Neuroscientists, armed with fMRI (functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging) and EEG(electrical signals of the brain), map the brain’s intricate networks, uncovering the symphony of interactions that give rise to consciousness. However, modern science still needs to develop a hypothesis to help express this phenomenon. For example, there needs to be more clarity about whether the brain generates or interprets consciousness. Upanishadic teachings propose that consciousness is a universal phenomenon and the brain is just the interpretive organ. However, its inherent size and capacity limit the brain’s interpretation capacity. Thus, a reptile and a human understand the universe differently. For, e.g., a Pentium I computer cannot run Windows 11! Similarly, a snake and human brain would interpret consciousness differently, guided by their need to live on the earth and survive, reproduce, gather food, etc. The human brain is considered to be able to develop a heightened level of consciousness, including many extrasensory perceptions driven by years of meditative practices. 

One of the basic tenets of scientific inquiry in medicine is materialism. This philosophy automatically assumes that most events on this planet can be analysed and expressed within the restricted lens of materialism. Materialism holds that there must be a physical explanation for every phenomenon. However, ancient Indian sages taught that many phenomena have an extra materialistic basis that cannot always be explained by scientific determinism or mundane day-to-day materialistic explanation. The scientific world, with its tangible realities, is a paradigm dominated by the tools and methodologies developed to explore it. While immensely valuable, this scientific dogmatism also marks the boundaries of our understanding, creating a reality that is ill-defined or wholly ignored, limited by what our instruments can measure and our theories can explain. Hindu philosophy correlates conquering this space by developing a super powerful brain that can interpret what our present machination cannot. 

Remarkably, meditation, a discipline that finds its roots in the ancient teachings of the Upanishads, offers a gateway to exploring these uncharted depths. Long-term meditators have been shown to produce gamma waves, indicative of heightened states of consciousness, alongside the standard brainwave patterns associated with everyday awareness. The significance of this is unknown, with many neuroscientists contending that this is the brain signature for consciousness. Meditation can also make the physical brain increase in size, thus completely eliminating dementia that comes with aging! This concept was proved by recent scientific exploration and was thought to be a pariah within the physiological community until advanced imaging revealed the truth. This coexistence of the mundane and the extraordinary within the neural activity of meditators points to a dimension of consciousness that transcends the materialistic framework of contemporary science.

Yet, the clarity of consciousness eludes the grasp of contemporary science, focusing on the tangible and measurable. The complexity of the human brain, a network of trillions of neurons with billions of interconnections, presents a formidable challenge, pointing to the limitations of current methodologies in fully unraveling the essence of consciousness. Someone said our latest and biggest computer cannot even mimic a cockroach’s brain. I leave the truth of this statement for the readers to decipher, as my knowledge of entomology is infantile, to say the least. This is where the ancient wisdom of the Manduca Upanishad, with its emphasis on the transcendental state of Turiya, offers a complementary perspective. Meditation and yogic practices, central to this wisdom, provide a pathway to experiential understanding, transcending the boundaries of empirical research. The development of state-of-the-art, non-invasive ways of studying the living brain and a plethora of young scientists using such technologies have helped break barriers and reveal such startling theories. The spread of yoga as a mode of well-being is no less critical in bringing to the fore this overwhelming interest amongst young researchers in such subjects.