What I Learnt from my Failed Experiments with Entrepreneurship

 I am from a business family, most of my relatives are into business of some kind, and so a lot of our family conversations revolve around business. If you think the word "business" occurred too many times in the previous sentence, you can well imagine how much intertwined it has been with my life since my early childhood! Now you may think that someone from this kind of background would naturally be good at entrepreneurship, but thats not really the case. Talking about business and actually doing it are very different things. That was my first lesson back in 2005 when I started a coaching centre for IIT-JEE at my native place (Balasore, Odisha) after finishing my B.Tech. from IIT Madras. During my final year at IITM, I was considering two options : starting a JEE coaching centre at Balasore or going for a PhD. Although I was very passionate about science, I was not sure if I had the patience to pursue a PhD. When I began my undergrad, my sole aim was to learn software programming and earn money in the industry. But over the course of 4 years, I completely lost interest in this trajectory due to various reasons and was mesmerised by various concepts of physics. At IITM, I was also deeply involved with Vivekananda Study Circle as a volunteer, which had ingrained in me a deep desire to contribute to the society. The coaching centre idea was motivated by a mix of both these reasons, i.e. to stay in touch with physics and to help students from my native place in reaching the best institutions of higher education. So, as soon as my final semester exams got over, I packed my bags, came back home and rented a small room near our house to start my JEE classes!

How do I find my soul mate?

Finding a soul mate is a hard problem, and we all know that very well! But the good news is that if you are truly looking for a soul mate, it means that you are looking for a deeper experience of life and are not just satisfied with superficial things. That's a sign of evolution!

Prevalence of Manipulative Fake News in Indian News Media

Media is the fourth pillar of our democracy and a significant source of getting correct and precise information about various events around the world. In the present digital age, online news websites have become an important source of news and information for an ordinary person. However, nowadays, it becomes difficult for us to get precise information, due to the menace of fake news. There can be two types of fake news, one which is factually incorrect, and the other which is factual, but presented in a manipulative manner and thus, representing fictional style of writing. Both these problems are equally serious and can cause a lot of social damage if not tackled properly. A lot of work is already going on in the domain of detecting incorrect factual information published by online news agencies, but the latter problem of manipulative news content is hardly paid attention to. 

Online Education : Rationale and Effective Methods

The process of evolution does not follow an optimisation protocol to minimise or maximise a single cost function. And it is this which leads to the limitless variety in living systems that we see all around us. Plants, insects, bacteria, viruses, animals and humans, all belong to this one big family of living organisms, but are so different from each other. Each has its own trajectory of evolution and they all share a common goal, i.e. to live and grow! Interestingly, this immense variety that we see among living systems also exists within the human family too. Even humans living under very similar circumstances often turn out to be so different from each other. For example, although Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhonsle are sisters and famous singers, their style of music is so different from each other! Just see your own siblings and cousins. Very rarely will you find someone who is just like you. As far as we know, this is a unique human trait and not shared by any other living organisms. Should not this very important feature of the human species be factored in while designing our education system? Obviously, yes! 

What does it mean to be a Sthitaprajna?

Enlightenment, Moksha, Nirvana and Liberation are some of the commonly used terms used to define the goal of the spiritual process. Although these terms are very popular and often serve as an inspiration for people to take up spiritual practices seriously, they have some very serious limitations. Most importantly, usage of these terms often creates a negative attitude towards the material/physical world. Serious seekers of Moksha often look down upon the physical world as impure and wish to spend long hours in seeking the pure consciousness. These terms also creates unnecessary friction between the so called spiritual seekers and the so called materialists. The former often consider the latter to be ignorant and selfish, while the latter consider the former to be lazy bums who do not wish to contribute to society. This artificial divide between spiritual seekers and materialists seems to be a latter development in Indian history since Ramayana and Mahabharata do not provide any evidence for it. In both Ramayana and Mahabharata, the main protagonists, Rama and Krishna, are both spiritually enlightened as well as ruling Kings. In fact, in verse 2.55 of the Bhagwad Gita, Krishna provides a precise term to describe people who have struck the perfect balance between the world of spirit and the world of matter, and strongly urges Arjuna to seek this state of being:

प्रजहाति यदा कामान्सर्वान्पार्थ मनोगतान् । 

आत्मन्येवात्मना तुष्टः स्थितप्रज्ञस्तदोच्यते ||

O Pārtha, when a man gives up all varieties of desire for sense gratification, which arise from mental modifications, and when his mind finds satisfaction in the self alone, then he is said to be of steady intellect (Sthitaprajna).

Is committing suicide a good idea?

"Life is so frustrating. I feel caged in a prison and not able to move. Why is the world around so suffocating? I don't want to live any more! I want to die." 

These are not the thoughts of a person suffering from depression, but of Joe, who is one of the most intelligent and innovative students at Imperial College of Engineering. Remember that guy from 3 Idiots who could not built the drone on time and Virus refused to give him even a small extension? Virus's attitude was surely despicable and he has himself paid a huge price for it (by loosing his own son), but thankfully he at least had a change of heart later on! Hopefully that saved a few young lives at least. But are all suicides caused due to such insensitive people around us? What about Raghav from Chhichhore? He seemed to have very cool parents and equally good friends. We also don't know of any such insensitive teachers, relatives or neighbours that he may have had. But still, he did jump off his friend's balcony after not being to clear the coveted JEE! As Raghav's father recollects later on, "I told him how we would celebrate once the results are out and he clears the exam. But I never said what we would do if he could not clear it". Raghav could not stand the fact that both his parents were JEE rankers and he could not clear the exam. That led to a complete loss of self-worth, which  then led to him taking such a drastic step! So seemingly cool parents and supportive environment could also not prevent it. Whether what Joe and Raghav did was right or wrong is hard for us to judge since no one else can truly understand what a person goes through in a given life situation, and why s/he is forced to take such a drastic step. But in general, is committing suicide a good idea?

Mind-Brain Interaction

Essence of Quantum Mechanics :

What cannot be calculated, cannot be measured. What can be calculated, can be measured. And most importantly, not everything can be calculated.

Calculation : 

Write a mathematical equation to predict the future state of a system using information about the present and past history. Systems for which this is possible are henceforth referred to as physical systems.

Measurement : 

Take a classical system with a calibrated scale. Make it interact with a quantum/classical system, and note the change in reading. 

Essence of Physical Science :

This change of reading of a classical calibrated apparatus in a measurement is expected to agree with the theoretical calculation.

Educational reforms for cultural and spiritual integration in India

Introduction

India is one of the most diverse nations on this planet where people from many different cultural backgrounds live and work together. Tamil Nadu in the south is very different from Kashmir in the north, and Gujarat in the west is very different from Assam in the East. Even people from neighboring states like Tamil Nadu and Kerala speak very different languages (Tamil and Malayalam, respectively) and have several cultural differences. Despite these diversities, there has been a civilizational continuity in India at least for the past few thousand years and the major unifying force has been the Vedic tradition. Great Vedic saints and scholars have been born in all parts of the Indian subcontinent ranging from Swami Rama in Garhwal Himalayas (north), Adi Sankaracharya in Kerala (south), Swami Vivekananda in Bengal (east) and Saint Tukaram in Maharashtra (west).

One teacher at a time

Ravi has been a school teacher at Indore since the last 5 years and is quite popular among the students for his lucid explanations and warm disposition. Though just in his late 20s, he exudes wisdom beyond his years while at the same time maintaining a boyish charm. When he enrolled for BSc in Physics at one of the most reputed college of India, his primary aim was to become a world-renowned scientist like CV Raman. However, interactions with some of the best teachers in college made him get seriously interested in teaching as a profession. Ravi thought that research is surely very attractive with the possibility of becoming world famous, but teaching could offer him a deeper level of satisfaction. Being able to positively impact the lives of young minds started looking very promising. Finally, in his final year of BSc, Ravi gave up the idea of research and decided to get into physics teaching. At first, he thought of doing a PhD and becoming a college teacher. But later, he started feeling that in order to groom students into becoming good citizens, one needs to start from the school level. Hence, he finally decided to do an MSc in Physics and then a B.Ed., so that he could become a school teacher. There was some reluctance shown by his parents initially, but they finally accepted their son’s idea after some discussions. Ravi was not just smart at studies but also good at convincing others, especially those he deeply cared about! 

Allah : The manifestation of Rudra

Prophet Muhammad was born in 570 CE in Mecca at a time when the Arabian peninsula was manifested with warring tribes. Prophet was orphaned at a very young and spent his childhood with various relatives. After growing up, he started working as a diplomat, and around the age of 40, started getting very concerned with the prevalent social problems of his times. He began to spend a lot of time praying to God for guidance in a cave called Hira in Mount Jabal al-Nour, near Mecca. During one of these prayers, the angel Gabriel appeared before him and started revealing to him the verses of the Quran. These revelations continued till the end of Prophet's life. The Quran is a compilation of these revelations, considered to have come straight from God, and so unquestionable and unchangeable. Since the first revelation of the Quranic verses in 610 CE, the religion of Islam has spread far and wide, largely through the use of force, and as on today controls large parts of Asia and Africa, and is now making inroads into Europe and America, through terror financing and other channels. 

Dealing with brainwashing in India

India is a unique country in many ways, one of them being its extreme diversity of language, culture, belief systems, food and lot more. Even within Hinduism, the number of Gods that people worship, the variety of processes of worship and the diversity of philosophies is mind boggling. And diversity is surely a good thing in general since it makes people living in the society be more open to new ideas and more tolerant to people who have divergent opinions. However, for a diverse society to function smoothly and prosper materially, it is also important that proper security and stability of its territory be maintained. Road accidents, fatal diseases and the like surely need to be curbed down since they cause a significant loss to the country's human resources as well as economy. But lot more problematic for India are those people and countries which make targeted attempts at causing chaos and disharmony in India by various ways. And the first step in neutralising them is proper identification. Who are these people and these countries?

Sanskrit : Origin, Evolution and Importance

Sanskrit is not an ordinary human language. It is a collection of sounds that leads to the deepest experiences that human beings have ever had. It is true that even music of many varieties can lead to such experiences for some people, but the most important aspect of Sanskrit in this regard is that it offers a systematic and objective way to reach such experiences. The most important source of these mystical Sanskrit verses is the Veda, which is considered to be several millennia old. The Vedic mantras have a power no less universal than that of modern science and engineering! An interesting aspect of Sanskrit is that it is not only available in the form of these powerful verses, but also in the form of a spoken language that humans can use to communicate with each other. There are various theories about how this language came into existence and how it evolved. Though there is a lot of debate going on about its geographical origin and extent, what we will examine here is its temporal origin and evolution. How did humans come to acquire this almost magical language? What effects did it have on the society? And what effects did society have on the language? As they say, for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction!

Yogic Siddhis, Science and Samyama

When a child is born, does it first become aware of its own existence or that of its mother? We will perhaps never know the answer to this question. But what we know for sure is that as soon as a child comes out of the Mother's womb, the mother becomes the other! The mother is then no longer a part of the child's sense of Self, but is still someone the child feels deeply connected with. For some months after the child's birth, there is also perhaps the confusion about whether the child and the mother are two separate individuals or the same. Though this confusion subsides over the years, there are other things the child gets to interact with at varying levels of intimacy. There is a sense of separateness with certain things at certain points of time, and then there is also a feeling of oneness. The love and hatred that a person experiences for his/her favourite sports teams is also a result of his/her own changing mental landscape. There is a world that exists outside, and there is its reflection that exists inside. Another perspective could be that the world outside is a reflection of the world inside. Which of these perspectives is right, and which of these worlds is more real is hard to say. But the two worlds do exist and they are not really the same. The world outside is made of matter. And the world inside consists of the mind and consciousness. The world outside can be measured. And the world inside can be experienced. Can a measurement be experienced, and an experience measured?