Dear custodians of Indic Traditions and Comrades of the Global Community! A famous Tamil poet-cum, philosopher, Thiluvalluvar, who lived nearly 2100 years ago, has composed through 1330 Tamil couplets a monumental handbook of culture and heritage. He has written in one of the couplets It means that when there is no food for thought we may give some food for the stomach. For today’s lecture, the order seems to be reversed in the sense since there may be some food for thought, you seem to have skipped the lunch break. Please excuse me for the same.. Regarding the thoughts for our discussion, I am reminded of an interesting episode. Once a young preacher was sent to a small parish to deliver the Sunday sermon. Though smart, he was rather lazy, and did not prepare his speech. To get out of the delicate situation he asked the audience, “Do you know what I am going to tell you?” The audience in all honest ignorance chorused “NO”. He quickly shot back “What is the purpose in telling people who do not know?” and walked out. Next week, the same condition prevailed, but the audience thought they will catch him on the wrong foot. When asked by him whether they knew what he was going to tell them, they said “Yes”. He immediately remarked “There is no need for one to tell you what you already know” and quit. During the third week, the audience thought of a smart way to trap him. So when he asked them whether they knew what he was going to tell them, half the number of people said, ‘Yes’, while the other half said ‘No’. Not to be outwitted, he gave a quick repartee. “Those of you who know tell those people who do not know” and left the podium. Apart from the hilarious aspect of this episode, there is a profound thought imbibed in it. While imparting knowledge to the students, the guru should always be ready to clear all doubts of his students and also encourage an effective and meaningful discussion among them supplemented by thought provoking questions and clarifications. The motto of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay where I was a faculty member for more than 33 years is “Gnanam Paramam Dyeyam “- “ Knowledge is the supreme thing most sought after”. It is so vast that it is futile for anybody to claim to have complete knowledge of everything. In fact, if teaching is the process of acquiring knowledge, the goddess of learning is supposed to have remarked “Knowledge is like the vast stretch of sandy beach and what one can learn at most tantamounts to a handful of those sand grains.” Having been thus confounded by the insurmountable volumes of knowledge handed down through heritage and currently growing exponentially, one has to draw a 1 prioritized program of learning and acquiring knowledge which will be of relevance individually and collectively to the society and the humanity at large. For this purpose, an essential prerequisite is to understand the distinct stages of the learning process, leading to the assimilation of essential knowledge. Basically there are three R’s in this process viz: reception, recall and reconstitution. The first stage is to receive as much of information as possible from all available sources be it the time tested scriptures or the modern technological channels of information flow like the internet, web etc. But the mere docketing of information will not contribute to knowledge. It involves the collection, rumination, analysis, synthesis, dissemination, and assimilation of the essential core contents. These will be mostly absolute truths unaffected by changes in time and environment. Again quoting Thiruvalluvar. Knowledge is the quintessence of whatever and whomsoever said. But assimilation of essential truth is not an end in itself. It should be understood and imbibed in us thoroughly so that it can be retrieved and recalled at the appropriate time. It is similar to a student required to remember all that he learned to answer the questions in an examination or a professional required to use his knowledge in a work environment. But ‘Recall’ alone will not help one to develop his identity in life. All the information handed down the ages would have helped build only castles in the air, but for the inquisitiveness, initiative, dynamism, or zeal of motivated individuals to create new benefits for the society at large thereby adding to the existing knowledge. In other words, wisdom is the experimental tool through which knowledge grows. The inventions and discoveries of great scientists like Copernicus, Galileo Galilee, Newton, Einstein etc. bear testimony to this. That takes us to the crossroads where we wonder whether we should still learn and follow all those beliefs and faiths imbibed in our culture and tradition and dictated to us for observance by our parents and forefathers. To those who have currently taken up for studies or professions, many technological, scientific, and managerial specializations, it may appear a little outmoded or unnecessary. One may feel that as they acquire a current level of exponentially expanding knowledge, technical and scientific, many of the tradition bound beliefs, which, prima-facie, seem to be irrelevant can be cast off. In this respect, I would like to quote an incident. Before I went to Moscow for my doctorate, I went to my native place, which is a remote village, to receive the blessings of my grandparents. After meeting them, I had to travel by a bullock cart for nearly two miles to reach the nearest town. From there I took a bus and after a three hour bus ride reached the nearest railway station. I took a train and traveled for about 24 hours to reach Bombay. From there I took an Air India Boeing 707 jet to reach Moscow. After getting my doctorate, I retraced the same route using the same means of transport to reach my village. A question now arises. Can I decry all of those modes of transport as being 2 primeval, or outmoded and worth discarding in my total journey from Moscow to my village. Can I substitute a jet plane for a bullock cart in the last lap of the journey home? Obviously not. It emphasizes the fact that every item of knowledge however trivial or outmoded it may appear has a pride of place in the totality of our efforts to make a mark in life in whatever environment we are. A doubt looms large in the minds of most of us. Many of the dictates and dogmas handed down through heritage seem to be illogical, impractical and irrelevant in today’s context. While the truth imbibed in them is absolute and immortal, most of them are shrouded in cobwebs of superstition and concocted distortion and stories mainly to carry the message to the uneducated masses of those times. A logical person with a critical analytical mind will definitely dust off all these cobwebs of confusion to trace the underlying truth, and when he does that, he is in for a really remarkable revelation. Let me illustrate it by an example. Darwin’s Theory of Evolution is well researched and documented. It traces the evolution of life on earth, through a gradual transformation from aquatic animals, amphibians, animals living in marshes, land based animals, dwarfs and Neanderthal man, hunters, and finally civilized people as we see them today. In Bhagavatham, Lord Vishnu’s sequential incarnations run exactly on parallel lines. Casting off the various tales and stories associated with them, we notice that His first incarnation was Matsya (fish), second was Kurma (turtle – an amphibian ), Varaha (bear living in marshes ), Narasimha (land based lion ), Vamana (dwarf-neanderthal man ), Parasurama (hunter) and Rama ( the king of a civilized society ). We can extend this logic to prove using Theory of Entropy of Continuous Molecular Degradation, that there will be a continuous cascading down of social values and that it will require the appearance of a supernatural power to restore order out of the chaos. Several examples can be drawn to highlight the glorious truths hibernating inside the cobwebs of dogmas of superstitious beliefs. In fact, the quintessence of Sanadhana Dharma (which is misconceived as Hinduism) is enshrined in the vedic scriptures which in their nascent form are free from all these imperfections. The veadas are not books written by anyone or group of individuals, but are guidelines handed down the ages experimented, tested and modified by innumerable sages, sawants and philosophers who constituted the intelligentsia of their times. Hence, they have got relevance to guide us even in modern times irrespective of the multiplicities of the cultures that have shaped all of us. That leaves us all to the next phase. Admitting that there are inviolable guiding principles enshrined in the cultural traditions, is it possible to learn, understand and adopt all or most of them within the present day constrains of time and parallel pursuit of other areas of knowledge. To ask anyone to do that will be foolish and to attempt to do it also will be a tall order. It is therefore advisable to look for a very few of them, which will not be constrictive, but on the other hand conducive to our growth both professionally and socially. I will attempt to outline a very few of them – Tolerance, Duty Consciousness, and Service Mentality. The world of today has achieved much, but despite all its declared love of 3 humanity, it has based itself far more on hatred and violence than on the virtues that make man human. Obviously the primary factor to ensure global peace and tranquility is acceptance and appreciation of all thoughts which see the absolute truth in different ways. Sanadhana Dharma branded as Hinduism tells everyone to worship god according to his faith or dharma and has absorbed many faiths in its fold over the centuries. One of the greatest monarchs, King Asoka pronounced “Whoever honors his own sect or disparages that of another, harms his own sect even more seriously.” Swami Vivekananda said, “A true Hindu does not simply tolerate other religions, but appreciates and upholds the truths enshrined in them. He would like a Christian to be a better Christian and a Muslim to be a better Muslim. All faiths preach only universal love and tolerance and therefore, dogmatic intolerance of diversified faiths is an anachronism and should be shunned by all. Mutual hatred will blind the power of reasoning, so much so the goal of welfare of all or “Sarvodaya is forgotten.” What is there in a name, so says Shakespeare. ‘That which we call a rose by any other word will smell as sweet’ Hence our primary goal should be to appreciate and adopt the philosophy of Vasudava Kutumbakam – unity of mankind. Next comes ‘Duty Consciousness’. Gita says “You are responsible for your actions and not for the outcome’.Prima facie, it sounds like an anachronism. Should we not visualize the outcome before we plan our actions? Modern managerial concepts also emphasize proper encouragements through deserving rewards for any successful actions. What Gita implies is not a dichotomy. It definitely supports proper planning and sequencing of the various phases of work with well defined goals and objectives. What it discourages is preconception of the probable benefits or pitfalls of the efforts which will definitely have a discouraging stigma attached during the formative and executive stages. A research worker will do his literature survey thoroughly, define his research topics as precisely as he can and work out meticulously the sequencing of his work. But he will not know and should not worry about the exact nature of the results. Proper planning and execution will automatically result in proper logical results. So one should be conscious of his duties and responsibilities and discharge them to the best of his abilities and capacity without worrying about the possible outcome be it encouraging or discouraging. As the great Indian philosopher Dr S.Radhakrishnan put it ,”There should be total involvement in work but complete detachment from the results.’ The third one is ‘Service Mentality’ as emphasized through the dictum ‘Manava Seva Madava Seva’ that is service to humanity is service to God. But what type of service can an individual extend to the humanity at large? While the ultimate goal is to eliminate all disparities between the haves and have-nots,it is a tall order. Eradication of poverty is a hollow political slogan and cannot be practically realizable goal within a specified time frame. What each individual can do is to direct his own action to ameliorate the suffering of the people in whatever small measure possible. Thus a person in medical research can direct his efforts wholly or partially to the development of more effective medical treatment and drugs which are affordable to the under privileged masses. People in building industry can strive to develop newer and cheaper material of construction and affordable homes for the poor. Food industry can focus on production of cheaper but nutritive food products for the low-income groups. In general instead of achieving nothing under the façade of poverty eradication all of us can contribute our 4 own small mite through our own professional talents to elevate the societal comforts in all fields. Thus instead of decrying the time tested value systems handed down to us by our glorious cultural traditions and embracing the modern materialistic means for self aggrandizement, a golden rule may be to adopt a harmonious blend of both for the betterment of the humanity as a whole. Let us all develop it as a routine habit in life since a habit once well developed seldom dies as the word ‘HABIT’ itself indicates. Remove ‘H’, still a ‘BIT’ remains, remove ‘A’, ‘BIT’ remains and remove ‘B’, still ‘IT’ remains. Let us all pray to God to give us the serenity and equanimity to accept the things that we cannot change, the courage to change the things that we can and the wisdom to know the difference.

|