A K Chakrabarti
Most complex physical systems and processes in the universe are explained with extraordinarily simple mathematical equations. Some all-time great equations in physics are:
- Newton's second law of motion F= ma,
- Laws of gravitation F= Gm1m2/r2
- Planck's equation of quantum energy E=hf
- Einstein mass-energy equivalence: E = mC2 and
- a few others like Maxwel’s set of equations in electromagnetics, and Schrodinger’s equation of quantum mechanical system.
The Mother of All Equations is E = mC2 which many may think that Einstein got in a single shot because of its simplicity but the concept behind this equation is the Theory of
Relativity which a few people have so far could understand. You may ask, then, what is the hard physics equation that describes the systems around us? Well, it is the Navier-Stokes stocks equation that describes the motion of viscous fluid substances. You can try it, it is very interesting!
According to science historians, many scientists thought about mass-energy interchangeability since the 19th century but nobody could get it so simple and accurate as E = mC2. Noted among the scientists who worked for mass-energy interchangeability are JJ Thompson, Oliver Heaviside, Willhelm Wien, Max Abraham, John Henry Poynting, Henry Poincare, Fritz Hasenohrl, and a few others. It is highly surprising and amazing too that this list of great scientists included an intuitive scientist who is a scholar of Vedanta philosophy, a religious teacher who spread the message of Universal Brother and Sisterhood, a patriot and revolutionary who wanted freedom from backwardness and poverty, a visionary who wanted to make India strong in science and technology, a monk who thought about the industrial revolution in India, a person who had close interactions with many leading scientists and technologists in the world, a visionary who created a wonderful Mission that blossomed into a global institution. And the person is India's youth icon, Swami Vivekananda. The story of Swami Vivekananda getting connected to E = mC2 is fascinating, no less than a Sherlock Holmes thriller.
The story starts with a voyage of historical importance.
The Great Voyage
On 14 July 1893, the SS Empress of India set sail from Japanese sport of Yokohama to Vancouver in Canada. Two great visionaries of India were on board. Swami Vivekananda was on his way to speak at the World Parliament of Religion in Chicago. Sir Jamshedji Tata was also going to the same destination to visit the World Colombian Exposure. It was a chance meeting of the two visionaries on the 12-day voyage. They discussed many subjects. Though properly not documented. the summary of the discussion is available in various versions as narrated to their acquaintances.
Swami Vivekananda talked about his vision and mission. Sir Jamshedji Tata talked about his trip to Japan to import steel to trade in India. Swami Vivekananda suggested that he could get the technology and equipment for making steel and setup industry in India which was realized a few years later. Steel Plant was established in 1907 at Jamshedpur. They shared the common goal to make India strong in Science and Technology and manufacturing industrial goods which were imported to India. They also explored if the services of the monks could be used for industrial purposes.
After 5 years, Swami Vivekananda received a letter from Sir Jamshedji Tata.
‘I trust, you remember me as a fellow traveller on your voyage from Japan to Chicago. I very much recall at this moment your views on the growth of ascetic spirit in India and the duty, not of destroying, but diverting it into useful channels.
I recall these ideas in connection with my scheme of Research Institute of Science for India… I am of opinion that, if such a crusade in favour of an asceticism of this kind were undertaken by a competent leader, it would greatly help asceticism, science and the good name of our common country; and I know not who could make a more fitting general of such a campaign than Vivekananda…’
Swami Vivekananda was busy setting up the Ramakrishna Mission and was not in good health and asked Sister Nivedita to extend her support to Sir Jamshedji’s mission. The proposal met with numerous hurdles. Sir Jamshedji and his friend Padshah met Viceroy Lord Curzon on 31st Dec, a day after he arrived in India. The proposal was rejected for reasons - philosophy and metaphysics cannot be taught with science, and where are the students, where are the jobs? It was a grueling journey for Sister Nivedita, Padshah and his sister Jerbai and a few others to get the British to agree to start a university in India for the objectives as received by Sir Tata and Swami Vivekananda. They campaigned in India and England. The approval from the British to start the institute in Bangalore finally came up after 13 years.
IISc Bangalore came into existence on 27 May 1909 on 372 acres of land donated by Sir Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV, Maharaja of Mysore, and an ardent disciple of Swami Vivekananda.
Vivekananda was much concerned that India at that time was underdeveloped, lacking technology and industry. He advised Indians to take the help of Western science to eradicate poverty and underemployment.
Along with his primary mission to spread the Vedanta philosophy in the West, Swami Vivekananda took a keen interest to know the latest development in science and technology to bring them to India for the development of indigenous technology and manufacturing. Swami Vivekananda interacted with scientists in the West and made the Vedantic concept of mass-energy interchangeability known to the world which made him connected with the famous equation E = mC2. The story follows. Swami Vivekananda met world-top scientists and engineers After the event of 1893 at the Permanent Memorial Art Palace, now known as the Art Institute Of Chicago, Swami Vivekananda met many top scientists and engineers from the USA. Elisa Gray, American electrical engineer and co-founder of Western Electric Manufacturing Company invited Swami Vivekananda for dinner where Swamiji met Sir William Thomson (Lord Kelvin), Prof. Herman von Helmholtz, Prof. Edouard Hospitalier, and other distinguished scientists. Swami Vivekananda met Prof. William James, an American philosopher, historian, and psychologist, known as the Father of American psychology, and discussed Vedanta and Pragmatism, a philosophy evaluating beliefs in terms of the success of their practical applications.
In 1896, Swami Vivekananda met Nicola Tesla, a Serbian American electrical engineer, and inventor, in a meet organised by French actress Sarah Bernhardt, the reigning empress of European Theatre. Swami Vivekananda went to see a show where Sarah was playing the role of Iziel, in the play of the same name, depicting the life of Buddha. Sarah spotted Vivekananda in the audience and met him after the show. Swami Vivekananda and Tesla continued their association discussing Vedanta philosophy and modern science. Swami Vivekanand interacted with Western scientists and explained Prana Akasha and Kalpa of Vedanta philosophy. Prana is defined as a cause of all motions. Before
the beginning of creation, the unconditioned causal state of the universe Sarah Bernhardt contained in potential Prana. Akasha means the basis and essence of all things in the material world. Kalpa is the period in which the universe undergoes creation and destruction. Scientists were deeply engaged in the mystery of mass and energy interchangeability. Many scientists were attracted by Swami Vivekananda's explanation of Vedantic Cosmology which deals with the creation of the universe through energy and matter interchangeable processes.
Foundation of E = mC2 square
Tesla strongly believed in the presence of free energy in the universe which can be tapped and transmitted. He was working on mass-energy interchangeability which was also of interest to Swami Vivekananda. Tesla promised Vivekananda that he will connect mass and energy with a mathematical equation. After meeting Tesla, Swami Vivekananda wrote to an English friend, “Mr. Tesla thinks he can demonstrate mathematically that force and matter are reducible to potential energy. I am to go and see him next week to get this new mathematical demonstration. In that case the Vedantic cosmology will be placed on surest of the foundation. I am working a good deal now upon the cosmology and eschatology of the Vedanta. I clearly see their perfect Union with modern science, and the elucidation of the one will be followed by that of the other”. There are many interesting statements of Swami Vivekananda and views of Western scientists which form the basis of the belief that Swami Vivekananda was actively involved in the quest to resolve the greatest mystery of the universe. (Information presented here and in other paragraphs in this article have been systematically compiled in the book, ‘Swami Vivekananda An Intuitive Scientist authored by Dr.T.G.K. Murthy.)
Statements and Views
1. Swami Vivekananda said, “All forces, whether you call them gravitation, or attraction, or repulsion, whether expressing themselves as heat, or electricity or magnetism, are nothing but a variation of that unit energy”.
2. Einstein thought of Unified Field Theory, and other physicists thought about the Theory of Everything.
3. Swami Vivekananda said, “It is absolutely certain that in the beginning there is that infinite cosmic intelligence. The universal intelligence is what we call God. Call it by any other name”.
4. Swami Vivekananda’s effort was to show that the external and internal world are not separate, that gross melts into fine and physics into metaphysics.
5. General Theory of Relativity demonstrates that time is linked or related to matter and space and thus the dimension of time, space and matter constitute what we could call a continuum. They must come into existence at precisely the same instant. Time itself cannot exist in the absence of matter and space. 6. Swami Vivekananda spoke on the subject of Unity, “Science is nothing but finding unity. As soon as science would reach perfect unity, it would stop from further progress, because it would reach the goal….Physics would stop when it would be able to fulfil its services in discovering one energy of which all others are but manifestation…”.
7. Swamiji said:
In Madras,” One atom of the universe cannot move without dragging the whole world along with it. In London,” One man contains the whole universe. One particle of matter has all the energy of the universe at the back”.
In Los Angeles, “This mind is a part of the universal mind. Each mind is connected to every other mind. Wherever it is located, it is in actual communication with the whole world”. This statement of Swami Vivekananda connects to the modern concept of quantum entanglement which states,’ when two particles link together in a certain way no matter how far apart they are in space’. The principle of quantum entanglement is used in Quantum Computers.
8. This article remains incomplete unless a few words are added about the Higgs boson that connects energy and matter. The Higgs boson also known as The God Particle is a part of the Higgs mechanism which explain how particle acquire mass. Higgs boson is the fundamental force-carrying particle that is responsible for granting other particles their mass. On 4 July 2012, the particle was finally discovered by researchers at the Large Hardon Collider, located at the European particle physics laboratory, CERN, Switzerland.
Finally, the big question is whether Einstein knew about Swami Vivekananda and his views on mass energy interchangeability. Dr. T.G.K. Murthy has mentioned in his book, “It has been said that Einstein himself had acknowledged the contribution of Swami Vivekananda by stating that there is one KANDA (as the Western papers often referred to Swamiji) who predicted that energy and matter are interchangeable”. Though there is no reference readily available to confirm Einstein knew about Swami Vivekananda, but an indirect connection proves the possibility. Mileva Maric, the first wife of Albert Einstein and a physicist and mathematician, knew Nikola Tesla. It is stated in an article published by Tesla Memorial Society of New York, “During her (Maric) early years at university, she became an acquaintance of Nikola Tesla as a mathematics student”. Science historian talked about Maric’s Theory of Relativity which Einstein acknowledged in several letters between the two. Tesla was working on an energy-matter problem and it is quite likely that Tesla communicated to Mileva Maric about his interaction with Swami Vivekananda which Einstein was quite likely to know.
Einstein had a deep interest in connecting science, religion, and philosophy and might have discussed the thoughts of Swami Vivekananda with his wife, Mileva Maric. Research on mass-energy interchangeability will continue till the mystery is resolved in totality. New concepts like String theory are emerging. It is a matter of pride that the name of a young Indian monk will remain associated with the great journey of human beings to resolve the mystery of creation and the creator.
Swami Vivekananda is India’s youth icon. 12th January, Swami Vivekananda’s birthday, is celebrated as National Youth Day.
Let the vision and mission of Swami Vivekananda be the guiding force to make our beloved nation Free from Backwardness and Poverty.
The author acknowledges with deep appreciation the seminal work of Dr. T.G.K Murthy in bringing out the scientific mind of Swami Vivekananda, which is lesser known, in his book ‘Swami Vivekananda An Intuitive Scientist.’ I read this book recently and was motivated to share the intuitive mind of Swami Vivekananda with my young friends. It is a must-read book, available at the bookstore of Sri Ramakrishna Math, Hyderabad, or Amazon. Price Rs.65.