UNIVERSE-------Vedanta v/s Science

Ever since Man set foot on this earth, there has been an urge in him to know about this Universe and its creation. Since ancient time, he postulated various theories regarding it. Even religions which came later gave their own version of Creation. Christianity, Judaism and Islam postulated that GOD who is creator created this Universe in six days. Hinduism, also known as Vedic religion, which originated in India, also gave many theories on Cosmology. One of the most popular one is Trinity of Gods. It states that GOD created Trinity of Gods----Brahma [creator], Vishnu [preserver], and Mahesh [destroyer]. But Hinduism unlike other religions did not come in one go in this world. It evolved over a period of time and came up with Vedic philosophy.

Vedas constitute sublime knowledge revealed to Rishis while doing penance. Vedas reflect all aspects of existence. They throw light on Creation, ATMAN ( aatma/soul) and all related issues of spiritualism. There are four Vedas; Rigveda is oldest one with 10552 Mantras. Rigveda was written around 3000BC, when rest of the world was coming out of cave age. Some critics date Rigveda 250-300BC, purely conjectural. Upanishads are concluding part of Vedas. End of Vedas also goes by name of Vedanta. Upanishads are in form of dialogue, contain sublime knowledge that deals with topic at great depth.

Now let us peruse what Vedanta says about this creation:

The philosophy of Vedic religion [HINDUISM] that this universe is Maya (an illusion) is being criticized on this ground, that this world is real as it produces phenomenon. But Vedanta clearly states that this world is illusion [MAYA].This Maya is neither real nor unreal. It is not real because it ceases to exist when BRAHMAN is realized. Maya is cause of Creation; BRAHMAN is the nominal cause for creation.It is also substantial cause and undifferentiated cause for creation. Veil caused by Maya is of two types: covering truth and projection [appearing to be true].

Creator is both intelligent and material cause of this Universe. He cannot be outside Universe, and then He will have to create outside Universe.  He cannot be inside Universe as it will be limited by Creation, so He and Creation cannot be separated. If Creation is infinite, so must be Creator. Every action involves triad of Actor, Action and acting, each one limits the other. Vedanta says consciousness is BRAHMAN and not BRAHMAN is consciousness. That means consciousness is therefore both a necessary and sufficient qualification for BRAHMAN.  Objects in world are fundamentally made from electrons protons, neutrons, assembled in different ways. Essentially we come to a limiting case where observation of the fundamental material content depends on observer, a conscious entity. The implication is-------that investigation of fundamental blocks of Universe is futile unless one takes in to consideration the role of Consciousness. Is this world real or unreal------answer depends on from what point of reference the question is asked.  From the point of view of carpet salesman, Carpet is real. But from point of view of Chemist, there no material called Carpet; even while he is paying high price for carpet that he is buying.

BRAHMAN is sentient and world is insentient [inert]. Brahman is Nirgun [Vaishnav’s say has attributes]. So existence of world is due to Conscious entity as inert world cannot prove its existence. It is conscious entity which says world exists. This world is a lower level of reality. From absolute point of view, there is only Brahman-------- Existence, Consciousness and limitless.

“I am not located in space but space is located in me since I can exist without space, but space cannot exist without me” ----Sri Krishna in Bhagwat Gita.

Universe is superimposition on Brahman, like reality of dream to dreamer. Maya is real in empirical sense and unreal in absolute sense. Visible is permeated by BRAHMAN who is unmanifest. It is like snake which was not in rope, yet without rope there would be no snake.

So, in nutshell Vedanta says that Creator and Created are one and same.

Now let us examine this from scientific view.

Science confirms that reality we see is an illusion------Our 3D Universe is a hologram. It is brain which receives signals and organizes these into a hologram, which we project outside and call it a reality.

Matter does not exist, what exists is intelligence. There is no such thing as this and that electron. It exists only in relation to other. It has no locality. This world is a tiny tiny frequency range within an infinite energy range. At deeper level [subatomic level] everything dissolves and what remains is just relationship. It is an act of consciousness which creates building block of which Universe is made. Consciousness is programming language of this Universe. From nothing----came Consciousness, Energy, Space, MIND, time and later Matter. All Matter is nothing but energy. Atom only appears in a particular place if you measure it [observe it].Atoms are spread all over place. Matter is nothing but energy which is in vibration.

There are parallel Universes. There could be a universe without intelligence. If computer speed in future is extremely fast, one could recreate ones past hologram and then it might become difficult to know which is virtual or real.

Quantum physics states that Universe is creation of intelligence [Mind of god?] Scientists agree that reality is an illusion [ maya of Vedantist], a Hologram..

Quantum mechanics showed that predictions of science are probabilistic. Physicists agree that we    encounter a single definite reality but there is no consensus amongst them as to how this basic fact is compatible with the theory’s mathematical expression. String theory means different Universes with different laws of physics. Great Einstein said long back----“-Religion without science is blind, Science without religion is lame.

 In summary, according to Vedantists MAYA and science’s expression of matter does not exist, what exists is energy and reality is an illusion, have tremendous commonality. What science is talking today seers in INDIA gave this philosophy thousands of years back.