The Conscious Brahma – Though the Spirituality is a vast and multi-disciplinary field but one can always acquire a LITTLE Spirituality to improve the quality of life to a very LARGE extent.

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Life, Consciousness and Mind, A Physics Perspective

Aristotle is known as the father of Physics who referred to Physics as a branch of science that studies the natural phenomena. The word Physics came from ancient Greek, meaning knowledge of nature. Nature includes both non- living matter and living matter and so the study of behavior of non- living matter and living matter lies in the realm of Physics. Most philosophers after Aristotle did not confine their field of research according to non- living matter or living matter. After the development of telescopes and observatories for study of motion of planetary bodies by Galileo and the discovery of laws of motion and the laws of gravitation by Isaac Newton, a general notion prevailed that Physics involves the study of behavior of non- living matter only. Fast development in science in the last two centuries accumulated so much knowledge that it became inevitable to classify the vast knowledge into many disciplines. As a result of which a physicist thinks his field of investigation is limited to Physics only and he has nothing to do with biology or any other discipline. But for a dedicated scientist who is committed to study the nature, this division of science has no meaning, and he studies every phenomenon of nature ignoring this division. Many great physicists such as Erwin Schrödinger, Max Planck, Eugene Wigner and Max Delbrück have gone out of their native field to contribute to solve various the mysteries of life.

Spirituality is an important aspect of life, and it has made a surprising come- back in the mainstream in past few decades. Research has already begun to study the effect of spiritual practices on mental health.[1] My life took an unprecedented turn 25 years ago when I said goodbye to my well settled scientific career to begin my spiritual journey after a realization that spirituality is another dimension of Physics. The motive of my spiritual journey was to explore spirituality scientifically. I began to practice Yog which is a purely spiritual practice developed by ancient Rishis of India according to an ancient text of Yog known as Patanjali Yog Sutra. After exploring and studying every aspect of life from the perspective of Physics and spirituality I came to conclusion that human body is much more than a physical system made of flesh and blood that works on physical energy in term of calories we get from food and an important aspect is missing from the present study of life. Before presenting my study on physical, philosophical and spiritual aspect of life I would discuss the aspect of life which Schrödinger has discussed in his book What is life.

PHYSICAL ASPECT OF LIFE

Ludwig Boltzmann was the first physicist to speculate on thermodynamic perspective of living organism. He proposed that living organisms also need entropy for existence along with food and energy. Richard McCulloh macroscopically explained this by drawing a comparison between human body and internal combustion or the heat engine. A human body gets energy from food and converts it into mechanical energy that a heat engine does by getting energy from fuel. In the fundamental expression PV=kT, the variables vary greatly in case of heat engine and entropy also increases by great amount. But in case of human body the variation in these parameters is nearly constant. Physicists agree that this becomes possible only if entropy is negative, that is, entropy is fed into body.

Erwin Schrödinger analyzed the issue microscopically. He explained in his book What is life that living matter evades the decay to thermodynamic equilibrium by homoestatically maintaining negative entropy in the system. Schrödinger was among the founders of quantum mechanics who viewed living organism as ensemble of molecules that also contain hereditary molecule which later was identified as the DNA molecule. He compared the structure of molecules in living organism with the crystalline structure of solid. While the crystals in solids are in highly ordered state and repeat continuously, the hereditary molecule in an organism do not repeat itself much and Schrödinger called this aperiodic crystal. When solid gets energy in the form of heat, disorder of atoms increases and so entropy also increases. While in an organism when it gets energy, the order of molecules is not disturbed, meaning there is no change in entropy. Schrödinger did not conclude anything in his book why living organisms feed on negative entropy. He speculated that the behavior of living organisms may be understood by other laws of Physics, hitherto, unknown which however, once they have been revealed will form just as integral part of science as the former. Schrödinger also offered his philosophical views on living organisms. He was influenced through Arthur Schopenhauer, by Hindu philosophy of Atman = Brahman, according to which Atman is the animating principle in all living organisms and responsible for negative entropy in organisms.

EXTRA-PHYSICAL ASPECTS OF LIFE

Biology presents living organism as having multiple biological self- sustaining processes such as the growth, movement, metabolism, reaction to external stimuli, energy transformation and reproduction. I will begin with the claim that the biological processes are self- sustaining. This cannot be true because in nature nothing can be self- sustaining. There is a fundamental law of nature, the law of causality according to which there cannot be an effect or a change without a cause. No motion is possible without a force. For example, if you ask a doctor why a heart pulsates, he may reply that heart gets a train of electric pulses from a sophisticated oscillator made of neurons and housed in medulla region of brain. The muscles of heart contract due to electric shock and heart continues to pulsate according to the pattern of electric pulses. When asked a neuroscientist what causes oscillator to stop suddenly leading to a cardiac arrest. He may either have no answer or may reply just like that. I have seen many cases where many health- conscious, young persons with no history of heart disease have died of sudden cardiac arrest and the doctors do not know the cause. Biological studies cannot tell what causes oscillator to work. The self- sustaining process can be compared with perpetual motion in Physics. Perpetual machine is fantasy of many engineers which cannot turn into a reality because it would contradict the basic law of conservation of energy, and nothing can happen against the law of nature. In this article we are exploring what causes heart to pulsate.

There is a misconception that physical system of human body works on the physical energy we get from the food. If this preposition were true, then it would be impossible to explain many inequalities among the human beings. For example, we know that physical energy consumption of an adult can be considered around 2000 kilo calories with a margin of about 15%, but there is an order of magnitude difference between the outputs of individuals. At one end we find extremely inactive persons in the category of beggars who cannot earn their bread and depend on others for survival. The just sit on roadside whole day asking for food. clothing or money. On other hand, we may find very active persons who work up to 18 hours a day with smiling face and they may even consume less calories than a person with sedentary life. In short, the output in terms of achievements is not proportional to input.

According to psychology the active person has lot of motivation while the inactive person lacks the motivation. The seat of motivation is the brain; therefore, I will discuss motivation from the perspectives of neuroscience. It is an established fact that the structure of brain of every human being is almost identical except for minor variations. What may play the role in human behavior, intelligence, and motivation is the number of neurons in the brain that processes the information required to perform a task. A small mental task needs the activation of fewer neurons, while a very complex task needs to activate much larger number of neurons. The number of neurons in the brain is so large that a scientist like Einstein used only 30% of total neurons present in brain in entire life. According to this information the motivation and intelligence of every human being should be the same, since the motivation, consciousness, intelligence, and creativity are the product of brain only. But it is found that there is a continuous spectrum of motivation and intelligence in human beings. There is a class of people who spend who life doing petty jobs because they neither have motivation nor intelligence for learning a higher skill and to earn more. At the other extreme, there is a category of great people who did magnificent work that changed the course of the world. This discussion implies that the faculties like motivation, intelligence, creativity and consciousness are not the products of brain, a part of physical system of human body. This can also be concluded from an analysis of brain of Abert Einstein carried out posthumously. His brain was preserved after death to investigate a region of brain that could be attributed to his extraordinary intelligence, but the scientists could not find anything in the brain that was remarkably different from the brain of normal people. It is not difficult to conclude that in addition to biological processes of movement, growth, metabolism, reaction to external, energy transformation and reproduction the life has many other Extra- Physical features such as consciousness, intelligence, motivation and creativity and in this article, we are exploring the agency responsible for these features. I would like to clarify here that I am considering all biological process as physical processes because all biological processes can be explained with concepts of Physics and Schrödinger has explained it beautifully in his book What is life. What is more intriguing is that there are myriad of organisms in nature without blood and flesh and even without brain still possess consciousness and intelligence. An article published in Scientific American reveals a fascinating behavior of a specie of slime molds that are single-celled organism without brain, nervous system in any form and even without sense organs. [3] Scientists have found out in a study that slime molds behave in intelligent way. They have consciousness and memory. They navigate through a maze to reach out to food and when food is in scars many bodies of slime molds merge together to form a single unit to save energy. If a U-shaped path is provided to them to reach a food, they attempt to follow the shortest path such as the upward climbing in order to save the energy. Thus, intelligence and consciousness are essential features of life, that do not require a structure such as the brain. This makes the belief firm that plants also have consciousness. A growing body of empirical research suggests that the consciousness and intelligence traditionally assumed to be exclusive to animal are also exhibited by plants. [3] An Indian scientist, Jagdish Bose established empirically that plants have consciousness a century ago. There is a lot of opposition to the concept of consciousness in plants and cells therefor I would like to present an argument that the consciousness is not only and integral part of plants and cells, but the existence of life is not possible without consciousness.

There are five components or phases of life. These are: (1) origin of life, (2) biological functioning of life, (3) long term stability of life functions or the survival, (4) continuation to next generation or the reproduction, (5) termination of life functions or the death. Life is not possible if any of this component is absent or unstable. By stability I mean that there are many biological functions going on in a living organism and these functions are basically physical process which are intrinsically stable. Why I am saying this is because I have developed myself from a physicist to a full- fledged electronic engineer and I have devoted 20 years of my life developing the control circuits for electronic, electric and mechanical machines. After studying neuroscience and physiology I came to know that every biological process is working in closed loop with negative feedback that is essential for the stability. The negative feedback requires monitoring which is not possible without consciousness. The next component of life is survival or the continuation of biological functions taking place within the organisms. These processes need energy from food for which the dependence on environment is necessary. Life is not possible in isolation and interaction with the environment is inevitable. The interaction with environment takes place through the consciousness in highly evolved organisms such as animals and human beings but less evolve organisms like slime mold and plants do not have sense organs and the consciousness is the only medium for interaction. Due to consciousness, the cells and plants are aware of food that is present in the environment and due to the intrinsic intelligence, they choose the right food to eat. As a human being we are taught which food to eat and which not. But lower organisms and animals use intrinsic consciousness and intelligence choose the right food only. The animals never eat poisonous plant, and the apes are known to have knowledge of the medicinal plants also.

I would like to jump into the argument presented in an article rebutting the concept against plants having consciousness. [4] First of all, the consciousness has not been defined unanimously and so there is lot of confusion among scientists about what is the consciousness and what is its source. They are talking of plant consciousness animal and consciousness. This classification is meaningless; the plants are less evolved organisms, so they are not able to use the consciousness much. Whereas the animals use consciousness much more than plants do, and the human beings use consciousness in more varieties of ways. There is nothing like primary consciousness and secondary consciousness as many scientists have classified thus. It is a universal and fundamental entity that originates and sustains life. A botanist has dismissed the idea of plants having consciousness and cognition on the ground that they simply do not have necessary structure and functional complexity that is necessary for consciousness to emerge. [5] In fact, this idea is not new, and is derived from the proposition of Francis Crick, according to which consciousness emerges from the complex network of neurons. I have discussed this topic later and proved empirically that this proposition is false. Secondly, there is no singularity in nature according to which if consciousness is present in higher organisms like animals, it has to be present in the lower and the lowest living organism because higher species have evolved from the lower organisms, according to Darwinian theory of natural selection.

I have been studying consciousness and Atman for last 25 years. I have also experienced and explored consciousness through Yog. I have attained a very advanced stage of Yog, known as Samadhi, where the mind becomes completely thoughtless, and I can have a direct experience of consciousness. On the basis of this experience, I have proposed a theory of consciousness on the basis of the concept of Physics. The consciousness is not only about the feeling or experience, but it also means awareness of inside and outside world. The process of sensing and awareness is possible because of consciousness only. The organisms are aware of food that is present in environment because of consciousness. I will discuss later that the consciousness is a physical entity like electromagnetic field. Max Planck, father of Quantum Physics also firmly believed that the consciousness is fundamental. Not only this, but most of great thinkers also advocated the relevance of consciousness in life. Perhaps this may the reason, the research on consciousness remains inconclusive after thirty years. According to a theory of Atman that I have proposed, the consciousness existed since the beginning of universe and the life came much later. In fact, it is the consciousness only that originates and sustains life. There is a famous quote of Max Planck, father of quantum physics; I regard consciousness as fundamental. I regard matter as derivative from consciousness. We cannot get behind consciousness. Everything that we talk about, everything that we regard as existing, postulates consciousness. I regard consciousness a

PHILOSOPHICAL CONSIDERATION OF SOUL AS ANIMATING PRINCIPLE

The question What runs life has been boggling the minds of philosophers since the millennia. The concept of an animating principle, as a life force, that drives a living organism is very ancient and can be found in Greece and India. Greek philosopher such as Socrates, Plato and Aristotle believed that the concept of soul as the life force is very logical and difficult to rebut. They considered soul incorporeal that animates a living organism. Plato was the first to propose that the soul was both, the source of life and the mind. Aristotle defined the soul as the first actuality of organized body and also used the term Actus et Potentia that is responsible for full actualization of living body. According to Emanuel Kant, the soul and body occupy same space at the same time and the human soul gives rise to the cognition. Baruch Spinoza had the same views about the soul, but according to him the soul was not immortal, and it dies with the body. Rene Descartes was more specific on his views on soul. He considered body and soul to be separate entities but mutually interacting. According to him, the seat of soul is the brain and when soul interacts with pineal gland, the consciousness is generated.

PHILOSOPHICAL CONSIDERATIONS OF PSYCHIC ENERGY AS LIFE FORCE

The discipline of psychology did not exist until the middle of 19th century. The concept such as consciousness, the self, human behavior and ethics were discussed in a branch of philosophy. When new scientific concepts and new experimental methods began to develop in natural sciences, the empiricism of science outweighed the rationalism of philosophy. Sigmund Freud was the first scientist who attempted to explain philosophical concept of soul by a scientific concept of psychic energy. He treated biological system as a thermodynamic system that works with physical energy. Later he realized that the psychic energy has nothing to do with physical energy. According to Freud, psychic energy is a force like thing that drives and sustains the mental activities. For this reason, psychic energy was also called the mental energy. Carl Jung developed the concept of psychic energy further and proposed that it is not possible to measure psychic energy. According to him, the psychic energy performs all psychological tasks such as the perceiving, thinking, feeling, wishing and attention related tasks. These activities are possible only if life exists. Therefore, the psychic energy is the same as Vital energy. It is the Vital energy that drives the life.

VEDANTIC EXPLANATION OF VITAL ENERGY

Yog is the only way to experience the existence of Vital energy in the body. Rishis of ancient India to whom I refer as the ancient scientists, began the practice of Yog thousands of years ago. They explored the nature of Vital energy by experiencing and studying the effect of Vital energy on body during the practice of Yog. They concluded that the body is only a yantra (machine or the instrument) made of blood and flesh. It is the Vital energy that performs all the life functions such as the working of internal and external organs of the body and all mental functions such as the consciousness, thinking, desire, intelligence and creativity. They argued that the body of human beings are identical in every respect, and therefore it cannot be the identity of a person and also it is perishable. Therefore, the body cannot be considered as the true existence of human being. They used a word Atman in Sanskrit for Vital energy, psychic energy or the mental energy. Though the word Atman translates into English as soul, yet the soul is not an equivalent to Atman because the soul is a religious word while Atman is a scientific word as it has been referred to in ancient science of India known as the Vedanta. Rishis of India studied every aspect of nature in a very comprehensive way. They studied specifically human existence in terms of mind, consciousness, human behavior, cause of miseries of life, overcoming the miseries of life and herbal medicines to cure ailments of body. The enormous knowledge acquired by Rishis by the practice of Yog was compiled in four scriptures known as Veds which are the pillars of Hinduism. All other scriptures such as Bhagwat-Gita either elaborates further the concepts given in Veds or apply these concepts to understand and improve human life.

Veds were the subject of intensive debates amongst the later Rishis that led to consolidate the essence of the knowledge of Veds which is widely known as Vedant. According to Vedant, Atman plays a gross role in human existence while the body is merely an instrument, or a machine made of blood and flesh. The food supplies nutrients and physical energy to body, needed for mechanical work and to make up the loss of physical energy to the ambience. It is the Atman that directs and controls the movements of body. We mistakenly understand our body as our identity. Following passage is the Vedantic description of Atman. It is the Atman that thinks and creates new ideas. The consciousness is a dimension of Atman that makes us feel our existence. It is the Atman that feels pain and pleasure. Atman only sees, hears and senses the environment. It is the Atman that moves our hands and legs. We are alive and our existence is due to Atman. In first person, I am not a body, I am an Atman and therefore, in philosophy and in spirituality the word self is used for Atman. My body is not the real me or my self, it is the Atman that is real me or my real self. I do not exist without Atman because my body stops working without Atman and turns to a corpse that is not me. When Atman is gone, my existence is gone.

SPIRITUAL EXPLANATION OF ATMAN

Foregoing Vedantic description of Atman seems to be a part of philosophical or a spiritual discourse. I hail from a spiritual family, and I used to attend weekly Satsang, a holy gathering, to listen to the discourse of spiritual Guru of my parents. There was a large collection of spiritual books in my house and once a while I used to go through the spiritual literature out of curiosity. At the school age, I could not grasp anything, but the spiritual quotes embedded in my mind as question marks. After I began the practice of Yog and I could shift my attention from outside to inside, I could grasp the meanings of those spiritual quotes and I realized the existence of Atman. But for a layman, it is not necessary to practice meditation or Yog to realize the existence of Atman. If a person contemplates on Vedantic description of Atman, it may sprout and cultivate a curiosity about knowing Atman further.

Why scientists have kept distance from the subject of Atman and spirituality is because Atman or soul is considered the subject of spirituality. A large number of scientists, particularly of later generation, consider spirituality very different or even opposite to science. When I explored spirituality as a scientist through the practice of Yog, I found that there is no such opposition between science and spirituality. The physics mostly studies non- living matter and spirituality is about human life which is a living matter. The living matter and non- living are both parts of nature and the science is a systematic study of nature. Therefore, science and spirituality cannot be different. Max Planck, father of quantum physics never considered spirituality different from science. Here is a famous quote of Planck; There can never be any real opposition between religion and science for the one is the complement of other. Here the word religion is used for spirituality. Perhaps in German language, the words religion and spirituality are used interchangeably. The spirituality is a secular word that is about exploring the nature. The word religion stands for the institution of worship such as Christianity, Islam and Hinduism. The ways of worship are mostly considered irrational and without scientific underpinning and therefore, most scientists keep distance from religion. A confusion between spirituality and religion may be the cause of scientists keeping distance from spirituality.

After I began my spiritual journey as a scientist, I studied all the religions to understand the difference between spirituality and the religion. I found that the spirituality is the root of all religions, but most people ignore it because it is difficult to practice Meditation and Yog. People find it easier to pray and worship God and perform religious rituals such as fasting and pilgrimage. Most people follow religion out of fear and social pressure, or they expect something from God that may fulfil their wishes. All religious practices are irrational, monotonous, passive and non-yielding. After studying Hinduism, I found that it has two distinct components. The first is a religious component and like other religions, it is also a kind of institute of worship where people worship idols of different Gods according to protocol set by the priests. The second one is the Dharmic component based on teachings of Vedant and therefore it is spiritual and secular in nature. One may call it secular Hinduism that is about truthfully performing the duties of life with peaceful coexistence by crossing the boundaries set by religion, race, caste and creeds. Hinduism keeps the performing of duties of life truthfully over the worship. According to Hinduism there are five mental distortions in human beings that are referred to as the enemies, that are obstructions to development of a person. These distortions are: (1) Kaam, that is, unethical and unreasonable desires, (2) Krodh, meaning, anger (3) Lobh, meaning greediness (4) Moh, meaning, unreasonable attachment (5) Ahankar, Egoism a belief that I am only right. After addressing these mental distortions only, a person can achieve maximum potential of mind. Although the pioneers of Humanistic psychologists, Abraham Maslow and Carl Roger also put forward the concepts of Self-actualization and Fully functional personality, it is Vedant that describes a practical way to attain it.

STUDY OF MIND THROUGH YOG

Vedant is a science developed on the basis of experiential knowledge acquired during the practice of Yog. The experiential knowledge is not much different from the knowledge acquired by an experiment provided the basis of investigation is the Law of causality. An experiment is performed with electronic instruments while the Yog is performed with instrument of Mind. Indian Rishis realized that human body is a great source of knowledge, and this knowledge can be explored and tapped by the practice of Yog. During the practice of Yog, I found that when attention is focused on breathing, it slows down considerably. Similar results were also reported earlier by an experiment by Wallace et al [7 ]. Discovery of this relationship between Mind and body corroborates the proposition of Rene Descartes that Mind can only be studied by its effects on body. Yog will make an important place in science for providing a solution to centuries old Mind-Body problem posited by Rene Descartes. This discovery of Mind- Body relationship has proven instrumental in founding the basis of an entirely new science to be known as the Yog Science that will be discussed in later posts. This relationship between Mind and body is so strong that when I make my mind fully focused by the practice of Yog, to the extent that wandering thoughts stops and I attain a thoughtless state of mind, the inhalation part of breathing disappears. In this state of mind, I do not need environmental oxygen and I can survive without oxygen. I have demonstrated it by a nitrogen chamber experiment performed publicly on International Yog Day,2023. [7] I have also made use of the Mind-Body relationship to develop instrumentation that monitors the change of state of mind empirically by measuring the change in breathing. I have written a book (upcoming) entitled, An introduction to YOG SCIENCE, Theory of Mind and Atman which establishes the existence of Atman beyond doubt.

MIND AND ITS EFFECTS ON BODY

The biologists have limited their field of study to biology and physiological processes going on in body. The neuroscientists have limited themselves to the study of brain and neurological processes while a neurophysiologist studies the relation between brain and body only. What they have missed is the basic law of nature, the law of causality in these studies, according to which no process or change can take place without a cause. They have not bothered to know the cause behind a biological process. There is a large consensus on the view that mind controls the body, but the life scientists have little to say about role of mind in life. There is myriad of observations that establishes the effect of mind on living body beyond doubt. It is a very well-known fact that body begins to shiver in fear. There are a large number of physiological effects caused by various state of mind, for example, during depression our body becomes weak, and we do not feel like doing anything. Too much stress causes malfunction of heart and lungs, and prolonged stress and anxiety gives rise to many diseases.

It is also known that there is a positive effect on body due to a positive mindset. A review on the research on religion, spirituality, and mental health suggests that the religion and spirituality may play crucial role in improving the mental health. [1] This is because true religious and spiritual teachings help develop a more equanimous state of mind with less wandering thoughts that relaxes the mind. In addition to religions and spirituality a new non-academic field pioneered by Napoleon Hills and Norman Vincent Peale emerged in last century. These authors wrote extensively on the power of positive thinking and to develop a positive mindset to perform better in life. Renowned psychologist, Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow founded a movement in psychology to tap human potential to develop a fully functional personality and to strive for Self- actualization. These studies confirm that mind has great potential to improve the functioning of body and behavior. In other words, the mind is a crucial component of life, and the study of mind will provide valuable information, that may help cure many psychological disorders.

Life science has developed a great deal, and we understand the biological processes to a large extent, but we know little about the mind. We do not know how mind affects the functioning of body. The mind is the closest to us but still it is a mystery for scientists. It is very surprising that earlier, a majority of scientists did not agree to study the mind scientifically. They argued that mind is a subjective phenomenon going on in head and it cannot be studied empirically as no instrument would interact with mind. Psychologists may devise a procedure to study mind, but the self- reports are not as reliable as the reading of instruments. Another group of scientists argued that study of mind is in the realm of spirituality. Whatever may be the arguments, but the reality is that mind is a natural phenomenon that must be studied with protocol of scientific investigation. Natural scientists cannot shrug off the responsibility of studying mind on the pretext that there are no instruments to interact with mind. Inspite of all these odds, Francis Crick convinced few neuroscientists and ventured into the empirical study of consciousness, an attribute of mind. He faced so much criticism that he wrote a book, Astonishing Hypothesis-The Scientific Search for Soul, to convince the scientists. But Crick was criticized for materialistic approach for studying consciousness.

MIND ACCORDING TO PHILOSOPHERS

Mind was a favorite topic for discussion amongst the philosophers since the ancient times as the mind is an instrument of thinking and they enjoyed using it. According to Aristotle mind is a dimension of soul that permeates through the body. While Aristotle assumed that mind is a part of body, Plato and Socrates believed that mind is made up of a substance that is different from body. Rene Descartes was a dualist like Plato, but he added further that mind cannot exist without body. Descartes was way ahead his ancestral philosophers; he was a mathematician and a scientist too and he also practiced meditation and wrote extensively on it. His thoughts about mind are more scientific that can be easily grasped by a scientist while the thoughts of philosophers are difficult to grasp. Descartes describe mind as follows:

Mind is different from matter in the sense that Physics can explain matter but not mind. Scientific equipment can interact with matter but not with mind.
Brain exists in physical space, but mind does not. There is a boundary of brain and matter that can be measured. This is not true with mind.
The mind experiences sensations that cannot be explained by Physics.
The mind is a necessary whole which cannot be divided like matter.

We will see later that this description is close to Vedantic description of mind because it is based on experiential knowledge acquired by meditation and Vedant is also based on experiential knowledge acquired during Yog.

FRUED’S PSYCHOLOGICAL MODEL OF MIND

Sigmund Frued proposed a model of mind in which he suggested that human mind consists of three layers designated as conscious mind, subconscious mind and unconscious mind. Conscious layer is the topmost layer of mind that generates the consciousness. It directs our attention on work we do, the thinking process and the imagination takes place at this layer of mind. The subconscious layer is just below the conscious layer, and it stores information needed for quick recall. This layer stores information that we have learnt in life and it also directs our behavior. The involuntary thinking process that goes on in our mind actually originates in this layer and then pops up in conscious mind. It may be regarded as a RAM (random access memory) of mind. The unconscious mind stores old past memories, past experience and trauma that have been forgotten. It is the deepest layer of mind, so its information surfaces up to conscious mind less frequently. Frued also introduced the concepts of Id, Ego and Super ego that contemporary psychologists found irrational and unscientific, and they rejected it. Freud’s model ignored Mind- Body relationship as proposed by Rene Descartes and it lacked empirical basis also. Frued developed this model specifically for theoretical underpinning for his psychoanalytical.

VEDANTIC MODEL OF MIND

Vedantic model of mind is based on the experiential knowledge acquired through the practice of Yog and the principle of Advait Vedant, that proposes the existence of a subtle matter, called Brahman, pervading the universe and an infinitesimally small portion of it, is the animating principle in every living organism known as the Atman. Schrödinger expressed this principle as: Atman=Brahman. When Rishi attained a thoughtless state of mind by practice of Yog, they could study the nature of mind and proposed a model of mind. According to psychology, there are five senses organs; eyes, ears, tongue, nose and skin that senses the external signals. Vedant proposes mind as the sixth sense organ that senses the internal signals such as the thoughts and emotions. That is why the mind is known as an internal organ or Antahkaran, in Sanskrit. Frued described mind as consisting of three layers while Vedant proposes the mind as having four faculties. First faculty is Chitt, a hub of consciousness. It can be experienced only after a long practice of Yog when thinking process comes to a halt. Second faculty is the Manas, a hub of thoughts. When there is problem in life, thoughts begin to appear in Chitt, and it takes the form of Manas that we all experience in terms of thoughts and emotions. We normally do not experience Chitt because it is always full of thoughts. Third faculty is Buddhi, a hub of wisdom, logic and reasoning. Fourth faculty is Ahankar, a hub of all personal experiences such as the learning of life, personal thoughts and ethical values. It is the ego system of a person. Every person behaves and thinks according to his ego system.

Apart from these four faculties, the sense organs are seen as the extension of mind. The sense organs are incomplete without mind. A very significant revelation of Vedant is that all faculties of mind and the sense organs need Atman to work. This implies that the thought process, consciousness and other mental processes are the products of Atman. No sense organ works without Atman. For example, the eyes, retina, and optical nerve are only the instrument for transmitting the signal, it is the Atman that senses and views the sight. Similarly, sound, smell, touch, taste and pain are felt by Atman and not by brain. It implies that the faculties of five senses are the intrinsic properties of Atman, and it is not the property of any region of the brain as understood by neuroscientists. It is not mere conjecture or a hypothesis, this truth is experienced by Indian Rishis during various stages of Yog and is also mentioned in Patanjali Yog Sutra.[8] An authentic text of Vedant, Brahma Sutra Bhasy written by Adi Shankaracharya presents the theory behind these experiences.

SCIENCE OF CONSCIOUSNESS AND VEDANTIC MODEL OF MIND

The research on consciousness that began three decades ago has still not produced any conclusive results and it failed to tell us, what is consciousness and how brain generates consciousness. The research is facing criticism from many quarters. The foremost criticism is that the consciousness is only described, and no universally accepted definition exists and therefore the measurement of such entity is not possible. In absence of a definition, scientists may raise doubt that consciousness may have more than one NCC. Another fundamental problem is that consciousness is subjective and can be accessible from the first person only, but the self- reports are not reliable and cannot be part of a true scientific investigation. There is no consensus on how to measure the consciousness. Out of all odds, if it could be possible to measure the consciousness in future, will the research on consciousness help understand other more important aspects of mind such as attention, thinking process, motivation and creativity. Will the research provide answers to metaphysical and philosophical questions pending so far,

Amidist this criticism and unending list of questions, Vedantic model of mind may give a big jolt to consciousness research. According to Vedantic principle: Atman= Brahman, Atman is the operating principle in brain that gives rise to mind, which is the hub of consciousness, attention, thoughts and all mental activities. Max Planck also believes consciousness to be fundamental. If Atman is the operating principle and consciousness is a fundamental entity then the hypothesis given by Francis Crick that consciousness is generated from the complex network of neurons, becomes invalid. The Advait principle: Atman= Brahman is also present in West in the form of panpsychism, which was the default philosophy of mind. Philosopher Plato, Aristotle, Leibniz, William James and Bertrand Russel also ascribed to the concept of panpsychism. I have also posited a theory of Atman on the basis of experiential knowledge acquired during the practice of Yog after attaining thoughtless state of mind and on the principle of Advait Vedant. I have explained the structure and properties of Atman in my upcoming book Yog Science, according to which Atman generates oxygen in the brain when mind is fully focused. I have demonstrated it by performing publicly the nitrogen chamber experiment on International Yog Day 2023 in which I enclosed myself in a pure nitrogen gas chamber for 30 minutes and showed that oxygen level in my blood does not fall. This experiment establishes the existence of Atman beyond doubt. This implies that the philosophical thought of Materialism according to which matter is the fundamental substance in nature, and all other things such as the consciousness and mental states are result of material interactions with material things is not true. This is the outcome of study of life from the perspectives of Physics, Psychology and Spirituality.

Reference

[1] Research on Religion, Spiritualty and Mental Health by Harold G Koenig, The Candian Journal of Psychiatry, Vol. 54 No 5 May 2009

[2] How brainless slime molds redefine Intelligence, Ferris Jabr, Published 13 November 2012, Nature 2012.

[3] Consciousness and Cognition in plants. Miguel Segundo-Ortin, Paco Calvohttps://wire.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10,1002/wcs.1578

[4] Debunking a Myth: Plant Consciousness, Jon Mallatt, Michael R Blatt, Andreas Draguhn, David G. Robinson, Lincon Taiz https://doi.org/10.1007/s00709-02-01579-w

[5] Plants neither possess nor require consciousness, https://pubmed.ncb.nim.nih.gov/31279732/ published in 2019 Prof. L. Taiz.

[6] Wallace and Benson, (1972) Journal Behavioral Medicine

[7] YouTube link: https://youtu.be/ZPwylt1NhVc

[8] This is a. spiritual text that describes the practice of Yog with theory extensively.

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International Yog Day Event

I had invited senior scientists and journalists and the invitations were also sent offline to witness a demonstration, on the eve of International Yog Day, of a new human capability of surviving without environmental oxygen, that can be developed by the practice of ancient Yog. I got the inspiration of performing this experiment from the ancient yogis who used to practice Yog in a closed underground pit for many days. The ancient Yog became extinct thousands of years ago. There have been many attempts to revive this Yog in the history but what they landed up in was the Hatha Yog. The present day’s popular yoga, which is a posture-based physical exercise, is a derivative of Hatha Yog. The ancient Yog is a mental exercise that develops the concentration of mind. There is a well-defined practice of ancient Yog (or simply the Yog) that is given in an ancient text called Patanjali Yog Sutra (PYS). When Yog is practiced according to PYS, the thinking process slows down and finally it leads to a thoughtless mind with no involuntary thoughts at all. In this state, a person becomes full of energy all the time and there is a total transformation in the personality that will be described in next Blog. Many texts of Yog also discuss these benefits. This transformation takes place because the involuntary thoughts going on in our mind, engage most of our Vital Energy. (Vital Energy will be described in detail later in this Blog.) When the thought process stops, the engaged Vital energy becomes free, and it activates many dormant functions of brain that results in all the claimed benefits of Yog and cause a complete transformation in the personality. In addition to psychological changes, a great physiological change takes place that causes a transformation in health also. In this physiological change, when mind becomes thoughtless, oxygen is generated in brain, and it is possible to survive without environmental oxygen. This is demonstrated by an experiment shown in the video.

There is a sealed chamber with a half round transparent cover. The entire oxygen of chamber is flushed out by replacing it by 99.9% pure nitrogen gas. The gas from the nitrogen cylinder is passed through a copper coil, dipped in ice cold water contained in blue bucket, to lower the temperature of chamber in hot summer. A grey color, cylindrical shaped item marked SILENCER suppresses the loud sound produced when gas is discharged from a very high pressure to the normal pressure. Otherwise, the loud sound would distract the mind.

In order to filter the sound, the gas is passed through a silencer which contains multiple layers of glass wool sheets which allow free flow of gas but attenuate the sound. There are two paths of discharging the nitrogen gas into chamber. In the first path there is valve, which discharges the gas at full pressure to flush out the oxygen within couple of minutes. After that this valve is closed. In another path, there is flow meter similar to that used in hospitals to control the flow of oxygen. A flow of about 50 litre/minute of nitrogen gas is maintained in the chamber throughout the experiment. A slightly high pressure of nitrogen gas in chamber eliminates any possibility of leaking environmental oxygen into the chamber.

After assuring technically that there cannot be any oxygen in the chamber, the oxygen level inside the chamber is monitored by a medical oxygen sensor connected with an instrument with digital display. Initially it shows about 2.10, that means, the oxygen level in the chamber is 21% in the beginning. The video shows that when nitrogen gas is discharged into the chamber, the oxygen level quickly falls to zero. There may be some people who may not rely on the reading of instrument and may suspect some manipulation; therefore, a jar is connected to the output of chamber and a burning candle is put in the jar. The video shows that candle extinguishes confirming that there is no oxygen coming from chamber. The candle is taking some time to extinguish because at the time of putting in the candle there is some oxygen in the jar that helps the candle burning for some time. The absence of oxygen could have also been shown by enclosing a living animal (say a rat) in the chamber as placebo. The rat would die after few minutes, but it was not implemented for religious reasons.

To show that I am perfectly normal without oxygen in the chamber, I wore a pulse oxymeter in my finger and after spending 30 minutes in oxygen free environment, there was no noticeable fall in the oxygen saturation level in my blood. It implies that I could have continued for an hour or more. The purpose of experiment was not to set any world record but to establish the fact that oxygen is generated in my body by Yog and therefore oxygen saturation level in my blood does not fall after spending 30 minutes in oxygen free chamber. Not only that the pulse rate and oxygen saturation level remain in normal range, but I was also fully conscious and active. In the video I am doing light exercise by raising leg and showing pulse oxymeter to journalists who wanted to confirm that reading of pulse oxymeter attached to my hand is the same as the reading shown in mobile phone which was connected to the pulse oxymeter by blue tooth using the Healthtree App.

There were four senior scientists present to witness the experiment. The person marked “Scientist 3” in the video is H.S. Vora and he was also associated with the development of this experiment since beginning. He injected the nitrogen gas in the chamber and maintaining the flow of nitrogen. He is seen in the video, explaining about the experiment, to other scientists. These scientists were convinced that there was no oxygen in the chamber, and I was perfectly normal inside the chamber. I had invited a yoga expert seen in the video. He is Chandra Shekhar Azad who used to teach yoga on Nation TV channel, Doordarshan. He was not convinced that I was in Samadhi inside the chamber because I was waving to people, raising my legs and showing pulse oxymeter to journalists. It is a common perception that Samadhi is a state of trance and the person in Samadhi lies down without motion and without awareness of what is happening around. There are many different interpretations of Samadhi in the literature of yoga. This nescience over Samadhi prevails because Yog became extinct thousands of years ago. Yog was taught under a Guru-Disciple system, in which Guru taught Yog to his disciple with close interactions and this teaching passed from one generation to next by oral communication. It is not known exactly when and under what circumstances the tradition of Guru-Disciple teaching came to an end. What left was the Patanjali Yog Sutra, an ancient and authentic text on Yog. The PYS is not very well organized and is presented in very abbreviated form. It is written in Sanskrit where a single word may have many different meanings. One can reach to the real meaning only by practicing Yog and gaining the experience. Unfortunately, most of the commentaries on Patanjali Yog Sutra are written by intellectuals who never practiced Yog. Further confusion created because the authors interpreted sutras, taking into account the religious concepts. When I practiced Yog according to PYS, I attained various Samadhis as described in PYS. Then only, I came to know the meanings of sutras that Rishi Patanjali intended to convey. According to PYS, Samadhi is a state of unbroken (continuous) focus of mind. The word Samadhi is a composite word comprising of ‘sama’ and ‘dhi’. ‘Dhi’ stands for Dhyan that is, the concentration of mind and ‘sama’ means, uniform, continuous without ups and downs. In Samadhi, a person can do what is needed but his mind must be focused on the action and oxygen will continue to generate. There is no specific posture needed to enable the generation of oxygen in body. In order to illustrate this, I was performing various activities in the chamber. This implies that oxygen is generated in my body while doing any activity, after sufficient and proper practice of Yog, that is discussed in detail in my book; “Yog Science, Theory of Mind and Atman.”

On the eve of International Yog Day, I addressed the gathering, to explain briefly the ancient Yog and how it is different from Yoga, a posture-based physical exercise. Following is the video of this address;

The Text of the Address on the Eve of International Yog Day

Hello friends tomorrow will be the International Yog Day and millions of people will practice Yogaasans and Pranayam across the world. The yoga postures and breathing exercise are the parts of a popular Yoga practice. On the eve of International Yog Day, I am going to introduce an ancient Yog to the world, which is so powerful that, by practicing it a novel human capability can be developed by which it is possible to survive without environmental oxygen. The popular yoga is a kind of physical exercise while the ancient Yog is a mental exercise, and it can be considered as an advanced meditation technique. Ancient Yog can be written simply as Yog with capital Y. The practice of Yog develops the concentration of mind and slowly stops the streams of involuntary thoughts. During the thoughtless state of mind, brain generates oxygen, and it is possible to survive without environmental oxygen.

The Yog was developed by the Rishis of ancient India and Rishi Patanjali put it in a text form which is known as Patanjali Yog Sutra (PYS). Swami Vivekanand has written a book on the commentary on PYS. I began the practice of Yog following this book 25 years ago to cure my depression. During the practice of Yog, I found that my breathing slows down appreciably and after a practice of 20 years, the inhalation part of breathing disappeared completely, implying that the oxygen consumption of my body reduced to zero. I was also studying to understand this phenomenon from the perspectives of Neuroscience, but I couldn’t succeed. Then I began to study Vedant, an ancient science of India and got the clue. The fusion of modern science and an ancient science gave rise to a new science, that I have referred to as the Yog Science. This new science describes a mechanism in the language of Physics, that is responsible of generation of oxygen in the brain during Yog.

It was a great achievement, but nobody could believe it because normally it is not possible to survive without environmental oxygen for more than few minutes. In order to demonstrate this power of Yog, I am going to perform an experiment in presence of senior scientists from RRCAT and journalists. There is a sealed chamber from which oxygen will be removed by filling the nitrogen gas. Then I will wear a pulse oxymeter on my finger and spend 30 minutes in oxygen free chamber doing Yog. You will see that oxygen saturation level and pulse rate remain within the normal range without getting external oxygen. [The pulse oxymeter was connected with mobile using blue-tooth and mobile shows the reading of oxymeter. This experiment confirms that oxygen is generated in my body during Yog].

In ancient times, Rishis used to practice Yog in an underground closed pit for many days. This inspired me to perform this experiment. The nitrogen chamber is a scientific version of underground closed pit. Ancient Yog became extinct thousands of years back, but I could revive it by studying Vedant and the commentary on PYS by Swami Vivekanand. Now PYS is not only decoded but it has been transformed into a science. I have developed sensors and instruments by which it is possible to know empirically if the mind is wandering or it is focused and also to assess the progress in the practice by recording the data. This is why I have called this scientifically performed Yog as the e-Yog (Empirical Yog) and the ancient Yog as p-Yog or the Patanjali Yog which is a subjective Yog.

There are two major differences between e-Yog and p-Yog. In ancient time, people used to abandon worldly life and renunciate to practice Yog in the caves and Himalayas. By doing so, the responsibilities of family and problems of life could be evaded, and the distractions of mind were minimized. This made easier to concentrate the mind and attain Samadhi. In modern era it is not practical to renunciate. According to e-Yog it is not necessary to abandon the worldly life as it redefines the non-Attachment and thus Samadhi can be attained while struggling in life as I have achieved.

The Yog was taught in ancient times, following the Guru-Shishya (Teacher-disciple) system, where Guru and disciples lived together like a family and one to one interaction was possible. In this era, it is not possible to follow such a system. The e-Yog is a science with a theory and the data on state of mind can be recorded by pocket size gadgets and therefore the progress in the practice of Yog can be assessed empirically. This eliminates the need for Guru-Disciple system. The Yog Science can be included in education system globally like any other sciences. When e-Yog will be introduced at primary school level, stress, anxiety and depression can be eradicated. The control over mind is developed basically by instilling positive thoughts, thus good habits can be developed during the primary school education and the students will grow into good and responsible citizens.

Text of Q&A Session

Ancient Yog was completely new to every one present at International Yog Day event and there were many queries from the scientists and journalists. On the basis of feedback, I have recorded following video to answer these queries.

Q. How were you feeling in nitrogen chamber without oxygen?

A. I was feeling perfectly normal. You must have seen that I was waving hands to people. I was doing light exercise by raising my leg and I was showing the reading of pulse oxymeter to a journalist. [who wanted to compare the reading the pulse oxymeter with the reading in mobile, that was connected with pulse oxymeter by blue-tooth.

Q. Normally it is impossible to survive without oxygen for than 2-3 minutes, how could you survive for 30 minutes?

A. This became possible because of Yog. When thoughts stop coming in the mind by practice of Yog and mind becomes fully focused, then oxygen is generated in my brain and because of this I survive without environmental oxygen and I do not feel suffocated.

Q. What happens to breathing in this situation?

A. The breathing is a process of inhalation-exhalation-inhalation-exhalation, that goes on during the normal breathing. When oxygen is generated in the brain, then there is no need for inhalation and therefore inhalation stops.

Q. What happens to exhalation then?

A. The oxygen, that is generated in brain, circulates throughout the body and converts into carbon dioxide which keeps on accumulating in the lungs. When a critical pressure is reached that lungs cannot support, it is exhaled out. Now the breathing process reduces to pause-exhale-pause-exhale. In Yog science this breathing is called the Yogic breathing.

Q. What is this Yog science?

A. Yog is a practice to concentrate the mind which stops the thought process. Swami Vivekanand has written a book on the commentary on Patanjali Yog Sutra (PYS). I understood Yog from this book and practiced Yog accordingly. Then I studied Yog from the perspectives of science and transformed the Yog (a subjective practice) into a science. I have also written a book on Yog Science with a title ‘Yog Science, Theory of Mind and Atman”. I have explained the theory and practice of Yog in the language of Physics. I have also explained the mechanism which is responsible for generation of oxygen in the brain. Yog science is a multidisciplinary subject, encompassing Physics, Electronics, Neuroscience, Neurophilosophy, Physiology, Psychology and spirituality. Since the spirituality is a part of Yog science, it can be perceived as a fusion of science and spirituality.

Q. Can oxygen be generated in the brain by the practice of Yoga, that is, by practicing Pranayam and Yogaasans?

A. Not at all, performing the Yoga postures and practicing the Pranayam is known as Yoga in English and it is a physical exercise, derived from Hatha Yog. The mind can never become so much focused by these exercises that it begins to generate oxygen.

Q. How can you say this so confidently?

A. I read a lot of literature on Yog. Once Gautam Buddha and later Swami Yoganand had attempted to suspend the breathing by concentrating the mind by practicing Pranayam. But they did not succeed because their mind began to swoon, implying that the oxygen didn’t generate in their brain.

Q. What inspired you to perform this experiment?

A. When I began the practice of Yog according to Patanjali Yog Sutra, I found that my breathing is slowing down, indicating that the oxygen consumption of my body is reducing. I began study of Neuroscience to understand this phenomenon. After a practice of Yog for 20 years, the inhalation part of breathing disappeared completely, implying that the oxygen consumption of my body became zero. I knew that in ancient time, yogis and Rishi used to practice Yog in underground closed pit for many days. This inspired me to perform this experiment. This experiment also establishes the fact that I do not need environmental oxygen for survival during Samadhi.

Q. Does everyone have to practice Yog for 20 years to attain this state of mind?

A. Not at all, I began practicing Yog in worst conditions. I was suffering from depression and was taking treatment from a psychiartrist. I did not know the right way of practicing Yog. I was expelled from RRCAT, and it was a trauma for my family. I also needed funds for the research for which, I set up a fast- food business and therefore I could not get sufficient time for the practice of Yog. I did not have any Guru to guide me, and I spent lot of time for studying books on various subjects. A lot of time wasted in a process of hit and trial.

Q. There is a word Samadhi in the banner, what does it mean?

A. According to Patanjali Yog Sutra, when mind begins to concentrate by the practice of Yog, this state of mind is called Samadhi. As the concentration of mind increases, the level of Samadhi also increases. [Different names are given to different levels of Samadhi]. When mind is fully focused, this is called a state of complete Samadhi and it is known as Nirbeej Asampragyat Samadhi. During this state of mind so much oxygen is generated in the brain that I don’t need oxygen from the environment for survival. I have attained a state of mind beyond this Samadhi, in which mind focuses of its own, without any effort. In this state of mind so much oxygen is generated in the mind that I can do light exercise also. You must have seen that I was raising legs and waving to people around me.

Q. The phenomenon of concentration of mind is merely an experience or a feeling, how can a feeling generate oxygen?

A. I got a clue to this question from the study of Vedant, which is an ancient science of India. (It provides theoretical basis for Yog.) According to Vedant, there is always a cause behind any change. This is called the law of Cause and Effect. There is also a cause behind our experience and according to Vedant and other Hindu scriptures, the cause is Atman, the Soul [or the spirit]. Atman is responsible for every activity of mind and body. I applied my knowledge of Physics to Neuroscience and found that when Atman interacts with neurons, the oxygen is generated in the blood.

Q. Can modern science explain how oxygen is generated in brain? [by Yog]

A. No, because Physics is not a complete science yet. [It cannot explain many phenomena of Nature]. It cannot explain the phenomenon of generation of oxygen in the brain and the human consciousness too. I had a firm belief that the explanation of all Natural phenomena must be in the realm of Physics. This belief inspired me to discover new laws of Physics that could explain the mechanism of generation of oxygen in brain and also fill the Explanatory Gap in Physics. The new laws of Physics also explain the nature of the substance of Atman, consciousness, qualia, Dark matter and the evolution of Dark matter during the Big Bang Event.

Q. But there is no place for Atman in science?

A. The scientific discovery of Atman is a great achievement of Yog Science, that proposes a complete theory of Atman and accordingly, sensors and instruments have been developed that record the physiological effect on body when the mind is focused. [The Mind is just a manifestation of Atman according to Yog science]. The theory of Mind and Atman is explained in my book on Yog Science. Thus, Yog Science establishes the existence of Atman, theoretically and experimentally both. The nitrogen chamber experiment is also the evidence for the existence of Atman. According to Yog Science, Atman is a very subtle substance whose atoms may be million times lighter than electrons and therefore no equipment of science can detect Atman in near future.

Q. According to Hinduism, Atman and Paramatma (Universal Consciousness) have similar Nature. Does Yog Science also explain God scientifically?

A. Yes, Yog Science explains the fundamental nature of God scientifically. The Universal Consciousness or Paramatma are different names for Nature God. As Yog Science will advance further, we will know further about the scientific aspects of God. In fact, the objective of Yog was to understand God and to become one with Him, in ancient India. (One of the definitions of Yog is union of Atman with Paramatma.) As a Scientist, I have employed the practice of Yog to understand God from the perspectives of science. Now the age-old argument that God exists or not will come to an end.

Q. Have you carried out this enormous research alone or there is someone to assist you?

A. I have a friend Hari Bhai Vora. He also retired from RRCAT. He helps me on technical matters. He has developed softwares required in the research. He has also contributed to the development of nitrogen chamber experiment.

Q. Tell me about your education.

A. I got my schooling from Kendriya Vidyalaya, Meerut. I received degree in B.Sc. (Hons.) Physics from reputed Hindu College of Delhi University. I was pursuing M.Sc. in Particle Physics and Quantum Electrodynamics from Physics Department of Delhi University, then I got appointment in Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai.

Q. What means you have got for the research?

A. I have a small Electronics Lab equipped with oscilloscope and other basic instruments. I have a small library that contains books on Physics, Electronics, Neuroscience, Molecular Cell Biology Psychology. I have books on spirituality like Bhagvad-Gita, books on Yog by Swami Vivekanand and a book on Vedant, “Brahma Sutra Bhasya by Adi Shankaracharya. I have book on various religions and a dictionary of Sanskrit.

Q. What are your plans for future?

A. It is only a beginning of Yog science and it has to go a long way like other Sciences. Now I need equipments like PET’s Scan, functional MRI for further research. I need a big Electronics lab for further development of equipments and pocket size gadget that will be required for practice of Yog. The prototype of these gadget is ready, but lot of work is required to be done for commercialization. I cannot afford so much investment and I need support of a big research organization.

Q. What will be the application of Yog Science?

A. Yog science will connect with every person in the world directly. It will be far ahead of all sciences in improving the quality of life by eradicating stress, anxiety, depression and all stress related diseases. The practice of Yog instills positive thoughts by eliminating the negative thoughts. When Yog Science will be introduced at the primary education, it will guide students to walk on the right path of life and will help in character-building. When mind is fully focused, the work will be done with perfection and without mental fatigue because in this state brain generates oxygen continuously. In a nutshell, Yog is a solution to every problem of life. (A mind has infinite potential to solve any problem, Yog makes use of this potential of mind by concentrating it.)

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Hello

I am Ved Prakash Gupta, a retired scientist and now I am developing the science of Yog.

My Beginnings

I started my career in 1977 as a scientist in the reputed Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai, India. I studied Particle Physics and Quantum Electrodynamics in my post-graduation from Delhi University. During the studies I was very much fascinated by the wave-particle duality and I used to contemplate for hours to understand Physics behind this behavior. I realized that the Physics only explains the behavior of matter, it does not explain the nature of matter and how it evolved. I wished to pursue research in this direction but in a government owned organization you cannot choose the field of your interest as funds are provided for the sanctioned projects only.

Consequently, I became associated with a project named Indus-I which is a Particle Accelerator developed to work as a booster for Synchrotron Radiation Source, Indus- 1. I was heading a team responsible for developing very high power pulsed supplies for powering the electromagnets for injecting and extracting the electron beam at various input and output ports. I had to veer off from Physics to Electronics, but since Electronics is my second love after Physics, it was not difficult for me to carry out this work.

The work was challenging and I was enjoying it thoroughly and I was successfully heading towards completion of the project. Unfortunately, I became a victim of lobbying, internal tussle and ego of higher authorities. I had to work under extreme stressful conditions which continued for more than a year and because of this I was in the grip of extreme depression. I had to undergo psychiatric treatment and simultaneously I was learning relaxation techniques from a mentor, a clinical psychologist because my breathing had become fatally irregular.

I practiced relaxation techniques, a kind of Meditation, religiously for 2 years but still I was not able to relax because I could not focus my attention as guided by my mentor. The discursive thoughts continued distracting my mind and my breathing problem escalated further. I discussed the problem with my mentor many times. He told me unless the thoughts subsided I couldn’t focus my attention and I took charge of getting a solution to the problem for which I began reading books and literature.

At the same time, I came to know about the beginning of a new research field known as the Science of Consciousness by Francis Cricks, winner of the Nobel prize for the discovery of helical structure of DNA. The objective of this research was to explore empirically the nature of consciousness by using brain imaging techniques such as functional MRI and PET scan and for which a concept of Neural Correlates of Consciousness was introduced. On the basis of my experience during meditation I had realized that consciousness can be studied better by subjective experience rather than by any physical means. I was already thinking of switching from Engineering to Physics because of problems in my job at RRCAT. When I found that the nature of Consciousness can be explored from the perspective of Physics through Meditation, I committed to pursue the new field wholeheartedly.

The Journey

One day, I came across a book on positive thinking by Norman Vincent Peale in which the author explained that mind wandering occurs because the mind searches for the solutions to problems you face in your environment and if an appropriate solution is provided to mind by auto-suggestion, it stops wandering. When I incorporated this idea of auto-suggestion with relaxation practice, it really worked. Within a month, I was feeling remarkable improvement in me. I stopped taking psychiatric medicines and my depression had cured to a large extent and I was feeling energetic as before.

Being a scientist, I did not follow any spiritual guru or online channels blindly and I explored the field of meditation first. I found that there is no scientific approach in the practice of meditation and the channels and the spiritual gurus are making tall claims on the benefits of meditation. These claims were false according to my earlier experiences. There was a study on the claims of Meditation in universities like Howard and John Hopkins and the study did not endorse the claims. I also found that meditation has developed into a market and nothing better can be expected. Most spiritual gurus used Meditation as a medium to become popular and to attract crowds to their Ashrams. The crowd, too, is least interested in learning meditation and they are more interested in seeking blessings from guru and Meditation is no more than a cult and one cannot go against the teachings of guru.

I began to explore this subject and found that the books of Swami Vivekanand on Yog, Bhagvadgita and Vedant can provide the true guidance. I became convinced that the popular meditation techniques are not useful to develop the control over mind, that is, to develop the concentration of mind because it is not based on spirituality. A complete control over mind can be attained by the practice of Yog developed by ancient Rishis of India and is described in the text “Patanjali Yog Sutra.” I began decoding PYS and simultaneously started the practice of Yog according to eight limbs of Yog as described in PYS. I also began studying Vedant and Bhagvadgita. I contemplated what I studied. After a long time I could find something as interesting and engrossing as Physics. I was really learning new concepts and I was surprised to learn that in ancient India the Rishis were far ahead in exploring Nature than the modern scientists.

After practicing the Yog for a few months only, I found that not only the depression but all old diseases, such as the migraine, severe asthma and repeated infection, have begun to cure and the number of regular medicines which I was taking have begun to reduce. This experience was dramatic and it was inspiring the scientist in me to explore scientifically the cause of this dramatic change. My mental as well as physical health was improving as if I am undergoing some medical intervention.

In addition to all these improvements, I experienced and also observed carefully that during the practice of Yog my breathing rate is reduced by a noticeable amount. I have read in a research paper on meditation published in America, according to which breathing slows down during the meditation. My father was a spiritual person and he used to do meditation for a long time. He was initiated by a Saint of Radhaswami philosophy, Sant Kirpal Singh Maharaj ji. I got my first exposure to spirituality from my father. He used to tell me the feats done by yogis in ancient India. Once he told me that in ancient India yogis used to practice Yog in an underground pit covered with a thick layer of soil and used to spend days in the pit without oxygen.

I became convinced that there is a strong relationship between the rate of breathing and the concentration of mind. While studying philosophy, I came to know that there were discussions among philosophers on Mind-Body Relationship. My favourite philosopher, Rene’ Descartes, was also a mathematician and a scientist who has written a book on meditation titled Meditations On First Philosophy. He also introduced the system of Cartesian Coordinates in Mathematics. Rene Descartes was first to propose the Mind-Body problem scientifically. According to him, Mind can only be studied by its effects on the body and reduction in breathing rate during the concentration of mind was such an effect.

I was overwhelmed to find that I have got a new and unique research field in which I will be able to study Yog with the help of devices and instruments. So far the meditation and Yog was discussed on the basis of subjective experiences which cannot be recorded by the instruments. I began the development work to make devices and instruments to record the breathing pattern during the practice of Yog.

I employed my past experience in the field of electronics for developing sensors and the instrumentations for recording the breathing pattern which was necessary for assessment of progress in Yog Sadhana. When I reached near attaining Samadhi, I experienced one more strong physiological effect which I have named WBC, short name for Whole Body Contraction. When the concentration of mind increases, the muscles of the body begin to contract. The contraction of muscles of the body makes the practice of Yog very gruelling in the advanced stage of Yog. This contraction of muscles was found almost linear with concentration of mind. Therefore, I developed devices and instrumentation to monitor the contraction of the muscles. Now I have two parameters that are independently and directly related with concentration of mind and I call these parameters as the Yog parameters because these two parameters, namely Breathing Pattern and WBC are used to assess the progress in the practice of Yog. My friend H.S. Vora who also retired from RRCAT developed the necessary software for recording the signal in a laptop. The progress in the practice of Yog will be assessed by comparing the present signal with the previous signal. I am now developing a theory of mind that could establish a relationship between the Yog parameters and the concentration of mind. As I am progressing in the practice of Yog and attaining higher states of mind, known as Samadhis in PYS, I am developing a theory of mind to explain the various physiological effects in respect to the concentration of mind. For this I am studying Neuroscience, Physiology, Molecular Cell Biology. Spirituality is the basis of practice of Yog for which I am studying a commentary on Vedant written by Adi Shankaracharya Ji “ Brahma Sutra Bhasya ” and books of Swami Vivekanand Ji on Yog. I hope I will be able to develop a complete theory of mind by applying the philosophy 0f Advait Vedant to neuroscience.

Hindu dharm is Sanatan but not Hindu Religion

Deccan Chronicle published some news on February 4, 2024, entitled Tirumala Spiritual Summit Wants Hindu Dharm Spread Globally. Are we ready to answer a very fundamental and practical question: Why a Christian would adopt Hindu Dharma? Why would a Muslim think of quitting Islam? There had been wars in the past, in the name of religion that took millions of lives. People are very sensitive about their faith and are ready to sacrifice life for it, then how can one think of Hindu Dharma spreading globally. During my 25 years long research and practice of Yog that led me to attain Samadhi, vpg.samadhi I got an opportunity to study Brahma Sutra Bhashya by Adi Shankaracharya and books of Swami Vivekanand in detail and I found that there is lot of confusion amongst people regarding Hindu Dharm and Hindu Religion. Most people do not even differentiate between Spirituality and Religion and use them interchangeably. I present here a deep dive exploration of Hindu Dharm that explains how Hindu Dharm is different from Hindu Religion.

The confusion stems from the English translation of the word Dharm into Religion that does not convey full import of the word Dharm. The word Dharm exists in Hindu scriptures since thousands of years while the word Religion is relatively new and was introduced to the English dictionary only about 300 years ago. The word Religion is used for an institution of worship and all existing religions are only the institutions of worship that have their own ways of worship and rituals. The word Dharm has nothing to do with worship. In order to understand the real import of the word Dharm, let us look at the usage of the word Dharm in different sentences: Ram carried out his Dharm by obeying the order of Dusharatha. Harishchandra performed his Dharm in taking care of his old parents. Mahabharat was a Dharam Yudh, a war for justice. Dharmatma means a great soul, who always does justice and stands for the truth. The incarnation of Ram and Krishn took place for the destruction of Adharm and for the establishment of Dharm. Accordingly, Dharm essentially means to carry out duties truthfully and with justice and it has nothing to do with Religion. Hindu Dharm essentially is a path of Dharm, a way of life that has the potential of eradicating the miseries of life in terms of stress, anxiety, kleshas and incurable diseases and leads to attaining the peace of mind.

Indian Rishis, whom I consider as the ancient scientists, had realised that the miseries of life are going to be major problems of mankind and they began searching for a solution to eradicate the miseries. They found a solution in Vedic Philosophy which forms the basis of Vedic Dharm, now known as the Hindu Dharm. According to the teachings of Hindu scripture Veds, there are five pillars or the five components of Hindu Dharm: (1) A belief in the doctrine of Advait Vedant: According to which Atman and Brahman or not two. Atman in the form Brahman, is present in all human beings, therefore mankind cannot be divided on the basis of religion, race, caste, creed or social status. This leads to a concept of Vasudhaivkutumbkam, that is, the entire earth is a family, where the downtrodden and underprivileged need to be treated with love and justice. (2) Acquisition of Atmagyan: Aquiringing true knowledge about ourself makes us realise five Vikrati of Mann (Mental Distortions) of a person. These are: Kaam ( unethical and reasonable desires), Krodh (anger), Lobh (greediness), Moh (unreasonable attachment), and Ahankar (egoism, a mindset that I am only right). These have been described in Veds as the enemies of a person, because they are the obstructions in the process of physical and spiritual upliftment and therefore need to be conquered. (3) Performing Nishkam Karm: Performing duties without expecting fruition, which makes it possible to live a worldly life without stress and to concentrate fully on our work. (4) Doing Purusharth: Making full efforts to attain the goals of life. According to teachings of Veds, a human birth is very precious and we should not waste it. We should acquire monetary wealth and wealth of knowledge and do something for those who are not blessed with all means of life. (5) Practicing Yog. Yog makes it possible to execute all above four components of Hindu Dharm in our life and makes the hard looking teachings of Veds easy.

Hinduism has two interwoven components: An apparently, hard to follow spiritual component, known as the Hindu Dharm and an easy to follow, religious component, that most Hindus follow and is also referred to as the Hindu Religion, a polytheistic religion, where people worship different gods according to their system of worship. In this respect Hindu Religion is not much different from other religions because Astha, a belief in a thing without knowing it, is a common component in all the religions, and is responsible for the dogma present in religions. Hindu Dharm is much different because the Atmagyan component of Hindu Dharm teaches us to believe in a thing only after knowing it. Hindu Dharm teaches not to believe in God blindly. One should first know God by the practice of Yog and then believe in Him. From this perspective, Hindu Dharm is a secular system but the religions are not. Today, the religions have become the tags that have divided mankind into groups and created hatred in society that has resulted in large scale unrest and violence. The monks have been found to involve in crime, unethical and immoral acts. Religious places have become centres for organised crime. A Christian does not follow the teachings of Jesus and attends the church to offer prayer as social obligation only. Same thing holds for a Hindu and a Muslim. In fact, the religions were established for the peace and for the betterment of mankind but they failed in their endeavors and Hindu Dharm is the only way out.

Hindu Dharm teaches us to do Karm and Purusharth while Hindu Religion teaches us to worship, which is basically a self-centered act. Hindu Dharm teaches us to pray Sarve Bhavantu Sukhi Nh which means Let there be welfare of whole mankind. According to Bhagwan Shri Krishn, every person has to face the consequences of the Karma, good or bad. But religions suggest the loopholes and tell people how to evade the consequences of bad Karma by performing special rituals. Most religions foster superstitions. Hindu Dharm teaches to acquire Gyan and strive to know truth by the practice of Yog. A Hindu cannot attain Samadhi and Moksh by worshiping gods. Only a spiritual path of Hindu Dharm can lead to Samadhi and later to Moksh. Since the teachings of Hindu Dharm is secular and lead to a path of truth and justice, it can make a Christian, true Christian, a Muslim, true Muslim and a Hindu, true Hindu and also prepare them to follow the teachings of their respective holy books: Bible, Quran and Bhagavad Gita. The teachings of Hindu Dharma are universal that apply to every person on earth for transforming into a good human being. Its teachings are based on absolute Truth and Truth is Eternal. Therefore Hindu Dharm is also referred to as Sanatan, meaning Universal and Eternal, a continuum in space and time, that can only establish everlasting peace, prosperity and harmony across the globe. At present, the world is suffering from agony caused by stress, anxiety, and incurable diseases that can be addressed only by the practice of Yog and by following the path shown by Hindu Dharm and not by Hindu Religion. Hindu Religion is not Sanatan because it is not a Dharm.

My Spiritual Journey

My spiritual journey began very early in my life. I was born in a spiritual family. My parents were initiated by a spiritual Guru, Saint Kirpal Singh ji Maharaj of Radha Soami lineage. I grew up attending satsang, (a spiritual gathering) and listening to discourses on spirituality, though I could not understand much at that age. My father used to devote a lot of time to Dhyan (meditation). I also tried to practice meditation but I never enjoyed it but I came to know the basics of meditation at least. When I left my hometown and my family to pursue higher studies at Delhi University, my interest in spirituality declined. While studying Physics at college, I lost the faith in God because I needed evidence to believe in the existence of God. I remained Atheist for about 25 years. The belief in God was restored after I had realization during meditation.

I was working for a project named Indus-I. I had completed my subsystem well within the time, but the project was delayed due to many other reasons known to everyone working on the project. But I was made scapegoat and held responsible for delaying the project. There were serious differences between me and higher authorities who were looking after the development of the project. There was a lobby who was trying to sideline me. The stressful situation continued for years leading me to depression. My doctors referred me to a psychiatrist and a psychologist for counseling. The psychologist taught me relaxation techniques to calm down the mind. I practiced the relaxation exercises religiously for two years, but my mind did not calm down a bit and streams of thoughts continued that weakened me emotionally and physically. I was a very strong and active person earlier, but the depression made me sick. My breathing was going out of control and choking episodes became frequent. Once food got stuck in my windpipe and I could not breathe for a few minutes. I saw death very closely. I decided to take charge of myself to come out of depression. By now I had realized two things: first the culprit of this situation is the continuous streams of thoughts and second, the relaxation technique is a sort of meditation that is not a complete practice and I need to know more about it. I began searching for books on meditation. I reached out to a book shop and bought a book on Meditation by Christina Feldman. I went through the book slowly and carefully but nowhere the issue of controlling the involuntary thoughts was discussed. Then I turned to many books of meditation by great spiritual persons of India but to my surprise, no one had addressed this problem of overcoming the involuntary thoughts. I was in a fix, why nobody is discussing this important issue. An episode took place in my life when I began to think about something that controls our life.

It was the day when India was celebrating its 50th Independence Day. Normally, I used to be filled with enthusiasm on this day and I had never missed any celebration of this day and always attended the celebrations at my work place and also at school with my daughters. But this time I was feeling very depressed and didn’t have energy to go to the flag hoisting ceremony. My seven year old daughter came to me and asked me to visit a book exhibition that was organized after the Independence Day celebration to buy books for her. It was a tradition of my family to visit any book exhibition that was held at any part of the city. I refused her saying that I am not feeling well but she didn’t listen to me and insisted hard to come with her. She held my hand firmly and dragged me. I started walking with her as school was walking distance from my house. After reaching the book exhibition I began looking for the books for my daughter. All of a sudden, I caught sight of a book titled How to win in life by Norman Vincent Peale. I bought the book without delay. Normally I take time to read about the author and remarks on the back cover of the book before purchasing a book. I spent the whole night reading the book. I got the solution to my problem. The writer had explained that the mind wanders in search of a solution to problems we face in life and if an appropriate solution is suggested to mind, it stops wandering. Next, he discussed that our mind works like a computer, and it can be programmed to get the desired results. He further explained the concept of NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) and NIP (Neuro Imaging Programming). When I applied this idea whenever my mind was distracted during Meditation, it really worked. I felt remarkable improvement within a month. The continuous stream of thoughts began to slow down and even stopped momentarily. I had an enjoyable feeling of High. It was a mystic experience that I read in the books of Meditation. In addition to that, I was feeling energetic as before. My health began improving in a magical way and without a doubt, I was getting rid of very old health issues like migraine, severe asthma, frequent throat infection with fever. I stopped taking many regular medicines prescribed by the doctors including Alprax. The improvement was so fast as if I had got a panacea. This inspired me, as a scientist, to explore the science behind this dramatic change. My career as a scientist at RRCAT was at stake. My department was scrapped and staff working under me was taken away and I was sidelined. But the thought of discovering a new and very useful research field made me full of energy. I began to study Neuroscience, Physiology, Molecular Cell Biology and Psychology to prepare myself for a new field of research.

After practicing meditation for a few years, I felt that the progress in meditation has slowed down. I studied the book by Norman Peale once again and this time I found that the author referred to spirituality very often. He was a minister in a church and believed in the teachings of Christ. I was not able to digest it because I had turned Atheist long time back. Again, my mind became turbulent, and I was not finding the way out. I decided to explore the new field of spirituality of which I had faint ideas. I read books by Swami Vivekanand because he explained spirituality from the perspective of science. I also knew that he introduced Yog and Vedanta to the West during his tour to America and his participation in Parliament of World’s Religions organized at Chicago in the year 1893. The book of Swami Vivekanand on the commentary on Patanjali Yog Sutra (PYS) proved a milestone in my spiritual journey. In his book, Yoga-Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Raja Yoga, Jnan Yoga, he explained spirituality and Yog in terms of scientific concepts. After studying this book, I became interested in spirituality and I also began the study of Bhagavad-Gita and Brahma Sutra Bhasya by Adi Shankaracharya, the only authentic text on Vedanta.

After studying Patanjali Yog Sutra, I was surprised at the fact that while Norman Peale gave the idea for controlling the mind 100 years ago, the text of PYS, written 3000 years ago, is all about the control of mind. Patanjali Yog Sutra begins with the sutra (aphorism) PYS-1.2, which in the simplest words, means, Yog is a practice to control the wandering of mind. Rishi Patanjali further describes different kinds of thoughts, origin of thoughts, ways to control the thoughts and to focus the mind. There is a technical word Samadhi, for the degree of concentration of mind or the degree of control over mind. After reading and understanding PYS, I was convinced that the mind cannot be controlled without resorting to spirituality. There are two sutras, PYS-1.12 and PYS-1.23 that describe spirituality completely. The former sutra is about Non-Attachment which has been interpreted wrongly by Hindu and Buddhist monks. They advocated renunciation because the cause of wandering of mind is the involvement in worldly life, too many desires for worldly things and the problems of worldly life. Adi Shankaracharya had a different and realistic view on Non-Attachment. According to him, Attachment means, Attachment with our thoughts or the attachment with our Ego. When we abandon or sacrifice our Ego, the thoughts begin to slow down. The later sutra is about surrender to Ishwar, the Nature God and to develop firm belief in the power of Ishwar. It implies that things are not in our control, and it is fruitless to think much over an issue and leave it to Ishwar for a solution.

I got stuck here because I had turned Atheist 25 years back and to revive the faith in God was a big challenge. By this time I had realized that we form an opinion or the mind-set without rational thinking. According to Swami Vivekanand, We, the intellectuals, gain a little information by reading books and feel proud of knowing everything and so we never think out of the box. Similar thing is also mentioned in a sutra of Patanjali Yog Sutra. In order to know the truth about God, I read about the personal life of Max Planck, my favorite scientist. I found that he was a very spiritual person. I was very much influenced by his quotes on spirituality and science. Similar views are also expressed by Swami Vivekanand and the Dalai Lama. Albert Einstein also believed in Spinoza’s God, another name for Ishwar or the Nature God. My experiences during the practice of meditation also corroborated these views and it did not take much time to revive my faith in God. People who are practicing meditation without understanding spirituality can never develop a control over their mind. It is only the practice of Yog based on Patanjali Yog Sutra, that can lead to attain a completely thoughtless state of mind. In spiritual literature, this state of mind is known as the state of pure consciousness because when there are no thoughts in mind, what remains is the consciousness. In Patanjali Yog Sutra, this state is known as the lowest Samadhi with a name Sabeej Sampragyat Samadhi

When I continued the practice of Yog further, Samadhi became stronger, meaning that mind would not distract easily in spite of problems in life. This is the next level of Samadhi with the name Nirbeej Sampragyat Samadhi. During this Samadhi, a feeling of crawling begins at the pelvic area, which in spiritual literature, is known as Kundalini Awakening. Interestingly, Patanjali Yog Sutra has no reference to the phenomenon of Kundalini Awakening . Many spiritual Gurus and scholars of spirituality boast too much of Kundalini Awakening and equate it with a sort of Energy that remains dormant at the pelvis. According to them, Kundalini Awakening is the activation of this dormant Energy that does miracles. Many religious gurus equate Kundalini with Goddess of Power. My experiences during Yog do not endorse such claims. The feeling of crawling does take place and it does rise upwards, but it is nothing more than an intermediate stage in the practice of Yog which lasts for a couple of weeks only. According to my experience, Kundalini Awakening is a physiological phenomenon that marks the beginning of Yogic breathing which is explained in detail in my book on Yog Science. In the advanced stage of the practice of Yog, Samadhi strengthens further, and it becomes very stable, meaning that the mind would not distract even in the worst condition, such as the demise of a beloved one. This is considered as the final Samadhi with a name Nirbeej Asampragyat Samadhi. According to Vedant, this is a state of Moksh (A state of complete liberation) and the Kaivalya in Patanjali Yog Sutra. Similar to Kundalini, Moksh has also been interpreted differently in different Hindu Philosophies. The most common interpretation is the liberation from the cycle of birth and rebirth. There is a disparity again. According to Vedant, Moksh can be attained while one is alive but in Samkhya and Buddhism, Moksh is attained after death only. Thus, we find that there is a diverse opinion on a single concept in Hinduism. According to Swami Vivekanand, a great scholar of Yog, Do not go into arguments, do not believe anyone, just practice the Yog and experience the truth yourself. Most scholars refer to Yog as a philosophy but after practicing Yog for years and getting the results as described in Patanjali Yog Sutra, I came to the conclusion that Yog is not a philosophy, it is a science, backed by a theory. The concepts presented in the theory of Yog can be verified by experiencing them while practicing Yog. There were no instruments in ancient times and the effects of Yog were only experienced subjectively. Now, technology is available to record physiological effects of the practice of Yog. This made it possible to transform a subjective practice into a scientific practice and I could present Yog as a science, that I have described in detail in my book:

An Introduction to Yog Science with Theory of Mind

A remarkable physiological effect that takes place when the mind is fully focused is that the brain generates oxygen in sufficient amounts, and it is possible to survive without environmental oxygen. Another physiological effect that I experienced is that when the mind is focused, muscles of the body begin to contract. The contraction of muscles is a mechanical parameter that can be measured by developing special sensors and instruments. It has become possible to develop sensors and instruments that can monitor the progress in the practice of Yog by measuring these physiological effects.

My Scientific Journey

People ask me about my specialization as a Physicist. I believe that Physics is the mother of all sciences, therefore I never limited myself to Physics only. I applied the concepts of physics to learn many other subjects. During the development of Yog Science, I studied Neuroscience, Physiology, Molecular Cell Biology and Psychology. I believe that if a person can understand the concepts of Physics, he is capable of understanding all the subjects. While studying particle Physics and Quantum Electrodynamics in Delhi University I wanted to become a theoretical Physicist and I was fascinated by wave-particle duality. I realized by that time that Physics is about the behavior of matter and it is not about the nature of matter, therefore, I wanted to pursue research in this field.

My second favorite subject is Electronics but I never thought about a career in Electronics and it was my hobby. My father was a technician of the Milk Pasteurisation Plant and he used to repair circuit boards of the plants. So there were many electronic components available to me such as relays, coils, and super enameled copper wires. Therefore, I got an opportunity to make small projects for a science exhibition at school at the age of 13. After joining Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), I worked in the field of Mossbauer Spectroscopy. In the year 1977 it was a relatively new field of research and commercial set up for Mossbauer spectroscopy was not available. I got the opportunity to improve a crude setup that was already working. The data acquisition process was very slow and it used to take weeks to collect a sizable amount of data before the analysis could be possible. I utilized the spare time to develop a microprocessor- based data acquisition system for this set-up.

Then I participated in a project of developing a model of magnetically levitated train with a traction by linear motor. In this motor one component of magnetic force was used for levitation and another for the traction. I developed the control system for powering the electromagnets by sensing the position of magnets. A joint paper on this work was published in IEEE, control and instrumentation. Later I used the idea of switching a linear array of electromagnets to develop a circular motor. This was perhaps the first brushless DC motor driven by a power control circuit.

After completing this project, I was associated in the field of Gamma Ray Astronomy. A burst of Gamma rays from outer space falls on the entire earth and it generates visible light by interaction with the atmosphere. In order to detect the light emitted by Gamma ray bursts at least three photomultiplier tubes are installed in three far off countries. If a light pulse is detected simultaneously at three stations then it is identified as a Gamma ray pulse. The clock of the station was manually synchronized by a common time signal broadcast by a radio station. (The atomic clocks that are used to send time data on mobile networks were not available at that time). The manual synchronization introduced an error of a fraction of a second in the clock of the station. Therefore, I developed a circuit to synchronize the clock automatically with an error of a millisecond. I also completed a theoretical work in this field that eliminated the need for three stations. I calculated a profile of the light pulse received at the photomultiplier tube. I divided the sky into infinitesimally thin annular rings whose radius increases continuously. The intensity of light started at the center just above the photomultiplier was maximum and intensity decreases as we move to outer annular rings. In this way I calculated the exact shape of the light pulse produced by Gamma ray bursts. The photomultiplier is a very sensitive device which detects all sorts of light pulses generated in the sky such as one generated by the trail of a meteoroid. But the light pulse generated by the Gamma ray can be identified by its specific shape calculated by me.

In 1987 I came to RRCAT (then CAT) to work on a project, Indus-I which is a Synchrotron Radiation Source (SRS). In this project, electrons are injected into an electron accelerator called booster ring to attain an energy of 700 Mev. Then the electrons are extracted from the booster ring to inject into a storage ring where the synchrotron light is generated at the bends of electron trajectory. This operation required a momentary deflection of electrons by electromagnets. I developed the pulsed power supplies to generate a pulse of magnetic field when electrons reach the magnet. In one of the magnets peak current requirement was 5000A. This required a robust mechanical design to counter the huge force of repulsion due to the current. In another power supply a current of 1200A was switched in 30 nanoseconds. The stability requirement of peak current was in ppm and time accuracy to synchronize the pulse with the position of electrons was a few nanoseconds which was a challenge 25 years ago. All pulse supply generated huge electromagnetic interference (EMI) that needed to be suppressed in order to avoid malfunction of other subsystems of the project.

I also developed a Beam Position Monitoring system to monitor the position of an electron beam in a vacuum chamber. I calculated the signal produced by the electron beam at the sensing electrodes. After that I designed and developed front end electronics, this required designing of amplifiers of very high gain to amplify the signals of less than one microvolt and storing the signal in flash memories using very fast ADC.

Author

The Concious Brahma

Posted on

July 26, 2023

Text of Q&A Session

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