240 LIFE AND WORK OF SIR JAGADIS C. BOSE 



converge and meet. And here will assemble those who 

 would seek oneness amidst the manifold. Here it is that 

 the genius of India should find its true blossoming. 



The thrill in matter, the throb of life, the pulse of growth, 

 the impulse coursing through the nerve and the resulting 

 sensations, how diverse are these, and yet so unified ! 

 How strange it is that the tremor of excitation in nervous 

 matter should not merely be transmitted but transmuted 

 and reflected like the image on a mirror from a different 

 plane of life in sensation and in affection, in thought and 

 in emotion. Of these which is more real, the material 

 body or the image which is independent of it ? Which of 

 those is undecaying, and which of these is beyond the 

 reach of death ? 



It was a woman in the Vedic times, who when asked to 

 take her choice of the wealth that would be hers for the 

 asking, inquired whether that would win for her deathless- 

 ness. What would she do with it, if it did not raise her 

 above death ? This has always been the cry of the soul of 

 India, not for addition of material bondage, but to work 

 out through struggle her self -chosen destiny and win; 

 immortality. Many a nation had risen in the past and 

 won the empire of the world. A few buried fragments 

 are all that remain as memorials of the great dynasties that 

 wielded the temporal power. There is, however, another 

 element which finds its incarnation in matter, yet transcends 

 its transmutation and apparent destruction : that is the 

 burning flame born of thought which has been handed 

 down through fleeting generations. 



Not in matter but in thought, not in possessions nor 

 even in attainments but in ideals, is to be found the 

 seed of immortality. Not through material acquisition 

 but in generous diffusion of ideas and ideals can the true 

 empire of humanity be established. Thus to Asoka, to 

 whom belonged this vast empire, bounded by the inviolate 



