January 2025
Namaste! We’ve Been Collaborating Intelligently For 200,000 Years; Why Stop Now?
Instead of going quietly into the night, from his mountaintop cave overlooking the Aegean Sea John wrote The Book of Revelation.
Jayashree “Jay” Rao and I hit it off like we’d known each other all our lives, when in fact I just happened to grab the empty seat beside her on the last day of Krista Tippett’s 10-day gathering in June, 2024. We were on the Greek island to which, 2,000 years ago, Rome banished a guy named John, who’d been rabble-rousing in Ephesus, talking about loving thy neighbor and other clearly dangerous concepts. Emperor Domitian felt sure John couldn’t possibly stir up any more trouble from remote, rocky, sparsely populated Patmos.
Instead of going quietly into the night, from his mountaintop cave overlooking the Aegean Sea John wrote The Book of Revelation.
Instead of going quietly into the night, from his mountaintop cave overlooking the Aegean Sea John wrote The Book of Revelation.
Photo from the personal archive
Jay and I weren’t on Patmos because we’re fire-and-brimstone types. (More and more scholars are insisting that “the common understanding” of Revelation is all wrong. Wes Howard-Brook makes an especially cogent case that John was writing about peace in the Present, not some futuristic “Second Coming.”) Jay and I were there because the half-a-billion-downloaded former PBS spiritual guru and On Being founder had invited 80 of us to gather together and embark on what the insightful, ever-ebullient Krista called “Journeying into the Common Good.” Our fellow journeymen and -women included Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriters, Belfast poets and Dartmouth professors, Buddhists, Quakers, as well as Catholics, Congregationalists, Sufis, atheists, Hindus, and tree-huggers.
Though there were many wonderful, memorable presentations, performances, recitals and other shares, planned and impromptu, Jay’s really stood out. The audience was riveted. She spoke as a medical doctor and meticulous scientific researcher, zig-zagging immigrant from Goa…to rural India…to New York City…to New Orleans, “and especially as a grandmother,” she recently told me. “When I was certified in Pediatric Endocrinology, there were two hundred and forty-nine others in the world with the same qualification. However, I was the only maternal grandmother for my daughter’s little girl, Aubrey. I chose grand-motherhood. No pay, no certification. It is the best job satisfaction I have had among my many other roles.” In a very engaging and straightforward manner, anchored by unequivocal facts and data, using her own ancestral journey as a touchstone —Jay explained three things that she’d discovered.
First
It’s not just a poster in the break room at work, that quotes Rumi: physiologically, we’re all brothers and sisters, born of one man and one woman. “The DNA doesn’t lie.”
Second
We’re here today because our ancestors were fortunate to adapt physically-genetically. For instance, those who migrated to and lived near the equator developed dark skin, while those venturing up Upsala way adapted in different ways.
Third
Those who preceded us were wise to apprehend the need to live interdependently. Not only with Neanderthals and other humans but also Nature writ large. Like understanding the amazing curative power of the tiny New Zealand honeybee, whose sweet and unadulterated honey heals skin wounds better than anything designed in the most advanced lab, and made by human hands. Like protecting the rapidly shrinking Sierra Nevada icepacks, which are increasingly struggling to irrigate California’s central valley, the world’s most productive patch of land.
Without further ado…it’s my great pleasure to turn things over to Jay.
Dr. Rao taught medical students, residents, and fellows in Pediatrics and Pediatric Endocrinology for 30+ years. Since retiring in 2006, in addition to becoming a full-time grandmother, she’s been leading courses in Mindfulness in Wellness and Illness, rooted in Buddhism, and guiding people through meditations in various settings.
Jay got her MD from Kasturba Medical College (Mangalore) and further training in pediatrics from Madras Medical College (Chennai), did her Residency in Pediatrics at St. Vincent Hospital (NYC), and did a 3-year Fellowship in Pediatric Endocrinology at NYU and Columbia University. An avid adventurer who climbed Mount Kilimanjaro at age 63 and Mount Fuji at age 64, she’s visited 74 countries, and considers travel as a great teacher.