Since time immemorial, mankind has pondered over the question of what constitutes our bodies. While we may have made tremendous progress in understanding the human anatomy, modern science is still very scared of the C word – consciousness. It is a word that has kept some of the smartest people this world has ever seen awake at night – from the likes of Albert Einstein to Neils Bohr to Erwin Schrodinger. What is that thing within us that makes us unique? What is that thing that makes us different from rocks and sand even though we are all built with the same fundamental building blocks of nature? What does the deceptively simple word – ‘life’ really mean? Modern science is so handicapped in this field that we don’t have the correct vocabulary to even begin framing the question we want to ask. For the lack of a better term, ‘consciousness’ is the often used catch all phrase that describes human beings beyond their material selves.
We live in a material world where we are primed to believe that everything that exists is matter. In fact, we even define vacuum as absence of matter. However, many of us have experienced that there is something beyond matter at play in this world. What is that unknown thing within us that causes feelings? What is this consciousness? Spirituality and modern science generally mix just as poorly as water and oil. However, when science has insufficient answers, even the greatest of scientists look towards religion and spirituality for clues. The elusive explanation to the aforementioned questions has often driven scientists to the Vedas and other ancient Hindu religious texts that hold an explanation for the above – one that material science hasn’t been able to fully comprehend until now.
Of the many verses in the Bhagvad Gita that speak about the material body and the spirit (or consciousness), I have chosen two for the purposes of this text. With reference to the material body in Chapter 2.22, Sri Krishna mentions to Arjuna –
vasamsi jirnani yatha vihaya, navani grhnati naro 'parani
tatha sarirani vihaya jirnany, anyani samyati navani dehi
meaning that as a person puts on new garments, giving up old ones, similarly, the soul accepts new material bodies, giving up the old and useless ones. Further, with reference to the spirit it is said in Chapter 2.24 –
acchedyo 'yam adahyo 'yam, akledyo 'sosya eva ca
nityah sarva-gatah sthanur, acalo 'yam sanatanah
meaning this individual soul is unbreakable and insoluble, and can be neither burned nor dried. He is everlasting, all-pervading, unchangeable, immovable and eternally the same.
The Bhagvad Gita clearly suggests that we are a composite of two different building blocks – the material body (matter) which is temporary and the soul (spirit) which is permanent. In the material world, everything that has a beginning must have an end. The material body is also subject to the laws of the physical environment without exception – all humans have to face the realities of disease, old age, and death. This body is not designed to endure and is by its very nature a temporary structure. However, the spirit is transcendental in nature and is not governed by the laws of physics and other laws of nature. It has always existed and will always continue to exist. There is neither birth nor death for the spirit. It cannot be created or destroyed. It cannot be damaged or injured. It will always prevail endlessly and forever.
In Chapter 2.11, Sri Krishna says –
asocyan anvasocas tvam, prajna-vadams ca bhasase
gatasun agatasums ca, nanusocanti panditah
clearly stating that our true identity is not associated with the matter but with the spirit. The material body is nothing but a temporary structure in the eternal journey of our spirits. Our spirits assume the material body (birth) only for a leg of their eternal journey and then this body is discarded (death). Eventually another body will be assumed (rebirth) and this process will continue until the spirit attains moksha.
So where does all this leave us with respect to modern science? Einstein proved that raw energy and mass are interchangeable. We know very well that matter can be converted into energy (for example, by burning a piece of wood). However, it is the reverse process that is more of an enigma. Surely the particle accelerators at CERN have been successful in creating matter out of energy; however, it has only been done by an incredibly inefficient process. This inefficient process is also unfortunately not one that modern science understands completely. Even if we were to, for a second, believe that we will be able to convert energy to mass in a way that is economical by nature’s standards – we are utterly clueless about what provides ‘consciousness’ to matter. Some scientists suspect that we may never truly understand ‘consciousness’ because modern science’s efforts to understand it has only been on a material plane. Einstein also believed that to understand consciousness we need to adopt a different plane of reference – one that is not governed by material laws but by other laws suited to the imperishable and everlasting nature of entities that reside on it.
Of the various theories that may possibly explain the creation of life and matter from energy, one of the leading ones is that of the ‘non conscious observer’. This theory suggests that energy can be converted into matter in the presence of a third entity which makes this conversion process possible. Modern science has no clue about the identity of this mysterious third entity – all we know is that this entity must NOT be matter. Obviously, since this mysterious entity is not matter, it cannot be governed by material laws of physics, biology, etc. We do not have the vocabulary to explain this third entity; and that has led to it getting the name of the ‘non conscious observer’.
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