Space and Time in Science and Spiritual Traditions

What is space? What is time? We are with space and time every second of our life, but we do not comprehend what they are! These questions form some of most fundamental and challenging questions in our search for Ultimate Reality. Starting from various conceptions about space from antiquity to fixed Absolute background space in Newtonian world to changing four-dimensional space-time of Einstein and to today’s 10 dimensions being talked about so eloquently in string theory, our conceptions about these little cousin brothers have undergone tremendous change. The same story goes in mathematical world where from renowned mathematician Hilbert’s attempts to explore the nature of space around us through his various famous papers to till date, many brilliant mathematicians have put their best efforts to understand these. But we still are very far from a clear and complete understanding of these little ones when it comes to the nature of reality. And yet every notion and quantities which we use in any discipline of science, engineering and research depend on these two, be it a simple concept of velocity, distance or angular momentum. What is our understanding from physics, mathematics about space and time? What spiritual traditions talk about them? Could wisdom from spiritual traditions help for a deeper comprehension of these simple-looking but mind-boggling elements of reality and thereby help us to understand ourselves and our universe better? The present summer school aims to humbly explore some of these questions.