Swami teaches... True science and scientists

[Guest guest]

Sai Ram

Light and Love

 

Swami teaches.... (16 March 2005)

 

True Science and Scientists

 

Instead of foreword

 

Swami does not want to know that people have listened to His discourses

or/and read His Works well. Swami wants to know that devotees have thoroughly

transformed themselves according to HisTeaching. Such transformation is the

mark of true devotion.

 

*****

 

Science has been making remarkable progress in the recent decades. The

world undoubtedly needs the discoveries of science. But if it forgets the base

and is preoccupied only with the superstructure, it will be the source of much

disorder and trouble. It may cause all kinds of diseases. Science has been

divorced from spirituality and faith in the Divine. Many imagine that science

can create a heaven on earth. But what is the kind of heaven that is envisaged?

Is it the enjoyment of material and sensuous pleasures? This hedonistic attitude

is undermining all human values.

People in all counties talk about peace but their actions are contrary to

their professions. Theytalk of peace on the one hand and keep the bomb on the

other. The entire world is suffering from environmental pollution. The talk of

star wars contains the threat of polluting even the outer space. Today people

boast about the tremendous progress of science and technology, but if this

claim is true, why does ajnana (ignorance) persist on such a large scale? The

fact is much of the progress in science today is confined to satisfying human's

selfish desires and not for promoting the general well-being of the world. Is it

a sign of true progress if a country arms itself to the teeth to destroy

another? Is this an index of scientific advance?

 

Research is going on endlessly. Science is continually seeking answers to

various questions. Progressively, the climate of peace is being destroyed by

science. If peace is to be ensured, science has to be promoted on the right

lines. This calls for unity among the people. Service to society must become

the fundamental purpose. Science seeks to know all

about creation, but the Veda reveals the knowledge about the Creator. All the

natural sciences are concerned with knowledge about created things.But there is

a Creator who is the source of all of them. In the quest for understanding the

objects in creation, human is forgetting the Creator.

Science has been enormously helpful and has achieved many wonders. But,

simultaneously, it has done incalculable harm. Science as such is not to be

blamed for this. It is the wrongful use of science that is responsible. Science

discovered for human the secrets of nature and the cosmos. The knowledge delved

from science should be used for sacred and righteous purposes.

The American cosmonaut, Mitchell, after landing on the Moon, had a look at

the Earth from theMoon. He saw the Earth as a huge brilliant diamond set

against a vast carpet of blue velvet.Experiencing this spectacle, he shed a few

tears. He was stricken by the feeling: "Born on such a beautiful and brilliant

land, why are people behaving like ignorant, evil minded beings?"

We need today a science that can promote love. Instead of Spirit of Love, we

are witnessingtoday a "splitting of Love." We have explored the secrets of

Nature and have even acquired control over the five elements. But we are not

aware of own true nature. It is possible when we use science for control of

the senses, will we be able to bring Science and Spirituality together and

integrate the two into one True Science for humanity. There is an internal

relationship between Nature and Divinity. The ocean and the Moon are

interrelated. The ocean swells on Full Moon day. The mind and the Moon are

interrelated. Without our being conscious of it, our minds are affected during

Full Moon days. Mental afflictions are aggravated during those days. The

scientist should develop an integral approach towards Nature, Human being and

Spirit. Only then can one realise the underlying divinity that unites the human

and the cosmos.

Many scientific inventions are extremely useful to man. But if they are not

properly used theycan cause great harm. For instance, television can be

valuable means of educating and entertaining people. But in many cases as soon

as a boy returns from school, he throws away his books and startslooking at the

TV. His mother serves him food near the TV set. Both mother and son

keepwatching TV without regard to their other duties. The fault lies not with

the television, but with the excessive and wrongful use of the instrument. It

is only when science is linked to spirituality that the results of science can

be fully harnessed for the good and elevation of mankind.

Human today is proud about the little knowledge has acquired about the

physical world and boasts that all about the Universe has known. True knowledge

is that which establishes harmony and synthesis between science on the one hand

and spirituality and ethics on the other.

Today, because of the striking growth of the physical sciences, human tends

to feel he/she is highly knowledgeable. But only when one tries to understand

knowledge of things beyond the physical sciences can one fully benefit from the

latter. Beyond physics lies metaphysics. Of late some are beginning to realise

this fact and are embarking upon spiritual exploration.

Of course, there is no question about the necessity of scientific knowledge.

But it must berealised that it is necessary as much to develop our sense of

discrimination for the proper use of science with the development of scientific

knowledge. As this discrimination has been lacking in the use of science we find

that the world is facing many dangers and difficulties.

But even today there are noble minds, who, even in the pursuit, of science,

are exploring spiritual truths, analysing them and trying to see how these can

be used for transforming man. Newton, after discovering the gravitational

power of the earth, declared: “Although I havediscovered the force of gravity,

the gravitational force itself has been existing always before mydiscovery." He

was convinced that there was a creator for the force of gravity. Einstein also,

after his scientific studies of the working of nature, turned his mind to

spiritual matters. Heisenberg, a great philosopher, after studying various

sciences, embarked on an investigation of the link between the physical

sciences and spirituality. He discovered the great secrets contained in the

Yoga-sastras. He observed, "Master the mind: be a mastermind." Another great

scientist, Schroedinger, found that science and spirituality were integrally

connected and that in fact spirituality was the basis for science. He also

noted that the growth of science had led to a multiplication of wants, which

brought about a weakening of human's will and intelligence.

There was another great thinker, Dirac. He sought to know the connection

betweenscience and spirituality. He tried to discover the one entry underlying

all things in creation andconducted experiments for this purpose. He found the

truth to consist in the statement: "Loveever; hurt never." Dirac's conclusion

is nothing but an echo of Sage Vyasa's pronouncement, after completing his

works of the 18 Puranas: "To help others is meritorious; tohurt others is

sinful." We have yet another modern thinker - De Broglie. Having begun as a

critic of spirituality afterserous enquiry, De Broglie confessed that his

criticisms were due to ignorance. He proclaimedfrom his own experience that

divinity was at the core of everything in the universe.

Such seers of the truth are not absent in the world of science. These great

scientists, who have examined, explored and declared the truth, are akin to the

ancient Saptarishis (Seven Sages). Newton declared that the universe is a

manifestation of God and everything revolves through the power of God. Fritzof

Capra, at the present day, has explored the link between the atom and

vibrations in nature. In ancient times, Vyasa declared that the universe

emanated from the vibrations of the sound. 'Sita' and all things in creation -

living and non-living - were the outcome of these vibrations.

An ancient practice in Bharat to relate to pregnant women stories about

heroes and saints so that the child in the womb may be influenced by the

vibrations produced by such sublime stories and the thoughts produced in the

mother. The ancient Rishis knew this truth. No wonder that the children born

under such conditions had noble nature and heroic virtues.

What do we find today? Pregnant women are engaged in seeing Television,

Cinemas and other deleterious media which play up crime and sex. The result is

the children who are born develop undesirable tendencies. Today, scientists

in the West are realising that what was said about ancient practice is true. The

Institute of Child Health and Human Development, attached to the Carolina

University in USA , has been conducting experiments on the factors influencing

development of children. Anthony Casper's experiments showed that the food

taken by the pregnant mother, the thoughts she had and the words she listened

to had their impact on the child she was carrying.

Today we have made prodigious progress in various fields of knowledge - in

mathematics,physics, chemistry, the bio-sciences. But no attempt is being made

even to approach study of the spiritual. All our knowledge ends with study of

matter, plants and living creatures. Notable discoveries have been made over

the years and great scientists have been produced. But how far have human

values been promoted and what is the transformation that has taken place in

mankind?

Spiritual knowledge and scientific knowledge should go together. There

should be no dichotomy between science and spirituality. True bliss can be

experienced only when science and spirituality are combined.

The hand should carry out what the heart has approved of the ideas emanating

from the head. This triune process has been described in Vedanta as

Thrikaranasuddhi - the purity and harmony of thought, speech and action.

Activities arising from Thrikaranasuddhi find expression in two ways: one

through artisticcreativity and the other, through scientific exploration. Of

the two, artistic creativity is supremelyimportant. The aesthetic feeling is

based on creative imagination. A sculptor who desires to carve an image out of

a piece of rock has to have the figure he seeks to carve in his imagination.

This bhava (imagination) finds ichcha sakti (creative expression) in the

sculpture. If the creative imagination is absent, no sculpture can come out of

the rock. Hence, imagination and the creative impulse have to be properly

understood. Both of them are rooted in Prajna, the Divine source of all

creative activity. As against this aesthetic creativity, we have the urge for

scientific enquiry. This is primarily concerned with objects in the

externalworld. Experimental research has its vision turned outward. But even

that has its basis in theAntardrishti (Inward Vision). Development of

science and technology alone will not help people to get rid of bad thoughts,

bad desires and bad deeds, because science by itself is not competent to

sublimate life. Only spirituality can promote ethical values, the spirit of

tolerance and equal-mindedness.The science of spirit is essential for

developing human values. Devotion to God is the first stagein the spiritual

journey. (Reet's compilation from, Sathya Sai Speaks. Vol. 18, "From Creation

to Creator," Chapter 4 and "Cultivation of Love is the Greatest need," Chapter

24; Sathya Sai Speaks, Vol.20. "Spiritual basis for value education," Chapter 20

and "Transformation is what I want," Chapter 25).

 

 

Namaste - Reet

[Guest guest]

Anandam Bhagavatam Krishna

Sathya Rupe Narayanam

Purna Jannascha Bhivusitam Devam

Sathya Charitamritam Pranamyaham

 

The Krishna in the form of Bhagavatam is blissful. He is Sathya Narayana the

Lord of Absolute. He is the complete knowledge of all gods. I salute the

scripture of Lord Sathya Narayana