SCIENCE AND
SPIRITUALITY
In this Talaash, this Quest, this Search, one hurdle was the scientific paradigm of the truth. My spiritual views were quite clear about God and life. Science seemed to have a very different view. So, I thought that I will take a peek into the latest scientific beliefs to see how distant science and spirituality are. I was quite surprised to find that science and spirituality that had divergent views are finally converging. They were both propounding the same thing in different ways. Never before were science and spirituality so close to each other, and practically, it seemed that both hardly have any contradiction in their views. The spiritual view and the scientific view were the same truth presented in a different manner. If one analyses, the learning, analogies, and questions that faced me did not only have a spiritual but also a scientific endorsement.
With the latest developments, scientists now believe that up to 98% of our body changes every year. It looks like an unbelievable statement but scientists and biologists have proved that the cells in our body are constantly dying, regenerating, and being reborn. They go on to say that the cells of every part of our body and every organ of our body are constantly changing. This is something quite strange and unique, but it is scientifically true. It means that what I am in 2016, I was not that in 2015. Ninety-eight percent of me was something else. And what I will be in 2017 will not be this body.
It is even more profound because what our body becomes depends on the things that we eat. Therefore, if we eat vegetables that are being grown, that vegetable becomes our body after it is processed within and becomes a part of our new cell structure. And those cells that die in us go out to be regenerated and become a part of the universe.
But science says it is true. Science goes on to say so many more things. It goes on to say that inanimate things are alive. It goes on to say that if you take an atom of a so- called inanimate or dead thing, and look at it under a microscope, you will find it moving. But we always thought that we are alive because we are not yet dead. Science has now proved the contrary. The inanimate or dead things are as much alive as we are. All these make us wonder about the truth of life – Who are we? Where do we come from?
In the last century, scientists have uncovered the vast energy present in all matter. The well-known equation E = mc² states that the potential energy of any matter is equal to its mass multiplied by the speed of light squared: Energy = Mass × 186,000 miles per second)². This equation implies that a small amount of matter contains a large amount of energy. In E = mc², E stands for energy, m stands for mass or matter, and c is the speed of light. This equation explains that it is possible to take mass or matter and convert it entirely into energy. If we take any matter or mass and annihilate it, light, sound, power, and energy come from it. Even a tiny atom has enormous amount of energy associated with it. It is said that if the mass of an average sized tree could be converted into energy, the power yield would be 45 trillion kwh. By way of comparison, the US generates about 4 trillion kwh of electrical energy per year. So, if just a single tree’s mass is converted into energy and that energy harnessed, it would provide the entire US with over 10 years of electrical energy.
Another very interesting observation by science is that when a cell from the human body is placed under a microscope, and we further look into the smallest particle of the cell, we can see that it is composed of atoms that contain neutrons, electrons, protons, and photons until finally science talks of something called “Wave–Particle Duality.” It is said that while a scientist was looking at a smallest particle under a microscope, the particle suddenly disappeared and became an energy wave. He was shocked, absolutely bewildered. He realized that the particle that had become a wave became a particle once again. What does this mean? It meant that matter became energy and energy became matter. It went back to the Einstein’s theory of E = mc² getting proved under the microscope. Scientists sat together and pondered if the tiniest particle of our cell is nothing but energy. We are not this body that we seem to look like! We are a cumulation of trillions and trillions of atoms, photons, electrons, protons, and waves – energy waves that actually look like this physical body, when in reality we are not actually this physical body. We are just Energy!
When I put all the facts together, it seemed quite like my spiritual realization. What did Science have to say on the findings of my Search… Talaash? I had to evaluate my new learning based on scientific research as well because we live in a time where science has touched the life of human beings in all aspects. And I was totally amazed with the outcome of the research.
Thus, very interestingly, science is discovering things that spiritual Masters stated thousands of years ago. The only difference is that the spiritual Masters stated it intuitively, and the scientists are now scientifically proving what they had said to be true.
I concluded my study about “Science and Spirituality” as subjects that were poles apart centuries ago. But today they are two sides of the same coin. Both are now coming to believe the same truth that we are nothing but Energy! We are nothing but the Atman, or the Spirit, the Soul. The only difference that still seems to differentiate the two is that Spirituality believes in a Creator whom we call God while Science terms this as Energy.
A day will soon come when science would discover that without God, all these discoveries are not possible. Spiritualists already know that God is everything! The spiritualists have surrendered their ego to a Power beyond human comprehension. Scientists have just that one step to take.