Science & Spirituality - Forwarded Message

[Guest guest]

Greetings:

 

This forwarded message is from Jay of Vivekananda Center. I appreciate

Jay asking my permission but messages such as the one are quite

appropriate for this list. Members need not ask my permission for

sending spiritual messages such as this one to this list. I fully trust

the members of this list and request them to make their own judgement

based on list policies and guidelines. If and when I find problem, I

will communicate confidentially with the specific member. This is a

spiritual forum and messages with spiritual insigts are always welcome.

One of the fundamental requirement to grow spiritually is to accept view

points with an open mind and make positive and constructive comments.

 

Thanks and have a nice day!

 

Ram Chandran

List Moderator

 

 

============================================================================

Science / spirituality

 

"Vivekananda Centre" <vivekananda

 

Swami Vivekananda put across the idea that science and spirituality have

to

meet. His explanation was:

 

The search for unity in diversity in the external world is called

science.

The search for unity in diversity in the internal world is called

spirituality.

 

The external world may be classified as the world of matter and physical

forces and the internal world may be considered to be the world of mind

and

intellect.

 

 

The question arises: "Where does internal stop and external begin?" This

is

not a trivial question. There is a severe overlap between the internal

and

external - what we call the tiniest particle of matter 'seems' to be a

mere

idea thrown up by the mind and yet a neuro-scientist will say what we

consider to be 'mind' is nothing more than the intricate electrical

activities generated by the physical brain.

 

The fact that we cannot show any clear demarcation where external stops

and

internal begins is the very key to understanding the link between

science

and spirituality. External and internal really belong to the same realm

hence the unity science is seeking has to be the same unity spirituality

has

already found. Swami Vivekananda put forward these ideas about a 100

years

ago.

 

I did my Masters in Physics. My professor was Roger Penrose who is now

the

head of Physics at Oxford and is considered to be the leading authority

in

Physics. His recent two books are concerned with the ideas of 'mind' and

'consciousness'. Swami Vivekananda has not influenced him directly but

one

can see the direction science is taking. It has to converge to the

findings

of spirituality. We would like to explore these ideas further. We await

views from other list members.

 

jay

-----------------------------

EDTipple <edtipple

 

To the question: "But Maharaj (Swami Brahmananda), how can one see God

in the external world with physical eyes?" he answered: "Show me the

line of demarcation where matter ends and spirit begins." (Eternal

Companion p. 5 3rd edition 1970)

 

 

Toby <wireless

 

Since you are a physics major, perhaps you would be interested in the

current search for new energy as desribed by Tesla, Russell and others,

a

practical use of etheric energy and its use in causing current flow.

i.e.

free energy via zero point energy conversion. Is Roger Penrose open to

the

idea of free energy from the aether?

 

-------

>From Dr Shah

 

Namaste,

I am quoting interesting paragraphs from "Einstein and Vivekananda" by

John

L. Dobson ( Art, Culture, and Spirituality, Advaita Ashrama, Calcutta,

1997,

page 521). It reads:

"Swami Vivekananda, in 1895 or 1896, asked Nikola Tesla if he could show

that what we call matter (mass) was simply potential energy. Tesla

apparently failed to show it -- and it was not shown till 1900 (1905) by

Albert Einstein who, at that time, was an unknown physicist working as

clerk

in a patent office in Bern, Switzerland. Although by now Einstein's

equation

for the equivalence of mass and energy has become the most famous

equation

of the physics, Einstein himself did not become famous till 1919.

Meanwhile,

in 1902, Swami Vivekananda passed away and no one seems to have noticed

that

his problem has been solved and that Einstein's famous equation, E=M

(often

written E=mc2), was the equation which he had requested of Tesla nine or

ten

years earlier."

And further on the next page:

"Swami Vivekananda was first and foremost an Advaitin (non-dualist). and

he

saw that, like Sankhya, the physics of his day was dualistic. It

believed in

matter and energy. Swamiji wanted that mistake to corrected. Had it been

corrected by Tesla, while Swamiji was still in America, relativity

theory

would have been associated with Swamiji's Advaita, and we can well

imagine

what turn the history of modern science might have taken..."

 

dr c s shah

-----------------------------

ananta <sarada

 

Want to read an interesting and recent article on Vivekananda/Einstein

and

Tesla by John Dobson, founder of The SanFrancisco Sidewalk Astronomers?

 

It clarifies some of Swamiji's ideas on the physics of his day,

including

his view of Akasha and Prana.

 

It also tells of an interesting meeting and connection between the three

of

them (and a mystery fourth person) starting at a party Swamiji went to.

 

Find it at:

http://www.crisny.org/not-for-profit/srv/3version/Dobsvivekeinst.html

 

----------------

>From "Vivekananda Centre" >>

 

Swami Vivekananda's explanation of Samkhya darshan is superb. It is here

that the ideas of Akash and Prana are explained in great detail.

 

For members who are not familiar with these ideas let me try an

explanation.

 

Out of the six main schools of Hindu philosophy - Samkhya is considered

to

be perhaps the oldest. Yoga and Vedanta, the other two popular

philosophies

have borrowed a great deal from Samkhya. Hence this is a philosophy

worth a

serious study. - It forms the very backbone of all these other

philosophies.

The most striking thing about this philosophy is that its findings are

very

close to the findings of modern physics.

 

Let me attempt an explanation.

 

Sage Kapila of Samkhya makes a brave classification. He says the

universe is

made of two categories. (What a classification! The whole universe

reduced

to two elements!)

 

One is Akash - The other is Prana.

 

The older translations of Akash all refer to it as the 'ether' (a medium

pervading space)

 

Swami Vivekananda gives a new definition -

'Akash is all penetrating existence itself'.

(Not space - not even a medium pervading space - but existence itself).

 

Swami Vivekananda then goes further he says in this 'all penetrating

existence' comes a disturbance. This is called Prana. Prana is energy -

the

grossest manifestation of this energy is -matter.

 

These talks were given a long time before the birth of modern Physics

and

ideas of Special Relativity that now say 'matter is coiled up energy'.

 

jay