Samanwayam and samyak drshti in Sanatana Dharma

“Behind the facade of Vedic orthodoxy and its
tendency to abstract symbolism, an extensive and deep-
rooted system of popular beliefs and cults and a decided
tendency to anthropomorphic presentation prevailed. The
Vedic religion, however, absorbed, embodied, and preserved
the types and rituals of older cults. Instead of destroying
them, it adapted them to its own requirements. It took so
much from the social life of the Dravidians and other native
inhabitants of India that it is very difficult to disentangle
the original Aryan elements from others. The interpenetra-
tion has been so complex, subtle, and continuous, with the
result that there has grown up a distinct Hindu civilization
which is neither Aryan nor Dravidian nor aboriginal. Ever
since the dawn of reflection the dream of unity has hovered
over the scene and haunted the imagination of the leaders. “

Eastern Religions and Western Thought – Dr. S. Radhakrishan,
https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.208994/page/n327

“The Indus civilization represents a very perfect adjustment of
human life to a specific environment, that can only have resulted
from years of patient eifort. And it has endured;
it is already specifically Indian and forms the basis of
modern Indian culture.”

NEW LIGHT ON THE MOST ANCIENT EAST – V. GORDON CHILDE
https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.280955/page/n197
https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.280955/page/n199

“…மாற்றுத்தரப்புகளை விவாதம் மூலம் உள்ளிழுத்துக்கொள்ளும் திறந்த இயல்புமூலமே இந்த நிலத்தில் மதமோதல்கள் வன்முறையையும் அழித்தொழிப்புத்தன்மையையும் தவிர்த்தன. இந்திய நிலப்பகுதியின் மூன்றாயிரம் வருடத்து வரலாற்றில் மேலைநாட்டில் நிகழ்ந்ததுபோன்ற பெரும் மதப்போர்களை நாம் பார்க்கமுடியாது. ஐந்துக்கும் மேற்பட்ட மதங்கள் உதயமான இம்மண்ணில் மத்தியக்கிழக்கு மண்ணில் நிகழ்ந்தது போல மதப்போர்கள் நிகழ்ந்திருந்தால் என்ன எஞ்சியிருக்கும்?…”

The use of dialogue to understand, assimilate and resolve the differences with other philosophies has helped us avoid the crusade kind of wars and destroying cultures. In the 3000+ year history of India, we cannot see cursade kind of wars seen in the west (I think the author means the middle east). If we had this kind of approach towards resolving philosophical differences nothing would be left, given the fact, that this is the birth place of 5+ major philosohpies.

“…மத்தியக்கிழக்கின் ஒற்றைத்தரிசன மதங்கள் பரவிய நிலங்களில் என்ன நடந்தது என்பதைப் பார்க்கும்போது இந்தியப்பெருநிலத்தின் வரலாறு பெரும் ஆச்சரியத்தையே அளிக்கிறது. இங்கே பண்பாட்டுக்கலப்பு நடந்துள்ளதே ஒழிய பண்பாட்டு அழிப்பு நிகழவில்லை. ஐந்தாயிரம் வருடங்களுக்கு முன்னர் சிந்துசமவெளி நாகரீகத்தில் இருந்த பண்பாட்டுக்கூறுகள் கூட இன்றும் அழியாமல் நீடிக்கின்றன. இந்தியப்பெருநிலத்தின் தொன்மையான பண்பாட்டுக்கூறுகள் எதுவுமே முற்றாக அழிந்ததில்லை.காரணம் இங்கே நடந்தது கொள்வதும் கொடுப்பதும் அடங்கிய ஒரு பண்பாட்டு உரையாடல்தான்.

ஸ்மன்வயம் என்ற சொல் இங்கே மிகக்கூர்ந்து நோக்கத்தக்கது. நாராயணகுரு அவரது நூல்களில் இந்தசொல்லை மிக விரிவாகப் பயன்படுத்தியிருக்கிறார். இதை ஒருங்கிணைப்பு அல்லது கலப்பு என்றுதான் சொல்லவேண்டும். ஆனால் ஒருங்கிணைக்கப்படும் கூறுகளுக்குள் உண்மையான முழுமையான ஒத்திசைவை உருவாக்குதலும் எந்த ஒரு கூறும் தன் இடத்தையும் தனித்தன்மையையும் இழக்காமலிருக்க கவனம் கொள்ளுதலும் இதன் இயல்பு. ‘தத்வ சமன்வயம்’ என்றே நாராயணகுரு தன் விவாதங்களைக் குறிப்பிடுகிறார். நம் சிந்தனையில் நெடுநாட்களாக நடந்தது இதுவே. பன்மைப்பண்பாடு கொண்ட ஒரு நிலப்பரப்புக்கு மிகச்சிறந்த வழிமுறை இதுமட்டுமே

இந்த பன்மைத்தன்மை, உரையாடல்தன்மை, பண்பாட்டுப் பரிமாற்றம்தான் இந்திய மரபின் வெற்றிக்கும் சிறப்புக்கும் காரணம். கோர்டன் சைல்ட் கூறுவதுபோல இன்றும் தொடரும் இந்தியப் பண்பாட்டின் அடித்தளம் இந்த இயல்பேயாகும்…”

Indian history is astonishing, when we look at the history of middle-east where mono-theistic philosophies (abrahamic faiths) have spread. Here we see curtural exchange and assimilation as opposed to destroying other cultures. Some aspects of the indus valley civilization that are 5000+ years old still survive and prosper. The oldest cultural aspects of India have not been completely destroyed. The reason is the the give and take as a result of healthy dialogue and assimilation of cultures.

The word ‘Samanwayam’ deserves our attention here. Narayana guru has used this word extensively. We can call it assimilation or exchange??. But, whatever is being assimilated, this culture makes sure that we do not lose the individuality of the other philosophy / culture and agreement with all the philosohpies has been the nature of sanatana dharama. Narayana guru calls his debates / dialogue ‘tattva samanwayam’. This has been our thought process. For a multi-faceted, diversified land such as ours this is the best approach.

This diversity of thought, readiness for dialogue, cultural exchange has been the reason for the survival of our sanatana dharma. As Gordon Childe says, this forms the basis of Indian culture.

– Excerpts from https://www.jeyamohan.in/1327#.XNuJvsgzaUk, Translated by yours truly

“…அவ்வுரையாடல் நிகழ்ந்தது துருக்கியப் படையெடுப்புகள் வழியாகந்தான். ஆக்ரமிப்பு வெறி கொண்ட அரசர்களுடன் லட்சக்கணக்கான சாதாரண மக்களும் வந்தார்கள். இங்குள்ள மக்களுடன் உரையாடினார்கள். அவர்களிடம் இஸ்லாமின் ஆன்மீக சாரம் வந்தது. அது இங்குள்ள ஆன்மீகத்தைக் கண்டடைந்தது. நம் ஸ¥·பிக்கள் அனைவருமே மிக எளிமையான மக்களில் இருந்து வந்தவர்கள். படைவீரர்கள் குதிரைக்காரர்கள்…மிக அபூர்வமாகவே மன்னர்குலத்தவர்கள்.

மேலும் பதினாறாம்நூற்றாண்டுக்குப் பின்னர் இங்கே கிறித்தவம் வந்தபோது அது சாம்ராஜ்யக் கனவுகொண்டிருந்த ஐரோப்பிய இனத்தின் மதமாக வந்தது. எந்த விதமான உரையாடல்களுக்கும் அது தயாராக இருக்கவில்லை…”

…that dialogue happened during the Turkish invasion. Lakhs of ordinary people also came with the power hungry emperors. They discussed and mingled with the people here. With them came the Islamic thought. That found the spirituality here. Our Sufis came from ordinary background, soldiers, horsemen…very rarely emperors.

When Christianity came here after 16th century, it came as the representative of European empire. It did not give rise to any dialogue.

“…அவர் அவர்களின் கோயிலில் புகுந்து சிலைகளை உடைத்தும் அவமரியாதைசெய்தும் அவர்களிடம் ஆவேசமாக பேசும்போது அவர்கள் நிதானமாக அவரிடம் உரையாடுகிறார்கள் என்கிறார் அவர். அச்சிலைகள் எங்கும் உள்ள பரப்பிரம்மத்தின் வடிவங்களே என்றும் சிலையில் உண்மையில் ஒன்றும் இல்லை என்றும் சொல்கிறார்கள். அவர் வழிபடும் தெய்வமும் தாங்கள் வழிபடும் தெய்வமும் ஒரே பரம்பொருளின் வடிவங்களே என்றும் ஆகவே அவர்கள் மதம் மாறவேண்டியதில்லை என்றும் சொல்கிறார்கள். ‘இந்தமக்கள் நம்மை மதிக்கிறார்கள். நம்மை பிரியமாக வரவேற்கிறார்கள் .நாம் சொல்வதை கவனமாகக் கேட்கிறார்கள். ஆனால் நம் கருத்தை மட்டும் ஏற்றுக்கொள்வதே இல்லை” என்று சாமுவேல் மெட்டீர் பதிவுசெய்கிறார். பெரும்பாலான கிறித்தவ மதப்பரப்பாளர்கள் இவ்வாறு எழுதியிருக்கிறார்கள். இதுதான் உரையாடல் நடந்த விதம்…”

He (Samuel Mateer) says, when we destroyed the statues in their temples and disrespected them, and spoke with them angrily, they spoke back with patience. They say those idols are just symbolic representations of para-brahman which is omni-present. The idols really do not have anything in them. What we worship and what they worship are the same para-brahman is their belief. So they do not have to change their belief. ‘These people respect us. They welcome us with love. They listen to us carefully. But they do not accept our belief’. Most of the Christian missionaries record similar experiences. This was the way dialogue happened.

– Excerpts from – https://www.jeyamohan.in/1337#.XNuJxMgzaUk, Translated by yours truly.

I encourage tamil readers to read the entire set here.

https://www.jeyamohan.in/1327#.XNuJvsgzaUk
https://www.jeyamohan.in/1333#.XNuJwMgzaUk
https://www.jeyamohan.in/1337#.XNuJxMgzaUk

This dialogue is being threatened today by multiple forces

1. Missionaries funded by Vatican
2. Wahabist moulas funded by Oil money
3. Our own right wing extremist movements
4. Our own pseudo secular party leaders with other ulterior motives, who consider and [1] and [2] to be right and find [3] wrong

 

These are not the common people, the common people need to be part of the dialogue and these elitists with ulterior motives should not influence the dialogue in any means.

 

சமானீ வ ஆஹ¤தி! ஸமானா ஹ்ருதயானீ வ
ஸமானம் அஸ்து வோ மனோ! யதா வா ஸ¤ஸஹாஸதி

[இணைந்து வழிபடுங்கள்! உங்கள் இதயங்கள் இணைக!
உங்கள் மனம் ஒன்றாகுக! ஒன்றாக நலம் பெறுங்கள்!]

समानी व आकूति: समाना हृदयानि व: |
समानमस्तु वो मनो यथा व: सुसहासति ||

यथा व: सुसहा असति ||

ऋग्वेद

This is the last ‘śloka’ in the Rigveda. It states – Let your conclusions be one (or be alike), Let your hearts be the same (or be alike) [So that “everyone” feels for the same particular bad/ill in the society in the same intensity. It may be the common experience that not all feel for the same problem in the ‘intensity’ that we as individual may feel for that. Due to this there may be lack of ‘collective’ efforts to solve that problem]. Let your minds think alike/similar. May all these factors make your organisational-power an impressive one. This ‘śloka’ can be called as an ‘saṅgaṭhan-sūkta’ i.e. guidelines for building an impressive organisation/nation.

Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak had ended his book ‘Geeta Rahasya’ by this ‘shloka’.

From – https://sa.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E0%A4%B8%E0%A4%82%E0%A4%B8%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%95%E0%A5%83%E0%A4%A4_%E0%A4%B8%E0%A5%81%E0%A4%AD%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%B7%E0%A4%BF%E0%A4%A4%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%A8%E0%A4%BF_-_%E0%A5%A6%E0%A5%AB

Do not give up to the divisive tactics employed by the select few elitists with ulterior motive.

10X Engineers matter still

Srini shared an interesting article the happy demise of the 10x engineer with me & Prakash. An interesting read, But I was reminded of this story when I read through the article.

A photographer went to a socialite party in New York.  As he entered the front door, the host said ‘I love your pictures – they’re wonderful; you must have a fantastic camera.’ 

He said nothing until dinner was finished, then:

‘That was a wonderful dinner; you must have a terrific Stove.’

IMHO Individuals and Interactions matter a more than processes, tools, frameworks etc.

Windows 10 Insider Preview Update 10159

Yesterday I posted an entry on my experience of Windows 10 Insider Preview, turns out that Build 10159 is good. I will update after further usage. Glad that Microsoft has got it right this time .

Windows 10 Insider Preview Experience

I am using Windows 10 Insider previews for the last 3 months, my thoughts on it so far.

Understood it is a preview, not even alpha / beta release, but still I could not resist posting these

It is really unstable, especially in the light that RTM release is scheduled for the month end, I am highly doubtful that this will be a stable windows release. This is completely in contrary to the pleasant experience I had with Windows 7 (from Windows Vista days). The other issue is stability seems to be deteriorating the last few builds, this is not good considering the end of july release.

I also feel that the hardware vendors are really behind on schedule, may be Microsoft should have given them preview builds early for them to develop drivers.

This is not what I expected from Microsoft, Common Microsoft.

I have upgraded to build 10159 today, one last chance before I go back to Windows 7 again (Yup, I don’t have windows 8).

Revisiting Career path

Career Path

6 years ago, I blogged about Career Path. Today I would like to revisit the same. What prompted this? There was this interesting discussion on hacker news – What happens to Older Developers?. It is a very interesting read.

Who is a older developer?

People in the thread seem to agree 30+. Going by Peter Norvig’s classic Teach yourself programming in 10 years, the magic number seems to be 10 years / 10, 000 hours. Assuming you started your career after college (around 21), Around 31 you should have mastered the art of programming (assuming you wanted to master it).

What next? Revisiting Career Path

I would like to revisit career path in some new light. This are the options that I currently think are valid.

Yes, I have added the Independent option now.

It is not an either, or between the dependent and independent, you can be on the dependent side to bootstrap your independent venture initially. But have a clear choice in mind. I will quote again the same anecdote from my older post.

A disciple asked a Master about what books he should read.
The Master asked him ‘What do you want to become?’
Disciple said ‘I don’t know’.
Master replied back "Then it doesn’t matter which books you read"
If you do not have a personal vision you cannot lead others effectively.

Why do some relationships fail? What can we do about them?

These are again notes from an old Guru Poornima discourse by Swami Paramarthananda.

To understand the topic “Why do some relationships fail?” we need to understand two kinds of people first and their characteristics.

Two kinds of people

 

1. Wise – Happy(read content) with himself
2. Ignorant – Not happy(read not content) with himself

This classification puts a vast majority of the people in the ignorant bucket.

When two ignorant try to strike a relationship (which is the most common case) these are the characteristics.

Characteristics of an ignorant-ignorant relationship

 

• Both are not happy with themselves, and they try to gain happiness from each other
• This is like Two unsteady people trying to hold each other in order to become steady (This is one of the best examples that one can attribute to such relationships).
• They both try to influence (sometimes even manipulate) each other (in order to gain happiness)
• Expectations keep mounting, No human can fulfill the expectation of other human – impractical
• More complaints than joy as a result of the relationship
• No question of progress / improvement – because maintenance itself is a struggle – Samsara

Lower your expectations

Well that kind of sets the expectations you can have from most of the relationships. So what kind of relationships you can trust on, the relationship with the content (wise) – Read – your Guru.

But, what about other relationships, which form a vast majority and which are most likely you run into. Well the only thing we can do is have lower expectations or better zero expectations when you get into such relationships.

You can read the notes (not transcript) that I made from the discourse here

http://www.evernote.com/shard/s2/sh/4da17541-1317-4ee6-b9d8-19c72db4b03d/03e3bb324c19e9149c4166211031a328

Let go and move on

 

So next time your friend, relative does something that you did not like, or does not do something when it is really needed (It is not one way, you may also do something that your friends / relatives may not like or refrain from doing what they were expecting from you) – remind yourself this example

Two unsteady people are trying to hold each other in order to become steady

Lesser disappointment as a result. Any favourable outcome is rather an exception (not the norm). This simple and profound thought enables us to move on peacefully by letting go.

On Commoditization of labor in Software *Industry*

In our industry the middlemen – hiring managers, HR people, recruiters, etc. – work extremely hard to commoditize labor. To most recruiters, if you’ve got 5 years of experience with C++, you are the same as anyone else who has five years of experience with C++. Never mind that you are an actual person with unique skills and personal qualities that are hard to encapsulate in a resume.

This can be greatly frustrating at times. Most recruiters out there are non-technical people. They aren’t idiots, but most aren’t passionate about what they do and are generally focused on short term goals. Their job becomes one of matching up acronyms in the job requirements with acronyms on your resume.

The amount of money they make pimping you is unlikely to be much different than the money they would make pimping someone else. Multiply that by hundreds of developers a year and it all averages out. Why bother to cultivate a personal relationship with talent?

Emphasis mine. Nice read.

http://www.youell.com/matt/writing/?p=8

Quora & Stackoverflow

Some interesting thoughts –

http://www.quora.com/Why-does-StackOverflow-have-such-a-prickly-community

http://www.quora.com/Why-do-some-people-prefer-Quora-to-StackExchange

Not that it makes any difference, I personally do not like the community at stackoverflow. But it is just my personal opinion. No two things the information they provide is awesome, But they are community of programmers (read programmers == a class of elite people with dismal social skills, I am programmer too and I understand).