Niranjan Patnaaik
Former Minister and Senior Congress Leader, Odisha
Dr Patnaaik has always enjoyed reading. Besides material in his field of study, his reading ranges from fiction to complex scientific theories. He sometimes reads Bhagavad Gita for devotion. His wife teases him that he reads too much Bhagavad Gita because he tends to look at signs or a series of numbers and symbols from right to left, rather than left to right.
Dr Patnaaik is a careful and a creative thinker, researcher and writer. He has done years of work on details of Bhagavad Gita and compared his study based on modern science and Vedic science. He is disciplined. His teaching is well organized and presentable. He writes and speaks with precision and clarity and discovers the freshness and vitality in his work.
He is creative and courageous. The article that he wrote with Bhagavad Gita about Prakriti and Purush, ‘A Comparative Study of Vedic Science and Modern Science’ was a very important signal of Dr Patnaaik’s capacity and commitment to rethink issues in new ways. The research and writing he continues to do on marriage and divorce is based on details of ancient biblical texts, but it is a creative work that is published in some of the best journals in his field.
In addition, there is always a keen sense of the pastoral implications of these ideas. Whether it ranges from marriage to temple leadership, from disabilities to discipleship, or from ancient temple to the contemporary temple, he is sensitive to the ramifications for the life. “Sir, you are one person, who should be venerated; and we shall”.