Book Reviewed: Srimad Bhagavad Gita with Text, Word for Word Translation by Swami Swarupananda

The Song of God Author Swami Swarupananda was a disciple of Swami Vivekananda, and he was the first president of the Advaita Ashrama in Kolkata, India. His English translation of Bhagavadgita was first published in 1903 and much of it is presented in this book. This is a good translation of the sacred hymns but does not provide the English transliteration. The verses are in Sanskrit, but the rest of text is in English, and the literal meaning of each key word is provided. This book does not debate the philosophical systems of the text but merely focuses on English translation. This is a very readable book, and it is reasonably priced. The translation of Gita requires an understanding of distinct tones of this epic poem. The first chapter describes the state of war at Kurukshetra between Pandavas and Kauravas. The war-cry of soldiers, the neighing of horses and the sounds of conch charged the background when the dialogue between Krishna and Arjuna begins. To translate this epic prologue as though it belonged to the philosophical discourse would be to cut the sacred scripture right out of its historical setting. The Gita is prophetic that contains ecstatic mystical utterances about the nature and attributes of God. Gita demands poetic expression. This book is translated mainly in the prose form and partly in poetic language. Verse 2:47 that summarizes one of the main teachings of the holy book is compared with other translations for illustration. Swami Swarupananda Your right is to work only, but never to the fruits thereof. Be not the producer of the fruits of [thy] actions; neither let thy attachment be towards inaction Sir Edwin Arnold Find full reward of doing right in right! Let right deeds be Thy motive, not the fruit which comes from them Dr. Radhakrishnan To action alone hast thou a right and never at all to its fruits; let not the fruits of action be thy motive; neither let there be in thee any attachment to inaction. Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood You have the right to work, but for the work's sake only. You have no right to the fruits of work. Desire for the fruits of work must never be your motive in working. Never give way to laziness, either. Swami Prabhupada You have a right to perform your prescribed duty, but you are not entitled to the fruits of action. Never consider yourself to be the cause of the results of your activities, and never be attached to not doing your duty. Charles Wilkins Let the motive be in the deed, and not in the event. Be not one whose motive for action is the hope of reward. Let not thy life be spent in inaction

Book Reviewed: Quantum Mechanics: The Theoretical Minimum by Leonard Susskind and Art Friedman

Learning quantum mechanics from a maestro This book is designed to meet the needs of a mathematically inclined reader. An undergraduate level physics textbook is perhaps too advanced, and a popular book with no math discusses the principles of quantum reality that is easier to understand, but this book is at the middle level of complexity. This is meant for readers who are interested to know the equations that describes the mechanics of fundamental particles in terms of their position, motion, and energy in spacetime. Math tends to make certain things easy to put in perspective than mere descriptions without equations! The readers are expected to know mathematical concepts such as complex numbers, vector spaces, linear operators, and tensor products, all of which are artistically explained in a series of interludes. Specific concepts of the space of states, time evolution, principles of uncertainty, and quantum entanglement are described at moderate level of complexity, and yet reader-friendly. I recommend doing the exercises at the end of each chapter. I could not answer many of these questions, but it certainly makes you think. That is a learning process. The biggest challenge is the understanding quantum entanglement because there is no classical analog for a system whose full state description contains no information about its individual parts, and nonlocality (two particles separated at large distances) is difficult to define. The best way to come to terms with these issues is to internalize the mathematics. Two principles emerge as fundamental, the spin state of quantum particle or qubit. In classical physics, everything can be built out of yes/no (1 or 0) questions. Similarly, in quantum mechanics, every logical question becomes a question about qubits (basic unit of quantum information, two level quantum system, spin up or down, both in a state of superposition). The second principle is the harmonic oscillator. How do particles move in quantum mechanics? We know that fundamental particles have wave-particle duality. It exists in both wave and particle forms. Then how do matter in its wave state can have gravity associated with it? That makes understanding quantum gravity harder. In addition, waves oscillate much like a mass attached to the end of a spring. The oscillators, not masses attached to springs, are imagined as waves, in fact they are the oscillating electric and magnetic fields. For each wavelength, there is a mathematical harmonic oscillator describing the amplitude or strength of the field. For many waves there is a lot of harmonic oscillators all running simultaneously. Fortunately, they all oscillate independently. The higher-energy wave functions oscillate more rapidly and are more spread out. This is the consequence of quantum field theory. Another question is how do quantum states change with the evolution of time? They change so that information describing the system are never erased. This is one of the most fundamental phenomenon that haunts in describing black holes. This book sticks to the simplest possible quantum system, one with a two-dimensional state space. The algebra is developed from scratch and author Leonard Susskind describes at a very leisurely pace and the quantum reality is described in the simplest context.

Book Reviewed: History of Bali: A Captivating Guide to Balinese History and the Impact This Island Has Had on the History of Indonesia and Southeast Asia by Captivating History

The story of an island paradise This is a comprehensive history of Bali that narrates the tale of an ancient culture's vulnerability and its resilience in the modern world. This island paradise drew migrants, invaders, and colonizers over thousands of years. In Bali's early history, the people took little action in repelling external forces and the endless waves of cultural and economic changes that engulfed them. It is a living monument that celebrates the golden age of Hindu empires that ruled the seas of Southeast Asia in pursuit of spices, exotic goods, and sharing its Hindu culture. Bali's resistance to Islam and its perpetuation of the unique Balinese Hinduism has made the island vulnerable to Islamic terrorist attacks. But Balinese people are undeterred by the external threats as they have done over a millennia and they continue to take pride in their culture and religion. The cultural and religious influences from India had reached the Indonesian archipelago as early as the first century CE long before Islam. The Majapahit Empire, a Hindu kingdom which lasted three centuries declined and that coincided with the rise of Islam Before the arrival of the Dutch in the mid-19th century, the Bali consisted of several kingdoms which fought among themselves. The ruling arrangement was complex and fragmented. The Dutch, like English colonists in India, used this incoherent Balinese regnal system to their advantage to colonize the island. Upon independence from Dutch colonial rule, the 1945 Constitution of Indonesia guaranteed freedom of religion to all its citizens, but in 1952, the Indonesian Ministry of Religion came under the control of Islamists who severely constrained the acceptable definition of a "religion." The ministry defined "religion" as one that is monotheistic with codified religious law, possesses a prophet and a Holy Book to fit Islam as the only religion. Balinese Hindus were declared as "people without a religion” and the country pressured them to convert. They disagreed and claimed Hinduism is monotheistic. To accomplish this, they initiated a series of student and cultural exchange initiatives with India to help formulate the core principles behind Balinese Hinduism, the belief in Vedas, the Puranas, and the epics, and the exposition of One God described as Brahman (Paramatma) in the sacred scriptures of Upanishads, the Bhagavadgita and the Hindu philosophical system of Vedanta. This led the Indonesian government to recognize Hinduism as an independent religion under its constitution. On the lesser side of current Balinese culture, one of the first known specimens of Homo erectus (upright humans) were found in Java dating to about one million years ago. This book is concise and brief but gives important aspects of Bali’s cultural heritage. This is a readable book even though there are no pictures of Bali’s tropical beaches, rich architecture, and design.

Book Reviewed: Evolution: The Human Story by Alice Roberts

Ancient history of humans Ancient relics such as fossils, stone tools, bones, footprints, genetic and hereditary information contained in DNA shed light on human ancestors. In few decades, a substantial amount of new evidence suggests origins and the demise of several closely related hominin species that lived in the last seven millions years. Modern humans are new kids on the block who are around for only about 200,000 years on a planet that created life 3.8 billion years ago. The palaeobiological and genetic studies have shown that the origins of modern human beings included interactions with other species like Neanderthals and Denisovans before they went extinct. Hominin species evolved in response to the numerous challenges of nature and selection pressures. Almost all species of hominin are now extinct except for Homo sapiens. Many of extinct species are now known from fossil remains, Homo Neanderthalensis (the Neanderthals), Denisovans, Homo erectus, Homo habilis, Homo ergaster, and various species of Australopithecus. Hominins are distinguished from other primates from their erect posture, bipedal locomotion, larger brains, and behavioral characteristics such as specialized tool use and communication. The living primates most closely related to hominins today are Chimpanzees and Bonobos. This book is essentially a monograph of history and archaeology of hominin species, and it features numerous colored images of closely related species and the paleoenvironments that included many modern-day wild animals. Their adventures invite us to think about becoming a human species and speculate on the natural section pressures on gene evolution on several dimensions. The reconstructions of extinct hominin species from their anatomical and skeletal remains tell the evolutionary history. There is a lot to learn about how hominin species and their habitats. Next time, when you are in New York City and If you have time, I recommend visiting the Anne and Bernard Spitzer Hall of Human Origins at the American Museum of Natural History and look at the exhibits. It features four life-sized tableaux of Homo ergaster, Homo erectus, Neanderthals, and Cro-Magnons in its natural habitat.

Book Reviewed: A Short History of Humanity: A New History of Old Europe by Johannes Krause and Thomas Trappe

Agriculture and farming lead to genetic changes in Europe Recent studies in archeology and genetics significantly helped our understanding of human evolution in terms of race and culture in Europe. In this book, the authors address the question of how multiculturalism and racial diversity in ancient world gave rise to the Caucasian race, a distinctive feature of modern-day Europeans. Much has been learnt in the last two decades by studying DNA from skeletons of ancient humans. These results suggest that the light skin seen across Europe today is due to the introduction of agriculture 8,500 years ago. Human genome underwent widespread changes, altering their height, digestion, immune system, and skin color. For example, the LCT gene evolved after intense natural selection to make humans lactose tolerant. Before agriculture and farming, humans ate meat and fish, but the need for LCT gene arose after they started consuming milk from farm animals. In the last 200,000 years of human history, Homo Sapiens were dark skinned for about 192,000 years. The hunter-gatherers, human descendants from Africa migrated to Europe 40,000 years ago. They remained dark as recently as 8,500 years ago, but farmers arriving from Anatolia were light-skinned, and this trait spread through Europe. A shift to agriculture reduced the intake of vitamin D, which may have triggered a change in skin color that were found in Anatolian farmers who migrated from West Asia, a region that includes modern-day Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, and parts of Egypt. Later, about 5,000 years ago a second wave of migration of Yamnaya population occurred from the steppes, north of the Black Sea, a region near the modern-day Ukraine. They had the knowledge of using bronze, proto-writing, and other early features of urban civilization. They also brought Indo-European languages to Europe that evolved into various European languages. The Yamnaya population were also pale-skinned and taller than the farmers from Anatolia, and both were even taller than hunter-gatherers. The European hunter-gatherers had dark skin throughout their stay in the cold climate. They had enough supply of vitamin D in their meal that consisted of meat and fish and did not need paler skin to synthesize vitamin D. A change in diet, and in parallel the living style and social factors played a key role in the evolution of modern humans. Farmers lived longer and had more children than hunter-gatherers. Among hunter-gatherers, the natural selection pressure did not arise to change skin color despite the fact they were in northern latitudes in cold climates. But it became dominant when they stopped the intake of meat & fish and started consuming agriculture and dairy products. The skin tone of early farmers came under selection pressure, only those with lighter skin could manufacture enough vitamin D. Several mutations were required to produce lighter skin. The gene variants like SLC24A5 and SLC45A2 lead to skin-depigmentation, and HERC2/OCA2 is also responsible for blue eyes, light skin, and blond hair. Among Anatolians in whom these genes first emerged were healthier, lived longer, and taller than hunter-gatherers. The farmers also had more children and less stressful life. A recent paper in New Scientist claims that social factors played a key role in the evolution of modern humans. The authors strenuously argue that since modern Europeans originated from a melting pot created by the human migration, earlier from Africa and the later two migrations due to Anatolian farmers and Yamnaya population. They observe that one must sustain the current wave of migrations from Africa and the Middles East. But I like to point out that human migration in the past occurred due to natural and environmental challenges, but the current migrations are influenced by politics, West-European colonialism, and religion, mainly Islam and Christianism. Manufactured religions have done much harm to human beings and my impact the evolutionary trends.

Book Reviewed: After Jesus Before Christianity: A Historical Exploration of the First Two Centuries of Jesus Movements by Erin Vearncombe et al.

Reflections of the first two hundred years of Christianism by Jesus Seminar During the first two centuries following the death of Jesus, Christianism and the New Testament did not exist as we know today. In fact, the Christian movement began from disciples of Jesus who tried to make sense of what they had experienced with him and what will happen to his ministry. There were splinter groups who followed other spiritual leaders like John the Baptist. There was much more flexibility and diversity within Jesus’s movement before it became a religious doctrine. The gnostic Christians had varied and diverse opinions about parables, crucifixion, and resurrection. Some of the earliest followers of Jesus were apocalyptic Jews. According to the Book of Acts, there were two groups; those who observed laws of Torah, and others welcomed gentiles without imposing any restrictions of Jewish laws. The authors of this book are the new breed of scholars of well-known Jesus Seminar and Westar Institute which was founded in 1985 by the late Biblical scholar Robert W. Funk and other leading academics of his time. In this book, this young breed of authors tries to continue the great tradition of unbiased scholarship in the historical evaluation of canonized gospels, gnostic gospels, Acts and Pauline Epistles. One of the questions addressed by the authors is the understandings of sexuality, family values, gender & gender fluidity. The authors observe that there was a resurgence of morality and new world order after Jesus Christ. Histories, traditions, and legends are discussed and debated in ways that I have not read in apocrypha or other history books of ancient Israel. They claim that followers of Jesus resisted the Roman Empire in defiance by practicing gender fluidity and flexibility; and lived with chosen non-traditional families. There were diverse races, beliefs and they believed that dying for a specific cause was a noble idea. The authors cite First Corinthians for the ambiguities about gender within early Jesus associations, and Gospel of Matthew is interpreted as an experiment with family. The earlier books by the Jesus Seminar were scholarly, highly readable, and extensively annotated with historical facts. They embarked on a new translation and assessment of the gospels including Gospel of Thomas. In pursuit of the historical Jesus, they used their collective expertise to determine the authenticity of more than fifteen hundred sayings attributed to him. However, the narratives in this book contrast the work of earlier scholars, and one chapter does not connect well with the next. The authors have overworked themselves as new breed of “woke” academics to cancel the existing culture. As you read this book you realize that they strenuously argue that gender fluidity and non-traditional families were common in ancient Israel. This does not reflect well on Jesus Seminar that worked fearlessly to challenge the dominance of Christian church. This book invents things that didn’t exist. At this rate one would like to question, what next for Jesus Seminar? Jesus was a gay guy?

Book Reviewed: Fugitive Pedagogy: Carter G. Woodson and the Art of Black Teaching by Jarvis R. Givens

Was African American education in early 20th century was forged in slavery? A young black kid growing up in Michigan once told his eighth-grade teacher about his intention of becoming a lawyer. But his teacher killed his enthusiasm instantly stating that his ambitions were unrealistic for a “nig*er” and suggested to become a carpenter. This kid would come to be known as Malcolm X, described as how this encounter became a turning point in his childhood, and later, trouble with the law in his adolescent years. His fascinating perspective of racism in America is narrated in in his autobiography. Despite this, black education continued against a background of increased violence against African Americans in the South. After Democrats regained power in state governments, they instituted legal racial segregation and a variety of racist laws. They also disfranchised Black people by constitutional amendments and electoral rules from 1890 until 1964. But the enslaved people learned to read despite widespread challenges. Teachers developed covert instructional strategies, and creative responses to the persistence of White opposition, from slavery through the Jim Crow era. Forged in slavery, embodied by Carter Woodson and W.E.B. Dubois is a tradition of escape mentality of slaves and later for black teachers says the author of this book. One major flaw is that the author is using the same material he wrote for his PhD dissertation. This book leaves out the role played by many African American educators. I understand the PhD dissertation focuses on a specific narrative of educator Carter G. Woodson. But the author missed out numerous achievements early in the African American history. Some of the highlights that could have been incorporated in this book includes the creation of Clark Atlanta University founded in 1865. Lucy Craft Laney founded Haines Normal and Industrial Institute in Augusta, Georgia. Hired as principal of the new normal school (for the training of teachers) in Tuskegee, Alabama, Booker T. Washington opened his school in 1881. Based on his experience at the Hampton Institute, Washington intended to train students in skills, morals, and religious life, in addition to academic subjects. Washington urged the teachers he trained to return to the plantation districts and show the people how to put new energy and new ideas into farming as well as into the intellectual and moral and religious life of the people. Later he became the President of the Tuskegee University, Alabama. Mary Bethune Cookman, well known for starting a private school for African-American students in Daytona Beach, Florida, later became Bethune-Cookman University. George Washington Carver, a well-known plant biologist worked at Tuskegee when Booker Washington was the president of the university. In 1897, W.E.B DuBois became a professor in history and economics at the historically black Atlanta University in Georgia.