RNS: “In the era of contemporary science, we often forget about the spiritual mind,” said Swami Atmapriyananda Maharaj Pro-Chancellor, Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda Educational and Research Institute, Belur Math. He is a monk of the Ramakrishna Order, a spiritual leader, an educationist.
He was delivering lecture on “The Saving Challenge of Spirituality in the Modern Age of Science and Reason” at IIT (ISM), Dhanbad. The lecture series is being organized by Department of Physics of the institute on the eve of National Science Day.
He also discussed the science unification through Vedanta and Upanishads and said that there are several classes of matter in science, and elaborated that the classification is as; sorrow (dukhha-traya), bodies (sarira-traya), human aspirations (chaturvidha-purusharthas), selves (pancha-atma or pancha-koshas), obstacles (pancha-kleshas), and various others. He related the symmetry in science to “sundaram” and invariance in physics to “nityam, saswatam”.
He further discussed four fundamental quests in Upanishads that are in tune with modern science. The first quest is the quest for unity, the second one is the quest for the continuum of matter-life-mind-consciousness, the third one is the quest for the infinite, and the fourth quest is the quest for great power (Maha Shakti) that is working through nature.
There was a brief interactive session between Swami Atmapriyananda Maharaj and the audience comprising of students and faculty member where some intricacies associated to the human life were deliberated.
Swami Atmapriyananda received his Ph.D. from the University of Madras in Theoretical Physics. He served as Vice Principal and Principal of Ramakrishna Mission Vidyamandira, Belur Math for 19 years. He served as the first Vice-Chancellor of Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda Educational and Research Institute (RKMVERI, a Deemed University) at Belur Math for more than 15 years.
Currently, he is the Pro-Chancellor of RKMVERI. He was awarded D.Sc. (Honoris Causa) by the IIT Kharagpur, and D Litt. (Honoris Causa) by the Central University of Assam for his outstanding achievements in the field of education and service to society.
