New Beginning for me in Volunteering

Donating old clothes and some usable items like toys and utensils is a very good idea. Often we have the will but don’t find the opportunity. There are many NGOs who specialize in facilitating in that. I knew of a very good NGO which ran a campaign to collect old clothes in cities and then reach it to remote and needy people for ‘cloth for work’ scheme. It has also won many awards, including a Best NGO and a World Bank award. They have a collection center or warehouse in my city, but that is far from our office. So here is what I thought and made a scheme: 

I talked to them and offered myself as a volunteer. I planned to collect old clothes and items from my colleagues and friends, and would deposit those to their collection center in the weekends. They have agreed to my offer and gave the necessary details. 

So I have informed my colleagues and friends that anytime if they want to donate old clothes and some usable items for the poor, they could feel free to contact me. I shall make sure the items reach the NGO. I am not posting the specific details like name of the NGO and address; would like to pass these to those who are interested. 

This is my first proper social initiative. So far I have tried to be part of some one-off social campaigns and also contributed monetarily, but this time I wish to contribute my efforts, selflessly, with a plan… 

Regards,

Rahul

Puppy

Our company has an online bulletin board on which people can post ads and messages for a host of things. Buy and sale for items, flat on rent, any event being organized - colleagues are allowed to share the message with others. At times some very touching messages appear there. Like one that appeared today. A lady colleague posts the picture of a pup she said she had rescued and wanted someone to adopt. She says the pup is around 1.5 months old and needs to be adopted by some family which cares. And what a cute pup it is! See yourself:

His Ego

Writing in a very quick story, but it means a lot. It is complete fiction, out of my mind:

It is the story of a girl and a boy. They married after felling in love with each other. After marriage, the girl realises that she was only a means for the boy's ego satisfaction, only a prize in his eyes. That lowered the girl’s respect for the boy. The boy never failed to fulfil any demand for his girl, but somehow the girl kept seeing it again as a gesture of his own ego fulfilment. One day, she decides to quit and separate. They don’t remarry, but lead separate life. The girl takes up a profession and achieves name and position. She outshines the boy. At one time, she realises that the boy had indeed tried 4-5 times in those years to reconcile and to get together again. But she had never agreed and ignored the gestures. In the end both get old. She lies on bed and is rethinking about her own life. Suddenly she realises something. She realises that it was her own ego in the first place which had separated her from the boy. It was again her ego which had made her not accept his gestures and requests to reunite. She wonders since when she also had an ego, which she accused the boy to possess in excess? She realises that she also always had the ego – only it manifested itself in different ways than that of the boy. Only after she had separated from the boy, her ego had become of the same kind as that of the boy… Now she is able to separate the boy’s ego from his love. She returns back, and is surprised to see that the boy still accepts her… As a conclusion she realises that though he had an ego, the ego didn’t come as an obstruction to their love. His ego had only boosted his love…

- Rahul

Book Review: Games Indians Play

Games Indians Play: Why we are the way we are’


By V. Raghunathan

(Forward by N.R. Narayana Murthy)

Penguin Portfolio

Dr. V. Raghunathan is a man of many credits. He has been a professor of finance at IIM Ahmedabad from 1982-2001; then worked as President of ING Vysya Bank and later as MD of GMR Industries. He is author of 9 books, has been on many companies’ boards, and esteemed panels. He is also a popular columnist in newspapers; and is involved in CSR roles as of now. You can check his LinkedIn profile here; or can go to his website. When such a man writes something, readers have better take him seriously.



The purpose of this book is to analyze and understand why Indians are ‘like this only’. Now what is meant by ‘like this’ has often negative connotations. Dr. Raghunathan says that the root cause is that Indians are one of the most intelligent lots in this world. He says he has visited many places and understood many people – but never has he found such an intelligent population, as we are in India. Yet, he says our intelligence results in us taking rational decisions ‘individually’ in situations, but leading to our ‘collective’ failure. He calls us “Privately smart and publicly dumb”:



When I jump a queue or a red light, or throw that garbage on the sidewalk, I am taking a rational ‘squeal’ decision, since it seems to get me ahead of others or make life easier for me. Here I am privately smart. But then, as others are no less rational, intelligent and smart, they too start squealing for the same reasons, and before we know it, we have unruly traffic, filthy streets and stinking urinals. So collectively we are all worse off. And then we complain about a dirty country, a polluted city and appalling traffic. In short, publicly we emerge dumb. (P 42)



To show how whatever is in our achievement kitty fails to match up to the best in the world, glance this portion:



Impressive as the completion of the Konkan Railway or the Delhi Metro Railway have been, they pale in comparison to the Chinese projects, especially where implementation skills and political will are concerned. Consider the statistics. It took seven to ten years to complete the 760 km Konkan Railway. As for the Delhi Metro, between 1950 and 1990, some thirty feasibility studies were carried out by various bodies to evaluate an alternatice transportation system for Delhi. The final go-ahead came in 1990. Delhi Metro Rail Corp Ltd was established in 1995 and first phase of eleven kms was completed in 2004. The eighteen km Calcutta Metro took a good 24 years to complete, from 1971 to 1995.



China completed the final section of the pan-Himalaya Golmud-Lhasa railway - 1956 kms – at 5072 meters above the sea level. It had 550 km frozen belt, with snow alternately melting and freezing in summer and winter. Workers had to breathe bottled oxygen to cope up with high altitude (no single death due to this though). This stretch of 1142 kms was completed in a mere 4 years. (P13-14)



The best part of the book is the analysis. Dr. Raghunathan uses Game Theory and Behavioral Economics to analyze the situation. Though in the process, he ignores many factors. For example, he discarded the impact of colonization (by foreigners, for a thousand years) on our present behavior, in a one line sentence. Here, I didn’t agree with him. But seeing that history is not his area, and the tools taken up by him for analysis are powerful enough, I didn’t bother much. He explains the Prisoner’s Dilemma in the beginning and by the end he tries to reach a conclusion. Now I found that the Game Theory part could be applied to any case, not only to Indians or India. He worries that in a Prisoner’s dilemma situation, if everyone tries to take best rational decision benefitting oneself, in the end it harms all. So what was the way out? Now this was the most important part. I have typewritten a portion from his last chapters, though this is selective and not exhaustive enough:



Karmany evadhikaras te ma phalesu kadacana



Ma karma-phala-hetur bur ma te sango‘stv akarmani



(Bhagawat Gita, Chapter II, Verse 47)



Meaning: You have right only to the action and never to the fruit of the action. Fruit of action should not be your motivation, nor should you be driven by attachment to action.



For most of my youth and a little beyond, I always found these words innocuous and naïve. Taking this bit of verse as a random sample of what the Gita is all about, I thought I understood why we weren’t result-driven people. You see, innocence can lead to such quick generalizations.



Meanwhile, a good Samaritan presented me a copy of the Gita, which I did read now and then, though rarely pausing to contemplate seriously on its contents.



It was only when I started getting interested in game theory and immersed myself in it that the whole import of the Gita hit me like a truck.



In many ways, the Gita, in a quintessential form, lays down what one may call the absolute truth for most aspects of our lives, the dharma. To amplify this statement further: for years, my idea of right and wrong was largely intuitive. Yet somewhere deep down, I could never see any reasonable evidence to believe that there existed absolute truths outside physical sciences which one could ‘measure and prove’.



My argument was: If this is a world of ‘selfish genes’ and therefore selfish people, what makes it ‘wrong’ to shaft somebody, as long as you found it worth your while? Religions may proscribe shafting somebody, pronouncing such action as a sin. But the question is: ‘Why is it a sin?’ Who is to say that a wrong has happened, given that each individual is selfish and each one’s actions are supposed to be in the best interests of oneself? Similarly, the Gita might say that it is wrong to be driven by desires. But why is it wrong? Again, if I see a child begging for alms and risk reinforcing the system, or desist and risk the child going hungry? Which is the lesser evil?



For questions such as these and other social dilemmas, there don’t seem to be answers that are right or wrong. Or so I had believed for a long time. I was enlightened when I found game theory capable of answering many questions such as these unambiguously. But what really captured my imagination was that most answers which a game-theoric situation such as prisoner’s dilemma yielded were consistent with what Krishna had to say to Arjuna in the Bhagawat Gita! I discovered that modern game theory and associated experiments and games seem to validate what Krishna had placed before Arjuna in a nutshell. Clearly, it took thousands of years of management science to validate the Gita (even if unwittingly), much as presend day experiments on the outer reaches of space continue to validate Albert Einstein.



Consider our simple prisoner’s dilemma situation of Chapter 4. ……. If everyone followed the path of the karmayogi stipulated by the Gita, C-C is the only outcome and that leads to the “highest good”…..



That is why we must not ‘defect’; that is why those who do not follow the path of dharma ought to be punished; that is why it is one’s dharma to be provoked by the adharmi and retaliate, and yet show compassion and forgiveness in the conduct of one’s actions, just as the Tit for Tat strategy guides us.



This is what game theory tells us, and this is what the Gita tells us as well. It is just that Gita is simplified and made-easy or ready-to-serve version of actions that the game theory plods through to demonstrate. It is interesting that some sage, aeons ago, thought of the right courses of action for humanity at a large in a variety of situations that can stand the test of proof of present-day tools and techniques, including computer simulations.



My intention in writing this chapter was merely to share my own personal awakening to many aspects of the Gita. What is strange is that we should be witnessing so much of defect-defect behavior in the very land that gave us the Gita. Clearly, while the West, using its cumbersome vehicle of game theory, has covered a lot of ground in collective cooperative behavior, we seem to have made very little headway in that direction, notwithstanding our heritage of the Gita.



(P142-148)



This review won’t be complete if you missed the last two paragraphs in the above quoted text. And any review can’t be replacement for the ultimate joy of reading a book.



The book is not long, the language used is simple, the scientific inquiry (e.g. game theory) is not too complex to understand, and this book deserves to be read by one and all. I highly recommend it to all my readers.

Impact of Corruption on GDP Growth

A PTI report tells that Government of India has lowered its estimate of GDP growth, from around 9% to 8% now. Pranab Mukherjee says this is due to high oil prices and higher rates of interest done to curb inflation. “If oil prices continue to rise, it would be difficult to achieve higher GDP. GDP may come down to 8 per cent from [the projected] 9 per cent,” Mr. Mukherjee said.

But what no one is bothered about is how large scale corruption in government impacts GDP growth of a nation. I had given a thought on this before and I was certain that as corruption increases, GDP growth of the nation should come down. Also, more corrupt people sending money in Swiss and other foreign banks makes the situation worse too. Reviewing the way our current govt was managing the affairs and the highest than ever corruption cases and scandals coming out in the open, I thought this was going to cost us dear. But I didn’t have empirical data to prove my point. Now, thanks to the US researchers, I have something to fall back on. 

Mushfiq Swaleheen of Florida Gulf Coast University has done a research on exactly this topic of how corruption impacts GDP growth. His study is titled “Economic growth with endogenous corruption: an empirical study”. As such his major discovery was that “In deeply corrupt countries such as Congo, incidences of corrupt practices actually enhance economic growth, perhaps by helping companies sidestep onerous rules.” But that is only at the extreme. I understand India doesn’t fit into that set. But going one step ahead, his finding was really hitting for countries like India: 

“For a country with average endemic corruption, a one-standard-deviation increase in corrupt incidences depresses per-capita GDP growth by 0.12 percentage points.”

Now this is exactly what I used to say, and what logically followed too! And now we have the statistics too! No wonder when our GDP figures would come out next year, and if we see a major debacle, our government and economist ministers will blame it on inflation, higher rates, oil prices, etc, and no one will speak about corruption. But we the public, should understand and think it over. After all, this country doesn’t belong to a Sonia Gandhi or a Pranab Mukherjee alone – this country belongs to all of us! And all of us can make a difference by democratic means too! Awareness is the foundation of any democracy.

- Rahul

 

Impact of Corruption on GDP Growth

A PTI report tells that Government of India has lowered its estimate of GDP growth, from around 9% to 8% now. Pranab Mukherjee says this is due to high oil prices and higher rates of interest done to curb inflation. “If oil prices continue to rise, it would be difficult to achieve higher GDP. GDP may come down to 8 per cent from [the projected] 9 per cent,” Mr. Mukherjee said.

But what no one is bothered about is how large scale corruption in government impacts GDP growth of a nation. I had given a thought on this before and I was certain that as corruption increases, GDP growth of the nation should come down. Also, more corrupt people sending money in Swiss and other foreign banks makes the situation worse too. Reviewing the way our current govt was managing the affairs and the highest than ever corruption cases and scandals coming out in the open, I thought this was going to cost us dear. But I didn’t have empirical data to prove my point. Now, thanks to the US researchers, I have something to fall back on. 

Mushfiq Swaleheen of Florida Gulf Coast University has done a research on exactly this topic of how corruption impacts GDP growth. His study is titled “Economic growth with endogenous corruption: an empirical study”. As such his major discovery was that “In deeply corrupt countries such as Congo, incidences of corrupt practices actually enhance economic growth, perhaps by helping companies sidestep onerous rules.” But that is only at the extreme. I understand India doesn’t fit into that set. But going one step ahead, his finding was really hitting for countries like India: 

“For a country with average endemic corruption, a one-standard-deviation increase in corrupt incidences depresses per-capita GDP growth by 0.12 percentage points.”

Now this is exactly what I used to say, and what logically followed too! And now we have the statistics too! No wonder when our GDP figures would come out next year, and if we see a major debacle, our government and economist ministers will blame it on inflation, higher rates, oil prices, etc, and no one will speak about corruption. But we the public, should understand and think it over. After all, this country doesn’t belong to a Sonia Gandhi or a Pranab Mukherjee alone – this country belongs to all of us! And all of us can make a difference by democratic means too! Awareness is the foundation of any democracy.

- Rahul

 

Why Lakshmi and Ganesha are worshipped together?

A friend asked: “Why do we worship Goddess Lakshmi and Lord Ganesha together on a Diwali night?” Or for that matter, on any other day. I understood that in her opinion there was absolutely no reason why Goddess of wealth, Lakshmi couldn’t be worshipped alone as a single deity. She also wanted to know if Lakshmi and Ganesha were anyhow ‘related’. My explanation was as follows:

First of all we should understand that all different gods and goddesses in Hinduism are different aspects of the same God. Goddess Lakshmi is the Goddess of all wealth, money and richness. Lord Ganesha is considered God of wisdom, intelligence, success and prosperity. Ganesha is considered extremely intelligent: we remember the legend how when asked to make a round of this world, he just made a circle of his parents saying what he did was equivalent to what was asked; while his brother Kartikeya actually went and made rounds of the world and came back. (Btw, doesn’t this episode prove that people in ancient India knew that earth was round and if one starts from a point, one would reach the same place after one rotation?) Symbolism of Ganesha also proves how he represents wisdom. Ganesha is also considered remover of all obstacles on the righteous path, and hence he is worshipped at the beginning of any auspicious work like opening a new factory, entering a new house, or before starting on any great work. Now see his characteristics along with those of Goddess Lakshmi. What is wealth without prosperity? What is money without the wisdom to use it properly? Will all the material gains in the world be permanent without intelligence? Also, can anyone achieve any great affluence without removing the obstacles on the path? Qualities of Ganesha are so complementary, if I use the term, to those of Goddess Lakshmi, that our custom requires us to worship both of them together. This also reminds us that we don’t have to aim only for material wealth but also have to aim for prudence and wisdom.

Also, in Hinduism, there is no excessive focus on necessity of being poor to reach God. In Hinduism we aim for prosperity and wealth along with intelligence and wisdom – thus maintaining a very fine balance between both material and spiritual needs.

What a wonderful idea to worship Lakshmi and Ganesha together! Isn’t it so?

Note: Many times, Lakshmi, Ganesha and Saraswati (Goddess of learning) are worshipped together, again highlighting symbolically why Lakshmi (wealth) alone is not our aim. Also, in most images or sculptures, Lakshmi is placed on the right hand side of Ganesha, as in Hindus there is a custom that husband sits right of wife, and this particular gesture is to mark that there is no such relationship between the two deities. Often Lakshmi and Ganesh are worshipped by the merchant community and they mark the puja place with written words “Shubh-Laabh” (Prosperous Gain) – which again points out that we only aim for gain/profits which are prosperous and righteous.

- Rahul

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“Aapki Ladki…”

Within a month after weddings in India, some kind of feedback flows from sasural to mayake. These feedbacks can come as one-offs or can come regularly. Some in-laws follow this custom almost religiously with utmost sincerely. Not that the bride’s parents don’t know these facts about their own daughter, but the in-laws consider it their duty to let them know the minute details of her ‘performance’. Perhaps it is part of their relationship building! These feedbacks can be of a variety of types - constructive, sarcastic, funny, little, naïve, grave and what not. “The new bahu sleeps till 10 o’ clock in the morning.” “She forgot adding salt in sabji”, or “added salt in tea”. “She didn’t touch the feet of that Pappu ke chacha ki chachi”, “nor did she entertain Tinku ki bhanji ki baby”. These little gestures perhaps give a lot of revealment about her coming days and since the bahu is the future bearer of the vansh, each of her mistakes are analysed with a great detail. Of the only positive feedback for any bahu I know, that I remember, was this:

She was our tenant’s daughter. When she got married and spent 3-4 days at her in-law’s house in another town, once her husband’s grandfather saw her and called her near to him and asked with a smile, “Where is your home young lady?” Now what she should have replied? She could have told the name of the city where she lived; her father’s place. Or shown some education by mentioning India, or earth, or flaunted about all the cities she had lived in so far? But as soon as the question was asked, there came her reply: she mentioned the name of the city where her in-laws lived! The old man was so much impressed by her answer, that he made it a point to tell about her smartness to one and all. And then this positive feedback also flowed back to her parent’s place! They obviously shared it with all family and friends too.

A girl in India is burdened with the responsibility of maintaining two families – her parent’s as well as her in-laws’. She can’t run away from either of these. Of course such responsibility has got both advantages and disadvantages, but this is also one thing which makes women worthy of worship in the culture of the land. The trap is that there are so many expectations from her, that if she doesn’t cope up with any side, she loses the appreciation. But women in India also earn most of their abilities, qualities, strengths and appreciations by getting deep into the gamut of responsibilities… This small episode with the young bride tells a lot about the expectations from daughter-in-laws, our family structures, thinking and the way to go…

- Rahul

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The Exam: For Psychology Enthusiasts

During MBA, our communications teacher had shown us a movie called “12 Angry Men”. We were asked to observe and analyse the communication skills and patterns of all the major characters in the movie and later submit a report. It was a good learning and we enjoyed doing it. Some days back I watched a movie “The Exam”, which I found more interesting than the former. I think any student of psychology should not miss this one flick. The story rotates around a bunch of guys and girls, all from different ethnic backgrounds, left in a room to find answer for a question which apparently didn’t exist! They end up fighting, even attempting to kill each other! How the plot leads to that moment, and how different characters behave all through the movie, is clearly a delight to observe and explore…

So if you are interested in psychology, do try to find “The Exam”! You are sure to finish the movie with lots of foods for thoughts and many discoveries too…

- Rahul

Impact of Corruption on GDP Growth

A PTI report tells that Government of India has lowered its estimate of GDP growth, from around 9% to 8% now. Pranab Mukherjee says this is due to high oil prices and higher rates of interest done to curb inflation. “If oil prices continue to rise, it would be difficult to achieve higher GDP. GDP may come down to 8 per cent from [the projected] 9 per cent,” Mr. Mukherjee said.

But what no one is bothered about is how large scale corruption in government impacts GDP growth of a nation. I had given a thought on this before and I was certain that as corruption increases, GDP growth of the nation should come down. Also, more corrupt people sending money in Swiss and other foreign banks makes the situation worse too. Reviewing the way our current govt was managing the affairs and the highest than ever corruption cases and scandals coming out in the open, I thought this was going to cost us dear. But I didn’t have empirical data to prove my point. Now, thanks to the US researchers, I have something to fall back on. 

Mushfiq Swaleheen of Florida Gulf Coast University has done a research on exactly this topic of how corruption impacts GDP growth. His study is titled “Economic growth with endogenous corruption: an empirical study”. As such his major discovery was that “In deeply corrupt countries such as Congo, incidences of corrupt practices actually enhance economic growth, perhaps by helping companies sidestep onerous rules.” But that is only at the extreme. I understand India doesn’t fit into that set. But going one step ahead, his finding was really hitting for countries like India: 

“For a country with average endemic corruption, a one-standard-deviation increase in corrupt incidences depresses per-capita GDP growth by 0.12 percentage points.”

Now this is exactly what I used to say, and what logically followed too! And now we have the statistics too! No wonder when our GDP figures would come out next year, and if we see a major debacle, our government and economist ministers will blame it on inflation, higher rates, oil prices, etc, and no one will speak about corruption. But we the public, should understand and think it over. After all, this country doesn’t belong to a Sonia Gandhi or a Pranab Mukherjee alone – this country belongs to all of us! And all of us can make a difference by democratic means too! Awareness is the foundation of any democracy.

- Rahul

SRK is not a Papa Material! Pepsodent Ad Review

You must have watched Pepsodent’s ad featuring Shah Rukh Khan as a father, who encourages his son to brush his teeth along with him. It is called “Pappu and Papa” campaign. 

Pepsodent is a Unilever brand; just like Surf detergent which features many commercials surrounding family and children. The idea I think is to make the brands part of the families, and hence command customer loyalty. Now this Pappu and Papa (P&P) Ad is unique in my opinion. Unique because of the irony in what they thought and what it appears to customers like me… 

Recently I bought a Pepsodent toothpaste and they gave me a free “comic book” with it. Guess the title! It was the same “Pappu and Papa”. Pappu is a teenage boy of around 12, and he goes accidently on a Chocolate Island with his Papa. Of course when you eat lots of chocolates you need toothpaste – and what a better choice than a Pepsodent? But what I couldn’t resist noticing was the graphic images in the comic book. It showed SRK as a father. The lean look; invisible six-pack inside a full sleeve v-neck t-shirt loosely hanging from the neck and shoulders, perhaps worn without a vest inside, the SRK’s shallow cheeks and eyes telling his advance age; hands waxed to remove traces of hair; it is a perfect recipe which comes with SRK now a days. Even in movies, SRK is never able to get into the skin of the character – no matter what the plot is and what kind of a character he is playing, all that the viewers see is the same SRK rather than a King Ashoka or a Squadron Leader Veer Pratap Singh. The same phenomenon is carried even in his ads. Somehow, this SRK doesn’t look like a caring natural dad of a 12 years old boy. But see the irony, the Unilever guys say that SRK was chosen because he was a caring father in his real life! 

Well, at least in India, a typical father doesn’t look like a SRK. On screen, SRK still plays the roles much younger than his self and even in his other commercial ads, SRK is seen flirting with ladies (much younger than his age), and his personality never matches up with a ‘papa’. 

Also, I think just to catch the phrase “Pappu and Papa”, they have kept the name of the child as “Pappu”, which is mostly used now with other connotations (like a victim of a prank, or to be made fun out of). Both Pappu and Papa are bad choices in my opinion – Pappu a bad choice for a name and Papa bad choice in the form of flirting and flaunting, lean and mean SRK. 

The Unilever wanted to send across the message that fathers should spend more time with their children to teach the lessons of hygiene, like daily brushing. I think even this simple message is lost because of the “star cast”. 

All I want to say to the ad-men is that screen life is different from real life. In real life, SRK may be a very good dad, but on screen he doesn’t live up to the character. A model with a personality fitting a genuine father would have been a much better choice. And if all they wanted was to bring SRK so that children could identity Pepsodent with a celebrity, then also I think a Hrithik or an Aamir, could have been a much better choice… 

- Rahul

Brahma, Saraswati and Symbolism

There are lots of prevalent confusions about Hindu gods and goddesses. A majority of those are confusions because absurd interpretations have been repeated for centuries now; while the corrections are few and muted. The righteous becomes introvert; while the empty-vessels keep making sounds – is one eternal law of nature. And when we have had centuries of stagnation, when research on ancient Indian epics became a work for foreign researchers alone while Indians fought to keep ends met, there are bound to be some digressions. These thoughts are coming to me because the topic I have chosen for this post is the relationship between Brahma and Saraswati.

According to a version of the myth, it is said that Brahma, the God of Creation, created Saraswati from his own body and then fell in love with her and also married her. According to many, it amounted to marrying one’s ‘daughter’ and hence this story is made as a point to ridicule our gods. Very plainly, this confusion is because we take our gods like other human beings, with bodies like us, and with passions like us. Much of the philosophy of Sanatan Dharma was explained in Symbolism. We gave our gods human characteristics and wrote stories around them – the purpose was to send the right message to the masses who needed simpler lessons to use in day to day life and not serious philosophies to ponder over. All the confusions happen when we take gods as characters and judge them on our standards, forgetting the symbolism and purpose why the legend was shared. It is the same case with Krishna, it is the same with Indra and in this case, it is the same with Brahma and Saraswati.

I just read a very good article titled “Symbolism and Literalism”, which explains the real symbolism behind the relationship between Brahma and Saraswati. I am presenting a portion of it here:

Brahma is (the name of creative aspect of the Divine) the God of Creation. As Creator, Brahma brought to life Existence itself. Which logically means, he thought of creating the physical world that we perceive through our sense organs and our mind. If you talk about the physical world of shapes and forms you need to give it a definition, or a name or label. This is known as the world of Rupa (Form/Shape) and Nama (Name), both inseparable from each other. In plain language, you look at a tree and your mind can’t be satisfied unless it finds a word (nama) to define it clearly so that when you say “tree” you know exactly what it is without having to actually look at it with your eyes. And this process of defining the physical world lies in the realm of thought. Thought then is expressed through speech.

What follows from this is rather simple. The shapes and forms that Brahma gave to his thoughts became the physical world. When he expressed it in language, it became speech. Which is Saraswathi, his daughter. And which is perfectly in line with Saraswathi worshipped as the Goddess of Speech (or vaak), language, and learning. However, we’re yet to hear of a word which has no meaning at all. As someone said, every word is an idea – it represents something: a thought, an object, anything. In other words, a word cannot be divorced from its meaning. Even in case of names of people – if I say out the name of a person, it conjures up an image or some sort of memory or association related to that person. This meaning is again Saraswathi, now donning the role of Brahma’s wife. As the meaning of the word, Saraswathi is Brahma’s wife just like a wife who stays with her husband for life through good and bad times. This symbolism is pretty much true of all Gods and their wives. As the wife of Vishnu the Preserver of the world, Lakshmi is the Goddess of Wealth. You cannot hope to attain peace and order in the world without prosperity. This then is the symbolism behind Saraswathi as both Brahma’s daughter and wife.

Read full article here:
http://www.sandeepweb.com/2010/03/16/symbolism-and-literalism/

So the confusion ends if we understand the symbolism. I think if we take Brahma’s thoughts on creation and then Saraswati as Speech – she is his daughter. But if we take or Saraswati as meaning/knowledge – she is his wife and consort, because they both always go together.

Here is another explanation:

Brahma is the Lord of creation. The creator must necessarily possess the knowledge to create. Without knowledge no creation is possible. Hence Brahma is said to be wedded to the goddess of knowledge, Saraswati. Brahma and his consort Saraswati, represent the vedas, their spirit and meaning.

Taken from: http://veda.wikidot.com/brahma

Let us also look at the symbolism of both Saraswati and Brahma:

Symbolism of Saraswati

Saraswati represents intelligence, consciousness, cosmic knowledge, creativity, education, enlightenment, music, the arts, eloquence and power. According to Vedanta she is considered to be the feminine energy and knowledge aspect (Shakti) of Brahman, as one of many aspects of Adi Shakti.

• Goddess Saraswati is often depicted as a beautiful woman dressed in pure white often seated on a white lotus, which symbolizes that she is founded in the experience of the Absolute Truth. She is mainly associated with the color white, which signifies the purity of true knowledge.

• She is not adorned heavily with jewels and gold, unlike the goddess Lakshmi, but is dressed modestly — representing her preference of knowledge over worldly material things

• She is generally shown to have four arms, which represent the four aspects of human personality in learning: mind, intellect, alertness, and ego. Alternatively, these four arms also represent the 4 Vedas, the primary sacred books for Hindus.

• She is shown to hold the following in her hands:
• A book, which is the sacred Vedas, representing the universal, divine, eternal, and true knowledge as well as her perfection of the sciences and the scriptures.
• A mālā (rosary) of crystals, representing the power of meditation and spirituality.
• A pot of sacred water, representing creative and purification powers.
• The vina, a musical instrument that represents her perfection of all arts and sciences.

• Saraswati is also associated with anurāga, the love for and rhythm of music which represents all emotions and feelings expressed in speech or music.

• A hansa or swan is often located next to her feet. The sacred bird, if offered a mixture of milk and water, is said to be able to drink the milk alone. It thus symbolizes discrimination between the good and the bad or the eternal and the evanescent. 

• Sometimes a peacock is shown beside the goddess. The peacock represents arrogance and pride over its beauty, and by having a peacock as her mount, the Goddess teaches not to be concerned with external appearance and to be wise regarding the eternal truth.

Taken mainly from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saraswati

How wonderful is the symbolism in Saraswati’s representation! All is created to give us a message. If her picture has a peacock besides her or the colour of her saree is white – both mean something serious and enlightening. If we have knowledge of these facts, it would be wonderful, but even if we don’t have knowledge of true symbolism, still we can follow the lessons if we try to follow her.

Now let us see the symbolism behind Lord Brahma:

Symbolism behind Lord Brahma

• Lord Brahma is shown with four hands: Brahmā's four arms represent the four cardinal directions: east, south, west, and north. Also, the back right hand represents mind, the back left hand represents intellect, the front right hand is ego, and the front left hand is self-confidence.

• He is shown to carry a mala or prayer beads. This symbolizes the substances used in the process of creation. It also symbolises meditation.

• He is shown carrying a kamandalu, which represents sanyasa and renunciation (kamandalu is water pot used by sanyasis, men of renunciation).

• He is shown as carrying a book. The book symbolizes the universal, divine, eternal, and true knowledge as well as perfection of the scriptures.

• The Gold. Brahma’s symbol is golden egg or aura. Gold symbolizes activity; the golden face of Brahmā indicates that He is actively involved in the process of creating the Universe.

• The Swan - Brahmā uses the swan as his vāhana, or his carrier or vehicle. The swan is the symbol of grace and discernment. It symbolizes discrimination between the good and the bad or the eternal and the evanescent.

• The Lotus - The lotus represents the reality. Brahma sitting on the lotus indicates that he is ever-rooted in the infinite reality. Reality is the foundation on which his personality rests.

• The Beard - Brahmā's black or white beard denotes wisdom and the eternal process of creation.

• The four faces of Brahma represent the four Vedas. They also symbolise the functioning of the inner personality which consists of thoughts. They are the mind (manas), the intellect (buddhi), ego (ahamkara) and conditioned consciousness (chitta). They represent the four ways in which thoughts function.

• Brahma is also shown riding a chariot drawn by seven swans, representing the seven worlds.

Taken from many websites including:

http://www.iloveulove.com/spirituality/hindu/hindudeities.htm

http://singaporehindutemples.com/hindugod/lordbrahma/lordbrahma.html

There is another confusion. There are not many temples of Brahma on this earth. This has given rise to many myths. Some one says it was because the Asuras (demons) had started worshiping Brahma and hence to mislead them Devs (gods) stopped the practice of Brahma worship and the demons followed it. There can be many others. But the symbolism behind this is as follows:

Why Brahma is not worshipped?

Here is one good explanation:

As creation is the work of the mind and the intellect, Lord Brahma symbolizes the Universal Mind. From the standpoint of an individual, Brahma symbolizes one's own mind and intellect. Since an individual is naturally gifted with the mind and intellect, he or she may be said to have already realized Brahma. For this reason the worship of Brahma is not very popular among all Hindus. He is, however, worshipped by seekers of knowledge, such as students, teachers, scholars and scientists.

Taken from: http://www.iloveulove.com/spirituality/hindu/hindudeities.htm

Another wonderful way of putting it is in the below text:

The true philosophical reason why Brahma is not worshiped like the other deities is as under: Worship involves faith and faith to certain degree means accepting supremacy of someone without questioning. Brahma, on the other hand, represents true knowledge. The knowledge and faith are philosophically antithetical concepts. Knowledge blooms in self-doubt, constant questioning, criticism and discussions and it lapses in faith. Ichnographically,  Brahma  is shown sitting on a blue lotus flower (Pushkara in Sanskrit). Anyone who is familiar with lotus will know that they bloom through a complicated network of root system submerged in the soft mud. This muddy foundation of the Lotus  flower is an artists pictogram of  intellectual ferment.

Ritualistic  worship of Brahma who is an embodiment of the true knowledge, would have been a philosophical contradiction.

Read the full article here:

http://surinusgaonkarsays.sulekha.com/blog/post/2007/01/why-lord-brahma-is-not-worshiped-.htm

I will again borrow Sandeep’s words to put the purpose of symbolism in Hinduism:

There is a reason symbols and myths in Hinduism have an enduring quality about them: they make highly abstract philosophies and concepts readily accessible to us by making them part of our daily life. It’s easier telling a child about the importance of learning by narrating the importance of worshipping Saraswathi than it is to threaten it to “study or else!” Equally, it is easier to explain abstract concepts of thought, words and meanings to a layman using a story than conduct an academic session/seminar.

I think now is the time when we should stop taking things as they are told to us and should go deep and apply our thinking. As I read in one of the above web-links:

Sage Aniruddha in his digest Vrutti (1.26) says:

na hy aaptavacanaan nabhasonipatanti mahaasuraaH |

yuktimad vacanam graahyam mayaanyaishca bhavadvidhaiH ||

(Huge giants do not drop from the skies simply because a competent person/s says so. Only sayings which are supported by reason should be accepted by me and others like yourselves.)

Let us learn lessons from our worship of Goddess Saraswati. Let us learn from meaning of symbolism of Lord Brahma. Let us all be warriors on the path of knowledge and enlightenment…

- Rahul

Failed Prejudices

How we keep some prejudices and how they affect us, can be seen in an experience I had recently.

I had lost my driving license (wallet got stolen in the office) and wanted to file a police report to reissue it. Now I had a feeling that police were corrupt and were better to be avoided. So I kept postponing my visit to them. I had never been to one in my life and didn’t want to either. But every passing week reminded me of my stupidity – what if someone misused my license in the meanwhile? Every morning I would promise myself to pay a visit in the evening and on the evening; I would vow to visit next morning. After stretching it to the end, at last I won over my fears and went to the police station. To my surprise, the police station looked like a typical government office, with all the guys there doing some paperwork. No criminals being beaten and no poor father pleading for his son. The police wallah asked me what the matter was, and asked me to make an affidavit with the advocate next door and then they would do the needful. I got that in 2 days – after spending 300 bucks as a penalty for losing my wallet. I went there again, wondering if the police would ask for a bribe. I took care to keep my mouth shut and hide my fears. I also wondered how “Maharashtra” police would react seeing that my license was “made in Bihar”. (was in Mumbai when “anti-outsider” riots had hit the roads). The guy preparing a certificate for me showed me a bunch of receipts for “flag ceremony” and said, “there are people who feel happy after their work is done; and then they donate some 200-500 rupees for the cause. It goes for the ceremony, not to us”. At last, my fears were right? I felt it was a nice way of extorting bribe; but I kept mum. He finished preparing a certificate, all printed and written in Marathi. I asked gently if there would be any problem if I present that in Bihar? He said, “Marathi and Hindi both are similar; they also have the same script; so don’t worry, they would be able to understand what I have written even there.” No sign of any hatred towards Hindi (or any non-Marathi language). When I got a chance, I pulled myself up and crossed the road asap. No one asked me for any donation for the flag-ceremony.

The visit to the police station had broken many of my prejudices: 1. I thought Police would be corrupt, but they didn’t ask for any bribe; 2. I feared they would be hostile seeing me from “North India”, while they were neutral on that; 3. I thought they would be angry at the matter of “language”, but they actually thought Hindi and Marathi were similar. Also, I thought police station would be some dreadful place while actually it was like any government office. All my prejudices had proven to be wrong…

It’s not that my experience with the police was nice enough to encourage me to go back there again, but it definitely made me shed some of my prejudices. It reminded me something which I often repeat but perhaps didn’t believe 100% in yet - there are all kinds of persons in every land and every profession…

Happy with my failed prejudices…

- Rahul

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Having a company is nice

Watched the movie ‘Up in the Air’ starring George Clooney. His character is a free man who doesn’t believe in marriage or any social commitment. He lives like that for years, dating women whenever he found interest in, and just travelling around the world which was part of his job. At one stage his sister’s to-wed fiancé develops a cold feed the day before their wedding and he was asked to convince the guy. He enters with a clean slate, and managed to find logic. He says something like, “Remember all the best moments in your life. Did you enjoy them alone?” The guys says, “no”. He hits the nail then, “That’s it. All the best moments in our life are enjoyed in someone’s company… It’s nice to have company…” The scared groom had a change of mind and everything turns out well…

That is so true. All things we enjoy in our life have some other people involved in it. Our spouse is that ‘permanent’ company. We are social beings, and having a permanent company and friend gives us emotional strength. On the other side of the coin, we can tend to depend excessively on others for those pleasures of our life. And theoretically there may be things for which we need our ‘space’, but I think there are very few things, if any, which can’t be enjoyed with our companion with us. Purpose of our life is also to learn by having relationships.

- Rahul