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Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780835621854 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Quest Books |
| Publication date: | 01/01/1932 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 750 |
| File size: | 1 MB |
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CHAPTER 1
Religious Science and Scientific Religion
Asiatic Thought and European Thought. It is common knowledge that Asiatic thought is eminently coloured by religion; as modern European thought is by science. All the great living religions are of Asiatic origin; also almost all the historical great dead religions. The personal, domestic, and social life of the Hindu is largely governed by the rules of what he regards as his religion. So is that of the Musalman. So of the Jew. So of the Confucian. So was, and to a considerable extent still is, that of the Christian belonging to the Roman Catholic form of Christianity. Such also is the case with the followers of the other forms and reforms of the Vedic religion, known as the Zoroastrian, the Buddhist, the Jaina, the Sikh; though perhaps the element of ritual is less prominent, and that of ethics more, in the later of these, in accordance with the very principle of reform. Laotsism is mostly a profound philosophy, the same in essence as Vedanta-Yoga and Tasawwuf; its practical side is Confucianism. Shintoism, nobly regarding man as naturally virtuous, teaches ritual mostly. In all these, the feeling is prominent, that the human being is under the ever-present influence of Something, is always in relation with Something, which is other than what is perceptible to the outer senses; that the life of the physical body is subordinate to the life of a Mysterious Something, the Soul, Spirit, which has a life beyond this life. Indeed, the tendency to what has been called other-worldliness has, in some communities, grown over-pronounced, even to the extent of becoming a disease.
Contrary to this, in the West, advanced thought was, until very recently, cutting itself off, more and more, from all concern with the possibility of things beyond the reach of our physical senses; excepting, of course, some very meta-physical 'abstract concepts', which, somehow, indispensably constitute the very roots of the various most positive sciences, and are a perpetual reminder, to the thoughtful, of the inseparable connection between the physical and the metaphysical; concepts like the arithmetical 'one, two, three, etc., and zero'; the geometrical 'point, line, surface'; the dynamical 'force, energy, attraction, repulsion'; the physical 'atom, electron'; the chemical 'affinity'; the biological 'life'; the psychological 'ego, I, we, will, memory, expectation, space, time'; and so on. That western thought, going to the other extreme, from excess of other-worldliness to excess of this-worldliness, brought about the greater disease of mind which resulted in the greatest of historical wars and continues to threaten a still worse.
To find out, then, whether there is or is not any substantial unity in Asiatic thought, we have mostly to concern ourselves with religious thought; as, if we had to investigate whether there is or is not unity in European thought, we would chiefly compare the views of those who have devoted their lives to the various branches of science, mathematical, physico-chemical, astronomical, biological, sociological.
To the cursory view, of the person of one kind of temperament, it might seem that the unity of Western scientific thought is patent; that the whole of what is known as science is a consistent body of theory and practice; that the unity of Eastern religious thought is an equally obvious myth; and that religions are born only to try to annihilate one another, and to induce their respective followers to plague and murder each other.
So, to the hasty sight of another, it would appear that, e. g., in such a vitally important science as that of medicine, doctors disagree very much; that the more expert and scientific they are, the more intensely they differ; and that radically conflicting systems of treatment kill and cure, with much the same average of results, on the whole. In the system which regards itself as most scientific and up-to-date, theories as to the nature and cause of disease, the methods of treatment, and the drugs in favour and fashion, change from year to year. In almost all other sciences, pure and applied, old views and appliances are being daily scrapped in favour of new; the greater and more rapid the scrapping, the louder the vaunt of progressiveness; even in a rock-bottom science like mathematics, self-evident axioms are now in peril of their lives from the attacks of new theories; and in sociological sciences especially, the war of ideas, of words, of "isms," is maddening and internecine.
Indeed, Science has its ritual, its etiquette, its sacrosanct formalities, its mysterious technicalities, its sanctums, its oracular pomposity and superior stand-offishness, its popish infallibility, its expertcraft, its jingoism and fanaticism, as much as Religion; its controversial animus as bitter as the odium theologicum; and, becoming religionless and Godless, it has, as the debased servant of imperialism, statecraft, ruthless diplomacy, caused far more slaughter than Religion, becoming scienceless and reasonless, and degenerating into priestcraft, has done. But all such things are the fruit, neither of true science, nor of true religion, but of the evil in human nature. That evil falsifies and misuses them both, for its own selfish purposes.
The Unity Underlying Both. Here as elsewhere, the wish is father to the thought. Those who, for temperamental or other and more substantial and permanent reasons, wish to see Unity, will see Unity. Those who wish to see Discord, will see Discord only. Those who wish impartially to examine both sides of the question, will see both justly. They will discern the Truth, which always stands in the mean between opposite extremes; viz., the Truth of essential Unity in superficial Diversity, in religious as well as in scientific thought. Such Unity is established by the mediation of Philosophy; and the use of Philosophy, as such mediator, has begun to be recognized, more and more, latterly, by the more thoughtful and widely cultured scientists themselves, as well as by the more thoughtful religionists also. No two faces, no two bodies, no two voices, manners, gaits, are exactly similar. Even so, no two minds coincide completely. The Principle of Multiplicity in Nature sees to that. But, all the same, there is a broad general similarity too, between all human faces, figures, voices, feelings, thinkings, actings also. This alone makes it possible for human beings to understand one another, and to live together as a civilised society. The Principle of Unity, which governs Nature, is the source of such civilised association and sympathy. To recognise that Unity in the Essentials of all Religions, is to promote the cause of Civilisation.
The One Way to Peace on Earth. Those who thus discern the Truth, will always make it their duty, as lovers of the mankind of East and West alike, to do their best to maximize and glorify the Spirit of Unity, and subordinate (not abolish, which is impossible) the principle of Multiplicity to It. Such Spirit of Unity, in Europe, is witnessed by common science and culture; and, in Asia, by the fact that our brothers and sisters come from Tibet, Siam, Burma and distant China and faroff Japan, to worship the memory of the Buddha Gautama at the Deer-Park in Benares, (which ancient-most of living towns is the most holy place of Pilgrimage for all Hindus) and at the Temple in Buddha-Gaya; while pilgrims from all the countries of Asia, and from many parts of Africa, gather at Mecca annually, in obedience to the command of the great Prophet Muhammad. The truth-seeing lovers of humanity will always work with all their might, to minimize the spirit of disunion and discord. Such spirit of discord, in Europe, has been and is proved by the Great War, and by the intense political, national, and racial jealousies and hatreds that continue there, in worse and more intense form, even after the awful bloodshed and agony of that War; and in Asia, especially in India, it is evidenced by the too well-known caste and creed dissensions, which keep it under all sorts of subjection, domination, and exploitation; whence arises, surely, great material as well as spiritual harm to the exploited, now, and to the exploiter, in the end. The best means of promoting this so desirable peace, harmony, and unity, between all countries of both East and West, between all sections of their populations, is the proving, and the bringing home to all, of Unity between Science and Religion, and between religion and religion; and, secondly, the placing, before the world, of a Religio-Scientific scheme of Social Organisation and Planned Individual Life, which will secure, for the different temperaments, and the different ages in each lifetime, appropriate occupations, and means of livelihood, and the necessaries of life at least, for all. Thus only can indispensable Spiritual Bread, as well as Material Bread, be provided to all.
Some persons, disgusted with religious conflict, speak hastily of abolishing religion to allay that conflict. As well kill the body to cure disease. To uproot religion successfully, they must first exterminate Pain and Death. So long as human beings experience and fear these, they will not cease to crave the consolations of religion. Also, so long as men and women are left, are encouraged, are even positively taught, to believe that religions differ, even in essentials, so long will they, as the followers of such different religions, also necessarily continue to differ, to quarrel, to fight, to shed each other's blood. If, on the contrary, they are led to see that all religions are one and the same, in essentials, they will also assuredly become one in heart, and feel their common humanity in loving Brotherhood.
Scientific Religion. The bringing about, the proving, the establishing, of such union, between religion and religion, and between science and religion, in place of the conflict which has been raging between them so far, will make the beginning of a new and beneficent era, an era guided and governed by Scientific Religion and Religious Science.
The signs are hopeful. Slowly the artificial barriers are breaking down between science and science, between science and religon, between religion and religion. It is beginning to be recognized and said that sciences are not many, but that Science is one. It is to be hoped that before very long, with the help of that same completely unified science, it will soon come to be recognized that religions, too, are not many, but that Religion is one; and, finally, that Science and Religion are but different aspects of, or even only different names for, the same great body of Truth and its application which may be called the Science or Code of Life. If, formerly, every act was done in the name and under the guidance of religion, and, latterly, has tended to be done in the name of science, there is reason to hope that, in future, it may be done in the name of Spiritual or Religious Science.
History shows that new religions and their characteristic civilizations have taken birth, grown, and decayed, side by side. We may well regard the two as cause and effect. But what is regarded as the birth of a new religion, is really only a re-proclamation, and revivi-fication even more, by the extra-ordinary personality, the intense fervour, 'divine fire', en-(thusi-(Theos)-asm, 'God-filledness', t a p a s, jazbah, self-sacrifice, high heart-compelling example, of the re-proclaimer. It is a fresh declaration, in new words, and a fresh en-live-ning thereby, of the essential eternal Universal Religion; and it is made necessary by the fact that the earlier proclamation had become covered up, beyond recognition, with non-essential, lifeless, misleading, harmful formalisms.
The fresh proclamation, needed for the present time, seems likely to take the form of Scientific Religion in a pre-eminent degree. And it apparently has to be made on the somewhat socialist and democratic, rather than individualist, lines; such lines as the Oversoul of the Human Race is taking in the other departments of its vast life; that is to say, it has to be made, and, indeed, is being slowly, gradually, almost imperceptibly, made, by the large body of scientific and religious thinkers in co-operation as a whole, rather than by a single individual; though leaders are needed even by the most democratic movements.
Thus some scientists are working at psychical research. Sir Oliver Lodge, venerable veteran of world-wide fame in the realm of science, has said:
The time will assuredly come when these avenues into unknown regions will be explored by science; and there are some who think that the time is drawing nigh when that may be expected to happen. The universe is a more spiritual entity than we thought. The real fact is that we are in the midst of a spiritual world which dominates the material. It constitutes the great and ever-present rèality whose powers we are only beginning to realize. They might indeed be terrifying had we not been assured for our consolation that their tremendous energies are all controlled by a Beneficent Fatherly Power whose name is Love.
Some other older, as also more recent, declarations of faith by eminent front-rank scientists of the time may be cited.
Sir James Jeans, mathematician and astronomer, Cambridge and Princeton, secretary for many years to the Royal Society of Great Britain, says : "The Universe begins to look more like a great Thought than a great Machine." And again, "The apparent objectivity of things is due to their subsisting in the Mind ... We reach ... the concept of the universe as a world of pure Thought ... Mind no longer appears as an accidental intruder in the realm of Matter. We are beginning to suspect that we ought rather to hail it as the creator and governor of the realm of Matter. Not, of course, our individual minds, but the Mind in which the atoms, out of which our individual minds have grown, exist as Thought." The same scientist, in The New Background of Science (1933), dealing with "the new knowledge", and surveying "the whole ground, from relativity, continuum, least interval, curved space, to quanta, wave-mechanics, waves of probability, indeterminacy and events, — all concepts which we can neither picture, imagine, nor describe", says: "The law and order which we find in the universe are most easily described and ... explained in the language of idealism ... At the farthest point Science has so far reached, much, and possibly all, that was not mental has disappeared, and nothing new has come in that is not mental. The final direction of change will probably be away from the materialism and strict determinism which characterised ... nineteenth century physics." Again, in the last paragraphs of his book, The Mysterious Universe, (1937), he says : "The new knowledge compels us to revise our first hasty impressions ... The old dualism of Mind and Matter ... seems likely to disappear ... through substantial Matter resolving itself into a creation and manifestation of Mind."
Prof. Eve, at p. 65 of The Great Design, a symposium edited by F. Mason (1936), says: "Most men today are engrossed in some one particular profession or occupation ... It is doubtful if any group of men, except perhaps a few philosophers, is engaged in fitting together the jig-saw or patchwork puzzle of the multitudinous discoveries and theories of all our diverse branches of knowledge; thought is thus divided into water-tight compartments, between which the communications are blocked."
Another scientist of note, Prof. Sir A. S. Eddington, has very recently confessed: "Something Unknown is doing we don't know what — that is what our theory amounts to." Elsewhere he says, "Modern physics has eliminated the notion of substance ... Mind is the first and most direct thing in our experience ... I regard Consciousness as fundamental. I regard Matter as derivative from Consciousness." The venerable Herbert Spencer said, towards the close of the last revised edition of his First Principles (pub. 1900, when he was eighty years of age), that his 'Unknowable' in no way conflicts with, but rather supports, religion. The Teacher-founders of the great religions have all taught, and many philosophers, ancient and modern, Western and Eastern, have perceived, that this Unknown and Unknowable, is our very Self, the all-pervading, Universal, Supreme Principle of Consciousness or Life.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "The Essential Unity of All Religions"
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Copyright © 1939 Bhagavan Das.
Excerpted by permission of Theosophical Publishing House.
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