On Ram Sethu

The atmosphere in the country is already heated up and this is in addition to the global warming phenomenon. The reason this time is more religious. An affidavit had been filed by the government in the court that the entire concept of Ram Sethu and Ram is just a fiction and a mental imagination and there is no grain of truth in the existence of a character known as Ram. Of course the govt. did it to make way for the speedy completion of Sethusamudram Project. But this is India! You cannot just fiddle with the religious sentiments of people and move ahead however nonsensical that may appear or sound. History is witness to this. The Mughal empire's fate was sealed with the imposition of Jajia tax by Aurangzeb. The British tasted the Indain "heat" in 1857, when they used fat of cow and pig to make bullets. So are we hearing the warning bells for this Govt.? Time will say...lets wait and watch !

IIM campus with all the bright intellects is also not free from this debate on Ram. Well I got badly rebuked by a faculty when I challenged the truth about Ram sethu. This actually made me research more and discuss more with one of my seniors. Can you imagine two youngsters debating on Ramayan at 2AM in the night? Well this may sound crazy but true! After all that, the desire in me was too much to resist and here I pen down my viewpoints on the entire issue.

Just see my title once more - Its On Ram Sethu. I am not taking any sides and my attempt here is to put down objectively of what I feel. I belong to no camps and if you belong to one...please quit reading this blog.

My question is simple and direct to all those who are crying hoarse for the Sethu. If there had been a Ram Sethu, why did it sink? Was Rama's power limited to that of Treta age? Please do not hoodwink people by saying it is leela of the Lord! Many of us are actually ignorant about the concept called God. Ninety percent of the believers have their first taste of God when their parents or relatives point at a cold decorated and adorned statue and say 'Look that is God...and this is the way you should worship!" Half of us do not even know whether we have some relationship with God and if there is, how to define that. And how many of us have really seen the Ram sethu in reality? None of us literally! It is better the VHP people start thinking and answering these questions than create a Hindu Al Qaida. My second question is simplest. Well assuming that the Ram Sethu really does exist, so what difference does it make to an average Indian? Just what difference does it makes to Surya or for that matter anyone?The VHP people are well fed and have good political connections that look after their needs - biological and commercial. But the average Hindu who sleeps in the street, how does a mythological half-submerged stone bridge affect Him? With a spirit crushed by hunger and pain, he or she will never be able to appreciate life, leave alone religion and history of India. And to the people of India, why are we behaving as psychos? Why can't we be logical in our approach? We go around spreading violence in the name of Ram, burning buses and trucks, attacking households, well if this is what Rambhakti is, I reject Ram and his ideology. It is better to be an athiest than a hot headed irrational fanatic with a fixed mindset and a blind obsession.

My last question is why do we always think God as separate being? Read the original Ramayan and the Bhagwad Puran properly. God is NOT a fanciful being with additional hands and heads and with superhuman powers. God is always an ideal human being, the perfection which every man has the ability and the right to achieve. God always wanted to be human, why are we making Him superhuman nay supernatural and creating a barrier? God always wanted to be with us, why are we trying to put Him on a pedestal and create a wall? Why do we always have to attribute God's actions as something which has to be against natural laws? Realize that the defect lies in us. We are lazy people when it comes to becoming good and working on our wrong habits. We want to be treated and respected as God, yet we do not want too become one for it is too tough! And to hide this inferiority we have created the distinction between God and Man and made fanciful stories that differentiated well both the beings all the time fooling ourselves saying, "Well He is God, all this is possible for Him for He has powers..how can a mere being like me do this?". When will we stop thinking all this? We are Gods..each one of us, realize that!

Rama represented a being with flawless character. Rama vigrahobhan dharmaha- That is the entire summary of Ramayana. The purpose is to learn the basis of being good and not to argue whether He made stones float or not. All the incidents in Ramayana are symbolic and it just represent one single truth - a flawless character can achieve anything. It can tame monkeys, the creature having the most fickle of minds, it can make friends with enemies like Vibhishana and at the same time it can win hearts of the simplest of beings like the boatman. So the take away from the Ramayan is how to be good and become flawless in this flawed world of temptations. For that matter it is the take away of both the epics. The truth about their existence does not change the basic truth that "A good and flawless character is actual Power".

Lastly I want to give my viewpoints on the Ram sethu. It is true but am not sure whether the Adam's Bridge is Ram Sethu. I do not even think it is. It is one lakh years old according to C-60 testing. But it never existed the irrational way we percieve it to exist (floating stone theory I mean !). Read the Ramayana again. The monkeys carried hills to build the bridge. They dumped the mountains into the ocean. Of course hills will not sink completely! And Ram with his monkey brigade walked on top of the hills to reach Lanka. Over years, the oceanic erosion has reduced the hills and hence you can explain the relative shallowness of the region around Dhanushkoti. The occean is only 3 ft to 30 ft deep. Here I have one more question to the fanatics. How can you explain a mass of stone floating together on a turbulent ocean and all these people oing on top of that to reach Lanka? Even if the stones are sticking together, they will never ever be stable. And even if you say the bridge dismantled after the work for the "Lord" is over, somewhere people would have found a floating piece of stone! Moreover why did not Ram fly to Lanka if He is God? Why would God want his wife to suffer more? When did he become so cruel and unscientific? What answer can you give me?

Sprituality is the greatest of science, the science of self-discovery. Lets not make it a philosophical and fanatical mess. Lets take things for what they are made for and not create hooligans out of them creating havoc. Rama was the greatest of patriots - he returned to India even after winning Lanka - a golden country that time. Lets learn these subtle concepts. But here we go on a rampage making the lives of common folks insecure. We stop a project that will get plenty of revenues making India command the Indian Ocean sea route Which God will be happy?

Lets think...is such Rambhakti worth practicing? Does such a God has any positive relevance?

The Thermodynamics of Human Bond !

It was another such fine day and I was suffering from "chemistry-sickness" just like "home-sickness". I am still not sure whether to describe the feeling as "chemistry sicknes" or "sickness of management". Suddenly this idea hit upon my head whether Thermodynamics can really help us in understanding "Bonding" between human beings as in chemical molecules. A structured analysis, if at all, will go a long way in re framing our lives for a healthy relationship.

Free Energy

A + B-------> AB

Well the above are two persons A and B who come together and bond with themselves just like two atoms come together to form a molecule.For starters, plz be informed that in thermodynamics there is a comcept called Free Energy denoted by G. Higher the free energy of an atom, the more restless it is. So it tends to form a bond and stabilize itself. Similarly if a molecule is having high free energy, either it makes a bond with another atom, or breaks apart. So is the human relationship. If we have lot of accumulated energy within us, we do two things------ hook ourself up with someone and try to get the energy out by showering our emotions on the person, or break away from an existing relationship, to beat the stress. Make or break !

Activation Energy

Secondly there is a concept called activation energy. A molecule just does not form with two atoms coming together. They have to be excited to an energy level, i.e. raise the free energy so that they can react or bond. So is the human being. One has to be soft and sensitive for once energy level to be raised. One has to feel for people and here the concept of good parenting comes. Cold human beings, like cold atoms are given special treatment by circumstances to break their coldness and increse their energy. Too much stability is bad for it makes a dynamic process a static waste. For that reason Swami has said, "Open your heart to me, or I will break it open"! Now that is his way of asking us to raise our activation energy!

Here again there is a catch.

Time taken to make a bond = Time taken to break a bond ! [Newton's 3rd law modified !]. So if you take more time to make a bond, lest be assured it is going to be stable one. Hence love marraiges are supposed to be stable. [at least theoritically]People tend to know each other over time, understand likes and dislikes before bonding for life.

Entropy

But love marraiges are more fanciful in outside appearance. Statistically they give a gloomy picture. You may ask what variable am I using to define success or faluire of love marraige. I am using only one---divorce. Statistically 45% of love marraiges in India are going for a divorce. Less than 50% you may say..but very bad for a country like India with its values and traditions. New Delhi is leading the pack [TOI]. And the growth rate is alarmingly rising at 10% per annum. Well we wont go into that..we will talk of only the thermodynamics part of it. Why do love marraiges break or in general why do friendships break?The answer lies in Entropy.

What is that now? It is the measure of disorderliness in a system. In lay mans language, systems always tends to go for disorderliness. In a way better, for disorder thinking leads to serendipitous inventions and discoveries . When we enter into relationships, we tend to become a bit structured in our approach. We tend to skip doing a number of things, for we do not want to hurt our friend or partner. Lot of such sacrifices, go against the law of entropy. it reduces our freedom and so our disorderliness. Stress builds up and one fine day we break all these showing our disorderly behaviour at its premium ! Something called volcano effect. So what is the solution? "Be yourself"--thats all. if the other person loves you or likes you, he or she must accept you as you are.Even spirituality advocates freedom ! In spirituality the degree of freedom is highest, no boundaries and no bonds. You are disorderly at your premium. So you dont care for body, nor your existence. That is true renunciation..to be disorder at the highest level !

Enthalpy

Discusssion wont be complete without talking on Enthalpy or heat released by the system. For getting something, you need to sacrifice something, right? Enthalpy is the heat realeased by the system when two atoms bond. When two human beings come together, some heat has to be released by warmth, love and mutual affection and care for each other. Or else the relationlishp wont last.

So to sum up

1- For friendship you require free energy and not a cold person.

2- Free energy is influenced by activation energy.

3- Activation energy is dependant on childhood. Parents plz make your child sensitive. But dont over do it, for then he reacts to everything and a reactive compound is dangerous. Apart from losing its identity it harms others.

4- Get into a relationship but dont become a lot structured. Dont let your freedom be affected.

5- Show some genuine love for your partner. Strike a perfect trade-off between entropy and enthalpy

Who said Science and Spirituality are poles apart..Rather Science is a way to understand the Spirit behind the process and things ! Wishing all a happy relationship......!!

Is Atom God?

Well I was feeling bored cramming up for the Strategic Management Exam and then out of the blue this thought strikes me. Is Atom God? All that we read and hear about God, have we already discovered Him and not able to recognize? Is He always there with us and we are taking Him for granted? By the way is God 'Him', 'Her' or 'It'? I decided to throw the books away for sometime and put my thought in a logical manner.

What is God?
Proceeding in a scientific manner, I thought of doing a little literature review about how God has been defined and what are His attributes. I crashed into number of attributes and some pretty unique ones. Many mentioned about the 16 attributes like "Sri Krsna" of ISKON. So to keep the discussion homogeneous and relevant across literature, I decided to take only common attributes. the following attributes on God has been found common and agreed to by all the authors:
1 - Omniscience - God knows all
2 - Omnipotence - God can do anything and everything

3 - Omniprescence - God is everywhere
4 - Divine simplicity - God is simple and requires nothing for He is full by Himself, perfection personified
5 - Eternal and necessary existence - He is everywhere yet he can manifest at a particular place depending on the requirement
I also considered the definition given by Bhagwan Sri Sathya Sai Baba:

GOD means "Generation, Organization and Destruction"

What is Atom?
Having described God's attributes from literature and Baba's point of view, I decided to examine the modern atomic theory to have a basic conceptualization of what an atom is and what it consists of.

Well it was a fascinating journey to read up on the evolution of the concept of atom. As usual I fell in love with the most wonderful asset of human beings - mind. Anyway the only point worth mentioning here I feel is that the earliest known theory on atom was Indian in origin. It dates back to 6th century BC and was developed by Kanada, a Hindu philosopher. It left me wondering that what a great land we are and we were, yet all Nobel prizes go to the white-skinned people ! The Indian mind, when will it get its due?

Anyways the other thing that I think worth mentioning here is the universal concept that atom consists of proton, neutron and electrons, a pretty simple structure compared to the complexities we deal with daily. And the recent development of quantum mechanics that says that atom is somewhat in between a wave and a particle. Its both...sounds weird I know, but then it has theoritcal and experimental support. For the layman its enough to know that atom can behave both as a wave and particle depending on conditions.

Is Atom God?
What I intended to do is to compare atom and see whether it explains the attributes that are used to define God. So I take it up atrribute by attribute.

God is omniscience i.e. He knows all. It logically implies that He has a database and a programming system that stores the past data and depending on the situtaions he manipulates the data and plans the reaction which we term "future" and this is again stored. Well atom too is omniscience. Remember DNA? Well all of the DNA consists primarily of carbon and hydrogen atoms. The nucliec acids too gives it a nitrogen. But then overall it is same. Yet, a person can be uniquely identified by his DNA. All our fingerprinting, sex test depend on DNA. Even a DNA bank is going to be opened up in Lucknow shortly. This logically means that DNA has all the information about the person. This also means that this unique information should be reflected in the way the molecule is formed by the atoms. So this means that all these carbon, nitrogen and hydrogen atoms have been programmed to combine in a unique way to give that uniqueness to the molecule and hence to the person. So just by studying the DNA we can predict a person's behavior and tendencies more or less. For that matter any substance can be explained by knowing its atomic structure. That is the purpose of the periodic table ! It has segregated the atoms and grouped them into Alkali metals, Alkaline earth metals, Transition compounds etc. for predicting the properties. Well atom is omniscience

God is omnipotent i.e. He can do anything and everything. When I say anything and everything three types of activities of God comes to my mind, given by Bhagwan Sri Sathya Sai Baba - Generation, Organization and Destruction. Can atoms generate? Well yes ! That is the entire physical and biological science about. Atoms combine and form molecules and aggregation of molecules gives us visible matter. Have you seen earthworms reproduce asexually? Or by the way a lizard growing its tail when it gets cut off? Well such things are not possible if atoms cannot multiply and generate their own clones. Can they organize? Well yes again ! That is the entire funda of isomers ! They have the same atoms and they are the same molecules, well the only difference is that arrangement of atoms in two isomers are different, resulting in many different type of properties. Glucose - D is different from Glucose -L. All these colours we see in the external world are due to specific organization of atoms at the micro level. And lastly atoms can destroy too ! That is the entire concept of Einstein's theory of relativity. Matter can transform to energy. All the radioactive decay that we see around is basically atoms destrying themselves.

God is omnipresent that is He is everywhere. Atoms too are. All matter visible and invisible are made up funadamental particles called atoms. It is found even in the boiling sun and at the coldness of Pluto. So atoms are spread everywhere.

God is divinely simple i.e. He is full by himself. Atoms too are for all of them consists of same proton, neutron and electron. Only the number of electron differs and this is necessary to give it various unique attributes. This can again be compared with the numerous powers God is said to manifest.

Last but not the least, like God, atom is eternal but can manifest itself depending on the need and time. This is verily explained by quantum physics; which says that atom can both be a wave and particle. Numerous experiments have proved it.

So is Atom God? I think so after all these reasonings.

Possible Flaws
Like all good scientists, I calmed down after the initial euphoria and began to think the possible flaws of my reasoning. We basically do to save our skin from any arguments. To my dismay I found too many flaws in my reasoning. I have noted down here a few important and not so obvious once.

1- Throughout my reasoning I used "molecules" to defend my arguments and not 'atoms' per se. It is more of an implicit assumption that the differences in the molecular level will be reflected in the atomic level. Well sometimes it is true, sometimes it is false. Even the molecular theory says that the properties of the molecules may be fundamentally unique from that of the atoms it is made of.

2 - There are so many atoms. The periodic table has 118 elements. But God is one right ? So are there are 118 Gods? well the only way I thought of countering this is that we have so many Gods like Krishna, Rama, Vinayaka and so on, each representing a different functionality of the same power. So all these atoms are representative of different functionality. But here again numerous questions come. They are representating "whose" functionality? So is there still a common source? From where do the electrons and protons come? What makes them join a nucleus in a particular number and is there a common sink for the electrons, protons and neutrons?

3 - Regarding the omnipresence of atoms, well how can we be sure of that we are encountering the same atom and not the similar one. Logically speaking the probabilty is very low.

4 - Particles smaller than the atom has been found. Quarks are supposed to be building blocks of atoms. but then this counters that God is creato and not the created ! So is quark God? Then this entire reasoning is flawed.

5 - I said that atoms are found wherever we have visible and invisible matter. But then what about space? There no matter is present? So is that place "godless"? Is God's omniprescence challenged there?

Social Implications
Flawed or not, my theory has lot of social implications. For the first time I can prove God is one ! Through electron microscope one can observe atoms and find that basically they are same types having the three basic components. There is nothing like a Ram atom or Rahim atom. So nothing will be left to imagination and debate whether they are same. People can see and feel God as something tangible. Its work and beauty can be appreciated. And respect for it too develops. with respect, a sense of fear comes and hence the powers of the atom can be utilised and not misused. So laws become simpler with CTBT, and NPT coming to an end. And most importantly religion becomes practical giving no scope for hooligans to play with innocent emotions in name of God ! Fatherhood of God and brotherhood of man will become the order of the day and not something to be delivered from a podium. And in reality we can start the day with god, spend the day with god and end the day with god.

So what say, is atom God?