The following is the Inaugural Address delivered by Sir J. C. Bose, on
the 30th November 1917, in dedicating the Bose Institute to the Nation.
I dedicate to-day this Institute--not merely a Laboratory but a Temple.
The power of physical methods applies for the establishment of that
truth which can be realised directly through our senses, or through the
vast expansion of the perceptive range by means of artificially created
organs. We still gather the tremulous message when the note of the
audible reaches the unheard. When human sight fails, we continue to
explore the region of the invisible. The little that we can see is as
nothing compared to the vastness of that which we cannot. Out of the
very imperfection of his senses man has built himself a raft of thought
by which he makes daring adventures on the great seas of the Unknown.
But there are other truths which will remain beyond even the
supersensitive methods known to science. For these we require faith,
tested not in a few years but by an entire life. And a temple is erected
as a fit memorial for the establishment of that truth for which faith
was needed. The personal, yet general, truth and faith whose
establishment this Institute commemorates is this: that when one
dedicates himself wholly for a great object, the closed doors shall
open, and the seemingly impossible will become possible for him.
Thirty-two years ago I chose teaching of science as my vocation. It was
held that by its very peculiar constitution, the Indian mind would
always turn away from the study of Nature to metaphysical speculations.
Even had the capacity for inquiry and accurate observation been assumed
present, there were no opportunities for their employment; there were no
well-equipped laboratories nor skilled mechanicians. This was all too
true. It is for man not to quarrel with circumstances but bravely accept
them; and we belong to that race and dynasty who had accomplished great
things with simple means.