PANCHABHUTAM

மரத்தை மறைத்தது மாமதயானை
மரத்தில் மறைந்தது மாமதயானை
பரத்தை மறைத்தது பார்முதல்பூதம்
பரத்தில் மறைந்தது பார்முதல்பூதம்

This is an ancient tamil verse that betrays an important aspect of panchabhutas or what we translate today as 'the five elements'. This verse can be rendered into english as follows:

The collossal elephant hid the wood
The colossal elephant was hidden in the wood
Panchabhutas hid Paramatma
Panchabhutas were hidden in Paramatma

(Please bear with my crude translation)

It is a wonderful simile to illustrate how the gross and the subtle work in the universe. If we are so engrossed in the fact that the wooden elephant is an 'elephant' then we recognise it only as an elephant. However as it dawns upon us that it is in reality just wood, then the 'elephant' that we cognized earlier is sublated by the realization. Similarly, until we are spiritually underdeveloped and just see the world as made of five elements only, then they adumbrate our imagination, effectively screening out the Paramatma from our ambit of cognition.  However, as we progress in our path, we realise that the all these gross elements are indeed the body of Paramatma who is our supreme goal.

The dualism between the Paramatma on one hand and jivatma & prakriti on the other simultaneously is one side of the coin. The other side is the organic whole. We also clearly find references in Veda samhitas as well as later commentaries that each of the elements is an aspect, a manifestation of Paramatma. It is only well suited to see how this obscure boundary , if at all it exists  is illustrated by the wooden elephant.

The concept of 5 bhutas was not of mere textual interest to ancient Indians. They formulated many interesting and useful theories with this concept and put them to practice too. As people with modern education, we tend to think that 5 element theory was a primitive one. However, this view has its origin in the ignorance of this ancient idea. This modeling of the world is at a higher level of abstraction.

Panchajanya shankha of Lord Sriman
Narayana is a symbol of 5 elements

Prakrthi* is the term that is commonly used to club the gross matter in the universe(as opposed to jivatma and paramatma which are non-materialistic in nature). Here we take this word to mean the material cause of the universe. The five bhutas are Akasa(ether) , Vayu(air), agni/tejas(fire), ap(water), prithvi(earth). Some schools of thought like the charvakas admit only 4 elements.

(*Note that the word prakrthi has many different meanings in Indian tradition. Three clusters of meanings can be distinguished: 1. Prakrti  is that which precedes, the first, that which is in its own form. 2. Prakrthi is the material cause, the producer of effects, the innate power of transformation and manifestation. 3. Prakrthi as the principles, constituents, parts or components of a whole.)

Creation is envisioned in the shastras as grosser elements emanating from more subtler elements. The verse "akashat vayu: vayor agni:...." declares that From Akasa comes Vayu. from vayu comes agni. From agni comes ap. From ap comes prithvi. Each element progressively has more tanmatras(or subtle elements). The sense of hearing, touch, vision  , taste and smell constitute the tanmatras. The following image I gathered from the internet depicts this.

It is interesting to note that a similar idea is echoed in sciences, though a strict parallel is difficult to visualise. From the Singularity, Space was created and then it expanded. (This can be compared to akasa). Then all the elementary particles were created and were floating in a plasma-like soup.(Though strictly not air, this is similar to air). Then these particles combined through massive explosive nuclear reactions to form the first known matter (and dark matter probably). This is the agni phase. These slowly formed very hot molten material in galaxies (ap or water phase) which solidified slowly to form rocky worlds(prithvi or earth phase). 

Here we should also understand that the five elements do not signify only the physical elements. They are more subtle than that. Anything solid has prithvi in it. Anything that is flowing and has properties of a liquid is made up of ap element to a large extent. Anything that has hotness(even latent) has agni in it and so on. 

The voluminous project called the Kalatattvakosa by the Indira Gandhi National Center for the arts is rightly called the lexicon of fundamental concepts of Indian arts. Many volumes have been planned out of which six have been published so far to my knowledge. The third volume in this series is titled 'Primal elements-Mahabhutas' and is undoubtedly an encyclopedia on this topic. I have used this work as a major reference for this blog post. However, I am refraining from including information on how the elements are depicted and interpreted in the arts for want of space and time.

To summarise and understand more about individual bhutas, we will consider them one by one.

Akasa(Space)

The permeating space

Space(or ether) is the first element to emanate from the Supreme self, initially as a subtle principle and thereafter a gross matter. Space, abounding in the attributes of sattva, is the subtlest of all elements. Space provides room for all further creation and its specific quality is sound. It is a symbol of the Supreme self(Paramatma). When used as a metaphor, it indicates the supreme self. It is conceived as fullness, filling everything and sometimes as vacuum. The geometric form that represents akasa in the tantras is the circle that symbolises the totality of creation. Akasa has no form and is not an object. Its only similarity with the other four elements is that it has a distinctive quality which is perceptible to one of the senses, that is sound.

There are layers of meaning to all of the panchabhutas. Akasa can mean material space(bhutakasa) or space of the mind(Chittakasa). The adhyatmika meaning of space is the transcendental space of consciousness(chidakasa), the seat of brahman. The Chandogya upanishad (8.1.3) makes it clear:

'This space within the heart is as vast as this space (outside). Within it indeed are included both heaven and earth, as also both fire and air, sun and moon, lightning and stars. Whatever this one has here and whatever he has not, all that is included in that'.

Vayu(Wind)

The detached wind

Air, wind and breath are the same reality of vayu pervading the cosmos and the human body. The macro and microcosmic manifestations of vayu are differentiated  as gross,subtle and subtlest. These are also the adhibhautika, adhidaivika and adhyatmika meanings. They are respectively vaata, vayu and prana. Vayu is the devata who reigns over antariksha(mid-space), who is the life energy and spiritual power. Vayu possesses sound and sensation of touch.


'Pranaad vaayurajaayata..' says Purusha sooktam. Therefore we know that breath of Brahmam gave rise to the cosmic wind. This element is very important as it is intimately tied to 'vac' or divine speech. In Indian tradition, the srutis or the vedas are also called the breath of brahmam. The sound of wind is the primordial sound of nature, Om. Vayu is called 'sabdayogin' the one who produces the seven musical notes. Vayu, is ultimately the same as the Paramatma. This is   because Sriman Narayana, the Paramatma is the antaryami of Vayu and originally has the name vayu(that is later on taken up by the deva). He is addressed as Vayu in the Vishnu sahasranamam also. Vayu plays a very important role in madhva's dvaitam philosophy.

Agni(Fire)

The dazzling fire

As the third element, agni has the properties of sound, form and touch. It is both subtle and gross. The gross form is generated through panchikarana, a process of combination with the other bhutas.

Agni originates from vayu and is understood to have atleast 3 layers of meaning in the vedas. The adhibhautika meaning of agni is the physical fire. In its visible form, agni appears as sun in the sky, lightning in the atmosphere and as fire on earth. (This includes the sacrificial fires of which ahavaniya, garhapatya and dakshinagnis are well-known)

This is called as 'aranikkattai' in Tamilnadu and is
made from agnivriksha. It is used to produce fire for
all vedic karmas

At the adhidaivata level, Agni means the fire-god, the divine agent and the mediator. He is specially churned out and maintained during yajnas and carries the havirbhaga to all the respective devatas. Those who are well-versed in the shastras advise us to give full attention to the agni before looking at laukika karmas during any ceremony.

It is variously conceived as digestive fire, speech and divine will at the adhyatmic level.
Agni is also identified with the brahman itself. It is a symbol of divine splendour and spiritual illumination.

Ap(Water)

The life-giving water

Water or ap is one of the most important bhutas in Indian thought that it has ubiquitous presence in Indian life and rituals. Having born from agni, It has four qualities including taste. The Nighantu, which is a kind of Indian thesaurus, has 101 words for water.

Rains, rivers, sea and all the visible water bodies are the Adhibhautika level of water. At the adhiyajnika level (which may not exist for all elements), its function is purification. Adhidhaivata  meaning is one of the devatas associated with water, Varuna/Apam-napat/Ganga etc. Adhyatmika symbolism of water is inner purification, life and fullness .

The philosophical nature of rivers is more than evident from the following quote :

"The river is everywhere at the same time, at the source and at the mouth...in the ocean and in the mountains, everywhere, and that the present only exists for it, not the shadow of the past, nor the shadow of the future. It is unchanging and yet it is always changing within, deeper inside beneath the surface. The voice of the river is the one word he had known since childhood that is Om, calling together the unity of all things and people at once."  --Siddhartha by Herman Hesse


Prithvi(Earth)

The animate earth

The last but not the least, our home or Prithvi. She is poornam and has all the five qualities including smell.
Prithvi can mean territory. In this sense it has given rise to the term parthiva, a term for the king. The earth as the bearer of life is regarded as the mother of all beings.

The adhibhautika meaning is of course land/soil. Bhuma devi is not different from earth in the adhidhaivata sense. However, it must be noted that Bhudevi is not a narrow deity just for the earth. She is the life-giving force in the universe and in all universes.

'bhur' the word for earth is derived as follows: "all originates(bhavati) from this hence it is called bhuh, the source. Thus the source or Brahmam is the adhyatmic meaning of bhumi/prithvi.

A very important aspect of the way in which the earth is conceived is as a firm support. She not only supports all created beings but upholds all ritual activities of man. She herself is held up by truth. She was carefully lifted from the cosmic ocean by Lord Varaha, who saved both mankind as well as dharma by saving Bhudevi who is no different than these.

The Ayurveda utilises the panchabhuta concept extensively and I thought it would ease the burden of the reader if I reserve this for another post.

Update Dec 11th 2011: A Good webpage with quality information on panchabhutam here

Jai Sriman Narayana

Hot air balloon over Napa Valley

Napa Valley is located about 80 miles North East of San Jose and is known for its wineries. It is equally famous for its hot air balloon rides. Here are some of the pictures and a couple of videos that I took when I ascended on the balloon 'discovery'.

There were many balloons ascending simultaneously. Ours started at about 6.30 am while some of them had started earlier. Thus, while we were at about 1000 feet we could spot balloons 1000 feet above our level. This is a typical time for the rides because that is when they can be more or less assured of favourable winds and weather.

A balloon at an higher altitude (our balloon is seen in the top of the picture)

Some tend to think that it will be scary when you are on high altitude(upto 2000 feet in Napa valley), but it is not so unless you are acrophobic.The ascent can be made very fast or relatively stagnant. Even a fast ascent can be seen clearly but not felt that vividly. For eg, compare the following two pictures. It is the same hexagonal house's top view from 2 different altitudes just 3-4 minutes apart.

I could see the balloon rise very clearly. The driver of the balloon controlled the ascent and the direction of flight through an open fire. A vent is controlled to enable a descent.

The basket that was our carrier had a capacity of 16. This is cheaper compared to 8 capacity baskets.

(view along with the basket)

The buzzing sound heard in the video atleast twice is the sound of the open fire that controls the flight of the balloon.  It can be seen that the basket is slowly tilting in its course. Also seen are two balloons that have already landed and are about to be deflated. There is a group of vehicles (they are for transporting passengers to the starting place) that moves around the area to exactly match the landing spot of the balloon. This is because it is difficult to precisely control the landing location.

 (Closeup view of another balloon)

(The driver said that this altitude is about 820 feet above ground)

A couple of more top views of the Napa valley and the residential area there.

(The smooth patterns seen in the pictures are wine producing crops of the valley)

The descent was made a little interesting by our driver by accelerating it. It bumped once, lifted few feet above the ground and finally landed.See this video.

 

I also managed to capture the balloon and the open fire. The other balloons were deflating at this time.

 (deflating our balloon which is more of a parachute in my opinion)

(the fire that propelled)

The tour was completed at about 7.50 am and we reached our starting place in another 20 minutes. It was a nice experience.I had forgotten to take my jerkin but was helped by the open fire to keep warm throughout the flight.

And here is a fine photograph by National geographic covering the hot air balloons at Cappadocia in Turkey.

Resumes to Interviews to offers-Part 2

The First round(s) of screening

This is generally a phone interview and can sometimes be just a one on one interview at a job fair or through skype. One of my friends had a phone interview followed by 2 skype rounds after which they decided to call him for onsite interview (phew!). However, he had by that time got a better offer and hence fortunately did not undergo the grilling here.

The job fair, at least in my university was more of a formality. That situation was amplified due to the recession in the 2008-2009 period. That does not deter the recruiters there to ask you some questions when you hand them your resume. So, go prepared with the basics to a job fair. I was not interested to pursue a full-time analog position. However, when I went to the job fair, Microchip volunteers asked a series of analog electronics questions to many candidates standing in the queue before me. I was afraid to some extent as I was not prepared for it. I however wanted to apply for the digital positions in the same company. I was waiting for a long time in the queue and then moved on to meet volunteers of another company due to time constraint. This was accelerated by my lack of confidence in analog electronics.

Now, the above situation might not seem to be a very bad one because I was not confident in what I did not what. However, it was partly responsible for me not applying to other positions here. It becomes detrimental when you are not prepared to answer questions upfront in your own field. Search for a technical volunteer rather than a HR person in amongst the company personnel in a job fair. This is actually one of my friend's tip. This can give your resume a better possibility than a paper shredder.

Phone interview can scare students especially the first time. However, there are candidates who are tensed even in their 4th or 5th phone interview. Apart from each person's nature, this is greatly influenced by the amount of knowledge that you have gathered with respect the position. Also be very clear about all the projects and internships that you have listed on the resume. Students sometimes(or often?) list projects that they have not actually done in school(this word is used as a synonym for a college too in the US). This is because, there could be a dearth of projects/courses related to areas that are typically required for the industry. So, if you are resorting to this tactic, then be very clear about what you have exactly written there , down to the grassroot level. Not knowing something in the resume is a very serious blackmark for a candidate.

For the first couple of interviews if you are not confident in certain areas you can write down brief hints on a sheet of paper, so that you are not stuck up badly in fundamentals and other expected questions. Skype rounds could be a little tricky as you might not have this freedom.

Average length of a phone interview is 1 hour. I have faced a half-an hour, a one hour and a one and a half hour phone interviews during my search. A friend of mine has had a 2 hour phone round too! . Sometimes interviewers have a very specific topic in mind and  hence make the interview short. The other possibility for a short interview is poor answering from the part of the candidate. 

A peculiar problem that some candidates face in the phone round is difficulty in understanding the accent of the  interviewer. A chinese person called one of my friends and he had to ask, ask and ask him to repeat his question until he realised that what the person in the other end was asking was a flip-flop instead of a FIFO. Sometimes, interviewers do not give much attention to how they will sound to the person on the other side. They sit in a conference room and just speak while turning around in different directions. So, the best bet for the candidate is to ask the interviewer till he gets the question right(the fear of giving a negative impression makes the candidate not to do this). Also, just make an intelligent guess simultaneously as to what the interviewer could be asking. This is probably not that tough. I faced this problem in an interview where after repeated queries, I heard his word as color display. I was thinking quite hard as to what exactly a color display is doing in a verilog interview. When I finally said, I don't know what that command does, he was audibly disappointed. Later, I realised that he had asked for $display (pronounced as dollar display) command. It was a very common command in verilog and hence his disappointment.

Usually, they browse the spectrum of topics that the candidate needs to know for the position. However one of my friends always advises us to prepare in depth even for the phone interview. I did not quite realise the importance of this statement until I myself faced an interview where the interviewer suddenly jumped to an area which In had thought till then to be an on-site material. So, more knowledge, the better. Many a time you can guess what is in store for the onsite interview by pondering over the phone screen questions. If you feel that there was some question that was a little out of place in the interview, then you need to pay attention to it. This is because sometimes what the candidate surmises as the areas required for the position  may not be an exhaustive list. If you get to know that the same person who interviewed a friend is going to call you for a similar position, then expect a very similar set of questions and prepare well.  The interviewer either calls or emails the candidate to ask for a comfortable date for the interview. Allow yourself a reasonable time to prepare because postponing an interview that has been fixed might not strike a good chord with the interviewer. Also, get the email address of the person who calls. This is a good idea because many interviewers call from numbers that can't be called back. I got calls from Microchip that showed up as "unknown" on my display. Intel was a lot courteous as they did not act so underground-ly when calling a candidate.

A friend( and  a guide) of mine who has worked for Intel for 11 years advised me to send a thank you note via email to the interviewer after both a phone round as well as on-site. It is good to ask when you will get to hear from them at the end of a phone interview. In addition I have tried asking them about my performance in a couple of interviews. One of them gave a straight answer that I did quite well. The other told me that they usually don't and can't discuss the performance with the candidate. This does not  necessarily mean that he feels negative about your performance. Ask this question only if you are not a pessimist. In the phone rounds that eventually led me to two offers, the interviewers themselves expressed a positive feeling about the interview and one of them actually told me that he would ask his manager to proceed to the next round within next 2 weeks.

Finally, one last experience. After some point in my job search, I applied to India positions even though I was stationed in the US. I got a call from Hyderabad for a FPGA verification position. This person said he will call me over phone at the scheduled time and asked me to ensure that I had access to the internet for code sharing. During the interview that went on for an hour, he asked me to write certain code snippets(in perl) through gmail chat apart from other questions.

In general,prepare well, be confident and station yourself in a quiet place for the phone/skype rounds. Have a paper, pen, calculator nearby apart from any notes.(Dont rely on too many of them for you can't search for them during the short duration). Remember that most likely the interviewer is looking for a short crisp answer(not a tough one). Listen carefully and speak clearly. All the best for your phone interview.

To be continued in part 3........

Resumes to Interviews to offers-Part 1

When I told my friends, that I got an offer from Intel, there was visible happiness in their tone and faces. It was more so because I was one of the last in my batch to get an offer after a long waiting period. Since I have some interlude before joining the company, I thought of writing a post on job search.

 There are different kinds of students who look for a job in different disciplines and different market situations. However, there could be a few guidelines that can be common to all of them. I decided to put together this post because I thought it was prudent to do so before I forget what I went through during the job search. For those who are specifically in VLSI specialization, please see the follow-up posts for some interview questions that I faced.

Now, Resume is the first and important step in the job search. You do not have to really worry too much regarding many of the myths running around about these. There are people who vehemently oppose anything more than 1 page in a resume. It actually depends on the requirements for a particular position and what the general mentality of the people in a particular company is. If the position focusses on a specific subset in your discipline (for eg, digital electronics and related knowledge in electrical engineering), then you can exclude your other projects and coursework details (in this example analog related ones) from the resume(in which case the whole thing is called a C.V and edited version, the resume ). However, my personal experience as well as observation of my friends tells me that no one is bothered much if you give a 2 page resume. Many of us had 2 page resumes and did not fail to get calls from atleast 2 employers like Intel, Microchip, Marvell, Qualcomm, Apple, AMD, freescale semiconductors, Maxim etc. Don't get scared if someone suggests a top to bottom revamping of your resume. There are as many opinions on this as are people. Ask a couple of people and your own self about the clarity and content. If satisfied, go ahead.

Having an objective in a resume is optional. If you have one, then try to make it not too specific or too general. Another thing that most people make fuss about is references. There are mostly 3 categories of people when it comes to this. Some of them actually list down their 3 or 4 references with contact information in the resume itself. This has its own pros and cons. It shows that you are well-planned and confident but wastes that much of your resume space. Others just include one line "References available on request" . This is a better way because, it mentions about references but does not occupy space. I come under the third category of people who do not write anything about references at all in their resume. This option worked for me at least (I got 2 offers) and is advised by some experts too.

It is imperative that you talk to your references before listing them out on the resume. It is quite important to choose the references properly as they can make or break your offer in many cases. See this for an interesting tip.

 Professors(from both undergraduate and graduate colleges), collegues during part-time job, internship mentors could be possible references for RCGs. Every candidate should be careful in choosing someone who will surely talk positive things about them.

As for as the rest of the resume , the format should be neat and not too cluttered. Bullet points are helpful as the attention span of anyone and especially hiring managers and assistants are very short in the current era. List your skillset (relevant softwares, operating systems, instruments etc that are relevant). For many positions, the resumes are searched for key-words. So, just remember that including words like oscilloscope, digital multimeter etc can also help at times.

Listing relevant courses also helps to some extent. I have observed that it is especially helpful in a job fair, where this list itself can actually impress a potential employer. They know that RCGs rely heavily on coursework compared to experience and hence this is the base to build on. I had listed just the course names. However, one of my friends suggested that it will be even better to briefly indicate the important things that has been covered in the course(I know this sounds crazy because it is difficult to compress all that here but let me give an example). If I list computer architecture as one of the courses, then I can probably say things like assembly language programming, caches, pipelining, dynamic scheduling, Tomasulo algorithm, branch prediction, multi-threading, simplescalar, superscalar, virtual memories etc. or a subset of these key words. In fact this can be done for the most important areas that are required for the job.

After listing your experience in the reverse chronological order(for RCGs it could be internships done during undergraduation and graduation) list the college projects. Do not list too many of them. 5 to 7 would be a reasonable number. Give a brief description of what was actually achieved in each project/internship. List down the tool used to accomplish these tasks alongside. If your internship is little more than 2 years old and you do not remember all intricate details, then I would really encourage you to sit down and think about all the key concepts that were involved in the work. When I submitted my resume to Fujitsu in a job fair, the recruiter there saw my resume and was interested in it. She was looking for verification and design engineers. She went through the resume and asked me to explain my internship experience. When I was describing it, through certain questions she understood that I had worked on something that is exactly what she was looking for. However, I was careless enough not to mention it in the resume. Therefore right keywords can make a lot of difference.

After the projects, I listed out my extra-curricular activities and I would suggest the same to anyone else too. However, if you are hard-pressed for space already, then you can skip this one. This section helps sometimes in behavioral rounds which is often a detested round for many candidates.

Applying

I actually just have a concise message for candidates who apply to any kind of position, internship, full-time fresh grads or full-time experienced. A third party recruiter succinctly words what should be done.....

Though what she says is mostly true, I would ask you to apply to all jobs online in addition to  contacting recruiters directly. This is just to ensure that we keep all options wide open.

Ensure that you apply to as many companies as you can get access to. Though I personally had little success getting calls from any small company, my friends did get such calls. Use social networking sites and any other good way of networking. It sounds(and IS) opportunistic but that is precisely what one has to do if one has to land in a job. (It is imperative for International students as they do not have many benefits of greencard holders or citizens in the US). "Resume pushing" as it is popularly called, is the most important activity in the pre-interview stage of your job search. My personal experience (as far as engineering is concerned) tells me that more than 85 to 90% of all interview calls are through such references.

To be continued in Part 2.....

Prithvi - Part II - More on Gaia and interconnectedness

Only after the last tree has been cut down,

only after the last river has been poisoned,

only after the last fish has been caught,

only then will you find that money cannot be eaten.

                            ---Cree native American prophesy

The more we learn about the earth and its ecosystem, the more we know that we are heading towards doom. The mechanistic materialistic view of earth as a dead source of material that can be exploited to the maximum has cost us our planet as well as the biodiversity.  It is said that when Descartes heard the screaming of a dog on whom his students performed vivisection, he exclaimed "do not mind that. It is just the sound of a machine being taken apart" . I was terribly shocked to hear this anecdote because the image I had of descartes was that of an advanced thinker. In contrast, Native american views of nature displays harmonious thinking. Compare the above incident with a saying from the blackfoot native Indian tribe.

"What is life? It is the flash of the firefly at night

It is the breath of the buffalo in the wintertime

It is the little shadow that runs across the grass

and loses itself in the sunset"

The present widespread worldview has been heavily impressed upon our psyche on the lines of the materialist thinkers. Hence we don't even realise and recognise that there is a problem. Is there a way out? I would like to present and discuss alternative healthy views of Mother earth that are very much needed in today's world if we want to survive. These views come from various periods of time and various parts of the globe. (This is a continuation of ideas presented in the earlier post on Prithvi- our mother).

Before getting into the details of gaia, we take a short tour of the broad lens that is used to view the earth as a superorganism. The word 'Superorganism' represents an intriguing phenomenon in nature. This creates controversy among scientists and the general masses but is in general defined as 

" any complex thing or system having properties and functions determined not only by the properties and relations of its individual parts, but by the character of the whole that they compose and by the relations of the parts to the whole."

There are many levels of superorganisms that come to my mind from my studies in fields such as biology, philosophy, science fiction. Example of first level of superorganism are beehives, anthills, corals. Individual organisms work together to achieve a goal that is far beyond their imagination. The next thing that I can think of is a human. Humans are finest examples of superorganisms as there are billions of microbes in our body that help in regulating so many different functions in our body. Hence this body is such a congregation. The third is on a planetary level. Isaac Asimov in his foundation novel series talks about a whole planet that acts as a storehouse of information where the least important information is stored on rocks and similar components whereas that which is required immediately are with more sentient beings. The whole system acts like an organism.* The fourth level is also found in Asimov's work and is given a title "galaxia" a superorganism that consists of a whole galaxy. The fifth level(assuming one universe for the moment) is the whole universe as a superorganism. The ideas at the fouth and  fifth levels are next to impossible to be tested anywhere in the near future but is worthwhile to think about. 

* The gaia nature of the earth can also be viewed as a comparison between the human superorganism and the earth as done here.

The whole universe as a superorganism comes from the scriptures of sanathana dharma that talk about the universe being constituted of three things, namely paramatma(god), jeevatma(individual souls) and achit (all insentient matter). The Paramatma is the soul whereas the other two constitute his body. Hence the whole universe, in short is the God-organism. This is something that science will never even think about because of its inherent limitations of not seeing anything beyond five senses.

Gaia in modern times and ancient cultures

The Gaia hypothesis is the first comprehensive scientific expression of the profoundly ancient belief that the planet Earth is a living creature.Formulated by British atmospheric scientist James Lovelock and American Microbiologist Lynn Margulis, the Gaia hypothesis states that the Earth's climate and surface environment are controlled by the plants, animals and microorganisms that inhabit it. That taken as a whole, the planet behaves not as an inanimate sphere of rock and soil, sustained by the automatic and accidental processes of geology, as traditional earth science has long maintained, but more as a biological superorganism-a planetary body-that adjusts and regulates itself.

Geophysiologists warn that if the planet does function like a body, the Earth may have the equivalent of vital organs and vulnerable points. Regions of intense biological activity such as the tropical rain forests and coastal seas, are seen as vital not only to their geographic regions but to the entire global environment, much as the liver or spleen is necessary to the survival of the body as a whole. Once destroyed, these planetary organs can debilitate the entire system, much as an injury to the spine can cripple one's body up through the neck and down to the toes.

Many of us would remember the experience of trying to cram nitrogen, oxygen, carbon, sulphur cycles for our high school examinations. All of these cycles are excellent examples of earth regulation systems. Food chains and food web is another component of this great regulating organism. 

There are a lot of controversies in the scientific community as to how the gaia metaphor affects mainstream social theory and ethics and whether the hypothesis can be satisfactorily 'scientifically' verified. That the Earth does not reproduce is cited as a reason for not accepting it as a living organism in the true sense of the word. However what still remains out of reach for this science  is the definition of a living thing.To save some time here, we can borrow the ancient knowledge of the presence of 'atma' to classify a being as living. Instead of a detailed physical sciences perspective of gaia theory, we see some salient bird's eye view of this theory and some of its philosophical implications.

Lovelock once exclaimed " I think of the Earth as a living organism. The rocks, the air, the oceans and all life are an inseparable system that functions to keep the planet livable. In fact I now believe that life can exist only on a planetary scale. Can't have a planet with sparse life any more than you can have half a cat".

Many individual cultures have this thought in some form or the other. The Ufaina Indians in the columbian Amazon believe in a vital force called fufuka which is present in all living things. The source of this vital force is the sun. From the sun, it reaches the earth and is constantly recycled among plants, animals and human beings. Each group of beings requires a minimum of the vital force in order to live and is seen to be borrowing the energy from the total energy stock. When any being dies, the energy is released and goes back to the stock. Similarly when a living being consumes another, the consumer acquires the energy of the consumed. What is of importance to the Ufaina is that the vital force continues to be recycled from one species to another in such a way that not too much accumulates in any one of them, since this could deprive another of its vital force and upset the natural balance.

We can see that the above idea in principle the same as that veiled by modern science in a cobweb of jargons. The only difference here is that the Ufaina live by their wisdom whereas we, the others are insensitive as a race.

In the Vedic culture 

The vedic hymns are the most ancient and sublime words that present a worldview of essential interconnectedness of the whole cosmos. What to speak of the earth. The whole of Rig veda creates an atmosphere where appreciation of nature and her bounties are part and parcel of the experience. These should not be taken to be hymns glorifying personified natural elements as maliciously done by the western Indologists. The hymns act at several different planes of consciousness. They represent the subtle elements and also the gross elements at various levels of realisations. The Prithvi suktam in Atharva veda is a fine example of imagery, poetry, nature worship, environmental consciousness, cooperation among living beings and above all a sense of oneness- a cosmic web in which each of us is a part.

The entire hymn of 63 verses is exceedingly important. Persons who are conversant with the modern tenets of ecology can fully appreciate this hymn. It does not view earth as a lifeless inanimate object as the modern physical scientist does. It begins with the idea that earth is supported by not mere gravitational forces, but by Truth, consecration  and askesis (tapas).Earth can be made a happy abode for humans only when they live by satya and rita, Truth and Right. Earth spreads out for us and makes us prosperous. (12.1.12)refers to the self-cleansing nature of earth.(12.1.8)states that Earth in the beginning was sea salila upon the ocean arņava; then the supreme intelligence manishi created the subtle structures mayāĥ characterising the human beings and other beings, and inanimate matter. The rişhi thinks of himself as the son of earth and parjanya as his father (12.1.12).Each living being from the blue lotus to the human being on earth is uniquely supported by a gandha, odour of earth.

Mother earth appeared in her personal form in various periods of Indian history running for millions of years. We all know about the Varaha avataram of Lord Sriman Narayana where he saved Bhudevi from Hiranyaksha. However, the point to be noted here is that Bhudevi is not a personification of the visible globe alone but also of all the regions of the earth that are beyond our perception(ie, the 8 khandas other than bharatha khanda and 6 dweepams included)

Once, She was annoyed by the tyrannic, adharmic reign of King Vena and withdrew her resources thus resulting in a severe drought. Later on, his son Prithu ascended the throne and ruled as a just king. Still, She did not restore the earlier fertility. This annoyed King Prithu who chased Bhuma devi who had assumed the form of a cow. Later after some persuasion, She recognized the virtues of the current ruler and gave away her wealth to all the people. (In Greek Mythology, Demeter was the goddess of the harvest, who also controlled the seasons and hence was capable of destroying all life on earth . Life came to a standstill as the depressed Demeter once searched for her daughter who had been taken to the underworld. This story also echoes the idea of Mother Earth reacting to the happenings in the society).

Bhuma devi is considered by some to be an iconic, metonymic personification of earth in Hinduism. I think the word 'personification' itself invokes the idea of an artificial imagination of a non-existing personality. However, this kind of artificial force is not found in ancient Indian works. Bhudevi is just one among us. She is as real as any one of us. Sita Devi calls out to her to take her away from this manushya lokam so that she could end all her sufferings. Bhumadevi also responds to the yearning and takes her to nagalokam.

Some embedded notions of Ecology are found in the Indian culture. The 'Kolam' is often thought of as a decoration in front of a house but on deeper inquiry we come to know that it is a way to exercise the memory of the debt felt to the Earth goddess for her forbearance towards us despite all sorts of pain-inflicting activities by us like digging, spitting etc. We can observe that a Bharatanaatyam dancer touches the ground and pays respect to Mother Earth before beginning her performance. This is once again to plead her to be patient when the dancer stamps on her all along.

In Bhu Stuti(A hymn to Mother Earth) by Swami Vedanta Desika, we find that Bhudevi is not only Goddess Earth but the one who gives us all natural wealth. She is in charge of life anywhere in any universe. Above all, She is the spiritual instructor who teaches Prapatti to aspiring mumukshus(those desiring liberation from the birth cycle).

There is a vedic verse which is repeated often without knowledge of the meaning. This is a good example of the all pervasiveness and oneness of  vedic thought

tacchamyo-rAvrNeemahe | gAtum yagnyAya |
gAtum yagnyapataye | daivee: svastirastu na: |
svasti mAnushebhya: | oordhvam jigAtu bheSHajam |
sham no astu dvipade | sham chatushpade |
om shAnti: shAnti: shAnti: ||

We seek that which gives us peace from sorrows, present and future. We seek growth for the rite of sacrifice and growth for patron of the rite, the yajamAna.The grace of the Gods be unto us.Well being to all mankind. May plants, like medicinal herbs flourish and grow upwards. Good come unto us from creatures that go on two feet and good from those that go on four feet.

Om! Peace!Peace!Peace

Some Native american quotes on mother earth and nature

"...all things share the same breath- the beast, the tree, the man....the air shares its spirit with all the life it supports "  -- Chief Seatlle

" I do not think the measure of a civilization is how tall its buildings are but rather how well its people relate to their environment and their fellow man"-  Sun bear of Chippewa tribe

A Ojibwa (native American) prayer to the soul of nature

Oh great spirit , whose voice i hear in the winds,

and whose breath gives life to all the world,

Hear me, for I am small and weak,

I need your strength and wisdom

Let me walk in beauty and my eyes ever behold the red and purple sunset.

Make my hands respect the things you have made

and my ears sharp to hear your voice,

Make me wise, so that I may understand the things that you have taught my people

Let me learn the lessons you have hidden in every leaf and every rock

I seek strength not to be stronger than my brother

but to fight my greatest enemy - myself

Make me always ready to come to you with clean hands and straight eyes

So, when life fades, as the fading sunset,

my Spirit may come to you without shame.

When studying the views of ancient and some modern cultures regarding earth and nature in general, we can feel the sharp contrast in the basic ideals. An Earth that is alive versus the one that is devoid of life has underscored the lifestyle of the masses according to the vicissitudes of time.

The West's heliocentric revolution in scientific understanding displaced humans from their fancied central position in the eyes of god(Note that most of the eastern philosophies never subscribed to such self-centered views) and the structure of the universe. The Gaian revolution(ie, the modern resurgence of the idea) will displace us from our fancied position as the superior species, uniquely in charge of the planet. Will our powerful egos resist the Gaian conception for this reason? Or are we sufficiently mature as a species to accept our position and responsibility as one part of a larger organism?

It is crucial to the question of whether or not we adopt this revolutionary concept to keep in mind that scientific concepts and the theories generated from them are no longer judged in terms of chimeral 'truth' but of usefulness. By usefulness, we mean conducive to human survival. In fact , as stated before, our self-centered views and practices threaten our very survival as a species. In that respect, a concept of ourselves as part of the life of earth, coupled with scientific knowledge of its geophysiology might prove useful in bringing about a reorganizing of our social structures and conduct, so that we rediscover our balance within Gaia and thereby insure our survival.

Scientists often cringe at any attempt to answer questions through alternative methods. They are narrow-minded enough to exclude interesting intuitive ideas like intelligent design. Hence, it is no surprise that there were many oppositions to Gaia theory for fear of the rebirth of the 'Goddess' in popular imagination.

Any amount of rational discourse will be insufficient to prove that the more-than-human world has atleast an equal status to that of human beings and to the works of the best human creative genius. Each of us need to spend time with the 'animate earth ' out there to realise that 'every speck of matter is sacred simply because it exists'.

The greatest myth in Human history

Consider the following facts:

A path to to attain realization of the divinity that binds this entire universe based on self retrospection, revealed knowledge that is pure and given to mankind at the dawn of creation encompassing ways for all sorts of people at all times, code of conduct that imbibes truth and non-violence towards all living beings, freedom to interpret scriptures in accordance with one's inward experiences, all aspects of living including food, behaviour, worship leading us towards divinity.

A religion which is spiritually retarded, had to massacre millions of innocent lives for its survival, believes in a 'loving' god who sends his so-called children to eternal hell for a mere non-issue of not accepting a person's words(or authority), has a 'scripture' which was carefully edited out from numerous available books in order to gain mass support, does not talk about healthy food habits for its adherents, has revealed scriptures which is less than 2000 years old(while humans have been living on this planet for millions of years), persecutes anyone holding a slightly different view from supposed authority.

A third religion which has the same characteristics as the above except that its violence is several times larger than this second one. A religion whose founder himself massacred hundreds of innocent people to make others bow down to his authority. A religion whose paradise is nothing but a x-rated parlour, known for the worst disrespect of its women folk.

Another religion which holds the view that all of existence is just an illusion and void is the ultimate truth.

Though the above is a black and white picture of different world faiths, it is obvious for any sane person that give or take a few, that these are NOT the same in many aspects.

I am getting down to the topic of 'Radical universalism' or the statement "All religions are the same" that has plagued India severely for more than 150 years now.

There is a pithy anecdote of a hindu parents' dilemma. The parents had apparently been teaching their child that all religions are the same(similar to all rivers leading to the ocean blah blah..). After a few years at school, the boy came and told his parents that he wanted to be a christian  from then on and not follow the vedic path. They were devastated and asked for the reason. Prompt was the reply "All religions are the same. So i can follow anyone of them and I want to try the others now"

(Note: The word hindu is a very misleading one and has very little meaning in the traditional context. There was no such word or idea in India before a few centuries. I am however using that word to denote a broad umbrella under which we gather the belief systems that trace their way back to vedas, though it might not be a genuine connection many a times. At this point it is good to remember that 'hindu' does not indicate any homogenous group and consists of extremely diverse systems. These also do not qualify for the statement " all paths are the same" )

This is the sort of stupidity that we are leading ourselves into after all these years of wisdom from our ancestors. In the words of a blogger who writes about christian tyranny in India,

"Christian missionaries have spread death and destruction to native non christian peoples and cultures. Christianity is evil, diabolic and the cause of holocaust and god knows what else is to come. If hindus do not wake up.. the genocide Christian religion will carry out its agenda in india also as it has elsewhere with great gusto."

These people have destroyed our culture as much as the muslims have done in the last 1000 years and hindus still think it is wisdom to call every religion and idea same??? Does it have any iota of sense in it.?

The writings of Frank Morales on this myth are a great treasure to analyse this absurd notion prevalent in  Hindu society these days.

The theory of radical universalism that "all the religions are same" is nowhere to be found in any hindu scripture or taught by any acharya until coupe of centuries ago. Also, the theory defeats itself. This neo-hinduism is allegedly the only religion that claims that all religions are same(and no one else accepts this stand). So, Hinduism knows this particular fact that the other religions do not know. So, Hinduism is superior to others!!! This self-defeating logic is the result of ill-informed present day teachers who do not have any formal training in vedic texts whatsoever.

Also, by stating that all religions are the same, we commit the blunder of equating the moral and ethical systems of all these religions. While it is well-known that Hindus are asked to abstain from meat(atleast beef) if they want to live a saatvic life and attain freedom from birth and death, there is no such restraint in the other abrahamic religions. Killing people who do not follow your religion is not immoral in Abrahamic religions. This has directly resulted in world wide massacres.

Rebirth and karma are some of the most profound and beautiful messages of vedas and sanathana dharma. This perfectly explains why there are inequalities at birth among living beings and why bad things happen to good people. Spiritually retarded concepts like one person's death to save whole humanity, eternal hell for not following this person, only one life given to judge a soul(and that too gets a birth in a particular family by random chance?) are all embedded in christianity. Isn't it ridiculous on the part of a vedic person to call all these systems as same?

Let us come to the most common myth taught in schools and by ignorant people. All paths lead to the same goal ultimately. I think this is the climax of the whole absurdity. Frank writes,

"The Christian's sole aim in salvation is to be raised physically from the dead on the eschatological day of judgement and to find himself/herself with jesus in heaven, who is to be found seated at the right hand of the anthropomorphic male father/god of the old and the new testament. Muslims aspire towards a delightfully earthy paradise in which 72 houris(or virgin youth) will be granted to them to enjoy. Jains are seeking kevala or 'aloneness', in which they will enjoy an eternal existence of omniscience and omnipotence  without the unwanted intrusion of a god, a brahman or an allah. Buddhists seek to have all transitory elements that produce a illusion of the self melt away and to have themselves in turn melt away into the nihilism of nirvana. To the buddhist brahman also is an illusion.

Each of these different type of religion has its own categorically unique concept of salvation and of the absolute towards which they aspire. Each concept is irreconcilable with the others. To state the situation unequivocally if a christian, muslim, jain or buddhist upon achieving their distinct notion of salvation were to find themselves instead united with brahman, they would most likely be quite upset and confused indeed. And they would have a right to be! Conversely the yogi would probably be quite bewildered upon finding 72 virgins waiting for him upon achieving moksham rather than realising the eternal bliss of brahman. One person's vision of salvation is another person's idea of hell"

It is quite clear that each one's goal is different. Radical universalism as expressed by modern non-traditional hindus would seek to deny the members of other religions the right to assert their own religions as unique and distinct traditions. Radical universalism would seek to deny non-radical universalists the right to believe in an absolute that is categorically not brahman. Regardless of how radically different the goal of any other religion might be, whether that goal is nirvana, allah or any other, followers of other religions are told that they are all really aiming at the decidedly hindu goal of brahman- whether they know this or not and whether they want brahman or not. This is termed tolerant intolerance. One of the key aspects of right to freedom of speech is the right to be able to disagree. However by imposing one god, one path, one world-view radical universalism denies these religions and their followers their uniqueness and dignity.

When anyone makes this unthinking claim "all religions are the same", they are betraying the grandeur and integrity of our great heritage and dharma that has so many unique contributions to its credit to the world(yoga, ayurveda, karma, rebirth, yagnya, mantras to name a few). To deny the uniqueness and greatness of hinduism leads to a very unhealthy psychological state of self-loathing, a sense of unworthiness and a schizophrenic confusion on the part of anyone who wishes to consider themselves hindu. This muddled up state is often the reason why hindu parents often find their children less interested in hinduism and in some cases embracing other seemingly more rational and self-abnegating faiths. Who after all wants to follow a religion in which it is claimed that the very basis of the religion is to exult the greatness of other religions at its own expense? NO ONE.

If we want this tradition that has survived for millions of years to stay and illuminate the world during this vicious age of kali, we need to really understand the core distinguishing concepts of sanathana dharma and explain to whoever asks us about it instead of repeating the ill informed ad absurdum statement "all religions are the same".

PS: Though there are serious issues with medieval practices like sati, dowry system and uncalled for inclusions in varna system practice, it is well beyond any doubt that the core ideals of vedas are all-encompassing, noble and esoteric. This is quite not true with all religions where politicians and other power-hungry people have often decided the core policies to be followed and dictated the bloody actions that have been witnessed in world history. One good example is Constantine of Eastern Roman Empire.