This is a continuation of a series of articles - please follow along from the beginning as context is important. While these articles are about India, they are written with a strong inclination to transcend nationalism and any notion of tribalism tending towards the ultimate truth and love for one and all. It is also written with a humble salute to all the wonderful ideas of the past, undeniable optimism for the present and unwavering gratitude to all those that will carry these to fruition in the fantastic future.

Please feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions, comments or simply want to share your thoughts: [email protected]. All opinions are welcome.

1. Learning from the past
2. Intellectual map of India
3. Purpose of India

Let’s begin with truth

As the articles above and the ones linked in them highlight, India has a unique place and a defining purpose in the larger scheme of things. The last article in the series ended with India’s duty and expanded on the defining concept of Mimamsa.

In this article, I’d like to venture further and more details to how it maps to our current reality and how it matters for the next several centuries.

Why now?

We live in a world divided many times over. We live in a world where the past fades away, the future rides in as the present watches. Should the present be a passive observer or an active creator?

How much of the past makes up the present and the future? How can we warmly embrace the future while preserving parts of the past that are best aligned with the slowly arriving future. That’s the job of the present, isn’t it? What new worlds can we create that are better than the sum of their pasts?

Are we alone in this exercise of shaping the worlds? Can we transcend the petty differences and ascend into higher planes to create abundant worlds? What are the engines of these abundant worlds? Is an abundant world a true one, an equitable one, an equal one or all of those? Do the frameworks we have support this transition?

What better time to ask these questions than now when belief systems held strongly have been brought to question by an abundance of accessible, intelligent but flawed oracles and scarcity of grounded human essentials of meaningful connections, deep and insightful conversations and genuine loving care.

The Infinite Leap

To answer these questions, I head back to what I proposed as part of India’s intellectual map, Mimamsa. In order for India to coexist with the world and partake in its progress without abandoning the good things of her past, a new framework has to emerge that impacts her way of life, her physical, philosophical and psychological landscapes, policies, governance and economics.

To give it a distinct name, shape and contour, I’d like to call it Apoorva Mimamsa, building upon Purva Mimamsa and Uttara Mimasa. A deep search for uniqueness in each of us, the slice of infinity that’s our own for a bit of time.

Something for us to inquire deeply to find meaning or explore widely to discover newness. Something we seek out for deliverance or something that we sink into for enlightenment. Something to create by mimicking nature’s beauty and bounty or something to make for survival against her fury.

In English, I’d like to think of it as The Abundance Project, TAP - a tap into an infinite ocean. In Tamil, I’d like to think of it as எதிர்த்தறிவு, a knowledge sought from strong willful inquiry, building upon the பகுத்தறிவு movement, a knowledge gleaned from the dissection of facts.

A quest for uniqueness or the quest for the indivisible. Such uniqueness is only brought into existence by an unwavering quest for the singular truth.

A philosophy of today will not be limited to spirituality. It will have to be all encompassing and all connected - a massive reinterpretation of Vedas for the current world, a Thirukkural written for today’s context, a policy for living with progress without losing love and compassion. A framework that ascertains individual liberty without compromising on the collective well-being. A truthful and abundant existence.

Such work shall not be limited to spirituality or religion alone. It will have to ascend the pathways to many truths touching upon mathematics, physics, other sciences, religion, spirituality, technology and arts. A fractal built on a strong core. The next generation philosophical engine to manifest the many realities that make the world such a wonderful place.

This will bring justice to India’s glorious legacy of being the cradle of knowledge, language, religion and spirituality without losing ground by compromising on progress.

A clean India

Before we get into the future, we need to talk about the present just a little. Most of the complaints around India are about cleanliness and hygiene. So let’s make an example of it and dig a bit.

Life in India flows. With nature. Everything is built that way. You can see it in the traffic. You can see it in the lack of queues. I grew up with my food packed in a banana leaf or mantharai leaf. My school books were bound with rice paste used for gum. So waste was simply humans doing the same thing that nature does during autumn. Letting nature clean up after them.

When you introduce non-biodegradable items to a civilization that depends on organic degradation, you need to change habits cultivated over eons. This is the same idea that is captured by Jared Diamond in Collapse, where rabbits introduced in Australia for the pleasure of the hunters triggered a series of events that led to complete ecological destruction.

So, cleanliness in India is not a problem of social responsibility, but a deeper problem of colliding worlds without a bridge of transition. Reverting to the past is no longer an option, social responsibility alone is not a solution. What is needed is a deeper inquiry into the very core of life in India.

A life that flows with nature is beautiful. A heroic existence is at this point in time, as inevitable as the proverbial cat and the bag and frankly pretty great if we can do it well. So, constructing / rebuilding a core engine is not just an exercise in vanity, jingoism and pride but an essential first step towards realigning India with her past, present and future.

The solution space to just the cleanliness problem spawns the entire gamut of spirituality, bio-chemistry, robotics, education, culture, media, policy, and governance.

The coming together of a dream interrupted

At Puthir, prior to COVID, we had five programs. Kathai Vidu, where we told original stories, Koothu, where original plays were crafted with inputs from students, Vannam, where new ways to perceive, manifest and present visual art were crafted, Knool, where pleasurable reading was encouraged through a rotating library of curated books, introduced with passion by avid readers, Kani, a program for learning computation and programming from first principles.

At the core of it was the Solvers Club membership, the nexus where every student connected all that creative energy to make, solve and play with joy, skill, teamwork, constructive competition and incredible creativity.

This virtuous cycle of existence was filled with joy, enjoyable drama, beautiful and deep connections, a wonderful sense of community and extraordinary creative energy.

The place embraced the past with its custom designed floor mats, hand-crafted wooden furniture, home-grown activities and fused it seamlessly with technology, visual and intuitive mathematics, debates and when COVID hit, transitioned gracefully to online learning.

On an alternate plane of existence, we brought together a similar cycle with the help of collaborative intelligence through SocratiQ.

What does this have to do with India?

In order for India to play her role in the new world, she needs to reframe her core engine and optimize it for sustainable progress. In order for India to be the upholder of peace in a divided world, she needs a strong spiritual center with a powerful technological core.

In order for her to both find her roots and aim for the stars, she needs to embrace her past, unite her present and dream her future. In order for her to be the magnetic core that brings together a sparring world and revert to truth, harmony, beauty and love, she needs to build - monuments of the past, cities of the future and an intellectual engine to fuel the drive.

It is time

The openness of India is reflected in her religions, in her embrace of her captors, in her embrace in the hands of her captors, in her embrace of everyone else, in her ability to preserve her traditions while bracing the many struggles. It is time for her to take her openness to the next level by bridging the many divides. It is time for her not to erase her multitude through homogenization but celebrate it by building specialized centers.

It is time for her to build massive cities that worship progress, invention, exploration and discovery. It is time for her to build spiritual monuments that bring progress in worship and enlightenment. It is time for her to have creative nexuses, her universities of the past, that bring together her many parts and pasts to become and create a source of boundless energy to set the stage for the next cycle of truth, abundance and an extraordinary exploration of the infinite.

India is a melting pot in the truest sense. Her many parts are the prismatic reflections of the many worlds that inhabit this universe. What works in India, works for humanity. This experiment, when it succeeds, will define not just the future of India, but will act as a shining beacon for humanity.

What’s next?

I’m working hard both broadly and deeply to get the specifications of the core philosophical engine in place. In the meantime, I’d love to hear your thoughts, suggestions and comments. Please feel free to reach out to me on [email protected].