Individual and the cosmos

THE ONENESS/OTHERNESS MYSTERY - The Synthesis of Science and Mysticism: Sutapas Bhattacharya; Motilal Banarsidas Publishers Pvt. Ltd., 41, U.A. Bungalow Road, Delhi-110007. Rs. 695.

THE INDIA-BORN author of this publication who has lived in London ever since 1967 (i.e. from his age three) took a first class honours degree in molecular biology from London University in 1986 and he shows an interest in the philosophical questions relating to science that is very deep, as evidenced in every chapter of this book running to more than 600 pages of excellent printing.

It may be described as an autobiography of a brilliant student of modern science whose whole preoccupation in life is to effect a synthesis of science and philosophy that will appeal to theists and atheists alike. ``I have known pleasures and pains'' declares the author in his lengthy introduction, ``but nothing can match the remarkable sense of satisfaction that comes from a sense of fulfilment which makes all the enormous suffering and sacrifice of the past seem to have been worthwhile for they were driving me towards my true vocation, my destiny.''

Names of scientists and philosophers, well-known and also not so familiar, appear in every page with quotations that suit the author's line of thinking - to show us the relationship, as the author conceives it, ``between the individual personality and the cosmos in which that personality exists...''

The poet in the author comes up all through but one is not so sure if many of his readers will agree that he has ``resolved'' in these pages of long poems and complex prose ``the central problems of both Eastern and Western philosophy.'' All the same it can be safely averred that even a casual perusal of these pages is sure to kindle in many an urge to understand the ever deepening, never ending mystery of this vast universe and come to an honourable peace with our Maker.

K. VEDAMURTHY

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