Growth Online > Knowledge Base > Society's Growth > Foundations of a New Science

Growth Online Foundations of a New Science
(from science to a new science of life, integrating
all planes of existence, not just the material)

Knowledge Base

by Roy Posner and MSS

Part 1 THE HISTORY & NATURE OF SCIENCE
Definitions of Science

History & Accomplishments of Science

Part 2 THE LIMITATIONS OF SCIENCE
Overview of the Limitations of Science

Science Misses the Wider and Deeper View of Life

Discovering the Whole Beyond the Part

Irrationality & Superstition of Science

Toward a New Science of Life

Towards a True Unified Theory of Life

Falsehood of Social Deference of the Scientist

Part 3 LIMITATIONS TO THE WAY WE THINK
Evolution of the Mind and Consciousness of the Individual Scientist

Part 4 NEW VIEW OF THE MAKEUP OF THE UNIVERSE
New Theory of Creation and Makeup of the Universe, based on the Role of Spirit and Consciousness

Specifics of New Theory of Creation and Makeup of the Universe
(Conscious Force as Source of All, Energy, Matter, Space, Time, etc.)

Life Response, Inner-Outer Connection & Non-Local Connections

Other Scientific Theory Related

Miscellaneous (Mathematics, etc.)

Also See Thoughts on:
-Technology, Science and Religion

PART 1

THE HISTORY AND NATURE OF SCIENCE

Definitions of Science
(top)

Definition of Science
Science is human knowledge resulting from the development of mental consciousness in humanity. (MSS)

Science Means Knowledge
The word 'science' means knowledge. Knowledge [however] directly issues out of consciousness. (MSS)

Science's Focus
Science, Religion, and Philosophy
Science focuses primarily and most successfully on physical facts in search for the laws and principles governing the formation of material objects and material forces, though its researches have now taken it to the borderline where the material opens out into more subtler domains of reality. Religion in its most exalted forms of spirituality focuses on inner spiritual experience to reveal that reality directly to the consciousness of the spiritual seeker. In its more mundane forms, it provides a set of tenets to govern human behavior in a manner that appears most conducive to social harmony and moral development. Philosophy focuses on the construction of a rational mental framework for understanding reality. But since mind's linear mode of functioning rarely suffices to embrace the subtle and many-sided complexity of life movements, philosophy normally fails by abstraction to capture the object of its search. (MSS)

History & Accomplishments of Science
(top)

History, Accomplishment, Limitations of Science
Science has been the driving force for unlocking the secrets of nature and technology that have made possible the development of modern societies. Today it is the main hope for creating a better future for all humanity.

At the time of its emergence more than three centuries ago, science was a reaction to the imaginative speculation, superstition and mysticism that dominated thought and belief in a previous age. Science countered these earlier belief systems by establishing rationality, systematic methodology, predictability and repetition as fundamental principles in the quest for knowledge. As a counterpoise to the earlier preoccupation with supraphysical phenomena, it concentrated its experimental method almost exclusively on physical phenomena, physical mechanisms and processes, physical experiments and techniques, physical measures and results--so much so that this emphasis on the physical has been mistaken for an essential characteristic of science.

In the last few centuries, this orientation has enabled humanity to discover many of the mechanisms of physical nature, but it has left largely unexplained the underlying processes which govern these mechanisms and the nature of the essential reality of the world we live in. Science has thus far focused on secondary causes and phenomenal realities rather than on root causes and essential knowledge. It has arrived in some areas at the power to manipulate circumstances but not at the essential control of creative processes. (MSS)

The Development of the Modern Science
The boundaries which constrain the further development of science are inherent limitations arising from the circumstances of its development during the 16th and 17th Centuries. Modern science emerged in post-Renaissance Europe as a natural reaction to the superstition-laden amalgam of empirical facts, metaphysical thought and church theology that characterized knowledge in the Middle Ages. In the preceding centuries, accepted knowledge had been largely governed by traditional beliefs, religious scripture and church dogma. The Renaissance period re-kindled the ancient Athenian spirit of free philosophical inquiry, unfettered by theological constraints. The growing diversity of religious thought following the Protestant Reformation created greater tolerance for the development of secular thought as well. As the Reformation represented a reaction against the monopoly of the church over knowledge of God, modern science emerged as a reaction against the monopoly of the church over knowledge of the world. The spread of elementary education, which had become universal and compulsory in many European states by the end of the 17th Century, coupled with the growing circulation of newspapers, journals and books further stimulated the rise of secular thought. After centuries of co-habitation, reason and faith parted ways and pursued their own increasingly divergent paths to knowledge. (MSS)

Success of Science
Science came into its own when it challenged the ruling thought of superstition in almost all walks of life. Over the centuries, science has lived up to its original claim and now, all over the world, in every field conceivable, science is the ruling philosophy, the inspiring vision and a mental incentive for the multitude. (MSS) [Still it has many problems. "Our foremost endeavour will be to examine how far science has been conquered by the superstition it began to revolt against." (MSS)]

Resistance to New Invention
Orthodoxy, conservation, tradition are the old ways of life summarized by the modern term 'Establishment'. That the old strongly resists the new is the order of the day. The old ways of life are so strong, that they can come back sooner or later, even if removed effectively. After the French Revolution, Napoleon made himself the Emperor. Later the royalty was restored. The same thing happened in England earlier. Even in democratic countries, the President of the nation behaves like a Monarch and people at all levels treat him as a King. The old is strongly entrenched, not easy to remove. As late as 1930, the US public opinion was not in favour of Darwin's theory of evolution being taught in the schools. There was a famous case at that time against a teacher who taught the principle of evolution.

Those who stick to the old methods won't permit a little change of any description. About 170 years ago the Railways came into existence. Christians who believed in the sanctity of the Sunday Sabbath would not allow the Railways to operate on Sundays. For several decades that rule prevailed. In Scotland it was there for a longer time than in England. Every innovation - the steamship, the telegraph, the phone, the radio, etc. - met with the same type of resistance. Science called it superstition, but later science developed its own orthodoxy. As recently as 1960 when Eisenhower was President of USA, he disliked the use of phones, though his position compelled him to use them frequently. Industrialists introduce new technologies, but try to operate them in the old way, thereby getting the minimal benefit. (MSS)

Science and God in the West
Science has usurped the position of God in the West. (MSS)

Reasons for Success of Science

Development of Science and the Western Consciousness
The Westerner has discovered the Spirit in Matter. Why is this so? It has because it has uncovered the true values of life. Values are the way that the Spirit express effectively and powerfully in daily life. Spiritual power in life is that power of truth, orderliness, regularity, etc. that brings about far greater results than we are used to. The West has these in great abundance. E.g. no science would have come into existence if scientists had been speaking falsehood, were clumsy, dirty, dishonest, or secretive, which are the values of darkness.

Science has Provided for the Common Man
We know the twentieth century as the century where science has enriched life. Science, especially technology has made the results of great scientific achievements available for the common man. The unattainable is made attainable.

Commerce has brought science to the masses through technology. (MSS)

Westerner's Character and Personality
Westerners are educated, are of well-formed character. The enormous amount of high level general reading they do has created a personality in the Individual out of his character. They all work hard, the Americans harder. The work values have grown into social values of civic consciousness and matured into personal values that ennoble the existing Individual he is. At the bottom of it all lies high prosperity and the incessant wars that he has fought. Work, a stomach full of food, a brain full of information unleashes the curiosity of the mind. Science flourishes. The whole nation rises in human values.

Science's Dedication to Truth

Truth, Honesty, Integrity Accelerates Development
More than their genius or insights, it is TRUTH, fact, honesty, and integrity have fostered the development of science in the West. These elements are essential keys to many facets of human development, including the social and economic sphere. In those nations where these elements are lacking, their implementation will be a fast-track to vast and rapid economic and social development.

Marvel of Science
Science is a MARVEL today on the strength of discovery, forging fresh new tools of measurement, securing greater knowledge of metals, gases and all other things, their dedication to Truth and several other things.

Science and Technology

Science's Technology Expands, Makes Conscious Energy, Enabling It Do a Great Work
For several centuries, Science has been discovering the laws of Nature. Its concentration has been mainly on technology. Technology makes a small energy do a great work, which means the scientist makes the energy expand. In other words, the scientist makes energy CONSCIOUS because that which is not conscious cannot expand by itself. (MSS)

Science as Technology, Not Original Impulse of Mind
It is noteworthy that fundamental discoveries of science are largely confined to Europe and what the USA has taken up is the application of practical knowledge to it, reducing it to Technology. It is by the dazzling success of human comforts that science now thrives or even survives, not by following the original impulse of an awakening Mind. (MSS)

PART 2

THE LIMITATIONS OF SCIENCE

Overview of the Limitations of Science
(top)

Limits of Science
In the sections below we describe some of the major limitations of science. Among the topics addressed are:

how science does not understand the fundamental processes of life

how science is fixed in the material view of reality

how science does not perceive the subtle forces of life based on the vital, mental, and spiritual dimension of life, in addition to the material

how science in its limited view, thus sees only the part of the truth, not the whole of any truth, phenomenon, object of inquiry, etc.

how science is in fact irrational by denying other planes of life

how it is unable to come up with a fundamental philosophical underpinning to what life is

How the human individual (and thus the scientist) thinks linearly or is prejudiced in one direction, preventing the acquisition of true, integral knowledge

how the scientist gives up objectivity in his pursuit of stature and fame.

how the scientific institutions reinforce the prejudice, limited views of the scientist

how science can overcome its limitations by expanding itself to become a Science of Life, embracing all planes and their influence

how out of a Science of Life can emerge a Unified theory of existence that has eluded scientists examining the world from a material-only perspective

Science Misses the Wider and Deeper View of Life
(top)

Incorporate All Planes of Life
We must incorporate all facets of life, from the psychological to the vital to the spiritual -- not just the measurable and quantifiable material -- to understand the reality of existence.

The Wider Life Science Does Not See
Science does not perceive the wider life, limiting itself to the material. It does not embrace the powers of life, of man's consciousness, of his psyche, of the feeling, emotions, attitude, values, perceptions, opinions that directly affect the outer visible and hidden subtle movements of existence. It also knows nothing of the spiritual source of energy, life, matter, progress and evolution. Not embracing this multiplicity of views, science sees not the whole, but the part, the small material part, or the ego part one wants to see; hence there are limited and often harmful understandings, discoveries, and results.

Science Sees Part, Not the Integral Whole, Creating Ignorance, Falsehoods, and Evil
Science sees the part, not the whole of things, and thus creates negative for each positive it unleashes. It knows the part of physical reality, missing the whole that includes the psychological, the mental, the societal, and the spiritual. Essentially the integral whole of Man is pushed aside for the part that is physical that science worships. As a result, ignorance, falsehoods, and evil come about.

When we develop the integral view of life, of a matter, we open to all of the parts, forces, influences, theories, insights, as well as the totality and Whole of the matter, the Essence, and beyond to their integral relationship. In that way, science is barely in first grade, when ultra, multifaceted PHD consciousness is required.

It will take an evolution of consciousness to move to this level of sophisticated spiritual mentality. Science can take one small step in that line to be open to the other planes of life when making discoveries, rather than mere material, mechanical, mechanistic view of existence. E.g. to understand how emotions and thought is subtle; i.e. it exists and moves in the invisible plane; that it is projected and moves across space and time; and determines outcomes of events in life. Science can learn these sorts of things, which are the very essence of the cause of the workings of life, something they are surely interested in. Many of their quantum equations already prove this subtlety in the cosmos.

Therefore, the scientist should come forward and be honest, and embrace and see all the forces of life at work, from the causal to the subtle to the gross material, not merely the physical. Then they will penetrate the depths of reality, and reveal the truths of all truths of existence.

Fundamental Understanding of Life that Science Does Not Know
The early development of modern science gave rise to a conception of knowledge as the order which the rational mind can observe, measure or otherwise intellectually formulate about physical objects. This conception has resulted in a phenomenal and unprecedented growth in our knowledge of the quantitative aspects of the material world. Yet the fundamental questions of science regarding the origin and nature of matter, life and mind remain unanswered and recent theory seems to directly conflict with the underlying premises on which science has come to be based. Physics has discovered that matter does not consist of finite particles of substance, nor even probabilities of things, but only abstract "probabilities of interconnections". The very concept of matter and the traditional distinctions between matter, life and mind are now being called into question. Discoveries in molecular biology explain how instructions for protein synthesis are inherited, but have brought us no closer to understanding the appearance of life and mind in an inanimate material universe, the process of creation, the sharp differentiation of species, the morphogenesis of life forms or the inheritance of behavior. Renewed interest in the concept of the universe as an evolving organism has even led some to question the most fundamental premise of science, the existence of timeless universal laws. Many may still believe that new ideas regarding the origin of the universe, a unified field theory, and discoveries in molecular biology will soon solve these mysteries. But when viewed from a historical perspective it becomes evident the failure to find adequate answers to these fundamental questions is an inevitable product of the inherent limitations in the conception and methodology of the scientific pursuit of knowledge. The difficulties are as great in the social sciences, where specialization has led to an ever growing fragmentation of knowledge and divorce of theory from life. (MSS)

Science's Inability to Perceive Intricacies, Time Dimensions of Life
When I see the complexity reflected in the smallest incidents in Pride and Prejudice, I get a glimpse of why physical science has failed so dismally in formulating laws for life and society. The perspective of viewing each event in isolation from the whole society and the whole world simply does not work as it may in the electron accelerators.

One further complication comes out in P&P. Mind's conception of linear causality does not work in life where the future can determine the past as the past determines the future (tree and seed) and both are actually determined by cosmos. (MSS)

Vast Depths and Wideness of Existence Science Misses
Science looks for the great energies on the surface; in the material, in facts, in proof, in evidence, not realizing that it too looks out through its own limited view, through its own falsehood and material, surface-based, measurable matter-based superstitions; dawdling on the surface onion skin of life, unable to penetrate the depths of life and existence, where the great truths of the True Nature of the cosmos, of matter, reside. (MSS)

Need for Knowledge of Acts and Processes across All Aspects of Life
The forces that act in our lives include forces of material nature such as weather and gravity, but also social forces such as political power, social status and peer pressure, and psychological forces such as the power of ideas, ideals, opinions, beliefs, emotions, sensations, impulses, desires and aspirations. All these forces meet and interact in the cauldron of life to influence the course of the acts, activities, systems and organizations.

As science studies the structure and functioning of material substance to discover its composition, the processes through which it undergoes change, and the rules governing its interactions with other substances, so also, both for the purposes of pure and applied knowledge, it needs to study the structure of acts to discover their composition, motive power, sequence and interactions with other acts. Scientific knowledge of matter generates the power to create new and improved materials and to produce more efficient material processes with less expenditure of physical energy. Scientific knowledge of Life will generate the power to create new and more effective acts and organizations of act, to accomplish far greater results with less expenditure of human energy. As the study of physics holds a key to understanding the process of material creation, the study of these life processes holds the key to the process of human accomplishment in all fields of life, which is creation of a higher, more complex order. (MSS)

Evolution from the Surface Superstition View of Science
Science is superstition, in that it takes the surface of life -- which it knows fairly well -- as the whole. It knows the onion skin and not the onion, and yet calls the skin the onion. Just as there is vast religious and social superstition in each culture which science perceives through its power of rationality, there is vast Ignorance in science and the material-only view of the world. When we perceive all of the inner and outer forces and determinants of life, we will gain the deepest insights into the objects of inquiry that science only begins to address, leading towards unending discovery, which will enable a staggering utility for society.

Limits of Darwinian View of Evolution
Charles Darwin only explained the physical/material basis of evolution, not the psychological, mental, spiritual and other aspects of the process, giving us a small part of a vast whole to be discovered. Individuals like de Chardin and especially Sri Aurobindo have gone far beyond Darwin to explain the inner processes of evolution, rather than the mere surface, material, mechanistic, scientific view. It is astonishing that these individuals are left out of the discussion. They are perhaps 200 years ahead of current scientific based evolutionary view.

Evolution, Involution, and Darwin

Darwin understood the physical causes of evolution in animals; even their only partially. He did not understand the subtle causes -- i.e. the psychological and spiritual.

For example, the evolutionary spiritual philosopher Sri Aurobindo says that evolution occurs not only because of a movement to higher consciousness -- e.g. greater thought or insight --, but to the unfolding of a seed of that possibility that is involved in that form. I.e. in a dumb animal is an involved consciousness of mentality, which will only come out through the evolution of that species, which is what happened when higher animals and man evolved from it. This involved seed and capacity is there because the Spirit put it there in its own involutionary descent from the Infinite consciousness, the Divine on its way to creating a universe of forms. All evolution is an unfolding of this intended process.

Thus, evolution is the very essence and will of God, to create ever more conscious beings, reflective of its own Infinite, Divine nature.

Darwin's explanation does not perceive the essential process of creation, therefore his view of evolution is material and mechanistic. Still his was a great breakthrough at its own (limited) level.

Converging Views of Science and Spirit
In recent years, the scientists and spiritual evolutionists are coming to a common understanding of the nature of Matter in the universe. The inevitable realization of scientific inquiry is that the basis of all material existence is Spiritual, while the inevitable result of spiritual experience is that Spirit reaches its full flowering and apex when it is expressed through the details of material life.

The recent discovery by scientists of Dark Energy in the universe confirms this trend. Invisible Dark Energy is now believed to be the source of all forms in the cosmos. The Indian spiritual sage and seer Sri Aurobindo came to the same conclusion, but from a different angle; namely that this subtle, invisible Energy is an end product of a Divine process. In fact, the Dark Energy of material science and subtle Energy of the modern spiritual metaphysician may simply be the same thing.

Let's examine this invisible Energy from the spiritual perspective, since the scientific one is more commonly discussed. Sri Aurobindo says that there is an ultimate Reality -- ineffable, immutable, timeless and spaceless. At some point that Reality took its first step toward manifestation when it became conscious of itself and as a result generated a Force. Conscious-Force thus became the original non-substance "substance" of creation. In reality, that Conscious-Force split in that creation process, leaving only the Force component. That Force became the invisible sea of Energy that permeates the universe, and out of which all forms come into being.

As science continues to explore, it finds itself in endless conundrums; at dead ends, as their discoveries confound their minds. That is because the Reality is beyond the normal functionings of mind. It only can be perceived through intuition, revelation, and supra versions of mentality, which is precisely the way the spiritual seekers of the modern era are beginning to perceive the world. They sense this Reality, and are thus coming in touch with it, and by identity explaining it. Sri Aurobindo has provided this profound knowledge in great detail, saving humanity perhaps 1000 years of spiritual and metaphysical inquiry. Scientists are merely coming to the same understanding through the faulty logic of empiricism, of the material view, which sees only the part, not the Whole; and surely not the Essence.

Life is more than matter. It contains vital movement, energy and force; mental knowledge and awareness; and spiritual expressions taking shape as Oneness of being to Infinite Creation Power to Divine Love to rhapsodic Delight of Being. Science can learn to embrace these other dimensions of the Cosmos. When they do, they will perceive a core Spirit behind all things. Then they will be on their way to a true understand of life in the universe.

Darwin's 'Variation' in Terms of Consciousness
Like religion, science has a limited view of life. The former affirms a Spiritual Source, which is wonderful, but denies or is unaware or disinterested in the process of evolution in the details of life. The latter has served society well and produced vast practical results, but has a partial, mechanistic, material-only view of reality that often produces negative outcomes. Any attempt to reconcile these two realms is a movement of integration and harmony, and is eminently helpful for our understanding of life. Many recent deep thinkers, such as Deepak Chopra, have been trying to forge a link, and have made real, substantial progress in this area. If only the two sides would listen!

Recently I visited the new California Academy of Science located in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. It is two American football fields long and sits parallel to the equally vast and architecturally striking new De Young Museum. One of the CAS exhibits in the hall traces the course of biological evolution on earth as developed by 19^th century giant Charles Darwin. While perusing the main scientific principles behind his theory, something on the wall caught my eye. It was a statement that said something to the effect that "Variation is the spur and cause of evolution." It then struck me that this scientific principle could be explained in terms of spiritual laws of life, thereby reconciling spirit and science.

According to Sri Aurobindo, Variation goes to the very essence of the process of creation that enabled a universe to emerge from a Divine Source. He describes how an original immutable and ineffable Reality moved toward creation by first taking to existence, then becoming conscious of its own existence, which in turn released a force that coagulated into the primal Energy that became the source of all forms in creation.

But why would a Divine Reality seek to create this universe in the first place? Sri Aurobindo explains that this original unmanifest Reality extended itself into a Manifest cosmos so that its own Delight and Bliss could be experienced by those forms of force, including we humans. That when we discover our true nature and selves, we experience the same Delight that the Creator experienced when it moved toward being conscious of Its own Self. Thus, when I discover who I truly am, what purpose I truly serve, etc. -- i.e. move to higher consciousness -- I experience that same Delight.

So where does Variation come into the picture? It turns out that though the Delight of the Divine is one of eternal pleasure and bliss -- called Ananda in Indian parlance -- it is of one sort. I.e. it is singular, but static and unchanging. Therefore, according to Sri Aurobindo, the Divine wished to create a universe of forms that also experienced dynamic delight; i.e. where each of us through the process of self-discovery experienced a unique form of that bliss in our own lives. Well, in order to experience that unique form of Delight, we need to be unique individuals, each expressing and manifesting a unique consciousness. In other words, the Divine intended infinite variation for we humans in creation for infinite variety of discovery and bliss.

Thus, through cosmic insights into the nature of Reality, Sri Aurobindo has seized on the same conclusion as Darwin. Variation -- whether understood in terms of outer functioning of species as in the case of Darwin, or through Divine purpose and intention through human choice, functioning, and discovery as described by Sri Aurobindo -- is a principle of life both embraced.

To be able to describe the outer forces of life in terms of processes of consciousness is one of the great challenges of the New Age. The dogma and superstition of religious precepts and the narrow-minded, mechanistic, material view of existence are limited, contradictory influences that can only be resolved by such higher understanding. From that vantage point we are able perceive the source and essence of all phenomena; the deepest and most profound influence on the workings of life; and the true nature of our evolution through time.

Solving the Astonishing Riddles of Science
In the 1960s, a scientific experiment revealed a startling result. It indicated that an individual who wiggles his finger actually starts processing in his brain the fact that his digit has actually begun wiggling before his brain processes the fact that he would like to wiggle it! In other words, the fact of wiggling happens before the will to wiggle, which we would normally perceive as occurring come first -- confounding science, and our concepts of how life functions in time.

In other discoveries, such as those in quantum physics, it has been shown in equations that an individual can be several places at once, while in another it has been revealed that if the spin of one electron of an atom can affect the spin of another electron of the same atom, even though the two electrons are five thousand miles apart! Again, in this latter reality of 'non-local connection" the scientific discovery overwhelms our views of space and time, of causality, or what is possible, of what is real. In essence, science has not been able to explain these phenomenon.

Scientists are mental individuals; they try to discover answers through the power of mind. They are also generally quite empirical, looking exclusively for evidence -- especially material evidence -- to explain the physical phenomenon of life. As we see, as they arrive a these fantastic discoveries of quantum and universal science, empiricism fails to provide answers. Observing the world only at the material level will fail to produce adequate explanations for the currently unexplainable. Even the rational mind is unable to fathom what seems to be the unfathomable. Something more is needed.

Another recent insight of science may prove to be the discovery that leads the way to the answers to all of these other confounding scientific issues. It is that the status of the person doing the viewing is critical to the outcome of the phenomenon itself! In other words, the consciousness of the viewer very much determines the outcomes of life that quantum and universal science is trying to uncover. This fact completely changes the equation of scientific inquiry and discovery.

If this is the case, then it would seem that someone of the deepest and highest consciousness would be prime candidate to discover the surreal exigencies of science. Someone who has experienced first hand in his or her life the subtle laws of life -- such as the phenomenon of life response, or has had the experience of synchronicities -- and yet has a full learned knowledge of the principles of science, would be the ideal person to penetrate these strange and confounding mysteries of material science.

In fact, the Indian sage and seer Sri Aurobindo has already explained fully the evolutionary process of life, and has revealed all of the forces at work in the material and non-material universe. If a learned scientific individual -- an expert in his field -- were steeped in such knowledge, and actually had the subtle experiences that Sri Aurobindo's teachings point to, that individual would become a Master Scientist on earth; one who would reveal the true causality in the universe. He could explain any aberration of life that science has discovered. It is a golden opportunity for anyone who wants to be a true pioneer in the search for the highest purpose and meaning in life.

Scientist as Misinformed Man in the Mirror
The scientist is much like a man staring into a mirror trying to see what is on the other side. Much of what he sees is only a reflection of himself, of his own a priori assumptions about the nature of reality and of his own methods of investigation. Much else of what he looks at is opaque and impenetrable to his vision, such as the inner workings of a lover's emotions, a thinker's genius, and a mystic's inspiration. It is not surprising that when he tries to analyze life and mind with physical instruments that he concludes life and mind are simply electrical and chemical processes of material energy and substance. That conclusion inevitably follows from his methodology and instrumentation.

Science Misses the Wider Life
Science understands the surface of the verifiable seen or unseen matter, and even then only very partially. It ignores emotions, feelings, psychological states, forces, powers, and ultimately the spirit's function in the workings of life in the universe in determining the truer, fuller movements of life. In essence it ignores life in the name of verifiable facts of matter. Thus it misses out on 95-99% of the workings, laws, and principles of existence. A true Science of Life would include all that the scientist currently strives for and all that he could strive for if he incorporated all of these other elements into his equations. If he wishes to have success and knowledge and insight 1000 times beyond his current work, he must embrace all of these subjective elements in his "objective" reality. His current objectivity is the wildest subjective superstition of a surface-only, a matter only reality

It can be seen that the current science misses the habits, attitudes, emotions, sensations, intentions, inner forces, will, and other higher mental and spiritual formulations of individual and collective existence when developing its conclusions about how life works. The intricate web of these forces is what enables the movement, patterns, and formulations of life; as opposed to only the measurable verifiable, provable material matter, seen or unseen. (E.g. one's psychological state is as important to understanding disease as is all we see as proof under the microscope. Extend that in all direction of the human psyche from matter to emotion to mind to spirit, and in all fields of science -- physics, biology, etc.) and you will see that we are just scratching the surface of things with our material-only understanding)

To know the workings of life one must include matter, life, mind, and spirit. Anything short of this brings limitation, error, Ignorance, falsehood, and even evil (as we see in the development of surface weapons of mass destruction, pollution, and all of the nemesis to come, etc. when we just try to build science just on the material foundation). Working from this verifiable, proof-only material surface status creates a negative result for every positive advance, and is a danger to the community of man.

One hundred years from now we will look back on the current state of science as a vast superstition of the surface that could have known infinitely more than it did.

Overcoming the Material View that Creates Insights and Products of Harm for a Wider Science of Life
The material view that science ascribes to is to only recognize that which is verifiable, measurable, and provable. In that way it misses 99% of our life and existence. More troubling still is that a science rooted in such a material-only view is bound to create limited and false insights and thereby products of harm and destruction. When science moves from its current acceptance of matter and fact as the only truth to an all embracing science of life -- embracing the psychological state of the human, incorporating the deepest human values, and recognizing the hidden forces and powers of existence, including the Conscious-Force and Spirit that underlies all of creation -- it will move away from its self-destructive tendencies, creating understanding and insights that will enable products that are ONLY good for the world.

Limitations of the Physical Scientist, Science
-The physical scientist is for the most part resolved not to admit what cannot be neatly packed and labelled and docketed in his own system and its formulas.

-.. physical Science became very arrogant and presumptuous and tried to subject everything to itself and its processes. Now in theory it has begun to recognise its limitations in a general way, but the old mentality is still too habitual in most scientists to shake it off. (Sri Aurobindo)

Laws of Consciousness Determine the Workings of Life
According to Sri Aurobindo's hypothesis, there are objective, universal laws that govern actions, reactions and results in life, but these laws are not the laws codified by material science, they are laws of consciousness. He goes even further to argue that the fundamental principles of consciousness governing these phenomena are in essence the same as those governing material fields, forces and forms, only the fields of action, the forms and the forces are subtle, not material. (MSS) [Science only sees the laws of science, not the laws of all of life which are all determining in what occurs in life, which the scientist invariably misses.]

Science Misses Underlying Process of Life
Science enabled humanity to discover many of the mechanisms of physical nature, but it has left largely unexplained the underlying processes which govern these mechanisms and the nature of the essential reality of the world we live in. Science has thus far focused on secondary causes and phenomenal realities rather than on root causes and essential knowledge. It has arrived in some areas at the power to manipulate circumstances but not at the essential control of creative processes. (MSS, slightly modified

Fundamental Understanding of Life that Science Does Not Know
The early development of modern science gave rise to a conception of knowledge as the order which the rational mind can observe, measure or otherwise intellectually formulate about physical objects. This conception has resulted in a phenomenal and unprecedented growth in our knowledge of the quantitative aspects of the material world. Yet the fundamental questions of science regarding the origin and nature of matter, life and mind remain unanswered and recent theory seems to directly conflict with the underlying premises on which science has come to be based. Physics has discovered that matter does not consist of finite particles of substance, nor even probabilities of things, but only abstract "probabilities of interconnections". The very concept of matter and the traditional distinctions between matter, life and mind are now being called into question. Discoveries in molecular biology explain how instructions for protein synthesis are inherited, but have brought us no closer to understanding the appearance of life and mind in an inanimate material universe, the process of creation, the sharp differentiation of species, the morphogenesis of life forms or the inheritance of behavior. Renewed interest in the concept of the universe as an evolving organism has even led some to question the most fundamental premise of science, the existence of timeless universal laws. Many may still believe that new ideas regarding the origin of the universe, a unified field theory, and discoveries in molecular biology will soon solve these mysteries. But when viewed from a historical perspective it becomes evident the failure to find adequate answers to these fundamental questions is an inevitable product of the inherent limitations in the conception and methodology of the scientific pursuit of knowledge. The difficulties are as great in the social sciences, where specialization has led to an ever growing fragmentation of knowledge and divorce of theory from life. (MSS)

Evolution, Involution, and Darwin
Darwin understood the physical causes of evolution in animals; even their only partially. He did not understand the subtle causes -- i.e. the psychological and spiritual.

For example, the evolutionary spiritual philosopher Sri Aurobindo says that evolution occurs not only because of a movement to higher consciousness -- e.g. greater thought or insight --, but to the unfolding of a seed of that possibility that is involved in that form. I.e. in a dumb animal is an involved consciousness of mentality, which will only come out through the evolution of that species, which is what happened when higher animals and man evolved from it. This involved seed and capacity is there because the Spirit put it there in its own involutionary descent from the Infinite consciousness, the Divine on its way to creating a universe of forms. All evolution is an unfolding of this intended process.

Thus, evolution is the very essence and will of God, to create ever more conscious beings, reflective of its own Infinite, Divine nature.

Darwin's explanation does not perceive the essential process of creation, therefore his view of evolution is material and mechanistic. Still his was a great breakthrough at its own (limited) level.

Science Has Missed What has Made the Impossible Possible
Science has missed something essential; it has seen and scrutinised what has happened and in a way how it happened, but it has shut its eyes to something that made the impossible possible, something it is there to express. There is no fundamental significance in things if you miss the Divine Reality; for you remain embedded in a huge surface crust of manageable and utilisable appearance. (Sri Aurobindo)

Discovering the Whole Beyond the Part
(top)

Limitations of Mind
Science should examine the nature of mental knowledge and discover its character and limitations. Mind knows by division of the whole into an infinite number of parts and by an aggregation of parts to form composite wholes. The more it concentrates on knowing the part, the more it abstracts the part from the whole and loses the context in which it exists and is real. The Indian sage and seer Sri Aurobindo would want science to discover and test the power of mental silence to reveal higher knowledge and to help develop the intuitive faculty on a much wider basis. (MSS)

Science's Inability to Perceive Intricacies, Time Dimensions of Life
When I see the complexity reflected in the smallest incidents in Pride and Prejudice, I get a glimpse of why physical science has failed so dismally in formulating laws for life and society. The perspective of viewing each event in isolation from the whole society and the whole world simply does not work as it may in the electron accelerators.

One further complication comes out in P&P. Mind's conception of linear causality does not work in life where the future can determine the past as the past determines the future (tree and seed) and both are actually determined by cosmos. (MSS)

Truth that Science Should Perceive

The whole Truth of science must correspond to a whole conception of our existence, which is not just sensory and mental. Only then science can avoid negative consequences.

Science must move toward the truth of the whole from the truth of the part. (MSS)

Superstition of Science that Takes the Surface for the Whole
We see how a primitive society believes in a dogma that science easily explains as superstition. Equally true is that science itself is steeped in in its own superstition in that it takes the surface of life for the whole, when there are infinite levels of depth and unseen powers to explain the Complete Reality.

Science Sees Part, Not the Integral Whole, Creating Ignorance, Falsehoods, and Evil
Science sees the part, not the whole of things, and thus creates negative for each positive it unleashes. It knows the part of physical reality, missing the whole that includes the psychological, the mental, the societal, and the spiritual. Essentially the integral whole of Man is pushed aside for the part that is physical that science worships. As a result, ignorance, falsehoods, and evil come about.

When we develop the integral view of life, of a matter, we open to all of the parts, forces, influences, theories, insights, as well as the totality and Whole of the matter, the Essence, and beyond to their integral relationship. In that way, science is barely in first grade, when ultra, multifaceted PHD consciousness is required.

It will take an evolution of consciousness to move to this level of sophisticated spiritual mentality. Science can take one small step in that line to be open to the other planes of life when making discoveries, rather than mere material, mechanical, mechanistic view of existence. E.g. to understand how emotions and thought is subtle; i.e. it exists and moves in the invisible plane; that it is projected and moves across space and time; and determines outcomes of events in life. Science can learn these sorts of things, which are the very essence of the cause of the workings of life, something they are surely interested in. Many of their quantum equations already prove this subtlety in the cosmos.

Therefore, the scientist should come forward and be honest, and embrace and see all the forces of life at work, from the causal to the subtle to the gross material, not merely the physical. Then they will penetrate the depths of reality, and reveal the truths of all truths of existence.

Root of Problem of Science is the Exclusivity of Mind
The root of the problem in science lies in man's propensity to exclusively embrace one truth at the expense of knowing all truths.

On Knowledge of the Whole
Knowledge means power. The knowledge that is not converted into power is partial. Scientific knowledge makes us understand the world of nature better, it increases conveniences and comforts of life enormously, but it is not capable of solving the problems it raises nor is capable of solving the problems of life or abolishing pain, suffering and death. To refuse to inquire into a phenomenon we do not understand is superstition. In that sense, scientific thinking dismisses any number of valid phenomenon -- supraphysical, spiritual, even life phenomenon such as clairvoyance, telepathy, life in plants and metal. I do not think science has attempted a definition of Life, Mind and Spirit. Even the definition of Matter is incomplete.

Sri Aurobindo's knowledge of science is a knowledge that is converted into power in life. The inquiries of science are from the periphery, not from the center, so by definition they will not be able to arrive at the solution. The major problems of the world -- terrorism, pollution, financial crisis -- are approached from their appearances not from their root causes. The Society studied employment and has come to the conclusion that unemployment of men is the result of unemployed resources. Instead of studying employment as a human problem, it is presently studied as an economic problem, which is a partial approach which can never arrive at the solution. The financial crisis is the result of understanding money as an abstraction, ignoring the fact that money is part of the economy, economy is part of the society, society is created by Man. This is a superstitious approach. Approached from the human center, we will discover that there is enough money to abolish all poverty and money cannot cause a problem unless man becomes a slave of money. (MSS)

Discovering the Whole, not the Part in Various Aspects of Life
We must pursue the whole, not the part. To make science the center of life, or money the center of economic life, is to put the part at the center of life. To make man the center of life is the whole. Even connect with spirit apart from life is the last great limitation of the part. To see the spirit in the details of life is to see the integral whole. (Paraphrase of MSS)

Know the Vital, Mental, and Spiritual to Know the Physical
The material universe is only the facade of an immense building which has other structures behind it, and it is only if one knows the whole that one can have the knowledge of the truth of the material universe. There are vital, mental, and spiritual ranges which give the material its significance. (Sri Aurobindo)

Science for the People, not Science of the Part Which Brings Problems
-The post war period was known as the period of the Cold War. All over the world, it was a period when pollution slowly gathered into a veritable evil, resulting in smog in the air, acid rain, DDT in vegetables and in water. Life was threatened at its very roots. Then emerged the movement of the environmentalists. Many things of revolutionary character emerged. The most important thing was that the world discovered that science is for the people and not science for science's sake. When a part usurps the status of the whole, the part has the tendency to become evil. Science is a part, the society is a whole.

-We are all proud of science, especially its technology. Its success, says Russell, is amazing. Because of the striking success, we begin to worship science, adore it as the be all and end all. Science is neutral; man, his attitude, is moral in the sense he gives a character to the thing he uses. Man's excessive devotion to science leads to science harming him. That the scientist has a social responsibility is now well established. The scientist concentrating on science is part. His taking society into account is whole. The former can hurt, not the latter.

-Science rules the world. It is knowledge. It seeks pure, total, ultimate knowledge. How can evil come out of it? Still, we see it emerges out of science. The part can become selfish, evil, wrong. It can be an error. The whole can never hurt, go wrong or give birth to evil.

-The scientist has a responsibility to the society which is the whole. Though the scientist discovers, it is the politician who has the ultimate word as to its use. Should the scientist develop social responsibilities, he will move to the present position of the politician. (MSS, extracted)
Man, not Science Should be at Center of Life
-Science is a mental tool Man has created so that it may serve him. Science is not the centre of life; nor can it ever become one. Man is the centre of life. It is by a psychological superstition that Man becomes a slave of science.
-Science is a part and society is a whole. To pursue the part for its own sake is not the highest wisdom. [When we make the part the center of life, we are enabling superstition and falsehood.] (MSS, with additions)

Limits of Empirical Proof

Limitation of Demand for Proof
CHENNAI: In our ardent fervor to be rational, we refuse to accept things without sufficient proof. It is a welcome attitude that outgrows the superstition that readily swallows any statement.

There was a belief among the sailors of Europe that the world ended at Cape Bojador, midway down the Western coast of Africa, and the ship that crossed that point would tumble into the abyss.

Before Science came to be accepted widely, it was believed that God created the world in seven days. To those who believe in the existence of hell and heaven, Dr S Radhakrishnan said heaven and hell are conditions of mind and are not places of resort.

When an unbeliever told a priest that he would believe in God only when God was physically produced, the priest retorted that he would believe that he had brains only when it was physically produced.

In the film 'Contact', the heroine Dr Ellie Arroway constantly demands proof for everything. Her frustrated father says, "This is my scientist''. Her priest friend asks her if she could prove her affection for her father.

Proof is in the physical plane. It is valid there. To demand proof for events is rational. But life is not all physical. There is emotional life, mental life, spiritual life.

Each plane has its own laws. The law of one plane is invalid in another plane. Ellie is a scientist and a very eminent scientist at that. All her life she demanded proof.

Life takes her through many ups and downs. She receives messages from outer space and after trials and tribulations she travels into outer space, has the most magnificent experience and returns.

She explains her experience to others which is fully valid to her. The audience demands proof.

She has no way of offering proof unless they take her words to be true on the strength of what she says. She never imagined that life would come back to her in that fashion.

Unable to offer proof, she seeks consolation in smiling children. When we push logic beyond a permissible limit, it has a way of coming back at us to reveal our illogical thinking. (MSS)

Positive and Negative Outcomes of Science Due to Limits of Man's Character

The Positive and Negative a Product Produces is Reflection of Man's Character
Every new scientific discovery begins as theory and ends as a PRODUCT.

The product is neutral.

It is Man who gives a character to the product he uses. A product that offers a great service usually has another side, an undesirable side.

It was inevitable in a world of dualities. The fission of the atom is certainly a great discovery. It gave birth to a monstrously destructive weapon, the atom bomb. Atomic energy can be put to peaceful positive uses of electric power generation. But it has a capacity to generate radioactive fallout. There is no greater boon than electricity. Its generation results in emissions that are harmful. Anything good has a bad side effect.

Science ushered mankind into the age of comfort, convenience, and speed.

It made the impossible possible, the inconceivable real. t is heartening to see science discovering products to fight disease and vaccines to prevent disease.

The dread disease of malaria could be largely stifled by sprinkling kerosene on stagnant water, which prevents the breeding of mosquitoes. Science is knowledge.

Unfortunately, knowledge is double-edged. The machine gun that deals a mortal blow to the criminal is sometimes wielded by the criminal himself. (MSS, extracted)
Great Positive Products with No Negative Effects
[Preliminary: Normally products have a negative effect for the positive it produces, reflecting the charter of man. e.g. the atom bomb to fission of atom, utility of electricity vs. emissions, etc.]

Science ushered mankind into the age of comfort, convenience, and speed.

It made the impossible possible, the inconceivable real. It is heartening to see science discovering products to fight disease and vaccines to prevent disease.

The dread disease of malaria could be largely stifled by sprinkling kerosene on stagnant water, which prevents the breeding of mosquitoes. Science is knowledge.

Unfortunately, knowledge is double-edged. The machine gun that deals a mortal blow to the criminal is sometimes wielded by the criminal himself. (MSS, extracted)
Also See Thoughts on the Limitations of the Way the Mind Works
MSS Paper: Science of the Part, Knowledge of the Whole

Irrationality & Superstition of Science
(top)

Need for Rationality Instead of Superstition of Science
Sri Aurobindo would want scientists to become rational. This may appear a none too lofty or difficult accomplishment, but it would be an enormous advancement for humanity, including its most thinking sections. What goes by the name of science today, even good science, is permeated with convention, superstition, prejudice and arbitrary limitation. A former President of the World Academy of Art & Sciences confided years ago that most scientists judge the validity of a statement by the status of person who stated it, rather than by its content. When Arthur Conan Doyle argued for the existence of occult phenomena, his opponent asked if he could give the names of professors who supported his view. Doyle gave 40 names. This is not rationality. Rationality needs to know whether or not occult phenomena are true, not who else supports his view. The recent history of science is replete with examples of ideas that were scoffed at, not on rational grounds, but simply because they contradicted established thought or the words of the masters.

When an internationally renown biologist can say with a straight face that all cases of parapsychological phenomena have been proven bogus beyond a shadow of a doubt or that the secret of free will has been uncovered by an observation of one brain-injured old woman, he casts rationality to the wind. Even the most brilliant cannot resist the pressure of society, e.g. when Einstein adds a fudge factor to his theory, because it suggests that the universe is expanding rather than static. Look back on almost every scientific breakthrough and you find that the initial response of the scientific community, including its leaders, is often irrational rejection, rather than rational consideration.

Sri Aurobindo would argue that rationality is a power of mind, and therefore of Ignorance. But, at least, it is a power of mental man in whom mind has emerged from domination of the vital, emotional, social and personal. Perhaps there are very few truly mental individuals. People will resent it if someone labels scientists irrational. Consideration of what Sri Aurobindo says about the higher than mental states will indirectly help the emergence of the pure (rational) mind in its own right. That would be a major breakthrough. (MSS)

Evolution from the Surface Superstition View of Science
Science is superstition, in that it takes the surface of life -- which it knows fairly well -- as the whole. It knows the onion skin and not the onion, and yet calls the skin the onion. Just as there is vast religious and social superstition in each culture which science perceives through its power of rationality, there is vast Ignorance in science and the material-only view of the world. When we perceive all of the inner and outer forces and determinants of life, we will gain the deepest insights into the objects of inquiry that science only begins to address, leading towards unending discovery, which will enable a staggering utility for society.

Science Superstition Prevails Over Yesterday's Superstition
The science of today and the superstition of yesterday are of the same character. As the science is of the Mind and superstition is of the vital [as in the case of religion], that superiority of the Mind made science succeed over superstition. (MSS)

On the Nature of Superstition
Science arose with one significant aim of ousting superstition. A movement that is against an ideal subconsciously becomes a victim to what it fights. To define superstition, classify it into its varieties, and explain its origin theoretically will offer us enough field of inquiry. Superstition is to --

believe what is not a fact.

take a sense impression as a physical fact.

accept a one time experience as a valid fact forever.

grant credibility to social opinion.

concede scientific validity when an eminent person endorse an unproven fact.

be illogical.

be unreasonable.

validate the rule of another plane in this plane.

believe what one likes.

hesitate to examine a proposition as rigorously as it requires. (MSS)

Absence of courage to adhere to KNOWLEDGE will inevitably lead to superstition.

Non-Rationality of Science

Can science be rational if scientists want to --

- Convince others of their views?

- Want to be personally recognized for their discoveries?

- Search for data that confirms their theories?

- Hesitate to express views that are contrary to common belief?

- Accept a statement as true simply on the strength of the person who speaks it or the journal that publishes it?

Toward a New Science of Life
(top)

New Science of Life
Current science is limited to the material only. A Science of Life will give the widest explanation of existence, even as it resolves the problems being addressed in the current physical science.

Life Sciences vs. Science of Life
We know of life sciences. We are yet to know of the Science of Life. (MSS)

Science of Life
Science must explain all things at all planes, as it should be a Science of Life, 1000 times greater than what it is now, which is a science of the surface, narrowly led and driven by false social propriety. It can begin by going to the origins of Energy, which it can know through the Process of Creation. "Unless the world is divinely explained, nothing is explained." Once explained science can then know the true meaning of space and time, objectivity and subjectivity, matter, life, mind, psychological state, spirit, evolution, energy, transition, creation, etc. It is a wonderful and great challenge before this field of life.

Science to Science of Life
These are days of the life sciences. My thinking is on the Science of Life. It is my ardent hope that one day the Science of Life will become a universal subject of study. It just means that one should have enough knowledge of life that his acts will always be supported by life. In plain words, students would be taught how to avoid failure in life totally or at least in a major way. (MSS)

A New Science Open to Life World and Mind
If science is to turn her face towards the Divine, it must be a new science not yet developed which deals directly with the forces of the life-world and of Mind and so arrives at what is beyond Mind; but present day science cannot do that. (Sri Aurobindo)

Man, not Science Should be at Center of Life
-Science is a mental tool Man has created so that it may serve him. Science is not the centre of life; nor can it ever become one. Man is the centre of life. It is by a psychological superstition that Man becomes a slave of science.
-Science is a part and society is a whole. To pursue the part for its own sake is not the highest wisdom. [When we make the part the center of life, we are enabling superstition and falsehood.] (MSS, with additions)

Toward a True Unified Theory of Life
(top)

Partial Theories of Science
I recently reread Stephen Hawking's Introduction to his popular book on Time. I had missed earlier two important points, perhaps because I believe he makes them as a concession to rationality rather than out of person conviction or full understanding. First, he concedes that all theories of science are partial theories and that the effort to know the whole by combining or integrating partial theories (which is what he and others are trying to do to arrive at a unified field theory) may not work because all partial theories may be wrong! This is a great insight, which as I say I do not think he really believes. Partial theories may describe and predict but unless they are based on a knowledge of the whole, they may totally miss the reality they seek to describe. That is where science is. Second, he speculates that a theory or law of the whole may be so all-encompassing that it even defines or determines the capacity of human beings to discover or understand it. This idea broadens the realm of theory from mere physical phenomenon to life events and human consciousness, thereby implicitly conceding that a theory of the whole must encompass life and mind as well as matter. He may not have really meant that, but this is the logical conclusion from his statement. (MSS)

Stephen Hawking on the Limitation of Partial Theories of Science
''It turns out to be very difficult to devise a theory to describe the universe all in one go. Instead, we break the problem up into bits and invent a number of partial theories. Each of these partial theories describes and predicts a certain limited class of observations, neglecting the effects of other quantities, or representing them by a simple set of numbers. It may be that this approach is completely wrong. If everything in the universe depends on everything else in a fundamental way, it might be impossible to get close to a full solution by investigating parts of the problem in isolation. Nevertheless, it is certainly the way we have made progress in the past."

Later he seems to suggest that a unified theory would have to include human beings and their capacity to know as well as the physical universe:

''Now if you believe that the universe is not arbitrary, but is governed by definite laws, you ultimately have to combine the partial theories into a complete unified theory that will describe everything in the universe. But there is a fundamental paradox in the search for such a complete unified theory. .. Yet, if there really is a complete unified theory, it would also presumably determine our actions. And so the theory itself would determine the outcome of our search for it!"

Sri Aurobindo and Unified Theory
-He (Sri Aurobindo), too, quests for an ultimate unifying theory. But it becomes evident that by ultimate unification he means something far more encompassing and also far more relevant to human existence than the unification of the four fundamental forces of material nature long sought after by physics.

-If all physical, vital and mental phenomena are in relation with themselves and each other, then there must be a common denominator, there must be a plane of existence in which they are unified. (MSS) [It is the spiritual]
-Science starts with the hypothesis that material energy-substance has somehow emerged from an inconscient Infinity. Material energy emerging or materializing from this inconscient infinity is somehow organized or organizes itself to define forms that manifest to our senses as material substance. Sri Aurobindo begins with the alternative hypothesis that an Infinite Conscious Existence is the source of all energy-substance. The Pure Existent, infinite and eternal, manifests its potentialities through an inherent capacity for self-organization termed Consciousness-Force, and that Consciousness-Force gives rise to all the forms of mental consciousness, life consciousness and material energy-substance in the universe. According to Sri Aurobindo, material energy-substance is nothing other than involved consciousness-force.

Science Futile Attempt at Ultimate Truth
One might ask whether Science itself has arrived at any ultimate truth; on the contrary, ultimate truth even at the physical plane [that Science addresses] seems to recede as Science advances. Science started on the assumption that the ultimate truth must be physical and objective -- and the objective Ultimate (or even less than that) would explain all subjective phenomena. Yoga [spiritual transformation and connection with Spirit] proceeds on the opposite view that the ultimate Truth is spiritual and subjective and it is in that ultimate Light that we must view objective phenomenon. It is the two opposite poles and the gulf is as wide as it can get. (Sri Aurobindo; our statements in brackets.)

Science's Delegation of the Big Issues to Other Disciplines
Most continental [i.e. European] scientists have now renounced the idea that Science can explain the fundamentals of existence. They hold that Science is only concerned with process and not with fundamentals. They declare that it is not the business of Science nor is it within its means to decide anything about the great questions which concern philosophy and religion. This is the enormous change which the latest developments of Science have brought about. Science itself nowadays is neither materialistic or idealistic. (Sri Aurobindo) [This separation science has created is their easy way out; because the integral understanding that includes these other realms of understanding is still the only way to explain the reality they seek to know. On the other hand, perhaps science divorcing itself from the big issues is a very small first subconscious step in acknowledging that it eventually needs to integrate these other realities in its formulations. -Editor]

Life Response and Unified Theory

Life Response and Its Basis

Life response is the ability to evoke sudden good fortune through changes in consciousness. In essence, its is the power to attract the outer from within. Its basis scientifically is non-local connection. Its basis is reality in the nature of consciousness, the Oneness of Existence, including the Spirit behind it.

Life Response and a Unified Theory

Life Response is the unified theory which will determine his actions and that is what Stephen Hawking is looking for.

Hawking sees the uselessness of a partial theory,

He needs a unified theory and says it should determine the actions of the observer, i.e. Matter that is observed by consciousness should include consciousness. Hawking 'concedes' the possibility of consciousness.

Life Response includes both and each determines others' actions. From a level higher than Matter and Mind, one must be able to control both. Our experiences confirm. (MSS, extracted)

Life Response Provides the Answer to Science's Quest for the Unified Theory
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 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 ...
[categorization point]

Falsehood of Social Deference of the Scientist
(top)

The True Scientist
The world is conditioned socially and psychologically. The true scientist is not one who allows himself to be so conditioned. (MSS) [I.e. he should not be preoccupied, persuaded with his own or another's social position and eminence, but only with truth itself.]

Non-Rationality of Science

Can science be rational if scientists want to --

- Convince others of their views?

- Want to be personally recognized for their discoveries?

- Search for data that confirms their theories?

- Hesitate to express views that are contrary to common belief?

- Accept a statement as true simply on the strength of the person who speaks it or the journal that publishes it?

Untitled
Individuals worship those who are in prestigious positions, or of certain levels of authority, or fame, instead of worshiping Truth.

Science's Falsehood of Deference to Social Eminence
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 [religious and other] 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... Science no longer has its own authority of truth, but needs the external authority of social eminence [i.e. of an eminent scientist], which indirectly means the authority of superstition. (MSS)

Falsehood of Worshiping Status
The birth of democracy is traced to the spirit of individuality of the human soul represented by Protestantism. The dicta of the officiating priest between man and his God met its death blow when the soul raised its banner of revolt. The liberated human soul embodied itself politically in the institution of democracy. Its extension to economies is the free market when one is free to produce and sell, dictated not by a central economy, but by his own perception of what is good and beneficial for his own self. Freedom of worship and freedom for religious instruction arise from there. Having achieved all these fundamental freedoms over the centuries all over the globe, it is a sad ending of an uninspiring story that submits valid opinions on science to the social status of scientists. Science should rule, not the scientists' status. Thought should have precedence over social power which is not mental, but vital. Eminence is for science. The eminent scientist should not be allowed to replace the priest of the church. Impersonal knowledge shifting to personal status is to organise the death of science and inquiry. There arises the seed of fundamentalism, the Amish culture's purblindness. The speed of computer functioning is conquering Time and eventually Space which has been the expression of advancing civilization. Such an advance must find its foundation in scientific life in clearer logic and severe rationality, not in social or organisational prowess. Democratic legislations should not rely on royal assents. (MSS)

PART 3

LIMITATIONS TO THE WAY WE THINK
(limits of human thinking that limit true knowledge, including true understanding in science)

Evolution of the Mind and Consciousness of the Individual Scientist
[This is a key to the development of a new foundation for science]
(top)

The Limitations of the Human Mind, which Causes Scientists to Creates Products of Destruction
The human mind tends to selectively choose one part of a multifaceted truth, leading to misunderstanding and Ignorance. We each see the part, not all the parts, and certainly not the whole. In the case of the scientist, he sees only the physical, material part of truth, or otherwise only sees a small part of the whole which causes him to come to come to partial understandings, which in turn causes him to create products of destruction to match every success he has -- e.g. nuclear power and nuclear annihilation. When the scientist sees all aspects of any object of inquiry -- physical, vital, mental, and spiritual -- he will move from the part that sees only the material and will embrace all parts that make up the whole, and then some. Then there will be a movement beyond the current limited material science to a true Science of Life. This same challenge awaits the individual, for our mind's are each limited this way, and the ultimate cause of our essential Ignorance, falsehood, and our suffering. If we take that great effort, we will evolve out of our current Ignorance of Mind, and into the light of an integral Truth consciousness.

Limitations of the Mind of the Scientist

Based on Sri Karmayogi�s profound insights, Garry Jacobs has developed a new understanding of the limits of science. He indicates that the problem is not just that science is material-oriented and empirical, but that the Mind of the scientist has a number of limitations, preventing him from reaching the integral truth of things, and as a result creating a vast array of destructive outcomes that match each positive achievement. Here are the highlights of his presentation.

Linearity � He tells us that Mind tends to think in a linear, unidimensional manner, pursuing one line of truth, ignoring other complementary sides, and thus views all reality from a single viewpoint. This is a limitation that can have dire consequences.

Division -- Mind knows by division & aggregation; by dividing each whole into parts and taking each part as a whole for further subdivision. This leads to reductionism, which in turn leads to overspecialization and fragmentation of knowledge. This narrow focus prevents a comprehensive understanding, causing not investigated negatives of other domains to slip in.

Polarization -- Mind knows by contrasting one thing from another, i.e. through dualities. It sees things in polar opposite of black or white, and right or wrong. Thus Mind comes to know and progress only by creating opposition; by contrasting its own position with those of others. The effect of this is to attract a negative for every positive as every partial truth tends to attract its opposite.

Part vs Whole � In effect, Mind mistakes the part it knows for the greater Whole that is the Truth of any matter. A Whole, by the way, that is greater than the sum of its parts.

Implications for Science: The implication for science is that these limitations of Mind subdivide Reality and Knowledge into an infinite number of specializations, which cause it to lose connection with the integral Whole and Essence of any matter, resulting in negative outcomes that match their positive creations � manifesting air and water pollution, nuclear proliferation, resistance to biological viruses, inability to understand truths of existence, ignorance of the subtle movements of life, being confounded by the nature of Reality, and so forth.

If Man rises beyond the limits of Linear, Dividing, Polar, and Part-oriented Mind, it will not only resolve all of the issues and conundrums of Science, but eliminate all the negatives it has unleashed, while contribute mightily to creating a harmonious, wisdom-based, integral and spiritual based life on earth.

The Problem and the Solution for Science
Science has created great results, but also equal levels of harm. Science does not perceive the wider life, limiting itself to the material. It sees not the whole, but the part; hence there are limited understandings, discoveries, and results. The source of the problem is the limited nature of the Mind in man. Mind sees the part, not the whole; e.g. just the material outer and not the multiplicity of existence. From out of that partiality it creates problems as much as achievements (e.g. pollution with industrialization). When we understand that limitation, and we rise to the higher dimensions of Mind, science will produce not only great benefit without harm, but will embrace the multifaceted aspect of human existence.

Limitations of Mind
Science should examine the nature of mental knowledge and discover its character and limitations. Mind knows by division of the whole into an infinite number of parts and by an aggregation of parts to form composite wholes. The more it concentrates on knowing the part, the more it abstracts the part from the whole and loses the context in which it exists and is real. The Indian sage and seer Sri Aurobindo would want science to discover and test the power of mental silence to reveal higher knowledge and to help develop the intuitive faculty on a much wider basis. (MSS)

Root of Problem of Science is the Exclusivity of Mind
The root of the problem in science lies in man's propensity to exclusively embrace one truth at the expense of knowing all truths.

Environmentalism and the Future Evolution of Man
The Indian sage and seer Sri Aurobindo envisioned a future divine life on earth, which would in essence be the culmination and ultimate achievement for humanity. He calls for our collaboration in this endeavor by opening up to and drawing in the spiritual dimension into our lives in order to divinize it -- i.e. bring out its infinite potential.

Before that could happen, however, he suggested that several other developments had to take place, one of which is the movement toward human unity amongst the people of the earth. Already this process has begun, especially in the last 50 years with the emergence of the United Nations, the European Union, global economics, the Internet, and the cultural cross-pollination and integration we see in the major urban areas of the world, to name a few. It should be noted that much of this was presaged in the 1960s during the Hippy era when the youth of the world took to greater freedom and creative expression, while exploring a variety of cultures and forms of spirituality, including those of the East. What is occurring now is in one sense a ripening of that dramatic, through relatively short-lived pioneering effort amongst that generation's youth.

Yet another way world unity is emerging is through the rapid expansion of the global environmental movement. Because of the misuse of the resources of the planet, the people of the world have been galvanized to change those dire conditions. On the surface, the degrading of the environment might appear to simply be the byproduct of an industrial society, or the dark side of prosperity, but more fundamentally, it is a reflection of the very way we humans think. Let me explain.

Though scientists, researchers, engineers, and others in the West and elsewhere are able to conceive of an infinite variety of material forms which comfort and benefit us, we are unable to control the negative side of this creative, developmental process. For example, we discovered and unlocked the power of the atom, yet we were unable to contain its byproduct of atomic weaponry. That wanton result has become the greatest evil ever devised by Man -- casting humanity's very future in doubt. Likewise, we have developed infinite manufacturing capacity to meet the needs of an ever more prosperous and growing population, yet we cannot control the array of forms of pollution it has engendered. Similarly, we have developed powerful automobiles that glide along super highways, but cannot control the hundreds of thousands of deaths from car accidents every year. Thus, for every positive that science and technology devises, one or more very dangerous negative consequences are unleashed upon the world.

Which leads me back to the essential reason this occurs. It turns out that environmental degradation is the end result of our uni-dimensional view of life. It is the result of our mechanistic, empirical, material-only approach to the creative process, which excludes other dimensions -- including the psychological, the social, and the spiritual. Environmental degradation itself thus a product of having left Man out of the developmental equation. The scientist, engineer, or other professional is too preoccupied by the joy of discovery in matter; by what can be seen under the microscope; by what can be resolved into a neat equation to address the subject from its deepest and widest context. Operating from within a constricting, exclusive box of a materiality, the discoverers and implementers are insulated from the wider truths of life, which allow falsehood, and, yes, evil to be set lose on the world.

We could therefore say that this material, empirical, mechanistic approach to discovery is one of Ignorance, since it is separated from the true, wider, multi-faceted, all embracing Knowledge that is being addressed. Because the work professional sees only a small part of the whole picture, decisions made and actions taken are based on a material, mechanistic, empirical superstition, releasing negative outcomes that become the basis for social strife and danger in the world. In fact, one subtle principles of life is that when we embrace only a part of the Whole of any object of inquiry, all of the other parts tend to express negatively. Pollution, nuclear threat, and death on the highways are but several ways the unaddressed Whole, this missing multiplicity of understanding expresses when we look out on the world through these limited blinders. Even now, the unaddressed truths related to any number of subject matters are producing negative side effects in a host of fields that we are summarily unaware of.

Thus, though the world has now begun to perceive the dangers of the degradation of the environment, it has not understood the process by which it occurs. It is not simply a product of modern life, or of a developing economy, or even the foolish ignorance of a few men, but the way we put Matter before Man in the discovery process. It is the root cause of the dark consequences that threaten or otherwise degrade our daily lives.

And yet no matter what its origins -- material or otherwise -- environmental degradation is a reality and fact of life. Moreover, that issue is galvanizing the peoples of the world into action. In that process, connections are occurring amongst individuals, associations, and organizations, which, in essence, occur as movements of cooperation, integration, and harmony. Such integrative and harmonic associations are but another way that human unity is taking shape.

We could even say that these harmonic developments are reflections of the Spirit itself -- particularly the Divine aspect of the Oneness of life. When we protect the planet we share, and when we do so through deep cooperation and connection, we are experiencing several aspects of the Oneness of being in life. If this is so, then environmentalism may be looked upon as a kind of shared religion; or better yet, a first form of common spiritual experience shared by the peoples of the world.

Through our ever-increasing mentality, through wider circles of culture, through the integration of citizens and nations, human unity is beginning to take shape in the world. Environmentalism is a particularly powerful catalyst because it addresses a fresh new way of relating to our common experience, enabling people to participate and interrelate in ways that transcend one's backgrounds and culture. The environment is not alone in this regard, as the Internet has a very similar nature. It is a most unexpected manifestation of the new: an organization that not only supports ever-greater knowledge and individuality, but ever-greater unity and harmony of purpose amongst the people.

These ever-new, unexpected forms of commonality of purpose are sure signs of an emerging World Unity. We can look around and see many such signs in the arts, politics, economics, the media, public discussion, and so forth. Most of all they subtly reside in the new perceptions of the individual, in the way he or she relates to others as well as humanity as a whole.

And yet this slow but steady emergence of World Unity presages an even greater eventuality for humanity: the emergence of a common spirit-oriented life on earth. It is a human existence where the Spirit is brought into every activity of our lives in order to bring out their infinite potential. It is a new world unimagined where we experience our ultimate psychological fulfillment, while perceiving the deepest truths of life, including the Spiritual underpinnings of all existence. That ecstatic vision and possibility is also now beginning to appear on the horizon: a sign of humanity's ultimate destiny and purpose.

Rational Thinking and Higher Faculties
-Individuals need to develop the capacity for true rational thinking and beyond that to mind's higher faculties. This will enable the scientist to see the whole, go beyond the material-only view, avoid superstition, enable great discoveries, eliminating negative results, etc.

-Rational thinking is the result of detachment from the data of the senses, the higher faculties can be explained as a detachment from the activity or effort of the thinking mind. We all know the phenomenon that when the mind stops trying to know, sometimes knowledge comes. When we forget a problem, sleep on it, etc. solutions spontaneously arise. That means Mind is not limited to the conscious linear thought processes. (MSS and other)

Achievements as well as Problems of Civilization Created by Limited Mind
All achievements of modern civilization are products of mind.

Democracy

Science

Technology

Industrialization

Education

Economic development

Money

Social Organizations -- Green Revolution

Internet

However, very advance of humanity has created a problem.

Industrialization > pollution

Automobile > road accidents

Money > inflation, deflation

Economic development > unemployment

Green Revolution > pesticide poisoning

They are the result of the limitation of Mind. To overcome these problems, man must move from the lower poise of mind to a higher poise. (MSS, extracts)

Einstein on Intuition
"Intuition does the work. Reason comes to harvest." (Albert Einstein)

Evolution of the Scientist's Mind
-Science is the result of the development of Mind in man.

-Science has enabled great benefit for society, but also has created serious problems. (e.g. pollution, proliferation of weapons etc.)

-To overcome these the scientist must move from its current Ignorance to an integral Truth in life.

-Science's limitations, falsehoods, and superstitions are rooted in the essential Ignorances inherent in Mind.

-Mind is a flawed instrument. Man needs to evolve beyond Mind's current limitations.

-Mind is limited because it works linearity, it can only aggregate and divide, it sees in opposites, and misses the whole for the part. Mind perceives the world exclusively, excluding most of the truth, which is the essential source of its Ignorance, false understanding and beliefs, and negative actions and results bordering on evil.

-As the scientist rises from the current limited nature of mind to higher and spiritual mind, he sheds his Ignorance. For the scientist, he is now able to widen the scope of his inquiry to the fullness of life. He discovers life logically and fully in its Integral Truth. Thus the scientist overcomes the possibility of his creating products of destruction, of mindlessly discovering and implementing partial notions that are harmful to Man.

-The scientist can shed his current Ignorance by moving away from the surface of life, and inward into his deepest consciousness. In that way he moves from mind that is overwhelmed by the input of the five senses to a more rational mind. Further still he can move to the silence of a higher mind from which insights arise in quietude, and beyond to the illumination, intuition, and knowledge by identity of spiritual mind where insights arise without thought at all. Such understanding, knowledge, even wisdom arises as a result of a decided inner movement and poise of one's consciousness. At the deepest depths within he can ultimately discover his True Self, the personal evolving soul.

-Through these discoveries he begins to see the Whole, the Integral Truth and Knowledge in the field of his inquiry. He overcomes his superstitions, folly, even evil; enabling a Science of Mind to replace a limited material Science, and an integral Knowledge and Truth of the reality of life to replace his Ignorance. He then sees all in terms of Man, and creates for Man the greatest benefit.

Limitations of Mind & Implications for Science

Limitations of Mind"
Linearity -- Mind tends to think in a linear, unidimensional manner and pursue one line of truth, ignoring other complementary sides, viewing all reality from a single viewpoint.

Division -- Mind knows by Division & Aggregation

It knows by dividing each whole into parts and taking each part as a whole for further subdivision.

This leads to reductionism

Leads to overspecialization and fragmentation of knowledge.

Polarization

It knows by contrasting one thing from another

Dualities -- Mind can function only by creating dualities

Mind progresses by creating opposition -- by contrasting its position with those of others

Creates a negative for every positive

Tends to see things in polar opposite terms as either black or white, right or wrong

Every partial truth attracts its opposite to restore Oneness

Part vs Whole -- mind mistakes the part for the whole

Loses site of the greater whole

Whole is greater than the sum of its parts (MSS)

Implications for Science:

Subdivides reality and knowledge into an infinite number of specializations

Loses sight of the whole (MSS)

Mind vs. Higher Mind Method of Thinking
Mind's habit is to think in terms of oppositions, of thinking in terms of distinctions, of pairs of contraries. (Higher, spiritual mind thinks in turns of harmonies, wholenesses, and the complementary nature of opposites.)

Man Can Avoid Mind's Limited Capacity to Know by Rising Above Mind

Science was born when man recognized the subjectivity and limitation of the sense data and learned to detach from senses and formulate objective mental thoughts/ideas.

Similarly, scientific creativity arises when man detaches from the limited linear, unidimensional thought processes and discovers hidden relationships undisclosed to logical thought. We may call this effort not to think. Silence > Insight.

So also, man can detach from reliance on the insight (stop trying to understand which is the mental sense) and rise to the level of mental illumination or vision of truth which gives a higher knowledge, but still a limited view. (MSS)

Spiritual Approaches to a Mission to Mars
Several years ago, people at NASA in Pasadena, California were struggling to work out a problem related to the second space mission to Mars. The problem, much to their consternation, was that the parachute for the Lander was not opening properly in their tests. Eventually they solved the problem, the mission launched, and ended with the second touchdown of an American craft on the Red Planet.

In trying to resolve the problem, they of course used their minds to solve a variety of issues. That occurred by (a) continually examining empirical evidence, and (b) by using the logical and rational capacities of the mind of the typical engineer and scientist. As such, they were more attuned to formulating solutions through the lower sense-based and the somewhat higher logical mind than through the use of inner spiritual approaches that lead to descents of illuminations and intuitions of knowledge. Perhaps certain individuals did receive unexpected revelatory answers to problems. Many certainly took to Spirit in another way, by praying at the time of the launch, for a perfect takeoff, and doing the same just before the craft was about to touch down on Mars after being incommunicado for several nervous minutes. These were certainly moments when individuals involved in the mission took to Faith.

Ninety percent of us do have faith in a Higher Power. It is invoked most often when we are in desperate straits or aspire for an important positive outcome. That is usually as far as we engage Spirit; i.e. we take to the Divine only in times of trial and tribulation. A life dedicated to the continuous invocation and utilization of the Spirit is a rare thing indeed. For example, few open themselves to the spiritual Force before beginning a major work or activity, even though doing so not only leads to far more perfect outcomes, but to the sudden onset of miraculous-like results from life.

There is yet another way to take to Spirit -- by bringing Silence into our minds. We can establish an inner poise of quietude and peace through deep concentration, meditation, and other means, the results of which are bound to be great. One common outcome of that approach -- especially if one is engaged in a thoughtful work -- are sudden descents of illuminations of knowledge; even intuitions and revelations of the truth of the object of inquiry. Imagine if the scientists had used this approach. A problem in all its complexity would have been quickly solved, as insights would have simply appeared in that person's mind from out of nowhere. It is a fact of subtle existence that an inner, silent orientation tends to attract sudden descents of truth knowledge from the universal plane of Mind. Through that approach, a multi-month problem -- as was experienced at NASA -- can literally be resolved in a day, as answers simply appear in the mind. In addition, if we open to the Spirit before engaging in an activity, the problems is prevented from arising in the first place!

From this analysis, we can see that there are various ways we can take to and utilize Spirit. The most fundamental way -- one we are all familiar with -- is to call the Higher Power when we are presented with great difficulties and challenges in life. That is an expression of Faith in the Spirit. Still for the average person, taking to Faith only occurs on very rare occasions: usually when life becomes extreme. On the other hand, a continuous opening to and utilization of the Spirit -- whether by consecrating acts to the Higher Power, or by taking to Silence, or by being continually Self-giving to others -- is indeed rare. And yet, it is precisely what living a spirit-oriented existence is. It is not only the path that enables the infinite potentials of life to move towards us bringing success in short order, but it is also a life of gentle sweetness, inner serenity, and the utter joy and delight of being.

The people at NASA and elsewhere could have certainly used these approaches to easily overcome issues that pressed on them before this launch, and it can certainly be used by them and others in the future. Fortunately, there is sign of hope in this regard, as the first mission's craft was aptly named "Spirit."

Our Limited Empirical View of Things Rooted in the Physicality of Mind
Having risen to the heights of mind, people begin to worship the physical details of it and go to the length of declaring that there is no other fact in life than the empirical one. It is the physicality of the mind. We see this in all avenues of life, including science. (MSS, modified)

Scientists Limited in their Physical Consciousness
Scientists cannot wean themselves from the experiment, astronomers from the telescope, or Sherlock Holmes from his investigation. When the physical learns to do something, it CANNOT desist from doing it, says The Mother (of India). (MSS)

Understanding of Ignorance of Science Must Be a Lived Reality by the Scientist
Bringing out the blatant ignorance of science requires more than [their] insight and intuition. When [in the film The Matrix] Neo wanted someone to explain that he was the ONE, Trinity comes out with the ultimate TRUTH, "You have to know it yourself." It is a great line. List all such truths in life starting from the Big Bang to a million dollar income [that one can live, as opposes to just know the truth of]. One will have a formidable list. No scientist knows WHAT in us decides the simplest act and HOW it takes place. Sri Aurobindo says birth is a Mystery and Death another Mystery. The birth of any ACT is equally a great mystery. We overlook that essential mystery and construct our superstructure. It lies in the subtle, causal planes. One cannot easily see that. Seeing that, one cannot easily communicate that. Communicating, one can easily evoke belief. Still, that belief is to be acted upon by the emotions and the body. [The understanding of the current ignorance of science must be a lived reality by the scientist, not just a mental perception for this message to have any real impact.] (MSS, with some additions)

Overcoming Subjectivity of Thinkers and Doers
The "thinkers, the pundits, the scientists, and others think they are objective, but they have a subjective, prejudicial view of the subjects they are addressing. Our sentiments cloud a rational mind. Our prejudiced sentiments are rooted in our limited experiences and our false emotional attitudes. And on top of these we build our false sentiments, values, and ideals.

Power of Silence for the Scientist
Scientists who have spent a lifetime and succeeded in finally discovering it, know the phenomenon of SILENCE at the time of revelation. But they disregard it. Had they known the significance of SILENCE and cultivated it from the beginning, the years of cerebral labour would have been abridged into a hundred hours of silent contemplation. (MSS)

On Seeking
Seeking is NOT to confirm what we already know. Seeking is outside, for something we do not have. Seeking is NOT in the past, unless it is for the essence.

Scientist as Misinformed Man in the Mirror
The scientist is much like a man staring into a mirror trying to see what is on the other side. Much of what he sees is only a reflection of himself, of his own a priori assumptions about the nature of reality and of his own methods of investigation. Much else of what he looks at is opaque and impenetrable to his vision, such as the inner workings of a lover's emotions, a thinker's genius, and a mystic's inspiration. It is not surprising that when he tries to analyze life and mind with physical instruments that he concludes life and mind are simply electrical and chemical processes of material energy and substance. That conclusion inevitably follows from his methodology and instrumentation.

Limitations of the Physical Scientist, Science
-The physical scientist is for the most part resolved not to admit what cannot be neatly packed and labelled and docketed in his own system and its formulas.

-.. physical Science became very arrogant and presumptuous and tried to subject everything to itself and its processes. Now in theory it has begun to recognise its limitations in a general way, but the old mentality is still too habitual in most scientists to shake it off. (Sri Aurobindo)

Instantaneous Miraculousness of Force Available Now
From out of science may come revelations that seem extraordinary. But they pale compared to the power of spirit to bring about instantaneous miraculousness. E.g. you open to the Force, and a problem scientists have been working on for decades suddenly appears in the mind. Or just after opening to the Force a colleague suddenly calls from half way around the world with news that you have obtained the contract for certain research that you have been trying years to secure. Or, just after opening to the Force a chemical reaction that has proved impossible, suddenly starts to occur. Opening to the Force that has been powerfully in the atmosphere since 1956 enables life to suddenly bring infinite results in no time. Science may not develop such power at the material level for 1000 years, yet is available now.

MSS Article: The Film 'Contact" [Indicates a scientist's limited scientific view that only the observable fact is the real.] (MSS)

Thoughts on the Limitations of Sense-Based Physical Mind

PART 4

NEW VIEW OF THE MAKEUP & NATURE OF THE UNIVERSE

New Theory of Creation and Makeup of the Universe Based on the Role of Spirit and Consciousness
(top)

Combining Science's & Spirit's Startling New Discoveries

In its attempt to understand the nature of Reality, Science is encountering startling and strange phenomena about material existence at both the macro and micro level. It is becoming more sophisticated in its own physical understanding of life, even as it is utterly baffled by its mind-twisting discoveries. Whether at the level of quantum physics or black hole astronomy, the illogical and unbelievable is becoming commonplace. Trying to rectify the theories of the large and the small add to the difficulties.

Meanwhile, in the realm of the spirit and spiritual experience, there have been dramatic new insights into the nature of creation and the process of involution and evolution, particularly by the Indian sage and seer Sri Aurobindo and his admirers. He has expressed a complex, modern view of the omnipresent Reality that transcends all previous understandings of existence. His insights, including the revelation of the descending Force that he called 'Supermind' and its vast power to alter the conditions of life is also startling in their own right.

And yet he has answered all of the major questions of life that religion has told us was unknowable, including the nature and makeup of the Divine Reality, what the process is by which the universe unfolded from a Divine Source, the purpose of life on earth and human existence, the course of our evolutionary destiny, and so forth. Many others have followed in his footstep, applying this unprecedented cosmic knowledge and unique slant on Existence and Reality and applying it to the modern world. This is particularly true of Karmayogi, the multi-dimensional spiritual genius of South India.

Thus, Science's view of the material world is becoming more sophisticated, as is our capacity to understand the Divine Reality in its various facets. Integrating the two will be a further breakthrough in human knowledge, and will require the resolution of these two disparate points of view.

Science can begin this process by moving beyond its physical, material-centric view of existence and embrace all other planes of existence -- inner and outer, and vital to mental to spiritual. Religion and spiritual thinking needs to embrace the more sophisticated knowledge and insight about the nature of Spirit, the omnipresent Reality and our evolutionary destiny, which it previously considered unknowable, but now has ample evidence and explanation to support that knowledge.

In combination, an expanded Science that includes life not just matter but all of life in what we can call a 'Science of Life,' and a spirituality in which the seemingly unknown can be fully known and experienced in all its dimensions by any person, can change the course of human understanding and the history of life on earth.

The Third Way Beyond the Material and Spiritual Conception

The religious conception of an all-knowing, conscious divine will that creates and directs all things to fulfill its own intentions does not satisfy the modern scientific mind, for science does not find sufficient evidence in material nature to conclude that such a conscious will exists or intervenes in material or life processes. It observes complex works of nature that might well be the acts of a conscious will, but sees no glimpse of such a creator. On the contrary, it finds the universe populated by an infinite number and variety of apparently inconscient forces and forms contacting, interacting and evolving by their own motive force and according to their own inherent propensities without need of any intervention by a conscious being. Life emerges only millions of years after the first appearance of inconscient matter and conscious experience follows millions of years after that. Still we are left contemplating the mystery of how an inconscient, inanimate material force can ultimately give rise to living, conscious beings.

One way out is to assert, as science presently strives to do, that life and consciousness are merely complex expressions of material force and substance that have evolved through the inherent tendency of material systems to adapt and grow more complex. There is undoubtedly much in the behaviour of living beings that is so closely allied to physical processes and mechanisms that it is difficult to distinguish from action of physical energy. The response of Pavlov's dog to the bell exemplifies the type of automatic and repeatable phenomenon widely observed in material nature, if only we ignore the fact that the dog's response is learned and not innate. But an alternative hypothesis is possible that provides a more satisfying way out of this dilemma, which has not yet received sufficient consideration.

According to Sri Aurobindo, who presented this alternative hypothesis in its most complete and satisfying formulation in his magnum opus The Life Divine, the origin from which all matter, life and mind emerge is not an inconscient Infinite, but rather a Conscious Infinite. Life and mentality are higher order levels or planes of conscious existence that emerge out of material energy and substance because they are previously involved and inherent in all material energy and substance.

This alternative hypothesis fully explains the apparently inconscient, inanimate nature of material force as well as its capacity to give rise to the evolution of living beings and conscious experience. Rather than depicting life and mind as more evolved mechanisms or systems of material form and energy, it conceives matter as a less evolved form of conscious energy and substance in which life and mind are involved. Instead of reducing life and mind to complex mechanisms of matter, it elevates matter to the status of a simpler, less overt form of conscious existence which does not give full expression to its own inherent characteristics. The materialist hypothesis views matter as the first starting point for evolution of life and mind out of matter. The alternative hypothesis views matter as the final step of a complex creative process of involution of life and mind in matter. It is in this process of involution that it differs most strikingly from both the materialist hypothesis adopted by science and the hypotheses adopted by religions that affirm a conscious being as creator of the world. (MSS, from "The Logic of Science")

Science's Dark Tunnel

Science is trying to discover a Unifying Theory of Everything by trying to rectify the four known fundamental material forces -- electromagnetism, strong interaction, weak interaction (also known as "strong" and "weak nuclear force") and gravitation. This attempt to create a unifying theory is futile because these forces are only the measurable, quantifiable, material forces. There are also a plethora of other forces at work in the cosmos -- including those expressing at the vital, mental, and spiritual planes; including their human expression. Until science understand these other subtle planes -- undetectable by their instruments -- they will never develop a unifying theory of anything.

Sri Aurobindo in his 1000 page, 100,000 line epic poem Savitri describes in great detail the myriad planes of consciousness, which the heroine Savitri is compelled to navigate through on her inner voyage to overcome suffering and death for the world. If science could understand these myriad of forces and domains, and incorporate them in their mathematical and scientific theories, then it can begin to develop a unified theory of Life, not just of material existence.

Unfortunately Science is primarily stuck at the surface view of things, and until she moves beyond the mechanistic, the measurable, the empirical, the material, it will be trying to perceive the light of the Sun by staring into a dark tunnel.

Science Misses First Principles & Ultimate Source of Creation
A true understanding of key notions of science -- e.g. creation, force, energy, matter, space and time, causality, etc. -- can be gained through knowledge of first principles of Conscious Force, Involution and Evolution, and others.

Science Misses the Ultimate Essence of Existence
Science does not understand the True reason for the existence of chance and order in the universe; nor involution, process of creation, energy, forms, matter, substance, time, space, objectivity, subjectivity, etc. etc.; nor the Integral Knowledge and Vision that relates them. If the scientist did, his current useful though considerably limited science of matter would mature into an infinitely utilitarian world-changing Science of Life. (Paraphrase of MSS)

Science and Process of Creation Need One Another

The processes that the current scientist uses, and the process of creation that moves from involution to evolution culminating in supramentalization of all forms, need one another. To fully develop this correspondence is to develop the Science of Life. (Paraphrase of MSS)

Science Can Know the Source of Energy in the Universe

The latest conception of Science is that the ultimate Reality is Energy. Indian yoga and philosophy knew that even before the Buddha who was here 2500 years ago. [They also knew that a Conscious Force, emanating from the Spirit, i.e. the Pure Existent, is the source of that Energy. Sri Aurobindo also added that a supramental power and consciousness enabled these Divine attributes to manifest a world of forms. It would do well for science to take this point in mind as they go one step further and search for the source of all energy in the universe. (e.g. everything in the universe is a form of Force.) If scientist discover the true nature of this current energy that they are exploring, then they can trace back a step to its ultimate source. That is one approach. [There are others too born of spiritual experience and knowledge.] (Extension of MSS)

Physical, Vital, and Mental as Three Expressions of Energy of Conscious Force
-The hypothesis Sri Aurobindo presents is at once more synthetic and complex than such an atomistic conception. Physical energy-substance, vital energy-substance and mental-energy substance represent three different expressions, or one might say vibratory frequencies, of a more fundamental energy-substance termed consciousness-force. According to science, only the material substance and energy exist, therefore all vital and mental activity is nothing other than action of material process. But for Sri Aurobindo, although the three are distinct and different planes of existence with their own distinct forms and forces, they do not exist in isolation from each other. All three are in constant contact and interaction. All matter is instinct with life and mentality. All life is encased in a material substance and has at least a rudimentary consciousness. All mentality manifests in life in a material body.

-Sri Aurobindo's hypothesis enables us to understand the precise relationships and means of interaction between these three cohabitant expressions of consciousness-force, for all three adhere to the same principles of consciousness.

-Not only is there a connectedness between planes of consciousness, there is also a connectedness between all forms and forces on each of these planes.

-If all physical, vital and mental phenomena are in relation with themselves and each other, then there must be a common denominator, there must be a plane of existence in which they are unified. (MSS) [it is the spiritual]

Consciousness that is Organization that Binds the Universe

Science and followers of the Spirit both know that Energy is the source of everything in creation. Yet scientists do not yet know what binds these forms together, including at the subatomic level. They are now searching for an unknown particle that would provide this cosmic glue, creating accelerators and other technologies to discover it. And yet it is no mere particle that binds material (and vital and mental) existence together. Rather it is Consciousness.

Just as Energy is the source of material existence, Consciousness is what binds forms together. The Consciousness comes from the Energy, just as the Force does. Energy's source is Spirit, where Consciousness and Force are One.

Consciousness is thus the organizational power that relates and unites things; binding the world, creating stability of its forms so life can thrive.

When the Energy reaches its final descent -- into matter -- the Consciousness is lost, and only Force remains. Matter thus begins in nescience; as unconscious existence. There the Consciousness is fully absorbed and hidden, i.e. "involved," and only reemerges when matter evolves into animated life and further still to mentality through those increasingly conscious life forms.

From Material View of Science to Involution/Evolution of the Infinite

We worship the God of Science, trusting in its laws and rules, bowing before its child, Technology. After all, we are dazzled by the material benefit it has given us, including unprecedented security and infinite-like physical comforts.

And yet science's foundation rests on a material view of the world. All of its principles and insights derive from physical matter it can measure. Its view of evolution is a mere progression from matter forward -- i.e. as mere ever-more complex forms of atoms, molecules, chemical reactions, and micro and macro elements. This narrow, materialistic, mechanistic view of existence is what we have subconsciously embraced as the foundation of existence, particularly in the West.

But what if there were a decidedly different view? What if all that we are becoming and evolving towards was already involved, inherent in matter? What if embedded in material existence is a seed of all that has evolved from it -- from animated life and life forms to the mentality of Man? What if in the hidden, subtle recesses of matter, there was the consciousness of future life and mind, lying dormant, holding out for the right time and conditions before coming out?

Science of course does not embrace such an involved consciousness latent in matter, for it cannot see it or measure it -- its prime means of determining the existence of anything. How can the seed of a life and mind be contained in material rock or stone or ice or water or fire when there are no signs of that possibility when examined under a microscope or analyzed with the latest, state-of-the-art measuring devices? And yet everything that has evolved from matter was and is there in consciousness, involved in it, secretly hidden from view, waiting to come out. Embedded in matter is not just the possibility and seeds of animated, energized life and the forms that move and interact; not just the splendors of mentality that emerged through those life forms, including us, but the possibility of Spirit itself emerging through we mental beings. Thus, all of life in the universe is a flowering from that seed; a constant unfolding of higher substance and consciousness from that involved, hidden Essence embedded in matter.

But who or what planted this life-mind-spirit seed in the recesses of matter? The answer is that only an Infinite consciousness, a Divine entity could have imagined, conceived, and planted the hidden fountain of life in the very core and being of matter. Only a Higher Power could have imagined and planted the ''DNA" of conscious life in the heart of a material existence; that on the surface appears completely unconscious and inert.

But why would a Divine entity usher in a universe with the dense, gross substance and unconsciousness of matter? Why not begin with those higher formations -- of matter, life, and mentality; or better yet their full integration. Surely, an Infinite consciousness could have devised anything It chose. The answer to this conundrum -- which incidentally also explains why there is suffering, difficulty, and evil in the world -- is quite simple: It did so to enable the greatest possibility and multiplicity in life. By starting with the unconsciousness of matter, an infinite array of possibilities could emerge above it; from positive to negative, light to dark, easy to problematic, etc. across all dualities and contradictions of existence. That would enable Its own Divine attributes -- peace, harmony, wisdom, creativity, beauty, love, delight, etc. -- to express through an infinite variety of forces, energies, forms, and circumstance; across an infinitely varied spectrum of existence, providing ultimate diversity and richness to life.

Implicit in a seed of future planes embedded matter is not only an Infinite source, but the fact that these planes existed in some form before creation! In fact, we can only understand the evolution of planes from seeds of matter if we perceive the involutionary process that embedded those potentialities in first place. Whereas evolution is a self-unfolding from Matter to Life to Mind and Spirit, Involution is a previous and inverse process of self-manifestation of the Infinite consciousness into the planes Mind, Life/Energy, and Matter. Or looking at it chronologically, first there was the Infinite Divine, which manifest the plane of Supermind or Truth consciousness, and then Mind, out of which derived the plane of energy (Vital), out of which emerged the plane of Matter. As each plane emerged, it lost the higher consciousness, but embedded or involved itself as future potential. This is the involutionary process from spirit to matter. The evolutionary process then occurs, which is the unfolding from matter of involved Life/Energy and life forms, and then mentality from Life in those life forms, and then Spirit from Mind. Ultimately, conscious mental individuals in the evolution open and connecting back to the highest, Infinite consciousness that was the source of All in the involution.

The dual involutionary/evolutionary process is thus very different process than the mere, dumb, unconscious material evolution presented by Science. Involution indicates an Infinite consciousness and a Divine process behind the material one. Interestingly, recent scientific/mathematical formulas are starting to point in this direction. E.g., Dark Energy may be one significant step in that direction, indicating energy previous to matter.

Scientists ever-increasingly stand agape as they see their material, mechanistic views of existence ironically torn down through their own scientific investigations. When they come to see that all other planes -- back to cosmic Mind and Spirit -- were/are there before creation, and that life, mind, and spirit are buried in matter waiting to come out, they will begin to perceive the right relation of things, including the ultimate meaning and purpose of life in the cosmos.

A Theory of Everything

Hypothesis: The Immutable Brahman + the Mutable Brahman + their Integral relation, oneness, and progress is the Theory of Everything that science is seeking.

Explanation: Brahman is the All. It is the Reality that expresses at every plane from the Source Spirit to Matter, Life, Mind, and beyond. Each plane is its own expression of that Reality, Brahman. Also, everything -- good and bad, positive and negative, pleasurable and painful, large and small, and every known duality or continuum of existence -- makes up Brahman, the Reality.

If we wish, we can divide the Reality/Brahman into that which is unchanging �Above,� the Being, and that which is changing �Below,� the Becoming. Hence we can envisage Reality/Brahman�s immutable and mutable forms.

Yet there is also a dynamic relationship between the All below and the All above. They depend on one another, are fulfilled in one another, which is the Divine plan. E.g. we can perceive that the Below, manifest life, has its Essence in the Above; and yet the Above, the Infinite consciousness has its full expression in the Below, in the forms of life. There is thus a dynamic, multi-faceted, integral relationship between them. It exists in a profound Oneness that is beyond normal human comprehension. However, as we become conscious of the relation, and then bring the Spirit Above into the details of life, i.e. the Being into the Becoming, we enable the integral Oneness that exists in the Depths to move to the Surface. As a result, we become instruments of Evolution.

Perceiving the Integral All, Brahman can only occur from our highest consciousness and level of awareness. Sri Aurobindo calls it Supermind or supramental perception; which is having Truth Consciousness. From that poise beyond mind, we can perceive all processes of existence unfolding in the universe. We see how each thing, idea, principle, force, power, etc. observed is related to all others; how they connect to other forms, principles and actions; to what is mutable Below and Immutable Above.

We thus have not only a Theory of Everything of the integral, evolving Brahman, but it includes how we are able to truly perceive that Reality through an ultimate supramental Truth Consciousness.

Finally, that which sees the multi-dimensional, integral truth of things and relations among all planes, force, principles, and forms, immutable and mutable, -- i.e. Supramental Perception-- also has a POWER to manifest the Spirit in all its attributes progressively in the details of existence, altering life�s conditions. This is Supermind�s Power; the Supramental Power, the spiritual Force, the Shakti of the Divine Mother. It is accessed through our efforts of consecration. When we do, life instantly changes around us, and in ways never imagined before. We are accessing the power of the Creator in Creation.

We are participating in, energizing, and furthering the Evolution; evoking the Infinite into the Finite through instances of Instantaneous Miraculousness.

Now we not only perceive the secret of creation and unfolding, a Theory of Everything, but have the power to collaborate with it and manifest its further deployment in the world.

The Status of an Object is Determined by the Consciousness of the Observer

Science has now come to the startling conclusion that the status of an object is actually determined by that which is observing it. Thus, if you observe an apparently broken machine and believe in the power of spirit to rectify it, and I do not, and that machine suddenly works because of your inner, consecrated effort, then the status of that object is determined not merely by its own status but by the consciousness of the observer. In my consciousness, it will be broken. In yours, it will be fixed.

Science's new conclusion that the observer determines that which is observed has turned scientific inquiry upside down baffling scientists of every stripe. (It was known in the Indian Upanishads thousands of years ago.) It is yet another indicator that the mere objective observation and measurement of phenomenon without regard to consciousness is simply folly.

Immortality through Spirit, Not Technology/Science

Immortality is not dependent on the state of our technology or the discoveries of material science, but on the status of our consciousness to hold and utilize the spiritual Force.*It has the power to reprogram the very cells of our body to no longer believe in the inevitability of decay and death. The woman known as The Mother practiced this approach, with startling positive results.

Changing Genes through Change in Consciousness

A recent issue of Time magazine contained an article "Why Your DNA Isn't Your Destiny" in which science now recognizes how genes are changed through alterations in our material body through medicine and other physical remedies. This change in our generic structure is in turn passed down to our progeny.

They have not yet quite come to the more important understanding that changes in consciousness -- psychological, attitudinal, spiritual -- are also passed down through the genes this way.

Science Can Overcome Limited Creation View of Religion
The scientist and scientific view rebels against biblical and such creation theory (especially of the West) that simplifies and perhaps even trivializes the true nature of Creation. Science is wise to question these very limited views. Yet science cannot deny the spiritual foundations that underlies reality in the cosmos, including the vast complexities that enabled the created universe, and the vast complexities that underlie all aspects of life on earth. Science must seek out the hidden, unseen forces and powers that permeate our existence, which forms the underlying essence of all we do, how we act, everything that is currently taking place, and all that is emerging in time and space. Science should not be in opposition to spirit simply because its current religious torchbearers are so limited in their views, but look for the deeper complexities that the religionists miss. Science can help them find the truer truth, even as it discovers it itself along the way.

Know the Vital, Mental, and Spiritual to Know the Physical
The material universe is only the facade of an immense building which has other structures behind it, and it is only if one knows the whole that one can have the knowledge of the truth of the material universe. There are vital, mental, and spiritual ranges which give the material its significance. (Sri Aurobindo)

Science Adopting Sri Aurobindo's View
The community of scientists lives by a strong sentiment of social superstition but their minds are not closed. Sri Aurobindo's views of Science, when presented to them in a very diluted form to meet their mental curiosity, I believe, will evoke a ready response. (MSS)

Parallels between Science and the Teachings of Sri Aurobindo and Divine Mother

Thanks to Roy Sir for bringing out the amazing parallels between Science and the teachings of Sri Aurobindo and Divine Mother

Roy Sir pointed out the Status of an Object is Determined by the Consciousness of the Observer is something which has been told in the Upanishad's Thousands of Years Ago - Newton's three Laws have their basis on this concept. Newton's three Laws can be interpreted only from the "Frame of Reference" Concept and they are valid only from Inertial Frames of Reference, they cannot be explained from Accelerating frames of Reference

Similarly the interactions between Matter and Energy which started with the famous Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle and which ended the dominance of Einstein's thought has its place in Indian thought.

When Pakistani Scientist got Nobel Prize for "Theory of Unification of Forces" in 1979, it is nothing but a tribute for the genius of Sri Aurobindo

When Dr. Deepak Chopra in the late 90's talks about Phantom Memory of Cells and Quantum Healing and Cellular healing is now talked about widely for treatment of several diseases through holistic methods like Meditation, Affirmations and Visualizations - this was talked by the Mother Several decades ago .

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother spoke about things which Science is yet to discover and when they come out one by one, we can tell the Scientific World - "Look, this was told long ago, by the greatest spiritual genius to have ever lived in this World." (hparamu)

The Why of Creation the Scientist Misses
The fact that energy emerged from Consciousness is the great Why of creation that the scientist misses. Most scientists in this domain are not concerned with the ultimate Why, but only the why and hows of the surface. Thus they miss the very depths of knowledge that they are subconsciously seeking. If scientists can be trained to seek the great Whys, they will move away from their current limited understandings of the surface. But is that enough to perceive the Consciousness? No, they will also have to move the center of their own consciousness from the practical mind that sees the parts, and not the Whole, to a higher consciousness of silence, light, intuitions, and knowledge by identity to know the Consciousness, and how It divided to become energy and then matter.

Science Needs to Include Spirit to Understand
Physicists and other scientists will never fully understand the nature of existence until they understand the role of the higher consciousness and its place in the creation and unfolding of the universe. Issues in physics like the true nature of time, space, the cause of the Big Bang, etc. can be more easily explained if the spiritual consciousness is brought into the equation.

When it comes to Life and higher planes of consciousness, science no clear conception of what they are (whether life, mind and spirit even exist as anything other than derivatives of material processes) and it has not scratched the surface of the powers they offer. To Sri Aurobindo, what science calls knowledge of material processes is only an extrinsic knowledge, not an essential knowledge.

Science studies the material processes of living forms, which is life science. Sri Aurobindo presents a Science of Life which includes the principles, processes, and forces that govern not only the biology of living beings but also their relationship with the forces of life and nature around them, for to Sri Aurobindo all force, all energy (even material energy) is various expression of the force of life.

Science only measures sense data, seen or unseen, and limits that to their definition of reality, of how and what can be known. Sri Aurobindo says that values, ideas, opinions, beliefs, attitudes and desires have as much or greater reality than any sense data. Beyond that are all the planes of spiritual existence that can be known.

The scientist must know and experience the spirit before he or she can understand the workings of the world, or even the creation of the universe. The rationality of science must include the rationale and verifiable idea that the spirit exists.

From the Scientific to the Psychological to the Spiritually Perfect Man
At the dawn of a new age of science there is the real possibility that through gene analysis and related techniques we can determine one's tendencies towards illness or even bad behavior. By making necessary adjustments science believes we can in this way create a more perfect man.

But what of the complexity and vast scope of man's inner state, his psychological status, his emotive tendencies, his decisions that lead to his actions and inactions in life? Here too man can control his life; not through science but through higher consciousness. E.g. the individual who is a brute, without values, indiscriminate in his actions can learn to become a more moral man filled with essential human values. Likewise the weak, reluctant, timid individual who still retains his goodness can learn to express that goodness in his strength and through more forceful action in the world. (There are endless permutations of these limitations and their positive reconstitutions.) Such change will have 100 times or more the power and effect on the life of man than the scientific approach. Through this wider and deeper approach man can learn to rise in consciousness to overcome his own unique limiting, wanting propensities in life. In this way we move from the scientist's approach - rooted in its faith in the measurable, verifiable, provable workings of matter - to the vast and complex scope of the real life of the individual.

Further still we can see the inherent limitations that all humans share, and learn to overcome them as well, enabling us to move towards the true Perfect Man. We can learn to recognize the essential limitations of our minds which sees the surface of things and not the deeper meanings, the one shade instead of the myriad of shadings, the error-prone part instead of the many-sided whole of any knowledge and truth. Similarly, we can learn to overcome the mindless passions, emotions, and feelings that drive us this way and that, establishing a truer center of vitality, enabling purer and higher emotions to take their place. Finally, we can learn to overcome our inherent pessimism, inflexibility, and rigidity born of our bodily consciousness, enabling a more dynamic, flexible, optimistic basis of movement and action in life. In such ways we can learn to move our center of being away from the inherent limitations of mind, and emotion, and body to a higher status rooted in a higher consciousness, enabling a truer perfected man to emerge.

Ultimately, we can turn to Spirit itself to help us become more perfect individuals, or rather reach our ultimate possibilities in perfection. Through Spirit we can learn to change our perception of hopelessness and purposefulness and abdication to fate to a spiritual-based faith and belief in a Higher Power and Purpose. We can move from our current reliance and faith in our own capacities in life to a new reliance on the infinite capacities of the Spirit.

Thus we can ultimately learn to change and overcome all wanting aspects of our being; from the physical limitations we are born with that science may recognize, to our limitations of character and capacity, to our inherent physical, vital, and mental limitations, to the ultimate recognition and utilization of Spirit in life, enabling a true, dynamic, creative ever-evolving Perfect Man to emerge in the world.

MSS Articles on Science
Science and Spirituality

Science and Process of Creation Need One Another

The processes that the current scientist uses, and the process of creation that moves from involution to evolution culminating in supramentalization of all forms, need one another. To fully develop this correspondence is to develop the Science of Life. (Paraphrase of MSS)

Science and Utilization of a New Theory of the Process of Creation
Science is trying to discover the ultimate Reality, the process of creation and the future implications of them for humanity. In our ancient past the ultimate Reality was discovered but not the process of creation. That was discovered at the beginning of the twentieth century and was written about in detail [by the seer and sage Sri Aurobindo.]. The world of scientists would do well to examine this theory. It remains for the past 80 years unnoticed. (MSS)

The Scientist Availing the Theory of Creation which Knows Spirit
Should the seeker be a scientist and wish to make an original contribution to the body of knowledge, pushing the frontiers of knowledge to celestial frontiers, he need not make fresh original discoveries. They await his availing of them, waiting for him to seek them. The Theory of creation has long ago solved the mystery Science is looking for. The world of scientists abroad is buried in the obsession they have created for themselves. When the Indian scientist invokes the Sprit, he will emerge into the Truths the world is waiting for. Mother India is lovingly offering her children a rare treasure. Will they acknowledge her abundant love and receive it? (MSS)

The Indian Scientist's Advantage to Vastly Succeed by Utilizing the Process of Creation
Science is knowledge of the process. Experimental science discovered innumerable such processes that enable man to produce the objects thus studied. Beyond the process is the essence. The knowledge of essence enables one to know the theory of creation. USA has become the cultural leader of the world by virtue of its economic status. For anything to be valued in India, the population here needs the sanction of US life-style. The Indian scientist need not look to an economic giant for scientific inspiration as the Indian masses do. Science is inspired by the sources of knowledge and possibilities of such knowledge.

Should the Indian scientists examine the Theory of creation given to the world 80 years ago by an Indian sage [Sri Aurobindo], they are in a better position to appreciate its inherent value for science. (MSS)

Incompleteness of Science in Terms of Relationship of Physical Universe and the Force
The truths of the physical universe can throw some light on the nature as well as the process of the Force that is active in the universe -- not a complete light, for physical Science is necessarily incomplete in the range of inquiry and has no clue to the occult movements of the Force. (Sri Aurobindo)

Theory of Creation
The Omnipresent Reality is the unknowable immutable timeless spaceless that is the source of all creation. To initiate that process it divided into three aspects; Existence, i.e. the Reality now exits, and is identifiable Spirit and Truth; Consciousness-Force, the Reality is now conscious of its existence; and Delight, the Reality delights in its existence. From this triune existence it begins the process of creation of the universe. How the Force of the triune that becomes the energy that is the source of all forms in the universe is the Involutionary process enabling creation. The Evolutionary process is how those forms, beginning with matter evolve in the universe to vital, mind, and spirit, fulfilling its destiny by returning to the spiritual source. The creation took place for the Delight of being of those forms when they are created. The Involution in creation that moved from a spiritual source to forms in creation occurred through three fundamental processes, Self-Conception, i.e. it conceives what is wishes to achieve (creating a universe), as well as Self-limitation, and Self-Absorption. The Unfolding of the evolution in the universe is then explained in details from matter to vital to mind to spirit.

Theory of Creation (Involution and Evolution)
The process then by which the universe unfolded from a Divine source he calls the "involution." Through a process of self-conception the Absolute conceived a universe of forms so that it could extend its nature of Spirit in those forms, and through the rediscovery of those forms of the lost Spirit experience the Delight of being. I.e. as we humans evolve and discover our higher nature, including the spirit that is now regained, we experience the Delight for which the universe was created.

As we discover how our nature, we see that the divisions and dualities of existence are not so, but are complementary pairs. We can then live our lives in ways, have perceptions, take action that enable the higher harmonies to rapidly emerge, instead of the slow, painful way of Nature.

Here is how He describes the Involution that enabled the Creation to manifest from the Creator. He says that Absolute enabled the planes of Existence, (i.e. Being, Spirit), Consciousness-Force, and Delight to begin the process of creation. I.e. The Reality's first extension was that it existed as an entity (Existence) beyond its original unknowable, immutable status. It then became conscious of its existence (Consciousness), which was/is also a Force. It then delighted in that self-awareness (Delight).

However, It needed to go further to create a universe. So It spun off a fourth aspect, Supermind, which itself spun off the plane of Mind to begin the process of creation of forms, i.e. of the formulations of separate identifiable objects from the original Being. To enable this, the Force (of Consciousness Force) was split creating the essence of what is energy, which further formulated, and disaggregated into the particular forms of existence; i.e. the objects in the universe, including the movements of energy, culminating in the galaxies, the planets, matter, life forms, and us humans.

-Supermind renders the Conscious-Force into forms of force of creation through two powers; its comprehending and its apprehending power.

-Comprehending Supermind enables differentiation in potential of each of the eight cosmic determinants (witness, love, knowledge, etc.) into three aspect -- of subject (that which is viewing), object (the object of what which is being viewed), and experience (the viewing itself). E.g. the determinant of "love" formulates into the subject who is doing the loving (the lover), the object of that love (the beloved), which occurs through the experience and act of loving. Again, this differentiation is established (through Real-Ideas) as potential only.

-Apprehending Supermind moves things further towards creation. First it establishes the dimensions of space and time. Then it establishes distinct individual centres of consciousness for each of the eight determinants (witness, love, knowledge, delight, beauty, etc.), and draws out the three aspect of subject, object, experience in creation for each in space and time.

-Comprehending Supermind is analogous to a person imagining all of the things he can be (e.g. husband, father, businessperson, etc.), whereas Apprehending Supermind is analogous to actually becoming them.

Along the way the Absolute hid Its Spirit aspect in those forms through a process of self-limitation and self-absorption, which in conjunction with the limitation of our Minds is why we as humans don't experience the Spirit in matter and life around us, though it is involved deep within matter and life which we can know and release through our higher consciousness. This is the nub of the cause of our perceptions of division and duality, of pain and suffering, which for our minds is experienced as an essential Ignorance of the True Knowledge.

Thoughts on our Theory of Creation

Specifics of New Theory of Creation
(Conscious Force as Source of All; Energy, Matter, Space, Time, etc.)
(top)

Conscious Force as Source of Universe | Conscious Force as Source of Energy

How Energy Expresses in the Universe | Role of Plane of Mind in Creation

Space and Time | Objectivity and Subjectivity | Planes of Being

Unified Theory | String Theory | Other

Conscious Force as Source of the Universe
(topic)

Consciousness is the Substance, the Source of All Energy & Force in Universe
Consciousness is the very stuff [i.e. substance] of our existence. It is the ultimate source of all energy and force in the universe. (MSS)

Acceptance Radically New Science Theory & Sri Aurobindo's Theory
As quantum theory, relativity theory and superstring theory have radically altered our conception of matter and material energy, Sri Aurobindo's hypothesis [i.e. the theory of creation, whereby forms emerge from Force of Conscious Force as expressed as energy at rest] requires a radical change in our conception of consciousness. (MSS)

All is Form of Force of the Original Spirit
When Man learns that matter, life and mind are forms of force of the Original spirit, he will be able to trace all of their properties, subtle functionings, and profound processes.

All that Emerged in Life Preexisted in Potential
-Logic compels us to also conclude that all that has emerged or manifested as material existence, life form or conscious experience, all the energy, substance, forms, properties, qualities, designs and patterns must in some way pre-exist in potential in that origin, for if no such potential existed, they could not have emerged from it. They must be inherent characteristics or inherent potentialities of the Infinite. This Infinite must in some manner of speaking be or have the potential to create living conscious beings. How can something evolve out of something else unless it pre-exists at least as potential in that from which it has emerged?

-The universe is not a creation by the creator of something outside and other than itself, but a progressive and evolutionary manifestation by the Infinite of that which it contains within itself as unmanifest potential. (MSS)

Formulations of Conscious Force
The universe consists of formulation of the original Conscious Force*; as formulations of forces as physical matter, as energies of life, as thoughts of mind. The higher the plane, the more subtle and more conscious is the formulation. In spirit above mind they are highest. There are gradations there too. There is also gradations of force that we experience from the surface to the depths culminating in the evolving soul within.

*[Ed.-The infinite unknowable Absolute for the purpose of manifesting a universe divided into Existence (it exists), Conscious-Force (it is conscious of its existence and that is a Force), and Delight (it delights in being conscious of its own existence.) The Force aspect will turn into the energy that is the source of forms in the universe.]

Physical, Vital, Mental Energy-Substance as Expressions of Consciousness-Force
Physical energy-substance, vital energy-substance and mental-energy substance represent three different expressions, or one might say vibratory frequencies, of a more fundamental energy-substance termed consciousness-force. (MSS) [Ed.- Just as string theory indicates that different formulations of forms are the result of varied vibration of mysterious strings, physical, vital, and mental energy-substance represent three variations, vibrations of Force and then energy at rest, whose source is Divine.]

Conscious Force as Source of Energy
(topic)

Origins of Energy
Whereas physics is searching to explain the existence and origin of energy from some antecedent or smallest finite source, Sri Aurobindo states that the origin of the energy is energy at rest, energy held in silent, motionless potential. (MSS) [The energy at rest is enabled by a process of creation by which the Being/Existence extends itself to a manifest universe.]

Infinite Conscious Existence as Source of Energy-Substance
Science starts with the hypothesis that material energy-substance has somehow emerged from an inconscient Infinity. Material energy emerging or materializing from this inconscient infinity is somehow organized or organizes itself to define forms that manifest to our senses as material substance. Sri Aurobindo begins with the alternative hypothesis that an Infinite Conscious Existence is the source of all energy-substance. The Pure Existent, infinite and eternal, manifests its potentialities through an inherent capacity for self-organization termed Consciousness-Force, and that Consciousness-Force gives rise to all the forms of mental consciousness, life consciousness and material energy-substance in the universe. According to Sri Aurobindo, material energy-substance is nothing other than involved consciousness-force.

Science Can Know the Source of Energy in the Universe

The latest conception of Science is that the ultimate Reality is Energy. Indian yoga and philosophy knew that even before the Buddha who was here 2500 years ago. [They also knew that a Conscious Force, emanating from the Spirit, i.e. the Pure Existent, is the source of that Energy. Sri Aurobindo also added that a supramental power and consciousness enabled these Divine attributes to manifest a world of forms. It would do well for science to take this point in mind as they go one step further and search for the source of all energy in the universe. (e.g. everything in the universe is a form of Force.) If scientist discover the true nature of this current energy that they are exploring, then they can trace back a step to its ultimate source. That is one approach. [There are others too born of spiritual experience and knowledge.] (Extension of MSS)

Science Moving Toward Non-Atomic Nature of Energy Whose Source is Conscious Force
The latest theory of science is that the dark energy of the universe has no atomic basis. This is closing in on the notion of the subtle nature of the energy that emanated from Conscious Force.

Converging Views of Science and Spirit
In recent years, the scientists and spiritual evolutionists are coming to a common understanding of the nature of Matter in the universe. The inevitable realization of scientific inquiry is that the basis of all material existence is Spiritual, while the inevitable result of spiritual experience is that Spirit reaches its full flowering and apex when it is expressed through the details of material life.

The recent discovery by scientists of Dark Energy in the universe confirms this trend. Invisible Dark Energy is now believed to be the source of all forms in the cosmos. The Indian spiritual sage and seer Sri Aurobindo came to the same conclusion, but from a different angle; namely that this subtle, invisible Energy is an end product of a Divine process. In fact, the Dark Energy of material science and subtle Energy of the modern spiritual metaphysician may simply be the same thing.

Let's examine this invisible Energy from the spiritual perspective, since the scientific one is more commonly discussed. Sri Aurobindo says that there is an ultimate Reality -- ineffable, immutable, timeless and spaceless. At some point that Reality took its first step toward manifestation when it became conscious of itself and as a result generated a Force. Conscious-Force thus became the original non-substance "substance" of creation. In reality, that Conscious-Force split in that creation process, leaving only the Force component. That Force became the invisible sea of Energy that permeates the universe, and out of which all forms come into being.

As science continues to explore, it finds itself in endless conundrums; at dead ends, as their discoveries confound their minds. That is because the Reality is beyond the normal functionings of mind. It only can be perceived through intuition, revelation, and supra versions of mentality, which is precisely the way the spiritual seekers of the modern era are beginning to perceive the world. They sense this Reality, and are thus coming in touch with it, and by identity explaining it. Sri Aurobindo has provided this profound knowledge in great detail, saving humanity perhaps 1000 years of spiritual and metaphysical inquiry. Scientists are merely coming to the same understanding through the faulty logic of empiricism, of the material view, which sees only the part, not the Whole; and surely not the Essence.

Life is more than matter. It contains vital movement, energy and force; mental knowledge and awareness; and spiritual expressions taking shape as Oneness of being to Infinite Creation Power to Divine Love to rhapsodic Delight of Being. Science can learn to embrace these other dimensions of the Cosmos. When they do, they will perceive a core Spirit behind all things. Then they will be on their way to a true understand of life in the universe.

Dark Energy
Is the Dark Energy recently discovered by scientists to make up much of the universe the same as the ocean of Energy that (according to Sri Aurobindo) emerged from the Conscious-Force of the Divine Satchitananda, providing the basis of all forms of that force in the universe?

Spirit Precedes and Enables Energy and Form
Science is not sure which came first, consciousness or the structure, leaning to the latter. Sri Aurobindo said that the Force was anterior to the form; i.e. the spirit and the energy at rest that is derived from the process of creation precedes and enables forms in the universe. (Paraphrase of MSS)

Origins of Energy
The origin of all energy is Being/Existence Sat, which is energy at rest or in potential. The source of that energy is the will of Being/Existence, i.e. Consciousness-Force (Chit) projecting potential energy into forms. (MSS)

All in the Universe is Projection of Energy of Forms of Force
All manifestation [in the universe] is a projection of energy as forms of force. All forms (physical, vital, mental and supramental) are nothing but formations of force. (MSS)

Science Sees the Force, not the Will
The energy detected and measured by science is itself a partial expression of that consciousness-force, partial because we perceive only the force and not the will that determines the direction of that force. (MSS)

Knowledge & Will in the Involution is Source of Energy in Creation; It Reflects the Process of How We Create in Life
In this process [of the involution] Knowledge and Will emerge from Conscious Force (through the action of Supermind). When the Knowledge acts on the Will, Energy (i.e. the plane of Life) emerges. [It is similar to when an individual learns about something, which drives him to have an aspiration, which creates the will to make it occur. That will creates energy, i.e. energizes the person to act. So too when Knowledge acted/is acting on Will in the involution, Energy was/is created, that was/is the basis of creation of the universe.]

Once Knowledge acts on Will to create the Energy at rest, it [the Knowledge] withdraw from the Will, which causes the energy to become dumb physical matter. (The energy at rest begins to move and formulate into matter.) Thus the action of Knowledge and Will is the key to the involution and the evolution that follows. [Likewise, in our own lives when we are conscious of possibilities, thus developing the will and thus the energy to see them through until they manifest as a result we are in essence mimicking the Process, the Act of Creation of the E-CF-D.]

(Knowledge and Will are at first fused and one in the involution, indicating their Divine aspect. In creation, including our own lives, knowledge and will are divided, separate, which is the cause of duality in the universe and our inherent divided and Ignorant nature. As we discover our higher nature, the Knowledge of things, and the Will to see to the application of that Knowledge move towards reuniting, enabling an integral, dynamic, flawless, creative, infinite existence, reflecting the same in the manifest universe as the unmanifest Divine.)

Sri Aurobindo's Hypothesis
According to Sri Aurobindo's hypothesis, an infinite, omnipresent, omniscient consciousness-force is the creator of the universe and all that is in it. The universe is not a creation by the creator of something outside and other than itself, but a progressive and evolutionary manifestation by the Infinite of that which it contains within itself as unmanifest potential.

The universe and all it contains is a portion, expression and manifestation of an infinity that is not limited to or confined by this manifest field, which is both a spatial infinity and a temporal eternity.

That Infinite is also a formless infinity and timeless eternity that transcends all relative conceptions and experiences of space and time. This conception of the Infinite appears compatible with the speculation of Superstring theorists regarding a vacuum or void from which everything can emerge. But in the case of the alternative hypothesis it is quite clear that this ultimate source is not a physical plane of existence as normally conceived. It is something more subtle and undetectable by physical instrumentation. (MSS, from "The Logic of Science")

Field of Energy from Conscious Force
There is a field of energy that has emerged, and continues to emerge from the Consciousness-Force of the Absolute. That energy is the plane of Life. Life is then a sea of energy permeating all of existence that gives rise to all forms in the universe.

Origins of Energy
Whereas physics is searching to explain the existence and origin of energy from some antecedent or smallest finite source, he states that the origin of the energy is energy at rest, energy held in silent, motionless potential. (MSS)

Energy is Force of Consciousness in Action
Matter is jada only in appearance. As even in modern Science admits, Matter is only energy in action, and, as we know in India, energy is force of consciousness in action. (Sri Aurobindo)

The Interconvertibility of Matter and Energy
Would Sri Aurobindo agree that matter and energy are interconvertible? [as science claims]

According to him, all manifestation is a projection of energy as forms of force. All forms (physical, vital, mental and supramental) are nothing but formations of force.

Substance is inherent in Existence (Sat). Consciousness-Force (Chit) is an extension of Existence. Energy is an expression of Consciousness-Force. Therefore, Substance is inherent in Energy. On the material plane, this means that matter, material substance, is an inherent property of material energy. (MSS)

Matter, Space, & Energy
Matter and space are one; of the same energy. Matter is energy in motion, space is that energy at rest.

How Energy Expresses in the Universe
(topic)

Expressions of Energy in Life
-There is a field of energy that has emerged, and continues to emerge from the Consciousness-Force of the Absolute. That energy is the plane of Life. Life is then a sea of energy permeating all of existence that gives rise to all forms in the universe.

-Life is a field of energy that takes form materially, vitally, mentally, and spiritually.

-In life there is matter, i.e. the material plane, which express through material energies, there is the vital plane which expresses through vital energies, there is mind, which expresses through mental energies, and there is the supramental plane beyond mind which expresses through supramental energies.

-Life expresses through gross/material, subtle, and causal formations. Gross/material means the thing expresses as physical substance and can be perceived with the senses. When a thing expresses subtlely, it is not perceived through the senses, but is invisible. When a thing expresses causally, not only is it invisible but it is infused with spiritual consciousness giving it ultimate power of effectivity.

-Matter (e.g. the stone or the human body) expresses at the gross/material plane, as well as subtle, and causal planes; Vital individual wants, desires, emotions, feelings, attitudes, etc. and other vital life energies express predominantly at the subtle plane (though they can express causally as well.) Thoughts, ideas, opinions, beliefs, logical thoughts, etc., of the mind express fully at the subtle plane. Aspects of the spirit and supermind express causally (i.e. super-subtlely).

Human Energies and Life Response
There are four essential planes of existence in the universe -- the physical/material, the vital/life, the mental, and the spiritual. In the human that expresses as the physical body, the vital/emotional being, the mental being, and the spiritual being. We can call this the 'vertical scale of being'. In addition, each of these dimensions express as energy; i.e. as physical, vital, mental, and spiritual energy.

That energy is expressed along another scale of being in the universe, which we cal call ''the universal scale," which runs the gamut from the gross/material, to subtle, to causal. Energy expressed at the gross/material plane can be visibly seen or otherwise perceived through the senses; energies expressed at the subtle plane are unseen; and energies at the causal plane are also unseen, but involve something never having existed before.

For example, human physical energies can express at the gross/material or the subtle plane. E.g. when I drive a hammer into a nail, the nail moves; i.e. I see the results of the energy released in the act. Material energies can also be subtle, as in the case of x-rays which are partially subtle because although they cannot be seen by the human eye, their substance is detectable by scientific instruments.

Vital energies generally express at the subtle plane; i.e. they cannot be seen, and they can readily move across the universe. For example, when I change an attitude is at the vital plane of my being, it releases vital energies that are subtle (i.e. unseen) that can travel across the universe, and meet up with corresponding elements and objects which can return to me as a life response event. Mental energies are also subtle, and have a similar capacity as vital energies. E.g. when I organize ideas, subtle/invisible thought energies are released which can attract corresponding elements from life as well. Spiritual energies are super-subtle in that they are invisible, defying all laws of cause and effect and space and time, and can attract back elements that never existed before.

Thus, when we change our consciousness at a moment in time, subtle energies are released from one or more of the four planes of our being -- physical, vital, mental, and spiritual, attracting back corresponding elements which we experience as life response. If I take to an extra physical effort, the subtle physical energies attract a response from life. If I move from reluctance to acceptance, the vital energies attract a response. The same with the subtle energies that are released from higher movements at the mental and spiritual parts of our being.

Self-Absorption of Consciousness in Matter
-Consciousness exists in Matter, but it is self-absorbed there, and thus not-detectable in the surface.

-In material forms, the consciousness is imperceptible and the force expresses as inconscient energy moving in fixed patterns that are also imperceptible to our senses.

-Matter is a fully involved, inconscient status in which the Consciousness-Force takes on the appearance of inconscient and inanimate energy-substance.

-Sri Aurobindo's conception of involution explains the process by which pure consciousness through its capacities for self-limitation and self-absorption can take on the form and appearance of inconscient material substance-force. (MSS)

Also See Thoughts on Energy for the Individual, and Its Relationship to Achievement in Life

Role of Plane of Mind in Creation
(topic)

Mind Splitting the Force, not the Being, enabling Atomic existence
Unity and oneness being the real basis, Mind splits only the Force, not the Being. The division meets with the absolute resistance at the level of substance, resulting in atomic existence. (MSS)

Matter is Spirit Seen through Mind
Sri Aurobindo maintains that the difference between spirit and matter is only a result of the limitation of our instruments for perception. We perceive spiritual substance as material substance through the action of our gross physical senses and sense mind, because these instruments are incapable of perceiving the true nature of that substance. In other words, spiritual substance viewed through the faculty of the sense mind appears as material substance, while the same spiritual substance experienced directly by a higher faculty of direct consciousness reveals as consciousness-force or pure existence. (MSS)

End of Process of Division, Beginning of Process of Aggregation
The process of division (of Force into Form, atomic existence) is infinite. Therefore, it cannot stop. When further division is not possible, aggregation of divided units begins. (MSS, somewhat modified)

More Thoughts on the Nature of the Plane of Mind (in the Evolution)

Space and Time
(topic)

Click here to see Thoughts on the Origins and the Nature of Space & Time

Objectivity and Subjectivity
(topic)

Origins of Subjectivity and Objectivity in Creation
Being/Existence (Sat) manifests itself as the universe through an act of Self-conception which is at once Consciousness (knowledge) and Force (will). The consciousness gives rise to subjectivity and objectivity. (MSS)

Unified Theory
(topic)

The Reality as Unifying Theory

Sri Aurobindo posits that there is one essential Reality, and all planes of existence from the spiritual to the mental to the vital to the physical/material are different shadings of it. Thus this Omnipresent reality is that which is the unifying principle of all existence. This is also called The Absolute in the West, and Brahman in the East.

Sri Aurobindo's Unifying Conception of Reality
-Sri Aurobindo presents a unifying conception of matter, life and mind by representing that all three are expressions of a common energy-substance.

-This pure fundamental reality is what he terms Consciousness-Force, which is itself an expression of a more subtle reality he refers to as Self-conscious Being or Pure Existence.

-All matter, life and mental experience are limited or veiled expressions of this fundamental Consciousness-Force.

-Conscious-Force manifests as mind, life and matter through the process of involution.

-Consciousness-Force has the inherent capacity to take on the behavioral characteristics that we associate with inanimate, inconscient material energy-substance. This is made possible by an involution of the inherent properties of consciousness-force so that it assumes the appearance to our sense experience of inconscient material energy-substance, subconscious life and conscious mentality.

-Sri Aurobindo maintains that even our normal human consciousness is an involved state of the conscious-force of pure existence. It is involved in the sense that it possesses only very limited knowledge and negligible power in comparison with the knowledge and power inherent in pure consciousness-force. (MSS)

The Unfoldings of Existence and the One Reality that is the Unifying Principle of All

The Reality is at first, inimitable, immutable, ineffable. It then extends Itself to Being/Existence, then Conscious Force, and then Delight. Out of the Conscious Force emerges Energy, and from that energy forms of itself (and the Force) behind. The evolution continues with formations of material forms, and from that animated forms, and mental forms, culminating in plant, animal, and man.

And yet each of these planes are extensions and shadings of the one Essential Reality. The omnipresent reality (in its unmanifest and manifest states) is the unifying basis and theory of existence. Involution from Spirit to Matter, and evolution from matter to Spirit have their basis in the reality. They are different statuses and statuses of that Reality.

Sri Aurobindo and Unified Theory
-He (Sri Aurobindo), too, quests for an ultimate unifying theory. But it becomes evident that by ultimate unification he means something far more encompassing and also far more relevant to human existence than the unification of the four fundamental forces of material nature long sought after by physics.

-If all physical, vital and mental phenomena are in relation with themselves and each other, then there must be a common denominator, there must be a plane of existence in which they are unified. (MSS) [It is the spiritual]
-Science starts with the hypothesis that material energy-substance has somehow emerged from an inconscient Infinity. Material energy emerging or materializing from this inconscient infinity is somehow organized or organizes itself to define forms that manifest to our senses as material substance. Sri Aurobindo begins with the alternative hypothesis that an Infinite Conscious Existence is the source of all energy-substance. The Pure Existent, infinite and eternal, manifests its potentialities through an inherent capacity for self-organization termed Consciousness-Force, and that Consciousness-Force gives rise to all the forms of mental consciousness, life consciousness and material energy-substance in the universe. According to Sri Aurobindo, material energy-substance is nothing other than involved consciousness-force.

Unity of Being
Sri Aurobindo tells us that this perception of the infinitesimal part is only a product of mind's tendency to divide. The Being is not divided, even the physical being.

Similarly mind divides matter and space. It perceives matter as separate objects within a field of space. Einstein noted that somehow the space and the matter are related in a way that matter seems to bend space. Suppose instead that we consider space and matter as a single continuum. Matter represents those aspects of the continuum in which the energy is in motion and space represents aspects in which the energy is at rest and therefore imperceptible (since we can only perceive active energy with the senses, not the absence of it) or in which the energy is vibrating at such a subtle level that it is imperceptible. All remains unified. (MSS)

Beyond Dividing Mind to Perceiving the Reality

Mind tends to divides existence into parts, and not see the underlying reality that unites them.

Perceiving the Oneness of Existence, the Reality from Spiritualized Mind

When Man rises beyond sense mind, and even mind proper of rational thought to Light, Intuition, and Supramental Perception (truth consciousness), he can perceive the unity of existence; that all planes are One; that they are various shadings of an essential Reality. This is the understanding of spiritualized Mind.

Involution and Evolution of the Material
The materialist explains phenomenon such as sensations, emotions, feelings, psychological states, ideas, etc. as ever more complex forms of matter. The spiritual immersed person sees all as spirit, and the rest as non-spirit, even illusion. The Third Position is to see that spirit is the source of the material. Spirit is involved in each plane from matter to mind, and is in fact the power that compels the successive emergence of each plane. Each plane then carries as potential embedded in it the next plane through the embedded spirit. Evolution in the universe from matter to life to mind and beyond to spirit is then the movement of the release of that potential; whereas involution is the process that enabled that potential in the first place from out of a Divine source.

Physical, Vital, Mental Energy-Substance as Expressions of Consciousness-Force
Physical energy-substance, vital energy-substance and mental-energy substance represent three different expressions, or one might say vibratory frequencies, of a more fundamental energy-substance termed consciousness-force. (MSS) [Ed.- Just as string theory indicates that different formulations of forms are the result of varied vibration of mysterious strings, physical, vital, and mental energy-substance represent three variations, vibrations of Force and then energy at rest, whose source is Divine.]

Scientific View Can Harmonize with Spiritual View of Creation

Scientific views of evolution are not in contradiction with the spiritual view of a Divine source or creator. In fact they work together to explain the unfolding and evolution of the existence in the cosmos.

Life Response as Unifying Theory

["Life Response" is the way life suddenly, abundantly, and miraculously responds positively on the outside to a corresponding change of your consciousness inside, apparently defying notions of cause and effect, and space and time. E.g. you change an attitude and suddenly a moment later someone who you never knew before contacts you from half way round the world with news of a big contract, of monetary gain, or other success for you. We can learn to make such responses from life occur all of the time, enabling vast accomplishment, success, and happiness in life.]

Life Response is the phenomenon that points to unified theory which will determine his actions and that is what Stephen Hawking is looking for.

Hawkins sees the uselessness of a partial theory.

He needs a unified theory and says it should determine the actions of the observer, i.e. Matter that is observed by consciousness should include consciousness. Hawkins 'concedes' the possibility of consciousness.

Life Response includes both and each determines others' actions. From a level higher than Matter and Mind, one must be able to control both. Our experiences confirm. (MSS, extracted, paraphrased)

Thoughts on a New Theory of Creation and Makeup of the Universe - Introduction (this is our unified theory)

String Theory
(topic)

String Theory and Source Energy
String theory* still posits a smallest possible unit of matter, a common unit from which all derive. Sri Aurobindo tells us that this perception of the infinitesimal part is only a product of mind's tendency to divide. The Being is not divided, even the physical being. Suppose the strings they are positing are not units of matter at all, but vibrations of a single unified field of energy that expresses like waves on the surface of the ocean. The wave has no independent reality separate from the ocean. It is only a movement of energy. The unified energy of oneness vibrates and those manifestations of vibration are perceived as strings. (MSS)

String Theory is a Mathematical Theory
[String theory posits that at the ultimate quantum level there are vibrating strings of energy that create all larger particles and thus all forms of matter in the universe. The matter that is created just depends on the way the strings vibrate. It has been suggested that this theory resolves the division between the theory of the large, essential Einstein's general theory of gravitation, and the small, the three forces inside the atom. Of course, this is only the view of the surface physical reality. A true Theory of Everything would embrace all aspects of existence, including the non-material, the vital, the spiritual, the process of creation, etc.]

String Theory is a mathematical theory rather than one which claims to accurately depict a physical phenomenon. In other words, the mathematicians have tested formulas to find some way to reconcile the mathematics of quantum theory with that of relativity theory and found that it can be done by reducing the smallest unit to infinitesimal proportions. It is not so much a description of what they conceive as a physical reality as it is a mathematical formula that seems to work.

The Greek conception of the universe was a round stationary earth with planets moving around it, each encased in a celestial sphere to maintain its perfectly circular orbit. This conception was quite useful in predicting the motion of planets and length of seasons, up to a point. Over 10 centuries we lost about 10 days and so the calendar was no longer an accurate guide to farmers for when to plant their crops. But the point is that within limits the model was mathematically accurate. It hardly matters that the basic concept was totally wrong. When Kepler realized that the orbits were elliptical instead of perfect circles, the necessary correction was introduced. I suppose it could have been without abandoning the geocentric model and would still have been accurate, but by that time Copernicus and Galileo had produced enough evidence to abandon the old concept. All this only goes to say that a mathematical formula that predicts better than earlier formulas does not necessarily prove validity. Still mathematics is a very powerful tool of knowledge. In the note on Sri Aurobindo and Hyperspace I point out that both Quantum theory and Relativity theory can make accurate predictions, though they are based on conflicting views of reality. In that sense they are only models or symbols for reality, as money is only a symbol for productive, social and psychological capacities of society. (MSS)

String Theory's Truth
I am not sure whether String Theory is a closer approach to truth or just a further step in the abandonment of the material hypothesis which still underlies all theories in physics. (MSS)

Non-Local Connections & String Theory
Discussion, information, etc. about the relationship between the scientifically proven phenomenon of non-local connections and its application in string theory might shed light on the latter. Since non-local connections indicates a fundamental oneness of life, if seen in string theory, it can reveal the true nature of the true energies that are at the core of such strings.

The Quantum Activist: Merging Science and Consciousness in Quantum Physics

The Quantum Activist is a highly polished documentary film from 2010 about scientist and quantum physicist Dr. Amit Goswami, PhD, and his views about spiritual consciousness as the ground of all scientific knowledge. He is deeply influenced by Sri Aurobindo, Krishnamurti, and Ramana Maharshi, amongst others. Here is an outline of a number of the significant points in the film:

In quantum physics objects are not determined things. Objects are possibilities. Possibilities of what? Possibilities of consciousness to choose from. [This indicates the startling phenomenon that science is beginning to accept that Reality is determined by the consciousness of the viewer and what that viewer chooses.]

There is scientific evidence for the existence of God.

Science says everything is a product of matter, of atoms and molecules. That even consciousness is a product of these.

He instead believes that everything is a product of Consciousness, including matter. [I.e. it�s the other way around.]

The feeling of the continuity with the whole is Blissful.

It is to have non-divided consciousness; aka non-dualism.

The Material view is that Consciousness is a brain phenomenon. It is in error.

Consciousness is the ground of all being.

Consciousness can choose, and thereby creates reality. [Key!]

Consciousness chooses out of quantum possibilities.

Material objects are even the choosing of possibilities. (?)

Choosing in ego (wants, desires, needs), however, is limited in choice. Consciousness choosing in ego does not bring possibilities. [In other words, lower or unconsciousness limits possibilities in the universe.]

Conscious choice is therefore beyond ego, and brings possibilities. [This is a principle of Sri Aurobindo and Karmayogi for sure.]

The Cosmic Consciousness is who we really are.

The Cosmic Consciousness is the non-local consciousness. [Non-local means that a change here will have instantaneous effect on related forces, forms anywhere in the universe. Thus, we can attract things from anywhere through our higher consciousness.]

In Cosmic Consciousness there is non-dualism. [We perceive that the outer universe and the inner me is but one continuous stream of existence. Thus, if I change the Inner, the outer instantly responds.]

Don�t choose in the individuality when in Ego, but in a wider universal consciousness. Then life gives benefit to all. [Ego is in locality; not ego moves us to the power of non-locality to attract instantaneously benefit to ourselves.]

Choice creates benefit for all. Quantum physics is pointing in these directions.

Of course, there is still individual choice, but do it without ego.

Brains can communicate non-locally. (It is non-local consciousness.) [Brains meaning Minds.]

You can call it God.

It is objective.

Consciousness is mental, vital, physical, and supramental.

Moving to Being, instead of doing, puts one in the higher consciousness. [From the inner, true self we are in the state of Being, which is a movement up in consciousness, enabling us to attract positive things from the universe; often instantaneously. Also, if we open to the spiritual Force that has now descended into the earth's atmosphere, we garner the supramental power of creation; that solves all problems, sets right all conditions, etc. It is the power of the Divine Mother.]

Doing is best when it is grounded in Being.

Consciousness chooses out of possibilities, and creates its own events. [Very powerful summation!]

It is not the choice of ego however.

The intention must be of universal consciousness. Then the choice creates the event. [!]

When we are creating new possibilities, we are in God consciousness.

We want to function as Be-Do-Be-Do-Be-Do, etc. Like a song �DOBEDOBEDO� (lol)

Consciousness is the ground of all being, and all possibilities are enabled there; exist simultaneously there. [yes, simultaneously -- which is a wonder; for us and the frontiers of science.]

Positive emotions, love, etc. enable the greater consciousness.

Where there is Supramental in the physical, then Heaven will manifest on earth.

Consciousness is prior to everything. It is without an object and a subject.

There is nothing, but God.

Consciousness is God.

We are interconnected with one another.

The materialist world view has turned us away from consciousness, creating most if the problems of the world.

We too have a materialist view, and so we have to change this first to change the world.

We cannot solve all of our problems through rationality.

We need to be self-giving because we are interconnected. Here is the key. Also have positive emotions.

In this way, humanity will change.

Separateness creates suffering.

He is an activist in all these regard.

Join the revolution in science.

http://www.quantumactivist.com/

Additional Statements from Dr. Goswami (not from film):

Non-Locality -- We are all interconnected - even without signals, and experimental evidence is proving our inherent unity.

Tangled Hierarchy -- In our brain, we become one with the neuronal images of an external object because of a tangled-hierarchy, a circularity. The observer is the observed.

Discontinuity -- The discovery of something new of value in thought is a quantum leap of Aha! insight.

Additional Information: Specifics of New Theory of Creation, String Theory

Other
(topic)

Atomic Fission and the Infinite
The energy released by the atomic fission is a symbolic demonstration of the release of the Infinite from the confinement of the finite.

Self-Absorption of Consciousness in Matter
-Consciousness exists in Matter, but it is self-absorbed there, and thus not-detectable in the surface.

-In material forms, the consciousness is imperceptible and the force expresses as inconscient energy moving in fixed patterns that are also imperceptible to our senses.

-Matter is a fully involved, inconscient status in which the Consciousness-Force takes on the appearance of inconscient and inanimate energy-substance.

-Sri Aurobindo's conception of involution explains the process by which pure consciousness through its capacities for self-limitation and self-absorption can take on the form and appearance of inconscient material substance-force. (MSS)

Perceiving Consciousness and Energy Among P,V,M Levels
As we go down the ladder from mentality to vitality to physicality, consciousness becomes more involved and concealed, while energy becomes more evolved and manifest; but since the consciousness associated with that energy is involved and acting behind the scenes, the more manifest the energy, the less conscious it appears. (MSS)

Dominant Characteristic of Matter, Life, and Mind
While the dominant characteristic of matter is form and the dominant characteristic of life is energy, the dominant characteristic of mind is knowledge. (MSS)

Additional important related thoughts that will lend themselves to making whole the partial understanding of current scientific theory:

Theory of Creation (Involution and Evolution); including origins and Nature of Energy, Life, Matter, Mind, Space, Time, One and the Many, Finite and Infinite, etc.

The Course of Human Evolution -- In this article there is discussion of the profound method that enabled our current evolutionary status, our current human makeup, including the 9-12 planes we are made up of, i.e. and our evolutionary possibilities.

Life Response, Inner-Outer Correspondence, and Non-Local Connections
(top)

Non-local Connection of Science vs. Life Response
Science has identified non-locality (i.e. how one atom can affect another across infinite distance) at the material level, but not at the vital, mental, and spiritual levels -- i.e. in life. That changes also in our thoughts, feeling, and emotions can alter conditions in the universe instantly at any distance. Such multi-plane alignment across space-time is underpinned by the principle of inner-outer correspondence, which indicates that the outer and the inner are one, single contiguous reality. Therefore, if we change the inner condition (thought, feeling, emotion, etc.), the outer reality instantly responds in kind no matter what the distance, aligning and bringing us sudden good fortune. It is the phenomenon of "life response" in action.

Method of Life Response
In life response what might have taken considerable time occurs rapidly, as events, people, and place ''conspire" to overcome normally perceived limitations and constraints, enabling unexpected circumstances to arise that render new, creative possibilities, overcoming the slow, meandering workings and unfoldings of Nature.

Underlying Nature of "Life Response"
We find also that our perception of discrete separateness between living things gives way before a complex web of interactions and interdependencies with the wider field of Life and with other points of action, resulting in correspondences and consequences that defy a materialist understanding of contact and causality, phenomena we can categorized by the expression 'life response'. As in the case of matter, we discover non-linear patterns of correlation and correspondence which point to a deeper plane of causality.

Inner-Outer Correspondence
Life on the outside reflects what is inside ourselves. What is positive or negative outside us reflects what is positive or negative inside us. Thus if inside ourselves we change a negative to a positive, the corresponding thing outside ourselves also changes.

Non Local Connections of Physics
Non local connections of physics speak about the mysterious relations existing between two apparently unconnected things. It is a point of understanding an aspect where Spirit and Life meet. (MSS)

Beyond Science Fiction to the Truths of Higher Consciousness
Spurred on by America's scientific and technological obsessions, the world experiences films, TV, and novels that include fantastic twists and turns that defy normal views of reality. This artistic media form is collectively known as ''science fiction." It expresses as experiences of time travel, multi-dimensions, parallel universes, and other startling shifts and unfoldings that entice the viewer. Though loosely based on true principles of physics and actual mathematical calculations about the workings of the universe, most of what is presented is wholly without fact, as virtually no one has such experiences in real life.

And yet, we can experience such dramatic shifts in space-time and inter-dimensionality, but not in the way we normally think of it. There is a power that we can access that can overcome barriers of space, time, causality, and reality. It is the power of higher consciousness, and includes our ability to access the Spirit.

For example, before engaging in an act, an individual quiets his mind and opens to the spiritual Force. As a result, a four-year problem that had been dogging him suddenly disappears. Another individual opens to that Higher Power, and as a result, three new projects suddenly spring into action, when just before they were moribund and not expected to begin for years. In this way, limits of time and space are overcome, as the future moves into the present, and what was not there before in space is suddenly created. The fact is that many have had such experiences; as opposed to what science fiction portrays.

We can also experience sudden good fortune through other shifts in consciousness. For example, one man decides to overcome his hostile feelings towards another, and out of nowhere is suddenly promoted to the job of his dreams -- something he was unable to accomplish in a decade of trying. By shifting from his lower nature to a higher one, he has transcended the local domain of finite possibility and opened to the universal plane where our infinite potential is realized. It is in essence the experience of a ''life response," -- i.e. the onset of sudden good fortune, where normal views of space, time, causality, and reality are overcome. It is an experience that each of us can have as often as we want, when we want. This is no science fiction captured in celluloid or paper, but a living truth known and realized by many.

Interestingly science has begun to track this phenomenon at the material/physical level, which it calls ''non-local connection." Principles of physics now tell us that two electrons of the same atom can change each other's spin even if they are tens of thousands or even billions of miles apart. This extraordinary association at the subtle material level is but a frontal understanding of something much deeper: that it can occur at the vital, emotional, mental, and spiritual planes as well. That every moment our thoughts, feelings, attitudes, and beliefs move out across the field of life, and align with and attract related condition from the world around us.

Space is extension. Time is movement in extension. When we open to the Force or otherwise raise our consciousness, we overcome extension and its movement. We bring timelessness into time, and spacelessness into space. In that way, we serve as a bridge between the Infinite consciousness and life in the cosmos. We become not only joyful experiencers of the miraculous; not only space-time navigators in the cosmos; but pioneers of the next stage of human evolution.

Various Definitions of Life Response

"Life Response" is the way life suddenly, abundantly, and miraculously responds positively on the outside to a corresponding change of your consciousness inside, apparently defying notions of cause and effect, and space and time. E.g. you change an attitude and suddenly a moment later someone who you never knew before contacts you from half way round the world with news of a big contract, of monetary gain, or other success for you. We can learn to make such responses from life occur all of the time, enabling vast accomplishment, success, and happiness in life.

Life response is how life responds in kind on the outside to one's own consciousness expressed in our behavior and actions. Life response can occur instantaneously, and from anywhere and anything around the world and across the universe. It can respond positively or negatively; reflecting the individual's positive or negative inner consciousness, behaviors, and outer actions. It can bring sudden responses of abundance, wealth, power, and joy to the initiator of the response. Through this power we can becomes the masters of life.

Life response is the term applied to the action and initiative of life that occurs in response to the thoughts, feelings and actions of individuals that are not readily explained by external cause and effect. It often takes the form of what appear as accidental, coincidental, 'chance' meetings and occurrences that are not consciously planned or initiated by any person to support the purpose they ultimately serve.

In life response what might have taken considerable time occurs rapidly, as events, people, and place ''conspire" to overcome normally perceived limitations and constraints, enabling unexpected circumstances to arise that render new, creative possibilities, overcoming the slow, meandering workings and unfoldings of Nature.

The knowledge of bringing life under one's control; i.e. making it respond as we wish is the meaning of the term "Life Response."

By Life Response we mean life is a plane of equilibrium of forces, and when one force moves, it creates corresponding movements in connected places.

Life is a field of all life responses. Without life response there is no life.

"Coincidences" are not so; they are determined. (I.e. they are really life response, which are always determined.)

Beyond Science Fiction to the Truth of Higher Consciousness

Spurred on by America's scientific and technological orientation, the world experiences films, TV, and novels that include fantastic twists and turns that defy normal views of reality. This artistic media form is collectively known as ''science fiction." It expresses through circumstance involving time travel, multi-dimensions, parallel universes, and other fantastic shifts that entrance the viewer. Though loosely based on true principles of physics and factual mathematical calculations about the workings of the universe, most of what is presented is wholly without fact, as no one has such experiences in the real world.

And yet, we can experience such dramatic shifts in space-time and inter-dimensionality, but not in the way we normally think of it. There is a power that we can access that can overcome barriers of space, time, causality, and reality. It is the power of the Spirit. And unlike science fiction, it is a living reality that we can harness to overcome all perceived limits in the universe.

For example, before engaging in an act an individual can quiet his mind and then open to the spiritual Force. As a result, a four-year problem that has been dogging him suddenly disappears. Another individual open to that Higher Power, and as a result three new projects suddenly move into action, when they were previously moribund and not expected to begin for years, if ever. In this way, limits of time and space are overcome, as the future moves into the present, and what was not there before in space is suddenly created.

This same phenomenon occurs when shift our consciousness to the positive in other ways. For example, one man decides to overcome his hostile feelings towards another, and out of nowhere is suddenly promoted to the job of his dreams; something he had failed to even approach after a decade of trying. By shifting from his lower nature to a higher one, he has transcended the local domain of finite possibility to the universal plane where our infinite potential is realized. It is in essence the experience of ''life response," -- i.e. sudden good fortune -- where our normal view of space, time, causality, and reality are overcome. It is an experience that each of us can have as often as we want, when we want. This is no science fiction on celluloid or paper, but a living truth right before our eyes.

Interestingly science is slowly beginning to perceive this phenomenon at the material/physical level, which it calls ''non-local connection." Principles of physics now tell us that two electrons of the same atom can change each other's spin even if they are tens of thousands or even billions of miles apart. These non-local connections at the subtle physical level are but a frontal understanding of something much more profound, for this causal relationship also occurs at the vital, emotional, mental, and spiritual planes as well. I.e. unexpressed thoughts and feelings can align with and attract anything across the universe in a flash. This is a living truth that science, technology, and their art forms completely miss.

Space is extension. Time is movement in extension. When we open to the Force or otherwise raise our consciousness, we overcome extension and its movement. We bring timelessness into time, and spacelessness into space. In that way, we serve as a bridge between the Infinite consciousness and life in the cosmos. We become not only space-time navigators, but pioneers of the next stage of human evolution.

Non-Local Connections
Recent developments in quantum physics have shown that two particles of matter can affect one another even though they may be on opposite sides of the globe. Scientists have conclusively proven that if an electron of a single atom shifts its spin direction, a second electron of that same atom hundreds or thousands of miles away will suddenly begin to shift its spin! This phenomenon of ''non-local connections" is a physical version of the wider principle of inner-outer correspondence, which accounts not only for this subtle, mind-bending nonlocal association of material objects, but of the power of our emotions, feelings, attitudes, and decisions to effect objects and individuals at a great distance. In this way, we replace our old view of causality with a new view in which distance is overcome, time is reduced to instantaneousness, and the infinite realities of life rush in to replace what once seemed a limited and finite reality.

Life Response Showing Non-Local Connections at the Vital Plane
The vibration of an impulse such as joy, anger, lust or impatience itself constitutes an action that can generate consequences irrespective of whether or not the impulse is expressed in physical action. Although not yet recognized or subject to systematic study by scientists, vital forms possess the same capacity for nonlocal connections, acting and generating consequences instantaneously over long distances. This is the phenomenon referred to earlier as ''life response." A decision formulated in the mind or an emotion intensely felt can result in instantaneous response from the environment, without the intervention of any known physical mechanism. An impulse of fear can attract the object of fear. A nervous vibration of impatience or expectation can delay the arrival or completion of that which is impatiently expected. A silent act of determined will can bring about the result willed for without the intermediacy of a physical act. The systematic study of these phenomena will revolutionize our understanding of ourselves and the world and tremendously enhance our capacity to solve the problems that plague humanity. (MSS)

Ultimate Theory of Relativity of Space and Time
Our experience of space and time are determined by the consciousness we bring to bear in a situation. When we reverse our consciousness upward, life, in the form of good fortune, begins to move suddenly and abundantly towards us, causing the normally perceived limits of space and time to be overcome. Relativity theory of science only measures relative experience of space and time at the physical plane, missing our power over space and time through movements of the inner, subtle planes. When science understands this, it will understand an Ultimate Theory of Relativity.

New Approach to Science from Fritjof Capra
Fritjof Capra is a professor of physics who has written extensively on the new approach called for in science. Prof. Capra thinks of science not from the traditional or classical viewpoint. His effort has been to integrate Eastern mysticism with Western science. He says he wishes to broaden the base of science and for that purpose he looks to Tao, Buddha, and Vedanta for inspiration. E.g. he has pointed out about the mysterious relations existing between two apparently unconnected things, which is the non local connections spoken of in physics.

Non-Local Connections & String Theory
Discussion, information, etc. about the relationship between the scientifically proven phenomenon of non-local connections and its application in string theory might shed light on the latter. Since non-local connections indicates a fundamental oneness of life, if seen in string theory, it can reveal the true nature of the true energies that are at the core of such strings.

Additional Thoughts on the Phenomenon of Life Response

Additional Thoughts on the Principle of Inner-Outer Correspondence

Thoughts on Appealing to the Consciousness of Material Objects

Other Scientific Theory Related
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Atomic Fission and the Infinite
The energy released by the atomic fission is a symbolic demonstration of the release of the Infinite from the confinement of the finite.

Untitled
Evolution results from a rhythm and process of the contact between forms of substance, which awakens and releases the latent consciousness-force inherent in each form so that it can more fully express on the surface. (MSS)

How the Physical, the Vital, and the Mental Know
The physical knows through reception of sense data, sensations, that arise from within the body, are generated by our thought processes, or impinge on us from outside. The vital knows through direct, subconscious perception of vital energies that arise from the body or the mind or impinge on us from outside, such as the subtle sensibility that people may refer to as a hunch or gut feeling. So too, the mind knows through formulation of thoughts, reception of thoughts arising from the subconscious physical and vital, descending from higher levels, or impinging on us from outside.

The physical and vital 'know' things directly as a recognized contact with vibratory energy, without need for the intermediacy of thought. But for mental knowledge, the vibratory impact needs normally to be translated into thought forms intelligible to the mental understanding. (MSS)

On Science, Spirit, Aliens, Subtle Beings, Etc

[Here is an interaction I had with a fellow follower of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother on various topics related to science and supraphysical realms.]

Q: I have always been interested in Space Science, Universe, and its creation. Recently I visited the NASA Space Center. Man has achieved a lot by sending people to space. The idea to leave the earth and stay there, with no earth's comfort itself is very scary but Mankind has been able to done it. NASA is now in the process of constructing a space station so that they can explore the space more, conduct experiments. Hubble, a giant telescope is orbiting in the space. The pictures taken by Hubble are really wonderful. Pictures of other galaxies, millions of light years away are taken by Hubble. Scientists thru these are trying to understand how the earth came in existence, how the solar system came into existence. There have been so many pictures from Hubble which shows, the development of stars at various stages. Scientists believe that our solar system also went thru those processes to become what it is now. They are trying to uncover the secrets of creation thru science. The same secret revealed by Sri Aurobindo, about the purpose & point of creation of the universe, thru Yoga. Will science be able to get there? After all, it might not be possible for science to uncover the secrets of the universe without spiritual involvement, is that right? Somewhere science has to give up & spirituality has to
take over, is that right?

A: What the scientists and the spiritual seekers have been seeking are in one sense the same: the answer to life�s mysteries; creation, life, death, etc. Science is obsessed with the material view, but their discoveries are consistently non-material in recent years � dark matter, dark energy, string theory, non-locality, multiverses, no beginning and end to the universe, etc. The traditional spirit-oriented of rishis and others are of course coming from the opposite direction, and yet through the evolutionary movement are required to embrace the material world, as it can give a greater richness, and variety to their spiritual pursuits. E.g. divinizing our life actions, meetings, physical acts, etc. enable the miraculousness of the divine Power to work through material or near material forms. Ultimately science and Spirit are meeting at a common point, and in one sense their aspirations are the same � from Truth to Immortality.

Q: How were the ancient people able to excel in the fields of astrology, astronomy & all that? Have they travelled to space before? Did they travel thru mind and not physically? The Vedas contained knowledge about our Solar System? Were the Vedas given to humans by Gods? I know Mother conducted experiments on her own body to leave the body & not physically travel to other non-human worlds, be in contact with non-humans, when she was the disciple of Theon. When the Mother conducted these experiments, she came across a place, where there was a Sanskrit sloka (mantra of Life), which she refused to give to Theon. Was that place outside of the earth? Had Gods put that mantra in that world?

A: In The Life Divine and in Savitri (especially the section �The Book of the Traveler of the Worlds�) Sri Aurobindo describes the nature and experience of the subtle planes of existence. He explains it in Savitri poetically, which also touches on the facts of these planes. I would advise you read it over. You can find my summary of that section here, but reading those pages of poetry directly will be even better. Mother of course throughout the Agenda describes all of the subtle planes of life. She did not seem to dwell much on the purely physical nature of the outer universe, though she consistently describes the subtle physical planes, such as where Sri Aurobindo (and now Mother also) reside. E.g. the subtle physical plane is beyond space and time, so the rules of the purely material plane have little application. Science is completely unaware of these, at least until recently with Dark Energy at al.

Our ability to perceive truth and reality is gradually shifting. We are human animals, and our first observations of the world are purely physical. Then we develop mentality giving us reason to perceive possibilities, be it limited. Then for a few spiritual voyagers there is the experience of spiritual mind (light, vision, intuition, supramental perception). Only as we rise to these higher planes of Mentality can we truly know the True nature of existence (of the Reality, Brahman), even physical existence, as there intuitional and supramental knowledge vibrations enter our mind and describe the outer and inner nature of the universe and Being to us.

The Life Divine and Savitri are in large part written from those higher dimensions of spiritualized mind. It is to intuitive directly the Truths of existence.

Remember as you move into the other realms of existence, time and space are very different from that which we experience in the physical universe, i.e. from the physical perspective of life. They tend to evaporate; or the normal view of causality is altered in the extreme. Actually that is its normal state!

Even from a material perspective of consciousness that we normally associate with, we can come to know timelessness and spacelessness in the time and space we dwell in. E.g. life response is there all of the time; all around us. It is easy to see once we know what it is.

Of course, opening to the spiritual dimension, will make this far more obvious. E.g., when we discover our evolving soul within, our mind expands into the spiritual dimensions, where we experience life in instantaneousness and timelessness. Opening to the Divine Mother�s Force is the easiest and most accessible way to enable such instantaneous miraculousness.

Q: My visit to NASA fuelled a lot more of questions, that were previously in my mind. Explored space till now, gives us an idea that we are definitely not alone in the universe. Looking at the vastness of the space & universe, just gives a feeling that there is no way earth could be the only planet & ours could be the only Solar system, which has life & beings. There should definitely be Aliens. Is this true? Mother had come into contact with non-human aliens, thus approving of their existence. Are Other Gods (Not Bhagawan & Mother but others) Aliens? There are some theories about ancient Gods being Aliens with advanced technology. Is that true?

A: I cannot say if there are living human-like beings or similar on other worlds, but Mother has definitely experienced many other �life forms� at the subtle physical plane. (She describes countless episodes into these realms throughout the 13-volume Agenda, as Sri Aurobindo explained them in the �Traveler of the Worlds� section, as I mentioned above, which Mother says was like her own experiences.) Not only are the Gods there, but many other beings, forces, and formations. One does not have to go out into the physical universe to discover this, just go within and over time develop a conscious inner life. Thus, our deepest goal is not outer space exploration, but journeying and understanding the truths of Inner Space.

Q: Are some aliens much more advanced than us in technology & sciences? Since they might have had
more powers than humans, did we interpret some aliens as Gods? Did they come from a different planet, a different solar system? What do the other galaxies, solar systems mean? As & when we proceed further in Purna Yoga to reach the absolute, thru various minds to reach supramental mind, do we travel to more advanced solar systems in the galaxies in the universe? so that we can't reach these other worlds physically but only spiritually.

A: In the descent or involution as Sri Aurobindo calls it from the Conscious-Force, planes emerged, first Supermind (Truth/Unity Consciousness), and then Overmind. In Overmind, which is somewhat lesser plane than Supermind, each individual thing, force blossoms, is known in full, but has somewhat lost connection with all OTHER beings, forces, truths, etc. In Supermind one knows the Whole of anything, and there is a maintaining a connection and unity with all other things. It is in the overmental plane that the Gods and other supraphysical forces emerged. E.g. each God has a profound individual power, but has lost the link to all other powers that all the other Gods possess. There are vast powers of light and darkness at the subtle, invisible, overmental plane.

There are other beings for sure at these other planes. There is a vast, astonishing array of forces and beings in these subtle planes; plus they have an influence on us.

Mother, as explained in The Agenda, met with these beings of the subtle physical and extra-material dimensions consistently, though I don�t believe she discussed much about physical aliens on other planets. She also interacted with future being, including supramental manifestations and extensions of Man; having visions of them that were startling beyond belief.

Whether beings exist at the physical plane remains a question. I don�t see why not.

Q: Liberating the soul, to reach Moksha [spiritual liberation], which the ancient rishis, longed for, to get free from re-births. Where is this Moksha? Is it another world in another galaxy? Do aliens or Gods control this so called heaven in another world? When Swami Vivekananda, Lord Buddha, even Sri Aurobindo was offered Moksha, they didn't take it? What does that mean? Did they refused to go & settle in that world? They wanted to explore the universe further, thru yoga, to reach the supramental world?

A: All liberations is in consciousness, not space and time. In fact, Moksha is liberation beyond space and time. Sri Aurobindo asks us to have the timeless and spaceless experience in time. Life response incidents, i.e. spontaneous instances of sudden good fortune precipitated by our higher consciousness, is one example of that.

Q: Is supramental mind, in a different planet, in a different solar system? No it is everywhere; between Satchitananda and the universe of Matter, Life, and Mind. I read that Sri Aurobindo had to leave his body to bring that force to earth's atmosphere. Does that mean, it�s in a different place in the universe? A: He exists in the invisible, subtle physical plane, which is any and everywhere, that also has a tendency to manifest. Mother said He might return in a supramentalized body from the subtle physical. Q: Mother & Sri Aurobindo are still there in that supramental world? A: Yes, though they wish to enable a supramentalized physical, vital, and mental existence in the universe, which we can partake in by surrendering to Her Power and transmuting our nature at every level. Q: Was the whole universe (including other galaxies, other solar systems, other planets) created as part of God's Lila, as explained by Sri Aurobindo? A: It is an expression of the Unmanifest Being and its powers into forms of Its Force. Q: Or is it just our Solar System? If it�s the whole universe, what about other beings on other galaxies? A: We will find out in the Divine�s time, not ours if such beings exist. I.e. when we are ready. The movie Contact is an interesting example, in that a Force comes back to earth compelling it to find It. But even there it brings up all of the falsehood, from the religious fanatic to the scientists� unbelief in the spirit behind things, focusing only on the material (which even the heroine Eli expressed there). Q: Do they all have to go thru Purna Yoga to reach the absolute? A: First we have to determine if they exist, and what their nature is. Mother helped several of the Gods of the subtle plane surrender to her Power. They DO exist and are practicing a kind of yoga in the sense there are moving from the Part (i.e. their own specialty) to the Whole (i.e. embracing the truths of the other Gods, force.) It is the difference between overmental and Supramental existence; the latter of which Mother was pushing several of the Gods towards. So in a sense she was helping them do Purna (Integral) Yoga! Q: How do aliens relate to the Supramental world & mind? A: I have just explained that in terms of �Inner� Aliens. It is yet to be determined what Outer Aliens are, let alone how they relate to the cosmic planes. A side question is this: Could a physical alien be an embodiment of a subtle physical being of the Overmental World? I don�t know. Q: Sri Aurobindo & the Mother, even talks about what�s beyond Supramental beings, Sathya Pursusha, Manonmaya Purusha? (don�t remember the words & things they have told exactly but heard about it). What do they mean? A: Imagine a race of beings as different from us now, as we are from the ape. That is the supramentalized being. She says they will have none of the biological systems we have now, breathing, circulation, absorption, etc, as they will be pockets of consciousness instead. He said it will take 30,000 years. She hoped it would be done in 300. Since the Conscious Being and Force are previous to the plane of Supermind in the descent, then in the ascent, the evolution, there are planes beyond even Supermind, which we have the potential to evolve and return to again as the Conscious Beings with Force; that is to become a race of that.

Q: There was a thread I read in Karmayogi.net, "Where is the Mother?," Roy Posner posted some interesting things about where our Mother could be, about supramental substance, about she moving into supramental body after her leaving of the human body. Of course, as posted in that thread, HER presence could always be felt. She answers our calls instantly & constantly. She is more powerful & fast than before, when she was in a human body. Is it coz of the supramental substance or body, she is in now? A: It is because of the inertia/limitations of her physical being; the wanting atmosphere around her; the general nescience of existence in the universe, etc. etc. Is it in the subtle plane, which we can't see but only feel? A: Yes. We can also come to intuitivize it; even make it material, as Mother tried to do in the cells of her body and the world around her.

Ironies for Religion and Science
What an irony for the religionists; that if we tap into spirit to become far more materially abundant, successful, as well as joyful! What an irony for the scientists that we can know the deepest meanings of the ways of life, the True Physics of the universe, if we spend a little less time with our telescopes, microscopes, and a little more time with the Spirit that is deep within us, that is involved in matter; which if discovered and utilized, will enable us to have material instruments and technologies that are a thousand times better than the ones we have; but will also enable a level of harmony and accord in the world that we can only dream of; enabling us to solve all of the problems of hunger and poverty and misery and want and suffering and pain and death and war and destruction; that will also enable us to resolve the inner psychological pain and need within; that will give us insights into new possibilities of resolution of problems in the world, in our communities, in our companies, in our families, and in our own individual lives.

Linking Systems, Disciplines as Higher Organization
Just as linking any two systems in a business (e.g. sales and r&d) can dramatically improve it, so to a great scientific breakthrough can more readily come about by the coming together of two very different disciplines (e.g. genetics with computer science, biology with chemistry, biology with oceanography (e.g. to create hydrogen fuel), even biology with psychologist, and many others). This same idea holds true for any two work disciplines. In essence, linking two systems is a particularly powerful way to create greater, more dense organization; which means faster, greater, richer development and evolution.

Infinity of God in Mathematics
The mathematics teacher asked his students "What is zero divided by zero?'' Srinivasa Ramanujam was in that class. He rose and answered "Infinity''. To him zero is God and Infinity is Manifestation, the world. Bhaskaracharya proved that 0/0 is infinity. The concept of Infinity takes the subject mathematics to spirituality. (MSS, abridged)

Miscellaneous
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Mathematics

Spiritual Plane of Origin of Mathematics
Mathematics originates in a plane below supermind as a representation of Real Ideas in mental terms. It is a very powerful instrument of pure ideas. (MSS) [See Supermind, Real Ideas]

On Mathematics
-Mathematics is the very first codification of the mental formulation of consciousness. Physics and mathematics represent two branches of knowledge and naturally get intertwined at their origin.

-Mathematics can represent any fact of life or truth of philosophy. It represents the Absolute by Infinity.

-Mathematics is the language of the Gods. (MSS)

Math as Theoretical
Math enables theoretical discovery, like philosophy. (MSS)

Math and God's Measurement
Math is God's perfectly accurate measurement of space, time, force, energy, connection, etc in the universe.

Plane of Conceptual Mind and Mathematics
Mathematics expresses in works through the plane of pure, conceptual mind.

Mental, Vital, and Physical Thinking
Mathematics is thinking entirely centred in the MIND -- mental thinking. Philosophy is such. Poetry is the mind thinking in the vital (No. 2). Reclamation of land, mining, insight into prospecting are pure examples of thinking with the body. (MSS)

String Theory is a Mathematical Theory
String Theory is a mathematical theory rather than one which claims to accurately depict a physical phenomenon. In other words, the mathematicians have tested formulas to find some way to reconcile the mathematics of quantum theory with that of relativity theory and found that it can be done by reducing the smallest unit to infinitesimal proportions. It is not so much a description of what they conceive as a physical reality as it is a mathematical formula that seems to work.

Conceptual Mind on the Vertical Scale of Consciousness (i.e. level No. 1)

Spiritual Truths in Mathematical Formula
The idea of expressing spiritual truths as mathematical formula is a great theme to pursue.

Turning Life, "Life Response," and Spirit into Mathematical Formulas

Mathematics is the Queen of Sciences.

There is no object in life that cannot be described mathematically.

The path of a stone thrown into the sky -- projectile -- follows a formula of mathematics.

Astrology has reduced all events of Life into formulas that can be defined in mathematics.

Computer follows the rules of grammar because they are represented mathematically.

Zero is a wonderful conception of mathematics when it captures the secrets of creation.

Einstein discovered the mathematical equation of Energy that is matter, which enabled science to predict the movement of objects.

Sri Aurobindo speaks of a mathematical formula of creation -- one in terms of yoga -- and says it is intelligible only to Him.

By applying Sri Aurobindo to all other sciences as well as life, that field can be reduced to a formula.

Life Response represents that idea about the movements of life.

Sri Aurobindo mentions the route of life from the finite to the Infinite in various ways of which mathematical architecture is one.

Life events lend themselves to prediction because they are movements according to measurable rules.

In a planned work in a factory or administration one can predict what will occur at a given future date or time.

Production is a controlled activity confined in Time and Space. Life is in widening Space and in limitless Time.

Mathematical knowledge brings the limitless into limit.

Invoking the Spirit raises one's power to act.

Knowledge has a clarity which power does not have.

Moving from will to knowledge, one lands in mathematics.

That mathematics in the field of life is Life Response.

We know all the rules of Life Response.

Would they all abridge themselves into a Formula? (MSS)

Intuition & Mathematics
Intuition is a vast field, as vast as the universe and comprises of all the subjects of the world. It reveals to any faculty in us that is well-developed, to Ramanujam in mathematics, to Beethoven in music, etc. while it is comprehensive. (MSS)

Infinity of God in Mathematics
The mathematics teacher asked his students "What is zero divided by zero?'' Srinivasa Ramanujam was in that class. He rose and answered "Infinity''. To him zero is God and Infinity is Manifestation, the world. Bhaskaracharya proved that 0/0 is infinity. The concept of Infinity takes the subject mathematics to spirituality. (MSS, abridged)

Perceiving the Practical Concept of Infinity
There are those who conceive of Infinity fairly well from their background of mathematics. They can extend their mathematical conception by imagination to life and see Infinity as a practical concept. Should that succeed, they will enter the thought of [Sri Aurobindo's] The Life Divine. It is man's seeing endless scope all around for JOY, Peace, Wealth and Success. For such a man, the book will unfold its Supramental wealth. (MSS, extracted)

Practical Concept of Infinity
In the very beginning of creation, there was Infinity and Eternity, says the scriptures. God is described as an infinite Being living eternally. Mathematics says that the Infinite does not increase or decrease. The Infinite multiplied by any number, say ten, remains Infinite. Even when the Infinite is divided by ten, it remains Infinite. It is an important concept in mathematics.

Spiritually too, the Infinite is equally important. Infinite minus Infinite equals Infinite is the dictum of the Upanishads. The Gita puts it as, "It moves not, but it is always ahead of you.'' Again, the Gita says, "It is indivisible. It is there in the divisible things undivided.'' Sri Aurobindo ascribes to Infinity, the concept of it, the most significant value in life.

I call it the Practical Concept of Infinity. It means Infinity that is so important to spirituality and mathematics is ever-present in life. In other words, one who realises this truth in life will have the power to multiply things in life infinitely.

Should he realise the truth of the Infinite in life, everything an individual does will multiply.

In the life of spiritual aspirants, it expresses as: 1) abridgement of Time, 2) raising the level of one's work, and 3) making the end result available at the beginning. (MSS, extracted, and slightly modified)

Also See Practical Concept of Infinity

Unifying Concepts
A marriage between science's experimental knowledge of the infinitesimal and a spiritual knowledge of the infinite can generate a major conceptual breakthrough at the level of pure science, leading to unifying concepts in the life sciences similar to those already developed in mathematics. (MSS)

Beyond the Thought of Mathematics to Other Planes
The discoveries we seek are not purely theoretical (like philosophy or math). They have practical consequences. For a thought to be effective, it should be received by the vital and physical. (MSS)

String Theory is a Mathematical Theory
[String theory posits that at the ultimate quantum level there are vibrating strings of energy that create all larger particles and thus all forms of matter in the universe. The matter that is created just depends on the way the strings vibrate. It has been suggested that this theory resolves the division between the theory of the large, essential Einstein's general theory of gravitation, and the small, the three forces inside the atom. Of course, this is only the view of the surface physical reality. A true Theory of Everything would embrace all aspects of existence, including the non-material, the vital, the spiritual, the process of creation, etc.]

String Theory is a mathematical theory rather than one which claims to accurately depict a physical phenomenon. In other words, the mathematicians have tested formulas to find some way to reconcile the mathematics of quantum theory with that of relativity theory and found that it can be done by reducing the smallest unit to infinitesimal proportions. It is not so much a description of what they conceive as a physical reality as it is a mathematical formula that seems to work.

The Greek conception of the universe was a round stationary earth with planets moving around it, each encased in a celestial sphere to maintain its perfectly circular orbit. This conception was quite useful in predicting the motion of planets and length of seasons, up to a point. Over 10 centuries we lost about 10 days and so the calendar was no longer an accurate guide to farmers for when to plant their crops. But the point is that within limits the model was mathematically accurate. It hardly matters that the basic concept was totally wrong. When Kepler realized that the orbits were elliptical instead of perfect circles, the necessary correction was introduced. I suppose it could have been without abandoning the geocentric model and would still have been accurate, but by that time Copernicus and Galileo had produced enough evidence to abandon the old concept. All this only goes to say that a mathematical formula that predicts better than earlier formulas does not necessarily prove validity. Still mathematics is a very powerful tool of knowledge. In the note on Sri Aurobindo and Hyperspace I point out that both Quantum theory and Relativity theory can make accurate predictions, though they are based on conflicting views of reality. In that sense they are only models or symbols for reality, as money is only a symbol for productive, social and psychological capacities of society. (MSS)

Other

Thoughts on Health & Well-Being

Atomic Bombs are a Greater Evil than War and Must Be Abolished; End of Ego Abolishes Such Evil
Now that the wars are over and humanity is lucky enough or maybe wise enough to avoid the Third World War, the approaching 60th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Japan is an opportunity to think of the future.

War is evil. The atom bomb is a greater evil. The greater evil helped to end the rule of the lesser evil. The stockpile of nuclear bombs threatening the world is the greatest of evils. Disarmament is proceeding at the level of positive decisions, decisions not to use the weapons. The existing bombs must be dismantled.

Also, there are other weapons equally dangerous, such as chemical or biological weapons. It is a great thing to destroy one form of evil. Still, it can sprout as another form of Evil. Will evil disappear after humankind ceases to produce these lethal weapons? Evil lies in the human heart, at its very bottom. Evil is in Nature as the tiger's ferocity and the destruction of an earthquake. Before trying to abolish evil from Nature or human nature, one needs to understand what evil is.

Religions or philosophies have not been hopeful of abolishing the fundamental evil. They advised mankind to avoid evil. Sri Aurobindo says there is no evil in creation and there is evil only to the experience of the ego. When man abolishes his ego, there will be no evil in his view or his experience. Leaders of thought in religion, philosophy, and science should address this issue in the light of the rich experiences of the twentieth century. (MSS)
Progress through Good and Evil
Out of the evil of pollution emerged the good sense that science is there to serve the people, not for its own assertion. Sri Aurobindo says that Life uses good as well as evil as an instrument of progress. Pollution is an example of it. (MSS)

Significance of the Vedic Discovery
Sri Aurobindo, a Cambridge scholar, said that the Vedic discovery of Reality -- Brahmam -- is of greater significance to the world than the scientific discoveries of Copernicus or Galileo. (MSS)

Precision in Science of Life
One of the basic requirements of science is precise precision. Those who know the subtle truths of life know the Science of Life too demands equal precision. By which one of your pens you have signed your letter later decides whether you are going to end up as a senior executive of a huge corporation or its CEO.

MSS Articles on Science
Science and Spirituality

ADDITIONAL ARTICLES

To read a new essay by MSS on the possibility of a whole new foundation of science, including an examination of the spiritual reality underlying the process of creation as applied to physics, biology and other disciplines, click here. !
To see a series of articles on a new foundation of science from MSS, click here.
To understand the source of creation, the nature of space and time, of energy, of matter, of life, of mind, of chance and necessity, and other principles of existence that can be of great value to the scientist, click here.

To Be Categorized

Science

Science's New Method of Discovery

Science has brought great benefit to the world, but also great threats and horrors. The unleashing of the atom and its parallel development of evil atomic weaponry are but one example of contradictions of Science that also includes environmental pollution and degradation that are the result of Her inventions.

You may argue that these are problems that humanity has created, not science, but that is a specious argument. Science fails as much as it succeeds because it functions from the Part, not the Whole of things. The Whole is to see every aspect of a matter under consideration when engaging in the process of discovery. The Part is only to consider one side of an issue or problem, turning away or being oblivious to the multiplicity of possibilities, including the negative potential effects.

Why do scientists operate from this Ignorance? It is due to the nature of the human Mind, which tends to focus on one thing that it is attached to, rather than the multi-faceted truth of things. It is the Ignorance of Man born of Creation.

Science therefore needs to move from the Part, predominantly the material plane it is so focused on, and consider all other planes in its process of discovery -- vital, social, psychological, mental, spiritual. It can no longer stand only on the platform of empiricism; of only what can be observed and measured as the Real. In fact, Science is perpetually coming to understand that what is not observable is the true truth of things -- whether it be the cosmic principle of non-locality to unseen dark energy to other astonishing developments that overcome our notion of the nature of space and time. All that Science believes in materially is shattered by deeper truths of existence.

To put it succinctly, Science needs to move from a material Science to a Science of Life that embraces all aspects of existence; to all influences -- social, psychological, spiritual, and material. That will enable the deepest insights into the nature of Reality, while making discoveries that avoid severe negative impacts.

The greatest scope for discovery issues from the spiritual dimension, in which the Scientist of Life culls the deepest Truth of life through his highest consciousness. Thus, the true nature of the universe and beyond can come into one's mind through intuitions of knowledge. Einstein had such an experience when he conceived the formula of material life, E=MC².

In this way, all scientists can garner truth by opening to the spiritual dimensions of mind, where full, integral knowledge about a matter just appears complete without the necessity of thought. It is the frontier of the means of discovery, and can reveal all of Life's Deepest Secrets, from the material plane to the hidden mysteries of the occult and spiritual dimensions and beyond. (2009-2011 Q1)

The Ancients knew What Science is Trying to Discover through Matter

Scientist are looking for profound truths that the ancient Rishis and other in India knew thousands of years ago because the latter penetrated the material existence to the Source of creation. Scientists are trying to discover the same thing, but through material means, which is much more difficult since matter alone leaves all the other subtle and causal planes -- vital, mental, and spiritual -- unutilized.

Ramanan at Karmayogi.net forums says: "Especially in Asian Context, the philosophers and spiritual leaders had the future vision and they were able to tell about what shall be in the future. I think they reached this height because they were able to connect with Cosmic and retrieve what is already there."

And yet scientists need to work their way through their own processes and discover the nature of Reality -- i.e. the truths of creation and existence known by the ancient Spiritual travelers -- on their own terms, which will give our modern understanding a greater depth and richness. Sri Aurobindo mentions this point early on in The Life Divine.

Science can restart this process by widening their scope from material science to a Science of Life that incorporates all planes of existence. (2009-2011 Q1)

Science's Dark Tunnel

Science is trying to discover a Unifying Theory of Everything by trying to rectify the four known fundamental material forces -- electromagnetism, strong interaction, weak interaction (also known as "strong" and "weak nuclear force") and gravitation. This attempt to create a unifying theory is futile because these forces are only the measurable, quantifiable, material forces. There are also a plethora of other forces at work in the cosmos -- including those expressing at the vital, mental, and spiritual planes; including their human expression. Until science understand these other subtle planes -- undetectable by their instruments -- they will never develop a unifying theory of anything.

Sri Aurobindo in his 1000 page, 100,000 line epic poem Savitri describes in great detail the myriad planes of consciousness, which the heroine Savitri is compelled to navigate through on her inner voyage to overcome suffering and death for the world. If science could understand these myriad of forces and domains, and incorporate them in their mathematical and scientific theories, then it can begin to develop a unified theory of Life, not just of material existence.

Unfortunately Science is primarily stuck at the surface view of things, and until she moves beyond the mechanistic, the measureable, the empirical, the material, it will be trying to perceive the light of the Sun by staring into a dark tunnel. (2009-2011 Q1)

Taking Others View & the Scientific Mind

Taking the other man's point of view is the simple solution to the narrowness of the mind of the scientist, who tends to keep along one narrow path of inquiry at the expense of other parts of the underlying truth. (The same approach also works for the rest of us, as we constantly insist on our limited position.) (2009-2011 Q1)

Supramental Perception Can Know Creation's "Beginning"

Perhaps the greatest mystery Science is grappling with is the beginning of Creation; which is for them the cause of the Big Bang. Did it come from an ultimate concentration of dense particle or entity, was it from a vacuum or type of emptiness, or was it the end result of the initiative of a Divine Source. One interesting theory now circulating is that there was no real beginning to our universe, and what occurred is that two existing parallel universes intersected and through their interaction and friction created the one we now live in. Perhaps this theory can be proven. Some say that there is already empirical, i.e. material proof.

But we know there is another way to ascertain such knowledge. Sri Aurobindo says we can develop Truth Consciousness (Supramental perception), where our minds expands, knowledge presents itself, and we become one with the object of inquiry, rapidly knowing its Truth from all sides; including such matters as the cause of the Big Bang if we so choose to focus ourselves there. Certainly, yogis have spoken about the source of and nature of creation, as there is an ancient Indian knowledge of the passing of multiple yugas (successive universes in our cosmos through their growth, collapse, and regeneration).

How do we develop this truth consciousness; this capacity to realize a knowledge about an issue, no matter what its time or place? How can we commune with the past so its knowledge never perceived before enters our mind without the use of empirical data. Where we just Know what occurred?

Sri Karmayogi says that the more we open to the divine Force that is increasingly descending into the earth's atmosphere, the more we create an opening within, which has the effect of opening our minds to the universal planes and beyond. From there we experience sudden intuitions of knowledge, without the hard churning of thought; beyond that, overmental intimations of the myriad aspects of the object; and further still, supramental perception, where we are in full identity with the object of inquiry, realizing its myriad of truths, and their integral unity and totality. At that point, we can know anything directly; whether past, present or future. With that power, a scientist or a "Scientist of Life," can test their theories, while developing several startling new ones of their own. (2009-2011 Q1)

Creation is Eternal: Has No Beginning or End

From the writings of Sri Aurobindo and Sri Karmayogi we see that not only is the universe an extension of the Infinite Divine, but this universe is eternal, meaning that it had no beginning, just like the Infinite Consciousness and Source. This would surely challenge science, which claims the Big Bang or something similar is the source. But this is only the material beginning. Mind, Energy, etc. -- i.e. other planes of existence may have eternal roots and destinies; i.e. they always were and always will be, just like the Infinite Source itself. (2009-2011 Q1)

Infinite Universe, Spirit

Scientists now know that the material universe goes on infinitely in all directions. So does the Spirit and Its Consciousness, though it is beyond physical direction or movement, as it is timeless, spaceless Being. (2009-2011 Q1)

Practical Concept of Infinity in Life

The physical sciences regard infinity as a mathematical concept. We have not yet come to realize that in human life infinity is a practical concept. There really is an infinite potential for creation. (Garry Jacobs, from 'The Book') (2009-2011 Q1)

Immortality through Spirit, Not Technology/Science

Immortality is not dependent on the state of our technology or the discoveries of material science, but on the status of our consciousness to hold and utilize the spiritual Force. It has the power to reprogram the very cells of our body to no longer believe in the inevitability of decay and death. The woman known as The Mother practiced this approach, with startling positive results. (2009-2011 Q1)

The Status of an Object is Determined by the Consciousness of the Observer

Science has now come to the startling conclusion that the status of an object is actually determined by that which is observing it. Thus, if you observe an apparently broken machine and believe in the power of spirit to rectify it, and I do not, and that machine suddenly works because of your inner, consecrated effort, then the status of that object is determined not merely by its own status but by the consciousness of the observer. In my consciousness, it will be broken. In yours, it will be fixed.

Science's new conclusion that the observer determines that which is observed has turned scientific inquiry upside down baffling scientists of every stripe. (It was known in the Indian Upanishads thousands of years ago.) It is yet another indicator that the mere objective observation and measurement of phenomenon without regard to consciousness is simply folly. (2009-2011 Q1)

Entanglement and Non-Locality Beyond Normal Causality

It is exactly one hundred years to the year since Einstein formulated his Special Theory of Relativity, which provides the conceptual framework for the unification of space and time into space-time. He proved that time behaves precisely like a fourth dimension of space. Since then physicists have outgrown the superficial notion of spatial causality and accepted the principles of quantum entanglement and non-local connections, which are consistent with the concept of time as another dimension. But the logic of conventional materialism still insists on a concept of causality as outdated as the geocentric universe. (Garry Jacobs, from 'The Book') (2009-2011 Q1)

Entanglement between Humans

In her 1998 book The Rainbow and the Worm: The Physics of Organisms, biophysicist Mae-Wan Ho informs us that "the visible body just happens to be where the wave function of the organism is most dense. Invisible quantum waves are spreading out from each of us and permeating into all other organisms. At the same time, each of us has the waves of every other organism entangled within our own make-up ..."

This strikes me as another form of the famous "Entanglement" of physics, also known as Non-Locality, which is the scientific principle that supports the phenomenon of Life Response. (I.e. two electrons of the same atom on either side of the universe can affect the other in an instant.) It is due (as we know) to the Oneness of all existence. (2009-2011 Q1)

The Present Can Affect the Past

Several years ago, a group of French scientists published an experiment indicating that what they did in the present could retroactively change events that already occurred in the past. It was another indicator of the true nature of time; that the past, present and future are not three divided aspects, as mind perceives it, but are one continuum of existence. Therefore, from any point in time, any other point can be affected. (2009-2011 Q1)

Matter Viewed from Increasingly Higher Planes

The way we perceive physical Matter depends on the plane through which we observe, perceive, or grasp it. When we perceive it in our minds merely through our five senses, it appears as static form of substance; physical, unconscious and inert. But when we perceive it through a higher mental consciousness, we perceive it as a form of force, as the physicist now sees it, with its varied movements and gyrations.

Higher still, from the point of view cosmic consciousness of spiritualized mind, we perceive everything in life as an ocean of energy, including what we call Matter. Matter becomes more fluid and dynamic, with a universal force and power behind it.

Finally, when one rises to Transcendent Consciousness and views the universe, then Matter reveals as form of Spirit, as spiritual substance, divine in nature. (2009-2011 Q1)

Science's New Method of Discovery

Science has brought great benefit to the world, but also great threats and horrors. The unleashing of the atom and its parallel development of evil atomic weaponry are but one example of contradictions of Science that also includes environmental pollution and degradation that are the result of Her inventions.

You may argue that these are problems that humanity has created, not science, but that is a specious argument. Science fails as much as it succeeds because it functions from the Part, not the Whole of things. The Whole is to see every aspect of a matter under consideration when engaging in the process of discovery. The Part is only to consider one side of an issue or problem, turning away or being oblivious to the multiplicity of possibilities, including the negative potential effects.

Why do scientists operate from this Ignorance? It is due to the nature of the human Mind, which tends to focus on one thing that it is attached to, rather than the multi-faceted truth of things. It is the Ignorance of Man born of Creation.

Science therefore needs to move from the Part, predominantly the material plane it is so focused on, and consider all other planes in its process of discovery -- vital, social, psychological, mental, spiritual. It can no longer stand only on the platform of empiricism; of only what can be observed and measured as the Real. In fact, Science is perpetually coming to understand that what is not observable is the true truth of things -- whether it be the cosmic principle of non-locality to unseen dark energy to other astonishing developments that overcome our notion of the nature of space and time. All that Science believes in materially is shattered by deeper truths of existence.

To put it succinctly, Science needs to move from a material Science to a Science of Life that embraces all aspects of existence; to all influences -- social, psychological, spiritual, and material. That will enable the deepest insights into the nature of Reality, while making discoveries that avoid severe negative impacts.

The greatest scope for discovery issues from the spiritual dimension, in which the Scientist of Life culls the deepest Truth of life through his highest consciousness. Thus, the true nature of the universe and beyond can come into one's mind through intuitions of knowledge. Einstein had such an experience when he conceived the formula of material life, E=MC².

In this way, all scientists can garner truth by opening to the spiritual dimensions of mind, where full, integral knowledge about a matter just appears complete without the necessity of thought. It is the frontier of the means of discovery, and can reveal all of Life's Deepest Secrets, from the material plane to the hidden mysteries of the occult and spiritual dimensions and beyond. (2009-2011 Q1)

Aliens vs. Beings of the Subtle Realms

Most of what we call nonhuman �aliens� can be found not so much in outer space, but in subtle space, in the subtle, unseen realms of being in the universe -- from the Gods to the various vital forces, e.g. as The Mother consistently experienced in Her inner voyages. (2009-2011 Q1)

The World Values the Limited Science/Technology of the Physical Mind
The world now rightly values science, rather scientific technology, because of its immense spiritual significance. Its success is practical utility. 'Spirit' today is what is directly immediately useful. Scientific technology is the achievement of MIND, the mind seated in the physical consciousness of Man. Hence in Sri Aurobindo's terminology it is called the physical mind. Science as Europe has embraced is of the thinking mind, seated in the mental consciousness. Man enjoys the modern comforts of bus, car, phone and computer. They are vastly useful and make life meaningful. Spirit gives calm, peace, quiet, mental peace, silence and opens the doors to the life in the other world, to eternal enjoyment. It is not so alluring as the needs of today which are well served by technology. (2009-2011 Q1)

MSS Paper The Seeker of Knowledge - The Scientist, the Scholar

MSS Paper: Related Points to Science in 'The Life Divine'

Science

Science's vs. Spirit's View of Consciousness

Science says consciousness comes from Mind's thinking, but it is more accurate to say that Mind, like Matter and Life, comes from Consciousness.

III

Science, Technology

Limits of Technology
As you know technology is just a capability, rather a tool to improve the capability that man has already known about.

Technology itself is an expression of human capability.

Technology by itself may not have the power to instill values in humans, however it may act as catalyst as it has the power to expand the knowledge horizons in human minds. (Jayasree Ahuja)

III	Science	Science's Technology Expands, Makes Conscious Energy, Enabling It Do a Great Work For several centuries, Science has been discovering the laws of Nature. Its concentration has been mainly on technology. Technology makes a small energy do a great work, which means the scientist makes the energy expand. In other words, the scientist makes energy CONSCIOUS because that which is not conscious cannot expand by itself. (MSS)
III	Science	Science Means Knowledge The word 'science' means knowledge. Knowledge [however] directly issues out of consciousness. (MSS)
III	Science	The Indian Who Can Meld Knowledge and Consciousness in Science The word 'science' means knowledge. Knowledge directly issues out of consciousness. There is no backward movement in existence. Whichever way knowledge moves, it moves towards consciousness. If you are a consummate scholar in Indian scriptures such as the Vedas or the Upanishads, and presently you are a practising scientist at the frontiers of knowledge, you will see the parallel between them at all points. A group of physicists in Bombay some time ago told an editor of a daily in Kerala that any breakthrough in their field of science would come from Indians. I congratulate them on their insight. Here one has to take both ends and bring them together. It is a work of the highest dimension of knowledge. Ramanujam said zero is God, manifestation is Infinity. Indian mathematicians can fully discover Ramanujam and the world will be grateful to them for such a discovery. When conquests at these levels await the Indian intelligentsia, the work of making the nation prosperous is no great challenge for them. (MSS)

III

Science

Atomic Bombs are a Greater Evil than War and Must Be Abolished; End of Ego Abolishes Such Evil
Now that the wars are over and humanity is lucky enough or maybe wise enough to avoid the Third World War, the approaching 60th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Japan is an opportunity to think of the future.

War is evil. The atom bomb is a greater evil. The greater evil helped to end the rule of the lesser evil. The stockpile of nuclear bombs threatening the world is the greatest of evils. Disarmament is proceeding at the level of positive decisions, decisions not to use the weapons. The existing bombs must be dismantled.

Also, there are other weapons equally dangerous, such as chemical or biological weapons. It is a great thing to destroy one form of evil. Still, it can sprout as another form of Evil. Will evil disappear after humankind ceases to produce these lethal weapons? Evil lies in the human heart, at its very bottom. Evil is in Nature as the tiger's ferocity and the destruction of an earthquake. Before trying to abolish evil from Nature or human nature, one needs to understand what evil is.

Religions or philosophies have not been hopeful of abolishing the fundamental evil. They advised mankind to avoid evil. Sri Aurobindo says there is no evil in creation and there is evil only to the experience of the ego. When man abolishes his ego, there will be no evil in his view or his experience. Leaders of thought in religion, philosophy, and science should address this issue in the light of the rich experiences of the twentieth century. (MSS)

III

Science

Development of Scientific Inquiry and Scientific Technology
The human mind reached its acme in Socrates more than 2000 years ago. For that to develop as scientific inquiry in Europe it took 1500 or 2000 years.

In the next stage, the scientific inquiry matured into practically usable scientific technology in the USA. This was done in two or three hundred years. Technology is [unfortunately] more meaningful for us than the abstract inquiry into the origin of things, which is Science. (MSS)

Ideal One is Against One Becomes in a New Form, as in Science
Science arose with one significant aim of ousting superstition in religion and elsewhere. A movement that is against an ideal subconsciously becomes a victim to what it fights. Science became the superstition of its belief in the reality of only that which is material, whether seen or unseen. It has not embraced life, mind, and spirit.

Root of Problem of Science is the Exclusivity of Mind
The root of the problem in science lies in man's propensity to exclusively embrace one truth at the expense of knowing all truths.

Limitation of Religion and Science of Seeing the Multifaceted Whole of Existence
Religion is dogma in that it takes its own limited understanding, it's own rituals. as the whole truth; when it is in fact a part that has become its essential Ignorance. When believed in that Ignorance becomes Falsehood. When that Falsehood is acted upon it can become and has become Evil. The many-sided perception of and experience of Spirit itself must emerge from the dogma, superstition, and falsehood of religion.

Science was born when mind looked out through a higher rationality at the limiting ritual, narrow-mindedness, and authoritarianism of religion. However, over time science too became authoritarian in that it subscribed to matter as the Ruler of all the world, as the one and only reality. Like religion it worshipped the part as the whole, taking matter as all of existence; ignoring the whole of life, turning away from the deepest and most profound processes of creation, ignoring the inner psychological state and consciousness of the individual, turning away from the hidden, subtle universal forces and powers, and ultimately casting a cynical eye at the transcendent Divine Spirit.

Science believes that its knowledge of the surface is the whole of existence, when it is in fact a woeful mini-part of a complex, rich, intricate fabric of a seen and Unseen life and existence. Like religion it is also rooted in an essential Ignorance, whose tenets are subscribed to by its advocates enabling an essential Falsehood, which is then acted upon to create various formulations and products of destruction which become in essence its own form of Evil.

Even as the religions are dying in the wake of their own dogma and superstition, the modern science is limiting our world view to that which is seen on the surface through the instrument of the human senses, or through its agents, the microscope, the telescope and other technologies of measurement; giving us proof of the material surface part, while providing woefully incomplete analysis and insights into the True Nature of the vast, multidimensional Scope of the cosmos. Through its myopic material-only, proof-only, surface-only view science has avoided the Great Truths and Wisdom of life, including the ultimate Knowledge of Spirit, which is the Cosmos' great vehicle for manifestation and unfolding.

Science Misses Underlying Process of Life
Science enabled humanity to discover many of the mechanisms of physical nature, but it has left largely unexplained the underlying processes which govern these mechanisms and the nature of the essential reality of the world we live in. Science has thus far focused on secondary causes and phenomenal realities rather than on root causes and essential knowledge. It has arrived in some areas at the power to manipulate circumstances but not at the essential control of creative processes. (MSS, slightly modified)

The Wider Life Science Does Not See
Science does not perceive the wider life, limiting itself to the material. It does not embrace the powers of life, of man's consciousness, of his psyche, of the feeling, emotions, attitude, values, perceptions, opinions that directly affect the outer visible and hidden subtle movements of existence. It also knows nothing of the spiritual source of energy, life, matter, progress and evolution. Not embracing this multiplicity of views, science sees not the whole, but the part, the small material part, or the ego part one wants to see; hence there are limited and often harmful understandings, discoveries, and results.

Myriad of Limitations of Science
Science started as a counter movement to superstition [of religion, oppression, etc.]. It was the birth of the Mind against the tyrannical rule of the vital. [However,] Science by its birth, by its instrument, by its self-definition, but its attitude, by its lack of a goal of the whole, by its own subjectivity in the name of objectivity, by its incomplete observation, by its acquiescence in its ignoring the observed rare phenomenon, by its lack of motivation to reach knowledge that is Power, by its losing itself in the instruments it has created is now playing the role of superstition which it has come to replace, proving the age-old rule of the conqueror conquered by the conquered. (MSS, slightly altered)

Science in West is Limited Because It Does Not Look into the Fundamental Nature of Things
The material success of the West, particularly the English, is largely due to this practical bent of mind focusing on the practical use of things. It prevents them from inquiring into the fundamental nature of things. Hence the limitation of Science.

Science Has Missed What has Made the Impossible Possible
Science has missed something essential; it has seen and scrutinised what has happened and in a way how it happened, but it has shut its eyes to something that made the impossible possible, something it is there to express. There is no fundamental significance in things if you miss the Divine Reality; for you remain embedded in a huge surface crust of manageable and utilisable appearance. (Sri Aurobindo)

Science as Technology, Not Original Impulse of Mind
It is noteworthy that fundamental discoveries of science are largely confined to Europe and what the USA has taken up is the application of practical knowledge to it, reducing it to Technology. It is by the dazzling success of human comforts that science now thrives or even survives, not by following the original impulse of an awakening Mind. (MSS)

Development of Scientific Inquiry and Scientific Technology
The human mind reached its acme in Socrates more than 2000 years ago. For that to develop as scientific inquiry in Europe it took 1500 or 2000 years.

In the next stage, the scientific inquiry matured into practically usable scientific technology in the USA. This was done in two or three hundred years. Technology is [unfortunately] more meaningful for us than the abstract inquiry into the origin of things, which is Science. (MSS)

Biological vs. Spiritual Evolution
Science speaks of the biological evolution of forms. Sri Aurobindo speaks of spiritual evolution of consciousness. (MSS)

Science as Superstition
Superstition in the name of Science is more dangerous than illiteracy as it creates an organisation of educated Ignorance. (MSS)

Man as Slave of Science
It is by a psychological superstition that Man becomes a slave of science. (MSS)

Root of Problem of Science is the Exclusivity of Mind
The root of the problem in science lies in man's propensity to exclusively embrace one truth at the expense of knowing all truths.

Negative Side Effects of Western Science
The West is prosperous. Western prosperity is there because they have discovered Brahman in Matter. Their science is lifeless and produces negative side effects and strengthens the Forces of violence of all descriptions.

Science & Materialism
The scientist is the leader of Modern Materialism. (MSS)

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