Shubh Deepawali :: Light and Knowledge

Shubh Deepawali

Gyanam Paramam Dhyeyam
(Gyan or Knowledge is the Supreme Goal)

Tamaso Ma Jyotirgamaya
(Take me from Darkness to Light)

Light has been widely used, both culturally and philosophically, to represent Gyan or Knowledge.

Light has attributes, Light from one source is different from the Light from another source.
Sunlight is different from Moonlight. Some sources of Light soothe us, some others make us uneasy and tense.
Moreover, the intensity of Light sources changes with time.

What about Knowledge? Does it also have attributes? Are there different kinds of Knowledge?
If yes, do different kinds of Knowledge have different effects on us?
Does the Knowledge coming out of different sources change with time?
If yes, then Knowledge cannot be the Truth since That is unchangeable.

It is these questions that I am trying to answer this time during the Festival of Lights...

Shubh Deepawali

Death: The absolute truth...

A friend of mine sent me this link today morning: Cornell expresses condolences following student's death. It was hard to believe but was confirmed.

I last met him about 2 years ago when he was leaving the IITB campus. TLAVS (T. L. Aravind Vignesh Subramaniam) as he was affectionately called, was a gem of a person. He was so passionate about physics that he came to IITB to pursue Engineering Physics even though he had been selected for the MBBS programme at AIIMS.

He was a hostelmate and we had attended many courses and labs together. The IV semseter Digital Labs project was one time when I had worked closely with him. The cause of his death is still unknown. May his soul rest in peace.

We do not know when life may end but I do not want to believe it...

Death: The absolute truth...

-Mohit

Slavery and us...

Sometimes I feel that all of us are becoming slaves to the western influence... and this is not something new... it has been there historically and is still existing today, albeit in a different form...
Moreover, I see it evolving with the times...

• In the Medieval times (when the balance of the world started shifting westwards), we had physical slavery... with people being transported across the world as slaves...
  
  
• Then came economic slavery through trading companies setup by European nations...
  
  
• These trading companies started ruling and colonising the countries.... political slavery... European conquests all over the world... India lost its self-respect during that rule...
  
  
• Next, there was a wave of independence movements and people threw away the shackles of politics that were binding them. This is referred to as Independence in the modern sense... "self-rule"
  
  
• The greed of human power led to some sort of "military slavery" wherein, the world got divided into different blocks of military might and weaker nations had to align themselves with one of the blocks...
  
  
• With the cold war ending, military slavery has also retracted back... Now, it is the era of Globalisation... another display of economic might...
  

Today, I feel that we (at least India) are fast moving into an era of "intellectual slavery" which is disguised in the form of us

• working for multinational companies (anyone working at an MNC should be able to connect to what I mean... the kind of work that is repeatedly given to Indian teams and we happily take it under the impression of "learning from them"... the fact that it is they who drive the work and not us... that decisions are "communicated to you" rather than "taken with you")...
  
  
• working on research problems that are defined by them... under the comfort of "economic viability"... (how many researchers here work on developing solutions based on the society's needs? how many technology products are even customised to Indian needs?)
  

It is also being coupled with a slow but sure movement towards "cultural slavery" (how else can you explain most shops celebrating Christmas with greater fanfare than Deepawali?)... all driven by economics...

Where is all this headed? I can only hope that we do not kill our self-respect, by blindly aping the west, this time too...

“The moment the slave resolves that he will no longer be a slave, his fetters fall. Freedom and slavery are mental states.”
-- Mahatma Gandhi

"I didn't know I was a slave until I found out I couldn't do the things I wanted"
-- Frederick Douglass

-Mohit

I believe so much... so much that I am ashamed of...

"in cities, we all learn to ignore the poor people on the streets... to us "they kill the aesthetic beauty"... Little do we realise that through our ignorance we are killing them each day...

A confession from an Urban Indian Elite...

Confessions of an Urban Indian Elite

I consider myself to be an "Urban Indian Elite". I have never lived in a village, I do not know what India means... yet I think I represent the country. Some confessions from inside my heart...

http://urbanindianelite.blogspot.com/

Ranganthittu

Originally uploaded by huckym.

Dec. 31, 2005. Basking in the sun :-)

Made in !India

Recently, I was travelling to Delhi from Bangalore. What I saw there, brought a wry smile to my face. At the airport lounge (the area where you need to wait for boarding after the security check) near Gate No. 2, there was a snack-shop. And EVERYTHING there was imported... i.e. Made in !India. I specifically asked the worker there whether they have any Indian products... and he simply said NO!!!

I had expected this but then reality and expectation are two different things. And we call ourselves progressive... we are moving towards development... Sigh!!!

-Mohit

Ignoring Myself...

Yesterday, I was accompaying a friend who was buying some medicines at a local chemist shop. There was this small girl, not more than 10 yrs. old, standing there with a younger sibling of hers. She looked poor and in a bad state. She was giving a bag of clothes to the shopkeeper and wanted some money in return (I do not know what their deal was). The shopkeeper took the bag and asked her to come a couple of hours later for the money. She, however, stood there... did not want to move... perhaps she needed the money urgently... but what could the poor thing have done?

And me, I was standing, staring at the conversation shamelessly... fighting my own self whether I should intervene or not. It was just a question of Rs. 41/-. The shopkeeper was surely exploiting the situation... but "why should I intervene? What right do I have to intervene? Ignore it!"... the selfishness inside me was placating my heart with such questions... questions which I did not have an answer to... questions which ultimately won...

I do not know when will I be able to silence these questions... when will I be able to ignore my selfishness... when will I be able to intervene against the injustice which is happening all around me...
Do not know whether I lack the ability, the strength or the courage....

"After a few years of meditation practice we can even learn how to occasionally ignore ourselves. And what relief that can be!"
-- Wes Nisker

-Mohit

"Fine, Thank You"

At times, I keep reflecting on our education system and the kind of skills/ideals it has imbibed in me. I am positive that this education system is a failure.

• - It does not teach us how to lead our lives
• - It does not teach us how to handle failure
• - It does not teach us how to handle conflicts in principles
• - It does not teach us how to face complex and mind-boggling situations
• - It does not teach us that we need to be aware of the city/state/country and its problems
• - ....
• - It does not teach us that we need to stand up and contribute...

The list can go on and on... The only thing that this education system has perhaps given me is a way to earn by bread and butter. Of course, this is no mean achievement in today's times. But, at times I do feel that I am not fully prepared to face this world. The only thing I find solace in is the fact that learning is lifelong... The biggest fear, however, is that my learning on these issues will now be through experience, through making mistakes in this stage of life... which may prove to be too costly at times, and will be a very slow process...

The most startling example of the way rote learning is imbibed to us comes to me in the form of something I was taught in primary school. We were being taught different possible English constructs/questions that can be asked and were being given answers to all of them. One of them I remember... we were taught that the answer to "How are you?" should be "Fine, Thank You"... as if I should never answer anything else... For a very long time, I used to wonder whether this "Fine, Thank You" was a construct which was supposed to be an answer to this questions always. It was only as I grew up that I understood the fallacy...

"I never let schooling interfere with my education" -- Mark Twain

-Mohit

Remembering Netaji...

Jan 23rd, 2006 was was Netaji's 109th birthday. This is an extract from what Varun sent me on that day...

A page from a letter to the Bengal Government from 'My Political Testament', written while at Presidency Jail, November, 1940. (Subhash Chandra Bose)

In this mortal world, everything perishes and will perish – but ideas, ideals and dreams do not. One individual may die for an idea. But that idea will, after his death, incarnate itself a thousand lives. That is how the wheel of evolution moves on and the ideas, ideals and dreams of one generation are bequeathed to the next. An idea has ever been fulfilled itself in this world through an ordeal of suffering and sacrifice.

What greater solace can there be than the feeling that one has lived and died for a principle? What higher satisfaction can a man posses than the knowledge that his spirit will beget kindred spirits to carry on his unfinished task, What better reward can a soul desire than the certainty that his message will be wafted over time and dates and over the broad plains to every corner of his land and across the seas to distant lands? What higher consummation can life attract than peaceful self-immolation at the altar of one's cause?

Hence it is evident that nobody can lose through suffering and sacrifice. If he does lose anything of the earth earthy, he will gain much more in return by becoming the heir.

---

For what Netaji couldnt do while living, he has created thousand more Bose through his inspiring ideals after his death.... SALUTATIONS....

-Mohit

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I don't have anything else to say...