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India-West Staff Reporter
SACRAMENTO, CA – Dr. Vipul Mankad’s new book arrives at the intersection of medicine, memory, and meaning. ‘When Science Meets the Soul: A Doctor’s Quest for Deeper Healing’ is part professional memoir and part philosophical inquiry, offering a conversation between modern biomedical science and ancient Indic thought.
A pediatric oncologist and former advisor to the US Senate Mankad traces his journey from arriving in America at age 23 with a medical degree and little money to rising through the ranks of academic medicine. He went on to chair pediatrics at the University of Kentucky, secure major National Institutes of Health funding, and help establish a children’s hospital. On paper, the arc is one of unambiguous success. In the book, Mankad is more interested in what that success did not resolve.
Much of the narrative is shaped by his years of caring for children with life-threatening illnesses. Treating terminally ill patients, he writes, brought professional fulfillment but also emotional fatigue and moral reckoning. “My professional work with brave young patients made me a better human being,” Mankad says, noting that medicine taught him compassion but not always inner balance. Those pressures pushed him to revisit the Vedic and Upanishadic teachings he had encountered earlier in life seeking a framework for resilience that extended beyond clinical training.
The book’s middle section titled ‘Nature and Nurture’ grounds these personal reflections firmly in science. Drawing on whole genome sequencing and archaeological research Mankad explores the roughly 300,000 year migration of modern humans from Africa to the Indian subcontinent. By examining his own genetic profile he connects ancestral history with present identity offering a lens that resonates strongly with the Indian diaspora. Identity he suggests is shaped by biology culture and environment but also by how individuals choose to engage with what he calls the game of life.
Rather than treating genetics as destiny, Mankad uses science to deepen the conversation about agency. He argues that understanding where we come from biologically can inform how we live ethically and consciously. For readers balancing inherited traditions with professional ambition, the section serves as both explanation and invitation.
In its final chapters ‘When Science Meets the Soul’ moves beyond the physical body and mind to examine consciousness itself. Drawing on his experience teaching meditative yoga at Duke University, Mankad explores whether awareness is simply a product of neurochemistry or something more fundamental. He weaves together contemporary scientific inquiry with Dvaita and Adwait philosophies, inviting readers to consider dualistic and non-dualistic views of existence without prescribing belief.
The tone here is exploration rather than declarative. Mankad does not claim to resolve the mystery of consciousness. Instead, he offers practical tools drawn from meditation, self-inquiry, and disciplined observation to help readers maintain equilibrium in a turbulent world.
What distinguishes the book is its balance. It neither rejects science in favor of spirituality nor reduces ancient philosophy to metaphor. Instead, it treats both as complementary ways of understanding suffering, purpose, and healing. For professionals navigating high pressure careers, especially those shaped by migration and cultural inheritance, Mankad’s work offers a thoughtful companion.
When’ Science Meets the Soul’ is ultimately less about answers than integration. It reflects a life spent at the edges of achievement and introspection and invites readers to consider how success, knowledge, and inner clarity might coexist.
The book is available on Amazon.
