Stay in the moment

गते शोको न कर्तव्यो भविष्यं नैव चिंतयेत्। 

वर्तमानेन कालेन वर्तयंति विचक्षणाः॥

One should not regret the past, nor worry about the future. Wise men act by the present time.

पूर्ण

पूर्णमदः पूर्णमिदं पूर्णात्पूर्णमुदच्यते ।

पूर्णस्य पूर्णमादाय पूर्णमेवावशिष्यते ॥

यह श्लोक ब्रह्म के स्वभाव की और इंगित कर रहा है या गणित की ऐक मूलभूत अवधारणा (concept) - अनंत यानी infinite की परिभाषा बता रहा है ?

इस श्लोक का शाब्दिक अर्थ / अनुवाद करने की कोशिश करते हैं। 

पूर्णमद: = पूर्णम अद: ~ यानी वह पूर्ण है 

पूर्णमिदं = पूर्णम इदम ~ यानी यह पूर्ण है

पूर्णात्पूर्णमुदच्यते = पूर्णात् पूर्णम् उदच्यते ~ यानी पूर्ण से पूर्ण उत्पन्न होता है 

पूर्णस्य पूर्णमादाय  = पूर्णस्य पूर्णम् आदाय ~ यानी पूर्ण का पूर्ण ले कर 

पूर्णमेवावशिष्यते = पूर्णम ऐव अविशिष्यते ~ यानी पूर्ण ही शेष रहता है । 

श्लोक का अर्थ हुआ 

वह भी पूर्ण है, यह भी पूर्ण है । पूर्ण से ही पूर्ण उत्पन्न होता है । पूर्ण का पूर्ण ले कर भी पूर्ण ही शेष रहता है । 

यह गणित के अनंत यानी infinite से कैसे सम्बंधित हो सकता है ? 

पूर्ण यानी पूरा क्या है ? १-२-३-४….की गिनती कहाँ जा के पूरी होती है ? -१०००००००००००००० पर ? या ९९९९९९९९९९९९९९९९९९९९९९९९९९९ पर ? नहीं, इसके बाद भी इसने ऐक जोड़ कर उसका अगला अंक बनाया जा सकता है । यानी ऐसा कोई भी अंक जिसमें कुछ जोड़ कर ऐक नया अंक मिल सकता है, वह अधूरा है पूरा नहीं । जब ये गिनती पूरी होती है तो उस पूर्ण कहा जा सकता है । इस पूर्ण के क्या गुण / characteristics होंगे ?

शाब्दिक अर्थ में देखे तो इस इस श्लोक में पूर्ण के गुण समझाए जा रहे है - answering FAQ कि यह ये पूर्ण आया कहाँ से ? पूर्ण तो सिर्फ़ और सिर्फ़ पूर्ण से ही आ सकता है । ये पूर्ण किसी साधारण अंक में ऐक जोड़ने से नहीं आ सकता । 

वह भी पूर्ण है और यह भी पूर्ण है । पूर्ण ऐक unique संख्या नहीं बल्कि ऐक अवधारणा / concept है । 

अगर पूर्ण में ऐक और पूर्ण जुड़ जाए तो भी ऐक पूर्ण ही मिलेगा - दो पूर्ण नहीं । पूर्ण में से उसका ऐक ऐसा अवयव यानी घटक (constituent) जो स्वयं पूर्ण हो, अगर निकल जाए, तब भी शेष पूर्ण ही रहेगा । 

This is so similar to the characteristics of mathematical term infinite. समसामयिक (contemporary) गणित के दृष्टिकोण से गिनती तो अनंत यानी infinite तक जा सकती है, उसके बाद आप अनंत में यदि १ जोड़ो या १०००००० जोड़ो या अनंत ही जोड़ दो , कुल जमा यानी total अनंत ही रहता है - अनंत से अधिक नहीं होता । अनंत पर ये गिनती पूरी यानी पूर्ण हो जाती है । 

On a side note 

पूर्ण यानी complete sounds better than infinite (अनंत)

infinite (अनंत) is not finite - gives a feeling that infinite is a number set that we are still counting. 

पूर्ण has a sense of finality, completeness. It’s much more relatable. 

 १+१/२+१/४+१/८+१/१६+…till infinite = २

I used to wonder how can you add an infinite series and come to a finite number. Saying that you are adding these terms this till complete sounds better to me. “Till Infinite” as a term should be replaced with “till complete”

What if ....there was no death, no disease and no hungry mouths to feed.

Have you ever wondered what would happen, if humanity could conquer natural death and hunger ?

Let's assume, a breakthrough in science takes away natural death altogether. A single shot of super immunity given to every kid before birth that alters the DNA, to make the child virus proof and slows down aging and halts it completely after a certain age. 

Further in this utopian world, lets assume that food problem has been solved. Scientists have created disease resistant plants that bear fruits forever in every season, and can be grown very fast without much effort or care. 

In short what if we had - a new world, where there was no death, no disease and no hungry mouths to feed. What kind of a place would this new world be? Lets try and probe deeper in this thought experiment.

Since the new human knows s/he will last forever, would s/he still need to work?
No, certainly not for survival. जब राम दे खाने को , तो कौन जाए कमाने को
So what would he want to do?
Enjoy the life. 

But then if everyone wants to "Enjoy life", who will create products and services that help you enjoy life?
To put things in perspective, today for you to enjoy simplest things in life, like watching TV, a lot of WORK has to go in, the whole society MUST WORK, right from the factory where your TV was produced to the people who act/direct/record/create sets in those programs that you watch ...Or for that matter electricity generation / transmission /and also the work that you have to do to earn money to pay for these goods and services.
Same is true for the Book that you read / or the music that you listen to / or cars you drive to travel.
If no one NEEDS to work, would they still work?

With no death, there is no need to leave a mark on history (after all you wil be here for eternity), - every thing that this new human will do will be for himself ( स्व अन्त सुखाय - or to make himself comfortable) and with no sense of urgency ever.  Would commerce remain as the way we know it ?

Lets broaden the perspective - would they want to have kids? And the Governments(if there is any government left at all) may actually try to ban addition to the population.

What will happen to growth and development ? Since nobody HAS to work, most likely it will slow down to crawl at snail's pace. Only the truly interesting / intellectually stimulating work will remain. Nobody would want to work in the sanitation department / pick your garbage/ drive bus for you / construct house for you.
Even not many would want to put effort to reach a stage where they can be the scientists to create further such research.
Would life come to a standstill ? No one dying, and not many being born, no one working, just idlig away their time? 

May be for some .. but not for all. Survival of fittest has been hard coded into the code of life. 

So how do you find the Fittest when there is no disease or natural death or hunger ? Ofcourse Wars.

War will be the reason for society to work / and the governments to exist and progress to be made.

Even this is true to some extent in current world order.

And to some extent this is what is happening even now, where ever life expectancy has risen and certainty over next meal has increased (food stamps or otherwise), the inclination to work hard in menial jobs has gone down. Today a lot of such work is being done by third world, China and India are doing much of the labour whose fruits are being enjoyed by the first world. Not many are working in developed countries to become scientists, they are importing people in these areas from third world.

Wisdom

We shall be dead in a hundred years, and what will anything matter than? Let us have a good time while we can.
-Somerset Maugham, Cakes and Ale

Time : the root currency

The only currency we have is time, spend it wisely on what you value.
Life is like a theme park where you have entered for a specific time, similar to a day pass in a theme park. How you spend time in this theme park is you choice. You can keep stressing out on score you make / keep cribbing that the game is unfair and still keep playing same game / or play multiple games, take it easy and just have fun in that park/ sit next to your coplayers in one game..

Anything and everything that you do in such a theme park is taking away some time - which is limited - it’s just a day pass. 

You can be spending an hour in a queue (studies, Uni) to ride a big roller coaster or start playing small games.
Everything you earn, $, gold, property, .. are like score in a game in that theme park. You will leave them behind when you leave the park. And you have to leave this park for sure. So no point of just getting fixated on the score and forgetting the experience. Make friends, spend time with your coplayers, enjoy the view, take a look at the entire theme park - may be the game you have been playing is not as enjoyable as the one on other side of park.
And incase making a high score (earning) in one game is the only thing what makes you happy -go for it. But just because you are scoring well in one game, that should not prevent you from leaving that game and explore other games. 

Avoid physically dangerous rides that can cause accidents, you want to maximise the time you have here.  

The objective of entering a theme park is to be happy. Same true for your purpose of your time on earth. 

Spend this currency (Time) on achieving the end objective-happiness.

Just do what makes you happy.

Maya !

ईश्वरः सर्वभूतानां हृद्देशेऽर्जुन तिष्ठति ।
भ्रामयन्सर्वभूतानि यन्त्रारुढानि मायया ॥ 

अर्थात्

हे अर्जुन ! ईश्वर सब प्राणियों के ह्रदय में विराजमान है । 

वह सभी प्राणियों को, अपनी माया के द्वारा यंत्र की तरह घूमाता रहता है । 

तुम ऐक यंत्र यानी machine हो, जिसे माया चला रही है। 

Deep meaning. 

Krishna is telling Arjuna not to hesitate in fighting. The truth is that these relatives, friends and foes - all have same God ( him) at heart and are machines controlled by Maya. This is similar to what a video gamer would call fighting a “non-player character” (NPC). NPC in a video game is a character not controlled by a player but by the computer, like the zombies that attack you while playing a game. These Characters are controlled by computer (माया) via algorithmic predetermined responsive behavior and have no free will in true sense. 

Looking at the people fighting petty battles, choosing predictable & less than ideal paths -  like zombies in a video game. 

Makes me wonder, are we all NPCs stuck in a game. 🤔