Advaita Consideration #1
by Floyd Henderson
a protégé of
SRI NISARGADATTA MAHARAJ
Maharaj and Science
Matter energy life one in essence, distinct in appearance
Maharaj said that someday his teachings would be explained in terms of the science involved and that would expand the numbers of those with the Understanding of his teachings because those with a scientific (or more concrete than abstract) mindset could know the Absolute. Of course science has never been necessary for the Understanding since all that one need to know is within, but science today does reaffirm the veracity of Maharajs words.
Here is the scientific explanation
From the introduction to I Am That: Behold, the real experiencer is not the mind, but mySelf, the LIGHT in which everything appears.
GLOSSARY
Light = electromagnetic radiation that stimulates sight, seeing.
If I Am the LIGHT, lets look at each part of that definition to define who/what I am:
Electro = electrical ENERGY that is a result of charged, solid particles that can move in the form of particles or waves.
Magnetic = current carrying conductor. [So light, through which all appears, is made of electrical particles or waves that are conducted moved about and they are moved about by a magnetic conduction system.]
Radiation = energy emitted as electromagnetic waves or moving particles. [In this universe, which began with one hydrogen atom, the source of radiation/power/energy is the hydrogen furnace known as the sun, the source of LIGHT.]
Nervous system = nerves found in plants and animals and humans that transmit electrical/light/energy impulses to body parts.
Photosynthesis = a process in which the energy of sunlight is used by organisms especially green plants to synthesize carbohydrates from carbon dioxide and water, a process that results in the creation of non-living matter/energy into living cells/energy. [The cells, over eons of evolution, have developed a consciousness of their proximity and relationship to other cells, and thus all the cells perform their functions automatically as a result of that consciousness. Nothing CAUSES any of the functioning except the manifestation of that awareness/consciousness that has evolved.]
Manifested consciousness = solidified LIGHT (energy / consciousness transfigured to matter with energy actually both the same).
Unmanifested consciousness = particles or waves of energy/LIGHT with the potential to solidify or manifest.
THE EXPLANATION
[NOTE: Why, Maharaj was often asked, does this manifestation occur? Here how the process functions: If the energy/LIGHT strikes something with an existing nervous system, the LIGHT solidifies and the emptiness becomes matter-form-energy with consciousness. If the energy/LIGHT strikes something without a nervous system, it is reflected; so either consciousness solidifies or reflects, manifests or doesn't, depending on whether it strikes something with a nervous system. In our universe, that item it strikes with a nervous system that allows for manifestation happens to be a green plant. An example of reflecting is found in moonlight. Moonlight is merely the light of the sun/nuclear furnace reflected off the surface of an object that has no nervous system. That which appears to be an EMPTINESS of blackness and void around the moon is not that at all the waves and particles of light are the FULLNESS. They surround the moon and fill the entire space, but the eye does not see the LIGHT since it is neither reflected from the surface of the moon nor manifested in a nervous-system-possessing-form.]
So American biochemist Albert Szent-Gyorgyi says, What drives life is thus a little electric current, set up by the sunshine. Therefore, this body we think is us is just converted LIGHT-energy-consciousness in which the matter-particles of light via photosynthesis participate in what most call a the creation process, and what seemed in the beginning to be a void was not void at all. Nor was anything created. Neither energy nor matter can be created or destroyed. All is cycling, or not. Your body is really nothing more than an expression of the food that you eat.
In manifestation, when light strikes something with a nervous system, the energy/LIGHT transfigures into living cells of the various species that consume plants, but all is just LIGHT, electrical energy manifesting and unmanifesting, eternally, infinitely. And that infinity is infinite backwards as well as forwards.
Thus, a teacher repeated what he was told by whoever his guru was: When you speak of me, speak of me as I AM and I AM the LIGHT. I AM LIGHT, electrical energy with a potential for consciousness, but only when manifested.
What of people who have experienced death and reported seeing the light? Well, of course. As the electrical energy/consciousness leaves the body when plant food or breath ceases, that speck of electrical-light-consciousness-energy joins the universal light, and as the causal body dies, the subtle body (for the brief time it lasts) apperceives LIGHT. Only THAT remains of the illusory triad of body-mind-personality