What life मुझे surrender read smart who weeps for me easy

The recent post by Om Swami on Questions [https://os.me/questions/] came right up my alley. So beautifully he describes how questions can transform. The examples given include one, that of a scientist. As I am engaged in the profession of science, I felt good. 

Questioning and finding answers is what is done in science. Sometimes people develop applications and interactive portals…like the Black Lotus or the OS.me 

Thinking of the apple example, I connected to the Great poet Kalidas account. How he might fall by sitting on the far side of the tree branch but cutting at the near end to the trunk of the tree? That he would fall with the branch was known. However it had to be newton to work out the maths and fully describe the law of gravitation.

One reason might be that newton had lot of experience in maths or he was aware of many measurements. Today we have google maps for example giving the exact measures of distances for us. 

So, qualitatively, it was known from a long time ago that gravitation exists! And it works regardless of whether we like it or not. Sometimes gravitation can have disastrous consequences like falling while climbing a high mountain. Sometimes it is very beneficial as it keeps the air, moisture all grounded together. Only when newton asked the question of falling apple, the whole truth about gravitation was revealed quantitatively.

Our life has become immensely quantitative. We ask How many programs? How many books? How many posts? …..and so on. Committees have started to look quantitatively. Customers’ confidence increases when they see quantitative numbers. Newton’s clarity emerged strong and confident when the quantitative relation was worked out.

Quantitative measures gives us confidence. It  helps us to know the impact. 

Recently, I read an article about measurement of impact of science [https://www.nature.com/articles/srep01649]. Here the author describes the impact of work done by some Nobel laureates. It turns out that even though according to one index their scores were very modest, perhaps near my score, their works had wide impact, bringing transformation. So, some people do many things of some average impact whereas Nobel laureates did a few things of wide and high impact. This would then go back to the sentence “What was the question asked?” Just like Om Swami mentions….asking the right questions.

In my experience, it is often not possible to know beforehand what is a right question and what isn’t. However, the habit of asking questions and answering them is a journey transforming the self at least if not the outer world. Could one be happy with it? I guess so….

The rainbow in the picture does drag one out into the open…doesn’t it? How it is formed?

Stay safe, healthy and happy!