Published by VOICE (Vedic Oasis for Inspiration, Culture and Education) Page 1 of 1 ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness), Pune, India

The Spiritual Scientist An ezine for those who think!

Become Spiritual Detectives Question:Weneedfoodforenergy.Soisn'ttheclaimthatthesoulisthesourceofenergyinthebodydisprovedbyeverydayexperience?

In the Bhagavadgita (18.34) Lord Krishna explains the relationshipbetween the soul and the bodywith and insightful analogy: "As the sunilluminates the universe, so does the soul illuminate the body byconsciousness."Thesun's illumination isnecessary forvegetation togrowontheearth,asisthesupplyofwater.Forthegrowthofthevegetation,thesunlightistheremotecause and thewater, the immediate cause.An uninformed gardenermay think that the plant

needs water alone, because that is what he or she has to provide. But a wisegardener knows that sunlight plays an equally indispensable role. Similarly, forbodilyenergy, food is the immediate cause,and the soul, the remote cause.Anuninformed personmay think that the body needs food alone, because that iswhatheor shehas toprovide.But awiseperson knows that food alone isnotenoughforenergy;foodcannotenergizeadeadperson.

Nor can food or the matter that constitutes it account for theessentialcharacteristicoflife,consciousness:theabilitytobeawareofand to experience our surroundings, and to respond with thoughts,feelings, intentions and actions. For example, a sweet is made ofmatterand so is the tongue.The sweetdoesnotexperience itselfasdelicious.Butwhenweplacethesweetonourtongue,weexperienceitasdelicious.Who isexperiencing that taste?The tongue?Or somepart of thebrain?Butboth the tongue and the brain are essentiallymade of the same material components as the sweet: molecules,atoms,subatomicparticles,quantumwavepatterns.Nothing in thesematerialcomponentsevenremotelyresemblesconsciousness.Modern

sciencehasutterlyfailedtoevenexplaintheoreticallyhowmattercanexperiencematter, leave alone demonstrate it experimentally. That's why in the book,BiologyToday,NobelprizewinningchemistAlbertSzentGyorgyiremarked,

Whyshouldwealsohave to retraceoursteps inoldage?Letus insteadbeboldandadventurousenoughtobecomespiritualdetectives.IfweinvestigatethemysteryoflifebytheprocessofphilosophicalcontemplationanddevotionalmeditationoutlinedintheGita,alloneofuscanexperientiallyverifyourrealidentitiesassouls.

Z

Inmysearchforthesecretoflife,Iendedupwithatomsandelectrons,whichhavenolifeatall.Somewherealongtheline,liferanoutthroughmyfingers.So,inmyoldage,Iamnowretracingmysteps....