ANITA’s LEGACYAn inquiry into First Cause

By

Gurpur M. Prabhu

“ From the unreal lead me to the real, From darkness lead me to light, From death lead me to immortality.”

—Brihadaranyaka Upanishad

“The Great Spirit that breathes through our bodies is our permanent cosmic legacy. Our purpose in life is to emancipate this Spirit and help It understand Its true nature — that of pure Consciousness . . . . a Consciousness that is present in the tappets of a motorcycle engine, in the petals of a flower, in the many statues of God worshipped everyday and inside each and every one of us.”

—Gurpur M. Prabhu

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Reader Praise

For

ANITA’s LEGACY

“I enjoyed the writing in your book. You have the gift for transmitting complexities clearly, and that is a rare thing.”

— John Oakes, Publisher of Four Walls Eight Windows

“Obviously I take great pleasure in going through the books which touch upon the person and the legend of Hypatia of Alexandria. But in Prabhu’s book there is something more. Restoring to us the times in which the discrepancy between science and mysticism was unknown, he encourages us to direct our efforts to both these objectives simultaneously and to derive therefrom the paradigm for scientists who today are confused about the mystery of God. And although I resent some of Prabhu’s remarks about Christianity, I find the purpose of his novel admirable.”

— Professor Maria Dzielska, Author of Hypatia of Alexandria

“Finally a bold book that deals with issues that Carl Sagan misses way off the mark, and that Robert Pirsig gingerly tiptoes around. It has changed the way I think and feel about God and the universe and my place in it.”

— Vikram Rao

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“I have read your book more than once and enjoyed it very much. I’ve highlighted many passages where your power of expression has been fantastic.”

— Professor V. Krishnamurthy, Author of Science and Spirituality, www.geocities.com/profvk/

“Mr. Prabhu is an excellent writer. He shows a mastery of the subject matter as few have in recent times. Couple that with his powerful fiction narrative that interweaves the spectrum of philosophy, science, and religion, and you have a book that is gripping from beginning to the very end.”

— Cdr. H. S. P. Vittal

“I was fascinated by your book. It enabled me to become familiar with alternative paradigms to Western thought on issues of theology. In establishing a connection with science you have performed a great service to a much wider audience of interested readers who are struggling with their spirituality. The fiction format engrossed me and I was reminded of The Goal by Eliyahu Goldratt, a book on business process improvement that is also written as a novel.”

— Professor John Wong

“A powerful, thought-provoking book. By unifying physics, metaphysics, philosophy and spirituality in a spell-binding story, you answered some of my questions, generated several more, and opened new doors on my journey towards the discovery of truth.”

— Dawn Adams

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“I finished the book in 4 days, very quickly!! I was absorbed by it and you succeeded in maintaining the reader’s interest from the beginning until the end. The book made me think a lot about the values in this life and the purpose of it. I tend to believe there is a universal religion no matter what is the religion you practice or you are taught when you are a child and I found this trend in the book. You have all my admiration.”

— Angie Trius

“A book that I will treasure for its insights into the most fundamental question of first cause. I prefer biographical novels to straight biographies, and especially enjoyed this allegorical unification of philosophy, science, and religion. It’s a book I can come back to again with interest and enthusiasm.”

— Professor Art Gittleman

“I really enjoyed the book and found the idea very original. It is such a joyful book and should be read by many people. With all the wars over religion and science it is refreshing to see that they do have a common meeting ground. I know I would enjoy reading this more times.”

— Robert Krol

“Since I read your book, it has helped me achieve the spirituality and peace that I’ve been searching for. I just couldn’t put it down.”

— Mary McIntyre

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“A masterful piece of fiction, enlivening the debate on the search for truth. I read it in five hours straight and thoroughly enjoyed it.”

— Amrit Yegnanarayan

“When I started reading the book I didn’t like it much because it seemed to attack my Christian faith. But then as I read some more, the universality of religion appealed to me a lot. When I reached the end I could not stop crying.”

— Teresa Friederich

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This book is a fictional dramatization of a metaphysical and spiritual journey. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 1997 by Gurpur M. Prabhu

All rights reserved. No part of this manuscript may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without explicit permission in writing from the author.

Grateful acknowledgment is made for permission to reprint the following: Excerpt from Zen and the Art of Motorcycle

Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig. Copyright 1974 by Robert M. Pirsig. Reprinted by permission of William Morrow and Company.

Lyrics from Welcome Back Kotter by John Sebastian. Reprinted by permission of John Sebastian Music.

Picture on front cover. R Barba, College of Education, San Jose State University.

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In this world, there have always been, there are, and there will always be original thinkers and those that follow. Our ancestors in the years gone by, both men and women, were not only leading original thinkers but also assumed the proportion of giants among generals. They strived hard to point us toward the Word of God, but time and time again, our path to Truth has been diverted by those who choose to control us, not help us out. This book is dedicated to those ancestors of ours who repeatedly rise from the ashes and try their best to help us find the Truth.

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“In questions of science the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual.”

— Galileo Galilei, circa 1600 A.D.

Author’s Note:This book is an inquiry into The Question: why

is there something instead of nothing? Religion believes that The Answer is the Supreme Being called God. Science believes that the road to The Answer goes exclusively through astronomy, cosmology, and physics. Not so. The road goes through several other places: through metaphysics, through philosophy, through religion, and through each and every one of us. We are all children of the cosmos and have a fundamental right to ask The Question and find an answer for ourselves.

The material presented in these pages is not to be confused with invaluable research being done by scientists. Nor is it to be confused with the abounding scholarly literature in philosophy and theology. Nevertheless the book deals with a fair amount of physics, metaphysics, philosophy, and spirituality.

A word or two about the narrative. The first draft was written through me at a phenomenal pace. It was written during the hours of 9:00 PM to 4:00 AM, it was written in the short span of two months, and it was my first experience with the Writing Muse. Such power she wielded over me that I obeyed her every whim in the fall of 1996. To remain faithful to her I have retained the original fiction structure of that draft as much as possible.

Several readers have commented on the book’s spiritually uplifting and inspirational theme. My hope is that you will be a slightly different person, that you will

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begin to think differently, that you will challenge basic assumptions, that you will see the universe differently, than before you read this book. If you are such a reader, please pass it on to your friends.

Although much has been changed for rhetorical purposes, the substantive portion of the inquiry is a personal saga, and consists of my father’s thoughts over a period of 50 years. My only regret is that it did not get written in time for my mother to read it. Not having had much scientific training, I would like to believe that she would have found the story compelling and perhaps understood him a little better.

Anita’s Legacy is written in loving tribute to my father, Major K.

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Prologue

Thursday, May 2, 1996 was a cool day in the midwestern United States. Anita did not wake up at the normal time for school in the morning. She would not wake up ever again. She had died peacefully in her sleep with a smile on her face. It was a heart-wrenching experience for her mother Meg and her father Alan to lose their only child, about two weeks short of her 16th birthday.

When Major Kay, their neighbor down the street, heard the news, he rushed over at once. Major Kay was a 71-year-old retired army officer. Gardening was his hobby, but physics and philosophy were his passion. He had been a good family friend and his grandson, Chris, was Anita’s classmate. Anita used to visit their house frequently.

Nobody, not even his wife or his army buddies had seen the major cry, but on this day Major Kay’s

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tears could not be contained. He and Anita had been soul mates for several years. They had spent hours together discussing physics, philosophy, and religion. Anita’s kinship with Major Kay was even stronger than her kinship with her father.

She had told her mother that she was to be cremated and her ashes to be dropped in the vicinity of Mt. St. Helens in the state of Washington.

At the memorial service held on May 5th, Major Kay was the last to speak. He said: “We all know what a sweet girl Anita was. She touched our lives in different ways during her short stay on earth. I would be remiss in my duty if I did not talk about a facet of her that is unknown to many of you.

“Since the beginning of civilization, people have wondered about the purpose of life and the origins of the universe. We ask ourselves where we came from, why we are here, and where we are going. We desperately look for answers. Science looks for answers in the quest for a single theory that describes the whole universe. Religion embraces the principle of a Supreme Being and looks for answers in the Word of God.

“Anita too was curious about many things. In the 12 years that I have been her friend, she has pestered me with lots of questions. The funny thing about her questions was that they usually altered my thinking and forced me to come up with answers. These answers have given me a totally different picture of the universe and the concept of God. Because of her probing, I believe things today that I would not have dreamed of believing a few years ago.

“Anita was fascinated by astronomy. To her, it was the queen of all the sciences. I cannot forget the

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gleam in her eyes when she gazed at the heavens. She would wake up before sunrise, and point her binoculars towards the summer triangle of Vega, Altair, and Deneb. Then she would eagerly wait for the constellation Andromeda to rise, wherein lies the nebula Messier 31, believed to be the twin of our galaxy.

“During the last six weeks she was transfixed by the appearance of Hyakutake. The comet is named after an amateur Japanese astronomer who discovered it less than two months before it could be viewed with the naked eye. It literally came out of the blue, surprising, and even embarrassing many respected astronomers. For us in the northern hemisphere it was a truly spectacular sight. Anita followed the comet with great interest as it continued to brighten along the northern byway of the sky—from Arcturus to the Big Dipper’s handle, through Ursa Minor, and on into Perseus before fading away from us. I stayed awake with her a couple of nights watching the comet’s mighty tail from dusk till dawn.

“Her death coincided with the day darkness descended on Hyakutake. On May 2nd, it turned around the sun and will be dark for the next two weeks, hidden by the sun’s glare. Like the comets in the night sky, I pray that her soul shines forever in the far reaches of the universe.

“Anita’s favorite smell was rain falling on dry sand. I recall standing outside with her during the first showers this year. As we smelled the sand and became wet, she asked me, ‘Major Kay, what is your legacy in life?’ ‘Anita, that’s for others to determine after I’m gone,’ I replied. ‘No, Major Kay,’ she said. ‘You are a child of the universe and carry your own cosmic legacy. Your spiritual purpose is to find out what this legacy is

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before you die, not for others to describe it after you are gone.’

“It sounded strange to me the first time I heard it, but not any more. Death comes to us all, no doubt, but before it snatched her away she had figured out her purpose in life. I summarize her legacy by quoting Albert Einstein: ‘Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind,’ he had said. For the last two centuries there has been an ever-widening gap between religion and science, between the mystics and the scientists. The mystics explore reality through meditation; the scientists investigate reality through scientific laws. The two camps are hopelessly separated: the scientists embrace an empirical philosophy that is not religious enough, while the mystics embrace a religious philosophy that is not empirical enough.

“From practicing the martial art of Tae Kwon Do, Anita learned the importance of possessing an indomitable spirit, a spirit that would not be vanquished as she spent her short life repairing the breach between the mystics and the scientists. Her legacy consists of the questions she raised and the answers she provided to narrow the chasm between religion and science.

“She was inspired by Werner Heisenberg, the founder of the uncertainty principle of quantum mechanics, who had once said:

It is probably true quite generally that in the history of human thinking the most fruitful developments frequently take place at those points where two different lines of thought meet. These lines may have their roots in quite different parts of human culture, in different times or different cultural environments or different

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religious traditions: hence if they actually meet, . . . then one may hope that new and interesting developments may follow.

“The developments have certainly been new and exciting. They have unlocked, for me, some of the mysteries of existence. I consider myself fortunate to have been her friend and gleaned her wisdom. You have all heard the saying ‘Whom the Gods love die young.’ The gods loved Anita very much—they sent Hyakutake—a Finger of God—to take her back. She was not of this earth.

“My feelings are best summed up in the words of a fourth century poet:

Whenever I look upon you and your words, I pay reverence . . For your concerns are directed at the heavens, . . . You who are . . . the beauty of reasoning,The immaculate star of wise learning.”

When the major finished talking, all one could hear was the sound of the plants blooming. After everybody had paid their last respects to the departed soul, Major Kay went over and hugged Meg and Alan. He said to them “Anita’s darkest hours are over. The candle of knowledge can now burn brightly in the dawn of the light she has left behind.”

As the sun set and night fell upon the crematorium a swarm of fireflies appeared from nowhere, periodically glowing as though to stoke her eternal fire.

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