Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Textual deferrance on the Vision

Vedanta talks of ' tat upanishat '. Here upanishat resolves into upa + ni + sat. 'Upa' is to be near. 'ni ' is before; 'sat' is to be. i.e. upanishat is to be in close proximity before or in front of. As a free adaptation we can say ' to be in close encounter with truth'. In the thought level we can say to approach truth is to do many levels of abstraction and attain the ultimate concept by removing the hiding layers of concreteness by the process of abstraction. When such a moment of conceptual realisation occurs, the Vedantins of the Forest-books always indicates such moments as ' this is upanishat'. We can say in other words that the concrete levels screened off the truth or the process of abstraction prepares the aspirant for 'seeing the truth'. This preparatory process consisted of ' hearing, thinking, meditating' -- sravana, manana, nidhidhyasanam --reading, studying, understanding and being totally involved in the concept.
The same epistemological formations were rolled into the concrete model of ' Archa ' , viz.,the temple. The physical screen delayed the vision and deferred the experience and in the mean time giving scope for reciting the canons. The text operates on the 'delay' and ' deference ' till the moment of ' vision' happens. Waiting for the vision is actually going thru the process of abstraction, which process is mapped out in the texts of the canon and hence going thru texts is expected to be of the rigor and value of the process of abstraction. Hence, the recitation of texts before the screen and before the vision. 'I know how to wait ' - so says the protagonist of the novel Siddhartha, by H.Hesse.' Be hungry, be alone, be awake ' so says the Tamil saint. Waiting is an art, not ofpatience, but of acceptance. To live with the creative tension of hope and possibility, and total acceptance of the given moment as an accomplished target calls for unique sensibilities of the soul. But only a poet knows how to loose the balance of mind during waiting, only to encash it as immortality of words.
Thirumangai Mannan, the robber-turned-saint of SriVaishnavism, in great hunger of the concrete visions of the Transcendent Divinity, explored all the templed spaces of theological fervor and in his go-around, he came to the place of Thiruvindalur. It was offtime for the vision, with the curtain postponing the DARSANAM--revelation. The saint became frustrated and in a shrugg-off he comments, ' Indalureerae ! vaazhndaepom neerae !! ' --' Thou Lord of the town Indalur ! Be like this foever rejoicing in thine own vision unto thyself [not giving me your Darsanam] '
Surely, it will not be for the reason that the temple gates are closed in the nonscheduled hours, that the saint is frustrated. But he is waiting in more than one level for the multiple visions of the abstract and his frustration is a way ofdilating the recessed meanings of the tension. The whole transaction of the saint is made unavailable to us not because of the opaqueness of the words, but because we may not enter the enclosure as we should. What we lack in the propriety and preparedness, we may make good by artful sharing of the words, which map out the tension and manipulate the vision.
This was an instance of a devotee already sharing by involvement the canonical space created by faith and textual attributions. To see another instance of a poet proper entering the hyper space of devotion in his own right as a man of poetry, and waiting at the threshold of vision and meeting a like situation of deferred DARSANAM,
' Open the gate, thou gate keeper !God of the wheel and Lord of the oceancommitted ourselves to Him, by devotion,dipping in births daring ports at last , at the edge of time, before the turn around before the towering bell turns the clockwe have entered the portals rich, And open the gates longlive. '[aazhi iraivarkkae aatpattu yaam palkaal paazhir piravi patindhu thurai pukunthu, oozhikkadai naalin ongu mani vaayililae vaazhi ivann adaindhom, vaayiloi ! thaall thirravaai]---tr. of a verse of Thiruloka Seethaaram.
Here the poet awaits confirmation rather than the vision. For him, the vision has been already vouchsafed by the poetic perception of the plural possibilties of the word and the world in tandem. Here he is trying to attain the abstract certainty of the poetically epistemical ' visions' he lodged at the outset.

Some musings on the sonnets of Shakespeare

I was translating some sonnets of Shakespeare into Tamil. I was wondering why the bard thought it so important to advice a young man like me to marry without fail and to impress on the mind of the lad the sanctity of wedding and begetting. Was it perhaps to himself? Was it a soliloquy? Naturally talking about marriage engenders considerations of immortality and furtherance of life which otherwise ends with the individual. People have speculated long about the dark lady, the young man, even a Lord and what not. But why a poet like Shakespeare should dilate so much on a predominantly prevalent theme like marriage for a total length of say 156 or 154 sonnets? I am trying to read in between lines and attempting various interpretations but the persistant mystery seems to be evading.
'Unthrifty loveliness, why dost thou spendUpon thyself thy beauty's legacy?Nature's bequest gives nothing but doth lend,And being frank she lends to those are free.Then, beauteous niggard, why dost thou abuseThe bounteous largess given thee to give?Profitless usurer, why dost thou useSo great a sum of sums, yet canst not live?For having traffic with thyself alone,Thou of thyself thy sweet self dost deceive.Then how, when nature calls thee to be gone,What acceptable audit canst thou leave?Thy unused beauty must be tomb'd with thee,Which, used, lives th' executor to be'
Was it death or progeny or pragmatic sensibilty which prompted W.S. or none of these but something else? I am having my mind open to any chance hints or insights from the poem or anywherelse.

FIRE, the early love of Man

Fire, the old friend of man, is even now fresh and interesting to look at. Manifold forms of energy have not made this raw guest in any way less wonderful. But what was his reception in the days of old when darkness, dampness and dangers from the wild were making his absence acutely felt. He was a God once ! Now may be a utility. Who can access those primordial times and see his world, where men and cattle worshipped him devoutly? If at all we can do that, I think it should be through Rig Veda, the oldest log of subjective reactions to the outside world and the symbolising initiatives toward the abstractions. This god Fire, or Agni as he was called in Rig Vedic times enjoyed not only worship but also teasing and humour at the hands of the devotees.
In R.V.10.79 he is portrayed as a magnificient immortal making visible his might among the mortals. Do you know his might? With a touch of humour the poet says, "he is of two jaws rent asunder, devouring everything in without masticating anything". A glutton impatient even to chew!
His head is in a cavern safely sheltered off. His eyes are wide, viewing all. His tongue gulps in even a forest without chewing. So naturally the worshipper is doubly careful! He stands at a safe distance and raises his two hands up away from the touch of his tongues and offers oblations.
Not only that. He is born of the mother earth. But how he ravages her creeping over her as a child and swallowing trees and even licking out the hidden roots in her crevices.
He was made from the two logs of wood churned to friction. Once he is born, the Fire devours the parents! The poet makes a dig at Fire saying "see! I am so devoted to my parents and respect them. And I am only a mortal. But this one, he devours his parents immediately when he is born and He is called Immortal!"
The poet asks this god, "what wrong, what sin you have committed among the gods, that you are let down like this on the earth here to hunt for your food over dale and vale?"
The symbolisation and the subjective interaction with a primordial natural element being so much suffused with bristling humour speaks of that age in a modern tone and makes credible the possibility of not only fear and mystery, but also humour and certainty and subjective gregariousness with the greater questions of life being the initial conditions of theology.