Universal mantras are
contextual relevance and everything that provides comfort,
convenience; begets benefits and profits; ensures utility,happiness, pleasure
etc and evaluating everything or anything based on its inherent
attributes/merits and intrinsic value/purpose.
1. Ok
my first period in the morning is starting with the topic on ‘periods’.
2. Unfortunately
most aspects of traditional practices, rituals, customs etc are forced on us as
social obligations [ok no harm in it]. But further energizing the inherently
vulnerable hypocrisy and putting forth vocal justifications for not only following
them blindly but trying to perpetuate them without any valid reason is bad.
3. It is
these very types of traditional attitudes that we need to address. For example
recently one prestigious institute banned girls from wearing sleeveless
t-shirts and jeans and there was a huge hue and cry about western influence bla
bla. They cleverly diverted the issue. The issue involved was about wearing a dress
that covers the body that’s all. I asked the status quo addicts why not go back
to times when India had the first most wonderful attire ever, when women were
draped in unstitched nine yard sarees without blouses but it served the purpose
of covering all parts of the body that needed to be covered but haven’t we
moved from that to sarees with blouses to churidhars to nighties. My whole
question is why this selective objection that too when it concerns women and
their attire.
There are certain
universal mantras from which no one can veer away humanity’s preference they
are change and the constantly changing context created by that change along
with its many concomitant characters like comforts, convenience, benefits,
utility, profit, happiness, pleasure etc.
All wisdom and value
systems must be woven around these universal mantras or at least relevant to
these. Otherwise something else will replace all values, wisdom, principles,
practices etc.
The most important wisdom
is to make the necessary adjustments to emerging changes and contexts.
4. ‘Inconvenience’
like many terms is a purely relative terminology based on/proportionate to the
level of tolerance /adjustment/compromise one is willing to display, I
mean the areas human beings can exercise their rational choice.
I think we all must be
equally aware and have the humility to accept the fact that we all think/presume
what we know or claim to know is the best /most perfect or ultimate truth. This
precisely means that nothing in any aspect of life as we are aware or we claim
to know today is neither perfect nor the ultimate stage nor the finale or the
only truth which can be established as the truth with axiomatic certitude.
Like everything in
nature, evolution also attempts or has attempted many adventures in its stride
some have been a boon while some have been a bane. That’s way when I use the
term ‘inconvenience’ I remember G.K. Chesterton’s definition as the best ‘An
adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an
adventure wrongly considered’
But I personally feel
that any oozing from any part of the body that too involuntarily [most small children
and very old people experience contusion and people who are allergic to many
things experience oozing nasal passage as a reaction [excuse me for lack of
appropriate medical jargon like liquefied sputum etc] is definitely an
inconvenience even though for argument's sake one may wish to give any other
nomenclature to it.
And interestingly enough we
must acknowledge the fact that we evolved out of our imbibing only certain
selective features of that evolutionary adventure and ended up adapting them.
First great biologist
Darwin, I would prefer to call him the father of evolutionary biological
science-who incidentally advocated the theory of natural selection, because he
laid the first blue print for such a specialized study [some of them may be
wrong or all of them could be disputed and radically changed], and he had the
honesty and humility to declare, “Variation proposes and selection disposes.”
5. I would like to add
that in the arena of human species psychologically selection is further
influenced by selection bias and bias is conditioned by various factors. For
example the mode of communication that we are using now, i.e. the electronic
media and internet causes so many side effects, environmental ill effects
, including huge amount of clean water used for manufacture of many components,
interference of electromagnetic waves with many life forms and none of
these are either repairable , recyclable or replaceable for posterity but the benefits
we derive out of this far outweighs ill effects that we have
preferred to choose this medium over meeting and talking in person [
which is besides not always possible] which is the least harmful to environment
though when we speak it affects the life of certain microbes near over mouths.
Unfortunately and inevitably
most of our understanding of science is through the reverse engineering process
or dissection analysis or through micro analysis and measurements [because some
form of measurement is inevitable]
6. I
will try to address most of the issues raised not in any specific order or
issue wise but hap haphazardly so that readers at liberty to collate them as
they wish into categories they prefer. I am just writing something like a box
of assorted chocolate of different brands as I have taken various comments,
taken some vital terms like tradition, practices, rituals, sanitation, carbon,
non recyclable material and most
importantly a vast subject like evolution etc to name a few and churning them
all to drive my point of view using lots of references which I have enjoyed
reading and which have enhanced my knowledge of many aspects of life. I would
also be addressing most aspects with very general observations of
socio-psychological perceptions and reactions to scientific issues rather than
purely scientific facts as such.
7. For
scientific materials I am providing lot of links and references of books which
are really useful.
8. At
any cost a male writing about periods is like a mechanic who never owned a car
but it is a matter of sensitivity as a human species that prods one to be
concerned about it at least to reply to those who never bother about the inconvenience
that menstruation causes for women.
9. I
hope all of you have also read this link as well from the same social organization
which made me write on this subject first time some years back
With a picture of Godess
Kamakya Of Assam during Menstruation. [Supposedly taken originally]
10. When human intellect
resorts to defend or justify, more than define or explore or accept facts for
what they are worth, normally it becomes more sharp with additional
vindications from very vast allied areas like pollution, carbon etc because the
defense is further enforced with adrenal reactions which are all normal as I, myself,
am more used to it rather use it more, so I can understand it perfectly well.
11. Socially certain
societies, why most human societies, are groomed as a group with more
incentives and encouragement to follow than explore; exercise hypocrisy rather
than skeptical questioning and this is precisely the technique adopted by all
religious institutions either with or without organized set up. However change
in every aspect of life is an inevitable truth that cannot be avoided or wished
away.
12. As Winston Churchill said, “The truth is incontrovertible.
Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is.” I
may add taboos and tradition may tuck it in or turn away but truth is ‘inconvenience’.
13. As Guy Murchie declares, “Evolution itself is an open ended
and indeterminate process”… “Given the remarkable progress in our understanding
of biochemistry, molecular biology, and evolution as a whole … we have failed
to develop concepts, ideas, even a language that could capture the dance of
this life”
I would like to add it is because of our intellectual reluctance
and religious impediments.
He adds, “Darwinism is agreed and uncontroversial: humans are an
accident of evolution, because everything produced by evolution is strictly
incidental to the process”.
14. But the whole malady
started when certain societies, already well connected, intellectually more
advanced ones and therefore got so well conditioned by their traditions and
religiously prescribed ways of life based on such sound base, obviously ended
up, out of lack of humility and refused to or blocked to accept alongside biological
evolution, evolutionary psychology and evolutionary sociology as well.
Greater the comfort with
abundance of resources and intellectual advancement providing a sense of or
false notion of intellectual superiority made them get insulated in their
ethnocentric arrogance and moved away from humility. I think it happened to
certain societies, naturally so because of its great advancement when most
parts of the world were in dark ages. Where there is no humility or lesser
humility there is less and less attempt to learn. So they developed certain
systems or practices which were superior at that earlier time compared to the
rest of humanity and therefore felt that such practices had no expiry date at
all.
ON Humility this one I
picked long back from a very aggressively and nauseatingly written website:
“The
problem with this is that humility is not natural for people, particularly for
people in power. And without humility, there can be no advancement in
objective knowledge. So we should ask what is the source of humility?
There is only one answer that I know of, and that is religion.
Religion teaches us to respect something greater than ourselves. In
modern Western religions, that something is God. But whatever it is, the
important thing is to recognize something sacred and above humanity. As
long as God (or the gods) is recognized as above humanity, people learn
humility. But when people place themselves on the level of God, humility
is lost. So religion only works when religion restricts what is sacred to
non-human things like God or nature. When human institutions become
sacred, and people thereby compete with God, humility is lost, and so
scientific advancement becomes impossible.”
“Certainly
humans didn't evolve to their present state in one instant, in one fell swoop,
because we know that our ancestors, the species like Homo erectus and Homo
habilis already had a pretty big brain for a primate of that size. They
were already using tools. They were almost certainly cooperating with one
another. So it's not as if our species was the first to do it; it was building
on some earlier stepping stones.
And it's unlikely that it happened all at once. You have to
remember that not every creature that was evolving left behind its skull or its
tools for our convenience tens of thousands of years later. Most bones or most
tools rot or get buried and are never found again. So the earliest date at
which we find some fossil or artifact is not the point at which the species
first appeared; it was probably doing its thing for many tens of thousands of
years before we were lucky enough to find something that it left behind that
lasted to the present day.”
Steven Pinker “describes the
self-described field of evolutionary psychology as a stepping stone toward this
end. He calls for more integration with evolutionary genetics and more
generally the fully rounded approach associated with Nobel Laureate Niko
Tinbergen, who stressed that all evolved traits should be studied from
functional, mechanistic, developmental and phylogenetic perspectives. He also
shares his own best idea that has not yet received the attention that it
deserves.”
17. Here
is a list of very worthy articles available fortunately free on the net http://pinker.wjh.harvard.edu/articles/ [
incidentally I have all his works along with all the works of other
evolutionary biologist like Richard Dawkins and the great Guy Murchie’s ‘ the
Seven Mysteries of Life ‘ and I wish for a more comprehensive understanding one
must also read Kathleen Taylor’s ‘The Brain Supremacy’ Walter Gratzer’s ‘Giant
molecules’, Frank Close’s ‘The Infinity Puzzle’ and most importantly Tirumoolar’s
Tirumanthiram, Vilayanur S. RAMACHANDRAN and for
a more sane philosophical and rational non religious outlook also read Neale
Donald Walsch, JK, Osho, Bertrand Russell etc
19. Again talking about
evolution, a very interesting and vast subject by its very meaning indicates
the innards of all species with inevitable strengths as well as short comings,
rather embedded contradictions. The best we can do with all our brains and
technological advancements available at our disposal is to minimize/compensate for
our weaknesses like starting from using basic tools to using spectacles to
implanting stunts and pace makers for heart problems to name a few.
20.While innards and
inherent qualities are inevitable and beyond our choice, at least, our
utilization of strengths /reactions to shortcomings can be sane and more
sensible, that is what must be the attempt of any subject be it philosophy,
spiritual science or pure science.
21. Evolution goes about
its jobs unmindful of whatever we do or do not do, that decides and determines
everything including our birth and death as biochemical organisms which are bound to decay or to die or to reorganize or to be reborn or to recreate into something else
eventually.
“adaptations to bipedalism
restricted the width of the birth canal and, hence, the size of the baby that
can pass through it. Human babies are thus born when their brains are less than
30 percent of adult brain size so that they can fit through the narrow
passageway. They then continue development outside of the womb, with brain size
nearly doubling in the first year.”
23. MUDDYING THE INTELLECTUAL
AND MORAL WATERS
In leaving a rich and
massive tradition of nuanced moral reflection and argument untapped, while
resorting to single-sentence dismissals and caricatures, Pinker displays
shocking irresponsibility for a scholar, especially one who is addressing such
a serious matter. Pinker himself criticizes such an approach to moral discussion
in How the Mind Works: “The debate over human nature has been
muddied by an intellectual laziness, and unwillingness to make moral arguments
when moral issues come up.”5 Exactly! So why, when it comes to
something as serious as infanticide, doesn’t Pinker practice what he preaches?
24. This is a very
incisive and excellent criticism of all tall claims of evolutionary psychology
another excellent and
thought provoking read though a book criticism
25. Another great work a must read is Action!:
Nothing Happens Until Something Moves By Robert Ringer
26. Facts and myths
of menstrual cycles:
27.Recently i.e on TOI on 19th July
Santosh Desai wrote
Moonless
in the City?
“Nothing unified the world
more than the moon. We marked our days through our nights, giving time a lunar
name. In lunar calendars, time grows out of life, with every day being marked
with an individual and independent character. Poornima, the night of the full
moon was imbued with a sense of fertile celebration, while Amavasya, the state
of moonlessness, was seen with trepidation, as it underlined the power that
nature, always a fickle friend, held over us. The moon had many powers, not
only over the oceans but over the bodies and minds of animals and humans. The
full moon made us wild and primitive; madness (lunacy) after all has some lunar
origins.
The moon is not that
useful anymore, and lives on in our imaginations as vestigial habit. Its light
carries little meaning for the city is ablaze with its own and it is difficult
to make out a full moon night from a moonless one. It is no longer a marker of
time. Time itself has lost rhyme; it now refers to nothing else outside of
itself. It offers no proof, and comes with no markers. Day and night do exist
of course, but in a globalised world, with decreasing meaning. Time is now a
purely conceptual entity, a convention that we have collectively agreed to
submit to.
Its mysteriousness too
has lost luster. The moon was once beyond human reach and as fables have it,
made available to children crying for it, by casting its reflection in a bowl
of water. Landing on the moon might have been a human fantasy but it made the
moon prosaic, a mere satellite, which the human race had managed to vanquish.
Flags have been planted on the moon, and in the ultimate sign of mastery,
samples from the moon have been tested in our laboratories.
Science has been nature’s
ally in demystifying nature and its complexities. Gradually, nature is being
erased as a point of reference for our lives. The conceptual, abstract and the
virtual are replacing the natural. The internet is humankind’s most ambitious
rejoinder to the natural universe. Here is a universe of another kind, hewed
out of the recesses of human imagination, living in a space constructed out of
electronic signals. The digital marks an independence from the physical, and takes
the separation from the natural to its logical end.
What does it matter
anyway? The moon was romanticized out of need, and is neglected today because
it no longer serves the purposes it once did. The question perhaps is a larger
one. With time it seems that the our sources of wonder are diminishing. Once we
marveled at everything, out of ignorance often, but the world seemed full of
things much larger and mysterious than we were. Now, technology produces wonder
just as easily as it destroys it. We still seek wonder in other ways- in new
gadgets with frequent updates, in fantastic stories of the superhuman and the
otherworldly, by making nostalgic artifacts out of our past, by converting
nature into a monument, by using the word awesome an an awful lot, and by
clicking on links that promise us that we will be amazed or blown away by what
we are about to see. I saw the moon the other night, and i was transfixed. Or
blown away if you prefer.”
28. What we must be actually teaching the present generation is to expose them to the positive aspects of our great heritage which do not
contradict any rational approach or curtail any acceptance of change or
constrain seeing facts as they are and help them to address any issue based on such
premises.
29.Human psychology is more comfortable and conversant
dealing with premises, frames of references and observations rather than
through indoctrinations, conditioned prejudices which will collapse at some
point of time when the poor people will be left to suffer in a vacuous
inanity without a proud socio cultural and psychological identity and will also
be very vulnerable to adopt anything and everything irrespective of its long
term benefits or inherent value so let us impart more importantly
humaneness and humanitarian values along with our rich cultural heritage likehttp://contentwriteups.blogspot.in/2011/12/real-scientific-heritage-
of-india.html
32. More problems crop up when we as a species try to feel that
we must authenticate every aspect of life through social approval further
validated through sanctification by either religion, or substantiation by
accepted scientific practice, commercial success or stamp of socio cultural
sanctions.
33. Very often
“Everything changes as you move through three stages of
awareness:
first, that beliefs are the result of conditions;
second, that beliefs are the cause of conditions;
and third, that beliefs are themselves conditions.”
― Eric Micha'el Leventhal
