The Spiritual Scientist Series (Set of 3 Volumes)

Foreword It’s a modern myth that science and spirituality are two different things.

Many of the world’s greatest scientists were inspired by their spiritual sensibilities and many even introduced spiritual considerations into their scientific work. But in recent decades, many people have tried to separate science and spirituality. This separation has had some bad effects. Science, divorced from the ethical and moral in- sights that come from true spirituality, has sometimes gone off in very destructive directions. And spirituality, or religion, divorced from the discipline that comes from true science, has sometimes also gone off in very destructive directions.

Caitanya Charan Dasa, in Spiritual Scientist, is in the forefront of those now working on restoring the healthy connection between true science and true spirituality, in particular the timeless spirituality of India, as presented in texts like the Bhagavad Gita. In this remark- able book, which consists of essays published in leading Indian news- papers, Caitanya Charan Das shows how we can all apply the principles of spiritual science in under tending the mysteries of the universe, the social dimensions of technology, our inner life in the modern world. He accomplishes all this in instructive, entertaining, and sensible prose, showing that intelligence does not equate to wordiness and dryness. There is a Vedic saying that true eloquence is essential truth spoken concisely. And that is exactly what we find in Spiritual Scientist.

Vol-I Introduction Mark Twain observed decades ago, "In religion, India is the only mil- lionize." Today, we are witnessing an extraordinary worldwide spiritual renaissance. Global interest in Indian spirituality has inspired many thoughtful Indians to re-examine their own cultural legacy, as seen in the increasing frequency and popularity of spiritual columns in many leading Indian newspapers.

I was a regular reader of The Speaking Tree column in The Times of India since my school days; it whetted my spiritual appetite then. When I was pursuing my degree in electronics and telecommunications engineering, I was blessed to meet devotees of ISKCON, who satisfied my spiritual hunger by their cogent, coherent and pragmatic presentation of the principles and the practices taught in the Vedic literatures. Since then I felt impelled to share the wealth of wisdom that I had received with as many of my brothers and sisters as possible and so I started writing in newspapers.

The Spiritual Scientist magazine was pioneered by HG Devamrita Prabhu and expanded by HG Radheshyam Prabhu. I have been blessed with the service of running it as andesine for the last six years. This book is a compilation of those Spiritual Scientist articles that have appeared in different newspapers, mainly The Speaking Tree column of The Times of India and The Soul Curry column of The Maharashtra Herald. The news- paper articles were often edited and their titles were changed. Moreover different columns were of different lengths. So this compilation presents the original unedited full-length writings.

For spiritual explorers, this book can serve as an easily accessible "user- friendly" introduction to spirituality - for its addresses current needs, interests and concerns. For devotees, this book can serve as a useful preaching aid. It is especially a good gift to give to relatives, acquaintances and others whom you would like to introduce to Krishna consciousness.

For all readers, this book can serve as a nourishing food for spiritual thought.

My best wishes and prayers to you for your spiritual voyage and I seek yours too.

Vol-III Introduction Science fascinated me from my childhood. The fascination was not with the technological wizardry and its products like video games, internet and cell phones, but with the prospect of the scientific spirit of enquiry unraveling the mysteries of nature, life and the universe. What secrets did the beautiful night sky with its innumerable twinkling stars hold? Where had the whole universe come from? Where had I come from? Science, with its telescopes and microscopes, promised to answer all such questions of the inquisitive mind.

My childhood fascination turned into perplexity in my teens. I had considered science to be a noble, uplifting pursuit which provided so much intellectual satisfaction as to make all grosser pleasures disdainful. Why then were the leading scientific brains delighting in the same gross pleasures that common people craved for - prestige, power, wealth and sex? Even stranger for me was the fact that many of my brilliant peers and seniors in one of the best technical colleges in India were victims of bad habits. Astrophysics had been one of my interests, but when I met a double doctorate US- returned astrophysicist and found that he was a chain smoker, I knew I had to do some serious thinking about the direction of my life.

The struggle to reconcile the lofty ideals that I cherished with the lousy reality that I observed around me prompted me turn to spirituality for answers. By my third year of engineering at the Government College of Engineering, Pune, India, I had pored over the works of several eminent Indian spiritual leaders. Although I felt that there might be something of value in their teachings, overall my scientific instincts made me look at spirituality with a healthy skepticism. Only when I heard the presentations of the devotees of the International Society for Krishna consciousness (ISKCON) did I first come across scientific evidences for the existence of God and the soul. I was stunned. I knew at that moment that my life would never be the same again; the scientist within me had discovered the spiritual dimension. The first section of this book, "Has Science Discovered God?" documents some of this evidence.

I found that the spiritual wisdom of the Bhagavad-Gita and other Vedic literature answered thoroughly the very questions that had originally attracted meto science. And the life of integrity, morality and discipline that I saw among the youths living according to the Gita contrasted markedly with what I was seeing among my scientifically-educated students. Of course, I was sure that there were sincere scientists and that there were hypocritical spiritualists, but still the contrast intrigued me. While trying to make sense of this contrast, I started studying the link between science and spirituality.

It was then that I came to know the deeply spiritual, even devotional, motivations of pioneering scientists like Faraday and Kelvin; they saw scientific research as a means to better understand the glory of God. I recognized that the expulsion of spirituality from science was a recent phenomenon - and an unnatural one at that. Divorced of its spiritual purpose, science had become a servant of the materialistic modern mindset, a tool to better exploit the resources of nature. That explained to me why even scientifically brilliant people had hardly any aspirations higher than those of ordinary materialistic people. Science, bereft of its spiritual dimension, had led to the global spread of materialism. The consequences of this science-induced materialism are analyzed in the second section, "Does Science Need a Spiritual Paradigm?"

**Contents and Sample Pages**