experience and no “I” present. Then, who is present in this deep dreamless state? You do not have any awareness of yourself and you are not dead either in this state. You wake up from sleep and continue your normal life with memories of previous days and life. Who maintains this continuity of experience in life despite the absence of “I” in a dreamless state? There must be something that is not “I”. What’s that?

The observations, analysis, and explanations in science are within the fourth dimension of Time and Space. Exact explanation and theorizing of reality are not possible for science whenever it tries to go beyond a certain stage. Something elusive and mysterious is present whenever science tries to explain the world of phenomena at the Cosmic, Individual, or Sub-atomic levels of existence. It seems to be perfect in explaining and theorizing only on the middling phenomenon of existence, which exactly follows the laws of Time, Space, and Causation. Science fails to factually go beyond a certain point in its investigation of both the cosmic and sub-atomic realities of creation.

Spirituality describes “Consciousness” and not Matter as the basis of the entire creation and our phenomenal world.

Spirituality explains how(click to follow) “The Absolute Consciousness” creates the cosmos and all its physical and non-physical phenomenon. It does so by evolving itself into the basic life energy “Prana”. This Prana by gradual transformation into Mind and Physical Matter creates the cosmos in its entirety. The Absolute Consciousness is, therefore, explained as the basis of both the physical world and the incomprehensible world beyond the cosmic and sub-atomic levels.

The three stages of transformation/creation in Santana Dharma are termed: Adhyatmic (Spirit), Adhi-daivik (Mind), and Adhi-bhautik (Physical). This is how Subtlest (Spirit) changes to Subtle (Mind) and then to Gross (Physical) by a change in energy levels and frequencies at which they operate. The Subtle existence and Gross physical existence operate in the fourth dimension. The spirit is beyond fourth-dimensional existence and hence incomprehensible in terms of time and space.

Beyond the fourth dimension, it's the Spirit that exists at levels below sub-atomic reality or above cosmic creation.

“The Absolute Consciousness” which is beyond the physical world at cosmic and sub-atomic levels is not in the purview of the fourth dimension of time and space. Science with limitations and handicaps of time, space, and causation is thus not able to comprehend reality in its totality. It can conclude only about the observable physical world within the grasp of senses and intellect.

Spirituality describes “The Mind” as the reason for creation at the cosmic and individual levels as well. We create a whole lifetime of events and phenomena in our dreams and pass through them within a span of minutes of its vivid experience. We are not observers but a part of our dreams and a serious character in them. Similarly, the entire creation at the cosmic level is also a dream being played within the fourth dimension of existence. The truth is beyond it. It is the substratum on which this entire dream appears, plays, and vanishes. This happens both at the individual and cosmic levels of creation.

The truth is realized as the “Turiya” (Samadhi) state of consciousness. It is beyond the awake, dream, and dreamless states of consciousness. It is transcendental, beyond the fourth dimension of time and space. It is a glimpse of the deathless eternal existence of the self. This is what “GEETA” hints at in chapter 11 when Lord Krishna manifested his divine form to Arjuna, the warrior, by gracing him with divine vision.

Science and spirituality are thus not two different realities. These are but two ends of the same truth, “The Absolute.”

Spirituality describes the creation and everything else, including the physical world, from “The Truth” point of view and then devolves to the lower worlds of mind and the physical creation. Science on the other hand is trying to grasp the same reality from the physical creation and is progressing and evolving towards subtle in its quest for the truth. Spirituality is thus a Top-down approach and science is a Bottom-up approach to the same truth.