Date: November 6, 2025
Venue: Online
Watch the recording HERE.
On November 6, 2025, Mr. Narendra Murty, Research Associate, BhāratShakti was invited by a group of Sri Aurobindo devotees from Argentina to an online discussion on his book The Religion of Wonder (published by Auropublications, Sri Aurobindo Society, 2024). While Mr. Murty made his presentation in English, for the Spanish-speaking participants the discussion was interpreted into Spanish by their team leader Marcelo, a long-time devotee associated with Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Delhi Branch.
A few months back Dr. Ramesh Bijlani, AIIMS medical scientist, author and teacher currently associated with Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Delhi Branch, wrote a review of Narendra Murty’s book The Religion of Wonder in The Call Beyond, their online magazine. It was the Marcelo’s Spanish translation of this review which piqued the curiousity of the group to know more about the book. (This review was later republished in Renaissance, the online journal of Sri Aurobindo Society).
The Religion of Wonder traces the journey of the human mind starting from prehistory through four stages, namely:
1. The Primitive stage and the age of Organised Religions (referred to as The Enchanted World in the book)
2. The stage of Scientific Revolution
3. The stage of Disenchantment of the World (the stage of disillusionment with scientism)
4. The Religion of Wonder (where the latest discoveries in Physics are pointing to a transcendental dimension).
In other words, Science itself is pointing to the Divine because any quest for Truth (even in the physical dimension) has to lead to the Divine ultimately. And since science doesn’t really acknowledge the divine dimension, it is baffled as it is faced with awe and mystery, unable to comprehend the true nature of the physical world. As Sri Aurobindo had pointed out in “A certain kind of Agnosticism is the final truth of all knowledge”. (The Life Divine, p 14). This is especially true for intellectual knowledge.
The quest of modern physics for the ultimate truths of the physical world in the last century hit the barriers of mystery and paradox. For every phenomena in the microcosmic and the macrocosmic world seemed to point to an unsolvable mystery which human ingenuity could not span. All the great scientists like Max Planck, Einstein, Bohr, Heisenberg, Schroedinger and Richard Feynman – admitted that the scientific quest at its deepest level is pointing to a transcendental dimension beyond the reach of the human intellect.
The Religion of Wonder describes this peculiar situation faced by science which once again brings mystery and awe into our lives and makes room for meaning and a higher dimension in life.
In view of the enthusiasm of the participants, the session lasted for two hours exceeding the allotted time of one hour with a lively discussion where Marcelo acted as a translator between the author and the audience.
WATCH
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