(NOTE: I wrote most of this blog between July, 2006 and election
day, 2008. Some media references, then, may be outdated or
unavailable.)
This is from a book review I wrote on Amazon.com for Code Name God by Mani Bhaumik. This is one of the most significant books I've read on this journey.
We live today in a world so divided by disparate religious ideas that there is a very real possibility that we as humans won't survive these differences.
The spectrum of this divde is great and varied. Extreme Christian fundamentalists longing for a biblical Armageddon promote political choices that could bring on an ultimate nuclear holocaust. Only slightly more moderate Christians eschew science in favor of a literal reading of the Bible and turn a blind eye to scientific "theories" as varied as global warming, the evolution of our species and the age of the universe.
Extreme Islamic fundamentalists scoff at earthly political goals altogether and wish only to live in a world governed entirely by the Koran. Unfortunately, like the Judeo/Christian Bible, interpretation of these sacred scriptures is subject to whoever perceives that he/she has been selected by his or her god to do so. This has resulted, in many instances, in the wide-scale destruction of people by those convinced by their chosen spokesmen that they will achieve heavenly rewards through their own and their victims' deaths.
Obviously, examples like these can be found everywhere in the world and in many other religions as well.
In a fervent desire to get beyond religious misconceptions of basic spiritual concepts, many thoughtful people have followed one of two divergent philosophical paths of inquiry concerning the universe and our place in it.
Science and spirituality (as opposed to religion) both seek the answers to this most fundamental question. While never quite at physical odds with each other, proponents look askance at each other for the others' naive understandings of reality. Yet a few individuals in both camps have been able to take a "quantum leap" of understanding and realize that science and spirituality should not just "agree to disagree".
For some scientists, David Bohm, Rupert Sheldrake, Karl Pribram and others, the deeper science goes towards discovering the most fundamental nature of Matter and Energy, the more science and spirituality merge into one.
On the spiritual side, a person such as the Dalai Lama honors the discoveries being made by science; to the extent that he says that if science proves a concept that is counter to his own Buddhist tradition, then the Buddhist idea must succumb to science! Truly a remarkable statement in view of most religious orthodoxies.
Mani Bhaumik is one of these "leapers", whose early life happened to be suffused in mystical Hindu traditions. Yet, the talent for science and mathematics he displayed at a young age allowed him to escape the poverty and ignorance endemic to his community.
Finding his way to the West and his subsequent invention of the Exemer Laser (known commercially as Lasek) culminated in his enjoying a fabled lifestyle of the rich and famous; coincidentally the name of a popular television show of the day in which he displayed his wealth. His Hollywood star-studded life of parties and luxury in Beverly Hills is the stuff of dreams.
But somewhere along the way, the dream ended. Like many others throughout history, he finally had to ask himself, is this all there is?
Even while climbing the ladder of success, however, he never forgot the ground below from where he began. His political and spiritual grounding as an acquaintance of the "living saint" Mahatma Ghandi (in the political struggle for independence by the Indians against Great Britain) demonstrated to him how true spirituality can be manifested in the everyday world.
Throughout his early life in America he used his practice of Hindu meditation as a method of remaining calm and centered in the high-flying academic and business worlds he was increasingly a part of.
However, when he began to ask whether "this is all there is", he decided to explore the deeper realms of reality found through deep mediation; the kind spoken of in the Gitas, the sacred writings of his religious tradition.
As a man with one foot in Western science and one foot in mystical Hinduism, he came to realize that it was perhaps his dharma to create a bridge between the two.
The result is the narrative of a wonderful, poetic journey through his own life before he begins the even more fantastic journey into the realms of quantum theory and sublime mystical states.
In the process, he performs a truly amazing feat. He makes the underlying scientific field of all physical reality--which is, in fact, non-reality--move so closely towards the highest mystical states that it makes the a non-belief in "god" the most non-rational and least plausible conclusion one could make.
As a formerly agnostic seeker of knowledge, I've spent the past few years, trying to reconcile the remarkable scientific discoveries of DNA, quantum theory and consciousness with the fantastic realms of mind explored and written about by mystics, shamans, artists, users of entheogenic plants and others throughout the ages.
Mani Bhaumik's journey point out the stepping stones one encounters on our own journey through a life that offers so many unanswerable questions. I've found that the most amazing thing about my own journey is that once a stepping stone is reached, another one appears almost magically.
And it's only one step away.