Category: Philosophy

Good versus Bad

Some of Cartoons depicting clash of interests:

Grizzy and Lemmings
Tom and Jerry
Oggy and the cockroaches


It is all about Good versus bad. This is debated from the times immorial.


They are always out to wipe out each other
Like Rama and Ravana. All religions have this common thread of good versus bad. Goodness is always depicted as winner over the evil. But the win is not permanent. If it were so then evil would have long gone.

But can one exist without the other?

Or

Can any of the characters has any relevance without the other ?

In all these stories, characters of opposing nature are always trying to dominate the other. Tom is after Jerry and vice versa. They have developed their own abilities to harm the other or defend themselves.

But have you noticed that there are moments in these stories when one of the rivals is defeated and becomes hidden. The other begins to miss the vanquished. Goodness always seems seeks evilness. Honesty seeks dishonesty. Only when they juxtaposed they have the image they are entitled to portray. Otherwise they will be the normal beings living their own simple lives just like the general majority.


Everything exists in pairs complementing one another. Plus has its nemesis in minus, electron in proton, matter in antimatter, Ravan in Rama, Tom in Jerry, grizzy in lemmings and Oggy in cockroaches. It is not an accident that goodness chances upon evilness but it is indispensable for its own existence.

Altruism and Aggression

In the preface to his book named “Mutual Aid: A factor of evolution”, Russian Anarchist, Peter Kropotkin writes ” Two aspects of animal life impressed me most during the journeys which I made in my youth in Eastern Siberia and Northern Manchuria. One of them was the extreme severity of the struggle for existence which most species of  animals have to carry on against an inclement Nature; the enormous destruction of life which periodically results from natural agencies; and the consequent paucity of life over the vast territory which fell under my observation.

And the other was, that even in those few spots where animal life teemed in abundance, I failed to find–although I was eagerly looking for it–that bitter struggle for the means of existence, among animals belonging to the same species, which was considered by most Darwinist (though not always by Darwin himself) as the dominant characteristic of struggle for life, and the main factor of evolution.”

Thus according to him, this means that mutual cooperation and mutual aid are as important for evolution as are competition and mutual strife. This also means that human beings are basically good at heart.

Many great scientists have commented on his ideas. Stephen Jay Gould says that “a common conceptual error in failing to recognize that [Darwinian] natural selection is an argument about advantages to individual organisms”. and secondly that “there are no shortcuts to moral insight” and that the answers to such questions must be found within us, not in nature. But overall, the ideas of Kropotkin are very respectable and form the basis of principle that individuals in society in general benefit from mutual cooperation.

Alexeyevich Kropotkin was (9 December 1842 to 8 February 1921) was one of Russia’s foremost anarchist and one of the first advocates of anarchist communism: most of his life he advocated for a communist society free from central government. Because of his title of prince and his prominence as an anarchist in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, he was known by some as “the Anarchist Prince”. Some contemporaries saw him as leading a near perfect life, including Oscar Wilde, who described him as “a man with a soul of that beautiful white Christ which seems coming out of Russia”. He wrote many books, pamphlets and articles, the most prominent being The Conquest of Bread and Fields, Factories and Workshops and his principal scientific offering, Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution from which this matter is taken.

In short, Kropotkin, was the father of altruism. Modern theories run against this thought. Nowadays, it is held, that whatever an individual does is basically for his own benefits and happiness. Even in situations where it seems that an individual benefits from the action he is performing, in reality he is being selfish for his own happiness. Suppose, a person, sees an child leaping in the fire and he even does no the child, he will go for saving the child. This will save him from the guilty feeling and remorse he will suffer in the aftermath and his happiness will not be under jeopardy.

Marathi literary festival in Ghuman Punjab

88th Marathi Literary Festival was celebrated in 2015 thousand mile away from Maharashtra in a non descript village called Ghuman in Gurdaspur district of Punjab. Looks surprising why? The reason is that this village has an important link with Maharashtra. Great saint Namdeo came here during his wanderings and remained here for 18 years.

He is said to have born in Naras-Vamani village of Satara district in Maharashtra, Bhagat Namdeo. It was during 12 to 13 century but there are doubts. Anyway it was before the founder of Sikh religion Guru Nanak was born. Imagine about 800 years ago how the saint must have travelled nearly 2000 kilometers when the means of transportation were few and far between. And also why he chose this place only. During these years saint preached here about the one god and leave the bad customs like casteism plaguing the society here. 

Saint Namdev

In one of his compositions , he tells the God, how he was thrown out from the temple as he belonged to lower caste. He himself beseeches the God why He had ordained him to be born in the family of cloth dyers which is considered low caste. He tells God that he has returned out from your temple and sitting at the backside of the temple. Full poem in Gurumukhi with English meaning is reproduced below.

People here still revere him. His teachings were so pious that 61 of his Shabads were included in Adi Granth , the holy book of Sikhs by Guru Arjan Dev, the fifth guru of Sikhs.

Hymn of Creation

Cosmos is a mystery and man have been curios to know how it came into being. What was there in the beginning? In India the intelligent mind began striving since the first millennium, for convincing explanations of cosmic mystery.

In the latest phase of Rig Veda poets began wondering about creation. There is beautiful hymn called “Hymn of Creation” in the Rig Veda.

It marks the beginning of abstract thinking and work of a very great poet who is asking questions which are fundamental in nature. It portrays whole vision of mysterious chaos before creation and the ineffable forces working in the depths of the primeval void. It goes like this:

"Then even nothingness was not, nor existence. 
There was no air then, nor the heaven beyond it. 
All this was only unillumined water.
What covered it? Where was it? In whose keeping? 
Then there was neither death nor immortality, 
Nor was there then the torch of night and day,
The One breathed windlessly and self-sustaining. 
There was that One then, and there was no other. 
At first there was only darkness wrapped in darkness.
That One which came to be, enclosed in nothing,
arose at last, born of the power of heat.

“In the beginning desire descended on it-

that was the primal seed, born of the mind.

The sages who have searched their hearts with wisdom

know that which is is kin to that which is not.

“And they have stretched their cord  across void.

and know what was above, and what below,

seminal powers made fertile mighty forces.

Below was strength, and over it was impulse.

“But, after all, who knows and who can say

whence it all come and how creation happened?

The gods themselves are later than creation,

so who knows truly whence it has arisen?

“Whence all creation had its origin,

he, whether he fashioned it or whether he did not

he, who surveys it all from highest heaven,

he knows -or maybe even he does not know”

This was used in Hindi as the starting track of the Doordarshan serial “Bharat Ek Khoj” by Shyam Benegal.

Modern physics is also striving to know the answer in theory called “Big Bang”. Its basic surmise is the there was energy only everywhere and matter did not come to existence. After the big band some of  the energy condensed to become matter.

Higgs Boson: The God Particle

How many fundamental particles make all what exists in the universe? In our college days electrons, protons and neutrons were considered the fundamental particles making up the atoms.

Atoms combined with each other according to some rules to make molecules which are the building blocks of the universe. As the research to probe into the heart of these fundamental particles advanced with the advent of high speed particle colliders, it has been found that itis after all not as simple as it looks.

Only electron withstood the test of being the fundamental particle. It was shown that neutrons and protons are formed from other particles which have been observed in these particle smashers. We now know that protons and neutrons can be formed from two fundamental particles called up and down quarks. So along with electrons, all that is present can be made from up and down quarks.

Standard Model of Atom

But till date 12 fundamental particles have been discovered. So what are these needed for. Whether it is finally 12 or any number is also a guess because theories can get shattered by the availability of more powerful smashers.

It is known that energy and mass are the two sides of the same coin. From the mass we can create energy and vice versa. How particles get different masses?

It was proposed that space is filled with a energy field called Higgs field. If we consider it was water in a container for analogy then it is continuous with break. Water is made of molecules of water which is H2O. These molecules fill all the space occupied by water. It means water molecule is smallest unit .

By analogy smallest unit of energy or the particles which make the Higgs field are called Higgs Boson. It is this field which gives the particles their different masses which represent the extent of its interaction with the field.

In the particle accelerators, atoms moving almost at 99% or more the speed of light are collided with each other. They get converted into energy field. This energy field then gets converted into numerous sub atomic particles which are recorded.

It is hoped that out of these particles, the Higgs Boson will show up. At least CERN which is doing the research with giant colliders having perimeters of almost 22 kilometers announced that they have observed a particle which is most like the Higgs Boson.

Efforts will continue. Since this particle which stands as the central entity in the Standard Model which is currently the most successful system to explain the existence of the sub atomic particles, will be successfully discovered. Since it is so elusive , it has been nicknamed the “God Particle”

Desires unfulfilled due to religious bigotry 

Guru Nanak, the first Guru and founder of Sikh religion, had two constant companions namely Bala and Mardana. Mardana played Rabab while Guru sang. He was a Muslim. Guru preached to the world love, compassion, and communal harmony. He also enlightened the people about the falsehood spread by some religious groups both Muslims and Hindus. It was all based on solid logic and illustrated through simple examples.

Bhai Mardana playing Rabab

The future generations of Mardana remained attached to the succeeding Gurus of Sikhs. Of them was Bhai Ghulam Mohammad Chand, who lived in Lahore Pakistan and breathed his last on 29th April 2015 after illness. Born in Rajasansi village near Amritsar in 1927, Bhai Ghulam Mohammad had migrated to Pakistan.

But he died with one unfulfilled desire. It was to recite kirtan in the Golden Temple at Amritsar. His request in 2008  was declined by Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) on the grounds that he was not a Sikh who was not baptized a rule that was enacted in 1947.

He has performed Kirtans in many Gurudwaras both in Pakistan and abroad. He was the sixth generation of Bhai Sadha and Bhai Madha, who sang during the lifetimes of ninth and tenth Guru Teg Bahadur and Guru Gobind Singh.

His father Bhai Sunder Giani was one of the last rababis to perform in Darbar Sahib (Golden Temple) before 1947. Navtej Kaur Purewal, deputy director, South Asia Institute, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London also sponsored Ghulam Mohammad’s historic visit to the UK in 2011 and also wrote a research paper on the History of the Rababi Tradition of Shabad Kirtan.

Bhai Ghulam Mohammad Chand

England-based Punjabi writer Amarjit Chandan, said, “Bhai Ghulam virtually died the day he was not allowed to perform kirtan in Darbar Sahib in 2008 for not being an `Amritdhari’. They didn’t know his forefather Bhai Mardana was not one either. But he was Baba Nanak’s true and first Sikh, his lifelong companion and rababi.“

Such was the pain that he carried after the refusal to perform kirtan in the Darbar Sahib that in an interview with Purewal in 2011, he said, “Who bothered to ask whether we were Gursikh (baptized Sikhs) in those days (in the days of Gurus)? Were my ancestors Gursikhs? Did they wear the `dastaar’ (turban) and show the signs of being a Sikh? No. But that never stopped them from having a passion for music and their work… Those people (the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee that manage gurdwaras in Punjab) have a short vision…“

Revival of Govardhan Parvat

In our country where mythology plays a big role in the lives of its inhabitants, many sites like hills, rivers, and caves have their associations with the mythology. One such concerns the Lord Krishna and is called Govardhan Parvat (mountain).
Govardhan Parvat

The legend is that when the continuous deluge threatened to innundate Mathura, Krishna lifted the entire mountain on his little finger to make an umbrella to protect the Mathura.

UP government has planned to revive the almost barren Govardhan parvat situated about 23 kilometres from Mathura. Government plans to plant the herbal plants on the mountain. These are:

Kadamba: It is a tropical tree. Krishna and Radha are said to have conducted their love play under the cool shade of the tree. It is used as one of the raw materials in the preparation of “itars”.

Kadamb Tree

Tamala or Indian bayleaf or tezpatta: Dried leaves are commonly used in Indian cooking. It contains antioxidant enzymes which is used in alleviation of diabetes.

Tezpatta

Karira: Scientific name is Capparis decidua. It’s spicy fruits are used for culinary purposes like vegetable, curries, and pickles. It is also used in medicine.

Karira (Capparis Decidua)

Paakar : Scientifically called Ficus Virens. It belongs to mulberry family. Leaves have sour taste. It is also called Pilkhan. The fruits are used in Thai Cuisine.

Steve Jobs and Yuddhistra

There is an episode in Mahabharata in which Yama, the God of Death wants to test the wisdom and knowledge of Yuddhistra, the eldest of Pandavas. The story goes that Pandava brothers go one after another to fetch water from a pool that supposedly belonged to Yama. As soon as, the pitcher is lowered into water, Yama’s voice reverberates and warns the pitcher holder not to fill it until he answers a question posed to him. As all the younger brothers fail to answer, they drop dead by the pond.

At last when all the brothers are gone and none is returning, Yuddhishtra gets worried and goes in search of the brothers whom he finds lying dead by the pool. He is aghast and anguished. As all the brothers possessed extraordinary powers, he is sure that some higher power has done this to his brothers. While he is sitting by the dead bodies, the voice of Yama again is heard. He lays down the condition before Yuddhistra, that he can revive his brothers if he satisfactorily answers five questions.

One of the questions was what was the greatest wonder of this transient world? To which he replies “Day after day countless people die. It is a fact that what is born has to die one day. Yet the living wish to live forever. O Lord, what can be greater wonder?”.

Sometimes back Steve Jobs the founder of Apple Inc died. He was not old to die but the cancer took his life. But he was a great man who had some most popular inventions to his credit. His products with brand names  Apple and iMac are matchless. He wedded the electronics with artistry.

He suffered from the pancreatic cancer. After surgery and liver transplant, he became well and delivered a speech to the graduates. His speech contained 3 topics, last of which dealt with his illness. He says in his speech, I quote,

“No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and will be be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’ life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

How strange both Yuddhistra and Jobs have exactly identical views about death. Further, Jobs likens the death to an inspiration. It is a change agent and scavenger. It continuously renews the life on the earth. Whenever, the role played by an individual is over, it simply replaces him or her with younger and brighter one. So, he exhorts, all of us to make best of the available time.

Whom shall you call the Greatest?

It is awe inspiring even to think how the thought process in the humans evolved. At the stage of evolution we are now, it all seems so easy to speak, read and recall the past.

In the very beginning when speech was not evolved, it must had been a hell difficult for the homo sapiens to communicate.

Similarly, when hunting must had become very tiring and unsuccessful, and they were hungry, they must have tried to eat some leaves or fruits with many of them with fatal results.

But they were keeping track of the events and learning to discriminate between what was good and bad for them.  It took thousands years of ups and downs for humans to reach the stage we are at.

Slowly and slowly, the mistakes began to shrink resulting in lower number of causalities. Each coming generation was thus more intelligent and more suitable to adapt to the environment.

It became even more easier when verbal communication was invented and after that writing. Now we have so much knowledge base at our disposal that we have to be very discreet about our selection.

In chemistry, there is one of the most respected figures whose name is Kekule. Without any advanced instruments, relying only on the laborious chemical substitutions, he elucidated the structure of the benzene which is the simplest and most symmetrical aromatic molecule and the starting compound of aromatic chemistry. His three students won the Nobel prizes in chemistry. Van’t Hoff for stereo chemistry, Emil Fisher for esterification reaction, Bayer for synthesis of heterocyclic compounds and indigo.

So can we say that today’s man is more intelligent than the previous stages of evolution? I don’t think so because each successive generation is using the capabilities of previous generation and building on it for advancement.

So we cannot compare who was greater among Einstein and Newton. Einstein had at his disposal the Newton’s work to build on or at least think on the different lines. He invented the relativity which encompasses the Newton’s Laws as the corollaries.

Similarly, Newton is said to have proceeded from the Johannes Kepler’s laws. It is another matter that some persons are lucky to get the credit due to their popularity and their personality.

At the same time, there are many a great scientists like E.C.G. Sudarshan who did not get the recognition they deserved. Similarly there was Riemann whose revolutionary mathematical advances provided Einstein tools required for inventing the general theory of relativity.

Again I recall what the Indian great classical singer Bhimsen Joshi told an interviewer that every artist is a kind of thief but he moulds the material according to his or her ability and product may be better in case the artist is really a genius.

Rastafarians

Remember Bob Marley with a special hairdo. He was called a Rasta because he practiced Rastafarian religion which began in Jamaica in 1930. Most followers were poor people of African descent brought by the British in West Indies as labours. It is both a religion and a social movement. They were oppressed and it was a reaction to this oppression.

Rastafarians believe that their God is Jah who is in fact Haile Sellassie, the king of Ethiopia. They believe that Christ was black. The religion is not strictly religion but a way of life. It says that in every living being, a part of Jah lives and love and compassion for every human being.

Their prefer to eat the food is almost organic vegetarian self grown. They smoke the cannabis like many Sadhus in India and consider it as a very pious substance. It calms the mind and helps the smoker to introspect the self.

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