Matter vs. Spirit
Since the dawn of human civilization, a war of words has been waging as to the nature of Ultimate Reality – whether it is Matter or Spirit? Put into other words, whether beyond the perceptible world of matter there is an invisible reality and if so, what is its relationship with the material world? All this futile debate or mental gymnastic, if one is allowed to say so, is due to a wrong presumption that ‘matter’ and ‘spirit’ are two distinct entities.
Let us view this problem in the light of the conclusions of modern science. There was a time in the history of modern science when atom was assumed to be the subtlest unit of matter - the basic, smallest fragment of the material world. Later the atomic theory was replaced by the ‘particle theory’ when it was discovered that atom was divisible into subatomic particles and that these subatomic particles have a wave-like aspect, sometimes appearing only as waves and not as particles at all.
Particle physics since then has discovered hundreds of subatomic particles which are short-lived and swiftly decay into other particles, and it has been found that any type of subatomic particle can be transformed into any other type. Thus the word ‘particle’ takes on a new meaning. It is no longer a distinct, indestructible unit with a constant identity but a dynamic pattern with a certain amount of energy that can be modified into other particles. These extremely dynamic packets of energy form relatively stable atomic and molecular structures which look like substance built up into things. But at the subatomic level there is nothing substantial. Thus Physics has shown us that the reality behind the physical world is a ceaseless flow of energy and our senses show us only a dream-like imagery resting on a quite different foundation. What is this foundation or the substratum behind the physical world? Physics has probed further and come out with the revelation that there exists a non-material constant behind the transient physical world, which is called as ‘Field’. This Field Theory arose in Physics to explain action at a distance. Thus particles are but fleeting conditions in the abiding field, concentrations of energy, which arise from the field and dissolve back. In other words, the field generates matter, brings it into being from itself, and draws it back into nothing.
In this context of field theory, the colorful, varied world we perceive, which seems so real, solid and immediate, becomes a passing manifestation of an underlying non-material continuum, the field. The seemingly solid, separate things we experience through our senses are not solid or separate at base but emerge from the same unitary background, which is the primary reality.
Has not the same Truth been enshrined in the Advaita (non-dual) philosophy of Vedanta? Vedanta has established that the world of sense-experience is merely an appearance and arises from an underlying and unchanging substratum known as Brahman. Swami Vivekananda has rightly observed that “some of the conclusions of modern science sound like echoes of Vedanta.”
Let us view this problem in the light of the conclusions of modern science. There was a time in the history of modern science when atom was assumed to be the subtlest unit of matter - the basic, smallest fragment of the material world. Later the atomic theory was replaced by the ‘particle theory’ when it was discovered that atom was divisible into subatomic particles and that these subatomic particles have a wave-like aspect, sometimes appearing only as waves and not as particles at all.
Particle physics since then has discovered hundreds of subatomic particles which are short-lived and swiftly decay into other particles, and it has been found that any type of subatomic particle can be transformed into any other type. Thus the word ‘particle’ takes on a new meaning. It is no longer a distinct, indestructible unit with a constant identity but a dynamic pattern with a certain amount of energy that can be modified into other particles. These extremely dynamic packets of energy form relatively stable atomic and molecular structures which look like substance built up into things. But at the subatomic level there is nothing substantial. Thus Physics has shown us that the reality behind the physical world is a ceaseless flow of energy and our senses show us only a dream-like imagery resting on a quite different foundation. What is this foundation or the substratum behind the physical world? Physics has probed further and come out with the revelation that there exists a non-material constant behind the transient physical world, which is called as ‘Field’. This Field Theory arose in Physics to explain action at a distance. Thus particles are but fleeting conditions in the abiding field, concentrations of energy, which arise from the field and dissolve back. In other words, the field generates matter, brings it into being from itself, and draws it back into nothing.
In this context of field theory, the colorful, varied world we perceive, which seems so real, solid and immediate, becomes a passing manifestation of an underlying non-material continuum, the field. The seemingly solid, separate things we experience through our senses are not solid or separate at base but emerge from the same unitary background, which is the primary reality.
Has not the same Truth been enshrined in the Advaita (non-dual) philosophy of Vedanta? Vedanta has established that the world of sense-experience is merely an appearance and arises from an underlying and unchanging substratum known as Brahman. Swami Vivekananda has rightly observed that “some of the conclusions of modern science sound like echoes of Vedanta.”
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