TOMORROW is the holy day of Deepavali, and it provides a hallowed occasion for us to shine a ray of brilliance on the celebration.
In this festival of lights, the light from myriad oil lamps symbolises enlightenment or knowledge of the highest truth. The peak of Hindu aspirations is expressed in this sacred Upanishadic verse: “Lead me from the unreal to the real. Lead me from darkness to light.”
But despite the immense wisdom contained in the Vedas, most non-Hindus in Malaysia fail to appreciate the depths of its scriptural truths
and accept Hinduism as being of equal value to their own religion. The majority of Hindus themselves remain unaware of the Vedas’ profound insights.
While the monotheistic term “God is one” popularly means there is no other God and we must not elevate any being to the status of God, Hinduism prefers more than one interpretation.
The Vedic scriptural collection presents two concepts of God: the external view of God as a supremo who creates the universe and prescribes laws for the conduct of human affairs – the most favoured view throughout the world – and the internal view of God as the substantial essence of the universe and the reality behind this “sleight of hand” manifestation that we see as creation.
The external view, denoted by the term Saguna Brahman, is that God is a creative personality who makes the universe and designs it such that it functions like a vast automated machine. At a more sophisticated level of intimacy, Hindus regard the universe as the body of God. “Just as hair grows on the bodies of people, so also this universe comes into being from that undiminishable, immortal Brahman” (Mundakopanishad 1:7).
“I am the source of all; from me everything evolves” (Bhagavad Gita 10:8). “Now behold in this, my body, the whole universe, centred in one” (11:7). “There, in the body of the God of Gods, Arjuna then saw the whole universe, resting in one” (11:13).
The internal view, Nirguna Brahman, is completely opposite as
it describes God as devoid of personality or personal attributes. God in this view is the only reality. God is simply the Reality (Satya). “Therefore, the wise call it Satya” (Taittiriyapanishad 2:6). “Nothing exists besides You” (Srimad Bhagavata 3:9:1).
But eight verses before this, it states the reverse: “He saw that form of the Lord, which includes within itself the whole universe, but which could assume any size according to His will” (Srimad Bhagavata 3:8:25).
This contradiction is explained further: “You are the one without a second, manifesting at the same time as the world of cause and effect while remaining as the non-dual unrelated Substance. It is like the one gold, manifesting as various objects made of it. It is due to ignorance that people speak of the substance and the forms taking shape from it as different” (8:12:8).
“The objective world, a second existence distinct and different from (God), seems to exist but it has no such separate existence in reality. Such existence as it has, is like that of the contents of a dream or of a reverie, which are entirely based on the dreamer’s mind, and do not exist apart from that mind” (11:2:38). Note the phrase “seems to exist” that we shall explain.
Most theologians, scholars and preachers of the West Asian religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) have felt tempted to slam Hinduism for its contradictions and inconsistencies as well as for declaring creation to be an illusion (Sanskrit: maya).
They are sadly unaware that quantum physics, the science that describes how nature operates on atomic and subatomic scales, has verified the correctness of Hindu teachings. Current scientific advancements have left religionists ignorant of new research many light years behind as they fail to realise that science has erased the boundaries between the physical and non-physical.
We know from atomic physics that the solidity of matter is an illusion. All matter is composed of atoms, each with a nucleus at its centre.
If you scale up the atom to the size of our solar system, instead of a gigantic Sun with a diameter of 1.4 million kilometres, you will see a nucleus the size of Ipoh – a small city stretching 10km from north to south. The nucleus fills up merely 0.0000000000001% of the volume of an atom. To grasp the vastness of space void, ponder the distance from the Sun to planet Neptune – 4.5 billion kilometres.
Scaled up to solar-system size,
the electron might be somewhat analogous to something as tiny as a speck or gnat. Electrons whirl around the nucleus of every atom at a velocity of 1,320km per second (the exact distance between Paris and Madrid), and their electromagnetic force
fields make the atoms appear as
rigid spheres giving matter its familiar solid aspect, like a table fan blowing at max speed.
But quantum physics has discovered that it is not just atomic solidity that is an illusion; particles are themselves illusory. The atom has three types of particles: in addition to the electrons, there are protons and neutrons forming the nucleus at the centre.
The protons and neutrons are composed of quarks. These are elementary particles, meaning they are not composed of smaller particles – they are considered fundamental building blocks of matter. Every proton is made up of three quarks (two up quarks and one down quark), while every neutron is composed of two down quarks and one up quark.
Quarks have no substructure and volume. If you scale up the proton or neutron to the size of our solar system, each quark is just a pencil point, speaking analogically. The percentage of space within a proton or neutron that is directly occupied by the three quarks is close to zero. A quark-sized astronaut touring these particles will see just empty space.
Quarks have no substantial reality as particles. The current best physical theory suggests that underlying all matter and energy is a quantum field stretching through space in waves. The stretching produces tension, like taut strings in a guitar or violin, and tension causes this substratum to vibrate. Vibration is a ripple with a back-and-forth oscillatory motion. When a series of ripples travels over a distance, a wave is formed.
A wave compressed at any point takes on the form of a particle. As it is merely a compressed wave peak, the quark as a particle returns to its
wave form, with decompression of the peak. Quarks possess no hard physical boundaries demarcating them as independent entities.
The proton and neutron are thus illusory particles. In the case of the electron, only in a few situations is it
a particle. Most times it exists as a dense fast-moving quantum wave.
Om and quantum vibration
The energy responsible for the quantum vibrations comes from the inherent tension of the substratum and is thus a built-in property of the substratum itself. Various modes of vibration give rise to protons, neutrons and electrons. With the substratum continuously vibrating, the entire universe is in rhythmic and vibratory motion.
Quantum vibration is situated on the borderline where the physical
and the non-physical intertwine, like the double strands of DNA, in a primordial substratum.
We can now tackle this mysterious verse in the Srimad Bhagavata: “Nothing exists besides You” (3:9:1) – meaning there is no reality in addition to you. It had earlier stated: “All this universe indeed is an expression of Your thought” (2:5:3).
Every Hindu prayer is prefaced by the chanting of Om, which is the religion’s primary symbol. “Om means Brahman,” says the Taittiriyopanishad (1:8:1). “Om is the best of all essences, the highest, deserving the highest place” (Chandogyapanishad 1:1:3).
The Om is meant to be recited in such a way as to mimic the sound of quantum vibration magnified to human audibility level.
“As all leaves are attached to a stalk, so is all sound and speech attached to the Om (Brahman). Om is all this, (Chandogyapanishad 2:1:4).
Confirmation came in 2003 when astronomers detected low-frequency sound waves propagating through the gas surrounding the supermassive black hole at the centre of the constellation Perseus.
The pitch of this sound translates into a note 57 octaves below the B flat, above middle C. At a frequency more than a million billion times deeper than the limits of human hearing, this is the deepest note ever detected from an object in our universe.
Using advanced technology, Nasa recently transposed these sound waves up by 57 and 58 octaves, increasing the pitch of the waves by billions of times transforming the inaudible into the audible and allowing us to hear. Ohm, hummed
in deep pitch (OhhMmmmm), does mimic the sound emanating from Perseus.
In Vedic metaphor, the primordial substratum is the Voice of God and quantum vibration is the Word of God (Om). The powerful Gayathri Mantra in the Rig Veda begins with Om, bhur, bhuvah, svaha meaning that quantum vibration is the Word producing the trinity of matter (bhur), energy (bhuvah) and information (syaha), or the physical, emotional and mental realms.
“The Gayathri, indeed, is this whole universe, all that has come to be. And the Word, indeed, is Gayathri, for the Word sings forth and protects this whole universe that has come to be” (Chandogyapanishad 3:12:1).
Om! Selamat Deepavali.
The writer champions
interfaith harmony.
Comments: letters@thesundaily.com
