Summary (of "Question", "braHmavid=Krishna?" series of mails) (fwd)

[Naresh P. Cuntoor]

> paroxysms of excitement because it is read as confirmation of the existance
> of a particle not seen before but predicted by theory. The point is that
> there is a theory to hand to explain the particle's existance and its
> appearance confirms that theory. In the case of the 100m-in-2s dash there is
> no theory to hand to explain the event. In fact it flies in the of existing

Not all theories come before discovery. So the discovery of a particle
will cause scientists to churn out papers by the dozen, irrespective of
any pre-existing theories.

> not just imaginings or the result of acts performed by people in a state of
> dissociation. However science isn't interested because the events are rare,
> transient, unrepeatable and fly in the face of existing scientific
> understanding.

Science is very much interested in such "random" or transient
phenomena. You only have to look at the number of books authored by men of
scientific persuasion about all kinds of supernatural occurences.. In
fact, a bandwagon of scientists in Karnataka (and AndhraPradesh also I
think) made news with one expose after another concerning god-men in that
part of the world. Considering the fact that most of such happennings have
found to be hoaxes of sorts, it soon becomes tiresome for scientists to
investigate each one of the claims.. The next thing you know, we'll have a
Journal of Supernatural phenomena! (Is IEEE or Royal Society listening? :)

But all said and done, I really don't see why one needs to reconcile
science with religion or vice-versa. I think Ravi (?)  had a valid point
when he spoke about the people who try to do just that..

Kiran.. If you want to run 100m in 2s, I think you have a better chance
of doing that if you become pals with the people in DARPA, rather than
asking Advaita to do it for you.. (Did you know that they have an active
research program in building the perfect US soldier - all kinds of
genetics and biomedical stuff)

I believe in the jivanmuktasya lakshaNaani part of vivEkachUdAmaNi
(someone pointed out the relevant shlokas earlier) it says that there is
no more worldly/material attachments (I'm quite sure the word samsAra is
used in this context) for one who knows the Truth. And this is a necessary
and sufficient condition. So if "I" as in Naresh or Kiran were to want
to run 100m in 2s and claim to be a brahmavit, won't we arrive at a
contradiction?


-Naresh