Under the spell of Ramakrishna and Vivekananda

On February 10, 2018, I gave a talk titled “Physics and the Indian Spiritual Tradition” at the Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture (RMIC), Kolkata, India. The full video of the talk and Q/A is coming soon.

UPDATE: full video of the talk and Q/A.

The video below, taken just before the talk, shows a quiet afternoon in the Institute’s garden: colors, flowers, little birds, soft music — an environment uniquely conducive to peaceful meditation on the Big Things.

The RMIC campus is an oasis of peace and quiet right in the middle of the noisy urban chaos of Kolkata, which some could find threatening but to me, a Neapolitan, feels just like home. Both Kolkata and Napoli are complex, beautiful, and alive with unforgettable sights and sounds. Here are some pictures of street scenes taken near the campus.

I wish to express my most heartfelt thanks to the RMIC, and to my beloved friend Nupur Munshi, who worked hard for months to make the talk happen.

In the cover picture, a statue of Swami Vivekananda, the founder of the Ramakrishna Mission. Please read Nupur’s tribute and introduction to Vivekananda.

While my knowledge and understanding of the teachings of Ramakrishna and Vivekananda is still rudimentary, I believe the core of their message is the essential unity of religions (different “geographies and zoning norms” but compatible “cosmologies,” which is what really matters) and the essential unity of consciousness.

In “What is Life?,” one of the most influential science books of the 20th century, Erwin Schrödinger summarized the Vedanta concept of essential unity of consciousness as:

“From the early great Upanishads the recognition ATHMAN = BRAHMAN (the personal self equals the omnipresent, all-comprehending eternal self) was in Indian thought considered, far from being blasphemous, to represent the quintessence of deepest insight into the happenings of the world. The striving of all the scholars of Vedanta was, after having learnt to pronounce with their lips, really to assimilate in their minds this grandest of all thoughts.”

In my talk, I argued that the compatibility between fundamental physics and the Indian spiritual tradition is becoming more and more evident.

Most Westerners don’t like the idea of losing one’s individuality and being absorbed into the eternal unity of consciousness after death. But here’s what Vivekananda had to say on the fate of the self after death (source: “Vivekananda: A biography,” by Swami Nikhilananda):

“One day a drop of water fell into the vast ocean. Finding itself there, it began to weep and complain, just as you are doing. The giant ocean laughed at the drop of water. ‘Why do you weep?’ it asked. ‘I do not understand. When you join me, you join all your brothers and sisters, the other drops of water of which I am made. You become the ocean itself. If you wish to leave me you have only to rise up on a sunbeam into the clouds. From there you can descend again, little drop of water, a blessing and a benediction to the thirsty earth.’”

I offered the idea that future “Akashic Engineering,” envisioned among others by Nikola Tesla, who may have been inspired by Swami Vivekananda, will allow future humans to understand the divine ocean:

“The day science begins to study non-physical phenomena, it will make more progress in one decade than in all the previous centuries of its existence.”

In the words of a contemporary Mormon scholar, “the end point of engineering knowledge may be divine knowledge.” I am persuaded that we will become cosmic engineers in the divine control room, and contribute to realizing the promises of spiritual traditions, including afterlife.

In a recent conversation, Indian physicist Sisir Roy noted that India, which is becoming a hotbed of futuristic science and technology, could provide a more open and culturally supportive environment than the conservative US and Europe for the development of radically new science.

Could Akashic Engineering be developed in India, with the participation of mavericks and citizen scientists worldwide? This would be, I believe, an ideal fusion of Eastern and Western thinking.

Pictures and video by Giulio Prisco.