Dr. Rajesh Bhola
India
Feb 22, 2013
One of my friends is a cardiothoracic surgeon, and heads a well-known hospital in the City. During a casual talk he asked me, “why do we invoke Gods when we step into a new house?” I quipped back, “why do doctors remember God while picking up scissors for a surgery; and why, at all, did you make a sacred pillar in your Hospital?” He replied, “to enable the near and dear ones of those admitted to the Hospital to symbolically pray, by tying a knot around the pillar”. People come to this Hospital from far-off places, with great hopes that their dear ones will be in safe hands – as it is headed by one of the pioneers of open heart surgery in India. During our talk my friend’s eyes became moist when he disclosed that, “unfortunately I could not save my mother, who died of cardiac arrest. Probably no cardiologist, no intensive care expert could have saved her, because the attack was massive. She succumbed before I could reach her. It was all destined”. Holding his breath for a minute he said, “now I see my mother in every patient.” He quoted a Persian proverb – “majbooron ki duniya hai yeh”.
As per nature’s law, everyone and everything meets its end one day. We cannot escape it. Science will always keep on unfolding mysteries, but millions will remain unsolved. Can Science resolve the divine spirit? Since we live in a space-time universe, we are incapable of comprehending, or even imagining, reality outside of this. Something outside space-time has no beginning or end, since those are merely spatial or temporal markers.
Science and Spirituality may always be uncomfortable bed-fellows. This visible universe was formed out of the nebulous debris of former organised worlds, as astronomy now appears to indicate. The controlling intelligence called them into being first, then placed them under the active operation of forces that evolved by successive stages – into the complex world that we have around us. Carl Sagan aptly says that, “Science is not only compatible with Spirituality, it is a profound source of spirituality. When we recognise our place in an immensity of light years and in the passage of ages; when we grasp the intricacy, beauty, and subtlety of life; then that soaring feeling, that sense of elation and humility combined, is surely spiritual. The notion that Science and Spirituality are somehow mutually exclusive does a disservice to both.” Science is still looking at the origins and vastness of our universe, and also at the smallest particles that hold our physical world together. Science is trying to find out answers to the unseen worlds, and to the divine natural laws. String theory suggests that the fundamental particle is in fact a tiny lump of energy that looks like a vibrating string, or a loop of vibrating strings. Every string or vibration produces 11 dimensions, which co-exist at the same time. Different dimensions appear to exist in a different vibration to ours. Vibration brings to mind many messages from the spirit realms, telling us that everything is a vibration of one sort or the other, and that the spirit realms exist in a higher and finer vibration to ours. Sooner or later Science may recognise the Spiritual realms.
All reason and experience, and the universal observation of mankind, teaches us that there is a series of phenomena observable in our world that are unexplainable by any other source than a spirit – a departed human being who once lived and breathed, and is now moving on a plane so different from that cognizable by our natural senses. It is not made of any matter; or, it is made of matter of imperceptible subtlety and highly organized intelligence. This is an ethereal and impalpable force – a subtle force that we can perceive only through its action upon matter. This unknown force is so powerful that the scriptures indicate that all matter will disappear before the supremacy of the Spirit: “He uttered His voice, the earth melted.” The material world is lulled by stupefying illusions, and is asleep in the cradle of infancy, dreaming away the hours in the big timeless, spaceless and fathomless cosmic drama. Spiritualism lifts human consciousness into the eternal truth. That is the way humanity advances. As spiritual understanding increases, real objects will be apprehended mentally and spiritually, instead of materially or scientifically. Science also knows that there is some spirit whom we call God, which is outside space-time. God has no beginning, and does not operate under causal laws. The Gurubani says it best:
“Ik-onkaar sat naam kartaa purakh nirbha-o nirvair akaal moorat ajoonee saibhang gur parsaad. aad sach jugaad sach hai bhee sach naanak hosee bhee sach”.
(God is beyond time and space and so is His existence. He is immeasurable. Nobody has been able to define Him completely, and nobody has been able to realise Him completely. Nobody has known Him completely and nobody will be able to – in the present or in the future. His description is beyond words. It can’t be described or inscribed in words – it can’t even be felt and experienced in its totality. Even a bit of His description is beyond description. We cannot fully describe even the smallest detail of the Indescribable Lord; all we can do is take a moment to praise Akal Purakh, the One who is: Dhan Dhan Paar Braham Parmesar (Great Great Supreme Transcendent Lord), non-perishable, everlasting, ever present, Omni present, eternal truth).
There is only one supreme commander, the ultimate sovereign, the almighty divine spirit that operates the whole show of flora and fauna, planets and galaxies, time and space – in great harmony, and with a flawless precision. If we take science as our saviour, there will be soon a kind of meaninglessness and emptiness to existence. We all will die, the sun will eventually go nova, the universe will dissipate, and everything we do and achieve will be forgotten. Nothing truly matters except for our transient and fading experiences. It is important to live true to oneself.
Despite the progress made by Science, the divine mysteries remain riddles, and the confusions of this cosmos remain confounded. Rather than wait for judgment day, let us do our ‘karma’ – our actions which create our situations.
Dr. Rajesh Bhola is President of Spastic Society of Gurgaon and is working for the cause of children with autism, cerebral palsy, mental retardation and multiple disabilities for more than 20 years.
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