OPINION MIKE PURDY opinion@technewsiit.com TechNews | Tuesday, September 11, 2012 TechNews STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF ILLINOIS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY SINCE 1928 McCormick Tribune Campus Center Room 221 3201 South State Street Chicago, Illinois 60616 E-mail: editor@technewsiit.com Website: http://www.technewsiit.com TechNews STAFF Editor-in-Chief Assistant Editor Ryan Kamphuis Hannah Larson Opinion Editor Mike Purdy Campus Editor Utsav Gandhi A&E Editor Ryan Hynes Art Editor Adin Goings Sports Editor Ciaran Kohli-Lynch Copy Editors Kori Bowns Kristal Copeland Katie Peters Layout Editors Kori Bowns Karthik Kumar Swasti Khuntia Katie Peters Pranava Teja Surukuchi Rohit Vandanapu Distribution Manager Mike Purdy Business Manager Kori Bowns IT Manager Pranava Teja Surukuchi Financial Advisor Vickie Tolbert Faculty Advisor Gregory Pulliam MISSION STATEMENT The mission of TechNews is to promote student discussion and bolster the IIT community by providing a newspaper that is highly accessible, a stalwart ofjournalistic integrity, and a student forum. 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TechNews holds the right to deny any advertisement unsuitable for publication. Media Kits are available upon request. Ad space is limited and is taken on a first-come, first-serve basis. Contact the Business Manager at business@ technewsiit.com for more information. LOCAL 8 NATIONAL ADVERTISERS To place an ad, contact us via email at business@technewsiit.com. SUI u...’ ILLINOIs INSTITUTE I// OF TECHNOLOGY Who am I? By Sneha Saraf STAFF WRITER Who am I, really? Why do bad things happen to good people? I want to be happy, but it always seems out of my reach. Why? These were some of the questions dis- cussed at the Vedic Vision Society’s first seminar of the semester, titled “Intro to Vedic World View.” Speaker Nityananda Pran first de- fined ‘Veda’ as “knowledge.” Proper knowl- edge means knowing something as it is. The Vedas discuss topics like how and why things happen in this world (karma), whether God exists, what our purpose in life is, etc. To prop- erly understand the Vedas, we need to keep an open mind, ask questions, and practically ap- ply what we are learning. After establishing the main idea of the Vedas, he moved on to the next question: what is ‘happiness’? Is it satisfaction from grat- ifying our senses or fulfilling our desires? Is it simply a biological response which is short- lived? Nityananda Pran explained that happi- ness depends upon our knowledge of “Who I am.” If the understanding of ‘I’ becomes clear, happiness automatically follows. But what is our identity? We define ourselves in many ways: as a human, man, woman, student, American, etc. But these are simply descrip- tions that fail to explain “Who am I?” Nityananda Pran went on to ask the audi- ence about the definition of “problem.” Many responses came up, but what arose from the discussion were some criteria to define a prob- lem. A problem is something 1) which is com- mon to all, 2) which no one wants, and 3) from which no one can escape. From the Vedic per- spective, there are four such problems: death, disease, aging, and birth. But why is birth con- sidered a problem? It was explained that from birth, all other problems manifest. Coming back to the question ofhap- piness, the speaker explained that the Vedas describe two characteristics of ‘material hap- piness’: 1) it is temporary, and 2) it is always one elusive step ahead of us. Such ‘happiness’ is derived only from the future promise- “One day I will get a job, with a high-paying salary, and then I will be happy.” Once achieved, the promise of happiness moves on to the next goal, leaving us hankering for it as before. Life passes on thus. All living beings have four propensi- ties: 1) eating, 2) sleeping, 3) defending, and 4) procreating. Most of our activities are driven by or are extensions of these propensities. But the Vedas propose that there is more to human life than this. We have the spirit of inquiry, and the Vedas implore us to use this gift to inquire about the purpose of life. A person who ques- tions life and is open to gaining knowledge uses this inquisitive spirit to understand the true nature of self. This brings permanent hap- piness from a platform of knowledge. The discussion concluded with a free (and tastyll) lunch feast, which we were told would happen every Friday Next Friday the discussion will con- tinue on answering the question, “Who am I?” in the absolute sense. To learn more, visit vedicvis.com or email vedicvis@iit.edu. The spirit of inquiry starts now. Dance (E LAN Party!