Unidimensional Aspect of "Cause and Effect"

“Unidimensional aspect of CAUSE AND EFFECT”

The process of learning, programs us to think in a specific manner. That every event or thing has a cause. In fact learning or knowledge is based on accurately inter-relating the cause with effect. Learning helps make the effect a predictable outcome based on our understanding of all the forces acting on the cause.
This cause and effect thought process programs our intellects uni-dimensionally. Actually, cause and effect paradigm works fine within a narrow spectrum only on the gross level. At the sub-atomic or subtle level, all the predictable physical laws become redundant. Even quantum physicists accede that the laws governing the gross (sthoola) such as laws of motion, or relativity deviate substantially at the sub-atomic, subtle level.(Sookshma) That is where the confusion begins.
Reductionism, causality are incomplete tools of the human mind. Even in the epic “Bhagwad Gita”.the deliverance from all unhappiness is advocated by transcending the cause-effect algorithm. Indian philosophy has described this concept of non-causality centuries ago. It is called as ‘Ajati.’.
This concept is at the cross roads of the spiritual –scientific divide.
The singularity or Advaita as described by various seers stuns the intellectual process which is under the spell of the cause and effect pattern.
The instant, one veers from this path of cause and effect, the intellect is very severely handicapped.
Even scientific thought has now started inclining towards ‘experience’ rather than ‘experiment’ and the very quaint principles of quantum mechanics , force one to abandon all rationality and reason. One of the greatest Upanishads talks of “totality”, where even if one were to remove totality from totality, one would still be left with totality.
This concept cannot be comprehended by the cause effect principles.
The mysticism shrouding spiritualism is because of this apparent disconnection from cause-effect. Tangibility is the nemesis of all spiritual endeavours. Science is a process of evolution of thought, whereas spiritualism is involution of thought. Physicists have been battling all along to come to a consensus Theory of Everything . The need for this Theory is because the scientists are unanimous in accepting the discrepancy in laws governing the subtle and the gross. They are still pushing the frontiers of causality to explain quantum phenomenon which is just chasing a mirage.
Spiritualism is getting to that elusive Theory of Everything without the mediation of the cause –effect hypothesis. The theory of everything is in essence the Singularity or Advaita. Herein lies the experience that transcends causality. Where the observer, the observed and the act of observation merge into unison. The reductionism that science is obsessed with will finally culminate in the realization that the elementary building block of all manifestation is just energy. That is what the String Theory seems to point to. What varies is the form or the perception of the form, not the content. Reductionism will reach a level where matter transforms into conscious energy, just as water evaporates into vapour. What has changed is the state, not the fundamental substance. This change of state from water to vapour is unidimensional. Manifestation is the ability of the source to virtually express itself multi-dimensionally. How can one therefore employ cause and effect to comprehend that singularity when both are mere projections of the same singularity?

When we talk of virtual reality (as in Simulators) or for that matter cinema, is it not paradoxical wherein the intellect is aware of the illusory nature of the projection? At one end of the spectrum is pure awareness and the other end is also awareness which forces the senses to temporarily assign reality to the virtual image. Realisation is the process of moving from the awareness of virtual reality to pure awareness.
Identification with this singularity will necessarily happen only by transcending the cause effect protocol.



Dr. Deepak Ranade
(The author is a consultant Neurosurgeon and may be contacted at deepakranade@hotmail.com)