"Erwin Schrodinger, discoverer of wave mechanics was deeply influenced by the philosophical wisdom of the East.Schrodinger read widely and thought deeply the teachings of Hindu scriptures.He was particularly fascinated by Vedanta and Upanishads and developed a kinship with Buddha and his techniques. Schrodinger also wrote about “The Basic view of Vedanta” by expounding Sankara’s version of Advaitha and non-dualism".
Erwin Schrodinger,one of the greatest scientists of the20th century was a brilliant and charming Austrian physicist who had a passionate interest in people and ideas. He is best known for his discovery of wave mechanics, which won him the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1933. He is also laid the foundations of molecular biology by writing an epoch making book called “What is Life” which was so influential that it attracted some of the brightest scientific workers into this branch of science. Erwin Schrodinger lived and worked in the most turbulent times in the history of Europe but left an everlasting legacy, which profoundly altered the course of modern science. This essay tries to indicate how his thinking and writing were influenced by his deep interest in the vision of Upanishads and Vedanta.
In 1926 Schrodinger proposed his wave equation, which accurately described the dynamics of the micro world of atoms and molecules. As Dirac, another Nobel laureate in physics and cofounder of quantum mechanics was to remark later ‘it contains most of physics and all of chemistry’. The wave equation derived by Schrodinger is universally recognized as one of the greatest achievements of the 20th century physics.
By 1960 more than 100,000 papers had appeared based on the application of Schrodinger’s wave equation.From the very beginning it was accepted as a mathematical tool of unprecedented power in dealing with structure of matter. For a long time scientists have been trying to interpret as to what it might be telling about the nature of physical world. To some, the wave function contains everything that there is to know. To others, it is only a mathematical artifact. Inany case, the Schrodinger equation gives a powerful method to calculate measurable quantities that are needed to describe the atomic world.
One key idea that was utilized by Erwin Schrodinger in arriving at his wave equation was the wave nature of matter. The concept of matter waves was proposed by Louis de Broglie in 1923. He understood the universal duality of wave and particle. He was able to show that a particle with momentum will possess a wavelength given by h/p where h is the Planck’s constant. Experimental confirmation soon followed. Scientist began to accept the wave particle duality of matter. Thus it may be said that world is based on the wave phenomena, while particles are mere epiphenomena. This idea was to serve as a major theme in the development of wave mechanics as far as history of physics is concerned. However this does not tell us about the philosophical background with which Schrodinger approached the problem. Schrodinger read widely and thought deeply about the techniques of ancient Hindu scriptures and reworked them into his own words and eventually came to believe in them. This was evident from many of his writings. A beautiful account of his state of mind can be obtained from the breath taking biography of Erwin Schrodinger written by Walter Moore (A Life of Erwin Schrodinger, Cambridge University Press, Canto reprint). In July 1918, Schrodinger wrote the following: “Nirvana is a state of pure blissful knowledge. It has nothing to do with individual. The ego or its separation is an illusion. Indeed in a certain sense two “I”‘s are identical namely when one disregards all special contents- their Karma. The goal of man is to preserve his Karma and to develop it further. When man dies his Karma lives and creates for itself another carrier”
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