Friday, February 21, 2003

Let's Talk About Quantification

What do I mean by "quantification"? This, my friend, is a good example:

Scholarship blabla
Requirements:
- IPK > 3.0

Let's face it, we were raised from baby by measuring achievements. It was still all fun being a baby. Everything was an achievement. "Look! He smiles!" "Look, he cries." "Oh, look, now he poops on your new shirt!"

We grew a bit more and achievements shifted into physical thing. "My darling weighs 10 kilos already," says a proud mother. "Oh really," responded another.
"Mine weighs 11." And we were introduced to the very first thing that once led to bloodbaths in the Collosseum: competition.

It matters a little to the mother if her baby looked like a big fat panda dressed for Mardi Gras, as long as the little cutie weighs more than the other 460 millions babies in the world. Hell, the baby could be so heavy it caused the Titanic to sink, and the mother would still be proud. "That's my baby who sunk the Titanic! She weighted 120 tons!"

Yes, we were raised to compete. We were taught to recognize our worth by comparing how we measure in the social standards to the others. "My two-year
old kid could memorize the names of all nations on earth! He's a genius!" a father would brag. "My one-year old could do integral calculation!"
The farther he can do and the younger he is, he becomes more "genius".

"My baby can recite a dictionary!"
"What baby? You're still pregnant."
"See! She's also a ventriloquist!"

Then we got acquainted with The Official Institution of Determining People's Worth: school. ABC&123 are elementary and integral calculations are high school to
college level. We got grades, and probably an IQ score. Your Intellegent Quotient. Good. Now we know how we fare, intellegently. We used to find out by slapping post-it notes behind someone's back that says, "I'm an idiot."

But then some official institutions figured they only need to educate people of their standards. So they slapped a number on the entrance, which is later called "requirement". Theoretically, requirement works like the height bar on the entrance of a roller coaster. "You have to be THIS high to ride." But some people that were born short must resort to riding merry-go-round education for the rest of their lives. And even if you can join the roller coaster ride, there's no seatbelt. Anybody not hanging onto the rules will be out before they can spell "gravity".

But that's not enough, some people came up with EQ, Emotional Quotient. Then SQ, Spiritual Quotient. And believe it, or not, somebody is actually trying to
sell the concept of Sexual Quotient. Look, I'd really love to see the women measuring process. But do we really need to find out how intelligent we are when it comes to sexual thing? I mean, wouldn't it be rather unfair for guys? In normal condition measurement, a guy could score really high then a babe walks by and BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!, the score monitor goes flat.

But I guess some guys would just love to embrace the concept. Why? Because it'd make a great pick up line. "Hello, there, beautiful. How's your Sexual Quotient these days? Not good? Oh, we should do something about that, shouldn't we?"

Because the whole point of measuring, which is to acknowledge growth, is abused way too often. Instead of recognizing growth and be content with it, we compare the measurements to justify our self-worths. It doesn't work that way. I mean, Olympics are cool because it occurs only once in four years. But the way we compare to each other, is like spending all our days competing in javelin throws. We don't even know why we are supposed to throw spears if we're going to take them back and do it all over again. All we know is that some numbers'll come up, showing how far we threw compared to others. And that'd be enough reason for glory or despair.

I like sleeping better. But do we ever compare how much we sleep? Nooo... on the contrary, we compare how _little_ we sleep.

The world's a funny place. I wonder how high it measures in the universe?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yoga (Application) which was based on the control of the body physically and implied that a perfect control over the body and the senses led to knowledge of the ultimate reality. A detailed anatomical knowledge of the human body was necessary to the advancement of yoga and therefore those practising yoga had to keep in touch with medical knowledge. (Romila Thapar, A History of India, volume one).

I suggest : Mind and brain are two distinct things. Brain is anatomical entity whereas mind is functional entity. Mind can be defined as the function of autonomic nervous system (ANS). It is claimed that mind can be brought under conscious control through the practice of meditation. But how? ANS is largely under hypothalamic control which is situated very close to optic chiasma (sixth chakra or ajna chakra). Protracted practice of concentration to meditate at this region brings functions of ANS say mind under one’s conscious control.

ANS is further divided into parasympathetic nervous system (PSNS) and sympathetic nervous system (SNS). On the basis of these facts I have discovered a mathematical relationship for spiritual quotient (S.Q.). Spiritual Quotient can be expressed mathematically as the ratio of Parasympathetic dominance to Sympathetic dominance. PSNS dominates during meditative calm and SNS dominates during stress. In this formula we assign numerical values to the physiological parameters activated or suppressed during autonomic mobilization and put in the formula to describe the state of mind of an individual and also infer his/her level of consciousness.

Meditation is the art of looking within and science of doing nothing. We don’t use anything in meditation. We just try to concentrate to meditate at some point in human anatomy known as ‘chakra’ in Indian System of Yoga. The current of mind is flowing outward through the senses and unconsciously. The mind comes at rest gradually through regular practice of meditation. Then comes self realization and enlightenment. Protracted practice of meditation under qualified guidance will help to manage all sort of psychological problems.

Emotional Quotient can also be expressed mathematically as the product of I.Q. and Wisdom Factor. E.Q. stands for Emotional Quotient. An intelligent person may not be wise. But a wise man will always be intelligent. An intelligent person having certain level of positive emotions can be said as wise. An intelligent person lacking wisdom will turn autocrat. A wise man will always be a democrat who respects others existence.

Some may raise doubt that how could be the Wisdom quantified? The answer is simple -if Mental Age of I.Q. can be quantified then Wisdom can also be quantified, of course, comparatively with more efforts. Wilhelm Stern had given the formula of I.Q.. It is, Mental Age/ Chronological Age x 100. Spiritual Quotient (S.Q.) leverages both E.Q. and I.Q.

Radha Soami Faith is a branch of Religion of Saints like Kabir, Nanak, Paltu, and others. Soamiji Maharaj is the founder of this Faith. You may call It like New Wine in Old Bottle.

Maslow has given Hierarchy of Needs. At the top of it is need for self-actualization or self-realization.

In our society we should learn To Live and Let Live and help to satisfy others need. When the lower order needs, physiological and sociological both, are satisfied then only a person think to satisfy need for self-realization in true sense. Else he/she may spend all his/her life to satisfy at the most the need for self-expression instead of self-realization.

It is, therefore, the duty of every responsible person, at the least, of our society to give serious thought over it.

For the satisfaction of need for self-realization i.e. establishment of harmony of individual consciousness with that of universal consciousness we need following three things:

1. Mater or Guru (A Self-Realized Soul)
2. Secret of Levels of Universal Consciousness
3. Method for traversing the path.


Anirudh Kumar Satsangi

a.k.satsangi said...

I have discovered a mathematical relationship for S.Q about eight years back in 2001. I have used physiological parameters which can be measured accurately and precisely and can be tested and verified experimentally. According to this formula S.Q. can be expressed as the ratio of parasympathetic dominance (P.D.) to sympathetic dominance (S.D.). Parasympathetic nervous system (PSNS) and sympathetic nervous system (SNS) are the two parts of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) which is largely under hypothalamic control. Hypothalamus is situated very close to the Sixth Chakra. During practice of meditation at Sixth Chakra these centres are galvanized which has very positive effect on practitioners spiritual, emotional, psychological and physical well being.

According to this relationship spiritual quotient can be written as:
S.Q. = P.D./S.D.

If the value of S.Q. comes >1 (greater than one), it can be assumed that the person is moving towards self-realisation and if the value of S.Q. comes <1 (smaller than one) it can be predicted that the person is living under stress.

There are various types of meditation available, which are being practiced by sages, saints, seers and others. The difference in various versions lies in the fact that these practices involve concentration to meditate at different centres known as Chakra in Yoga System. These chakras are, in fact, energy centres which correspond to nerve centres distributed along the spinal column and in brain region.

Some practitioners start to meditate at Basic/Root Chakra (Muladhara) – situated at the base of spine, some at Heart Chakra (Anahata Chakra), some at Ajna Chakra – Optic Chiasma – Master Chakra and some from even higher centres situated in the brain region. Among all these types of meditation, practice at sixth chakra is considered to be the most ideal which brings about optimum results.

Sixth Chakra is situated very close to hypothalamus. The hypothalamus is a portion of brain that contains a number of small nuclei with a variety of functions. One of the most important functions of the hypothalamus is to link nervous system to the endocrine system via the pituitary glands.

Autonomic nervous system (ANS) is largely under hypothalamic control. ANS consists of parasympathetic nervous system (PSNS) and sympathetic nervous system (SNS). PSNS is activated during meditative calm and during stress SNS is activated. When PSNS is activated, heart rate, breathing rate, blood pressure decreased. Supply of blood in the digestive tract increased. When SNS is activated heart rate, breathing rate, blood pressure increased. Supply of blood to the muscles and exterior organs increased and to the digestive tract decreased. In addition to these, there are many other parameters which can be compared. Parasympathetic Dominance (P.D.) is the state of PSNS activation and Sympathetic Dominance (S.D.) is the state of SNS activation. Instruments are available in medical science to measure these parameters.

Now we can assign numerical value to each parameter. Then put the value in the formula for S.Q. and see the result. We can show the calculation as mentioned below:

S.Q.= P.D./S.D. = Σ X / Σ Y
Where X=x1+x2+x3+ …….
And Y=y1+y2+y3+…….

During PSNS activation (P.D.), we assign ‘1’ to each parameter (x1+x2+x3+…..) and ‘0’ to each parameter (y1+y2+y3+…..). During SNS activation (S.D.), we assign ‘1’ to each parameter (y1+y2+y3+…) and ‘0’ to each parameter (x1+x2+x3+….).

By putting the numerical value, thus achieved, in the above formula for S.Q. we can calculate the Spiritual Quotient of an individual.