Erwin Knows

 

Have you read this fabulous article from @VirajZero on the insights the great physicist Erwin Schrödinger gained from the Upanishads? I love it when a scientist is strong enough to acknowledge the truths found outside their discipline like Advaita Vedanta. https://t.co/nzzpMKSIpZ

— Patrick Brauckmann (@vonbrauckmann) October 8, 2022

"The Upanishads describe how reality arises out of consciousness. But consciousness cannot be found inside our bodies as a substance or an organ. In that case, how can a non-material consciousness interact with and control our material bodies? Exactly where does mind interact with matter? This question is known as the mind-body problem, and has vexed philosophers for a long time.

Since we haven’t been able to locate or explain this interaction, we’re left with a deceptively simple choice: either consciousness or reality doesn’t exist.

Most exponents of modern science today lean towards the materialist view – that consciousness is a byproduct of the neurochemical processes occurring in our brain. It depends on these processes and cannot exist without them.

On the other hand, the Upanishads uphold an idealist view – that consciousness exists by itself, and that the physical world depends on it. There is no objective reality that exists independently of the observer. Schrödinger supported this view and lamented the aversion for it: “it must be said that to Western thought this doctrine has little appeal, it is unpalatable, it is dubbed fantastic, unscientific. Well, so it is because our science – Greek science – is based on objectivation, whereby it has cut itself off from an adequate understanding of the subject of cognisance, of the mind.”

Read the whole article. 

"Apart from philosophy, Indian thinkers have made vital scientific contributions to astronomy, mathematics, literature, law, biology, psychology and most other realms of human endeavour, if not all of them. They often do not receive the recognition due them. However, these instances of overlooking – no matter how severe – can never be corrected by attributing dubious achievements to these or other Indians.

The Upanishads themselves preach a message of unity and are opposed to any form of discrimination. To adapt the words of the Isha Upanishad, “Who sees all beings in their own self and their own self in all beings, loses all hatred and fear.”

Viraj Kulkarni has a master’s degree in computer science from UC Berkeley and is currently pursuing a PhD in artificial intelligence. He is on Twitter at @VirajZero.