Einstein with Tagore

 Today I peep into "Journal of Physics Education" I got a very good article of Partha Ghose, a physicist and science populariser.He was formerly with the S.N.Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences, Kolkata. He had edited a book entitled ,"Einstein Tagore and the Nature of Reality". Some most beautiful sentences I got, going to include here.

You are here that implies you have already heard about two legends Rabindranath and Einstein of twentieth century. As a resident of West Bengal I heard about the great poet Rabindranath and great scientist Albert Einstein from my birth. I am now 19 years old, a black sheep of science student, I never understand poem or short story of Rabindranath till now. And if I talk about Einstein I can't visualise the phenomenon behind special theory of relativity like length contraction or time dilation. Okay it's my problem! Let's talk about them.For that we need a time machine to go back 20 th century and listen. In 1913 Rabindranath Tagore received Noble prize "because of his profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse, by which, with consummate skill, he has made his poetic thought, expressed in his own English words, a part of the literature  of the West" whereas Einstein received Noble prize in 1921 for the theoretical approach behind the Photoelectric effect. They,the most iconic personality met at least six times. 

In 1930 Tagore delivered the Hibbert lectures in Oxford which were later published as a book entitled The Religion of Man in which Tagore explained his philosophy of the humanity of God and the divinity of Man. Soon he went to Germany to meet with Einstein. The conversation was reported in The New York Times on 10th August,1930 with the headline "Einstein and Tagore Plumb the Truth". The reporter was Einstein's step son-in-law,Dmitri Marianoff who, together with Amiya Chakravarty, Tagore's secretary at that time, had taken notes which were later approved by Tagore and Einstein. Here the report as it was 

Near Potsdam is a small place called Caputh. There, upon a hill, stands a brown wooden house with a red tile roof. Round about, like sentinels,stand the slim trunks of pine trees. In this wooden villa dwells the mathematician, Albert Einstein. 

At about 4 o'clock one recent afternoon. Rabindranath Tagore walked along the sandy path to the house. He wore a suit of soft, blue cloth; he  leaned a bit forward as he walked and one hand was bent behind his back. Beside him strode the sturdy,erect Einstein.

Atop the hill, Tagore sat down in an armchair on the lawn with Einstein and his family to enjoy  the scene. Then he spoke of his last visit to London and his lecture on "Religion and Humanity". 

A lively discussion arose. It was interesting to see them together - Tagore, the poet with the  head of a thinker, and Einstein, the thinker with the head of a poet. Tagore's hair is smooth and silver-gray, as is his long beard. His head is usually bent forward and the eyes are sunken. He is visibly absorbed in his mystical world. Every expression of his delicate face - every passing phrase, bears the mark of concentration. He speaks with a majestic tranquility, as though reciting a poem or delivering a sermon. His slim fingers speak, too, and supplement the gleam of his eyes which, in spite of his seventy years, light up in a youthful way.

Einstein's hair is gray also. It seems to stand as though electrified and then to hang, as that of the old Romans did, in curls upon his

powerful head.

(You know what happened when we are in class 11-12 and  most of science student thinks that they are the smartest one as their more than 50% friends took arts as subject and try to superimpose them on their friend's opinion. Honestly I wasn't! But original ones never do this.)

When Tagore explained his philosophy, Enstein listened with studious attention and then give characteristic view. Neither sought to press his opinion. They simply exchanged ideas. As if two planets were engaged in a chat. Here are the few sentences of the conversation

Tagore: You have been busy hunting down with mathematics the two ancient entities,Time and Space, while I have been lecturing in this country on the eternal world of Man, the universe of Reality.

Einstein: Do you believe in the Divine as isolated from the world?

Tagore: No isolated. The infinite personality of Man comprehends the universe. There cannot be anything that cannot be subsumed by the human personality, and this proves that the Truth of the Universe is human Truth.

I have taken a scientific fact to explain this; Matter is composed of protons and electrons, with gaps between them, but matter may seem to be solid [without the links in the spaces which unify the individual electrons and protons.] Similarly humanity is composed of individuals, yet they have their interconnection of human relationships, which gives living unity to man's world. The entire universe is linked up with us[as individuals] in a similar manner, it is a human universe. I have pursued this thought through art, literature and the religious consciousness of Man.

Einstein: There have two different conceptions about the nature of the universe: (1) The world as a unity dependent on humanity,(2) The world as a reality independent of the human factor.

Tagore: When our universe is in harmony with Man, the eternal, we know it as Truth, we feel it as beauty.

Einstein: This is the purely human conception of the universe.

Tagore: There can be no other conception. This world is a human world - the scientific view of it is also that of  the scientific man.[ Therefore, the world apart from us does not exist; it is a relative world, depending for its reality upon our consciousness.] There is some standard of reason and enjoyment which gives it Truth,the standard of the eternal man whose experience are through our experiences....

(If you have any point of your original view let me know in the comment section.)

One more thing which I got in this article that "Enstein & Bohr debate". You might heard about Quantum mechanics, the debate was on this. The most popular conversation(Which I first read in 'Brief History of Time") is 

Einstein: I,at any rate, am convinced that He(God) does not throw dice. (I think he was talking about the probability.)

Bohr: Einstein stop telling God what to do.

Bohr believed on the measurements in describing nature, while Einstein stuck to his faith in an observer independent reality. They didn't budge from their points. Obviously Einstein was distributed by the fact that the vast majority of physicists shared Bohr's point of view. Perhaps it was this concern that made him raised the question with Tagore whose views he valued.

Thank you!

*** By the way I have attached the PDF link of the book "Einstein Tagore and the Nature of Reality" as it might be hard to find in Google. To download the book you have to just click on the blue entitled above.