Questions
Most of the times the question which spiritual people face from others are:
- If there is God, why don’t you show that to me?
- Can you prove God to me?
- Will you be able to provide scientific evidence of soul’s existence?
- How can you prove the law of karma?
People on spiritual path often encounter such questions from rest of the people. Most of the times the answer is to have faith and patience. And they rarely take this as a valid argument and the discussion/argument never dies.
This article is not aiming to provide all the answers, however, look at such questions from different angles.
thought experiment
Mary’s room is a thought experiment which tries to prove that there are various aspects of knowledge and not every aspect is physical. In different words, certain aspects of knowledge can only be obtained by conscious experience.
Let us assume Mary is a girl who has always lived in a black & white world. Everything around her since her birth is black and white. Even though she has seen no colour, she knows all about the light & its properties, about various wavelengths which can create different colours, about rods and cone cells of eyes which sense the colours. Mary understands how nervous system works, she understands the concept of colour; she knows all about pigmentation and how new colours form out or primary colors, etc.
After several years, she is brought into a colourful world or assume she gets a color television. She sees the world in colors for the first time. Is she going to learn something new about the world or not? Will she experience something new which she had not read or understood earlier?
analysis
Majority of us will say that yes, she will experience something new, she will learn something which she had not learnt earlier. She will have a new comprehension of the world which she never had earlier. So, what does this thought experiment prove or aim to convey? This shows that there are certain aspects of knowledge which are not physical and can be only realized once we live that experience.
If you have been to any ocean-beach; you would have just stared at the magnificent ocean and wondered at its beauty. This in spite of the fact that you would have seen it in television, read all about it.
conclusion
Realized spiritual people experience and realize even those aspects of knowledge which we cannot get from other means. The only way is to go through that experience. It may require venturing into unknown with faith and patience. When you meditate, you understand more about yourself and the world; new doors open which we have never been through. Words can not deliver that information & knowledge, nor does any writing or detailed descriptions. These may help, yet we lack the complete picture. For that complete comprehension, it requires us to live that that experience.
When Ramakrishna Paramhansa said that the joy of God is billion times more enjoyable than the pleasure of senses; it is his experience which confirms that. If you or I have to understand that, we must undergo that experience. The only way towards that is by working towards that. Guru & God can guide us towards omniscience. Sai Ram. Love, Light & Peace to you.
