Kanchan Banerjee reports on a multi-disciplinary symposium in Dartmouth, US, where researchers expounded the idea of advancing physics through an intimate understanding of Vedanta
The Center for Indic Studies at University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, hosted a unique international symposium on Science, Vedanta and Foundations of Physics on July 6-7. The multidisciplinary programme is devoted to examining the foundations of physics, especially quantum mechanics from the perspective of Vedantic philosophy and metaphysics.
Scholars from several centres and universities like UMass Dartmouth; Harvard; Jawaharlal Nehru University (India); Universities of Florida, Montana and a few others attended it. Psychologist Dr Jerry Solfvin of the Center for Indic Studies pointed out the centrality of non-duality in Vedanta and its realization through subjective exercises.
Philosopher Dr R P Singh gave a survey of Western approaches to knowledge and reality from classical Greece to Hegel and Nietzsche while comparing and contrasting with the Vedantic approach.
Molecular biologist, Dr Neeraja Venkateshwaran, presented the cause and effect concept of reality, and how body, mind, and intellectual approach help explain the universal principles.
Dr Vinod Deshmukh, neurophysiologist from the University of Florida, presented some recent findings relating to energy distribution in neuro-physics and the approach to the problem in Vedanta. Dr Diana Lurie of the University of Montana presented results showing that combining the Vedic approach — based on Ayurveda — with modern biomedicine can significantly enhance the treatment of neurodegenerative disorders, particularly in elderly patients. Dr Girish Nath Jha of Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi presented results showing the usefulness of the classical Vedantic grammar of Panini in designing machine translation and other information systems on the computer.
Educationist Pandit Ramadheen Ramsamooj demonstrated the use of ideas from modern set theory in teaching important concepts from the famous philosophic work, the Bhagvad Gita.
Dr N S Rajaram of the Center for Indic Studies pointed out that theoretical results like Bell’s theorem as well as experimental verifications suggest that quantum phenomena take place in a domain that cannot be described by space-time geometry. He suggested that the idea of ‘orders of reality’ propounded by Madhva of the Dualist Vedanta School combined with the notion of ‘reality as process’ of Alfred North Whitehead and Patanjali (of Yoga-sutra fame) can shed light on the nature of reality in the quantum world. Dr Sukalyan Sengupta of UMass, Dartmouth, gave a comparison of the nature of time as perceived in the Vedanta and in modern physics. Physicist and biomedical scientist Dr Anita Goel of Harvard presented results showing how biological models may be relevant in the study of quantum effects in single molecule systems.
So far, classical physics from thermodynamics and other fields has been able to deal with problems arising at the nano level, she stated. But, she felt that it was only a matter of time before the quantum limit was reached, which would call for more innovative approaches drawing upon insights from biology and Vedanta to deal with systems from the cosmological scale to the nano in a unified manner.
Physicist and cosmologist Dr John Hagelin, formerly of Harvard, who is the head of research at Maharishi University, suggested that personal experience gained through meditation was essential for a unified understanding of diverse phenomena in quantum physics and cosmology.
He opined that that the goal of a unified field theory was unattainable without such a programme. According to him, unified field was part of the consciousness experience, a view held also by physicist John Wheeler. Dr Venkat Kodumudi, a biochemist, explained composition of matter and the guiding force in non-dual existence by using the idea of 24 factors that constitute the universe. Biophysical chemist and yoga scholar Dr Balram Singh, director of the Center for Indic Studies, drew comparisons between the Indian Vaisheshika school of Vedanta and modern chemico-physics. He presented results from experiments that showed the efficacy of Yogic practices in performing certain tasks. He emphasized the need for developing and integrating experimental methods with Vedanta theory and practice.
This symposium was the maiden effort to use Vedic ideas to understand and develop fundamental physics. One of the participants, Dr. Ashish Pathak, said, “The diverse background of knowledgeable speakers made this a great seminar.”
