I was rather astounded at the derision made by a certain section of our society of what Mr. Rajnath Singh, Union Home Minister said recently about an existence of some reference in some verse in Upnishads with Heisenberg Principle and referred to the writings of Mr. Fritjof Capra. In fact, he simply reiterated what many others state about the great scientific knowledge hidden in spiritual and philosophical messages of Indian Vedic Period sacred texts, which may be googled easily.
The people who passed sarcastic comments on Mr. Rajnath must study Heisenberg (one of the founders of the quantum theory in Physics) himself in his wonderful book "Physics and Philosophy", which speaks of development of various philosophical ideas in quantum theory. Apart from this, the "Tao of Physics" is another example written by Mr. Fritjof Capra.
But I would like to let the readers know what Mr. Capra, in his "Howling with Wolves", which was referred to by Mr. Rajnath Singh, wrote about his meeting and discussion with Mr. Heisenberg on the issue of emphasis of Indian sacred texts:
"When I asked Heisenberg about his own thoughts on Eastern philosophy, he told me to my great surprise not only that he had been well aware of the parallels between quantum physics and Eastern thought, but also that his own scientific work had been influenced, at least at the subconscious level, by Indian philosophy.
In 1929 Heisenberg spent some time in India as the guest of the celebrated Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore, with whom he had long conversations about science and Indian philosophy. This introduction to Indian thought brought Heisenberg great comfort, he told me. He began to see that the recognition of relativity, interconnectedness, and impermanence as fundamental aspects of physical reality, which had been so difficult for himself and his fellow physicists, was the very basis of the Indian spiritual traditions. "After these conversations with Tagore," he said, "some of the ideas that had seemed so crazy suddenly made much more sense. That was a great help for me."
The other purpose of my visit, of course, was to find out what Heisenberg thought about The Tao of Physics. I showed the manuscript to him chapter by chapter, briefly summarizing the content of each chapter and emphasizing especially the topics related to his own work. Heisenberg was most interested in the entire manuscript and very open to hearing my ideas. I told him that I saw two basic themes running through all the theories of modern physics, which were also the two basic themes of all mystical traditions-the fundamental interrelatedness and interdependence of all phenomena and the intrinsically dynamic nature of reality. Heisenberg agreed with me as far as physics was concerned and he also told me that he was well aware of the emphasis on interconnectedness in Eastern thought. However, he had been unaware of the dynamic aspect of the Eastern world view and was intrigued when I showed him with numerous examples from my manuscript that the principal Sanskrit terms used in Hindu and Buddhist philosophy-brahman, rta, lila, karma, samsara, etc.-had dynamic connotations. At the end of my rather long presentation of the manuscript Heisenberg said simply: "Basically, I am in complete agreement with you."
…… "
The other book, I happened to read was written by Mr. Dan Brown. If you know him, at 200 million books sold, he is one of the highest selling authors of all time and with only six books, he has achieved these sales writing fewer books than anyone above him on the list. The Robert Langdon series is currently the seventh highest selling series of all time. The Times estimated his income from Da Vinci Code sales as $250 million. He is the author who possesses unparalleled astounding command on symbolism, technologies and has profound knowledge of insights of various cultures across the world. In his "The Lost Symbol", on page 59 (Bantam Press, Edition 2009), he writes:
"… he dropped loudly on the library table. "Modern polarity is nothing but the 'dual world' described by Krishna here in the Bhagwad Gita over tow thousand years ago. A dozen other books in here, including the Kybalion, talk about binary systems and opposing forces in nature."
Katherine was skeptical. "Okay, but if we talk about modern discoveries in subatomics – the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, for example –"
"Then we must look here," Peter said, ……… "The sacred Hindu Vendantic scriptures known as Upnishads." ………… "Heisneberg and Schodinger studied this text and credited it with helping them formulate some of their theories".
…."
Are these still true lies? Instead of being proud of our glorious past, should we de-sanctify it?
~ Sanjay Mohan Bhatnagar
