Prof.(Dr.) Sundeep Mishra
Vice-Chancellor & Interventional Cardiologist
Menu
There is nothing permanent except change
There is no one fixed universal truth or in other words no fixed and stable nature of the structures and systems that shape human behavior and communication rather it is constantly shifting. Power relations play a crucial role in shaping social and linguistic systems and there is a huge influence of discourse in shaping reality (both perception of reality & tangible reality that is perceived).
Even consciousness is not one single unit it is fragmented and contingent. It evolves from localized personal consciousness → mankind → amphibious → spherical → crystal (Shiva) → light → sound (Shakti) → divine unconditioned consciousness i.e. metaphysical framework of panentheistic cosmopsychism.
TRISHANKU HANGING FROM A TREE
Trishanku is hanging from a tree over a cliff. He is holding onto a twig with his teeth. His hands hold no branch. His feet can find no branch. Up on the cliff-edge
Narada passing by asks him: ‘Say that one thing that can save your life”
What can he say / do?
Background – King Trishanku was a saintly man but had one great desire; NOT TO DIE but to ascend bodily into heaven. He had once done a good turn to sage Vishwamitra and the sage decided to help him fulfill his desire. Accordingly, he performed a yagna and Trishanku began to rise heavenwards. When Indra, King of the gods, saw Trishanku at the gates of Heaven, he was furious and catching hold of him, threw him down.
Vishwamitra saw Trishanku hurtling downwards and shouted:”Let Trishanku stay where he is now!” Trishanku’s fall was arrested as Vishwamitra would not allow him to come down, Trishanku became suspended between heaven and earth. But Vishwamitra knew that Trishanku would eventually fall to earth unless held up by physical means, so he propped him up with a long pole. The pole eventually turned into a Kalpavraksha and Trishanku’s held it onto a twig with his teeth.
SO QUESTION IS WHAT CAN TRISHANKU SAY AT THIS STAGE WHICH CAN PREVENT HIM FROM FALLING AND DYING?
PANINI MAKES A CART
Panini made a cart.
Each wheel had 500 spokes.
If you remove the wheel and every thing else.
What does it tell about Panini?
Background
Computer processing of a natural language (and thus translation into other languages) has gone through two distinct phases. It was first thought that machine translation (MT) of one language into another should be an easy matter once one had compiled dictionaries and obtained mathematical representation of the grammars of the languages in question. Thus actual translation could simply be replacing the words in the text by their equivalents, and then rearranging and modifying these new words according to the grammar of the target language. However, there were several problems; 1) one word can have several equivalents (the correct one can be decided only by the context). 2) Mathematical construction of the grammar was also not perfect (exceptions being a huge problem). Thus Machine translations were often incomprehensible, or they totally distorted meaning. The second phase is that of knowledge representation which assumes knowledge of the application environment and of the intended audience. But the techniques of knowledge representation also suffer from certain shortcomings. One big shortcoming is again a lack of mathematical constructive approach to develop a language. The greatest success a constructive approach to the description of a natural language has ever had was when Dakshiputra Panini devised his grammar for the Sanskrit language, an achievement termed by the famous linguist Leonard Bloomfield as “one of the greatest monuments of human intelligence.” We would expect that the insights of Panini, “the greatest linguist of antiquity, if not of all time” (Staal) could be exploited to help answer questions regarding limits to computers as well as to define an approach that could yield powerful text and speech processing systems. The knowledge representation methodology in the grammar of Panini and his successors is in many ways equivalent to the more powerful, currently researched artificial intelligence (AI) schemes. It includes rules about rules, analogs of which are not known for any other language (or for a flexible enough subset of, say, the English language), which would help in the writing of efficient AI software.
Dakshiputra Panini is believed to have lived during the fifth or sixth century B.C. He was born in the town of Shalatura, modern Lahur, in northwest India. Panini’s grammar Ashtadhyayi (The Eight Chapters), 8 spokes of wheel, deals ostensibly with the Sanskrit language; however, it presents the framework for a universal grammar that may (and probably does) apply to any language. His book consists of a little under 4000 rules and aphorisms. Panini’s grammar attempts to completely describe Sanskrit as the spoken language of its time.
Panini’s grammar begins with meta-rules, or rules about rules. To facilitate his description he establishes a special technical language, or meta-language (Staal). This is followed by several sections on how to generate words and sentences starting from roots, as well as rules on transformations of structure. The last part of the grammar is a one-directional string of rules, where a given rule in the sequence ignores all the rules that follow. Panini also uses recursion by allowing elements of earlier rules to recur in later rules. This anticipates in form and spirit by >2500 years the idea of a computer program. The structure of this part of Panini’s grammar should rightly be termed the Panini Wheel.
In Panini’s system a finite set of rules is enough to generate infinity of sentences. The algebraic character of Panini’s rules was not appreciated in the West until recently when a similar generative structure was discussed by Noam Chomsky and others. Before this, in the nineteenth century, Panini’s analysis of root and suffixes and his recognition of ablaut had led to the founding of the subjects of comparative and historical linguistics.
FIRST WASH YOUR BOWL
Devrata (later Bhishma Pitameh) said to Sanatkumara (eldest son of Brahma), “I have just entered this ashram. Please teach me.”
“Have you eaten your rice porridge?” asked Sanatkumara.
“Yes, I have,” replied Devrata.
“Then you had better wash your bowl,” said Sanatkumara.
With this Devrata gained insight.
Background – Shantanu, the king of Kuru kingdom, was on a hunting trip, when he saw a beautiful woman on the banks of the river Ganga. He fell in love with her and asked for her hand in marriage. The lady agreed to his proposal but with one condition that he will never question her actions; and if this condition was broken, she would abandon him. Shantanu accepted it and lived a happy marital life with her. However, when a child was born, the queen used to drown him in the river Ganga. One by one, seven sons were born and drowned, while Shantanu remained silent because of his commitment. When she was about to throw the eighth child into the river, Shantanu, unable to control himself, stopped her and confronted her about her actions. After hearing Shantanu’s harsh words, the woman revealed herself to be the goddess Ganga and decided to abandon him as her condition was broken. Before disappearing, whoever, she promised to return this son, now called Devrata after his education. She took him to different loka (realms), where he was brought up and trained by many eminent sages.
- Sanatkumara: The eldest son of the god Brahma taught Devavrata the mental and spiritual sciences.
- Brihaspati: The son of Angiras and the preceptor of the Devas taught the duties of kings (Dandaneeti), or political science and other Shastras.
- Shukracharya: The son of Bhrigu and the preceptor of the Asuras also taught Devavrata in political science and other branches of knowledge.
- The sages Vashishtha and Chyavana taught the Vedas and Vedangas to Devavrata.
- Markandeya: The immortal son of Mrikandu of Bhrigu’s race who acquired everlasting youth from the god Shiva taught Devavrata in the duties of the Yatis.
- Parashurama: The son of Jamadagni trained Bhishma in warfare.
- Indra: The king of the Devas. He bestowed celestial weapons on Bhishma.
WHY DID SANATKUMAR ASK DEVRATA TO WASH THE BOWL
BUDDHA TWIRLED LOTUS
Buddha twirled a flower,
Only MahaKashyapa smiled,
Buddha made him his successor,
Why?
Background – Buddha was getting old, time to anoint a successor. One day he was holding a sermon at a pond near his residence in Rajgir, in Gradhrakuta mountains (Holy Eagle Peak / Vulture Peak). He picked up a white lotus flower from its roots from a pond and twirled it in his fingers.
Everyone was silent but Mahakashyapa smiled at this revelation (although he tried to control the lines of his face).
Buddha says: “I have (hold) the eye of the true teaching, the heart of Nirvana, the true aspect of non-form, and the ineffable stride of Dharma. It is not expressed by words, but especially transmitted beyond teaching. This teaching I have given to Maha-Kashyapa.”
WHY IS KRISHNA NOT WEARING PEACOCK FEATHERS?
Vallabharacharya, the great saint-savant, took Surdas as his disciple,
introduced him to Krishna and advised him to sing Bhagvat Lila, the Creative Play of the Lord.
Surdas said Everything is OK
but “Why is Krishna not wearing Peacock Feathers.”
Background – When one day Krishna woke first from a rest in the forest with his cowherd friends, he decided to wake everyone and call the cows grazing at a distance by playing his flute. When Krishna blew the nectar of his lips into the flute, a melodious raga with a slow rhythm and a deep base emerged from its end. This wonderful vibration enchanted the peacocks in and around the Govardhan hills. Their hearts began to sing in happiness and fill the skies with their own song. The resonant vibrations from the flute encouraged the peacocks to dance. Krishna, who is the source of all dramatic arts, was pleased with their dance and encouraged them by his kind glances and sweet smiling. They cried with joy and it sounded all over the hills. In time, their sounds became indistinguishable from the echoes. They became excited and jumped up and down, flapping their wings. As the peacocks danced, the kings of peacocks made his way to the Krishna and makes a sound which Krishna understands as a thanking note and a request to dance with them. Krishna accepts to dance and moves amidst them, dancing like the peacocks increasing the tempo and playing to the rhythm of His steps. The bliss of the peacocks increased multifold when Krishna danced with them. It was so overwhelming, that some peacocks fainted. All the animals and cowherds of the Govardhan hills stood transfixed, unable to move their eyes away from the dance of Krishna. The flute in Krishna’s hand seeing the uncommon performance of its master began to sing on its own. The spectacle was extremely splendid when seen from the top of the Govardhan hills, the heaven and even the netherland. They danced for a long time and slowly the tired peacocks stopped dancing. Then Krishna danced to the rhythm of His own steps. After many days, when he stopped dancing, there was an enchanting silence. The king of the peacocks again approached Krishna with great humility, bowed down his head and said, “You have created a festival of bliss for which we remain eternally indebted to You. It is our duty to offer you ‘Gurudakshina’. I request You to accept our only opulence, our plumage. Wear them on your crown as a decoration.” With large tears of ecstasy, the king of peacocks dropped many divine feathers. Krishna lovingly accepted the offering of the peacocks and picked up the feathers and to everybody’s joy, placed a few of them on his turban. Thus he came to wear the peacock feathers.
SO WHY CANT SURDAS SEE THESE FEATHERS?
THE MONK WHO WOULD BE A FOX – PART I
Once a Spiritual Master used to deliver spiritual discourse to his pupils and an old man used to attend them, unseen by the monks (pupils). At the end of each talk when the pupils / visitors left, so would he. But one day he remained after they had gone, and Master asked him: `Who are you?’
The old man replied: `I am not a human being, but I was a human being in Treta Yug, was actually a monk myself and lived on this mountain. At that time one of my students asked me whether the enlightened man is subject to the law of causation. I answered him: “The enlightened man is not subject to the law of causation,” i.e. doesn’t fall into cause and effect For this answer, evidencing a clinging to absoluteness, I became a fox for five hundred rebirths, and I am still a fox. Will you release me from this curse (condition) with your enlightened words and let me get out of a fox’s body?
Now may I ask you: Is the enlightened man subject to the law of causation?’
Master said: `The enlightened man is one with the law of causation’ i.e. never ignore cause and effect
At the words of the Master the old man was enlightened. `I am emancipated,’ he said, paying homage with a deep bow. `I am no longer a fox, but I have to leave my body in my dwelling place behind this mountain. Please perform my funeral as a monk.’ Then he disappeared.
THE MONK WHO WOULD BE A FOX – PART II
Master asked the supervisors of his ashram to announce and inform everyone that after the midday meal there would be a funeral service for a dead monk. The pupils wondered at this, saying, “Everyone is in good health; nobody is in the sick ward. What does this mean?”
After the meal Master led the monks to the foot of a rock on the far side of the mountain and with his staff poked out the dead body of a fox and performed the ceremony of cremation.
That evening he ascended his asan and told the pupils the whole story. One of his pupils, O thereupon asked him, “The old man gave the wrong answer and was doomed to be a fox for five hundred rebirths. Now, suppose he had given the right answer, what would have happened then?”
Master said, “You come here to me, and I will tell you.”
O went up to the Master and boxed his ears. The Master (upon being boxed) clapped his hands with delight and with a laugh exclaimed, “I was thinking that you were the black sheep, but now I see before me the shyam varna (Krishna) himself.”
POINTS TO PONDER
The student sees the truth (that there is neither a “correct” nor an “incorrect” answer, rather the question itself is incorrect) and therefore asks the question that penetrates right to the heart of the matter.
“If he had given the correct answer, what then?”
He is testing his teacher. He understands that the question is a trap, and that that choosing “correct” or “incorrect” is stepping firmly into that trap and both are really INCORRECT. He is asking his teacher a question, but the details of the question don’t matter. The real challenge is: “if you answer this question, you’re agreeing to the terms of question.”
The Muddy Road
Tanzan and Ekido were once traveling together down a muddy road. A heavy rain was still falling.
Coming around a bend, they met a lovely girl in a silk kimono and sash, unable to cross the intersection.
“Come on, girl,” said Tanzan at once. Lifting her in his arms, he carried her over the mud. Ekido did not speak again until that night when they reached a lodging temple. Then he no longer could restrain himself.
“We monks don’t go near females,” he told Tanzan, “especially not young and lovely ones. It is dangerous. Why did you do that?”
“I left the girl there,” said Tanzan. “Are you still carrying her?”
Points to Ponder – Relationship between mind and matter; mind and not the matter colors our reality
