The Importance of Scientific Progress

Human beings have an instinctive and limitless desire for all-round victory in all spheres of life.

In any sphere of life – whether important or unimportant – it is inconceivable for people to live an undignified life. The idea of moving along a fixed path, subservient to nature, is repugnant to human psychology. Where human beings do conform to the rules of nature under the pressure of circumstances it is due to their blatant lack of adequate stamina and intellect.

All human Sádhaná or spiritual practice is directed towards removing internal weakness.

In order to overcome their imperfections, people constantly welcome ideological conflicts and thus create newer and newer ideologies.

This is how human society evolved and established a great and rational ideology conducive to the highest fulfillment of life.

However, not all human energy is exhausted in removing mental imperfections. As people have to maintain their existence in this apparently adverse physical world, naturally they must make constant endeavours in the physical sphere.

In order to conquer static Prakriti, physical science or Bhaotika Vijiṋána evolved. The Saḿskrta word “Vijiṋána”, however, is not synonymous with the English word “science”, because in Saḿskrta, Vijiṋána stands for Brahma-Vijiṋána, intuitional science or spiritual science.

Nowadays a group of people allege that science is the root of all evils and that new scientific inventions have created dissention in human society, pushing human civilization along the path of destruction. It is necessary to cautiously and persistently analyse this opinion with an open mind.

The moment human beings see the possibility of defeat in war in the physical sphere they evolve new weapons to meet the challenge.

The role of physical science is to discover new formulae and to assist in the development of weapons. Had there been no physical clash and cohesion, subtle human intellect would have remained totally unknown to us. Such conflict and evolution occurs in every unit or organism.

Thus all organisms develop scientific thought processes according to their respective mental proclivities and capabilities. For instance, the building of nests by bats, the constructing of pathways by white ants and the weaving of webs by spiders proves that these undeveloped creatures have a knowledge of science.

Today many of you have assembled here at Gorakhpur.

Had there been no scientific progress you would have been forced to walk to this place from your homes. Now I ask you, could you have done that from such far off places? In order to overcome physical and mental disadvantages and inconveniences, people of a particular era invented and popularized bullock carts for transportation.

Later they developed even more fast moving horse driven vehicles. Subsequently, with the change of eras, public demands also began to progressively change. This explains why different types of transportation such as motor cars, aeroplanes and more recently rockets were invented in different periods. None of these inventions deserve criticism. They are simply different inventions designed to meet the different mental demands suitable to that age.

We know that guŕ or molasses cannot normally be preserved for a long time because of natural influences. Moreover, many people do not even like the taste of molasses. These two reasons led to the invention of sugar through scientific means.

Was the discovery of sugar an impediment to human progress?

If someone considers molasses more nutritious than sugar, then would it not be scientifically wiser to enrich sugar with nutritious ingredients? Or would it be better to propagate in favour of molasses?

Some people enjoy making useless criticisms against science all the time.

Such criticisms come from those who:

• have lost their vitality and capacity to adjust to new situations
• have accepted some dogmatic notion as established fact due to their physical inertia

The momentum of the past can easily prevent people from adapting to new innovations and circumstances. This can cause them to deliberately reject the contributions of science.

As long as these people are unable to establish psychic parallelism with new scientific discoveries, they vehemently criticize those very things which they themselves are often compelled to utilize.

For example, the bitter critics of modern medical science eloquently praise primitive medical methods.

• But they do not object to using bandages approved and prescribed by modern allopathy.

Even staunch advocates of Khadi or hand spun cloth wear mill made clothes, the protagonists of “molasses philosophy” take sugared tea, and the blind supporters of bullock carts travel by airplanes to deliver hot, fiery speeches in anti-science meetings.

But after some time, when they become used to new applications of modern technology, they stop their criticism and hatred of science. Things which they initially criticized now become easy for them to use.

The non-availability and short supply of old things gradually forces them to adapt to new innovations.

Those who criticize science in reality want to turn the onward current of the Ganges backwards towards it source, which totally contradicts the principles of dynamics.

Such an endeavour indicates a negative mentality.

No amounts of shaking the world upside down will ever bring back the era of Rśi hermitages or hermits’ groves.

The general mass will never wear the bark of trees instead of mill made clothing or eat raw flesh in preference to cooked food.

Nor will they go back to the molasses era from the sugar age. Perhaps those who have never tasted sugar would like to live in the molasses age, but once people have come in contact with sugar they will never fully subscribe to molasses, even by mistake.

The reason for this is that their enjoyment of sugared tea has become common and natural.

To enter into such a controversy over molasses and sugar is meaningless because molasses too was once discovered through scientific endeavour.

Conflicts in the physical sphere gradually awaken dormant human potentialities. Environmental influences also increase the complexities of the human body.

The problems of ancient and modern people are by no means identical.

In an effort to keep pace with the changing speed of life, the human body and mind have gradually become more complicated.

The physical structures of ancient people would have certainly been unfit for solving the problems of today.

As the mind becomes more complex its direct centres, the nerve-cells, and its indirect centres, the glands, undergo corresponding changes.

As the nature of problems changes the human mind becomes engaged in making new scientific discoveries.

Hence, the cultivation of science must go forward.

This will never stand in the way of human progress.

Due to their emotionalism, most of the critics of science do not want to recognize this obvious fact.

They do not realize that their blind allegiance to the past is only propelling the flow of their minds towards inertness.

They are making their minds more and more reactionary and losing their psychic dynamism. Those who have lost the rhythm of life’s dynamism should be called static and inert.

The human mind must always be kept preoccupied with different progressive thoughts and practices, according to the change in time. In order to carry out new responsibilities, necessary changes take place in the nerve cells of the human brain.

This is accompanied by changes in the glandular structure of the human body. It is not only the physical and mental structures of human beings that are getting more complex, but also the entire human society. More complex social problems are arising. In such circumstances, should we remain smug and complacent, silent and inactive, only harping on the great and glorious past? No.

Instead, we should probe for solutions to problems through the proper cultivation of science. As the proverb goes, “As the sword so the scabbard”.

No matter how complicated problems are, we have to evolve the necessary scientific means to meet the challenge. We certainly do not want to become an object of ridicule by fighting against powerful atomic weapons with only primitive bows and arrows.

The more complex the human body becomes, the more control human beings exert over it. With the progress of science it may be possible to send only a person’s brain to London, keeping their body here at Gorakhpur. There would be no need to transport the body to London.

Although this sounds like a fairy tale, this will surely happen. Then people will be able to enjoy a safe, sound sleep while their limbs are deposited securely in a body bank.

The social cycle moves constantly in a cyclic order. That is to say, with the continuance of class struggle, one class or another dominates a particular era. Now if science remains completely controlled by static minded people, the results will be hopeless. If class struggle continues unabated, humanity must finally understand that none but Sadvipras can be the leaders of society.

I call Sadvipras only those who strictly follow the principles of Yama and Niyama.

The fullest possibilities for the establishment of peace and human progress lie only in the collective endeavours of Sadvipras.

Not even democracy can solve human problems, because in a democracy one particular class gets the greatest opportunities to dominate while other classes are substantially deprived of their freedom. As democracy does not recognize any cardinal principles of morality, then rivalry, jealousy, meanness, immorality, etc., take deep root and flourish unchecked.

Moreover, the colour and form of democracy keep changing because it continually gives importance to relative truths as its cardinal principles.

The establishment of a classless society is only possible by those people who accept the Supreme Entity as the goal of their lives – whose entire mental energy is ceaselessly applied to one supreme goal. All classes will have to unite in a society free from class warfare and strive to implement a common ideal on a common platform. This can only be done by Sadvipras.

To ensure the future welfare of the universe, the dictatorship of Sadvipras is an absolute necessity.

The establishment of such an ideal is not possible within the democratic system because candidates depend on thieves, habituated criminals and antisocial elements for votes. Able and competent candidates are defeated by those who have absolutely no experience in politics, administration, education, intelligence, policy making, etc. Such people are entrusted with the responsibility of determining the fate of society as the people’s representatives.

Most individual and social problems can be solved by Sadvipras through the proper cultivation of science.

Science can solving most of the land problems which exist in all countries.

The importance and value of land will automatically diminish if the problems of food production are solved.

In the future, a synthetic food tablet may be enough to satisfy a person’s hunger.

The production of abundant quantities of such tablets in scientific laboratories will remove the disparity between the rich and the poor, because the poor, under the pangs of hunger, are forced to become slaves of the rich, providing the rich with ample opportunities for the accumulation of more wealth to satisfy their greed.

Even prior to the production of synthetic food, science contributed in many ways to solving food problems.

The total area of land is not increasing proportionately with the world’s ever-increasing population.

Yet with limited land, people are increasing food production through scientifically prepared manure, high-yield seeds, irrigation systems, etc.

Medical science has also helped and will continue to help.

For a long time, developed medicine and surgery have been helping people increase their longevity.

If people could give senility and death the slip by replacing old glands with new ones, what else could they want?

Humanity can now do this through medical science.

One of the reasons the physical body dies is because its glands become old and weak.

So death can be postponed if a person’s glands are replaced.

Humans will not achieve immortality by cheating death temporarily or by enhancing their longevity a little, because they possess yet another faculty, the brain.

Mental feelings like “I am”, “I do”, etc., are expressed by the brain.

Naturally, the brain will become fatigued and distorted if its existence is prolonged and it is used incessantly.

If the entire brain is replaced, the whole personality will undergo radical changes.

In such a case a new personality emerges and the former one ceases to exist.

By proper scientific experiment and research it is even possible to bring about a change in the glandular structure of the body.

As a consequence even a dishonest person can be turned into an honest one. But this cannot change the previously acquired Saḿskaras or reactive momenta of the mind. While this process may change people’s customary behaviour patterns, their idioplasmic expressions or tendencies cannot be stopped.

The brain is the receptacle of the mind, and the mind is the receptacle of Saḿskáras. Now, as a result of the replacement of the brain, the mind, with all its reactive momenta, will have to take a completely new receptacle, and in that case the person will be an entirely new being.

With the help of science if a person’s brain is replaced with a monkey’s brain, then the person ceases to be the owner of that body. From the standpoint of psychology that depersonalised body is no longer human and it will gradually take the form of a monkey’s body.

The secretions from the glands will also become like those of a monkey. In exactly the same way changing a man into a woman or vice versa is not impossible. Not only this, changing the glandular secretions in the human body is also possible through strong mental ideation, through a powerful, vibrational ideation of the mind.

Hence, by this process also a man could be changed into a woman and vice versa.

Thus it would not be impossible for a man to conceive children through the partial change of his glands. But when all this is said and done, science can never change a person’s Saḿskáras.

Therefore, there is no alternative for human beings other than spiritual practice or Sádháná for the development of their personalities.

For human progress the cultivation of science must always be welcomed, but it is desirable that this cultivation of science should be carried out under the supervision of Sadvipras.

A day will come when:

• human beings will reproduce themselves in scientific laboratories.
• spermatozoa and ova will be created in laboratories.

Thus, slowly and gradually, human beings will lose their reproductive power.

But the reproductive urge in the human mind will never be lost.

Since the potential for creation abides in the original Creator, Saguna Brahma, the Subjectivated Transcendentality, the reproductive urge necessarily remains ingrained in each person, as we are all held in the Supreme Entity.

From the auspicious day that humanity develops this capacity, it will step out of the limitations of the Kámamaya Kośa or the crude mental body, and be able to fulfill its supreme purpose in creation through subtler pursuits.

Then human beings will evolve a more ideal society and create better literature and more progressive art.

I think that atomic bombs can never totally destroy human civilization. Humanity has not yet become intellectually bankrupt.

The conflict between Vidyá and Avidyá, or the introversive and extroversive forces respectively, is now going on intensely.

Humanity is sure to discover a new weapon to counter the atomic menace in the very near future.

This will also conclusively establish that science has a great and sublime role to play in promoting human welfare.