Science was feeling depressed. How ever much he did, there were somethings he was not able to convince man to do. He believed it was the birth right of every child to be curious and seek for answers. He also believed it was the responsibility of every adult care giver to allow the child to explore life and not become mechanised. But here was a dilemma. Most adults were failing to navigate the intellect of the child in constructive expressions. It was time to help build a new world – not one based on fear of punishment or motivated by reward. But one based on inner understanding of right and wrong. It was time someone answered the basic question of every child (and adult) ‘Why should I be good?’
God intruded into this flow of thoughts…
God: What do your children know about gravity, my child?
Science: Well God! You made that apple fall on Isaac Newton’s head and planted in him the idea that every object was falling back to earth in response to the earth’s pull – gravity. As directed by you, I helped man discover that every object from a pin head to a huge planet has ‘gravity’. (with a lot of curiosity) Now what, God? Why should man know about gravity?
God: Hmm… Did you say that he knows that every object with mass is subject to the presence of gravity?
Science: Yes my Lord! It is taught in the 4th grade in school.
God: Yes Of course! But has it been explained to them that gravity is not really a force like electricity. Do they know all about ‘how’ gravity works?
Science: ‘How’ is what you have sent me to answer Lord! They have discovered that gravity is not a ‘force’ but a ‘property’ of space. You see, I explain it to them using a very simple example. I tell them to imagine space to be a big mattress. Now every object placed on the mattress will create a dent in the mattress and so ‘pull’ into that dent other objects near it. Similarly every object with mass creates a ‘dent’ in space and attracts nearby objects to it. That is why gravity is only attractive and never repulsive like magnetic fields. Also that easily explains to them how gravity becomes weaker at greater distances. They seem to understand…
God: Well! Your explanation surely addresses those who understand your language. But I want you to go further Science, my child. Can you not explain the phenomena to everyone alive?
Science: I could try… See if this sounds right, my Lord. Man is today capable of understanding three levels of reality. First the observable universe of material objects and natural phenomena that he interacts with using his five primary senses. Second the interplay of energy at the microscopic level where he knows everything is made of atoms and sub-atomic particles. Of course this second reality needs several clarifications in the mind of several human beings, which I shall address in my next meeting with you. The third level of reality is what Newton was made to uncover – the presence of a field such as the gravitational field. This again is a knowledge not widely spread among the laymen. The field theories are so complex that people not associated with me find them hard to understand.
God: But I cannot answer your questions on gravity unless you at least explain the concept of a field to man!
Science: Oh! Ok! Let me try… Now the second level of reality revealed to man that everything he experiences through his five senses are atoms which in turn are nothing but two fundamental particles – quarks and electrons. In simple terms they are nothing but a ‘package’ of energy. But the question rose, how does energy take complicated structures like a rock, tree, bird, man, etc? Why does such energy stay together giving a definite form? Why have the fundamental particles not fallen apart? Thus they understood the third level of reality that these fundamental particles stick together like a genie inside a bottle except that here the bottle is not a physical object but a ‘field’. That is why something non-material like gravity is able to bring a physical object like a ball back without any apparent connective medium. This ‘field’ is what allows things to move without being touched. My brilliant son Michael Faraday showed to the world how although there was no material linking a magnet and a coil, magnetism, a non-material entity, was inducing current in the coil. The concept of ‘field’ was born.
God: Brilliant! (Reflectively) Now, they ought to know ‘why’ they need to know about ‘fields’ – in particular gravity. My dear Science, do they know that every physical object has mass?
Science: Yes Lord. They do.
God: Good! Do they also know that space is the matrix or background on which this mass is present?
Science: Yes God. They know.
God: Now just replace the matrix of space with the matrix of life. Your background is life. Replace the material objects in space with the individual egos. Every individual identity creates a ‘dent’ in the matrix of life and ‘attracts’ into itself all available ‘thoughts’. Depending on the mass of the ego, it creates a greater ‘dent’ and thereby has a greater gravitational pull.
Science: Oh! Is that why you keep saying that the ego’s thoughts should be pure? If the individual ego wishes harm to another actually the ego is attracting that harm to itself!
God: Yes! Every ego on the matrix of life causes life to accommodate its presence by creating a ‘dent’ in life thereby attracting into its fold that which is closest to it.
Science: Closest?
God: In physical reality or spatial reality, closest refers to the material object in proximity. However in life it refers to the most similar thought…
Science: Ah… So if the ego thinks ‘good’ thoughts, it attracts ‘good’ into its fold and vice versa. Right?
God: Yes my child! The lessons on gravity are meant to be learnt not just in the physical realm but also in the realm of understanding life.
Science: Do good thoughts then make the ego ‘pure’?
God: Like ‘black holes’ that trap even light within its boundaries, exalted egos even of pure men trap their light from flowing outside. That is the lesson men need to understand from the apple that fell on Newton’s smart head.
In a flash Science got the answer he was brooding over. If any one really asks ‘why should I be good?’, it is not because you need to fear punishment – human laws always inspire the cunning mind to evade and heavenly retribution simply makes God a villain than a friend. It should not be because of material gain for the manipulative actions would still magnetise the negative at the thought level. Like the colour that is reflected is simply all that it ain’t absorb, the thoughts within gravitate the universe to unfold in it’s ways. ‘Why should I be good’ has just one simple reason – you don’t have a choice for the mass of your thoughts draws the universal energy to create the world you attract with your gravity!
Written by Gita Krishna Raj | Published in infinithoughts in October 2008
When Science met God… | Segment Five: Why Me? | Chapter Ten: Why should I be good?
