The World as I see it - Albert Einstein

Well, I kinda cheated. Didn't really read the entire book, but more like a summary of it :) Still, it was quite a long read - 76 pages of it all.

This collection of letters and essays provides a much needed and wholesome insight into Albert Einstein's ideas and perspective - the things that make him human. With his success in the field of physics, it is sometimes hard to see beyond the E=mc squares that dominate his personality to hear his other ideas.

Here are some things about Einstein, as revealed in this collection, that struck me.

(i) Einstein was astoundingly humble. For example, he felt undeserving of the cult-like status that he received when he was in the US, saying that "This has been my fate, and the contrast between the popular estimate of my powers and achievements and the reality is simply grotesque." He also attributes our blessed existence and environment today - "A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving".

He goes further to say that this culture of individualism and egotism has not only consumed persons, but also society as a whole. "For whereas formerly it was enough for a man to have freed himself to some extent from personal egotism to make him a valuable member of society, to-day he must also be required to overcome national and class egotism. Only if he reaches those heights can he contribute towards improving the lot of humanity." How right he is!

(ii) He's not a big fan of accumulating wealth. "... at last beginning to be realized that
great wealth is not necessary for a happy and satisfactory life." and "The way to a joyful and happy state is through renunciation and self-limitation everywhere"

(iii) While Einstein doesn't believe in an immortal soul, he is religious in some way - he appears to see God more in terms of the beauty and remarkableness of the world that we live in - that can be connected to a form of cosmic experience. "The fairest thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science." In the same vein, he rejects atheists who can't marvel at this beauty. "The bigotry of the nonbeliever is for me nearly as funny as the bigotry of the believer."

To him, Judaism and many of the Asian religions are more of "moral religions", endowing us with moral compasses and ways to lead our lives. "Judaism seems to me to be concerned almost exclusively with the moral attitude in life and to life." And "If one purges the Judaism of the Prophets and Christianity as Jesus Christ taught it of all subsequent additions, especially those of the priests, one is left with a teaching which is capable of curing all the social ills of humanity."

And finally, this is the one sentence that I think really struck me:
"The life of the individual has meaning only in so far as it aids in making the life of every living thing nobler and more beautiful."