Book Reviewed: Modern Physics and Vedanta by Swami Jitatmananda

The wisdom of Vedic seers reflected in Vedanta

Swami Jitatmananda has explained the parallels between the principles of Vedanta Philosophy of Hinduism and physics in the best way possible. This is very concise book dealt with an emphasis on the works of Swami Vivekananda and his efforts to bring the scientific community and Vedanta on par. Vivekananda preached in the language of science and discussed with some of the well-known physicists of his time. Quantum physics had just been discovered when he was actively teaching the Advaita Vedanta Philosophy in North America and Europe. He once said that “it has been a terrible struggle.”

Vedantic epistemology and ontology transcended the experimentally verifiable universe. The wisdom of Vedic sages see the physical reality as One Supreme Consciousness, the Brahman. This has the attributes of omniscience (infinite knowledge), omnipotence (unlimited power), omnipresence (present everywhere), Omni benevolence (perfect goodness), immutable, divine simplicity, and eternal existence. Brahman exists in spaceless and timeless dimension in an unchanging reality amidst and beyond the realm of the universe. His qualities are personal and impersonal. Advaita Vedanta is strongly monotheistic that believes in the existence of one God or the Oneness of God. And all forms of matter/energy in spacetime is an integral part of this Entity. God and the universe (with all life and non-life forms) are not separate (dual) but one integral part of “Pure Consciousness.” Each fundamental particle reflects the whole universe. The biggest is reflected in the smallest, and the smallest is reflected in the biggest. Physicists like Erwin Schrodinger, Werner Heisenberg, Niels Borg, David Bohm, Nikola Tesla, Carl Sagan, and Robert Oppenheimer were deeply interested in the metaphysical concepts emerging from Bhagavadgita and Vedanta.

Ramakrishna Paramahansa focused mainly on the illusory power of Maya, but for his disciple Vivekananda, Brahman, the Supreme Consciousness was the main subject of his discussions. Recent advances in physics show that spacetime and matter are intimately connected than thought. It is not just a fabric but active principle in the operation of the laws of physics. The amalgamation of space (three dimensions) and time (one-dimension) into 4-dimensional malleable spacetime creates a unique reality that make space look differently for different observers in the universe. Space and time warp to accommodate speed of light. Nothing moves faster than light; gravity, forces, information, matter or energy. Moving clock tick slower and moving ruler appear shorter and hence there is no objective measure of space and time. Gravitational waves are ripples in the curvature of spacetime that propagate as waves at the speed of light. Space is fundamentally discontinues at quantum scales and exist in discrete quanta as opposed to our experience that space is a continuous fabric. Space can bend, rip and repair and it can expand (move) faster than light. Hence space has spilled out of our universe into another universe in a multiverse concept before light of this universe could catch up with it.

In quantum physics, reality allows you to see all events encapsulated in time including the past and future from outside it. All quantum physical observables and the reality that could be calculated depends on this observation. Time itself is not observable and so it cannot be calculated. The principle quantum uncertainty makes it harder to distinguish the order of events that are very close in time, in essence the effect could be preceded by the cause. This is because at a most fundamental level, space exists in a discontinuous state of quanta (bits), and it is not continuous as we perceive. Some physicists like Julian Barbour suggest that time is illusory, and space is real. Lee Smolin postulates that space is an illusion and time is real.

The universe is popping out of nothing, like matter and antimatter coming into existence in vacuum and annihilating into nothing. In fact 96% of the universe is made of dark matter and dark energy; the nature of them are not known and we don’t know the nature of laws that operate on dark matter and dark energy. Only 4% of the universe is the material world (both matter and anti-matter). Laws of physics is applicable only to this 4%.

Cause and effect are an important topic in all schools of Vedanta and all of them subscribe to the theory of Satkāryavāda, which means that the effect is pre-existent in the cause. But there are different views on the causal relationship and the nature of the empirical world from the perspective of metaphysical Brahman. From Brahmasūtra-Bhāṣya 2.1.9, Adi Shankara observes that despite the non-difference of cause and effect, the effect has its self in the cause. This fits perfectly with quantum physics concepts. Matter at its most fundamental form exists in both wave and particle forms. In this dual wave-particle picture, matter exists in a wave-like "superposition" of all its possible positions or states, only settling in one state on measurement. Erwin Schrödinger lampooned this idea in his thought experiment about a cat that exists simultaneously in two states, alive and dead. This is popularly known as Schrodinger’s Cat Paradox.

Advaita Vedanta states that from "the standpoint of Brahman-experience and Brahman itself, there is no creation" in the absolute sense, all empirically observed creation is relative and mere transformation of one state into another, all states are provisional and a cause-effect driven modification. Due to quantum fuzziness and the discontinuous nature of space and uncertainty principle and wave – particle duality, the cause and effects are mutually affected by each other. According to quantum reality, many-worlds interpretation of quantum physics, we don’t have a free will. The universe is predetermined and pre-ordained in multiverse where space splits to create infinite number of universes satisfying all possible choices and outcomes. Or simply put the collapse of quantum state is a pre-programmed by an entity that has “Pure Consciousness.”

The theory about the universe being an illusion or a hologram fits the illusory nature of reality (Maya) expounded in Vedanta. The idea is similar to that of ordinary holograms where a three-dimensional image is encoded in a two-dimensional surface, such as in the hologram on a credit card. Here the entire universe is encoded on a 2-dimensional surface according to string physics and the current understanding of quantum gravity and quantum space.

Plant neurobiology is a fast-developing field in biological sciences despite the fact they do not have brain, a central nervous system or any type of cognitive structures. Plants communicate, signaling within, eavesdropping on neighboring individuals, and exchanging information with other organisms. They have adaptive responses related to their existence. Yet they seem to have consciousness according to many biologists. For example, to understand the mouse’s behavior, we must know about the mouse’s brain, its nervous system and perhaps its genome, but we cannot understand how it feels to be a mouse. Brain not only creates an illusion of reality and also a separate immaterial feeling of “I” having conscious experience. Physicist Michael Graziano of Princeton University says that consciousness is a fundamental component of the universe like matter and energy. It does not appear in any formula of classical relativity or quantum physics.