Swami Vivekananda On Isaac Newton ~ Swami Vivekananda Quotes

God is to religion what Newton's law of gravity is to falling bodies.

—Swami Vivekananda

We know in the first chapter of the Karma Yoga, Swami Vivekananda wonderfully showed that Isaac Newton actually "unveiled" the theory of gravitation and that was the result of studying in his own mind. Swami Vivekananda talked on Isaac Newton (specially his gravitation theory) several times.

So, in this article we'll make a collection of Swami Vivekananda's quotes and comments on gravitation.

Newton's discovery of gravitation

We'll start with this quote, as we have mentioned it in the introduction, naturally some readers would like to read it first. From Karma Yoga, Chapter: I, Karma in its effect on character—^[Source]

What we say a man "knows", should, in strict psychological language, be what he "discovers" or "unveils"; what a man "learns" is really what he "discovers", by taking the cover off his own soul, which is a mine of infinite knowledge.

We say Newton discovered gravitation. Was it sitting anywhere in a corner waiting for him? It was in his own mind; the time came and he found it out. All knowledge that the world has ever received comes from the mind; the infinite library of the universe is in your own mind. The external world is simply the suggestion, the occasion, which sets you to study your own mind, but the object of your study is always your own mind. The falling of an apple gave the suggestion to Newton, and he studied his own mind. He rearranged all the previous links of thought in his mind and discovered a new link among them, which we call the law of gravitation. It was not in the apple nor in anything in the centre of the earth.

Swami Vivekananda's quotes and comments on Isaac Newton

God is to religion what Newton's law of gravity is to falling bodies.^[Source]
If Newton had not been born, the law of gravitation would have remained all the same and would have worked all the same. It was Newton's genius which formulated it, discovered it, brought it into consciousness, made it a conscious thing to the human race.^[Source]
It was shown by Newton that if light consisted of material particles projected from luminous bodies, they must move faster in solids and liquids than in air, in order that the laws of refraction might be satisfied.^[Source]
The law of gravitation existed before its discovery, and would exist if all humanity forgot it.^[Source]
The mind of the man is an infinite reservoir of knowledge, and all knowledge, present, past or future, is within man, manifested or non manifested, and the object of every system of education should be to help the mind to manifest it. For instance, the law of gravitation was within man, and the fall of the apple helped Newton to think upon it, and bring it out from within his mind.^[Source]
The stone falls to the earth. You say it is caused by the law of gravitation.^[Source]
We have the idea of law. If something happens and we believe that it is the effect of such and such a law, we are satisfied; that is an explanation for us. What we mean by that explanation is that it is proved that this one effect, which had dissatisfied us, is only one particular of a general mass of occurrences which we designate by the word "law". When one apple fell, Newton was disturbed; but when he found that all apples fell, it was gravitation, and he was satisfied. This is one principle of human knowledge.^[Source]
You all know that algebra also originated in India, and that gravitation was known to the Indians thousands of years before Newton was born.^[Source]