A Religionless World

I think that religions all over the globe have create a far bigger divide between people and not really achieved the very purpose for which religions were created. That triggers a though "Is it time to discard all religions and make a fresh start that is religionless?"


Broadly religious constructs and objectives can be divided into the following categories


1. Elevation of spiritual values to attain our higher self and eventually God.
2. Rules and regulations of moral, ethical and day to day conduct. Along with principles and guidelines for development of a better society.
3. Rituals and customs that help you identify yourself with a certain religion


And now lets examine how successful we have been in the above areas and what might be our alternatives.


Most of you would agree that if religions were capable of helping you attain your higher self then a lot more people would have been successful in doing so. After all we have been following all rituals; abiding the rules of our religions and yet we hardly see anybody who seems to be enlightened.


When it comes to rules and regulations I think a legal system based on natural justice, local environment and scientific evidence has the potential of enriching our lives when compared to rules that are outdated or were formed for keeping the interest of religion in mind rather then the interest of people.


Lastly rituals and customs were defined with the purpose of helping people identify themselves with a particular religion and support their journey of attaining their higher self. As discussed earlier it is evident that rituals are not working as far as spiritual enhancement is concerned. Most of the rituals are outdated and really not adding any value to the humans apart from making people entrenched so much into their religion that they are willing to walk the path of violence just to prove that their religion is better than the other. An alternative would be to let go of religious rituals and define a more modern and scientific daily routine to live lives. After all if everything in our surroundings is changing shouldn't the rituals be changing too? Can thousand year old rituals be helpful in taking you ahead now?


In a nutshell lets leave our religions back and start living a religionless life that is based on modern human values, that is evolving all the time, that learns from data and scientific evidence to improve all aspects and that shuns biases and promotes an open mind.


And finally the by product would be a terrorism free, hatred free, unbiased, productive, progressive, inclusive and open minded world. May the force and wisdom of god be with all of us.

Security in the view of EVM Saga

I had always though I will not write anything related to politics. And yet today I am making an exception. The only reason I do so is because I believe that security has far bigger considerations and implications then just proving out if a cell phone or smart TV or laptop or server or an EVM can be hacked. So it is important to understand these consideration and implications.


First of all I start with a belief that any electronic device or system that works with some sort of computer language or commands, has some form of connectivity with other systems, and uses a program to deliver some specific functions has a potential to be hacked. It implies that Electronic Voting Machines can be hacked. So what?? Because Core Banking Systems can be hacked too, Airlines flight management systems can be hacked too and Nuclear Power Plants can be hacked too.


That being said all security vendors are constantly working to make systems more and more secure. Layer after layer of security is been designed and added to make these systems less vulnerable. Things like firewall, encryption, intrusion prevention, white listing, role based access controls, super user controls, adaptive access controls, location awareness and acceptable hours usage etc. have all made systems far more secure than they were earlier. Still no one can claim to have a fool proof and completely secure system.


While we continue to enhance our security capabilities we have to take into consideration some of the aspect like


1. Is the system designed to be secure and is it being upgraded with the latest improvements in security technologies - Weather it is a Nuclear Power Plan or and EVM continuous improvement is important.


2. Nature of the System - If a Nuclear Power Plant is hacked consequences can be catastrophic for millions or people, vegetation and landscape for the next hundreds of years. Although EVM hacking will have an impact but probably not as bad is the nuclear power plant.


3. Number of Systems - A nuclear power plant might have 6 or 7 layers of security. But once you bypass them you might have access to the entire power plant or at least a portion that can have significant impact. While an EVM might have just 2 or 3 layers of security; bypassing them might give you access to just that EVM. One can argue that just a few EVM's might not be good enough to change the course of the election result.


4. Complexity and Time required to hack - If the security layers are complex enough and they in turn make it more time consuming to hack; then the significant effort and time required to hack thousands of EVM's would be a big deterrent.


5. Location of Hacking - The nuclear power plant does not move but EVM's do. Hacking them when they are all put together in counting centers would be a lot easier when compared to hacking them at polling booth during polling. Simply because you might need thousands of hackers instead of a few due to location.


6. Detection - If a system is hacked then how soon can that be detected is a very important measure. Your ability to respond depends upon how fast you can detect. In case of the nuclear power plant one would want to detect any malicious activity and start responding at the same instant. The reality is that in a lot of systems security breach detection either never happens or takes too much time; sometimes years as in the case of yahoo mail.


7. Tamper Proof Audit Logging - The ability to log information about who did what, when, how, using what, before values, after values etc. is a critical functionality of security systems. Such information aids in forensic analysis during hacks. It can also be used to prove that things are working as expected. The key element though is "How these Audit Logs are tamper proof ?"


Above are just a few points to think about in the recent row of EVM Hacking in India. I am sure there are a lot more of them. My sole purpose with this post is to make the electorate more aware and thoughtful about the issue.

Forgive your way to Happiness and Health

Are you someone who remembers how a classmate ill treated you when you were in grade 8; around 25 years back? Do you get welled up with anger and resentment when you recall a negative remark made by someone many years back? Do you keep waiting for your turn to get even with people who might have said something that was contrary to your point of view? Is it very difficult for you to let go? If you identify with any of this, you might be setting yourself up for unhappiness and probably disease and illness.




It has been said that Forgiveness is the virtue of the brave. I agree as it takes a lot of courage to be able to forgive. Forgiveness is a path to Happiness and good health too. People who can forgive easily tend to live in the present and focus on the future. On the contrary people who find it difficult to forgive tent to live in the negative feeling of their past; thus leaving little time to enjoy the present and plan for future. As a result whenever they are not in their past they are worrying about the future (as they never planned for future). All this negative feelings and worry automatically impacts they health and general well being.


When you forgive or let go, you send a clear message to the universe that you have chosen to focus on things far more important. This becomes a habit; a guiding principle. Over a period of time you automatically acquire the art of focusing on things more important and ignoring what does not matter. In turn you will be happier and more successful. Needles to say you attract good health and well being.


Now let's talk about the difficult part - How to forgive and let go if that is not your natural behavior? The truth is that there is no magic bullet. One technique that might help is to evaluate if your thoughts and feelings helping you in some way? Is there anything you can do about it? If you did what you think; would it change the situation? Does it even matter now? etc. Each time your are up against your past ask those questions. Chances are over a period of time your focus will change for good. Another technique is to name your negative thought. Something like "Distraction from my past". And whenever you find yourself in that state tell yourself "Here is Distraction from my past". Once you name it you can always tell yourself "Distraction from my past does not help me in any way. Let me focus on something better". This might help you change focus over a period of time.


In conclusion Forgivers aren't only brave but they are happier and healthier too. So if you are one then keep building on it. If you are not one then try to figure out a few techniques and become one. Forgive your way to Happiness and Health and Success.

The Veg or Non-Veg Debate

I often come across people sharing gruesome videos of how animals are killed in factories for food. They typically highlight cruelty towards animals as a basis of promoting Vegetarian lifestyle. In this post I plan to look at the emotion/spiritual/cruelty aspect but also look at how bodies are designed and also the implication of commercial farming on our food. At the end of the day the idea is not to prove one better than other but to make people look at it from a different perspective


So what do human's eat? The answer is Life Form. Weather we eat a plant based diet or an animal based diet we are eventually eating a Life Form. I am sure no one likes and promotes cruelty but if there are videos showing how animals are being slaughtered then I am sure a creative person can make videos showing how plants feel pain when they are cut for food or how trees feel when there fruits are "brutally plucked". It has been scientifically proven that trees and plants respond to music, experience pain and might have feelings/emotions. So the aspect of morality/cruelty etc. should not apply as we are all eating some Life Form.




Now what I think is a valid argument is that certain animals are physically designed if I may say, to be herbivores and certain are carnivores. For instance a tiger, dog, wolf all have canines to cut through meat, have paws designed to grip and hunt, have small elementary canal's to digest meat quickly. And then you have Cows, Elephants and even Humans that have teeth which helps in chewing food, elementary canals which are much longer and a different digestive system etc. So by physical design Humans are herbivore or Vegetarian and I personally buy this argument a lot more than I would buy the moral argument.


Here is an aspect of food that comes from the Hindu way of life. Food is classified as Sattvic, Tamasic or a combination. This is a classification based on the tendency of food. It is believe that sattvic foods are supposed to aid clarity of thought, spiritual endeavors, and general physical health. They are generally vegetarian but not all vegetarian food is Sattvic. Tamasic food on the other hand is mostly non-vegetarian. However veg foods like onions, garlic etc. are considered Tamasic too. Generally speaking Sattvic food is recommended. But for people dealing with harsh and cold weather, extreme physical activities etc. tamasic food is helpful. Tamasic food is also prescribed to Sattvic food eaters as a medicine for ailments like joint pain etc. Tendency of food is another factor to consider in your diet based on you circumstances.




Another thing to think about is adaptability. Humans are probably the most adaptable creatures on earth. We have evolved from apes hunting around in jungles to cultivators to modern industrial beings. I think in this process over generations we have adapted to various types of foods too. It's only in humans that you will find Vegetarians, Non-Vegetarians, Vegans and Omnivores. If you look at tigers they have been Non-Vegetarians for centuries and Cows have been Vegetarian for centuries too. Dog's are a bit different now and probably its the friendship with humans that's rubbing on them.




Last but not the least it is important to mention the impact of commercialization or industrialization of both Veg and Non-Veg foods. Our crops and vegetables are filled with chemicals and pesticides. A lot of them have been genetically modified. We are not sure about the impact of these but there is enough evidence pointing out the ill effects of fertilizers. The meat that we eat is not safe either. Chicken and Goat and Cow and Pig are being farmed like crops. Here they are given steroids that help them grow big in no time. There are ill effects of eating meat of animals that have been raised on steroids. Processed foods should be a big NO NO. So weather you eat Veg or Non Veg make a choice based on Organic or not, Fresh and Seasonal typically raised closer to your home or not, processed or not, Sattvic Tamasic or a mix. At the end of the day choice is yours and they say "You are what you eat".

The Cascade Effect

Let me start with how I realized about what I call "The Cascade Effect". I was living in Bangalore and observed that a couple of Bus Stops were immediately after the NIMHANS traffic signal. As the signal turned green a BMTC Bus crossed and stopped at the bus stop. Another bus stopped just behind it. The third bus driver chose to go ahead of the two buses but stopped the bus at a 45 degree angle thus blocking more of the road that was already 35% blocked. The signal turned red again without too much traffic flowing. I was headed to my office for an important meeting. I got late by 10 minutes. There were 6 people waiting on me. So effectively I wasted 60 man minutes. Or I must say the improper action of the BMTC Bus driver was responsible for wasting a lot more than 60 man minutes assuming many more would have been in a similar situation like mine. Or I can blame it on the poor design of Bus Stops and inadequate infrastructure which would have had many repercussions over a long time period.


But what I learned that day is that our actions can have far broader implications not just on ourselves but on others too. And these others might be completely unrelated to us. I realized that it is very important to give a thought about how our actions can impact us, our loved ones and others. However the really good part about The Cascade Effect is that it amplifies not just the negatives but also the positive or good stuff we do. If someone goes out of the way to help you then most likely you would go out of the way to help someone (not necessarily the same person) and it continues.


So the gist of it is, consider the long term impact of your actions. The bad you do will go far longer that what you imagine BUT the good you do will also go further that what you could think of. Thus it makes all the more sense to watch out and curtail anything negative. Needless to say "Never miss an opportunity to do something Good". It will multiply man folds.


May the Love of God continue showering on all of us.

The World is Round

It is interesting when you talk to an Atheist (someone who disbelieves in the existence of God). Because by definition an atheist should be someone who assumes complete responsibility of his success and failures. For him/her it has to be about doing it himself/herself or with the help and/or partnership of other individuals.

And then lets consider believers. They believe that every thing that happens does happen out of the will of God. They can be susceptible to avoid taking responsibility in the name of God. Basically blaming their failures on the wish of God rather than their own actions. Now let's consider the Sanatan Dharma philosophy of Aham Bramh or Aham Bramhāsmiti (अहं ब्रह्म अस्मिति) which means I am God. This in a way should lead believers to the point that you are supposed to assume responsibility of your actions, success and failures.

Isn't it interesting that both atheist and believers are saying the same thing in a different way. For me, a believer, the message is loud and clear - Take Responsibility of your actions, look inwards for the help of God and see your reality change. It also drives another important point for me, which is; the world is round and there are infinite ways to reach your goal. Do not get bogged down about what is the right path, who's path is better etc. It does not matter. Enjoy your destination and your journey too.

May the power of God be with each one of us.