Law of Love & The Mathematics of Spirituality

You will find in this book a rather unfamiliar mix of spirituality, Vedānta and mathematics. As such the reader’s first reaction may be to question what Vedānta has to do with Mathematics or how mathematical analysis can help a discussion on spirituality. While the long answer to this question is in the pages of this book itself, I would like to address these questions now as a way of introducing the subject matter of the book.

Deep within all human beings there is a longing for truth, love, beauty and peace. This dimension of our existence is separate from the physical comforts we seek from the world and is a manifestation of our spiritual nature. The spiritual needs of human beings are as real as their physical needs. Being real, it should be possible to investigate this spirituality with the same objectivity found in the sciences dealing with the physical world. Scientific methods, including mathematical analysis, that have so well succeeded in furthering our understanding of the universe of matter and energy should also help in studying spirituality. This is the rationale for my views; the inspiration for this view has come to me from two great thinkers and teachers of our time, Dr. S. Radhakrishnan and Swami Chinmayananda.

In the summer of 1961, I and my fellow graduate students in the Indian Statistical Institute, Calcutta, were sent to New Delhi to learn about the ways the various departments of the Government in India collected and utilized statistics in their work. A small group among us took the opportunity of our month long presence in the capital city to seek audience with the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and separately with Vice-President Dr. Radhakrishnan. Our requests were promptly granted, partly based no doubt on the reputation our institution and its director Prof. Mahalanobis had with Mr. Nehru and others. While our encounter with the Prime Minister was polite but brief, the one with the Vice-President at his official residence was more engaging. Seated cross-legged in an overstuffed chair and without his customary turban, the eminent philosopher appeared quite relaxed and willing to talk. He opened his remarks tauntingly with the cliché “Ah, Statistics and lies!” meant clearly as a bait, but then quickly moved to soften the blow by adding another well worn phrase “Figures do not lie, but liars do figure.” To our relief, however, the discussion turned away soon from statistics and more towards philosophy.

What I recall most about that evening was his response to a question I asked him: What did he have to say about the historic stand-off between Science and Religion? I expected a long answer to a difficult question, but what I got instead was a stern put-down followed by a memorable one-liner.

“Don’t tell me tall stories!” said Dr. Radhakrishnan, as though my question was presumptuous. Then, after a brief pause, he added:

“A little bit of science takes you away from religion—but a little bit more of it will bring you right back to it!”

I do not remember much else the Vice President said in answer to my question, but probably that is because everything else that followed was somewhat redundant. The sharp insight behind his short answer was indeed impressive. Guruji Swami Tejomayananda, the current Head of the global Chinmaya Mission, who we had the honor of hosting once at our home, thought well enough of Dr. Radhakrishnan’s statement to quote it in his fascinating book Hindu Culture [1].

Dr. Radhakrishnan was a scholar renowned for his understanding of world religions, but his ideas were particularly well rooted in the Gītā and Upaniṣads. To me his answer revealed his conviction that modern science and the Vedānta taught in the Gīta and Upaniṣads are not in conflict and that in fact they have edged closer to each other in recent times. In making his statement, Dr. Radhakrishnan was very likely referring to the revolutionary ideas in the 20th century science, especially in Physics.

One of the most effective teachers and practitioners of Vedānta in the 20th century was Swami Chinmayananda, the founder of the world-wide Chinmaya Mission. The author is fortunate to have had the opportunity to listen to his talks on Vedānta and also to be closely associated with the Mission for over two decades. Gurudev, as he is known to many in the Mission, usually referred to Vedānta as the “subjective science” where the object of scientific enquiry is one’s own self or “the seer”. He emphasized that in its rigor of reasoning and analysis, Vedānta was no less scientific than the “material sciences” where the object of enquiry is the outside world or “the seen”. Vedānta’s theoretical constructs are logically sound and its practical inferences verifiable by experience. Swami Chinmayananda brought this out clearly by what he taught as well as by the way he lived among us.