The Eternal Law
Birthday of an American Physicist Owen Chamberlain
10th July is the birthday of the American physicist Owen Chamberlain who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1959 for the discovery of anti-proton. Chamberlain was part of the Manhattan Project, which was an R&D Undertaking of US-UK-Canada during WWII that produced the first nuclear bomb. He later taught at the University of California, Berkeley and during his time there, in 1955, in a series of proton scattering experiments, he alongwith his collaborator Emilio Segrè, discovered the sub-atomic particle, the anti-proton.
Osho has talked about Dr. Chamberlain’s momentous discovery of anti-matter and its resonance in religion. Osho says that the duo proved that inside an atom, there is an anti-proton alongside a proton. The underlying principle, that everything has its opposite, is universal. It applies to matter and anti-matter. All religions agree that here has to be an anti-world to this world. Osho says although it hasn’t been proven scientifically and nobody knows when it would be, the existence of opposites is inevitable because a balance has to be maintained.
In 1959, the Nobel Prize given to two American scientists was a unique event. The scientists were Dr. Emilio Segre and Dr. Owen Chamberlain. It was unique in the sense that their findings in the field of science were entirely contrary to all scientific theories of today. They have destroyed the fundamentals of science. What they have proved is very near Lao Tzu; but nowhere near Newton. What they have discovered can tally with the Gita and not with Marx. Their discovery is that if there is matter in the world, there is anti-matter too, because nothing exists in this world without its counterpart. If there is light, there is darkness; if there is birth, there is death. So if there is matter, there is bound to be anti-matter. They have not only propounded this theory, they have also proved it. They have proved that within the atom of matter, where the proton works, right there there is an energy which is anti-proton. This energy cannot be seen nor experienced.
In this world, the opposite is inevitable. The world is a conjunction of the opposites. Segre and Chamberlain have named this energy “anti-matter.” Lao Tzu, Krishna, Buddha and Christ have given it different names: atman, eternal law, beatitude, deliverance, God. In all these names, one fact is common: they all stand for anti-world, anti-matter. The findings of all religions agree on one point: that the world cannot be if there is no anti-world against it. It is interesting that Segre and Chamberlain have stumbled across this. But as yet, it is only a guess. The theory they have constructed will prove correct some day because it is based on the same principle. The argument they put forward is that just as in this world the power of gravitation pulls down, water flows downwards, fire goes upwards and protons revolve in a particular manner — in the same way in order to keep the balance, there must be a world that is just the opposite of this world. This is, as yet, only a theory; but it is a powerful theory because those who have propound it are not mystics, not poets; but hard core scientists. They maintain that nothing works in this world without its opposite.
It is quite possible that there is a world which is quite the opposite of the world we know. Then only can the universe be balanced like a pair of scales. It cannot be said when scientists will be able to prove this, but religion has always believed in the possibility of liberation to a world that is opposite to the mundane world, to a world whose laws work exactly the opposite of worldly laws. Jesus says: “He who is first here will be last there. He who is last here will be first there. He who amasses wealth here will find it taken away from him, and he who distributes his wealth shall receive it there.” This is the law of opposites depicted in poetry. The language of Jesus is the language of a poet. All religions have been expressed in the language of poetry. Perhaps that is how it should be. In scientific language, the living element is lost and, with it, the fragrance and harmony. The poetry ends and only dead figures remain.
If we keep in mind a brief concept of Lao Tzu’s eternal law, we shall be able to move into this sutra. Lao Tzu says: there is a world of change, where everything is constantly changing. But this world is not enough. Rather, there must be a world without change, in order to balance this world. There must be an opposite world of eternity, where nothing changes, nothing moves; where there is just emptiness and all is tranquil. Here, in this world, everything vibrates. If we ask a scientist he will say, “Here, there are only vibrations. Nothing is fixed, nothing is stable, not even for a moment.” We hardly utter a word and the thing has changed: This world is an intense process of change. We can call it a process of change, a flux.
And Lao Tzu says: “Right within this world, hidden from it, and exactly the opposite of it, is a principle which is ever fixed, ever stable; where nothing changes; where there are no vibrations, no ripples. This he refers to as the eternal law. Change in this world is only possible because of the balance of the eternal law. If there were no eternal law, no change would be possible. Each thing is possible because of its opposite. Within you is the body. Also within you there is an anti-body: matter as well as anti-matter, proton as well as anti-proton. Within you is change and within you is the changeless, the eternal.
Lao Tzu says that he who takes his changing self to be his being is insane. He will be unhappy, restless and frustrated, because that with which he is identifying himself is not stable for a moment. He will be dragged along with it, and his hopes will be dashed to the ground. How can one pin his hopes on a changing thing? Change cannot be trusted. Change means that which cannot be relied on. To put faith in a changing phenomenon is to build castles in the sand. No sooner do we lay the foundation than the land beneath slides away. Before we lay the planks the foundation disappears.
Therefore pain and sorrow will be the destiny of one who joins himself to the world of change. Pain and sorrow means that all his hopes will be dashed to the ground and his dreams will be broken. The more rainbows he spreads of his hopes and expectations, the more empty his hands will be. Then, despair and frustration and sorrow will become a part of his life. Unhappiness means to identify oneself with change. Bliss means unite one’s being with the eternal. Both are there. It depends on us which we choose.
The eternal law means: the opposite of whatever we see. It means: the invisible that is hidden in the visible. When we touch, it is not what we touch but that which cannot be touched. I speak a word or I strike a note on the veena and a sound is produced. Its vibrations reach far out. Your ear gets the impact and its waves reach your heart. Then, after some time, the note fades away; the impact is lost. Sound is a part of change. A while ago it was not there and a while after it again is not there. The string of the veena trembles at the touch of my hand. The note is produced, the waves of vibrations spread around. Then the string of the veena stops vibrating; the sound is lost in emptiness and all is silent once again.
Sound is change. The silence, the void that was before the sound, is eternity. The silence that ensues after the sound is also eternity. And the emptiness in which the sound vibrated, that too is eternity. Every happening takes place in the void. It appears in the void and it disappears in the void. To know this eternity is Tao, says Lao Tzu. To know this eternity is religion.
Source:
Listen to complete discourse at mentioned below link.
Discourse series: The Way of Tao, Volume 2 Chapter #16
Chapter title: The door of Tao — forbearance and non-prejudice
16 June 1972 pm in Immortal Study Circle
References:
Osho has also spoken of other scientists like Edison, Eddington, Einstein, Galileo, Madam Curie, Newton, Rutherford and scores of other in His discourses. Some of these can be referred to in the following books/discourse titles:
- Tao: The three treasures Vo.2,4
- Unio Mystica Vol.1
- Just The Tip Of The Iceberg
- The Messiah Vol.1-2
- Om Shantih Shantih Shantih
- Philosophia Perennis Vol.1-2
- The Pathless Path Vol.2
- Vigyan Bhairav Tantra Vol.
