Purpose of Death

Purpose of Life. That is what i was searching for.

Some seem (claim) to know.

Some claim to guide us to know.

May be i have not found the right person to listen to or am not mature enough to understand even if it was explained in the best of the ways possible. lets leave it to benefit of doubt.

But, the restless and curios mind keeps searching within. The mind proposes to relook at the question and over prolonged internal arguments - the question was rephrased to "Purpose of Death".

So, what is death?
Our heart stops pumping blood, lungs stop exchanging molecules or some other part of the body refusing to collaborate with other organs.

Why death?
The all powerful nature could have created life without death.
Evolution says ( i am made to belive that) the purpose of life on earth is reproduction; followed by survival.

What is the significance of reproduction?
The experiences of a living species is so vast. The essence of all the experience is sorted, filtered, compressed etc etc and stored into a Gene. The 20+ years of experience of an individual is stored in a gene, gets born with basic traits and gains new experience and this process contintues. That could be the significance. So, what?

So, what?
I am not sure of why this has to be this way?

Nature gives a glimpse of death everyday. In the form of sleep. In the form of dreams within sleep. Rearranging and storing experiences in our brain, muscle, cell and gene. Waking up from sleep everyday for a new set of experiences.

Life is not much different. it is just few more days, months and years. Just that the offspring wakes up with the new body and lives in parallel (grand parent, parent, child..) with our current experiences.

Not sure if i would understand Purpose of Life. But, one thing is getting clear. If the offspring has to be healthy, better prepare our gene with good actions and good thoughts.

What is good (or bad)?
This is another question. We may not get a straight answer. We may have to rephrase the question.

Rider:
Complaining about the current generation is meaningless. We know "who is responsible?"

Food for Thought

When to eat?  What to eat?  How to eat? and Should we eat?.

The questions that haunted me for long.

Having born in an environment where eating non-vegetarian was a norm. During the days when i used to eat non-veg food, i dont involve in cutting or even cooking as it squeezes the heart a little.

The concept of jeevakarunya got in. One fine day the neural connections rewired themselves and converted me to become a vegetarian.  Then somebody said, plants are also living things. I did not find a choice and hence remained a vegetarian for almost 19 years.

In the mean time, i had been hearing of people who lived only on water, my guru living on one time food, long duration fasting etc

The concept of palio diet gave another perspective. My understanding of palio diet is that; some one observed carnovorous animals (tigers, cheetah etc) that eat once in a day and are fit and active. Herbivorous animals (elephants, cows etc) are generally fat and found eating most of the time.

Recently i came across Nature Cure - http://akarma.life/akarma-health/ in coimbatore. Just by adjusting food habits the common ailments of sugar, BP, diabetes etc are gone. Even chronic head aches and asthma. Have personally interacted with them and have just about altered my diet plan. The plan is more or less - No Oil - No Boil - Hence No Kitchen.

You may check out this video for more details.

During one of our tekmonks sharing session, this topic came up and one of them made a startling remark.  "Extending jeevakarunya on these lines, i think we should not eat any form of seeds. The seeds are their children. They grow and keep the species alive".

So, we are just left with some fruits and vegetables to feed upon.

May be some day, some one would make another observation and we might start living on water and air alone.

May be that is why we are asked to enter into deep meditation for years togather.

Looks like anything a human being does, leaves a disturbing footprint for other species. May be the purpose of humanity is to disturb the ecosystem or maybe we are the highest form of intelligence which is supposed to sit and enter into a trance. Not sure why we should have a physical form? May be someday we would realize.

No Childs Play

Lets begin at the end.

"Children need not play". They have better things to do. Play as in todays context is destructive to children and society.

The moment this thought occured, i thought, may be i have lost all faculty of mind and got insane. A few moments later, once the distrubances in neural connections gradually settled down, realization started to dawn.

Now lets move on to the beginning.

"Once I complete my work, my teacher allows me to play. so i complete my work as fast as i can and go on to play". This was a casual statement from my daughter when she was some 6 years old. This happened atleast 2 years ago.

"Toys, reading books, listening to stories are not a must for children". A statement made by a minimalist and mother of 2 while sharing her experience. This happened a few months ago.

The above 2 incidences got registered in my mind. Without any prejudice or judgement.

A few weeks back, during a workshop with children, i happened to notice that the children were longing and waiting for a break... Felt bad for not being able to motivate and handle a group of them. May be i should find a way of making things interesting. maybe integrate play within the session. so many ideas...

 As usual, with a worried mind and a not so sound a sleep, the first statement that flashed through my mind when i woke up was "Children need not play". Why? I asked my mind.  Brain and Mind got into a war to justify this statement.

A few seconds later, the mind proposes the following.
In the earlier days of human evolution, children would just observe and repeat what theirs parents did. May be explore a little bit beyond that.
There was no concept of gathering food and staying in a specific place. It was a nomadic lifestyle. So, life was a play and every day would be new.
Children had to learn to feed themselves. They grow up and the cycle repeats.

Now that we have become gatherers and better still parents gather enough and more for the child until the age of 20 or even to the age of 30. some times more. for the child.

So. There is no challenge for the child. Boredom sets in.  Parents are too preoccupied with their own jobs. The jobs are too varied in nature (it was just basic survival skills that humans needed in the earlier days). The child does not have enough experince to understand what career to choose. Workplaces are different for parents and often not possible to work as a family.  No more joint families...

The way out to keep children occupied. Ask them to play. There is the opportunity knocking on the doors of commerical world. Sell them bats, balls rings, software games....  create competetion among them.. break the unity. In the name of expressing their passion towards the game, the eyeball industry sets in. The Televisions and digital content glue (gravity of photons) them to the chairs.  The spice of advertisements promote packed food. That food takes them to the noble practitioners of medicine. Expense of time, money and health for the family and child; all along the commercial chain.

In the process, energy is drained sufficiently and there would no room for productive work. What a beautiful way to end up in slavery. Not even realizing the process of enslavement.

What is the way out?

Lifestyle change.  Minimalism and Sustainable living practices may be adopted so that humanity would be humane and leave minimal footprint on this earth.

I hear people quote the famous poet Bharathiyar. To my kowledge, the great poet would not have thought of competition and winning. The play as he means would be for fitness of body and mind. May be he saw this coming..

Are Engineers Susceptible to Stress?

Take a walk!.  Thats what i do.. when stressed..  stress in the sense that... i intend or try to do something and the situation does not allow me to do so.. may be i dont have the conviction or whatever the inference is.

The interesting thing is.. after a walk... the stress takes a walk.. :-) and i am relaxed. so... who am i?... But the big I is not the topic for this blog.... it is all about sress and engineers....

I happened to take a walk on one such.. what else... a stressful situation..   The question that rushed internally was and is.. the title of this post.

Yes. I am an engineer... no no no. i as a person... holding an engineering degree certificate.. thats all. thats how i got my 12th certificate and my 10th earlier to that... The certificates were not earned.. they were conferred based on some vested interest of some one else.. I thought i was worth it... little did i realize then... how foolish i was and am...I am also part of I scratch you scratch community...

A sincere someone asked... a valid... very valid question.. "so, what have you engineered so far?".  in that sense, i am not an engineer and i cannot be stressed. so.. what else....

The train of thoughts...  random thoughts...  as it occurred...

As much as a "point" is for geometry.... "acceleration"  is for classical mechanics.... "velocity" is for relativity.. the "pulse" for a traditional doctor.... ofcourse modern doctors rely on engineered instruments to track the origin of the pulse in the name of stethascope.... The "stress at a point" is fundamental to a mechanical or civil engineer.   Not sure what is it for an electrical, electronics or a chemical engineer.. some say its all about electrons....

As a certificate holder of mechanical engineering, all i know is that... Stress at a point requires 9 numbers in a 3x3 matrix to specify it... further more... to understand it... and use it for prediction... may be thats what engineers do...it takes differential and integral calculus.. Who knows calculus? May be newton.. may be leibnitz... may be maxwells, gausses and feynmens... But not faraday for sure..  Had faraday tried to understand calculus... he might not have had the time enough to conduct experiments with electricity and magnetism.... (this is bad inference... may be...)

After all the random thoughts have subsided through the brain.... there was a nasty flash....

An engineer tries to recreate or duplicate nature. In the process, engineers have gone far away from understanding nature.....  the plants... the animals... the birds...  the air... the fire... the water... the earth... the sky....the social psychology.  How can an advanced engineering community live in harmony with nature?....  It seems to be a contrary... an Irony....

An engineers pursuit of understanding the stress of a physical object.... seems to result in exceeding the safe and yield stresses (ultimate stress for brittle materials ) of the environment.

Naturally .. nature will withstand the stress... what about us? engineers?  ... the lesser mortals.. ?

This reasoning aint self-defeating.... A realization or an opportunity for .... alas we all like to play with words... ...awareness engineering or mindful engineering.... dont forget... there is environmental engineering....

We love to pass the buck... the famous question... "Who kills Creativity?"... The most loved answer seems to be schools... and then the teachers.... we do not want to accept the fact that... the very reason being the parents themselves...  we dont accept. dont we?...

Some day... we engineers too might realize...

Note:
Dots were used very liberally in this article.. Just because, i did not know, when to put a comma and when to put a fullstop.. so....  thanks to the dots. though they are abstract, they seem to somehow connect.. to reality....

The Tek Monk

Who are you? 
The question that makes us think, explore and reason enough to live for.  Our perspective,  couple of years ago for this question. A 2014 post - The hard part is to introduce onself.

The answer seems to be Tek Monk.

Tek Monk is an identity and a way of life. For the average and ordinary people.

Similar to a businessman, an entrepreneur, a startup founder,  social entrepreneur, social activist, Nomad, Banjara etc, 

Who is a Tek Monk?
A Tek Monk is one who follows sustainable living, self-employed, a science entusisast, a researcher, a mentor and optionally an educator. The most important is to "walk the path of truth". Thats the identity.

What do you mean by Sustainable Living?
Sustainable living as per our understanding is to lead a life in harmony with nature and consume minimal resources. An ecology centric life.

Can we quantify minimal resources?
Quantification is a real challenge (seems hypocrytic) as it is very much dependent on the environment (urban, rural etc) in which we live and also subjective.

 As of now we are considering earning/living within the income tax slab as our annual need. This should take care of the basic necessities of an individual like food, shelter, clothing, health and continuous learning. Anything more would go into research or payforward activities.

Why Self-Employed?
Every one is unique and would have a calling. So, being self-employed provides an opportunity to pursue ones dreams. It can also be seen as a spiritual journey. Living at the mercy of nature.

A group of Tek Monks may collaborate to form micro-ventures to share their expertise.

Why Science?
Nature seems to be a game based on some rules. Rules are revealed to the inquisitive minds. To play the game (to live in harmony), we need to understand the rules.

Science is a method of understanding some of the rules of nature ( of physical reality). Rules ofcourse  are revealed incrementally.

Why be a Mentor?
Assist others willing to explore and become a Tek Monk. We believe in collaboration and sharing.

Why be an educator. Why optional?
Sharing our knowledge with others helps in a deeper understanding of the subject. More importantly, the mixed audience would give different perspectives of the same subject.

Being an educator helps improve the expertise levels.

This is similar to "chicken and egg" paradox. An expert can be a good educator and being an educator helps build expertise.

Being an educator is considered to be a unique talent and hence left optional.

Why do you call it a Journey?
Nature reveals its secrets; Incrementally. The more rules (of nature) we know, the more we dont know. So, this is a continuous journey with pitstops. The pitstops are to refresh, reflect and rediscover oneself. The Journey is Life.

Money is necessary in this world. Where does it come from?
We earn a living by doing blue collar and odd collar jobs or by sharing our expertise.

For jobs other than green collar, the monetization basis for our man day/manhour rate is on a 3 day work week. Remaining 4 days of week are used for self-improvement, research and green collar jobs.

Green Collar jobs and research activities are taken up on a total voluntary model or based on food, shelter basis.

We are open to investments that are returnable or in a payforward model. The funds will be used only for infrastruture, research and to assist Tek Monks in skill development.

We do not accept donations.

Why these collar jobs?
For a Tek Monk, every job is a prime job. We wish to take up physical work as much as possible. It helps us keep our health and also utilize the energy consumed.

In situations where the nature of work is considered hazardous to self or ecology, we shall take an effort to minimize the impact. Human powered machines would be the first choice. Science, Engineering and Technology might help us convert blue collar to Virtual Collar Jobs.

The inspiration?
There are many. This is a collection of our experience from observing the lives of the likes of
K L Muralidharan, Puvidham Meenakshi, Thangavelu Ayya, Manikkam Anna, Felix Anna, Ankit Banjara.

Friends who wanted and made Aatrral happen.

More importantly, well wishers who prodded us with the deep question; Who are You?.

What it takes to become a Tek Monk?
This is a self-taught, self-certified identity. You may already be one.

We are taking an effort to put everything in writing.  Might take some time. In the meanwhile, you may talk to one of us who have taken up the Tek Monk Journey.

Any Road Map to embark on TekMonk Journey?

Its a didactic and level based self-learning process between being a monk and tek. 16 and above age group.

Monk 1: Get introduced to the concept of sustainable living  (a few minutes to few days)
Tek 1:    Earn your living and become self sustaining. This depends on skill gap.

Monk 2: Acquire skills for sustainable living (learn from experts)
Tek 2:     Learn the fundamentals of science and Technology (1 to 6 months)

Monk 3: Volunteer
Tek 3:     Attempt to solve real world problems or purse research in pure sciences.

Monk 4: Explore life of a Banjara
Tek 4:    Become an expert

The levels are self designed. You may seek assistance/mentoring from other Tek Monks.

How do we contact tekmonks?
Please send us an email (tekmonks@gmail.com) and one of us shall get in touch with you.

Proposed Logo.

Art of Nature vs Nature of Art

Am not a linguist, nor an anthropologist or a recognized philosopher. Which could mean that I fit into the profile of a layman.

So, this is a laymans inference of art made by humans. The paintings, drawings, architecture etc and how it could influence ecology?

We, as a family, happened to go on a 45 day (we did not plan the number of days). It just happened so. A 10000km, learning journey to the Northeastern states of India.  Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya were the states visited. The onward journey was from Coimbatore to New Tinsukia in Assam, a 4500 km and 78 hr train journey.  We lived mostly in villages and economically backward areas.

We also happened to visit Mowlynnong in meghalya which was declared cleanest village (2003) in Asia , the Live Root Bridges and Gompa in Itanagar

The return journey involved  stopovers at calcutta (Kali Temple and Science City), Bhubaneshvar (Konark and Puri Temples) and Vijayawada (Panaka Narashimar Temple)

When we observed the lifestyle of people, scripts, buildings of different places and their art forms, a suprising inference emerged out of the mind.

The observations - Starting from the Northeast to down south:
+ The scripts for the languages are straighter in the norteast (assamese) and becomes more and more curved as we travel through bengal (bengali), Mostly curves (Odiya), Only Curves (Telugu in Andhra) and a combination (Tamil).
+ The farm lands in northeast surronds the untouched forest areas. But as we come to south, it is more of cash crops and very minimal natural forests. The root bridges in northeast are a symbol of harmonious living with nature rather. How ever, the concept of sacred groves seem to be prevalant throughout.
+ The place of worship start with Plant and Nature in northeast, Idol worship in West Bengal and Odhisa  (they do have some resemblence with human form) and starting from vijayawada, the idols assume human form.
+ The buildings are more functional in northeast and becomes a little artistic as we cross orissa (as seen in puri and jangannathar temples) and become more artistic in Andhra (Kanaka Dhurga Temple)


The inference that came out of these observations were crazy and seemed irrational. But however, this is the summary.

"When people get more and more artistic, it is an indication that they are moving far away from enjoying the beauty of Nature".

Be Happy - Just Like That

We had an opportunity to visit northeast states of India. 

Since reaching Assam  on 2nd july, having interacted with some 200+ children from economically poor backgrounds and some 30+ families and observing some passersby, it was nice to see that most of them were "rich in happiness" and we're leading a contended life.

The question that arose was "how to be happy". More or less understood the reason from 2 different incidents.

One, after visiting a tibetian monastery in Arunachal, we wanted to buy a souvenir for some low budget. We identified an item which would cost somewhere around 50₹max (our economic perspective). We were surprised to hear that it costed 250₹. Our friend was shocked and could not resist asking for the reason. The prompt and instantaneous reply was "just like that". 

The second incident happened during an interaction with children of age group 10 to 16. They were learning drama, vocals, craft and also the "science through life" program we were offering. When I asked  them why do they learn arts, drama etc; just to build a similar case for science, the quorous answer was " we just feel good"

That was the point of realisation. Be happy. Just like that.