By Dr. Sawraj Singh
Capitalist and Marxist philosophies became the leading philosophies in the nineteenth century. Both were influenced by Absolutist tendency in science at that time. Even though Marx advocated theory of evolution of knowledge which contradicts Absolutism yet in practice, Marxists have taken stands almost similar to capitalists. They have pitted science against spirituality and failed to understand the difference between spirituality and religion. They call it a scientific approach but in reality, it is Neo Dogmatism.
In a meeting in Punjab, a Marxist speaker strongly criticized religious fanaticism. I said that Ossified Marxism (Marxist Dogmatism) could be more dangerous than religious fanaticism because it is more deceptive. The religious people at least do not call their approach “Scientific approach”.
Nineteenth century science was heavily influenced by absolutist thinking. There was a general feeling that science is discovering absolute laws. The most important being the law of conservation of mass. Einstein’s theory of relativity completely changed this attitude. Einstein proved that matter can change into energy. The law of absolute conservation of mass was the foundation of all absolute laws. Therefore, when this was proven wrong the attitude toward science changed completely.
The quantum physics has further discredited absolutist tendencies in science and promoted relativism. It completely changed our concept about matter. It is not standing still but quantum particles are particles of energy which are in constant motion. Discovery of God particle showed further evolution of quantum physics. Calling Higgs Boson elementary particle, God particle in a way shows that gap between science and spirituality is narrowing.
As I was writing this article, a new research done in California has found the existence of an anti particle which annihilates the particle generating energy. This validates the theory put forward by a quantum physicist, Majorana in 1937.
However, Capitalists and Marxists have not kept up with these developments in science and their thinking is still influenced by the nineteenth century science. They are unable to narrow the gap between science and spirituality and continue to pit science against spirituality. Similarly, they have been unable to understand the difference between religion and spirituality.
Science and spirituality do not contradict each other but complement each other. Science and spirituality deal with different levels of reality. Science deals with perceptive level of reality, the reality which we can feel with our senses. However, spirituality deals with that reality which is beyond the reach of our senses, the transcendent reality. For capitalists and pseudo Marxists there is no reality beyond perceptive reality. In spite of their clamoring of having a scientific approach, they qualify to be called the Neo Dogmatists of today.
Similarly, these Neo Dogmatists refuse to differentiate spirituality from religion. Spirituality is the closest translation of the word Dharma as none of the western languages has an equivalent word to Dharma which has many dimensions. In the great Indian epic Mahabharta, ten aspects of dharma are described. These include: Ethics, Morality, Righteousness, Spirituality, Duty, nature, Truth, Courage, Discipline and Civilized conduct. In Sri Guru Granth Sahib, the zenith of eastern philosophy, all these aspects have been summarized to Nirmal Karam (Pure or Immaculate actions). Spirituality or Dharma are universal whereas religion is a path taken by one group of people.
The Neo Dogmatists (Capitalists and Pseudo Marxists) do not seem to believe in the theory of evolution of knowledge. According to this concept, nature is the source of all knowledge. According to Sri Guru Granth Sahib, nature is constantly regenerating itself. Nothing is static and is constantly evolving. Capitalism has no real concept of regeneration. In practice, it is a philosophy of maximal exploitation of resources till they exhaust. Therefore, it is an ossified philosophy with no scope of renewal.
Marx strongly believed in the theory of evolution of knowledge as well as in nature being the source of all knowledge. However, ossified Marxism, negates this theory under the garb of a scientific approach. Therefore, these so called Marxists are in reality Neo Dogmatists. Sri GURU Granth Sahib inspires us to become students (Sikhs) who are always willing to learn more and seekers (Khoji) who are constantly striving to seek the Truth.
Dr. Sawraj Singh, MD F.I.C.S. is the Chairman of the Washington State Network for Human Rights and Chairman of the Central Washington Coalition for Social Justice. He can be reached at [email protected].
