Faith - Limitation or blessing of intelligence.
Man's quest for finding answers to origins of life and the seemingly infinite universe is insatiable. However, try as he may,the razor sharp, incisive human intellect, logic and reasoning cannot ever seem to cut though the veils of incomprehensibilities.
Perhaps, the greatest mind to walk this planet, Albert Einstein departed with a sense of despair, for being unable to come up with the Theory of Everything, that could provide a consensus between his ingenius theory of Relativity ( laws applicable to large masses) and Quantum Physics ( laws operating on the subatomic realm). It seemed, that he was tantalisingly close to figuring it all out, and yet he could never quite get there.
His epic statement -"The most incomprehensible part of the universe is that it is comprehensible" is testimony to the angst that he was experiencing in his relentless pursuit of the ultimate truth, the Theory of Everything.
His undying faith in logic and reasoning eventually made way for something that transcended both.
"There is no logical way to the discovery of elemental laws. There is only the way of intuition, which is helped by a feeling for the order lying behind the appearance.
Spirituality is the order, and Science is the appearance. The Indian Philosophical Systems talk of Purush and Prakriti, Shiva and Shakti, that are nomenclatures to address this "Order and Appearance".
The most incomprehensible part (Shiva) and the comprehensible part (Shakti).
The unmanifest source (the subject) that manifests can never be the object of Scientific scrutiny. Science can at best decipher the manifest universe, and yet stumble upon the unfathomable principles that govern the manifest objective universe.
Scientific Endeavor will eventually have to invert, or shift the focus from its obsession with the observed to understanding the Observer.
Beauty always lied in the eyes of the Beholder.
The tangible had to always depend on the intangible for its existence. Does the observer create the observed? Are the two locked in an inseparable embrace glued together by the bond of observation?
Faith in some higher intelligence, intuition, are those moments of Epiphany for the Observer, when the ego of the observer and his intellectual quest for answers sublimate to a point of surrender.
Faith never raises questions. It very subtly provides recourse, serving as an oasis for the traveller scorched by the unforgiving torment of analytical reason. Faith is the gift that falls into the hands of the seeker when they are freed from the shackles and chains of reason and logic. Faith is the vehicle needed by intelligence to navigate and travel over the unchartered unfamiliar terrains of incomprehensibility.
Faith in an anthropomorphic God, tends to be divisive. Sectarian faith that's thrives on exclusivity and promises, prosperity, wellbeing and divine intervention in troubled times for its followers can become a highly contentious subject. Faith that is based on indoctrination, imposing conditions and rituals can lead to hegemony and coercion, that's the nemesis of intellect and free spirit.
Its the faith in the unmanifest, that accepts the limitations of intellect and reason, that eventually will help comprehend the manifest.The Ultimate Truth, or the Theory of Everything lies beyond the domains of the Senses,Intellect, Mind and Reasoning.
That which cannot be apprehended by the mind, but by which, they say, the mind is apprehended. That which cannot be perceived by the eye, but by which the eye is perceived— Kena Upanishads.
Mankind's tryst with destiny will be unravelled only by the harmonious fusion of Intellect and a non divisive Faith. A faith that simultaneously surrenders and celebrates. A faith that respects and blends imperceptibly with science to herald an alchemy, that blesses him with realisation that the ultimate truth can only be experienced and never understood.
Dr. Deepak Ranade
Consultant Neurosurgeon and Faculty in
MIT-WPU School of Consciousness Studies, Pune.
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