50 Comments

This is so beautiful. As an Indian and a fellow Tamilian , tears come to my eyes when I read your article. What a loss to humanity that he died so early and how truly original and profojnd he was. Lovely work, I salute you.🙏

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Thank you so very much Vikram, that is meaningful to hear! I'm very grateful this piece resonates for you, and I hope we continue to learn from his originality.

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Rishis have always talked about Shruti. You can connect to the higher existence. A Yoga acharya can explain better

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don't spread nonsense here. author is talking about different topic.

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Typical sepoy

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Nicely written, Kristin. Ramanujam is known to the West. There have been many such in India. One of them, arguably an even more advanced soul, was a great spiritual leader called Vedanta Desikar. He composed a number of poems praising the Lord Vishnu. Many of those “Sokas” or verses are mathematical algorithms. In one such hymn called Paduka Sahasram, he devoted 4 lines to solving the Knights tour problem

In Chess i.e. the minimum number of moves by which a Knight can touch each square on a chessboard just once. Attached is a link to that mathematical feat of genius: https://youtu.be/1Ro5ht1GERc

Each verse also has a valid Meaning in Sanskrit praising the Lord- it is not just a math formula!

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Thank you for this interesting reference Hari!

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Wonderful !!!

"Devotion is desire transmuted across time into love. It is an elevation of attention; a singleness of purpose, but in service to something greater than ourselves".

Just wow!! Loved it.

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Thank you Mayank, so glad to hear!! Writing from the heart :)

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you are doing the lord's work with these, truly.

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Thank you!! I keep wondering if it's done, then another angle appears

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There are tales in the Talmud (approx 300CE?) that talk about sleeping in a cemetery in order to induce visions/dreams/premonitions. It was a known "hack" back then, apparently.

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Yep that's dream incubation - a common practice back then. Great to hear about references in the Talmud and curious to look up the specifics.

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incredible work, kristin, thank you. "Devotion is desire transmuted across time into love." - wow, gonna go sit with that one for a while

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Thank you so much Jane!!

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You will like this interview with Bruce Berndt about Ramanujan: https://youtu.be/HIZ66X4QKbE

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Especially about the part about divinity at 5:10 (https://youtu.be/HIZ66X4QKbE?t=310).

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That state is goal of all living beings.

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Thanks for this nice article. Ramanujan's creativity followed from his higher level of consciousness. I do not know anybody who could exhibit it like Ramanujan did. Others claiming higher level of consciousness, usually claim mystical powers, which could not be demonstrated to public openly and accept the scrutiny of rationalists. Ms Shankuntala Devi is the only other person with such powers, but she was also in the field of mathematics, particularly numbers and operations on numbers.

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Oh wow Kristin, love this piece!

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Thank you Shivangi, so appreciated!

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Beautiful

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Thought provoking and aesthetically well written. Thanks for writing this. Sharing a brilliant thread on how Science is viewed by Dharma. Ramanujan is one among the multitudes of stalwarts from Dharma who attributed their achievements to Gods/Goddesses. Thread explains the reason for the same as well as why we never had any conflict unlike the West with Scientific discoveries/advancements in brief: https://en.rattibha.com/thread/1617057087741382656

Have to slightly disagree on this statement though: "He was deeply religious, but mystification is not an explanation for Ramanujan’s outrageous capacities. Worshiping the goddess Namagiri probably won’t make you India’s all-time-best math whiz..." Without elaborating much all I can say from personal experience is: There is more than what meets the eye.

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Beautifully written, loved the article. Thank you! Its sad that he died so young, otherwise the mathematics would be so different.

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Those of us who are educated in western style seem to miss out on the spiritual aspect of our learning. As we get MD, Ph.D, MBA etc., our cortex expands and our core shrinks. The inner or the spiritual world also have impact on our growth. In the western style of education this aspect is largely ignored. Ramanujan probably was not driven by his cortex but by his core.

The dimension of knowledge is universal or rather infinite. This is nothing but the super-consciousness! When an individual or rather his/her consciousness evolves to merge with this super-consciousness, s/he becomes omniscient 🙏 https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Mv2_ryqwiTA

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Thank you Jay, that is a great play on words with 'cortex' and 'core'

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He was a great mathematical mind because he practiced day and night- he was innocent and humble enough not to acknowledge his greatness.

Sachin Tendulkar may dream of cricket but he is great because of his skill and hours of effort.

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Do you not think his dreams were a result of his advanced mind thinking only about Maths during his waking hours rather than the other way.

It’s like Sachin T may dream of cricket but he was good at it due to practice not because he dreamt about it and did nothing

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