Indian literature is full of human expressions, human potential, and stories about human mistakes and their handling. When I say itihāsa, I mean Ramayan and Mahabharat epics which are one of the oldest recorded histories of mankind. These two epics are full of episodes that are too relatable in the present and will be relatable in the future too, There is a reason why we call it part of the Sanātana knowledge system which roughly translates as “eternal” in English.

Let’s jump to the part I want to tell about. Let’s go through two small stories for the context.

In Ramayan, withstanding one’s own commitment is considered one of the highest virtue or ideal for all beings. King Dashrath commits 3 promises to his most loved queen Kaikeyi which resulted in Shri Ram’s exile into the woods for 14 long years. Shri Ram gives commitment to Sugreev that he will help him get his wife and punish Bali. Shri Ram gives Mata Sita a commitment that he will never marry any other woman even when it was tradition among kingships. Similarly, there are many other episodes are there where Raghukul people have given their commitment and stood by it till death. You might have heard at least once in your lifetime about this saying coming down to date, “Raghukul reet sadaa chali aayi, Pran Jaye par vachan na jaye”. That means it is the long tradition that, if a person from the Raghu clan gives a commitment, he will not break it even if he has to face death.

When the Treta yug ended and Dwapar came, there happened the Mahabharat.

In Mahabharat, the ideal of withstanding with own commitment was still the highest for a person. People who are considered wise always stayed firm on their commitment and tried to fulfill it as their highest duty on earth. But, by the time Dwapar Yug came, many people became corrupt. There were people with sharp minds and evil hearts who used these wise men to meet their ends by making a wise commit for something by fraud. I will mention three small stories of such episodes where commitments or promises of wise people were used by wicked persons.

The first story is Pitamah Bhishma. He was one of the strongest as well as wisest characters in the whole of Mahabharat. He has vowed that he will always be a servant of the crown and will never go against it. Not only this, he will protect the crown at any cost. It is this commitment because of which he kept quiet and didn’t raise his voice against Duryodhana when he was trying to undress Draupadi in court. It was this commitment that made him fight against Pandavas even when he knew on whose side righteousness is. Because of this commitment, Bhishma did not become king, and incapable people like Vichitravirya, and Dhritrastra got the kingdom.

The second story is of Guru Drona, he too has promised that he will not go against Kaurvas and was quiet on Duryodhana’s attempt to undress Draupadi. He fought along with vicious Kaurvas because of his commitment to them.

The third story is about Shalya. Shalya was the maternal uncle of two of the Pandavas, Nakul and Sahdev. He was coming to join the army of Pandvas but Shakuni deceived him by hospitability in the way and made him commit that he will fight along with them. Consequently, he fought against his own sister’s sons.

By comparing the above two Yugas, we can clearly see that even though standing by own commitment is the highest virtue, it can be misused by wicked people in many circumstances. So what is the way then??

Giving the highest moral status to it might be solving many problems in Treta Yug but the same solution is creating problems in Dwapar Yug.

Can giving weight to breaking promises and commitments be a way out?

Absolutely not !!! Because that will only worsen the social situation. then what ??

All the morals, ethics, and values are needed to make the society to be more ordered, organized and to minimize conflicts and injustice. So these are the real cause and roots of moral ideas. If moral ideas are not aligned with these, they are of no use. So the commitment which is leading to disharmony and grave injustice, is better broken. Krishna did not entertain Shakuni by preaching and following hollow ideals which could be used against righteous people. But he played with him in the opponent’s own way.

Below are the things we can learn from this whole writing,

1. A solution to a problem may become a problem itself in the coming time, but that doesn’t mean we start discarding the solution immediately. The need here is to rethink the root cause which led us to this solution and to make appropriate modifications to make it more relatable in prevailing situations.
2. Sometimes it’s better to break old traditions or old ways to replace them with better ones that can solve our problems sustainably if it is not serving the original purpose.

Dhanyawad.

If we closely observe ourselves or fellow human beings, we will realize that everyone is looking out for some sort of permanent peace, permanent stability, or permanent happiness directly or indirectly.

Some look out for a job that is permanent or not much unstable, and some want a relationship that is stable and tends to be permanent. Some want the joy they are getting from materials to be of long-term. As soon as they realize that the joy they are getting is no more there they will switch to something higher where greater pleasure can be experienced.

Once we observe and analyze each of them, we can safely conclude that each and every example is giving a glimpse that one is longing for some sort of eternity, to reach a state of permanence. Anything with greater stability, anything that is more stable, and less perishable is the best.

Now starting another aspect of life that is the MIND.

What is mind ??

In general terms, we can say, the mind is a collection of thoughts. It gathers experience through sense organs and converts it to thought and keeps it to itself. it creates new thoughts which are constituted from all existing experiences.

A mind cannot create any thought but only have whatever it got from outside and build something which is surely constructed out of existing ones.

One can argue that “a mind can think which doesn’t exist. Let’s say, a flying tree”. But the truth is the constituent of “flying tree” are flying& tree and both of them exist and can be seen/experienced.

So from the above two points of view, we can roughly conclude that:

• People in this world look out for something eternal or something which never perishes.
• A mind can think of something which exists or can build a thought from whatever already exists in it.

Having said that,

Can we say, this sense of permanency, this sense of eternity, stable already exists in our mind since our mind is able to think about it ?

Since the world is perishable and ever-changing, no sensual experience can help the mind to build this perception of permanency.

If that is not coming from material or from senses, is it coming from something extra sensual which can be directly experienced?

Is that the Atman or Brahman as the Upanishads describe it?

Think about it.

Dhanyavādaḥ _/\_

Note: Reproducing my Quora post:https://www.quora.com/q/ftzskccdjmqpacof/Soft-Computing-and-Soft-Solutions?ch=99&share=a63cca47

I had a course at my college during my B. Tech, called Soft Computing. I expect many of you might be hearing the term for the first time. So, let me explain it to you.

Let’s take Hard Computing first.

“ Hard Computing is a way of solving mathematical problems to find its absolute and perfect solution. Which we generally do in mathematics we do in our schooling courses. Here, only the perfect solution is considered as correct else, wrong.”

But,

“Soft Computing finds the solution which is near to perfect, if not perfect. Here we don,t crave for the perfect and absolute solution but to reach a solution which is better by continual improvement in existing solution and we reach to a point where best of our efforts can reach.”

In Artificial intelligence(AI), Soft computing is making more sense than the hard one. Most of AI products work on probabilistic solutions where error can be there. What could be done here is to find the remedy for the expected errors.

If we only rely on Hard computing, we may or may not get any solution. But, if we rely on the soft one, we will surely get a solution and eventually may reach absolute too.

The same is for life. In every sphere of our practical life be it personal, professional, or political setups. If you think of doing something only when your all problems are solved, you may never get a chance to do so.

I would like to convey my message through the example of governing policies of the governments.

Today we have a chunk of people, media houses, and a lobby of artists and politicians who want the policies from the Government side which is absolute, perfect, and not a single person should be unhappy. Otherwise, they start hindering each and every sphere of the functioning of the nation. They even go to such a low extent that, they will instigate people to burn down the nation.

And so-called intellectuals start supporting this whole thing using logic which are based on false assumptions that are embedded in their minds which they never want to change.

“Every logic we can use is certainly based on some foundational information and assumptions, we accept those fundamentals as true. Then, we build logics on that basis”

Can a logic build on wrong foundations can ever take to right point?

Absolutely not.

Do you really think, something can only be done when all other things are in perfect position?

If we go with this perception, we will never be able to progress. Everything will be stagnant, everyone will be suffering.

Are not we need to change our perceptions of the so-called perfect plan(equivalent to Hard computing) to different ones?

Am I telling you to ignore injustice to the people who are excluded?

Absolutely not.

What I want to tell is, in any policy, any strategy, any plan, there are purposes in it. We first need to understand the purpose. And, then we must understand the fact that not all people ever be getting happy. There will be someone who will be at a disadvantageous position. But what is necessary is to include as much as the possible number of people. and necessity is of thinking to have remedial solutions for those who are being affected and who had to do compromise. Instead of checking the functioning of Government and nation, we need to ask for what remedial solution the government has.

We can never progress if we always go for hard solutions. Rather, we have to go with soft solutions, where we have to continually improve.

Why it matters?

Because the attitude that some section of people adopting is dangerous to future of the Nation. Today what they are asking and doing will be asked from them when they are in the former’s position and Chaos will be there. Just like sustainable development, we also need to adopt a sustainable attitude.

Though, I have given the example of Governance, the same is applied to all the spheres. When we can’t go with the best, we should go with better.

Dhanyavādaḥ _/\_

सम्मान, प्रतिष्ठा ,इज्जत वगरह ऐसी चीजें है जिसका वास्तविक कोई एग्जिसटेंस नही रहता है,बस एक कोई बात आपसे ये चीज छीन सकती है और और वापस भी दिला सकती है। और ये सब ज्यादातर बाहर वालों पर निर्भर करता है कि वो आपको सम्मान दे या फिर नहीं। तो इनको रेत का दुर्ग इस लिये कहा है कि ये बस इंसान को भ्रम मे रखते है और इंसान फालतू ही इसको वास्तविक मान के उसपे अहंकार करने लग जाता है और जब एक बार अहंकार आ जाता तो उसे ये सब खोने का भय रहता और हमेशा इनको बचा के रखना चाहता और उसके लिये बहुत सारे गलत निर्णय लेता है। खुद तो दुख भोगता पर समाज तथा परीवार को भी दुख पहुंचाता और चूंकि ये रेत के बने है जो एक दिन तो वैसे भी टूट जाने है देर सवेर। तो उस समय ये रियलाईज होता है कि जो भी फालतू के काम किये, गलत निर्णय लिये उसकी तो आवश्यक्ता ही नही थी। अगर कोई डिसिजन्स सम्मान और प्रतिष्ठा की लालसा के बिना अपने विवेक से लिया होता तो कितने जीवन सुख से भर जाते और सही मार्ग पर चल के दूसरो के लिये मार्गदर्शक बनते और उसकी वजह से आत्मविश्वास बढ़ता और वो आत्मविश्वास मन को आनंद देता और प्रतिष्ठा तो तब भी मिल जाती पर सुख के साथ। तो पहले वाली स्थिति से तो कहीं अधिक अच्छी ये वाली स्थिति है। सब कुछ है जिसकी लालसा थी पर साथ मे सुख तथा आत्मविश्वास भी, ना कि भय और अहंकार

समर्पण और प्रेम भी इसी प्रकार जब अहंकार बन जाते है तो ये भी मोह का कारण बन जाते हैं और विवेक हर जाता है। इनको भी व्यक्ति बचा के रखने के लिये व्यर्थ प्रयास करता है, गलत निर्णय लेता है, मृगतृष्णा के पीछे जीवन भर भागता। दुख भोगता, पर मिलता कुछ नही और दूसरों को भी दुख पहुंचाता।

और हर व्यक्ति को ये रियालिज हो ही जाता है देर सवेर कि उसका जीवन मिथ्या सिद्धांतों पर बना है। परंतु जब ये भान होता तब तक वो इन सब के भंवर जाल में फस जाता है और उसके हाथ से सब चीजें निकल जाया करती है। कुछ लोग ये सब स्वीकार कर पाते है,और कईयों में ये हिम्मत ही नही होती कि सत्य को स्वीकार कर पायें और अपनी गलतियां स्वीकार करें।

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton