Imagination: The true magic carpet

“The world of reality has its limits; the world of imagination is out of focus” – Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

Imagination is the least understood, and the most neglected, faculty while being, at the same time, the most important. It is the faculty of forming new images, or concepts, of external objects, not perceptible to the senses. Imagination is our entire existence, influencing all that we think about, and create, leading to elaborate theories, grand dreams, and exciting inventions, from academia to engineering and the arts. A unique gift in other words, which Joseph Joubert, the French moralist and essayist, called the ‘eye of the soul.’

The world in which we live today would not be what it is, but for the spectacular advances, and understanding of nature, provided by the path-breaking contributions of great philosopher-scientists such as Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein. Both of them possessed imagination in abundant measure, as well as the rare ability to discover new, and exciting phenomena in nature.

Likewise, in more recent times, extraordinarily, gifted persons such as Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, used their imagination, envisaging how personal computers can change the world, the way we are, how we could educate our children and entertain ourselves.

Einstein said of himself, “I am enough of the artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles in the world.” In saying so, he was talking about his ability to form a picture, in his mind, of what was likely to happen in various physical circumstances, yet to be tested. An ability that led to what is known as ‘gedanken experiments’ or ‘thought – experiments’, a concept that was to result in several mind-blowing discoveries, including the effect of gravitation on light, time-dilation, or the slowing down of time at great speeds, and the recent discovery of gravitational waves.

Einstein instinctively believed that he knew the result of an experiment even before it was conducted, feeling certain that he was right, without knowing the reason. He intuitively relied more on imagination, than knowledge. A fertile imagination was the quality that inspired most of the works of the great Shakespeare. In fact, the well-known English writer, Samuel Johnson, famously said, of him, “Each change of many – colour’d life he drew. Exhausted worlds, and then imagin’d new.” And, then, there was the intensely controversial maverick pugilist, Muhammad Ali, who said, “the man who has no imagination has no wings.”

From Plato, Aristotle and Socrates, through Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Beethoven, and Shakespeare, to Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa and Bill Gates, the history of mankind is replete with instances when the thought processes of individuals changed its course dramatically. As did those of Hitler’s or Mussolini’s, though in a negative sense.

People generally believe that imagination is the exclusive possession of artists, poets, and dreamers, although it plays a significant role in many other fields. For instance, it plays a vital part in the process of education. Children endowed with robust imagination can become confident writers, given the support and encouragement of teachers, who can help them come up with innovative ideas about the world around them, and the people in it. Likewise, imagination is a faculty of great importance to creative writers, as it to acts as a medium for tapping into one’s inner world, to create unique and compelling stories that capture the readers’ attention.

Imaginary numbers play an extraordinarily important role in the field of mathematics. The number i, the square root of -1, is not a real number, as it cannot be pinpointed on the line that represents real numbers. Still, it is real, in the sense that it exists and has great value in mathematics. Numbers of the type a+ib are of significant use in many disciplines such as quantum mechanics which describes the micro cosmic or subatomic world.

Scientific pursuits demand a somewhat cold, and austere, rigour. In contrast, the arts appeal to the aesthetic sense. Interestingly, both have attracted distinguished and eminent subscribers with dramatically divergent views. The ancient Greek philosopher, Plato, for example, described science as something which exercises the reason and art as that which appeals to the imagination. The celebrated British poet, William Blake, on the other hand, saw everything in the abstract. He, in fact, took on legendary figures of his times, including “The Unholy Trinity” (as he called them), of Isaac Newton, Francis Bacon, and John Locke, who, he felt, were more obsessed with reason, at the expense of all else, famously saying “art is the tree of life, science is the tree of death”.

It is the faculty of imagination that has led to the stipulation of imaginary lines called parallels or latitudes that divide Earth. Running from east to west, they measure the distance of a given point north or south. The equator is the most well-known of them, dividing the earth into the northern and southern hemispheres. Likewise, longitudes are imaginary lines which run north to south, and measure the distance, east or west. The Prime Meridian is an arbitrary line passing through the telescope at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich England. It was chosen by the International Meridian Conference in Washington in 1984, and has a longitude of 0°, dividing Earth into eastern and western hemispheres. As an ardent student of geography in my school days, I felt a thrill pass through me, as I stood straddling the Prime Meridian, during a recent visit to England.

An expression that is very popular is to ‘catch the imagination’ of someone or to make that person very interested or excited. Likewise, figments of one’s imagination stands for a product of the mind, which not only does not exist, but is not likely to be real.

According to the Upanishads, parts of the Vedas in Hindu religion, the entire world is Mithya or illusory and having no reality whatsoever. All life, in a manner of speaking, lies in the realm of illusion.

Imagination, indeed, is a powerful faculty. A thoroughly happy person, watching a sordid movie depicting the travails of a poor person, can, quite literally, inflict upon himself the suffering the poor person is going through. And a person, in abject misery, can merely shut his eyes, and imagine himself enjoying the utmost luxury. As the great lyricist Shailendra says, in the immortal song, “Mera Joota Hai Japani”, enacted in the most appealing manner by the legendary Raj Kapoor, in yesteryear’s blockbuster Hindi movie Shree 420.

“Honge Raaje Rajkanwar Hum Bigde Dil Shehzade

Hum Singhasan Par Ja Baithen Jab Jab Karen Iraade”

A lighthearted snippet, to end this piece.

Several weeks after a young man had been hired, he was called into the personnel manager’s office. “What is the meaning of this?” the manager asked. “When you applied for the job, you told us you had 5 years’ experience. Now we discover this is the first job you’ve ever had.” “Well,” the young man said, “in your ad you said you wanted somebody with imagination.”

(The writer was

formerly Chief Secretary,

Government of Andhra Pradesh)