Thursday 2 November 2023

Tukaram Gatha Abhang 77 - Bhaktavin devaa, kaiche roop ghade seva

भक्ताविण देवा । कैंचें रूप घडे सेवा ।।१।।

शोभविलें येर येरां । सोनें एके ठायीं हिरा ।।२।।

देवाविण भक्ता । कोण देता निष्कामता ।।३।।

तुका म्हणे बाळ । माता जैसें स्नेहजाळ ।।४।।

 English Script

1. Bhaktavin devaa, kaiche roop ghade seva

2. Shobhavile yer yera, sone eke thayi hira

3. Devavin bhakta, kon detaa nishkamata

4. Tuka mhane baal, mata jaise snehajaal.

 Translation

The most accepted explanation of the nature of the Universe is given by the ''String Theory'. It says that the whole Universe is but one string which vibrates at different places in different ways and gives us the appearance of the Universe as we see it. In his spiritual poetry 'Changdev Pasashthee', Saint Dnyaneshwar has explained the creation as one Unmanifest 'Brahman' which has come to manifest itself in two ways, 'Purusha (The Spirit)' and 'Prakriti (The Nature)'.

Therefore, it is evident that, just as The Nature is fond of The Spirit, The Spirit too, is equally fond of The Nature! It is Spirit and Nature, dancing together! That is the joyous celebration, the drama of this Universe!

Thus, even the current knowledge in modern science confirms what Saint Tukaram has written in this abhanga. He is clearly saying in this Abhang that God has an equal affection towards devotee as the devotee has towards God! It immediately removes an old image of God who is out there, somewhere, and judges as well as punishes His children when they err!

Isn't it a marvel that Saint Tukaram knew the nature of the Universe in the 17th century? Such things can happen with deep meditation on God!

 1. How will God get His form without the presence of His devotee? God is there because the devotee is there.

2. A diamond gets its radiance and importance only when it is inserted in Gold. Gold and diamond have made each other adorable! Alone, they do not have such enormous value.

3. If there was no God, whom would a devotee seek with undemanding love?

4. Tuka says, this delicate and complex web of relationship between God and the devotee is like the relationship between a mother and a child! Mother becomes a mother only when she gives birth to the child!

 🌻🌻🌻


The String Theory

We live in a wonderfully complex Universe, and we are curious about it by nature. Time and again we have wondered--- why are we here? Where did we and the world come from? What is the world made of? It is our privilege to live in a time when enormous progress has been made towards finding some of the answers. String theory is our most recent attempt to answer the last (and part of the second) question.

So, what is the world made of? Ordinary matter is made of atoms, which are in turn made of just three basic components: electrons whirling around a nucleus composed of neutrons and protons. The electron is a truly fundamental particle.

Our current knowledge about the subatomic composition of the universe is summarized in what is known as the Standard Model of Particle Physics. It describes both the fundamental building blocks out of which the world is made, and the forces through which these blocks interact. There are twelve basic building blocks. Six of these are quarks--- they go by the interesting names of up, down, charm, strange, bottom and top. (A proton, for instance, is made of two up quarks and one down quark.) The other six are leptons--- these include the electron and its two heavier siblings, the muon and the tauon, as well as three neutrinos.

There are four fundamental forces in the universe: gravity, electromagnetism, and the weak and strong nuclear forces. Each of these is produced by fundamental particles that act as carriers of the force. The most familiar of these is the photon, a particle of light, which is the mediator of electromagnetic forces. (This means that, for instance, a magnet attracts a nail because both objects exchange photons.) The graviton is the particle associated with gravity. The strong force is carried by eight particles known as gluons. Finally, the weak force is transmitted by three particles, the W+, the W- , and the Z.

The behavior of all of these particles and forces is described with impeccable precision by the Standard Model, with one notable exception: gravity. For technical reasons, the gravitational force, the most familiar in our everyday lives, has proven very difficult to describe microscopically. This has been for many years one of the most important problems in theoretical physics-- to formulate a quantum theory of gravity.

In the last few decades, string theory has emerged as the most promising candidate for a microscopic theory of gravity. And it is infinitely more ambitious than that: it attempts to provide a complete, unified, and consistent description of the fundamental structure of our universe. (For this reason it is sometimes, quite arrogantly, called a 'Theory of Everything').

The essential idea behind string theory is this: all of the different 'fundamental ' particles of the Standard Model are really just different manifestations of one basic object: a string. How can that be? Well, we would ordinarily picture an electron, for instance, as a point with no internal structure. A point cannot do anything but move. But, if string theory is correct, then under an extremely powerful 'microscope' we would realize that the electron is not really a point, but a tiny loop of string. A string can do something aside from moving--- it can oscillate in different ways. If it oscillates a certain way, then from a distance, unable to tell it is really a string, we see an electron. But if it oscillates some other way, well, then we call it a photon, or a quark, or a ... you get the idea. So, if string theory is correct, the entire world is made of strings!

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