The Quest of the Scientist for the Ultimate
Reality
Karmayogi
The latest conception of Science is
that the ultimate Reality is Energy. Indian yoga and philosophy knew that even
before the Buddha. Man's highest instrument is mind. It is capable of
illusions. It has one peculiar capacity of becoming a slave to its own
creation. It is man and his mind that created that wonderful institution of
Money, whose power continues to grow with every passing year. Man, the
discoverer of Money, finds himself a slave of Money. Mind allows itself to be
conditioned and takes that conditioning as Reality.
In the film ‘The
Matrix' the total extent to which such obsessions can grow is depicted very
well. Science was born a few centuries ago to fight superstition that was
enthroned in the society. Science grew in eminence and society conferred its
recognition to Science while the society was still under the spell of
superstition. Having accepted the society's recognition, Science longed for
more of it, rather than maintaining the pristine purity of Science. Thus,
Science gave in, not just to social influence but to superstition.
When
one of our members spoke about the new inspiration Science needed to a former
President of the World Academy of Arts and Sciences, he wished those ideas to be
presented to the members of the Academy. In addition, he declared, ‘‘These ideas
are interesting, but unless some eminent scientist espouses these ideas, there
is little chance of your being heard''. It means Science no longer has its own
authority of truth, but needs the external authority of social eminence, which
indirectly means the authority of superstition. We presented some of those ideas
to the Academy at its conference in 1994. There was total interest, but no
response.
Indians went two further steps beyond Energy as the
ultimate Reality. We hoped that Indian scientists would be better able to
appreciate our line of approach and placed those ideas before two eminent
scientists. One never showed any interest while the other showed total interest
but never pursued it. I will explain those ideas in the next issue.