yoga spiritual science

The frontier scientific developments have been progressing fast, but it is difficult to predict which direction they will push the image of man in the Universe. Wherever the nature of man has been probed deeply in Eastern or Western tradition, the fact emerging is that duality of his experience. He is found to be both physical and spiritual, both aspects being real. Aldous Huxley wrote the perennial philosophy which reveals the inner core of all the world's religions-Eastern and Western, ancient and modern. It recognizes a Divine reality, substantial to the world of matter and mind, finds in the soul something similar to or even identical with the Divine reality. It places man's final end in the knowledge of the immanent and transcendent ground of all things. Huxley opines that man can under certain conditions attain to a higher awareness, a cosmic consciousness in which state he has immediate knowledge of Reality underlying the phenomenal world in respect of which it seems appropriate to use such words as infinite, eternal and divine ground or Godhead.

The esoteric perennial philosophy forms an intermittently visible stream which has had a profound effect on Western civilization. Willis Hermann gives a graphic account of this situation. Says he, "Thales, Solon, Pythagoras and Plato journeyed to Egypt to be initiated into its then ancient mysteries. Much of it is woven into institutionalized Christianity. In its Hermetic, Cabbalistic, Sufic and Rosicrucian forms, it affected the history of Middle East and Europe. Its freemasonry symbolism in the great seal of the United States testifies to its role in the formation of this nation."

What we need today is a re-examination of science in terms of its fundamental Metaphysical assumptions. Today science is limited biased in its out-look. It is true that modern science has generated technology, has placed man on the moon, has devised new organisms. But in terms of human consciousness it does not tell us much. To recognise that consciousness is casual even though it is not physically measurable is an important factor in science of Yoga.

In the introduction to Teilhard De Chardin's book, Julian Huxley writes, "The different branches of science combine to demonstrate that the universe in its entirety must be regarded as one gigantic process, a process of becoming, of attaining new levels of existence and organisation in which can properly be called a genesis or evolution. Teilhard De Chardin likes to use a pregnant term Hominisation to denote the process by which the original proto-human stock became and is still becoming more truly human, the process by which potential man realised more and more of its possibilities, hence the future evolution lies in the expansion of human consciousness".

Dr. Capra in his book, "The turning Point" writes that we are reaching a time in our society, when the old values and the old views of the society are no longer adequate and they no longer represent what has been proven both in science and human studies. Endorsing this view, Teilhard De Chardin says, " The age of nations has passed. The task before us, if we are not going to perish, is to build the earth. We need to build this earth based on Universal values that transcend ideologies and religions, that are based on human dignity, compassion and search for peace and preservation of life. Beyond the political borders are citizens of the entire world and each human being has the responsibility of promoting that planetary consciousness."

Dr. Khorana recently cracked the genetic code, the system of correspondence between the Nucleotide sequence in DNA of which the genes are made and the amino-acid sequence. The deciphering of this genetic code will help us to understand the mechanism of making the great variety of protein molecules in a living being, according to the instructions coded in the DNA Molecules. This will eventually give man the power to control the biochemical reactions in the body, thereby controlling diseases and specific morphological characteristics. Molecular biology like nuclear physics has opened up new possibilities for man either to improve himself or to degenerate. Maharishi Patanjali himself a great Yogi who lived in the 3rd century B.C. says in a simple aphorism of his yoga Sutrasjatyantara parinamah Prakritya purat.

The transformation of one species into another takes place by the filling in of Nature. By this Patanjali means that even a unicellular amoeba is a potential man or God. But at its present stage its greater faculties are in a potential condition only. One Species evolves into a higher species by the filling in of its potentialities into more active expression. This, according to Patanjali, is the nature of evolution. Man acquired developed mind and intelligence by the filling in of Nature. By conscious efforts he can further fill in nature and evolve himself into a Superman.

What has all this to do with the cracking of the genetic code? Yes, it has much to do. In the manufacture of the artificial gene, the Nucleotide process still remains a mystery. Let us hope that this obstacle may be overcome. Then the advanced molecular biologist may dream of a cosmic gene laboratory. If this dream turns into a reality do you know what the scientist or the biologist can do? He takes new genes from the laboratory and fill them into the human body through injection either to cure disease or to transform human nature. See the similarity between the filling in of genes as adumbrated by science and as advanced by yoga. In Yoga nature does the work of filling in very skilfully but the process is slow and steady. In science man can hasten the process of filling in but to what consequence nobody knows. Man sooner or later gets the power of filling in either to cure disease or to transform human nature. He may transform man into a demon or into deity. But most probably as Aldous Huxley foretold he may create golems or he may produce robots as envisaged long ago by Bertrand Russell.

The new field of genetic engineering has recently set an example in warning the world of the dangers inherent in its research and involuntary taking measures to offset them. There are groups and scientists now working to formulate guidelines for the employment of science and technology in general whose advices may be sought not only to avoid disaster but to help realise potential good.

It is said that when an electron jumps from an inner orbit to an outer orbit, it does not appear to pass over the intervening space between the orbit of departure and orbit of arrival. About this peculiar behaviour philosopher Whitehead said humorously, "The electron seems to be borrowing the character some people have assigned to the Mahatmas of Tibet appearing and disappearing at Will." But some of the modern physicists attribute free will as the cause of this mysterious behaviour of the electrons. The Nobel Laureate Schrodinger says, that the inability to explain this behaviour is not merely a practical inability, but is due to the actual nature of things. Thus something like free will is postulated as the basis of natural phenomena. That something which is capable of free will and is the basis of all natural phenomena must be in the nature of consciousness.

Yes, the verdict of Yoga is this, that consciousness pervades the whole Universe and it works right up from the unicellular amoeba to the manifestation of the Superman or God in an evolutionary process, attendant with an ascension towards the development of spiritual possibilities. Consciousness is a trinity it is sat, existence or being: it is chit, knowledge or enlightenment; it is Anand, bliss or beatitude. This sachidanand or the Divine equally exists in man and in Nature, and to realise this is one end aim of human life.