Modern Science and India’s Universal Wisdom

Salil Gewali, Shillong

• India is a land of knowledge and culture
• Many scientific principles of today were already discovered in ancient India
• The modern sciences stem from the old Indian wisdom

Incidentally, there in the west emerged a number of scholars like Marcus du Sautoy, the former President of the Mathematical Association, and others, who battled hard to establish that "Pi" was first mathematically calculated by Madhava of India in the 14^th century, almost about three century earlier then by the German mathematician Leibniz. Very recently only the fact has been officially established and now known to be "Madhava–Leibniz series". This bold step cannot be taken by any Indians within the country. Because other Indian scholars would be foaming at the mouth. Discrediting the West is quite like a blasphemy. Here people can proudly discredit their own country for which they usually find good support. That is why they disrespect their languages, they often take delight in disrespecting their heritage, and they can snobbishly distrust their native values. I'm afraid, here in India, distrusting the nation's glories requires no logic and trusting the foreign requires no validity!

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Therefore, I must salute a few of the world-renowned westerners who awakened me. Those dispassionate scholars who flashed their spotlight towards India for "knowledge". That flashlight was to dispel what I call it as my delusion. It was in fact destined to change my perspective to look at the country. One of the foremost among them to change my mind was an opinion/quote by Robert Julius Oppenheimer (father of atomic bomb) which I had come upon in a world-acclaimed book "The Tao of Physics" by a renowned American physicist Fritjof Capra. This atomic scientist, who learnt Sanskrit around 1933 to go deeper into the ancient text of India, proclaims, — "What we find in Modern Physics is an exemplification, an encouragement and a refinement of old Indian wisdom". Though it appeared quite ridiculous to me but I could not dismiss it. Rather, this bold opinion triggered my inner intellect. Of course, for a couple of months I remained skeptical of the views expressed by Oppenheimer, I persistently "reasoned" that a scientist does not utter a single word unless he/she evaluates the fact with the mathematical algorithms. In the meanwhile, I had overheard the roar of the father of Quantum Mechanic – Erwin Schrodinger, best known for his "Schrodinger Equation" — only one equation in the vast studies of Quantum Mechanic. That "roar" was in consonant with what my inner intuition vaguely held after reading the ancient text. Of course, it did not take me very long to figure out what so marveled Schrodinger, and also other modern physicists like David Bohm and the Nobel laureate Brain David Josephson about India's literature of wisdom.

The very fundamental essence of the Vedanta that — "apparent multiplicity is an illusion and everything in the universe is from ONE WHOLE" was thoughtfully paraphrased by Schrodinger. The grand notion of the East that'MAKER AND THE MADE' touched the heart of inquisitive Schrodinger. Indeed, after the in-depth research, observation and experimentation of probably not less than a decade, Schrodinger remarked: "The UNITY and CONTINUITY of Vedanta are reflected in the unity and continuity of 'wave mechanics'. The incredible doctrine that "All in ONE" of Upanishads perfectly dovetailed with the new experimentation of the matter or "particle" and its subtle "wave function".

That's why we have infinite species of flowers amazingly blooming in uncanny colors and fragrances at the same time in multiple Earth-like planets; we see endless verities of trees bearing fruits with amazing flavors and tastes; all celestial stars are rotating and revolving with perfect precision. Even one CELL/ATOM of an object is subtly as complex as a factory. Just imagine how many cells in the trillions and trillion of objects in the cosmic ocean? What is most intriguing is that everything is in perfect order, perfect harmony and at peace. Therefore, how could that be possible to "separate" the Divine from His boundless creations which are inherently divine themselves! So, the Vedantic proclamation that "Creator and Creation are ONE" makes much more sense to Schrodinger and his likes.

Sensing the grand meaning Schrodinger exclaimed in his masterpiece "What is life" : "The earliest records, to my knowledge, date back some 2500 years or more… the recognition ATMAN = BRAHMAN (the personal "self" equals the omnipresent, all-comprehending eternal SELF) was in Indian thought considered, far from being blasphemous, to represent the quintessence of deepest insight into the "HAPPENINGS" of the world. The striving of all the scholars of Vedanta was after having learnt to pronounce with their lips, really assimilate in their minds this grandest of all thoughts."

It's worthwhile to mention here that "The Unity and unified theory of Upanishads" was introduced to this great modern scientist by the front-ranking thinker of Germany – Arthur Schopenhauer. Albert Einstein always held Schopenhauer as one of his masters whose portrait he had decorated his study room with.

Finally, I salute a very brilliant American historian Will Durant who, after serious studies of the history and philosophy of the East and the West, concluded: "India was the motherland of our "race", and Sanskrit the mother of European languages. She was the Mother of our philosophy, of our mathematics, of the ideals embodied in Christianity, of self-government and democracy. Mother India is in many ways the Mother of us all." Will Durant authored a world-acclaimed series 'Story of Civilization' in 11 volumes. But what is so weird is that this Mother Indian has given birth to some of the children who consider themselves totally orphaned unless they follow and adopt the West and find fault with the East!

Salil Gewali is a well-known writer and author of 'Great minds on India'. Twitter: @SGewali.