Microsoft Word - Taimni - The Science of Yoga.doc

The picture which Science presents of our physical world in its infinitesimal as-
pect is no less disconcerting. That physical matter constituting our bodies consisted of
atoms and molecules has been known for quite a long time. But the recent researches
of Science in this field have led to some startling discoveries. The hard and indestruc-
tible atoms which constituted the bed-rock of modern scientific materialism have been
found to be nothing more than different permutations and combinations of two funda-
mental types of positive and negative charged particles—protons and electrons. The
protons form the core of the atom with electrons in varying numbers revolving round it
in different orbits with tremendous speed, an atom being thus a Solar system in minia-
ture. And what is still more startling, it has been found that these electrons may be
nothing but charges of electricity with no material basis because mass and energy be-
come indistinguishable at the high speed at which electrons move in their orbits. In
fact, the conversion of matter into energy which has now become an accomplished fact
shows that matter may be nothing more than an expression of locked-up energy. This
conclusion which really means that matter disappears into energy has been arrived at,
by an irony of fate, by the efforts of materialistic science which was responsible for
giving a tremendous materialistic bias to our thinking and living. This hard fact
means—and let the reader ponder carefully over this problem—that the well-known
and so-called real world which we cognize with our sense-organs, a world of forms,
colour, sound, etc., is based upon a phantom world containing nothing more than pro-
tons and electrons. These facts have become matters of common knowledge but how
many of us, even scientists who work on these problems, seem to grasp the signifi-
cance of these facts? How many are led to ask the question which should so naturally
arise in the light of these facts ‘What is man?’ Is there any further proof needed that
the mere intellect is blind and is incapable of seeing even the obvious truths of life,
much less the Truth of truths?
Leaving the world of space let us glance for a while at the world of time. Here
again we are faced with tremendous immensities of a different nature. An infinite suc-
cession of changes seems to extend on both sides into the past and the future. Of this
endless expanse of time a period of a few thousand years just behind us is all that is
reliably known to us while we have only a vague and hazy conception of what lies in
the lap of the uncertain future. For aught we know the sun may explode the very next
moment and destroy all life in the Solar system before we know what has happened.
We are almost certain that millions and millions of years lie behind us but what has