On Immortality

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"In the beginning there was Existence, One only, without a second. Some say that in the beginning there was non-existence only, and that out of that the universe was born. But how could such a thing be? How could existence be born of non-existence? No, my son, in the beginning there was existence alone--One, only, without a second. He, the One, thought to himself: Let me be many, let me grow forth. Thus out of himself he projected the universe; and having projected out of himself the universe, he entered into every being. All that is has its self in him alone. Of all things he is the subtle essence. He is the truth. He is the Self. And that, Svetaketu, THAT ART THOU."

... Uddalaka to his son Svetaketu, from the Chandogya Upanishad

It may interest you to know, that contemporary physics agrees with the first line of the above. "One only, without a second" means no duality, i.e., NO ATOMIC STRUCTURE. This is the conclusion of modern physics, that there was no atomic structure before the universe sprang forth, only an as yet unknown (to modern science, at any rate) form of energy. Einstein's Law of Conservation agrees with that:

Matter and Energy are one, and can be neither created nor destroyed." One could, if one desired, replace the word energy with the word spirit, and it would mean essentially the same thing.

The universe springs from self-existent, "immortal" energy, which one could simply call "the life force." "Neither created nor destroyed" defines the eternal, known in the ancient philosophy as the self-existent.

Also according to physics, the universe began with the fundamental duality, hydrogen (one electron, one proton).

Science tells us that our thoughts are just energy; but since energy cannot cease, the concept of individual immortality of consciousness is a valid hypotheses. In the Bhagavad Gita, the philosophical teaching is "Bodies are said to die, but that which inhabits the body cannot die, nor be limited; therefore you must act, O Arjuna." (Arjuna is here a metaphor for mankind)

The Vedic physicists proposed that the universe comes and goes regularly, with the period of the manifest (i.e., relativity) equal to the period of the un-manifest (the non-relative, or steady state); in electrical engineering, we call that a 50% duty cycle. This agrees with the laws of thermodynamics, as it is energy conservation (we use this principal in power-supply design). This is also upheld by the laws of mathematical probability.

Probability would hold that there was never a first, nor will there ever be a last universe; this is an infinite concept that one cannot readily wrap one's mind around.

Think of a graph, consisting of an infinite series of sine curves, with the bottom halves cut off and replaced with straight lines; the peaks represent the universe expanding from the beginning, and contracting back to the steady state (the straight lines).

Interesting that the Vedic science includes the warning "Do not oppress an atom, for it will bombard your life and existence of physical basis", and it certainly has! Suggests that they knew something about energy. When the universe does contract, the energy would intensify the "gravity," and once one planet reached critical mass, it should start the chain-reaction that returns the universe to the steady state (Einstein destroyed Newton's concept of gravity, which concept Newton was never completely happy with; "gravity" is actually the result of the mass of the energy in space pressing down).

Your thoughts, from the perspective of Physics (aka "Natural Philosophy")?

Regards, John

Fission is the art of destruction, and fusion the art of creation; science has mastered the art of destruction, but they have not mastered the art of creation.

"Knowledge is immortal
Knowledge is immortality

History withers, dies and is forgotten, but knowledge remains

immortality is BS
we need to die to give place to the next generation
else we would all be the same
ruled by the same
become stagnant in the pool of life

Knowledge is BS
It has wemoved us from what we are
it carries us to near-certain death
it makes us a threat to life
it makes us a threat to knowledge"

- me, just right now