Role of driving forces in life and matter

Role of driving forces in life and matter

Gouri Tripathi

Our thoughts and actions should be unidirectional to show results. Random thoughts and disjointed action would lead us nowhere. Success arises if all the forces at our command are rallied in a given direction. One who digs shallow wells at several places does not get water. A deep well at one place would serve the purpose. Thus driving forces are necessary for coherence in thought and result-oriented action.

The driving force can be either external or internal. However, the virtues of later far overweigh the former. The guidance of parents at home and the teachers in the school forms the initial driving force for a person. They made us realize our potency, identify our strengths and weaknesses and help us develop a distinct character. In other words, we attain the state self-realisation in the process. Once we do this, our actions would be result oriented and success would follow as a natural consequence. This would also lead to create our own internal driving force.

Virtues and good qualities would be ineffective if a driving force does not channelise these to yield results. A coherence of qualities is necessary in order that these are transformed into affirmative action.

I draw some analogies from science, which describe the effects of a driving force on materials properties. It is a commonplace knowledge that a metallic wire connected to a power source shows electric current. Metals are distinguished from other types of materials in the sense these possess free charge carriers, the electrons. These electrons are freely moving in a metal. Because of the random motion of the electrons, the resultant effect is zero. However, when the metallic wire is connected to an electric power source, the electronic motion is controlled and the wire shows an electric current. Here the electric power source is the driving force for the drifted motion of electrons, resulting in the electric current.

I now present another example to corroborate the idea of a driving force causing fruitful action. Paramagnet is a material that shows magnetism only when it comes under the effect of an external magnetic field, although it is made of tiny magnets. Since these tiny magnets are randomly oriented, their net magnetization is zero, in the absence of a magnetic driving force. An applied magnetic force aligns these tiny magnets in an orderly fashion, and these show magnetism.

I shall now give examples of materials, which do not need any external driving force for showing their properties. A superconductor shows persistent current, even in the absence of an applied electric power source, of course below some characteristic temperature. This persistent current results from an internal mechanism, which is inherent to these materials. Similarly, a ferromagnet shows magnetism, in the absence of an external magnetic force, and a ferroelectric shows spontaneous electric polarization, in the absence of an applied electric force. These show their qualities, entirely from their inherent internal strength, which acts as the driving force. A diffused laser beam cannot burn a bad tissue; a well-focused beam can do.

Just as a good driving force brings out good qualities in a person, a bad driving force can enhance the bad qualities. There are instances when innocent people lost their ways in the company of bad influence. When a person has lost his reasons, he resists all good efforts to transform him. Indeed, Chanakya had rightly said: upadeso hi moorkhanam prokopaya na santaye, which means sound advice to a wicked person only angers him, but not mellows his bad spirit.

The spiritually emphasised satsang acts as a positive driving force in a person’s life. The ultimate aim of a good life is to be a stithapragnya, by rising above the vicissitudes of life, responding equally to pleasure and pain and remaining undaunted in the face of danger. This is difficult, but perhaps not impossible, if we can generate positive driving forces in ourselves.

About the author (not to be published):

Prof. Gouri. S. Tripathi teaches Physics at Berhampur University, Berhampur, Orissa, India. He
obtained his Ph. D. in Condensed Matter Physics in 1982. Apart from teaching at Berhampur,
he worked in the past at several places both in India and abroad, notable among them
are University of Hyderabad, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, Louisiana
State university, Baton Rouge, USA, Imperial College, London and University of Missouri,
Columbia, USA. He also publishes popular scientific articles in Oriya and English.