Rakesh Kumar Pandit
When I thought to pendown this article I got nervous because the subject of consciousness and its relation with the material world is very difficult to handle but somehow I muster courage to write. For rationalists it may be a crazy thing. But I want to raise a question, Is measurement the only source of meaning and purpose in this world?
The Higgs particle, popularly known outside the scientific community as God Particle has acquired the center stage after its tentative discovery in CERN (worlds largest particle physics laboratory in Geneva) in July 2012 and therefore Higgs is a household name now. The Higgs Particle is named after Peter Higgs, who along with five others, proposed the theory that suggested such a particle in 1964. Peter Higgs and Francois Englert have developed the key concepts in the theory that predicted Higgs Particle and will therefore be awarded 2013 Noble Prize for Physics. This particle is considered crucial to our understanding of the structure of matter. The scientists believe that this particle will explain why objects in our universe have mass and in doing so why planets, sun, galaxies and even human beings have any right to exist. Does consciousness play any role in the development of mathematical theory which is a product of brain chemistry to describe physical reality or is it self evident that there should be a correspondence between mathematical formulas and laws of universe? Noble Physicist Paul Wigner was of the view that consciousness of the scientist plays the role of a hidden variable that decides which outcome of an event actually occurs. From 1964 onwards scientists were trying hard to look for this God particle and this lead to the construction of Large Hadron Collider (LHC at CERN-Geneva) along the border of France and Switzerland, the largest ever, most expensive and most complicated machine ever built by human beings. One of the primary goals of the LHC at CERN was to test the existence of Higgs Particle and measure its properties. In LHC new particles are created only when known particles collide with very very high speed, sometimes nearing that of light. Every collision causes annihilation of the original particles and the creation of the new particles. This energy dance, this endless process of destruction and creation of particles, is going on in the outer space. Professor Fritjof Capra (The Tao of Physics) has compared this eternal and cosmic dance in the outer space of our earth to the mystic dance of the great God Nataraja Shiva . Shiva the protector of Uma (which means our earth) is saving her and all the creatures (Shiva is the father of all creation) with his four hands. “The right upper hand holds a drum to symbolize the primary sound of creation in the universe. The left upper hand bears a tongue of flame symbolizing the destruction of harmful cosmic particles from outer space. The right lower hand is raised in the sign of “Do not be afraid”, I am protecting you all. The left lower hand points down to the “uplifted foot “which symbolizes surrender at the feet of Shiva-the protector.”
The Higgs Particle is nicknamed as God Particle, the Scientists at the CERN reject the notion that their search is anything to do with the God, which may only be technically true. Higgs himself is displeased that the Higgs particle is nicknamed the ‘God Particle’ because the term might offend the people who are religious. But is the Science and Religion really at the crossheads? Is the faith in religion has something to do with the rejection of science and undermine its achievements? Is the scientific temper or reason based thinking something non-religious? A student of both philosophy and science is not going to accept it. In fact they are always advocating and propagating the complementary nature of Science and Religion.
Swami Vivekananda has pointed out this fact as early as 1895. “Modern science has really made the foundations of religion strong. That the whole universe is one is scientifically demonstrable. What the metaphysicians called ‘being’ the physicist called ‘matter’ but there is no real fight between the two, for both are one.” The approach which the scientists adopt to study the physical laws and find out the truth, the same has been advocated by Swami Vivekananda to explore and realize the principles and practices of religion a century ago. He has said, “The religion is to be realized. And for one to become religious means that he will start without any religion, work his way up, and realize the things, see things for himself. When he has done that, then and then alone, he have religion. Before that he is no better than atheists, or worse, because the atheist is sincere; he stands up and says, ‘I do not know about these things, while those others do not know but go about the world saying , We are very religious people. What religion they have no one knows, they have swallowed some grandmothers story and priests have asked them to believe these things. This is the first principle, that realization is religion.”
From the study of this God Particle it is known that this God Particle is very difficult to demonstrate as it exists only for a tiny fraction of a second before breaking up into other particles so quickly that it cannot be directly detected and can be detected only by identifying the results of its immediate decay and analyzing them to show that they were probably created from a Higss Particle and not some other source. Same is the case with almost every other fundamental particle in this universe. Modern particle physics has established the fact that search for a single particle, as a separate independent entity is false. The very experience of the separate independent existence of a particle is unreal. The Vedantic Philosophy advocates that the right vision is to perceive the whole in the so called isolated entity. This is what the Vedantist means by the statement “Brahman alone is real.” Swami Vivekananda has said, “Each atom reflects the whole universe, the biggest is reflected in the smallest”. Swami Vivekananda has put the Vedantic vision in a very realistic way and brings the findings of modern physics in relation to the social and cultural life of this world. Swami Vivekananda has said, “One atom in this universe cannot move without dragging the whole world along with it. There cannot be any progress without the whole world following in the wake, and it is becoming every day clearer that the solution of any problem can never be attained on racial or national or narrow ground. Every idea has to become broad till it covers the whole of this world, every aspiration must go on increasing till it has engulfed the whole humanity, nay the whole of life within its scope.”
Prof. Ashok Sharma (Former Professor of Physics at Harvard University) considers consciousness a non physical entity which is different from four basic entities of space, energy and matter of the conventional science. He further stresses that the Vedic and scientific systems of knowledge has been considerably reduced and scientists have started realizing the necessity of integration of consciousness with the concepts of science. Noble laureate Wigner was of the view that “The very study of the physical world leads to the conclusion that the concept of consciousness is an ultimate reality and, all the possible knowledge, concerning objects can be given as its wave function.” Thus Physics is connected with metaphysics and all matter is connected with mind. This is one of the basic Vedantic truths.
(The author is Assistant Professor of Physics at GDC-Bhaderwah)
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