Scientific Dimensions of Spiritual Energy : Brahmakumaris’ Perspective

Presented paper on 84th Indian Philosophical Congress, held at University of Mumbai (24th – 27th Oct 2009).


Introduction

The whole creation is the combined manifestation of both physical and non-physical energies. Science explores the material aspects of nature only through its limited scientific methods and techniques. But the knowledge of Self, the nature of Thought or Consciousness or Spiritual energy i.e. the Primary Reality as clearly accepted by all of the famous scientists and physicists, is beyond the scope of Science because Self is not observable and quantifiable. Hence another advanced discipline called ‘Spiritual Science’ or ‘Meta Science’ is significant to study this prime factor. Spiritual Science has the inner power to explain the concepts and laws of metaphysics by its subtle techniques of deep insight and revelation.

In this regard, Brahmakumaris, a renowned international spirituo-educational organization shows a unique path for the whole mankind towards attainment of both mundane and transcendental perfection by its spiritual knowledge. B.K Jagdish, Chief Spokesperson of this institution and a multi-faceted personality, has made attempts to shed light on the two realities - material and meta-physical assimilating both the laws and methods of Science as well as Spirituality.

In the present research paper, endeavours have been made from Brahmakumaris’ perspective to focus and render a concise note on Spiritual Energy on the basis of Modern Scientific Dimensions especially Quantum Theory, Theory of Relativity, Laws of Thermo-dynamics and so on and to justify the Realities of meta-physics which are logically built on and paralleled with Physics.

1. Spiritual Energy - A point of Non-material light

Spiritual energy has only the inherent, eternal quality called ‘consciousness’ which manifests itself in various forms namely thinking power, judgement power, memory, emotions, impression, feelings etc. and clearly differentiates Spiritual energy from Physical energy which does not possess these qualities. Mind, Intellect and Samskāra (Sub-conscious mind) – these three are the constituting subtle factors of consciousness. Consciousness is not an epiphenomenon of the brain or the electro-magnetic forces at work in the brain and elsewhere, nor can it be considered a product of chemical reactions taking place at the cellular level in the brain and other parts of the body. Souls and Supreme Soul are point sources of spiritual energy where as the rests i.e. the organic and inorganic Matter, the body and the brain etc are within the realm of physical energy. Spiritual energy is the knower, experiencer, observer or possessor that determines the use and purposes of the material things (energy) to get comforts and pleasures out of these. So, spiritual energy is the first or the prime reality and without knowing this, all other knowledge systems would be meaningless, purposeless and worthless.

Soul is a point of light which is spiritual in nature, divine in its original potential overwhelmed with seven divine qualities – Knowledge, Purity, Joy, Peace, Love, Bliss and Power and is different from the mundane light. As matter in its original form is made of particles, particularly sub-atomic light particles (photons), so the conscient energy is also a divine light particle (spiriton). Seven colours of light - Violet, Indigo, Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange & Red are reflected through seven spiritual qualities because light is the ultimate form of energy. Having shorter wave-lengths and more energy content, the subtler metaphysical energies controls the physical energies effectively. That’s why human being’s desires and intents are so powerful a force in nature that they can literally organize space-time events.

2. Dimensionless energy has the fifth dimension

A point does not have any dimensions. So, as a point of super-mundane light Soul is a dimensionless reality. According to Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, the world is a four-dimensional space-time continuum. It means all reality exists both in three dimensional space (i.e. latitude, longitude and altitude) and in time (i.e. fourth dimension) and the two are indivisible. All measurements of time are really measurements in space and conversely, measurements in space depend on measurements of time. But in metaphysics, the action of living beings has the fifth dimension, namely the moral dimension. Action of living beings has not only a reaction as one understands it in chemistry or physics but it results either in happiness or sorrow or a mixture of the two for the doer, the soul. Therefore, the moral aspect of action should be considered before doing.

Human being (Conscient soul with body) is neither a machine nor a gene. This sentient person has will and makes effort to achieve goal by using the pronoun ‘I’ for itself as a doer. The soul (spiritual power) which abides in the body* sets the body working by dint of its motive force or thought power. Thought or feeling is the agency which keeps the brain at work and the nervous system functioning. The body by itself can’t do anything. The soul works as a driver or the motive power and the body and its food as the motor power and the brain as the starter, the gear or the steer wheel.

3. Soul-speed – faster than Light-speed

According to the Theory of Relativity, the speed of light is the upper limit to the speed of material objects or particles. But in 1969, scientists namely O.M.P Bilaniuk, E.C.G Sudarshan have predicted on theoretical grounds that a particle can move faster than light which is named by G. Feinberg as Tachyon, a super-luminous particle. On the basis of this view, there are three types of sub-atomic particles –

• Those particles which have a positive physical mass and which move at a speed far less than the speed of light are known as Tradons.
• Those particles which have velocity equal to the speed of light and which possess zero rest-mass, are called as Photons or Luxons.
• Those particles which travel with velocity greater than light and have imaginary rest-mass, are named as Tachyons.

From the above statements, it may be considered that the minutest particles tachyons move at speed faster than light. Generally, the velocity of a particle gradually decreases because of the presence of other particles of the medium through which it passes. The velocity of light in vacuum is 3x108 m/sec, while in water it is 2.25x108 m/sec. But Tachyon’s speed cannot gradually be lowered by any means.

In that way, the soul which has less than zero mass i.e. imaginary mass can move with a velocity faster than light because it being a non-material entity, other particles in the atmosphere or in bodies can’t lower its speed. Gravitation, friction, forces of Nature also cannot affect the incorporeal soul. Thus a soul would take almost no time to leave one body and incarnate into another at a very great distance. It can also go to the Soul World which is far beyond this material world in a flash through thought power.

4. Supreme Soul (God) – Knower of three aspects of Time

Albert Einstein, the world-famous scientist opines that if one can travel faster than light then one can know three aspects of Time. The soul can know the present, past and future or at least it can know what is happening in a particular part of the world at present just a fraction of time. But for this, the soul has to be free of meta-physical pull i.e. attachment with or of others and has to have its meta-physical mirror i.e. Mind clear or its Intellect divinized. Only Supreme Soul, God knows everything what is happening in this whole universe because He can travel at infinite speed called ‘God Speed’ and has no any mental attachments or impurities. That’s why, He is always praised as omniscient.

5. Eternal point of light with elliptical form & Zero mass

According to the theory “Confinement of light in a medium” by the physicists Dr. P.K Jena and Dr. T. Pradhan – “Light of selected frequencies can be confined within the material whose dielectric constant is spherically systematic but decreases radially outward, becoming negative after a certain radius”. On account of this theory, quarks, the tiny sub-atomic particles are confined within protons and neutrons.

So, what is a fact of modern physics about the ultimate form of matter (physical energy) may have its parallel in meta-physics also regarding the ultimate geometrical form of Soul and Supreme Soul (spiritual energies). Thus the entities of meta-physics ‘God’ and ‘Soul’ are such divine and conscient light which are ‘confined’ in their respective oval form (aura). Further, that light is eternal in this form not only because it goes round and round in elliptical orbits of infinitesimal size without ever leaving the medium but also on the following grounds-

B.K Jagdish gives a clear justification about the truth related to these metaphysical energies, referring some of the prime statements of physics –

(i) “If there is any ultimate stuff of the universe, it is pure energy because sub-atomic particles are not made of energy, they are energy. This is what Einstein theorized in 1905; sub-atomic interactions therefore, are interactions of energy with energy. At sub-atomic level, there is no longer a clear distinction between what is and what happens between the actor and the action. At the sub-atomic level, the dancer and the dance are one.” (Quoted from Dancing Wu Li Masters)
This view explains why despite spending energy, the soul-energy is not exhausted. It also explains how the impressions (samskāra) abide in soul, the doer or the experiencer.

(ii) According to physicists, if two particles are made to collide, they are destroyed and in their place, two new ones are created. Both of these decay spontaneously into two additional particles, making them four. This shows that matter, at energy level is indestructible and the energy can act at its level not getting exhausted but only changing forms and multiplying.
This gives a clear hint how despite expending energy, the conscious energy of soul remains intact. Like sub-atomic particles, the soul doesn’t get destroyed, it is immortal forever as it is self-conserving. The spending of its energy regenerates energy though its qualities or attributes may change.

(iii) According to Einstein, matter or mass causes a ‘curvature’ of space-time. Thus in meta-physics, this conscious energy called soul may have a curved form like ellipse.

(iv) Nuclear fission or fusion shows the vast potential energy of a small particle like atom. Similarly, in the domain of meta-physics Soul and Supreme Soul which are minuter than the sub-atomic particles, can have tremendous conscious energy.

(v) Revelation of physics is that neutron is almost eternal because its time of decay is 1031 years which is 1000 billion billion times the age of the universe as calculated by evolution scientists. This final truth about matter gives a similar vision towards the immortality and eternity of the soul. Moreover, it is a fact of science that neutrinos have zero mass or they are almost mass-less. On the same lines, it can be understood that soul also has zero mass.

6. Soul & Supreme Soul (God) – Discrete particles, both are different

The starting point of modern physics, Quantum Theory developed by Max Planck in 1900 and further named by Einstein, brought a great change in the physicists’ concept of matter. Previous to Planck’s Theory, most physicists conceived of the world of nature or matter as a continuum. But the Quantum theory clearly states that the ‘continuous views’ of the world is replaced by a ‘’discrete’ one.

(i) Applying this Quantum theory, Einstein predicted that light is also made up of light particles called photons. Hence, Planck’s Quantum principle and Einstein’s Photo-electric Effect are based on the basic assumption that matter is not continuous, but is discrete and that even light which appears to be continuous is, in fact, made of particles called photons.

(ii) According to Statistical Mechanics, invented by J. C Maxwell and J.W Gibbs – a gas (also air which is a mixture of gases) is also composed of molecules or atoms which are individual in their nature.

(iii) Brownian Motion, developed by Robert Brown also states that liquids are also composed of discrete particles or quanta namely molecules.

All the above theories which come under the name of Quantum Theory, substantiate that nothing is continuous or one whole. Solids, liquids and gases, all forms of radiation including light are made up of discrete particles. This universal law can also be seen in meta-physics.

Now here the concept of God’s or Brahman’s all-pervasiveness propounded by monists, can be evaluated on the basis of Quantum theory.
If God only appears to be a continuous whole but is, in fact, composed or constituted of innumerable particles or innumerable discrete conscious quanta i.e. infinite number of discontinuous or separate souls, then this, however, can’t be because innumerable, separate conscious particles will give to the whole (if there be one) a split personality and such cannot be God’s personality (“Satyam Jñānam Anantam Brahma”) what monists speak about referring upanishadic statements. God is one single person or one single-consciousness. He is not a jumble or conglomeration of consciousness.

A conclusion that can be derived from the Quantum Theory is that Matter can be (and actually is) composed of innumerable discrete particles or quanta, but God cannot be (and is not) composed of numbers of innumerable particles (Souls). In other words, God is not (and cannot be) omnipresent, all-pervading or one who permeates the whole universe. There are innumerable Souls and God is one – supreme among them all.
Quantum theory in physics gives quantum principle in metaphysics and this latter runs counter to the belief that God is one whole, omnipresent or immanent power. Hence, God can only be a discrete particle – an infinitesimal point of light because light is the ultimate form of energy.

7. Entropy (Degradation) in Spiritual Energy & Entropy-reverse

The first and second laws of Thermo-dynamics are universally accepted and are applicable in both the spheres – material and non-material or spiritual.

(i) The first law of Thermo-dynamics, law of conservation states that energy can neither be created nor destroyed; it can only be transformed from one form to another form.

(ii) The second law of Thermo-dynamics says that every time energy is transformed from one state to another, there is a loss in the amount of that form of energy which becomes available to perform work of some kind. This loss in the amount of ‘available energy’ is known as ‘Entropy’. For example – if we burn a piece of coal, even then the total amount of energy remains the same, but due to the process of burning, some part of coal is transformed into sulphur dioxide and exhausts cannot be reburnt to get the same work out of it. This kind of ‘loss’, ‘wastage’ or ‘penalty’ is called Entropy.

The Entropy law states that all energy, in an isolated system moves from an ordered to a disordered state. The state in which energy-concentration is highest and available energy is maximum i.e. where entropy is minimum is also the almost ordered state (Sattvapradhāna avasthā) and where available energy has been highly dissipated and diffused, is the most disordered state (Tamopradhāna avasthā). Another aspect of the law is that whenever we make an attempt to reverse the entropy increase, it is only done by increasing the over-all entropy of the surrounding environment. The scientists Angrist and Herpler say – “Each localized, man-made or machine-made entropy decrease is accompanied by a greater increase in entropy of the surroundings, there by maintaining the required increase in total entropy.”

According to Dharma, the souls have originally 16 degrees level of energy-concentration and gradually, due to entropy, the energy level goes down, so that when there is maximum entropy and the level of energy-concentration is hardly three or four degrees, then Everpure Supreme Soul or God, the Highest Point-source of spiritual energy reverses the spiritual entropy by means of Godly knowledge and Rajyoga and the material entropy gets reversed by means of fission of nuclear weapons, natural calamities etc, so that the Earth, Water, Air and their products get again the maximum energy-concentration.

In other words, when the society has passed through its four stages of Golden age, Silver age, Copper age and Iron age and is in the fifth i.e. the Leap or Confluence age, then God Himself descends on this earth to reverse the entropy. The need of God’s act in such a situation is evident because, according to the Entropy Law, in a closed system, entropy increase cannot be reversed without increasing the entropy in the surroundings and therefore, in real terms, an outside source of energy is required to raise the energy-concentration without lowering the energy level in the surroundings.

Conclusion

From the above discussions it may be concluded that Modern Science and Spirituality are correlated disciplines of knowledge where for both of them, ultimate reality whether i.e. physical or metaphysical, is the prime matter of study. It is clearly observed that the established and undeniable Quantum principle, Relativity theory and Thermodynamics laws governing physical energy are equally applicable to metaphysical energy. Hence, on account of the theory of particle physics, spiritual energies vis. Souls and Supreme Soul are merely the discrete, sub-atomic particles of consciousness or sentient light. This conscient light energy’s manifested seven attributes of bliss, knowledge, peace, love, joy, purity and power are correlated to the seven hues of VIBGYOR. The infinitesimal point of spiritual light is eternal and massless conscient being with personality which has an elliptical form (aura) or energy shield or force field that expands or contracts according to the vibrations of thought- power and situation. The conscious energy, Soul loses its power gradually in due course of time by taking many births in form of bearing new new bodies and when Almighty Source of conscious energy descends on the earth and by receiving His divine connection then it makes itself fully charged with divine powers and restores them for the successive period of time cycle. In this regard, definitely Brahmākumāris’ subtle insight and spiritual knowledge, clearly presented by B.K Jagdish Chander with modern scientific methods regarding spiritual energy, the prime reality, occupy the most significant importance for the upliftment of the whole modern challenging world.

References

1. Eternal Drama of Souls, Matter and God, Part-I, B.K. Jagdish Chander, Prajapita Brahma Kumaris Ishwariya Vishva-Vidyalaya, Pandav Bhavan, Mount Abu, Rajasthan, 1998, Rpt.

2. The Eternal World Drama (Part-II of the series, titled ‘Eternal Drama of Souls, Matter and God’), B.K. Jagdish Chander Hassija, Prajapita Brahma Kumaris Ishwariya Vishwa Vidyalaya, Pandav Bhavan, Mount Abu, Rajasthan, 1985, 3rd Edition.

3. Spiritual Miscellany (Part-III of ‘World Drama of Souls, Matter and God’), B.K. Jagdish Chander, Prajapita Brahma Kumaris Ishwariya Vishwa Vidyalaya, Pandav Bhavan, Mount Abu, Rajasthan.

4. Science and Spirituality, B.K. Jagdish Chander, Brahmakumaris World Spiritual University, Pandav Bhawan, Mount Abu, 1988.

5. The Tao of Physics : An Exploration of the Parallels Between Modern Physics and Eastern Mysticism, Fritjof Capra, Shambhala publications, Berkeley, California, 1975.

6. Parallels between Science and Religion and Philosophy and Science- A Critical Review, B.K. Jagdish Chander, Brahma Kumaris Ishwariya Vishwa Vidyalaya, Pandav Bhawan, Mount Abu, Rajasthan, 1994, 1st edition.

7. Mysteries of the Universe, B.K. Nityanand Nair, Prajapita Brahma Kumaris Ishwariya Vishva-Vidyalaya, Pandav Bhavan, Mount Abu, Rajasthan, 2008, 1st edition.

8. Parallels between Science and Religion and Philosophy and Science- A Critical Review, B.K. Jagdish Chander, Brahma Kumaris Ishwariya Vishwa Vidyalaya, Pandav Bhawan, Mount Abu, Rajasthan, 1994, 1st edition.

9. Ancient Indian Insights And Modern Science (A UGC Project), Kalpana M. Paranjape, Bhandarkar Oriental research Institute, Pune, 1996, 1st print.

10. Do you know your Real Self, B.K. Jagdish Chander, Brahma Kumaris Ishwariya Vishwa Vidyalaya, Pandav Bhawan, Mount Abu, Rajasthan, 1994.

11. Complementarity of Science and Spirituality for better life, B.K Jagdish Chander, Prajapita Brahma Kumaris Ishwariya Vishwa Vidyalaya, Pandav Bhavan, Mount Abu, Rajasthan.

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