SECRETES OF UNIVERSE

Order and simplification are the first step

Towards the mastery of a subject.

-          Thomas Mann

SECRETES OF UNIVERSE

As a child I wondered to see the enormous variety of plants, animals and many other inanimate objects around me. No two plants, no two animals, no two hills are identical. Even two leaves from the same tree are not totally identical. No two children of a family are exactly alike. Truly, nature has an unlimited variety of living and non-living objects.

I always wondered how these varieties were produced. Does nature have an unlimited, inexhaustible storehouse containing infinite ingredients? Man has always been curious to know the secrets of nature. Several attempts have been made to understand this variety, the intelligence behind it. The Indian sages and Greek philosophers thought that the wide variety of objects around us are made of five basic elements, namely, Earth, Water, Air, Fire and Sky. The Indian sage Kanada suggested that all matters are composed of very small particles, the Mahabhutas. Interestingly, all these guesses had one common feature: the understanding that a large variety could be generated from just a few basic building blocks. It is likely that this guess was based on man’s experience of a limited number of alphabets producing many words and an unlimited number of sentences, a few ingredients in the kitchen from which a large number of different dishes could be cooked. Only three basic colours mixed in different proportions producing billions of shades and a few basic notes producing a rich variety of music. This wide variety is based and is governed by simple fundamental laws of nature. Understandings of nature’s laws have been the prime interest of man. Our ancient sages had said “yat pinde, tatt brahmande”. As above so below.

Now we know that atoms form elements, molecules, matters, earth, solar system, galaxy and ultimately cosmos. Atom is the basic unit, the building block of all matters.