CHICAGO CALLING - Vivekananda Vedanta Society Of Chicago

we find Atma - vidyA translated as “science of theSelf.” Similar to how various “schools” and sectsand sub-sects of Vedanta all come under the broadcategory of Vedanta, we find various types ofsciences coming under the umbrella of science.They include everything from the physical and lifesciences such as physics, chemistry, biology, andgeoscience, to social sciences such as psychologyand sociology, to applied sciences such asmedicine and engineering, and these days in theworld of technology, there is even a growing fieldof data-science. The variety encompasseseverything that we can perceive and observe in theuniverse we live in, and their subjects range fromsubatomic particles invisible to the human eye, toour everyday objects, to distant galaxies and thevast expanse of the knowable universe. Theirsubjects and scales are different, but they all sharesome common characteristics of science capturedin the definition.One, science is both intellectual and practical.Though fundamental sciences are intellectualpursuits motivated by the search for knowledgeabout the observable world, they are also practical.There are two parts to this practical aspect. Thefirst is that the validity of any scientific theory restson whether it can be practically observed andexperimentally verified. The second is theapplication of science to our world. This aspect iswhat we call applied science, or technology. In fact,“science and technology” often go together and areconsidered part of the STEM curriculum. Throughthe history of the development of science andsociety, we find scientific discoveries enablingpractical applications that benefit society whichthen in turns enables further advances in scienceand research and the wheel goes on. In religion,too we find will find Swamiji emphasizing thepractical aspect, “If it be absolutely impracticable, notheory is of any value whatever, except as intellectualgymnastics. The Vedanta, therefore, as a religion mustbe intensely practical. [CW, Vol. 2, Practical Vedanta –Part I]”The second characteristic of science we see inNO 24, 2019the definition is that it is a “systematic study”. It isnot merely observation and speculation. Thosewould just be opinions. But rather, it is a pursuitfor knowledge and understanding following amethodology which anyone can follow and verifythe results. In his beautiful introduction to RajaYoga, Swamiji remarks that religious practice, too,has methodologies which anyone can follow andpractice, “In the first place, every science must have itsown method of investigation. If you want to become anastronomer and sit down and cry ‘Astronomy!Astronomy!’ it will never come to you A certainmethod must be followed Each science must have itsown methods. I could preach you thousands of sermons,but they would not make you religious, until youpracticed the method. These are the truths of the sages ofall countries, of all ages, of men pure and unselfish, whohad no motive but to do good to the world. They alldeclare that they have found some truth higher thanwhat the senses can bring to us, and they inviteverification. They ask us to take up the method andpractice honestly, and then, if we do not find this highertruth, we will have the right to say there is no truth inthe claim, but before we have done that, we are notrational in denying the truth of their assertions. So wemust work faithfully using the prescribed methods, andlight will come [CW, Vol. 1, Raja Yoga].”The third characteristic is that the primarydomain of science is the physical, natural, andsocial world around us. In the language ofVedanta, science is concerned with the “sensoryworld” we live in. As the famous physicist AlbertEinstein put it, “The aim of science is.acomprehension, as complete as possible, of theconnection between the sense experiences in theirtotality.”. It is the external, observable universethat the sciences seek to understand. In the wordsof Swamiji, “Truth is of two kinds: (1) that which isknown through the five ordinary senses and byreasoning based thereon; (2) that which is knownthrough the subtle, supersensuous power of yoga.Knowledge acquired by the first means is called science;and knowledge acquired by the second is called theVedas. [CW, Vol. 6, Hinduism and Sri Ramakrishna]”Chicago Calling5

The physicist Gordon Kane in his book “TheParticle Garden” gives us a scientist’s view of whatcharacterizes science. He writes, “Science can bedefined as a self-correcting way to get knowledge aboutthe natural universe, plus the body of knowledgeobtained that way. It is both a method and the resultingunderstanding and knowledge. The method requiresmaking models to explain phenomena, testing themexperimentally, and revising them until they work. Thegoal of science is understanding. [Gordon L. Kane, TheParticle Garden, p. 206]”This part – the verifiability of intellectualtheories – is so fundamental to the scientificprocess that we can say something is scientific, or ascience if it can be methodically studied andexperimentally observed and universally verified.In the words of Nobel laureate Richard Feynman,“If it disagrees with experiment, it’s wrong. In thatsimple statement is the key to science. It doesn’t makeany difference how beautiful your guess is, it doesn’tmatter how smart you are, or who made the guess, orwhat his name is. If it disagrees with experiment, it’swrong. That’s all there is to it [ Richard Feynman - TheScientific Method].” In Swamiji’s view, religioustruths, too, can be and should be held to the samerigorous standards of verification. We find echoesof this in his statement, “Religion is realisation; nottalk, nor doctrine, nor theories, however beautiful theymay be. It is being and becoming, not hearing oracknowledging [CW, Vol. 2, The Ideal Of A UniversalReligion].” We know from Swamiji’s own life howhe was not satisfied with dogmatically acceptingthe idea of God, and then met Sri Ramakrishnaand asked if he had seen God, and for the first timeSwamiji met someone who could say that not onlyhad he seen God but he – the then-Narendranath -too, could have this direct experience. It is thatverifying before accepting as true – “In true religionthere is no faith or belief in the sense of blind faith. Nogreat preacher ever preached that Religion is aquestion of being and becoming, not of believing [CW,Vol. 4, The Claims of Religion].”A question we can ask ourselves is does thisapproach of studying, observing, and verifyingNO 24, 2019through direct means have any applicability toVedanta and religious practices? Or is it somethingwhich is restricted to the domain of physical andnatural sciences? To make our lives easier, Swamijiasked, and answered, this exact question, “Isreligion to justify itself by the discoveries of reason,through which every other science justifies itself? Arethe same methods of investigation, which we apply tosciences and knowledge outside, to be applied to thescience of Religion? In my opinion this must be so, andI am also of opinion that the sooner it is done the better.If a religion is destroyed by such investigations, it wasthen all the time useless, unworthy superstition; and thesooner it goes the better. I am thoroughly convinced thatits destruction would be the best thing that couldhappen. All that is dross will be taken off, no doubt, butthe essential parts of religion will emerge triumphantout of this investigation. Not only will it be madescientific — as scientific, at least, as any of theconclusions of physics or chemistry — but will havegreater strength, because physics or chemistry has nointernal mandate to vouch for its truth, which religionhas [CW, Vol. 1, Reason and Religion].” In fact, heintroduces Raja Yoga as such a science, “The scienceof Raja-Yoga, in the first place, proposes to give us sucha means of observing the internal states. The instrumentis the mind itself .The science of Raja-Yoga proposesto put before humanity a practical and scientificallyworked out method of reaching this truth. [CW, Vol. 1,Raja Yoga].”In Swamiji’s view, traditional physical sciencesand religions are both quests for Truth and asearch for underlying one-ness. In the case ofscience, it is an external search for universal, testedlaws that explain the observable universe, to“discover and illuminate Truth” as the marinebiologist and environmentalist Rachel Carson putit, and in the case of religion it is an inward searchto find the underlying oneness behind ourexistence. To Swamiji, “Science is nothing but thefinding of unity [CW, Vol. 1, Paper on Hinduism],”and, “The end and aim of all science is to find theunity, the One out of which the manifold is beingmanufactured, that One existing as many [CW, Vol.1,Chicago Calling6

Raja Yoga – Introduction].”It is interesting to find Steven Weinberg, aphysicist, a Nobel Laureate, and a self-describedatheist remarking how “The desire for one God andfor a theory of the whole cosmos might have the samecause. [in: We Are All Stardust – Scientists WhoShaped Our World Talk about Their Work, Their Lives,and What They Still Want to Know].” If we look atthe advances in sciences, we find this thread – ofsearching for general, unifying principles toexplain the multiplicity of observed phenomena.From early discoveries of different forms of matter,science probed further asking “What is commonbehind this variety? Is there something morefundamental underlying these?” and sciencediscovered molecules and atoms making up allmatter. And again asking, “What is behind these?Is there something more fundamental?” sciencefurther advanced, and through numerous theoriesand experiments discovered a world of subatomicparticles finer than atoms, finer than a nucleus.And the questions, “Why are there a variety ofsubatomic particles? Is there a unifying lawgoverning this multiplicity? Is there a unified forceof which the basic forces are a manifestation?”continue to be fundamental questions at the heartof astrophysics and particle physics research. WhatEinstein saw as “the supreme task of the physicist”was in his time, and still is, “the discovery of themost general elementary laws from which the worldpicture can be deduced logically. [The Collected Papersof Albert Einstein, Vol. 7].” In every science, not justphysics, we will find this search for the truthbehind multiplicity of appearances and behaviors,this search for a deeper understanding, for themost general, perhaps even a single, principle thatexplain the variety. What changes from one scienceto another is the subject for investigation. “It is inthis striving after the rational unification of themanifold that it encounters its greatest successes, eventhough it is precisely this attempt which causes it to runthe greatest risk of falling a prey to illusions [AlbertEinstein, Science and Religion].” One remark I’d liketo make here, is that an important quality inNO 24, 2019practicing science is keeping a sense of humility,and realizing not only limitations in our currentunderstanding, but also being aware that ourcurrent understanding may not be the full picture,being able to say “We don’t know” and thatadvances and discoveries down the road may leadto different conclusions and we should welcomethose if we are truly in search of the Truthwherever it may lead us.Swamiji saw these quests of science not ascontrary to the claims of Vedanta, but rather asconfirmation and validation of the conclusions ofthe essence of Vedanta. He says, “To my mind, ifmodern science is proving anything again and again, itis this, that we are one — mentally, spiritually, andphysically. It is wrong to say we are even physicallydifferent. Supposing we are materialists, for argument'ssake, we shall have to come to this,

Nikhilananda’stranslation of The Bhagavad Gita, Swami Vivekananda’sIdeas On Vedanta As Science Dr. Durgaprasad Rajaram (This article is based on the presentation that was delivered at Vedanta Society of Chicago’s 2019 Fall