Last month, I spent time reading His Dark Materials, by the English author, Philip Pullman. It is a three-book novel comprised of Northern Lights, The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass. Written as a children’s book, in Harry Potter style, at a superficial level, this book is a fantasy, but presents the most fundamental question – the forces of ‘religion,’ who believe in destiny and present themselves as an intermediary force, versus the free-thinkers, who discard the idea of destiny and allow people to control their own lives. The Northern Lights has been made into films, first, in 2007 and then, in 2019. 

Having lived life past youth, settled in a family, and reaching a point in one’s livelihood, every thoughtful person starts realizing that all does not happen as one wishes and that there is an ongoing conflict between what one feels and what one is told, wherever one goes. The axis of all personal struggle is about being in control of every moment of our life. As we grow, we know that the controls we enjoyed are no more effective – things do not happen as per plan, people behave in unpredictable ways, and as old age sets in, and the end point of life is visible, the futility of life stares at us.

My take from the book is that knowledge is fundamental to earn one’s livelihood. Without knowledge, no one can, indeed, survive in the world. The right to decide how one wants to live is given to everyone by God and must never be denied. This right is very desirable. Pullman says that one must operate on one’s knowledge, and live without the grace, comfort and protection of a higher power. Here lies the pivot. I spent a few days in reflection and then realized that there is, indeed, no conflict, confusion, or even dilemma in his statement. All problems arise out of the error in understanding the meaning of knowledge and grace. 

The ninth verse of the Ishavasya Upanishad, comprised of just 18 verses, puts it very bluntly:

अन्धन्तमः प्रविशन्ति येऽविद्यामुपासते । 

ततो भूय इव ते तमोय उ विद्यायां रताः ॥

They who live in complete ignorance, fall into blind darkness; and they who live by knowledge alone, fall into an even deeper darkness.

So, it is neither by living in ignorance of what is happening around, nor by its complete knowledge, that life can be understood. The mind must be applied to make sense of the situation you are in, attend to the responsibility and obligations that the situation brings in, but leave the outcome to a higher power, as you are not the only person living in the world – there are 8 billion like you – and as your situation has emerged out of a bigger situation, the solutions also lie beyond you. But the key is to do your part, your bit of what is to be done. Not doing that is sin. 

When I watch people living false lives – not studying in one’s student days, not taking care of their physical and mental fitness, not honing the skills required in earning their livelihood, but pretending at work, and not feeling grateful for the gift of life, family and friends that they have already received, I look at these as acts of self-inflicting injury, the splurging of one’s endowments, and becoming a part of the problem for everyone, rather than a part of the solution in their own lives. As time passes, these people’s own colleagues, relatives, and even children desert them, and they spend their last years in despair. 

It is unpleasant to look at life in this way. But not to know something, because it hurts, is no escape either. It is here that Pullman’s book offers some brilliant insights. Pullman presents daemons, the external expressions of people’s souls, taking forms that symbolize their owners’ character. Pullman presents them as animal companions present with one from birth till the end of one’s life. They keep changing their forms, depending upon the situation, but their basic form remains unchanged.

Your daemon represents your basic nature, the way you are – your instincts, your drives, your temperament, your likes, and dislikes. Your daemon is your uniqueness. The world we live in is designed to separate us from our daemon and turn us into components of a machine – working where fitted. As we grow, we shun our daemons, but they never die till our own death. Living connected to your daemon, is, therefore, the only way to live a purposeful life. In practical terms, keep your child alive in your heart, be mindful of your emotions, and keep releasing them appropriately.

There is a quiz on the Internet. You answer ten questions, and your daemon is suggested to you. My daemon was a grey wolf. It was written, “Your daemon is mysterious, loyal, strong, and the kind that would do anything for their loved ones. But with that, you have a dangerous side that can frighten your enemies and sometimes even your friends.” I searched for more clues. One site says about people with a grey wolf daemon, “You are self-motivated and ambitious. Once you have an idea in your head there is little that can stop you on your road to success. You don’t let yourself get pushed around and you won’t stop until you’ve achieved your goals.” 

Had my daemon been a peacock, a lion, or even an elephant, I would have been delighted, perhaps. But a wolf? It took me a while to digest this. But as I recollected my experiences, starting from early childhood, University, the DRDO, the Care Hospital, my time with President Kalam and after him, my health, friendships, fights, and health issues… the grey wolf looked more and more reasonable. 

I certainly enjoyed cooperative game hunting to achieve recognition; I was quick to adapt where I was; I tackled difficult people diplomatically, rather than going in for direct fights, which I was sure I would lose; I had a good social nature and very expressive behavior, no different from individual or group howling. I travelled with my wife and children, prioritizing these trips over other expenses. But the Aha! moment came when I realized that a wolf is the ancestor of the domestic dog. 

And then, many characters flooded my memories, who flourished in their careers by following the commands their bosses gave them – right or wrong was never their concern. They did what they were told to and felt happy with whenever and whatever they got. But I could not do that. I remain a little bit of a wild animal in this world, never fully domesticated, and in the process, perhaps, not as rewarded as others. 

So, know your daemon. And then keep him close to your heart in whatever you do. Let your daemon talk to you. Drift, wait, and obey, if you like, but hear him, nevertheless. As Philip Pullman writes about multiverses, this world is just one place, a little aspect of the One, which exists in a million forms, at a million places, even at this very moment. Your daemon is your bridge into those unseen realms and helps you meet your doppelgänger – your double i.e., your true nature, like a mirror!

I live in the Silicon Valley part of Hyderabad and keep getting nuggets of what is going on in the computer field, through neighbours in the condominium where I stay, and visitors. Last week, there was a discussion on blockchain technology and how it is the latest mythology circulating around. My use of metaphor was not liked, as the general perception is that I live more in the world of myths these days. The other day, I irked a visitor by telling him that Samba was the son of Shri Krishna, who brought an end to his lineage. My visitor thought the only Samba was the one sitting atop the boulder in the film, Sholay, who answered the question, “Kitne aadmi the (How many were they)?”   

Keeping aside the matter of how much is myth and how much brass tacks, there is no doubt that blockchain is the most transformative technology of our times. The first thing I learnt was that blockchain is not Bitcoin, but that Bitcoin is impossible without the blockchain. Secondly, blockchain is a software technology; it is easy, but most cumbersome when applied. You need enormous computer power to validate a transaction on blockchain and if turns mainstream, it would have significant economic consequences. It is unlikely to happen in the immediate future, except as a revolution against the established order of the world. A “who will allow it versus who will be able to stop it” question is staring at us!

I dug deep and came to know about Ethereum, a decentralized blockchain platform. But more than the platform, what attracted my attention was its co-creator, Vitalik Buterin, who was born in Russia in 1994, and came to Canada when his computer scientist father immigrated there in the hubbub of Y2K. As goes the legend on the Internet, Buterin learnt about Bitcoin from his father, at the age of 17. He dropped out of the University of Waterloo in 2014, travelled extensively, interacting with other computer scientists and created Ethereum and, in 2018, received an honorary doctorate from the University of Basel. 

The general perception of blockchain is Bitcoin. The general perception of Bitcoin is stealth money, which is beyond tax nets and flows across the world without attracting attention to the transactions made. Both perceptions are only partially true. Blockchain is a technology and when used to handle money, becomes Bitcoin. And blockchain is more about integrity than confidentiality. Once used for anything, be it in supply chains, healthcare, real estate, media or energy, it brings authenticity in every business transaction. When used in governance, for revenue records, citizen identity, taxes, and voting, it rules out any opportunity for corruption. Basically, blockchain hits the operating structure of power. So, the question blockchain faces is not who will stop it, but who will allow it. 

I read a quote attributed to Vitalik Buterin on the Internet. Buterin says, “Whereas most technologies tend to automate workers on the periphery doing menial tasks, blockchains automate away the centre. Instead of putting the taxi driver out of a job, blockchain puts Uber out of a job and lets the taxi drivers work with the customer directly.” It is, indeed, a very big statement and points toward the great war already going on between the technology forces who want to control the way this world runs, and the forces that are running it right now. As the history of mankind testifies, technology has always prevailed. The way millions of people live, becomes the way of life. The way big businesses operate, becomes a business practice. And this brings me to the need, the most urgent need, of finding a middle path between this and that.   

The middle path is mentioned in the Shrimad Bhagavad Gita; it has been celebrated by the Buddha and the philosophers of ancient Greece. Shri Krishna tells Arjuna:

नात्यश्नतस्तु योगोऽस्ति न चैकान्तमनश्नत: |

न चाति स्वप्नशीलस्य जाग्रतो नैव चार्जुन || (Verse 6.16) 

But there is no yoga for one who eats in excess, nor for one who does not eat at all, nor for one who habitually oversleeps, nor for one who always keeps awake, O Arjuna.

Thus, the mean or the middle way between the two extremes, one, of excess and the other, of deficiency, is considered right and called the golden mean. Gautama Buddha made his religion a path between the extremes of religious asceticism and worldly self-indulgence. In the Greek temple of Delphi, “nothing in excess” is engraved. Later, Aristotle explained that every virtue in its extreme is, indeed, a vice. 

So, courage is a virtue, but if taken to excess, it would become recklessness. In deficiency, courage turns into cowardice. A virtuous, reasonable, and measured person can become indulgent and an addict by a deficiency of restrain and a fanatic by its excess. If the truth is stretched to its extreme, it can become either self-deprecating, or boastful, arrogant, and proud.  

Coming back to blockchain technology, it is inevitable that at some point of time, it will take over the way the world works, and will be unstoppable. Raymond “Ray” Kurzweil (b. 1948) believes that the singularity will occur by approximately 2045. What is seen is the proverbial writing on the wall that the blockchain revolution is coming, and that it will wash away many structures — legal, regulatory, governance, business practices, and even societal. Imagine the elections if you can cast your vote using your mobile phone! Your health records are meticulously and correctly archived. And business transactions are, perforce, authentic. Though it would be a mistake to rush headlong into the blockchain innovation without understanding how it is likely to take hold, a bigger, or rather, fatal, mistake would be to keep ignoring it.

The message is to start living authentically. Don’t waste your energy in having multiple versions of yourself, as nothing would be hidden anymore. Why stand embarrassed in the future? Decide on the purpose of your life and organize all your activities around that. Any activity, even thoughts, that deviate you from your life purpose, must be nipped in the bud. And while you do that in your personal life, professional life, and civil life, as the blockchain technology matures, you will see it as a convenience and efficiency enhancer. 

Today, it has become a norm to get medicines delivered at home, sourced from the manufacturer, all taxes paid. If the diagnostic tests done are all blockchained, how much savings and accuracy in the treatment, would it bring to the patients receiving it? It would make the doctors who prescribe them, accountable. When all seeds are blockchained, agriculture will be transformed. All academic records, extra-curricular activities, conduct in society, once blockchained, will directly bring employment, as money always needs people to multiply itself. 

What would Dr. Kalam say about blockchain? When he departed in 2015, it was still considered as fiction. Maybe he would say, “Buddy, this is not a ‘disruptive’ technology that would attack the traditional business model. Blockchain is a ‘foundational’ technology; it will remove the rug from beneath the people who are standing tall and glorified today, collapsing structures like buildings during an earthquake.” So, what do we do? Live simple, lean, and with integrity. A hut in the garden never fears an earthquake, nor is a person harmed in a financial crisis, who has always been giving more than he is taking.”

I have shared earlier in my blog, my fascination with Calculus that I studied as part of my engineering education and later applied while working in missiles. Mathematics is the language of science and the medium of expression for abstract ideas. You can’t understand any phenomena beyond a point without comprehending the unseen part of it and for those, mathematical functions are your lamp posts. 

I recently read two books of the American mathematician, Steven Strogatz (b. 1959) – “The Joy of x” and “Infinite Powers.” These brilliantly written books explain well how indeed the world works – both, the natural universe, and the man-made world. There are simple laws and patterns at the core of the apparently complex world and properly understood, they instill a sense of peace and confidence in facing, or rather, enduring the reality. 

If you understand the health problem well, especially chronic illnesses, you know how to live with them without being frightened and keep doing your best in the situation. If you understand the way big money moves markets, climate operates the weather, and social tensions are brewed and festered by the seekers of political power, you are not only less surprised, but also better focused on what you can do to safeguard your own little interests without being overwhelmed. 

In “The Joy of x”, published in 2012, Strogatz writes, “Math is everywhere, if you know where to look. We’ll spot waves in zebra stripes, hear echoes of Euclid in the Declaration of Independence [the phrase “all men are created equal”], and recognize signs of negative numbers in the run-up of World-War I [the area between the opposing armies’ trenches was known as “No Man’s Land”]. And we’ll see how our lives today are being touched by new kind of math, as we search for restaurants online and try to understand – not to mention survive – the frightening swings in the stock market.”

In “Infinite Powers”, published in 2019, Strogatz writes, “For reasons nobody understands, the universe is deeply mathematical. Maybe God made it that way. Or maybe it’s the only way a universe with us in it could be . . . our universe obeys laws of nature that always turn out to be expressible in the language of calculus as sentences called differential equations. Such equations describe the difference between something right now and the same thing an instant later or between something right here now and the same thing an instant later or between something right here and the same thing infinitesimally close by. The details differ depending on what part of nature we are talking about, but the structure of the laws is always the same.”  

Computer science is rooted in mathematics and those programmers who do not take mathematics seriously, do not flourish beyond a point. The mathematical way of thinking that means abstract reasoning, critical thought, and logical deduction, is imperative to succeeding in computer science. The art of reading, comprehending, formulating thoughts, and communicating with abstract language, come naturally with learning mathematics. The popular term, algorithm, is basically an abstraction of a process. Once it is established as parameters, it can be studied how it is repeated, modified, and even applied to solve other problems.

Recently, Mahesh Ramanujam, Former President and CEO (2016-2021) and COO (2011-2016), U.S. Green Building Council visited me. During his tenure there, Ramanujam helmed the accelerated expansion and implementation of LEED, the world’s premier green building certification and rating system. A computer engineering graduate from the Annamalai University (1993), Mahesh now enthusiastically leads the charge for a “zero emissions” world. We had a long chat. 

As outlined in the 2015 Paris Agreement, the commitment to keep global warming to no more than 1.5°C, translates into a reduction of the current levels of emissions by 45% by 2030, and to reach zero emissions by 2050. This can be possible only through a complete transformation of how industries produce, people consume, and the movement of goods and travel in the world. 

But, as Ramanujam views it, that timeline doesn’t offer the sense of urgency required. In many ways, Ramanujam says, “Things are moving in exactly the opposite direction – and scaling change needs to meet a series of challenges.” Of course, he’s referring to the fact that urbanization is on a roll; thermal power stations are being added, and roads are choked with traffic, exhaling greenhouse gases. A rather utopian term that has gained traction of late is a decarbonized economy, or more accurately, a low-carbon economy (LCE). Renewable energy, nuclear power, biofuels, and energy efficiency are the new engineering hotlines. Low-carbon economies are, indeed, a precursor to the more advanced, zero-carbon economy. But who is going to make it happen? Why should an industry invest in clean technology? 

Idealism alone will not work. Ramanujam believes that a proper understanding of the scaling is necessary, that people, planet, and profit can exist in tandem and not despite one another. Firstly, it must be economically beneficial for a business to go in for lower to zero emissions. And secondly, there must be a cost to doing business as usual, one that ultimately renders the polluting industries unviable. 

This is where carbon credits come in. According to the National Indian Carbon Coalition, “A carbon credit represents ownership of the equivalent of one metric ton of carbon dioxide that can be traded, sold, or retired. If the organization produces fewer tons of carbon emissions than it is allocated, the organization can trade, sell, or hold the remaining carbon credits. When a credit is sold, the buyer is purchasing the seller’s allowance of emissions.”

Sounds great, right?! 

But the challenge is how these credits can be accurately measured and traded. The answer lies in Mathematics. An average car generates 5 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide per year. It used to be 10 metric tonnes earlier, which has lowered down to 3 and below in emerging fuel-efficient models. Users of these cars must purchase the equivalent number of carbon credits from a reputable source. An hour of flying generates a certain quantity of carbon dioxide. Money should be paid to forest growers and farmers to sequester carbon in the soil. Solar and wind energy parks offset the energy produced using fossil fuels. All these businesses – energy, automobile, aviation, agriculture – are fundamentally small-world networks. Their nodes may not be connected to one another, but the neighbors of any given node are likely to be connected. To a keen eye, all is visible, measurable, and transactional – and according to Ramanujam, these prerequisites are what lead to market transformation.  

As things stand, the carbon market is merely a concept. The current landscape is disorganized, archaic, and lacks incentives. Ramanujam feels that carbon markets riding onto a public and decentralized database, such as the blockchain, can provide a global infrastructure data layer, and force polluting companies to either pay higher prices for carbon credits or seek more environmentally friendly approaches to their business practices. He also says that, “Using crypto and carbon metrics will provide a cohesiveness to an otherwise fragmented effort at a zero-emissions future. “

I tend to agree. A journey of thousand miles begins with one small step and it is time to take that step, instead of sitting in inaction.

It was during the phase of expanding the Pan-Africa e-Network platform, created under a project of the Government of India that, in 2011, I landed up in Rwanda, a beautiful country with a cool climate and scenic, hilly terrain. Rwanda, due to its geographic location on the continent, is called Africa’s heart. There was a flight from Nairobi in Kenya to Kigali, hopping over the small Bujumbura airport in Burundi. It was here that I met Colonel Ben Karenzi, a medical doctor, and Commandant of the Rwandan Army Hospital. He gave me a PowerPoint presentation on the proposed Super Specialty Hospital for Military, with 3D drawings. This was new to me, habituated to seeing the traditional Indian hospitals, which had evolved over several decades, adding layers upon layers of facilities. I was presented a copy of A Thousand Hills: Rwanda’s Rebirth and the Man Who Dreamed It, the story of Paul Kagame, a refugee who, after a generation of exile, found his way home.

Dr. Ben Karenzi and his team paid a return visit to India and saw Hyderabad as a fast-emerging hub for the treatment of international patients, mostly coming in from the African continent, finding it more suitable than the two other great Indian medical hubs – Mumbai, crowded and expensive, and Chennai, a little away. Our focus was using Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to provide whatever services were possible in Africa itself and a lengthy follow-up back home after they returned, post-treatment. These visits and people travelling more often provided an impetus for better bilateral relations between India and Rwanda. Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Rwanda in July 2018 and soon after, the Indian High Commission in Kigali became operational, on August 15, 2018.  

After superannuation from military service, Dr. Ben became a consultant in the management of international projects. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic lockouts and disruptions of international air travel, he could not visit India earlier, but he finally arrived last month on a week-long trip. It was very kind of him to visit me at my home as his first stop and before returning – what is generally called briefing/ debriefing sessions done at the beginning and conclusion of a visit. Age had affected both of us and there was no ‘pink of health’ anymore. But the spirit was indomitable and the vision about what could be done between India and Rwanda, sharper.

During this visit, Ben Karenzi spent an entire day at Bharat Biotech International Limited to understand the aspects of capacity building for vaccine manufacturing in Africa, totally dependent on UNICEF-sponsored vaccine programmes for their children, which means, vaccines manufactured in the Western countries. The CDC Africa is merely two years old, and a continental strategy is yet to emerge on what African people need and will get without dependence on imports. India offers a shining example of such a pursuit. India is now not only self-sufficient in all essential drugs and pharmaceuticals, including vaccines, but provided desperately needed COVID-19 vaccines to Rwanda and other countries. The Indian “price” is unbeatable and Western powers can only persist by fortifying their current dominance through rules and regulations they have historically created and imposed upon Africa. 

Ben Karenzi spent another day at the Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) factory in Hyderabad. BHEL had created a small 28 MW hydroelectric project on the Nyabarongo River in Rwanda, with an 80-million-dollar Indian line of credit. The project has eased out Rwanda’s electricity shortage to an extent. Rwanda has abundant methane reserves and can become an energy hub, following the gas turbine route. Besides being an energy partner, BHEL, with its world-class Plant and Machinery (P&M) building capacity, can establish the Kigali centralized water and sewage system. The focus is not merely funding and doing, but making the Rwandan people learn advanced engineering and cater to the needs of the African economy, something India did in the 1960s. Rwanda’s only sugar refinery and its only modern textile mill are both run by Indians, and it is time to upscale and raise the stakes.   

Since everything eventually acquires a name, this working together of developing countries has been called “South-South” cooperation. It is a broad framework of collaboration among countries of the global South, with all developed countries in the North. When the developing countries share knowledge, skills, expertise, and resources among themselves through concerted efforts, it is called “South-South” cooperation. There is a trend, led by China, of an increased volume of South-South trade and foreign direct investment. Between African and Asian continents, there is regional integration, technology transfers, and impromptu sharing of solutions and experts. It will take another few decades before becoming a viable alternative to the North-dominated world order, but the baby is born; it will grow with time. 

Ben Karenzi presented me a folder on Vision 2050, the Rwandan national development strategy, launched in December 2020 by President Paul Kagame. Rwanda aims to be an upper-middle income country (UMIC) by 2035, and a high-income country (HIC) by 2050. This means realizing a per capita GDP of about 4000 dollars by 2035 and of over 12,000 dollars by 2050. For understanding, India has a per capita GDP of 2000 in 2022. According to Mr. Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), in his February 2022 speech at the Asia Economic Dialogue, “I believe that with our progress, we will reach $10,000 per capita in the next 15-20 years.” Of course, with more than 1.35 billion people, and growing, it will be a humongous task. India must go global, capitalizing on its technology and engineering expertise. 

I am yet to deep dive into the document, but what struck me most was the assertion of President Kagame, “Vision 2050 has to be about the future we choose, because we can, and because we deserve it.” It is, indeed, true that we all are as big as our dream. Without aspiration, any individual, or community, or nation, easily gets lost in merry-making, only to be subjugated by a higher power, or to wither away into oblivion. The idea of ‘who I am’ and ‘what do I do with my life’, is fundamental. It was not until Bal Gangadhar Tilak proclaimed, “Swaraj is my birth right, and I shall have it!” that a movement started in India to overthrow the British Rule. Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam used to say, “You have to dream before your dreams can come true.” So, President Kagame’s call to choose, because we can, and because we deserve it, is a call of our times, for the entire global South, where more than five billion people live mostly impoverished lives.

The COVID-19 pandemic has proved this much, that South-South cooperation is the only way forward. The urgent need for vaccines has opened a window of opportunity for a South-South cooperation initiative in health and related areas. But if not for Indian and Chinese vaccines, there would been a disaster. While the superficialities of advanced healthcare systems in the Western world surfaced, the vaccination of billions of people throughout the global South was a historic achievement. This has to move on to agriculture supply chains, and finally, education. It will happen, because we deserve it. It will take years, even decades, but like a tree that takes years before giving fruits, it will happen, if started and sustained.

The underlying reason behind an increasing number of people getting angry, cynical, and restless is their disconnect with their religion – something they can’t even acknowledge. Humans evolved so rapidly and extensively by understanding the vastness of the universe and the laws by which it is governed. What the ancient people imagined to be gods and demons later came to be known as natural and mental forces. Religion has served well in giving humanity a structured way to live and flourish. However, those who are disconnected, for whatever reason, are sunk in despair. They sit in front of the TV and nowadays, with their mobile phones, with numb minds and wither away their cognitive energy in the ever-open vanity fair of this world. 

I am a deeply religious person. Practicing my own Sanatan Dharma, I have thoroughly read and practiced its basic tenets. Its universal outlook and grasp of cosmic reality is amazing. I consider science a very narrow window into the Reality in which we live, like a candle lightening a huge cave with no end in sight. My lament is about religions becoming dogmatic rather than a quest. Some people in the West have woken up to this issue and I was delighted to attend some lectures, thanks to YouTube, discussing practical ways to feel at ease while living in the modern fast-paced and competitive world. 

I came across a lecture by Dr Rupert Sheldrake, who has been a plant pathologist, with a Doctorate at Cambridge University. He worked in ICRISAT, Hyderabad in the 1970s, got attracted to Indian spiritual practices (while remaining a devout Christian that he was and remains), and pursued philosophy since then. His lecture took me to David Bentley Hart, who pointed out the similarity in Shankaracharya’s sat-chit-ananda, Ibn Arbi’s wujud-wijad-wajd and Augustine’s summo meo—something that is beyond the utmost heights and simultaneously intimo meo—more inward than the inmost depths, the concept of God. I later read Hart’s very well-done book, The Experience of God: Being Consciousness, Bliss. 

This book took me to Thomas Traherne’s Centuries of Meditations, available on the Internet as a PDF file that can be downloaded for free. There are so many special things about this book to which this blog is devoted. Mentioned as “A shoe-maker’s son,” in Wikipedia, Thomas Traherne (1637-1674) graduated from Oxford before becoming a priest in the Church of England, or the Anglican Church. He was not considered a literary figure and when he died at a young age of 37, he had written some 510 paragraphs, each 100 paragraphs called a century, but the fifth century stopped at the tenth stanza because of Traherne’s sudden death. 

For over 200 years, this manuscript survived in neglect as a bundle of scribbled papers. As goes the legend, one connoisseur found them in a street book stall in a stack of old papers. It took some ten years in establishing the literary quality of the manuscript and the identity of Thomas Traherne as the author. The book was published in 1908 and later, the celebrated English writer, C.S. Lewis (1898-1963) called Centuries of Meditations “almost the most beautiful book in English.” This book is a popular research subject, and the title of this blog is taken from a master’s thesis at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, awarded in 1965. 

Centuries of Meditations revolves around the concept of “felicity,” the state of bliss, as its thematic axis. This rings a bell in my ears, as the concept of Ananda (Bliss), is also central to my religion. In the Shri Ramakrishna Mission Order, it is very common for the saints to have “ananda” as their part of their ordained name as monks. The most celebrated monk being Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902). In fact, I named my sons, Aseem Anand and Amol Anand, in the hope and belief that they may both bring happiness to their lives as well as the lives of the people who would cross their paths. 

So, after spending nearly a month with Centuries of Meditations and grasping the theme of God living right inside the human body as consciousness, I could see the mystery of life as the pursuit of the Bliss that comes out of acting in the similitude of God. And as Thomas Traherne described God as love, it follows that man is to live a life governed by the principles of love. He writes:

That all the World is yours, your very senses and the inclinations of your mind declare. The Works of God manifest, His laws testify, and His word Both prove it. His attributes most sweetly make it evident. The powers of your soul confirm it. So that in the midst of such rich demonstrations, you may infinitely delight in God as your Father, Friend and Benefactor, in yourself as His Heir, Child and Bride, in the whole World, as the Gift and Token of His love; neither can anything, but Ignorance destroy your joys. (Century 1, § 16)

So, it is ignorance – in our separateness, or isolation, our anger and fear – that insulates us from the natural and innate feeling of the joy of living, called joie de vivre by the French people for a cheerful enjoyment of life, an exultation of spirit – be it the joy of conversation, the joy of eating, the joy of anything one might do, my writing this blog, and your’s reading it. Whatever is done with joy as the base, is good, promotes goodness, and multiplies joy in the process. 

The Taittiriya Upanishad declares: आनन्दो ब्रह्मेति व्यजानात्, know Bliss for the Eternal. आनन्दाध्येव खल्विमानि भूतानि जायन्ते, For, from Bliss alone, does life appear, are these creatures born and live by Bliss, आनन्दं प्रयन्त्यभिसंविशन्तीति, and to Bliss they go hence and return (III.6.1

Adi Shankaracharya wrote a beautiful devotional poem, आनन्द लहरी, Waves of Bliss Divine, venerating Bhavani, the Mother Goddess of Creation. It is a Psalm, a type of power literature in verses, by reciting which, the innate God propensities and qualities get activated. Now, some cynics may say that if God is beyond qualities, how can there be Godly qualities. So, what we are talking about is not God’s qualities but how God reflects in our mind. When sunrays fall on a convex lens, they converge to light up a fire…. It is just like that! 

The twelfth stanza of this 20-stanza poem says: 

अयः स्पर्शे लग्नं सपदि लभते हेमपदवीं

यथा रथ्यापाथः शुचि भवति गंगौघमिलितम् ।

तथा तत्तत्पापैरतिमलिनमन्तर्मम यदि

त्वयि प्रेम्णासक्तं कथमिव न जायेत विमलम् ॥ 

Bliss is contagious. Like the philosopher’s stone turns iron into gold, water in the gutters turn good upon joining River Ganga, so a mind devoted to God receives bliss.  

So, as the Taittiriya Upanishad proclaims, as Adi Shankaracharya teaches, as Thomas Traherne’s Centuries of Meditations postulates, it is very much in our power to connect with the God within and become humble, spread love, enhance knowledge, communicate well, conduct ourselves with dignity, and thereby disperse away sadness like clouds and feel the ever-present Bliss as the sun in the daytime and the stars in the night sky. Mahatma Gandhi expressed this best, “Seek not greater wealth, but simpler pleasure; not higher fortune, but deeper felicity.”

Every childhood is synonymous with instructions raining from parents and other people around. A child is continuously told to do this and not to do that. This continues throughout their childhood where they are influenced by the various people around them and their prejudices. And now, social media is treating human beings as puppets and has assigned emojis, so that they can express their emotions as one type of the many offered.

But a human being is not a puppet and, endowed with the mental faculty of imagination and discernment, can never be one. Even the poorest of the poor, the most hopeless, disadvantaged person, upholds this unique feature that no other creature has in the known universe. However, the tension between what you are told to do and what you believe you should do, creates a force that decides the course of your life. In the epic poem, Aeneid, Virgil (70-19 BCE) writes of a character as saying, “If I cannot bend Heaven, I shall move Hell,” (Book VII, line 312).

Even after we grow up and parents and other authority figures have faded away, the “shoulds” given to us, continue to live inside us, like the echo of a shout keeps wandering in the valley for a while. Our mind is, indeed, ruled by the oppression of the “shoulds”, dictating the way we think, act, and feel. Of course, our “should” beliefs have served us in the past, in shaping our concepts of how the world works and how we are to behave in it. Our achievements, social network, and control are the fruits of this “should tree.” 

But, like fruits rot over a period, we must examine the “shoulds” operating inside us, refreshing them with the changing times and situations. The good news is that we have the power to change the way we think — and free ourselves from the shackling “shoulds.” I have come to believe that the purpose of a human life is best served by allowing your unique “person” to manifest, transcending the “shoulds” by developing the faculty of discernment between what is good and bad, and acting upon life, as it presents itself. Adi Shankaracharya called his magnum opus of the Advaita Vedanta, the Vivekchudamani (विवेकचूडामणि) i.e., the “crest-jewel of discrimination.” 

All major religions of the world are unanimous on this one point that this life is an opportunity to better the afterlife. There is a Quranic verse (11.7), as translated by the Turkish scholar, Ali Ünal (b. 1955), ‘Your proper abode is the Hereafter, where you will be either in bliss or suffering according to your conduct in the world.’ Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam taught me to take every situation in life as a test that I must pass with honors. He used to say, ‘If things are flowing very fine for you, most likely, you are getting trapped by the bliss, to be driven to your destruction.’

Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) titled his major work as Divine Comedy. Human beings are born in this sinful world, in the process of moral change. People suffer, not simply as the consequences of some past bad deeds or to repay some debt, but to become good. This world is a place where one can reflect upon the sins, and thereby, change the psychological tendencies which lead one to sin. This process, called Purgatory, leads to an extraordinary richness in one’s character.

Dante imagines Purgatory as being divided into seven terraces, each one corresponding to a vice, namely, pride, envy, anger, sloth, avarice, gluttony, and lust. On each terrace, there is a slightly different form of suffering: the envious, for instance, have their eyes sewn up; the proud are weighed down by stones. The range of forms of suffering is, therefore, considerably greater, but so is the process of change, full of opportunities and possibilities.

And, coming to the concept of reincarnation, we leave one life and go into another as part of spiritual growth, by taking on physicality. There are varying levels of consciousness through which a soul moves, depending upon the moral quality of the activities in the life-forms, from minerals, plants and animals to human beings at the pinnacle. The implication is that the soul essentially remains the same, while occupying a new body. A life is, essentially, a dream: fleeting and illusory. 

Buddha pinned the ego-consciousness, as grounding one into a cesspool of desires. One is reborn through desire, which needs a body to manifest. Every desire creates an action, that generates a reaction, and this cascade of actions and reactions determines one’s next incarnation. A human life, being the highest in the entire creation, is, indeed, achieved after great tribulations through multiple existences at lower levels of consciousness, and it is a pity if it is wasted, and one slides back into inferior realms by living unwholesomely. Virgil writes in the Aeneid (Book VI, lines 126-129, as translated by the English poet, John Dryden (1631 1700):

The gates of hell are open night and day Smooth the descent, and easy is the way: But to return, and view the cheerful skies, In this the task and mighty labor lies. I have derived a three-fold code of living a good life, from the Shrimad Bhagavad Gita. The first is to act upon your circumstances, मा ते सङ्गः (च) अकर्मणि मा अस्तु. Action is not optional (II. 47). The second is to act wholesomely, and not selfishly. One must surrender to one’s fate, माम् एकम् शरणम् व्रज (XVIII.66). Attend to the situation in the best way possible, without grudging and complaining. And finally, one must learn to be satisfied in one’s own self, आत्मनि एव आत्मना तुष्टः. Being alive and experiencing bliss is the greatest blessing (II.55). 

There was a great tennis player, Arthur Ashe (1943 –1993), whom I admired as a teenager, for his graceful style. He won the singles title at Wimbledon, the US Open, and the Australian Open. But fate was cruel to him, and Ashe contracted HIV from a blood transfusion he received during a heart bypass surgery in 1983. However, rather than moaning over the tragedy, he dedicated the rest of his life, albeit a short one, to service. He founded the Arthur Ashe Foundation for the Defeat of AIDS and the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health, before his death in 1993. For several years, I used his words, ‘Start where you are, use what you have, do what you can,’ as a footer in my email. 

It is futile to get annoyed that your position is not good, that you are at a disadvantage, that conditions are unfavourable, people are against you, and so on. Acceptance of your situation and/ or condition, as well as putting in conscious efforts to make the best of the same and moving on from the undesirable situation, is fundamental to living a peaceful and meaningful life. Easy money, entitlements, and rise without effort have never been good to whoever had gone after them.