Sensing the Essence

Preface

How did the saints achieve enlightenment? Why can’t I? These are interesting questions. However, the answers are not that obvious. This book, Sensing the Essence, addresses these questions by examining the convergence of Vedic scriptural teachings, discoveries in modern science, and spiritual experiences. This work incorporates important teachings from a broad range of subjects that include the history of Vedic civilization and its progress, scriptures, stories of saints and their experiences with enlightenment, cosmology, physical sciences, advances in particle physics and quantum physics, evolutionary and molecular biology, and neuroscience, and draws connections to explain how the saints achieved enlightenment and the ways to do so, as taught in the Vedic scriptures. Scientific discoveries about physical mechanisms that enable the human mind to achieve enlightenment are discussed. Light is shed on the way scriptural teachings and modern scientific discoveries support enlightenment opportunities. This work analyzes what prevents us from achieving enlightenment and the ways to achieve spiritual progress towards it.

Written for the general public, this book explores Vedic teachings and recent discoveries in modern science and tries to find synergy between the two bodies of knowledge. Instead of looking at the ancient focus and modern science through totally different lenses, this book searches for commonality, given that both schools of thought are products of the same species trying to understand this universe. The material covered in this book, including the extrapolation of scientific discoveries to explain important teachings of ancient scriptures and saintly experiences of enlightenment, highlights the depth of profound thinking that occurred during ancient times. The knowledge obtained from the latest discoveries in physical sciences and neuroscience helps explain possible physical mechanisms for sensing the essence that exists in the human mind. This information will also help the reader appreciate how Hindu religious practices developed and how different levels of energy are harnessed during various religious practices and physical and mental exercises. Such information provides a way for the reader to appreciate the mechanisms for energy retrieval and harness higher levels of universal energy. By presenting a range of important findings in a simple way for the non-expert to understand, I have tried to bring into focus some important aspects of ancient Vedic thoughts and current Hindu religious practices to make readers better appreciate the wonderful opportunity endowed upon them to make spiritual progress, and then benefit from the information encapsulated in this book in their spiritual journey.

It is hoped that the reader will get an appreciation for the special place occupied by humans in this vast universe and the great opportunity presented to us to make use of the universal gift of the human brain and mind, not only for material gain but also for spiritual progress. This book will help the readers better understand Hindu religious philosophies and today’s religious and other practices, and impress upon them how such knowledge of scriptures, science, and spirituality can be beneficial for spiritual progress in this chaotic, materialistic world.

The book is a good example of the importance of having discussions on spirituality and science, and not just debates on science versus spirituality, and will spark further dialogue.

Ashok Prabhu

Introduction: Why This Book?

Hinduism has made marvelous discoveries in things of religion, of the spirit, of the soul. We have no eye for these great and fine discoveries. We are dazzled by the material progress that Western science has made. Ancient India has survived because Hinduism was not developed along material but along spiritual lines.

Mahatma Gandhi

How did this book come together?

Ever since I arrived in the United States in 1970 for graduate studies in engineering, people here have been interested in learning more about the Hindu religion. I have often been on the receiving end of questions like: What is a Hindu? What do you believe in? How old is the Hindu religion and what is its history? When did image worship begin? These are fairly simple questions, but I did not have good answers to many of them at that time. I also noticed that in world history classes in the U.S., except for a brief mention of the Indus Valley Civilization, Indian history essentially began with Buddha. Given that major Hindu scriptures, epics, and many aspects of the religious practices of Hindus predate Buddha, this gap is unfortunate.

Towards the latter part of my professional life, I started devoting time to learn more about some of the important religious and historical aspects of Hinduism. We re-built two temples, Kali and Shiva temples, in our village in 2003 and 2009. While going through the process of installing and energizing the idols, the discussions I had with the priests, on the what, why and how of these processes and how they connect to the Vedic prescriptions, rekindled my interest in Vedic history, scriptures, and their teachings and influence on our way of life.

Once I completed my professional career in 2010, my priority has been to try to close some of the gaps in my knowledge regarding Hinduism. I wanted to better understand, rationalize, and appreciate some of the beliefs and practices. To this end, I visited numerous religious sites, temples, and ashrams of saints throughout India from Rameshwaram to Rishikesh, and Dwarka to Kolkata. I started learning about important aspects of the Vedic religion, its origin, and evolution. I shared my questions with many experts on Vedic history and Vedic literature.

I learnt about the connections between the Vedic stories and historically important places. The visits to ashrams and maths of Shankaracharya, Shirdi Sai Baba, Ramana Maharshi, Sri Aurobindo, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, and Bhagawan Nityananda added another significant dimension to my quest. Reading up on their life and their teachings and the discussions I had while visiting these ashrams raised some important questions. What is the Essence of the universe that they talk about? How did they sense the Essence? What is the physical mechanism for the saints to achieve enlightenment? In other words, how did the information or the knowledge following enlightenment register in their brains? How can science explain this? The Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita have been the greatest source for spiritual teachings. There is a lot of information in the scriptures about salvation being the ultimate human goal in life, and the path to salvation. There is also credible evidence from life stories of saints that salvation is, in fact, achievable in this life.

I started exploring humans and their existence in the context of the existence of the universe to find the answer to some questions. How did the human mind explore the universe spiritually and scientifically? What do spiritual and scientific discoveries teach us? Are there simple ways for us to find answers to these questions, so that we can rationalize our existence and goals in this universe? What would be the benefits of finding the answers?

The summary of the answers to the above questions is the central thesis of this book. The goal is to explain several important aspects of our existence in the universe in terms of simple, unifying concepts. The information related to the ancient focus of the human mind, which explored the essence of the spiritual nature of the universe, makes us ask how the human mind conceived of God and the scriptures. What are the spiritual teachings in the scriptures? What do the enlightenment experiences of saints teach us?

All objects in the universe come from the same source. Only few exceptionally endowed objects in the universe have the ability to think about this ancestor and, possibly, become one with this ancestor. It is clear that the human mind is at the center of all religious thoughts and that the questions arising are all braincentric. Then it seems prudent to have a discussion related to spiritual and scientific aspects by studying the machine responsible for the human mind, the human brain, in the context of the universe. The birth of the universe and the beginning of life on earth is relevant to this discussion. The fundamental ingredient responsible for the origin of life and which, eventually, led to the development of the human brain needs to be explained. The connection between this fundamental ingredient and the Essence of the universe has to be explored. The scientific theory behind the evolution of the human brain, the functioning of the brain, and the latest discoveries in neuroscience help us to understand the topic better. The way in which the human mind has attempted to search for the source responsible for creating the universe, that is, the nature of the Essence responsible for the universe, is worth elaboration. The attempts of the mind to become one with this Essence need special focus.

The information related to the recent focus of the human mind that explored the Essence of the physical nature of the universe raises these questions. What do scientific discoveries teach about the makeup and workings of the universe? What is the fundamental ingredient of the universe? How did the objects in the universe result from this fundamental ingredient? Then the focus of this query becomes: how do we identify synergy between the spiritual and physical natures of the universe? Here, the following questions are asked. How do recent scientific discoveries corroborate ancient spiritual teachings? How can lessons from Sensing the Essence benefit in spiritual progress?

I started thinking about whether a credible narrative can be constructed that would explain what I had read, witnessed, and understood. This took me through the Vedic history and Vedic literature in India and the meaning and wisdom behind the teachings in the Vedic scriptures. Next, I tried to understand the progression of the Hindu religious practices. I also realized that some of the important teachings from the scriptures were now essentially forgotten. Then it occurred to me that saints and prophets were reminding us of what we forgot from the ancient teachings. But the nature of the Essence of the universe that the scriptures refer to is still unexplained. We need to consider whether discoveries in modern science regarding the physical nature of the universe help explain certain important aspects of ancient teachings, especially with regard to the mechanisms for the human mind to achieve enlightenment. This can help understand how the saints sensed the Essence.

All of this meant taking important teachings from the history of Vedic civilization and its progress, the scriptures, stories of saints and their experiences, cosmology, physical sciences, especially advances in physics, biology and neuroscience, and seeing how this information can explain Vedic thought, saintly experiences, and religious practices as we see them today. This exercise is briefly summarized in this book, Sensing the Essence. My findings are presented in a reasonably simple way for a non-expert to understand the subject matter and then hopefully benefit from the information encapsulated in this book. It is also hoped that the reader will get an appreciation for the special place for humans in this vast universe and the great opportunity presented to us to make use of the universal gift of human brain and mind, not only for material gain but also for spiritual progress.

Vedic religion, the oldest religion in the world, started thousands of years ago. It is an important part of Indian history. Along with the developments in beliefs in God, various scriptures with profound philosophical thinking were composed, preserved, and handed down accurately during the course of thousands of years. Combination of Vedic history and teachings from the scriptures became the foundation of civilization and religious practices in India. Various interpretations of the scriptures had significant impact on the beliefs and practices of people. Different types of religious practices came into being in our daily lives. Recent developments in physical sciences have suggested the merits behind the scriptural teachings, thus creating a positive overlap between modern science and ancient thought, and thereby giving it validity and credibility in the minds of the science-focused generations.

This book explores the following questions:

What is the Essence of the universe? How did humans learn about the Essence?

What do the scriptures teach about the nature of the Essence?

How did saints sense the Essence and achieve enlightenment?

How did the sensing machine, the human brain, arrive in the universe?

What do recent scientific findings tell us about the physical nature of the Essence in the universe?

What do advances in neuroscience tell us about possible mechanisms for the human mind to directly sense the Essence?

How can we use knowledge of this topic, Sensing the Essence, in our spiritual journeys?

The answers to the above questions are compiled in the following chapters.

1.   Exploring the Essence of the Spiritual Nature of the Universe:

Ancient Focus

1.1)   Vedic history: This topic covers Vedic history, development of the scriptures, and the progression of Hindu religious beliefs.

1.2)   Scriptural teachings: This topic summarizes teachings from the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita, including Brahman, Universal Consciousness, Consciousness Force, Paths for Salvation, and Enlightenment.

1.3)   Saintly Experiences: This topic covers stories of saints, their enlightenment experiences and teachings.

2.   Exploring the Essence of The Physical Nature of the Universe:

Recent Focus

2.1)   Birth of the Universe: This topic covers birth of the universe, start of life on Earth, and evolution of humans.

2.2)   Evolution of Human Brain: This topic covers the development of the thinking brain, functioning of the human brain, and recent findings in neuroscience studies regarding the human mind and possibilities for direct sensing of universal energy by the brain.

2.3)   Universe and Physical Sciences Discoveries: This topic covers the fundamental nature of universal matter, nature’s forces, and then force field as a fundamental entity for everything in the universe.

3.   Identifying Synergy between Physical and Spiritual Natures of the Universe: This Book’s Focus

3.1)   Summary of Teachings from Scriptures and Sciences: This topic provides an overview of what we have learned from scriptural teachings and scientific discoveries, examines possible commonality between scientific findings, scriptural teachings, and saintly experiences, and provides an insight into possible mechanisms for sensing the Essence by the human mind leading to enlightenment as a final stage of the sensing.

3.2)   Impact on Spiritual Progress: This chapter points out how readers can benefit from the knowledge gained from such studies in their spiritual journeys in today’s environment to harness universal energy and thereby achieve spiritual progress.

This book attempts to address whether we humans appreciate how exceptional we are in the context of the universe. It attempts to teach us how Vedic religion began and how we ended up with our current religious practices. It helps us to understand and appreciate that we have forgotten certain important scriptural teachings and that the saints and prophets continue to remind us of them. Do we understand how discoveries in physical sciences are on their way to corroborate scriptural teachings and provide validity to the scriptural teachings in the minds of the science-focused generations? How can we use such knowledge to make lifestyle changes to achieve spiritual progress? As these