Author: Mani Bhaumik
Publication: The Times of India
Date: February 27, 2002
URL: http://www.timesofindia.com/articleshow.asp?art_id=2206066
The ancient Vedantic concepts that
we all cut our spiritual teeth on are a part of the grand reconciliation
now going on between science and religion.
We find these concepts embodied
in the extensive literature starting with the four Vedas and their subsequent
elaborations in the Upanishads. The recurring theme of these perceptions
is that, underlying all physical reality, there is one abstract entity,
Brahman, with the quality of consciousness. Having created the universe,
Brahman remains present everywhere today, administering basic aspects of
everything in our cosmos.
Recent scientific discoveries seem
to validate the concept of Brahman. Physicists and cosmologists are close
to proving that there is one source behind the physical universe, and they
call this source the unified field. In a profound sense, Brahman, the Vedantic
concept and the unified field of physics appear to be synonymous.
All the physical objects and phenomena
around us are not illusory or maya, but are quite real. However, what we
see is only the tip of the iceberg. Underneath it is the interplay of an
abstract substance called energy, which in turn is controlled by something
even more abstract:
The fields that underlie all physical
reality. The puzzle that Albert Einstein attempted to solve and which contemporary
physicists are coming close to explaining is: Why, if everything is eventually
made up of one single substance, energy, does nature provide different
types of fields for energy to work its magic? Physicists now realise that
these divisions of fields are nothing but different aspects of a single
entity, the unified field.
The biography of the universe, as
related by cosmologists and physicists, account for everything in its nearly
14-billion-year history except for an extremely small fraction of a second
after the onset of time itself.
We find that very close to the big-bang
beginning, the unified field was present in an infinitesimal nugget, and
the various fields were unified at incredibly high temperatures. As the
universe cooled by expansion, the fields sequentially unfolded, creating
everything.
There are manifest and unmanifest
fields. For example, the earth's gravitational field is a manifest field,
whose operation we see in our everyday life. So are the other fields manifest
in the contents of the earth, providing various functions. But if we took
the earth away from its orbit, all the manifest fields will go away with
it.
However, the very significant feature
of the universe is that the unmanifest fields, the essence having the blueprint,
will still be there, even in empty space. Because the unmanifest quantum
fields fill all space and time.
Understanding this inherent primary
reality of our cosmos is an essential element in grasping the concept of
Brahman. The unmanifest unified field, possessing the blueprint of everything,
pervades all space being encoded in space itself. How can that be?
Space appears to us to be nothing
more than a stage where events are played out. However, Einstein showed
that space, time and fields cannot exist separately, but are always magnificently
intertwined in their operation.
It seems inevitable at this point
that we should wonder whether the unified field possesses the quality of
consciousness which is an integral part of the total picture of the universe.
At first glance, the phenomenon
of consciousness looks utterly incompatible with our general scientific
view of the world. However, when examined in light of the bizarre revelations
of quantum physics, consciousness is not unlike the primary reality of
the quantum fields.
Some prominent contemporary physicists
indeed believe that the mysteries of consciousness and quantum physics
are linked. Most quantum systems have properties that are complementary
and inseparable.
From this perspective, the primary
realities of unified field and consciousness may be viewed as inseparable
aspects of the same underlying process, permeating all space and time.
Today, science and religion seem
to be saying the same thing: A single entity created the universe and is
still present everywhere, maintaining and governing the fundamental machinery
of everything in this universe.
(The author is an elected fellow
of the American Physical Society as well as the Institute of Electrical
and Electronics Engineers)
