Spirituality Revealed

🐟 04. SCIENCE Vs RELIGION:

The English word “SCIENCE” originates from the Latin noun “scientia”, meaning “knowledge”.

The English word “RELIGION” originates from the Latin verb “religare”, meaning “to join or unite”. It is the equivalent of the Sanskrit noun “yoga”, meaning “union (of the individual self with the Supreme Self)”.

The PHYSICAL sciences are an empirical approach to knowledge. They rely on experimentation, based on observation of the natural world. Observation is dependent on the senses, the senses are dependent on mind, and the mind is dependent on the intellectual faculty.
The mind and intellect are phenomena arising in consciousness (even if one considers that mind is a function of the brain), and therefore, all empirical evidence is gathered and recorded in consciousness. See Chapter 06 for a complete description of consciousness/Consciousness, and to understand the hierarchy of knowing.

It is impossible to establish the existence of anything outside of consciousness.
How will one observe particles and their mechanics without the existence of consciousness?
Consciousness is axiomatic for any statement of knowledge.
All that can be said or known about the world is a phenomenal appearance in consciousness. Anything else is speculation that can NEVER be definitively proven or demonstrated.

So, for example, when a person looks at a tree, he or she is not actually seeing the tree in any direct sense, but interpreting an inverse image projected onto the retina of the eyes. Therefore, there is no real evidence (or at least, no conclusive proof) for the external world, APART from consciousness. Likewise, there are no sounds in the external world but solely within the mind, since vibrations do not produce an audible sound until they hit one’s eardrums, and the signal is conveyed to the brain. That explains the Zen koan: “If a tree falls in a forest, and there’s nobody present, does the falling tree produce a sound?”

As Lord Śri Krishna so rightly states in “Bhagavad-gītā”, the King of All Knowledge (“rāja vidyā”, in Sanskrit) is the Science of the Self. At the time of writing, material scientists are beginning to explore the “hard problem” of consciousness. Assuming homo sapien society will survive for at least a few more centuries, there will come a time when the majority of professional scientists will acknowledge the primacy of CONSCIOUSNESS. Indeed, if humanity is to continue indefinitely, it is necessary for not only this concept to be imprinted on the human race but for it to be acted upon, that is to say, we humans must imbibe the precepts presented in teachings such as this Holy Scripture, and actively follow them to a very large extent. The alternative is the extinction of not only humanity, but of most (if not all) biological life forms on Earth, due to environmental degradation and immorality as a consequence of nihilism.

So, just as the physical scientific method is based on hypothesis, observation, and repeatable experimentation, so too is metaphysical science.
The hypothesis for supernatural science is that there is an eternal ground of all being, that it is conscious, and of a steady state (i. e. Peace), and that EVERYTHING is inherently of its nature. In the case of mysticism, the repeatable experiment is known as “religion” (“yoga”, in Sanskrit). Read Chapter 16 for a description of the four systems of religion/yoga.

When a sincere and suitably-qualified aspirant CORRECTLY practices the scientific process of ‘yoga’, under the guidance of an authoritative pedagogue, he is assured of realizing the fact of the unity of the totality of existence, and achieving union with that Divine Principle, just as every enlightened sage has done for millennia. The symptoms of a person who has achieved union with the Supreme can very easily be confirmed in the same way that physical phenomena can be verified.

Some of the greatest physicists of the twentieth century, including Neils Henrik David Bohr and John Stewart Bell, have hypothesized that quantum particles, such as photons, have no precise location in space (quantum nonlocality) until they are PERSONALLY observed. This phenomenon was later demonstrated to be a scientific fact. Whether this should be regarded as proving that the physical world itself is “nonlocal” is a topic of debate, but the terminology of “quantum nonlocality” is nowadays commonplace.

In summary, actual science and actual religion/mysticism are IDENTICAL, because Reality is singular. However, one deals in the realm of relativity, whilst the other (should) deal in the Absolute. To quote Austrian-American physicist Fritjof Capra, “Science does not need mysticism and mysticism does not need science. But man needs both.”

“Consciousnesses is [defined as] that in which all experience appears, is that in which all experience is known, and that in which all experience is made.”
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*“Everything that we know or experience is known by consciousness, appears in consciousness and is a play of consciousness;
just like the dream you have at night appears in your mind, is known by your mind and is a play of your mind.”
Rupert Spira,
English Spiritual Teacher.

“Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.”
Professor Albert Einstein,
German Physicist.