Science : Pujya Gurudev

Pujya Gurudev Pt. ShriRam Sharma Acharya’s Kripa

The Incompleteness of Science

(Akhand Jyoti July-Aug.2010)

Science was born long ago. The period of the extra-ordinary progress in the past few centuries is quite small compared to the ancient world history. Achievements of the recent past can be compared to the development of a child. Children make mistakes and get corrected almost every day. The same has been going on in the fields of modern scientific research also. A principle is propounded today and gets accepted. Tomorrow a doubt crops up. The day after dissections of the principle begins; and in the end, it gets rejected as unacceptable in view of a more advanced theory or experimental finding.

There is no surety that what has earned ‘universal’ acceptance today shall continue to be accepted in the very same form tomorrow also. No doubt, in the search for truth, dedicated efforts should be made, but at the same time it is necessary to have humility and patience. There is a need to be especially careful before making statements that can make a profound impact on human values, morality, faith and social setups. Ethical teachings or religion is one such subject. It has a direct relation with man’s trust in good character and in his responsibilities as a civilized member of the human-society. If these ideals have to be kept alive, then those foundational pillars should not be shaken on which the edifice of stability, peace and progress is standing today.

Inappropriate trespasses made by science : Modern science has not been able to establish a separate and independent existence of consciousness in its laboratories.  Just because of that it was improper on its part to state that consciousness does not exist, or that inner-self is imaginary and hence the notion of religion attached with it has no rational basis.  The pseudo-scientific proclamations like “Soul, God and religion are imaginary creations of crazy minds” made by some so-called rationalists in the past had resulted in the spread of negation of faith in human values and higher consciousness. This damaged the ideals that laid the foundation on which ascent of human civilization and culture was initiated and has progressed so far. 

God, soul, religion, law of karma (Nature’s law that destiny is shaped by one’s own deeds), selflessness, self-restraint and all such beliefs are integral with theism. With the negation of God and hence of spirituality, ethics and the associated principles of religion how can there be any control on the blind selfishness and beastly tendencies in the society? In absence of such control human beings would neither be able to have and transact mutual love and cooperation, nor would they be able to think or act in any way for self-development. 

Thanks GOD, Thanks Sadguru,

Shiv Sharma