I dive down into the depths of ocean of forms
Hoping to gain the perfect pearl of the formless.
- Rabindranath Tagore
Had I not been a physicist I could have been close to literature. Hindi poetry and English prose have interested me particularly. In fact I have been pursuing my other interests almost simultaneously with physics teaching and research. Looking back my association with Physics was somewhat unintentional. I could also have opted for mathematics or an engineering branch. However, once I was there I was pleased to feel the range and depth of the subject of my choice. Later I came closer to the fascinating world of quantum theory. It was then that I experienced the beauty in apparently contradictory situations. I often prefer to quote Niels Bohr:
At the level of atoms, language must be used only as in poetry.
I have talked of the wide range covered by the subject referred to as Physics. It is a hard core science, and is very much at the basis of technology. In its another dimension it is close to philosophy, often raising and dealing with questions concerning the origin of the cosmos, origin of life, emergence of consciousness and nature of reality. From the realm of very big (solar system, galaxies, cosmos) to the realm of very small (elementary particles) almost everything appears to come within it periphery.
In this world of cut-throat competition and hard fought survival struggle knowledge for the sake of knowledge or for happiness and satisfaction hardly counts. That is supposed to be a luxury. If one can spend quite a lot for physical luxuries there is no reason one should deny to himself the luxury of looking at something with a thoughtful mind of a poet or a philosopher trying to fathom the depths of oceans and bringing out a few pearls of the formless. I would like to quote Gajanan Madhav Muktibodh in original Hindi but at the moment I do not have that facility, I have to satisfy myself with the poem expressed in Roman script:
Shabdon shabdon mein wakyon mein
manavi abhiprayon ka jo suraj nikla
uski wishwakul ek kiran tum bhi to ho
dharti ke ji ko akulane wali
chhavi madhura kavita ki pyari pyari si ek kahan
tum bhi to ho.
I have always been in search (like many others) of the light rays that carry the whole range of human feelings and meanings, getting a momentary glimpse at times. I wish I can share with others that feeling of oneness, the great feeling of belonging to the mother earth, the great experience of sharing the beauty of sharing itself.
Sharing of the beauty I said. What about the dark side of the world, the inhabitants of the planet who have probably never had time to experience anything but sorrow. I can never rest satisfied so long as this other side exists; that is for ever. At the same time I must not wait. If I can go on experiencing the beauty and share, to whatever extent possible, the pain and sorrow of those who are in difficult situations, I will have reason to be partly satisfied.
Quoting Muktibodh again
Tana-bana, manav-digant ki kirnon ka
maine tum mein, jan-jan mein jis din pehchana
us din, us pal neele nabh ka suraj
Hanste hanste utra - mere angan.
I am waiting for you, waiting for the moment when I shall be able to recognise within you, and within all, the complex weaving and expanse of human thought and feeling of oneness. I am waiting for the moment the smiling sun will descend from the blue sky onto my terrace.
And on my small terrace there is ample room, room for physics, philosophy, poetry, literature, sky gazing, music and gardening. An entire infinity condensed into finite space and time. I am in a state of superposition
(almost in the quantum mechanical sense) until I start concentrating on a particular thing. This amounts to a measurement ( again in the same sense ) converting one of these possibilities into an actuality. At that moment other interests go into oblivion, waiting for and ready to arise and evolve in another moment.
And what decides the moment. There is some kind of causality, although not very obvious. Causality- deterministic or indeterministic, classical and also quantum at times - all these are responsible for the
networking ( tana-bana) connecting one moment to the other.