The Delight of Discovery

The sun is 12,00,000 times the size of the Earth, and is located more than 900,00,000 miles from us. Yet, we get adequate light and heat from it. Compared to many other stars, the sun is quite small, but because it is relatively close to the Earth, it seems very big to us. Actually, most stars are much bigger than the sun and emit even more light than it. Innumerable stars – an amazing world of light and heat – are scattered all over space. Despite being in existence for trillions of years, their light and heat have not been extinguished.

How does such immense energy get produced in the stars? After long years of research, Hans Bethe discovered that the secret of this lies in the ‘carbon cycle’. For this discovery, he won the 1967 Nobel Prize for Physics.

It must have been a moment of immense and inexpressible delight for Dr. Bethe when he discovered the ‘carbon cycle’. His wife, Rose, related that one night she was with her husband in the desert in New Mexico. In the desert, stars appear to shine with great intensity. Rose looked up at the sky and exclaimed, “How brightly the stars are shining!” At this, Dr. Bethe remarked, “Do you realize that just now you are standing next to the only human who knows why they shine at all?”

Hans Bethe’s discovery related to just one extremely small aspect of the Truth. He had discovered the ‘carbon cycle’ of the stars. But the question is, ‘Why is there this carbon cycle at all in the stars?’ A true believer discovers this great secret in the form of God. Faith in God is a discovery that is greater than all other discoveries.

But it is so strange that when a scientist discovers something quite minor, he is overwhelmed with emotion. In contrast, a person of conventional faith claims to have discovered the greatest reality – God – but yet he experiences no emotional upheaval.

Perhaps, then, those who claim to have faith in God have not discovered God as yet!