Are spirituality and science really two different things?
Most people like to think spirituality is some otherworldly, mystical and mysterious stuff, and science on the other hand is pure logic. But is it true? Are spirituality and science really two different things? Let’s start with the basics, shall we?
Spirituality doesn’t have a definition of its own, it varies from person to person. You can’t read about spirituality and say you know what spiritual means because you read one person’s perspective on the topic. Spirituality isn’t something to be studied in a classroom. Studying yourself, your inner self, your mind, your thoughts every day is spirituality. While science, on the other hand, has proved facts on basis of a process that undergoes observations, analysis discussion, and conclusion by a group of people. Sometimes these researches go on for years. So, basic difference? Science is performed under external observation whereas spirituality undergoes a process of internal observation. So, basically, there’s not much difference in the process, right other than the involvement of people? Then from where did, the difference arise? What made people skeptical about spirituality?
Let’s talk about consciousness, another controversial topic. There are a lot of theories about consciousness, a lot of discussions. Some say it’s the feeling of being alive. Some say it’s the feeling of your surroundings. But science has never been able to precisely define it. How can one feel the surroundings? What makes us feel alive? You’re alive but there’s no scientific concept that can explain what it is like being alive. We don’t have enough understanding of consciousness to recreate it. The missing key is spirituality. More interestingly spirituality, as stated earlier, can’t be taught. There’s no teacher that can help you transcend your own self because you, only you can understand yourself better enough to break your nature down to yourself. Every aspect of life, every natural phenomenon that science talks about, every concept ever defined had its origin from one single place and that resides in you, your mind.
There are always talks about souls, spirits. What is the soul? Science always talks about chemical reactions. Can these chemical reactions give something, let’s say my table a soul? In the end, what stays behind is your soul maybe that’s what makes us feel alive but then do we die? If the soul is immortal by itself, why are there these containers? All these answers are mysteries science can’t solve. If we really want to learn our true nature we need to look inside. Science does make our physical life easier but what about mental life? Science has been trying to understand our brain, its physical structure, and its functioning. But there lies something beyond the physical existence of our body parts that make it impossible for science to elaborate on the functioning of a human being. We have been trying to look outside and make sense of things for so long that we may be looking in the wrong direction. Have a look inside too. Even with all the millions of concepts science still has certain mysteries that it is nowhere near explanation. What is missed? Where has it never looked? Science misses introspection. Because we don’t have the equipment to measure internal activities? We have the equipment to monitor activities at a quantum scale how much farther can we get this equipment? We talk about DNA, RNA, proteins that make our bodies what they are. We can make these in laboratories. Then what’s missing? Life. How can we give someone life? What’s the secret behind life and that we can’t understand without internal observations. We simply can’t understand what we are without understanding what goes inside us. That’s what spirituality is all about. The next step of science is Spirituality. Its lock and key. One is useless without the other.
You have to grow from the inside out. None can teach you, none can make you spiritual. There is no other teacher but your own soul. – Swami Vivekananda
