Popular Misconception

That day I just happened to ask a very simple question to a group of people. And I was really startled to get the answer.
The question is as follows.
A child in a snowy region created a SNOWMAN out of snow(obviously). Now this kid wanted the snowman to last as long as possible so that the snowman should not melt easily. He sought help from two people (lets say) A, and B
A:- Drape the snowman in a jacket from head to toe and it will not melt.
B:- A has gone crazy. If you drape the snowman in a jacket the snowman will melt and so just keep it in open and it will last long.
My question was: Whose option should the child take? A or B?

Amazingly enough, if I asked this question to 100 people, 96 of them answered that the option should be B. Most people were and are of the opinion that draping the snowman in a jacket will warm the inside of the jacket thereby resulting in rapid melting of the snowman. Rather is it good to keep the snowman in open.

The real answer is as follows.

"A" is correct. The snowman should be draped in a jacket. The thicker or multi-layered the better.The reason is that jacket or woolens create an insulation around the body. This insulation prevents the outside heat from entering the body but at the same time it doesn't allow the inner energy to escape too thereby creating a thermos flask type condition. This prevents the melting of the snowman as it remains virtually unaffected by the outside fluctuation of temperature.

This is the same case when you must have seen that ICE Chunks by the ice vendors are always covered by saw dust or thick rough clothing.
Some people may say that we feel warm inside the jacket but that warmth is the body warmth and not that the jacket is creating its own.


But a simple question like this threw up a viscious challenge of looking at the popular misconceptions that plague science and day to day life too.

Bhagwan ke naam pe ........ (In the name of God ....)

A few days back I was having an argument about God and the dogmas associated with it. I was shocked to see that God has been reduced to a meaningless cocktail of dogmas and rituals. The meaning of God has been lost somewhere. Strangely enough there are the following types of people I have come across.

1. Religious Fanatics: For these guys God is all about a set of rules that their RELIGION has put forward and anything other than that is nothing short of SIN.

2. Ritualists: These are far more moderate than the Fanatics but then their concept of God is about a super human creature who has single handedly created the universe and all the religions and has laid down some rules which one is supposed to follow or else HE will punish you.

3. Rationalists: Utter non believers in God and point out to recent scientific findings and logic to show that God doesn't exist. For them Religion / Spirituality / God is all a farce.

4. People like me: I can safely call myself Non-Religious but Spiritualist.

I went to the Youth forum of ISKCON just to see what they have to say about God. This incident is true and almost 7 years old. There was a gathering of almost 150 odd guys from all walks of life, both old and young included.
Now there came this Orator who was supposed to give us a talk on Science and Krishna. This guy got down from his Merc in a white Kurta-Pyjama andw as garlanded. I was informed that he is some IITian turned INDUSTRIALIST who has been donating huge sums to ISKCON and has become a BHAKT of Sri Krshna. I understood why was he chosen for the talk.
He started off with a song (totally off beat) which I somehow endured because I wanted to know what he had to say. Then he started with the sentence, "Everything is Krshna. Science is just a farce, an illusion and we must not accept what science tells us".
He pointed out to the Big-Bang theory and said," Have you ever seen a CAR or a WATCH or anything coming out of a bursting cracker???? Then how can you accept that the universe got created from such a bursting thing called the Big-Bang".
I was left aghast. This guy had absolutely no knowledge about science, Physics in particular and he was comparing the BIG-BANG Event to the bursting of a cracker?

I immediately objected which was put aside and the talk continued.

Then he said," I don't understand what is there that science is trying to find out? all our scriptures already tell about everything. Scriptures also tell about the first aeroplane (the Pushpak Vimana) which was in existence much before wright brother made the silly plane.

I objected again and told them that it is unfair to say that since scriptures say about everything means that one should not try to unravel them now?

Even "2001- A space odyssey" by Arthur c Clarke talks of a space station but it took engineers four decades to actually make one. Just because something is written somewhere doesn't mean that all is achieved.

Now that created a furor there with virtually everyone going against me. I stood my ground. I told them point blank that this is a complete waste of time as that Guy was not qualified to speak since he neither knows science nor he knows spirituality. all he knows is what is writen in a couple of books on Krshna and against Science. I left that place but not before challenging that guy to give up everything that the FARCIAL SCIENCE has created including his MERC, his money and even his clothes (I think I went too far that day).
I never went back again.

This incident told me one thing that all that people know is purely bookish and without logic.

Sri Ramakrishna used to say, "Let the disciple test his guru and his own belief in the light of logic and experience before accepting or rejecting anything".

Not many such people are around now a days.

It is a really sad state of affairs.

Hopefully someday people will understand that Science and Spirituality are nothing but the two sides of the same coin and Religion is just a set of rules to effectively follow ones course of life.