Jesus' Teachings About Earthly Accidents of Time: A True Superhuman Narration From the Urantia Book!

The following passage is directly quoted from Paper-166  of the Urantia Book under Part-IV, which deals with life and teachings of Jesus Christ on earth. The authors of this part of the book are stated as the Midwayer Commission, comprising of a divinely authorized group of invisible immortal beings whom the various other invisible authors of the book introduce to us as the midwayers of earth. Midwayers are a group of beings who exist in a realm of existence above human beings but below various other orders of higher order immortal beings.Midwayers are capable of doing things that humans do in the material realm and much more. As they have been in existence on earth for thousands of years, they are said to have direct knowledge about most of the history of earth and its civilizational progress. They understand the languages and the knowledge that humans gained so far and are direct watchers of human progress on earth. They assist superior divine beings in accordance with the universal administrative plans of God. For more details about them read this blog. They got the divine approval to re-state the life and teachings of Jesus which got included as part-4 of the Urantia Book as the divine administration of the universe felt the gross errors that crept in the various writings that the human authors of the past had created, including the four gospels included in the New Testament Bible of the Christians. Incidentally, Part-4 of the Urantia Book is the most appealing and exhaustive literary work that is so meticulous and matter of fact in its details in describing the life and teachings of Jesus on earth. For any unbiased reader, Part-4 provides logical answers to many unanswered questions that they likely had in their minds.

Human beings are perplexed by natural calamities, accidents, war, acts of terrorism, political mismanagement, diseases, etc which often affect thousands of innorcents severely and fatally while several others find miraculous escapes. Some of the intellectuals keep thinking to find the logic behind it. The debate then proceeds further to the irrationality of believing in God or even the rationality of it. A friend of mine sends me this link where this question is inconclusively dealt by Daniel Burke, CNN Religion editor, after he escaped quite miraculously from the Amtrak train 188 crash in the USA.

Unfortunately, this is difficult for us to understand when we visualize the universe organization purely from our materialistic view point. But divine plans transcend materialistic realms, not just as a concept, but as a reality. That is what the Urantia Book reveals with its seamless effort of unifying all those religious beliefs sans their erroneous teachings deviating from facts that are not easy for humans to prove with their limited comprehension.

The following Urantia Book narration reproduces the efforts made by Jesus Christ to remove certain misunderstandings that the common folks of his time, like his immediate followers, nurtured in their minds. Notice carefully the answer that Jesus provided  with regard to the common accidents and natural disasters that keep happening on earth ( this is partly given in the Bible too):

While most Palestinians ate only two meals a day, it was the custom of Jesus and the apostles, when on a journey, to pause at midday for rest and refreshment. 

And it was at such a noontide stop on the way to Philadelphia that Thomas (one disciple of Jesus) asked Jesus: 

“Master, from hearing your remarks as we journeyed this morning, I would like to inquire whether spiritual beings are concerned in the production of strange and extraordinary events in the material world and, further, to ask whether the angels and other spirit beings are able to prevent accidents.”

In answer to Thomas’s inquiry, Jesus said:

“Have I been so long with you, and yet you continue to ask me such questions? Have you failed to observe how the Son of Man (the phrase Jesus often used to address himself) lives as one with you and consistently refuses to employ the forces of heaven for his personal sustenance? Do we not all live by the same means whereby all men exist? Do you see the power of the spiritual world manifested in the material life of this world, save for the revelation of the Father and the sometime healing of his afflicted children?

“All too long have your fathers believed that prosperity was the token of divine approval; that adversity was the proof of God’s displeasure. I declare that such beliefs are superstitions. Do you not observe that far greater numbers of the poor joyfully receive the gospel and immediately enter the kingdom? If riches evidence divine favor, why do the rich so many times refuse to believe this good news from heaven?

 “The Father (God) causes his rain to fall on the just and the unjust; the sun likewise shines on the righteous and the unrighteous. You know about those Galileans whose blood Pilate mingled with the sacrifices, but I tell you these Galileans were not in any manner sinners above all their fellows just because this happened to them. You also know about the eighteen men upon whom the tower of Siloam fell, killing them. Think not that these men who were thus destroyed were offenders above all their brethren in Jerusalem. These folks were simply innocent victims of one of the accidents of time.

 “There are three groups of events which may occur in your lives:

“1. You may share in those normal happenings which are a part of the life you and your fellows live on the face of the earth.

“2. You may chance to fall victim to one of the accidents of nature, one of the mischances of men, knowing full well that such occurrences are in no way prearranged or otherwise produced by the spiritual forces of the realm.

“3. You may reap the harvest of your direct efforts to comply with the natural laws governing the world.

 “There was a certain man who planted a fig tree in his yard, and when he had many times sought fruit thereon and found none, he called the vinedressers before him and said: `Here have I come these three seasons looking for fruit on this fig tree and have found none. Cut down this barren tree; why should it encumber the ground?’ But the head gardener answered his master: `Let it alone for one more year so that I may dig around it and put on fertilizer, and then, next year, if it bears no fruit, it shall be cut down.’ And when they had thus complied with the laws of fruitfulness, since the tree was living and good, they were rewarded with an abundant yield.

 “In the matter of sickness and health, you should know that these bodily states are the result of material causes; health is not the smile of heaven, neither is affliction the frown of God.

“The Father’s human children have equal capacity for the reception of material blessings; therefore does he bestow things physical upon the children of men without discrimination. When it comes to the bestowal of spiritual gifts, the Father is limited by man’s capacity for receiving these divine endowments. Although the Father is no respecter of persons, in the bestowal of spiritual gifts he is limited by man’s faith and by his willingness always to abide by the Father’s will.”

As they journeyed on toward Philadelphia, Jesus continued to teach them and to answer their questions having to do with accidents, sickness, and miracles, but they were not able fully to comprehend this instruction. 

One hour of teaching will not wholly change the beliefs of a lifetime, and so Jesus found it necessary to reiterate his message, to tell again and again that which he wished them to understand; and even then they failed to grasp the meaning of his earth mission until after his death and resurrection.

The above passage may not satisfy most human beings. Even the disciples of Jesus could not understand what Jesus explained. The situation has not changed much with regard to humans. It is important to understand the universal plan of progress of intelligent life comprising of both material and spiritual realms. 

Role of Chemical Engineers in Indian Progress in the Field of Water and Waste Water Engineering!

Among the natural resources essential for sustenance of life on earth, air and water play the most important roles. Though air is the most important resource for life, it is water that has been determining the development of human civilizations on earth. Water   continues to be of prime importance for life and its importance is on an increasing trend as we move on.

When water is in abundance, we normally do not pay much attention to it. But as the population grows with more and more industrialization and human activities, safe water has been becoming a scarce resource for us. 

In the past, we could have lived with simple knowledge about water. But now, knowing more about water is becoming more and more important. Air, water and land constitute the most important environmental issues that concern all human beings on earth now.

As a chemical engineer professionally involved with water and environmental issues, I have been quite fascinated and interested in the topic of water. 

The following are some of the blog articles that I had written where water is the main theme: 

1. My Love and Hate Relationships with Water !

2. Raw Water Filtration: Some Technical Tips For Major Users

3. Water Supply , Sanitation and Solid Waste Management : Why does India Fair Poorly ?

4. How Safe Is Your Drinking Water in India? Be Aware of These!

Water and waste water technologies and engineering require multidisciplinary skills and therefore engineers with chemical engineering background are the most suited to get trained and develop as water experts. In fact, most of the reputed water technology firms of the world now are predominantly run by chemical engineers. It would not be so difficult for young chemical engineers to grasp the various aspects of water technology, water usage and application technology, treatment processes for water and waste water, water quality control, equipment designs, pumping, piping and process instrumentation, automation, water treatment chemicals and the like. Since they possess the basic educational skills to understand the wider scope in the practical field, they would be better equipped to make improvements and developments in the field as they gain field experience. However, most of the Indian industries and utilities seldom realize this and chemical engineers are hardly employed by them for water and waste water related jobs.

Water Brought For Use in An Indian Industry

As a result several of the users of water (in India) are not always not so well versed with the various engineering and technological aspects of water. For any technology to advance, the users also need to have fundamental knowledge and understanding.

During my long experience in the Indian industry, I have mostly found conventional engineers with civil, mechanical and electrical or science backgrounds getting associated with jobs related to water and waste water technology and engineering. Though by experience and on the job learning they keep enhancing their knowledge in this field. But most often there are some grey areas in their understanding that they keep making serious errors in decision making that cause much distress to the industry, without any one really realizing! Many Indian industries and utilities keep incurring heavy losses on account of this neglect or lack of understanding!

On the other hand, the developed nations keep advancing in their knowldge in technology and engineering related to water, waste water and pollution control fields. Many progressive companies have realized the potential of chemical engineering that they keep recruting them and providing them the work platforms for proving their creativity and multidisciplinary engineering education. Most of the high technology companies in the world employ large numbers of chemical engineers. That is true for the technology suppliers in the field of water and waste water engineering as well.

As a result of the lack of understanding of the Indian employers about the potentials of chemical engineering training, the employability of chemical engineers kept on reducing. None of the hundreds of new engineering colleges and institutions in India have chemical engineering as a field of study. I had written about the failure of India in promoting the growth of chemical engineering education in the recent years. Chemical engineering curriculum as developed in the western nations has been so devised as a versatile modern engineering stream that the young chemical engineers are equipped to handly any kind of modern engineering jobs. Unfortunately, many academicians and industry leaders (in India) have pretty no understanding about this!

Most of the chemical engineers trained by the IITs and the other reputed colleges in India migrate to the western worlds due to the lack of opportunities in India. Fortunately, the developed nations realize the value of these engineers and do provide them the opportunities to prove their skills. The loss of India is gain for others!

Remember the comments of some writers that appeared in the social media in the recent past. The critics highlighted about some chemical engineers of India from the IITs venturing in to jobs and business ventures that are not even remotely connected to their basic engineering studies! Of course, the Indian industry and the policy makers caused them to shift away from their basic training and be successful in other fields. True, India gained at the cost of some critical field of work!

When I began to write today's blog, my idea was to provide some information to those who might need some good information about water and waste water technologies. I know, my thoughts have shifted from the original.

I realized that it is not so important for me to duplicate the knowledge that is already available and accessible to the public as published in the various internet sites. 

Yet, people who are not so conversant with the subject of water may find it difficult to get the appropriate information using the internet search engines due to their lack of understanding in the key words that they need to use for such purposes.

Therefore, in this article, I attempt to give some important links to some useful websites that provide the much needed water and waste water related information. A click on these linked titles below would take the reader to the pages where more information can be found. Besides, these key words could be used to find more reading materials.

One of the websites that provide much information about water and wastewater, especially for industrial users is the site of M/s.Lenntech BV Netherlands. This company specializing in water and waste water technologies is a business venture started by a group of Dutch chemical engineers in their university campus some two decades ago. Will the Indian universities allow their students to do some thing similar? Never! And that is one of the reasons why India could so far not mature to the status of a developed nation from the perpetual conundrum that keeps it self declared as a developing nation! 

Coming back to the most important information that one can get from the Lenntech site, I find the following interesting and informative:

1. Salient features of integrated turn-key water and waste water treatment projects by Lenntech 

2. Information on containerized Water and Wastewater treatment plants as supplied by Lenntech

3. Definitions on process water, demineralized water (DM water), drinking water, drinking water standards , drinking water standard comparison,  Irrigation water, Ultra pure water, etc

4. Salient information about water treatment technologies such as : sea water desalination, surface water treatment,   Water softening, water disinfection, water re-mineralization ,  Membrane Bio-Reactor (MBR), Moving Bed Biofilm Reactor (MBBR), Waste Water Treatment, Pesticide removal from water, Iron removal from water, Arsenic removal from water, Heavy metal removal from water, Nitrates removal from water, Ion exchange water treatement, Reverse Osmosis (RO) Water treatment, etc

5. Water and waste water calculators for process engineers

6. Water treatment equipment information on: sediment filters, sand filters, Activated Carbon Filters, Iron Removal Filter Plants, Arsenic Filters, Remineralization Filters, Electro De-ionization (EDI), Oil filtration, Nano Filtration/ Ultra Filtration/ Micro Filtration, Coagulation/Flocculation,  Clarification,  Adsorption, Chemical Oxidation, Catalytic Wet Air Oxidation, Sludge treatment, Thickening, Stabilization, Centrifugation dewatering, etc

7. Information on Water treatment Chemicals, Water testing instruments, Water testing Lab Procedures, etc

Various types of pumps, valves, pipes/pipe fittings and other chemical process equipment are used for water treatment and industrial waste water treatment and sewage treatment plants.

The technology of water and waste water treatment plants employ various unit processes and unit operations of chemical engineering. Experienced chemical engineering companies are the developers of many modern water treatment technologies and they put the chemical engineering theories to practice.

With the advancement of human needs and comforts, advanced materials and equipment are getting produced year after year. This in turn burdens the environment and causes air and water pollution. To reverse the bad effects of water pollution, we need to develop new technologies that can offset the water pollution by appropriate water and waste water treatment technologies. 

Waterborne diseases are on the rise now-a-days and it is necessary to know the causes and the remedial measures. There are various microbes that causes problems for drinking water supplies.

Microbes also create problems for industrial water consumers.  But some microorganisms can be effectively used for treating waste waters that are rich in biologically degradable wastes such as municipal sewage and industrial wastewaters containing organic contaminants. Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) and Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) are two parameters commonly used to measure the organic contamination of water.

Wastewater treatment plants where BOD treatment is predominantly done using biological processes is commonly called BOD plants. 

Another informative website that I would recommend for those interested in enhancing their water related knowledge is the website of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

In this site one can find useful information on a number of topics such as: Drinking water test (analytical) methods, Drinking Water Regulations, Anaerobic digestion, Classification of water types, Water pollution control guidelines, Source water protection, wastewater technology fact sheets, etc.

Water and wastewater engineering and technology is a vast field which needs to be given importance for any country to progress in a sustainable manner. 

Awareness in about the various aspects of water , in my opinion, should start right from the schools and there should be efforts to enhance this awareness among the populace.

The government of India now has began to take up this issue in a big way. Recently, some understanding has been signed between India and Canada for the exchange of clean water technologies.

But Indian industry and the big and small Indian cities are pretty poor in understanding the importance of water for them. As a result, they tend to neglect this area and keep proceeding as if they were in the 19th century! As a result, Indian water and waste water plant projects take decades to complete! Even when completed, they fail to provide the desired usefulness.

On the other hand, the water technology companies in the private sector in India has been making good progress and many of them are competent to handle any kind of water treatment challenges. Many of them are trying to market water technologies that are developed in the developed nations in India. 

Unfortunately, many of their potential Indian clients do not have the essential skills to realize the benefits of the new technologies or to make use of the available technologies in a knowledgeable manner! 

There exists a wide gap between the knowledge levels of the suppliers and the users! This actually creates a big challenge for the Indian water and waste water technology suppliers.

The knowledge and competency levels of the Indian policy makers seems to be text bookish with no practical experience. This creates the Indian policy makers to copy foreign rules and regulations on water and water pollution control to be imposed on the Indian industry without really understanding the various technological implications. With poor technical understanding, it would be easy for interpreting the rules in any manner the authorities prefer. This poses many challenges to the Indian industry as a whole!

Unless the competency and knowledge levels among the users, suppliers, policy makers and interpreters go hand in hand, this area would remain as a difficult one. 

The Clean Ganga Mission could also misfire just as its earlier version, the Ganga Action Plan in such a scenario!

This has no doubt affected the Indian efforts in improving the environmental developmental issues with regard to water and air. 

Indian companies can take challenges in water and waste water engineering and technologies. There are young Indian engineers who can take such challenges. Unfortunately, Indian technocrats, both in the private and public domains, do not have the managerial confidence to take up the challenges their own! That is precisely due to their lack of comprehensive understanding in this field!

If India still keeps looking to foreign nations for technologies on water and wastewater, it is because of the lack of confidence in its top decision making levels.

It would be interesting to watch the developments in India in this field in the years to come!

Make-in-India:What Is Really Needed To Make It Happen?

Make in India, no doubt, is what is needed for a large country like India to become an economic power, if not a super power. So the vision statement promulgated by the new prime minister of India is indeed very apt. 

The make in India concept was actively promoted by the government of India only during the initial years of independence and it was Jawaharlal Nehru, the first PM of India who actively pursued it for self reliance. However, the thrust in those days were for public sector manufacturing which created a handicapped system which could not freely develop and progress due to administrative interferences in a predominantly administered industry. 

Then came the new wave concept of free trade and globalization which the Indian government half heartedly pursued and implemented. However, the policies on liberalization that India followed was not any thing with well defined policies. It caused India to develop and progress in an unbalanced manner. The private sector was allowed to compete with the public sector in a selective manner which killed and paralyzed the public sector which operated under severe administrative constraints. 

The casualty was the skilled work force of the public sector!

Large Steel Plates Made in India. 

But the Critical Machinery for Steel Making Are Not Made in India!

During the Nehruvian era, make in India was really happening in India. Had the momentum maintained, India would not have been in the poor state of affairs as it stands today.

Many economists and those who go after macroeconomic figures may not agree that India is in a poor state of affairs economically. There are many masking statistics that hide the realities.

The astronomical growth of the software and information technology enabled services did much of the masking. Economists and media got the opportunity to prepare and project distorted facts and statistical analysis the way they wanted.

That has blinded the policy makers of India and caused the gradual destruction and deterioration of India's core manufacturing abilities. India never had full grown manufacturing abilities right from the beginning. It was essentially passing through the learning period. But before the learnings and the trainings could reap the full benefits, the non-visionaries of India caused the whole thing to collapse or to proceed in a distortive manner.

The biggest handicap that India has is in the areas of producing sopisticated machine tools and equipment for secondary manufacturing. Core industries that were required for the development of secondary business activities were neglected.

Even some of the best public sector tools and equipment manufacturing companies were allowed to die their natural death by the policy makers, either by neglect or by helping their international competitors. Best examples are the Hindustan Machine Tools Ltd (HMT), the Heavy Engineering Corporation Limited (HEC), The Hindustan Steel Construction Limited (HSCL). BHEL, BEL, and scores others.

There exists a few core equipment manufacturers in India even now, mostly in the private sector. But the fields in which they exist are limited and many of them are lingering to survive due to their incompetence to produce competitively. It is the vicious circle for the core manufacturing sector. Lack of skilled labor makes the manufacturing non competitive which in turn causes the industry to lose business and income. They are compelled to reduce the work force or pay less remuneration to the workers. The industry no more would be capable of attracting the best talents or to motivate the existing work force. Even if they got the best people, they could no longer make use of them as the administered work culture did not really promote innovation. 

The resultant has been too obvious for those who understood the problems. The core industries of India that had taken roots initially got weakened. The foreign suppliers of core industrial equipment and systems for the non core indian business were no more facing any competition from the Indian soil. 

The secondary Indian producers were required to procure their equipment and systems at a higher cost whereever international competition was practically absent.

A High Technology Automatic Water Microfiltration Equipment 

Installed in an Indian Factory. But this equipment  is not 
exactly made in India but assembled in India!

Let us consider one example: Suppose that an Indian businessman wants to set up a food processing industry. Many of the sophisticated automatic packaging machinery are not competitively available in India and are either to be imported or to be procured from sources that get them from outside. The costs involved for investment in these machinery and the costs of their operation and maintenance would naturally add to the product costs. If this cost is higher, the margins of profit that is obtainable from the agro product would be less and would not be very attractive. The only advantage that this Indian agroproduct manufacturer may have would be the low labor cost. Many times, the higher equipment cost would offset the labor cost advantage.

On the other hand, because agro industry is not growing, there would be no incentive for any one to set up any agro industry machinery manufacturing facility in India. Once that is not happening, the core competency in this field remains poor within the country.

The Indian governments at the local, state and central levels add many complications further to the industry, especially the manufacturing business. There are contradictory and confusing laws on land, rentals, labor, environment, registration, licensing, taxation, and the like. The Indian governments are at odds with each other most of the time! The Indian judiciary too, would not be of any help most of the time!

Now extending this logic to all other industries, we can easily find that India is at a disadvantage as far as make in India is concerned for most of the industrial products. The vicious circle keep perpetuating and it would not be easy to break it so easily. 

The situation can be changed only by strong governmental intervention and support. Unless there is coordinated approach in the governmental arms, nothing can move forward, practically.

Obviously, a Make In India website or department, is not going to solve the situation. No big industry or nation with the technological resources would like to set up their shops and part with their knowldege and skills unless they gain adequate confidence in the ability of the government of India to deliver what they preach!

India has remained essentially as an equipment purchaser and not as an equipment producer. So far, India has been getting the sophisticated equipment made elsewhere and using those. Even the use of such equipment or technology has not been efficient due to the lack of incentives for the industrial managers for getting the best from their imported technologies or equipment.

Indians are good purchase masters. Every one is interested in shopping. But no one is ready to toil to make. Shopping or purchasing is comparitively much easier than designing and making. Purchasing activity make every Indian feel like kings. It is a common place practice that the suppliers pamper the buyers by gifts or commissions or other incentives for the buyers to become interested. Indians at all levels are very fond of those pampering! They enjoy shopping under such situations. They have been used to it. How could they possibly say no to it now?

Most of the Indians are not willing to do the hard work that is required for designing and manufacturing sophisticated equipment and systems. Indian industry leaders are also not prepared to take that challenge because they consider that not very lucrative. Even if they produce, marketing would not be easy in a competitive environment and they are not prepared to take that challenge.

The competition for getting the purchaser's benefits have been so tempting that almost all the laws and rules made in India, knowingly or unknowingly, kill any quest for pioneering any new innovations. Indian working class and working engineers have already become technical clerks and are becoming alienated from the new technological developments in the core sectors. They simply lack the opportunity to prove their mettle!

It is not practical for the Indian industry and the Indian workforce to start their production acts from scratch with full self sufficiency. They need to be exposed to the current trends elsewhere in the world. Unless they get experience in the current available technologies they would not be in a position to march forward in a competitive world. How do they get the contemporary experience?

The Indian administrative system is one of the colonial era. The world has changed much. But the Indian administrative system remains the same. There is absolutely no skill and expertise mobility across various functional levels. The Indian system works like frogs in the well and in water tight compartments. While managerial and administrative understanding and competency remain much faulted, there is no dearth of novices posing as 'I-know-all' experts in key decision making areas.

Indian adminstrators and policy makers do not even understand the basic differences in the experience levels of engineers in the academy, industry, research and across the various engineering disciplines.

India produces millions of engineering graduates now, only to be employed in non core functions. I do not say that all of them are required for core engineering fields. But, when core engineering work remains non challenging and non remunerative, it would not be prudent to think that they attract the brilliant brains.

Inside of a commercial aircraft of foreign make operated by one of the several Indian airlines.

India has high potential for airline business, but Indian made aeronautics is a distant dream!

Graduate and post graduate engineers are not technicians. They are brains behind engineering designs, concepts and management. But on the work site, it is the skilled technicians that translate the ideas to actual work. Therefore it is essential that these two fucntions go hand in hand and in synchronization. India has been neglecting its skilled technical work force. Most of the existing manufacturing systems have migrated to other countries like China without any one really realizing.

To reverse that now is a herculian task. Given the easy going nature of Indians, the task becomes all the more difficult. 

The growth and development of the aeronautical industry in the world is a saga of industrial innovation and creativity. The Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) has been in existence in India for the past many decades. Could it do any thing substantial in these many decades? If not, why? Indian planners and policy makers should think about it?

What is the solution to come out of this? Would it be possible for India to do it? Only time would tell.

I have some simple suggestions to make this happen:

First and foremost, let the Indian government do some thing for the Indian engineers in the industry to work freely without administrative restraints that hold back their creativity. Allow Indian engineering entrepreneurs to manufacture new experimental projects  for some years without meeting international standards. If you insist on meeting international norms for any one field of application, that means you want only international players in this field! They may or may not come to prouduce here. Even if they come they come under their terms and only where they find the advantage. International players would come to set shop in India only in those areas where they find things advantageous and not in all cases. Government should encourage existing industries where ever they really did import substitution by some incentive such as tax rebates. 

For example, industrial users procuring Indian manufactured equipment for their use should be given some incentives.

Let the government give a few years tax holiday for those core Business to Business (B2B) industries for enhancing their work force. Giving some corporate income tax rebates for those manufacturing industries who pay better renumeration to skilled employees in the workforce could also be thought of.

Allow industries to set up skill training institutes. Allow them to function autonomously without the interference of the state and central governments including the HR ministry. Certificates of training provided by training institutes attached to industrial units should be treated at par with the academic institutions.

Allow industries to provide advanced training and award diplomas to graduate and post graduate engineers. 

Allow industries to recruit their engineers only from those with advanced industrial training.

Let the industry be allowed to recruit academician engieers and let the engineering academy recruit from experienced industry engineers. Remove the compulsory requirements of PG and PhD for engineers from industry to move to engineering teaching and training fields.

The government should think of enhancing professionalism among engineers by motivating working engineers to share and interact among their fraternity through professional bodies. Government should provide statutory recognition to professional bodies of engineers such as the Institution of Engineers (India). 

The government should think of creating a separate service similar to that of the IAS, for giving top governmental leadership to the complex industrial set up of India. Let it be called the Indian Technical Administrative Service (ITAS). Let them be drawn from the technical streams of the Indian government such as the defense, the PSUs, the Railways and the like without them being subjugated to the hegemony of the IAS.

There could be more such things the government can do. For the make-in-India campaign to become a success, the skilled work force of India is the key. The government should create an atmosphere where the work force of India deliver. No nation would be able to set up their shops in India and operate those for mutual benefit unless the Indian work force enhance their competency and skills.

I request my learned readers to suggest more ideas in this context. 

Some day some of these ideas might evolve in to actions! Who knows?

What is the Most Difficult Thing in Life Now?

Many times I had asked this question to myself. But before I come with the answer I found out, I would like to share some more things.

The answer to this question differs from person to person depending upon his or her state of mind and body.

If the person does not have enough for living a comfortable life, getting the essentials of life for sustenance would be the most difficult thing in life.

Once the essentials of life are not the problem, comforts, luxury, status, envy, partner, etc could pose as difficult things in life.

When these problems are also not of any great significance, then normally all human beings involuntarily take up various problems and keep worrying about those.

If they are successful in overcoming the problems, there would be momentary happiness of achievement. 

So, the most difficult thing in life keeps changing from person to person and perhaps you might not have given a deep thought over it yet.

I was curious to know. A search in the internet gave a variety of feedbacks from several people. [Click: What is the most difficult thing in life?]

But these are perhaps not the most difficult thing that I experienced in my life.

For me, the most difficult thing in life is to live in the company of stupid people. Human stupidity is indeed mind boggling in all walks of life and it is essentially the root cause of human problems! Not only it is a matter humor for some, but also the cause for all major man made disasters!

Had I been very stupid just as the majority around me, things would not have been very difficult. 

I also know the stupidity of writing the above in a democratic social set up. Being in the majority, it is very easy for stupid people to declare me as the most stupid. The democratic social media can very easily do it. If I open my mouth or make my frank opinions known, the stupid out there would immediately make me the most stupid and very easily prove that they are right! 

Philosophy does not get digested in stupid minds. Stupids in majority stone truthful philosophers! This has been the order of this world for quite some time and it would remain that way for some more generations to come! 

So, to avoid that kind of a situation, the non stupid thing to adopt is silence. Some wise loner in the past had said: 'It is wise to keep your mouth shut when the stupids keep talking!'

Indeed it is a very difficult thing. It is equivalent to life imprisonment. 

Talking about stupidity, recently blogger friend from the other side of the world wrote some thing in detail titled: ' A Cure For Modern American Stupidity!'  Though his thoughts and analysis are not any thing stupid for the rare right thinking minds, the majority may not view those that way! 

Fortunately, he is in a relatively favorable geographic location that no one has dared to declare him stupid so far. In many other parts of the world, those views and thoughts would not have been taken lightly!

But stupidity, whether for the individual or for the masses, is a passing phenomenon and it is bound to happen in an evolving world order till all individuals develop to more or less uniform mental maturity.

Inherent human stupidity will gradually get replaced with human wisdom some time in the future and from that point of time onwards, life on earth would not be so difficult for the men and women of earth. 

But stupid human acts in the time line of human progress can cause the civilization to go back to square one. Such retrograde developments had been happening in the past and it might happen in the future too. And that is the destructive power of human stupidity!

Stupid men and women have been making their lives as well as the lives of others miserable on earth by their stupid deeds and words. But the stupid ones are so stupid that they would never ever realize the reasons for their troubles. Only those in the non-stupid mind states feel the pinch!

What are the examples of human stupidity?

If you are not stupid, it is easy for you to find out.

Else you may never find any stupidity anywhere!

As for me, living among the stupid ones is the greatest challenge in life as of now.

It is like a risky trapeze act and you might need to know many tricks to survive!

The Eternal and Divine Purpose of (Creation and Life)!

[The  passages below are quoted directly from Paper-32 of the the Urantia Book, (exceptions are those given in italics). This paper is authored by an immortal being from the order of the Mighty Messengers of space. Mighty Messengers had been mortals of material worlds of space, similar to humans of earth,  who have survived mortal death and progressed to higher levels of life by successive transformations over thousands of years. In their form as Mighty Messengers, they are entrusted with various tasks in the universe administration.
The content of the paper is  addressed to the modern human beings of earth.  In this passage, the author tells human beings to remove their doubts regarding their existence  and tells them to have faith in the eternal and divine purpose of God in creation of the worlds and the lives in them, though such things may not be so comprehensible to  humans as of now.]

There is a great and glorious purpose in the (creation and the) march of the universes through space. 

(There is also a great purpose in the creation of living personalities that dwell in the spheres of the universes)

All of your mortal struggling is not in vain. 

We are all part of an immense plan, a gigantic enterprise, and it is the vastness of the undertaking that renders it impossible to see very much of it at any one time and during any one life. 

We are all a part of an eternal project which the Gods are supervising and outworking. 

The whole marvelous and universal mechanism moves on majestically through space to the music of the meter (rhythm) of the infinite thought and the eternal purpose of the First Great Source and Center (of everything-the Universal Father God).

The eternal purpose of the eternal God is a high spiritual ideal. 

The events of time and the struggles of material existence are but the transient scaffolding which bridges over to the other side, to the promised land of spiritual reality and supernal existence. 

Of course, you mortals (of earth) find it difficult to grasp the idea of an eternal purpose; you are virtually unable to comprehend the thought of eternity, something never beginning and never ending. 

(Because) Everything familiar to you has an end.

As regards an individual life, the duration of a realm, or the chronology of any connected series of events, it would seem that we are dealing with an isolated stretch of time; everything seems to have a beginning and an end. 

And it would appear that a series of such experiences, lives, ages, or epochs, when successively arranged, constitutes a straightaway drive, an isolated event of time flashing momentarily across the infinite face of eternity. 

But when we look at all this from behind the scenes, a more comprehensive view and a more complete understanding suggest that such an explanation is inadequate, disconnected, and wholly unsuited properly to account for, and otherwise to correlate, the transactions of time with the underlying purposes and basic reactions of eternity.

To me it seems more fitting, for purposes of explanation to the mortal mind, to conceive of eternity as a cycle and the eternal purpose as an endless circle, a cycle of eternity in some way synchronized with the transient material cycles of time. 

As regards the sectors of time connected with, and forming a part of, the cycle of eternity, we are forced to recognize that such temporary epochs are born, live, and die just as the temporary beings of time are born, live, and die. 

Most human beings die because, having failed to achieve the spirit level of Adjuster fusion, the metamorphosis of death constitutes the only possible procedure whereby they may escape the fetters of time and the bonds of material creation, thereby being enabled to strike spiritual step with the progressive procession of eternity. 

Having survived the trial life of time and material existence, it becomes possible for you to continue on in touch with, even as a part of, eternity, swinging on forever with the worlds of space around the circle of the eternal ages.

The sectors of time are like the flashes of personality in temporal form; they appear for a season, and then they are lost to human sight, only to reappear as new actors and continuing factors in the higher life of the endless swing around the eternal circle. 

Eternity can hardly be conceived as a straightaway drive, in view of our belief in a delimited universe moving over a vast, elongated circle around the central dwelling place of the Universal Father.

Frankly, eternity is incomprehensible to the finite mind of time. 

You simply cannot grasp it; you cannot comprehend it. 

I do not completely visualize it, and even if I did, it would be impossible for me to convey my concept to the human mind. 

Nevertheless, I have done my best to portray something of our viewpoint, to tell you somewhat of our understanding of things eternal. 

I am endeavoring to aid you in the crystallization of your thoughts about these values which are of infinite nature and eternal import.

There is in the mind of God a plan which embraces every creature of all his vast domains, and this plan is an eternal purpose of boundless opportunity, unlimited progress, and endless life. 

And the infinite treasures of such a matchless career are yours for the striving!

The goal of eternity is ahead! 

The adventure of divinity attainment lies before you! 

The race for perfection is on! whosoever will may enter, and certain victory will crown the efforts of every human being who will run the race of faith and trust, depending every step of the way on the leading of the indwelling Adjuster and on the guidance of that good spirit of the Universe Son, which so freely has been poured out upon all flesh.