Life's Lessons - Joseph Mattappally
I
have heard many Indians say that they are proud of India. Slowly, I realized
that their love is confined to just some degree of slavish patriotism or to the
best attachment to that religious environment in which they were brought up. To
a great extend, this is true of people from all over the world. How nice it
would have been if people clearly knew their rich heritage and had chosen to
follow the values and life style of the great forefathers of that country and
tried to create a richer heritage.
If
we take India for example, it can easily be said that it is a land of Great
Masters. Aryabhat of India, the man
behind ‘pi’, was the first to proclaim that the earth is round and it rotates
on its axis, orbits the sun and is suspended in space – one thousand years
before Copernicus published his heliocentric theory. Nagarjuna was an
extraordinary Indian wizard whose dedicated long research contributed greatly
to Chemistry and Metallurgy. It was Nagarjuna who discovered the alchemy of
transmuting base metals into gold. He also made significant contributions to
the field of curative medicine. Because of his profound scholarliness and
versatile knowledge, he was appointed Chancellor of the famous University of
Nalanda. Again, Bhaskaracharya of India was the first to invent the secrets of gravity,
centuries before Newton. Acharya Kanad founded
the atomic theory two thousand five hundred years before John Dalton did it.
T.N. Colebrook once said, "Compared to the scientists of Europe, Kanad and
other Indian scientists were the global masters of this field." Acharya Charak is called the Father of Medicine. His
renowned work, the "Charak Samhita", is considered an encyclopedia of
Ayurveda. He revealed the facts on human anatomy, embryology, pharmacology, and
blood circulation. Varahamihir was an eminent
astrologer. He has also given cures for various diseases afflicting plants and
trees. Acharya Bharadwaj is precisely a pioneer of aviation technology. He has given astonishing and outstanding
discoveries in aviation science, space science and flying machines (Yantra
Sarvasva). Maharshi Patanjali is the Father of Yoga; the list
continues....., and J C Bose is not the last of the series. Almost in every faculty,
Indians have contributed greatly.
It was with much enthusiasm that they all worked for
global welfare. It is this sort of enthusiasm and
quality of intention that the world misses now; most people live limited to a
small society of spouse and children. What we have in full is curiosity, which
is perhaps the only sin, according to me. I wish, if all the Indians
would have first learned about those great forefathers, before choosing to
continue blind worshippers of an unknown heritage. It only creates more
chancellors and Nalandas.
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