What is a thought

Baba says : When we see something – a thought comes in our mind.

I have contemplated on the words of Baba. I find them to be true. But it still remains to be understood as to what exactly is thought?. Is it a biological wave that emanates from the body in general or the brain in particular. If it is so then during its entourage, it must connect to something that I have not seen yet or had an experienced with. i.e. occasionally I may think about something which I have never seen, read, or experienced. But I have yet to think about something that does not exist for me. This absence of thought about unknown, not previously perceived objects demolishes the existence of a biological wave.

So to answer this, I go back to my basics which tell me that as soon as I perceive a new object, I cognize it and categorize it to a class of objects so that I recognize it at later stage. In the database, a multi link node is created to store the object with its characteristics (identity, states, behaviours, and an emotional quotient). The multi-links are connected to its related objects and events.

When I see or perceive something, an internal marquee takes me on a tour of the related objects and events. The sequence of objects or events traversed by me during the process of recognition is nothing but a thought.

For instance, when I see a rose, it takes on an internal tour of several objects and events, the rose that graces the coat of Chacha Nehru, the rose I clicked by my Nikon in the garden of University of Roorkee, or the roses I bring to my house on various ceremonies, and even the couplet of an Urdu poet about its beauty, and many more of them. During this tour, if the rose at Roorkee has a stronger emotional quotient, then the detour of Roorkee starts bringing forth objects like, the teachers ( Dr. J. P. Gupta, Dr. Padam Kumar, Dr. Joshi…..), the magnificent central Dome of the University, the computer centre, the chhapo place, the SBI, the Sarswati temple an it goes on.

The other way round is that say I go to meet Gupta Sir, the meeting itself may connect me to Roorkee and might lead to the rose and then to my Nikon. The Nikon would definitely connect me to Jalanadhar , where I not only bought it but spent most of my golden youth. This maquee and the tour is unending and so is the sequence of objects and events. I would tend to term this sequence as a thought or a train of thought.

Then what is thinking. I would say that for a given problem or situation, we try to search the solution through a guided tour of our inner database.

I will write more…

A. K. Sharma

Thought to ponder….

Every living being in this world; be it an animal, a bird or even a small insect, has emerged from a truth. Those who realize the truth are yogis. There can be no activity in this world without truth.

Truth is present everywhere. It can manifest in you also when you think of it and contemplate on it.

Bhagwan Sri Satya Sai Baba.

AI:Can Intelligenece be artificial ?

Om Sai Ram,

I have been teaching this subject of AI for quit long. The main aim is to create intelligent machines and if some machine or object depicts some kind of intelligence then it has to be rated as artificial. This is purely an occidental egoistic view.

I disagree with this kind of superficial superiority of homo sapience. Reason being that the so called intelligence exhibited by machines , particularly the computers is limited by the intelligence of the programmer who has written the inference mechanism and the level of knowledge base (KB) created from or by the experts. If there is a fault in the program the inferences would be faulty. Similarly if the KB is insufficient or uncertain, so would be the results. So where is the intelligence of the machine?. And why call it artificial.

On the contrary, the orient view is that every object has some kind of consciousness. There are umpteen examples which can be quoted from history, puranas, and personal experiences. For example the telepathic coordination between Maharana Partap and Chetak are well known. Ahilya bai turning into stone and back is very well known story from Ramayan. A mountain started wailing when it was not used by Lord Rama for construction of the setu over ocean. Only after the assurance from the Lord, the mountain was pacified. In the next avtar, Lord Krishna used the same mountain to save the peasents from the wrath of Indra, the rain god. The mountain is very popularly known as Giriraj ji.

Try to abuse your tools and you will find that they do not deliver. The pen with which you scratch your back or poke your ear will never result in a worth while research paper, book, essay, prose or poem. Let some body else place shoes on your pillow in your absence and remove them before you retire for sleep. Would you get a sound sleep? - definitely not. The experiments of Basu with vegetables and plants also confirm that they cognize there surroundings and events occurring around them

In fact, Sai Ram says that every seemingly non living thing is living and has a level of consciousness. कण कण में भगवान्। Thus there are emotions, feelings, consiousness, and intelligence of there own in the objects, which otherwise are considered as non living.

So, the objects have either no intelligence as per the western view or they have intelligence of their own as per the oriental belief.

A. K. Sharma


Thought to Ponder...


The Vedas declare that God prevades the body in the form of essence (rasa)

Bhagwan Sri Satya Sai Baba

The three monkeys

Our brain is a marvelous processor with a remarkable pattern matching capability and a complex data structure to store Knowledge. Is it a RISC or CISC architecture ?, I leave this debate to computer engineers to fathom and reason about. The Mind is mysteriously programmed to fully harness the might of the processor.

Baba says that “when we see something, a thought comes to our mind. The thought can be good or bad. If the thought lingers over an object for long then it converts into a desire. The mind is nothing but a set of desires. More the desires – more the mind and consequently less the peace of mind. The equation is quiet simple. Therefore the wise people continuously suppress the bad thoughts with the good thoughts"

Personally, I have observed that whenever we see an object or a happening, in a flash, the mind connects us to a related entity or event or experience. The current train of thoughts is directed towards this new mental state. The mind attains the IRQL level of the happening. An MPEG movie starts filling in the screen in a flash back mode bringing in frame by frame the actors and their act. Similarly when we listen something, the mind is interrupted. It adjust its IRQL level to the episode of the event related to the listened object. In fact both the speaker and the listener get affected by the conversation. For instance most of the thefts, murders, terrorist acts etc. get inspired by the movies. The brainwashing of the terrorists is done through seditious, inciting, inflammatory speeches. On the other hand the idols of the deities, satsang, group bhazans bring calmness, composure, and shanti to the doers.

Further, when I see a china rose, it reminds me of Goddess Kali and pure thoughts engulf me. On the contrary, an English movie on vampires or stunts brings very violent thoughts.

I goto my office on a bus, the public transport. There is a co-traveler who has perfected the art of traveling without ticket. He climbs up a bus which is crowded, stands where he cannot be spotted by the conductor, and alights on an intermediate stop where the probability of encountering the ticket checker is least. Once in a blue moon, when he is caught then he has a bunch of lies to befool the checker. The output is that he saves 40 to 50 Rs. a day. Initially, I thought that this was a wonderful way of saving the money. But my inner self told me that it was a crime. My positive thoughts won and saved me the ordeal of making evil designs of matching his skills and the apprehension of becoming more evil then him.

Repeating the name of the god is also a way of diverting bad thoughts. For instance sometimes I feel angry on a student or a colleague. I immediately start reciting "Sai Ram Sai Ram", of course silently, in my heart.

My dadaji, would always utter – “ओह तेरा भला हो जाए”, no matter how angry and hurt he was.

Nevertheless if the object, seen or listened or spoken , generates good thoughts then we experience internal peace and earn good karma. That is why the father of nation advised as under

Don't see evil

Don't hear evil

Don’t speak evil.

But it is easier said then done. How can one help not seeing evil or hear evil especially when most of the time You see people teasing ladies in the bus. Outside the window, you find people urinating in the open. The driver smokes and attends to his mobile phone calls while driving. The bad news become the headlines in the newspaper. The muni bai, jaleby bai, rajia ... kind of songs are the most popular music on FM radio. The movies sell on the number of abuses uttered by the heroine. After the serial blasts, the civic society comes back to normal. So you can't avoid them.

The remedy is that we should suppress the evil thoughts by good thoughts. Recite the name of god most of the times. Most importantly resist, rebut, repel, stand against evil, wherever possible.

(A.K. Sharma)

Thought to ponder…

Scatter the seeds of love on the dreary desert hearts; then the sprouts of love will make the wastes green with joy; the blossom of love will make the air fragrant; the river of love will murmur along the valleys; and every bird beast and child will sing the song of love.

Bhagwan Sri Satya Sai Baba.

The Sai Miracle

25.4.2011

Om Sai Ram

Day before yesterday (23.4.2011) when my wife Suman went to the Puja room for morning puja and opened the Vibhuti pot for applying it on her forehead, which she does every day, to her surprise she found this figure into the vibhuti pot.The picture is shown on the right.

This engraving on the vibhuti resembles with the the symbol OM with a chander bindu at top. But when inverted, it becomes the alphabet 'S', the starting alphabet of 'SAI'

We have always been blessed by Baba. Before taking samadhi on 24th April, Bhagwan created this symbol for us .

Even though He has taken samadhi, I feel that He is still around and taking care of us as ever. I don't feel any loss. It isHis will and we honour it.

A. K. Sharma

Baba is a Challenge to those who deny or hesitate to accept that the Universe is a thought of God.

N. Kasturi