Life Today Depends Much On Multi

by Sri Ajit Halder

Our daily life counts heavily on the concept and use of the word Multi.  We wake up in the morning and eat our breakfast with multigrain cereal and enjoy the taste of multifarious food items.  If we need fresh supplies of cereals or any other provision, we go to multilevel shopping centre, purchase milk in multipack cartons and multi-choice food items in multi-stores.  We buy, say, seven items - each item costing £5.67p and we multiply 5.67 by 7 to calculate the total price £39.69 to pay.  We relax in our lounge watching multi-channel programs on multi-screen TV.  We speak on the phone and time-division multiplexing technology enables two-way conversation with our friend over the phone. We use computers with multiprocessing facility since they are able to process two or more data streams simultaneously. We can print multi copies of a document on a printer, and can watch videos or news reports on multi-split screen images. We make preparation for our trip to a foreign land and we need foreign currency to pay for our holiday expenses.  We go to a foreign exchange dealer who deals in multicurrency and we buy our travel money.  In cities we park our car in a multi storey car park and remember the parking floor number so as to walk straight to that level when getting back our car. You may hear your friend boasting about and flashing his/her multiple credit cards taken out of a multi pocket wallet.  You open the front page of the morning newspaper and read the story of a young enterprising multimillionaire businessman with a photograph showing his smiling face. 

The word ‘multi’ is widely used as a prefix to form a composite word like ‘multimedia’ in which ‘multi’ means ‘many’, ‘much’, ‘many times’, ‘more than one’, ‘in many respects’ - and the word ‘multi’ is used to form words like multiple, multivitamin, multitasking and many more similar sounding words.

In everyday life we come across other examples such as: we live in multi-storied apartments and work in a building as part of an office multiplex. We use multi flash camera for taking pictures; we operate a multifunctional tool; and we draw electricity from a multigrid network of power supply system. Furthermore, we live as citizens of a multinational, multicultural Britain which is a country with multi-lingual, multi community structure.  Similar is the life style in multistate Bharat which is a democracy based on multiparty political system. 

We drive on multi lane motorway, and we take care to be on the right track meaning the extreme left lane when we want to leave the motorway in Britain.

We appear in examinations and attempt MCQ (Multiple Choice Question). With careful thinking we select one answer from the given set of probable answers and hope that we have chosen the correct answer. MCDM is a well-known acronym for multiple-criteria decision-making and we often make decisions mainly on intuition. And lastly, multi options offering a choice from a range of goods and services may cause confusion and eventual frustration. 

Enough has been said on Multi affecting our everyday worldly life. Now we consider how we can lead a nobler, spiritual life.  Turning our attention to spiritual living, we note that communities of the world practice multi faiths.  And Hindus face the criticism that we worship multi Gods.  However this view is unfounded because Hindus believe in one Supreme God who is all-pervasive in multi forms.  Each form i.e. manifestation of God, represents one of the multi attributes of the same God. 

Hinduism has always recognized the Oneness of God and believes that in the ultimate analysis, the only Reality is God. Hindu sacred texts abound with verses depicting the Oneness of the Divine Reality. This can be seen from the following verse quoted from the Rig Veda:

‘Indram mitram varuNam agnim ãhuh
atho divyah sa suparNo garutmãn,
ekam sad viprãh bahudhã vadanti,
agnim yamam mãtari’švãnam ãhuh’.

In translation the verse means: ‘They hail Him as Indra, as Mitra, as Varuna, as Agni, also as that divine and noble-winged Garutmaan. It is of the One Truth that the wise ones speak in diverse ways, whether as Agni, or as Yama, or as Maatarisvaan’.

Hindus worship the divine in multi forms.  The different deities of Hinduism reflect intimate realizations of the Divine Reality on various levels. This Reality is everywhere, in everything, in every being - and everything is an expression, an image, an echo of this Reality.  This view asserts that the Divine Being can be approached in multi ways. 

In our pursuit of a religious life, the contribution of multimedia cannot be overestimated.  Multimedia is a communication facility that uses a combination of text, sound, image and video to convey information to people effectively. Now we explore how multimedia may be used for enlightening our mind and ennobling our spirit by accessing multi sources of Hindu scriptural text and religious discourses on the internet. 

Reading religious literature like the Gita and its interpretation online will be a rewarding and spiritually uplifting experience. Listening to the recitations of verses of the Gita, the Chandi, and devotional songs will soothe our minds.   Watching video discussion on Ramakrishna Kathaamrita and religious discourses given by saintly figures will help in our spiritual quest.  

We want to visit places of pilgrimage as part of a ritual; quite often the remoteness of the site or the hazard of the journey may stand in our way to undertake the travel to the holy place. We need not despair, for multimedia can assist us to view videos of holy sites.  While watching those visuals with commentaries, we will feel we are virtually present in those places, thus fulfilling our dream of visiting a site of pilgrimage. 

In this connection, mention may be made of the vast literature of and the sermons given by Sri Sri Babathakur available in multimedia format on the Internet.  The website of the Saccidananda Society provides links to video recordings of Sri Sri Babathakur delivering discourses on various occasions, to listen to the bhajans sung by the Divine Master, as well as viewing documentary films on Prajnanpurush Sri Sri Babathakur. 

Multimedia can be used to view the events happening ‘live’, and we can benefit from watching images and motion video of learned discussions on our smartphones, iPads, or on the home television screen.