Aloke Kumar's Blog

The Infinity Mantra Have you ever had an opportunity to reflect on the following Shanti mantra from the Upanishads? ॐ   पूर्णमदः   पूर्णमिदम्   पूर्णात्   पूर्णमुदच्यते   | पूर्णस्य   पूर्णमादाय   पूर्णमेवावशिष्यते   || ॐ   शान्तिः   शान्तिः   शान्तिः   || Om Puurnnam-Adah Puurnnam-Idam Puurnnaat-Purnnam-Udacyate Puurnnasya Puurnnam-Aadaaya Puurnnam-Eva-Avashissyate || Om Shaantih Shaantih Shaantih || This mantra, which I call the Infinity Mantra encodes an amazing paradoxical property of infinities. Not only that, the underlying philosophy of this mantra reverberates throughout the Hindu Jeevan Darshan. Find it interesting? Read my essays on this topic: Essay 1: Poorna from Poorna: Is that possible? Essay 2: Poorna from Poorna: A repeating motif About the author:  Dr. Aloke Kumar is currently an Assistant Professor at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. Twitt...

Poorna from Poorna: A Repeating Motif In the previous essay , we saw that the Upanishadic mantra ( पूर्णस्य पूर्णमादाय पूर्णमेवावशिष्यते ) encodes a mathematical relationship that is consistent with the property of infinities. Since Upanishads were conceived long before modern understanding of infinities and their paradoxical properties, it behooves us to explore deeper on this issue. Were the authors of the Infinity mantra 1 aware of its profound implications or was this a mere co-incidence 2 ? Even worse, are we reading too much into a simple mantra and imagining relationships that do not exist? A rigorous discussion of this issue must tackle these questions.  Ancient India or Bharat is said to have had a strong culture of inquiry and a very rich landscape of scientific thought. On closer observation one finds that the philosophical construct of the Infinity mantra is not an aberration, but rather a repeating motif throughout various aspects of  Hindu...