Einstein, Gandhi and Tagore

Einstein, Gandhi and Tagore

Gouri Tripathi

Albert Einstein had special regards for four Indians: Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Rabindra Nath Tagore and Satyendra Nath Bose; the later was associated with Einstein in a profound joint work, namely the Bose-Einstein statistics for a set of quantum particles called bosons. He was fascinated by Gandhi’s unique personality, Tagore’s beautiful poetry and philosophy, Nehru’s vision and modernity and, last but not the least, Bose’s science. In an earlier contribution (Matter and Spirit), I tried to explore the possible unity between Gandhi and Einstein. I feel that Tagore has lot in commonness with these two and can be clubbed with them.

Einstein was regarded as one of the world’s two greatest scientific and mathematical geniuses, the other being Newton. Apart from science, Einstein’s concern for humanity and fellow human beings is well known. His simplicity bore a testimony to his greatness.
All these traits made him deeply spiritual in a scientific way. His boy-like simplicity, rock-like firmness and great insight in the least- treaded areas of mathematical physics made him extra-ordinary beyond comparison.

Gandhi was not a genius like Einstein. Gandhi is simply unbelievable. Gandhi epitomized the indestructibility of human spirit, while Einstein, with his theory of mass-energy equivalence, showed that the spirit of science, too, is indestructible. Tagore completes the Trinity; the freshness and beauty of his great poetry is also indestructible. While Gandhi was a laboratory of truthfulness, Einstein and Tagore showed that knowledge comes from the depth of truth. Gandhi was an explicit believer of God. On the other hand, both Tagore and Einstein had subtle beliefs in a Supreme Controller, but never were explicit in their faiths. Gandhi was spiritually genius; Tagore and Einstein were intellectually so. The formative years of the three were not in any way spectacular, but later they turned out to be leaders in their chosen paths. Their lives and work pervaded the domains of human thought, as never before.

The paradox of Einstein’s life was based on the fact, while his Nobel winning work was on the demonstration of the particle nature of light, which laid the foundation of Quantum Theory; he was skeptic about the initial- probabilistic nature of this theory and used to say that God never played dice. We learn from this that one of the manifestations of truth lies in contrasts. The dichotomies of Tagore’s poetry also confirm this. Tagore’s poetry is simple but profound in its expression; it has subtle philosophy and yet is soothingly musical.

Gandhi and Tagore were mutual admirers. The titles of Mahatma and Gurudev, by which both are known respectively, were given by each other and acknowledged throughout the country. Mahatma Gandhi’s adherences to truthfulness, spirit of sacrifice and indomitable courage made him the leader of Indian people. On the other hand, when the confidence of Indian people was at its bottom, Tagore’s international recognition in the shape of Nobel Prize gave the much-needed intellectual boost.
Modernity is not at absolute equilibrium with spirituality, although it does not always ignore the influence of the latter. Spirituality with scientific signature can bridge the mismatch substantially, since in modern times science is widely acknowledged as the standard to measure and interpret truth in and around us, in the smallest as well as the greatest dimensions, in the visible and the invisible world and finally in knowledge and ignorance. Thus science possesses the ability to unify the most diverse aspects of life and matter. It contributes to spirituality in terms of knowledge and to materials progress in terms of technology and in the process unifies both.