Senior BJP leader and Kanpur MP Murli Manohar Joshi on Friday equated German physicist Werner Heisenberg's principle of uncertainty with the notion of 'Brahma' in the Indian tradition, seeking to invoke county's rich cultural and scientific past.

The veteran leader, who has also been the Head of Physics Department of Allahabad University, said, "We cannot see or understand Brahma just as Heisenberg stated that there was a limit to our sense of understanding of the behaviour of quantum particles". Few days ago, Home Minister Rajnath Singh was reported to have said that fundamentals of Heisenberg's principle of uncertainty were based on the Vedas. Joshi also quoted Heisenberg having said that India could be the "compass" to the modern world that is mired in consumerism.

"Heisenberg once told an Indian that the western world is a ship that has material abundance but it lacks a compass and India could provide that compass that will guide the ship," said the BJP MP while delivering the Dr Rajendra Prasad Memorial Lecture 2014 on 'Science and Culture' here. Speaking extempore, in a speech stretching about an hour, Joshi also touched upon the issue of the role of President in the Indian constitutional scheme of things.

Citing an instance of Dr Rajendra Prasad's visit to the Somnath Temple despite then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru's reluctance, Joshi said that was an act of the President acting on his will. "There was a difference of opinion between Nehru and Dr Prasad regarding the latter visiting the Somnath Temple. Nehru was against his visit and his mingling with religious saints but nevertheless Dr Prasad went ahead," he said, hailing the nation's first President to be "a saint in Indian politics".

Terming the world to be a "family", Joshi said that the world is increasingly being regarded to be a "market", driven solely by commercial interests. "They say the world is a market, I say that the world is a family and India will play the role in bringing a sense of balance in the world," he said. The veteran BJP parliamentarian said that culture is a force of "convergence", while denouncing the oft-repeated notion of "cultural divide".

"We often come across terms such as cultural divide and faultlines arising out of culture but those are outcomes of a lack of understanding of the whole concept. Culture is something that brings people together and the thing that divides should not be termed culture," Joshi said. The lecture series, which is being organised by All India Radio (AIR) since 1969, will be broadcast on December 3 at 9:30 PM as part of the birth anniversary celebrations of the nation's first President.

In his famous uncertainty principle, German physicist Werner Heisenberg had said that there is a fundamental limit to our understanding of the behaviour of quantum particles adding that at most we can calculate probabilities for where things are and how they will behave.