Theories of Science

By Karmayogi

W. Edwards Deming became famous in the field of management as an upholder of Quality. No one paid heed to him in the USA. So, he migrated to Japan, and made Japanese industry challenge the US. After that, the US industrialists sought him. W. Edwards Deming said, ‘‘Quality is not difficult to achieve, but to convince the management is difficult.'' The industrialist, the CEO, the Board, all do not want to change, but want the Quality of the product to rise. The truth is that the Quality of the product is the Quality of the management. As you are, so is the product. Man and his product are one, they are united. They cannot be separated. But, Mind can think clearly only when they are held apart.

Stephen Hawking is a front rank physicist, though physically crippled. He talks of a unified theory which is the preoccupation of physical science now. He is not satisfied with partial theories. He raises a question about unified theory. If the world arrives at a unified theory, he says, it should determine our actions too. Science has advanced by specialisation. Specialisation is its forte. Man has a genius for making the best into the worst by his attitude. He is capable of becoming a slave of his own creations. Specialisation is the strength of science when science does not lose hold of the whole. Specialisation has the vice of separating the branch from the centre. Stephen Hawking touches upon that sensitive spot. A theory which embraces the theorist is a unified theory, which means the Matter he is analysing must be part of the consciousness that analyses. The whole includes both.

The Vedic Rishis were scientists par excellence. The Vedantic Rishis who spoke of the constitution of the five elements were physicists in a spiritual sense. The Vedic Rishis knew the whole, as they lived in unison with Nature. When the Vedantic Rishis separated knowledge from the ritual of the priests, a cleavage was ushered in. Hence, Materialism thrived later. The Indian scientists who have not given up their spiritual heritage to the Westernising influence and who are not lost to the superstition of the ritual, can offer Stephen Hawking what he is looking for, if they are spiritually inclined. I have been often talking about ‘Life Response' based on the unity of the observed and the observer, which is what the unified theory is looking for. A whole new science has been forged around the centre of Life by Sri Aurobindo who has laid down the philosophical foundations of such a theory. It will determine the actions of the scientist, to the satisfaction of Stephen Hawking, when he is studying the universe or atomic particles. It is codified in the law that the inner reflects the outer.