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Main Index
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94 mins
The first question
Question 1
YOU SAID YESTERDAY THAT SCIENCE AND RELIGION ARE DIAMETRICALLY OPPOSITE. IN THE WEST THERE ARE MANY SCHOOLS TEACHING SCIENTIFIC MYSTICISM, AND THE PATHS OF TANTRA AND YOGA ARE ALSO VERY SYSTEMATIC. YOUR LITERATURE IS ALSO DEEPLY AND ARTISTICALLY RATIONAL. THERE SEEMS TO EXIST A BRIDGE BETWEEN THE RATIONAL SCIENCE AND THE IRRATIONAL RELIGION.
PLEASE COMMENT.
THE BRIDGE IS POSSIBLE -- AND THE BRIDGE IS POSSIBLE only because they are diametrically opposite. The gap exists, so the gap can be bridged.
Opposites can meet, and they can meet only because they are opposites. Opposites attract each other. That's how the whole life moves, has dynamism. It is through polar opposites: man/woman, yin/yang, matter/mind, the earth and the sky, this and that. There is a constant bridging, but the bridging is possible only because they are opposites. If they are not opposites there is no need for any bridge.
So the first thing to be understood: science and religion ARE diametrically opposite, but to bridge them is possible. That bridge will not make them the same. In fact, that bridge will make their diametrical opposition more loud, more clear.
Religion can have a scientific flavour, it can be systematic, but it never becomes science, it remains mysticism. It takes the garb of a science, the methodology, the terminology of a science, but it remains mysticism, it remains poetry.
You can translate poetry into prose; the prose can be translated into poetry. Just by translating prose into poetry you will not make it poetry -- it will remain prose. And just by translating poetry into prose, it will NOT become prose, it will remain poetry. Buddha speaks in prose, but what he speaks is poetic.
I am not a poet. I speak prose, but what I speak is poetic, its soul is poetic. And it remains poetic.
Religion can use scientific systematization -- that's what Tantra and Yoga have done. Science can also use mysticism as a method to inquire into reality, and all the great scientists HAVE used it, but still it remains science. Its basic trust is in reason. Religion's basic
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