Prafulla Pant
There is a subtle difference between the Supreme Soul Shiva and Shankar the deity. The Supreme has been worshipped in the oval or egg-shaped form of the Shivalinga. The Linga Purana says that the one who destroys the world and re-establishes the same with Divine Power is called ‘Linga’. In Shiva temples throughout India — including at Amarnath, Somnath, Kashi Vishwanath and Ujjain’s Mahakaleshwar — and Nepal’s Pashupatinath, He is depicted as the linga, an elliptical representation in stone. According to legend, Rama invoked Shiva at Rameshwaram and Krishna offered prayers to Him at Gopeshwar in Vrindavan. Shiva temples have been erected here honouring that memory. Shiva is worshipped as the Supreme Father of all deities and of Rama and Krishna. Shiva’s representation as linga is to show His incorporeal nature. He does not have any male or female human-like form like the deities; He is the incorporeal point of light. The 12 renowned Shiva temples in India are also known as Jyotirlinga Maths, signifying His form of Light. Incorporeal Shiva is also known as Trimurti, the creator of the three subtle deities — Brahma, Vishnu and Shankar. The three lines marked on the Shivalinga symbolise His triple characteristics of Trimurti: Trinetri — the one with the third eye of wisdom, Trikaldarshi — the one who sees the three aspects of time, and Trilokinath — the lord of three worlds. Shiva is also known as Shambhu or Swayambhu and Sadashiva meaning that Shiva is the eternal Soul who has no creator above Him. Swami Dayanand Saraswati says Shiva is the “One who is bliss and the giver of Happiness to all”. Supreme Soul Shiva brings liberation or mukti and salvation or jeevan mukti to all. In south India, Lingayats believe that Shiva is the Supreme God. The Ishtalinga worn by the Veerashaivas on their body is technically a miniature of Linga and is considered to be an amorphous representation of Shiva which also proves that Shiva was worshipped in the oval-shaped figure. It was much later that Shiva and deity Shankar came to be presumed as one. In Vaishik Darshan and Vedanta, Linga is mentioned as the image of the body-less Supreme God. It is free of personal characteristics. The ignorance about Shiva is on account of confusing Shankar with Shiva. Deity Shankar has an angelic body whereas Shiva is oval shaped and worshipped as Shiva Linga. Shankar has a human form residing in the subtle world region called Sankarpuri; he is responsible for destruction of the old world order. In some paintings and sculptures, Shankar is shown meditating in front of the Shiva Linga, which also indicates that the two are different from each other. The festival of Shivratri symbolises the divine incarnation of Shiva on this earth. The night indicates the moral degradation in souls that sets in due to the ignorance in this world. The true fasting (upvaas plus close company) on Shivratri is that we link our intellect with Shiva and stay in His company. The true Jagran or awakening means to awaken from the slumber of ignorance and to protect the self from the negative influence of vices such as lust, anger, greed and ego. Absolute formless God, Sadashiva appeared in the form of Lingodbhav Moorti exactly at midnight on Shivratri. With all this insight into the Supreme Soul Shiva, let us all celebrate Shivratri and know its spiritual significance.
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Make life your goal, not greed or fear
PARAMAHAMSA SRI NITHYANANDA
WE FEEL happy or satisfied when we are running after desires or when we run away from our fears. So every moment, we are continuously either in greed by running after our desires or in fear by continuously running away from something. Our happiness in every moment is measured only by either greed or fear. But how can you be happy or satisfied when in this moment you are running towards or away from something? This means we are not actually experiencing the moment. We are not actually living in the present moment. We are continuously in the web of greed and fear. We are either living in the past or we are in the future thinking about our list of desires. We fear if our desires will get fulfilled due to past experiences. We are never in the present moment. We can enjoy something totally only when we are completely in it and we can be complete only when we are totally in the present moment, enjoying what we are doing here and now. When you are in the current moment, when you are completely in the present moment with full enthusiasm, you are in a state of bliss. Bliss is the state of joy which has no reason and which is not affected by the past or future. It is not affected by either our fear or our greed. It is always there. Then, the current blissful moment will give birth to future moments of bliss. You enter a virtuous circle rather than being caught up in the vicious circle of fear and greed that you are now caught in. This running towards or away from something is fundamentally because we think that life has some goal to be achieved. If you are running behind a goal in life, you will be disappointed at the end of life. Sadly, you will feel terribly dissatisfied; you will feel a complete void when you look back at what you have been running for. But when we see life itself as a goal, we make the path itself as the goal. So every moment when we are on the path of life, we are achieving the goal. The goal is achieved every moment of your life. The self-realised person is active and happy because he is completely in the present moment, living in reality. The Divine Energy simply blissfully flows through him and he does his activities with that blissful Energy. He no longer needs to derive energy for his activities from desire.
WE FEEL happy or satisfied when we are running after desires or when we run away from our fears. So every moment, we are continuously either in greed by running after our desires or in fear by continuously running away from something. Our happiness in every moment is measured only by either greed or fear. But how can you be happy or satisfied when in this moment you are running towards or away from something? This means we are not actually experiencing the moment. We are not actually living in the present moment. We are continuously in the web of greed and fear. We are either living in the past or we are in the future thinking about our list of desires. We fear if our desires will get fulfilled due to past experiences. We are never in the present moment. We can enjoy something totally only when we are completely in it and we can be complete only when we are totally in the present moment, enjoying what we are doing here and now. When you are in the current moment, when you are completely in the present moment with full enthusiasm, you are in a state of bliss. Bliss is the state of joy which has no reason and which is not affected by the past or future. It is not affected by either our fear or our greed. It is always there. Then, the current blissful moment will give birth to future moments of bliss. You enter a virtuous circle rather than being caught up in the vicious circle of fear and greed that you are now caught in. This running towards or away from something is fundamentally because we think that life has some goal to be achieved. If you are running behind a goal in life, you will be disappointed at the end of life. Sadly, you will feel terribly dissatisfied; you will feel a complete void when you look back at what you have been running for. But when we see life itself as a goal, we make the path itself as the goal. So every moment when we are on the path of life, we are achieving the goal. The goal is achieved every moment of your life. The self-realised person is active and happy because he is completely in the present moment, living in reality. The Divine Energy simply blissfully flows through him and he does his activities with that blissful Energy. He no longer needs to derive energy for his activities from desire.
How to see what's not there
• MUKUL SHARMA
VIRTUAL reality, the technology which allows us to interact with a computersimulated environment in real time, can only be experienced by wearing special goggles, earphones and gloves. Without them, for all intents and purposes, the simulacrum does not exist. Or does it? Some would say it does because the program codes for it are still there in the machine’s memory; others would argue it doesn’t because binary electronic states are not the same thing as an actual immersive feeling. In any case what can’t be disputed is that a human interface with the device makes the latent virtuality manifest itself. Now some scientists are discovering that the nature of our own everyday “real” reality may also be very similar. That is, it only comes into existence when it is perceived by our eyes or other sense organs. The ultra prestigious journal, Nature, reported last year that physicists from Austria claim to have performed an experiment that rules out a broad class of theories that focus on realism — giving the uneasy consequence that reality does not exist when we are not observing it. We thus have to face the possibility that there is nothing inherently real about the properties of an object that we measure since measuring those properties is what brings them into existence in the first place. But here’s a thought: If something does not exist in an ontologically real sense prior to observation, there is no observation. And if this logic is correct, we appear to have lost the meaning of the word “observation” and should, instead, speak of “creation” because that is exactly what happens when something pops into existence following an act on the part of someone’s consciousness. Or as quantum researcher Vlatko Vedral of the university of Leeds in the United Kingdom puts it: “Rather than passively observing it, we in fact create reality.” The notion that our measurements create reality could have major implications in our search for the underpinning of all philosophy. More importantly, science seems to be suggesting a huge interconnectivity operating here between all things. For instance, if a galaxy a zillion light years away from us can only become real and start existing when we observe it, then the Big Bang of creation must have also happened because something finally became conscious of it. That could be us. Meaning, we retrocreated a reason for our existence!
VIRTUAL reality, the technology which allows us to interact with a computersimulated environment in real time, can only be experienced by wearing special goggles, earphones and gloves. Without them, for all intents and purposes, the simulacrum does not exist. Or does it? Some would say it does because the program codes for it are still there in the machine’s memory; others would argue it doesn’t because binary electronic states are not the same thing as an actual immersive feeling. In any case what can’t be disputed is that a human interface with the device makes the latent virtuality manifest itself. Now some scientists are discovering that the nature of our own everyday “real” reality may also be very similar. That is, it only comes into existence when it is perceived by our eyes or other sense organs. The ultra prestigious journal, Nature, reported last year that physicists from Austria claim to have performed an experiment that rules out a broad class of theories that focus on realism — giving the uneasy consequence that reality does not exist when we are not observing it. We thus have to face the possibility that there is nothing inherently real about the properties of an object that we measure since measuring those properties is what brings them into existence in the first place. But here’s a thought: If something does not exist in an ontologically real sense prior to observation, there is no observation. And if this logic is correct, we appear to have lost the meaning of the word “observation” and should, instead, speak of “creation” because that is exactly what happens when something pops into existence following an act on the part of someone’s consciousness. Or as quantum researcher Vlatko Vedral of the university of Leeds in the United Kingdom puts it: “Rather than passively observing it, we in fact create reality.” The notion that our measurements create reality could have major implications in our search for the underpinning of all philosophy. More importantly, science seems to be suggesting a huge interconnectivity operating here between all things. For instance, if a galaxy a zillion light years away from us can only become real and start existing when we observe it, then the Big Bang of creation must have also happened because something finally became conscious of it. That could be us. Meaning, we retrocreated a reason for our existence!
Get irrational; don’t keep options open
VITHAL C NADKARNI
BURN your boat. Chuck your parachute. Only then can you move forward, says Dan Ariely in his new book Predictably Irrational. Taking potshots at our tendency of keeping options open to minimise risks and optimise success, Ariely recommends peremptory action like that of Xiang Wu. The legendary Chinese General took his troops across the Yangtze into enemy territory and performed an experiment in decision-making. He crushed the troops’ cooking pots and burned their boats. Blocking your escape, he told the disbelieving (and disgruntled) troops, was done to help them to focus completely on the present goal of moving forward, to capture enemy territory. With nothing to lose except their lives or shirts (or both), the soldiers fought like never before and the General was completely vindicated in his defiance of ‘cover-your-base’ survivalist strategies. Conventional wisdom does suggest that he who runs away lives to fight another day. But the General reasoned what it does not spell out is that running away costs you that particular battle. This is also the message encoded in the Bhagvad Gita: stand up and fight. Don’t even think about whether you are going to win or lose. Do whatever needs to be done in a spirit of complete surrender to the cosmic principle of oneness without having to worry about success and failure. Such is the fight against vacillation, against dispersal of energy from necessary action into futile imagination. Narrowing our escape options concentrates our minds. But psychologists have also found that people find it extremely hard to exercise that option, perhaps because we may be hard-wired by evolution to look for escape routes for the survival of the species. Research involving hundreds of students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has found, for instance, that they could not bear to watch options vaporise even when it became apparent that it was pointless. The students couldn’t care less about future prospects, the scientists found. What goaded them was an intense desire to avoid immediate pain of having to let go of escape options. Closing a door was experienced as a loss, and people were willing to pay a price to avoid facing up to that emotion, Dr Ariely said. This is also borne by Daniel Kahneman’s Nobel-Prize research. The moral: Get irrational. Or get ‘divine’ advice to transcend innate human tendencies.
BURN your boat. Chuck your parachute. Only then can you move forward, says Dan Ariely in his new book Predictably Irrational. Taking potshots at our tendency of keeping options open to minimise risks and optimise success, Ariely recommends peremptory action like that of Xiang Wu. The legendary Chinese General took his troops across the Yangtze into enemy territory and performed an experiment in decision-making. He crushed the troops’ cooking pots and burned their boats. Blocking your escape, he told the disbelieving (and disgruntled) troops, was done to help them to focus completely on the present goal of moving forward, to capture enemy territory. With nothing to lose except their lives or shirts (or both), the soldiers fought like never before and the General was completely vindicated in his defiance of ‘cover-your-base’ survivalist strategies. Conventional wisdom does suggest that he who runs away lives to fight another day. But the General reasoned what it does not spell out is that running away costs you that particular battle. This is also the message encoded in the Bhagvad Gita: stand up and fight. Don’t even think about whether you are going to win or lose. Do whatever needs to be done in a spirit of complete surrender to the cosmic principle of oneness without having to worry about success and failure. Such is the fight against vacillation, against dispersal of energy from necessary action into futile imagination. Narrowing our escape options concentrates our minds. But psychologists have also found that people find it extremely hard to exercise that option, perhaps because we may be hard-wired by evolution to look for escape routes for the survival of the species. Research involving hundreds of students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has found, for instance, that they could not bear to watch options vaporise even when it became apparent that it was pointless. The students couldn’t care less about future prospects, the scientists found. What goaded them was an intense desire to avoid immediate pain of having to let go of escape options. Closing a door was experienced as a loss, and people were willing to pay a price to avoid facing up to that emotion, Dr Ariely said. This is also borne by Daniel Kahneman’s Nobel-Prize research. The moral: Get irrational. Or get ‘divine’ advice to transcend innate human tendencies.
Shiva As Jyotirlinga Is The Supreme Soul
B K Sushant
The term ‘Shiva’ is a confluence of two syllables, ‘Shi’ and ‘Va’, meaning the ‘redeemer of sins’ and ‘liberator of sufferings’. The Shvetashvetara Upanishad says, “Shiva is more minute than the minutest”. He is often considered to convey a divine dot, a point or seed of cosmic creation, sustenance and conclusion. In numerical counting, the devout Hindus says ‘Shiva’ instead of uttering ‘one’ which points to His position in the universe as the originator. Shivapurana mentions the oval flame or jyotirlinga form of Shiva. The Sanskrit suffix linga signifies mark, sign, symbol, quality or characteristics of an entity that has two phonetic parts:lin or laya and gam or agaman respectively, referring to the process of destruction and recreation which Shiva epitomises. Shiva is effulgent and beyond three attributes of sattva, rajas and tamas. With rajas in the form of Brahma, He creates; with sattva in the form of Vishnu, He preserves, and with tamas in the form of Rudra, He destroys. When the world is in darkness of ignorance Shiva appears in the form of a column of light, Jyotirlinga, in front of deities Brahma and Vishnu. In the race to prove their superiority they try to fathom the column of light, but fail. Shiva, along with all human souls, dwells in the supreme abode of divine illumination and complete silence. It is called Shanti Dham or Param Dham and is located amidst the sixth element of sacred light, far beyond the physical universe. Localised in incarnated bodies through successive births and interaction with material world, humans experience entropy and complete loss of all available energy. They pray for divine intervention and help. In human ignorance, Jyotirlinga Shiva descends on earth in the corporeal body of Prajapita Brahma and reveals His sacred knowledge about soul, supreme soul, world drama, law of karma and rajayoga meditation for recharging human souls by linking their minds to the supreme source of spiritual energies. His divine knowledge, revealed through Brahma, gives us insight to see the self and other beings as soul (tiny conscient point of divine light in the forehead) and to experience its innate and original qualities of purity, peace, love, bliss, knowledge, power and happiness. The regular practice of such soul consciousness would make you so light, positive, peaceful, blissful and powerful that your meditation and contemplation become effortless. Cultivation of soul consciousness would also foster essential unity, harmony and brotherhood of mankind under the spiritual fatherhood of one incorporeal Supreme Being. By seeking the companionship of Supreme Soul Shiva in meditation, we need not make special efforts to weed out unwanted, negative and harmful personality traits, habits, leanings and dependencies as they would automatically not only get sublimated in the subtle fire of intellectual communion or yoga of our inner self with the divine being, but would also be substituted with the natural, pure, positive, healthy and benevolent qualities, powers and proclivities. Being firmly seated in the joyful experience of our inner-self, we can smoothly connect and commune with the Almighty who is the eternal source of infinite spiritual knowledge, virtues and strength. By this simple and natural process of introspection and contemplation on self and the Supreme, we can empower ourselves and become one with Sat-Chit-Anand, truthconsciousness-bliss.
The term ‘Shiva’ is a confluence of two syllables, ‘Shi’ and ‘Va’, meaning the ‘redeemer of sins’ and ‘liberator of sufferings’. The Shvetashvetara Upanishad says, “Shiva is more minute than the minutest”. He is often considered to convey a divine dot, a point or seed of cosmic creation, sustenance and conclusion. In numerical counting, the devout Hindus says ‘Shiva’ instead of uttering ‘one’ which points to His position in the universe as the originator. Shivapurana mentions the oval flame or jyotirlinga form of Shiva. The Sanskrit suffix linga signifies mark, sign, symbol, quality or characteristics of an entity that has two phonetic parts:lin or laya and gam or agaman respectively, referring to the process of destruction and recreation which Shiva epitomises. Shiva is effulgent and beyond three attributes of sattva, rajas and tamas. With rajas in the form of Brahma, He creates; with sattva in the form of Vishnu, He preserves, and with tamas in the form of Rudra, He destroys. When the world is in darkness of ignorance Shiva appears in the form of a column of light, Jyotirlinga, in front of deities Brahma and Vishnu. In the race to prove their superiority they try to fathom the column of light, but fail. Shiva, along with all human souls, dwells in the supreme abode of divine illumination and complete silence. It is called Shanti Dham or Param Dham and is located amidst the sixth element of sacred light, far beyond the physical universe. Localised in incarnated bodies through successive births and interaction with material world, humans experience entropy and complete loss of all available energy. They pray for divine intervention and help. In human ignorance, Jyotirlinga Shiva descends on earth in the corporeal body of Prajapita Brahma and reveals His sacred knowledge about soul, supreme soul, world drama, law of karma and rajayoga meditation for recharging human souls by linking their minds to the supreme source of spiritual energies. His divine knowledge, revealed through Brahma, gives us insight to see the self and other beings as soul (tiny conscient point of divine light in the forehead) and to experience its innate and original qualities of purity, peace, love, bliss, knowledge, power and happiness. The regular practice of such soul consciousness would make you so light, positive, peaceful, blissful and powerful that your meditation and contemplation become effortless. Cultivation of soul consciousness would also foster essential unity, harmony and brotherhood of mankind under the spiritual fatherhood of one incorporeal Supreme Being. By seeking the companionship of Supreme Soul Shiva in meditation, we need not make special efforts to weed out unwanted, negative and harmful personality traits, habits, leanings and dependencies as they would automatically not only get sublimated in the subtle fire of intellectual communion or yoga of our inner self with the divine being, but would also be substituted with the natural, pure, positive, healthy and benevolent qualities, powers and proclivities. Being firmly seated in the joyful experience of our inner-self, we can smoothly connect and commune with the Almighty who is the eternal source of infinite spiritual knowledge, virtues and strength. By this simple and natural process of introspection and contemplation on self and the Supreme, we can empower ourselves and become one with Sat-Chit-Anand, truthconsciousness-bliss.
Shiva: God Of Welfare Or Kalyanasundaram
Shrii Shrii Anandamurti
What does Shiva mean? From written and unwritten sources, from Tantrik and Vedic texts, from shrutis and smritis, we get three meanings of the term Shiva. The first and most important meaning of Shiva is “welfare”. Shivamastu means the same as Kalyanamastu — “May you be blessed”. Kalyanasundaram is the representation of Shiva embodying the true spirit of blessedness. He is said to serve all life forms with five faces, two on the left as Vamadeva and Kalagni; two on the right as Daksineshvara and Ishana and one in the centre as Kalyanasundaram, the Supreme Controller. Shiva is Daksineshvara because He is showering daksina or compassion upon all creation. That is the special role allotted to Daksineshvara. Ishana is responsible for controlling all the jivas, individual beings, with meticulous care. And Kalyanasundaram, the face in the centre, plays the role of controlling all the faces. Kalyanasundaram’s only purpose is to promote the greatest welfare of all living beings. As Vamadeva, Shiva is terrible — He is Rudra — “one who teaches others by making them shed tears”. But the underlying purpose is to teach people, not to harm them. The other face, Kalagni, also subjects people to torture, but there also, the main purpose is to teach them, to promote their welfare. Now here also, the central face, Kalyanasundaram, controls the two roles of Vamadeva and Kalagni. He is Sundaram, beautiful, because He promotes kalyana or welfare. Hence Kalyanasundaram. Shiva is both severe and tender. He is tender, so naturally people love Him. Although He is severe, people still adore Him, because underlying His apparent severity there is tenderness. Thus the role of Shiva is predominantly the role of promoter of welfare. So the first meaning of the term Shiva is “welfare”. The second meaning of the term Shiva is “cognition in its zenith status”, the Supreme non-attributional process, beyond the faculties of all existential bondages. The third meaning is Sadashiva, who, by His holy birth, consecrated, as it were, every particle and utilised His whole life for the sole purpose of advancing the cause of universal welfare of not just humans but all life. Hence he is called Sadashiva: Sada means always and Shiva, welfare. He is one whose only vow of existence is to promote the all-round welfare of all living beings. Here is a question: In the night of blinding darkness, do humans alone aspire to feel the soothing touch of light? No, all want it. All seek to grow out of the oblivion of existential darkness into the warmth of life, to experience finally the fulfilment of their life’s urges. Up until this day, human beings have not made a proper appraisal of this great noncorporeal power, Shiva, who gave human beings their first opportunity to experience the sweet joy of fulfilment of all their longings. No one has discussed Him much up until now. Why people failed to make this appraisal is irrelevant today. It is the firm duty of every individual to know and evaluate the exact contribution of Shiva, and in this process of evaluation, we cannot ignore the phenomenon of Supreme Light. One may derive some joy from a bright ray emanating from a shining entity, but without the entity itself, the bliss will not be complete.
What does Shiva mean? From written and unwritten sources, from Tantrik and Vedic texts, from shrutis and smritis, we get three meanings of the term Shiva. The first and most important meaning of Shiva is “welfare”. Shivamastu means the same as Kalyanamastu — “May you be blessed”. Kalyanasundaram is the representation of Shiva embodying the true spirit of blessedness. He is said to serve all life forms with five faces, two on the left as Vamadeva and Kalagni; two on the right as Daksineshvara and Ishana and one in the centre as Kalyanasundaram, the Supreme Controller. Shiva is Daksineshvara because He is showering daksina or compassion upon all creation. That is the special role allotted to Daksineshvara. Ishana is responsible for controlling all the jivas, individual beings, with meticulous care. And Kalyanasundaram, the face in the centre, plays the role of controlling all the faces. Kalyanasundaram’s only purpose is to promote the greatest welfare of all living beings. As Vamadeva, Shiva is terrible — He is Rudra — “one who teaches others by making them shed tears”. But the underlying purpose is to teach people, not to harm them. The other face, Kalagni, also subjects people to torture, but there also, the main purpose is to teach them, to promote their welfare. Now here also, the central face, Kalyanasundaram, controls the two roles of Vamadeva and Kalagni. He is Sundaram, beautiful, because He promotes kalyana or welfare. Hence Kalyanasundaram. Shiva is both severe and tender. He is tender, so naturally people love Him. Although He is severe, people still adore Him, because underlying His apparent severity there is tenderness. Thus the role of Shiva is predominantly the role of promoter of welfare. So the first meaning of the term Shiva is “welfare”. The second meaning of the term Shiva is “cognition in its zenith status”, the Supreme non-attributional process, beyond the faculties of all existential bondages. The third meaning is Sadashiva, who, by His holy birth, consecrated, as it were, every particle and utilised His whole life for the sole purpose of advancing the cause of universal welfare of not just humans but all life. Hence he is called Sadashiva: Sada means always and Shiva, welfare. He is one whose only vow of existence is to promote the all-round welfare of all living beings. Here is a question: In the night of blinding darkness, do humans alone aspire to feel the soothing touch of light? No, all want it. All seek to grow out of the oblivion of existential darkness into the warmth of life, to experience finally the fulfilment of their life’s urges. Up until this day, human beings have not made a proper appraisal of this great noncorporeal power, Shiva, who gave human beings their first opportunity to experience the sweet joy of fulfilment of all their longings. No one has discussed Him much up until now. Why people failed to make this appraisal is irrelevant today. It is the firm duty of every individual to know and evaluate the exact contribution of Shiva, and in this process of evaluation, we cannot ignore the phenomenon of Supreme Light. One may derive some joy from a bright ray emanating from a shining entity, but without the entity itself, the bliss will not be complete.
Consciousness is an aspect of life’
Fritjof Capra is best known as the author of The Tao of Physics. Over the last 20 years, his work has evolved to include ecology and activism. He is the founding director of the Center for Ecoliteracy in Berkeley, California.
He spoke with Swati Chopra:
Swati :
How did you come upon the metaphor of the dance of Shiva for quantum particles, used so vividly in The Tao of Physics?
Fritjof:
I had a profound experience sitting at a beach in California, where the boundaries faded away and i belonged to this larger whole, a cosmos which was dynamic, alive, and in motion in a patterned order of a dance. I was a particle physicist and knew what was going on around me in terms of patterns and molecules, and i had also read of the dance of Shiva. I put the two together. But it didn’t really come intellectually. It was an experience. You talk of a new ‘science of quality’ emerging. From the beginning of western science, there have been two schools of thought: one that focuses on the study of matter or quantities, and the other on pattern and quality. Though dominated by the former, branches of science that emerged in the 20th century, like systems theory, cybernetics, quantum physics and ecology, focus on quality or pattern. I have proposed a synthesis of these two approaches through a conceptual framework that integrates the biological, cognitive and social dimensions of life. A science of quality is a science of relationships. Science is studying consciousness but is stuck in finding a biological basis for it, like a ‘God spot’ in the brain. What they miss is that consciousness, fundamentally, is an aspect of life. To me it is a special kind of cognition at a certain level of complexity that emerged in evolution. There’s a school of thought that tries to understand consciousness within the understanding of life. It transcends biology and uses an integral understanding of the biological, cognitive and social aspects of life. You are now promoting ‘ecoliteracy’. The planet is a collection of ecosystems that regulates and organises itself. Life evolved according to certain principles, such as forming networks, sharing resources, cycling matter, developing diversity, and so on. Endeavours to create sustainable societies should be led by an understanding of how nature has done it for billions of years. In this system where everything is interdependent and all matter moves in a complex web of life, no single variable can be maximised. Maximising a single variable is the ecological understanding of stress. Human beings have maximised certain variables — population, consumption, among others, and we have an economic system that says economies should grow indefinitely. Because of this, the entire planet is under stress and humanity on earth is like a foreign organism.
He spoke with Swati Chopra:
Swati :
How did you come upon the metaphor of the dance of Shiva for quantum particles, used so vividly in The Tao of Physics?
Fritjof:
I had a profound experience sitting at a beach in California, where the boundaries faded away and i belonged to this larger whole, a cosmos which was dynamic, alive, and in motion in a patterned order of a dance. I was a particle physicist and knew what was going on around me in terms of patterns and molecules, and i had also read of the dance of Shiva. I put the two together. But it didn’t really come intellectually. It was an experience. You talk of a new ‘science of quality’ emerging. From the beginning of western science, there have been two schools of thought: one that focuses on the study of matter or quantities, and the other on pattern and quality. Though dominated by the former, branches of science that emerged in the 20th century, like systems theory, cybernetics, quantum physics and ecology, focus on quality or pattern. I have proposed a synthesis of these two approaches through a conceptual framework that integrates the biological, cognitive and social dimensions of life. A science of quality is a science of relationships. Science is studying consciousness but is stuck in finding a biological basis for it, like a ‘God spot’ in the brain. What they miss is that consciousness, fundamentally, is an aspect of life. To me it is a special kind of cognition at a certain level of complexity that emerged in evolution. There’s a school of thought that tries to understand consciousness within the understanding of life. It transcends biology and uses an integral understanding of the biological, cognitive and social aspects of life. You are now promoting ‘ecoliteracy’. The planet is a collection of ecosystems that regulates and organises itself. Life evolved according to certain principles, such as forming networks, sharing resources, cycling matter, developing diversity, and so on. Endeavours to create sustainable societies should be led by an understanding of how nature has done it for billions of years. In this system where everything is interdependent and all matter moves in a complex web of life, no single variable can be maximised. Maximising a single variable is the ecological understanding of stress. Human beings have maximised certain variables — population, consumption, among others, and we have an economic system that says economies should grow indefinitely. Because of this, the entire planet is under stress and humanity on earth is like a foreign organism.
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