Thompson examines the descriptions offered by this verse regarding the inevitable difficulties of old age, and follows with a discussion of near-death experiences, referencing Eastern concepts of karmic reaction and the transmigration of conditional souls. According to Thompson, a central reason Vedic literature stresses such points is to induce human beings to seriously consider their proclivity to experience tangible spiritual reality.
In a famous debate between Newton and Leibniz, Newton proposed that God periodically adjusted the motions of the planets in order to maintain precise motion, whereas Leibniz countered that since God is perfect, adjustments were not required. Thompson draws from perspectives offered in the Bhagavad-gita to help shed light upon this age-old dispute.
Modern science considers sound vibration as mechanical waves. Vedic literature presents a definition that appears to transcend that by considering matter manifesting from energy identified with sound. Thompson examines the Purāṇic concept of sound by using three examples drawn from contemporary natural science – quantum mechanics, virtual reality, and the workings of the inner ear. He proposes that information expressed via a Vedic understanding of sound may be fundamental to the manifestation of the cosmos.
Thompson analyzes calculations described in this chapter of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam that reference motion of an “ultimate particle, which is indivisible,” called the paramāṇu, or atom. For example, time attributed for the integration of six of these minute particles is considered a truṭi, or 1/1687.5 of a second. These basic units are then combined to form days, months, years, and yuga cycles lasting 4,320,000 years. One thousand yuga cycles is considered a kalpa, or 4,320,000,000 years.
Thompson compares Vedic conceptions of space, with concepts prominent within contemporary scientific discourse. For example, the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam consistently refers to realms of experience beyond standard human perception, yet potentially experiential through higher-dimensional correspondence. Thompson suggests that an examination of phenomena such as remote psychokinesis, which can likewise appear to defy the known laws of nature, could facilitate both productive insight and an expanded appreciation of the concept of space.
Is matter as presently experienced the origin of everything experiential? Perhaps not, according to Thompson, if considering how in everyday experience ordinary matter tends to remain ordinary without the interjection of personal initiative. Since contemporary scientific theories have not yet comprehensively accounted for the phenomenon of personality, Thompson proposes that a study of literature rooted in the Eastern traditions that consider the primacy of a Supreme Person could lend helpful insight into the intrinsic quality of matter.
Thompson considers the classic satirical novel, Flatland: A Romance in Many Dimensions (1884), to help illustrate higher dimensional qualities inherent to Puranic descriptions. Just as “Flatlanders” are limited to two-dimensional perception, similarly standard human perception is generally restricted to three-dimensional experience.
Modern science has constructed a highly sophisticated model of the universe strictly in terms of matter. Yet the Srimad-Bhagavatam also offers complex descriptions of the cosmos, albeit while drawing from a perspective considered higher dimensional and spiritual. Thompson offers a critique of material analyses aspiring to capture reality in toto, with specific concern to “the glaring omission of consciousness.”
Thompson discusses the creation of the universe from a Puranic perspective, which engages an organic approach. For example, the Srimad-Bhagavatam describes the cosmos unfolding from a seed (bija) encoded with information in a manner that parallels descriptions of biological form unfolding from an embryo encoded with DNA. Thompson suggests that correlations such as these could lend themselves to scientific minded inquiry.
Thompson considers an age-old question during a class presentation on a verse about the birth of Lord Krishna: If the Supreme Absolute is all-pervasive and eternal, how can He appear in a particular time and place? Thompson proposes that questioning standard conceptions of time and space can help shed light on this question.
