Indian wisdom inspired great western scholars
Dr. Omarlin Kyndiah When I first came upon
the book 'What is India?' compiled by Salil Gewali of Shillong about 7 months
ago, I suddenly felt a patriotic thrill. The book reinforced my conviction
regarding the richness of Indian wisdom which I had already read in several
books. Vedas and Upanishads made great impact on the modern scientists,
particularly Nobel laureate Erwin Schroedinger, Robert Julius Oppenheimer
(father of Atomic Bomb), Werner Heisenberg (co-founder of Quantum Physics), and
John Archibald Wheeler who coined 'Black Hole' and involved in theoretical
development of Atomic Bomb). So far my personal knowledge of Indian literature
is concerned I am slowly beginning to understand why these great minds opted to
read them deeply and said so much in their appreciation. One quote of Archibald
Wheeler always haunts me , "One has the feeling that the thinkers of the
East knew it all, and if we could only translate their answers into our
language we would have the answers to all our questions."
I think we need to
study more to discover our fathomless classical knowledge. I am wondering when
we Indians, just attracted to western culture, will begin to ponder over the
opinion of one of the greatest American modern poets T S Eliot who says---
‘Indian philosophers’ subtleties make most of
the great European philosophers look like schoolboys'
Mr Salil Gewali has
done great job by compiling "What is India?" Now we at least have an
opportunity to know about India's intellectual prowess in the words of the
greatest intellectuals from the west.
The book may be viewed at http://what-is-india.blogspot.com/2011/05/what-is-india.html
Dr. Omarlin
Kyndiah
St. Edmund College
Shillong
Email:
kyndiahomarlin1@gmail.com