Revisiting Swami Vivekananda's progressive scientific temperament through an obscure letter 

Swami Vivekananda born on 12th January 1863 in Calcutta is renowned worldwide as an Indian Monk, credited for the introduction of Indian philosophies of Vedanta and Yoga to the world. His birth anniversary is celebrated all across India with vigor and enthusiasm as the ‘National Youth Day’. He is particularly remembered for his distinguished speech at the Parliament of the World's Religions in Chicago. 

However, today we try to glance through the progressive scientific temperament and intellect of Swami Vivekanand through an obscure letter written by him to Nikola Tesla, a great American inventor in 1895. 

In the letter written by Swami Vivekananda, he mathematically demonstrates that force and matter are reducible to potential energy. The letter further elucidated the perfect union of cosmology, eschatology with modern Science with the help of a diagram: 

BRAHMAN      =      THE ABSOLUTE

                   |                          |

                   |                          |

           MAHAT OR ISHVARA  =  PRIMAL CREATIVE ENERGY

                   |                          |

              +---------+                +---------+    

            PRANA and AKASHA =    ENERGY and MATTER

Swami Vivekananda's Vedic Philosophy influenced Nikola Tesla to such an extent that he used ancient Sanskrit terminology: Akasha, Prana in his descriptions of natural phenomena. Tesla's theory that described the 'Universe as a kinetic system filled with energy that can be harnessed anywhere' was inspired by Swami Vivekananda's teachings. 

Swami Vivekananda: 'The Sanskrit wizard'

Swami Vivekananda rightly advocated Sanskrit as the mother of all languages & the ultimate source of all worldly wisdom. Sanskrit is capable of describing concepts that are totally foreign to western minds. A single word in Sanskrit may require a whole paragraph to convey the same meaning when translated in English. Tesla, in 1891 provided his theory of electromagnetism and the nature of the Universe in Vedic terminology. He was convinced after his elaborate discussions with Swami Vivekanada that Sanskrit conveyed a much more comprehensive meaning than any other language. 

 

Swami - the mentor of renowned scientists: 

Nikola Tesla, the renowned scientist who specialized in the field of electrical engineering sought explanations from Swami Vivekananda on the occurrence of natural scientific phenomena. He was fascinated by Swami’s explanation of the Samkhya cosmogony and the theory of cycles given by the Indian sages. He was struck by Swami’s intellect on several subjects, particularly by the resemblance between the Samkhya theory of matter and energy and that of modern Physics. He was frequently in correspondence with scientists of the century Walter Russel and Lord Kelvin, apart from Nikola Tesla concerning the advanced understanding of Physics.