Seeing everything that goes on in your daily life, your daily activities – when you pick up a pen, when you talk, when you go out for a drive or when you are walking alone in the woods – can you with one breath, with one look, know yourself very simply as you are? Read more
I had gone for on an internship during my Masters program at IRMA to a small village in Rajasthan. The NGO there was into adult education. When asked as to what do they teach? They said language and Math. These people were farmers. They would grow food and then sell it off for a price, buy their household stuff and come home. Now, I don't know about you, but if I did not know 3 from 2, selling my stuff and then buying stuff would be impossible for me. So, pray, what were these farmers being taught? When someone says they are teaching Maths, you know how the drill goes.. right? Numbers and then addition and subtraction, etc. But if you got 2 notes and did not know how to count, would you be able to sell or buy anything?? I doubt. Back to the question - did these "illiterate" know Maths? Or did they have to be taught. Quite obviously they weren't solving complex linear equations in their minds, but were doing enough to get by! How do you teach a skill that probably comes naturally to us? And natural come it does. Read more
This is a very interesting video and very powerfully profound. The experience of Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, as she describes is very similar to the one that Krishnamurti and some other Seers had. Her description and detailing of her experience is worth listening to and thinking about. The video was sent by Pramila. Read more
Geeks love the underdogs and are inherently anti-establishment. Microsoft has been the most hated kid on the block for years now. But this guy has taken that hatred to a whole new level! Read more
Recently, the oft-circulated desi emails on the success of Indians was taken up by the HRD minister of India and quoted in the Parliament. Now, the jury is still out there if these figures are correct or not. Who knows if the percentage people hired by Microsoft is 34% or not. But it is a fact that Indians are a successful community in the US and other countries. We, Indians have had a rough deal in last so many centuries that now that things are looking up with our lot, we look at different ways to get acceptance. The funny thing is that we really don't need such acceptance from outsiders - Microsft or Google. We are successful enough to feel happy on our own achievements even given the competition from the best in the world. Look at this chart from from Asian Nation, which shows the different indicators amongst the various immigrant groups and the White/Black population. In all the indicators, Indians are at the top or the second best. Read more
When Krishna (in Bhagwad Gita) told Arjun about how his "Atman" will survive the death and is unborn and never hurt, he made a very bold statement. So bold that most of the people could not even fathom its significance. And thus, if it hadn't already, a new industry was born where Atman - most often characterized as "Impure consciousness" (Advaitists) or "conscious entity but separate from God" (Dualists) - was "to be purified". And both the positions, in my view, make a complete mockery of Krishna's bold statement. It is a great example of how, when mediocrity approaches brilliance, it brings it down so many notches. Atman as Krishna characterized it was no different from Him (Krishna) and He was no different from the Brahman (Universal Consciousness). There was no difference. If Atman was an inferior form of Parmatma then it cannot be eternal and unborn (as many dualists claim)! That would be a complete mockery of a creator, if there was one! Why, and more importantly HOW would the infinite and the perfect be running parallel to the imperfect and therefore the finite? For one that is not infinite has to be finite of existence. The very problem that Krishna was trying to solve was of a human being assessing himself as someone inferior than the infinite and so due to "fear" born out of such inadequacy, creating a whole new world of make-believe morals and systems. If one could imagine and experience oneself as the Universal Consciousness, then would there be any need for actions cloaked and defined by morals? Morality is the altar at which the fearful (because they have a higher power - King/Master/God - to please) and those who live limited existences, reside. The fearless, because they are free, have no such needs or pretentions. Their actions do not bind them because their actions are done without an eye to the consequences. That is left to the natural flow of the Universal Consciousness. They very well realize that it is foolish and useless to speculate on which action produces which result - for in "Good Action", good the adjective does not qualify the action, but the result! When I say "I will do Good" I am essentially saying that MY action will produce a "Good" result! The free and fearless recognize that ACTION of itself has NO adjective. It is colorless. And further that the cause and effect has very little meaning at the cosmic (or even the atomic) level, hence the action-to-result relationship cannot be predicted and if predicted is at best meaningless. Only those afflicted with speculative mindsets in cosmic journey venture to define and distribute moralistic codes and edicts. This is a very subtle but critical distinction in understanding what Krishna said. So, if there is no color to action (or karmas), but karmas are what bind you, then isn't it somehow contradictory? But, this is the very distinction that is critical and at the heart of Krishna's philosophy! Overlay of a color on the colorless Karma is where the entire misery of mankind begins. This color is what we (as in, the world and individual) are. This color is our mind. It is also our bounds and our burden. It is the I. Action - the colorless karma has no "I". It is what it is. There is no distinction between the Action of a Butcher and the Action of a Saint. It is just Action. The values and the colors that are added to different "actions" create the moral and religious web.. and leads to the this strong but temporary element called Ego/Mind. Read more
This poem has been contributed by Pramila Maheshwari. It has been one of my all time favorites. I had read it as a kid and it kept me company in some of my toughest times. If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance of their doubting too If you can wait and not not be tired by waiting Or, being lied about,don’t deal in lies Or being hated don’t give way to hating And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise If you can dream—and not make dreams your master If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim, If you can meet with Triumph and disaster And treat those two impostors just the same If you can bear to hear the truth you have spoken Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken And stoop and build them up with worn out tools Read more
Reality is a peculiar thing; it is there when you are not looking, but when you do look, with greed, what you capture is the sediment of your greed, not reality. Reality is a living thing and cannot be captured, and you cannot say it is always there. There is a path only to something which is stationary, to a fixed, static point. To a living thing which is constantly in movement, which has no resting place how can there be a guide, a path? The mind is so eager to attain it, to grasp it, that it makes it into a dead thing. So, can you put aside the memory of that state which you had? Read more
History, they say, is written by those in power. That is why there is a fine line between mythology and history. It is specifically so when a nation is created based on ideology that emphasizes isolation as opposed to acceptance. When Pakistan was born, such was the thought. There was a bigger country India - which had more Muslims than Pakistan had and who had lived on, on their own accord. So, there was a strong need to defend the very rationale for the new nation. As the nation grew, such isolationist ideologies grew as well. I still remember my amazement in the 1980s when Pakistan announced missiles named Ghouri and Ghazni. This, it was said was in response to the Indian missile Prithvi (implying it was named after Prithviraj Chauhan). First of all, only a person completely ignorant of Hindu philosophy would have said this but for an entire Government to take such a stance was amazing foolish. The Hindu philosophy believes there are 5 elements that creation is made of - Prithvi (land mass), Agni (fire), Akash (sky or vacuum), Jal (Water) and Vayu (Air). The first three have been used as names of missiles hitherto. Moreover, anything that has to do with fighting and inflicting a terrible damage to the enemy should hardly be named after Prithviraj Chauhan! He is the last king the modern day Indians would like to have as role models in a war!! If you beat a barbarian and a looter 17 times and let him go only for him to come and defeat (and KILL) you through bribery, then you deserve very little recognition in political hierarchy! In my view, there is a fine line between foolishness and goodness. Prithviraj Chauhan crossed to the side of foolishness after Ghauri came back the second time after his first pardon. Read more
In all early civilizations, the first expression of mathematical understanding appears in the form of counting systems. Numbers in very early societies were typically represented by groups of lines, though later different numbers came to be assigned specific numeral names and symbols (as in India) or were designated by alphabetic letters (such as in Rome). Although today, we take our decimal system for granted, not all ancient civilizations based their numbers on a ten-base system. In ancient Babylon, a sexagesimal (base 60) system was in use. The Decimal System in Harappa In India a decimal system was already in place during the Harappan period, as indicated by an analysis of Harappan weights and measures. Weights corresponding to ratios of 0.05, 0.1, 0.2, 0.5, 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200, and 500 have been identified, as have scales with decimal divisions. A particularly notable characteristic of Harappan weights and measures is their remarkable accuracy. A bronze rod marked in units of 0.367 inches points to the degree of precision demanded in those times. Such scales were particularly important in ensuring proper implementation of town planning rules that required roads of fixed widths to run at right angles to each other, for drains to be constructed of precise measurements, and for homes to be constructed according to specified guidelines. The existence of a gradated system of accurately marked weights points to the development of trade and commerce in Harappan society. Mathematical Activity in the Vedic Period In the Vedic period, records of mathematical activity are mostly to be found in Vedic texts associated with ritual activities. However, as in many other early agricultural civilizations, the study of arithmetic and geometry was also impelled by secular considerations. Thus, to some extent early mathematical developments in India mirrored the developments in Egypt, Babylon and China . The system of land grants and agricultural tax assessments required accurate measurement of cultivated areas. As land was redistributed or consolidated, problems of mensuration came up that required solutions. In order to ensure that all cultivators had equivalent amounts of irrigated and non-irrigated lands and tracts of equivalent fertility - individual farmers in a village often had their holdings broken up in several parcels to ensure fairness. Since plots could not all be of the same shape - local administrators were required to convert rectangular plots or triangular plots to squares of equivalent sizes and so on. Tax assessments were based on fixed proportions of annual or seasonal crop incomes, but could be adjusted upwards or downwards based on a variety of factors. This meant that an understanding of geometry and arithmetic was virtually essential for revenue administrators. Mathematics was thus brought into the service of both the secular and the ritual domains. Arithmetic operations (Ganit) such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, fractions, squares, cubes and roots are enumerated in the Narad Vishnu Purana attributed to Ved Vyas (pre-1000 BC). Examples of geometric knowledge (rekha-ganit) are to be found in the Sulva-Sutras of Baudhayana (800 BC) and Apasthmaba (600 BC) which describe techniques for the construction of ritual altars in use during the Vedic era. It is likely that these texts tapped geometric knowledge that may have been acquired much earlier, possibly in the Harappan period. Baudhayana's Sutra displays an understanding of basic geometric shapes and techniques of converting one geometric shape (such as a rectangle) to another of equivalent (or multiple, or fractional) area (such as a square). While some of the formulations are approximations, others are accurate and reveal a certain degree of practical ingenuity as well as some theoretical understanding of basic geometric principles. Modern methods of multiplication and addition probably emerged from the techniques described in the Sulva-Sutras. Read more
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