I had unwittingly strayed into the domain of an unfamiliar
caste system and so offended its etiquette.
"An unconscious theological bias was also present, which confounds
ignorance with faith. It is often forgotten that He who surrounded
us with this ever-evolving mystery of creation has also implanted
in us the desire to question and understand. Through many years
of miscomprehension, I came to know that the life of a devotee of
science is inevitably filled with unending struggle. It is for him
to cast his life as an ardent offering-regarding gain and loss,
success and failure, as one.
"In time the leading scientific societies of the world accepted my
theories and results, and recognized the importance of the Indian
contribution to science. {FN8-4} Can anything small or circumscribed
ever satisfy the mind of India? By a continuous living tradition,
and a vital power of rejuvenescence, this land has readjusted itself
through unnumbered transformations. Indians have always arisen who,
discarding the immediate and absorbing prize of the hour, have
sought for the realization of the highest ideals in life-not through
passive renunciation, but through active struggle. The weakling
who has refused the conflict, acquiring nothing, has had nothing
to renounce. He alone who has striven and won can enrich the world
by bestowing the fruits of his victorious experience.
"The work already carried out in the Bose laboratory on the
response of matter, and the unexpected revelations in plant life,
have opened out very extended regions of inquiry in physics, in
physiology, in medicine, in agriculture, and even in psychology.
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