BENGALURU: The head of structural design at Total Environment Building Systems, an award-winning realty firm in the city, is a man of bafflingly varied interests. Surendra Kumar Sagar has written on philosophy, popular music, stock market, horse racing and even a game of bridge.
This civil engineer, who has delivered lectures on philosophy at IIT Rourkee, National Institute of Advanced Studies and TERI, has recently released his second book titled Intelligent Field. The central idea, of this book on philosophy, is to converge science and religion, and thus “to reduce conflicts and wars”. Sagar follows global politics and predicts that we are heading towards doom, unless we correct our course.
He proposes, in this book, there is an ‘Intelligent Field’ that controls Nature. Information flow through this field, he writes, causes everything to happen in the universe. This transfer and processing of information shapes the physical world and gives us our consciousness.
It is a complex idea but Sagar believes that getting a handle on it can rid life of meaninglessness. The toughest concept to grasp in his book, he says, would be of the “travelling cosmic mind”. “The simplest explanation,” he says, “is that the universe must make sense. A universe where life and consciousness exist for just an insignificantly small portion of the life of the universe, and that there is no life in the remaining portion which is trillions and trillions times longer, is meaningless to me and makes no sense at all.”
He believes that we have a role in the running of the universe. And a large part of our responsibility is to gather and share intelligence, maybe like a data server. This is besides our role in “taking care of the environment around us”.
This philosophy seems to place much faith and emphasis on human skill; there seems to be little left to chance. But Sagar does appreciate uncertainties in life, like when he places bets in horse racing. “Racing is predominantly a game of skill. Logic and analytical thinking is very much necessary to improve one’s chances of winning,” he says. “But there are many uncertainties involved which is what makes it interesting.”
Book details
Name: Intelligent Field
Price: ` 684
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
On his shelf
One philosopher you admire and why...
Swami Jitatmananda author of the book Modern Physics and Vedanta for his perfect understanding of the philosophical impact of quantum physics and cosmology.
One book on philosophy you are currently reading?
Information and the Nature of Reality edited by Paul Davies and Niels Henrik Gregerson.