This is about the tenth time that I visit Ahmedabad, the first time in 1944 from Karachi; during these visits, on invitations, I have gone on lecture tours to many towns and cities in Gujarat. The present invitation has come from Dr. A.H. Kalro, Chairman, Dr. Vikram A. Sarabhai Trust of the Ahmedabad Management Association, asking me to deliver the Vikram Sarabhai Memorial Lectures this year. I have not met Dr. Vikram Sarabhai, but I am acquainted with his great contribution to Indian science. I have also heard of his great qualities of head and heart from his distinguished mother, whose guest I was on one of my Ahmedabad visits and who organized my lectures in the city, and from his highly gifted wife, Srimati Mrinalini Sarabhai; from the latter I heard of Dr. Sarabhai's interest in religion and art, apart from science. These factors, coupled with my love for the culture of the people of Gujarat, made me immediately accept Dr. Kalro's invitation, even though I have been advised by my doctor to cut down on these tours and lectures. Keeping in view the wide interests of Dr. Sarabhai, I have chosen two themes for these memorial lectures: Human Uniqueness in the Light of Modern Science and Human Uniqueness in the Light of Ancient Vedanta. These two comprehend the two main streams of human knowledge and human values. On 2 October 1989, Gandhiji's birthday, I had taken this very subject as my theme for the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial lecture, instituted by late Sir C.V. Raman, in his Raman Research Institute, Bangalore. There is a third stream, namely, art in its expression as music, painting, sculpture, dance, drama, and literature. Human uniqueness in the field of art can be traced even to primitive cavesmen in Europe and India. Art in all its forms is a rich legacy of culture as much in the rest of the world as in India. I hope these two themes will give the listeners plenty of food for thought. Actually, lectures like these are not meant to be one-way sermons but are meant to stimulate thought, and the question-answer sessions these two evenings, at the end of the lectures, are meant for that.
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