I know I’ve been silent for a while–I’ve been working on 2 projects: www.zleek.com and www.planr.org. We’re still fine-tuning both sites, but do take a look when you get a chance. Planr will probably not look too good on IE6…

Mala at an Open Mic Night…

According to Baba, mind is a bundle of desires, and desire is a bundle of thoughts. He uses the analogy of a cotton cloth. A cloth is made up of strands of thread, and each thread is made up of fibers of cotton. So a cloth is essentially cotton. When you remove the threads one by one, eventually, the cloth disappears.

That’s why Baba talks often about putting a ceiling on desires. As a programmer, I like to view desire as an “abstraction of thoughts.” In computer science, the concept of abstraction means putting together a bunch of individual instructions that together perform a meaningful function. So, for example, the function GetMoney might look like this:

GetMoney(amount)
{
- Enter ATM card
- Enter pin
- Enter amount
- Push confirm button
Return requested "amount" of Money
}

So you can see how, when we want to get money, we don’t really think of it in terms of the individual instructions within the function GetMoney. The function GetMoney encapsulates all the required instructions, and more importantly abstracts the function of getting the money, i.e., hides the individual details of how to get the money. If we “call” the function GetMoney, automatically, all the individual instructions within the function GetMoney get executed too. Ok, now that I’ve summarized CSE 101 for you in two sentences, see if you can understand these two functions:

GetMind()
{
string of desires =
- desire of owning a Ferrari
- desire of being a multi-millionaire
- desire of having a healthy, long life
- desire of being famous
- many more desires...
Return string of desires
}

GetDesire(Ferrari)
{
string of thoughts =
- thought of show off
- thought of speed
- thought of best car in town
- thought of cool image
- thought of luxury
- thought of power
- thought of center of attention
Return string of thoughts
}

Hope that made some sense to you! The important thing to note is that our mind is made up so many desires, and each desire is made up of numerous thoughts. A lot of these thoughts are in fact the reason behind our misery. In a later blog post, we’ll explore why obsessive thinking is a disease and why most eastern religions advocate the elimination of thoughts, but for now, the important thing to see is that, when you remove one desire, you end up removing multiple thoughts at once. It’s really tough to work at the level of thoughts, but working at the level of desires is definitely possible, and I believe that that’s why Baba stresses so much on the Ceiling on Desires program. In fact Baba abstracts it even further for us by saying that there are only four major categories of desire: energy, time, food, and money.

The object of the program is to prevent waste of money, time, food or other resources and to use all these for the welfare of the people. The money that is saved need not be kept for the Sathya Sai organizations. It may be used in the best way you choose for the benefit of others. Do not waste time. Time wasted is life wasted. Time is God. Sanctify all the time at your disposal by undertaking service activities in a pure and unselfish spirit. – Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba

This is a follow up post to the one below. If you didn’t get a chance to watch the BBC documentary on “The Illusion of Reality,” I recommend it. The video clearly shows that science’s attempt in trying to find the truth about the inner workings of our universe is successful, but short lived. Every discovery that was made was shown as insignificant with deeper discoveries. When the world thought that atoms were the most fundamental building blocks of nature, someone discovered quarks, which are the building blocks of atoms. When the world thought that tangible things were made of matter and non-tangible things like light were made of waves, someone discovered that light displayed both wave-like as well as matter-like properties. When the world thought that atoms give the world its physical structure, someone proved that the atom is mostly empty space, and more bizarre that that, someone later showed that empty space is not really empty. And the most interesting of all discoveries is the measurement paradox–an atom exists only if it is observed (!), which means that this world may not exist at all; or conversely, that multiple universes may exist in parallel. My point is that science is still on a journey not complete, and could use some help from spirituality.

Why are scientists trying to reinvent the wheel? The narrator of the BBC documentary mentions that some of these discoveries were made for the very first time in the 20th century. That is incorrect. More than thousands of years ago, extremely similar ideas were laid down by the Rishis in India. Consider for example, the Mahavakyas (great truths) from the Upanishads:

1. Prajnanam Brahma – “Consciousness is Brahman (God)”
2. Ayam Atma Brahma – “Atman (Self) is Brahman”
3. Tat Tvam Asi – “Thou art That”
4. Aham Brahmasmi – “I am Brahman”

Essentially, these four statements answer the question “who are we?” Scientifically, we are all atoms essentially, right? At the outer level, we are skin and bones. But investigate further, and we will find cells…atoms…protons, electron and neutrons…and finally, quarks. So fundamentally, we are all a bunch of quarks, aren’t we? Now, science has not seen anything beyond quarks, but does that mean that quarks are final? History has clearly shown otherwise. There is so much power contained even in the tiny nucleus of an atom…enough to wipe out Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Perhaps, if we were to go beyond quarks, we might find something that contains infinite power and intelligence. I think that that’s what our Rishi’s were trying to get at–that the most fundamental unit is consciousness itself, from which everything else is made up of. If scientists think that fundamentally, “I am Atom,” “I am Brahman” is just an extension of that, a level that is deeper than the atom.

Let’s think of it in more simplistic terms. If we go back in time to the beginning of creation, according to scientists, what existed initially was only a single proton–hydrogen. As hydrogen particles combined with other hydrogen particles, more sophisticated elements came into being–such a helium, and then eventually, all the elements that we know of today. So, from the scientific perspective, hydrogen was the raw ingredient from which everything in this world is essentially made up of. Everything really IS hydrogen in various forms–we’ve just give these other forms different names.

In the spiritual world, what existed initially was “God,” who created everything. Now go back in time to the beginning of creation, when only God existed. What materials did He use to start creating this world? He was the only One there. Naturally, the only ingredient that He could have used is Himself! Everything that exists today is essentially God in various forms and we humans have obviously given these various forms different names, but the fundamental unit of everything has to be God, right? Hence, the phrase, “God made us in his own image.”

So, that’s why I’m God, and you’re God, and everything is God. Quite omnipresent!

Bhagawan Baba has said that Love is the most fundamental element in the universe, from which everything is made. That’s food for your thought…

In sanskrit, the term “Maya” means illusion. Vedic literature recognizes that this world is not as “real” as it appears to be. Solid matter is not as solid as you see it. Does this have any scientific backing? Yes, indeed. It’s basic physics. Most people, I think, simply overlook the obvious.

Everything we see and feel is made up of atoms, the basic building blocks of matter. What’s an atom made up of? Electrons, protons, and neutrons, but here’s the interesting part. 99.99% of an atom is empty space. So how come everything feels so solid? How come when we sit on a chair, we don’t just fall off–if it is 99.99% empty space? It is because when two objects come together, their electrical charges (electrons) repel each other. So when we sit on a chair, in fact we are not sitting on it–we are hovering above it, but feel as though we are sitting because of the force caused by the repulsion.

Here’s a wonderful BBC documentary called “The Illusion of Reality” that will take you more in depth into these strange ideas. Learn about the mysteries of the atom, and find out if empty space is really empty…

A must-see video about life for all those living from someone in his last days of life.

I had a funny and interesting dream yesterday. I was performing acrobatics on top of a table, with one finger as the pivot. I was spinning around fast and free around my hand, and finger, occasionally changing hands and changing directions. Even though it was in my subconscious, it felt like I was doing this consciously. I felt very exhilarated and free–free from fear mainly, which is why I was able to perform those acrobatics quite easily. I kept spinning without tiring myself out or falling. I thought to myself (in the dream), that I could actually do this in real life too, only that in real life, my fear would stop me from trying. Indeed, I’ve been in many situations where I knew I could do something quite instinctively, but didn’t take the first step due to fear. One example is at the ice skating rink. When I’m at the rink, I can actually feel myself skating like a professional–if only I could let go of the fear of falling.

After finishing the acrobatics, I started flying around. Not too sure where I stand with that in real life.

I had earlier blogged about The China Study, a book that I am reading, about the role of nutrition in the cause and cure for cancer.  The New York Times recognized The China Study as the “most comprehensive large study ever undertaken of the relationship between diet and the risk of developing disease.” In the 4o year study, it became evident to the researchers that nutrition had the highest role in either promoting cancer or reversing it. Many scientists today are trying to isolate chemicals that might be cancer causing, but they are overlooking the part that nutrition is playing in this game. The China Study gives an analogy of a lawn for how cancer works–initially, the seeds are sown. When they are watered, the seeds sprout and grow. If not taken care of, they grow uncontrollably, spread and become a nuisance. Similary, in our daily lives, we consume knowingly or unknowingly cancer initiating chemicals–and the seeds are sown (the initiation stage). If you then provide the right conditions for the seeds to sprout, the water so to speak, the cancer starts to grow (the promotion stage). The third and final stage is when the cancer starts to spread uncontrollably (metastasis).

The China Study shows that protein from animal sources, including all kinds of meat as well as dairy products such as milk, is one of the highest known promoters of cancer; and that carbohydrates from plant sources (whole foods, not the processed, white ones!) reverses the process of cancer, at any given stage. I know you are thinking “carbs??”. Well, that’s actually the central theme of the book–that a low protein and high carb diet is best for you–admittedly, contrary to popular belief. The book also criticizes the use of nutritional supplements such as vitamin pills, etc. It is not the vitamin in itself that is good for you, but the whole food in which the vitamin is contained which is good.

Why is low protein/high carb diet best for you? Why are proteins not as good as we have been told they are? Why are whole foods from plant sources the best cancer reversers? Where’s the evidence? Look out for my next blog post on The China Study…or get a copy for yourself and read it! But next time you reach out for your protein bar to get your energy boost, or sit down to enjoy your omelette and tall glass of milk for breakfast, think twice…

When I learned about the Big Bang theory in high school Physics class, what struck me was its likeness to the Hindu cosmology–namely, the cyclical nature of the universe and the time scales for the earth and the universe. As a high school kid, I never imagined that anybody else would have made the same observation, but I was humbled to find out that the Pulitzer-prize winning astronomer, Carl Sagan, indeed did:

“The main reason that we oriented this episode of Cosmos towards India is because of that wonderful aspect of Hindu cosmology which first of all gives a time-scale for the Earth and the universe — a time-scale which is consonant with that of modern scientific cosmology. We know that the Earth is about 4.6 billion years old, and the cosmos, or at least its present incarnation, is something like 10 or 20 billion years old. The Hindu tradition has a day and night of Brahma in this range, somewhere in the region of 8.4 billion years.”

“As far as I know. It is the only ancient religious tradition on the Earth which talks about the right time-scale. We want to get across the concept of the right time-scale, and to show that it is not unnatural. In the West, people have the sense that what is natural is for the universe to be a few thousand years old, and that billions is indwelling, and no one can understand it. The Hindu concept is very clear. Here is a great world culture which has always talked about billions of years.”

“Finally, the many billion year time-scale of Hindu cosmology is not the entire history of the universe, but just the day and night of Brahma, and there is the idea of an infinite cycle of births and deaths and an infinite number of universes, each with its own gods.”

In case you are not sure what the Big Bang theory is, here’s a brief description. Using a concept called the Doppler effect, scientists have verified that the universe is expanding, that all stellar objects in our universe are moving away from each other. So, by inference, the universe was smaller yesterday than it is today, and smaller the day before yesterday than it was yesterday. There must have been a time when the universe was smaller than an atom, in fact infinitesimally small–but infinitely dense as it contained in it, everything that exists in our universe today (think about it–where else could the mass have been?). This universe couldn’t contain itself, due to this enormous density, and exploded with a “Big Bang” and gradually formed into the universe we see today. By calculating the rate at which the universe is expanding, and extrapolating back in time, scientists have predicted that the Big Bang happened approximately 15 billion years ago.

Why is the universe expanding? With the effect of gravity, which attracts objects together, the universe should actually be shrinking. Why, then, are stellar objects moving away from each other? The reason is that the force from the Big Bang was so huge, that it still has momentum, and overrides the force of gravity. When this force eventually fades away, gravity would prevail, and according to the Big Crunch theory, the world would go back the way it came. Alas, gravity would collapse the entire universe into an infinitesimally small and infinitely dense object once again, exactly as it was when it started. What do you think might happen then? Another Big Bang? Why not? If it happened once, why not again? Some scientists believe that the universe has indeed existed forever in an endless cycle of Big Bangs and Big Crunches, commonly known as an oscillating universe.

The Hinduism model contains multiple levels of cycles. The most fundamental cycle is called a maha yuga (a series of 4 yugas–krita, thretha, dwapar, and kali) . Here are some figures:

1 Maha Yuga = 4 Yugas = 4.32 million human years
1 Kalpa = 1000 Maha Yugas = 4.32 billion human years
1 Brahma day & 1 Brahma night = 2 kalpas = 8.64 billion human years
1 Brahma year = 360 Brahma days + 360 Brahma nights
Brahma’s lifespan = 100 Brahma years = 311.04 trillion human years

Here are the scientific figures:

Age of the Earth = 4.54 billion years
Age of the Universe = 13.7 billion years

It is tough to say exactly where the parallels are, but the above figures hopefully point out interesting similarities between Hindu cosmology and scientific cosmology.