Elusive Consciousness

Author(s): Narendra Bhandari, Surendrasingh Pokharana, Jitendra B Shah
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 8

<1>. Spiritual Theory of Personality: Eastern & Western
Perspective
Prof. Ms. Achinta Yajnik
Associate Professor, Deptt. of Psychology B.D. Arts College, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India.
Email: achinta 1960@gmail.com
Science taught us that Universe is "Nothing But" a gigantic machine governed by certain Laws of Physics. (Newton) Life is "Nothing But" by-product of Matter (Darwin). Human Being is “Nothing But" a Robot governed by Brain as Developed Computer (Neuroscience). Behavior is “Nothing But" mechanical responses towards stimuli governed by laws of conditioning (Watson & Skinner).
“Nothing But” approach based on mechanistic paradigm penetrated human mind which led to "Existential Vacuum" and "Loss of Meaning" in life. As Ashe (1977) says,
“Thinking people tend to feel that science has cut man down. It has explained away every thing that matters in terms of smaller, meaner things that don't matter. Religion is ‘nothing but wish-fulfilling fairy tales, love is nothing but body chemistry, art is 'nothing but a surge of conditioned reflexes. Science leaves man shut-in, futile doomed... It feeds on the work of its countless laboratories to trap people in closed systems - chemical or biological or physical systems - where all color has gone and all hope is lost". (Ashe, G. (1977). Ancient Wisdom. London: MacMillan. P. 12)
Thus, the mechanistic and behaviorist explanations of everything including man, with this 'Nothing But' approach have made the total life of modern man as hollow, 'hope-less and purposeless.
Lack of meaning or purposelessness became the characteristic feature of 20th century man, which has been described by Schweitzer as “Peculiar intellectual and spiritual fatigue." (Quoted from Randall, J. L. (1975). Parapsychology & the Nature of life, London: Harper & Row. P.62) by Coleman as "Age of