Dr. Dharav Shah, a psychiatrist is telling about the scientific research about COVID-19

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnbZ-SyOcuU

What to do with mysticism? – Leave it!

There are many mystical thought traps in the world. They take up lot of our energy of thinking and here is no definitive answer to most of these problems. Over thinking about these problems does not yield results most of the times and hence while starting our journeys, we should try to avoid such thought traps!

Dr. Abhay Bang uses a term known as ‘paralysis by analysis’. Maybe he uses this term to hint at these mystic thought traps!

I will try to avoid giving examples of such thought traps because it will be inconvenient for those who are in the ‘selling’ of these thought traps. Please note that I do not mean to say that these thought traps are useless totally or they never give benefits. They might give or might not give but they take up huge resources. Someone might say that they give great rewards too. It might be true that they might be giving great rewards, but they are mostly absent in terms of these fields of mysticism.

One might ask that if no one will indulge in mysticism and if no one will be ready to deal with difficult and critical thinking, how progress will happen? It is true that there can be huge progress if we can crack some difficult problems and can take humanity ahead but it should not be a compulsion on anyone especially on the person who is trying to start their journeys in the field. Maybe difficult questions can be reserved for people who are older and are in the field since long and who have been benefited from the system the most.

The biggest problem comes when we deny mysticism! Denial of mysticism is food for it! Never deny it! Because the moment we deny it, someone will stand for it and the debate starts! Its our loss of time and energy to keep debating about mysticism. It is mysticism in the first place because there is no definitive answer and trying to find answer for it is getting trapped in it! For a rational person, it appears very challenging and he jumps to it in hope of solving it. Because he feels that his logic will be tested there. Intelligent people like to solve difficult problems but if they are really intelligent, they should be able to identify these traps too eventually. More intelligent are those who do not fall in the traps of mysticism at all!

It might appear non attractive to leave mysticism. It might appear unintelligent. But it is highly productive because we generally are not aware how much time and energy mysticism can take up! Lot of thinking about mysticism happens in our subconscious mind hence we do not realize how much energy it is dissipating.

Time and again mysticism will take up charge of our minds. But the moment we get aware of it, the best strategy is to leave it! Once we become aware of the mysticism (and its nature) in our life, we will also be able to identify it in others. The strategy can be then to remain away from people who indulge in mysticism or at least to remain away till that time till which they are indulging in it. We must help also to those who wish to identify it and remain away from it but getting trapped in mysticism is no help to anyone. It is necessary to remember this because the person trapped in mysticism often throws challenge at us and asks us to investigate it ourselves.

When mind become free from thoughts of mysticism, it experiences huge stores of energy and time. We should be ready to invest this great energy into something productive and good. We should have some idols ready to invest these energies.

I must mention that I could articulate this thought clearly after reading Vivekananda where he says that youth should not indulge in mysticism. I have heard Naidu sir also saying many times when someone asks him (about some irrelevant problem) “what to do of this problem now?” and he simply says, “Leave it!” It sounds funny now to share it but its no fun to get trapped in mysticism.

I remember here now the PM Modi’s interview with 3 journalists including Editor of ABP Mazha, Khandekar. He said “Even if you will tie me by role and will try to pull me in this issue, I am not going to come with you in this issue.” The point was discussion related to a crucial point. He said I do not recognize any ******** (point of mysticism) and I work for my countrymen! He was not entering in the mysticism, I think. That is the way to reject mysticism! He is a heroic person in my opinion about this issue of rejecting mysticism who has shown us how to reject mysticism with courage! It appears very strange for a non-involved person while watching that interview as why he is so aggressive about not answering the way in which those reporters want him to answer.

But why in the first place we get trapped into mysticism? The slavery comes to us in form of help and our freedom is taken away. Likewise, we get trapped in mysticism because of its attractive nature. Mysticism looks attractive because we think that there are fair chances of winning or finding something new in the field and it appears easy in the beginning. The easy appearance of mysticism is pseudo. It looks easy but it is not easy. The people who have brought us to mysticism run away when they face difficulty in the field of mysticism or try to fool us or silence with power but till that time we are trapped. They in fact even tell us how intelligent we are and how we only can bring them out of this mysticism etc. And again try to throw challenge to solve the problems and that is even again a trap of mysticism.

Forcing mind to not to think about it a great struggle but it is worth to do this struggle because the benefit we get out of this struggle is we get freedom from mysticism. Sometimes the struggle is more sometimes its not so. In fact, if we think clearly, the amount of energy it takes to ignore mysticism is too less than the amount of energy needed to fight it when mysticism has taken charge of our system. In fact, nothing should take charge of our system but surely not mysticism in particular.

But the fields of mysticism look as if mysticism ‘is working’ in the external world and sometimes we might have had done lot of investment in these fields as well. Gradually trying to come out of mysticism really helps is my personal experience. Each small decision we make can be towards or away from mysticism. In fact, we are free! We were and we are free. Its non-realization of this freedom that ties us down with mysticism. We are free to think about it or not to think about it. Our thinking habits creates patters and we feel ease in these patterns. It will be difficult to break the patterns of mysticism. But so what? Even to start thinking in the field of mysticism also required efforts in the beginning.

Mysticism generally enters in weak minds or at a weak stage of mind! So, we should be alert when mysticism starts taking charge of our mind. It is an indication that our mind is getting weak, I think.

Hard work is also a way to remain away from mysticism. Doing the work in hand currently as good as possible is a key to remain away from mysticism. It might not look attractive but remember that the work you are doing now is attractive for someone else. So, every work is attractive in that sense. Even if it is necessary to go in the field of mysticism for now, we should do some other work first and then do the work related to mysticism. Reducing its importance by ignoring it is the best way to get out of mysticism. Some other real problem will catch hold of your mind and that is ok. Solving real problems is the best way to get rid of mysticism. Please note that mysticism is not untruth. It is not truth as well. If is half truth and half untruth. Finding out what is truth and what is untruth in it is very difficult and an intelligent mind gets attracted by the challenge of finding truth in it.

We should also see what mysticism is not. As mentioned above it is not untruth. It is not solving some genuine problem with scientific methods. It is not mere miscommunication. It is not genuine struggle for survival. It is not simple curiosity but sometimes mysticism takes form of curiosity. It is not finding the causes of injustice. In fact, by getting into mysticism we are creating the biggest injustice with our intelligence.

One might say that if anyways mysticism is to be ignored, why to think so much on it and why to even write something on it because written word is retraced! (Link) But there is difference between thinking about a particular topic of mysticism and talking about mysticism in general. We will need to keep on thinking about the process of getting trapped in mysticism if we need to come out of it and if we do not wish to get trapped in it again and again.

In any topic, there will always be room for mysticism and one can connect it with well-known mysticism topics, but the real heroism is in refusing to indulge in it. Ideally even thoughts related to these topics of mysticism should also end but if that is not possible for us now, at least talking and writing about it should be stopped by us. Acing on mysticism is a sure shot way of getting into a bigger problem.

There would be some unfortunate people who will be trapped in it all the times. We must try to help them as far as possible if they are willing and cooperative but to go into mysticism by us is surely not the solution. While helping others especially in this area, one should be most careful. Otherwise the person who is trapped in it might get out of it (or may not) but we get trapped in it!

On this Independence Day, let’s get free from all the mysticism! 😊

- Dr. Abhijeet Safai (15 August 2020)

Guidance of Dr. Himmatrao Bawaskar about COVID-19

Dr. Himmatrao Bawaskar guiding about COVID-19

Links:

1) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-zGJeI3eAY

2) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGMYJHLJcd4

3) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cc0GXkAfnts

About hypothyroidism

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXXLT_xXDJI

Written word and spoken word

“बोललेला शब्द हवेत विरून जातो आणि लिहिलेला शब्द गिरवला जातो (Spoken word goes away with wind and written word is retraced!)”

The above sentence was said by Naidu sir some days back and it has triggered many thoughts in my mind! Truly the written word has this tremendous power. The words are very powerful things in fact and when they are written they become permanent in a way!

Let’s see what Nayana (Dr. Abhay Bang) shared with us (students of Nirman) in his Chocolate Parcel dated 1 August 2013 below.

“प्रिय युवा मित्र,

शब्द’ हा माणसाने लावलेला मोठा शोध. जीवनातील एखाद्या वस्तूला किंवा अनुभवाला प्रतीक रूपाने शब्दाद्वारे प्रकट करणे ही माणूस प्राण्याची प्रचंड मोठी बौद्धिक उडी होती. त्यामुळेच भाषा, विचार व संस्कृती शक्य झालेत. शब्द प्रथम केवळ मौखिक होता. त्यामुळे शब्दांमधून ज्ञान पसरण्यावर मर्यादा होत्या. नंतर गटेनबर्गच्या छपाईमुळे तो शब्द छापता यायला लागला. त्याबरोबर शब्द व माहिती पसरण्याची गती व व्याप्ती हजारो पटींनी वाढली. वाचन व वाचक वाढले. आज आपण जे आहोत, जसे आहोत त्यात छापील शब्द या हनुमान उडीचा मोठा वाटा आहे. गेल्या वीस वर्षांत शब्दाने कागदाचा आधार सोडला, व तो इलेक्ट्रॉनिक झाला. तो इंटरनेट, कॉम्प्युटर व मोबाईल फोनची स्क्रीन याद्वारे प्रवाहित झाला. याचे परिणाम किती मोठे व व्यापक होतील हे तर अजून आपण पूर्ण बघितलेलेच नाहीत. रोज हे क्षितीज पुढे सरकते आहे. जगात इतकं लिहिलं गेलं, लिहिलं जातंय, पण त्यातला अब्जांश देखील आपण वाचू शकत नाही. मात्र ‘वाचाल तर वाचाल’ हे शब्दशः खरे आहे. निर्माणमधील युवा मित्रांनी काय वाचावे? पुस्तके तर जरूर वाचावीत. त्यांची चर्चा आपण शिबिरात करतोच. पण सोबत छोटे, सारगर्भ विविध विषयांवर सहज काय वाचावे? माझ्या वाचनात अलीकडे आलेले असे काही निवडक लेख दर महिन्यात तुम्हाला पाठवण्याचा विचार आहे. दर महिन्यात हे छोटेसे ‘चॉकलेट्सचे पार्सल’ तुम्हाला पाठवीन. बरेचदा चॉकलेट्स इंग्रजी असतील. चॉकलेट कसे वाटले? त्यातील विचारांबद्दल प्रतिक्रिया? जरूर परत पाठवा.

तुमचा

नायना (Dr. Abhay Bang)

संलग्न: चॉकलेट पार्सल” (Link)

Today in the morning, on this friendship day, I was listening a song named Maze Gaane. It is a song written by Balkavi and its beauty is incredible. Whoever knows Marathi knows that they are listening to some beautiful and sacred poem! (Link) “Words should be such that they will create springs of thoughts!” (शब्द असे असावेत कि ज्यांनी विचारांचे झरे निर्माण व्हावेत.) – Bhalchadra Nemade (I have heard him say this in a TV programme.)

These words of song खामोशियाँ आवाज है from movie Inkaar never fail to take me on a long journey of thoughts whenever I listen! (Link) There is more version of this song in English and lyrics are so great that I would request you to listen to it whenever you will get time.

The opportunities for writing were very less in past but “today every person is a broadcaster” as mentioned by Prasoon Joshi. No doubt that words are important but they are more important when they are written. Javed Akhtar ji said in a recent interaction with Symbiosis that in past it used to take about ten days to receive an answer to our letters and today we can send message to anyone by WhatsApp in seconds (Link). He further added that the speed is good but the speed should not be gained at the cost of depth!

We know that there are ‘WhatsApp disasters’ now a days! We all must have witnessed this or that WhatsApp disaster. Hence this medium also should be used very carefully. In WhatsApp disaster again, it is ‘written word’ that creates problems! We must assume that whatever we are writing, once it goes in pubic domain, it becomes permanent!

Today we can read about thoughts of great people even if they are not present with us only because of this process of writing. Either they have written it down themselves or someone else might have written their words. One might say that it is same case with spoken words because the same person’s saying can be recorded by means of audio and video. Though it is true that audio and video recording also is a kind of permanent record, the instruments of recording are costlier than the instruments of writing and it takes more space to store audio and video records. More bandwidth is needed to transmit it. Hence spread of audio and video records will be limited always in comparison to written records. If I will talk the words I am writing now a WhatsApp audio message, the size of recording will be in some MBs and if this same message is sent as a text, it will be in some KBs.

Hence one should be very very careful while writing anything is the conclusion to which I have reached by witnessing many disasters! One should be very careful otherwise also about words (spoken or written) is true but one should be more careful especially about written words is what I understand from the words said by Naidu sir which I have mentioned at the start of this blog post.

Thanks a lot for reading my loud thinking about written word and spoken word. I want to thank Naidu sir for giving this interesting and important thought. Please feel free to share your experiences about this tremendous power of written word with me. Happy friendship day to you all!

 - Dr. Abhijeet Safai (2 August 2020)

 

 

Letter by Anna Hazare to CM of Maharashtra

When there is power imbalance…..

Dr. Gurpur was talking in a seminar dated 10 December 2019. Dr. Shashikala Gurpur is Dean of faculty of law at Symbiosis International (Deemed University). She is also an ethics committee member of ethics committee of Symbiosis. In her talk she made a statement. The statement was - “When there is power imbalance, the truth goes for a toss!” It is a topic of multiple books and articles and blog posts.

How great a person she is and what great work she is doing and in which context this sentence was used, all these questions needs separate blog posts, but I will restrict this post related to this one thought.  

We should try to understand how power imbalance affects the search of truth and then what can be done to avoid the negative effect of power imbalance. Before that we will need to understand what, a power imbalance is. We will try to see the corollary of this sentence too.

Power imbalance as I understand in this context is when one is at powerful position and another person is at receiving end. One may say that power is needed for search of truth itself. It is true too partially. But there is no objection being taken at power itself, but it is about power imbalance.

I was watching Upanishad Ganga some days back on DD National and the beginning of that serial there is following shloka from Ishavasya Upanishad.

हिरण्मयेन पात्रेण सत्यस्यापिहितं मुखम्‌।

तत् त्वं पूषन्नपावृणु सत्यधर्माय दृष्टये ॥

Its meaning is as follows. “The face of Truth is covered with a brilliant golden lid; that do thou remove, O Fosterer, for the law of the Truth, for sight.” (Reference - https://upanishads.org.in/upanishads/1/15)

I found lot of similarity between what Gurpur madam said and this Shloka from Ishavasya Upanishad.

The gold represents power. To see the truth, one must remove the lid of gold!

It can mean many things. It means that gold (power) and truth live very near to each other. But power clouds our understanding of truth to such an extent that it almost becomes a barrier to know the truth.

After listening that sentence that day, I got answer to a very important question in my life. The answer is in the corollary of the principle which is stated above.  If we consider the sentence of  “When there is a power imbalance, the truth goes for a toss” as a law (of nature), we can say the corollary of this law as “One will not get to see the truth who indulges in excessive power and allows the power imbalance in the situation.” This is answer to the question in my mind which was there, but I was not able to articulate it properly till I got this answer.

The question was – “What punishment is there available in nature for those who indulge in excessive power and power imbalance?” The answer is – “He will not get to see the truth!”

This understanding is very much satisfying.

The relation between a doctor and a patient changes when some medical research is going on. Both of them are at equal level when research is going on. Otherwise in a normal relation, the patient is at receiving end and the doctor is having decision making authority. Maybe this happens because in research, the aim is to find the truth.

Mahatma Gandhi has said that a lie is the biggest injustice and when there is injustice, there is anger and the anger leads to violence. So, removing power imbalance is a way of nonviolence or in other sense a way to reach truth. Hence nonviolence and reaching truth is the same thing in my opinion.

The above discussion has triggered some more questions in my mind to which I am finding answers. They are as follows.

·       How to deal when there will be power imbalance present and its visible clearly. How to diagnose power imbalance and what is the treatment?

·       Under the name of what power imbalance is created? Like freedom is taken away in the name of help, by showing which (logical and apparently ethical) reason power imbalance is created?

Prof. Richard Dawkins has very beautifully shown the relation between science and politics. He said “Science is about finding the truth. Truth is power and politics is all about power.”

But in my opinion, researchers / scientists cannot blame politicians entirely if truth goes for a toss. It is researchers who should remain away from excessive power if they want to search the truth. Prasoon Joshi explains that in India politicians do not trouble people if people will not trouble them. He says that people think that they can use politicians, so they go close to them to use politicians and cry foul when they are used by politicians.

I want to thank Gurpur madam for creating this chain of though in my mind by her one sentence. I am very happy to find a similar verse from Ishavasya Upanishad.

Thanks for reading.

- Dr. Abhijeet Safai

Encouraging material

I felt that I must collect encouraging material in these difficult times and keep at one place so that I can share it with others. I am sharing the links of encouraging material below. Please let me know if you liked it in the comments section.

1. This is a dialogue between Prasoon Joshi and Vivek Agnihotri. Wonderful insights about creativity - Poetry and new wold - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUV368AnpH0&t=1929s
2. This is an article by Prasoon Joshi about creativity - https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/toi-edit-page/the-corona-crisis-is-alarming-its-also-a-much-needed-wakeup-call-that-will-arouse-our-creativity/
3. This is Instagram live of Sandeep Khare with Spruha Joshi - https://www.instagram.com/p/CAVEdF4H5-v/