Partnership between science & spirituality

Sant Rajinder Singh Ji Maharaj *

The aim of science is to uncover the deepest truths, and the aim of spirituality is the search for the cause behind fact. Scientists discover how creation and human life came into being. Those engaged in spirituality try to find the hidden cause behind scientific fact.

They are interested in the laws of nature, but wish to find the divine law that brought everything into being. While scientists search through outer instrumentation, spiritual scientists focus on higher levels of consciousness.

Both science and spirituality aim at the same truth, but arrive there differently. At the heart of science and spirituality is a partnership seeking to answer the same questions.

When scientists study water, they analyse its molecules. But when spiritual scientists study water, they become immersed in experiencing it through direct perception. Both perceive water but through different modes of perception.

People today are familiar with reports of spiritual experiences. Polls and studies show that many believe in God, the soul, and an after-life. Such people find no contradiction between science and spirituality. They believe in scientific law as well as spiritual law. What people take as miracles are nothing more than higher laws.

Washington Carver, an African –American who was once a slave, later became a world-famous scientist. He discovered 300 products that could be made from the humble peanut. Once he was asked how he came up with those discoveries.

Carver replied, “One day I asked God what could be made out of a peanut?” God told me, “You have brains; find out for yourself!”

This illustrated the relationship between science and spirituality. While God is the inspiration, human beings have a duty to search for knowledge and make discoveries. God could easily create anything, but God leaves it to humans to make the discoveries.

Human beings have a choice: to live for themselves or devote their lives to the betterment of this planet. Some live only to gratify their desires. Those who contact a higher power, discover that the greatest purpose is to love and serve others.

Scientists are devoted to bettering the lives of others. Thus, we find the mission of spiritual scientists and physical scientists is the same. They are both here to use their discoveries to better the lives of others.

While physical scientists gaze at the stars through telescopes, and listen to radio-waves from distant stars through instrumentation, spiritual scientists gaze at the inner stars and listen to the inner Music of the Spheres through meditation.

They both sit in silence, watching and waiting. Physical scientists try to prove through the outer eyes and ears, while spiritual scientists try to prove through the inner eyes and ears.

My scientific background helped me study spirituality as a science. This approach helped me prove the validity of spiritual experiences. My spiritual background enabled me to better pursue the study of science.

Meditation gives inspiration to uncover scientific truths. Discoveries come as inspiration. What is inspiration but tapping into spiritual laws?

Science and spirituality make a great partnership. If those engaged in science spend time in the silence of themselves, inspiration will come and lead them to the answers they seek. If those interested in spirituality apply the scientific law of testing hypothesis in the laboratories of their own bodies, they will find results.