Each design has a designer. Each design has a purpose. Each purpose is based on a thought. Origin of though is not defined. It is felt as a need and an unknown internal force drives the thought into a design and then to its fulfilment.

Each thought is tested in practical life either for oneself or for the society at large. The thought, when goes through this basic test would be tested against its feasibility for implementation. Then the raw material and the work force required are analyzed, tested for their strengths, availability, longevity and durability, apart from its maintainability.

With the appropriate choice of the required raw material(s), the process by which the raw material has to be transformed into a shape, the parts that assemble to form the design, the probable negativity that would compulsorily enter into the design, the required force to overcome such resistance, the functioning of the design, marketability of the design and its longevity in the public domain are thoroughly analyzed before any design is implemented as a product that comes out of a ‘thought’. These are some of the critical steps to be taken before a thought can be realized.

In this process a designer has the basic concept that is required to be understood and accepted to realize a specific product and its design methodology.

One reaches the designer only when one feels the benefit of the product and its maintainability. As one accrues the benefits of the product, one starts appreciating the designer.

Nothing comes out of wilderness.

Thus every existing product reflects the designer and his capabilities. The designer is the creator of the product.

Most people enjoy all the benefits of various shapes and forms of the Nature and are still obsessed that there is no Creator for the Nature. They think and believe Nature as an entity which exists by itself and the concept of a creator is a myth. One good thing about such thought is that they too struggle to explain how the Nature helps and would be led to accept the Designer consequently.

Those who understand the concept of a Designer behind each design get better benefitted as they would understand different situations they face in life and enjoy life without worry. Such people are undisturbed when difficulties are to be faced – that is the crux of happy living.

When a task is too large to be accomplished by a single individual, well trained personnel who too can accomplish the sub-tasks of the same large task are required. Thus a management hierarchy is created to successfully fulfill the given task. Thus everyone down the hierarchy is bound to process the qualities required for fulfilling the sub-tasks. Thus everyone is a designer in his own limited realm. All of them put together in the hierarchy severally and jointly together form an organization. It is this organization that ‘becomes’ the Designer! Thus when we see the product we perceive the designer. The designer is thus the creator of the product through the production process is the practical and realizable part of the design.

This hierarchy is explained through the concept of Creator /God and the Nature. Each manager at each of the rungs in the hierarchy is, conceptually, as powerful and as effective as the top boss in performing his sub-task. There are no comparisons or conflicts amongst the several managers working on these sub-tasks. They are all controlled by the Super Boss and are obedient and subservient to Him.

Since the qualities of each manager at each rung are similar or same, there is no distinction between them but for the fact that each are specialized in a particular activity of the sub-task. When we use the word Creator / God / Power etc., we refer to the one responsible for the whole organization and the organization ceases to exist if there is no such hierarchy. This explains the concept of many Gods! They are not many different Gods as they are all a part of the whole system. As we call every manager at each rung as a ‘manager’ it is justifiable that we have many gods in the hierarchy of One God.

In an organization each rung is as important as the whole organization. Each rung fulfills a certain activity, which is a sub-task of the entire task. In a hospital, a helper, a nurse, a doctor, etc. form the Hospital and without any one of these rungs the Hospital is incomplete and would fail to accomplish the task for which the Hospital is conceived.

If a nurse can do the needful would a patient call for a doctor? When a helper is required to assist the patient would he call for a nurse? Thus every individual would understand the hierarchy in the organization and would take the services from the concerned rung(s). He would be approaching the concerned rung and never the top one unless he fails at a specified level. Notably the realm of each rung is well defined and demarcated so as to ensure proper and immediate service. The arrangement that all are ‘managers’ and anyone can do any job equally well is a proven misnomer.

A responsible organization shall have two way communication; one amongst themselves and second with the outside world which seeks assistance from this organization.

God is such an organization. One would always be inquisitive to see the God. What a wonder! Is an organization visible in a form and a shape that one would like it to be seen! How would anyone see any organization as a whole?

Any organization is seen through its wings and never as a whole. It can be seen through its functioning.

These concepts emerge out of Srimad Bhagavata Mahapurana written by Vyasa Maharishi and translated into Telugu language by Bammera Potana though descriptions of various events which prove these effectively.

Intelligent people ask probing questions for better clarification of how different events occur in nature. Some of the popular questions that are bothering many persons since ages are like, ‘Who am I? What is life? What happens after death? What is death? What is rebirth? What is my role? What is God’s role? Does God bother about us? Would He listen and respond to our requests to fulfill our wishes? Why only some wishes are fulfilled? What are the limitations and innate capacities of a human being? Are the other animals, trees and mountains capable of understanding the nature? Is the man superior to other living beings in nature? Can they pray? Do they have the discriminative power? Is the life of an animal ‘different’ from that of a man? What makes a man happy? Can one be happy through one’s life? Why do we get into tensions? How do we get thoughts? Are all thoughts generated by an individual? Why does anyone bother about future? Can one mend one’s future? Can one change another through his preachings? What is the birth and death cycle? Is a man independent to stop his birth after death? Why does he get reborn? Why categorize people, animals, trees, fruits, vegetables? How does this classification help? Are all people same? How does a man get attached to his kith and kin? How and why he loves or hates? What is love? Are anger, possessiveness, pride etc., developed by a man or are they bestowed on him by nature or God for a purpose unknown to the individual? How are all beings in the creation networked? Is there a specific purpose with which each individual being is created? How are the marriages made? Why do people get associated with each other for lives and why some get separated sooner or later? Do these associations continue after death? Should a man get detached with the external world? If he should, then why is this world created? Why should one not enjoy the nature by disassociated himself with the external world? Is happiness internal or caused by external events and circumstances for which he is not responsible? Do the actions of a man have any effect on the nature? Do ‘yajnas’ help the nature of the individual and/or the society at large? What are the various levels of creation – inanimate, animate, man, super-man or ‘gods’, spirits, yakshas, gandharvas, different ‘lokas’, etc.? Are all these interdependent as there is a great deal of interdependence on this earth – like animals depend on each other and on the nature? ….…..

Answers are got and understood only with some maturity of mind and by keen observation of the nature and the way different events occur. One would understand each concept only when one experiences. When one becomes one with the situation he would feel that he is undergoing that experience. That is the only way one can get answers to his questions. Any amount of tutoring will not help unless it is practiced and experienced. Most often people are exhausted even after a few attempts to understand. These questions make a person seek answers. In the process of seeking he spends a great deal of time not only in this life but in his future lives too!

All these questions are answered vividly in literature based on Sanatana Dharma. Our Maharishis had a great concern for the human beings. They wanted everyone to live happily forever. They gave the necessary knowledge to the mankind though their discourses which are recorded as ‘puranas’ and guidelines or ‘sooktis’.

When one studies the shastras with an open mind without any bias he would gradually understand them and experience the philosophy behind each principle laid down.

Often we lose time in analyzing before implementation without coming to any positive conclusion. There are a few situations which can be understood only when one experiences them. Theory by itself will not help.

One may study dynamic stability for years together, analyze the forces that control the objects like a bicycle. The differential equations he solves to understand the dynamic stability will not make him a cyclist. The only solution is to learn the technique of balancing the bicycle when he rides it at a certain speed. Thus no theory would help unless one practices and learns the techniques of balancing.

Life teaches how one balances himself against various diverting and deviating forces acting on him externally and internally. Life is a teaching /learning ground. We learn from our experiences and by observing others’ experiences as well. Often we go by statistics of observations and come to conclusions which appear to be correct for some time, as the situations keep changing and their applications seem to be important temporarily.

The great maharishis analyzed common situations which continue to exist forever, unchanged and are helpful to each individual. Thus it is essential to study those events and learn lessons applicable to us now and in future too.

Our ancient scriptures deal with the behavior of any common man under different circumstances, teaching us how to come out of testing situations. Let the inquisitive study of our scriptures be taken up seriously, though they are wantonly not included in a syllabus in any course. Often each course of study has a time limitation, whereas this study of ‘life’ doesn’t have an end. This study is continuous and continues over ‘lives’ until one acquires the required maturity. Let us study them.

Ganjendra Mokshanam

A great story described in Srimad Bhagavata Puranam clarifies a number of questions raised previously. Let us examine this narration by Potana.

The story is well known but, for the benefit of those who are not acquainted with it, it would be useful to recapitulate it.

In a thick forest situated on a great mountain there lived a number of wild animals. A group of well-built strong and ferocious elephants were amongst them. Even some wild animals were afraid of them. They were happily enjoying life in that pleasant atmosphere where a lot of fruits, fruit trees, shade giving trees, water bodies, greatly attractive greenery were available in a naturally attractive way. One hot summer day these elephants were thirsty. They ran out of their caves in search of a pond of water.

The whole story is based on this need to quench the thirst. The thirst is natural to any being but how could that could cause a memorable story is to be appreciated. Each situation appears to be natural and the corresponding reaction looks natural. The whole life is built around such neutrality only. Most often the events that cause major changes in life are very insignificant in appearance. Here, it is the thirst in the hot summer that is driving the host of wild elephants. They sought a very attractive pond. They jumped with joy and plunged into the lake.

The coolness of the tasty water in the lake gave the elephants lot of energy and they were expressing their happiness by throwing water against each other and caressing each other. This is a natural instinct common even in the human beings.

While they were enjoying, they were disturbing a lot of water living creatures like fish, crocodiles etc. This is how a man behaves and gets into problems and gets succumbed to the crocodile like clutches of diseases when he over enjoys.

A crocodile caught hold of the king elephant and was drawing it into deep waters of the lake. Usually the neighboring elephants try to help the other in trouble. It is their natural instinct. None of them, or all of them together, could help their king come out of the problem. It is the same situation when a man suffers from a disease and none of his kith and kin, nor all of them together can help him come out of his disease or even the pain. It is an individual who gets into the problem that should get the strength to come out of the problem. No amount of sympathies poured on him would help him come out of the situation. This shows that man is always isolated and his so called company, popularity, power and manipulating abilities cannot help him.

A great revelation from this story is that all the other elephants couldn’t help the suffering king elephant. The king elephant had to fight his enemy all by himself. The story goes that thus stating that the fight between the robust elephant and the powerful crocodile went on for a long time, say a thousand years! This may be taken as a metaphor than to get into an argument that no elephant can live for one thousand years. It is not important when we want to learn a lesson of a greater importance. Some such descriptions and metaphors only convey the intensity but need not be very factual.

A day dawned on the elephant to realize that his strength has depleted and his enemy is a acquiring strength day by day and that he can’t fight out his enemy. This is the crucial situation which every human being faces. It is at this time he thinks of a more powerful individual to come and help him. When no human being can help him, he gets his instinct to pray to God, the unknown, unseen and believed to be omnipotent and omnipresent and highly responsive to sincere prayers. An omnipresent cannot have a shape and a form. If there is no form then there cannot be an address or name. The existence is felt but not seen. Instinct is beyond logic. But it works!

As we notice that God is an organization, the question arises as to which manager you address the problem. Thus a request is made with the heading ‘whomsoever it may concern’. The concerned alone will respond, others will notice it but keep quiet as in the communication theory of transmitting the information in packet is examined and left off on the bus of communication by disowning it.

Same thing happened with the prayer made by the king elephant. He too was not clear whom he should address. Won’t it be a wonder that an elephant, that too a wild elephant, which was not tamed or trained to pray, prays at a crucial moment, just about to die in the clutches of his enemy crocodile.

This proves that even animals are given the instinct to pray. Not only that, it is only some who would have such an instinct. This shows that the elephant must have acquired this knowledge if not in this life, in its earlier lives. This indicates continuity of life after death. Our questions of what happens after death and what is life are answered by this act of the elephant. Life is proven to be a continuum and death is only an apparent discontinuity. In addition rebirth is a recollection from the past.

See how this small little story teaches us what life is about.

Thus a man can take birth of an animal vice-a-versa. Thus extending this logic to tress and other inanimate objects we would learn that there is life in all of them as much as a man has. In short every form is that of the Creator /God.

The king elephant prays without naming the creator. Such a prayer is universal. It prays to the one who is responsible for this creation, existence and annihilation. No names are mentioned. It is the set of qualities that one possesses that are remembered and recollected when a name is mentioned. Thus the name and qualities are representing and referring to the same individual. Each man is recognized by his capabilities but not by his physical appearance. Thus the prayer made by the king elephant was addressing the one who is responsible for creation, existence or survival, and annihilation.

In another stanza Potana explains that the other devatas or managers in different rungs in the God’s hierarchy knew that the request is made for the highest level manager not to any one of them. For example Brahma is assigned the responsibility of creation only. How can he satisfy the qualifications mentioned in the request? Similarly Indra and others who don’t have the required capabilities mentioned in the prayer passed on the request without reacting. What a great working discipline!

Then the one who has the three responsibilities rescues the king elephant by killing the crocodile. When we pray, we get rid of the problems that stop our progress and would even end our life. We get saved and put on the righteous path.

Let us study anecdotes, analyze and learn from them.