All glories to Sri Sri Guru and Gauranga!
This series of articles has been introduced to discuss two seemingly opposite ends of a spectrum: Science and Religion. For centuries, the two have been at odds. But modern scientists are discovering that their theories and proved claims are becoming less and less certain.
Even professors teaching quantum mechanics in college courses warn students that “we do not really know the nature of this” when speaking of the behavior of particles at the atomic and molecular levels. How and why does the addition of observation to the procedure produce a substantial difference in results of the movement of the particles? This question plagues scientists and has sent them into a bewildered state. Why it is almost as if these particles have consciousness! As if they know they are being watched and thus travel a different path! But how can this be?
Science has long declared, in this way, that life comes from matter; consciousness comes from matter. But really it is matter that comes from life. Thus how can these minute atomic particles not have consciousness? Life comes from life. That is an universal fact.
Srila Sridhar Maharaj presented many religious topics in a very scientific way. He made it easier for the scientific community to understand the nature of the soul and Reality the Beautiful.
The finite cannot know the infinite from our own endeavor – such attempts are futile and lead to naught. The scientific community has embarked on such a path. How can we try to comprehend that which is inconceivable? How can we determine the nature of the very creation when it is neither straight nor predictable through empiricism and analytical thought processes? The objective world cannot attempt to understand the wonder of life because it is a servant of the subjective realm, of subjective consciousness.
Through the divine words and books of His Divine Grace, Srila Bhakti Rakshak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj, we learn the necessity of the quest for the Absolute Truth, for our real home, and for the subjective state of consciousness. But in our search for Reality the Beautiful, we must not become distracted or enamored by misconception and intellectual pursuits. Knowledge and studying will move us, but from that position, it is natural that we will fall down. However, if we come with the mood of seeking out the higher, divine agents rather than seeking servants for ourselves to satisfy some desire or knowledge, fame, or repute we will be eternally benefited. Our aspiration and goal, in this way, is for the Highest Truth and the unalloyed conception Sriman Mahaprabhu distributed.
Srimad Bhagavad Gita
In the Gita, it is said about the Supreme Personality of Godhead, “He is known as the illuminator of the luminaries, beyond darkness. Situated in the hearts of all beings, He is knowledge, the object of knowledge, reached by knowledge.” So we must dive deep into reality; we must “die to live” for the all-pervading, constant truth. We need to end our material mindset that seeks intellectual knowledge, which can only take us so far, in order to live with spiritual, God consciousness of our eternal life. In this way, we need to die to live. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu stated that congregational chanting is the only relief in Kali-Yuga, not practicing intensive yoga, or chanting crores of rounds, or intensely studying the Vedas. Our prayer is for appreciation and love of the Lord and his devotees as well as the opportunity for service, for where knowledge ends, that is where faith begins.