“I too am reading about the human body” cried the kid with full enthusiasm. She was thrilled to note that her all grown up anna (brother) was also studying about the human body.

Vinod smiled at the little one. It was good to have his little cousins visit him but surely not in the middle of his preparations for medical entrance exams ! Prasad, all of three years older to his sister Priya, pulled her pigtails

Prasad: It is not the same you dumbo! (Full of self importance, he turned to Vinod Anna) She is always this sissy! She thinks just because she reads heat and light in class two it is the same as I have to read in class five! Girls are stupid!

Vinod: (With a forced smile at the two) So you will understand when I say I have a lot more to study than 5th standard portions! Now off you two go to play and I will join you later…

Priya was not done feeling important. With a know-it-all smile so typical of children, she continued as she walked into the garden with her brother.

Priya: I know more about heat and light than you do! You need a tuition! And don’t ever pull my hair again! I will tell mummy!

Prasad: Oh so do you really know how heat is generated? Do you know what is refraction? Try doing the experiment ! I am sure you won’t get it right !

Science smiled at the friendly banter. It always thrilled him to see how the same piece of knowledge was received with ever expanding perception as humanity aged. It was so easy to feel as if they know everything about a chosen piece of information and within a short passage of time realize there is so much more to it. Nothing, and he was so sure about it, nothing was absolute to humanity.

God: Hmmmm… Life is a spiral…

Science: Yes Father! Some of them have understood that. But most are still looking at life  as a linear progression – a question arose, I found the answer so now I move on to the next question. They don’t realize actually it the same question only with a deeper meaning, a larger perspective, it is all interconnected.

God: It has a great deal of significance in everyday life. Do they understand that?

Science: You mean just like repeating heat and light every year in school, man gets to experience the same things over and over again every day of his life? Yeah I can see that…

God: Actually there is just one lesson in life. It is just presented in so many different hues, with imaginative flavors, uncanny details and enormous drama that man thinks his question paper on life alone is different.

Science: But Father did you also not say that each person is unique in his experience of life. Then doesn’t it stand to reason that his ‘question paper’ or more simply the challenges he faces are unique to his life? How can you now say there is only one lesson? Judging by the number of humans you have created, each with his own life experience, I would say it is beyond even infinity!

God: (With a gentle smile) That is what I said – different hues, flavors, details and drama. But the basic lesson is the same for all, all the time, every time!

Science: And what pray is that?

God: All in good time… Tell me what did you understand when I said life is a spiral?

Science: Well, all of life’s experiences looks like a repetition. At the beginning of every new experience, each new turn of the spiral, man will consciously or unconsciously pass through the shadows of the first phases of his life. This is demonstrated in the development of the fetus from a single celled organism to becoming a human, passing though all the stages of universal evolution. Reflections and reenactments of patterns from earlier experiences will set the foundation for future perception – be it emotional, physical, social, intellectual or even spiritual. Life is not linear but a spiral process.

God: Well said! So you will understand that the same things that made you cry, may not make you cry tomorrow – but nevertheless, something makes you cry! The same toy that excited you may no longer be thrilling, but something still creates craving in you. The same lesson may not repeat for now you now the game, but another lesson is surely waiting to be learnt.

Science: Exactly my point. It is not the same lesson. It is different each and every time for each and every person.

God: (After a reflective pause) How many notes are there in music?

Science: Across all cultures man discovered that there are 7 notes after which it sounds like the same only higher so it was called the next octave.

God: But how did they even discover such a thing?

Science: The basic elements of music result from vibrating strings or columns of air. Musical tones are those that have a recognizable pitch where the sound wave repeats a pattern rather than changing constantly. If it repeats quickly we hear a high tone, if slowly we hear a low one. A single musical note is actually made of several pitches. The ear hears a noticeable agreement between two tones that are an octave apart (Sa to Sa). Over time humanity found that these sounds had natural stopping places and musical notes between two octaves were found. All of music across all cultures discovered there are 7 notes before the next octave that is the repeat of the first, only higher in pitch.

God: And yet with just seven notes, you are still discovering new music!

Science: (with a smile) I understand your point father! There are just seven notes but the music is innumerable.

God: My dear, even those seven notes are only the stopping places between the first and second octave! There is but only one vibration!

Science: That is what you mean by just one lesson in life! But, what is it Father? This all important single lesson that seems to be so elusive to humanity?

God: Life is a spiral…

Science: (With a shocked look) That is the lesson! That life is a spiral?

God: You don’t seem too happy to know the most important fact of life – the only one as a matter of fact!

Science: But it seems so simple that it can’t really be as profound as you claim father!

God: (With a gentle laugh) Exactly my point! From this point you find that it is such a simple matter of understanding. Like that little girl who all knowingly claims she understands heat and light, you too my dear Science believe that unless you cannot understand it, it cannot be profound. But you cannot understand that you cannot understand because you don’t understand! That is life. And when you come up the spiral to the next experience, you will realize why the previous spiral was so crucial to your life.

Science remained silent.

God: You seem out of words! Is there a problem?

Science: (After a perplexed pause) Actually I don’t really know if I understand or not…

God’s gentle laughter filled the air…

Written by Gita Krishna Raj  |  Published in infinithoughts in September 2013

When Science met God… |  Segment Seven: Formula to Life  | Chapter Eight: Life is a Spiral