Can science by its progress gain spiritual knowledge?
How exactly do science and spirituality interrelate with each other can science eventually become so advanced that it leads us to spirituality or sometimes we also see that many scientific inventions they have harmful consequences so how exactly do we relate the two see firstly we have to clarify terms when we talk about science and spirituality science as it is currently largely being used it is naturalistic naturalistic means science looks for natural explanations for natural phenomena spirituality by natural science usually means material whereas spirituality is going beyond the material to the spiritual so scientific explanations and spiritual explanations are explanations at different levels of reality to understand this I'll give a first simple example then I'll move to a to our philosophical discussion, say someone is playing billiards and if we have if we are watching through a camera which focuses only on the billiards table we don't see any players outside then we will see a stick moving and the stick hits a ball and this ball hits the next ball this ball hits the next ball and then this ball goes into a hole now the whole motion of the sticks all the motion on the table including the ball going into a hole all that can be explained in terms of the laws of physics and that is a correct explanation but parallel to that why did the ball go into the hole? I may say because this ball hit this ball at this angle with this velocity and that's why this ball went to the hole that's the correct explanation but along with that there is a player who is holding the stick and that player is a skilled player and because of the skill of that player that stick moved in a particular way at a particular angle with a particular force and that's why the ball went into the hole so the physical explanation and the explanation in terms of the skill of the player they are not contradictory they are complementary both are correct it depends on what is my focus if I am simply looking at physics yes we explain in terms of physics but if I am looking in terms of the skill of the player why did the ball go into the hole? because this player is so skilled so the two are explaining at so there are two explanations at different levels with different focuses so similarly sometimes when people think that there is a conflict between science and religion or science and God the problem comes because this different levels of explanation are not understood see God is not an explanatory competitor to science you know that science cannot explain this so therefore God is there God is the explanatory foundation for science explanatory foundation means that why is science able to explain anything if we are just the products of a primeval explosion which has evolved thereafter if that is all that there is to reality then why does the world around us why do the celestial objects which are just the remnants of explosion why do they follow laws of nature which are of a mathematical precision and then what is mathematics ultimately if our brain is also just made of neurochemicals come alive then mathematics is simply a conception in our brain so why should a conception in my brain agree with the reality in the outside world so why is science able to explain anything at all this is not a question that science can answer science begins by assuming that there are explanations out there whatever we observe that is explainable that's an assumption in science and then we are finding that assumption is correct we are able to explain things so why is nature explainable at all that is because there is an overarching plan over everything so that original cause of all causes who is the overarching and underlying foundation for everything that is God so God is the explanation for explainability so science explains things at a material level but why are things explainable at a material level at all that is because of God so the two are not competitors at the first point they are explanations at different levels of reality now with respect to can science by its future advancement come to spiritual truths in general the way science works it looks for material explanations for material phenomena whatever we find we try to look for a material explanation so if science is going to adopt or continue this particular method is called as methodological naturalism so as long as science uses methodological naturalism science cannot come up to spiritual truths because by its method itself it leaves out spiritual truths if I am fishing and if I use a fishing net whose holes are say 1mm then if any aquatic is smaller than 1mm no matter how long I keep the fishing net in the water I will not catch anything which is smaller than 1mm that's because the fishing net is designed like that so if we consider science to be like a fishing net to catch and give us knowledge of reality then science is designed to look for material explanations the spiritual will slip out of the holes of the fishing net so science by itself cannot give us spiritual knowledge because the methodology is different if I want to smell a rose and I put it close to my ear no matter how close I put it I cannot smell a rose because the apparatus is different so I have to use the nose for smelling similarly science by its own advancement if it sticks to the method of methodological naturalism it cannot come to spiritual truths but science doesn't necessarily have to stick to methodological naturalism if science opens itself to other modes of experimentation so for example bhakti yoga is also in its own way a science by science what we mean is it is repeatable it is verifiable, it is rational so for example if you study the bhagavad gita its explanation of who we are what life is all this makes sense it's rational and then not only is it rational prateksha vagamam dharmyam the bhagavad gita says that it can be practically experienced so material science is experimental whereas spiritual science is experiential we will experience within the higher spiritual realities so if science becomes open to other modes of exploration apart from methodological naturalism then science can perceive spiritual realities also.
I cannot go into the whole subject of what those spiritual realities are and how spiritual science will reveal them but there is a mode of perception which awakens just like a sleeping person sometimes when we are sleeping, we are just not aware of things around us. When we wake up, we become aware. So it's a different mode of awareness.
So like that spiritual processes, the process of bhakti yoga, it awakens our spiritual perception and its predictable means that there are books which describe in the bhakti tradition, there are books which describe as we keep practicing bhakti we will go through this state this state, this state, this state and then you will perceive this and then you will perceive this so there is a systematic delineation of the process so that makes it predictable and it's verifiable that means what you experience, what I experience what others experience, the transformation different people in different parts of the world, they can all experience similar transformation so in that sense spiritual science is also scientific so now with your last point about material science having counterproductive counterproductive effects yes, if science is not operated within a holistic framework that means suppose there is a heart surgeon and the heart surgeon says that I will operate and cure the heart but while curing the heart, the heart surgeon cuts up the lungs and cuts up the lungs, that's not my problem, my problem was to cure the heart I cured it the end result will be operation successful patient dead so if science is divorced from overall understanding of the purpose of life then science can become destructive, Martin Luther King said that we have guided missiles and misguided men so science in and of itself is not bad but if it is divorced from understanding of the purpose of life then we may achieve phenomenal control over certain aspects of life but overall the world and our life can be in chaos so what we need is what spiritual wisdom offers us is that understanding of the overall purpose of life and when science is harmonized with that purpose then science can be an instrument of great good, in fact when Heisenberg and Einstein they were discussing, so Heisenberg said to Einstein that our western civilization our western science primarily, western civilization is currently largely geared forward by science so he said it's like a magnificent ship with all luxurious facilities on it but there is only one problem it has no compass and it doesn't know where it is going so science with all its knowledge doesn't tell us what we should do with our life, science doesn't tell us what is the purpose of life unfortunately people who have no higher understanding of the purpose of life they often misappropriate science for their purposes so through science weapons of mass destruction can be made and those can be used for causing great havoc, so we need to place science and scientific progress within an overall framework which helps us understand the purpose of life and pursue that purpose, does it address your question? Thank you Hare Krishna, shall we stop?