User:Prabhakar P Rao
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User : Prabhakar P Rao,
I propose to put up on this page occasional thoughts open for interested viewers. Comments, feed backs or queries are welcome on: ‘Talk page: Prabhakar P Rao’.
[edit] VAGDEVATHA - Venerations to SPEECH : A Vedic Deity
Preceptor: Vamadeva and Addressed to Vagdhevatha, ie. Speech:
1. “Chathwaari Vaakparimithaa Padhaani thaani vidhurbrahmanaah yee maniishinah | guhaa thriini nihithaa neengyanthi thuriiyam vaachoo manushyaa vadhanthi | Rg Veda: 1 :164 : 45 ||”
This translates as follows: Knowledgeable persons, Pandits opine that speech or sentences, composed of words, span over four dimensions, or stages in human mind. Three of them are hidden deep within and humans vocalize only the fourth stage.
In his well known text, Vaakyapadhiiyam, Bharthr Hari termed these four stages functionally as: Parawak, the concepts composed of condensed bits of thoughts, memes, deep in the human mind, Pashynthii, the serialized verbal format in the brain along with apt stresses and emotions, Madhyamawak, the propagational form (compression - rarefaction waves) in air, physically joining a speaker and his listener(s) and Vaikhari Nada, the perceptional (by the listener) forms.
2, Chathwaari Shringaa Thrayoo Asya Paadaa Dhwee Shiirshee Saptha Hasthaasoo Asya | Thridhaa Badhdhoo Vrishabhoo Rooraviithi Mahoo Devoo Marthyaan Aaviveesha || Vama Deva : Rg Veda : 4:58:3 ||
Meaning: Riding on a Four Horned and Three Footed Bull with Two Heads and Seven Hands And Reined Thrice, that is Braying Aloud, the Almighty One Marches on and on Leading Us all along with Him.
Interpretation: "Mahoo Devoo" The Concepts emanating from depths of human Mind, "Vrishabhoo Rooraviithi" take the form of (ride on a bull) Speech and "Marthyaan Aaviveesha", propagate (as compression and rarefaction waves) in Atmospheric Air. This speech is composed of sentences with four stages of development (‘chathwaari shringaa’ as explained above) that are expressed in three tenses (past, present and future). These sentences are composed of words that have two distinct forms of existence (vocal form, the word and perceptional form, the meaning). These words are recognized mainly as nouns that take on seven cases (depending on modes of their participation in objective world acts) and verbs that take on three forms (depending on person they are attached to, viz., first, second or third).
It is commendable that with only forty two letters, the main structural features of all languages as also their propagation method have been metaphorically epitomized – it appears, the precetptors banked more on vocal media to carry the messages across Time.
The delineation of sentential evolution into four stages as described above appears to be more generic: eg, modern Management Sciences consider the life history of any project over four stages, viz, Conceptualization to start with, Design and Validation, Organization and Implementation by all within and finally, Marketing, the effects on and reactions by the General Populace and all without, only amongst whom the project can sustain and flourish. The parallelism between the two delineation criteria is evident.
Moreover, it is believed that all Vedic knowledge, Veda formed a single group in the beginning and Sage Veda Vyaasa, author of Maha Bharath, divided it into four divisions, viz, Rg, Yajur, Saama and Atharva Vedas based on the above criteria. The Vedas, all together, are supposed to discuss the “raison-d’e-tre”, the ‘purpose-to-be’ for all human life in general. Incidentally, vyaasa, literally means, diameter of a circle that divides it into two, a divisor or a devisor.
[edit] What is Knowledge?
According to ancient Indian thoughts, knowledge, Jnaana, has no isolated existence. First, there has to be a person who wants to know, Jnaathr; then something, that is worth known, Jneeya, has to capture his mind. Next, jnaathr has to research, arjana it or someone has to teach, prajnaana it to him. The resulting representation of jneeya that is worth known, within jnaathr, one who wished to know, is jnaana, the knowledge. Representation of a problem-solution in a human-mind is knowledge.
[edit] First Language Acquisition by Toddlers
ABSTRACT: Language is devised by humans to represent objects, facts and events etc symbolically in words to significantly enhance interpersonal information exchange, analysis, storage and retrieval etc. In general, various features of objects, etc (including verbal names assigned to them) are cognized in various explicit regions of our brains; guided by our mentors in our toddler years, numerous connectionist networks develop in our nascent associational cortex, conjoining the correlated features that enable us to recognize the objects. Soon, we advance to cognize motion and thereby events and associated verbs that involve one or more participants whose status may change as a result of the motion. In course we learn to develop sentences to represent events: (static events are descriptions). When multiple participants act out an event, we find it hard to distinctly identify the role of each actor in our sentences; our mentors initiate us into use of ‘cases’ under such cases. Once, familiar with reasonably numerous verbs and associated actions leading to specific status shifts of objects, we find it easier to recognize objects in terms of their roles in different actions rather than in terms of their features, ie, we recognize objects in terms of their utility ===
We do not know what form of speech was used by the early Hominid Neanderthal, with a shallow forehead about 60 thousand years ago [1], if at all. But, his contemporary, the Homo Sapien, our ancestor, somehow got on to a fast track of linguistic development that got him a raised forehead accommodating a novel, hemispheric cerebral cortex. Of course, this cortex was not all used for only language skills; Language enabled him to interact closely with his fellow beings and to fine-tune his mental faculties via moderations applied to his limbic system driven emotional attitudes, to develop himself to be a cerebral cortex mediated rational species. Language is a facility evolved in human brain-minds that represents natural objects, events and facts symbolically via quantization of information in words and thereby it enables easy and reasonably accurate communication amongst fellow beings. So, any study of science of Language, Linguistics, needs to be holistically pursued within the frameworks of features of brain-minds; nature of objects and procedures of events. A few concepts are abstracted here on the neural representation of words, nouns and verbs, and their meanings in our brains as also on perception and comprehension of sentences in our minds.
Reference: 1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origin_of_language
[edit] Connectionist Model for representation of Nouns and their Meanings
The human brain is composed of about 100 billion neurons mainly in four functional organs: the spinal cord and forebrain that keep us alive, the limbic system that forms our emotional survival kit, the cerebellum that supervises our balancing systems and the cerebral cortex that rationalizes us. Our linguistic skills, centered in the cortex are only well documented [1, 2]. Babies at birth are endowed with a vocal cord in their throats and fine hair cells within their cochleae. Guided by abundant parental or other speech phonemes s in the environment over their early months, they firm-up the prolific cortical neuron-axonal connectivity by instinct and tune the vocal cords s and auditory hair cells to accommodate the speech phonemes [1, 2]. By about six months, their sight-related occipital cortex on the rear and sound-related auditory cortex at left mid-posterior brain will have been well delineated. When they watch a teddy bear, for instance, the related optic signals incident on retinas, are transduced into neuro-electric pulse trains and relayed to a micro-neuron pool in the occipital cortex to excite a persistent image there. Similarly, when they hear a word, ‘teddy’, a corresponding image is excited at certain micro-neuron pool in the auditory cortex. Once, well trained to obtain focused images at respective regions, their nascent brains, with proliferation of axons, proceed on hunt for further order in nature [1,4]. Next, when an affectionate mentor holds a teddy bear in front of a baby and repeatedly pronounces the word, ‘teddy’, the contiguity of images at occipital and auditory regions prompts his instinct to recognize a problem in his associational cortex and a neuro-axonal connectionist circuit gets pruned in conjoining the two regions. The baby gets exhilarated and trims down the conjoining path to optimize it, and proceeds further, on hunt for such pairs, clusters of loose information packets [1,3]. Soon, for a piece of cake, he would develop a connectionist circuit in his association cortex conjoining the images of its form, size, color, taste, smell, etc. in respective cortical regions. The circuit is connectionist[8], in the sense that, it conjoins all images, viz., the image of the word ‘cake’ in his auditory region, the image of its likely shapes and colors in his occipital region, the images of its smell, taste in their respective regions, etc. Subsequently for signals of any one image, say, for the word, ‘cake’, all other data are excited via the conjoining circuit and that serves as a meaning; similarly, for its specific taste, the sum total of all other data serves as a meaning and so on. Now on, the moment a cake is shown to him, he recollects its taste and smell etc., and vice-versa, ie, he now perceives the meaning of the shape or the word, cake. It is inadvisable at this stage to speculate on physiology and complexity of the ‘conjoining circuits’; however in view of our understanding of the zonal delineations in our cortex for various sensory, motor and other activities, as also of the relatively large size and disposition of ‘associational cortical region’ [2], we are reasonably confident of the gross physical structure for the conjoining circuits [6,7]. It is further interesting to note that the pyramidal neurons that populate all, 2 to 5 layers of our cerebral cortex with their centrally placed pyramidal body surrounded all around by abundant spiny dendrites and a long axon [2, 5] are geometrically ideally suited for the bi-directional integration and analysis of the signals as demanded in this context. Physiology of pyramidal neurons has remained rather obscure, vis-à-vis, typical relay neurons. In conclusion: it is known that natural objects with multiple characterizing features cast multiple images in various sensory regions of the brains; toddlers instinctually prune in prolific axonal growth in their associational cortex to retain optimal connectionist neuron pool with branches reaching out to concerned sensory regions. This enables abstraction of the ‘image’ data for analysis and synthesis which connotes ‘representation’ of the object in terms of its vocal name and other features as also for their subsequent perception. However, this method of representation is somewhat externally imposed. It appears that as toddlers advance to acquire verbs, they get to be more objective and develop a utility based representation for the objects within their brains.
References: 1. Bransford J D, Brown A L and Cucking R L.,: NRL, Brain, Mind, Experience, School, Chapter 5, Minds and Brain. (http://www.nap.edu/html/howpeople1/index.html).
2. Guyton A C. (1981),: Textbook of Medical Physiology, p 560. (Saunders, Tokyo).
3 Gopnik A., Meltzoff A, and Kuhl P, (1999): How Babies Think - Science of Childhood. pp 102-108, (Widenfeld & Nicholson, London).
4.. Clarke R. (2003) : Linguistics 101, Lecture 10, Language Processing in Brain. (http://www.ling.upenn.edu/~rclark/summer_2003/ling001
5.Viktor Kharazia - Cortical Neural Structure 3, html,http://tonto.stanford.edu/~viktor/index.html,
6. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain, : Functions;
7.http://www.biocrawler.com/encyclopedia/Biological_neural_network, : Representation in Neural Networks
8. Connectionism: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connectionism/
[edit] Bio-neural Software representation of Verbs:
Verbs in general, represent active events that are physiologically more complex than simple nouns, objects and the methodology elaborated above fails to be adoptable for their representation; toddlers delay acquisition of verbs for a while. As has been brought out under Basis for Linguistic Syntax, Declensions on Nouns[1], by about eighteen months, a toddler instinctually acquires a few physical acts or events, such as, eating, swallowing, giving, etc., via developing in her brain a few facilitations. Numerous proprioceptive sensory and kinesthetic motor neurons are embedded into all our muscles and tendons to enable us reflexively acquire such events. In terms of modern Computer Operations, for each algorithm, such as moving the jaws and tongue in synchrony, we instinctually train concerned proprioceptive and kinesthetic neurons to achieve the task and retain such facilitation in subconscious memory. Such facilitations may be termed, by computational theory of mind, CTM, as bio-neural software. Subsequently at an occasion when her mummy offers a piece of cake and cajoles her to ‘eat it fast’, being already familiar with vocal representations of nouns, it occurs to her to try out labeling the word to eat for the act; mummy’s reactions support and enthrall her. Earlier it was believed that young toddlers lazed their times sleeping them out, whereas recent studies have revealed that their, firming-up-winning-synapses methodology based learning rates are fastest [2,3]. They acquire facts and methodologies simultaneously. It is for consolidation of such vast stream of data and information in their brains that they need long hours of sleep. Thus, once a toddler learns rudiments of acquisition of instinctive verbal software and their vocal equivalents, she pursues along same lines whenever she encounters similar scenarios. The structure and complexity of such software are inestimable; yet the concepts seem to be well placed. Clinical studies on brain-patients have shown that those with tumors at left-mid-central region, known as Broca’s region, show indications of agrammatical aphasia, wherein certain physical actions as well as grammastic expression and comprehension showed significant deficiencies [4]. In conclusion, it appears that all event-procedures and concerned verbs get represented in our brains as, some sort of, bio-neural software. The software serves as meaning for the vocal, verb located at auditory cortex.
References: 1. Syntax/Wikipedia/: Section 2: Basis for Linguistic Syntax.
2. Bransford J D, Brown A L and Cucking R L.,: NRL, Mind, Brain and Experience, Chapter 5, Mind and Brain. (http://www.nap.edu/html/howpeople1/index.html
3. Gopnik A., Meltzoff A, and Kuhl P, (1999): How Babies Think - Science of Childhood. Pp 102-108, (Widenfeld & Nicholson, London).
4. Federmeier K D, Segal J B, Lombrozo T and Kutas M.(2000) : Brain responses to nouns, verbs and class-ambiguous words in context. Brain, 123,12, pp 2552-2562.
[edit] Perception and Comprehension of Sentences:
Now that the neural models for nouns and verbs, that together form simple sentences, have been figured out, what more is required to comprehend a sentence? A verb represents an action executable via certain procedure(s) by one or more actors, nouns and, in general, the status of the actors gets changed following any action. Such changes would be of use or utility, and thereby, of value for live actors. At a simplistic level, the utility ie, the vital force linking the acts and life systems gets determined in terms of requirements of ‘maintenance of internal homeostasis’; eg, a starved baby feels by nature via instinct away from homeostasis; whereas, a baby habituated to be close to his mummy for long hours would be by habituation via nurture away from homeostasis when he misses her for a while longer. Toddlers, subconsciously recognize simple objective acts, implementation of verbs, as means of narrowing any miss-matches that appear in their internal homeostasis. This prompts them, or, induces intentionality in them, to acquire, ie, to develop and hold, around their Broca’s regions [1] a library of algorithms, bits of bio-neural software that they may act out or may participate in ongoing acts as and when required. Here, it can be summarized that sentences are verbal representations of objective acts that result in status changes of the actors. We as human beings perceive sentences in terms of likely changes in internal homeostasis that might result due to such status shifts, while ourselves partaking in the act. That is how person A feels satiated after having taken a meal as also understands, perceives person B’s statement, a sentence of having had his dinner. Comprehension of the sentences, on the other hand is a very complex process: eg; for a query, such as ‘what is the time?’, a simple perception may beget a reply, ‘half past eight,’ whereas, a good comprehension might offer varieties of replies, such as: ‘oh, it’s already half past eight’ to ‘I misplaced my wrist watch, What a traffic on the roads! or, 'Time! what? That depends!!’, etc. Studies on comprehension are placed under ‘Linguistic Semantics’.
Reference: [1]:. Federmeier K D, Segal J B, Lombrozo T and Kutas M.(2000) : Brain responses to nouns, verbs and class-ambiguous words in context. Brain, 123, 12, pp 2552-2562.
[edit] Versatality of the Bio-neural Software:
It has been shown above how acquisitions in brains of humans or other life systems of certain bio-neural software enable emergence of intentionality to participate in real world events and how it facilitates humans to transliterate such events into sentences and also to perceive such sentences. A few more features of such software can easily be identified:
[edit] Up gradation of the Bio-neural Software
Obviously, for a baby in arms, ‘to eat’ consists only of moving his jaws and tongue whenever any soft food is tucked in his mouth and swallowing it and crying aloud when the baby feels starved. However, for a toddler, one option for ‘to eat’ may consist of a race to the kitchen and a search for the sweet piece of cake in the fridge etc. More over, in course, two distinct parts in this software get delineated. ie an action procedure part controlling body muscles to sit on a chair, use a fork to tuck the food to mouth, grind it leisurely etc and an interface, ie, a participant characterization part that describes, what, when, how much and what not to eat and when to stop etc. Thus, these soft ware get continually up graded as one advances in age.
[edit] Establishment of Relations between Objects
It has already been seen that all actions call for one or more participants with explicit characteristics to take on distinct roles. One may eat only specific items; one may give away only whatever he possesses, and so on. A verb thus defines a procedural relation between the participant nouns. As has been concluded under above section, Bio-neural Software Model for Verbs, toddlers subconsciously get the rudiments of such constraints that translate as Syntax guidelines, early though they may vocalize them quite later. Thus, by about two to three years, they would have learnt to relate and classify the objects in terms of their characteristics or utilities. Such classification and utility based perception of objects improve their knowledge base at faster rates.
[edit] Basis for Linguistic Syntax
[edit] Declensions on Nouns
The problem of syntax covers mainly two aspects in structuring of sentences, viz., declensions on nouns and word ordering; here we consider the first aspect in detail. Discussion under First Language Acquisition/Representation and Perception of Nouns [1] reveals that certain connectionist networks conjoining the images of various features of objects including their names get developed in association regions of our brains which enable their representation and subsequent perception. Representation of verbs is more complex and discussion under First Language Acquisition/Bio-neural Software Model for Verbs[2] hypothesizes development of certain connectionist Bio-neural Software networks in our associational brains that implement the concerned actions, events and these software are subsequently captioned for their vocal names, the verbs. Just as their modern Computer Program counterparts, the software are necessarily composed of two parts: one that ensures the aptness of various actors for the event concerned and second that implements the event. Associating these observations with the fact the sentences in general are vocal representations of certain real world events, we will first describe below how the necessity for noun declensions are dictated by verbs concerned and second speculate on how toddlers acquire and adopt these features into their linguistic skills.
Let us consider a general verb, ‘to give’. Obviously this event requires three actors, one, a subject to exercise the act, to give, second, a first object, an object that is being given and third, a second object or dative, a noun that receives the object. It is easy to see that the three actors assume explicitly different and distinct roles with respect to the event. In course of instinctually [3,4] learning such an event, a toddler subconsciously and simultaneously gets the above distinctive features embedded into the first part of the bio-neural software. Subsequently when he encounters the problem of vocalizing such an event, may be, at three to four years of age, he scans subconsciously the event procedure through the software and notes specificities of the different nouns and timely parental guidance enables him to home on to the declensions for the nouns. Thus, the basics of syntax are genetically acquired for a few primary, representative verbs to start with and they are generalized for other verbs as and when they are encountered. In summary, any real world event requires one or more actors to participate in distinct roles. e.g., ‘to give’ requires three actors, one to give, second to accept and a third, the object that is being given. In any sentence, which is a verbal representation of such an event, these roles of actors are identified by appropriate subscripts or prepositions attached on to each of nouns. It appears that young toddlers acquire simple real world events as well as their verbal representations, i.e., for syntactic structuring those events in their mother tongue or first-language simultaneously. Thus, universality in syntactic structuring of all languages arises due to the universal nature of real world events.
References:
1. First Language Acquisition/Representation and Perception of Nouns. To be posted soon.
2. First Language Acquisition/Bio-neural Software Model for Verbs: To be posted soon.
3. Chomsky N., (1967), Review of Verbal Behavior in L A Jakobovits. Ed., Readings in Philosophy of Language, Englewood Cliffs, Prentice Hall.NJ.
4. Bower H G and Hilgard E R., (1986), Theories of Learning, V Ed., Prentice Hall, ND, pp 1-12.
[edit] Word ordering in Sentences
Nearly 150 years ago, German philologist, Max Muller at Oxford recognized that Indo-European Languages had significant commonalities in vocabulary and grammar. Bertrand Russell and Wittgenstein at Cambridge proposed a concept of Logical Atomism whereby knowledge is acquired by humans as atomic constructs or memes that are assembled to obtain sentences. As regards sentential structures, a profound distinction in position of verbs exists: verbs in Sanskrit are placed at ends of sentences, whereas in English they immediately follow subjects. Reason is perhaps simple: Oriental Sanskrit adopts a descriptive approach and as pointed out in Basis for Linguistic Syntax, Declensions on Nouns, since any event can be accomplished only after all paraphernalia are assembled, the verbal representation of the event, a sentence, carries the verb at its end. On the other hand, English adopts a prescriptive approach, declaring the event, verb immediately following the subject and then elaborating on the roles of various actors in the event. Moreover, it has been seen that the declension a noun carries is decided by the mode of its participation in the event concerned. Now, coming to the ordering of words, consider a simple, typical sentence: “The teacher shall return the answer-books to the students in the class-room at 2.P M tomorrow”. In a Sanskrit sentence also, the ‘participant nouns’ appear in same order. The qualifier words in above sentence, viz., ‘the’, ‘his’ ‘tomorrow’, etc., are necessarily placed beside the nouns they qualify. So the problem of sentential word ordering reduces to finding a basis for ordering the participant nouns, viz., teacher, books, students, class-room and 2 P M.
The nature of various physical events is widely varied; it is impossible to standardize all roles different actors take in all events and provide distinctive features to identify them in sentences. Finnish linguists [1} have devised fifteen case declensions; in Sanskrit there are seven and in English, perhaps four or more. It was the well known grammarian, Panini, c 500 B C, who first serialized seven noun declensions in his Ashtaadhyaayii, a collection of grammatical formulae, as per following details: 1. Subject or Nominative (meaning: to be / expressed by, say, A); 2. Object or Accusative (to be acted on / A); 3. Instrumental (by whom act is affected / by A); 4. Dative (to whom act is directed / to A); 5. Ablative (extracting or starting from / from A); 6. Possessive (possession / A’s) and 7. Locative (supporting / at A). As regards a basis for such a serialization, he offered a formula (2:3:36) implying that ‘the noun at seventh, locational declension participates least in the event serving only as an event platform’. .
Getting back to the sentence quoted above, it is interesting to note that the actors, participant nouns here appear in the same order as serialized by Panini. Moreover, a little reflection on the extent of participation by various actors in the event of ‘distribution’ reveals that the subject here has in fact a major role, object has a marginally diminished role and so on with ‘2 P M’ the last, the locational, is not much involved in the event as such, firming up Panini’s proposition. In conclusion, it appears that we have been habituated by social practices to disperse the nouns in our sentences in an order of their decreasing participations in the concerned events. Of course, it is not dicta; should one wish to emphasize any particular sector in a sentence, he only needs to vary the order appropriately; i.e. to stress on the time of distribution in the above example, one frames his sentence as: ‘At 2 P M tomorrow, the teacher shall distribute the books .. .. etc. Only a simple sentence is considered here; one has to be more cautious while using compound verbs or phrases in his sentences.
Reference 1: Gleason Jr H A.(1966):An Introduction to Descriptive Linguistics.(Oxford & IBH, p160) .
[edit] Universal Syntax
As elaborated under Declensions on Nouns and Word ordering in Sentences, all events in nature are executed by one or more actors via definite procedure(s).(These terminologies, events, actors and procedures etc are lifted from modern, ‘Object Oriented Programming Techniques’). In a verbal representation of such an event that takes form of a sentence, the syntax essentially represents the transliteration of the procedure that point to the roles of various actors as well as the sequential order of execution. Hence, one notices a feature of universal syntax that transcends the languages. It should however be noted that the procedures only dictate incorporation of the syntactic features into the languages and linguists are called upon to give shape to these demands in form of appropriate declensions as subscripts or prepositions to nouns and ordering of the various words, nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs etc., based on appropriate guide lines facilitating easy and accurate comprehension of the sentences. Thus, sentences, that are, in general, verbal representations of physical events, in multitudes of languages appear to be formed under universal syntax guidelines due to the fact that the syntax essentially is a transcription of the event execution procedures which remain independent of the languages concerned.
[edit] Ganesh - Vidhyesh, Vignesh : A Rational View.
Ganesh - the Lord of all Education and Hurdles : A Rational View.
The various deities, events and narrations elaborated in different Vedic, Upanishadic and Puranic literature are believed to symbolically represent multitude of psycho-social mental states of societal human beings. That has led to a concept that ‘Devine Light enlivens all life systems’. In an earlier exposition, ‘Katha Upanishad, Nachiketha’, we have seen how Yam Dharm, the Lord of Death or rather the Lord of Protocols (Ruler of Samyamani Pur) can be traced to our reliance on and to our curiosity to know basis for the various protocols in our daily routines. Here we consider, the elephant headed God, the Ganesh, the Lord of Education, the Lord of Hurdles and the Lord who is invoked a-begin of all auspicious events: what does He represent?
The origin of Lord Ganesh is somewhat bizarre: Once the divine Mother, Parvathi, consort of Mahadev scrapped a little soil of her skins, molded a boy off it, breathed life therein, left him a-guard at the doors and went busy on her bath, dressing and other decors. The boy guided any visitors into a waiting room next. It so happened soon, that Mahadev himself turned up. Being unfamiliar, the boy held Him back as usual. Somehow, initial verbal duel developed in that the Mahadev chopped the head off the boy with his trident. Parvathi rushed in, went aghast; she explained all details to Mahadev. On her appeals, He sent His staff, Ganas all around to fetch a head of any being found sleeping in northerly direction; they soon brought an elephant’s head. He positioned it on shoulders of the body nearby and revived life therein. He also blessed a big belly to the boy, so he could hold and digest all that his big head consumed. To please his consort further, He appointed the boy to lead his Ganas; so the boy became Ganesh. Further He blessed the boy to Lord all Education as also all hurdles; even to today, we invoke Ganesh at the start of our Education as also at the start of all our auspicious activities. How can we make any sense out of this narration ! ?
Contextually, it is well known that the divine mother, Parvathi, represents pure femininity, Nature, or Prakruthi, and Mahadev complements Her, representing pure masculinity, Nurture or Purush. Now that, the Ganesh has been graced by Parvathi and Mahadev as Vidhyesh, the Lord of Education, let us enquire as to what is Education ? Education is, so to say, a representation in perceptional and expressional forms in human minds of details on what is and what all manipulations can be affected on Nature, Prakruthi by human efforts, Nurture, Purush.
But, Nature spans practically infinite extents. Obviously, all education we amassed since time immemorial would amount to nothing more than a tiny scrap top-soil, and would penetrate little deeper than the Nature’s, skins ! Yet, from our vantage point, that little forms an inexhaustible lot !! It is rather imaginative of the litterateurs to portray that Parvathi once wished to know her own beauty and so, she scrapped a bit of herself, molded a boy of it, infused a little curiosity into him and busied herself with her self-decorations !
Natural curiosity is random directed, ever hopping here and there. Acquisition of information, Education requires concentrated and effortful attention at any topic of interest. A holistic learning, education, requires three distinct refinements: any ‘data’ that has been heard or read (‘shravana’, as referred to in Sanskrit) out of natural curiosity needs first to be enlisted with related information that we already know, thus reforming, fusing (‘manana’) it also as ‘information’. Subsequently, an estimate of value of this information to us, in general, has to be made (‘nidhidhyasana’ or ‘nidhi dhi asina’); for it to be promoted as knowledge. Finally, the relevance of such new knowledge acquisitions in our overall daily routines needs to be verified deliberately until it gets set into our habituations (‘sakshathkarana’) as wisdom. Such multifaceted nurturing by self-motivational exercises is supposed to be graced by Mahadev – the three distinct refinements being guided by the three arms of His trident.
In view of the importance of such consolidation processes in holistic education, Mahadev is often considered by scholars as an ultimate Teacher. Of course, Ganesh, well trained in these processes by the graces of Mahadev may readily acquire a lot more wisdom befitting his elephantine head and belly. Besides, from our point of view, before venturing into any project, an auspicious task, it is essential to seek opinions on it, the graces of persons well versed in the field.
But, how to recognize such well versed persons ? It could be a Herculean task to distinguish a ‘jack of all trades’ from a well versed person; the former may have vast potentials to present insurmountable hurdles in our projects. So, we are advised to be in the good graces of all Vidhyeshas and proceed judiciously in pursuance of our projects. OM THATH SATH.
[edit] Saptha Lokaah : Human Experiences Transcend Seven Dimensions ?
Ancient Indian Scriptures postulate that the real, visible world occults six more worlds! These are serially named as: Bhulok (the physical world), Bhuvarlok or Anthariksh (the internal, attitudinal dimension) and Swarg Lok, literally, swa-arjitha lok, a lok earned by self-committed efforts, (perhaps, heavens, in English ? not exactly.) – these three form a first set; the next three are, Maharlok (the dimension of importances, exceptionals), Jano Lok (the dimension of populace) and Thapo Lok (the dimension of sustainable-organizational systems) and the last one is a Sathya Lok (the dimension of current truths !). (Another set of seven nether-worlds are also postulated: viz. athala, vithala, suthala, rasathala,, thalathala, mahathala and pathala; we will not consider them now.) Unfortunately there is little elaboration on locations or descriptions of these worlds. Could it be that these worlds correspond to ‘dimensions over which human minds transcend in their daily chores’? Modern social environs are much too different from those ancient environs. Therefore, it would be futile to contemplate on what delineation parameters those ancients worked on and what social ideas they crystallized under these names. Then, how shall we proceed ?
Let us hunt within our modern social environs for seven delineation parameters guided somewhat by the literal meanings of names of those seven worlds. There is no much difficulty to recognize the Bhulok, the visible, physical world wherein we live, work, eat and sleep, socially interact, procreate, raise our children and care for elderly etc. At this basic organic level, perhaps the ancients also had a functionally similar Bhulok to live in as the one we have.
The main function all us are engaged in, is earning one’s livelihood. But we no longer chase deer or work on ranches. We live in citizenry systems that enables us to be engaged in various social tasks and we are happy on them – or are we ? I heard a narration: Once a Teacher enquired after the welfare of three sculptors working with their chisels. The first one straightened up, swept his sweat off his face and blared out, “Are you blind not to notice me suffering my fate with this chisel reeling on these blasted stones ?”. The second one appeared to be busy: “Forty more blocks are yet to be planed ere I collect my wages and rush to my family with a few provisions”, he replied. The last was rather composed: “This is the last of the pedestals; now if I sculpt out a smooth seat and dedicate it to the Lord at the temple .. ..” Thus, everyone may have varieties of internal attitudes, spirits of approaches toward any action he is on. One can imagine of an internal world that is composed of all such attitudes forming a Bhuvarlok or Anthariksh.
Being engaged thus for long durations with positive attitudes on any activity, one acquires certain specialized expertise, mastery on that activity. In course he develops himself to be a professional: a master carpenter or a good sculptor; an all-round cricketer, a natural agriculturist, a specialist physician or a well-informed author, administrator or researcher etc. Having thus earned for oneself a special position and being recognized so in the societal setup, one may experience a feeling of self-fulfillment and security, which are the attributes of a Swarg Lok. The last two dimensions refer obviously to individualistic segment of the societal organization which is composed of innumerable complementary specialists, each, hovering in his own Swarg Lok.
Human mind is a fathomless ocean; a societal organization, evolved through interactions and integrations of innumerable such minds, present and past, should open infinite action possibilities for humans at all instants. But, it does not happen so; for, toddlers are guided by their parents since early days into a societal molding: Sigmund Freud postulated that babies acquire a concept of ‘self’ through a circuitous route – to begin with, a natural necessity and nurtural availability guides them to be dependent on and thereby to recognize their ‘mother’; that mother often appears from nowhere and instantly vanishes; so, in course, she is recognized as a ‘non-me’; soon, several ‘non-me’s abound all around a central ‘me’, the ‘self’, distinctly cognized and recognized by frequent ‘inner’ sensations of hunger, its redressals and the like. Perhaps, delighted by attentive and affectionate pleasantries by numerous wards, we also learn to ‘be attentive’, thereby developing a delineation of ‘identity’ around the ‘self’. Society comprises infinite interesting things and events. So, we need to learn early to be deliberately attentive, thereby restricting our ‘self’ interests to a limited sector, classing this domain to be ‘important’. In course, one is recognized in terms of the societal sector he deems important. Without development of such a ‘value’ system in one’s mind, he may slide into an ‘attention deficit syndrome’. Such a compartmentalized societal sector one develops in his mind may be considered to form a Maharlok, a dimension of ‘exceptionals’.
Once one is aware of his role within the boundless Society as regards his duties and benefits, his interactions with the social environment allows him to recognize soon the Maharlokas driving his colleagues. In due course he would be able to visualize a unified, holistic Social Organization comprising multitude of populace, the Janolok.
Human generation gap is 20 to 30 years; human life expectancy is different in different countries. Fashions keep changing too. Over last four hundred years human societal systems have been changing at accelerated paces. Are we only powerless spectators for these changes or do we have any options for course corrections that can be contemplated and implemented ? With such contemplations perhaps we are transcending into Thapolok.
Now we are left with the last one, the Sathya Lok. Sathya literally means, truth; but what is the ‘truth’ ? There are two types of truths referred to in Sanskrit, viz, rtha and sathya. The closest pair available in contemporary philosophies is, descriptive and prescriptive truths. Etymologically, one may proceed as follows: sath yah thath, sathyah: ie, sathya is that whichever is sath. Sath, conventionally translates to : ‘reason-to-be or raison-de-tre’. Thereby we arrive at a definition for Sathya as that ‘which can be adopted as a worthy ‘cause, reason-to-be’ for leading the course of our lives’, which incidentally is close to it being a ‘prescriptive truth’. It is interesting to note a prescription often quoted in Sanskrit: ‘Sathyam thu Rtheena parishinchaami’ that nearly translates to, ‘one need to ensure frequently that prescriptive truths (paths) do not stray much from descriptive truths (paths)’. With these comments I call upon the readers to conceptualize the Sathyalok as an exercise. Om Swasthi ||
[edit] BHAGAH: A promoter of Social Interdependencies ?
There is a group of deities, Aadhithyaas, children of Kashyp and Adithi, numbering to six in Rigveda and twelve in later Puranic texts. Centrally placed there, is one named, Bhaga. The word ‘bhaaga’ literally means a fissure or a niche: In a societal environment, each is ever on hunt for an apt niche for himself; all crave for some others to recognize and crave for them; we always wish to be interdependent, exchanging thoughts and feelings while still retaining our identities. It seems, Bhaga could be associated with such a mental attitude. A canto in Rigveda (7, 41), Bhaagya Suktha, with seven Rks by Vasisht invokes Bhaga’s features to fair detail:
This early morning, we invoke you, Bhaga, the one placed central amongst many other deities, stretching from Agni, the fire to Mahadev, the Rudhra.
Both a pauper and a prince equally seek Your graces that are clear and appear ever a-new.
Bhaga, You know us well; accordingly direct us on purposeful ways, prompt us into fructifiable thoughts, motivate us into engaging tasks; so, we may procreate good products and achieve worthy laurels.
Bhaga, we beseech your graces in early mornings, in our younger days, in our mid-years and in our olden times, as well.
We need You, Bhaga, to need us; thus joined together, we shall invoke all gods to guide us along affable, sociable passages.
So, first let us invoke the divine Dawn, Usha, to join us in our journey to newer heights that open up novel ventures apt directions opening worthy scopes leading to engaging activities.
We pray to the divinities of Dawns to provide us sweet nectar so we may talk sweet, secure homes so we may interact amiably, speedy horses, milking cows, strong wills and stable minds that may lead us into Sunlit days soon. We pray the gods to shower their blessings for holistic welfare.
Om thath sath Om!!
Reference: Rigveda Samhitha: Ed. H P Venkat Rao, Pub: Shri Jaya Chamarajendra Veda Rathna Mala, Mysore, 1953.
[edit] AGNI, invocations to the vedic deity, the FIRE
‘Vedas’ literally mean knowledge, knowledge of ‘devas’, the vedic deities. Abeginning, Vedas constituted a single body and Vedavyasa, (literally, one who penetrated straight through, understood all Vedas), is supposed to have delineated them into four parts: Rigveda is a description of the devas while, Yajurveda explains our interactions with the devas; thus, these two together form a complementary whole. Samaveda elaborates on how we interact with our fellow beings and Aatharvaveda are, perhaps pages left blank for use by the future generations !
Rigveda 'begins' with an invocation to Agni :
AgnimILE purOhitham yajnasya dEvam rthvijam | hOthAram rathnadhAthamam ||
This can be translated somewhat as follows:
We all invoke thee, the Fire, to enlighten us with conceptualizations of deeds that promote healthy social relations, to illuminate us with right methods of their implementations, to enthuse us into their proper executions and to guide us to recognize and experience the consequential results with joyful hearts.
And Yajurveda 'ends' with a stanza venerating the same Agni, viz,
Agne naya supathA rAyE asmAn vishvAni deva vayunAni vidvAn | yuyodhyasmajjuhuranameno bhUyisthAm tE nama uktim vidhEma ||
This can be translated somewhat as follows:
While appealing to pardon us for all our faults and to purify us from all our sins we express our gratitude to thee, the Fire, for all the blessings showered on us and we pray to thee to guide us along the right paths on and on.
It appears that the writers are placing here, not a full stop, but a semi-colon.
Thus, the preceptors impress on us the continual and supreme role of Agni in all our lives. Who is that Agni?
He is the heat that ever shines on us from the skys, the solar rays. He is the fire that cooks our foods within the Chlorophills in our farmlands; He is the promoter of the chemical reactions that metabolize the sugars we consume and He is the fire within the mitochondrial organelle in all our cells that motivates us all into each of our Actions and Emotions. He deserves our gratitudes, indeed !
|| Om | swasthi | shradhDhAm mEDhAm yashah prajnAm .. .. dhEhi mE havya vAhana ||
I beseech thee, the Fire, the deliverer of our sacrificial offerings to the deities, to shower on us all Enthusiasms Wisdoms Successes Conscious-awarnesses .. .. OM ||
[edit] KRISHNA’s Two Sisters
A while and a few events after Krishna was born in His Original Form in the dark corners of the prison cell in Mathura … …
The alarmed demon king, Kamsa knew that the baby presented to him was not Krishna but did not know that it was His sister, Durga; taking no risks and intending to save himself well in time, he was about to pound Her on to the nearby stones; but then, the baby twitched and got free, resumed Her real form and shot herself into the skies; thence She shouted down, “Lo, the narrow minded Kamsa, (Kamsa, literally means a narrow sector of a circle * ), beware! your terminator is budding elsewhere !!”, and She vanished.
Years and events rolled on .. .. and on .. .. ,
The historical, aithihasic epic, the Mahabharath, initiated at a meeting of numerous dignitaries at the Sacred Sathya Lok, the Brahma’s Abode, with an invocation, “ ‘gangE’ cha yamunE chaiva gOdhAvarI saraswathI .. .. jalEsmin sanniDhim kuru .. .. kariShE”, was enacted and documented .. .. and .. .. on a following day,
The eldest of the Pandavas, Yudhistira heard a news that a starved hunter’s arrow had grazed the feet of the Lord Krishna while He was reclining at the edge of a forest on the outskirts of Dwarka; he soon assembled all his brothers along with Draupadhi, and they decided together that it was apt time for them to call-it-a-day; he beckoned Krishna’s other sister, Subhadra and urged her, “Bhadhre, (Bhadra, literally means, secure), here are our grandchildren, Vajra (literally, of diamond, the hardest and indefectible one), Krishna’s grandson, and Parikshit (literally, the tested and verified one), our own grandson, and so many others too; would you take good care of these youngsters in all our absence, please !?”. And, the Pandavas then walked on and on, toward the high heavens.
(* 'Termination of such a Kamsa', metaphorically implies 'extermination of (our own) narrow mindednesses to attain liberated, holistic views')
- " HANDS THAT ROCK THE CRADLE, RULE THE WORLD "
Om Swasthi !!
[edit] PADMANABHA, LORD VISHNU, the Sustainer, at His Best
Interpretation of modern art is a rather tricky task. A Guru, who earlier spent years on Himalayas, remarked that interpretation of scriptural drawings is somewhat easy. On being pointed to a painting of Lord Vishnu, as Padmanabha resting over high seas on a Serpent with Lakshmi at His feet and Brahma in a Lotus blossom off His navel, the Guru had a translucent smile: “It’s a depiction of the mental state of that Pregnant Woman, sitting and dreaming at the the feet of Lord Vishnu!”, he remarked, “She has a vision of Vishnu, the sustainer in His all-embracing Trinitial form, on a nap on Adhi Shesha, the ‘initial remainder’ (emerged of a devastating fire), carrying within the cozy environs of a Lotus the Brahma, meditating on innumerable initiations in process of forming a new live being, a new universe, in fact, all within herself. These are the mix of fuzzy feels and thoughts, Bhakthi, that the Lakshmi is immersed in, alleviating all her anxieties on the ‘soon-to-be’ delivery”. No doubt, pregnancy is a primary sustaining act of all live beings!
Often that serpent is named as ‘Anantha’, the endless one; He is also supposed to support the entire universe a-top one of His thousand hoods! - now we know that that ‘initial remainder’ contains only 23, ie, 50% of the requisite genes, which, in association with another somewhat similar set, are however capable of forming a new life, of supporting an ‘entire new universe’, so to say. (Such an ‘association’ of two-halves reminds one of ‘ardha nArIshwra – a union of feminine and masculine halves of Mahadev, invoked by Brahma in this context as detailed in ‘Shiva Maha Puranam: vAyanIya samhithA 15, 8-15). As regards endlessness, these genes are well equipped to reproduce their replicas under favourable environs at appropriate later times! At times the same serpent is named as ‘Sankarshana’, literally, the ‘all attracting and culturing one’: we know, the main functions of genes is ‘abstracting varieties of requisite raw materials from environment and forming and sustaining various organs of the growing body’, portending clearly this name!
Addendum: Viewing Padmanabha from the angle of Lakshmi a-while, surfaced another facet of the ‘Adhi Shesha’: It is now known that a system to produce the progenatory spermatozoa matures in males on puberty whereas each female inherits a stock of original seeds of ovary from her mother within a few weeks of her own fetual life – and each of these Adhi Sheshas matures a-month to a fertilizable ovum. It has also been established that such ovary provide over 80% of the mitochondria, the Prometheus, the power-houses in all cells in living beings.
For an illustration of Padmanabha : visit: Vishnu, Wikipedia, Iconography; Figure 2.
NOTE: The Fetuses are in communion with their mothers via an umbilical cord just/sybolically as the Brahma is in communion with Lord Vishnu via the Lotus Flower and Stem.
|| OM NamO BhagavathE VAsudhEvAya ||
[edit] KATHA UPANISHATH: Nachiketha – A Rational Interpretation
Vedas are a collection of Natural Knowledge, a descriptive Natural Philosophy; (vis-à-vis various prescriptive Religious Scriptures) and Vedanthic Upanishaths, that supplement Vedas, are tracts of specialized knowledge interpreting and elaborating on Vedas. Katha Upanishath is a concise tract: first thirty stanzas here narrate a story of a boy, Nachiketha and following seventy stanzas expose a few theosophical aspects on immortality of Soul. We aim here to interpret rationally the story of Nachiketha.
STORY OF NACHIKETHA: A brief narration of the story is in order: Once, a well known Pundit, Vaajashravas was engaged on a prolonged Sacrificial Ceremony, termed Vishwajith (meaning, intended at acquiring mastery of all Worlds) Sathra. The main ritual here consisted of donating sincerely all wealth, cows and other riches that the Master had acquired all his life to deserving guests. His simple minded grandson, Nachiketha, kept watching him a while and a while longer with deep contemplations: ‘By donations of these olden cows that have already eaten a lot of fodder, begotten numerous calves and yielded much milk for long, what noble heavens would my granddad achieve .. .. .’ With concerns, he approached granddad and appealed: “Dad, whom would you donate me to?”. The pundit was perhaps preoccupied in his rituals; so the boy repeated and then pestered again. The granddad turned at him and said: “I offer thee to the Yama!”. The youngster bowed to the sacrificial Fire on the high altar, to his granddad as well and proceeded towards Samyamaniipur, the locale of the Godly terminator of Human Lives, also referred to as Yamadharma, one who maintains orderliness. In fact, Samyamaniipur literally means a place where orderliness is maintained.
As Nachiketha found his way and arrived at his destination, Yama was out of station. He waited for three full days and nights at the Samyamanii gates, starving, thinking, he ought to report to the Lord first. (Thaithariiya Brahmana, a later Vedhanthic tract, also refers to this story; but the preceptors here opine that over the first night the boy feeds on food provided by Yama’s subjects; the second night, on food provided by Yama’s staff and the third night, somehow, he feeds on Yama’s regular menu !).
The fourth morning Yamadharma gets back; learning of an innocent boy starving for days at his gates in await for him, he is worried and rushes there; leading the youngster to his court, feeding and entertaining him, he enquires after the welfare and tidings. As if in atonement for three starving nights, the Lord offers to meet as many aspirations of the boy. Recollecting the facial expressions of his dad earlier as he was departing, Nachiketha appeals to Yama that his dad be relieved of his hard feelings. On so, being assured, Nachiketha seeks secondly to know the secrets of Divine Fire, prayers to which keep one free from fears of losses and pains, diseases and death. Pleased at the boy’s inquisitive perceptions, the Lord assents and further commends that, that all three forms of that Fires shall henceforth be named after the boy, as Nachikethaagni. Next, the boy seeks to know from the Lord, the Terminator of Human Lives and ruler of their ever-surviving Souls, the truths about the states of Life and Deaths and about the Soul of a person post his expiry. Though reluctant to part with the information at first, moved by the keenness of Nachiketha for the information, the Lord lets him into the secrets. Subsequently, the Lord blesses all blessings on to Nachiketha, who, with feelings of gratitude and self fulfillment bows to the Lord returns to his granddad.
VAAJASHRAVAS and his SACRIFICIAL CEREMONY: The story spans over multiple worlds !. How do we infuse rationality into it ? Human mind spans over multiple dimensions too. In order to express the mental activities clearly the Vedic preceptors often adopted a strategy of abstracting in symbolic words, the quintessential thoughts that flood our minds, ever and everywhere. Guided by a statement in the first stanza in the Upanishath that, ‘Vaajashravasah sarva vedasam dhadhau’ ie ‘Vajasharavas gave away all Vedas’, let us try out an interpretation that Vajashravas is a teacher in a school where Vedic literature are taught and studied. Obviously the teacher here is creating in the minds of students a Vedic image of the world, a fair replica of one he himself possesses; he is figuratively, ‘winning over’ the budding worlds. Thus, the education here can rightly be figured as a long duration Vishwajith Sacrificial Ceremony, where the teacher donates all his wealth, all knowledge he had acquired to enthusiastic students, thereby conquering all the budding worlds. Cows constituted material wealth in those days: they fed on grass, yielded calves and milk; so also did the Vedic words: they ‘consumed’ students’ minds, yielded the concepts and knowledge to them and provided a means for their later livelihood too.
NACHIKETHA and his PASSAGE to SAMYAMANIIPUR: Education in those days constituted mainly the study of Vedas, Upanishaths, ie various aspects on Sociology and Human Psychology, as also Vedangas, Logic etc. Here one subjectively assimilates the concepts, unlike in case of modern subjects, Physics, Computer Sciences etc, where, experimental verifications enable objective understanding of the concepts. The Vedic literature, perceived via careful observations and deep contemplations over undated ancient times, were carried to today, vocally by generations of teachers and students with deep faith and confidence at various Schools.
Profession of a teacher was considered sacred: Time never stands still; Societal conditions, values and dispositions, Personal habits, motivations and interrelations and Material facilities, and aspirations of people continually change. While delegating the same literature year after year to different groups of students, the teachers need to effectively contextualize them to ever changing present which may prove to be difficult. In the process any teacher may face stumbling problems. Such problems might drive one into deep thoughts, into serious discussions with colleagues, into close studies of books, into careful analysis and synthesis of concepts, into deep Tapas, meditational contemplations etc. As a matter of fact, such an unclear problem might prove to be a challenge, a ‘raison-d’etre’ for a teacher. One may even consider that only a life beset with such challenges is worth lived. It appears that, the Vedic preceptors here have metaphorically personified such a problem that emerged in the mind of Vajashravas and christened it as his coveted grandson, ‘Nachiketha’: for, the two words, na and chiketha, together in Sanskrit mean, something that is ‘unclear’.
The earliest Vedic texts have stood test of Time for long periods; not many novel problems are likely to emerge there-from: Nachiketha refers to these texts as olden cows that have already yielded ‘numerous calves’.
In the middle of a discourse if one in audience repeatedly pesters for clarifications on a problem that has been nagging the teacher himself for long, it is natural the teacher would wish that the doubts on the problem be ‘destroyed, taken away by Yama’ and the problem be ‘solved’!; that is what Vajashravas remarked to Nachiketha when the latter repeatedly intercepted him in the course of the Sathra..
It is plausible that deep contemplations on any concept and its discussions with others might show up some unsolved aspects of it as problems. But how such subjective, philosophical problems are sorted out in our minds has remained a mystery. It is being suggested in the Upanishath here that when a problem gets engrossed in the mind, the subconsciousness might work at the solution: ‘Nachiketha found his way to Samyamniipur by himself’; ie he shed his ‘problem’ format and assumed, reincarnated as a ‘solution’;well, in real terms it means, VAjashravas got his problem cleared in his mind. However, any problem is fully solved only after its solution has been ‘documented’.
YAMADHARMA and his BOONS: Let us consider the various boons sought by NachikEth from Yam Dharm one by one: First, NachikEth appeals that his dad’s hard feelings be pacified. We consider, the preceptors here are emphasizing that contemplations on any problem with only cool minds and never with impatient angry hard feelings, facilitate conceptualizations of solutions, early and rightly.
As regards secrets of the Devine Fires, some elaboration is relevant: Obviously any problem is only partly solved when it gets cleared in one’s mind. For, the same or its near versions may spurt in someone else’s mind soon and that may also get clarified with same or a different solution in due course etc. With modern technological projects initiated on predefined goals, the solutions get applied immediately in development of marketable goods. On the other hand, with academic works, any problem-solution pair that has been figured out, is in general, published subsequently as a Thesis. In ancient days the communication facilities were rather scarce, yet, it appears that the importance of documentation was well recognized: for example, consider the following stanza from the Katha Upanishath:
bahUnAmEmi praThamO bahUnAmEmi maDhyamah | kig M swidhyamasya karthavyam yanmayAdhya kariShyasi | anupashya yaThA pUrvE prathipashya thaThA parE | 1:1:5 ||
Meaning: Having arrived at SamyamanIpur, NachikEth contemplated : “ I find that I have arrived here leading a few fellow followers; yet, I am not the first here, nor the last; Now that I am here, how shall I frame myself so as to be useful to Yam? How are those my predecessors here framed and how can my followers be accommodated here?” Remembering that NachikEth here represents a ‘problem-solution format’, this stanza rightly is directed towards documentation of a thesis.
Human Society is comprised of individuals and relations between them, the latter established and sustained through various etiquette or protocols backed by apt psychological feelings and materialist thoughts. The etiquette are not universal; they are composed by local cultures and established heritages. Children are brought up via the etiquette and in the process a concern for them is inbred into them. Yam Dharm is conceptualized to be the Lord of all ‘protocols’: for, on a first understanding, the protocols apparently freeze one’s options to act or react in social situations to narrow streams. Yam Dharm, the Lord of SamyamanIpur, an ordered state, is often considered to be a terminator of Human lives, potentials to react; this conception arises often from being unaware of the plausible ‘breadths’ of the above ‘narrow streams’.
Let us now consider the ThaitharIya menu served to NachikEth over three nights in detail: The first night, he was served by Yam’s subjects: who are these subjects?. Popular belief points to the ever-surviving souls of humans post their expiry to be Yam’s subjects. Our predecessors, in course of their lives, found a few sociological problems in their daily lives; conceptualized their solutions and worked some derivatives of these problem-solution pairs in the form of social protocols and established them in the Society for benefits of future generations. Thereby these conceptualizations are, figuratively, their ‘Souls’ in action today and in this form they are subjects of Yam. From the statement that NachikEth fed on menu provided by these subjects, we infer that NachikEth contemplated on where he, the problem-solution he represented, fits into the current social scenario, eg whether the problem related to the field of generation-gaps, social-equities, educational-relevancies etc.
The second night NachikEth was served by Yam’s DhUthas, servants: These servants are supposed to lead the Souls of expired beings to SamyamanIpur and morphousize them amongst our predecessors – we venture to transliterate this statement to mean that NachikEth secondly worked out a protocol or a physical form that can represent him in the current Social environs, eg, in its current simplest form, a thesis document. The third night NachikEth fed on the Yam’s Punyas, the results of Yam’s good deeds: While proposing a novel procedure, it needs to be ensured that it meets the intended application correctly, satisfactorily and efficiently; more importantly, it should not contradict any other established practices or hurt the total social systems dearly; ie, the holistic effects of the new application needs to be carefully considered. Overall, the message here is that any novel conceptualization needs to be refined through these three exercises, NAchikEthAgnis for its ready acceptance into Social practices.
Thirdly, NachikEth seeks to know from Yam the truths about the fates of Souls after expiry of human beings. Though reluctant at first, Yam was moved by NachikEth’s insistence and he satisfies for himself with the youngster’s abilities to understand the complexities of the subject and reveals the truths. Deeper philosophical conceptualizations are implied here and closer studies are required for their understanding.
Subsequently, the Lord blesses all fortunes to NachikEth, who, with feelings of gratitude and self fulfillment bows to the Lord and returns home to his granddad, VAjashravas.
EPILOGUE: Raised from the moment of birth via some protocols, the Social Being, Man, uses the same protocols to express himself and to develop and sustain varied relations amongst his fellow beings and lives happily along. The forces originating these protocols are Subjects of that Master Yam. The speck of an urge in all our minds that seeks to know the basis of these protocols and supports them at occasions are bits of that Lord, and sum total of these bits in all human beings, the samashti, comprises that Master of SamyamanIpur, Lord Yama Dharma.
sahanAvavathu | sahanau Bhunakthu | saha vIryam karavAvahai | Om shanthih shanthih shanthih Om | Om thath sath Om ||
[edit] Conclusions: Nature of Vedic Deities
It is generally remarked that ‘Gods reside in human hearts’ and this assertion is often taken in a metaphoric sense. However, here we try to see ‘reality’ in this assertion. So far as the subject of the first tract above, ‘Vagdhevatha’, ie, ‘Speech as a deity’ is concerned, the assertion can be considered to be fitting reasonably well – speech, no doubt resides within us. A critic might dispute whether ‘speech’ can be considered a deity at all. In view of facts that, speech has reasonable power; with right talks we may acquire many of our goals; a consoling speech may relieve one of his pains and speech also enables us to share our emotions with others etc; ie a few generic features ascribed often to deities decorate speech as well, we may revere speech also as a deity.
We make a few more observations: Speech is a facility devised by humans, as a ‘group activity’ to simplify their peaceful cohabitations. Over early, pre-speech periods, humans exchanged only coarse, emotive information that provided limited decision states such as yes/no, right/wrong, fight/flight etc which in turn constrained possible social ‘group sizes’. Speech enabled us to be rational via thoughts that may span over multiple states of mental freedom, and thereby to exchange ‘orders of magnitude enhanced’ emotive and rational information with cohabitants and in turn to develop varied relations and to form larger societies. This provided a fertile ground for our cortical growth and possibly for emergence of our characteristic, raised foreheads, too. Thus, Speech is a societal acquisition. However, the subsequent evolution of ‘the tower of Babel’ needs more elaborate considerations.
The common aim in subsequent tracts above has been to figure out the concepts referred into plausible human brain/mind psycho-societal relations or interactivities: Obviously, every human being is partly an individual and partly a ‘societal molecule’. In ‘Saptha lOkAh, Seven Dimensions’, the first three of the seven worlds are postulated to be delineated within one’s individual attitudes towards his daily chores and the next three are delineated within his attitudes towards total Society; and possibly the seventh, Sathya lOk is the one in which one finds himself ‘presently’, moment by moment.
The deity ‘Ganesha’ is believed to be the Lord of Education, Experience and Obstacles and His biography reads rather queer: it appeared natural to interpret this narration in terms of ‘theories of learning’. Parvathi and Mahadev respectively are known well to symbolize Prakruthi and Purusha or the roles of Nature and Nurture in our lives. A little reflection might reveal that the roles of our parents, mother and father, particularly, over our childhood periods may tally reasonably well with this approach.
In ‘Nachiketha’, a story from Kathopanishath, where Yam, the deity of Death or also, of Order or routines, is supposed to have taught the secrets of eternal life to ‘Nachiketha’. Here, an attempt has been made to rationally interpret the story so as to convey the origins of ‘social routines’ that simplify our conducts over daily social interactivities.
Perhaps, such interpretations can be pursued for more Vedic deities too?
So what? Organizational studies show that when human, other animate or even inanimate entities form groups varied new states and relations emanate depending on environmental conditions and lead to emergence of new properties of wholes, often not existent with individuals (*). Similarly and based on expositions above, we postulate that the Vedic Deities represent certain ‘constancy-datum states’, that emerge within each of our space-time continual, ‘psycho-societal, cognitive and motor activity domains’ on account of our Societal Living; in other words, that these deities represent local steady state solutions of possible multi-dimensional ‘differential-equations’ that get developed within our complex and dynamic, ‘individual brain-societal mind’ system and guide its operation. This is a rather simplistic view, yet it suits well to fuse the fuzzy social concepts, ‘faith’ and ‘rationality’. As this appeared to be a natural course of evolution of human mind, the early preceptors termed their literature to be, ‘Guidelines for a SanAthan Dharma, an Ancient Ordering scheme!’
(*):i. eg. Formation of say, an Alumni Association leads to emergence of positions such as President, Secretary, and Members and also associated multiple 'relations' between the members. ii: Gaseous atoms acquire liquid properties under apt environmental conditions: One of numerous names of Lord Vishnu, the central of the Trinity, the preserver, is ‘nArAyaN’ that may literally mean, ‘properties that emerge on liquefaction’ – possibly, an affect of ‘Societation’ of Individuals !? The GAIA of Lt Isaac Asimov in Foundation Stories could also be a ‘liquefied’ form, or a ‘societal group’!? The Confucian Philosophy attaches much significance to ‘Water’ for perhaps same reasons!? ||OM Swasthi||
yAchEham thwAm hrShIkEsha namasthE puruShOththama | hrudhayE kuru samvAsam shriyAh saha jagathpathE ||
With prostrations we appeal heartily to thee, the most revered of ‘nurtural’ powers, the Lord of all ‘Motivations’, please reside ever in our hearts with the ‘natural’ joyous vibes.
Manthra thanthra .. sarva lOpa prAyaschiththArtHam nAma thraya japam kariShYE :
achyuthAya namah, ananthAya namah, gOvindhAya namah |
nArAyaNAya namah | Om Thath Sath ||
