India is a country of great spiritual culture. India is known for esoteric knowledge acquired by great rishis. Vedas, Puranas and various commentaries on them were written to distribute this knowledge to common people. Today, because of influence of modern science in our education system, many people tend to think that Vedas are superstitions. Those who do not treat it as superstition, feel that at least they are not relevant in today's world. So, spirituality is getting ignored and neglected by coming generations. This transition has taken place primarily because of two reasons. Firstly, influence of modern science (which focuses mainly on outer world) in current education system is so high, that students tend to believe that modern science explains every thing in this universe, and rest of the philosophies are waste. Secondly, influence of western culture, and lifestyle focused towards fulfilling worldly pleasures is so high, that simplicity in our culture is underestimated. It has lead us to loose faith in our rich spiritual heritage. We are simply unable reach to depths to understand our culture and spiritual philosophy.
In following few blogs we will see, how spirituality is no different than science. How the primary goal and methodology of both are same. We will also see what are the latest findings of modern science and how strikingly they coincide with what spirituality teaches us.
SPIRITUALITY AND MODERN SCIENCE
Spirituality has exactly the same goal which modern science has. That is, to know the ultimate truth... the questions like 'who created this world?', 'what are laws governing this world?', 'what was the purpose behind creating this world?', 'what is the meaning of our life?', 'why is there pain and pleasure in this world?' etc.. Both science and spirituality try to find answers to these wonderful questions in their own ways. Science starts from understanding the external objective world first. It understands its rules, mechanisms. Then it goes in more details like what the external objects are made up of ? molecules, atoms, subatomic particles etc. It tries to study their behavior, rules they follow. Then science tries to link these things to human body, mind. It studies how our own senses work, and why they work like that. It tries to understand, if there are any rules governing our senses ? does our mind follow any patterns ? It tries to link the external world with mechanics of our senses and mind. Thus, science follows the path from outside to inside. In its main methodology, it tries to explain internal things taking outer things as basic building blocks.
Spirituality takes exactly opposite way. It tries to explain external objective world by studying internal things first. By applying various techniques like 'Bhakti', 'Meditation', 'Samadhi' it tries to understand what is their inside us. What is the most primary building block of our mind ? What is the nature of consciousness that we have ? What are the different things that our mind and our senses are made up of and how they work in coordination with each other ? And then it tries to pursue how external world comes into existence ? It also studies, in what sense the external and internal are different from each other, or both are same ?
However, despite of this difference, the systematic and stepwise methodology adopted by science and spirituality are exactly same. Spirituality is also purely based on logical and rational inquiry. Many people disagree with this fact. Spiritual practices have as robust and systematic way of study that science has. Unfortunately, in today's world it is rare to find ideal spiritual teachers who can perfectly teach this methodology. And thats why common perception about spirituality has changed.
Concluding shortly, science and spirituality are nothing but honest inquiry into fundamental questions by human curiosity. They are merely different ways of how this inquiry done. One stars from outside while other starts from inside. So spirituality and science are two sides of same coin.... In next blogs, we will understand how science implies towards the same things that ages old spirituality has taught us. How both of them reach to some common conclusions.
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