SikhSpectrum.com Monthly Issue No.19, February 2005
Concept of Reality: Its Physical, Metaphysical and Mystical Aspects
Hardev Singh Virk
Abstract
The
concept of reality and its various interpretations exist both in science and
religion. The advent of the Relativity theory and Quantum mechanics in moderm
physics led to formulations of new concepts regarding matter, space, time and
reality. The introduction of the Uncertainty Principle, by Heisenberg, and the
concept of dual nature of matter and radiation, by Louis de Broglie, gave a
serious blow to the philosophy of determinism based on the Newtonian world-view.
The great debates between Einstein and Bohr at the Solvay Conferences about the
inadequacy of quantum mechanics to describe the physical nature of reality are a
part of the history of science now.
To the Indian philosopher, experience is the
ultimate test of truth or reality. Since the reality is trans-empirical, it
cannot be known through sense experience in the way in which empirical/scientific
knowledge is gained. Reality is comprehended through intuitive experience, for
it transcends both the rational and the sensory aspects of human experience.
The concept of reality in the Aad Guru Granth Sahib (AGGS) is most scientific,
precise and dynamic in nature. It is summed up in Manglacharan (the
Commencing Verse of the AGGS). According to Nanakian philosophy, Reality is
both transcendental and immanent, i.e., it has dual nature as nirguna and
sarguna at the same time. Reality is also equated with Being and
Existence. It was experienced by Guru Nanak in Nature and the whole of the AGGS
is a vision of reality.
Introduction
Since the beginnings of culture, man has been curious about the world in
which he lives and eager to explain it. The explanations have taken different
forms: mythological, magical, religious or philosophic. The world is not
presented to the reflective mind as a finished product. The mind has to form
its picture from innumerable sensations, experiences, communications, memories and
perceptions. Hence the concept of reality or world-view has been changing with
evolution of man.
In modern physics the gap between physical and metaphysical
aspects of reality has almost disappeared. Science must admit the psychological
validity of religious experience. The mystical and direct apprehension of God
is clearly to some men as real as their perception of the external world. It is
this sense of communion with the Divine Reality through practice of Naam which
is the summum-bonum of the AGGS. Modem physics is inadequate to reveal
the true nature of reality even in the material world but it has parallels with
mystical philosophies of the East 1.
Physical Nature of Reality
In the old picture of classical physics, it was assumed that the natural
phenomena arise from the interplay of a large number of minute particles,
so-called atoms (parmanus), which are the ultimate constituents of
matter. The doors through which Nature imposes her presence on us are the
senses. Their properties determine the extent of what is accessible to
sensation or intuitive perception. The natural phenomena are the result of
interaction of atoms as experienced through the medium of our senses. This is
the reason classical physics was subdivided into mechanics, heat, sound and
light, i.e., concepts determined by the qualities of sense impressions.
But modern physics reveals the inadequacy of this
approach to the understanding of the nature of reality2. Every
student of science knows that our vision is limited to a small part of the
spectrum (4000-8000 A) perceptible to the human eye. We cannot experience the
phenomena in the infrared or ultraviolet or in the X-ray region of the spectrum
with our eyes. If our eyes were sensitive to the X-rays, the whole natural
phenomenon will appear to us in an entirely different perspective. Our ears are
sensitive to sounds of audible range while the frequencies on both sides of
this interval are inaudible to human ear. It has been verified by experiments
that bats and dogs are sensitive to ultrasonics while these sounds are
inaudible to human beings. In the flood of invisible light that is accessible
to the mental eye of the physicist, the material eye is almost blind, so small
is the interval of vibrations which it converts into sensations. Inaudible
tones, invisible light, imperceptible heat, these constitute the world of
modern physics, cold and dead for him who wishes to experience living nature.
The Quantum
theory presents the penultimate view about the nature of physical reality. It
has created new problems in philosophy by introducing consciousness in physics.
Knowledge of Universal reality demands a much closer integration of our
understanding of physical and mental phenomena. In our present scientific
thinking, either sensations or consciousness play no role at all, or they
are brought in as a deus ex machina as in quantum mechanics.
According to Heisenberg3, "All the
information concerning any object is given by its wave function in quantum
mechanics. The wave function permits us to foretell with what probabilities the
object will make one or another impression on us if we let it interact with us
either directly, or indirectly. The impression gained through interaction with
the system modifies the wave function and the impression enters our
consciousness. Therefore, the consciousness enters the theory unavoidably or
unalterably."
The
hypothesis of dual nature of matter put forward by De Broglie is an enigma in
understanding the physical nature of reality. Elementary particles behave as
waves as well as particles. Similarly, a beam of light can be treated as a
bundle of waves or particles known as quantas. The important fact to note is
that this duality and dichotomy is not exhibited in one and the same experiment.
The idea
that it is possible to think about the same phenomenon with the help of two
entirely different and mutually exclusive pictures, without any danger of
logical contradiction, is certainly new in science. Bohr's complementarity
principle may help to solve fundamental problems in other spheres of life4.
A living creature, plant or animal, is certainly a physio-chemical
system. But it is also something more than this. There are apparently two
aspects again. The time of materialism is over, we are convinced that the
physio-chemical aspect is not the least sufficient to represent the facts of
life, to say nothing of the facts of mind. The processes of life and mind need
other conceptions for their description than the physio-chemical processes with
which they are coupled.
Bohr
introduced the idea of complementarity to express the fact that the maximum
knowledge of a physical entity cannot be obtained from a single observation or
a single experimental arrangement. The observation of atomic phenomenon
needs instruments of such sensitivity that their reaction in making
measurements must be taken into account, and as this reaction is subject to the
same quantum laws as the particles observed, a degree of uncertainty is
introduced, which prohibits deterministic prediction. Therefore, strict
determinism is not possible in microscopic world. The word 'reality' does not
connote the meaning 'known in every detail'. The mere fact of observing the
phenomenon interferes with its reality.
Relativity theory says we observe
"relations" and these must be relations between physical concepts,
which are subjective. But according to the quantum theory, we only observe
probabilities; future probabilities can be determined, but future observational
knowledge is essentially in deterministic. By scientific methods, we cannot
reveal the intrinsic nature of reality. There seems an ultimate impossibility
of exact knowledge, a fundamental indeterminacy behind which we cannot go.
Metaphysical Nature of Reality
Metaphysics
is a systematic and sustained inquiry into the nature of ultimate reality. It
is an attempt to know the reality as against mere appearance. Metaphysics is
the bridge between science and religion. Religion relies both on reason and
revelation in its attempt to study the nature of reality. In the Mandukya
Upanishad, the method of inquiry into the states of experiencing, waking,
dreaming and deep sleep is frequently adopted.
To the
Indian philosopher, experience is the ultimate test of truth6. Since
the reality is trans-empirical, it cannot be known through sense experience in
the way in which empirical objects are known. It is known through intuitive
experience (anubhuti), it is the experience of the highest level, for it
transcends both the rational and the sensory aspects of human experience with
which we are normally acquainted.
Since the
ultimate reality is trans-empirical, Hindu philosophers rely on scripture (sruti)
for obtaining the knowledge of the real. Discursive reasoning functions at
the relational level. Since the ultimate reality is distinction-less, reason is
not competent to comprehend it. So the proper ground of rational knowledge is
immediate experience, which differs from experimentation in science.
The truth,
which the scripture speaks about, is the direct outcome of the intuitive or
mystic experience of the ancient seers. It contains what is borne out by their
direct and authentic experience. Though the scripture is authoritative, the
knowledge which one derives from it is only mediate. The knowledge, which is
revealed by the scripture must become a matter of experience, only then
revelation would have fulfilled its mission. A man who has realised the
integral experience, there is no need for him to depend on any external
authority in the form of a scripture. His wisdom is self-certifying or self-revealed.
According
to the Upanishads, Brahman or Atman, which is the ultimate reality, is of
the nature of existence (sat), consciousness (cit), and bliss (ananda).
It is one only and non-dual. The pluralistic universe is only an illusory
appearance of Brahman or Atman due to Maya or avidya. There
are two views of reality in the Upanishads, the cosmic view and the
non-cosmic view. These two views serve as the bases for the theistic and
absolutistic schools of Vedanta. Hindu Philosophy of Vedanta considers this
word as Maya (illusion) and lays stress on Reality beyond appearance in
phenomenal world.
Mystical Nature of Reality
Many people feel that science should be able to answer all questions.
However, it is probably a narrow view to expect that the scientific method is
the only way of learning and knowing. In view of the changes within the field
of science itself, a scientist must keep an open mind in these matters.
After all, science was invented by human beings and is based on the assumption
that there actually is a physical world out there beyond our senses.
Capra7
in his book Tao of Physics has established parallels between the principal
theories of modem physics and the mystical traditions of the East viz.
Hinduism, Buddhism and Taoism. For example, we have no direct sensory
experience of the four-dimensional space-time continuum, and whenever this
'relativistic' reality manifests itself we find it very hard to deal with it at
the level of intuition and ordinary language. A similar situation exists in
Eastern mysticism. The mystics seem to be able to attain non-ordinary
states of
consciousness in which they transcend the three-dimensional world of
everyday life to experience a multi-dimensional reality, which is impossible to
describe in ordinary language.
Opposed to
the mechanistic conception of the world is the view of the Eastern mystics8
which may
be characterized by the word 'organic', as it regards all phenomena in the
universe as integral parts of an inseparable harmonious whole. For the Eastern
mystic, all things and events perceived by the senses are interrelated,
connected, and are but different aspects or manifestations of the same ultimate
reality. Our tendency to divide the world we perceive into individual and
separate 'things' and to experience ourselves in this world as isolated egos is
seen as an 'illusion' which comes from our measuring and categorizing
mentality.
The division of nature into separate objects is, of course, useful
and necessary to cope with everyday environment, but it is not a fundamental
feature of reality.For the Eastern
mystic, any such objects have, therefore, a fluid and ever-changing character. The
Eastern worldview is thus intrinsically dynamic, and contains time and change
as essential features. The cosmos is seen as one inseparable reality-forever in
motion, alive, organic - spiritual and material at the same time.
Mysticism
is the art of union with reality9. A mystical state has the quality
of ineffability. It thus resembles a state of feeling rather than a state of
intellect. The mystic experience is imbued with a noetic quality, a quality of
transience and of timelessness. There are many stages of evolution in the life
of a mystic. Ultimately, the mystic attains the perfect union with God and he
cries: 'I am God- aham brahm asmi'. It is a well known fact that mystics
feel that exalted state of ecstasy but fail to describe it in ordinary
language. The mystics use the simile of a dumb person who cannot describe the
taste of candy10. Saith Kabir : "Such state is like the dumb
tasting of sugar, which in no way can be described".
Mystics
believe in the integral or holistic experience of reality. We need not rest
content with the partial truths revealed by astronomy, by physics, by biology,
by history; each true in its own field, none complete in itself, none giving
the whole picture; nor yet with the truth of mathematics or the truth of
language, primarily truths of expression, obeying rules which men themselves
have made. Beyond all these, beyond the contradictions of each separate truth,
lies concealed the supreme and final truth.
The realm
of mystic experience is a reality beyond the comprehension of our senses. But
there is a clear evidence in AGGS11 regarding the transcendental
nature of this phenomenon: "In this realm, one sees but without the
eyes; one listens but without the ears; one walks but without the feet; one
works but without the hands; one speaks but without the tongue; thus attaining
life in death.ONanak, one meets the God after realization of the divine
law".
Concept of Reality in AGGS
The concept of ultimate reality propounded by Guru Nanak in the AGGS is
most scientific as a consequence, it is also dynamic and precise. The Manglacharan
(the Commencing Verse of the AGGS) is a philosophic testimony of Guru
Nanak' s poetic and scientific vision of the supreme reality12.
Reality is one, and non-dual. Hence the Manglacharan13
commences with the numeral 1 before 'Open Oora', which represents
Existence or Being. It is followed by Satt Naam which means the supreme
reality is True and it is manifested in Truth, Existence and Being.
The other features of reality are itstranscendence and immanence, creator person,
without fear or hatred, beyond time and space, self-existent, transcendental
cosmic spirit made manifest by grace of the Guru. Thus Guru Nanak projects the nature,
potentialities and characteristics of supreme reality or God of his vision.
This concept of reality is unique and revolutionary and it differs
in its connotation from the Vedantic concept. According to Ahluwalia14:
"This new conception of God marks a qualitative change in the cognition of
the Ultimate Reality from Being to Spirit. This evolutionary change, heralded
by the Sikh metaphysics in the history of the Indian religious thought, leads
to a new conception of time."
The very
first sloka15 after Manglacharan elaborates further
the nature of ultimate reality. Reality or God was in existence before the
commencement of creation and time (yugas) during the epoch of cosmic
void. God existed at the beginning of this universe, i.e., creation of space
and time. God exists now and will also exist in the future (even when the
universe is annihilated). The Nanakian philosophy dialectically unites the
ideas of God and the world. Transcendence shows that God is prior to and
distinct from the world. Immanence of God represents God's connection with the
world. God himself transforms into creation, that is, changing His nirguna form
into sarguna form16. "The Formless is attributed and
un-attributed; and gone into absorption in the cosmic void. Saith Nanak: Himself
has made creation, Himself on it meditates ".
The Manglacharan
in the AGGS is an expression of Guru Nanak'sintuitive insight into the metaphysical realm, which presents an
integrated view of the basic reality that is monistic, but whose manifestation
is pluralistic17. The conceptual framework of the Manglacharan is
comprehensive enough to include some of the most significant attributes of the
Absolute (supreme reality). Even the manifest aspect of reality, namely, the
physical universe, defies measure and count18. "Limitless
the creation; Limitless the expansion ". Perhaps, God alone can
contemplate the vastness and totality of the cosmic existence.
The Guru assures
us that the light and grace of the Absolute are ever with man in his search for
supreme reality. A person of cosmic consciousness (brahm gyani) can
experience reality and all his doubts are dispelled19. " He, who
receives faith of Lord in himself, his mind is illumined by the Reality of the
Real". Ultimate reality is subtle and incomprehensible but can be
realised through Guru's sabda unconsciously20. "The
Lord is the subtle, unfathomable entity; so how is one to attain Him? It is
through Guru's Word that our doubt is dispelled and the self-dependent Being
cometh into our minds ".
Guru Nanak
has combined the symbol Satt with Naam, which literally means
'Name'. When we refer to the world of names and forms, we refer to the
concrete, empirical universe, which we know in our ordinary experience and
discover through the agency of science. In short Naam is Truth, or the
knowable aspect of Reality. Naam is immanent in the universe and its
practice is the only formula prescribed by the Sikh Gurus to realize God. In
fact, whatever is created, is Naam21. "All that is
created is His manifestation ".
Guru Nanak
was always apathetic to any view of the world, which denigrated its reality
or made the world illusory. He was, therefore, firm on the principle that the
creation is as real as the creator -- it includes, besides material existence,
the culture of man, his thoughts and his values. Guru Nanak discards the
Vedantic conception of reality in Asa-di-Var, and proclaims that this
universe is real, not an illusion22: "Real are Thy
continents; Real is the universe; Real are theseforms and material
objects; Thy doings are Real, O Lord".
The Guru
calIs this vast universe as His mansion23: "This moving
universe is the divine mansion of the true Lord; And the true one lives
therein. "
Guru Nanak
has identified the manifest reality with Nature.24"Nanak,
the beneficent Lord alone is true and He is revealed through His Nature ".
God transformed Himself from nirguna to sarguna, created Nam(u)
and Kudrat(i), i.e; Nature.25"His-self He
created and manifested His Name; And then He created Nature and abiding within
it, He revelled in His wonder". The description of Nature26
by Guru Nanak in Asa-di-Var is a new dimension in the history of
religious thought. In a way, scientific study of Nature is sanctioned in
Nanakian philosophy. "All that is visible is His Nature; All that is
heard too is His Nature…. In the nether regions and skies is the manifestation
of His Nature; Of His Nature are all the manifestations".
To sum up
the concept of supreme reality as presented in AGGS is unique,
scientific and revolutionary. It is not a mere abstraction. Its realization is
possible through the practice of Sabd and Naam. Guru Nanak was
blessed with the vision of God or Reality in Nature27. "The
Guru hath revealed the Lord's presence to Nanak in the three worlds; in the woods,
waters and over the earth ".
REFERENCES
1 Capra, F. 1975. The Tao of Physics. Shambhala, Berkeley, USA.
2 Bohr, N. 1934. Atomic Physics and Description of Nature. Cambridge Univ. Press, London, 1987 Reprint. Virk, H.S. 1988, Reality : Physical, Metaphysical and Mystical. In : History & Philosophy of Science (Ed. H.S. Virk). Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, India, pp. 79-90.
3 Heisenberg, W. 1963. Physics and Philosophy. Allen & Unwin, London.
4 Bohr, N. Op. cit.
5 Dampier, W. 1948. A History of Science. Cambridge Univ. Press, London.
6 Mahadevan, T.P. 1968. Essays on Hinduism (Ed. L.M. Joshi), Punjabi University, Patiala, India.
7 Capra, F. 1975. Op. cit.
8 Capra, F. 1976. Modern Physics & Eastern Mysticism. J. Transpersonal Pssychology. 8(1):20-40.
9 Happold, F.C. Mysticism. 1991. Viking Penguin.
10 AGGS, Kabir, P. 334
11 AGGS, M 2, p. 139
12 Singh, Wazir. 1985. Philosophy of Mul Mantra. In : Sikh Concept of the Divine. Ed. Pritam Singh). Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, India. Pp. 143-150.
13 AGGS. Manglacharan/Commencing Verse, P. 1
14 Ahluwalia, J.S. 1999. Time, Reality and Religion. In : The Doctrine and Dynamics of Sikhism. Punjabi University, Patiala. Pp. 29-50.
