The hidden spiritual process of scientific discoveries

NO great discovery or invention of the world is new since that knowledge already exists in the universe. We, as human beings, are simply mediums to pluck this knowledge. We cannot discover anything new since our minds are of the same time frame as the universe; we cannot think beyond what already exists. After we obtain any knowledge, we share it with mankind and help in its evolutionary process.I also feel that all great scientists, inventors and discoverers of universal truths in all fields are spiritualists and the process of their discoveries is spiritual in nature. That is because while going deeper into a subject or idea, we go to its essence or spirit. It is this attempt to understand the beauty that leads to nature revealing her secrets, giving us awe and a wondrous feeling about this universe.April 20 was the 105th death anniversary of the famous Indian mathematician, Ramanujan. He was a spiritual mathematician; he always said that all his equations and mathematical insights expressed the thought of God. He considered them to be a gift from Goddess Namagiri. Hardcore mathematicians scoffed at his metaphysical pronouncements and, yet, he pioneered the number theory, which is still being studied and worked upon by some top mathematicians around the world.Similarly, the great discoveries by Newton, Einstein, Tesla (the giants of humanity) have all bordered on the metaphysical. Half of Newton's life was devoted to understanding the scientific principles behind God and he devoted a substantial part of his life in writing about them. Einstein, at a young age, wrote songs about God, which he used to sing to himself. Besides, he was a strong believer in the relationship between science and spirituality. He wrote: "I maintain that the cosmic religious feeling is the strongest and noblest motive for scientific research."Tesla — one of the greatest inventors of the last century — seemed to periodically pluck his inventions from thin air. He said that most of his ideas came in a flash and whole machines and their detailed working were "shown" to him.Similar was the case of Barbara McClintock, who had a metaphysical experience and "saw" the phenomenon of jumping genes, which later won her the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1983. However, she was ridiculed for almost 20 years because such metaphysical insights are not considered to be a part of mainstream science.It seems that all great discoveries, inventions and creative outputs like the composition of classical music by Bach, Beethoven, etc have been the result of a mystical experience, though most people consider them to be products of a prepared mind. A prepared mind is a result of hard and sustained work. It allows the brain to evaluate a large number of pathways and possibilities and when this thought hologram matches that of the knowledge, which already exists, it results in what is called a new discovery or invention.All such ideas which are revolutionary and change the course of mankind's history or bring in a quantum jump in our understanding are a product of a nimble brain, which somehow plucks the knowledge like magic from the space of knowledge.Patanjali, the great Indian sage, speaks about this connection when he says that any knowledge of the universe can be obtained by 'sanyam' on it. He defines 'sanyam' as a combination of concentration, contemplation and 'samadhi' on any idea. This helps in developing a powerful brain, which can concentrate deeply on any subject. All great discoverers, like Einstein, Newton, Tesla, Darwin, etc, had powerful brains and were endowed with a tremendous power of concentration.A powerful brain cannot sit idle. It needs constant inputs for its large number of neural pathways to function smoothly and form new memories. This makes the brain extremely curious, which can only be satisfied by the knowledge gained from a large number of experiences in different fields.That is why all great scientists and technologists are also renaissance people. Einstein had more than 40 patents in various fields, like refrigeration, sound, light and even one on a better design of a woman's blouse! Besides, he was an excellent violin player and played with some professional musicians.Similarly, Newton was interested in everything — from gravitation to optics, mathematics, alchemy and metaphysics and so on. Another polymath, Leonardo DaVinci, the great Italian painter was also a great engineer, who probably designed the first helicopter in 16th century.History is full of examples of such great minds and renaissance people. Great scientists search truth and they are different from the mediocre ones who search only for committees!Examples of Einstein, Fermi, Norman Borlaug come to mind. The same was with Irvine Langmuir, who though involved in industrial research, never wanted any managerial position and was only interested in finding the deep hidden meanings in nature.An interesting facet of the discovery process is that most of these great discoverers were self-taught. Their genius flowered at an early age by a single event — either by being exposed to a book (in the case of Ramanujan or Enrico Fermi) or to a compass (in the case of Einstein). Such innocuous events triggered in their minds, as if by magic, a tremendous hunger for knowledge. Perhaps, memories of the last birth may have helped in this process.Also, all these great thinkers talked about the oneness of everything. Half of his life, Einstein struggled to develop a theory of everything in which he wanted to connect every aspect of universe. Similarly, Ramanujan, Tesla and McClintock talked about the oneness of life and wanted to see the inter-connections in everything around us.All seekers of truth also tried to understand what makes our world and the universe tick. That gave them a feeling of awe and also showed that probably what they thought was an original idea or thought was nothing but the existing knowledge in the space and it was channelled through them.Nevertheless, it is the human mind which is the receiver of the idea or knowledge and there is a curiosity to know the mechanism by which it happens.Anil K Rajvanshi is Director, Nimbkar Agricultural Research Institute, Maharashtra.

The hidden spiritual process of scientific discoveries

Anil K Rajvanshi

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