We live in the AI era. As a technology, the AI is vastly different from the earlier revolutionary changes, be it the Industrial Revolution, the use of electricity, or even the electronic revolution. What these took centuries or decades to transform, the AI is managing in months, nay, days!
In such radical times, what would the notion called 'Vishwakarma' mean? As per the tradition, this deity of the artisans is the maker of alternative universes. Remember the Indraprastha Palace of the 'Mahabharata' ? Yes, the same mansion where it was difficult to differentiate between the plain surface and the lake as the 'mock' tiles? It was his creation. Be it Indra's 'vajrastra' or Rama's "Pushpak Viman", this master designer of the gods was the maker!
May be, the Vishwakarma Pujan is a bow in the direction of the barter arrangement of co-existence wherein all the 'smiths', be it the iron, copper, brass or gold as the medium, be it the carpenter, be it the weaver, be it the potter were artisans who exchanged their produce.
How to make what sense of this concept now? Is it as the primacy of skills over mere concepts? Well, skills transform an abstraction in to reality! Skills shape ideas in to concrete constructs. Plato would agree with such an obsession with skills!
Is it also a reminder that 'hard' work is losing ground to 'smart' work as the cliché goes? Yes, in our era of the AI designing, and developing actually, the 3D products, how to understand this primacy of crafts?
In my opinion, in our truly transformational times, the 'Vishwakarma' concept would mean that 'work is worship'. It is this sense of continuous commitment that no AI can take away, right? Long live the 'vishwa-karma' feel!
Pratima@ "Ganesha! This whole universe is born of Thee! This entire world abides in Thee! This entire cosmos concludes in Thee! Thou art the Earth, Thou the Air, Thou the Fire, Thou the Water, Thou the infinite Space! "
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