Blissful journeys of Venky Rao
Today i received a message extolling the virtues of Punjab and as a tribute to its great son, Maharaja Ranjit Singh on his birthday (13th Nov 1780). Maharaja Ranjit Singh is certainly one of the great sons of this Karma Bhoomi called Bharat. The thing that irked me in the message was a reference to how king Porus of Punjab dared to stop Sikander in his world conquest. It was mainly about the use of the words Sikander and Porus, since both are
The famous Bill Gates shared a post recently on LinkedIn that the reinvented toilets are a part of 6 billion dollars annual opportunity for companies that are first to market. And also that they have a potential to save millions of lives. Impressive, huh?
Thinking of toilets:
In recent times, for myriad reasons, toilets have found a huge fan base. They seem to inspire/break love stories
Today Prime Minister of India is unveiling a tall statue of a tall leader, Iron man of India, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. There are several discussions on his legacy.
Sardar, no doubt, is the architect of modern administratively integrated geographical India. He certainly deserves a huge respect from every Indian.
Everytime i read about Sardar, i reminisce my childhood. As a child, i grew up listening to many personal stories of India’s freedom struggle
Continue reading “Sardar, Operation Polo and My Grandmother”
ॐ त्र्यम्बकं यजामहे
सुगन्धिं पुष्टिवर्धनम् ।
उर्वारुकमिव बन्धनान्
मृत्योर्मुक्षीय मामृतात् ॥
ఓం త్రయంబకం యజామహే
సుగంధిం పుష్టి వర్ధనం
ఉర్వారుకమివ బంధనాన్
మృత్యోర్ ముక్షీయ మామృతాత్
ఉర్వారుక మివ బంధనం అంటే…..
ఇసుకలో ఆడుకొంటున్న పిల్లల్ని చూస్తుంటాం. అద్భుతంగా గుడి కడతారు. తీరికగా అలంకారాలు అద్దుతారు. తోచినంతసేపు హాయిగా ఆడుకుంటారు. పొద్దు వాలేటప్పటికి, ఆ కట్టడాలన్నింటినీ చటుక్కున కూలదోస్తారు. కిలకిల నవ్వులతో
సనాతన ధర్మాచరణలో ముఖ్యమయినది కర్మానుష్టానము.
ఈ కర్మానుష్టానమునకు ఉపకరణము దశేంద్రియ మనోబుద్ధ్యహంకారచిత్తమైన భౌతికకాయము.
దీనికి సంస్కరణపరులు మాతాపితృలు, ఆచార్యులు, బంధువులు, సన్నిహితులు, అతిథులు.
వీరంతా సదా మాననీయులు.
🙏🙏
తైత్తిరీయ ఉపనిషత్తులో చెప్పినట్లు
Not everything that comes out of science labs is the right thing in the long run.
Specially in case of food and healthcare, which directly impact the human and ecological wellbeing, long term effects have to be understood.
Unfortunately
My in-laws were moving to another home. I enquired with my mother-in-law about the progress of the packing. She said it is pretty much done since a lot of junk that got piled up over the years has been discarded. She was happy that the moving process helped them clear unnecessary junk that got piled up over the years.
Isn’t it the same with our lives in general as well?
The picture of Lord Padmanabha (God in Hinduism and the main diety at Thiruvananthapuram, India famous for its new found riches) is always a blissful sight for me for several reasons.
Ah.. Statistics.. Statistics.. and damn Statistics..
This morning i open the newspaper in India only to find another one of those damn statistical reports covering
At the time Internal Combustion engine was invented about a century ago, there was a good use of electric cars. It is interesting to note that about 1/3 of all cars (though a small number) sold in USA were supposedly electric.
But Mr. Benz and Mr. Ford shaped the automobile industry with gasoline powered IC engines, and it all changed since then. In the past century automobile has become an essential daily use machine. But now people love to hate its technology because of pollution, choice of fuel among others.
Now a century later, we have come a full circle.
Recently in a discussion with friends, it was observed that many in software engineering and other professionals are posting and talking about philosophy and spirituality (not necessarily religion).
For the past few years as I study deeper into software engineering, science, technology, life sciences and society i noticed that there is no difference between these topics and spirituality.
In fact all of them were nothing but different aspects of the same study. Personally it was rather easy for me to understand and relate to the topics if I understood the essence, the common sense thread.
It is like “reaching the point where all roads end from where all roads began”.
Buildings typically have huge windows and damn we need maximum electricity to cool the rooms when sun is banging on those window panels.
‘Energy’ is something that our science got it wrong whether it is about powering our automobiles or homes and offices in general.
We are noticing the shortcomings and effects of our technology. And we need to change faster. It is going to be a difficult journey given the legacy of the current technology.
Today i heard a great story about a dialogue between Hanuman and Ramachandra from Indian epic(itihasa) Ramayana.
This story beautifully explains the relationship between Self and God.
Whether it’s Mumbai, Shanghai, New York, Dhaka, Tokyo or any big city in the world, people are always in-hurry and on-the-run to make a living.
The amount of crowd or the commuting mode might change, but the crowded thoughts and mad rush inside each person’s head is perhaps similar.
Traditional indian design is more driven by nature and using harmony. We typically find it manifest in both form and function aspects of the designs.
For example, traditional indian architectural design methodology “vastu shastra” uses natural forces in design. Indian women wear “sari” uses natural motifs.
Symmetry and cyclical design elements also are dominant in indian design perhaps driven by its deep spiritual and philosophical background weaved into most of the life choices in traditional India.
Nature, symmetry, cyclical, fractal, harmony are the themes that come to my mind.
Today a major section of people around the world celebrate Valentine’s day which is dubbed as the lovers day. It is indeed good to see the world striving for and experiencing love.
Love is perhaps the best of human experiences since that is our true nature. In fact, my guru would always address the gatherings as the embodiments of love.
Most of the modern day scientists are humble enough to accept that they have barely scratched the surface. But, egoistic enough to disagree that some of the ancient philosophers had made better progress and cracked the code for the universe and humanity better. – Venky Rao
The 3E’s that we should be careful in this century.
What is spirituality? It is rising above religions marked purely by ceremonial understanding of the church, mosque or temple.
Personally i think groceries, food and healthcare got to be localized to a great extent in the world. It not only improves the overall health of citizens but also reduces unnecessary carbon footprint.
Evolution and change is constant and what happens to the human species will only be known with time.
Continue reading “Artificial Intelligence: Are humans doomed?”
Interestingly while humans lived and identified themselves as citizens of their nations or kingdoms for a long time, passports became widespread only in the last century.
in search of truth 