Bharatiya Pragna - Dr. Th Chowdary

150th Birth Year
Tribute
ers is certain forming a
sure foundation of what is to come. Even chorus
of derision arose which was magnified by the
Press, Langley died of a broken heart.
This has often been the fate of great inventors
and discoverers. But the lure that heroic
souls is not the success which can easily be
achieved but defeat and tribulation in the pursuit
of the unattainable. I have seen at the
Smithsonian Institution this machine which failed
at the first experiment. But after Langley’s death
the experiment was repeated, and the aeroplane
rose into the air like a bird that has been set free
after a long period of imprisonment.
The mental Factor
I spoke in some detail of the source of
the weakness that has so long arrested our scientific
advance. This was our neglect of the experimental
factor. I shall show latter how this
defect can be remedied, if we once realize and
face it. I shall now take up the other factor, the
mental, in which fortunately we do possess certain
advantages. It is to be remembered that every
experiment has to be carried out first in the
inner region of the mind. To keep the mental vision
clear great struggles have to be undergone,
for the clearness of the inner vision is lost too
easily. The greatest wealth of external appliances
is of no avail where there is not a concentrated
pursuit of a great object. Those whose minds
rush hither and thither, those who hunger for
public applause or personal gain instead of truth,
by them the quest is never won. In pursuit of
knowledge an Indian inquirer has the burning
imagination which can export truth out of a mass
of disconnected facts, a habit of meditation without
allowing the mind to dissipate itself. If he
caught “with his scientific imagination a glimpse
8
of a wonder-working ray as yet unknown to man,
and believed that experiment would reveal its
properties, he would go on his task to his disciples.”
Power of Detachment
And what about the fruit of knowledge
that has been acquired, and its applications ? It
is well-known that a moving machinery in increasing
its unrestrained pace rushes towards
destruction, unless it has a self-checking governor
to restrain it before the danger limit is reached.
In the West there has been no check or limit to
the competition for personal gain and lust for
power in exploiting the applications of knowledge,
not so often for saving as for causing destruction.
And on account of the absence of this
restraining force, civilization is trembling today
in an unstable poise on the brink of ruin.
Let us now look at the innate restraining
power that governs Indian life and culture. We
may call it the force of detachment or, for want
of a better phrase, the impulse of spirituality. Let
us see how this common heritage reacts on the
Indian mind. As an extreme case, let us see how
one of the greatest of warrior kings became suddenly
transformed under its dominating influence
even at the moment of his greatest victory. In the
ninth year of his reign his arms were successful
and the extensive territories of Kalinga were incorporated
with his empire. This is what the
Emperor Ashoka writes on imperishable stone
as the record of his triumph, twenty two centuries
ago :
“His Majesty feels remorse on account
of the conquest of the Kalingas, because during
the subjugation of a country, slaughter, death and
taking away captive of people necessarily occur.
And for this His Majesty feels profound sor-
November & December 2008 Bharatiya Pragna