With a true _Sanyasin_ spirit, Dr. Bose applied himself to the study of
Nature. His ardour was ever compassable. Even the limitations of the
senses would hardly fetter him in his explorations in the regions of the
Unknown. He expended the range of perception by means of wonderfully
sensitive instrumental devices. By acute observations and patient
experiment he wrung out from Nature some of her most jealously guarded
secrets in the realm of Electric Radiation, which "literally filled with
wonder and admiration" the greatest scientist of the age. Allurements of
great material prospects--which might lead him to the path of immense
fortune--came to him, in the shape of the patents of his inventions.
But they had no attraction for him. In utter disregard of all worldly
advancement, he continued in his pursuit of knowledge.
In pursuit of his investigations on Electric Radiation, he was
unconsciously led into the border region of Physics and Physiology. He
caught a glimpse of ineffable wonder that remained hidden behind the
view. He attempted to lift the veil. And, at once, difficulties
presented themselves one after another. An unfamiliar caste in the
domain of Science got offended. He was asked not to encroach on the
special preserve of the Physiologists and, as he did not pay any heed to
the warning, misrepresentations began. Even the evidence of his
supersensitive appliances failed to convince many. And the Royal Society
withheld publication of his researches. He was recompensed with ridicule
and reviling. The limited facilities that he had in the prosecution of
his researches were in danger of being withdrawn. But he had a burning
Faith in the Vision and was not to be boggled at with these
difficulties. He became stronger in his determination. Realising an
inner call, he dedicated himself for the establishment of the truth
underlying his Faith. He cast his life, as an offering, regarding
success and failure as one, and engaged himself in a protracted struggle
to get behind the deceptive seeming into the reality that remained
unseen. After years of sustained efforts, he succeeded in overcoming
almost insuperable difficulties in the way of the realisation of the
great dream of his life. The closed doors at last opened, and the
seemingly impossible became possible. The secret of the plant world
stood revealed by the autographs of the plants themselves. "It was when
I came upon the mute witness of these self-made records," said Sir J. C.
Bose, when he stood before the Royal Institution "and perceived in them
one phase of a pervading unity that bears within it all things: the mote
that quivers in ripples of light, the teeming life upon our earth, and
the radiant suns that shine above us--it was then that I understood for
the first time a little of that message proclaimed by my ancestors on
the banks of the Ganges thirty centuries ago."
"They who see but one in all the changing manifestations of this
universe, unto them belongs Eternal Truth--unto none else, unto none
else." [48]
The Rishis of ancient India, by their intense Yoga, realised the One in
the Many. But Sir Jagadis Chandra, by rigorous experimental
demonstration, realised a Unity amidst Diversity. He perceived that
"there was no such thing as brute matter, but that spirit suffused
matter in which it was enshrined."[49]