Could Shankaracharya forsee Einstein

Could Shankaracharya foresee Einstein

 

Einstein was the greatest scientist this humanity has ever produced. He was not only the summation of the scientific progress made by the human race but was also a path breaker. He paved way for the scientists to think about “The Infinity” which was by that time only a synonym of an absurd. He showed the limitations of human efforts by showing that there was an ultimate speed with which an action could propagate in space. Einstein said that it was the speed of light.

 

Einstein was the first scientist who based his theory on the foundations of relativity. He said nothing in this was absolute. Everything is measured in relation to something else. A passenger inside a bus moves with relation relative to the floor of the bus. The bus is moving relative to the earth. The earth is moving in relation to the sun.  The sun also moves relative to some other points in the galaxy. This hierarchy is never ending. It goes on. The same is true about the mass and the length of an object. The mass of an object is measured relative to the mass of a standard weight which may be a kilogram, a pound or a stone etc. the length of an object (length means all dimension including length, breadth and depth etc.). The Einstein summed up all his results of relativity in his ‘The Special Theory of Relativity’.

 

For Einstein, the speed of light could not be transcended. It was a boundary of human efforts. With his Special Theory of Relativity he showed that if the speed of an object (in scientific language an object means a particle) is increased several unbelievable effects are observed. The mass of that object starts increasing with the increase in its speed (scientific word is velocity). At a speed near that of the light the mass of an object becomes infinitely high and at a speed equal to that of the light the mass of that object is infinite. Mass increases with the speed of an object was a new theory for the contemporary scientific community. It was very difficult for them to understand this new theory from Einstein.  Einstein proved it theoretically.

 

Similar results were obtained by Einstein for the effects of speed on the length of an object and time passed in a moving clock. He postulated that the length of an object starts contracting with an increase in its speed. At the ultimate speed, the length of an object becomes perfectly zero. It becomes a point without dimensions. Similarly with an increase in speed the time for the moving object passes slowly. This is called dilation of time. At the maximum speed (equal to that of the light) no time passes for the moving object.

 

During those day a humorous paradox was in vogue. If one of the twins soon after its birth is moved at a sufficiently high speed then on his return still as a breast feeding baby his counterpart would have grown with sons and grandsons. This is because of different amount of time passed for the who was moving and the one who was not moving. For both of them different time periods would elapse due to the difference of speeds with which they were moving.

 

This theory was unique for its unique implications. By that time the Newtonian mechanics was in working which based all its laws and theories only for observable events. It was about the displacement, velocity, acceleration, gravitation, mass, force and the law of conservation of energy. These were all observable phenomena. The events were observed and then generalized give a theory. “Invisible and Trans-practical” subjects were not dealt with by this science prevailing just before the era of Einstein (this statement can safely be made about Plank’s work on Quantum mechanics and Heisenberg’s work on wave theory also).

 

Einstein, first of all, took the sciences from the domain of observation to the realm of hypothesising. Hitherto the sciences talked in terms of “apparent reality” while Einstein started the era of relativity. He violated the boundary of “apparent and comprehensible” and entered the zone of “strange but true”. He showed that his hypothesis was a general applicability and the then prevailing scientific beliefs were a special case of his theory of Relativity. He did never show that the prevailing and perceivable Newtonian mechanics was wrong rather he only said that the truth lies beyond that perceivable sciences also.

 

 Adi Shankaracharya was also one among those great luminaries which this humanity has ever witnessed. He also propounded a new path and took philosophy to an ultimate state. The highest epistemological point the philosophy ever saw in the human history was propounded by Adi Shankaracharya. Those who are the students of philosophy would be knowing that among the contemporary existentialists philosophies a lot has been borrowed from Shankaracharya. Husserl’s phenomenology would be a clear violation of copyright of Adi Shankaracharya's Advait Vedanta, had it been existing there at that time. Adi Shankaracharya's Advait Vedanta.

 

Advait Vedanta propounded the oneness of this world, however he manifested the relative existence  at more than one level. Advait Vedanta propounded that the total existence is at three relative levels. First level is Pratibhasik or apparent. Here the knowledge is always full of illusion and as soon as the right cause is remedied this Pratibhasik appearance is lost and Pragmatic level of existence called Vyavharik Gyan would come into play.

 

Vyavharik Gyan is the level of existence where this whole world lives in its routine life. It is not false but it is not the ultimate reality also. There is a possibility of still a higher level of existence. This ultimate level of existence is called the Parmarthik level or it may be called the level of absolute knowledge. This level of Parmarthik of knowledge is attained only when through the knowledge of absolute the ignorance i.e. Avidya is removed. What is Avidya for an individual is Maya for the whole world. It shows that Maya is the sum total of all Avidyas of all individuals.

 

This knowledge of the absolute is called the Brahamgyan. One who attains this Brahamgyan is called Brahamgyani. Shankaracharya never propounded the theory of falsity of this world for a common man. For a common man this world at Vyavharik level is a reality. It becomes Mithya only for those who had already attained Brahamgyan. Before attaining Brahamgyan this world is as true as anything. It is not an illusion like Pratibhasik knowledge.

 

The existence of Maya is only for Brahamgyanies. For a common man there is nothing called Maya. For him everything in the world and of the world is a truth. The mountains are true, flowers are true, deities are true, the god is true, so on and so forth. It is not the object specific. It does not depends on the objects. It does not depend on the world or the seeker rather it depends on the level of the seeker’s knowledge. By the time the knowledge or Gyan of the seeker does not transcend the Vyavharik level and attain Parmarthik level of Gyan there is no contradiction in taking this world as true. But once the knowledge enters the domain of Parmarthik Gyan everything of this world becomes Mithya and only the Braham is the absolute there.

 

Those who studied Adi Shankaracharya and Einstein both, may find that adopting different paths both of them arrived at the same conclusions. These conclusions are not subject specific. These conclusions hold good for physics, for philosophy, for religion and now for societies and political systems also. {for this purpose some enlightened readers may like to add the names of the Indian prime ministers H D Devegoda, P V Narsimharao and Atal Bihari Vajpayee to this list}

 

Both of Adi Shankaracharya and Einstein initiated the theory of relativity in their fields. They propounded the concept of relative values of the entities. For Einstein an object may appear as lying stationary when viewed in comparison of the earth but when it is viewed from the sun or the moon it may appear as moving. It is also possible that a star appearing moving from the earth may appear stationary from some other celestial body as the polar star appears stationary from the earth. Every motion, every position, every shape, every size, every color, every age, every vision is relative to some other reference points. This is exactly what Shankaracharya had said about eight hundred years back.

 

It may appear a snake at twilight but when a torch is lit it is found a string. Further on receiving the light of Parmarthik Gyan this string also disappears and only the Braham remains their. It may appear a piece of silver from a distance but on removing the distance between the object and the eyes it is found an oyster. On attaining the absolute knowledge i.e. the Brahamgyan this oyster would also disappear and what it remains is the only Braham.

 

 

For Einstein the deciding factor is the speed (velocity) of the object and for Adi Shankaracharya it was the level of the knowledge i.e. the Gyan. Despite that, there is one very surprising similarity between both of Einstein and Adi Shankaracharya.

 

For Einstein when an object attains a speed equal to that of the light its length would vanish. It would occupy zero space. It would transcend the limitations of space. Similarly at this speed, the time would be infinitely dilated. No time would pass for that object. Hence Einstein says when a body attains the speed of light it would transcend the limitations of the space and the time. This object would no longer exist in the coordinates of the space and the time which was the essential condition for its existence. This object would now exist (!) in the spacelessness and the timelessness. This conclusions startled each and every contemporary scientist of Einsteinian Era.

 

Adi Shankaracharya also took the Brahamgyanies to the same state of the timelessness. Which he called as Trikaalateet i.e. existing beyond the limits of time. On attaining Brahamgyan one merges into the Braham itself. Braham is the sum total of all and every thing. It encompasses all. The space and the time are within the Braham and the Braham is not in the space and time. Becoming the Braham is transcending the limits of the space and time.

 

Readers may feel confused at this point of this article. They are taught about the differences of  the  science and the philosophy, of Shankaracharya and Einstein, of the Advait Vedanta and the Special Theory of Relativity. For their consolation, this article is further developed.

 

 There has been a basic difference between the methodologies adopted by these two veterans. Einstein proceeded from inside out and Adi Shankaracharya did it from outside in. The earlier ventured upon the outer world and the later explored the inner self.  The earlier used the outer world to heighten his inner self and the later expanded his inner self to encompass the outer world. But both of them reached a state of spacelessness and the timelessness.

 

Here it is again a message for those who keep arguing that the sciences and the religions are essentially different; that the different disciplines impart varying knowledge which cannot be reconciled and that the future of the human race is always diversifying.

 

Let us not propound – the work is concluded …