If objects are made of waves, how does consciousness come into objects?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Thank you very much. Quantum physics says that everything is waveform.
Then how does consciousness come in, objects, even if it is governed? Yes. Quantum physics does not directly talk about consciousness. Because quantum physics also is a theory that has come from the development of mainstream science, which operated using the premise of naturalism, methodological naturalism.
So, science itself does not directly talk about consciousness. But, within quantum physics, there is the understanding that the observer plays a very important role in the observed reality. It is at the moment of observation that the wave function collapses and we have an object.
I am not going to get into the technicalities of scientific theory or of quantum physics. But, suffice it to say here that whereas in Newtonian physics or relativity physics, there was very little room for consciousness. Now, quantum physics practically necessitates consciousness.
Now, how does consciousness come into objects? That is through a projection of consciousness. Purushaha prakriti sthohi, bhūte prakriti jāngunān, kāraṇa-vinuna-saṅgośya, sarasra-dhūni-janu-su. In 13.22 in the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna states that purushaha prakriti sthohi, the soul becomes a jeweled material nature, bhūte prakriti jāngunān, bhūte, because of the desire to enjoy, purushaha prakriti jāngunān, the products of material nature.
So, to understand the idea of projection, consider, I gave the earlier example of a cricket match. So, a cricket match is going on say somewhere in Sharjah. And there is a device, there is not just device, the whole technological setup with the monitor and the TV in our house, connected to the broadcasting network, which has an outlet over there.
And through that whole setup, what is happening in Sharjah becomes broadcast in our room. And then our consciousness goes on the TV set. And when it goes on the TV set, through the TV set, our consciousness gets transported to Sharjah.
And say when Indian batsman hits a sixer, we become jubilant. When Indian batsman gets out, we become a little rejected. So, kāraṇa-vinuna-saṅgośya, sattva-saṅgośya, we experience good and bad, we experience happiness and distress.
Now, physically speaking, we are situated on a chair or a couch in our room. But our consciousness is transported, you could say projected, from where we are sitting into the TV and from the TV to Sharjah. So, now taking this further metaphor, taking this metaphor further, instead of a live cricket match being streamed through TV, if we consider a virtual cricket match, some of you may have had this experience of virtual reality where people say some sports.
So, in virtual reality, we directly identify with a particular cricket, particular character. So, say you are the batsman, and the ball, you swing the bat, and then you make the contact and the ball goes somewhere, you make a contact and the ball goes to the cricket kicker, whichever way it is. So, here, if we consider the motion of the virtual characters in the virtual cricket match, all that is according to the laws of physics, laws of electronics, generally, there are laws of physics.
So, if the ball is coming in this trajectory, the bat is moving in this trajectory, and depending on the extent of the contact between the ball and the bat, the ball will go to a particular distance at a particular velocity. All this can be explained under the laws of physics. But, what is happening is our identification with that whole thing.
That happens because our consciousness is projected. कारिकारण कर्तुत्रे हेतुत्रकृतिनिप्षिते कुरुश्यासुखतुखाना भोक्तुत्रे हितुनिप्षिते In one verse, prior to 13.22, that is 13.21, Krishna says that the cause and effect, everything that happens in the material world, कारिकारण कर्तुत्रे हेतुत्रकृतिनिप्षिते that material nature is the cause of the causal connection, cause and effect in the material nature. So, for example, somebody, in India, Pakistan, when the last ball is there, somebody swings the bat.
And now the ball, whether it will go over the boundary or it will be caught by a fielder at the boundary. Now that, we can say it is determined by the laws of physics. Depending on how strong the batsman will hit the ball, how cleanly the hit has been made.
These things are determined by the laws of physics. But the elation or the dejection that comes, पुरुशासुकतुखाना भोक्तुत्रे हितुनिप्षिते So, if the batsman hits a six, and say if I am an Indian, I may get elated. If I am a Pakistani, I may get dejected.
So that depends on our attachments, our conceptions. The basic point is that the whole identification of a person with a cricket match, whether in a virtual cricket match or observed cricket match, it is through the projection of consciousness through a particular technological setup. Like that, the soul is different from the body.
And the soul’s consciousness is rooted through the subtle body to the gross body, into the brain and through the brain to the various bodily parts. So this is projection. And as far as the body is concerned, so for example if I am speaking at a particular volume right now, now I may say, we can find out some correlation.
Okay, I am making my voice calls at this particular speed or this particular frequency and that’s how the sound is coming at a particular volume. If I speak louder, then the voice calls will vibrate in a different frequency and a different kind of volume will come out. This can be explained.
But the emotions that are associated with it, the event is there, one thing. And experience is another thing. Imagine if there were no cricketers, imagine there were only robots and there were no spectators.
A robot may bowl and a robot may hit a six. Nobody would experience anything. There is no consciousness.
When Deep Blue, Deep Blue was a computer which defeated Gary Gasparo. That was the first time a computer defeated the prevailing chess champion. Now after that Gary Gasparo was with his head in his hands.
What happened? And Deep Blue’s manufacturer was delighted. But Deep Blue was not experiencing any emotions. Why? Because it’s a machine.
Machines don’t have emotions. So consciousness does not exist in matter. But there has to be a separate source of consciousness whose consciousness gets projected into matter because of the desire to enjoy something through the projection of matter.
If I have a desire to enjoy cricket, then my consciousness gets projected into it and then I experience emotions. So consciousness enters matter primarily through projection.