Hare
KrishnaHare Krishna
Krishna Krishna
Hare Hare
Hare Rama
Hare Rama
Rama Rama
Hare Hare
| Hare
Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare |
Hare Rama
Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare |
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Hinduism
and Science
By Singh, T. D.
Institutional
Affiliation(s): Director, Bhaktivedanta Institute; President, Vedanta
and Science Educational Research Foundation
This
paper was prepared for "Science and Religion: Global Perspectives",
June 4-8, 2005, in Philadelphia, PA, USA, a program of the Metanexus
Institute (www.metanexus.net).
In
Hinduism there are five salient features: (1) God - isvara, (2) Soul -
jiva, (3) Time - kala, (4) Matter - prakriti, and (5) Action - karma.
Of these the first four principles are eternal whereas the last feature
is temporary. The distinction between God and jiva, the living entity
is that God is infinite and the living being is infinitesimal. God is
the Supreme Spirit and the living entity is the fundamental spiritual
particle - atman or spiriton. God exists in three eternal aspects - the
impersonal aspect, Brahman; the Supersoul feature, Paramatma; and the
Supreme Personality, Bhagavan. Consciousness is the fundamental quality
of both God and the living entity. God's consciousness pervades
everywhere, whereas the consciousness of the living entity is
localized. The paramatma feature of God guides all the living beings
and non-living things. Paramatma is the source of inspiration in all
human actions and the source of scientific discoveries, artistic
ability, poetic works, etc. Time is the impersonal and eternal aspect
of God and has no beginning or end. In modern science time begins with
the Big-Bang. In Hindu cosmology and cosmogony, creation and
dissolution go on in periodic cycles like the changes of seasons.
According to Hinduism, the present universe began 15.5522 x 10^13 years
ago and will end in 15.5518 x 10^13 years. Thus the Hindu model of the
universe is 104 times older than that predicted by the Big Bang model.
The visible universe is one of the innumerable universes and there are
8.4 x 10^6 species of life in this universe. Biodiversity is due to
different levels of consciousness and consciousness evolves which is
known as the transmigration of the soul.
Vedanta,
the scientific and theological doctrine of Hinduism, explains that in
principle there is no conflict between science and religion. In fact,
the two fields are complementary. This is because of the understanding
that the domain of each realm is well-defined. In Hinduism there are
two categories of knowledge - (i) para vidya - the spiritual knowledge
and (ii) apara vidya - material knowledge. Scientific knowledge is the
realm of apara vidya. Spiritual knowledge - knowledge of God and life -
belongs to para
vidya.
Hinduism points out that scientific knowledge can lead to spiritual
knowledge. God possesses three primary energies. These are (i) the
internal, (ii) the marginal and (iii) the external energies. The
manifestation of the internal energy of the Lord is the inconceivable
variegated spiritual world, cit-jagat. The manifestation of the
marginal energy of the Lord comprises the jivas, the living entities.
And the manifestation of the external energy of the Lord is the Cosmos,
the physical world. Science is concerned for the welfare of physical
existence and religion is concerned for the wellbeing of the soul
including morality and ethics of life. Karma is physical or
psychological action performed by a living entity. If one does good
action, that leads to happy life. If one does bad action that leads to
unhappy life. It is like Newton's third law of motion.
T. D.
Singh (1937-): An extraordinary combination of a scientist, a
spiritualist, an active promoter of world peace, an interfaith leader,
an educationist, a poet, a singer, and a cultural ambassador. He is
well-known for his pioneering efforts for more than thirty years to
interface between science and religion. He received his Ph.D. in
Physical Organic Chemistry from the University of California, Irvine in
1974. He has organized three International conferences on science and
religion (1986, 1990, and 1997) where a galaxy of prominent scientists
and religious leaders including several Nobel Laureates participated.
He also organized "Second International Congress on Life and its
Origin: Exploration from Science and Various Spiritual and Religious
Traditions" in Rome, Italy from November 12-15, 2004. The conference
was appreciated by the President of Italy and the Mayor of Rome. He has
authored and edited several books related to science and religion like
Seven Nobel Laureates on Science and Spirituality (2004). His most
recent publication, Towards a Culture of Harmony and Peace (has a
section dedicated to science and religion) has contributions from as
many as nine Nobel Laureates in Peace and Science apart from that of
the President, and the Prime Minister of India.
http://binstitute.org/
HINDUISM
AND SCIENCE
"The
most beautiful and deepest experience a man can have is the sense of
the mysterious. It is the underlying principle of religion as well as
all serious endeavor in art and science."
- Albert Einstein
The
essence of Hinduism is contained in the Vedanta, the scientific and
theological doctrine of Hinduism, and in the timeless wisdom of the
Vedas. Its "Bible" is the Bhagavadgita, the divine song of God. Its
scientific and intellectual contents have attracted the attention of
some of the world's finest scientific and philosophical minds, such as
Erwin Schrödinger, Robert Oppenheimer, Albert Einstein, and
Aldous
Huxley. It speaks of billions of years of history, creation of the
universe, medicinal science, metallurgy, space travel, embryology, art,
music, etc. It is no exaggeration to say that there is almost no branch
of knowledge that is left untouched in the Vedas. There are five core
features in Hinduism: (1) God - Isvara, (2) Soul - Jiva, (3) Time -
Kala, (4) Matter - Prakriti, and (5) Action - Karma. Of these the first
four principles are eternal whereas the last feature is temporary.
Based on these principles, Hinduism provides a deep knowledge and
understanding of life and the universe. In its pure form, Hinduism is
also known as Sanatana Dharma or the eternal function of the living
entity. One of the unique features of Hinduism is that it provides a
very vivid and broad description of God and His energies. This paper
outlines the Vedantic worldview in reference to many of modern
science's perspectives including the subjects of mind, consciousness,
embryology, epistemology and cosmology.
According
to Vedanta, there is another reality in nature different from matter.
It is the fundamental spiritual particle (called atman in Vedantic
terminology), which the author has coined as "spiriton." It is a
transcendental particle and is ontologically different from matter. It
has a conscious property and has free will contrary to material
particles like electrons. It is only by the presence of the spiriton
that matter appears animated. In Vedanta this seemingly animated matter
is referred to as embodied life.
"…
all knowledge relates to the spirit, or more properly, exists in it,
and that is the sole reason for our interest in any field of knowledge
whatsoever."1
-Erwin Schrödinger
According
to Vedanta, every life form has atma or spiriton, within it. In other
words not only do human beings possess a spiriton, but so do all
microorganisms, insects, aquatics, plants, reptiles, birds, and so on.
In this regard, Vedanta is unique and different from the scientific and
theological views of many other world traditions. The Bhagavadgita
(verse 15.7), states: mamaivamso jivaloke jivabhutah sanatanah, which
means that all spiritons are eternal conscious particles of the Supreme
Lord. The fundamental qualities of the spiritual particle, or spiriton
are of the same nature as the Supreme Lord's and are as follows: sat
(eternal existence), cit (full cognition), ananda (blissfulness),
sveccha (free will) and cetana (consciousness).
Vedanta
explains that matter, however complex, will never generate life or its
inherent symptom, consciousness. There are two categories of
consciousness, universal and individual. God's consciousness is
universal (all pervasive) whereas the spiriton's consciousness is
individual (localized) and always remains so but both are ontologically
non physical in nature.
Vedanta
states that the material nature is broadly divided into three modes
(gunas)- sattva (goodness), rajas (passion) and tamas (ignorance). In
order to accommodate the different desires of the living entities
(spiritons), the material nature, by the will of the Lord, manifests a
variety of forms through the mixing of the three modes of nature. All
embodied spiritons-human beings, animals, birds, plants, etc., are
influenced to different degrees by the three modes of material nature.2
Any activity that the spiriton performs under the influence of the
three modes of material nature, either psychologically or physically is
known in Sanskrit as karma - action.
In
the Vedantic tradition there is the concept of a natural 'Law of
Karma.' The law of karma is similar to the rules of action and reaction
in Newton's Law. All spiritons are engaged in different activities
within this cosmic manifestation. From time immemorial the spiritons
are enjoying or suffering the fruits of their activities according to
the law of karma. The results of the law of karma are singular and
pointed and there cannot be any error in them. The answer to the
question, 'why bad things happen to good people?' is 'karma'. The law
of karma remains although an individual may not remember the action
that has caused the current reaction. The wheels of karma are driven by
the free will and desire of the embodied spiritons.
It is
difficult to deny that we all have free will although it cannot be
detected in a laboratory. Professor Charles Townes, Nobel Laureate in
Physics says, "Many scientists will say, 'I can't believe in religion.'
On the other hand, if you ask them, do you think you have some free
will, almost every scientist instinctively thinks so. He has free will.
He can choose some things. He can decide to go this way or that way.
There is, in fact, no room for free will in present scientific laws and
yet almost every scientist essentially assumes he has it."3
In regards to modern science's inability to explain free will which
Vedanta describes as a fundamental quality of the individual spiriton
or life, Roger Penrose, the world renowned mathematician from Oxford
University, has expressed, "The issue of 'responsibility' raises deep
philosophical questions concerning the ultimate causes of our behavior.
… Is the matter of 'responsibility' merely one of the
convenience of
terminology, or is there actually something else - a 'self' lying
beyond all such influences - which exerts a control over our actions?
The legal issue of 'responsibility' seems to imply that there is,
indeed, within each of us, some kind of an independent 'self' with its
own responsibilities - and, by implications, rights - whose actions are
not attributable to inheritance, environment, or chance. If it is other
than a mere convenience of language that we speak as though there were
such an independent 'self', then there must be an ingredient missing
from our present-day physical understandings. The discovery of such an
ingredient would surely profoundly alter our scientific outlook.
… it
will tell us to broaden our view as to the very nature of what a
'cause' might be. A 'cause' could be something that cannot be computed
in practice or in principle. … when a 'cause' is the effect
of our
conscious actions, then it must be something very subtle, certainly
beyond computation, beyond chaos, and also beyond any purely random
influences. Whether such a concept of 'cause' could lead us any closer
to an understanding of the profound issue of our free wills is a matter
for the future."4
Free
will is a quality of the life particle or spiriton and by exercising
free will an individual performs actions and is implicated in various
reactions according to the law of karma. The use of free will either
appropriately or inappropriately will decide the course of life's
journey. In the human form of life, free will is fully manifest and the
chain of karma can be cut off by choosing the appropriate action, the
spiritual action. Therefore, karma is not eternal. Vedanta describes
that all other forms of life below the level of human consciousness
cannot escape the chain of karma under normal circumstances. Therefore,
Vedanta
emphasizes the importance of
the human form of life.
The
human race has an obligation to protect and guide not only mankind but
also all lower forms of life. We can either destroy ourselves and other
life forms or we can act in a way that uplifts and benefits the world,
thus making a meaningful use of our human form of life. If a person
uses his or her free will for destroying innocent lives, he or she will
be regarded as 'committing crimes against creation' and be subject to
the law of karma.
According
to modern biology, biodiversity is due to a genetic variation caused by
the process of occasional chance mutation. However, according to
Vedanta, the law of karma and the three modes of material nature -
sattva, rajas and tamas - are responsible for biodiversity as well as
for diversity in terms of levels of intelligence, degree of development
of mind and consciousness of the embodied being within the same
species. Furthermore, the Vedas state that biodiversity is a process to
accommodate the various states of consciousness in different life
forms. There is a gradual evolution of consciousness through various
species of life according to the subtle laws of karma. These life forms
are said to number 8.4 x 106 and include - microorganisms, insects,
plants, aquatics, birds, reptiles, animals, humanoids and human beings.5
According to the conscious evolutionary cosmic time scale, one gets the
human form of life after passing through millions of varieties of life
forms.
Vedanta
further explains that many life forms manifest simultaneously. In other
words, genetic variation is already within a cosmic plan. Nobel
Laureate Werner Arber's observation that genetic mutation is not due to
error or mistake is in line with the Vedantic conception. He says,
"Evolution does not occur on the basis of errors, accidents or the
action of selfish genetic elements. Rather, the evolution genes must
have been finetuned for their functions to provide and to replenish a
wide diversity of life forms. . . ."6
Both of these viewpoints support that biological forms are already
within the cosmic plan and are opposite of Darwin's concept of
biological evolution. In fact Darwin's theory of evolution has many
loopholes. Stephen Jay Gould, a prominent evolutionist from Harvard
University writes, "The extreme rarity of transitional forms in the
fossil record persists as the trade secret of paleontology . . . In any
local area, a species does not arise gradually by the steady
transformation of its ancestors, it appears all at once and fully
formed."7
It is not that natural selection and random mutation are the cause of
biodiversity. According to Hinduism, the spiriton continually
transmigrates from one life form to the next until it reaches the human
form where consciousness is fully developed and has a chance to
reestablish its pure divinity of existence (see section 10 on
'Spiritual Evolution'). This conception is beyond the scope of modern
biological science. Thus, the
Vedic
doctrine of evolution of consciousness concept is contrary to the
Darwinian evolutionary theory. It is the consciousness that evolves,
not the bodies, in the Vedantic tradition.
Darwin's
mistake was that he could not conceive of an eternal existence of
consciousness. Thus, Vedanta does not accept Darwin's theory of
evolution. Under normal circumstances, the consciousness of the
spiriton evolves linearly as well as stepwise. As previously
referenced, the Brahma Vaivarta Purana affirms, asitim caturas caiva
laksams tan jiva-jatisu bhramadbhih purusaih prapyam manusyam
janmaparyayat, meaning one gets the human form of life after having
changed 8.0x106 other forms of life. The Padma Purana gives a detailed
statement regarding the different forms of life as follows:
jalaja nava-laksani sthavara
laksa-vimsati
krimayo rudra-sankhyakah
paksinam dasa-laksanam
trimsal-laksani pasavah
catur-laksani manusah
Translation:
There are 8,400,000 forms of life. There are 900,000 forms of life in
the water, and 2,000,000 forms of trees and other plants. Then, there
are 1,100,000 species of small living beings, insects and reptiles, and
1,000,000 species of birds. Finally, there are 3,000,000 varieties of
beasts and 400,000 human species.
As
stated earlier, biological forms impose a limitation on the development
of consciousness. Therefore, different degrees of consciousness are
expressed through different bodies. Vedanta divides the degrees of
consciousness into five broad categories: acchadita (covered),
sankucita (shrunken), mukulita (budding), vikasita (blooming) and
purnavikasita (fully bloomed).8
Trees
and plants, for example, are almost inert. They fall into the category
of 'covered consciousness.' When we observe them carefully, we see that
they have a limited or covered consciousness. The famous scientist
Jagadish Chandra Bose reported that plants do have consciousness.9 Other
living entities, such as worms, insects, and other animals are in
'shrunken consciousness.'
They
are not as covered as plants, but their consciousness is not fully
developed either. Human beings have 'budding consciousness.' A bud
appears shrunken, but it has the potential to bloom into a flower.
Human consciousness has a similar potential. Thus, human beings have
the innate ability to develop their consciousness to an almost
unlimited extent, up to the point of knowing the Absolute Truth - God.
Other species do not have this special ability. That is why Vedanta
emphasizes that brahmajignasa, inquiry into the Brahman, God, is
specifically meant for the human form of life. When one begins to
sincerely inquire about Brahman, one's bud-like spiritual consciousness
begins to bloom and as a result of this blossoming of consciousness one
practices regulated spiritual discipline and evolves further and
further. Finally, one attains complete transcendental realization, God
consciousness - saccidananda - the 'fully bloomed' state of
consciousness
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