Understanding and Realisation

Science & Technology has been conquering frontiers for mankind and breaking down all the obstacles that tends to put us in the darkness. This unrelenting pursuit is part and parcel of our evolutionary process that will continue till the next major catastrophe puts mankind to square one once again. According to all the significant and sensible scriptures in all major civilizations so far, this cycle of mankind fluctuating between the heights of knowledge and valleys of ignorance is an eternal one. Science and Spirituality will appear to be in conflict but will always form the twin tools that will take us up the mountains when the superstitious religious beliefs and practices pull us down the hills.

It can always be noticed that while the spiritual & scientific leaders make us comfortable, their religious counterparts always flourish on our fears. Our progress so far has always been determined by Science and Spirituality and never by the Religions. Yet Spirituality is very much connected with Religions just like milk and ghee. Spirituality is something like a final chapter in a Religious book. Those religious humans who do not graduate into spirituality have simply missed the bus. It is something like the unintelligent students who repeatedly fail to pass the tests and get into to the spiritual classes. Their lack of intelligence make them stick with the low level religious ideas and tend to pollute the younger generations who are also following the same path.

The question of Understanding and Realisation becomes important for those who have graduated into spiritual pursuits. Science is the best tool for our learning and understanding of anything in this world. Mankind could not have progressed so far but for this unique tool that helps us analyse and understand all the phenomena. Science has helped to reduce Man’s fears exponentially in the brief time frame so far. But the understanding that has developed so far cannot help us in completing the evolutionary process. We need the spiritual tool for that. Man must understand that Realisation is a vital necessity in this inevitable pursuit of truth. If Understanding comes from outside, Realisation is something that comes from within. We cannot understand but realise the taste of salt or sugar. Sooner this happens it is better for anyone who wish to complete a life worthy of living. 

But very rarely we do come across a convergence of understanding and realization in unique individuals. Perhaps the case of Srinivasan Ramanujam was one such. But quite unfortunately, like all such extra-ordinary human beings, his life was also too short.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzP4HQpzLYM

God Definition

The bitter fight between fanatic atheists like Richard Dawkins and uncompromising believers like Deepak Chopra has reached highpoint. In a way it looks progressive because the set of blind followers who believe in a Man look alike God breathing down the nose of all believers, watching and determining the life of each one of us is fast dwindling the world over. Church goers are few and far between among the Europeans and never ending violence and eternal bloodbath is questioning the very foundations of the youngest religion supposedly founded on brotherhood and peace. Days are numbered for both the major organized religious ideologies in the modern era when Big Bang will be taught in nursery schools. The relevance of a God which claimed to have created the universe some six thousand years ago is almost expired.

Nevertheless we cannot let the God debate go on forever in an unhealthy manner. There is no doubt that it has started affecting the evolutionary progress of Man. It is time for Homo sapiens who are about four hundred thousand years old to evolve further. But for unnecessary controversies and acrimonious debates time is ripe for the advent of a Super Race of humans as predicted by Sri Aurobindo (1872-1950). Only a synergy of Science and Religion can provide all the required tools for the evolution of entire mankind into the next stage that is vital for its survival when our life giving star Sun start turning into a Super Nova engulfing the entire planetary system. Neither Science nor Religion can achieve this yeoman task independently.

We are living in a glorious era when Science has established the Big Bang that occurred about 13.72 billions ago without any iota of doubt. Matter and energy for the entire universe as we see today was created within a brief moment of time following the Big Bang. But who or what created or resulted in the Big Bang can never be explained by Science. Many argue that it is Consciousness. It is here that a confluence can occur between Science and Religion which can take the entire human race onto its forward path of evolution without any conflict. All that is required is to define God as follows:-

“God is that which created the Big Bang and continue to be omnipresent as the passive Consciousness”

Multiversal Reality

Scientists have already established that our universe came into existence almost 13.7 billion years ago as a result of Big Bang. Barring the glorious theory of Advaita, which postulates an omnipresent God, all other religious theories about a universe, beings and humans (in His own form ! ) created by God sometime around 6000 BC have been debunked in its entirety. Only a few hardcore idiots and those who are afraid of religious establishments believe in such figments of misleading imagination by a clever few to establish their power over the meek followers. It is difficult to believe but proven true beyond any doubt that all the sub-atomic particles that make up our universe were created within a brief period of the Big Bang.  We are not capable of adding or subtracting anything from it, but only of changing from one form to another. With great efforts, we have already gone back 13.7 billion years in history and now we are stuck at that point.

Biggest question in front of current scientists is about who or what caused the Big Bang. Some scientists avoid the question with their argument that there need not be a reason for everything. But the instinctive rationality of human beings will not be satisfied until and unless the question is answered. For those who are agnostic (like me) it is easy to find an answer by attributing it to the unknown God for the time being, until someone with a fertile mind and intellect come up with another hypothesis. In fact, many such theories have already come up and best one that looks promising is the concept of a multiverse. Mathematicians have already succeeded in their hypotheses upto 11 universes existing simultaneously. And a few outstanding theoreticians have attributed the cause of Big Bang to the clash of two such wobbling universes when both happened to be perfect planes, which is of infinitely miniscule probability. So far the theory looks logical and it will drag out history by few more billion years. But then the question arises as to who or what created the multiverse.

An interesting offshoot of the multiverse theory is the reflections of reality in many of the phenomena mentioned in The Bhaagavada, by far the most mundane and most complex ancient text that mankind has seen. Perhaps there is no better way to think of Bhagawan’s Viswaroopa than by accepting the reality of simultaneous presence of multiple universes. It must be definitely possible for an omnipotent God (or even ghosts and souls) to be present partially and fully in a multiverse, and give the images to the realized souls as described in The Bhaagavada. And those who claim to have got a sight of God might have really done so during an accidental or deliberate peep into the neighbouring universes. It is possible that a warp like reality of a multiverse can become the much wanted connecting point for Science and Scientific Religions (Sanatana Hindu Dharma).

    

Pranic Engineering

Since time immemorial, Civil and Mechanical have been the two basic engineering fields that have caught the attention of mankind. Both the fields of engineering knowledge have contributed in no uncertain terms to our progress and development from being aborigines to becoming the modern Man. Electrical engineering came in later with the invention of electricity and then followed Chemical, Electronics and Information Technology as offshoots of the existing filelds. And thus for a long time now we are stuck with the three basic branches of engineering viz. Civil, Mechanical and Electrical. Time has come to think of enlarging the scope of engineering to the living world also. We are at the doorsteps of creating life of our own in the laboratory (though a victory over death is almost impossible and far away). We have emerging fields of limited scope like Genetic, Biotechnology and Biomedical engineering, but the need for an all encompassing new field is a necessity now. The Sanskrit word for life is prana and what can be more apt than Pranic Engineering as the best name for such a new field of engineering that deals with all engineering aspects of life and living.

Pranic Engineering can become the fourth basic field of engineering that would complement Civil, Mechanical and Electrical to cater to our entire engineering needs. Atleast a section of our Engineers in the not-so-distant future would be dealing with novel engineering scenarios like ‘living’ tools and fabrication of body parts. As life and living are involved, the question of ethics and values would be of paramount importance in the field of Pranic Engineering. Engineers who have so far dealt with only non-living raw materials will be called upon to handle materials that have life within or that could sustain life. Sustaining life by manufacture, modification and mending of body parts will become a joint effort of engineers and doctors rather than doctors alone as of now. Once we are able to recognize each Man as a combination of three or four distinct systemic parts (Body, Mind and Soul), Pranic Engineers must be dealing with sustainability of the tangible Body part of Man. Doctors were doing this so far, but we definitely need engineering involvement if we are to incorporate the concepts of spare parts, interchangeability, genetic manipulation, cloning, artificial life etc., into the field of Medicine.

Body Spare Parts

For an alien to this world of ours, it would be utterly puzzling to watch the thousands of dead bodies that are buried or burnt away everyday when thousands of others are also dying for want of parts from the very same bodies. It is an unpardonable mistake and an utterly illogical practice to dispense away human dead bodies without making any use of its valuable components that may save and sustain the lives of those who are struggling for life. When Man has even proved his capabilities in cloning and genetic manipulations, the argument of those who attribute God’s involvement in the management of post-death physical dead bodies looks irrational and idiotic. To avoid controversies and religious arguments, let us leave aside the question of Mind and Soul after one’s death. Let us leave it to the secrets of Nature to deal with these two aspects of Human life once the body has been overrun by death. In any case, both are invisible and whatever happens to the invisible components need not bother us in our practical lives. But human body is different and it must be treated so.

Human body is a valuable tangible part and it must be used to the maximum extent just like the dead bodies of all other living beings. Each and every part of a human dead body is invaluable for a limited time and we are still wasting it without putting it to any use. Even in the twenty first century we are directionless when it comes to a scientific way of handling human dead bodies. Religious rituals must concentrate on the Mind and Soul parts of our makeup and leave the tangible body to the doctors and Pranic Engineers to extract all that are useful and dispense off the scrap by incineration. We need only a photograph or mere memories of a person to carry on with the religious rituals. Modern Man must accept Science as an integral part of all religions and wholeheartedly agree for incorporation of scientific elements in all aspects of our lives. In return, Science must accede the entire space of spiritual and after-life affairs to the religious and spiritual leaders, and also stay away from provoking or poking at what is not yet known to Science.

Solving Living Problems

The relevance of Pranic Engineering will be all the more clear to everyone when we enter the age of artificial life. Days are not very far when very crude or primary forms of life will get created in various laboratories across the globe. We need systemic and systematic approaches for dealing with such situations, and only a universally accepted branch of basic engineering can further the healthy development of such a field. Like all new discoveries of tremendous potential, the possibilities of misuse are equally alive in this field as well. Ethical values of professionals in such fields are of great significance for the entire mankind. Evolution of Pranic Engineering as an established branch of Engineering is a must for development of an associated curriculum for training more and more people into this field. Only such trained professionals can control the growth of such new fields of knowledge and avoid its hijack by extremists and terrorists who have very limited and skewed agenda.

On a rough estimate the average life expectancy of a human being now is only about 25,000 days. Of this the last 5,000 days will be the difficult phase with physical ailments and psychological issues. Pranic Engineering can do quite a lot in reducing the difficulties of human beings in this phase by development of tools, equipments and techniques that can alleviate pain and misery. It is not that there are no efforts now. But a focused engineering effort can produce more focused and effective solutions to the current problems and future ones. Well qualified and trained Pranic Engineers forming an integral part of the medical fraternity can deliver much more effective remedies to ailments, both physical and mental. Very effective tools and techniques that are available in the unorganized and off-mainstream communities & cultures can be adopted and developed for common use as part of a modern scientific medical system. No life must be lost for want of timely remedy must be the motto of Pranic Engineers.

Modern medicine which is often wrongly referred to as Allopathic has really come of age and is constantly under evolution. Newer and newer techniques and medicines for treatment are added everyday, but so also the types of ailments and diseases. Designating a basic field of engineering to work along with medical experts to provide cost-effective and easily available solutions to human pain will highlight this vital gap. More focused and dedicated efforts are required to bring in discoveries and inventions in the field of Pranic Engineering to make our lives painless and more fruitful. The role of Pranic Engineers in the coming centuries would become more and more crucial because injuries to human bodies inflicted by the twin evil of fundamentalism and terrorism are also on the increase world-wide. Acceptability of Pranic Engineering as the fourth field of basic engineering is our immediate necessity now.