A Dialogue of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar with Shashi Tharoor.

The answer to everything

Do you want to know the answer to the meaning of life ? Do you wonder about the answer to the universe ? Would you like to have that one single answer to everything ?

Hold your breath.

Concentrate.

Hear it from me now. Hear the answer you have always been seeking.

Here is the answer which will solve all your problems, end all your wanderings and be the ultimate fruit of all your cogitations. Here is the path to eternal tranquility. Here lies the seed of brahman and here is the sound of Aum.

Are you ready for the answer ? pakkka ? ? Here we go then.

The answer is 42.

Sounds incredible ? Check it by googling it up or check it here.

Tathaastu ! :)

At the very Limits of Modern Science

Here is an interview with Dr. Robert Lanza. Dr. Lanza seems to be asking a lot of very interesting and very pertinent questions.

Read the transcript as below -

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Wired News: You call your theory of the universe a biocentric theory. What, exactly, does that mean?

Lanza: This new theory presents a shift in world view with the perspective that life creates the universe instead of the other way around.

WN: I imagine that a lot of physicists will be rather upset by your article. How do you expect them to react?

Lanza: People are not going to be very happy with what this all means. This theory is going to invalidate their (some scientists) entire life's work. I will definitely get crucified.

We've got the scientific structure and framework incorrect. We need a theory that is internally consistent. We can't do this without creating a biological understanding of space and time. This will require restructuring science so that biology is above physics.

WN: Does that mean you think that big physics and astronomy projects should not be funded?

Lanza: Of course they should be funded. I don't think that everything should be changed. What I am saying is that there is a missing piece to the puzzle of how the universe works. The answer is biology. It is as simple as that. The biological picture of space and time must be integrated into our understanding of physics.

WN: Why do you think that there is such a deep misunderstanding of what time and space really are?

Lanza: Our minds are structured to think that way. Even Einstein avoided the question of what space and time are. He simply defined them as what we measure with clocks and measuring-rods. However, the emphasis should be on the "we," not the measuring.

WN: Do you expect that some people will read your article and think you mean that they can sit on a mountaintop and meditate to change the world around them with mind powers?

Lanza: We can't decide that we want to jump off the roof and not get hurt. However much we want, we can't violate the rules of spatiotemporal logic.

WN: In your article, you make the assertion that time and space do not exist. What do you mean by that?

Lanza: There is something very unusual about them. We can't put them in a marmalade jar and take them back to the lab for analysis. Space and time are forms of animal sense perception. Space and time are not objects or things -- they are forms of animal sense perception.

Thousands of articles and books have danced around the desire to toss off the current mechanical world view that has dominated Western culture for hundreds of years. While some imply that time and space may not in fact exist, this article diagrams, for the first time, such a universe -- a universe in which time and space do not exist as physical realities independent of humans and animals.

WN: You seem to disagree with how the world was created.

Lanza: There are serious problems with the current world view. We pride ourselves in our current beliefs and then we (scientists) say, and by the way, we have no idea why the big bang happened.

WN: Can you explain why we should doubt the things that are accepted as the truth in science classes everywhere?

Lanza: For the first time outside of complex mathematics, this theory explains the provocative new experiment that was just published in Science last month. This landmark experiment showed that a choice you make now can actually influence an event that has already occurred in the past.

Source : http://www.wired.com/news/technology/medtech/0,72910-0.html

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To say that the answers to these questions have been the holy grail of all physicists since time eternity would be an understatement.

In these hazy realms where the modern western-centric science fails to answer some questions, one could turn more eastward for some of the most profound ideas ever thought of.

Dr. Lanza may not find all the answers over here - but i deem that this and this is the closest that anyone has ever got to answering all these questions !

I would rate Vivekananda and all those who thought of these concepts, among the brightest scientific minds to have walked the face of the planet !

I am thinking - I am GOD

What do people think ? Why do they think? How does what they think affect what they think ?

Thinking is such a complex topic to talk about. Even when i think about talking on thinking, I am actually thinking about thinking.

What is a thought? Is it some neurons that are fired randomly in the brain ? Is it a physical phenomenon ? Or would you atrribute to it some meta-physical value ?

Can some-one stop from thinking ? But if that person has stopped thinking, how does he know that he has stoped thinking ? Can someone 'think' he is not 'thinking'.

Think about this question - what is it really like - to meditate ? Meditation is described as 'directing your thought' rather than 'absence of thoughts'. [ The Bhagavad Gita and the Vedas does talk about "directing your thoughts" towards the concept of bramhan. ]

But consider why we need not 'think' this way ? If you are directing your thought only in one direction, then doesnt that mean that you are NOT truly understanding the world in its "entirety" ? Are you not missing so many things ? Arent you becoming a vegetable ?

Was not the concept of "brahman" founded in some human thought ? It is ironic that the "concept of brahman" would have not even originated had it not been for someone "thinking" of different things - thinking of Brahman. Then why do "Yogis" "think" of GOD and only GOD ?

Could it be that it is wrong to "direct your thoughts" and it is more appropriate to just "let your thoughts be " ? Say, Forget brahman. Forget everything else. Forget all rules. Just let your thoughts explore.

May be the only reason the ancient people "invented" the concept of brahman was because "exploration" of thoughts causes bewilderment in people. It causes them to explore new things, which in turn leads to them to being scared. There is this inherent human nature to detest anything that is "new" and unexplored and be afraid of it. ( I could totally diverge the topic to "why is it 'not ok' to be scared, but i will spare you from that for now. )

Could it be that after the experience gained by these "scary experiences" - humans decided that it was better to "categorize" and to "limit" the knowledge of what they see and what they feel feel. That could be why humans need to insist on the concept of a central "GOD". Something universal but constant. Just so that the mind has this one direction that it thinks it is leading to - the mind is no longer bewildered into "ever-new" or the "nothing".

But may be we are just fooling ourselves ?

Consider this - GOD would never have been born, had us humans not thought of him. So doesnt that mean WE ARE THE CREATORS ? We created GOD in our minds - through our thoughts ! We created this perception of the world that we have !

Doesnt that lead you to the conclusion that "the human thought is the real GOD - the real CREATOR " ?

Hmmmm ...but wasnt this all "thought" by me ?

Enough of meta-meta-thinking ... back to my mundane existence :)