The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : When science and spirituality made common cause

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jul 29, 2005

Kerala

Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

When science and spirituality made common cause

Special Correspondent

How the VSSC came into being

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The imperatives of spirituality are often sought to be posited against the empiricism of science.

But there was one crucial moment in the history of Indian space science when the needs of the scientist received an understanding smile from the world of spirituality.

That meeting of minds resulted in a glorious institution: Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) at Thumba, on the coastal stretch nestling the Kerala capital.

As President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam addressed the members of the Kerala Legislative Assembly on Thursday, he could not help recalling the way his `guru' Vikram Sarabhai won over the hearts of the poor people in the coastal hamlet and set up the Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station (TERLS). The man who made that possible was Bishop Peter Bernard Pereira who, as the President Kalam recalls, always had a smile on his face, just as Prof. Sarabhai did.

Dr. Homi Bhabha and Prof. Sarabhai had identified Thumba as the ideal location for space research as it was near the magnetic equator within the flow of electrojet and ideally suited for ionospheric research in upper atmosphere apart from study of atmospheric structure.

When Prof. Sarabhai visited the area, he found that the locality had many villages and thousands of fisherfolk besides the St. Mary Magdalene Church at Pallithura and the Bishop's House. With bureaucrats and the political leadership throwing up their hands, Prof. Sarabhai called on the Bishop on a Saturday and sought his help to set up the TERLS at Thumba.

The Bishop smiled and asked him to meet him the next day.

In the course of the Sunday morning service, the Bishop told the congregation, "My children, I have a famous scientist with me who wants our church and the place I live for the work of space science research. Dear children, science seeks truth that enriches human life. The higher level of religion is spirituality.

The spiritual preachers seek the help of the Almighty to bring peace to human minds. In short, what Vikram is doing and what I am doing are the same - both science and spirituality seek the Almighty's blessings for human prosperity in mind and body. Children, can we give them God's abode for a scientific mission?"

There was a silence for a while followed by a hearty `Amen' from the congregation, which made the whole church reverberate.

Subsequently, the big event took place in 1962.

Bishop Pereira took the noble decision to dedicate the church in recognition of the national goal for the establishment of VSSC, the President recalled and added, "When I think of that event, I can see how enlightened spiritual and scientific leaders, all converge towards giving reverence to the meaning of human life."

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