Date:24/12/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/12/24/stories/2006122421670400.htm

Karnataka - Bangalore

Science and spirituality can co-exist: expert

Staff Reporter

Mani Bhaumik. — Photo: K. Bhagya Prakash

Bangalore: "Rationalists are of the view that science and spirituality could never co-exist, but of late we have come to believe that science, through cosmology and quantum, can be used to define" spirituality, said Mani Bhaumik, well-known physicist from California.

Delivering a special lecture on "Science and spirituality" at the Shivaratheeshwara Centre here on Saturday, Dr. Bhaumik, who is the co-inventor of laser technology for vision correction (LASIK eye surgery), said that he had applied reason to seek the truth about God and the universe and had realised that there was not much difference between the two pursuits.

Dr. Bhaumik said all spiritualists believed that everything was born out of a single source and the single entity was called God, whom we call "Brahma." Physics was now showing that everything physical comes from one source.

"Mind and matter may be coming from this single entity," he added.

He said through the mystical experiences that he had had through yoga and meditation, he compiled evidence and put it in his book "Code Name God," which points to the possibility that this one source that scientists and spiritualists talked about might be one and the same.

"God has nothing to do with blind faith, but is grounded in reality," Dr. Bhaumik said.

He pointed out that lack of understanding of this truth had resulted in anarchy all over the world and people were using religion as an excuse for violence.

Dr. Bhaumik, who helped develop the technology behind LASIK eye surgery at the University of California's Northrop Corporation Research and Technology Centre, is the recipient of many awards, the latest being the Gandhi Humanitarian Award.

His bestseller "Code Name God" was recently released in India by the President.