Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens
Bright copper kettles and warm woollen mittens
Brown paper packages tied up with strings
These are a few of my favourite things…
When the dog bites
When the bee stings
When I’m feeling sad
I simply remember my favourite things
And then I don’t feel so bad
from The Sound of Music
The city council of Monza, home to Italy’s Formula 1 Grand Prix has passed a law in 2004 barring pet owners from keeping goldfish in curved goldfish bowls. They believe that a fish kept in a bowl has a distorted view of reality and suffers because of it! Makes me wonder are we also perhaps in a giant goldfish bowl with an enormous lens that is actually distorting our reality?
King Janaka once dreamt that he was a butterfly. When he disclosed his dream to his ministers, they brushed it aside and asked him not to worry. Janaka replied, “My worry is am I Janaka who dreamt I was a butterfly or am I a butterfly that is dreaming to be a mortal king?” Ain’t both true? For aren’t thoughts and dreams as much a part of existence as so called human reality? If each individual either becomes Buddha or contributes to the “Buddha becoming” his thoughts and aspirations are as much real as the gross reality of his human body. Now, is it really necessary to ask ‘Are Science and God really having this conversation or is it merely a trick of my mind?’
Science: I wonder how you even thought of something like this my Lord!
God: (a little distractedly) Thought of what?
Science: Well, the rose isn’t really red nor is the thorn sharp nor does it actually have a fragrance. The way man perceives any of this is a miracle, for photons of light have no color, the tip of the thorn has no sharpness and the airborne molecules have no scent. What makes humanity believe that what he ‘sees, smells, feels’ is really real?
God: (Paying attention now) What?
Science: We know man perceives his surroundings through his five senses. The brain processes the electromagnetic signals sent through the eyes to create the color red. The brain chooses how much ‘pain’ to process by touching the thorn. And to the human, the fragrance is attractive. But how about to other creatures? To a snail the rose is food. To the moth a place to lay its eggs. Isn’t every reality of man coming from within him?
God: Hmm… Can you tell me how man is able to walk looking in front rather than at his feet that ought to move? How can he drive looking at the road rather than at his feet and hands that keep changing gears?
Science: Proprioception – often referred to as the sixth sense is a miracle of the nervous system that keeps track of and controls the different parts of the body! Proprioception is what allows someone to learn to walk in complete darkness without losing balance. In the event that the body tilts in any direction as one walks, the person will cock their head back to level the eyes against the horizon.
God: Hmmm.. Nice name you have given it! You do know that proprioception means individual perception – the way each individual sees his world!
Science: It is such a marvel Father! Even with their eyes closed humans can sense their body position – where their hands and legs are. That is how they are able to reproduce written words because they can ‘feel’ with the writing. No wonder kids who don’t get involved in their subject of study begin to forget all they ever read!
God: Yes it is a marvelous thing. And it works not just with their eyes…
Science: I know ! The proprioceptive systems gathers information from the vestibular (or balance) system in the inner ear regarding the position of our head, the pull of gravity, the speed and acceleration of body movements. It helps man’s hearing which can estimate the distance to objects that make a sound (like a car), but also from reflective sound when indoors. The eyes can see the space around him and his position in this space and his body posture. Man’s sense of touch regarding all objects that he is in contact with; his sense of smell, a sense on which he unconsciously relies on to discern direction and distance from objects and events in his environment.
God: Knowing this, I wonder what makes man think that a goldfish alone gets a distorted view of the world!
Science: Ah! I get your point. Probably, as humans have a limited band of perception – see/hear only a certain range of frequency, he is unable to conceive anything outside of it.
God: If you cannot conceive how other creatures perceive the world, it is like saying their world is inconceivable. Perhaps it is – for you! But that doesn’t make it any less real for them!
Science: I understand your point Father. So it is not about finding a reality outside of you, it is one of getting in touch with reality ‘for you’.
God: Indeed, what you see is what you get – it doesn’t have to be real for anybody else. Which means, not just in relation to other creatures, even in respect of fellow humans, his fear is real to him. Each person’s likes, dislikes, success, failure, hopes, dreams, fears, anguish – is real to him. So man’s reality is not just about himself in isolation, but in relation to the world he perceives around him. There is no way you can make him believe in something without changing his perception of his world.
Science: I know where you are going with this. If what he sees is what he gets, and every moment he is making his reality, it also implies, he alone has control over his reality. He gets to make his own reality.
I could sense God’s smile – eh more like a grin or even a gentle laugh.
A sentence from the book ‘The Grand design’ by Stephen Hawking danced in my mind’s eye – ‘There is no picture- or theory-independent concept of reality.’ If time and space are relative, so is our reality in life. It is time I create my reality the way I wish it to be. And if I am the sole author of my reality, I have to inculcate those principles that help me move towards the reality I wish to create. I want abundance. But now my reality shows me lack. It is not from outside that this reality is like to change, I have to begin to feel the abundance in and around me to make it my reality.
The scenes from the Oscar winning movie ‘Life of Pi’ flashed before me. Did the Bengal tiger Richard Parker really survive in a boat in the middle of the Pacific ocean for 227 days with the protagonist Pi without eating him alive, only to leave him forever without a backward glance? Or did Pi, like he reported to the insurance agent, confuse the human drama around into a more imaginative plot to survive the ordeal? The viewer is left to decide if Pi’s story is an allegory of another set of parallel events or not. I remember watching the movie with my daughter Meenakshi and a few other friends. Without any doubt or need for fantasy, she exclaimed ‘all of us develop our own coping mechanisms!’ Isn’t that what life really is all about – coping mechanisms that allow us to create our own illusions that help us believe in our reality? Does it make a difference if there were indeed a tiger or not as long as it helped Pi stay alive under the most treacherous of circumstances? Yann Martel, the Canadian author, very subtly yet profoundly adds in the end of the narrative a single sentence – ‘so it is with God…’
To Maria in sound of Music it was ‘raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens…’ that helped her cope with sad happenings. To me it is HDB, my Mahatria, shooting stars, expansive lawns, celebrated dancing, the cold climate, infiniprayer… all leading to My Krishna! In making my reality, God remains my centre. What is your?
Written by Gita Krishna Raj | Published in infinithoughts in May 2013
When Science met God… | Segment Six: Lost in Time | Chapter Seven: Reality making
