Consciousness &
Its Impact on Science & Society
(Translation:
”The yearning of my sore eyes;
The secret cravings of my heart,
My gift of meditations of midnights,
My comfort for my solitude and company”)
For Einstein and likes, imagination
may be more important than knowledge, but for the
people with Consciousness, the ‘Character’
is something far important and greater than imagination
and knowledge combined. And quite true that is, because,
if you look deeper, all the knowledge and understanding
(even imagination) that ever existed took its source
from some form of character. The characters which
developed ways and methods to look at things in specific
ways leading to different forms of knowledge, understanding
and imagination. Imagination (or shall I say ‘Creativity’)
and knowledge are nothing without character which
gives rise to it. It’s the character which becomes
the source of all the knowledge and imagination. Peoples
like Ghazali (and the likes) reached this understanding
in transcendental form through Sufism. And interestingly
enough, quite many people do not know that, about
Islam, it was Sufism of Islam that founded the basis
of culture called the “Islamic Culture”,
formed basis of ‘Science’ and ‘Arts’
in Islamic cultures and brought the Islamic renaissance
period.
Religion, in core terms, provide a set of principles
and laws or a code of conduct for a complete way of
life for a person to surrender to a way or a system
for peace at individual or at societal level and does
provide some guidelines for how society should be
like, but leaves a very large room for human inquiry,
reasoning and details. Sufism provided the ground
for philosophical inquiry into many aspects about
religion and God in Islam. Sufism develop the philosophical
ways to conduct inquiry into the truth of everything
and every concept which then founded ways of scientific
inquiry and from which or through one of its stem
developed empiricism in science and hence we saw a
long chain of Muslim scientists afterwards. In this
way, each Scientist carried multiple intelligences
for example, to name a few, Avicenna (who was a physician,
philosopher, astronomer, chemist, geologist, logician,
paleontologist, mathematician, physicist, poet, psychologist,
scientist, soldier, statesman, and teacher thus making
him a polymath), and there were numerous such scientists
like Khwarizmi, Hayyan, Khazini, Farabi, Haytham,
Beiruni, Battani, Buzjani, Zarqali, Jazari, Tusi,
Firnas, Kindi, Khaldun and many more. Let’s
take an example of Ghazali (Algazel). Ghazali unleashed
the power of consciousness through transcendental
knowledge. Ghazali was an Islamic theologian, jurist,
philosopher, cosmologist, physician, psychologist
and mystic (hence polymath) and remains one of the
most celebrated scholars in the history of Sufi Islamic
thought. He is considered a pioneer of the methods
of doubt and skepticism which later introduced empiricism
in scientific practice, this empiricism in scientific
practice still exists in much larger, evolved and
diversified form on which the whole world of science
and technology completely thrives. The most amazing
thing from him was not science per se but empiricism
in science. This way of thought was carried on, and
in fact now its practice is so deep rooted in all
scientific communities all around the world that nothing
is considered as existed if it’s not empirically
proven (and very interestingly, on its extreme end,
this also formed the basis where the presence, existence
or non-existence of God has been attempted, questioned
and subjected to scientific inquiry and empiricism).
What connects all these things is consciousness.
It is consciousness that develops the character which
unleashes or from which emerges the polymath or multiple
intelligence system in a person. In the case of Islam,
consciousness was discovered through Sufism which
developed consciousness-based-characters. It was those
consciousness-based-characters which become source
of knowledge, imagination and wisdom.
Similar example of polymath or multiple intelligences
is true of Leonardo Da Vinci from the west. Leonardo
was into Christian mysticism and through Christian
mysticism he reached to similar grounds of consciousness
where in character lies the center of knowledge, intelligence,
imagination and wisdom. Unleashing this power developed
a polymath character in him, the character who was
a scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist,
painter, sculptor, architect, botanist, musician and
writer. That’s the reason why Leonardo is often
been described as the archetype of the Renaissance
man, a man whose unquenchable curiosity was equaled
only by his powers of invention. He is widely considered
to be one of the greatest painters of all time and
perhaps the most diversely talented person ever to
have lived. About him a renowned English literature
critic Helen Gardner rightly said: "The scope
and depth of his interests were without precedent...His
mind and personality seem to us superhuman, the man
himself mysterious and remote”.
Similarly, Nietzsche in the west had discovered the
same element through his yearning into mysticism and
philosophy but he failed to appreciate the difference
between call of human Ego to be known as super (here
human super power concept misused for racism) versus
call of human Consciousness to be real super power
in man (here being super is being at the niche of
multiple intelligence at work at its best above and
beyond any conditionalities) hence Nietzsche’s
direction went wrong and later greatly misused by
wrong hands for their cruel political agendas.
Additionally, if you are looking for much nearer examples
of what connected multiple intelligences borne by
consciousness-based characters and its direct connection
to Sufism, you can find it quite vividly and obviously
in relationship of Allama Iqbal’s poetic inspiration
with that of Jelaluddin Rumi’s ideology. Iqbal
himself confessed at one place in his poetry “Tukhm-e-Iqbal
az Rumi ast” (which literally means Iqbal is
an offshoot branch of Rumi’s ideology) and Iqbal’s
prose work “Reconstruction of Religious Thoughts
in Islam” is a standing testimony of this connection.
In truth, Iqbal’s basis of concept of “Khudi”
is nothing but consciousness. Iqbal’s vision
was of renaissance Muslims united by universal values
of Islam. Because of his polymath character who was
a thinker, writer, poet and a lawyer the then example
of Renaissance man, I often say Iqbal is to Islam
what Da Vinci was to Christianity.
In the current case scenario, largely giving in to
the definitions formed by physical determinism, we
all are lost nation in terms of consciousness. We
have earned globalization but given up universalization.
We have shortened distances but increased spaces.
What should be an enduring solution? What should be
the panacea which can bring about transformation?
What is the Alchemy of men? Of nations?
Then what exactly is that Alchemy? Alchemy in a literal
sense is a science and art of transforming ordinary
base metal into gold. Consciousness is the alchemy
for the humanity. Consciousness turns the ordinary
into extra ordinary. Consciousness, if revived through
characters, can form the Alchemy of Renaissance for
the entire world in general and Muslims in specific.
I should also mention here that this message and secret
of Alchemy is universal in its origin and that the
consciousness in not the ownership of Islam or any
other specific religion. Rather it offers an open
invitation to humanity without any discrimination
or conditioning whatsoever. Anyone and everyone, who
believes in universal values and have deep yearning
to live for and by universalism, posses all the equal
right, chance, opportunity and talent to connect to
and hear and enjoy the orchestrating music with in,
to enjoy the fruition of consciousness by developing
consciousness-based characters, the perfect recipe
of Alchemy, the character which is not just the conduit
but the source of all the knowledge, imagination and
wisdom. I believe it should be our purpose and our
foremost duty to discover within ourselves the source
and the seat of knowledge, wisdom, peace, happiness
and joy which only be achieved becoming source ourselves.
It is all about becoming the source, because if you
fall to the source of grace you become source of grace
yourself. Similarly, when you discover the truth,
you become part of the truth that exists everywhere.
Like Iqbal said;
(Translation: "Your world is (only) the one which
you create by yourself, not these stones and bricks,
which are in sight out there") As Iqbal says
in his poetry Israr-e-Khudi (Secrets of Consciousness),
