My Religion

I was born as Hindu to parents who believes in God more than God believe in himself. I grew up listening  and reading lot of religious stories. I went to a Christian convent run by Nuns who taught us Jesus is the only God in my kinder garden. My Dad , though very religious is secular and listed to Quran versus at Television.It was so confusing at first for my tiny brain. But it helped me understand and respect other's belief system.

The reason for this little disclaimer is to prepare you for some confusions ahead.
Hinduism and  Science is always a debatable topic and widely discussed enough everywhere including world wide web. I wanted to add my side of story as well.Moreover Navarathri is the right time to  talk about Hnduism and science.

if a religion is just a set of rules to live a happy and peaceful life in harmony with other people, then I will accept Hinduism as religion. Otherwise it is not.. Why because..
Noone knows exactly
1. who started it (??)
2. When (10000 years ago?, Any evidence?)
3. Holy book (Gita?, Veda?, Mahabharth?, Ramayan?)
4. The God ? (Ganesh?,,Muruga?,Shiva?,Vedas?,Vishnu?)
5. Idol workship allowed or not (Shivling/Murthi/Fire?)

For a normal person like me , None of these things are clear. But one thing clear is the fact that this religion has been followed in India for a very long time and all Indians were once Hindus. In fact the name Hindus was from the Indus river where one of the oldest civilization started (Indus valley civilization). So to me, Hinduism is the long tradition which was followed by people starting from Indus valley until now and Those people somehow figured out the best way to most things. Irony is  we neglect most brilliance nowadays as Scifi and superstitions.
They were aware of in their stories/books/epics/superstions

• The power of fitness - Yoga
• The power of mind- Meditation
• The power of herbs/ Natural Antibiotics - Tulsi and Neem
• The power of women - Sakthi
• The power of marriage - Artharnaarishwar
• The importance of Animals - Vahana of Gods
• the concept of vimana (during Ramayana time)
• Nine planets as navagrahas. (May not be accurate but they guessed it right)
• We talk a lot about artificial intelligence nowadays. A part of it ,neural networks is more or less like predicting the future from past data.Being said that, Astrology(Tamil horoscope) which is nothing but a lot of calculations and pattern matching algorithms to get the result of prediction of future.
• Evolution

Navarathiri Golu is kept in the order of Aquatic animals, grass, worms, Animals, humans, Scholars and then God. I have seen people of other religious beliefs often oppose evolution and vaccines because of the contradiction between their belief system and modern science. Hindus never cared about it because they were taught about it.  I have always wondered if hanuman is human neanderthal(the proposed ancester of human beings)

• Agathi Keerai->Cows => punniyam + Calcium-> Humans

Recently On a conversation I was asked how cow gets Calcium if it eats only grass. First few results of google search told me that, Our digestive system is not so efficient in absorbing Calcium directly from greens. But Cows(All Cattles) and colobine monkeys independently developed the power to digest cellulose(Plant materials) effectively. When I read this, I remembered this incident back in my school days. People used to come to my house during Amavasai to feed our cows with agathi keerai.  Feeding agathi keerai to cows was considered as an auspicious thing for Hindus. But why to Cows?? I connected these two incidents and was surprised by our ancesters wisdom. Cows give Milk. We cannot absorb calcium directly. Cows get calcium from greens they eat. Agathi keerai has 120mg Calcium higher than Kale even. got it?!

They might not have gotten everything right. There were huge flaws such as sati, untouchability, etc that could possibly be inserted in the medieval times.But it has always appeared to me flawless most of the time I study Science. These facts above neither summarize nor prove anything. If I can relate just by hearing stories how much should be there if we study veda without thinking everything as superstitions.
By God's grace..
Someday.. I wish.. I only wish... I read and tell the world that there are few more awesomeness in science to reveal according to Hinduism.

As Steve Jobs mentioned once in Stanford Commencement Cermony, Connecting the dots between the recent tamil movie I watched and my work.

Existence!

Once in a conversation with 5 year old, I was asked why we are called living beings. I was trying to explain in her language because we move , we breathe, we do things on your own.  The conversation went on with more and more questions about life of plants and animals. After a series of my answers, She looked convinced now and started playing with her Ipad. She switched to a toy that looked like a barbie but was called Amala. There was a small opening on its back for battery. The eyes were sparkling with the help of LEDs and some art work. It did have electronic ears and mouth hidden behind the beautifully shaped and colored lips and ears. It was made so realistic with silicone skin and dressed gorgeously in pink. The Kid was so proud to possess the toy. The little one said that her little amala can dance, walk,throw a small ball. I was listening to her and remembered how her mom exclaimed about the things, her 5 yr old can do.

 Then she opened her cute little tent and kept this toy. Then she played something on her IPad, kept the IPad and  Amala inside it. The amala started dancing on listening to her Ipad. It was her own recording of some instructions that was loud enough just for the toy. I was comparing the little me  playing with mud and water  with this smart kid with smart toys.
Her mom shouted "Battery poga poguthu paaru;ippadi thaan ellathayum vinadikra" (Translates to "Battery will die; she is spoiling everything").

 I was puzzled on seeing this sweet little life inside the cute little tent.
Am I correct? Did i tell her properly what living means?
Now In the era of artificial intelligence, robots can do what we can and cannot do.They can feel, they can make a copy of themselves,etc,etc,etc.....
Of course we designed them , we gave them the power to do all these .

But...

What if we are chemically powered robots automated enough to think on our own , make ourself on our own, feel,power and protect ourselves on our own for a limited period and die? 

It is been years since I posted last. Change is the only constant.  Everything changed a lot around and in me.  But its kinda funny that I was more philosophical person when I was young than now. I stopped writing because noone was really interested in reading my stories. Something said that I should keep up. So from now on you can see some more boring good stuff coming..

Keep smiling