The Wheel is Useless as a Stand-alone Invention

Dr. Deepak Ranade wrote one of his best essays, which was published in the TOI speaking tree of Pune today.

The Wheel is Useless as a Stand-alone Invention

The wheel was a path-breaking invention. The wheel, however, might not have been as useful if not for the invention of brakes and gears that help us control movement. The wheel made locomotion plausible but brakes regulated this motion.

The defining quality of any system is probably based on the degree of control one can exercise on it. In karate, up to the black belt stage, the discipline and regimen is for strengthening the body and speeding up reflexes. Thereafter, all subsequent degrees are attained by perfecting self-control and restraint.

In evolution, life forms have been empowered incrementally as they progress through stages. Human beings have the power of control, of temperance and restraint, and the ability to think beyond the self. Physiologically, higher centers in the brain have been given the responsibility of inhibition to maintain restrictive control on lower centers of the brain and spine. In spinal injuries, when the lower motor neurons are disconnected from the higher centers and they fire without control, it leads to reflex movements of the limbs, spasm of the muscles and so on. Though movement occurs, it is involuntary, uncontrolled and purposeless.

The ability to rise above reflex behavior seems to be the summit of the evolutionary pyramid. Olympian Carl Lewis once explained the reason for his spectacular achievement: “I have mastered the art of self-denial”. Behavior that rises above the primitive reflexes forms the essence of culture and sophistication. All religions have a set of behavioral restrictions like fasting, celibacy and observing silence. These restrictions help the individual increase his will power, temperance, self-control and discipline.

Some religions talk about renunciation.But renunciation eliminates choice. So it is probably indulgence in abstinence. The swing of the pendulum in the opposite direction charged with the potential energy to swing back to indulgence. It may also reflect a subconscious fear of lack of self-control. Like the instance of the guru, who was invited for a meal by his disciple. Whilst the other devotees were served on plantain leaves, the guru was served on silverware as a mark of reverence. The guru however was offended and walked off as he was a renunciate. He may as well have eaten in the silverware. If he was no longer in any mundane bondage, there ought to have been no distinction between silver and leaves.

In reproductive behavior, too, human beings have the freedom to choose. Any control is self-imposed. This self control is the evolutionary upgrade. It is as if the remote control which operates all other animals has been substituted by a sharp discriminatory ability which bestows free will. In Hindu culture, it is called vivek buddhi. The intellect of discrimination. Free will reflects the ability to restrain rather than indulge. If indulgence was the purpose, all actions would have been reflexive, with scarce regard to volition.

Exercising restraint requires a higher form of intelligence. Indulgence required neither skill nor intellect. And renunciation relied more on extremism.

Obesity, alcoholism, hypertension and diabetes, when they are lifestyle-related, point to the diminishing self-regulatory process. Affluence has given man the opportunity to indulge like never before. Austerity is facing extinction. Patience, contentment are no longer virtues but are relegated to mere words. All catastrophes like global warming, nuclear threat and poverty are merely a reflection of our ever-increasing inclination for indulgence.

Hierarchy of Knowledge

Dr. Deepak Ranade's another exceptional article was published in TOI Speaking Tree. I'm so lucky and happy that he had sent me a copy before it got published, and I was pretty moved by it's content.

Here it is, "Hierarchy of Knowledge":

The brain is ever endeavoring to learn, comprehend, understand. It is being flooded with information at maybe the rate of a million MB per second. It processes the data at an even more astonishing speed.

Processing data implies prioritizing the data. To assign meaning to incoming data
is a very important aspect of intelligence.

Interpretation of the data is a a very highly developed intelligence.
Data is ubiquitous. Right from the radio-waves emitted by celestial bodies from a few million light years away, to the feel of our clothing against our bodies, we are being bombarded by data.
Intelligence is the skill and speed to scan the incoming data, compare it with the existing database , discard the unimportant part (like the feel of our clothes against our skin) and also store the useful new data for future reference.

Apples fell even before Newton discovered gravity, but Newton processed the same data witnessed by others in a different paradigm. He discovered a force which till then was not known to mankind, no parallel, no tangible units of measurement and was embellished in abstraction. This realization or flash of comprehension was abstract intelligence at a sublime level, where his conclusion was not a mere deduction, or just analysis. Analysis would be a synthesis or jugglery of already known facts but where the summation leads to a greater than phenomenon that is where awareness transcends intellect, analysis and reasoning.

Science is essentially related to a spatio-temporal grid. It is seemingly restrained by the confines of cause and effect. Any theory has to be reinforced by experimental verification and then to be ratified by adding the attributes of repeatability and predictability. This verification is mediated by measurable parameters, which again are the slaves of the tangibles governed by the senses.
The boat of the sense organs can navigate the intellect only within the waters of the tangible. Once it touches the shores of the intangible the sense organs are powerless and defunct. The realms of the intangible may be dwelled into only by awareness, which is supra-sensory and out of the spatio-temporal Cartesian grid. This intangible is out of bounds for the intellect which is defanged when depraved of sensory inputs. That is the reason why this aspect of knowledge is termed as “Realization”. Realization implies knowledge which is already there but which we are unaware of. The knowledge of the form shifts focus to awareness. Awareness is independent of subject object bifurcation Reasoning, deduction and investigation are meaningless tools which only obfuscate and serve to the detriment of the user.

The knowledge of the manifest is a stepping stone to enhancing awareness. By knowing what I am not is a very potent principle to know what I am. If I cannot fathom the manifest, then I cannot even dream of the unmanifest. The journey to realization involves traveling over a diverse terrain. Each distinct terrain requires a commensurate vehicle. The vehicle of reason used to traverse the terra firma of tangibility needs to be abandoned when one has to take to the aerial journey of enhanced awareness. For this journey one has to travel very light, against the gravity of reason, logic and sensory perception into the realm of space of consciousness. The only navigation system being the guidance of the Guru. Most perceive the Guru to be in a particular form and person. But actually the Guru is a tatva (principle). It could manifest in any form. It only requires the disciple to be in a state of preparedness or conditioning before it reveals itself.

The entire journey is beyond the realm of consciousness. As consciousness involves duality, i.e. someone is conscious of something, the subject object dichotomy still lingers.
When one transcends consciousness, there is only awareness, a sense of “I am”.
Consciousness can be conditioned and adulterated by desires, vasanas. But awareness supercedes all and is the dwelling or source of the supreme being. This awareness is bliss, joy bereft of any duality, form and shape. In this state all derivatives of consciousness like space, time form and appearance melt into just “I am” .

Somewhat akin to the Bose- Einstein condensate of matter. The inability to communicate this state of awareness using the parameters of the conscious state leads to the mysticism of spiritual knowledge. But this knowledge is of the highest order and really ceases to be knowledge also as knowledge is implicit with a “knower” which again is a state of duality.

The Brain is what makes you believe

Vilayanur Ramachandran, a Neurologist, gave an astounding talk on how our brain acts as the only bridge to believe the relational aspects of mind and matter. His series of experiments, meticulously performed and impeccably explained in this video, reveal some amazing concepts.

Can we imagine due to brain damage, some people associate every number with a color? Some patients will fail to recognize their mother by her face, but recognize her voice! Take a look at this really mind boggling lecture.

The video is around 20 minutes in length, so please let it download first. Press 'play' and then 'pause' to let it load fully.



Credits: Geeksaresexy