Idea #36: Science and Spirituality

Eventually I believe that we will get to a stage where Science and Spirituality are an extension of each other and will not be in conflict with each other. Hence the title of this post is ‘Science and Spirituality’ and not ‘Science vs. Spirituality’.

Today however the situation is different. The two are at loggerheads with each claiming superior positions over the other. It’s becoming another manifestation of human ego and nothing more. There is in fact an urgent need for both these communities to come together and find common ground to work with. In fact I am of firm conviction that only when everyone adopts a ‘moderate’ measure of science and spirituality, will lasting peace and prosperity be created in human society. Hence it’s imperative that these communities should become more and more open minded and embrace each other instead of colluding against each other.

To me science and spirituality are two sides of the same coin. The interesting thing about two sides of a coin is that the sides always look away from each other and never converge at any point, but the fact remains that they are inseparable and incomplete without each other. Similar is situation with science and spirituality.

The starting point of both science and spirituality is ‘observation’. The simple difference is that science “investigates the observed entity” but spirituality “merely observes”. It’s just different approaches and not conflicting approaches. There is no need to claim that one approach is correct/better than the other. What is perhaps more important is that both entities need to recognise this difference and be it the way it is.

While science as a field is broadly well understood and well documented spirituality I may dare say is like the theory of relativity, everyone talks about it but very few understand it.

Spirituality is very often confused with religion. It has in fact nothing, absolutely nothing to do with religion. Religion is about traditions, rituals and belief systems in a very personalised and restricted way. In fact when I think of it now its not surprising that few people understand spirituality because there is absolutely nothing to ‘understand’ in spirituality.

Spirituality actually treads the same path as Science in the sense that Spirituality is also about observation. But this is where the similarity ends and all the confusion and conflict between the two begin.

While science investigates whatever it is observing, spirituality merely observes. Spiritual observation is total and detached. Something is observed because it’s there to be observed, nothing more or nothing less. It doesn’t deal with why, what, how and all the maze of questions that science deals with.

There is one little nuance here though. The spiritual observation leads to revelation of knowledge of what is being observed. It’s as though there is perfect synchronization between the observer’s mind and the observed entity and knowledge flows seamlessly. Again it’s a fallacy to give this kind of spiritual revelation a religious texture and dramatise it with images of gods and beams of light and all that imagery that comes to mind when we think of revelations. Spiritual revelation is a natural, effortless and happens only between the observer and the observed. No flashes of light, no drama and no nonsense.

This is why it’s impossible to ‘prove’ spirituality and spiritual experiences in the ways of science through formulas, equations and logic because the observer is not consciously seeking an understanding of what is being observed but that knowledge is just transmitted as an experience to the observer.

In this context I believe that all major scientific breakthroughs were moments of such revelations. The statement may seem untrue at the outset because you may argue that Netwon arrived at the idea of gravity only when he questioned the fall of the Apple with a ‘why’?

But why did Netwon question only that Apple’s fall, in all probability he would have seen other things falling earlier and staying where it had fallen without flying away! It’s precisely because in those other instances he did not observe and only deep observation precedes knowledge….irrespective of whether it is followed up with question or not.

Well, this is what I think is the truth behind science and spirituality. I will be happy to hear your views.