Looking Through the Glasses!

Looking Through the Lenses!

Seeing letter double and the distant object hazy for the last year and a half or so, now at 69, decided that I may need other than my present reading glasses which I am using since more than twenty years, and went to a ‘super specialty high tech’ eye care hospital. It was a cataract, on both the eyes. Operation was on 28 June 2012 afternoon, a matter of five minutes each, although preparation took nearly an hour. A very neat job done indeed. Only a tiny local anesthesia, fully aware and watching the show in the eyes, what with dazzlingly brilliant light, a few dark patches getting removed, yellow light intervene briefly, dark with tiny speck of brilliant red dots ensued and finally ended up with fantastically bright fully crystal snowy white all over the inside eyes with a two smaller hallowed white ball one around the other at the center emanating dazzling sun yet with a mellowed assurance. What a fantastic site it was, Never felt anything entering my eyes to repair! Dark glasses were put immediately after the operation and you are ready to go home,
walk and talk straight away. Twenty four hours later you are into to reading, writing and computing.  Dark glasses are however to be worn non stop including during sleep for next 48 hours. 

The ease and comfort with which operation was done, knife less, drug less and painless, bloodless surgery performed, hassel free postoperative care, the accuracy, perfection,  thoroughness and the effectiveness of the whole procedure was amazing. One marvels at the technology available today for the quality of human welfare.

Lo! World do not look the same anymore! Be it a TV screen, print material or the surrounding people object and environment have become high definition(HD), bright and distinct with clarity and a strangely evocative. World is looked now through the man made lenses, not the gene made lenses!

TEACHER ( acharya ) AND GURU: THE DIFFERENCES

The Teacher and guru - The Difference

1. A teacher takes responsibility for your growth

    A guru makes you responsible for your growth

2. A teacher gives you things you do not have and require

    A guru takes away things you have and do not require

3. A teacher answers your questions

    A guru questions your answers

4. A teacher helps you to get out of the maze

   A guru destroys the maze 

5. A teacher requires obedience and discipline from the pupil

    A guru requires trust and humility from the pupil

6. A teacher clothes you and prepares you for the outer journey

    A guru strips you naked and prepares you for the inner journey

7. A teacher is a guide on the path

    A guru is a pointer to the way

8. A teacher sends you on the road to success

    A guru sends you on the road to freedom

9. A teacher explains the world and its nature to you

    A guru explains yourself and your nature to you

10. A teacher makes you understand how to move about in the

      world

      A guru shows you where you stand in relation to the world

11. A teacher gives you knowledge and boosts your ego

      A guru takes away your knowledge and punctures your ego

12. A teacher sharpens your mind

      A guru opens your mind

13. A teacher reaches your mind

      A guru touches your soul

14. A teacher gives you knowledge

      A guru makes you wise

15. A teacher helps you solve problems

      A guru shows you how to resolve issues

16. A teacher is a systematic thinker

      A guru is a lateral thinker

17. A teacher is to pupil what a father is to son

      A guru is to pupil what mother is to her child

18. One can always find a teacher

      But a guru has to find and accept you

19. A teacher leads you by the hand

      A guru leads you by example

20. A teacher instructs you

      A guru constructs you

21. When the course is over you are thankful to the teacher

       When the discourse is over you are grateful to the guru


Tattvaloka, Vol.35, No.2, May 2012 Pp. 34-35.

MEDIA CORRUPTION

Corruption is eating the vitals of our country. India is one of the most corrupt country in the world as per the yearly reports of corruption in different countries of the world by Transparency International. Nearly Rs.30, 000 crore per year is the calculated corruption money in the country. Corruption has become the bane in almost all walks of our life including the ones which should not brook even an iota of corruption - Health, Education, Judiciary - as it affects  generation of people irreversibly. Recently, we hear of corruptions of astronomical figures like the hundreds of thousand crore scam of 2G, Common Wealth Game, Adarsha Apartments, Army Supplies, Mining, Land Deals  and so on involving top ranking Ministers in the Government, Bureaucrats, Businessmen and Politicians. Only silver lining even in this tragic loot of the country was its expose by the media that created an awareness among the masses on the enormity of the malady. Alas, even that pride on the Indian Media is getting shattered now by the rampant corruption pervading the Media as well abetted by the same crooks in the politics-businessmen-bureaucracy nexus for their mutual, self seeking, benefit that is destroying the country. The gfilesindia revelations, especially its Southern, Karnataka Chapter spearheaded by Professor Harishchandra Bhat, is indeed shocking. I am told that an MLC heading a eight men group of the ruling Party, in a Bungalow near Race Course, regularly  distributes worth  more than a crore of rupees every month in packets  carried by twenty five  motorbike men every week  to the houses of media men in different part of the city, each packets may contain as high as Rs.700000 depending upon the stature of the Editors and Reporters  The link given below takes you to the expose: 

STATESCAN | Well-oiled breaking news gfilesindia.com

The beneficiary involve some of our best editors

 who write very prolifically, showing richness of their heart and head in their writing. It is indeed sickening to see such rotten beings in their inside taking such moral postures in public. Fence eating the crops has become a menacing malady in our country today. How can we ever believe in whatever such media people say from now on. Loss of Media credibility is the worst thing that can happen to  democracy in Independent India.

    

KURMA GOD: A TOY TO PLAY AROUND

My reflections on the movie kurmavatara directed by Girish Kasarahalli based on the story written by kum. vee. and produced by Basant Kumar Patil.

An Indian mythology has it that in a  fierce churning with the mountain in the sea by the gods and demons for the nectar, the earth started sinking and the tortoise ( kurma ) incarnation of Lord held the earth on its back so that churning could continue and eventually the Good got the nectar ( Bhagavata ). In the movie kurmavatara, a child gets a live tortoise from a shop as a toy to play with and in a crisis  where his dad leaves the house ( on an evil ground ), the child neglects the animal leaving it behind with no feed for it. In fact, there is hardly any real fight between the good and evil, it is  evil reigning all around. Even the slightest good noticed is soon traded upon for self gain and profit including Mahatma Gandhi. A situation all too familiar today.  Only once the tortoise raises its neck long and up ( not its proud and acclaimed back in support ) but of no avail. A brilliant story is made into a brilliant movie.

The movie has a veneer of mirth with a leaking pathos all through the film. See these two incidence as an example for this tragico-comedy: The Director of teleserial on Mahatma Gandhi wants the actor Gandhi to cry on hearing the suggestion to divide India for Pakistan, rather than putting a poker face as he does and to this the Director suggest that the actor should recollect his sorrow after the death of his wife. The actor's son whispers that he did not cry after the death of his wife and in fact there is no human emotions in him. In another instance, a popular actor in a commercial cinema is hired to play the role of Godse, Gandhi's assassin, to increase the TRP ratings for the Serial when a Muslim was chosen  for that role earlier  had to be abandoned owing to  threat by a militant group against the choice of the Muslim actor.

The actors chosen are mostly from the Television Serials and one from the commercial movie, the veteran Jayanthi. As such they are all typecast and the people are attuned to see typical gestures from them. Yet, it stands to the enormous credit of the Director Girish Kasaravalli to get a totally different and most appropriate performance from all of them. In particular, the acting of Gandhi, director of the teleserial , son, and the marvel of an actress Jayanthi as Kasturi Ba stand out with their brilliant acting. 


Kurmavatara is a serious movie, no song and dance or balancing with good and bad "as it is in reality you see" or as in commercial movie where a bad officer/police is invariably balanced with a good officer! Girish is uncompromising, not interested in mollifying and palliatives for their own sake, call spade a spade and be done with it as that is all to it in the life around now. It is a celluloid masterpiece, a cinematic marvel, pregnant with myriad layers of meaning parading in symphony.


I watched the movie fully engaged in the enjoyment of the juxtaposition of the sublime and ridicule so well etched  and yet, somewhere in the middle, a gnawing distress that lurked which gradually grown into a disturbing distress in the end that could  easily be misconstrued as a drag or bore which, I discovered soon is a plain self protection device! For, as I was returning after the movie, on the way, a sudden insight struck me that made me race through in memory all the moments of the movie, making the life of present day come alive in such brilliance. It has been my experience often that any great movie's impact is more after you return to life from the movie than while watching the movie!


It is a gem of a movie worth watching all the way. We encounter a Director in Girish Kasaravalli whose stature is that of Satyajit Ray. 

India's Crisis: Missing Alternatives

The Election results in the largest State of the Country, Uttar Pradesh, throws up issues that may be a harbinger of things to come in the future of our Country. Congress Party has been relegated to the last position, next only to Independents. Congress unlikely to win in any State in these days as long as Rahul, Sonia and the Dynasty rule is at the helm, they have been consistently either cornering or silencing or shunting out all merited and capable leaders in the Party as they would be a challenge to their hegemony. The voters have now dismantled BSP/Mayavati's long rule probably because of her over ambition, self aggrandizement style and neglect after coming to power of those section of people and issues that made her win election. On BJP there, less said the better as the people have seen it all the kind of mayhem they did when they were ruling. Mulayam Singh's SP, although their rule earlier was not that good and yet is chosen now perhaps hoping that a fairly long absence from the Rule there would have made the party learn some lesson and changed for the better. Yet  the Party's icon, its President, the suave and the sober Akhilesh Yadav, a good postgraduate in environmental engineering( B. E from JCE, Mysore and M.S. from University of Sydney, Australia ) would also be equally good in sociopolitical engineering for the good of the people at large remains to be seen as that Party too has fielded and won many goons in the Elections who would be waiting for their pound of flesh to fatten their(not the people's) belly. In any case, people had no options, and that is the issue here. The people of India has been showing in every General Election an extraordinary wisdom in throwing out the rulers who are not working for the good of people at large. Yet, their exercise of wisdom will be highly tested in the days to come what with every option/alternative available is worse than the other.

Friends/Students Greeting on the day of taking over charge as VC, BU in 2002!

EDUCATION FOR SELF DEVELOPMENT - ppt

®                  EDUCATION AND
SELF DEVELOPMENT

®                  Higher Education
(Tertiary / College / University Education)

Enrolment Ratio

USA	80.90%
Canada	87.30%
Australia	79.80%
Finland	74.10%
UK	52.30%
France	51.00%
Norway	62.00%
Belgium	56.30%
New Zealand	62.60%
China	15.00%
India	7.00%

®                  Higher Education

UNIVERSITIES / POPULATION

	Population (in Crores)	Universities
USA	27.60	2466 (631 PU, 1835 PrU, 1081 PJC, 621 PrJC)
Japan	12.70	726 (87 NU, 86 PU, 553 PrU)
Germany	8.20	350
UK	5.98	125
Indonesia	21.70	1770 (57 PU, 1200 PrU)
Philipines	7.90	1495 (377 PU, 1118 PrU)
China	130.60	2000
India	110.00	342 (18 CU, 211 SU, 95 DU, 13 UNI, 5 SLU)

ISSUES / PROBLEMS

•       Quality and relevance

•       Access and equity

•       Infrastructure and large number

•       Bureaucratic control (power without expertise)

•       Use of professional managers. We are in 50^th place out of 53 countries studied

•       45^th position in competitiveness (1^st is USA, 3^rd Taiwan, 4^th Singapore & 33^rd China)*

                 *Global Competitiveness Report, 2004

OUR STRENGTH

•       Rich heritage

•       Were world leaders in

•       Science and Technology: Aryabhatta, Brahmagupta, Bhaskara, Varahamira, Ramanujam, Raman, Bose. Counting: 10⁵³ (Greek 106, West to 10¹² tera)

•       Education: Nalanda, Takshashila

•       Health: Rural Health

•       Business: Trade

•       Best brains in the world

•       Best institutions of higher learning

•       We can do it

•       Get over colonial hang-ups: Chains and shackles (rules & regulations, procedures & precedents), bureaucracy.

EDUCATION AND SUCCESS IN LIFE (USA studies)

•       Reports of James Coleman (1966) and Daniel Moynihan (1965) on equality and achievement

•       Socioeconomic level is more related to achievement rather than education

•       Genes and IQ have relatively little effect on economic success

•       School quality have little effect on achievement or on economic success

•       Educational reform cannot bring economic or social equality

•       Blacks and whites with equal test scores have very unequal occupational statuses and income

•       Only political and economic changes bring greater equality (not through education)

•       Success depends on varieties of luck and on the job competence (more of personality than technical skills) that are moderately related to family background, schooling or scores on tests

®  TOTAL PERSON:

        Head (intellect)

        Heart (Mind)

        Hand (Body)

        Higher (Soul)

®  IMAGE OF GODDESS OF  LEARNING

®  IMPLICATIONS FOR EDUCATION

        Mono – Multi faculty universities

        Basic – Applied science

        Theory – Practical

        Holistic – Piecemeal

        Integrated - Divisive

        Pearls of Ancient Wisdom

Mundaka Upanishad

•       Saunaka asks Angiras: Through what being known does all this become known?

•       Reply: Dve vidye veditavye iti ha sma yad brahmavido vadanti, para caivapara ca (1.1.4)

•       Two kinds of knowledge are to be known, as indeed, the knowers of Brahman declare – The Higher (spiritual) as well as The Lower (material / science)

•       Tatrapara rg-vedo yajurvedah sama-vedo tharva-vedah siksa kalpo vyakaranam niruktam cando jyothisam-iti. Para yaya tad aksaram adhigamyate

•       Of these, the lower is the Rg veda, the Yajurveda, the Samaveda, the Athurveda. Phonetics, ritual, grammar,  etymology, metrics & astrology and the higher is that by which undecaying is apprehended.

®  Pearls of Ancient Wisdom            …continued

Isha Upanishad

•       Andham tamah pravishanti yo’vidyam upasate tato bhuya iva tamo ya u vidyayam ratah -9- 

•       Into blinding darkness enter those who worship science (aparavidya=avidya) only and those who delight in spirituality (paravidya) only enter into greater darkness

•       Anayd eva-ahuh vidyaya, anyad-ahuh avidyaya iti susruma dhiranam ye nas dad vicacaksire -10-

•       Spirituality has its own distinct purpose. Science also has its own, a different purpose. Thus we have heard from the brave explorers (of both realms) who explained all this to us.

•       Vidyam ca avidyam ca yah tad veda ubhayam saha avidyaya mrtyum tirtva, vidyaya-amritam-asnute -11-

•       One who masters both science and spirituality together, conquers death through science and tastes immortality through spirituality

•       Pearls of Ancient Wisdom            …continued

Bhagavad Gita

•       Bhumir apo nalo vayuh kham mano buddhir eva ca ahankara itiyam me bhinna praktitir astadha 7.4

•       Earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intelligence and ego – all together these eight constitute my separate material nature

•       Apareyam itas tu anyam prkrrtim viddhi me param jiva-bhutam maha-baho yayedam dharyate jagat 7.5

•       Besides these, O’ mighty armed, there is another higher (spiritual) nature of mine which holds the whole universe

•       Etad-yonini bhutani sarvan ity upadha raya aham krtsnasya jagatah prabhavah pralayas tatha 7.6

•       All created beings have their source in these two natures. Of all that is material and all that is spiritual in this world, know for certain I am both the origin and the dissolution

•       Mattah parataram nanyat kincid asti dhananjaya mayi sarvam idam protram sutre mani gana iva 7.7

•       There is no truth superior to me, O’ conqueror of wealth everything rests on me as pearls are strung on a thread

Rationale:

•       All beings have visible (apara) and invisible (para) nature

•       Invisible is subtler, stronger, all pervasive, rich and nurturing

•       Have access to invisible also before embarking on any activity

Be in tune with:

•       Yoga-sthah kuru karmani (B.g 2.48) – perform your action in the state of union

•       Yogah karmasu kausalam (B.g.2.50) – Yoga is skill in action

•       Yogah cittavritti nirodha (Y.s.1.2) – Yoga is silencing mental activities

•       Tada drashtuh svarupe avasthanam (Y.s.1.3) – Then the seer is established in his nature

Accessing the invisible part of reality:

•       Yoga: Yama, niyama, asana, pranayama, prathyahara, dharana, dhyana, samadhiyah, ashtavangani

•       Buddha-dhyana:

•       Kayanu paschana – Observe the body

•       Vedananu paschana – Observe the sensation

•       Chittanu paschana – Observe the mind

•       Dammanu paschana – Observe the Order

Model for living:

•       Fight (western) vs Flow (eastern)

•       Self gratification of needs vs serving others (paropakarah punyaya papaya parapedanam-Vyasa)

•       Always connected to the whole

•       Yovy bhooma tatsukham nalpe sukhamasti (Rg veda) – The large-hearted (big) is happy, not the petty

•       Unfoldment of all that one can become (creative) happens when one engages / mingle / related to the whole / other – family, organization, community, region, nation, world, universe…

•       Ayam nijah paro veti ganana laghu chetasam udaracharitanatu vasudhaiva kutumbakam (Hitopedesha) – Those who think ‘he is mine’ , ‘he is not’ are petty minded, those who are large-hearted regard the world as one family

®