Multiple Perspectives on Biodiversity

Biological diversity or biodiversity  means the variety of life on Earth.It is the variety  between all species of plants , animals and micro-organisms and the ecosystems within which they live and interact.Biodiversity and its conservation are important for economic as well as for non-economic reasons.For example , green plants  remove Carbondioxide and release Oxygen  into the atsmosphere.This helps to keep the environment  fit and healthy for human  life.This cannot be  quantified in economic units  but is extremely important.At the same time , economic arguments also provide compelling reasons for conserving biodiversity.

Different species of plants , animals , and micro-organisms provide us with food , medicines, fuel,building materials,fibre for clothing  and industrial products.Many species have cultural , aesthetic and intrinsic values.For example, Blue Whales and Giant Pandas have intrinsic values.Other services performed by ecosystems include:1.Protecting areas from soil erosion , floods and other harmful  weather conditions.2.Reducing the risk of local and global climate change.3.Recycling nutrients.4.Pollination and biological control.5.Controlling pollutants.6.Monitoring the health of environment.

 There are several threats to biodiversity , as described below:1.Over exploitation of natural resources.   2.Habitat loss and  fragmentation.3.Poaching.4.Illicit felling.5.Pollution.6.Climate change and Global warming.7.Growth of human population.8.Hunting and illegal trade.9.I.A.S. (Invasive Alien Species)10.Lack of efficient protection to threatened species.11Oil spills.12.Coastal/agricultural development.13Land diversion 14.Encroachment.15.Fuel wood removal.16.Grazing.17.Forest fires. All these threats have to be dealt with in order to conserve biodiversity at local and global levels.Under Article 51A of Indian Constitution ,it is the fundamental duty of every citizen of India  to protect and improve  the environment including forests, lakes,rivers and wild life and to have compassion for living creatures.India enacted The Biological Act ,2002 on February 5,2003 to provide for conservation of biological diversity,sustainable use of its components, and fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising out of the use of biological resources, knowledge and for matters connected therewith.The conflict between biodiversity and competing values are  substantial.A broader understanding of implications of biodiversity   conservation  is  needed for resource management decisions.Managers need ways to evaluate the effects of their decisions  in regional as well as in global context of biodiversity conservation .

  Education is indispensable element for achieving  sustainable development(UN , 2002).The need to  impart  biodiversity education at all levels  has been felt   at all international initiatives.As per Unesco :”Education for Sustainable Development allows every human being to acquire the knowledge, skills, attitudes and values necessary to shape a sustainable future. 

  Education is indispensable element for achieving  sustainable development(UN , 2002).The need to  impart  biodiversity education at all levels  has been felt   at all international initiatives.As per Unesco :”Education for Sustainable Development allows every human being to acquire the knowledge, skills, attitudes and values necessary to shape a sustainable future. Education for Sustainable Development means including key sustainable development issues into teaching and learning; for example, climate change, disaster risk reduction, biodiversity, poverty reduction, and sustainable consumption. It also requires participatory teaching and learning methods that motivate and empower learners to change their behaviour and take action for sustainable development. Education for Sustainable Development consequently promotes competencies like critical thinking, imagining future scenarios and making decisions in a collaborative way.Education for Sustainable Development  requires far-reaching changes in the way education is often practised”

   The word ‘Perspective   means  a particular  way of  considering something.   Accordingly , there are a number of perspectives on biodiversity.For example, gender inequality perspective focuses on the number of women engaged in the study of biodiversity as compared to men, and such other issues.

Multiple Perspectives   from which biodiversity can be considered for educating students  are as below:

1.Scientific Perspective.

2.Historical Perspective.

3.Geographic Perspective.

4.Human Rights Perspective.

5.Gender equality Perspective.

6.Values Perspective.

7.Cultural Diversity Perspective.

8.Sustainability Perspective.

1.A scientific perspective is based on  collecting , analysing and interpreting empirical data about  natural cycles and phenomena.A scientific perspective is assumed to be context free.

 2.A Historical perspective helps learners how biodiversity issues have been addressed over extended periods of time as well as in the present.Using evidence from past and current situations , learners can  understand how local and global communities  have made biodiversity management  decisions  and the implications of those decisions.

3.Geographic perspective:This perspective enables readers  to understand how  biodiversity issues appear and recur  across a region,country,continent  or Earth.By studying geographic scale   of a problem , we get deeper insights into the origin of the problem  and potential solutions.

4.Human Rights perspective:Learning how quality of life  can be affected by  the relative health of biodiversity.This requires that  biodiversity is understood  not as a purely  economic good  but also as a social or cultural good.All societies need biodiversity  to maintain a quality of life  consistent with universal  human rights .Projected needs of future generations should also be considered , with planning for future use  and growth as integral  components of  sustainability decisions.

5.Gender Equality perspective:Learning how gender roles ,social and cultural  practices affect decision making  at different levels  and  in using and protecting  biodiversity at different levels.How technology may have changed the context for  gender related roles .For example,technology has replaced  the need for  physical strength in  completing many tasks.

6.Values perspective: learning   about  biodiversity across different values , with the goal of finding  a consensus  position or action .

7.Cultural Diversity Perspective:Biodiversity issues may  be interpreted through unique world views  that are created through aesthetic  or cultural ways of knowing.A cultural perspective  is often a unique perception  associated with  a particular  community.A cultural diversity  perspective considers  the role of biodiversity  in the cultural  community’s world view

8.Sustainability perspective:We consider the interactions  between  the biodiversity , economics and society  to ensure sustainability for ecosystems and people  today and for future generations.

The above are eight different perspectives identified by Unesco , through which students can effectively learn an important subject like biodiversity.We can use various methods to educate students about multiple perspectives on biodiversity.

1.Viewing a documentary film  through different perspectives and sharing insights gives the entire class a multiple  perspective of the issue.

2.Reading the same case study  focusing on a particular biodiversity topic.The students can analyze the case through the lens of a specific perspective, and then share findings with their peers.

3.The students  may  take up a  local community biodiversity project, investigate it deeper  into what it means at  global level through a variety of perspectives.Using their own community as a case study  is likely to  help students fully grasp the concept of biodiversity


In the absence of widespread agreement  on a philosophical approach  and measurable results that  describe the values of  natural systems  , resource managers have  turned to public participation in their decisions in an effort to reach some sort of public consensus.Partly because of the  requirements for  public participation   under the  Environment Protection Act,there is now a substantial  literature  on ways to  improve this participation .Analysis of alternatives, including economic valuations , might help to reduce  the gap between  contrary perspectives.Structured deliberation  that involves  stakeholders in these  decisions and is supported by analysis will be useful in defining  boundaries and directions.For such a  informed decision making , it is important to catch citizens young and teach them the important subject of  biodiversity from as many perspectives as possible.In Uttar Pradesh,it can help us understand and find solution to the problem of pollution of Ganga river water , especially by  over 400 leather tanneries at Kanpur.We may understand better the global implications of declaring Pilibhit forests as Tiger Reserve.We may also analyze and decide better the Eco-sensitive Zones  around different Protected Areas, especially the one around Okhla Bird Sanctuary near Delhi.
(This article was published in the magazine Tree Take , Lucknow in its issues dated May 15,2016.)

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

I  first read this slim (118 pages)  classic novel(first published in 1899)  in May ,2005.I read it again  recently in June ,2016.The reason for reading again was that when I tried to remember the  remarkable character of  Kurtz   from this book ,I  could not .I found that it was completely  erased from  my memory  . And it was worth it because I realized for the first time how brilliant and great   Joseph Conrad was as a novelist. The book   is a peep in the interiors of human psyche.It is set  during the era of imperialism  when the Company with offices  located in Brussels(Belgium)  controlled  the ivory trade  and ruled over the natives in Africa. Darkness is real unknown of the jungle   as well as the darkness that hides within the human heart and also pervades the society.

               It is the story of   Mr   Kurtz, a first class ivory agent in the forests  on the banks of Congo in  Africa. He was   an exceptional man in many ways   , of the greatest importance to the Company.” His soul was mad. Being alone in the wilderness, it   had looked within itself   , and by heavens! I tell you   ,it had gone mad. I saw the inconceivable mystery of a soul that knew no restraint, no faith and no fear   , yet struggling blindly with itself.”

But Mr Kurtz had another   side of his identity. I quote   :” Mr. Kurtz lacked restraint  in the gratification of his various lusts.  .  . .Whether he knew of this deficiency himself  I can’t say .I think the knowledge came to him at last-only at the very last. But the wilderness had found him out early , and had taken on him  a terrible vengeance  for the fantastic  invasion. I think it had whispered  to him things about himself which he did not know , things of which he had no conception  till he took counsel with this great solitude –and the whisper had proved  irresistibly fascinating .It echoed loudly within him  because he was hollow at the core . .  .”

The wilderness helped him to know   the darkness inside him   , more so because he was hollow at the core. Many exceptional people   , what to say about the ordinary folks  , are hollow  as well as dark inside .Conrad   tells us about the nature of evil. How fragile civilized behaviour can be  , how  sometimes civilizes persons easily slip into  brutality. Even persons with  excellent motives and apparently unblemished character  can fall into evil ways. But Conrad is not sure  if this falling into brutal behaviour  is  because their soul becomes corrupted , or because  there is some supernatural  source of evil.Quote1:”The belief in supernatural source of evil  is not necessary ;men alone are quite capable of every wickedness. Quote2,( which contradicts quote 1) is as follows: ”I saw on the ivory face  the expression of sombre  pride, of ruthless power , of craven terror—of an intense and hopeless despair. Did he live his life again  in every detail of desire, temptation and surrender  during that moment of  complete knowledge ?He cried in a whisper  at some image , at some vision –he cried out  twice , a cry that was no more than a breath :’The horror!The horror!”

The news of the sudden death of Mr Kurtz reaches Marlow through a boy.Suddenly the manager’s boy  said in a tone  of scathing contempt—“Mistah Kurtz—he dead”.

T S Eliot in his poem the hollow men    quotes this line and  says: ”Remember us –if at all-not as lost, Violent souls ,but only ,As the hollow men ,The stuffed men”.Joseph Conrad   shows a remarkable understanding  of life as also of  Mr Kurtz. That is why this book  is a masterpiece .

         “  …. .Destiny .My destiny! Droll thing life is—that mysterious arrangement  of merciless logic  for a futile purpose. The most you can hope from it  is some knowledge of yourself –that comes too late –a crop of unextinguishable  regrets .I have wrestled with death. It is the most unexciting contest you can imagine. It takes place in  an impalpable greyness ,with nothing underfoot , with nothing around , without spectators, without clamour, without glory , without the great desire  of victory , without the great fear of defeat , in a sickly atmosphere of  tepid scepticism , without much belief in your own right , and still less in that of your adversary. If such is the form of ultimate wisdom , then life is a greater riddle  than some of us think it to be.”

          “This is the reason why I affirm that   Kurtz was a remarkable man .He had some thing to say. He said it. Since I had peeped over the edge myself ,I understand better the meaning of his state, that could not see the flame of the candle , but was wide enough to embrace  the whole universe , piercing enough to penetrate  all the hearts that beat in the darkness. He had summed up –he had judged “The horror!”

               “ He was a remarkable man. After all, this was the   expression of some sort of belief, it had candour, it had conviction, it had a vibrating note  of revolt in its whisper, it had the appalling  face of a glimpsed truth-the strange commingling of desire and hate.”

               “   And it was not my own extremity  I remember best-a vision of greyness without form  filled with physical pain , and  a careless contempt for  the evanescence of all things-even of this pain itself! No! it is his extremity  that I seem to have lived through. True, he had made that last stride, he had stepped over the edge  , while I had  been permitted to draw back my hesitating foot. And perhaps  , in that is the whole difference, perhaps all the wisdom , and all truth, and all sincerity, are just compressed into  that inappreciable  moment of time  in which we step over the  threshold of the invisible. Perhaps!”

  “  I like to think my summing-up would not have been a word  of careless contempt. Better his cry-much better. It was an affirmation , a moral victory  paid for by innumerable defeats, by abominable terrors, by abominable satisfactions .But it was a victory !That is why I have remained loyal to Kurtz  to the last , and even beyond when a long time after I heard once more , not his own voice , but the echo of his  magnificent eloquence thrown to me  from a soul  as translucently pure  as a cliff of crystal.”

               At places  , Conrad  has left the crucial information unstated. For example  , between Marlow’s rescue of Kurtz and Kurtz’s death ,  the two had many significant conversations .But Conrad has not cared to inform us of those conversations.

              In a world  getting increasingly dominated by  multinationals and international organisations  , sending  their  officers in developing countries , we need to realize that every one of us  has  some darkness in our hearts  and every one is susceptible and fallible to corruption and evil. Conrad warns us to protect ourselves from such horrors. Though he said it in 1899 , his words are still relevant today .That is what makes this book a masterpiece .Please do  read it , if you have not read it so far.

The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren

The book is divided into 40 brief chapters.The reader has been asked to read only one chapter a day.She is also asked not just read the book but underline it  and write  readers' own thoughts in the margins.This is the best way to clarify thoughts.There is covenant which reader is asked to sign .It says that:" With God's help , I commit the next 40 days of my life to discovering God's purpose for my life."

 Bertrand Russel ,atheist  is quoted;"Unless you  assume a God , the question of life's purpose is meaningless".
  It says that we exist because God wills us to exist.Our purpose can be revealed by our creator.Life is really about living for God , not for ourselves.God planned our birth , how long we will live, the exact places where we should live.We discover the purpose of life only when we make  God the reference point of our lives.Real security can be found in our relationship with God.
                 This life is a preparation for the next.You will spend more time on the other side of death,in eternity .There are eternal consequences of every thing that you do on earth.This life is a preparation for the next..
               Remember that your days on earth are numbered.Do not get too attached here, to the things of this world.Never focus on material success.Adopt eternal values.Stop acquiring material wealth and start appreciating spiritual things.We bring glory to God  by worshiping Him.Worship is to be motivated by  love,thanksgiving  and delight,and not as duty.It is your responsibility to love other believers.The more you develop Christ like character , the more glory you will bring to God.Serve others with all your strength,energy and all your spiritual gifts.Tell others about God.Live the rest of your life for God's glory.Don't have your own goals.Live for god.God made you for His purpose.
          Work becomes worship when you dedicate it to God and perform it  with awareness of His presence.Do the following activities as if you were doing it directly for Jesus:
Talking, sleeping , bathing , getting ready , working , walking , listening to music,reading , writing and meeting people.
  The smile of God is the goal of your life.Love God,know God , spend time with God.Suffer and sacrifice for good change.Surrender is intense warfare against our  self-centered nature.Surrender to God and not to any one else.Include God in every activity ,every conversation and every thought.Prayer lets you speak .Meditation lets God speak.Have a desire to know God above all else.
 Relationships must have priority in your life above every thing.Invest time in relationships.Care for their practical needs.Do not write people off.God wants you to love real people, not ideal people.
       Real community takes place in small groups.Carry each other's burden.Do not let people give up in despair.Forgive them.Never hold grudges and bitterness.Forgiveness must be immediate.Forgiveness is letting go of the past.
Do not gossip about  your fellow members.Meet together regularly and as a habit.Spend time with people.Share meals.Pray about your relationships.Take the initiative to resolve a conflict.Do not blame .Do not condemn , insult ,and don't be sarcastic. Emphasize reconciliation and resolution .Bury the hatchet.Restore the broken relationships.
  Focus on the growth of one another's character.Confront those who gossip. Do not listen to gossip about third person .
You were created to become like God.God wants you to be Godly.God’s goal for you is character development.God is much more concerned about your character than about your career.Take your spiritual growth seriously.

                 Replace lies with truth.Read scriptures for at least 15 minutes daily.Apply principles into practice.Have a discussion group and discuss your applications in the group.Keep on doing what is right. Do not give up.

            Attraction becomes lust when you begin to dwell on it.Monitor your media intake.Have a friend  or a small group as your accountability partner.

              To give up a habit , you have a lot to unlearn.Keep a spiritual journal and record spiritual insights in it.

               You were put on earth to make a contribution  and to serve God.When you serve others , you serve God.Service is not optional.Stop making excuses for not serving.Serve others unselfishly.Serve with passion. Serve even when it is inconvenient.Service is an attitude.

            Do things for which you feel passion.Do not waste your life doing a job you do not like.Keep on growing in your knowledge and understanding.

               Be a servant , not a servant leader.Be content with obscurity.You cannot serve both God and money. Do not flaunt your connections , don’t namedrop.

    You were made for a mission.      

Share your story .Your story is unique.If you don’t share it , it will be lost for ever.Write  the story of all your important experiences, lessons  and insights.Insights about God, relationships, problems and  temptations .Spread the Good News.

                    Keep a balance between the five purposes of life:

1.Love God with all your heart.

2.Love your neighbour as yourself.

3.Go and make disciples.

4.Have fellowship.

5.Grow to maturity through discipleship.

Serve God’s purpose in a contemporary way.

                      In short , it is a religious book  but written for the  contemporary world.Though  mainly written for  the followers of Christianity, it can be read with profit if you follow any other religion , or are even an atheist.

Will Power by Roy F.Baumeister and John Tierney

The book Willpower shares the research in the study of self control by the pioneering research psychologist Roy F. Baumeister.

The book is based on scientific study and discovers that willpower has a “physical basis and operates like a muscle.” Baumeister, based on his research writes-Effort to control our   emotional reactions  ,or faking these, depletes our willpower. Stress depletes our willpower. When we resist a temptation , we exercise willpower, and it gets depleted. This reduces our ability to control  a new temptation .We give in more readily  if we have already fended off earlier temptations , particularly if the new temptation comes soon after a pervious one.

 Through various experiments , researchers have demonstrated two lessons:

1. We have finite willpower that becomes depleted as we use it.

2. We use the same stock of willpower for all manner of tasks.

Therefore, we should focus on one project at a time. In stead of making a list of resolutions  , a better plan is to make one resolution and stick to it . Heatherton's    research provided confirmation that glucose is a vital part of willpower. We should avoid any meeting or test  that will strain our self control. Similarly  , sleep deprivation has been shown to impair the processing of glucose, which produces immediate consequences for self-control and decision-making. Eating less also impacts the willpower. Since dieters are short of glucose levels, they find temptations hard to resist.

 The  Zeigarnik  Effect says that uncompleted tasks and unmet goals tend to pop into one's mind. They tend to reduce willpower. If we make and write down  a plan for  uncompleted tasks ,then the minds are cleared and  Zigarnik  Effect is eliminated and concentration is enhanced.

  Decision fatigue: Making too many decisions also depletes our willpower and makes us vulnerable to temptation. When we shop till we drop, our   willpower drops too. It takes  willpower to make decisions , and so the depleted state makes people look for ways to postpone or evade decisions. In a court, the prisoners who happened to appear just before the  food break  had only 15% chances of getting parole  while those  who came right after the food break  had around a 65% chance  of getting parole. Once decision fatigue sets in , people including Judges  tend to settle for the recommended option .

  Monthly planning leads to much higher improvements in grades than the daily planning. It is good to set a variety of short-term and long-term goals. The goals need to be monitored. Recording is not enough. It is crucial to analyze as well.

 Willpower is a muscle that can be strengthened .Self-control turns out to be most effective when people use it to establish good habits and break the bad ones. We should use our self-control to form a daily habit, and we will produce more with less effort in the long run. For example, a writer must write everyday to form a good writing habit.

  

 Instead of squandering our willpower on a strict diet, we should eat enough glucose to conserve willpower , and use our self-control  for more promising long-term strategies. The more carefully and frequently we monitor our -self  , the better we control our -self. In one study , those who kept a food diary lost twice as much weight as those who used other techniques. So for losing weight we can weigh our-self daily. People who weighed themselves every day were much more successful at keeping their weight   from creeping back up. For making better decisions healthy food is required into our body.

A rested will is a strong will. Changing our routines makes it easier to break bad habits. Setting aside time to do one and only one thing  at a time  helps improve our will power.

              The book is based on evidence and research , and throws a new light on how to use and strengthen our will .I recommend you to read it.

Room by Emma Donoghue

This novel of 401 pages is   a page turner. Despite its   very dark   setting , Room comes out as a  life affirming and uplifting  work. It has made full use of imagination and has a powerful language. It is the story of   how love  between a mother and her child is born , nurtured and survives  despite all odds. A   room can be your world, and outside can be as unreal   as a story. After reading this book  , you  begin to look at the world from a different point of view , and that view lingers for a long time.

                 The book is narrated by a five year old boy Jack   who has spent his life so far  locked in one small 11feetx11ft shed,(Room),  along with his mother Ma.He has never set a foot outside. The Room is actually a prison  with Old Nick holding the key. Ma was kidnapped and has been kept in the room  against her will for seven years.She gives birth to Jack in this very room. Jack interestingly does not feel trapped.He is happy in his tiny universe. Room in this way, is both a jail and a haven. Jack’s whole world is Room .Jack thinks that  TV shows things that live on a planet inside the TV. The other  things of   his  world (Room ) are Floor, Bed , Duvet , Wardrobe, Rug ,Wall which have their gender too.                   
                                             To Jack, there is no outside, just “Outer Space,” glimpsed through a sliver of skylight and on TV. Gradually, the reality of the situation filters through: during the day, the boy and his mother practice screaming; in the dark, she flashes a lamp on and off. On certain nights, a man(Old Nick) enters, through a steel door, and the boy hides in the wardrobe, counting the creaks of the bed.   When the boy first sees the sunset: “I watch God’s face falling slow slow, even orangier and the clouds are all colors, then after there’s streaks and dark coming so bit-at-a-time I don’t see it till it’s done.”  

                   For Jack  Outside  is  rain, wind, germs and people touching him ; for Ma it’s relations with her parents, now separated.. There’s a brilliant television interview, too, with Ma skewering the interviewer at every turn. “You breastfed  him. In fact, this may startle some of our viewers, I understand you still do?”We see Ma only in Jack's adoration, but clearly she's an extraordinary woman, setting aside her own anguish to nurture the joy that Jack takes in their little world.  Ma is   trapped in a room with a small child she  loves.  How can she broach the subject of escape without shattering Jack's perfect harmony? And how will Ma ever establish the separation that must take place for Jack to develop into his own person, to comprehend the startling fact that he's not the only other person who exists  for her.  

                   The book was inspired by the true story of Elisabeth Fritzl, an Australian woman who had been imprisoned in her father’s basement  for twenty-four years .During this time , her father repeatedly assaulted  and raped her.She eventually bore him seven children  and had one miscarriage.Three of her children , one daughter and two sons had been imprisoned with their mother for the whole of their lives until rescue.  "I'd say it was triggered by it. The newspaper reports of Felix Fritzl [Elisabeth's son], aged five, emerging into a world he didn't know about, put the idea into my head. That notion of the wide-eyed child emerging into the world like a Martian coming to Earth: it seized me."(Emma Donoghue  in The Guardian).                                                                         

                      "Room" appeals to a larger audience.  Jack expresses a poignant mixture of  wisdom, love and innocence  that will make you ache to save him .In fact what does it mean to save Jack?Is it  delivering him to the outside world or , is it  keeping him preserved  forever?    You need to enter this small, harrowing place prepared only to have your own world expanded.

Room was shortlisted for Booker Prize. I recommend you to read this unsual  but brilliant  novel.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        




                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

  

The Divine Romance by Paramhansa Yogananda

The 447 pages long The Divine Romance  is an anthology  of the talks of Paramhansa Yogananda , suggesting how we can  awaken our divine nature. Yogananda started Yogoda Satsanga Society of India in 1917 , and founded its  international headquarters in Los Angeles in 1925.

               It is  essentially a spiritual book and  gives  guidelines for a healthy  and spiritual living.I have tried to  put together  some of the precious thoughts as follows.

1. Your first goal must be to know God.  The greatest of all achievements   for a human being is to find God.

2.True friendship is friendship for the sake of friendship, without expectation of anything  in return. Lying destroys friendship. There is no attachment in true friendship. When friendships   develop into attachment , they  remain  on the plane of human love , taking the soul away from  supreme friendship with God. True friendship may be developed between woman and woman, man and man , or man and woman. This can come only when you free yourself from the consciousness that you are a man or a woman  . One must practice   celibacy  if one wants to know  divine love through friendship. Then friendship   nurtures the cultivation  of divine love. To wish for perfection for the loved one, and to feel pure joy in thinking of that soul, is divine love , and that is the love of true friendship. In a friendship ,regardless of differing views, you have mutual respect  and cherish your friendship  above every thing else. True friendship established in God is the only relationship that is lasting.

3. Reserve your nights for meditation. Meditate with undivided attention.

4. One of the most important spiritual principles to apply is truthfulness. Those who develop the habit of telling little lies all the time will find it hard ever to be   wholly truthful in any statement.

5.Every  very person should keep a mental diary, in which she   should constantly watch  her thoughts and actions.

6. Silence and seclusion are the secrets of success. The less you mix with others who just waste your time , the better it is for your spiritual life. Seclusion is the price of greatness. After starting on spiritual path , do not go to movies or seek such other distractions. Remain secluded from people.  Seek time to be alone; and in the cave of inner silence , you shall find the wellspring of wisdom. As soon as you are too much with   people on the social plane  , you are not with God any more. Don’t engage in too many socials. They   are alright once   in a while, but frequent socializing takes up too much valuable time. 

7.If you want friends, you must learn to love all unselfishly. Never profess friendship with anyone unless you mean it.

8. Learn to fast for one to three days at a time. Never drink water, milk , or other liquids with your meals. It is best to take liquids a half-hour before a meal or two hours afterward. Whenever the body feels tired, drink a glass of pineapple or orange juice. It will give you much energy.  Walking   is good. Six or seven hours sleep is enough.  Go out in the fresh air for ten to fifteen minutes and exhale and inhale  deeply, off and on , several times.

9. When someone wrongs you , it is far better to love him spiritually , give him your blessing , and forget it. Forgiveness is more powerful than revenge.

10.If you have a possessive love for any thing , you will suffer.

11. It requires eight years to form a habit. Never be addicted to anything.

12. To live for self is the source of all misery.

13..I am a citizen of the world.

  14.  Love is thy strength, and thy greatest ally.

  15.Those who flatter thy faults are thy worst enemies. Do not speak of others’ faults.         

  16.In most cases, the free will man is nothing more than a slave-in the guise of freedom , but fettered to past tendencies. You are born with about seventy-five percent of your life predetermined by your past. You will make up the remaining twenty-five percent. Spiritual training designates the methods to mould the brand new twenty-five percent that we ourselves are going to create by the exercise of our freedom.

 17.Sow the seeds of good habits in the soil and weed out  worries and wrong actions of the past. If you have a strong mind and plant in it a firm resolve  , you can  change your destiny. Take your health, or your moral life, or spiritual life –one thing at a time- and change it as you desire. Inwardly determine to change yourself, and you can change your destiny according to your will. until you are  able to create a good habit, meditate. Don’t flirt with unproductive , dangerous habits. Get rid of your bad habits. Change yourself every day. If you have not given up mentally , you are not defeated before the Lord. Saints are sinners who  never gave up. Those who don’t analyze themselves never change.

18 You should pray for others who are suffering but do not pray for things of the world .Always sit upright , with the spine straight.

19.The little man with small thoughts who goes into the  jungle of books  becomes absorbed in  intellectualizing about God; he does not find the nectar of  God-realization .But the little man who meditates, who constantly thinks of the joy of God, who constantly prays to Him , becomes one with the infinite. Beliefs, reading   books , cannot give you realization .It is only by  meditating in the right way that you can have that great realization  and joy. Practice of religion , not just intellectual understanding , is most important-practice of the perception of God.

 21. Devotees  on the  spiritual path  have even more tests than those who follow a material path ,so don’t use your worldly obligations as an excuse to ignore God.

22. America is advancing rapidly in spirituality.

                                      When the soul meets the greatest Lover of the universe , then the eternal romance begins.

 The book   inspires us to be spiritual and to serve other human beings.I recommend you to read this book .

Elon Musk by Ashlee Vance

 This 363 pages long biography    by Ashlee Vance  describes the life and vision of 44 year old   Elon Musk who has  achieved remarkable success in the fields of  electric cars , space exploration and solar energy.I must confess that I had not heard   about Elon Musk till I read  this book . I had also not heard about SpaceX , Tesla or even  the  SolarCity .But this book is worth  reading  and  very inspiring .

                         Elon Musk was born on June 28,1971 to Maye Musk and Errol Musk in South Africa. He had a troubled childhood and was subjected to  emotional abuse by his father and physical abuse by his classmates.  In June   1988, when he was 17 years old , Elon  left for  Montreal in Canada , where he did odd jobs like wood cutting and cleaning the boilers. After spending two years at Queen university, Musk   transferred to the  University of Pennsylvania on a scholarship.

                                    In 1995, Elon and his brother  Kimbal  went to Silicon Valley where  they  formed their first startup, Global Link Information  Network , that was eventually named Zip2. It created a searchable directory of businesses and was tied  into maps so as to tell their location. In early 1996 , the venture capital firm Mohr Davidow Ventures decided to invest 3 million dollars  into Zip2(Zip here to Zip there).  In February 1999,Zip2 was sold to Compaq and Elon became a multi millionaire at the age of twenty seven .And in March 1999 , Elon incorporated a finance start-up called X.com. Musk was replaced as CEO of X.com by Thiel , who rebranded X.com as PayPal.Elon Musk got more money out of his stake in PayPal.

              In  June  2002,  Musk set up  Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) near Los Angeles.  SpaceX engineers  worked  more than one hundred hours per week to make the actual rocket. On March    24,2006 , the Falcon 1 stood on its square launchpad and ignited. But it ended up falling directly down onto the launch site.

             After three abortive launches , the fourth launch for SpaceX took place on September 28,2008.The Falcon 1 reached orbit , making it first privately built  machine to accomplish  such a feat.The launch was successful. There are only a handful of countries on earth   that have done this. People inside NASA had backed SpaceX to become supplier for the ISS(International Space Station).The company received 1.6  billion dollars as payment for twelve flights to the space station. Space X   sends rocket up about once a month, carrying satellites for companies and nations and supplies on the International Space station .Its $ 60 million per launch is much less than what Europe and Japan charge. A number of countries pay  to send up their own spy  , communication and weather satellites. Companies then turn to space for  television , Internet , radio , weather, navigation , and imaging services. SpaceX expects to cut its price to at least one-tenth that of its rivals. Space X has been profitable and is estimated to be worth $ 12 billion .Elon Musk wants to lower the cost of launches to the point that it becomes economical  and practical to fly thousands upon thousands  of supply trips  to Mars and start a colony. Creating the technology  needed to establish  life on Mars  is and always has been  the fundamental goal of SpaceX.

                              Musk was married to   Justine  in January , 2000.Through IVF , she gave birth to twin boys in 2004, followed by triplets in 2006.She was a writer of fantasy fiction novels and kept a blog  detailing the couple’s family life. Her blog soon turned into  one of Musk’s  worst nightmares.He  worked seven days a week and quite often split his time between  Los Angeles and san Francisco. Musk filed for a divorce in June ,2008 , and it came through.

                         Another groundbreaking project of Musk is related to Tesla electric car.  Nikola Tesla   had built an electric motor about a century earlier. Musk invested 6.5 million dollars in Tesla (founded by   Eberhard and Tarpenning)He became the largest shareholder of Tesla and the Chairman of the company. By the middle of 2007,Tesla had produced the fastest , most beautiful electric car  the world would have ever seen .  The Model S , Tesla  got the highest car rating in history (99 out of 100) from Consumer Reports.The car  price  starts around $ 109000.”Mass market electric cars have been my goal from the beginning  of Tesla. ” Musk wrote in an email to the customers. Tesla intends  to build a global charging network that would let Model S  owners making  long drives pull off  the highway  and recharge very quickly. The electric car  design eliminates  needs of oil and transmission  fluid changes  required in a traditional vehicle. Tesla’s focus has now been on bringing the ModelX to market and to sell 100.000 cars per year.

              Elon  also  invested  in an alternative energy project known as SolarCity.  By the end of 2015 ,SolarCity expects to have installed 2 gigawatts’ worth of solar panels , producing  2.8 terawatt-hours of electricity per year, making them one of the largest suppliers of electricity in the United States.

       Hyperloop project   would be solar-powered and aims at linking  cities less than a thousand miles apart. Musk also has plans  to build a space-based Internet  in which satellites will be close enough  to the planet  to beam down  bandwidth at high speeds.

 He’s willing to suffer some personal cost, and I think that makes his odds actually pretty good.

                             Musk’s ultimate goal  remains turning humans into an inter-planetary species.” Eventually , you’d need to heat Mars up  if you want it  to be an earthlike  planet, and I don’t have a plan for that.” Musk’s unmatched ability to raise funds   has enabled him to create thousands of white- and blue- collar clean-tech jobs.

 Vance describes Musk as an ambitious, passionate and even obsessive. In his pursuit of his vision , he has often put at stake his health and personal relationships .But there is no doubt that his vision  is bound to change the world and his dedication  to his vision is  unparalleled. His motto has always been do or die but never give up.

                   I recommend you to read this very informative and inspiring biography.

Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and his Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami

This brilliant novel by Murakami   is a coming –of –age story   of a Japanese boy Tsukuru  Tazaki . Within 7 days of its release , this book  sold over one million copies in Japan.I have no doubt that Murakami is a great writer , worthy of a Nobel Prize in literature.

                    The novel  is about a group of five boys and girls –  three boys Aka,Ao  and Tsukuru  and two girls ,Shiro,Kuro , all around 20 years of age.As   a sophomore in college ,Tsukuru’s four best friends  reject and banish  him completely .  The pain of having been so openly rejected always stays with him. Tsukuru overcomes his feelings of suicide , completes his engineering degree  course , and gets a good job  to make and maintain railway  stations.But he remains forlorn and lonely.

   Then comes a   young man called Haida , who becomes his friend. Haida  serves an important purpose , filling Tsukuru’s  post suicidal days with companionship  and shaking him out of his solitary, painful and   ,lonely life. Haida  is fond of listening to  Franz Listz,s  Years of Pilgrimage.  Though  Haida   has some role , the book has  devoted nearly 100 pages to him which seems  sheer redundancy.The obligatory magical stuff was  not really needed.There are several loose ends and some unexplained situations  about the story connected with Haida.

              Then , at the age of 36 years , Tsukuru falls in love with Sara Kimoto , who is  2 years older than him .He expresses love , she fondness. Sara realises that  what happened to Tsukuru    with his group ,was so traumatic that  it not only destroyed his vitality  but also his desire, his appetite , his longing.Sara says that “I think you are a good person , and I really like you .But I think you have-some kind of unresolved emotional issues.”A journey into the past is necessary to mend the present. Sara tells him “to keep going a little further, and I am sure you’ll discover the right pieces that fill the gaps”. At her instance , Tsukuru  undertakes the pilgrimage,  a necessary journey  to the source of an understanding of his current self.It helps him to understand his immediate past and  his present but also his future.Tsukuru realises that ;” One heart is not connected to another  through harmony alone.They are instead linked deeply  through their wounds as well..Pain linked to pain ,fragility to fragility.There is no silence without a cry of grief, no forgiveness without bloodshed,no acceptance without  a passage through acute loss.”

                       .

Tsukuru decides to visit three of his living friends, by showing up without an appointment. First he visits Ao, who has become a salesman at a Lexus dealership in Nagoya city who tells him that Shiro had proclaimed that she was raped by him.  Then he visits Aka who has started his own company that provides a combination of personal development seminars and a company training center” Kuro lives in Finland now , with her Finnish husband and two little daughters. When he meets Kuro(Eri), she tells Tsukuru that in those days, she was in love with him.About Aka , Eri says;”I still consider him a good friend. Though I haven’t seen him in seven or eight years”. Shiro is no longer in this world. She was mentally unbalanced and had falsely accused Tsukuru of having raped her.The three friends tell him , one after the other that though they had decided to  banish Tsukuru from the group because of  Shiro’s accusation , they were convinced that Shiro had  made false accusation. After meeting his three friends, he finds that the   community that he assumed had persisted  without him , does not exist.He has missed little as a result of his abandonment.Not every thing was lost in the flow of time.

                  What will become of Tsukuru? .  “Sara said she has feelings for me.He has no reason to doubt it.But there are countless things in the world for which affection is not enough.Life is long , and sometimes cruel.Sometimes victims are needed.”  Murakami  ends the book without  any  guaranteed happy ending. But Tsukuru realises  that nothing is completely resolved in life. The important  thing is to keep living  because only by living  can you see what  happens next.But even if Sara rejects him , Tsukuru will be able to deal  with rejection in a much healthier way.     

On Promise keeping and Lying

About Promise keeping , Robert Frost has written the  following  famous verse:

"Woods are lovely, dark and deep , 

But I have promises to keep , 

And miles to go , before I sleep".

Are promises made to be kept , or can we review them  unilaterally and not keep them , on some ground.? In Indian epic Ram Charit  Manas , it has been said  the promise once made has to be kept even at the cost of our lives.(Raghukul reet sada chali aayee, Pran jaaye , par vachan na jaayee".)Things and circumstances may change ,persons and their relationships may change.But  do we have to keep our promises once made  at all costs?What are the ethics of not keeping a promise?Does not keeping a promise  speak about the shallow character of the person who made a promise and then backed out , on some ground or the other?

              The ethics of promise  keeping and promise   breaking have been discussed at length in literature.The utilitarianism  justifies the breaking of a promise if it results in overall happiness of maximum number of people.The philosopher Kant was an absolutist who said that on ethical grounds ,  a breach of promise is completely immoral and unethical .David Ross(1877-1971) in his best known work on ethics , The Right and the Good(1930) dealt  extensively  with this issue of promise keeping and lying.Ross rejected Moore's consequentialist ethics.According to cosequentialist theories, what people ought to do is determined only by whether their actions will bring about the most good.By contrast , Ross argues that maximising the good is only one of several Prima Facie duties (prima facie obligations) which play a role in determining  what a person ought to do in a given case.Ross proposes a list of eight prima facie duties in The Right and the Good. He does not claim ‘‘completeness or finality’’ for his list.

Ross’s list is as follows:
1. The duty to keep promises. The act of making promise creates duties that would otherwise not exist. Ross writes ‘‘To make a promise is to put oneself in a relation to one person in particular, a relation which creates a specificifically new prima facie obligation to him”.
2. The duty not to lie. According to Ross, the duty not to lie is a special case of
the duty to keep promises. He claims that one makes an implicit promise not to lie whenever one uses language to communicate with another person. Ross construes the duty not to lie as a negative duty. According to Ross, there is a duty to refrain from lying, but no duty to tell the truth or reveal information. [Ross does not say that there is a prima facie duty not to deceive others. On his view, it is possible to deceive someone without violating any prima facie duties.]
3.The duty to make reparations to people one has harmed.
4. The duty of gratitude. If someone has done something that helped you ,then you have a special obligation to help him/her
5. The duty to distribute happiness according to merit. Whenever the actual distribution of happiness in the world is not according to merit (moral goodness), ‘‘there arises a duty to upset or prevent such a distribution.’’ If good people are unhappy and bad people are happy, then the distribution of happiness is not according to merit and we have a prima facie duty to upset this distribution.
6. The duty to do things that benefit others. (According to Ross, there are three ways in which I can benefit another person: I can give him pleasure, give him knowledge, or improve his moral character.)
7. The duty to improve one’s own intellect and moral character.
8. The duty not to harm others.
Ross holds that there is a strong but overrideable moral presumption against telling lies and breaking promises on account of direct and indirect bad consequences of those actions.
Ross’s theory is closest to most people’s common sense moral beliefs and constitutes a reasonable middle ground in ethics , as compared to Utilitarianism on one extreme and Kant’s absolutism on the other extreme .

         Though it can  lead to a  very complicated  debate , yet   what  the above analysis indicates is that we should be very serious, honest  and careful in making any promise , big or small .Prima facie, our first duty in ethics is to keep promises that we make.That is what  good character means .The tendency to review a promise  long after making it , indicates a serious flaw in character of the promisor, which should get his or her serious  and urgent attention

The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton

An outstanding ,433 pages long novel by Jessie Burton  demonstrates to  us  why we are blessed to have a habit of reading.A strong story told in a way that each chapter closes with  a feeling of suspense, raising moral issues  entwined in the course of life, a young woman coming of age as a feminist  and bringing alive  and with accuracy   the ambience and history of  late seventeenth century  Amsterdam  and its people , make you want to read it without break.Yes, Jessie Burton has  put into it everything  -  marriage ,emotions , suspence , love , greed , power  justice , betrayal , revenge , secrets , openness,  honesty , corruption , magic , art  prophecy,imagination  and  death.It is a rare debut novel.It is a compelling page -turner.

               The book is based on  the life of real Petronella  Oortmann , her doll's house and her husband Johannes  Brandt , set in Amsterdam .Her short name is Nella .The novel shows how 18 year old Nella  grows in four months  into an independent , mature woman  , ready to face life with confidence , despite all shocks   and challenges that this world gives to her.The book opens with newly married Nella  coming to her husband's house for the first time.She is poor but now married to a rich merchant Johannes .The rich husband  brings her a costly wedding gift of 3000 guilders.It is a cabinet  , showing the complete house of Jahannes.She does not understand the purpose of this kind of gift , and inwardly feeels insulted .But still ,she tries to decorate it with  lute , and other miniature toys which she orders from a miniaturist .The miniaturist is fond of sending her extra things and some messages like "Every woman is the architect of her own fortune."Being young and inexperienced, and due to some coincidences , Nella begins to believe  in the prophetic powers of the miniaturist .

                           Though Johannes is one of the best merchants of Amsterdam , evoking envy  from the less successful ones, he has tried to build the economy of Amsterdam .He has independence of character and stands tall .He has  married Nella on the insistence of his sister Marin whom he loves .He has a loyal maid Cornelia ,and has got a male help Otto who being black is not accepted in Amsterdam society.His concept of love is that" it is hard to love a person  you know too well.When you have truly come to know  a person , when you see beneath the sweeter gestures, when you see the rage and the pitiful  fear each of us hides-then forgiveness is every thing .We are all in desperate need of it ."And everybody is not so forgiving .

                      One  day ,Nella goes to see her husband in his place of work .There she finds her husband in a compromising position with a younger man Jack Philips.One  family acquaintance Frans  Meermans  , who has grudges and envy against Johannes  , comes to know from Jack  about  sodomy , and they   report against Johannes report to authorities.Nella comes to know of it through Meermans and tells Johannes to escape .But authorities arrest Johannes  when he is escaping on a ship , and put him in Stadhuis prison .Nella meets him in prison .She spends more time with her husband in prison than she has spent in the whole of their four- month marriage.Nella finds  some depth in Johannes and tries to bribe witnesses and prays hard for his release.A comaradeerie and sweetness develops between them , but it is too late.Johannes is sentenced to " punishment to be weighed down at the neck and to be drowned in the sea, this Sunday at sundown".

 Nella realises  that she was actually distracted by the cabinet and the minaturist.She realises that  she has to hold herself  on her own .With this , she smashes and destroys everything connected with the miniaturist and the cabinet.She goes to the Pastor Pellicone and succeeeds in bribing him so that he permits  her sister in law Marin to be buried within city walls, despite being tainted  as a relative of Johannes.Johannes's sentence is executed on Sunday.

                 Nella is left alone , without husband and his sister.With  the help of Cornelia , she decides to begin her life once again ,with a hopeful tapestry with"no one is to weave it but ourselves".

                 I recommend you to read this  extra-ordinary  debut novel.