Hari Aum.
I saw a movie called the "The man who knew infinity" yesterday. I don't usually write about movies though I like watching them from time to time - there's no reason for them usually to find a place on this blog. But this one does have a reason. I highly recommend this movie to all.
This movie is based on the life of Srinivas Ramanujan, a man who is regarded as one of the mathematical genius' of all time. In a nutshell, his life is as follows. He was born in British India in a poor brahmin family, had no proper education and was obsessed with mathematics from a young age (to the exclusion of all else). After much difficulty and struggle, he went to Cambridge to meet people who he hoped would understand his brilliant mathematical concepts. He was initially met with scepticism and later with immense admiration for his extraordinary mathematical ideas that were far ahead of his times (these are now being used to understand black holes).
When asked how he came up with such brilliant thoughts, he simply said it wasn't him who was doing it. He said he had visions of his family deity, Goddess Namagiri (Lakshmi) and it was She who showed him the mathematical formulae while sleeping or while meditating. He said on waking, he immediately wrote these down.
Many people say that science reveals the beauty of God. Every scientific subject from biology and chemistry to astrophysics and medicine reveals over and over again the breath-taking intelligence in all of creation. What magic, what a mind, who made this! One cannot help but wonder as one stares into the cosmos on a starry night, or as one looks down a microscope at the unbelievably intricate arrangement of cells. This has been felt by many.
But Ramanujan provides direct proof of God. The irony is that the Cambridge professors wanted 'proofs' of his incredible mathematical formulae- and they spent a lot of time laboriously working these out (both during his short life and after his death), only to find, time and again, that his equations were correct. But what they didn't realise was that this man had proved the ultimate of all things to prove. The existence of God.
Here was a man, producing knowledge of seeming incredible impossible equations- which later transpired to the amazement of all to be true. When asked how on earth he came up with all this, he simply and bluntly declared it all came from his family Goddess.
In fact one of his famous quotations was:
"An equation has no meaning for me unless it expresses a thought of God".
What a stunning statement.
He felt the face of God was revealed by the incredible formulae he discovered. These formulae always existed in the Universe, they were not made by him, but they were revealed to him, and thus to humanity.
He felt that the Unmanifest God was represented by "0" and the incredible endless manifested God by the "infinity".
There is nothing airy fairy about mathematics. It appears to be a cold hard unromantic subject- completely cut off from talk of God and so on. But here you have one of the greatest men of our modern scientific world, a man at the forefront of the field of mathematics, stating that mathematics is nothing but about revealing the nature of God. Incredible.
Another wonderful point raised by the life of Ramanujan, is that here you have Lakshmi, who most people see as simply the Goddess of material wealth, who most Indians draw with garish gold coins pouring from Her lovely hands- here in this story, one sees Her as raising Her lovely hand and pouring forth incredible mathematical formulae instead of gold coins- into the mind of her divine son Ramanujan.
It seems to me that She did this, knowing that one day a time would come when people would claim that science and religion could not co-exist. That foolish people would start saying that science disproved the existence of God (utter nonsense- one can neither prove nor disprove the existence of God- it's a matter of faith, intuition! Err....well I thought that until I heard this story about Ramanujan- now it appears one can actually prove the existence of God. :).
It seems that through Her son Ramanujan, She sent a resoundingly clear message to humanity- that great science and great spirituality can very much co-exist. And indeed, that, on some level or another, that great science is always dependent on spirituality.
All human thoughts ultimately have their origin in God and God alone. He/She is the God of the modern world, as much as the God of Vedic times. He/She is the true maker of the ipad, the motor car, the aeroplane, the antibiotic, the robot, the internet, the computer and every other human invention. He/She is the author of every subject studied today, be it the arts or the sciences or anything else.
There is no creation without God, be it modern or ancient.
Prostrations again and again to Lakshmi, the beloved Muse of the genius mathematician Ramanujan.
Prostrations again and again to She, the beloved of Hari, from whose lovely hand, glorious mathematical formulae flowed into the mind of Her son Ramanujan for the benefit of humanity.
Om Shri MahaLakshmyai Namah.
Prostrations to the Goddess of the wealth of mathematics. :)
Hari Aum Tat Sat
I saw a movie called the "The man who knew infinity" yesterday. I don't usually write about movies though I like watching them from time to time - there's no reason for them usually to find a place on this blog. But this one does have a reason. I highly recommend this movie to all.
This movie is based on the life of Srinivas Ramanujan, a man who is regarded as one of the mathematical genius' of all time. In a nutshell, his life is as follows. He was born in British India in a poor brahmin family, had no proper education and was obsessed with mathematics from a young age (to the exclusion of all else). After much difficulty and struggle, he went to Cambridge to meet people who he hoped would understand his brilliant mathematical concepts. He was initially met with scepticism and later with immense admiration for his extraordinary mathematical ideas that were far ahead of his times (these are now being used to understand black holes).
When asked how he came up with such brilliant thoughts, he simply said it wasn't him who was doing it. He said he had visions of his family deity, Goddess Namagiri (Lakshmi) and it was She who showed him the mathematical formulae while sleeping or while meditating. He said on waking, he immediately wrote these down.
Many people say that science reveals the beauty of God. Every scientific subject from biology and chemistry to astrophysics and medicine reveals over and over again the breath-taking intelligence in all of creation. What magic, what a mind, who made this! One cannot help but wonder as one stares into the cosmos on a starry night, or as one looks down a microscope at the unbelievably intricate arrangement of cells. This has been felt by many.
But Ramanujan provides direct proof of God. The irony is that the Cambridge professors wanted 'proofs' of his incredible mathematical formulae- and they spent a lot of time laboriously working these out (both during his short life and after his death), only to find, time and again, that his equations were correct. But what they didn't realise was that this man had proved the ultimate of all things to prove. The existence of God.
Here was a man, producing knowledge of seeming incredible impossible equations- which later transpired to the amazement of all to be true. When asked how on earth he came up with all this, he simply and bluntly declared it all came from his family Goddess.
In fact one of his famous quotations was:
"An equation has no meaning for me unless it expresses a thought of God".
What a stunning statement.
He felt the face of God was revealed by the incredible formulae he discovered. These formulae always existed in the Universe, they were not made by him, but they were revealed to him, and thus to humanity.
He felt that the Unmanifest God was represented by "0" and the incredible endless manifested God by the "infinity".
There is nothing airy fairy about mathematics. It appears to be a cold hard unromantic subject- completely cut off from talk of God and so on. But here you have one of the greatest men of our modern scientific world, a man at the forefront of the field of mathematics, stating that mathematics is nothing but about revealing the nature of God. Incredible.
Another wonderful point raised by the life of Ramanujan, is that here you have Lakshmi, who most people see as simply the Goddess of material wealth, who most Indians draw with garish gold coins pouring from Her lovely hands- here in this story, one sees Her as raising Her lovely hand and pouring forth incredible mathematical formulae instead of gold coins- into the mind of her divine son Ramanujan.
It seems to me that She did this, knowing that one day a time would come when people would claim that science and religion could not co-exist. That foolish people would start saying that science disproved the existence of God (utter nonsense- one can neither prove nor disprove the existence of God- it's a matter of faith, intuition! Err....well I thought that until I heard this story about Ramanujan- now it appears one can actually prove the existence of God. :).
It seems that through Her son Ramanujan, She sent a resoundingly clear message to humanity- that great science and great spirituality can very much co-exist. And indeed, that, on some level or another, that great science is always dependent on spirituality.
All human thoughts ultimately have their origin in God and God alone. He/She is the God of the modern world, as much as the God of Vedic times. He/She is the true maker of the ipad, the motor car, the aeroplane, the antibiotic, the robot, the internet, the computer and every other human invention. He/She is the author of every subject studied today, be it the arts or the sciences or anything else.
There is no creation without God, be it modern or ancient.
Prostrations again and again to Lakshmi, the beloved Muse of the genius mathematician Ramanujan.
Prostrations again and again to She, the beloved of Hari, from whose lovely hand, glorious mathematical formulae flowed into the mind of Her son Ramanujan for the benefit of humanity.
Om Shri MahaLakshmyai Namah.
Prostrations to the Goddess of the wealth of mathematics. :)
Hari Aum Tat Sat
Thank you. The Mahalakshmi ashtakam (to which you have already posted a link above) is a good stothram to recite to please the Divine Mother Lakshmi.
ReplyDeleteSri Maha Lakshmi Namha
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