Quantum Physics: A celebration of Vedaant?

By- Rajneesh Dube

Newton is considered one of the most innovative physicists who walked on this earth. One fine morning, he watched an apple fall and came upon the idea that it is the gravity of earth or the gravitational pull that brings the apple down. You may say, it was just a fluke. But Newton went on to formulate the laws of motion. He conceived of ‘force’ and quantified it. He gave us an equation and the value of a Gravitational Constant to calculate the amount of pull.




Newton also dabbled in optics and developed calculus. However, the Newtonian world operated in three dimensions only. Then came Einstein, another giant in his own right. His theory of Relativity could work across large astronomical distances. It explained why a clock appears to move slower on a fast-moving satellite to an observer in a stationary frame. In the same scenario, the length of an object appears shorter. It paved the way for what is called Space-time, a four-dimensional view of the world with space and time integrated as one. Thanks to it, we now know for sure that space and time are all relative. Space and time cannot be taken as two independent entities – one influences the other.



Einstein concluded that the earth moves around the sun not due to the force of gravitational pull, but because the vast mass of the sun curves the space-time around it. Einstein was able to explain the larger phenomena of the universe, he realised that Newtonian laws also break down at the extreme micro level. Then came quantum physics, the study of the sub-atomic play of particles. Einstein did not agree with the Copenhagen interpretation, but it was proven correct.



As opposed to classical physics, quantum physics or quantum mechanics, as some people like to call it, considers energy rather than force as the fundamental quantity of the universe. Quantum mechanics is only a mathematical concept. However, its predictions for subatomic particles have been found to be correct. So, three scientists, two of whom worked in Copenhagen, met there one day and declared that one cannot determine the path of subatomic particles, one can only predict the probability of an event. That event would materialise only when we observe the particle through some instrument.



The unchanging reality

Philosophy is all about the fundamental questions of existence and reality. What is the ultimate reality? Is the world an illusion? Is there a Creator? The ancient seers of Vedic period delved deep into these questions and what was revealed to them is the essence of the Upanishads. The three basic forces investigated were those of ‘Brahm’ (the Supreme Soul), ‘Jeev’ (bonded soul) and ‘Jagat’ (world). ‘Shuddh advait’ or pure non-dualism is a school of Vedant philosophy enunciated by Shankar. It holds that the world as we see is an illusion, it is but a superimposition on the background ‘Brahm’, a kind of sport played by God. And it is ingrained in our minds as the reality because of the limitations of human intellect and sensory perception. That is ‘maya’ for you. So, in Advait Vedant, there is a concept of a higher and a lower God. The higher God is the formless Absolute, ‘Brahm’. He is an infinite and timeless expanse of pure consciousness and bliss. He is transcendental, sort of unaffected by all that is happening around us.



Then there is a lower God, ‘Ishwar’, who creates the world, sustains it and then withdraws it within himself. ‘Ishwar’ can reward and punish the creatures as per the universal law of Karma laid down by him. His grace as and when received can liberate us from the cycle of births and deaths.



Knowledge of our true Self is liberation. And that is the realisation that we are but a wave in the vast ocean of universal consciousness. The world is not real, only the conscious energy is real and permanent. The external phenomena have no independent existence apart from our awareness or consciousness, which is the true, unchanging reality.



The quantum world is equally puzzling. Most of us get perplexed by its basic assumptions. It suggests that reality is not wholly independent of observation. The observed comes into being only when taken note of by the observer. Thus, quantum physics and the Vedant doctrine both challenge the traditional notion of an independent and objective world.



One in many, many in one

Who is God in the Sanatan tradition? Unlike the notion of the west, he is the ‘akash’, the ether and he is also the base of the rest of the four elements. He is the life energy of all beings. The spinning galaxies and the spinning electrons together constitute the two ends of the reality of that energy. That energy is the consciousness. As an analogy, it is the little ‘ghataakash’ (Space within an earthen pot) in the endless realm of ‘paramaakash’, the infinite sky; the moment the vessel gets broken, it all becomes one, the small ‘I’ merges with the big ‘I’ . This sublimation of ego is the final step towards salvation. Quantum physics holds that till a fraction of a moment before the big bang, the universe was perfectly symmetrical, all particles had zero mass. The universe was unstable; it was a false vacuum. Baffling? Maybe not when you realise that unlike the Newtonian model, the vacuum is not an empty space in quantum physics, it is bubbling with energy. Then arose our universe like a big bubble inside which energy got converted to particles. Nuclear reactions and clumping of atoms further gave rise to heavenly bodies like our planet earth. The point of creation is elegantly described in Shvetashvatar Upanishad: ‘Yada tamastann diva na ratrih, sat na ch asat Shiv ev kevalah’ (When there was darkness but neither day nor night, neither cause nor effect, there existed only Shiv, the supreme Lord). The world is nothing but a chess-board of shifting energies through space and time.



(Writer is a retired IAS officer. Views are personal)