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Sikh Dharam Attay Wigyan (Pbi)
A Review by Prof Kulwant Singh*
Author: Dr Hardev Singh Virk
Published by: Raghbir Rachna Parkashan, Chandigarh
Pages : 128; price Rs 160/-
Edition: Sep 2008
“Since
even when the senses give the lead, thou see’st reason
hath wings too short.”
This is Beatrice’s advice to her paramour protagonist’s
soul while playing the role of his guardian angel during
his soul’s voyage to the higher regions of Paradise
in Dante’s Classic “The Divine Comedy”.
In other words, it sums up the limitations of human sensual
and mental perception of the physical world, universe and
beyond through the exercise of his highest faculities of
intellect, cognition and logical deductions even after keen
observation, experimentation and verification. In the empirical
world of science, whatever is physically and quantitatively
verifiable is real and true. In other words, its jurisdiction
ends wherever its range of perception of human mental antennae
ends. Just as human ears can not hear beyond a certain degree
of decibles or human eyes cannot see beyond a certain distance,
similarly human cerebral faculties are unable to observe
and perceive beyond a certain limit. For example, as the
learned scientist author has stated that human eye’s
maximum reach and sensitivity for seeing rays of light is
between four thousand angstroms to seven thousand angstroms,
although there are innumerable rays of light on both sides
of this spectrum. Similarly, whatever sounds human ear is
capable of hearing, their range is twenty to twenty thousands
cycles per second. Certain animals like dogs and bats have
a slightly higher range of hearing. With the aid of modern
tools of microscope and telescope and other gadgets, this
range has been increased to a certain extent. But still
it cannot reach infinity. So far human perception has gone
beyond an atom to proton, to neuron, to electron to quarks
of it in one direction and to the observation of some other
galaxies beyond the already known galaxy in the other direction.
Everyday, Scientists are discovering newer and newer facets
of matter and universe like peeling the layers of an onion-like
entity but still without arriving at the core and kernel
of it.
On the other hand, the Sikh Gurus, saints, spiritual savants,
mystics and transcendental thinkers had perceived the infinity
in one quantum jump through the exercise of their intuitive,
supra-conscious mystical faculties. In their transcendental
moments of enlightenment, they had perceived and communicated
such universal truths and observations about nature and
universe which scientists are now discovering layer after
layer and finding the mystics’ observations to be
true. Such, for instance, is Guru Nanak’s famous observation
about myriads of astronomical clusters of planets, galaxies
and solar systems in Japji. Time and again, Guru Nanak has
emphasized the infinite nature of the universe. The only
difference between mystical approach and scientific approach
lies in its mode of communication. Although both scientists
and spiritualists / mystics start their enquiry from the
visible/concrete to the invisible / abstract, the former
gets stuck in between and endeavours to explore further.
But the mystic reaches the final goal, the Infinite, and
then correlates the Invisible/Abstract/Infinite to the visible/concrete
as parts of a Single whole. Moreover, both differ in their
mode of communication. Whereas the scientist explains his
thesis and formulations through concrete, varifiable facts
which can be mentally grasped, the mystic conveys his information
through abstract, somewhat poetic images which ordinary
human beings fail to experience, comprehend and appreciate
due to the constitutional limitations of their biological
and physiological constitutional make up. Only exceptions
to this rule are some rare individuals like the celebrated
scientist Albert Einstein who could experience and grasp
both the scientific as well as mystical sensations when
he says, “The most beautiful and most profound emotion
we can experience is the sensation of the mystical. It is
the sewer of all true science. He to whom this emotion is
a stranger, who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe,
is as good as dead”, and “The cosmic religious
experience is the strongest and noblest mainspring of scientific
research.”
In fact, some other modern scientists, researching at the
sub atomic level, have started observing, though vaguely,
some kind of energy which seems to operate at that level.
It is in this grey area where there is a scope for a synthesis
between science and spiritualism because it is here where
science ends at present and spiritualism begins. This, in
nutshell, is the thesis of this book.
The author of the book under review gives the impression
of being a devout Sikh, a man of faith as well as a brilliant
Scientist whose intuitive and cerebral faculties have evolved
in tandom. It is a rare “unity of Being” with
“blood, intellect and imagination running together”
to borrow a phrase from W B Yeats.
Referring to invention of cybernetics, he feels that there
is a distinct possibility of man being finally united with
the Supreme reality after having experienced the phenomenon
of weightlessness of human body in space after crossing
the boundaries of earth’s gravitational pull. This
gives us a hope of a harmonious synthesis between science
and religion where all contradictions between the scientific
and the spiritual approach are likely to be resolved.
The author, undoubtedly, has an excellent command over Punjabi
but he is being a little overzealous by using the seemingly
unusual usages in Punjabi for a well-known scientific terminology.
Such unusual Punjabi usages tend to get on the readers’
nerves. Words like relativity had better been used as such.
The chapter on nanotechnology is really informative. It
is indeed creditable for a thorough-bred scientist to present
a composite vision of God, Universe, Religion and Science.
¤
©Copyright Institute of Sikh Studies,
2007, All rights reserved.
