Science and Spirituality: See the World in a Grain of Salt

By Akhil Chandra

Science and Spirituality: See the World in a Grain of Salt

Advances in science continue to reveal to us the fascinating beauty of God's creations - be it a small grain of salt or a huge and distant star.

We now know that even an innocuous looking salt grain contains millions of atoms of sodium and chlorine arranged three-dimensionally in a magnificent and artistic manner.

Anyone viewing this beautiful sight through a microscope can only feel captivated by the beauty of Creation and the intricate mechanism by which the atoms keep themselves together.

Revelation of this excellence in God's creation has been the constant endeavour of science right from the days of Aristotle, Newton and Einstein to the present day.

Realising God's excellence in nature only brought these scientists closer to God - some of them even expressed a feeling of deep religiosity. Einstein said: "Science without religion is lame; religion without science is blind".

Apart from science, ancient civilisations the world over - including those of the Greeks, Romans and Hindus - believed that pursuit of excellence in the field of fine arts leads to holy communion with God. The Greeks and the Romans worshipped Apollo, the Sun-god, who was also revered as the patron of music, poetry, and all other fine arts. Hindus on the other hand worshipped Saraswati as the goddess of knowledge and fine arts.

In the Indian tradition, each field of art - classical music, dance, sculpture or literature - evoke the wonders of creation in their own way. The exquisite paintings and sculptures of Ajanta and Ellora caves and many other temples renowned for their architectural grandeur are really prayers in stone, a thanksgiving to the Creator of all things so beautiful.

Even the artists and architects who created these masterpieces did so selflessly. They did not focus on the result of the work they were doing; rather, the act of working itself was really a form of worship. They were perfectly happy to remain anonymous, taking care only to ensure that the work they did was flawless and reflective of the intensity of their feeling.

In the process of their search for excellence, artists gained spiritual knowledge through their work, attaining to a state of bliss, coming closer to a state of self realisation. This realisation was nothing less than being in oneness with God. In Sanskrit this is called anand or paramanand, a state of extreme condition bliss.

The scientist derives anand in other ways, too. "The scientist does not study nature because it is useful; he studies it because he delights in it, and he delights in it because it is beautiful. If nature were not beautiful, it would not be worth knowing, and if nature were not worth knowing, life would no be worth living", said Jules-Henri Poincari.

There seems to be a very strong relationship between excellence, truth and divinity. In fact, achieving excellence selflessly is equivalent to pursuing the truth which, in turn, takes one closer to realisation of God. One can say that any selfless action performed with perfection brings us closer to God because perfection is God's attribute.

Pursuance of quality through practice of karma is the main theme of Zen. Japanese seekers, inspired through the Buddhist philosophy of Zen, aspire for quality, excellence and perfection towards achieving the final state of bliss.

Modern business management studies teach similar principles of excellence through total quality management and Ôsix sigma', which are the by-products of the same principle of excellence cherished and sought out by our forefathers through the medium of religion and science.