There is a lot of interest in the \u201cGod Particle\u201d and the debates on TV are happening on the subject as well.<\/p>\n
The debate on NDTV under the title \u201cThe Big Fight\u201d was one such discussion \/ debate. \u00a0My interest of entry in this debate was that my Guru, Sadhguru was also part of the panel.<\/p>\n
The discussion was interesting and in many ways, the prejudices and biases of people came out as well as their stance.<\/p>\n
Some of the interesting things \u2013 Swami Atma Preyananda of the RK Mission was an interesting person. \u00a0He was a trained Particle Physicist, until he turned a Monk. \u00a0So, he sort of straddled both the worlds \u2013 Science and Spirituality.<\/p>\n
His point of reference for Spirituality was Swami Vivekananda. \u00a0And, I believe he suffered from the same issue of articulating the differentiating Spirituality and Religion, that Swami Vivekanandna (whom I admire and respect a lot) had. \u00a0For all his contribution to Spirituality, Swamiji used Religion and Spirituality interchangeably. \u00a0And that was the context of Swami Atma as well.<\/p>\n
Dr. Bhargav, a scientist, is a \u201crationlist\u201d somehow tried his best to \u201csave his turf\u201d of Science and not be \u201ctainted by God\u201d in any way.<\/p>\n
The Spokesman of the Catholic Church of Delhi spoke intelligently, and I give him credit for at times questioning his own beliefs.<\/p>\n
Then there was a sociologist, who was playing the class-joker, and was there merely to keep people in good spirits, while himself wondering at the \u201cplay\u201d that was going on.<\/p>\n
Then there was Dr. Ramana \u2013 who is a scientist and believes in God. \u00a0A friend and yet a frustrating example for Dr. Bhargav.<\/p>\n
I want to discuss a few points that I found interesting in the whole conversation and things that I feel didn\u2019t come out as well.<\/p>\n
Religion, Spirituality and Science<\/strong><\/p>\n First off the bat, Religion is NOT Spirituality. \u00a0These are two different things. \u00a0Religion is predicated on Belief<\/strong>, while Dharma or Spirituality is predicated on Search<\/strong> [Read the following for more on this difference:\u00a0Bhagwad Gita is not about \u201cDoing Good\u201d<\/a> . Dharma and Religion: the Foundational Difference<\/a>]<\/p>\n Sadhguru\u2019s entry point was always from the Spirituality context and not the Religion context. \u00a0Unfortunately, that point and differentiation didn\u2019t quite come out clearly, because others kept muddling it all the time. \u00a0In the end, he did try to clarify, but the format of the program somehow never helped to clarify it.<\/p>\n So, it should have been Spirituality and Science<\/em><\/strong> and NOT<\/span> Religion and Science<\/em><\/strong> discussion. \u00a0Unfortunately, except for Sadhguru, rest of the panel \u2013 including Vikram Chandra, the anchor \u2013 kept using these terms (Religion and Spirituality) \u2013 synonymously. \u00a0In fact, these days people \u2013 with fetish for \u201cisms\u201d \u2013 have come up with another word \u2013 Spiritualism, which is \u201cgo-between\u201d compromise between Religion (which is belief system) and Spirituality (which is seeking).<\/p>\n I have seen that for non-Hindus, this distinction is almost impossible to fathom. \u00a0And amongst the Hindus, the more \u201cintellectually accomplished\u201d a person is, the greater his inability to get past the preconceived notion of religion and spirituality and complete confusion between the two.<\/p>\n In this panel for example, the archbishop had no idea about this, but Raja Ramana and even Swami Atma were confused.<\/p>\n Science and Spirituality: Is their quest similar?<\/strong><\/p>\n In this sense \u2013 YES! \u00a0Why?<\/p>\n Because both, the Spiritualists and the Scientists, are asking the same question:<\/p>\n How did the Infinite manifest itself as the Finite?<\/p>\n Or in other words \u2013 How did Existence come from God? [Spiritualists articulation] \u00a0Or How did the matter manifest from Wave? [Scientists\u2019 question]<\/p>\n The methods of both, are however, completely different. \u00a0While one is trying to know by inference. \u00a0Because direct observation is not possible and not even reliable. \u00a0The other is trying to know by direct experience. \u00a0Knowledge \u2013 through calculation or inference is not reliable and therefore, of no use<\/strong> for the Spiritualist. \u00a0This is important to understand. \u00a0If one even has the most reliable theory of existence, then what? \u00a0How does it make the human existence or the Universe a more worthwhile thing? \u00a0Yes, we will get another gadget created, another rocket sent to space. \u00a0But how does it make us any better equipped to deal with the immensity of the Existence?<\/p>\n And, for all the talk of \u201cScientific Rigor\u201d amongst the scientists, honestly, I find them rather ideological. \u00a0All the Spiritual Masters that I have come across had extraordinary rigor. \u00a0They have questioned the heck out of everything to get to the answer.<\/p>\n So, Seeking is in both the places. \u00a0The question \u2013 fundamental question \u2013 is the same. \u00a0Methods are different. \u00a0Rigor is a self-congratulatory qualification bestowed by scientists upon themselves.<\/p>\n Modern Science and Spiritual Science<\/strong><\/p>\n There is a fundamental principle of Seeking. \u00a0Seeking starts when Believing stops. \u00a0And, believing includes Disbelieving.<\/strong> \u00a0Opposite of Believing is Seeking, and not Disbelieving.<\/em><\/p>\n Now, this can manifest in two different ways. \u00a0When a Seeker is a Disbeliever of something, it will look at the world minus<\/span> the object of disbelief. \u00a0Things \/ Concepts \/ knowledge that is disbelieved is brushed aside. \u00a0Openness is limited. \u00a0The realm in which this openness to question exists, there is rigor. \u00a0But the playing field for this rigor is already closed. \u00a0For, the world of disbelief is not about objects. \u00a0But about concepts and even a way of understanding things. \u00a0If Upanishads talk of Nothingness coming from a time, when the rest of the world was playing with rock implements, then it is important to ask the question, how did they reach that conclusion? \u00a0Unlike Dr. Ramana \u2013 that \u201cjust because the scripture says everything comes from Nothingness, it cannot be equated to conclusions of particle physics, because there are other facts in that theory to fall back on, while in scriptures there is no basis to that conclusion given\u201d<\/em>.<\/p>\n Such a failure of backup qualification and calculation, thankfully didn\u2019t stop Dr. Hardy from recognizing the genius of Ramanujam, whose notebooks mostly contained theorems and not the back up work.<\/p>\n And, that is the point to understand. \u00a0The profundity and the immensity of the work articulated in Dharmic scriptures is tough in these terms, when Science says 1000 things and then constantly sniggers when you show a conclusion has already been there and part of Spiritual semantics forever.<\/p>\n Let us. therefore, look at a thing the profundity and the immensity of whose potency is impossible to debate against. \u00a0At least in the world today. \u00a0Yoga. \u00a0Specifically, Physical Yoga.<\/p>\n Now, Yoga is by far the most complete, comprehensive and the best exercise regimen the mankind has today. \u00a0No other method even comes close to it in the efficiency of what is done and the amount of benefit one can derive from it. \u00a0Just by breathing right, people have gotten rid of chronic ailments and even things like high Blood Cholesterol.<\/p>\n That Yoga is an Unique, Unbeatable and Highest form of exercise for complete Human well-being (mental and physical) that mankind has today is\u00a0indisputable.<\/p>\n However, something that the scientists do not realize is that Yogis who came up with Yoga were NOT coming from the knowledge of Biology. \u00a0But from a different paradigm and dimension itself. \u00a0Yogis talk of Nadis and Chakras. \u00a0No modern science dissections have proved the existence of that. \u00a0But our confidence in Biology is what drives modern medical science.<\/p>\n How come someone, ostensibly, not as well conversant with all the medical advances of biological sciences but an expert in esoteric stuff like Chakras and Nadis (which are considered useless and non-existent by biologists) create a method that FAR\u00a0SUPERSEDES\u00a0anything that the modern Biologists have ever come up with?<\/p>\n I mean, if you are the most kick-ass Engineer that mankind has ever produced in the entire history, and all you come up with is a bicycle versus a guy whose knowledge you say is rubbish comes up with a kick ass\u00a0Lamborghini with a mileage of 200 miles on a gallon and a life of 700,000 miles with an oil change every 50,000 miles (efficient, effective and comprehensive), then it is time to reflect.<\/p>\n And, it is THIS reflection \u2013 this admittance of need to reflect \u2013 that is taken away from a person, whose idea of Seeking is firmly established in Disbelief rather than Openness.<\/p>\n And that is why Sadhguru\u2019s point \u2013 that it is crass to say that \u201cMy Seeking is better than yours, just because you cannot understand other person\u2019s way\u201d \u2013 makes sense. \u00a0It is this \u2013 almost \u2013 Exclusivist tendency, that I hold people like Dr. Bhargav in the same category as the religious.<\/p>\n The only difference between a religious person and Dr. Bhargav is that they belief in different things. \u00a0The fanaticism, however, is similar.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There is a lot of interest in the \u201cGod Particle\u201d and the debates on TV are happening on the subject as well. The debate on NDTV under the title \u201cThe Big Fight\u201d was one such discussion \/ debate. \u00a0My interest of entry in this debate was that my Guru, Sadhguru was also part of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1517,"featured_media":17100,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,64,69],"tags":[1085,1398,1536,2433,2848,3000,3343,3345,3647],"class_list":["post-17099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-india","category-sciences","category-spirituality","tag-dr-ramana","tag-god-particle","tag-higgs-boson","tag-ndtv","tag-ramakrishna-mission","tag-sadhguru","tag-swami-atma-priyananda","tag-swami-vivekananda","tag-vikram-chandra"],"yoast_head":"\n