by Naresh Jotwani
POWER is a word much in use today: as in powerful, powerless, power-hungry, power line, power station, power electronics, power politics, purchasing power … and more. After a quick, broad look at this theme, this post will focus on the two main variants of power: HARD POWER and SOFT POWER.
Continue reading POWER: HARD & SOFTby Naresh Jotwani
Finance, happiness and their interplay are important topics. The world is highly financialized, and filled with unhappiness. Unhappiness often erupts in violent crime and also larger conflicts. A fresh look at these two is not out of place.
Continue reading Finance & Happiness[The following two thought-provoking comments were made on our previous post by Keshav Vaze and Jayram Daya. The editors felt that these comments should be shared with the wider reader group.]
1. Comment by Keshav Vaze
One line from the post A Few Points On Religion caught my attention in a striking manner:
The established ‘religious institutions’ of Gujarat did not fulfill the simple requirements of basic humanity; a ‘foreign religion’ did.
Naturally one asks, ‘WHY?’
Let me put forth the string of thoughts as an answer to this question. Perhaps we can pin it down to one of the tenets of Hinduism: the idea of rebirth, reincarnation, पुनर्जन्म.
A long time ago, I had read an article in Marathi on the topic of पुनर्जन्म. I am not sure, but I think it was attributed to Osho. The gist of the article was:
Long long ago there was a civilization, a precursor to Hindu. They faced a dilemma: Teachings of the Shastras suggested that as part of Divine Justice, good deeds fetch rewards, and bad deeds fetch punishment. The reality was palpably opposite. Bad men were flourishing and good men were suffering. Gyanis thought over it. If this continued, and it seemed clear that it would, it would be impossible to persuade people to do good things. Then they played a masterstroke.
They said: ‘Yes, we are witnessing an inversion of the Shastras. But it appears so only during this birth. Your good deeds in this birth will be rewarded in the next birth; and you will be punished in your next birth for all your bad deeds in this birth.’
As expected, this was bought by the public and the good men continued to be good. Happy ending!
What the article did not say was: There is a corollary, or call it a side effect.
That logic made it somewhat easy to ignore the call of the conscience to help the needy. The call was suppressed by the logic that the suffering person must have done something bad in his previous birth, and is being punished for the same in this birth. I should not act against ‘Divine Justice’ by mitigating his suffering.
It also kept the sufferers quiet: Convinced that the suffering is ‘God given’, a consequence of the sins committed by them during their previous birth, they were reluctant to fight against the injustice and preferred to endure the suffering so that they will be rewarded in the next birth.
Unless the society accepts the tenets that ‘Good is good in itself. There is no one sitting in judgement. There is no reward nor punishment: neither in this birth nor in the next birth‘, the society will land into this problem.
2. Comment by Jayram Daya
Your article draws a clear distinction between dharma as an essential principle that sustains life and order and religion as a historical, institutional, and social construct. The two should not be considered synonyms. Dharma is more than just a set of beliefs or a membership identity; it is about the nature of existence, right behavior, accountability, and the order that supports both the individual and society.
However, the Advaitic view holds that the ultimate truth cannot be limited to a single religion, prophet, text or institution. Different traditions might be viewed as culturally conditioned representations of humanity’s search for a single ultimate reality. The true test of any spiritual path should not be its size, power or claims of exclusivity, but rather whether it fosters compassion, humility, self-awareness, and genuine concern for the suffering of others.
by Naresh Jotwani
At first sight, one may be forgiven for thinking that ‘civilized’ means well-behaved, wise, educated … or some nice-sounding combination thereof. A little reflection, however, shows that the word is not so well-defined.
Continue reading Civilized? Really?by Naresh Jotwani
Looking back at the major military conflicts since the last century, one sees that none of them produced results which were proudly and loudly touted to be achieved. Failure is the norm, while success has had to be retrofitted into the outcome through clever PR. Examples: the two World Wars, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan and the current conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East.
Ordinary people are taken in by tyrants’ sabre-rattling, loud speeches, military parades and so on. An ordinary person says to himself: All that cannot be wrong, can it? Listening to a mesmerizing tyrant, he dare not even articulate the thought that the bravado is hollow and could backfire. But, invariably, it does. Ordinary people need to wake up and smell the coffee. It is not enough to say that the tyrants can be wrong. The fact is they are wrong, and their mistakes prove costly to all.
This post tries to link such failures to fickle understanding.
by Naresh Jotwani
It is difficult to make predictions, especially about the future — attributed variously to Nostradamus, Niels Bohr and Yogi Berra.
The year is 2050 CE, and the country is Muskovia, the most prosperous and ‘advanced’ country in the history of mankind. AI has been deployed throughout the country to make up for the huge population decline of the previous decades.
Continue reading MUSKOVIA @ 2050 CEby Naresh Jotwani
Jalaluddin Rumi: Love is the astrolabe of God’s mysteries.
Thiruvalluvar: The throb of life is love. Without it, humans are bodies of bones clad with skin.
Continue reading PROGRESS?by Naresh Jotwani
When does one understand an aspect of reality?
Example: Projectile motion is an aspect of reality. When projectile motion is modelled in the form of mathematical equations, it can be said that the particular aspect of reality has been understood — that is, a validated conceptual model has been found for it. Projectile trajectory can be calculated, either to explain past data or to predict future results.
That same criterion must be applied to the understanding of any other aspect of reality – namely, the ability to explain the unfolding of real life events.
Continue reading Evidence of Imbalance (1)by Naresh Jotwani
Soon after the previous post was published on this blog, we came across the definition of a so-called Social Well-being Index (SWI), introduced by a group within Russia. Briefly, the SWI index is based on these criteria: life expectancy, infant mortality rate, homicide rate, total fertility, income inequality, education level.
Continue reading SOCIAL WELL-BEING INDEXby Naresh Jotwani
This post is an invitation to readers to consider new ways to assess how wisely a society spends the resources available to it. The post is not a ‘scholarly research paper’, as that phrase is understood, but merely an essay. [Note 1]
Continue reading HUMAN DEVELOPMENT PER DOLLAR
