How can I see spiritually my scientific research for solving serious problems such as incurable diseases?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
thank you so when we work in the field of science and interact with other professionals who are who are trying to be good and make the world better through their scientific research how can we appreciate what they are doing at the same time encourage them to also may be become spiritual or recognize that that is not enough and if we ourselves have to get funds for such projects then we often over promise or we put up their potential in very flowery terms so but internally we feel that this is not going to help so how can we see this see there is a clear relationship between the material and the spiritual at one level they are different at another level they are connected the problem comes when we try to replace the spiritual with the material so if we start thinking that by material solutions every problem will be solved that is where a problem comes up seriously why because three questions broadly speaking origin value and purpose where did we come from what truly matters in life and what are we meant to ultimately achieve in life these are questions that science cannot answer is this right or is this wrong, should I do this or should I not do this what should be the purpose of my life the origin, value and purpose and this is something which the scientists have acknowledged that Einstein said we can talk about the ethical foundation of science we cannot talk about the scientific foundation of ethics and these are the things that matter to us in our lived experience what we are living for how are our relationships how are we living in harmony with what we want to be all this is what really matters to us so if the material claims to replace the spiritual it’s a problem that material development alone cannot help people get a meaningful life it may give them a comfortable life but that doesn’t make it meaningful or joyful that’s internal state of mind and state of being at the same time if somebody can go to the other extreme and say the spiritual will replace the material that also is not valid Arjuna won the Kurukshetra war by by what by the knowledge of the Bhagavad Gita that he heard from Krishna or by the knowledge of archery that he had learned from Drona and that he had practiced throughout his life which one? both so knowledge of the Bhagavad Gita gave him the direction but the archery knowledge that was the tool for execution so both had to go in parallel similarly the spiritual does not replace the material in our tradition also in the broad Indian tradition Ayurveda was developed and Ayurveda focuses although it is theistic in the sense that it accepts that it is a gift from Manvantari who is the manifestation of Vishnu but in a functional sense it looks for material mechanisms so okay this disease is because of this imbalance and we put in this substance take this food can be corrected so the spiritual doesn’t replace the material so both these approaches are extreme where some people think that by material progress spiritual progress is unnecessary and some people say spiritual progress will make material progress unnecessary but the word progress could itself be a loaded term and it can be analyzed what progress is but let’s not go into that right now the idea is there are needs of people which are to be taken care of there are diseases which are to be healed there are living facilities to be provided if technology can help us to do that and if we can be a part of that that’s nice those who are working for it we can appreciate them there is and when we are working for it as a part of our profession if we have to we have to as they say prop up or pep up spike up the presentation of a particular that’s just a part of the profession when Kshatriya warriors would fight they would boast about their powers and often their boasts would be like over boasts but that’s just part of their profession and they would do that so we have to understand the level people are at and present Krishna Bhakti accordingly and present not just Krishna Bhakti even broad spirituality accordingly so if somebody somebody whatever is a person’s deepest experience that is their experience of Krishna that means if somebody is deeply immersed in science and what is it looking at these equations doing these experiments reading all these books what is it that gives so much taste to them it is actually they are experiencing a manifestation of Krishna through that but they just don’t know it so there is a direct experience of Krishna by developing Bhakti to him and there is the indirect experience of Krishna which is through his various manifestations now this indirect experience of Krishna is what we need to use to help people get the direct experience of Krishna so rather than rejecting their present experience Prabhupada was so inclusive that he said that if an alcoholic is unable to give up alcohol he says they can think that the taste of alcohol is Krishna and by thinking of that one day they will become devotees of Krishna not by drinking alcohol but by seeing the connection what is it that captivates me about alcohol so much it is actually Krishna but that manifestation of Krishna will take us away from Krishna will fill us with anti devotional consciousness so we have to have the expertise that rather than simply saying this is the path of Krishna Bhakti take it or get lost this is where people are how can I help them find a path from where they are to Krishna Bhakti so connect their deepest experience to Krishna and if they are working in a mood of wanting to make things better in the world that is usually in the mood of sattva guna or may be rajas but whatever it is these gunas also come from Krishna so whatever anybody experiences in three modes they are also experiencing Krishna but just that Krishna is not restricted to that Krishna exists beyond that also and so if we from a functional perspective recognize the jurisdiction of the material and the spiritual even if say tomorrow we start using Ayurveda instead of Ayurveda all over the world starts adopting it still Ayurveda functionally is material it is not involving any mystical paranormal spiritual elements in its direct functioning so whichever material system works in the particular situation use that so today we live in a tetracentric world and technology is what is being used to improve things within their context so some devotees have this vision of Krishna Bhakti as anti-mainstream culture so it could be anti-mainstream education anti-mainstream science anti-mainstream music, anti-mainstream entertainment everything now it could be but if that is the vision of how they want to practice Bhakti that is fine but Bhakti is not limited Bhakti is not limited to a particular music or a particular culture or a particular even the mainstream culture can be spiritualized so we can use science in spiritual consciousness and even if we had even if we have say if in India we have the Govardhan eco village where eco-friendly spiritual living is being demonstrated but many of their recycling plants and they are based on cutting-edge technology which is developed using modern science IIT Mumbai which is used over there so there is there is an approach to Krishna Bhakti which is that reject everything mainstream and we will demonstrate the alternative in everything we will demonstrate alternative science alternative economics alternative culture alternative social organization everything that’s fine if some devotees feel inspired to do that they can do that but that is not essential to Krishna Bhakti Krishna Bhakti can infuse and energize that activity but Krishna Bhakti can infuse and energize somebody who is in the mainstream also so in a sense it’s like language somebody may say that actually if you want to study Shastra you have to learn Sanskrit and they start campaigning for Sanskrit, wonderful you want to revise Sanskrit also but does that mean those who don’t speak Sanskrit can’t practice Bhakti English is the mainstream language there is no reference to anything called English in the scriptures but our whole outreach is happening in English somebody wouldn’t specialize in English so I would say the world view that people have that’s also like their conceptual language or intellectual language so we can present people in an alternative language an alternative world view or we can penetrate Krishna Bhakti within the existing world view there are some aspects of that world view which may be contradictory and which need to be rejected or at least distanced from but the world view itself is science may lead to atheism but science is intrinsically non-theistic so it’s functional non-theistic we can do it for our purposes so if we find that certain devotees are very dismissive about science then just keep a distance from them and associate with devotees who are more progressively oriented in their understanding and presentation of Krishna Bhakti certainly if we start believing the promises of science and start thinking that science itself is the solution to all problems then that is not right but circumstantially certain problems can be solved by science at present this is the problem and this is the material solution we don’t want to focus all our energy in the hope that material solution is the ultimate solution but if we are in a profession where we are expected to provide the material solution then we provide the material solution and we gain satisfaction by the fact that we are helping people people find their material solution