And so it was one of those rainy afternoons today and I was leafing through a book on 'String Theory.' The fabulous unification of the 'holy grail' of Physics and the 'spout of heaven' troubled me with one question in particular - who really is God? What follows is some thoughts on trying to answer that question.
The prowess of science comes from the underlying scientific methodology that insists on defining every entity, physical or abstract, it deals with. It is the boiled down effort to comprehend better, the history of the natural world and it works with observable physical evidence as the basis of that understanding. In essence, science attempts to define the nature of reality, which, presents itself in many forms: such as physical, mental, mathematical and now,digital reality, among others. The question is, with so many 'realities,' how do we define absolute reality - the reality underlying all realities. Science, has not yet successfully defined physical reality. That being the case, can spiritual science that deals with absolute reality provide an answer to that question?
On the contrary to what most people think, the answer to that question is an emphatic 'yes.' The predominant focus of all six Indian knowledge systems (Nyaya, Vaiseshika, Sankhya, Yoga, Purva Mimamsa and Vedanta) deals with this grand question. Not just these but all great religions that we know of in one way or the other attempts to unravel this mystery.
The Vedas, define God as One that presents itself as absolute truth and eternal (analogy: Time invariant system); as self-illuminating intelligence; as absolute bliss. This absolute reality is described as 'sat-chit-anand' (Truth-Intelligence-Bliss). Further, it is described as all pervasive and as one that is absolutely pure and infinite (shudda and apar). The upshot is: according to the Vedas, the absolute reality is the one having all the above mentioned qualities. And that, is the definition of God.
Now, if God can be defined, can we see God? can we perceive this absolute reality? According to Vedanta, Our intellect cannot know God as an object of knowledge. But the same intellect can know God when the darkness of ignorance is dispelled or when illumined by the knowledge of great Vedic dictums such as "Aham Brahmasmi" (I myself am Brahman). By this process, God becomes known as our own Self, pure and infinite.
Now then, intellect cannot and can know it being two contradictory statements, how do we arbitrate that? First off, intellect cannot illumine but God illuminates intellect. Secondly, God can be perceived only through a pure intellect. But, the pure intellect cannot know God as a result of cognition but by cognition itself becoming one with God. To put it in a simpler form, God is self-illumining and omnipotent.
God is not a inert reality but pure bliss. The unified field theory, the string theory that science is seeking to understand with the help of higher dimensions other than the three space dimensions and one time dimension that human brain can conceive does not seem take into account the dimension of absolute reality. God exists in the smallest of particles, yet to be discovered by science and is infinite at the same time. This perhaps should be the holy grail of Physics.
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