ஒளி படைத்த கண்ணினாய் வா வா ...."தேடல் - '11 - " நிகழ்ச்சி, TCE, MADURAI

                                                         நோக்கம்

"என்று தணியும் எங்கள் சுதந்திர தாகம் " என்ற எண்ணங்கள் ஒய்ந்த நம் நாடு இன்று உலகின் தொழில் நுட்ப வளர்ச்சியின் ஓர் மிக்கிய அங்கமாக மாறியதை கண்டு பெருமைகொள்கிறோம். ஒரு நாட்டின் தொலைநோக்கு பார்வையின் சிறந்த உதாரணம் தொழிற் நுட்ப வளர்ச்சியே என்பதை உணர்ந்து, இன்று நாம் துரும்பையும் தூணாக்கி, இரும்பையும் விண்கலமாக்கி விண்வெளிக்கு செலுத்தி உலகளவில் மடுவாக இருந்த இந்திய தொழில் நுட்பம் இன்று பேராற்றல் கொண்ட மலையாக மாறியுள்ளது. ஆனால் இத்தகைய அறிவு சார்ந்த தொழில் நுட்பம் இந்தியாவின் முதுகெலும்பாக உள்ள கிராமங்களில் வாழும் மக்களை சென்றடைவதற்கான தடைக்கற்கள் ஏராளம். அதன் காரணத்தை ஆராய்ந்தபோது இன்றைய நம் இந்திய நாடு வளர்ந்த நகரங்களால் கட்டப்பட்டதேயன்றி வளர்ந்த கிராமங்களால் அன்று.

தொலைநோக்குடன் வளர்ந்த தொழில் நுட்பமானது இன்றும் கிராம மக்களுக்கு தொலைதூரமாகவே உள்ளது. இதை உணர வேண்டியது இன்றைய இளைய சமுதாயமே.அதை உணர்த்த வேண்டியது நமது கடமையே ஆகும். ஆதலால், காந்திய மொழிக்கு வண்ணம் தீட்டிட, புது வடிவம் தந்திட, தியாகராசர் பொறியற் கல்லூரி மாணவர்கள் தேடல் - '11என்ற பெயரில் இந்திய நாட்டின் வளர்ச்சியானது கிராமங்களின் அறிவு சார்ந்த தொழில் நுட்ப வளர்ச்சியே ஆகும் என்பதை எடுத்தியம்ப வந்துள்ளோம்.

                                                                                       

                                                                                            

                                                                 PAVE

Providing Adaptive technology to Villages through Empowerment

Today we all take immense pride and delight in being Indians and witnessing how much our motherland has grown in leaps and bounds in these 63 years of independence. Be it an ordinary bell pin that clips papers or the extraordinary rocket that hits the space, Indian technology has emerged as a superpower. Cities keep expanding and urbanizing but sadly, our once prosperous and green villages have mutated into a land of agony and infertility. India has grown ahead, leaving behind her villages. Every step of India’s development should mean a better, greener and a more prosperous village. The hour of realization is here and all we need to do is to revive our thoughts and ideas and be a better example to the younger generation. As the father of our nation said, Indian villages are the backbone of our country; our future development should aim at bridging the gap between the growth of India and the growth of her villages. We the TCEians, through QUEST’11 aspire to enlighten the young minds with the same thought and pave a better way to make them realize the inclusive growth of the Indian villages.

STUDENTS  OF -   THIYAGARAJAR  COLLEGE  OF ENGINEERING,  MADURAI

SAILING BOAT

Continues … from last week issues 22 / 01 / 11 

Yesterday evening I saw a boat going up the river at full sail, driven by the west wind. It was a large boat, heavily laden with firewood for the town. The sun was setting, and this boat against the sky was astonishingly beautiful. The boatman was just guiding it, there was no effort , for the wind was doing all the work. Similarly, if each one of us could understand the problem of struggle and conflict , then I think we would be able to live effortlessly, happily, with a smile on our face.

I think it is effort that destroys us, this struggling in which we spend almost every moment of our lives. If you watch the older people around you, you will see that for most of them life is series of battles with themselves, with their wives or husbands with their neighbors, with society, and this ceaseless strife dissipates energy. The man who is joyous , really happy, is not caught up in effort. To be without effort does not mean that you stagnate , that you are dull, stupid; on the contrary, it is only the wise the extraordinarily intelligent who are really free of effort, of struggle.

But , you see, when we hear of effortlessness we want to be like that, we want to achieve a state in which we will have no strife, no conflict; so we make that our goal, our ideal, and strive after it, and the moment we do this , we have lost the joy of living. We are again caught up in effort, struggle. The object of struggle varies,  but all struggles is essentially the same. One may struggle to bring about social reforms, or to find God, or to create a better relationship between oneself and one’s wife or husband, or with one’s neighbor ; one may sit on the bang Ganga, worship at the feet of some guru, and so on. All this is effort, struggle. So what is important is not the object of struggle, but to understand struggle itself.

Now is it possible for the mind to be not just casually aware that for the moment it is not struggling, but completely free of struggle all the time so that it discovers a state of joy in which there is no sense of the superior and the inferior?  

Continues…

STABILITY

Continues … from last week issues 22 / 01 / 11 

Do you know what it means to seek permanency? It means wanting the pleasurable to continue indefinitely, and wanting that which is not pleasurable to end as quickly as possible. We want the name that we bear to be known and to continue through family, through property. We want a sense of permanency in our relationships, in our activities, which means that we are seeking a lasting , continuous life in the stagnant pool; we don’t want any real changes there, so we have built a society which guarantees us the permanency of property , of name , of fame. 

But, you see, life is not like that at all; life is not permanent . Like the leaves that fall from a tree, all things are impermanent , nothing endures; there is always change and death. Have you ever noticed a tree standing naked against the sky, how beautiful it is ? All its branches are outlined, and in its nakedness there is a poem, there is a song. When the spring comes, it again fills the tree with the misic of many leaves, which in due season fall and are blown away; and that is the way of life.

But we don’t want anything of that kind. We cling to our children , to our tradition, to our society, to our names, and our little virtues, because we want permanency, and that is why we are afraid to die. We are afraid to lose the things we know. But life is not what we would like it to be; life is not permanent at all. Birds die; snow melts away, trees are cut down or destroyed by storms, and so on. But we want everything that gives us satisfaction to be permanent ; we want our position , the authority we have over people , to endure. We refuse to accept life as it is in fact.

The fact is that life is like the river; endlessly moving on, ever seeking , exploring, pushing , overflowing its banks, penetrating every crevice with its water. But , you see, the mind won’t allow that to happen to itself. The mind sees that it is dangerous, risky to live in a state of impermanency, insecurity, so it builds a wall around itself; the wall of tradition, of organized religion , of political and social theories. Family, name, property , the little virtues that we cultivated – these are all within the walls, away from life. Life is moving , impermanent , and it ceaselessly tries to penetrate, to break down theses walls, behind which there is confusion and misery. The gods within the walls are all false gods, and their writings and philosophies have no meaning because life is beyond them.

Now , a mind that has no walls , that is not burdened with its own acquisitions, accumulations, with its own knowledge, a mind that timeslessly, insecurely -= to such a mind , life is an extraordinary thing. Such a mind is life itself, because life has no resting place. But most of us want a resting place; we want a little house , a name , a position , and we say theses things are very important. We demand permanency and create a culture based on this demand, inventing gods which are not gods at all but merely a projection of our own desires.

Continues on next week … 

MIND DETERIORATION

Continues … from last week issues 22 / 01 / 11 

But that vital urge to inquire, to find out, is soon smothered , is it not? It is smothered by fear , by the weight of tradition, by our own incapacity to face this extraordinary thing called life. Haven’t you noticed how quickly your eagerness is destroyed by a sharp word, by a disparaging gesture, by the fear of an examination or the threat of a parent – which means that sensitivity is already being pushed aside and the mind made dull?

Another cause of dullness is imitation. You are made to imitate by tradition. The weight of the past drives you to conform, toe the line. And through conformity the mind feels safe, secure; it establishes itself in a well – oiled groove so that it can run smoothly without disturbance, without a quiver of doubt. Watch the grown – up people about you, and you will see that their minds do not want to be disturbed. They want peace even though it is the peace of death, but real peace is something entirely different.

When the mind establishes itself in a groove, in a pattern, haven’t you noticed that it is always prompted by the desire to be secure? That is why it follows an ideal, an example, a guru. It wants to be safe, undisturbed, therefore it imitates. When you read in your history books about great leaders , saints, warriors, don’t you find your self wanting to copy them ? Not that there aren’t great people in the world, but the instinct is to imitate great people, to try to become like them, and that is one of the factors of deterioration because the mind then sets itself in a mould.

Furthermore, society does not want individuals who are alert , keen, revolutionary because such individuals will not fir in to the established social pattern, and they may break it up. That is why society seeks to hold your mind in tits pattern and why your so – called education incourages you to imitate, to follow, to confirm.

Now can the mind stop imitating ? That is can it cease to form habits? And can the mind, which is already caught in habit, be free of habit?

Continues… on next week 

SOLUTION

Continues … from last week issues 22 / 01 / 11 

What action will put an end to the increase of problems is all our activities? Is there any movement of thought, in any direction , that can free man from this manner of living , the reformation of which always needs further reform ? In other words, is there an action which is not born of reaction?

I think there is a way of life in which there is not this process of reformation breeding further misery; and that way may be called religious. The truly religious person is not concerned with reform, he is not concerned with merely producing a change in the social order; on the contrary; he is seeking what is true, and that very search has a transforming effect on society; That is why education must be principally concerned with helping the student to seek out truth or God, and not merely preparing him to fit in to the pattern of a given society.

I think it is very important to understand this while we are young because, aw we grow older and begin to set aside our little amusements and distractions, our sexual appetites and petty ambitions, we become more keenly aware of the immense problems confronting the world. And then we want to do something about them,we want to bring about some kind of amelioration. But unless we are deeply religious, we shall only create more confusion, further misery ; and religion has nothing to do with priests, churches, dogmas or organized beliefs. These things are not religion at all : they are merely social conveniences to hold us  within a particular pattern of thought and action , they are the means of exploiting our credulity, hope, and fear. Religion is the seeking our of what is truth, what is God, and this search requires enormous energy, wide intelligence, subtle thinking. It is in this very seeking of the immeasurable that there is right social action, not in the so – called reformation of a particular society.

 To find out what is truth, there must be great love and a deep awareness of man’s relationship to all things which means that one is not concerned with one’s own progress and achievements. The search for truth is true religion, and the man who is seeking truth is the true religious man. Such a man, because of his love , is outside of society ; and his action upon society is therefore entirely different from that of the man who is in society and concerned with its reformation. The reformer can never create a new culture. What is necessary is the search of the truly religious man , for this very search brings about its own culture, and it is our only hope. You see, the search for truth gives an explosive creativeness to the mind is uncontaminated by the edicts and sanctions of society. Being free of all that, the religious man is able to find out what is true, and it is the discovery of what is true from moment to moment that creates a new culture.

That is why it is very important for you to have the right kind of education. For this the educator himself must be rightly educated so that he will not regard teaching merely as a means of earning  a livelihood, but will be capable of helping the student to put aside all dogmas and not be held by any religion or belief. The people who come together on the basis of religious authority, or to practice certain ideals, are all concerned with social reform , which is merely the decorating of the prison walls. Only the truly religious man is truly revolutionary, and it is the function of  education to help each one of us to be religious in the true sense of the word, for in that direction alone lies our salvation.

Continues with explanations on next week….