At age 14, in poverty and famine, a Malawian boy built a windmill to power his family’s home. Now at 22, William Kamkwamba, who speaks at TED, here, for the second time, shares in his own words the moving tale of invention that changed his life.

Here’s the talk: William Kamkwamba: How I harnessed the wind

When I first watched this video, I wanted to show it to people who complain about the lack of resources, people who blame it on their parents and school for lack of proper education. I particularly wanted to show this to people who worry about their lack of English knowledge.

In India, people in general equate education with the knowledge of English language. If you can speak fluent English, you are considered well educated. If you lack English knowledge, you are considered uneducated no matter how resourceful you are otherwise.

William Kamkwamba in this little talk shows how education has nothing to do with fluency in the English language, it has nothing much to do with even going to school! All it takes is the desire to learn, persistence and the drive inside.

But if the people I want to show this video to can’t understand English how would they watch it? Shouldn’t this knowledge reach them in the language they understand? So, worked on translating this beautiful talk by William Kamkwamba into a language I know, Tamil, my native language. The translated talk is published today. Thanks to Tharique Azeez for helping me with this work.

Here’s the link to the translated talk: காற்றை வசப்படுத்திய வில்லியம் கம்க்வம்பா

“Water is life’s mater and matrix, mother and medium. There is no life without water.” — Albert Szent-Gyorgyi

Today, March 22, happens to be World Water Day. And the theme for the year 2010 is “Clean Water for a Healthy World”. Visit the World Water Day website for more.

Also check out these two interesting TED talks.

• Michael Pritchard’s water filter turns filthy water drinkable
• Anupam Mishra: The ancient ingenuity of water harvesting

Save water, save life!

We know what individual enterprise has brought into the world and we also know what State exploitation can do. Both are equally ruthless and brutal; the latter perhaps more so, because there is no appeal and the State is run by the few. They also seek power and position. They also exploit man. Perhaps they may organize collective food, clothing and shelter for everybody. But they will exploit something which is much more important, your mind, your being, which means what you are thinking. Surely that is also exploitation, to control what you say and think.

— J. Krishnamurti (source)

Isn’t this exactly what is happening in a country like China? It may be that the country has become economically strong, it may be that everybody in the country is assured of food, shelter and clothing. But people in such countries are deprived of certain things that are more significant, their right to know, right to think, and their right to express. Over the past few years, the whole world has come together thanks to the internet. We people from different parts of the world increasingly interact with each other, we have come to understand each other better. We now better understand the problems of the world. But people in countries like China are not being allowed to participate in this interaction at this crucial period in the history of mankind. That’s 1.3 billion people who are being denied their right to know and their right to express, we are losing out on one fifth of the world’s population. That’s not how it should be.

When you sit down to meditate, tell yourself that at this time “I want nothing”. The second is to tell yourself “I do nothing”. The third sutra (principle) is “I am nothing”. Do not think that you have to meditate, just sit and be hollow and empty. You do not have to make any kind of attempt. These three sutras are very important.

— Sri Sri Ravi Shankar (source)

Sri Ramakrishna Math Universal Temple, Mylapore, Chennai

Kapaleeswarar Temple in Mylapore. A view of the eastern gopuram from inside the temple.

Shree Vasupujya Swami Jain Shwetamber Temple, a North Indian style Jain Temple in Kutchery Road, Mylapore.

Jumma Mosque, Kutchery Road, Mylapore.

Shrine of St. Thomas Basilica, built atop what is believed to be the tomb of St. Thomas.

Mahatma Gandhi going for a walk in the Marina Beach, Chennai. Let's walk along with him

Vivekaranandar Illam, or Vivekananda House is a building overlooking the beach. This is the place where Swami Vivekananda stayed when he visited Madras in 1897.

Statue of Swami Vivekananda near the Vivekananda House

So then, we end our little pilgrimage at the feet of Swami Vivekananda, who said,

The only God to worship is the human soul in the human body. Of course, all animals are temples too, but man is the highest, the greatest of all temples. If I cannot worship in that, no other temple will be of any advantage. The moment I have realized God sitting in the temple of every human body, the moment I stand in reverence before every human being and see God in him, that moment I am free from bondage, everything that binds vanishes, and I am free.

Visit my flickr photostream for more photos taken by me.

See the video below, and you know what it means.

Sure, Project Natal is an exciting development. Just as invention of television was exciting a few decades back and invention of wheel was exciting sometime back.

But where does this take us to in the future? If the game controller can be controlled through spoken commands, then it’s quite possible in the future that the game controller can be controlled through brain waves. I can visualise the gamer sitting on a couch in front of a video monitor playing a game… he thinks, “move left” and his avatar in the game moves left, he imagines his hand be raised, and his avatar raises his hand. I can see the future gamers play full virtual world games just by sitting in front of the console and thinking out the movements.

Let’s take it further… if your brainwaves can control a device, then it’s quite possible that a device can control your brain waves. Throw away the video console, just fit an electronic device onto your head, close your eyes, sit back, and enjoy the game right inside your mind. So, is ‘The Matrix’ becoming a reality?

Well, my point is, all these inventions, television, gaming, virtual realities… these are intended at creating some kind of sensation and excitement in the human mind. You may not be able to race a real Formula 1 car, but you can just buy a F1 simulation game and race alongside the Schumis. We are moving towards a future where an experience in the virtual world will excite you more than the same experience in the real world. You’ll be able to live a whole life in the virtual world! If excitement and sensation is all that you want irrespective of whether you get that from the real world or a virtual world, then why depend on an external device to excite you. After all, you go through the same kind of experiences in your dreams every night. Why not try lucid dreaming? Why depend on an external device to hypnotize you, why not self-hypnotize yourself?

By the way, my intention is not to criticize technological development. I am as much excited by hands-free gaming as anybody else, it’s truly amazing how much the human mind is capable of. Just that I sometimes tend to think we’ve been trying to control the outside for too long… it’s time we need to start looking at the inside lot more.

Everything passes. Comfort, discomfort, you, me, the sun, the moon, matter, ideas, concepts, civilizations… none of these is permanent.

Misery is when you try hold on to something that has already passed, or you desperately try to get rid of something that will anyway pass.

Love is when you accept things as they are.

When you are happy, accept it…. When you are miserable, accept it and watch the misery die out.

Action that proceeds out of this understanding and love liberates. Action that’s prompted by fear, worry or craving leads to further misery.

So, be aware, be happy, here and now.

Scientific research in the metaphysical field has demonstrated the fact that man is as he thinks, that he becomes what he thinks, and that what he thinks in the present, determines what he is to become in the future; and also that since he can change his thought for the better along any line, he can therefore completely change himself along any line. But the majority who try to apply this law do not succeed to a great degree, the reason being that instead of working entirely upon the principle that man is as he thinks, they proceed in the belief that man is what he thinks he is.

…

Man may think that he is great, but so long as he continues to think small thoughts, he will continue to be small. No matter how high an opinion he may have of himself, while he is living in the superficial, his thoughts will be empty, and empty thoughts are not conducive to high attainments and great achievements. Man becomes great when he thinks great thoughts…

…

You may think that you are well, but you will not secure health until you think thoughts that produce health. You may persistently affirm that you are well, but so long as you live in discord, confusion, worry, fear and other wrong states of mind, you will be sick; that is, you will be as you think and not what you think you are. You may state health in your thought, but if you give worry, fear and discord to that thought, your thinking will produce discord. It is not what we state in our thoughts, but what we give to our thoughts that determine results.

…

Your opinion of your mental capacity may be great, but if your idea of intelligence is crude, your intelligence-producing thought will also be crude, and can produce only crude intelligence. It is therefore evident that to simply think that you are brilliant will not produce brilliancy, unless your understanding of brilliancy is made larger, higher and finer. … When your thinking is brilliant, you will be brilliant, but if your thinking is not brilliant you will not be brilliant, no matter how brilliant you may think you are.

…

When you think that you are beautiful, you are liable to think that you are more beautiful than others, and such a thought is not a beautiful thought. To recognize or criticise ugliness and inferiority in others is to create the inferior and the ugly in yourself, and what you create in yourself will sooner or later be expressed through your mind and personality.

(emphasis mine)

Your Forces and How to Use Them, as the name suggests, is a ‘personal development’ book from Christian D. Larson. A highly underrated book and an underrated author in my opinion. The book can be read online at sacred-texts.com — http://www.sacred-texts.com/nth/yfhu/index.htm

Read more quotes by Christian D. Larson.

I bathed in the Ganga and revelled in the purity of its water. Then I walked to the Sivananda Ashram situated a little way up the hill. I could feel intense vibrations when I entered. I saw a large number of sadhus seated all around in a state of trance. I had read that sadhus were psychic people–people who know things intuitively and, in my dejected mood, I sought answers to the doubts that troubled me.

I met Swami Sivananda–a man who looked like a Buddha, wearing a snow white dhoti and wooden slippers. He had an olive complexion and black, piercing eyes. I was struck by his irresistible, almost child-like smile and gracious manner. I introduced myself to Swamiji. My Muslim name aroused no reaction in him. Before I could speak any further, he inquired about the source of my sorrow. He offered no explanation of how he knew that I was sad and I did not ask.

I told him about my unsuccessful attempt to join the Indian Air Force and my long cherished desire to fly. He smiled, washing away all my anxiety almost instantly. Then he said in a feeble, but very deep voice,

Desire, when it stems from the heart and spirit, when it is pure and intense, possesses awesome electromagnetic energy. This energy is released into the ether each night, as the mind falls into the sleep state. Each morning it returns to the conscious state reinforced with the cosmic currents. That which has been imaged will surely and certainly be manifested. You can rely, young man, upon this ageless promise as surely as you can rely upon the eternally unbroken promise of sunrise… and of Spring.

When the student is ready, the teacher will appear–How true! Here was the teacher to show the way to a student who had nearly gone astray! “Accept your destiny and go ahead with your life. You are not destined to become an Air Force pilot. What you are destined to become is not revealed now but it is predetermined. Forget this failure, as it was essential to lead you to your destined path. Search, instead, for the true purpose of your existence. Become one with yourself, my son! Surrender yourself to the wish of God,” Swamiji said.

After this, Dr. Kalam joined the ‘Directorate of Technical Develpment and Production’ as a ‘Senior Scientific Assistant’. He later worked with prestigious organizations like the DRDO and ISRO. He may not have had the opportunity to steer an aircraft and fly freely in the sky, but he was to steer the strategic Indian space program and missile program. He went on to become the eleventh President of India, it’s all history now.

Coming to Swami Sivananda… personally, I have read Sivananda’s books and they have influenced my attitude to a great extent, especially, his book “Thought Power“. I am a fan of Sivananda’s simple, uncomplicated and not so scholarly style of writing. Swami Sivananda has written 296 books in all covering subjects like spirituality, yoga, philosophy, etc. You’ll find so many repetitions in his book, but all for good purpose. Some of his books are available online and can be downloaded for free.

Today, 14th July, also happens to be the day when Swami Sivananda left his mortal body in 1963. Peace be upon him.