Why not a Phone4Ever?

Every time we buy a new electronic product, the fear of obsolescence starts ticking at the back of our minds. The fear reaches its peak when we buy a mobile phone. Be it the cheapest 2G variety or the costliest 4G one, the inevitability of obsolescence far outweighs the momentary thrill of possessing a brand new mobile phone. Impending obsolescence of mobile phones has become something like the inevitable death of human beings. There is no way we can overcome it except for the risk of being labelled as an oldtimer.

But why the inevitability of obsolescence for a simple instrument which is used only for convenience? It is nothing but the greediness of market forces that has made it so. Many of the multinational companies have become greedy beyond tolerable limits and the only reason behind many of the world’s humanitarian tragedies is precisely this greediness. Otherwise why can’t they spare atleast the basic necessities of mankind from their never ending profit motives. Communication is as important and inevitable for humans in twenty first century as air, water and electricity.

The world bodies for common good and multinational companies must arrive at a consensus to start manufacturing some form of a communication instrument for ever (phone4ever). There must be a mobile phone whose hardware will need no upgrade for atleast two decades. Software upgrades are reasonable and often meaningful. In the emerging world of ubiquitous wifi free of cost, software upgrade is not an issue at all. But the need of a phone4ever is all the more important and has become a bare necessity in today’s world.

Learn to Deal with Indians

If there is one human being whose words are keenly heard, decisions awaited and deeds hopefully desired by most humans in today’s world, it is that of India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi. No other leader in human history, especially in the last five decades, has assumed office with so much hopes and aspirations from his fellow countrymen. What he will achieve (or not achieve) will decide the fate and future of millions and millions in a developing nation like India. The nation which controlled almost 40% of the world’s GDP almost two hundred years ago is now struggling with almost 40% of its people clinging to the ever changing Poverty Line.

It is in this context that the ‘Make in India’ campaign launched by Modi becomes very relevant and strategic. If India can convince the developed world that India and Indians are the most legitimate claimants in the democratic world to host the world’s production factories we can show and teach the whole world a few important points. We can reiterate to the whole humanity that democracy in the form of elected governments is the most legitimate form of governance. And in the process, a vast majority of Indians will be pulled out of the poverty trap by the millions of employment opportunities raised by these production facilities.

But for the ‘Make in India’ campaign to succeed, we must also alert the world with the slogan of ‘Deal with Indians’. The developed world is aware of how to deal with Germans, British, Americans, Russians, Japanese and now with the Chinese. But they have little clue about the nature of Indians and the ways to deal with them. Whether others like it or not, the world must realize that India will dominate the world stage in the years to come once again and Indians have the following likes (and dislikes):-

- Eat with hand

- Predominant vegetarianism. No Beef, but milk
- Indian English, Indian accent
- No Toilet Paper, only Water
- No Tie
- Respect for Elders
- No cheerleaders, but Ganesh pooja

Indians must assert our identity and not try to ape the West again, as during the colonial days. Like the Japanese and Chinese, we should make our mark and let the world know our likes and dislikes.

Make Objective Decisions in Life

For most us Seeing is Believing. Whatever be the descriptions and personal anecdotes that others may present before us, most of us start believing in Something only after seeing it in front of our own eyes. And for most of us, once we start believing in Something we begin to become less objective, rational and even slip into the dangerous realm of blind belief. Here lies the main problem that is afflicting many of our so-called educated and intelligent human beings.

 

Nothing can illustrate the topic more than the video below. So let us watch it first.

 

We can confidently assume that the audience here belongs to the top 1 to 2 % of the world’s population in terms of their education, intelligence and background.  But see how they are prone to a grave error of judgment. If some of them happen to be in a jury for a case of assault, there is an overwhelming chance of making a big mistake. It is all because we tend to believe in what we believe we saw. And consequently we become more and more adamant about our belief.

 

The same mistake of error in judgment happens to many of us in our lives. Thanks to constant association, the belief of Something starts growing in us. Sometimes we ourselves may not be aware of it. Because we are inside the very system, our natural objectiveness and rationality starts diminishing. Often it takes our well wishers outside the system to tell us that we are indeed wrong. The lesson to learn is very clear – Whenever you want to decide about something very important in life, take a step outside and then decide. The consequences can be disastrous otherwise.

Why is Adi Sankara considered the most intelligent human being ever?

There are two fundamental features about almost all basic phenomena in nature - that they are symmetric and/or cyclic. This can be noticed in the form and functioning of all tangible and intangible matter and phenomena around us. Almost all ancient civilizations across the globe have noted this and have developed their own postulations and philosophies about nature. Many of them have even developed the concept of an all powerful God based on these observations. However, for an impartial and unprejudiced observer, none of the civilizations have approached a near perfection in these aspects as the Vedic civilization of India. Some of the theories intrinsic to Vedic civilization like Adi Sankara’s Maaya theory are indistinguishable with those of the most modern Science.

India’s Vedic civilization started at immemorial times with the revealing or recitation of Vedas and continues unabated in the core of India even now. Many historians want to contain it within a specific period but have failed miserably because of the simple fact that Indian continues to the only ‘civilisational” entity that remains essentially unchanged in the entire world, despite the worst atrocities by the invading Muslim forces and the colonial masters for about one thousand years. All the other civilizations like Chinese, Greek, Mayan, Japanese, Egyptian etc., have undergone paradigm changes and maintains only minimal or no continuity with their glorious pasts. The main reason for this remarkable achievement is the contribution of our own Sastras and outstanding Gurus like Adi Sankara.

Sastras and Science

Many of the concepts and words which are central to India’s prestigious ancient language viz. Sanskrit have suffered from translation. Sastra and Dharma are just two of them. Very often Sastra gets wrongfully interpreted as modern Science and Dharma as Righteousness as we use now. Many of the outstanding postulations and literary works by ancient Rishis of India get ridiculed in modern times, especially by Indians with very clear vested interests, mainly because of this utterly wrong translation. In ancient India, all those fields of knowledge which has a rational base were considered Sastras. This is in stark contrast with modern Science which is all about measurement, objective evidence and zero nonconformity. 

Quite in keeping with such a rational definition of the Sastras, we have several branches of knowledge like Astrology, Vaastu, Ayurveda, Yoga, Yagam, Tantra, Temples etc in ancient India which are continuing to catch our attention even today. All of them have solid rational basis but many of the theories within these fields may not have the solid proofs that modern Science is asking for. But that does not belittle the importance of all these fields of knowledge in the lives of common Indians. Despite India’s great achievements in modern Science, most of the Hindu Indians still continues to abide by these Sastras in their individual lives. Quite surprisingly, the latest developments in the field of modern Science has started matching with these Sastras in recent times.

Sankara’s Advaita

Ever since the Europeans started illegitimately and immorally colonizing the rest of the world, they have usurped the leadership in Science from the ancient civilizations like India, China and Japan. Quite expectedly history of Science is also being written by the Europeans because Indians are one of least history-conscious people in the world. Though the latest mathematical tool of Calculus was quite popular in India in 14th century (Madhava of Sangamagrama), European historians have given the credit for its discovery to Newton and Leibnitz who lived in the 17th century. And when almost all the Vedic literature refers to heavenly bodies as Golas (meaning Spheres), the claim goes to Greek and Roman astronomers. Luckily the credit for the modern numeral system and zero still belongs to India even though it is designated as Arabic numerals because Arab traders carried it West from India.  

Physics has always been the cutting edge branch of Science that has shaped modern history of mankind. Modern Physics owes its development so far to the continuous thread of development from Aristotle to Galileo to Newton to Einstein. It has successfully established Big Bang and answered most of our questions with Stephen Hawkings in the lead. But for the unexpected development in Quantum Theory, Albert Einstein, the most brilliant scientist in history so far would have attained his Theory for Everything. The spooky behavior of minute particles at a distance resulted in the failure of Einstein who sincerely hoped that God will not play dice. As it stands today, most of the definite measurement theories of Physics fail at the sub atomic level and only probabilities are possible. It has been proven that the same particle can be present at different points of space at the same time. Current talks about eleven dimensional multiverses (Edward Witten) make it more evident that God is indeed playing dice.

The latest developments in our relentless pursuit for unraveling the universe bring the European Sciences face to face with Hindu India’s Sastras once again. One of India’s greatest Rishis, Shri Adi Shankaracharya (CE 788-820) had established almost 1500 years ago that the world we see is really unreal, which essentially means it is only probabilistic. The crux of his Advaita theory is that Brahman (not Brahma or Brahmin) alone is real, and the phenomenal world is unreal or an illusion. Modern Science is coming to the very same conclusion. Based on the quintessential symmetry and cyclic nature of universe, it is quite possible that there are trillions and billions of Micro Bangs occurring every nanosecond and what we perceive as reality is the sum total of the interference of the after effects of these staggered Micro  Bangs. Jagat is the Sanskrit word for the universe and it literally means Create, Sustain and Destroy. No wonder the most brilliant mind that humanity produced so far is called Jagatguru Adi Sankaracharya.

God Definition

The bitter fight between fanatic atheists like Richard Dawkins and uncompromising believers like Deepak Chopra has reached highpoint. In a way it looks progressive because the set of blind followers who believe in a Man look alike God breathing down the nose of all believers, watching and determining the life of each one of us is fast dwindling the world over. Church goers are few and far between among the Europeans and never ending violence and eternal bloodbath is questioning the very foundations of the youngest religion supposedly founded on brotherhood and peace. Days are numbered for both the major organized religious ideologies in the modern era when Big Bang will be taught in nursery schools. The relevance of a God which claimed to have created the universe some six thousand years ago is almost expired.

Nevertheless we cannot let the God debate go on forever in an unhealthy manner. There is no doubt that it has started affecting the evolutionary progress of Man. It is time for Homo sapiens who are about four hundred thousand years old to evolve further. But for unnecessary controversies and acrimonious debates time is ripe for the advent of a Super Race of humans as predicted by Sri Aurobindo (1872-1950). Only a synergy of Science and Religion can provide all the required tools for the evolution of entire mankind into the next stage that is vital for its survival when our life giving star Sun start turning into a Super Nova engulfing the entire planetary system. Neither Science nor Religion can achieve this yeoman task independently.

We are living in a glorious era when Science has established the Big Bang that occurred about 13.72 billions ago without any iota of doubt. Matter and energy for the entire universe as we see today was created within a brief moment of time following the Big Bang. But who or what created or resulted in the Big Bang can never be explained by Science. Many argue that it is Consciousness. It is here that a confluence can occur between Science and Religion which can take the entire human race onto its forward path of evolution without any conflict. All that is required is to define God as follows:-

“God is that which created the Big Bang and continue to be omnipresent as the passive Consciousness”

Right Turn of India

The recent victory of Right forces augurs well for Indian nation. Long under subjugation by foreign forces, the soul of India’s Majority has been suffocating for almost a thousand years now. Whether it is the Europeans or Mughals or even the remnants of colonial forces that were running the country for most of the period since liberation from the British in 1947, the Majority interests, hopes and aspirations have never been given the priority that it deserves. If democracy is indeed the rule by the Majority, of the Majority and for the Majority, it was non existent in India for the past several centuries, except in certain insignificant pockets. In modern terminology India was having an unsustainable form of governance.

The main reason for the subjugation of Majority interests in Indian nation has always been the unorganized nature of its Majority faith viz. Hindu Sanatana Dharma (HSD). Perhaps it is the only faith in human history which has undergone a full cycle of evolution and allows complete freedom for reforms, versions and even revolt. As it stands today, Advaita (Non-Duality) stands out as the most modern faith corroborating well with the challenges posed by the arch rival of all religions ie. Science. But in the social sphere, Advaita supports only individual pursuit of God or Truth as against the organized religions (all advocating Duality) which call for organized and collective bargains to please God and attain entry into heaven. Such forces are bound to win in the race for limited resources by an ever increasing population.

Majority of Indians still adhere to HSD and it is their unorganized will that has been tampered with for so long. The subjugation during foreign rule is understandable. But the systematic sidelining of India’s Majority during the past seven decades based on a wrong interpretation of a single word (Secularism) in Indian constitution is clearly beyond comprehension. The atrocious subjugation has reached its lowest ebb in more ‘literate’ and modern states like Kerala that it is virtually the Minorities that rule. The whole of Indian nation was heading in such a dangerous path when a messiah in the form of Narendra Modi dawned. The fact that he could get a clear mandate with simple majority for the Right forces all alone shows the silent will of the Majority in this ancient nation which sustains the oldest surviving civilization in the whole world. We can only hope that Narendra Modi triumphs in his mission.  

But For Godse

Convincing victory of BJP led by the redoubtable Modi in the 2014 General Elections is a clear watershed in the history of India. The ultimate rise of right wing politics (BJP) and culture (RSS) was a forgone conclusion ever since India’s division on religious lines in 1947. It never made any sense in any Indians’ mind to have one part of their Mother Land divided exclusively for one religious group and the other one for all religious groups again. In that case, what is the necessity of a division in the first place? We could have continued to stay together as always in peace. Division of India was the culmination of a long process of alienation and mistrust between two religious communities. The two divided parts are bound to go under the rule of the two rival forces.

Though it was Gandhiji and Jinnah, supreme leaders of the two rival factions that presided over India’s division, the two never got a chance to rule like Nelson Mandela. They were very easily obliterated by much more ambitious second rung political Chankyans like Nehru and Ali. After liberation from the British, Nehru’s target was World statesmanship and it was this selfish motive that changed the whole scenario. To make matters worse, assassination of Gandhiji by a right wing activist like Godse, provided the much needed opportunity for Nehru to turn the tables in pursuit of his purely selfish pursuit at the cost of a fragile newly born Indian nation. How that destructive run ended in tragedy with the brutal attack by China is now known to all Indians. As many great men had predicted, India would have been much ahead in leading the world from the front into the twenty first century.

But for Godse (BFG), the history of India would have been completely different. Godse’s remote association with the nationalist right wing political forces has delayed its arrival on the national scene by almost 40 years. BFG, India would have come under Jan Sangh or BJP rule latest by 1977, immediately after lifting of Emergency. Nehru’s ambition was purely his own and he might not have envisaged a rule by his dynasty. But the immense damage unleashed by his progeny on an intrinsically democratic and secular Hindu majority nation is far beyond our imagination. It is nothing but shameful for a great nation to learn that almost a quarter of its sons and daughters remain below the poverty line even after almost seven decades of self rule. BFG, the world’s longest surviving civilization would have regained its rightful leadership of the world by now. But it is never too late.     

Greatest Universal Constraint

All problems have solutions but many solutions cannot be implemented due to constraints. Ever wondered which is the greatest constraint that we can think of? The one constraint that makes all problem solving difficult in all walks of life. But for this unique constraint our world would have been a heaven full of complete satisfaction. Is it possible in any way to overcome this constraint? Perhaps not in our real world.

 

So what is that constraint that cannot be overcome in the real world? It is the constraint of maximum percentage. To state it as an axiom, it will be as follows:-

 

“The greatest universal constraint is that maximum percentage is one hundred”

 

Now it is very easy to appreciate the problems created by this simple but formidable constraint. Had it been 200 or 300, we could have solved most of our problems. And imagine a world without a cap on maximum percentage. We could have solved all demands by all sections of society for more and more of their share of the total. There would have no conflicts among nations, societies and even individuals demanding their unlimited share of the limited total. I wish we could live in such a unreal world one day.

 

Majority Belief Cannot be Ridiculed in Any Nation

India’s Hindu Sanatana Dharma (HSD) is perhaps the oldest surviving and the most misunderstood religious ism in the whole universe. It will be quite surprising to note that it is more misunderstood in India where officially 80% of the population is born into the religion. More astonishing will be the fact that it is more misunderstood among the so-called educated Hindus than among their illiterate brothers and sisters in the villages of India. There is only one reason for the sad state of affairs in HSD – the strange phenomenon of secularism as implemented in post-liberated India.

For those who are in the know of things about religions understand that there is only one religious philosophy that has undergone the complete evolution of rational discourse and it is none other than Hindu Sanatana Dharma. The evolutionary process has taken about 5000 years and finally what has won the approval is Advaita – the theory of non-duality. As it stands now, the four principal Mahavakyas of Hindu Sanatana Dharma are:-

• prajñānam brahma - "Brahman is Prajña"(Aitareya Upanishad 3.3 of the Rig Veda)
• ayam ātmā brahma - "I am this Self (Atman) that is Brahman" (Mandukya Upanishad 1.2 of the Atharva Veda)
• tat tvam asi - "Thou art That" (Chandogya Upanishad 6.8.7 of the Sama Veda)
• aham brahmāsmi - "I am Brahman", (Brahadaranyaka Upanishad 1.4.10 of the Yajur Veda)

In short, HSD is the only religious philosophy that advocates the omnipresence of God. This means that God did not create Man in HIS own image but IT is present in everything in this universe. Logically it means that IT can be present in all of us, but definitely in varying degrees at various times. A direct result of this belief is the acceptability of Godmen (and Godwomen) in HSD. Also the belief in evil forces indicating complete absence or negative concentration of divinity.

Semitic religions (Juadaism, Chrinistianity and Islam) are built on Creation Theory, they do not accept the omnipresence of God and hence the divine presence in humans. Followers of Semitic religions cannot be blamed for their lack of understanding about the famed Godmen and Godwomen of HSD. But it is time that the followers of Semitic religions also realised and respected (not accepted) this established belief of the vast majority of India. The occasional presence of a few ordinary mortals in the garb of Godmen and Godwomen do not make all of them imposters. We simply cannot accept and allow the minority disbelievers to ridicule the faith of an overwhelming majority of Indians.

Contemporary Godmen or Avatars or Prophets like Sai Baba, Mata Amritanandamayi, Sri Sri Ravishankar etc etc cannot be denigrated and derided by a few ridiculously miniscule set of our population with foreign beliefs.They should realise that they are only inviting odium on themselves by such acts. 

Great Indian Pari’war’

Indian sub-continent has always been a land of wars and the greatest among them was the Mahabharath war which took place about 5000 years ago. Since then there have been continuous wars going on literally and figuratively in all spheres of Indian life. Indian civilization has progressed to its current level after several setbacks and watermarks thanks to these wars. Wars need not always be destructive; instead some of the wars have resulted in quantum jumps in terms of ideology and development.

India is going to witness yet another great electoral war in 2014. On one side we have the Nehru Pariwar led by the doubtful Rahul Gandhi. And against them, we have the great Indian Sangh Pariwar led by the redoubtable Narendra Modi. Then there is the miniscule and insignificant fringe elements who have always remained marginalized in Indian democracy. Let us see a brief comparison between the Kaurava and Pandava forces of 21^st century in India:-

Ideology	Nehru Pariwar	Sangh Pariwar
Political	Rule by Nehru Family	Democracy (Rama Rajya)
Social	Creation of Vote Banks	Uniform Civil Code for all Indians
Economical	Not defined	Integral Humanism
Religious	Anti-Hindu and Minority appeasement	Hindu Rashtra with equal rights for all Indians
Basic essential objective	Retain ruling power with Nehru Pariwar at all times	Greatness and glory of Indian nation

 

The sharp contrast between the two forces in the electoral battlefield is crystal clear. But it is not so obvious whether the vast Indian Majority who will decide the fate of Indian nation would think for themselves before voting. Indians are by nature unselfish and careless when it comes to elections. And there are many Indian pseudo-intellectuals who consider it a crime if the Majority comes to power in a democracy. Let us wait and see what the future holds for India.