Guiding Light: India On And Over The Moon

Vikram has landed on the moon and India is over the moon! This is a proud moment for all of us. All credit goes primarily to the scientists and also the political leadership. There is one thing, this group of scientists did, which seemed very unscientific - they went to pray at the Tirupati Balaji temple. Secularists and politicians of all hues criticised them saying that it was completely unscientific. Definitely religion does not come into the realm of science, nor does the science come into the realm of religion.

At the same time these scientists are aware of one thing, which any thinking person will know. Firstly, for a project to be successful, one needs decisive action. Secondly, one needs to factor in time for the action to bear fruit. Not only adequate time, but also timing is crucial in a mission.

And third, is the largely undiscussed factor that everyone recognises as luck. Scientists generally don't discuss it because it is supposed to be unscientific to talk of luck. At the same time, there is a whole branch of mathematics which studies chance, or randomness or luck, called statistics and the theory of probability.

A religious or a spiritual person would not just call it luck but would call it Bhagvan’s grace or Ishvara’s grace, and go ahead with the project. Spiritual and religious people recognise that grace can be earned. And we can be lucky enough to achieve what we want to do. And that's exactly what the scientists decided when they went to pray at the Tirupati Balaji temple. As we saw on Wednesday evening, in a flawless coming together, of decisive proactive action, timing, and luck or God's grace, Vikram landed on the moon. We are only the fourth nation to have a landing craft on the moon and the first nation to do it on the South Pole of the moon. With God's grace and the effort of our scientists and all other Indians, may our country grow from one success to another and achieve even greater success in the future.

The writer is the founder of Aarsha Vidya Foundation. You can write to him at aarshavidyaf@gmail.com