Tought 128: Innovation through Technology

Technology has been changing constantly; these days, it is changing faster than ever before. “If it can be done, it is obsolete” - this is how technology is leaping forward. If you do not update yourself, you become obsolete.

The world too has been changing constantly. Every system changes constantly. According to the laws of thermodynamics, every system deteriorates, if left to itself without intervention. This deterioration from order to disorder is called Entropy.

The experienced manager knows that every system has entropy. But he cannot be at all places, all at the same time, to find out about it. However, the efficient manager has a helicopter view of his system of operations all the time – and when necessary, he zooms to the trouble spots to intervene as needed. When something goes wrong, the good manager does not immediately ask "who did it?" Rather, he asks, "What went wrong" and fixes it as soon as possible, whatever went wrong.

These are challenging times everywhere – especially in India. Challenging times require challenging attitudes. Those who develop these attitudes, survive - and even prosper. Those who cannot muster enough innovative thinking and courage, who let themselves be overwhelmed by circumstances and meekly submit to them, find alibis instead of solutions to their problems.

Technology finds innovative solutions to every challenge. That is what technology is all about. That is how the Silicon Valley thrives and prospers. The spirited young people of the valley convert every challenge into money, through innovative solutions. These converters are not big operators – they are “lean, mean and nimble”. They are not afraid to step out of the beaten track - and explore the unfamiliar turf.

The next thought is about “The body-mind connection”

Thought 127: There is an immense mass of information being thrown at you now

My parents did not have so much information thrown at them - as is being done by the media these days. Their information needs were also meager. What all they needed to know to live comfortably was the nearest school for their children, the nearest doctor and the nearest grocery store. A few other services were delivered at home. Life was very simple in those days.

But the times have changed. Life is becoming increasingly more and more complex every day. One income is not sufficient any more for comfortable living. Two income families have come to stay. Time has become extremely important for both husband and wife. This has brought in its wake many changes in life styles.

The need for information also changed with the times. We are seeing, with a monotonous regularity, rapid technological changes, cycles of boom and recession, rising and falling inflation rates - all of them and many more such parameters, having a direct impact on our day to day living.

This is the modern Hitech and IT age - and you are literally battered with information. It is believed that information is growing in geometric proportion. We do not even know how much of it is factual and to be believed - and how much of it is spin and therefore, is irrelevant to our needs. The sheer volume of it, however, is mind-boggling.

There is a large and profitable Information Technology industry growing rapidly, which is constantly churning out new information and throwing it at us. In the USA alone, there are 1400 TV stations, several hundred newspapers and magazines. Some of these newspapers have about 100 pages on week days and about 300 pages in their Sunday editions. There are several hundred cable and long distance telephone companies. To cap it all, there is, of course, the Internet. All of them are constantly trying to literally drown us in information.

We are confused most of the time; perhaps even worried that we may miss something vital. There is also a lurking suspicion in our minds that we are being deliberately conned by sharp operators. We do not know any more what to believe - and what not to believe.

Information is not knowledge. It has to be processed - if it has to become knowledge. You have to sift through the information, analyze it, establish its objectivity, classify what is relevant to your needs and store the classified information in a proper place for timely and easy retrieval for it to become useful knowledge. This processed information has also to be updated continually.

The next thought is about ‘Innovation through Technology’

Thought 126: You are the target of the media blitz

Information is constantly beamed at you - by the media and also by the internet, if you are a regular surfer. The media is constantly communicating with you all the time, perhaps subliminally too. Some of the information beamed at you is designed to mislead you into decisions and actions, which may be inimical to your own interests.

Therefore, the information churned out by the media is frequently not processed properly for your use. The raw data has to be evaluated and filtered and processed for accuracy of facts, as well as, for relevance to your needs. Filtered and processed information is value-added information and therefore, can be quite costly.

It is not enough if you acquire the proper information once. It has to be updated constantly. We know now that the information gets obsolete very rapidly. This puts pressure on you. You are never sure that you are not operating on obsolete information.

If you do not have proper information with you, you will be at the mercy of those high pressure sales people, who are eager to sell you something and take away your money. There is a mad rush to get at your purse strings and separate you from your money, somehow, any old how.

The business community looks after its own interests much better than ordinary consumers. The ordinary consumers too should do the same. Self help is the best help. You become aggressive and design your own counter measures.

Consumer societies are one answer to this. We can also choose the sources of
information - the news paper, the magazine, the TV station, friends, neighbors, the school, the job, etc, from where we get information. Not easy, but we have to think on these lines.

We have to know our needs precisely and decide which sources of the information are likely to satisfy our needs properly. Our objective is to prepare ourselves for taking good decisions, because, "Your decision is only as good as the information that you have".

The next thought is about “There is an immense mass of information being thrown at you now”

Thought 125: Mind is a powerful instrument

All consciousness in a person is in the mind. All knowledge in a person is also in the mind. All the good in a person is also in the mind – in the form of thoughts. All evil (impurities such as anger, hatred, arrogance, jealousy, selfishness, etc) is also in the mind - in the form of thoughts again. All sorrow too is in the mind – in the form of thoughts only. All worry too is in the mind in the form of thoughts again. All happiness also is in the mind in the form of thoughts. All likes and dislikes (Raag-Dveshas) are also in the mind. The truth is that you are sucked into these thoughts as if you were in a powerful whirlpool; try as you may, you cannot come out of it easily.

Mind plays games with us – because of impurities like the Raaga-Dveshas (likes and dislikes), selfishness, jealousy, hatred, arrogance, etc in it. An idle mind, they say, is the devil’s workshop. It sets up conflicts of all sorts – all the time. Conflicts cause turmoil in your mind and when the mind is in turmoil, you will never have peace. And without peace, you will have no happiness.

Mind is so powerful that (being presently in India) if you think that you are in a distant place like the USA, you are there instantly. This means that it can transcend space and time dimensions.

Mind is like a double-edged sword. What it sets up, it can also undo. It all depends – whether you have control over it or it has control over you. When you have control over the mind, it flows in a positive direction and you will enjoy what you experience and vice-versa.

The next thought is about “You are the target of the media blitz”

Thought 124: Vedaanta helps you to purify your Vaasanas

Man has freedom of action. He could be positive and be beneficial to the society around him or he can also be negative and harmful and destructive to the society around him. Man can consciously exhaust his Vaasanas and rise up. He could also reinforce his Vaasanas and sink down to the depths of degradation.

Vaasanas are impurities, which obscure the divine nature in man. When you wipe out Vaasanas, you realize yourself - which is Moksha (liberation from Karma and Janma). Man minus Vaasanas is God. Vedaanta teaches you how to neutralize the effects of your Vaasanas.

Man has choice of action – unlike other living creatures. You do not expect a tiger to be kind and considerate. It must pounce and kill – and that is all what it knows. A cow on the other hand is gentle, meek and mild – and it can never be cruel like a tiger. Thus, all animals tread a beaten path. These animals fulfill their Vaasanas in the realm of activities, which indicates their nature. They lead a choice less pattern of life. Man, however, has choice of action. Through self-effort, man can change the pattern of his life; he can change his Vaasanas and even his Praarabdha. Self-effort gives you freedom regardless of the nature of the Vaasanas. (Swami Tejomayananda)

When not manifest, Vaasanas remain dormant in your potential nature. They are in that state when you are in deep sleep. During the wakeful state, they begin to manifest as thoughts in your intellect (thoughts in your intellect are always dictated by your Vaasanas). In the second stage of manifestation, they express themselves as desires in the mind. In the final stage, they (the desires) express themselves as actions.

Thus, as long as Vaasanas exist in you, thoughts, desires and actions will constantly flow out of you. The state of Vaasanlessnes is the state of thoughtlessness or the state of desirelessness or the state of actionlessness – which is called Moksha.

You cannot abstain from action while the Vaasanas are still present in you. People practice self-denial externally – not realizing that Vaasanas, thoughts and desires are still present internally, which putrefy the internal personality. Such practices lead to suppression rather than sublimation of the personality.

The next thought is about Mind is a powerful instrument

Thought 123: Vaasanas drive you helplessly to commit sin

Arjuna asks the Bhagavaan Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita, “Why people behave as they do – irrationally most of the time. They often commit evil actions, even when they know that it is wrong to do so. Some unknown force seems to always impel them into committing the sin in spite of themselves” (BG 6.33, 6.34). The Bhagavaan replies that Vaasanas are the reason why people helplessly behave as they do. Vaasanas are very powerful. Even the Jnaanis find that they are helplessly controlled by their Vaasanas.

Every one picks up a host of likes and dislikes as he journeys along in every life. Every mind has likes and dislikes. Every one views the world through his likes and dislikes. The world that enters a mind is the one that got distorted by the two lenses called, “likes” and “dislikes”. Thus, the world that is stored in any mind is a modified world – modified by its likes and dislikes. This is a private world of fantasy and fancy of a person – which is uniquely his own. The individual, even while viewing the objective world created by Isvara, actually interacts in terms of his own private world - and develops subjective responses. Thus, these likes and dislikes define the world that a person would like to live in. These likes and dislikes are identified with the Vaasanas of a person.

The next thought is about “Vedaanta helps you to purify your Vaasanas”

Thought 122: About Vaasanas

Every individual possesses a separate and distinct nature, which expresses itself in a unique manner. This inherent tendency, this innate bent of mind, this unique aptitude, and this individualistic nature, characteristic to a person, is what we call a Samskaara (in Vedaanta). sed. Samskaaras are known as Vaasanas – when you carry them forward to the next Janma. And we do carry our Samskaaras from one Janma to the next. Like the software programs in a computer, Vaasanas remain with you no matter how many births you take – until you throw them out (erase) them.

Vaasanas, which are subtle impressions on the mind, are responsible for your unique personality; Vaasanas are the nucleus of your personality. You are the substantial form of your insubstantial Vaasanas. Vaasana literally means a fragrance. Your Vaasanas are your individual and unique fragrances.

In a Hindu temple, for instance, the idol of the deity is located in the innermost of the three enclosures (Praakaaras). The Puujaari burns camphor (which has a unique fragrance) to light up the idol, which is in darkness in the inner most enclosure. When the camphor burns shedding its fragrance, God (idol) becomes visible to the devotees. In a human body too, the self is surrounded by three enclosures (Stuula, Suukshma and Kaarana Sareeras). Just like in the temple, here too, the self, which is in the inner most of these three material layers, becomes visible only, when you shed your unique fragrances by burning your Vaasanas. The Vaasanas get burnt up in the fire of knowledge of the self. In this sense, Deham (body) is a Devaalayam (temple).

Thoughts, desires and actions emanate from your Vaasanas in the same way that sounds emanate from the grooves of a gramophone record. As long as Vaasanas exist in you, thoughts desires and actions will constantly flow out of you. You cannot abstain from action while the Vaasanas are still present in you.

The Vaasanas are the result of past actions. At the same time, Vaasanas also become the cause - and action becomes the result. This cycle goes on like the seed and the tree or the egg and the hen. This is the cause and effect phenomenon in action. Thus,

• Past actions produce the present Vaasanas
• Present Vaasanas produce future actions

The next thought is about Vaasanas drive you helplessly to commit sin.