Neurons, Oxygen & Nanak: Neurotheology Series

By Abhijit Naskar

One of twenty-first century’s most influential minds in Brain Science investigates the molecular underpinnings of one of the youngest religions of the world - Sikhism.

With the tools of modern Neuroscience at his disposal, Abhijit Naskar, a globally acclaimed author delves deep into the neuronal basis of the origin of Sikhism. He coaxes us to look behind the curtain of a legendary divine experience that led to the rise of this less known religion from India.

In his peerlessly lucid explanatory ways, Naskar takes us inside the protoplasmic realm of the brain of Guru Nanak—the founding father of Sikhism, and reveals to us how a conscientious man from the 15th century stepped outside the primeval cocoon of religious orthodoxy in order to restore humanism in the heart of humanity.

Neurons, Oxygen & Nanak is the work of a twenty-first century humanitarian thinker about another humanitarian thinker from the fifteenth century.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Neuro Cookies
• Release date: Feb 17, 2017
• ISBN: 9781386838739

Book preview

NEURONS, OXYGEN & NANAK

Abhijit Naskar is one of the world’s famous Neuroscientists and an untiring advocate of global harmony. He became a beloved best-selling author all over the world with his very first book The Art of Neuroscience in Everything, that heralded the advent of a rejuvenating scientific philosophy of self-awareness. With various of his pioneering ventures into the Neuropsychology of religious sentiments, he has hugely contributed to humanity’s attempt of breaking down the citadels of religious conflicts, for which he is popularly hailed as a humanitarian who incessantly works towards taking the human civilization in the path of sweet general harmony.

NEURONS, OXYGEN & NANAK

ABHIJIT

NASKAR

Neurons, Oxygen & Nanak

Copyright © 2017 Abhijit Naskar

This is a work of non-fiction

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Neuro Cookies Edition, 2017

Also by Abhijit Naskar

The Art of Neuroscience in Everything

Your Own Neuron: A Tour of Your Psychic Brain

The God Parasite: Revelation of Neuroscience

The Spirituality Engine

Love Sutra: The Neuroscientific Manual of Love

Homo: A Brief History of Consciousness

Neurosutra: The Abhijit Naskar Collection

Autobiography of God: Biopsy of A Cognitive Reality

Biopsy of Religions: Neuroanalysis towards Universal Tolerance

Prescription: Treating India’s Soul

What is Mind?

In Search of Divinity: Journey to The Kingdom of Conscience

Love, God & Neurons: Memoir of a scientist who found himself by getting lost

The Islamophobic Civilization: Voyage of Acceptance

Neurons of Jesus: Mind of A Teacher, Spouse & Thinker

For all my peace-loving Sikh sisters and brothers in the world

CONTENTS

PREFACE

1. INTRODUCTION

2. NANAK & IK ONKAR

3. NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCE

4. MYSTICISM & JANAMSAKHI

5. THE REAL SIKHISM

BIBLIOGRAPHY

PREFACE

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My Sikh sisters and brothers proclaim with utter glory and faith Jo Bole So Nihaal, Sat Sri Akaal, I say Jo Anubhava So Nihaal, Sat Sri Akaal. My translation of the former is He who utters ‘Great Eternal Truth’ becomes joyous, while the latter translates to He who experiences ‘Great Eternal Truth’ becomes joyous.

The true eternal oneness that the founder of Sikhism experienced, was beyond the bounds of textual fanaticism. His experience of Absolute Divinity liberated his mind from the shackles of orthodox indoctrination. Thus, mere shouting and discussing about the Great Eternal Truth won’t make your mind free. As per the law of psychological reinforcement, it may give you a few moments of bliss, but that bliss never lasts long.

For the mind to become liberated, you must feel what Nanak felt. You must experience what Jesus experienced. You must realize what Buddha realized. And once you do, you will discover a new way of living – you will discover the true essence of life. That is what Nanak discovered – that is what Christ discovered – that is what Buddha discovered – that is what I discovered. And if all these human beings of flesh and blood can experience that surreal yet extraordinarily empowering state of utter Godliness, then all of humanity can do so.

Forget the Bible, the Quran, the Vedas, the Granth Sahib, and all the scriptures in the world. None of them will show you the Great Eternal Truth. None of them will show you the Kingdom of God, for the real Kingdom of the Ultimate Truth is inside your mind. It was born in you when you were born. And it will cease to exist when you die. Your mind is not merely the vehicle of God, rather it is the life-force that keeps God alive. Without the Mind, there is no God. Without you, there is no God.

1. 

INTRODUCTION

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Medieval India, like the rest of the mortal world, was filled with mysticism, fueled by ignorance. It was a cradle for various religious ideologies and conjectures. Some of these were born from the individual experiences of a transcendental state of Absolute Divinity or Absolute Oneness, while some others, were born from intellectual synthesis of already prevailing religious beliefs. This fusion of beliefs, eventually led India to become one of the most colorful nations on earth, filled with varied rituals, cuisines, and languages. Basically the psychological element of religion sowed the quintessential seeds of cultural diversity in a nation which is still hailed by the world as a nation of spiritual exuberance.

India was and to some extent, still is, a nation where its citizens care more about their religious freedom than any other earthly possession. Give them food or not, it doesn’t matter to them, as long as they are allowed to practice their religion. But, take away their religion, they will fight till the last breath of their life. In India, it is religion that forms the very core of the national heart. It is the backbone - the bed-rock - the foundation upon which the national edifice has been built.

The traditional Indian mind has been for centuries, and still is, first religious, and then everything else. And to make the national consciousness more colorful, it has been adorned with varied streams of religious ideologies, some of which were born from the womb of India’s very own Sanatana Dharma - commonly known as Hinduism, and some others entered the nation from all over the world. In the end, all these streams of vivid and diverse paths of attaining divinity became the life-force of the whole nation and made it uniquely diverse unlike any other nation on earth.

Thus, India became a symposium of many religions. But what’s more worthy of mentioning is that, this one nation became a home for people from different religious backgrounds. It became a nation, where the Christians, the Muslims, the Jews, the Buddhists, the Sikhs, the Jains, the Zoroastrians and the Hindus learnt to live as brothers and sisters, with their own issues of perceptual conflicts from time to time. Some of these streams of religious consciousness are ancient, while some others relatively modern. Regardless, of the time of their origin, most of these streams of religion, were built upon the foundation of individual experiences of Absolute Divinity, which is more commonly known as the Kingdom of God.

One of these individuals, whose apparently divine subjective experience of transcendence led to the birth of one of the relatively modern religions of planet earth, was a man named Nanak. In an effort to diminish the contemporary conflicts between the Hindus and the Muslims, he ended up becoming the founding patriarch of yet another circle of religious ideologies – Sikhism – a child religion born from the wedlock between Hinduism and Islam. And since, the father of this religion, was born and raised in a devout Hindu family, it has more elements from the scriptures of Hinduism than it has from the Islamic ones.

2. 

NANAK & IK ONKAR

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This is not a book of history, nor is it a book of religion to engender faith in people upon the glorious Guru called Nanak. This is a book of science with a little tinge of Naskarean Philosophy in the mix, and the purpose of which, like my all other works, is to investigate the elementary principles of the religion known as Sikhism, at a molecular level. Those who see religion only as a set of textual doctrines, have no idea of how extraordinarily awe-inspiring it is to look at the birth moments of all the religions at a cellular level. That is why I don’t see doctrines, when I talk about religions. All I see are different experiential