Science would be the one to normally seek the Lord. But this time it was different. God invited Science gently into His presence. He gathered Science into His arms and whispered into his ears…
God: Poornamadah Poornamidam Poornaath Poornamudachyathe | Poornasya Poornamaadaya Poornamevaavashishyathe
Science could feel the Lord’s presence, yet he never understood a word that He whispered. How could that be? How come there was something he – Science couldn’t understand? Smiling at Science’s perplexed look, the Lord replied…
God: That is in Sanskrit.
‘Ah’ sighed Science. That was why he didn’t understand. Gently laughing at his expression of relief, God now whispered…
God: That is Whole, This is Whole,
What emerges out of the Whole is also Whole
When the Whole is taken out of the Whole
The Whole still remains Whole
This was in English – a language adopted by Science for several centuries now. Yet while the words had meaning, the intent was lost to Science. He continued to look at the Lord perplexed and confused. Now the Lord whispered…
God: Do you remember the German embryologist Hans Driesch?
Whoop! That was a leap from nowhere to somewhere! Smiling with confidence for the first time during this meeting Science replied
Science: Yes my Lord! Of course I do.
God: Are you familiar with his work?
Science: Yes Father! Driesch conducted pioneering experiments on sea urchin eggs. When Driesch destroyed one of the cells of the embryo at the very early two-celled stage, the remaining cell developed not into half a sea urchin, but into a complete but smaller organism. Similarly, complete smaller organisms developed after the destruction of two or three cells in four celled embryos. Driesch realized that his sea urchin eggs had done what a machine could never do. They had regenerated wholes from some of their parts…
Science’s voiced slowly faded as the impact of his own words reverberated within. That was what the Sanskrit verse said too! What was the Lord trying to tell him?
God: (smiling into Science’s eyes) My child, an outstanding property of all life is the tendency to form multi-levelled structures of systems within systems. Each of these form a whole with respect to its parts while at the same time being a part of a larger whole. Thus cells combine to form tissues, tissues to form organs, and organs to form organisms. These in turn exist within social systems and ecosystems. And…
The Lord paused, ensuring he had Science’s undivided attention. Only then did He continue.
God: And the whole is greater than the mere sum of its parts!
Science: (Excited) Yes my Lord! Even Quantum mechanics has revealed this concept. Real, measurable, physical features of collections of particles can, in a perfectly concrete way exceed or elude or have nothing to do with the sum of the features of the individual particle.
God: Now how can you make the common man understand that sentence?
Science: Ah! Well! A stranger to the contraption may call it a pair of wheels with a handlebar, some crossbars, breaks, chain and a bell. A person familiar with it may intellectually identify it as a bicycle. But the one who enjoys balancing on its wheels to feel the gentle breeze tickle their face, may call it an expression of freedom. The feel of riding a bicycle is very different from the knowledge of its parts!
God: Yes! Now how is it that your words right now can be understood by all and yet the revelation from quantum mechanics remains a puzzle to many?
Science was silent. Reflecting on the Lord’s statements, Science understood that just like Sanskrit and English, ultimately Science too was just a language – a tool for communication. Looking into the Father’s eyes Science replied
Science: I understand my Lord! Everything, by whatever name we call is merely a language.
God: Yes my child! Language is the greatest blessing given to man. ‘Language’ to humanity always implies a particular type of human thought which can be present even when communication is not the result. Language has long been closely associated with reason, which is also a uniquely human way of using symbols. It was born to give clarity to oneself – to help give structure to ones thoughts and importantly as a means of communication.
Deeply moved by this revelation Science wondered what his next move should be.
God: Do you realise that even mathematical concepts are mere symbolic representations used to communicate something. Math too is a language!
Science: Yes Father! For example, Mathematicians have long recognised that ‘zero’ is invariably connected to infinity. When we divide something by infinity, we get zero; when anything is divided by zero, we get infinity. Zero appears as a vanishing point between positive and negative infinities. Could zero as easily stand for the source of everything as the realm of nothing like the Sanskrit verse you just mentioned?
God: My child! On a two dimensional plane 0° and 360° looks the same. However, when the z axis is introduced, say in a bolt or a coil, the starting point of 0° and the completion of one whole revolution at 360° is not the same for the nut has moved along the bolt! As we have discussed, the perception of ‘reality’ remains subjective!
Science: O Lord! If man’s understanding remains subjective, what is the use of language? I mean what is the common platform?
God: Language is a system of conventional spoken or written symbols used by people in a shared culture to communicate with each other. A language both reflects and affects a culture’s way of thinking. Changes in a culture influence the development of its language. Languages spoken by peoples of the simplest cultures are as subtle and as intricate as those of the peoples of more complex civilisations. Because language is a cultural system, individual languages may classify objects and ideas in completely different fashions. Every language has been born out of geographic, cultural and social necessities. For example while the word ‘snow’ has twenty odd equivalent words in use by the Eskimos, there is not even one word to describe snow in Arabic! That ancient civilisation south of the Himalayas developed 33 crore names to describe divinity – to depict intricacies and subtleties that today are enslaved in ritualistic obscurity.
Science: Lord! I dread to think what might have happened if humanity never had language!
God: As you have revealed from your experiments child, the genetic endowments of nature need environmental support to nurture any form of life. If every individual human had to learn the use of fire, reinvent the wheel and start learning to live from scratch humanity could never have progressed. In fact, you, Science may not be present here today! I have endowed the potential stretch of a rubber band as its genetic legacy. The pressure or pull exerted to actually stretch the rubber band, remains in humanity’s ability to communicate and progress as a whole. Language, my child, is the confirmation I give humanity, that nature does indeed respect and allow nurture to play its part!
Written by Gita Krishna Raj | Published in infinithoughts in July 2009
When Science met God… | Segment Two: From the Apes | Chapter Three: Sum of the parts
