Maybe one day kids in school will be able to learn history by experiencing it. I was reading about Kabir and Ramanuja. Apparently they were active in India around the 14th-15th centuries. Then I wondered what else was happening around that time. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/15th_century). But it would've been cool if there could be something like the "2nd life" where kids in school could go live a virtual life in these times. Maybe they could be given "Virtual Reality" gear so they can feel and smell stuff. I think this will be such an enriching experience. Technologically we are not too far from this.
Imagine doing this in school with your classmates. Wont you be waiting to get back to class. Will kids want to "drop-out" from such experiences. I mean can doing drugs or canoodling with the opposite gender beat such experiences. They would have a medium to express anything that they want. All their energy can be easily channeled. The schools will look more like montessori schools wont they?
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Tagore on non-cooperation. - letter to Charles Freer Andrews
excerpt from Tagore's letter, drawing a parallel between vedic v/s buddhistic philosphoy and support for the non-cooperation movement in 1921 in India. I find this a new insight into the vedic thought process.
Brahma-vidya in India has for its Object mukti, emancipation, while Buddhism has nirvana, extinction. It may be argued that both have the same idea [under] different names. But names represent attitudes of mind, emphasize particular aspects of truth. Mukti draws our attention to the positive, and nirvana to the negative side of triuth. Buddha kept silence all through his teachings about the turth of the Om. the everlasting yes, his implication being that by the negative path of destroying the self we naturally reach that truth. Therefore he emphasized the factof dukkha, misery, which had to be avoided and the Brahma-vidya emphasized the fact of anandam which has to be attained. The latter cult also needs for its fulfilment the discipline of self-abnegation, but it holds before its view the idea of Brahma , not only at the end but all throught he process of realization. Therefore the idea of life's training was different in the Vedic period from that of the Buddhistic. In the former it was the purification of life's joy, in the latter it was the eradicating of it. The abnormal type of ascetism to which Buddhism gave rise in India revelled in celibacy and mutliation of life in all different forms. But the forest life of the Brahmanas was not antagonistic to the social life of man, but harmonious with it. It was like our musical instrument tanpura whose duty is to supply the fundamental notes to the music to save it from going astray into discordance. It believed in anadam, the music of the soul, and its own simplicity was not kill it but to guide it.
Brahma-vidya in India has for its Object mukti, emancipation, while Buddhism has nirvana, extinction. It may be argued that both have the same idea [under] different names. But names represent attitudes of mind, emphasize particular aspects of truth. Mukti draws our attention to the positive, and nirvana to the negative side of triuth. Buddha kept silence all through his teachings about the turth of the Om. the everlasting yes, his implication being that by the negative path of destroying the self we naturally reach that truth. Therefore he emphasized the factof dukkha, misery, which had to be avoided and the Brahma-vidya emphasized the fact of anandam which has to be attained. The latter cult also needs for its fulfilment the discipline of self-abnegation, but it holds before its view the idea of Brahma , not only at the end but all throught he process of realization. Therefore the idea of life's training was different in the Vedic period from that of the Buddhistic. In the former it was the purification of life's joy, in the latter it was the eradicating of it. The abnormal type of ascetism to which Buddhism gave rise in India revelled in celibacy and mutliation of life in all different forms. But the forest life of the Brahmanas was not antagonistic to the social life of man, but harmonious with it. It was like our musical instrument tanpura whose duty is to supply the fundamental notes to the music to save it from going astray into discordance. It believed in anadam, the music of the soul, and its own simplicity was not kill it but to guide it.
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Artless Mercenaries
Rabindranath Tagore in one of his letters from Rangoon :
Once upon a time men used to say that Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth and plenty, dwelt in trade. They visualized her not only as splendid but also as beautiful. For at that time man was not yet separated from trade, there was a communion between the weaver and his loom, the smith's hand and the smith's hammer, the artisan and his work of art. The heart of man used then to express itself through trade in varied forms of richness and beauty. how else could Lakshmi have acquired her lotus throne?
It does seem as if we have all become mercenaries. However a more relevant question for me is: what of the man with mediocre abilities, who wants to express his heart in this complex heartless system?
Once upon a time men used to say that Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth and plenty, dwelt in trade. They visualized her not only as splendid but also as beautiful. For at that time man was not yet separated from trade, there was a communion between the weaver and his loom, the smith's hand and the smith's hammer, the artisan and his work of art. The heart of man used then to express itself through trade in varied forms of richness and beauty. how else could Lakshmi have acquired her lotus throne?
It does seem as if we have all become mercenaries. However a more relevant question for me is: what of the man with mediocre abilities, who wants to express his heart in this complex heartless system?
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Diary: Faith Benefits
Teaching kids to have faith in a God might be an essential survival skill. At this point even though I can rationally reject the popular concept of God, I can still be comfortable with the idea of being able to find refuge with someone larger than life. I think I am able to do this because I was at some point a strong believer. Maybe if someone raised their kid to pooh-pooh the idea of God in all its forms, the kid would be really "lonely" at times.
This "idea of God" is a good companion, because its an image from within our own brains. This image cannot do anything to betray our trust, because we just wouldn't allow it to. So suddenly now God sounds like an imaginary friend. I think they would serve the same purpose. However personally I am not able to find safety in the idea of an imaginary friend. I become very aware of the fact that I am the creator of this fictional friend. Whereas with the God character its been implanted in there without me being very aware of it. So now rationally even though if you think that God is the sum-total of everything thats beyond the understanding of human brains, then I have a face for it. I can leave stuff up to it, cos I know at times victory against the will of god will come slowly and with a lot of patience.
:)
This "idea of God" is a good companion, because its an image from within our own brains. This image cannot do anything to betray our trust, because we just wouldn't allow it to. So suddenly now God sounds like an imaginary friend. I think they would serve the same purpose. However personally I am not able to find safety in the idea of an imaginary friend. I become very aware of the fact that I am the creator of this fictional friend. Whereas with the God character its been implanted in there without me being very aware of it. So now rationally even though if you think that God is the sum-total of everything thats beyond the understanding of human brains, then I have a face for it. I can leave stuff up to it, cos I know at times victory against the will of god will come slowly and with a lot of patience.
:)
Friday, December 12, 2008
"War Between the Sexes:" The Co-evolution of Genitalia in Waterfowl
http://opa.yale.edu/news/article.aspx?id=2050 --- According to the study, in various independent lineages of ducks females developed more elaborate oviducts as males evolved longer phalluses. In other lineages females lost oviduct complexity as the phallus evolved toward smaller size. Why all this dynamic evolution? Brennan hypothesizes that the female waterfowl have evolved these unique anatomical features as physical counter-measures to evade male attempts to assert control over reproduction. "Despite the fact that most waterfowl form monogamous pairs, forced copulations by other males — the avian equivalent of rape — are common in many waterfowl," said Prum. "The length of the phallus of a species is strongly correlated with the frequency of forced copulations." "In response to male attempts to force their paternity on females, female waterfowl may be able to assert their own behavioral and anatomical means of controlling who fathers their offspring," Brennan said.
Evolution of convolutions in the Mallard oviduct (left) and phallus (right) may give the female duck an anatomical means of controlling who fathers their offspring. Bar measure cm. (Courtesy of Patricia Brennan)
Evolution of convolutions in the Mallard oviduct (left) and phallus (right) may give the female duck an anatomical means of controlling who fathers their offspring. Bar measure cm. (Courtesy of Patricia Brennan)
Sunday, December 07, 2008
Cat droppings a lucrative business in Philippines
One of the most expensive coffee's is extracted from the dung of an animal called the "Civet" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civet)
Exotic Dung Coffee
Kopi Luwak, also known as caphe cut chon (fox-dung coffee) in Vietnam and kape alamid in the Philippines, is coffee that is prepared using coffee cherries that have been eaten and partially digested by the Asian Palm Civet, then harvested from its feces.
[Videos]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rvyc41gEIrA&feature=channel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjeAckIlBAk&feature=related
Saturday, December 06, 2008
The rampaging elephant- Vir Sanghvi
[Vir Sanghvi @ HT] --- The frustration is understandable. There are no quick fixes. But on both scores, there are long-term solutions available and we must work towards them. The problem with our political system is that parties have no mechanism to allow talent to rise through the ranks. So Indian politics is a squalid, corrupt family business. I found it strange that nobody in Bombay made this point. Instead, they listened to young dynasts who appeared on TV to lecture us. Such is our class bias that if politicians speak good English we think they are okay. And politics never changes. Similarly, the only way to fight terrorism is through covert operations and better intelligence, not through carpet-bombing. Our intelligence agencies are demoralised and faction-ridden. They need more money and better leadership.
Thursday, December 04, 2008
thought
One of the ways, faith in god can help maintaining peace is by taking away the need to avenge oneself. People can leave it up to God.
quote
context: all the religious violence in the world.
Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate, and Hate leads to suffering.
http://www.quotiki.com/quote.aspx?id=7443
Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate, and Hate leads to suffering.
http://www.quotiki.com/quote.aspx?id=7443
Indian Press
I am not vexed but genuinely confused. India has good writers who can write very good opinion pieces. India is considered to have lots of IT talent. India definitely has the wealth. But our newspapers are of such a low quality. Are the monied being purely greedy or lethargic ? Or is the volume of the english news Publication in India such a negligible fraction of the Hindi news. And Hindi has been neglected by our country as a "pride in being anglicized" policy.
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