Experience...Reflect...Conceptualize...Experiment

season 4: Katopanishad part28

sun2275 — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 19:48:00 GMT

valli2, adhyaya2 of katopanishad. Verse 3 and 4 explained. ...

Season4: Katopanishad Part 27

sun2275 — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 04:26:00 GMT

This Lecture covers mantras 1-3 of valli3, 2nd chapter Katopanishad. Hamsa Gayatri is explained. ...

Conceptual Metaphors: The Role of Language in Cognition

sun2275 — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 02:36:00 GMT

Prof. Lakoff starts off by destroying the very foundation assumptions of "western" civilization -1. Reason is assumed to be conscious2. Reason is disembodied3. Reason is supposed to be dispassionate (emotion comes in the way of reason)These were the ones the supposedly differentiated "west" from the irrational Others. If these assumptions are faulty then there is an urgent need to understand the narrative which casts our civilization as inferior and reflect-rethink our own foundational assumptions that have been pushed into trashbags believing western narrative as universal knowledge. ...

Anupam Mishra:The ancient ingenuity of water harvesting

sun2275 — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 21:52:00 GMT

My favorite part of the talk is when Mishraji shows to the audience who the engineers are who built water harvesting devices. There is another part where he says that ancient engineering combined aesthetics into the design. Overall a great talk. ...

Season4: Katopanishad Part26

sun2275 — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 20:08:00 GMT

This lectures covers the first mantra of second section of the second chapter. ...

season4: Katopanishad Part25

sun2275 — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 22:12:00 GMT

11th Mantra to end of the first valli(section) of the second chapter. concept of differences and meditation is covered. ...

SixthSense Technology

sun2275 — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 15:31:00 GMT

SixthSense is brilliant new frontier that Pranav is working on that can radically change the way technology and Real world interact. The fact the Pranav wants to make the software open-source is amazing. Open paradigm is very similar to Indian Traditions and its immense potential is already proven by the likes of Smartphone Apps, Wikipedia and like. ...

Season4: Katopanishad Part24

sun2275 — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 20:04:00 GMT

This lecture deals with the topic of macroscopic - microscopic equivalence. We continue doing the case study of Kalapurusha. We also do a brief study of vastu purusha and mantra. ...

Season4: Katopanishad Part23

sun2275 — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 21:43:50 GMT

In this class we study Mantras 9 and 10. Important concept on the equivalence of Microcosm and Macrocosm is discussed. ...

Season4: Katopanishad Part22

sun2275 — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 23:54:00 GMT

Katopanishad part22 discusses the concept of name - ...

Season4: Katopanishad Part21

sun2275 — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 02:19:00 GMT

Katopanishad part21 - What is a learning environment? What are the types of dialogues? ...

Season4: Katopanishad Part20

sun2275 — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 22:52:00 GMT

Season4 Classes started today. We continue with Katopanishad Adhyaya 2, Valli1 mantra 7. ...

Geneology of Colonial Discourse

sun2275 — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 15:06:00 GMT

I have uploaded a fascinating paper by Raf on how the image of Brahmin transformed in Europe from a pre-renaissance saintly one to post reformation crafty priest. This image of a crafty priest was cooked in the universities of the West. It got applied not only to the brahmins of India but all over the world. Suddenly, the ancient Egyptians, Mayans had crafty priests. But where did this category "priest" come from? Catholics! so in the fight between catholics and protestants, the demonization of the catholic priests became a template that got applied all over the world!/files/2/5/6/2/1/120692-112652/genealogy.pdf">Genealogy of colonial Discourse ...

Time Paradox: Shreyas and Preyas

sun2275 — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 17:46:00 GMT

In KaTopanishad, Yama explains the two kinds of choices that we constantly make in life - Preyas and Shreyas. Preyas is the choice that is entirely based on the 'now' without any concern for the future. We can call this first order decision since here the decisions are based solely on the 'now'. Shreyas is the choice we make that is based not only on the present but also the future. We can call this second order decisions since the reactions to stimulus is not solely based on the present conditions but also future outcomes. Dr.Zombardo has explained these concepts wonderfully well in this lecture. ...

Co-operate Or Compete - Part2

sun2275 — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 15:54:00 GMT

Continuing on the topic of Co-operation and Competition, Paul Beckett's article in Wall street Journal and a rejoinder by Gurumurthy shows us how simplistic stereotypical analysis even though sounds confirming can be completely wrong. I think sch stereotypical analysis ignoring the multi-dimensional nature of real society. What i mean by that is - why expect a huge individual contribution but ignore small individual contributions? Why ignore contribution along Jati or language lines? Maybe this is what makes sense to us... something to ponder.

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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124840931940378415.html

India's Rich, Open Your Wallets

On Saturday, Bill Gates will pick up the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development from India's president. He will be the first businessman to receive the prize since it was instituted in 1986.

Paul Beckett

He won't be collecting it for Microsoft ...

Nice Guys Finish First: Compete or Co-operate

sun2275 — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 12:33:00 GMT

How would 'compete or co-operate?' strategy explain behavior of Indians? Apparently, Indians are not good at co-operating but why do they still thrive or do they? You go to any Indian parties in the US, surely there will be some pockets of conversation about 'corruption in India' or ' Indians are dishonest' or 'Indians are selfish'. The question is - are we asking the right questions? Do co-operation exist in any form? Lets restrict the strategy to along language or jati lines. Some visible co-operation exists among Gujratis and Andhra communities. Most definitely such co-operation does exist along jati lines as well. Is this because those co-operations make intuitive sense? Thats how we have always co-operated? If that is true, instead of blaming this behavior, why not make it useful? Why not encourage co-operation only along Jati or language lines without expecting universal co-operation among all of Indians? I think ...

Memes: Design through Replication

sun2275 — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 19:26:00 GMT

If Memes are information genes essentially passed on through imitation, then many of the things we do should not be for any reason of belief whatsoever. The questions such as "Why do we wear clothes?" "Why vegetarian?" and such like should only be explainable as Memes. ...

Near Death Experiences

sun2275 — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 12:50:00 GMT

An interesting BBC documentary on Near Death Experiences (NDE). Even though the documentary focuses on cases in US and UK, it will be interesting to see if similar descriptions of NDE are found among people in other parts of the world that are non-christian or non-islamic cultures. I also think if something cannot be explained by science, it does not automatically fall in the domain of religion, and that too christianity or Islam.Even though there is a lot of data available on NDE in very controlled environments, the interpretations needs to be logical as well. Otherwise, It becomes religious or culture specific. It should be studied as a natural phenomena. ...

Decolonizing Social Sciences

sun2275 — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 12:36:00 GMT

Balu's talk on the role of stories in ancient cultures especially in India - ...

Summer Satsang 2: Ishavasya Upanishad Part3

sun2275 — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 18:57:00 GMT

Ishavasya Upanishad mantras 9-11. Summary - Uncritical and Uncriticized knowledge is useless. It is in the interplay of knowledge and ignorance that real conviction arises. ...