Skepticism - Knowledge Sheet 21

Hey all

Looks like the blog has become dormant. Just to give a wake up call to all of you... :-)

This week's Knowledge sheet talks about Skepticism. Something here for the people who are skeptic(not just about spiritual organisations, but in general): "It's good to be skeptical but not cynical. Just because something is popular among the people doesn't mean that it should be fad or just a gimmick. It's high time that you start doing something about it." A wonderful Knowledge sheet. :-) :-) :-)

Knowledge sheet no. 21

Watch Part 1 on Youtube

Watch Part 2 on Youtube

Watch Part 3 on Youtube

Jai Gurudeva!

Love

Abhiram

Material Implication and its implications...part 1

Since my life is utterly devoid of any excitement....alright alright I take it back, it has some excitement if you consider solving an equation that you have been staring at for the last fortnight and watch as its result unfold nice inferences, as exciting...well if you do, then you need to Get A Life(apparently gal for short in texting language... hmmm what will they think of next, and NO i did not find that out when some girl told me to do so... picked it up from one of the speakers at the world science festival which btw was awesome!! \m/ he told us he gets that particular msg from his daughter quite often...tch tch!!)
AS i was saying, since my life is utterly devoid of excitement (and plus since I like science thingys) I shall talk continue talking about mathematics and logic. (However I intend to change this soon for i believe you cannot do great things if you are not willing to look like an idiot now and then). Like the title indicates, I have decided  to ramble on about material implication. Material implication is a boolean function with some far reaching consequences. A boolean what you ask?? For those who havent done boolean algebra and logic functions, I will give you a very brief, need-to-know only tutorial. (if you know all these already, you might as well skip the next paras or so)
Consider a binary system with 1(true) and 0(false). A function by definition is something which takes inputs and produces outputs(crudely speaking ie). A logic function does the same, for eg: the AND function has output 0(false) unless both the inputs are 1(true), its a little like multiplication and hence symbolised by the '.' symbol. The OR function is always true(1) unless both the inputs are 0(false), indicated by the '+' symbol. The NOT function takes the input and inverts it. True gives false and false gives true.
A      B      A.B         A       B    A+B
0       0        0            0       0       0
0       1        0            0       1       1
1       0        0            1       0       1                <------This is the truth table!!
1       1        1            1       1       1
Now any other function in boolean logic can be constructed using what are called fundamental or basic gates. Examples of these include NAND( AND followed by a NOT) and NOR(OR followed by a NOT).
We can also describe any possible function using a platform consisting of two functions: the FALSE function (which gives output as 0 for any input) and another function called the 'IMPLICATION' function (also called material implication to distinguish from logical implication) and denoted as 'A IMP B' or more commonly     'A-->B'. (I came across the use of implication as a basis function in a footnote of a paper and not sure how exactly so, so if I am wrong kindly let me know).
Now this implication function A-->B is read "if A then B" ie as the name suggests it implies(though its not wise to literally do this in all cases as it leads to some paradoxes). Before I dive into its actual meaning and its paradoxes, objections,etc I shall quickly tell you what its equivalent to, if expressed using other functions. A IMP B comes out to (NOT A) OR B. Though the intuitive meaning of "if A then B" is not clear, in terms of functions, they are equivalent. The truth table looks like this
A   B    A-->B
T    T        T
T    F        F         ----> T-True   F-False
F    T        T
F    F        T
As we can see the implication function is false only when A is true and B is false. Now in A-->B, A is called the antecedent and B is called the consequent. Though this definition of material implication forms the foundation of advanced study is mathematics and logic, there are some paradoxes that comes along with it. Notice rows 3 and 4, we can see that whenever A is false, the implication is still true. Why is this a paradox you ask? Consider the statment "If the moon is made of yellow cheese, then life exists on earth". Now even though the antecedent("moon is made of cheese") is false, the whole statement is still true as per the definition of material implication. Again look at rows 1 and 3, whenever B is true, the whole statement is considered true. Keeping this in mind, check this statement "If life exists in other planets, then life exists on earth". This statement is true because the consequent("life exists on earth") is true. Well yeah they are not clear cut paradoxes but something about the whole sentence is counter intuitive right??
FINE!!! if its such a problematic definition then why do we stick to it?? Well I was gonna explain that part here but since this post is going on much longer than I expected it to, I am gonna quickly go upstairs and make this part 1 and see you all in part 2.

Cheers
Gnut
....going to do something really really stupid...

Summer Magic

Hey all

For the past 3 years(i think), there is an advance course that has been happening the Ashram from December 27th - Jan 2nd called Winter Break where young people from all around the world gather to meditate, do Seva and Satsang.

I attended my first Winter Break last time, and it was fantastic. I was not participating in it but i was covering the whole event, and i was amazed at the energy levels that was there around me. And it was not only restricted to Meditation, but there was a Youth Forum that was conducted where topics ranging from Indian Classical Dance, Indian History to Entrepreneurship and Finance were discussed. The numbers have been increasing every year and last time we had 1500 people attending the course. And it was so fascinating to see people from the age of 18-30 celebrating life in such a grand manner in a stress free and Satvik environment ( and all of us understand what i mean by stress free). And all i wish is that more and more people come and celebrate life this way.

Since last Winter Break was a grand success(they say it's the best till date), Guruji said that we needed to do this more often. And also there was a huge demand from people saying that they couldn't wait until December for such an event to happen. So Bawa and Dinesh decided that we will have something called the Summer Magic, which as the name conveys will happen during the Summer Break.

Here are the dates:

June 21st: Reporting

June 22nd-24th: Various activities (something on the lines of Winter Break but bigger and better, come and find out)

June 25th, early morning - 29th afternoon: The Advance course

Gowri and myself have done a small promo for the event. We hope that this will give you a really nice outlook as to what we really do over here and how it is to be in the Ashram with people of our age group. :-) :-) :-)

And i also hope that some of you will actually be there as well. :-)

Jai Gurudevaaa!!!

Love

Abhiram

Asuya and Anasuya - Knowledge Sheet 11

Hey all

Here is Knowledge Sheet 11. A really subtle knowledge sheet this one. Imagine that you have done your best work till date(be it a painting, musical composition) and you go and show it your friend. And instead of praising you, he keeps pointing out only the negative parts of your creation. This tendency or nature is called Asuya. And what is Anasuya??? That, i will let you experience when you listen to the Knowledge Sheet. :-) :-) :-)

Hope you guys enjoy it. :-) :-) :-)

Jai Gurudevaaa!!!

Love

Abhiram

Green Chilli Ice Cream Story

Hey all

There were a lot of things that happened during my 4 month stay in Bombay. So i have decided to post some of the interesting ones. And it starts of with the one that happened before we left.

We went to this place called Bachelor’s on Marine Drive in Bombay. And I tell you, this is the bestttttttttt juice shop that I ave ever went to. I mean, the quality of shakes and juices that they have is totally amazing. And the best part is this thing is opened upto 2 A.M in the morning. Such is the demand for this place. It’s a small shop, almost the size of our Bakes and Cakes shop but all you’ve got to do is to park your car on the roadside and they’ll come and take the order. And this happens right on the main road. The pricing is on the higher side, but considering the quality that they provide its worth the money. You cannot go everyday for it, but probably once or twice a week. But if your filthy rich and ready to sponsor for others as well, then you’ve got some good karma in your kitty. :-) :-) :-)

This was the second time I was going to bachelor’s after Bawa took me to the place for the first time on my birthday(that is a completely different story, reserved for later). Since it was our last few days in Bombay, we decided to freak out and were allowed to order whatever we wished for. We were having a ball of a time having all that was there on the menu ranging from milkshakes, to blossoms, to fruits served with whipped cream. And suddenly our HOD JD Bhaiyya(name: Jayesh Daulatjada) came up with a suggestion that we try the Green Chili Ice cream. When asked if he had tried it before, he said no but then said what is wrong in experimenting. So, when it is coming from the Head of Dept, all that you can do is oblige to his request. Gowri and myself were still skeptical about ordering it but then Prasanth said he will go ahead and have it. So we ordered and I was happily digging into my Mango+Ice Cream Milkshake when the unfamiliar ice cream arrived.

We were looking at each other and burst out laughing. It was as though we were waiting for someone to say, “ok, I’ll go ahead and have it…” Since it was Prasanth who ordered it (his talent for eating reminds me ajoy and james) he went and had it. First Reaction: Eyes opened wide. And wide means VERY WIDE!!! AHAHAHAHahahaha.. Gowri and myself were laughing our heads off. HAhhaaha.. It was too funny, his expression was as though, “Who the hell woke me up when I was having a nice nap.” It was unbelievable. And then it was passed onto Gowri who then without saying anything passed it onto me. How do I describe this thing - A Conflicting Dish. I mean an ice cream is something that is supposed to make you enjoy every scoop and cool you down. But what this does is when you have a spoon, it gives you a false impression that it tastes like any other ice cream but once you swallow it, the chili comes into play and it start burning your throat. I mean the whole purpose of an ice cream is lost.

While all this was happening, there was one person who was having fun watching all this. Yes, the person who was responsible for this whole experiment our thalaivar JD Bhaiyya. He played the perfect role of Naradar. Instigating the process and then sit back and watch the fun. But ultimately he also had it but then it was left to Prasanth to finish the rest and he did it without a word.(just like Joy)

So when you are in mood to experiment or if you come across anything that is as weird/conflicting as this let me know, there are people here who are waiting to hear from you. :-) :-) :-)

Jai Gurudevaaa!!!

Love

Abhiram

Liar's paradox, Godel's theorem and the existence of God..

The liars paradox arises from a famous statement in logic "This statement is false". If the statement was true, then its false and if it was false, then its true, hence leading to a contradiction. But this statement is not just a clever play of words. Infact it carries some very powerful mathematics with it. The statement is often considered a slightly modified version of the famous Godel's First Incompleteness theorem. The theorem was put forward by Godel in a 1931 paper.(I read somewhere that this theorem is in a way equivalent to Turing's Halting problem in computer science, no idea how though)

The official statement is "Any effectively generated theory capable of expressing elementary arithmetic cannot be both consistent and complete. In particular, for any consistent, effectively generated formal theory that proves certain basic arithmetic truths, there is an arithmetical statement that is true,but not provable in the theory"


What it means?? Simple, for every formal consistent theory T that uses some amount of number theory in it, there is always a statement called the Godel statement G which is true but cannot be proved in T, which means the theory is incomplete and not every true statement can be proven. If however G can be proved in T, then it means T is inconsistent and some theorem of T is in contradiction with itself.

So what is this Godel statement G that seems to be so damn powerful? Well, it is not unique and can vary from system to system in which its applied but in a meta-logical level it can be simply states as: The statement G for a system, is that "This statement cannot be proven in this formal system" (i.e) G="G cannot be proven in this system". Now lets examine this statement closely. If this statement can be proven in the system, then its false since we assumed the statement cannot be proven, and thus we have just proved a false statement, which implies the system is inconsistent. If the statement cannot be proven, then its true and we have a true statement which cannot be proven in the system, making it incomplete. Still confusing?? Well here is a better version of the proof I found on the net and one I enjoyed a lot. It might need to be read about 2-3 times to really get it but once you do, you realise that the proof is so clever and sneaky, its actually embarassing to relate to. These are the steps:

1. Someone introduces Gödel to a UTM, a machine that is supposed to be a Universal Truth Machine, capable of correctly answering any question at all.
2. Gödel asks for the program and the circuit design of the UTM. The program may be complicated, but it can only be finitely long. Call the program P(UTM) for Program of the Universal Truth Machine.
3. Smiling a little, Gödel writes out the following sentence: “The machine constructed on the basis of the program P(UTM) will never say that this sentence is true.” Call this sentence G for Gödel. Note that G is equivalent to: “UTM will never say G is true.”
4. Now Gödel laughs his high laugh and asks UTM whether G is true or not.
5. If UTM says G is true, then “UTM will never say G is true” is false. If “UTM will never say G is true” is false, then G is false (since G = “UTM will never say G is true”). So if UTM says G is true, then G is in fact false, and UTM has made a false statement. So UTM will never say that G is true, since UTM makes only true statements.
6. We have established that UTM will never say G is true. So “UTM will never say G is true” is in fact a true statement. So G is true (since G = “UTM will never say G is true”).
7. “I know a truth that UTM can never utter,” Gödel says. “I know that G is true. UTM is not truly universal.” QED :)


The result is quite significant as it lead to the second Incompleteness theorem, gave an answer to Hilberts second problem and so on and so forth. Yeah, yeah lot of jibber jabber and thingamajings it can do but whats the use to anyone outside core mathematics and comp sci, you ask!! Well here is the interesting extension of this result. Many have tried to show that if we were to construct religion as a formal system T with the existence of God as a fundamental axiom, then we will be able to prove using the theorem that either the axioms are inconsistent and must be self-contradicting, hence calling into question the existence of God!! or the system must be incomplete and there are lot of things still not known in the religion itself, hence putting a dent on religious organisations that claim to know and control every aspect of the religion. But then again, there has been a lot of doubt+opposition to this, as many claim that it simply is not possible to construct something as important as faith like a mathematics based system.
There is another side to using this result as well. It remains an open question till date whether the entire universe can be modeled as a logical system (ie) like one giant computer. If it can be, then the fact that certain aspects of it can be never be explained by us becomes an inherent implication. So then it becomes possible for us to make a statement like "God does exist" which COULD (note: i say could be and not is) be true but can never be proven, not because of our inability to do so, but of the inherent nature of the universe itself!!

Nonetheless its an awesome result \m/ and one that has made me google and read many many pages on its implications outside the realm of maths and computer science. Hope its sparked the same interest in you guys as well.

Cheers
Gnut

Today is Krishna's Birthday - Knowledge Sheet 10

Hey all

Here is Knowledge Sheet 10. Today is Krishna's Birthday - Birth of the Center of Attraction. :-)

Hope you guys enjoy it. :-) :-) :-)

Jai Gurudeva!!!

Love

Abhiram

Dealing with Blame - Knowledge Sheet 9

Hey all

Here is Knowledge Sheet 9. How to deal with blame... Well, i guess most of the people would be experts in this by now. But here is a completely different perspective to the situation. It's really nice :-) :-) :-)

Hope you guys enjoy it!!! :-) :-) :-)

Jai Gurudeva!!!

Love

Abhiram

Mind and Beyond

All of us think, it is the most common of all functions of the mind and we believe that it is this thinking that defines us, our self, our ego, etc. Wars have been fought over this by great individuals and nations. There seems to be an underlying cause for all such conflicts - the mind. Everything is fine until the day it starts to dysfunction.

What do you mean by dysfunction? When thinking becomes an addiction; when we derive our self from what we think. When we start identifying ourselves with our thinking we end up creating an opaque screen of labels, images, judgments, words - this blocks the present and all relationships that come along with it. Thought is compulsive, and not being able to stop thinking is a dreadful affliction.

The human mind can never be happy as it will always compare and contrast. All it can do is gather, store and analyze data. It is a survival machine and for its survival it needs to be given food - (ie) our attention to it. It will complain about what it doesn't have and flaunt about what it has (ego/self). People say that only when one goes through an acute mental dysfunction does this realization dawn upon the individual.

Our mind is always planning, trying to achieve some goal, trying to manifest some inner desire, using the present as a means to getting there. One cannot derive permanent happiness from the outside world as it is fleeting, ever changing. If you take a moment to think of all those incidents when you wanted to be like someone because he was smarter, more creative, more talented etc. your mind was at work. That is what it does, compare and contrast, complain about what it doesn't have and flaunt what it has. We need to realize that we are beyond our mind. When we take decisions based on the mind, we are unconscious, so as to say the present decision is based on a culmination of all our previous experiences. The need of the hour is a higher level of consciousness or what is called realizing our inner space.

Only our inner space that is under our control, can give us ever lasting happiness. This can be achieved thro' the realization of one's own inner energy field or the conscious presence. All meditation techniques focus on breathing that makes us become conscious of our presence, realizing the energy field within. The state of all presence and no mind.

The path to freedom lies in freeing oneself from the mind. Creativity is a derivate when one switches between the mind and no mind state. Great scientists have reported that the most famous discoveries happen when they switch between these two states.

Stress is a result of being ‘here’ but wanting to be ‘there’, being in the present but wanting to be in the future. Any joy that is perceived in the future is only an illusion, all happiness that can ever be is only in the present. The way to go forward is to accept the present and act. Always it is our duty to work with the now, not against it.

I am sure all of you know this, but felt we that needed to be reminded of it once in a while.

Cheers

Habits and Vows - Knowledge Sheet 8

Hey all

Here is Knowledge Sheet 8. Just rewind a couple of years back, 12th board exams time and i am sure most of us would have said this to ourselves. "Ok...This is the last time i am going to play football at school. After this, until my exams get over, i will not even peep into the school and give my 100% attention to my studies." Hhehehehe...and it never really happened. We utilised every single opportunity that was available to play even during the exam time.

This Knowledge Sheet reminded me of those times. A really nice one.

Hope you guys enjoy it. :-) :-) :-)

Jai Gurudeva!!!

Love

Abhiram

Kill death penalty

I don’t believe in death penalty any more.

Yes, there was a time, not long back, when I was a proponent of capital punishment. I remember arguing quite vehemently (indeed abusively) with my good friend Iyer, about the Saddam Hussein case when he was being tried, though at that time we were arguing about his right to a fair trial. We deviated soon, as arguers usually do, and we were voicing opinions about the death punishment. I don’t remember what his stand was, but I was pretty convinced that death was the correct punishment for Hussein. I have changed my views over the last few years and I don’t support death punishment any more. I confess I don’t argue as vociferously against it as I did for it because some cases leave me in middle ground, though with my back against death punishment.

The underlying reason for this new stand is that I believe death is not the biggest deterrent – it’s the fear of of living in an unforgiving world. As kids, we have gotten into trouble often, I have. I used to lie, cheat in tests, steal money from dad’s drawer and conceal poor grades from my folks. And each time, the worst punishment I could think of was  varying degrees of reproach, insults or slaps. However, when I eventually did get caught, the imagined punishments would seem bearable, even mild, when my folks used to ignore me. Remember the time when you came home from school and found your mom solemnly pretending to read an old magazine, the food not ready on the table (or worse, when it was!), everyone unusually cheerful to everyone else, your dad being extra sweet to your siblings and they in turn being paragons of good behavior – the entire family being strangely perfect and you feeling like a stranger? That killed me. I broke down, then my mom, dad became Gandhian and my bro barely concealed his smirk. That feeling was a bigger deterrent.

Magnifying it to the death penalty vs life imprisonment argument, it may not be an exact fit, but the sentiment remains. My main contention against death penalty is that it vindicates the victim, but does not punish the criminal. I cannot bring myself to forgive terrorists and murderers and rapists and that’s probably why I don’t want them dead. Death is far too lenient and worse, doesn’t solve the purpose. They should suffer a punishment worse than death – the anguish of living in an unforgiving world. And as far as the purpose being solved, a person who is capable of being reformed, will be reformed, and the others – what better punishment of living in hell and facing the devil within themselves?

While most of the death row opponents agree with this sentiment, they seem to be non-committal when the argument turns to terrorism. And rightly so. I have been thinking about this for a while and I began to question myself during and after the Bombay attacks. I was horrified as I saw the attacks on TV and seethed when I read about the details of the attack. Like everyone, I was angry at everyone else – the terrorists, the security agencies, the ‘intelligence’ bureaus and both the governments. As TV channels banked on the misery of the victims and their families, I heard one particular girl on TV whose opinion put my vague ideas into words. She said our aim should be to kill terrorism and not the terrorists. And the fact that she in one of the ‘terror zones’ made me admire her conviction even more. That is our aim isn’t it?  Does killing Ajmal, a man who came prepared to die anyway, achieve that? I don’t necessarily say life imprisonment does, but it does something death does not. I don’t wish to bring religion into this, but from what I’ve read, these people are bred and made to believe in honor in killing and being killed. The Holy Wars, the Promised Lands, heaven, 72 virgins and many such promises are the driving force behind any form of terrorism. Killing them and in a sense validating their beliefs is, in my opinion, almost as heinous as advocating them.

I confess I don’t subscribe to the humanitarian side of the death row debate. Human rights are for the ideal world, and this world is far from being ideal. I don’t think death penalty is the only blemish on our otherwise unimpeachable humanity. Sorry, this argument does not convince me. Human right sympathies don’t apply to terrorists and rapists. But I do believe that there is a punishment that is far more insulting than abuses, far more painful than slaps and infinitely more torturous than death – betrayal. They should be made to realize that there is absolutely no honor in killing. They should realize that there is no heaven for terrorists, only the hell of Indian jails.

There was one particular comment that the judge made in the Kasab verdict  that I found extremely disturbing. He said one of the substantiating factors behind his verdict was that he did not want another Kandahar incident. I cannot think of a stronger argument against death sentence in this particular case. His verdict is driven, among other reasons, by terror! We all have a higher conscience to answer to, but is that terrorism? Have we as a country reached a point in history when we pass judgments, not because we want to punish our enemies, but because we fear them? This symbolic act of “sending a message” is actually on that is sent to us! I sympathize to many of the arguments for death penalty, but not this.

To expand on a confession I made earlier, I am still hesitant in putting forth my views against death punishment, especially when I realize that I speak with the comfort of not being a victim. Unfortunately, terrorism (and in fact rape or murder or anything as heinous) is not limited to an unfortunate few. It is global and it is very real. Would I still retain this ideal if, (ironically) God forbid, I become a victim myself? I don’t know. Which is probably why I’m trying to convince myself early on.

Fire - Knowledge Sheet 7

Hey all

Here is Knowledge Sheet 7.

Hope you guys enjoy it. :-) :-) :-)

Jai Gurudeva!!!

Love

Abhiram

Doubt - Knowledge Sheet 6

Hey all

Here is Knowledge Sheet 6. This also is a very nice one. Had a lot fun shooting it. :-)

Hope you guys enjoy it. :-) :-) :-)

Jai Gurudeva!!!

Love

Abhiram

Alive and Dead...part 5

After what seems like ages, I am finally back again with another in this series of posts. I was meaning to write a LOT sooner but with such a crazy schedule, I have not really had the time nor found a topic that interested me enough to blog about. With the semester almost over and the summer "vacation" ( i use quotes cos lets be honest, we grad students dont have vacations, infact as Govi would put it--"we sleep only on national holidays"), i think+hope to have a lot more time to check out interesting ideas and write what i think of them.
I was hoping to turn these "dead and alive" posts to more of a discussion as I branch out into the realm of philosophy and possibly even mysticism and find out what you guys think about things which seem quite obvious but are far from it.
For this post, I decided to talk about the most common and obvious of phenomenon, so trivial that we probably do it every living second of our lives but do not think twice about it. Infact you did it when you chose to read this post. I am talking about Freewill ofcourse. The concept of CHOICE is so simple, yet so powerful. Entwined in this concept is that of destiny and all the baggage it brings. You ask me, what is there to think about this? Its quite obvious isnt it? I can decide to continue reading this post or not and its completely according to me...ME and me alone. But is it? Are you sure, that your choice isnt already influenced or decided upon before you make it? In short, did you really have a choice in the first place??Seems ridiculous to even ask such a question, doesnt it? But think about it. What if the freedom of choosing was merely an illusion?
Confused? Before I explain with one of my favourite examples, I need to put forward the idea that freewill and choice indicates randomness. When you have the ability to go either left or right and the decision is completely upto you and not determined by anything else, your choice is infact random and noone can truly predict with absolute certainity, what you will do. Sounds reasonable?? Now back to the example (ohh boy!! you are gonna love this one!! :) )
Consider a pool table with some red balls placed randomly on it. Now take a blue ball, place it on the table and strike it with the stick. Watch as it hits the red balls and moves around. The movement of the blue ball and the red balls can be completely determined by you using Newton's laws of motions, a bit tedious to do but can be done. The movement of the ball is completely deterministic and its possible to predict it properly for any future time. Now suppose you brought a friend into the room and made him wear glasses which filtered out the red balls and all he saw was the single blue ball, now moving on the pool table in what would appear to him complete random motion. Now according to him, the movement of the blue ball cannot be predicted and in fact it has a free will or the ability to choose what it wants to do, its like it has a "mind of its own" (hmmm I wonder, what else thinks it has mind of its own?? hehe). But you, having knowledge of the whole system of the blue and red balls know that is not true. Can you guys see the whole concept of illusion that I was talking about?
So lets just extend this to the entire universe. A giant leap but nonetheless allowed. If the entire universe is one large quantum mechanical system, then it should infact evolve or change in time deterministically according to something called the Schroedinger equation, i.e. if we knew the necessary components of the equation for the system of the universe, then we should in theory determine what exactly will happen to anyone and everyone in every single point of time, in short chalk out everyone's destiny clearly, one which they cannot avoid ( here you might ask, if I knew my destiny, my future, would I not be able to do something to change it? perhaps you can but then again, you having the power, the ability, the choice to change things might just be another illusion. Mind boggling isnt it??) But then again, it is almost near impossible to determine the parameters needed to solve the required equation for the universe and even if we did, the jury is still out on whether the universe evolves according to this equation or not in the first? (Two of my profs here openly fight on this topic every single time they meet :D ) Many do not think and/or like the idea that the universe behaves deterministically, because then it means you do not really think and make choices but only appear to do so.
Another interesting aspect is that, though I am not sure about this yet, the Schrondinger equation does not differentiate between positive and negative time, which means that if we assume the Big Bang(not the sitcom :D ) as time=0, then it means a "universe" identical to ours at every point in time should have existed before the big bang occurred. A universe before the big bang?? We do not even understand the universe almost immediately after the big bang!! forget about trying to understand one before that!!
So I have said all that I wanted to say or that I am supposed to say. So what do you people think or supposed to?? :D

Gnut
...signing off because I am supposed to??

PS: I am really looking forward to the World Science festival in NYC from June 2nd-6th. They are a few talks on the universe, human brain, what exactly it means to think and understand,etc which I am dying to attend :)

Master is the Door - Knowledge Sheet 5

Hey all

Here is Knowledge Sheet 5. Dinesh Bhaiyya's Debut. :-) :-) :-)

Hope you guys enjoy it. :-) :-) :-)

Jai Gurudeva!!!

Love

Abhiram

Raavan and Roy

I've been flooding my head with the songs from Raavan and Raavanan (simultaneously sometimes). The song Kata Kata (my favourite) in the Raavan sountrack brings vivid imagery to my mind, thanks to an article by Arundhati Roy on the Naxalites- "Walking with the Comrades". She describes a festival somewhere in the Dandakaranya forest with the tribals decked up in bright flowers, mahua abounding and dancing through the night in circles*. I think everything seems to have a strange sense of timing (I have been obsessing over alternative narratives off late, especially of the Ramayana and Mahabharata. That said, one more reason why I'm totally looking forward to Raavan/Raavanan). I read this article that Roy had written and have generally been confused about the role of the Naxalites, the movement itself and the Government.

*I did a quick google/wiki on the film, and I find that the song Kata Kata was shot in Orchha, Madhya Pradesh. Whattey guess.
-Pats self on back-

Strangely, the tamil version of this song- Kadaa kari- brings to my mind firstly the videos of Chandralekha, Veerapaandi Kottaiyile; the song 'Kombula Poova suthi' from Virumandi and forest scenes from old tamil movies, with a Napoleon (the actor, not Bonaparte) type character with an oversized meesai watching a dance by a bonfire in the forest. :P

Do read the article. Confusion inducing, but eye opening as well.
Not reading it would be, as Chimamanda Adichie calls it, 'The danger of the single story'.

Only Speak Knowledge; Find Comfort in Conflicts - Knowledge Sheet 4

Hey all

Knowledge Sheet 4. This is one is really nice and has a lot of stories. My personal favorite.

Hope you guys enjoy it. :-) :-) :-)

Jai Gurudeva!!!

Love

Abhiram

Prarabdha Karma and Sanchitha Karma - Knowledge Sheet 3

Hey all

Here is Knowledge Sheet 3. An Interesting one about Karma.

Hope you guys enjoy it. :-) :-) :-)

Jai Gurudeva!!!

Love

Abhiram

Close to the Master - Knowledge Sheet 2

Hey all

Here is today's post. Hope you guys enjoy it. And very soon i will start attaching the transcript of the knowledge sheet below the video so that you can read along with it. :-) :-) :-)

Hope you guys enjoy it. :-) :-) :-)

Jai Gurudeva!!!

Love

Abhiram

A shout out...

Hi everyone...
I know i have been inactive for a while and hence becoming the worst possible owner in the history of blog ownage, but I see the blog is still going good and thats great news... A special shout out to all of u posting and keeping the spirit going, especially you Agent (hope u dont mind, I am so used to calling you that Abhiram sounds almost alien :) but I am trying ) and very much thanks for finally making this blog lookable at (if there is such a word)...the blog looks awesome \m/ cheers to u!!!
My semester is almost done and it has been pretty crazy in a good and bad sense...I have updated most of u on most things :D but I shall blog most of it down once everything finishes this week and I finally get some time to breathe...

Cheers everyone...Peace..

Gnut

This Begins a New Practice - Knowledge Sheet 1

Hey all

From today onwards, i've decided to post a Knowledge Sheet every monday on our blog.

These are Knowledge Sheets that have been given by H.H. Sri Sri Ravishankar from the year 1995 on a weekly basis and people from around the world would be eagerly waiting for them. A practice which started off as just a simple note from the Master, has now been compiled into a Seven Volume series named as "An Intimate Note to the Sincere Seeker". Before i did my advance course, i just heard people talking about how deep and profound this knowledge but yet it so simple and you could incorporate it in your daily life. I really could not relate to what they were saying, but once i started reading through some of the sheets that my friend Prasanna sent me, it really striked a chord somewhere and slowly it started making sense. (they say that whenever you are in trouble/depression you just need to flip through any one of the books and you are bound to find an answer to your trouble on that page... :-) )

More than me saying more about this, i would just paste an extract from BawanDinesh's blog which they wrote for the Dvd Cover which more or less sounds like a prologue and sums up my thoughts. So, in their own words, we begin a journey which i am sure would be a one that we will all cherish for a lifetime, if not at this moment, at some point of our life for sure.

"For 7 years, every week Guruji (Sri Sri Ravi Shankar) used to send out a page of Knowledge to be read out and discussed at the satsangs happening all over the world. He used to call it the Knowledge fax … This was before email became popular enough for everyone to use

Every week we waited eagerly for what Guruji would say through these Knowledge Sheets, many times we would be with Him while He dictated them out and we compiled them. The atmosphere would always be full of wisdom coupled with big doses of mirth. And the Knowledge sheets themselves are always profound, sometimes quite funny…

Dinesh and i decided to do a commentary on them, reliving those precious moments spent with Guruji, reading them out for you and peppering them with stories and examples of how this Knowledge from Him has come alive for us in our lives.

Re reading them now, after so many years of Sadhana, Seva and Satsang has made us realise just how beautiful and precious these words from Him are … We are throughly enjoying ourselves making these videos, we know you will love watching them too."

Have fun...

Jai Gurudeva!!!

Love

Abhiram

p.s: This week i will be posting one video everyday, as we have already uploaded six of them, we will have to catch up. And from next week onwards, every monday a video will be up. So i can guarantee that atleast there will be one post on the blog every week courtesy myself. :-) :-) :-)

Shutter Island - A Review

After a long time, finally got to sit down and watch a movie at home. And after watching it, i decided to write rather than talk about it to others(even though i was left spellbound and speechless and was finding a place to bury my head into the couch)

This movie has been in the cans for a long time, and everytime i visited Sir Marty's(Martin Scorsese) profile on Imdb i kept seeing this message that the movie is still in the Post-Production stages. And in the last few months i've completely lost track of the movies that have been coming and in that process this also went away from my mind. And just a few weeks back, i get this mail from my friend in the Pune Film Institute who was saying that this has got to be one of the finest films that has been produced by Hollywood, and if i didn't watch it right away, well i can stop talking about movies. And then two more from the group saw it and gave the same feedback, which just doubled up the curiosity. Luckily one of them was coming to Bombay in two days and i finally got to see it.

This has got to be one of the landmark films in Sir Marty's Career as well as in Hollywood. I mean, from what we've seen from Scorsese's adaptation from Book/Bios to screen (Raging Bull, Taxi Driver, Goodfellas, The Departed) this one is no where near any of these films. The closest that you can relate this film is to probably Taxi Driver and Cape Fear. But this is a completely new presentation that Scorsese has given us and to keep delivering and exploring at this age is why people keep adoring him and that is the mark of someone who is special.

The movie is about Teddy Daniels(Leo Di Caprio), a U.S.Marshall and his partner Chuck Aule(Mark Ruffalo) who are appointed to investigate the case of this missing patient in Ashecliffe Hospital for the criminally insane on Shutter Island, Boston. Teddy has been pushing to get on this assignment for some personal reasons and also to find out more about the how the hospital operates as he has his own suspicions about it. As Teddy begins to investigate the situation, he gets on to some convincing leads but things start getting even more suspicious with people from the hospital including the Chief doctor, Dr. Crawely(Ben Kingsley) refusing to co-operate with him. Finally, he decides to close down the investigations and get back to land but then a storm hits the island, cutting the communication to the mainland and a few dangerous prisoners also escape in the process. Stuck in the island, Teddy beings to suspect if he has been put here as part of the hosptial's experiments, and as things begin to unravel, he begins to suspect everything - His memory, His partner, even his own sanity.

It's been difficult to put what is there on my mind because i did not know how to describe this movie as i still have own interpretations for it and have not yet figured out if it is correct or not. But this is a small gist, and i hope some of you after watching it can help me fix the rest of the puzzle. :-) :-) :-)

Technically, this film has been flawless. The cinematography is stunning(Robert Richardson), capturing the isolated island brilliantly and creating that sense eeriness that was required for the hospital interiors. But the best parts have got to be the hallucination and dream sequences which are a treat to watch. The editing of this film will just go to show that it is the work of two minds(the editor, Thelma Schoonmaker and director) who have been in the field for long enough and have decided to take the film to the next level. I have never seen such an unusual editing pattern used in a Scorcese film ever and probably it is the script that has given them the freedom to experiment this way. The Interior cells/dungeons of the hospital are well created and light up to give the claustrophobic effect that is required. The soundtrack of the keeps running in your head even after your done watching it, haunting,haunting and more haunting that's all i can say. Unbelievable selection of soundtracks which is always a bonus for us people who are watching the movie(for us to go back home and put it on download :-) :-) :-) )

But you cannot go away without talking about the performances of the actors in such a movie(or rather in a Martin Scorcese movie). Di Caprio pulls of one of the most powerful and toughest performances of this year. He takes you into the psyche of the character so much that you will find it a bit difficult to come out of it once the movie is over. Apart from that Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley and Michelle Williams excel in their respective roles(the less i say, the better it is). And all this credit goes to one man who has anchored the film with perfection, Martin Scorcese. Unbelievable direction, and i really cannot describe in words how much i love this person.

So sit back, and enjoy the ride as Scorcese takes you into the mind of Teddy Daniels.

Jai Gurudeva!!!

Love

Abhiram

p.s: If this is fantastic, what are we going to say for Christopher Nolan's "Inception"...Looking at the Trailers, i cannot imagine whats in store...or rather don't want to... :-)

Technology of Spirituality - A Talk by Khurshed Batliwala aka Bawa

(the way people reacted after i told i am going to work for Art of Living...hehehehe)

There has been so many things that have been said after i joined Art of Living. Fortunately, (some might say unfortunate), this was what i wanted to do, and i realised that through this organisation the scope of achieving what i wanted to do was immense.

This post is to basically give you an idea as to what i've been doing over the few months. So, to start of with, this talk that i am going to post was actually first given by Bawa at TEDx, Goa. He was previously invited by TEDx Chennai to talk on the topic - Inspiration.(I mean for Yes!+ people, just his very presence would have summed up the topic :-) :-) :-) ). That talk of Bawa was not as appealing(for us) as it is on a Yes!+ course, but nonetheless the organisers loved it and they wanted him to be at TEDx Goa. And this time the topic that was given to the speakers was Innovation. Most us of did not have a clue as to what the content was going to be. But once he came back to Bombay and showed us the presentation that he did for the talk, we were completely blown away.

The talk is about as the heading says - The Technology of Spirituality.

What is spirituality/spiritual practises/meditation, the factors which govern it and how does this damn thing work. Sounds like some economics class but i tell you it is as interesting or rather even more interesting than it looks like. He takes us through our Indian History and Ancient Texts and arrives as to how we can utilise these techniques to enhance and widen our opportunites to grow as an individual. We actually need it more right now than how much our ancestors required it during their times. I can tell you that this talk will give you a completely new definition of what spirituality is(and give you the exact meaning of what it really is), and will break all the existing notions that people have towards it.

This is what i've always wanted to do. To showcase what are country really represents, our culture, traditions and the knowledge that we possess. The things that we show through are media is not what we are, it's just very bad replication of what the west are doing. And what we are giving to our society is the worst from the west. We need to start a revolution of sorts and the people who can really make a difference are people like us who are capable of identifying what is right and what is wrong. I can only offer you what i have to give, but it is up to you to take that step forward if you want to make a difference to the society you are living in. :-)

So, here it is - The Technology of Spirituality

Hope you guys enjoy it. :-) :-) :-)

Jai Gurudeva!!!

Love

Abhiram