SCIENCE AND SPIRITUALITY

The earth is enhancing relations with the moon. Artificial intelligence, one of the leading applications of science, and natural intelligence have started sailing in the same boat to reach the destination of daily life. Science believes in proofs, truth, and experiments. Vikram's landing on the moon was scientifically proven, as confirmed by Tech-Eye, so we believe in the powerful strength of science. What if we think about those five minutes before Vikram landed? All the scientists were busy in praying the God. Do these capable scientists need to be dependent on any prayers or blessings? Is science dependent on spirituality? These kinds of incidents force us to accept that science and spirituality are two sides of the same coin. Science will observe human life and nature systematically, prove the hypothesis, and find the result. Science will follow theories like complexity, chaos, Gais, and evolution. Physics believes in quantity and facts, but finds a gap in its theories and adds some beliefs, meanings, and assumptions, which becomes quantum physics. To measure the matter, quantum physics is required, but to measure the meaning, spirituality is mixed. That became metaphysics. Living beings on earth have a human body and a human spirit. Like body and spirit cannot be separated, the world of quantum physics and metaphysics cannot bear the separation. Many specimens prove the connection between science and spirituality. The science of yoga can never be separated from spirituality. Yoga is not a science, but it scientifically connects the human body with the human soul. While doing yoga, the body produces and releases various chemicals that connect the body with the soul. Jagdish Chandra Bose’s experiment tops the chart here. He proved that if plants are provided with music along with soil, water, seed, and the sun, they grow faster. They also need emotions. The way of science can be found where there is a will. Neil Armstrong once stated, “I think we are going to the moon because it is in the nature of human beings to face challenges.” Since man saw the birds flying, we bowed a seed in our minds in the form of a desire to fly. A hope took the form of scientific technology—aircraft. The journey to the moon and the journey to God start through the same practices: faith (Vishvas), knowledge (gyan), laws (dharma), rituals (bhakti), detachment (vairagya), efforts (purusharth), and unity (samp). The Bhagavad Gita itself is a scientifically proven spiritual scripture that connects science and spirituality. For instance, scientists talk about the “heat death of the universe," which can be explained based on the theory of randomness, which is entropy. This is similar to the Pralaya, which is explained in the verse 9.7 of Bhagavad Gita, by Krishna about the final dissolution of this whole universe. Energy & Soul The 1st law of thermodynamics is known as Law of Conservation of Energy. It states that “energy cannot be created or destroyed." It can be transferred from one form to another. It means energy never decays; it just transforms into another. Thermodynamics states that the total energy in the universe is a constant but can be converted from one form to another. In the Bhagavad Gita, in verse 22 of the 2nd chapter, it is said that the “Athma that is Soul” transfers from one body to another and never gets destroyed. Therefore, we were there some time ago, are there today, and will be there after death in another form. Energy is invisible, and the athma (soul) is also invisible. Without the spiritual dimension of values, vision, ethics, and aesthetics, science can lead us astray. When there are no values to guide it, science ends up producing nuclear weapons. If spirituality guided the actions of scientists, then they would think ten times before inventing weapons of war and other tools of destruction. Why do we have global warming? Because scientists have been working in the interests of commercial and industrial establishments without the guidance of spiritual values, their scientific and technological innovations have led to planetary crises such as climate change. Modern agriculture, for example, is scientific, yet it produces something like 18 percent of greenhouse gases. If agriculture was informed by spiritual values, it would be a very different situation. Spiritual agriculture such as biodynamic farming, agroecology, and permaculture emphasize the value of the living soil and biodiversity. Whereas industrial “scientific” agriculture values nothing other than the quantity of food produced with the minimum input of labor. Modern agriculture uses combine harvesters, huge tractors, fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides, and genetically engineered seeds because it lacks the spiritual values of reverence for soil and animals. In scientific farming, food is no longer sacred. It is simply a commodity for profit. No wonder that millions of cows, pigs, and chickens are kept in the cruel conditions of factory farms, where they never see the light of day in their whole lives. This is just one example of science and technology, deprived of a spiritual ethos, producing harmful results. We certainly need spiritual values in our agriculture! Although there are scientists who embrace spirituality and work for the good of all, much of science has been in the service of greed, war, waste, pollution, exploitation, and injustice. This must change if science is to serve the interests and needs of humanity and planet Earth. Einstein, one of the greatest scientists of the twentieth century, said, “Science without religion is blind; religion without science is lame.” If we have no science, then we limp. We can see what is good, but we cannot implement our vision. Therefore, the people of spirit and religion need to embrace science. People who have developed deep spirituality have often been reluctant to address the problems of the material world. Things are now slowly changing, but for a long time, some societies were good at meditation and yoga, philosophy and poetry, but without scientific research and methodology, they suffered hunger, deprivation, and material poverty. So, spirituality without science is truly lame. Spirituality without science often gives rise to fundamentalism. Hindu, Buddhist, Christian, or Islamic fundamentalism is born whenever they reject scientific, rational, measured, and logical thinking. Spirituality without empiricism suffers from blind faith. People of blind faith don’t see or believe in anything other than what is in their holy book. They take every word in the Bible, the Koran, the Torah, or the Gita as the word of God. They think that there is only one truth and that they have that truth. Everybody must follow their truth. They deny the multiplicity and diversity of truths. They become missionaries and work hard to convert people of other religions to their religion. Of course, there are big-hearted and generous people who embrace a scientific outlook, but they are in a small minority. Spirituality is about love, not beliefs. Spiritual seekers are always on a journey, on a pilgrimage, seeking truth and enlightenment. There is no place where they can say, “I have found the answer.” Spirituality is a process, an exploration, not a destination. The same is true of science; it is an ever-evolving quest. Scientists search for the truth. They don’t say, “This is the end; we have arrived at our destination; there is no more research needed.” Unfortunately, some scientists do say, “Darwin was the last word.” They close their minds and become believers. If you become a believer, you stop using your intelligence and your perceptions to learn from the world around you and from the experiences that you have. Then you have left the path of science and the path of spirituality. Through science as well as through spirituality, we are always looking for new insights and new wisdom, which can free us from dogmas, rigidities, and fixed beliefs. Science and spirituality, physics and metaphysics, chemistry and compassion, mind and matter can and must dance together.