Monday, October 26, 2009

My thoughts feelings (or may be fantasies) about Grigori Perelman

I am a fan of Ayn Rand's philosophy and in particular her novels Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged.
The heroes in both her novels are the people who do their work because they simply enjoy it. Their source of pleasure is their passion for their work and reward is this pleasure itself.

When I read about Grigori Perelman rejecting the fields medal, It immediately reminded me of Howard Roark of fountainhead who rejected his university degree because his thoughts were different from those of his profs.

In Grigori Perelman, I see a mathematician who solved problems for pleasure and sought no other reward than the fact that his proofs of the theorems were correct. A person living in his mind and Absorbed so much in Mathematics that the pleasures of the material world seem pale to him. A goal that many spiritualists aim to achieve.

Considering this I believe that Mathematics can be spirituality. It could possibly raise one to the kind of ecstatic experiences and bliss that many spiritualists seek through yoga, meditations and following their Gurus. (Yet many a times the "bliss" keeps eluding them).

I feel that Mathematics can be an end on to itself. In Gregori Perelman I see a man who has a few simple needs and a Man living blissfullly based on certain axioms. I imagine Grigori Perelman speaking to me "My life is a continuous well behaved simple function independent (or perhaps nearly independent) of time dependent variables like money, love, fame, Recognition , Material Posessions ..." and "What do you need for life ? A little food to survive, A hygienic home to avoid sickness,Some money for food and medicines and a notebook and a pen.... That's what a blissful life is all about.What for should I need anything else?."

My tributes to the Great Mathematician ("Perhaps the greatest of the living mathematicians"). I am inspired and wish that some day in my life I will be in a position to begin to understand his works.

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For Abhijeet Mahabal: If you happen to stumble upon this page some day, I want you to know how much I admire you, even though I didn't express it in my college days! (You might have thought me to be a crank involved sentimentally in religeous philosophies, but now I am beginning to see your point).

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