Simple Harmonic Motion

World rocks - literally. Most of the world's
phenomena from electricity to life and death
oscillate in cycles. Life also rocks. Good and bad
are the two extreme points of these 'lively'
oscillations. There are good times followed by the
bad times and then the good times are back again.
We can see this in every aspect, the most
noticeable at this time being the economy.
American citizens have been experiencing the
cyclic economy for generations now. Could anyone
stop the cycle in spite of knowing it in advance?
Did anyone try to cause it?

We don't have to do anything. Just be part of
these oscillations and enjoy the free ride. It's
all in the game. Trying to resist this natural
oscillation results in pain, fear, anxiety,
unhappiness, and harm to the self, just like it
happens when a kid sits on the swing and tries to
get out of it when in motion. This seems to be the
fundamental concept which I think is explained in
different ways in different faiths.

The core concept of Hinduism, 'karma', as
illustrated in the Gita essentially boils down to
this - do your duties and the rest will
automatically follow. Don't try to think of the
results or try to manipulate them. The forces of
nature will automatically take care of the
results. The Japanese concept of 'Reiki', which
talks about energy flows, also seems to
essentially mean the same.

There is no point brooding about the bad or
cheering about the good. That'll only increase the
intensity of the oscillations, rather than slowing
them down. Just like the swing stops by itself
over a long period of time, I conclude from my
knowledge of the ancient beliefs that the
oscillations between good and bad stop when we
reach the point of 'salvation' or 'moksha' or
'enlightenment'. This is the point of equilibrium
- the point of lowest energy. That's when we don't
feel the pain of bad or the pleasure of good.

To reach that stage faster, we have to keep
practicing what we are going to experience at that
stage - not feeling the pain of bad or the
pleasure of good; lowering our energies when it
comes to feeling pain or pleasure and redirecting
them in making things happen. Just like we have
tricks to slow down the swing, this is one of the
tricks to slow down the swing of life. The other
trick is of course to lower our energies in
everything, including in actions, and redirecting
all energies to one single point of focus, the
process referred to as meditation, penance.

According to Hindu scriptures, the former
(focussing on action) is far superior to the
latter (going to the mountains and doing penance)
and I'm sure you would also agree with it. So, the
bottom line is to stay away from pain and
pleasure. If we start dissociating from pleasure
(one extreme of the swing), we'll automatically
dissociate from pain (the other extreme), because
the process has to be a Simple Harmonic Motion.
That's probably the reason why many faiths
prescribe abstinence as a way to life.

If you want to reason logically, by abstinence
from pleasures, our mind gets into the practice of
'dissociating' and dissociates with pain as well.
Everything above is very nicely illustrated in
Prabhu Deva's 'take-it-easy policy' song. As I
told last week, all the answers are all around us
- we only have to rediscover them. Examples in the
song illustrate abstinence from pain, but I'd say
that's same as abstinence from pleasure because of
the Simple Harmonic Motion principle.

Did you notice that the pleasure from our first
perceived success when young in life is many times
greater than the pleasure from the successes, say
in our 30s, however great they may be? To me,
nothing compares to the moment when I received my
first state-level medal on the stage in my 10th
class. That's because, in between, we feel pain
and learn to dissociate from the pain. Without our
knowledge, this in turn reduces our ability to
feel the pleasure as well. So, yes, we are getting
there - to the point of salvation, but the journey
is too too long, depending on the route we take -
measured in the number and quality of our births,
as believed in some faiths.

Just like people who can take it easy with pain or
pleasure can do the same with the other,
passionate people who take deeper pleasure in
things (like me :) should also be prepared to take
deeper pain when it comes. We'd have all noticed
that some people go through enormous amounts of
trouble but can still stay calm, whereas some
people get pained very easily. My S.H.M. reasoning
explains this phenomena too.

But the most important derivation from my S.H.M.
reasoning is the need to LIVE BY THE MOMENT, without
fear for the future and passion for the past. Just
like the kid sitting on a swing will feel dizzy and
uncomfortable when he looks back or looks to the ground
ahead, we will suffer if we live too much in the past
or in the future.

How is it possible, I asked myself and you may ask too,
to not to look back or beyond? After all, civilization
evolved by learning from the mistakes of the past and
planning for the future. It may seem like that, illusive
as this world is, but the fact is, people always learned
from the mistakes they did at that moment rather than from
mistakes done even days ago.

Similarly, we don't know how the future will unfold.
There is no point betting too much on the future.

That's why I always like A.P.'s Engineering entrance (not
even IIT JEE, which gives time to let mind wander) than
the 'take home exams' I took in USA. The former tests our
skills 'at the moment', under strict time constraints
rather than let your mind wander to find answers. That's
the kind of mind which will keep us happy, not the one
which wanders in the dust of the past and the dirt of the
future and spoils itself, confusing us.

Again, I must hasten to say that learning from past and
planning for future are very important. But we must know
where to draw the line between learning and brooding and
between planning and betting. If we think too much about
the past, learning converts into brooding and if we worry
too much about the future, planning turns into betting.
So the key is to remain unattached in our calculations
and stay focussed on the objective of learning or planning
(the actions, not results) and not to take side tracks
in the process.

Thanks for all your positive feedback from last
week. Frankly, I did not expect such a good
response. Good to know that people have quite some
interest in these "immaterial" thoughts. From the
feedback I received, I also realized that there
are pundits in the recipients' list who are better
than I am in our culture and tradition. For e.g.,
it was pointed out that the 1st line of the telugu
song is incorrect. That may be true - I heard the
song at least 7 years ago. It was also pointed out
that whatever was described last week is captured
in the ancient sanskrit saying, "अति सर्वत्र
वर्जयेत". That's true. As I said, all the answers
are around us, we don't even have to go to the
scriptures. We only have to rediscover them in the
present context.

Last week, we discussed the management of the law
of diminishing marginal utility. This week we
talked about the science of S.H.M. Next week,
it'll be time for some lab work. I'll tell you
about my experiments with the treadmill to give
insights into the reasons for my conclusions.
Until we meet again, let's learn to take it easy
with the results, live by the moment and have fun
in action.

If you like these thoughts and think that they deserve
a wider audience (or the other way round - a wider
audience deserves to hear these thoughts :-), please
let me know of any publishers or organizations in
India / USA who would be interested in hosting them.
It'll be even more helpful if you have some influence
on them. These days it is difficult to sell anything
on its own worth. We need pulling strings in addition to worth.
I'm not interested in ANY material gains from this.
All I want is to get a satisfaction of helping as many
as I can, in ways that are very natural to me.

PS: For those passionate people who like to go
even deeper in action, here's my wild guess. At
the point of salvation, Einstein's E=M*C*C applies
at a philosophical level and our material form
converts into energy (that means no more material
forms or "births") and dissolves in the supreme
("Narayana", as the scriptures call Him) as
described in the scriptures and depicted in the
movies as a flame moving into the God. So, after
that point, M=0 => E=0 and the state is in
equilibrium - the point of lowest energy.

Take Care,
Vishnu