Linking modern science and ancient scriptural texts

Modern science and ancient scriptures are often considered to be on opposite sides of the spectrum. While one focuses on discovering the universe and thus the external world, the other takes the journey into the inner world.

Modern science, initiated 400 years ago, followed the path of classical physics, but the turn of the 20th century saw discoveries incomprehensible by the classical framework of thinking. This led to two new branches of science: Relativity and Quantum physics.

However, the core of Indian philosophy stems from Vedanta, that means the end of knowledge, which originally meant the Upanishads. Upanishads, Brahma Sutras, and the Bhagavad Gita are the three sources of Vedanta philosophy. And the varying interpretations of the teachings led to various branches of Vedanta. These scriptures were often revelations or insights that great mystics or sages experienced, therefore lacking scientific evidence.

This brings us to the questions — what is the connection between modern science and Vedanta? Is there a consensus?

Kashyap Vasavada, Emeritus Prof of Physics, Indiana University - Purdue University, brought out the similarities between the ancient texts and modern discovery.

“Scientists realised that the world is not made out of rigid firm objects like billiard balls or bricks. At the atomic and sub-atomic level, it consists of fuzzy wave like objects and lot of empty space. So the solid nature of objects we see around is only apparent. As one goes deeper and deeper, one keeps on finding vacuum all the way,” said Vasavada.

Quoting Adi Shankaracharya: “Brahma Satyam, Jagat Mithya”, he said that this reminds one of the ideas of ‘Maya’ or illusion controlling the whole universe.

“Brahman is the only truth; the world is a false illusion. I believe he realised that all of this disintegrates and thus cannot be a fundamental reality. Similarly, in physics, one sees only the material objects around and does not see the strange quantum fuzzy world underlying all the matter,” he added.

These particles, as the Physics professor says, are in some sense both here and there at the same time; and are described by a superposition of seemingly contradictory properties. “Such a description is very similar to the description of Brahman or the example in Ishopanishad: It moves and it moves not; it is far and it is near,” explained Vasavada.  

Whereas, Erwin Schrödinger, father of Quantum physics says the particles represented by wave functions was consistent with the Vedantic concept of ‘All in One’.

What science says

Quantum entanglement is one of the guiding principles in Quantum physics that talks about how action on a particle can influence another particle far away. Albert Einstein himself named it ‘spooky action at a distance’.

Particles are split from a single course in a laboratory. These split photons carry opposite charges. One of these photons are separated and exposed to a magnetic field to increase its spin, but the other photon far away is also influenced, and acquires the state of the first one.

Scientists have tried to come up with various reasons for this phenomenon, that of particles being in contact with one another or an instant transmission of information between the particles.

Science and the ancient scriptures, though seemingly different, are now walking on parallel paths as more discoveries are proving that science and the scriptures are just two different ways of discovering the universe.

In fact, Karl Heisenberg, theoretical physicist and a pioneer of quantum mechanics, stated: “Quantum theory will not look ridiculous to people who have read Vedanta”.