蜜芽传媒

Good morning. Isn鈥檛 it refreshing that, this week, we鈥檝e been teased with mathematics not related to taxes and budget deficits. It started with the Singapore school鈥檚 riddle of Cheryl鈥檚 birthday and then, yesterday, there was the 鈥淔ive Hats鈥� brainteaser. Having wrestled with the conundrum myself, I鈥檓 so relieved to hear it was white after all!

It all goes to show that logic isn鈥檛 that simple. Mathematics is sometimes called: The Queen of Science, because Maths supports science by its rational rules of analysis and proof. Hindu thinkers embraced mathematics thousands of years ago as a precise form of philosophical reasoning. Indeed, much of the maths we use today 鈥� such as our numbers, decimal system, trigonometry - first arose in India.

And there are links between the tradition鈥檚 appreciation of mathematical concepts and some of its most profound philosophical ideas. For example, academics have noted that the concept of zero as a number was a natural outcome of an Indian culture that contemplated the possible non-existence of the cosmos at some starting-point of time. But, rather than conclude that there is absolutely nothing prior to the universe, the Hindu proposition is that some form of reality - called Brahman - exists outside of time. It is this energy of Brahman 鈥� or a part of it - that is transformed into the material universe we see around us.

How Brahman can exist as both the origin of the material world and as its transformed manifestation is explained in the philosophical theory of 鈥渟imultaneous oneness and difference鈥�. This idea seems paradoxical, even a cop-out 鈥� but, interestingly, it is the same approach we use in mathematics.

If I show you an apple and an orange and ask: how many? It鈥檚 impossible to answer. Are we counting the number of apples? Or oranges? Or generic fruit? For even the simplest maths to work, we have to regard things as distinct from each other 鈥� otherwise we can鈥檛 count them individually. But, if they are too different 鈥� like apples and oranges 鈥� we can鈥檛 add them together. So, we establish some sameness by grouping things into sets according to their shared characteristics 鈥� i.e. sameness. Therefore, in order to understand any system, we have to realise its simultaneous aspects of oneness and difference. That principle works for maths. It also applies to the connection between Brahman and the material world. It even pertains to us, as an individual soul. It鈥檚 said: as eternal spiritual beings, we are one with, yet distinct from the Supreme Soul, God.

Sounds tricky 鈥� but maybe not as difficult as figuring out which hat the blind prisoner was wearing.

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