AVADHANA

AVADHANA literally means concentration. The ability to do more than one thing as opposed to the doctrine that you can only do one thing at a time.  In todays world it is called multi-tasking and the gurus of India could do more than a hundred tasks at the sametime.  Warpspeed to Elon Musk the master of Avadhana in modern times.

What is the purpose of an Avadhanam event? The true purpose of an Avadhanam event is the showcasing, through entertainment, of superior mastery of cognitive capabilities – of observation, memory, multitasking, task switching, retrieval, reasoning and creativity in multiple modes of intelligence – literature, poetry, music, mathematical calculations, puzzle solving, science and more.

Ganesh (also known popularly as Shatavadhani Ganesh, born 4 December 1962) is a practitioner of the art of avadhana, a polyglot, an author in Sanskrit and Kannada and an extempore poet in multiple languages. He has performed more than 1300 avadhanas, in Kannada, Sanskrit, Telugu and Prakrit. He is known for extempore composition of poetry (āśukavita) during these performances, and even of chitrakavya. He is the only Śatāvadhāni from Karnataka. He once set a record by composing poetry for twenty-four hours continuously. From 30 November 2012 to 2 December 2012, he performed the first ever Shatavadhana entirely in Kannada. On 16 February 2014, in Bangalore, he performed his 1000th avadhāna.

Muni Mahendra Kumar - A Jain monk and disciple of Acharya Shri Tulsi and his successor Acharya Shri Mahaprajna. He is professor at Jain Vishva Bharati Institute, deemed university, Ladnun, Rajasthan, India, departments ‘Science of Living’ and ‘Preksha Meditation’.He is a versatile scholar having mastery over diverse disciplines such as Physics, Mathematics, Biology, Philosophy, Psychology, Ancient History, Meditation, Spirituality and several languages like Sanskrit, Prakrit, English, Hindi, Gujarati and Rajasthani. He is a practitioner and instructor of Preksha Meditation. His work "The Enigma of the Universe" and "Vishva Prahelika" (Hindi Version) is a research in the field of cosmology of modern science and ancient Jain philosophy.

Cosmology is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe. The term cosmology was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount's Glossographia, and in 1731 taken up in Latin by German philosopher Christian Wolff, in Cosmologia Generalis.

There's no avoiding the fact that multitasking is a highly desirable skill in today's busy, technologically driven world. Conventional wisdom tells us we are productive workers and students if we can simultaneously juggle multiple tasks. This is, perhaps, an outgrowth of our current society. Studies show that in a typical office environment, we are interrupted as many as 11 times an hour.

When self-imposed interruptions, like checking text messages and emails, are factored into the equation, the working hour is fragmented even more. For example, if you check your email four times each hour, in addition to the 11 random interruptions, the work hour is divided by one interruption every four minutes. As a result, there is very little attention devoted to any single task.

Still, Americans try to do it all simultaneously, and the pressure is on for workers to be experts in multitasking. Bosses expect it. Prospective employers demand it. We expect it of ourselves. Friends and co-workers extol its virtues. Everyone seems to be doing it! Multitasking appears to be the new social skill to advance personally, academically, and professionally in today's society.

Evidence against multitasking

As it turns out, multitasking is not as efficient or effective as commonly believed. Research suggests that work productivity for both challenging and non-challenging activities is negatively related to interruptions.

In many work instances, we can only perform one task at a time. For example, you may stop studying your school work to respond to emails as they come into your inbox. You probably think you're doing a great job of multitasking but, in reality, you can either study or answer emails, but you cannot perform both tasks at the same time. In a case like this, multitasking is clearly a fallacy.

Research suggests a much more efficient approach would be to first complete your studying before answering emails. There are, however, activities that are able to be performed simultaneously. Surely, multitasking must be a good strategy in these instances, right?

Not exactly. Consider a situation where you are required to be on a webinar at noon, but you have a school or work assignment with a midnight deadline. You decide to multitask by working on the assignment during the webinar.

If you are like me, you will focus primarily on the assignment. As a result, you miss most of the information on the webinar and complete very little of the assignment. To add insult to injury, I will often later listen to a recorded session of the webinar to learn what I missed during the original meeting. This is terribly inefficient.

Your brain while multitasking

While this example would suggest that I am a poor multitasker, there is a neurological explanation for this limitation. Although both tasks can be worked on simultaneously, the brain's bandwidth is shared, resulting in an overall reduction in processing power, efficiency and effectiveness.

If the brain's processing capacity is thought of as a pie, multitasking would suggest that, at the very least, each task consumes a slice of the pie to maximally accomplish each task, thereby using 100 percent of the brain's processing capacity. In other words, we should be able to devote 100 percent of the brain's processing capacity to accomplish two tasks with each task using up 50 percent of the pie.

Given what is known about neurology, the brain is limited in terms of our ability to multitask: 100 percent of the pie will be used, but less than 50 percent is used for each task due to the bandwidth needed for switching between tasks. Therefore, the efficiency, effectiveness, speed, quality, attention, and overall performance for both tasks are reduced.

A better alternative to multitasking: time management

A better strategy for accomplishing competing interests amongst limited brain processing capacity would be time management. The power of time management can be easily mastered with basic tools like Google Calendar (or any calendar program), a spreadsheet, or any other method for organizing your tasks into time slots, including pad and paper.

The time management approach takes discipline since it is easy to get drawn into unplanned activities such as emails. As Jason Fitzpatrick points out on his LifeHacker blog post, "Most of us fell into the habit [of multitasking] because the allure of getting more done is too strong to pass up." Based upon what we now know, that allure is a mirage that should be dismissed since it will not quench our thirst for productivity.

THINGS YOU MAY NOT KNOW: Advantages of Multitasking

Multitasking can save you time, You can train your mind, Improvements in flexibility, Can help you if you are in time-trouble, Valid tool to manage your family and your job, May sharpen our senses, Improvements in resilience, Can be helpful for completing quite simple tasks, Multitasking protects you from getting bored, You can learn how to deal with chaos, Helpful if you work in a leading position in a company, You will be better able to adapt to new circumstances.

Disadvantages of Multitasking

Excessive stress, Burnout, Multitasking may lead to mental issues, Multitasking can even lower the overall efficiency of people, Not sustainable in the long run, People often have a flawed perception of the success of multitasking, Sleeping problems, Motivation issues, People may act like machines, Overall quality of work will suffer, Wrong priorities, Multitasking can distract your focus, Working atmosphere can suffer due to multitasking, Multitasking is just not suitable for most people.

THINGS YOU MAY WANT TO SAVE: With all of that multitasking capability  why not SAVE THE EARTH for starters.

ZENTRAVELER SAYS: This is the time the reader gets to decide which is better multitask or one task at a time.  I think it would depend on the situation. Maybe the fellow in Israel who was driving his mercedes and steering with both elbows and multitasking with two smart phones with his hands pressed to his ears and the music so loud he didnt hear the police sirens at first: This case of multitasking ended up with a heffty fine and he was told he could no longer drive his car.

From here to Infinity is a relatively short ride! The next leg takes eons and eons as you fly through the Barycentric Dynamical Time Zone! …and on and on and on.  Follow the Zentraveler Newsletter often for Travel, Health and Zen-like stories  and such. Where else can you get a THREE IN ONE NEWSLETTER FOR THE PRICE OF FREE.

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