Prof B V Babu

7. Judge, Fifth Inter-Bhawan Debate Competition on “Value based rather than Skill based Education provides the foundation for Nation Building”, organized by National Service Scheme (NSS) & Vivekananda Seva Samiti (VSS), BITS Pilani, February 1, 1997.

8. Professor-in-charge, Andhra Samiti, BITS Pilani, 1997-2001.

9. Judge, Technical Exhibitions of Engineering Disciplines, APOGEE (A Professions Oriented Gathering over Educational Experiences), A Nation-wide Academic Week held every year during October, BITS Pilani.

10. Judge, Technical Paper Presentation Sessions, APOGEE, BITS Pilani.

"Truth is a Pathless Land" (Excerpts from a speech made by J. Krishnamurti ):

"Man cannot come to it through any organization, through any creed, through any dogma, priest or ritual, nor through any philosophic technique. He has to find it through the mirror of relationship, through the understanding of the contents of his own mind, through observation and not through intellectual analysis or introspective dissection. Man has built in himself images as a fence of security - religious, political, personal. These manifest as symbols, ideas, beliefs. The burden of these images dominates man's thinking, his relationships and his daily life. These images are the cause of our problems, for they divide man from man."

Thoughts (Continuously updated as & when they come to one's mind):

1. Given a choice, always do whatever you love to do. In the absence of it, start loving what you do.

2. However small a thing you do, put your heart into it and see the difference in quality.

3. Give to the world the best you have, the best in the world comes back to you.

4. Do not accept anything just like that (including this statement), unless you are completely convinced in the truth of it.

5. If you understand yourself completely, you can understand everything and everybody.

6. Do not have any pre-conceived notions about a thing or a person (Be open minded, i.e. do not be narrow minded).

7. Do not judge people by putting a tag based on their race, religion, creed, caste or color.

8. Understanding a problem itself is the solution for that problem. (Once you understand the problem completely, you don't see the problem as a problem. And so, the problem ceases to exist).

9. Try to understand the root cause of a problem and attack it at that level by completely understanding it.

10. Be honest and truthful to yourself in the deeds you do and the statements you make.

11. When you say something, you should really mean it, including the gaps and pauses between the words and the pauses and silence between the sentences.

12. The thought of GOD is only a thought. The GOD of thought is not GOD.

13. Knowledge is an obstacle for the realisation of TRUTH. And hence, Ignorance is Bliss.

14. Knowldege is Power, if it is properly utilized. Otherwise, you are trapped and caught in the clutches of illusionary material world.

15. If one is a very good interpreter, hundreds of interpretations can be given for the same statement. Out of so many interpretations, two of them would definitely be exactly opposite.
So, what is the truth of that statement?
Should we stick to the interpretation or be aware of the absolute truth?
Absolute truth can neither be interpreted nor explained. One can only be aware of it.

16. Good and Bad are relative terms. The thing which is good for one may not be good for the other. This is true for all the opposite terms.

17. What is TIME?
Is it the movement of thought from the past through the present to the future?
If there is no thought in one's mind, is there any time?
Is this (timelessness state) a state of an ABSOLUTE BLISS? (Thoughtlessness State)

One is sure that everyone might have experienced the thoughtlessness state atleast once in life time. But the problem is many of us are not aware of it.

18. What is MEDITATION?
It is an effort to be able to have a focussed concentration & attention towards a goal, which means trying to achieve the so called Thoughtlessness State.
If so, Is it necessary to sit in an isolated place and practice Meditation?
Is it not possible to do Meditation even while one is at work, while observing nature, while walking, while talking, while eating, while teaching or while doing something or the other?
Could one achieve the thoughtlessness state, keeping that thought of achieving the state as a goal in mind?
One can only reduce the number of thoughts by practice, but the Thoughtlessness state has to come on its own.

19. If one achieves the thoughtlessness state and be aware of that, then one can use thoughts as and when they are required to be used and again can go back to that state.

20. Could Science explain the absolute truth of anything?
The answer is NO. Science cannot explain everything because it has got its own limitations.
It is like making an effort to explain the limitless infinite state with limited finite tools.
Science always uses cause & effect theory within the framework of Time & Space. But TRUTH is beyond all the limitations (whether it is senses, dimensions, theories, or frameworks).

21. Attachment to anything - whether it is to a person, to a religion, to an organization, to an idea, or simply to a thought - leads to suffering and problems.

22. One has to explore within oneself and be aware of the extra-ordinary energy levels one has within. Then only one knows his/her true potential and limitations.

23. Knowing ones own limitations is as important as knowing ones own potential and capabilities to be successful both materially as well as spiritually.

24. Love is universal. It cannot exist towards a selected person, organization, country or race. If so, it is mere attraction but not love. Love does not have bounds. A person in love cannot hate anything or anybody and loves the entire universe.

25. One should learn to face life as it is; and take the things in life as & when they come and in the way & form they come.

26. Live life to its fullest extent enjoying each and every moment of it.

27. If a person is good in one thing, he/she can be good in everything. Because, he/she understood the logic to be good. It is only a question of how much effort could one put in, and in how many activities.

28. Knowledge is a bundle of thoughts. The lesser the number of thoughts in mind, the better would be the understanding. Mind with absolutely devoid of thoughts ensures complete understanding.

29. Thought created the nature. Nature used the thoughts to create the entire universe. Man used thoughts to create Buildings, Industries, Vehicles, etc. and became instrumental in spoiling the nature.

30. The moment man started thinking that he can dominate the nature, the natural balance of nature got affected. Nature can withstand the imbalance upto some extent, after which by its very nature it collapses. Ozone layer depletion, Global warming etc. are some of the consequences of man's intervention with the nature. Are we very close and nearing the stage of nature's destruction and collapse (PRALAYA)?

31. Thought divided the humanity from cosmic energy, created races, created religions, created castes - and separated the man from man, and also man from within.

32. The person projecting himself/herself outwardly is different from the person within himself/herself. What is the root cause of it? Why should the person be different outwardly. Why can't he/she be the same both outwardly and inwardly?

33. Human beings escape from reality when they start understanding their true selves with a fear of accepting the deviations from ideality, and so project themselves differently outwards. The question one should ask to oneself is, Is this superficial artificiality really required?

34. Human race already spoiled four elements (Air, Water, Earth, and Akash or Ozone) of the five (Air, Water, Earth, Akash or Ozone and Fire or Sun). And now we started fiddling with even the fifth element.

35. One should not live either in the past (which is dead) or in the future (which is unknown). One should live in the present enjoying each and every moment of it (moment by moment).

36. Most of us live either in the past or in the future (by thinking of the incidents happened in past or thinking of the plans for future) forgetting the lively present, and hence forced to deal with the problems and sufferings.

37. Double your joy by sharing with somebody. Similarly, reduce your sorrows too by sharing with somebody.

38. Many a times, it is the fear of unknown (or problem) which becomes major problem than the problem itself. Work on the root cause of fear.

39. We, the human beings are trapped in the clutches of the senses. It is because of the limitation of the senses, we are deprived of the awareness of Oneness and existing innumerable dimensions. For example, something cannot be seen with our eyes doesnot mean that something does not exist; something cannot be heard with our ears doesnot mean that sound with that frequency does not exist.

40. It is because of the slavery to the senses, we feel that the body is boudary of the self. If one can come out of the clutches of the senses, then one doesnot distinguish himself/herself with others. Because, at the atomic level there is no difference between the two entities. All are existing as atoms in the space without any boundaries and with perfect harmony. Then, in what way one is different from the other. Is it not the same energy existing as continuum?

41. Life and death are not different. Death is a part of life and life continues. It only changes from one form to another.

42. Philosophy cannot be separated from life as it is very much part of it.

43. To be optimistic, taking only positives & good memories and forgetting negatives & bad memories always help in life.

44. As far as possible, it is better if the mind is kept free of any thoughts. There is no point in filling the mind by accumulating thoughts and knowledge. It only obstructs the understanding in an unknown situation. Removing the bad memories and thoughts would help in continuously replenishing the mind with new thoughts.

45. Thoughtless state cannot be achieved by making efforts to attain it. It has to come naturally on its own, and it would come to everyone.

46. The basic purpose of education is learning and developing analytical & logical skills. The focus should not be too much on the technical content. Through learning the technical knowledge, one has to pickup the aspects that could be applied in real life situation (be it in professional career or in personal life). For example, learning logarithmic, trigonometric, Laplace or for that matter any mathematical transformations should lead to an understanding that a difficult situation would be dealt with easily by looking the same thing in another domain. A non-linear relationship becomes a linear one by applying logarithmic and trigonometric transformations. Similarly, by applying laplace transformations (changing from time domain into s-domain), the complexity and non-linearity would reduce to simple and linear relationship. The learning, I think, the student has to pick up from this lesson is to look from a different angle and in a different domain when he comes across a complicated situation in either personal or professional life. Same holds good to the entire learning process irrespective of the degree one aims at.

47. Every being (human beings, animals, plants, etc.) has a well-defined role to play in the overall scheme of things in this Universe. Nothing like one is important and the other unimportant. For human beings, the purpose of education should be to make them realize their potential & limitations, and help them understand their presence in this Universe (i.e., to know the role they have to play in the overall scheme of things). The discipline (Sciences, Arts, Humanities, Engineering, Medicine, etc.) in education is only a tool through which one need to understand oneself.

Quotes - Good things in life (Courtesy: Yahoo groups & other sources):

1. A nice inspiring poem .... by Mother Teresa

People are often unreasonable, illogical,
and self-centered;
forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, People may accuse
you of selfish, ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some
false friends and some true enemies;
Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank,
people may cheat you;
Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building,
someone could destroy overnight;
Build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness,
there may be jealousy;
Be happy anyway.

The good you do today,
people will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have,
and it may never be enough;
Give the world the best you've got anyway.

You see, in the final analysis,
it is between you and God;
It was never between you and them anyway.