Shiva and Shakti

Search for the Non-existent Particles
Published in Times Of India- Speaking tree 20th Sep 2008

The elusive Higgs boson has been the focus of the Largest Scientific Experiment. It seemingly will plug one of the leaks that abound the standard model of Physics.
If identified, it would help in explaining why some sub-atomic particles are heavy and have a greater mass than others. Ancient Hindu beliefs reckon that the entire manifestation is a combination of Shiva and Shakti. Shiva represents the tangible matter whilst Shakti represents the intangible energy and the qualitative aspect associated with matter. Mass and energy are interconvertible. Shiva and Shakti are also very deeply interrelated and cannot be separated. The particle is like Shiva and the charge, spin, mass energy and such parameters are like shakti. This experiment seems to be like looking for shiva in Shakti, (finding the cause of the particle’s mass)when actually they are both just different manifestations of the supreme unity. This entire experiment is analogous to finding the quantitaive basis of a quality. Like trying to find a particle that serves to make beauty beautiful . That is certainly an exercise in futility. The entire experiment seems to be directed to finding a tangible quantitative parameter for a very fundamental attribute. Something akin to a pensioner being asked for proof of his being alive at the pension office. The beauty exists because there is an observer. And this observer is also as much a manifestation as the observed entity as is the act of observation. Nothing exists “a priori”.Even if the Big Bang theory were to be ratified, the bigger issue of who engineered its initiation still remains. And if space was also a derivative of the Big Bang, then in what space did this phenomenal expansion take place? Every objective existence is entirely a function of the observer. So any phenomenon is inexorably connected with the noumenon. Subject and object are interdependent on cognition. Like the quaint example of a falling tree in the forest. If no one has seen it falling ,then it never fell at all. The supreme knowledge(unification or segregation of Shiva and Shakti) cannot be studied or experimentally verified.. It has to be experienced... One has to become it. Meaning that the “knower and knowledge” distinction is not there anymore. That is probably why all the realized souls were unable to bring that knowledge into the domain of tangibility. Our analytical egos insist that we must find tangible units for every facet of existence.. Well Science can keep trying to satiate its unquenchable desire for tangibility but the end point of this endeavor will only yield ambiguity. Because the fundamental truth is that the observer in any experiment is very much a constituent of it. Identification and ratification, of observer observed dichotomy is an apparition. The hypnotic spell of Maya. The greatest quality of this maya is that it appears uniform to one and all. So if everyone is unanimous about the existence of say a tree ,then well it has to be there. Maya creates a very uniform and consistent mirage and sheer statistics coerce the senses into believing the appearance.
Physics ought to have shed its greed once Einstein proclaimed and proved the interconvertibility of mass and energy. Quantum Physics opened a Pandoras box and ridiculed logic and the very basis of Scientific deduction. Quantum theory is virtually the science of the improbable, Scientific Logic leading to the illogical. It has come up with very bizarre predictions. Like the Schroedinger’s cat supposition. We have tried to understand nature thru a very small diameter looking glass and tried to force its entirety into this limited frame of comprehension. Probably, failure to demonstrate the Higgs Boson may be the turning point. To turn inwards and become inflective and redefine the paradigm of Scientific approach. The Higgs particle is just a logical extrapolation of our limited understanding. It may just end up being the non-existent proof of a non-existent theory.. Experience never needed any experiment since it cannot be reproduced at will and under specified conditions. Probably unraveling the entire mystery of creation needs not a Large Hadron Collider but a large perception assimilator.


Dr Deepak Ranade
(The author is a consultant Neurosurgeon -E-mail- deepakranade@hotmail.com)