StartUp Ideas inspired from the Bhagavad Gita
Startups are generally built to just make money, but its also important for us as a society to build startups that contribute to our overall well being and also make money in the process. And these startup ideas don’t have to be fancy. Even a simple idea that is actually useful for people can become the next big thing! In this blog, I would share a few such simple ideas inspired by concepts of the Bhagavad Gita.
Some of these ideas are quite simple and the first version can be implemented by anyone who knows python coding and LLM prompt engineering. If you are a total beginner in python coding, then you must start from the problems listed in this blog. Once you have done some basic coding practice and played around with LLM prompts, you can start working on the problems listed below.
Concept 1 : Importance of Performing Duty
नियतं कुरु कर्म त्वं कर्म ज्यायो ह्यकर्मणः|
शरीरयात्रापि च ते न प्रसिद्ध्येदकर्मणः || 3.8 ||Perform one’s essential duties, because action is superior to inaction. Even the sustenance of one’s body is impossible through inaction.
In life, performing one’s essential duties (Karma) is critical for progress. Write a python program to help a person prioritise and track their daily tasks. Each task is categorised as either essential duty (e.g., studying, working, exercise) or non-essential activity (e.g., watching TV, playing games). Create a function perform_duties that takes a dictionary as input from the user where the keys are the TO DOs for the day and values are the time needed to complete each of these tasks, and returns a list containing the sequence in which these tasks should be performed so that essential duties are given priority, and there are some non-essential fun activities interspersed in between so that the day does not become a drag. Of course, you need to figure out which of the tasks in the input dictionary are essential and which are non-essential.
Concept 2 : Cause of Anger
ध्यायतो विषयान्पुंसः सङ्गस्तेषूपजायते|
सङ्गात् संजायते कामः कामात्क्रोधोऽभिजायते || 2.62 ||When an individual constantly thinks on objects, attachment to those objects arises. From this attachment, desire grows and from desire, anger arises.
Build an LLM based chatbot to help the user in analysing the cause of his/her anger. It should ask intelligent questions based on the information provided by the user, and finally lead to identifying what was the cause of the anger. It does not have to provide any solution to the anger issues or how to avoid the cause. Just help the user in root cause analysis.
Concept 3 : Importance of moderation
युक्ताहारविहारस्य युक्तचेष्टस्य कर्मसु|
युक्तस्वप्नावबोधस्य योगो भवति दुःखहा || 6.17 ||For those who regulate their eating and movements, maintain moderate effort in their work, and practice temperance in sleep and wakefulness, Yoga can serve as a means of dispelling sorrow.
The Gita emphasises balance in life. Write a Python program to analyze a person’s weekly schedule to determine if they are maintaining balance. Create a function is_balanced_schedule that takes a list of daily hours spent on work, rest, and other activities and returns True if work and rest hours are balanced (difference ≤ 1 hour each day), else returns False. Example input:
schedule = [
{“work”: 8, “rest”: 8, “other”: 8}, # Day 1
{“work”: 9, “rest”: 7, “other”: 8}, # Day 2
{“work”: 10, “rest”: 6, “other”: 8} # Day 3
]
Concept 4 : Sattvic qualities
मुक्तसङ्गोऽनहंवादी धृत्युत्साहसमन्वितः|
सिद्ध्यसिद्ध्योर्निर्विकारः कर्ता सात्त्विक उच्यते || 18.26 ||A person who is devoid of attachment, not self-centered, possesses strength and persistence, and remains unaffected by triumphs and setbacks is considered to have sattva.
The Gita describes three qualities: Sattva (goodness), Rajas (passion), and Tamas (ignorance). Do a Google search and create a dictionary where the keys are various food items and actions, and the corresponding values are their predominant gunas. Write a python function analyze_gunas that takes a list of the actions performed and food items eaten by a person on a given day, and outputs the average of the guna values for that person on that day (assume Sattva to have a numerical value of +1, Tamas to be -1 and Rajas to be 0). To make it more realistic, the values for each key of your dictionary can range from -10 (extreme tamasic) to +10 (extreme sattvik).
Concept 5 : Impermanence of pleasure and pain
मात्रास्पर्शास्तु कौन्तेय शीतोष्णसुखदुःखदाः|
आगमापायिनोऽनित्यास्तांस्तितिक्षस्व भारत || 2.14 ||The sensations of cold and heat, pleasure and pain, are a result of the interaction between our sense organs and external objects. However, these experiences are impermanent and will come to an end. Oh, descendant of Bharata, accept them without attachment.
Build an LLM based chatbot that takes a user’s diary entries as input (python dictionary, where keys are the dates, and values are the text entries), figures which entries indicate a pleasurable experience and which indicate a painful experience, and has a conversation with the user centred around how long each of these experiences lasted with an aim to make the user realise that these experiences change with time and no particular kind of experience remains permanently in the mind. Also create some graphs and other visualisations using the diary entries to show the fluctuations in these experiences.
Concept 6 : Transmigration of the soul
वासांसि जीर्णानि यथा विहाय नवानि गृह्णाति नरोऽपराणि|
तथा शरीराणि विहाय जीर्णा- न्यन्यानि संयाति नवानि देही || 2.22 ||Just as a person discards old and tattered clothes and replaces them with new ones, similarly, after leaving behind an old and worn-out body, the embodied soul associates with a new body.
The quality of a person’s afterlife depends a lot on the quality of a person’s current life and state of the mind during death. Even those who don’t believe in the concept of an afterlife would surely want to have a good current life and a peaceful death experience. And for this, it is important for the person to be as free from all kinds of fear as possible. This includes the fear of death. Death is the end in a way, but its also a beginning for something else. Creation and destruction always go hand in hand.
Build an LLM based chatbot that asks the user about their deepest fears and helps them in overcoming it. Take them on a journey to discover that even if their worst nightmares come true, there is still hope in the future. Make them realise that when one door closes, another one opens up. And even death is not an end!
Concept 7 : Equanimity
दुःखेष्वनुद्विग्नमनाः सुखेषु विगतस्पृहः|
वीतरागभयक्रोधः स्थितधीर्मुनिरुच्यते || 2.56 ||The person who remains steadfast in the face of misery, is uninterested in worldly pleasures, and is free from attachment, fear, and anger is known as a wise sage with unwavering wisdom.
Equanimity is hard to achieve and requires a lot of effort in the right direction. A lot of people are willing to make the effort, but are unable to find the right direction. This is because the direction is very subjective and no single solution works for all. Now while there is a lot of subjectivity in the various paths one can take, we can broadly divide all these paths into 4 categories : Karma Yoga, Jnana Yoga, Bhakti Yoga and Kriya Yoga. Now which of these is most suitable for a person is not easy to figure out. Write a python function or an LLM based chatbot that takes as input from the user their likes, dislikes, lifestyle, etc and recommends a personalised Yoga protocol that they can follow for maximum benefit.
Concept 8 : Devotion
यत्करोषि यदश्नासि यज्जुहोषि ददासि यत्|
यत्तपस्यसि कौन्तेय तत्कुरुष्व मदर्पणम् || 9.27 ||Whatever actions you perform, whatever you eat, whatever offerings you make, whatever you give, and whatever austerities you undertake, do them as an offering to Me, O son of Kunti.
Write a python program that takes a list of a user’s favourite devotional songs (bhajans) and recommends other devotional songs from on a YouTube playlist.
Concept 9 : God’s Incarnation (Avatar)
यदा यदा हि धर्मस्य ग्लानिर्भवति भारत|
अभ्युत्थानमधर्मस्य तदाऽऽत्मानं सृजाम्यहम् || 4.7 ||Whenever there is a decline in virtue and an increase in vice, I reveal Myself, O descendant of the Bharata dynasty.
God is one, but can appear in many different forms to the devotees. And not everyone will feel attracted to every form. That is why we have the concept of an Ishta Devata (cherised divinity). Write a python program that takes as input from the users their preferences, likes, dislikes, dreams for the future, etc and recommends a suitable form of God that will work best for them. This can also in the form of an LLM based chatbot.
Concept 10 : Salvation for Sinners
अपि चेदसि पापेभ्यः सर्वेभ्यः पापकृत्तमः|
सर्वं ज्ञानप्लवेनैव वृजिनं सन्तरिष्यसि || 4.36 ||Even if you are considered the greatest sinner among all sinners, you can still overcome all wickedness solely through the raft of Knowledge.
To err is human, but to make amends is noble. And no matter how grave someone’s error is, there is always a room for course correction. Typically, in India, when people commit a sin, they go to a priest who recommends some special type of puja (worship) and some charity which is “guaranteed” to take care of the sins. But this seldom works. Stains can be cleaned through effort but cannot be whitewashed just by throwing money over them. Build an LLM based chatbot that talks to the users to understand what kind of sins they have committed, and offers an honest remedial action that can genuinely help in making amends. This remedial action could be in the form of apologising to someone, or donating to some charities, or letting go of some bad habits, or taking up some penance for some time, etc.
Hope to see some startups actually building some of this stuff!
