ADVAIDA PHILOSOPHY AND QUANTUM PHYSICS
By George Merlo Pallath
The famous Advaida philosophy by Sree Sankara puts forth the idea that we are all ONE. “Tat Vam Asi”. “Aham Brahmasmi” I am Brahman. It underscores the principle that the inner immortal soul(ATMAN) and the great cosmic spirit( BRAHMAN) are One and the same. The concept called God and each one of us are one and the same. The whole universe and everything in it are basically the different manifestations of the same God Concept. The spirit or consciousness that suffuses the cosmos is the sole reality. Everything else including the universe, material objects and individuals are ever changing, transient and illusory. A true Hindu realizes that the divine within him is the same Divine in all other beings. The Divine is as much in every individual whether they be higher caste or lower caste or in animals and stones as in every part of the universe. Everything is part of the whole.
The similarities with quantum physics is startling:-
According to the quantum physics scientists theorize that everything is energy and all the matter is also energy in a different form. Concentrated units.
There is no such thing called TIME. Time is different for humans, different for inorganic objects like rocks and sand. But it does not mean that the rocks and sand has no life. “Time is the form in which we beings whose brains are made up essentially of memory and foresight interact with our world: it is the source of our identity.” Says Physicist Rovelli. The concept of life is different for rocks and sand. Even what might seem like a thing—a stone, say—is really an event taking place at a rate we can’t register. At the quantum level everything is an event. Everything is alive and throbbing. “From our perspective, the perspective of creatures who make up a small part of the world—we see that world flowing in time,” the physicist writes. At the quantum level, however, durations are so short that they can’t be divided and there is no such thing as time. The whole universe is composed of pure energy occurring in different forms. They are all interrelated and interchangeable.
Every particle is aware of every other particle. Every particle or wave or electrons and positrons are all connected and aware of every other particle or energy waves. There is a concept called “Quantum Entanglement” whereby every particle is connected to every other particle. They relate to each other. They are aware and change their characteristics on the basis of change in the other particle. If observed they behave differently than when they are not observed. Suppose two light photons are observed. One is a wave form and the other particle form. Suppose they are galaxies apart. Still if you change one from particle form to the wave form, the other particle existing in wave form automatically changes into particle form and vice versa.
So in short, as per quantum physics, everything is connected and aware of each other. Howsoever small or large it may be. The whole universe is in a constant state of Tandava or dance. It’s a dance of pure energy. Manifestations of energy in different forms and shapes.
The amazing thing is what the scientists found out through their years of experiments, the Adi Sankara and other rishis of ancient India understood through intuition. They became aware of the whole by meditation and thought.
Words does not matter. Call it God or energy or consciousness. The fact is we are all connected. The only problem is lack of awareness. Confining ourselves into our mortal self and restricting ourselves by our mundane search for possession of immaterial material things. Running after false Gods and fairy stories, chasing shadows. The moment we realize that we part of the whole and the whole exists within us, we become liberated.