Math & Spirituality: One Truth, Many Paths with Dinesh Singh | Podmasana Preview

[00:00:00] Do you see these as separate domains or is there a deeper connection between mathematical thinking and spiritual inquiry? Oh, again, Brendan, these are very wise questions. I don't know if I can give appropriate answers, but I like the questions. [00:00:16] So, you know, there is a school of philosophy in India, an ancient school called the Bahuda philosophy. So what essentially it says is Ekam satisfaction, VIPR Bahuda Vedanti. [00:00:28] In other words, there is one truth, but the wise say it in many ways or the wise strive for it in many ways. [00:00:38] So there are different paths, but all of them will eventually lead to that one truth, the absolute truth. [00:00:45] So if you were to, say, pursue just mathematics, it is bound to happen that you will evolve as a human being. This doesn't mean that you become a great saint or whatever, but you'll begin to evolve. You'll become better and better, and that eventually gives rise to some enlightenment. And mathematics in any case, is heavily aligned with philosophy and spirituality. I'm not an expert in. And by the way, I'm not even an expert at mathematics. As you grow older, you know that you know nothing or very little. [00:01:20] So I am not claiming to be that, but what little I have understood about our ancient philosophy in India, the Hindu philosophy. If you look at what Sri Krishna tells Arjun in the Bhagavad Gita, at one point he tells him that I am neither truth nor untruth. A lot of people find great difficulty in understanding what that means. [00:01:42] People ask me why either something is true or it is not true. You can't be neither truth nor untruth. [00:01:50] That's very hard for them to accept. [00:01:53] And then I have to take recourse to mathematics. So you have to go to what is known as the work of Kurt Guedel. He was mathematician who finally. He was an Eastern European person who finally resided in the. At the Institute of Advanced Study in Princeton, a great logician who solved a major problem known as the consistency of the continuum hypothesis. He solved a major part of it. [00:02:19] Essentially, Goethel said that if you create a logical system in which certain things are assumed to be satisfied, then he says, within that logical system, through perfect logic, you can produce statements that are neither true nor false. So I see this huge analogy there. And let me also tell you something else. So then you begin to understand that eventually it is a matter of faith. So the consistency of what we assume in mathematics, according to Godel's work, cannot really be established within the system itself. [00:02:54] He shows that and some of his followers. I'm not going to get into that part here. So, you know, it's like, why do I do it then? Because it is consistent with my belief system. That's why I'm not worried about that. It's consistent with my belief system. And I then go with it. And let me just sort of break it down to even more, you know, elementary level in math. So all of us have done geometry in school, Euclidean geometry, and all of it resides on the concept of a point and a line. But you can't define them. Every time you define a point, you know that this is not it. Intuitively, I can understand what is a point and I can represent it by putting a dot, but that dot is never a point. But it allows me to do things that are consistent with the world around me. I can use that concept, build a house, do other things with it, all that using those concepts of geometry, where I know that I really don't know what is a point or a line in exactly the same. So in the Rig Veda, this is how they describe God. [00:04:01] Not even this and not even this. [00:04:03] What it isn't, I can tell you what it is. I only know inside me. [00:04:11] And I use it to the extent to which I understand it and it helps me, but I can't explain it to you. But what I do is consistent with my intuitive belief or leanings, and that's good enough. [00:04:26] And so it's exactly the way you do geometry. [00:04:31] You don't know what a point is or a line is. But intuitively you know that you accept that. And then you're able to do many practical things in a similar way. This happens. So I see much alignment between Hindu philosophy and mathematics in that sense. [00:04:47] So that also helps you to open your mind a little bit. You also learn to be a little humble. And you know, there was this famous poet, an Urdu poet. I think this is ascribed to Z. Many people ascribe it to Ghalib. But it's really Zok who said it, That I have learned that I have learned nothing. [00:05:13] And it took me a lifetime to learn that. So that's the kind of humbling feeling you begin to acquire as you begin to understand this a little more. Yeah, yeah.