Sri Ramana Maharishi, I came to know when I was a boy through the book of Sri Ramana Vijayam, written by Yogi Suddhanandha Bharathi in Tamil. Excellent photos of Bhagavan and the Arunachala Hills and caves were enchanting to the eyes and engaging the mind. In the front even Yogi's photo was such an aura.
Invariably, all spiritual personages were given those days in books, a circular-light background to the head. So in the school days, the natural idea was spirituality means something fantastic, suffusing with brilliance, light and rays. It was more optical and luminary. After reading epic-like narrations of Yogi about Maharishi it added all the more to the irradiance. Even now Yogi's 'language' is unforgettable.
And that too, appendixed by my father's memory of meeting Bhagavan, added still more to the depth of the event of my getting introduced to the Ramana's loka. My father Mr R Venugopal, used to have a photo of himself acting the part of Prince of Morocco from Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice, , where the still portrays the moment of the dialogue -- "Hey pluck the young sucking-cubs from the she-bear"- when he was showing the action of gripped right fist across his chest, along his left eye.
I asked him one day, 'why do you keep this photo always in your purse?' Then he was telling it carries a story, associated with Sri Ramana Maharishi. I was all eager and babbled out - 'have you seen him? did you talk to him? what did he say? what did you ask?'
My father was saying, "cool boy cool. There was no talk and questions. Once I went to the Hills to have his Darshan. First day it didn't click. Second day I tried, thinking, if not that time then to return back home, visiting temples. Fortunately I found entry among the devotees sitting in front. It was uniquely calm to watch him and just sit there. For some purpose, I took out my purse to take or place something there. Perhaps Bhagavan was seeing that, I do not know. This photo, a still of the just-staged play, I was keeping it there. He asked for the photo and stared at it for a moment. Then doing the same action in the photo by folding his fist and looking at me, he returned it. I consider this as his blessing and am keeping it as the sacred memory."
*
Sunday, February 09, 2020
A Thiruppugazh on Thirumal
A rare song of the genre 'thiruppugazh' on Thirumaal. This is my translation of the piece -
You created this world
you recovered this world
you saved this world
you measured this world
you swallowed this world
not only that
you brought this world out again
you have been born in this world
and you have taken form
similar to the beings of this world
and you have become the goal
of all the religions sixfold as a sport
to suit the tastes and understandings
of all the worlds triune
sustaining ever
is it possible for me, a slave
to extol and praise your grace
and narrate the great acts
of your incarnations
done for our protection?
when the cows and oxen hedged in their yards
were driven asunder by the fiery rains,
seeing their plight you rushed
and took a mountain aloft as a shelter
for the pining kine
are you not one tall form of Love, my Lord!
You were born in Madura
famous for swans beautifully asleep in ponds
and the musician-bees ringing
lisps of sweet ragas while exploring
the buds of lotuses in the morn"
This is my translation of one old Tamil Thiruppugazh song sung by one Kuravai Iraamaanuja Dasar written about 1850 and published in 1857 and again in 1897. This forms part of his work which is called Noorriyettutthiruppathi thiruppugazh - a composition on 108 temples of Thirumaal. The original of this verse is as follows -
உலகுப டைத்திடந்திவ் வுலகமெ டுத்தளந்திவ்
வுலகம டுத்தருந்தி
யொழியாதே
யுலகம றித்துமிழ்ந்திவ் வுலகுத னிற்பிறந்திவ்
வுலகுயி ரொத்து நின்று
நிலையாகும்
அலகில்ச கத்ரயங்க ளவரவ ருக்கிணங்கி
யறுசம யத்தினின்று
விளையாடி
யருள்புரி ரட்சகங்க ளுனதுச ரித்திரங்க
ளடியனெ டுத்தியம்ப
வசமாமோ
பலகிடை யிற்கிடந்த பசுநிறை தட்டழிந்து
பதறவி டுத்திடுங்கன்
மழைமாரி
படுமொரு விர்த்திகண்டு மலைகுடை யிட்டுநின்று
பரிபவ ரட்சைதந்த
நெடுமாலே
மலர்வன சத்தரும்பும் முகையவி ழக்குடைந்து
மழலைவ ரிச்சுரும்ப
ரிசைபாட
மடவெகி னக்குலங்கள் விழிதுயில் பொற்பிலங்கு
வடமது ரைப்பிறந்த
பெருமாளே !
My homage to Thiru Kuravai Iraamaanuja Dasar! (and Thiru S E Arangasamy Mudaliyar who brought this out in 1897)
***
You created this world
you recovered this world
you saved this world
you measured this world
you swallowed this world
not only that
you brought this world out again
you have been born in this world
and you have taken form
similar to the beings of this world
and you have become the goal
of all the religions sixfold as a sport
to suit the tastes and understandings
of all the worlds triune
sustaining ever
is it possible for me, a slave
to extol and praise your grace
and narrate the great acts
of your incarnations
done for our protection?
when the cows and oxen hedged in their yards
were driven asunder by the fiery rains,
seeing their plight you rushed
and took a mountain aloft as a shelter
for the pining kine
are you not one tall form of Love, my Lord!
You were born in Madura
famous for swans beautifully asleep in ponds
and the musician-bees ringing
lisps of sweet ragas while exploring
the buds of lotuses in the morn"
This is my translation of one old Tamil Thiruppugazh song sung by one Kuravai Iraamaanuja Dasar written about 1850 and published in 1857 and again in 1897. This forms part of his work which is called Noorriyettutthiruppathi thiruppugazh - a composition on 108 temples of Thirumaal. The original of this verse is as follows -
உலகுப டைத்திடந்திவ் வுலகமெ டுத்தளந்திவ்
வுலகம டுத்தருந்தி
யொழியாதே
யுலகம றித்துமிழ்ந்திவ் வுலகுத னிற்பிறந்திவ்
வுலகுயி ரொத்து நின்று
நிலையாகும்
அலகில்ச கத்ரயங்க ளவரவ ருக்கிணங்கி
யறுசம யத்தினின்று
விளையாடி
யருள்புரி ரட்சகங்க ளுனதுச ரித்திரங்க
ளடியனெ டுத்தியம்ப
வசமாமோ
பலகிடை யிற்கிடந்த பசுநிறை தட்டழிந்து
பதறவி டுத்திடுங்கன்
மழைமாரி
படுமொரு விர்த்திகண்டு மலைகுடை யிட்டுநின்று
பரிபவ ரட்சைதந்த
நெடுமாலே
மலர்வன சத்தரும்பும் முகையவி ழக்குடைந்து
மழலைவ ரிச்சுரும்ப
ரிசைபாட
மடவெகி னக்குலங்கள் விழிதுயில் பொற்பிலங்கு
வடமது ரைப்பிறந்த
பெருமாளே !
My homage to Thiru Kuravai Iraamaanuja Dasar! (and Thiru S E Arangasamy Mudaliyar who brought this out in 1897)
***
Four kinds of knowers as Thirumoolar says
How many ways of knowing are there! The great mystic of Siva, Thirumoolar speaks about many types of knowers.
Some knowers are like rainy water. They are always reductive. They reduce everything to mundane level and interpret accordingly. Some are like pearl-divers. They dive in one place and go on exploring in one square. Some are like winds. When knowing they go about vast areas, without staying-put anywhere. They like to spread and spread always. May be their grasp of anything is shallow. Some are really knowers with clarity. They are precise and clear in their understanding.
So as per Thirumoolar we can classify knowers into four types. Rainy-knowers, Diving-knowers, Windy-knowers and Clear-knowers. Shall we say the formula is RDWC?
Rainy-knowers - thaLi arivaaLar
Diving-knowers - kuLi aRivaaLar
Windy-knowers - vaLi aRivaaLar
Clear-knowers - theLi aRivaaLar
Sri Thirumoolar says Rainy-knowers (thaLi aRivaaLar) are like rain-water which always flow towards low levels. For them the Ultimate Truth looks always banal and materialistic.
Diving-knowers (kuLi aRivaaLar) concentrate always in one point and one angle and they lose sight of the whole.
Windy-knowers (vaLi aRivaaLar) always go about roaming and blowing here and there, around. So they may by chance get at the Truth, perhaps. May be they may not hold on to that.
Clear-knowers (theLi aRivaaLar) are those who are in grasp of the Ultimate Truth. The Truth resides in their thought.
First I will give my attempt in translating the verse and then the original.
For the Rainy-knowers It appears as if mundane and reductive
For the Diving-knowers the Whole Truth evades their grasp
For the Windy-knowers perhaps by chance they may come across
For the Clear-knowers He the Ultimate Truth resides in their thought.
(Thirumanthiram, 51 Theertham, 510, pp 74, Saiva Siddhanta Mahasamajam, 1940)
தளியறி வாளர்க்குத் தண்ணிதாய்த் தோன்றும்
குளியறி வாளர்க்குக் கூடவும் ஒண்ணான்
வளியறி வாளர்க்கு வாய்க்கிலும் வாய்க்கும்
தெளியறி வாளர்தம் சிந்தையு ளானே.
(This is just my attempt in understanding the verse. Great scholars can kindly excuse.)
***
Some knowers are like rainy water. They are always reductive. They reduce everything to mundane level and interpret accordingly. Some are like pearl-divers. They dive in one place and go on exploring in one square. Some are like winds. When knowing they go about vast areas, without staying-put anywhere. They like to spread and spread always. May be their grasp of anything is shallow. Some are really knowers with clarity. They are precise and clear in their understanding.
So as per Thirumoolar we can classify knowers into four types. Rainy-knowers, Diving-knowers, Windy-knowers and Clear-knowers. Shall we say the formula is RDWC?
Rainy-knowers - thaLi arivaaLar
Diving-knowers - kuLi aRivaaLar
Windy-knowers - vaLi aRivaaLar
Clear-knowers - theLi aRivaaLar
Sri Thirumoolar says Rainy-knowers (thaLi aRivaaLar) are like rain-water which always flow towards low levels. For them the Ultimate Truth looks always banal and materialistic.
Diving-knowers (kuLi aRivaaLar) concentrate always in one point and one angle and they lose sight of the whole.
Windy-knowers (vaLi aRivaaLar) always go about roaming and blowing here and there, around. So they may by chance get at the Truth, perhaps. May be they may not hold on to that.
Clear-knowers (theLi aRivaaLar) are those who are in grasp of the Ultimate Truth. The Truth resides in their thought.
First I will give my attempt in translating the verse and then the original.
For the Rainy-knowers It appears as if mundane and reductive
For the Diving-knowers the Whole Truth evades their grasp
For the Windy-knowers perhaps by chance they may come across
For the Clear-knowers He the Ultimate Truth resides in their thought.
(Thirumanthiram, 51 Theertham, 510, pp 74, Saiva Siddhanta Mahasamajam, 1940)
தளியறி வாளர்க்குத் தண்ணிதாய்த் தோன்றும்
குளியறி வாளர்க்குக் கூடவும் ஒண்ணான்
வளியறி வாளர்க்கு வாய்க்கிலும் வாய்க்கும்
தெளியறி வாளர்தம் சிந்தையு ளானே.
(This is just my attempt in understanding the verse. Great scholars can kindly excuse.)
***
A Tamil translation of Bhana
More than 500 years ago, a Tamil scholar and poet decided to translate in Tamil Bana Bhatta's Kadhambari in honeyed verses. In the intro-verses he himself says that in the Kali year 4562 he composed his Tamil verse translation. But why it didn't come out and become famous among scholars, no body knows. It has all the qualities to become a fond work of deep readers. Tamil is so excellent and resonating in its inherent elements. You begin to forget that the work is a translation.
The great scholar-poet was one Vaazhavandha Perumal. But even time could not stop the work seeing the light of day in 1912. A rare manuscript was with one Vakkil at Srirangam. He was Sri J Krishnayyangar. He asked the Tamil Pandit Sri P R Krishnamachariyar and Srirangam High School Tamil Pandit Guru Subbiramaniya Iyer to do a prose rendering of the same Tamil work. and got both the verses and the prose published in 1912 through The Wednesday Review Press at 'Trichinopoly' as Thiruchirappalli was so called at that time. My humble respects to J Krishnaiyangar of Srirangam. But for him perhaps we would not have come to know of such a work. He has really pleaded in the court of Time.
Even the verses indited as prayers in the beginning bespeak the fertile Tamil of Sri Vazhavandha Perumal.
பொன்கொண்ட நேமிப் புயல் பூமகள் புல்லிவாழும்
மின்கொண்ட மார்பன் எழுபார் சதுவேதனோடு
முன்கண்ட நாபி முதன்மூவகை மூர்த்தியான
என்கண்ட கோமான் இருபாதம் இறைஞ்சலுற்றேன்.
சொல்லும் பொருளும் கனியும் சுவையும் சுடரும்
எல்லும் சசியும் நிசியும் இயலும் இசையும்
ஒல்லும் உடலும் உயிரும் எனநாளும் ஒன்றிச்
செல்லும் பரசத்தி சிவன்றனைச் சிந்தை செய்வாம்.
முன்னான் முகனாவில் இருந்து மொழிந்த வேதம்
தன்னால் உலகம் தழைப்பித்தருள் தையல் துய்ய
நன்னாமம் என்னாளும் நவின்று நவின்று வாழும்
என்னா உளதாக எனக்கரி தாய துண்டே.
செங்கோல மேனிச் சிவனார் திருமைந்தன் எங்கள்
பங்கோன் முராரி மருகன்கடம் பற்கு முன்னோன்
வெங்கோப வேழ முகவன்வினை வேர றுக்கும்
எங்கோனடி சேர்பவர் இந்திரன் என்ன வாழ்வோர்.
மஞ்சுண்ட கோல மயிலுண்டு அயில் வேலும் உண்டு
துஞ்சுண்டு இனிநான் மறலிக்கு உயிர் தோற்பதுண்டோ
நஞ்சுண்டநாதர் மகனார் திருநாமம் உண்டு
நெஞ்சுண்டு பாட நினைவுண்டு அதி நேயமுண்டே.
So the mellifluous Tamil goes on and on. What better sweets can we add on this day, except to think of such poets and readers and literary enthusiasts of the old!
***
The great scholar-poet was one Vaazhavandha Perumal. But even time could not stop the work seeing the light of day in 1912. A rare manuscript was with one Vakkil at Srirangam. He was Sri J Krishnayyangar. He asked the Tamil Pandit Sri P R Krishnamachariyar and Srirangam High School Tamil Pandit Guru Subbiramaniya Iyer to do a prose rendering of the same Tamil work. and got both the verses and the prose published in 1912 through The Wednesday Review Press at 'Trichinopoly' as Thiruchirappalli was so called at that time. My humble respects to J Krishnaiyangar of Srirangam. But for him perhaps we would not have come to know of such a work. He has really pleaded in the court of Time.
Even the verses indited as prayers in the beginning bespeak the fertile Tamil of Sri Vazhavandha Perumal.
பொன்கொண்ட நேமிப் புயல் பூமகள் புல்லிவாழும்
மின்கொண்ட மார்பன் எழுபார் சதுவேதனோடு
முன்கண்ட நாபி முதன்மூவகை மூர்த்தியான
என்கண்ட கோமான் இருபாதம் இறைஞ்சலுற்றேன்.
சொல்லும் பொருளும் கனியும் சுவையும் சுடரும்
எல்லும் சசியும் நிசியும் இயலும் இசையும்
ஒல்லும் உடலும் உயிரும் எனநாளும் ஒன்றிச்
செல்லும் பரசத்தி சிவன்றனைச் சிந்தை செய்வாம்.
முன்னான் முகனாவில் இருந்து மொழிந்த வேதம்
தன்னால் உலகம் தழைப்பித்தருள் தையல் துய்ய
நன்னாமம் என்னாளும் நவின்று நவின்று வாழும்
என்னா உளதாக எனக்கரி தாய துண்டே.
செங்கோல மேனிச் சிவனார் திருமைந்தன் எங்கள்
பங்கோன் முராரி மருகன்கடம் பற்கு முன்னோன்
வெங்கோப வேழ முகவன்வினை வேர றுக்கும்
எங்கோனடி சேர்பவர் இந்திரன் என்ன வாழ்வோர்.
மஞ்சுண்ட கோல மயிலுண்டு அயில் வேலும் உண்டு
துஞ்சுண்டு இனிநான் மறலிக்கு உயிர் தோற்பதுண்டோ
நஞ்சுண்டநாதர் மகனார் திருநாமம் உண்டு
நெஞ்சுண்டு பாட நினைவுண்டு அதி நேயமுண்டே.
So the mellifluous Tamil goes on and on. What better sweets can we add on this day, except to think of such poets and readers and literary enthusiasts of the old!
***
A book on 'seven appropriates'
A good book is more beautiful than any beauty so called. Two such books written in Sanskrit make the beauty limitless. The two books are Sapta Saamanjasi prakaranam by Araiyar SriRama Sarma and Thrisankhu, a book of modern poetry in Sanskrit by the poet Sri D D Bahulikar. The second I will write about later. Now the first -
Sri Araiyar SriRama Sarma of Melkote has written Sapta SaamanjasI Prakaranam. It deals with a theme related to Sri Bhashya of Sri Ramanuja.
In Visishtadvaitic philosophy or even in Vedantic parlance in general there is a way of expressing the ultimate import of theology as such in terms of Five Major Themes called Artha Panchaka. Those five themes are the Transcendent Ultimate Reality, the Soul, the Way that should be trodden by the Soul to reach the Ultimate Goal, the Final Goal to be realised by the Soul and the Impediments that block the attainment of the Soul. In short we can say Brahman, Jivan, Upaya, Upeya and Virodhi are the five topics of Theology. The whole Sri Bhashya, which is the commentary of Sri Ramanuja on the Brahma Sutras of Veda Vyasa explicates in various ways how the Five Topics are sufficiently and precisely explained by the Sastras be it Upanishads or the Brahma Sutras.
Araiyar SriRama Sarma concentrating mainly on these five topics and their relevant places of conclusive elucidations signified by the use of the phrase 'Saamanjasam' (i. e. a traditional way of denoting that the said point has been sufficiently and precisely dealt with hereby). In addition to these five places there are two other places in Sri Bhashya where Sri Ramanuja explicitly uses the expression Saamanjasam denoting that the point explained has been sufficiently dealt with. Araiyar Ji has taken care to formalise his whole exposition and narration of all these seven places, where the Great Commentator has expressed openly about the sufficiency of elucidation. And it is really a feast for any serious student of theology in general and Visishtadvaitic Theology in particular.
'atra sarIraka mImAmsa samAkyE brahmasUtrE, arthapanchakam pramEyam kutra katam nirUpitam asti iti srI bhAshyasUktibhi: Eva nirUpaNam saptasaAmanjasI prabandhasya uddEsyam'
'here the intent of this treatise is to provide proof of how the Five Topics of Theology (Arthapanchakam) have been proved to be the subject matter of the whole Sariraka Mimamsa called by the name Brahma Sutras' (translation mine)
This forms the intent and purpose of Araiyar SriRama Sarma Ji. And I was so much gladdened by the simple and beautiful style of Araiyar Ji, the Sailee as it is called in Sanskrit circles.
He is not exposed to modern book presentation formats or styles of presentation. He has been a traditional right from his own boyhood days of learning at the feet of Guru. But the way he has presented his treatise so much matches the modern style. He states specifically what he intends and in what way he is going to present his matter, everything at the outset and prepares the reader for what follows. And he is very much awake to his initial promise right through out.
Academy of Sanskrit Research, Melkote has done a wonderful thing by bringing out this valuable book. And for all that the price is a mere Rs forty four. Sapta SaamanjasI Prakaranam, by Araiyar SriRama Sarma, Academy of Sanskrit Research, Melkote, 571431,
***
Sri Araiyar SriRama Sarma of Melkote has written Sapta SaamanjasI Prakaranam. It deals with a theme related to Sri Bhashya of Sri Ramanuja.
In Visishtadvaitic philosophy or even in Vedantic parlance in general there is a way of expressing the ultimate import of theology as such in terms of Five Major Themes called Artha Panchaka. Those five themes are the Transcendent Ultimate Reality, the Soul, the Way that should be trodden by the Soul to reach the Ultimate Goal, the Final Goal to be realised by the Soul and the Impediments that block the attainment of the Soul. In short we can say Brahman, Jivan, Upaya, Upeya and Virodhi are the five topics of Theology. The whole Sri Bhashya, which is the commentary of Sri Ramanuja on the Brahma Sutras of Veda Vyasa explicates in various ways how the Five Topics are sufficiently and precisely explained by the Sastras be it Upanishads or the Brahma Sutras.
Araiyar SriRama Sarma concentrating mainly on these five topics and their relevant places of conclusive elucidations signified by the use of the phrase 'Saamanjasam' (i. e. a traditional way of denoting that the said point has been sufficiently and precisely dealt with hereby). In addition to these five places there are two other places in Sri Bhashya where Sri Ramanuja explicitly uses the expression Saamanjasam denoting that the point explained has been sufficiently dealt with. Araiyar Ji has taken care to formalise his whole exposition and narration of all these seven places, where the Great Commentator has expressed openly about the sufficiency of elucidation. And it is really a feast for any serious student of theology in general and Visishtadvaitic Theology in particular.
'atra sarIraka mImAmsa samAkyE brahmasUtrE, arthapanchakam pramEyam kutra katam nirUpitam asti iti srI bhAshyasUktibhi: Eva nirUpaNam saptasaAmanjasI prabandhasya uddEsyam'
'here the intent of this treatise is to provide proof of how the Five Topics of Theology (Arthapanchakam) have been proved to be the subject matter of the whole Sariraka Mimamsa called by the name Brahma Sutras' (translation mine)
This forms the intent and purpose of Araiyar SriRama Sarma Ji. And I was so much gladdened by the simple and beautiful style of Araiyar Ji, the Sailee as it is called in Sanskrit circles.
He is not exposed to modern book presentation formats or styles of presentation. He has been a traditional right from his own boyhood days of learning at the feet of Guru. But the way he has presented his treatise so much matches the modern style. He states specifically what he intends and in what way he is going to present his matter, everything at the outset and prepares the reader for what follows. And he is very much awake to his initial promise right through out.
Academy of Sanskrit Research, Melkote has done a wonderful thing by bringing out this valuable book. And for all that the price is a mere Rs forty four. Sapta SaamanjasI Prakaranam, by Araiyar SriRama Sarma, Academy of Sanskrit Research, Melkote, 571431,
***
Knowledge of Sastras and mental peace
What is learning if the learning does not lead a person towards the supreme reality of existence? What is knowledge if it is not liberating human beings from illusion and bondage?
saa vidya: yaa vimuktayE - that is knowledge which makes one free.
kaRRadanAl Aya payan enkol?
vAlaRivan naRRAL tozhAr enin? (Tirukkural)
- what is the purpose or use of study? if one does not worship the naRRaaL - Good Feet, of Absolute Knower?
DarsanOdaya is a great book written in Sanskrit on the subject of Darsanas in general. It raises a valid and pertinent question - why do persons learn Darsanas or Sastras? What is the result of such a study? How can we identify a person who has learnt multivarious studies, Darsanas or Sastras?
The one identification of such a person will be 'calmness' 'being quiet' Saanthi.
No anger, no rancour, no mental agitation will you find in such a person who has devoted his time towards the study of Saastras or Darsanas.
DarsanOdayA quotes the following verse from Mahabharata -
samArtham sarva sAstrANi vihitAni manIshibhi: |
sa Eva sarvasAstrajna: yasya sAntam manassadA ||
yat srutam na virAgAya na dharmAya na sAntayE |
subaddhamapi sabdEna kAkavAsitam Eva tat ||
'The meaning of all Sastras is verily calmness and being content - so deem persons intelligent.
That person is called 'knower of all sastras' whose mind is always calm and quiet.
What is learnt, if it has not led one towards detachment, towards ethical living, towards mental peace, then such a learning is just a cry of crows, however beautiful the words and sentences are constructed in that learning'.
(trans mine)
***
saa vidya: yaa vimuktayE - that is knowledge which makes one free.
kaRRadanAl Aya payan enkol?
vAlaRivan naRRAL tozhAr enin? (Tirukkural)
- what is the purpose or use of study? if one does not worship the naRRaaL - Good Feet, of Absolute Knower?
DarsanOdaya is a great book written in Sanskrit on the subject of Darsanas in general. It raises a valid and pertinent question - why do persons learn Darsanas or Sastras? What is the result of such a study? How can we identify a person who has learnt multivarious studies, Darsanas or Sastras?
The one identification of such a person will be 'calmness' 'being quiet' Saanthi.
No anger, no rancour, no mental agitation will you find in such a person who has devoted his time towards the study of Saastras or Darsanas.
DarsanOdayA quotes the following verse from Mahabharata -
samArtham sarva sAstrANi vihitAni manIshibhi: |
sa Eva sarvasAstrajna: yasya sAntam manassadA ||
yat srutam na virAgAya na dharmAya na sAntayE |
subaddhamapi sabdEna kAkavAsitam Eva tat ||
'The meaning of all Sastras is verily calmness and being content - so deem persons intelligent.
That person is called 'knower of all sastras' whose mind is always calm and quiet.
What is learnt, if it has not led one towards detachment, towards ethical living, towards mental peace, then such a learning is just a cry of crows, however beautiful the words and sentences are constructed in that learning'.
(trans mine)
***
Resonance of meditations
Resonance of meditations -
"To invoke God as a blanket explanation of the unexplained is to make God the friend of ignorance. If God is to be found, it must surely be through what we discover about the world, not what we fail to discover." - Paul Davies, Physicist.
"God is realised through Knowledge attaining the form of passionate devotion." - Sri Ramanuja.
"Only through Knowledge comes emancipation" - Dictum of Shastras.
Just pondering over the resonance between different words !
***
"To invoke God as a blanket explanation of the unexplained is to make God the friend of ignorance. If God is to be found, it must surely be through what we discover about the world, not what we fail to discover." - Paul Davies, Physicist.
"God is realised through Knowledge attaining the form of passionate devotion." - Sri Ramanuja.
"Only through Knowledge comes emancipation" - Dictum of Shastras.
Just pondering over the resonance between different words !
***
Efforts on epics by uncle and nephew
Sometimes the uncle and nephew combination works in a great way in history. One person, who is the uncle is a great poet. He has sung the great epic Ramayana in a shortened form as 'Sangraha Ramayanam'. His name is Narayanaswamy Iyer. It was in, say, before 1908. In about 1000 stanzas in Tamil Mr Narayanasswami Iyer has wrought a miracle. The diction is chaste and the flow is streaming and the imagination is cool. One example is when Hanuman returns back to Sri Rama after seeing Seetha Devi. The famous line in Kambar starts with 'Kanadanan' 'Have seen'. So also here in Sangraha Ramayanam
கண்டனன் சனகன் குலமானைக்
கடுவா யரவங் கலைமதியை
யுண்டா லனைய முகத்தாளை
உணவுன் உணர்வாய் உடையாளை
வண்டார் பொழில்சூழ் இலங்கைநகர்
வனத்தோர் மரத்தின் வடமுகமாய்த்
தண்டா மரையா லுலகேழுந்
தந்தா யெந்தாய்த் தவநிலையை.
Seen the dearest girl of Janaka
with face sorrow-engulfed
like the moon swallowed by the nodes
Her only food is awareness of Thee
seated in the grove under a tree
of Lanka facing the direction north
seven-fold world begotten by Thee
through a Lotus yea I have seen
austerity itself as a form. (Tr mine)
Mr Narayanaswamy Iyer's nephew was one Govindaswamy Iyer. The nephew has written a beautiful life history of the great teacher of Advaita, Sri Sankara. His work is Sankara Vijayam in 767 verses in Tamil. How both are competing each other in diction style and rhythmic flow of poetic fibre! This book came in 1909. One example is when Govinda Yogi teaches Sri Sankara -
நான்கு மாமறை முடிப்பொருள் நான்கையும் நவின்று
வான்க ருப்பொரு ளொன்றிட உத்திகள் வழங்கித்
தான்கு றிப்பொடு பிரணவப் பொருளினைச் சாற்றி
ஊன்க ழித்திடு யோகமுந் தெளிவுற உரைத்தார்.
Teaching the great four Mahavakyas of the four Vedas and instructing on the methods of gaining the nondual identity and giving the secret special teachings about Pranavam and clarifying the salient steps of non-bodiness in Yogic practice Govinda Yogi taught the Great Teacher. (tr mine)
Such an uncle and such a nephew... sometimes it happens so. Is it not?
***
கண்டனன் சனகன் குலமானைக்
கடுவா யரவங் கலைமதியை
யுண்டா லனைய முகத்தாளை
உணவுன் உணர்வாய் உடையாளை
வண்டார் பொழில்சூழ் இலங்கைநகர்
வனத்தோர் மரத்தின் வடமுகமாய்த்
தண்டா மரையா லுலகேழுந்
தந்தா யெந்தாய்த் தவநிலையை.
Seen the dearest girl of Janaka
with face sorrow-engulfed
like the moon swallowed by the nodes
Her only food is awareness of Thee
seated in the grove under a tree
of Lanka facing the direction north
seven-fold world begotten by Thee
through a Lotus yea I have seen
austerity itself as a form. (Tr mine)
Mr Narayanaswamy Iyer's nephew was one Govindaswamy Iyer. The nephew has written a beautiful life history of the great teacher of Advaita, Sri Sankara. His work is Sankara Vijayam in 767 verses in Tamil. How both are competing each other in diction style and rhythmic flow of poetic fibre! This book came in 1909. One example is when Govinda Yogi teaches Sri Sankara -
நான்கு மாமறை முடிப்பொருள் நான்கையும் நவின்று
வான்க ருப்பொரு ளொன்றிட உத்திகள் வழங்கித்
தான்கு றிப்பொடு பிரணவப் பொருளினைச் சாற்றி
ஊன்க ழித்திடு யோகமுந் தெளிவுற உரைத்தார்.
Teaching the great four Mahavakyas of the four Vedas and instructing on the methods of gaining the nondual identity and giving the secret special teachings about Pranavam and clarifying the salient steps of non-bodiness in Yogic practice Govinda Yogi taught the Great Teacher. (tr mine)
Such an uncle and such a nephew... sometimes it happens so. Is it not?
***
Management theory some thoughts
The Management Science has been dealing so far with the question leadership vs management. Who is a leader? who is a manager? and like that. Now at last it seems management studies have striken paydirt by taking up the question of Followership.
The old adage goes - who knows how to obey knows how to lead. The art of intelligent obedience and following and definitely not the blind toeing. Good followership must be able to intuit the mind of leader. Not only that good followership knows how to park the ego with no loss to dignity in the dynamic flow towards efficient and effectual process. (Perhaps Sri Ramanuja can make you think not only as a manager, not simply as a leader but more so as an efficient follower when he says - Seshatva is having its pratikodi in Seshitva) That means a good and intelligent follower implies and presumes a true leader.
*
But 'followership' vis a vis 'Leadership', if it should not become reductive in understanding towards cultish behaviour and if really scientific understanding should happen in the context of organisations and business, another aspect equally important is that of 'Dissenting' or 'Deviant perception' or 'differing in view'. How a leader relates to this equally creative voice as that of intelligent follower matters not less. The art of intelligent followership is a great task. And equally tough and crucial is the task of 'meaningful dissent'. Being passionate towards impersonal vision and being intelligent and aware in personal relationships, motivated and defined by the vision and energised by the goal and results calls for great personal and group intuitive empathy and order which results from such intuitiveness.
***
The old adage goes - who knows how to obey knows how to lead. The art of intelligent obedience and following and definitely not the blind toeing. Good followership must be able to intuit the mind of leader. Not only that good followership knows how to park the ego with no loss to dignity in the dynamic flow towards efficient and effectual process. (Perhaps Sri Ramanuja can make you think not only as a manager, not simply as a leader but more so as an efficient follower when he says - Seshatva is having its pratikodi in Seshitva) That means a good and intelligent follower implies and presumes a true leader.
*
But 'followership' vis a vis 'Leadership', if it should not become reductive in understanding towards cultish behaviour and if really scientific understanding should happen in the context of organisations and business, another aspect equally important is that of 'Dissenting' or 'Deviant perception' or 'differing in view'. How a leader relates to this equally creative voice as that of intelligent follower matters not less. The art of intelligent followership is a great task. And equally tough and crucial is the task of 'meaningful dissent'. Being passionate towards impersonal vision and being intelligent and aware in personal relationships, motivated and defined by the vision and energised by the goal and results calls for great personal and group intuitive empathy and order which results from such intuitiveness.
***
Reading Ayn Rand again
Do we understand deeply when we are unto something thick with emotional? Or do we need some distance to go deep into anything? Emotions make one feel intense and intimate. But to go deep and map the contours I think a free mind unbiased helps much more. 'Biased' need not be always against but can be also 'attuned'.
After a long gap of time and interest I saw the opening lines of Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. What a sheer poetry! But why did I lose it before in those days when I was emotionally so intimate with the book? When the whole passages used to chime in memory at the drop of any excuse.. Does passionate holding on to anything blinds us to the facts facing us? Mind in its working is always a mystery.
'Howard Roark laughed.
He stood naked at the edge of a cliff.
The lake lay far below him.
A frozen explosion of granite burst in flight to the sky over motionless water.
The water seemed immovable, the stone flowing. The stone had the stillness of one brief moment in battle when thrust meets thrust and the currents are held in a pause more dynamic than motion.
The stone glowed, wet with sunrays.
The lake below was only a thin steel ring that cut the rocks in half.
The rocks went on into the depth, unchanged. They began and ended in the sky. So that the world seemed suspended in space, an island floating on nothing, anchored to the feet of the man on the cliff.
His body leaned back against the sky.
It was a body of long straight lines and angles, each curve broken into planes.
He stood, rigid, his hands hanging at his sides, palms out.
He felt his shoulder blades drawn tight together, the curve of his neck, and the weight of the blood in his hands.
He felt the wind behind him, in the hollow of his spine.
The wind waved his hair against the sky.
His hair was neither blond nor red, but the exact color of ripe orange rind.
He laughed at the thing which had happened to him that morning and at the things which now lay ahead.'
(Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead, Opening lines)
How controlled and puissant are the lines flowing like the molten steel before becoming ingots jolting the index of industry!
The unusual juxtapositions of the stream vs the stone and the granite and the human presence firmly footing - suggesting the axial change of perspective going to come out in the novel.
***
After a long gap of time and interest I saw the opening lines of Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. What a sheer poetry! But why did I lose it before in those days when I was emotionally so intimate with the book? When the whole passages used to chime in memory at the drop of any excuse.. Does passionate holding on to anything blinds us to the facts facing us? Mind in its working is always a mystery.
'Howard Roark laughed.
He stood naked at the edge of a cliff.
The lake lay far below him.
A frozen explosion of granite burst in flight to the sky over motionless water.
The water seemed immovable, the stone flowing. The stone had the stillness of one brief moment in battle when thrust meets thrust and the currents are held in a pause more dynamic than motion.
The stone glowed, wet with sunrays.
The lake below was only a thin steel ring that cut the rocks in half.
The rocks went on into the depth, unchanged. They began and ended in the sky. So that the world seemed suspended in space, an island floating on nothing, anchored to the feet of the man on the cliff.
His body leaned back against the sky.
It was a body of long straight lines and angles, each curve broken into planes.
He stood, rigid, his hands hanging at his sides, palms out.
He felt his shoulder blades drawn tight together, the curve of his neck, and the weight of the blood in his hands.
He felt the wind behind him, in the hollow of his spine.
The wind waved his hair against the sky.
His hair was neither blond nor red, but the exact color of ripe orange rind.
He laughed at the thing which had happened to him that morning and at the things which now lay ahead.'
(Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead, Opening lines)
How controlled and puissant are the lines flowing like the molten steel before becoming ingots jolting the index of industry!
The unusual juxtapositions of the stream vs the stone and the granite and the human presence firmly footing - suggesting the axial change of perspective going to come out in the novel.
***
The language and the twist
Do you think along with Cleanth Brooks that the language of paradox is the very soul of poetry? Poetry includes all angles but eludes any straight-jacket, it seems. When you read T S Eliot's lines
"And indeed there will be time
For the yellow smoke that slides along the street
Rubbing its back upon the window-panes;.."
Sheer incongruity made so beautiful! Yellow smoke rubbing its back upon the window-panes! Or again
"Streets that follow like a tedious argument
Of insidious intent
To lead you to an overwhelming question…"
We have felt the streets and the questions separately. But when the poetry makes a connection, a paradox...mm yea...one is tempted to half agree.
*
"And indeed there will be time
For the yellow smoke that slides along the street
Rubbing its back upon the window-panes;.."
Sheer incongruity made so beautiful! Yellow smoke rubbing its back upon the window-panes! Or again
"Streets that follow like a tedious argument
Of insidious intent
To lead you to an overwhelming question…"
We have felt the streets and the questions separately. But when the poetry makes a connection, a paradox...mm yea...one is tempted to half agree.
*
The real person
Suppose you are meeting a person and the person is sitting right in front of you. Suddenly you begin to say that that person is gone and asking, exclaiming with people around 'where has he gone? He is no more here...' like that. People will laugh at you. They will say, 'Hey man, are you blind? or out of mind? He is there just in front as he was before when he began to talk and you are saying he has gone... what..!
It is totally meaningless, totally out of place. It doesn't fit in. You begin to seem instantly quixotic.
But why when a person is lying dead, when you say 'he has gone... he is no more....he just gone...' nobody is mocking at you saying, 'hey man are you mad? he is just here, just in front of you, just lying on the floor... why do you say he has gone... he is very much here... this is the person with whom you were seeing talking sitting....don't you see..
Yeah... this is his body... but he has gone...
Why baba... we have been talking only to this body... only with this form we have been doing business. And that person is very much here lying.
But his soul is not there.....
Soul ...? who is that? we have not seen him so far, not talked with that soul, what form we have been transacting with is very much available right here now. Why do you posit an unseen, unrelated thing as 'Soul' anew now in this instant and claim that the person was that soul?
A person whom we have seen with our very eyes we say 'has gone' -
A person whom we have never met or seen or talked we say that person was along with us transacting till now.
Lie after lie belying the lying down.
***
It is totally meaningless, totally out of place. It doesn't fit in. You begin to seem instantly quixotic.
But why when a person is lying dead, when you say 'he has gone... he is no more....he just gone...' nobody is mocking at you saying, 'hey man are you mad? he is just here, just in front of you, just lying on the floor... why do you say he has gone... he is very much here... this is the person with whom you were seeing talking sitting....don't you see..
Yeah... this is his body... but he has gone...
Why baba... we have been talking only to this body... only with this form we have been doing business. And that person is very much here lying.
But his soul is not there.....
Soul ...? who is that? we have not seen him so far, not talked with that soul, what form we have been transacting with is very much available right here now. Why do you posit an unseen, unrelated thing as 'Soul' anew now in this instant and claim that the person was that soul?
A person whom we have seen with our very eyes we say 'has gone' -
A person whom we have never met or seen or talked we say that person was along with us transacting till now.
Lie after lie belying the lying down.
***
A good researcher
A good researcher is one who allows his subject of study to become eloquent by itself, by his adroit handling of documents and reference-materials. But hasty ones are too impatient and thereby become themselves eloquent about their subjects, in the meanwhile their subjects of study becoming all too dull and dumb. Gilles Deleuze, a famous philosopher, expressed his opinion about Michel Foucault in this manner --
"You were the first to teach us something absolutely fundamental: the indignity of speaking for others."
Brilliant! But perhaps there is another side. How many are able to talk for themselves?. Altruism is bad when imposed but a help is timely in need also. Yea there are many shades of course.
***
"You were the first to teach us something absolutely fundamental: the indignity of speaking for others."
Brilliant! But perhaps there is another side. How many are able to talk for themselves?. Altruism is bad when imposed but a help is timely in need also. Yea there are many shades of course.
***
Saturday, December 07, 2019
Criticism, Edward Said, Jagannatha Pandita
It seems in one way that Literature is the highest achievement of us as human beings, in whatever way different groups approach it and hold it. Just pure appreciation, involved and empathetic, is discounted nowadays in preference to operating upon the literary creation, dissecting, boring into, peeling off, dismembering and critical investigation. Many literary theories of all hues and purposes serve the modern transacting with Literature. Of course I am aware of the gains by such processings and I do appreciate to a large extent the panoply of theories applied. But when all operations are over and various readings got and verified, there is nothing to compare with the alter-awareness that we achieve through a pure, simple and straight aesthetic involvement in a literary piece. We may think of mixing the two ways but it will be a hard mix even then and the elements resisting each other. Man is not only a 'heady' being but also a 'hearty' being and it is perhaps an art really, how he manages the two beings of his own identity from the vantage of what being of his inner reality, supra or meta or composite. Perhaps solving this in the literary world will empower the human being to face more drastic issues of the concrete world with more wisdom.
What is Criticism and that too literary criticism? Where does a Critic find his own position? Is it a simply negative stance or wakeful being in the now or an alteration between two negations? Is it just positioning oneself against all aesthetic appreciative involvement, a pretense to make good the absence of a heart quality? But I know too well the clarification that the critical theories give and also the pure delight in aesthetic involvement. What Edward Said is saying is very much adding to my cogitations on the status and efficacy of criticism in general.
"Criticism in short is always situated; it is skeptical, secular, reflectively open to its own failings. This is by no means to say that it is value-free. Quite the contrary, for the inevitable trajectory of critical consciousness is to arrive at some acute sense of what political, social. and human values are entailed in the reading, production, and transmission of every text. To stand between culture and system is therefore to stand close to - closeness itself having a particular value for me - a concrete reality about which political, moral, and social judgements have to be made and, if not only made, then exposed and demystified. If, as we have recently been told by Stanley Fish, every act of interpretation is made possible and given force by an interpretive community, then we must go a great deal further in showing what situation, what historical and social configuration, what political interests are concretely entailed by the very existence of interpretive communities.This is an especially important task when these communities have evolved camouflaging jargons.'
(Edward W Said, The World, The Text and The Critic pp 26, Harvard University Press, 1983)
Whereas in Sanskrit literature, critics have been distinguished from creative authors. Creative authors were attributed with creative spark of cognition, whereas the critics were attributed with critical reading and understanding spark of cognition. A great critic and creative genius of Sanskrit poetry, Jagannatha Pandita in his Rasa Gangadhara talks about the nature of poetic delight or elation of aesthetic communion, which in Sanskrit is called Rasa. He says Rasa is nothing but Consciousness made free of its blindfold of ignorance. This concept of Jagannatha Pandita teams with what Edward Said is trying to say above in the excerpt from his book.
***
What is Criticism and that too literary criticism? Where does a Critic find his own position? Is it a simply negative stance or wakeful being in the now or an alteration between two negations? Is it just positioning oneself against all aesthetic appreciative involvement, a pretense to make good the absence of a heart quality? But I know too well the clarification that the critical theories give and also the pure delight in aesthetic involvement. What Edward Said is saying is very much adding to my cogitations on the status and efficacy of criticism in general.
"Criticism in short is always situated; it is skeptical, secular, reflectively open to its own failings. This is by no means to say that it is value-free. Quite the contrary, for the inevitable trajectory of critical consciousness is to arrive at some acute sense of what political, social. and human values are entailed in the reading, production, and transmission of every text. To stand between culture and system is therefore to stand close to - closeness itself having a particular value for me - a concrete reality about which political, moral, and social judgements have to be made and, if not only made, then exposed and demystified. If, as we have recently been told by Stanley Fish, every act of interpretation is made possible and given force by an interpretive community, then we must go a great deal further in showing what situation, what historical and social configuration, what political interests are concretely entailed by the very existence of interpretive communities.This is an especially important task when these communities have evolved camouflaging jargons.'
(Edward W Said, The World, The Text and The Critic pp 26, Harvard University Press, 1983)
Whereas in Sanskrit literature, critics have been distinguished from creative authors. Creative authors were attributed with creative spark of cognition, whereas the critics were attributed with critical reading and understanding spark of cognition. A great critic and creative genius of Sanskrit poetry, Jagannatha Pandita in his Rasa Gangadhara talks about the nature of poetic delight or elation of aesthetic communion, which in Sanskrit is called Rasa. He says Rasa is nothing but Consciousness made free of its blindfold of ignorance. This concept of Jagannatha Pandita teams with what Edward Said is trying to say above in the excerpt from his book.
***
Space stitions or super stition?
Mr A S Eddington in his book 'The Nature of the Physical World' writes a beautiful statement, which tells what all need be told about the micro and macro worlds in which and between which man lives or is supposed to be living.
'The atom is as porous as the solar system. If we eliminated all the unfilled space in a man's body and collected his protons and electrons into one mass, the man would be reduced to a speck just visible with a magnifying glass.'
So are we so solid as we think or ......one relative opaque space talking to another relative opaque space? in the meanwhile all the so called properties are in a way.......
'super+stitions'? There is much to Space than there is space to anything.
*
'The atom is as porous as the solar system. If we eliminated all the unfilled space in a man's body and collected his protons and electrons into one mass, the man would be reduced to a speck just visible with a magnifying glass.'
So are we so solid as we think or ......one relative opaque space talking to another relative opaque space? in the meanwhile all the so called properties are in a way.......
'super+stitions'? There is much to Space than there is space to anything.
*
Who is Vivekananda
Vivekananda, a biography, (Jan 2013), by Swami Nikhilananda, pp 326
"At one of the public meetings in New York, after addressing a tense audience for about fifteen minutes, the Swami suddenly made a formal bow and retired. The meeting broke up and the people went away greatly disappointed. A friend asked him, when he was returning home, why he had cut short the lecture in that manner, just when both he and the audience were warming up. Had he forgotten his points? Had he become nervous? The Swami answered that at the meeting he had felt that he had too much power. He had noticed that the members of the audience were becoming so absorbed in his ideas that they were losing their own individualities. He had felt that they had become like soft clay and that he could give them any shape he wanted. That, however, was contrary to his philosophy. He wished every man and woman to grow according to his or her own inner law. He did not wish to change or destroy anyone's individuality. That was why he had had to stop."
What a Man he was!
"At one of the public meetings in New York, after addressing a tense audience for about fifteen minutes, the Swami suddenly made a formal bow and retired. The meeting broke up and the people went away greatly disappointed. A friend asked him, when he was returning home, why he had cut short the lecture in that manner, just when both he and the audience were warming up. Had he forgotten his points? Had he become nervous? The Swami answered that at the meeting he had felt that he had too much power. He had noticed that the members of the audience were becoming so absorbed in his ideas that they were losing their own individualities. He had felt that they had become like soft clay and that he could give them any shape he wanted. That, however, was contrary to his philosophy. He wished every man and woman to grow according to his or her own inner law. He did not wish to change or destroy anyone's individuality. That was why he had had to stop."
What a Man he was!
A small book of Vedanta in Tamil
I am astounded by a very small book published way back in 1908. The author is Thalavai Iramaswami Mudaliyar. He is one of the three sons of Thalavai Thirumaalaiyappa Mudaliyar. Some four hundred and fifty years back, Thalavai was a title awarded along with powers and functions by Krishna Deva Raya. The family has done many acts of charity and public cause. Our author Thalavai Iramaswami Mudaliyar, living in Tirunelveli during 1908 was so ardent and anxious in spiritual pursuits and the book bears evidence that he was very advanced in his knowledge of advaita books of reference. To assist aspirants who may toil and fret in future, he has beautifully capsuled very salient thoughts and rules of advaithic practice in just 30 pages, called Vedantha Sangirakam, in Tamil. Some nuggets for your touch-stone -
’வேதாந்த சாஸ்திராப்பியாசிகளான முமுட்சுக்களில் அதிதீவிரதர பக்குவிகளாயும், விரிந்தவை அல்லலென்று நினைப்பவர்களாயும் இருப்பவர்களுக்கு உபயோகப்படுமாறு பலசாஸ்திரங்களின் சாராம்சத்தைத் திரட்டி வசன ரூபமாயும், சுருக்கமாயும் வேதாந்த சங்கிரகம் என்னும் இந்நூல் இயற்றப்பட்டிருக்கிறது.’
so goes the preface. One Brahmmasri Narayana Swamigal, called Coimbatore Swamigal, has indited a stanza of praise like this -
’சற்சங்க ராமசா மித்தள வாய்ப்புனிதன்
நிற்சங்க மாநிரா லம்பமெய்தத் - தத்சங்க
நற்சுவையா வேதாந்த சங்கிரக நல்கினான்
சிற்சங்க மாகச் செறிந்து.’
The book proper -
’ஜெக ஜீவ பரத்தின் குணதோஷங்களை நன்றாய் ஆராய்ந்து அதன் உண்மையை அறிந்து அதனிடமாக வைத்த பற்றுக்களை நீக்குந்தன்மையே வைராக்கியமாம்.’
ஜெக சீவ பரம் மித்தை என்று அறிவதே வைராக்கியமாகும்’
’ஆத்துமாவில் தோன்றின அறிவு அதில் ஒடுங்குவதே முத்தி என்றறிந்து போக இச்சை ஜெகக் காட்சிகளை நீக்கினவனே பக்குவன்’
’அறிவதெல்லாம் அறிந்த மனதுக்கு அடைவு ஏதென்றால் போகங்களைத் தனது என்று எண்ணும் நினைவைத் தவிர்ந்து நிற்றலாம். இதுவே பக்குவம்.’
‘காளைப் பருவத்தில் உலகாசாரத்தை நீக்கித் தன்மனத்தில் உதித்த அற்ப விசாரத்தால் ஞானத்தில் மனதை நிலைபெறச் செய்வது ஆச்சரியம்.’
’பிரமமே உல்லாச லீலையால் சரீரம் உடையவனைப் போலவும், புமானைப் போலவும் பிரகாசிக்கும்.’
’பிரமமாகிற நமது ஆத்துமாவே, பிரமமென்றும் கூடஸ்தனென்றும் ஈசுரனென்றும் சீவனென்றும் நான்கு சைதன்னியமாகும்.’
So goes through all 30 pages full of aphoristic mint.
The Thalavai has been a Thalavai of Meignana also. And the small book is a great act of charity for even the yet-to-come souls pursuing non-dual realisation. My humble salute to the great soul, so generous.
Namo Parama Rishibyo namo Parama Rishibyaha.
(Ref : Vedanta Sangirakam, Thalavai Iramaswamy Mudaliyar, 1908, Thirunelveli Siththivinaayakar acchuyantira saalai, pp 35)
***
’வேதாந்த சாஸ்திராப்பியாசிகளான முமுட்சுக்களில் அதிதீவிரதர பக்குவிகளாயும், விரிந்தவை அல்லலென்று நினைப்பவர்களாயும் இருப்பவர்களுக்கு உபயோகப்படுமாறு பலசாஸ்திரங்களின் சாராம்சத்தைத் திரட்டி வசன ரூபமாயும், சுருக்கமாயும் வேதாந்த சங்கிரகம் என்னும் இந்நூல் இயற்றப்பட்டிருக்கிறது.’
so goes the preface. One Brahmmasri Narayana Swamigal, called Coimbatore Swamigal, has indited a stanza of praise like this -
’சற்சங்க ராமசா மித்தள வாய்ப்புனிதன்
நிற்சங்க மாநிரா லம்பமெய்தத் - தத்சங்க
நற்சுவையா வேதாந்த சங்கிரக நல்கினான்
சிற்சங்க மாகச் செறிந்து.’
The book proper -
’ஜெக ஜீவ பரத்தின் குணதோஷங்களை நன்றாய் ஆராய்ந்து அதன் உண்மையை அறிந்து அதனிடமாக வைத்த பற்றுக்களை நீக்குந்தன்மையே வைராக்கியமாம்.’
ஜெக சீவ பரம் மித்தை என்று அறிவதே வைராக்கியமாகும்’
’ஆத்துமாவில் தோன்றின அறிவு அதில் ஒடுங்குவதே முத்தி என்றறிந்து போக இச்சை ஜெகக் காட்சிகளை நீக்கினவனே பக்குவன்’
’அறிவதெல்லாம் அறிந்த மனதுக்கு அடைவு ஏதென்றால் போகங்களைத் தனது என்று எண்ணும் நினைவைத் தவிர்ந்து நிற்றலாம். இதுவே பக்குவம்.’
‘காளைப் பருவத்தில் உலகாசாரத்தை நீக்கித் தன்மனத்தில் உதித்த அற்ப விசாரத்தால் ஞானத்தில் மனதை நிலைபெறச் செய்வது ஆச்சரியம்.’
’பிரமமே உல்லாச லீலையால் சரீரம் உடையவனைப் போலவும், புமானைப் போலவும் பிரகாசிக்கும்.’
’பிரமமாகிற நமது ஆத்துமாவே, பிரமமென்றும் கூடஸ்தனென்றும் ஈசுரனென்றும் சீவனென்றும் நான்கு சைதன்னியமாகும்.’
So goes through all 30 pages full of aphoristic mint.
The Thalavai has been a Thalavai of Meignana also. And the small book is a great act of charity for even the yet-to-come souls pursuing non-dual realisation. My humble salute to the great soul, so generous.
Namo Parama Rishibyo namo Parama Rishibyaha.
(Ref : Vedanta Sangirakam, Thalavai Iramaswamy Mudaliyar, 1908, Thirunelveli Siththivinaayakar acchuyantira saalai, pp 35)
***
A J Ayer and NDE
A great philosopher of the logical positivist school, A J Ayer, was uncompromising in his stand that statements which do not lend themselves to empirical verification or analytical exercise are quite meaningless. A great hit at the traditional metaphysics indeed. He was not a shy away philosopher when he confronted the unwanted advances of Mike Tyson on a new model in a party given by a fashion designer, saying 'I suggest we talk about this like rational men'.
Just one year before his death, A J Ayer had a near-death experience. On recovery he said that the experience slightly weakened his conviction that his genuine death will be the end of him. Later he opined that he should have rather told instead 'my experiences have weakened, not my belief that there is no life after death, but my inflexible attitude towards that belief'.
Strange! We demand that we should experience ourselves to accept anything. But will we allow ourselves to accept our experiences?
***
Just one year before his death, A J Ayer had a near-death experience. On recovery he said that the experience slightly weakened his conviction that his genuine death will be the end of him. Later he opined that he should have rather told instead 'my experiences have weakened, not my belief that there is no life after death, but my inflexible attitude towards that belief'.
Strange! We demand that we should experience ourselves to accept anything. But will we allow ourselves to accept our experiences?
***
Reality and Study
When we were studying High School or College, we were not having high tech resources of study materials. At the most some extra libraries some miles away and expecting perhaps half a day's journey to and fro to take one or two books of your choice or luck and another hour or two towards rest before you can zero in on your book load in some recluse corner in the rooftop. If it is a great find and hefty material of your interests then to share about it you have to wait till the next day when in the college you can chat over chaayaa. Naturally many authors worthy of note who belonged to the period from the end of 19th CE to the middle of 20th CE. But what we covered by way of college study and personal study and extra studies seemed sumptuous. Of course the mental culture had a great time to shape, enough rest and space to digest and progress. But after the internet what we covered in regular and extra curricular seem little and sparse.
Otherwise how to account for this man Mr L P Jacks, Lawrence Pearsall Jacks, whom I simply didn't hear about mentioned. But see his writing! If this is not sanity then what else?
"To say that the universe is a Rational Whole appears to me true. But to treat this as an adequate account of Reality appears to me false. I am equally averse to regarding the rationality of the universe as the fundamental or all-inclusive or even the dominant form of its self-expression.
What does form a Rational Whole and is adequately described by this term is the movement of thought throughout the ages—in a word, the History of Philosophy. To equate this movement with the universe to which it refers, to make the History of Philosophy into a History of Reality, appears to me an error. We are constantly tempted to make this equation, and constantly prevented from seeing its falsity, by the habit of treating speculative thought as a form of ours into which all experience must manage to fit itself."
(L P Jacks, The Alchemy of Thought, Williams and Norgate, 1911, Preface)
***
Otherwise how to account for this man Mr L P Jacks, Lawrence Pearsall Jacks, whom I simply didn't hear about mentioned. But see his writing! If this is not sanity then what else?
"To say that the universe is a Rational Whole appears to me true. But to treat this as an adequate account of Reality appears to me false. I am equally averse to regarding the rationality of the universe as the fundamental or all-inclusive or even the dominant form of its self-expression.
What does form a Rational Whole and is adequately described by this term is the movement of thought throughout the ages—in a word, the History of Philosophy. To equate this movement with the universe to which it refers, to make the History of Philosophy into a History of Reality, appears to me an error. We are constantly tempted to make this equation, and constantly prevented from seeing its falsity, by the habit of treating speculative thought as a form of ours into which all experience must manage to fit itself."
(L P Jacks, The Alchemy of Thought, Williams and Norgate, 1911, Preface)
***
Saturday, August 31, 2019
Some thoughts on Leadership - Management studies
The Management Science has been dealing so far with the question leadership vs management. Who is a leader? who is a manager? and like that. Now at last it seems management studies have striken paydirt by taking up the question of Followership.
The old adage goes - who knows how to obey knows how to lead. The art of intelligent obedience and following and definitely not the blind toeing. Good followership must be able to intuit the mind of leader. Not only that good followership knows how to park the ego with no loss to dignity in the dynamic flow towards efficient and effectual process. (Perhaps Sri Ramanuja can make you think not only as a manager, not simply as a leader but more so as an efficient follower when he says - Seshatva is having its pratikodi in Seshitva) That means a good and intelligent follower implies and presumes a true leader.
*
But 'followership' vis a vis 'Leadership', if it should not become reductive in understanding towards cultish behaviour and if really scientific understanding should happen in the context of organisations and business, another aspect equally important is that of 'Dissenting' or 'Deviant perception' or 'differing in view'. How a leader relates to this equally creative voice as that of intelligent follower matters not less. The art of intelligent followership is a great task. And equally tough and crucial is the task of 'meaningful dissent'. Being passionate towards impersonal vision and being intelligent and aware in personal relationships, motivated and defined by the vision and energised by the goal and results calls for great personal and group intuitive empathy and order which results from such intuitiveness.
*
The old adage goes - who knows how to obey knows how to lead. The art of intelligent obedience and following and definitely not the blind toeing. Good followership must be able to intuit the mind of leader. Not only that good followership knows how to park the ego with no loss to dignity in the dynamic flow towards efficient and effectual process. (Perhaps Sri Ramanuja can make you think not only as a manager, not simply as a leader but more so as an efficient follower when he says - Seshatva is having its pratikodi in Seshitva) That means a good and intelligent follower implies and presumes a true leader.
*
But 'followership' vis a vis 'Leadership', if it should not become reductive in understanding towards cultish behaviour and if really scientific understanding should happen in the context of organisations and business, another aspect equally important is that of 'Dissenting' or 'Deviant perception' or 'differing in view'. How a leader relates to this equally creative voice as that of intelligent follower matters not less. The art of intelligent followership is a great task. And equally tough and crucial is the task of 'meaningful dissent'. Being passionate towards impersonal vision and being intelligent and aware in personal relationships, motivated and defined by the vision and energised by the goal and results calls for great personal and group intuitive empathy and order which results from such intuitiveness.
*
Large presence of Shakespeare
Shakespeare sits very large in our midst, huge and big centrally. We with all our creative pranks are only children trying to scale his laps, his back, his shoulders. We do pretend sometimes his absence sitting on his own shoulders and we proclaim also sometimes that we have outrun the Bard of Avon. We snob ourselves out with all sorts of badges, MODERN, POSTMODERN, POSTSTRUCTURAL, POST...this and that. No offence. It is our right. But universe itself has as it were connived to give us all lies at the end of day, if we are forgetting Shakespeare. But he sits cool, the Stage Bird, careless and casual in the centre big and vast. How else to react to this opening lines in A MIdsummer Night's Dream! -
'Theseus.-
What say you, Hermia? be advised, fair maid:
To you your father should be as a god;
One that composed your beauties; yea, and one
To whom you are but as a form in wax
By him imprinted and within his power
To leave the figure or disfigure it.
Demetrius is a worthy gentleman.
Hermia.-
So is Lysander.
The.-
In himself he is;
But in this kind, wanting your father’s voice,
The other must be held the worthier.
Her.-
I would my father look’d but with my eyes.
The.-
Rather your eyes must with his judgement look.
Her.-
I do entreat your Grace to pardon me.
I know not by what power I am made bold.
Nor how it may concern my modesty,
In such a presence here to plead my thoughts;
But I beseech your Grace that I may know
The worst that may befall me in this case,
If I refuse to wed Demetrius.'
***
'Theseus.-
What say you, Hermia? be advised, fair maid:
To you your father should be as a god;
One that composed your beauties; yea, and one
To whom you are but as a form in wax
By him imprinted and within his power
To leave the figure or disfigure it.
Demetrius is a worthy gentleman.
Hermia.-
So is Lysander.
The.-
In himself he is;
But in this kind, wanting your father’s voice,
The other must be held the worthier.
Her.-
I would my father look’d but with my eyes.
The.-
Rather your eyes must with his judgement look.
Her.-
I do entreat your Grace to pardon me.
I know not by what power I am made bold.
Nor how it may concern my modesty,
In such a presence here to plead my thoughts;
But I beseech your Grace that I may know
The worst that may befall me in this case,
If I refuse to wed Demetrius.'
***
Nietzsche! you may frown
Nietzsche! you may frown
But let me speak my mind now
I overheard the morning Sun
Self-repeating the evening Sun :
'I don't shine for you to praise,
neither for anybody to appraise
I just am the way I am Zaratushtra !
I neither rise up in the morn
Nor go down in the even,
Nor I go anywhere to the darker half
To make my shine in any way useful;
Beings and things rotate around me,
part time in light, part time in darkness.
Beings are yet to become fully of light;
Perhaps they need darkness as much as light;
Whatever, please act not under apparent sight;
When you know what you can know
there the light of knowledge shines;
when you know not what you cannot
there the light of ignorance shines.'
Nietzsche! you may frown
But I have spoken what was in my mind.
***
This was written in reference to the opening section of Nietzsche's 'Thus Spake Zarathushtra'.
Poetry and Philosophy are perhaps the same Consciousness of opposite vectors. Poetry across sensuous reaches the transcendental. Philosophy translates the transcendental in terms of the sensuous. Or you may have it the other way also. - Poetry suggests the transcendental in the context of the sensuous and Philosophy makes sensational the transcendental
But let me speak my mind now
I overheard the morning Sun
Self-repeating the evening Sun :
'I don't shine for you to praise,
neither for anybody to appraise
I just am the way I am Zaratushtra !
I neither rise up in the morn
Nor go down in the even,
Nor I go anywhere to the darker half
To make my shine in any way useful;
Beings and things rotate around me,
part time in light, part time in darkness.
Beings are yet to become fully of light;
Perhaps they need darkness as much as light;
Whatever, please act not under apparent sight;
When you know what you can know
there the light of knowledge shines;
when you know not what you cannot
there the light of ignorance shines.'
Nietzsche! you may frown
But I have spoken what was in my mind.
***
some after thoughts -
Sunday, August 18, 2019
Meeting a great poem like a friend...
Sometimes you happen to meet a great friend or a great poem. One such is the paasuram, the poem of Tiruvaimozhi, TheerthanukkE.
'The Lord of Beauty sanctifies
and wins you for ever and ever;
knowing well that there is no other refuge,
mentally resolved, happy, restful in Him, the great refuge;
Satakopa of the rich land of Kurukur
has uttered these thousand sanctities,
these thousand poems pure;
of these, even this decad, if anyone masters,
that person will be worshiped
by the Eternal Citizens of Vaikunt
and those celestials will fondly
describe that person illustrious
as the walking purifiers
to their mates
in their thick moments of service
to the Great God.'
(Reflecting meekly the EEdu..)
The key word in this poem is the Tamil word 'Theerthan'.
Theertham - taan parisuddhamumaai, tannai Sparisittaarukku parisuddharaampadi paNNumatAyirRu.
Theertham - that which itself is pure and also again that which purifies whatever comes in contact with itself.
theerthanukkaRRapin - He has won over me by His beauty and has made me dislike everything else.
When the heart goes after Tirumaal
pleasures all lose their hold on me
who is crazy over Paramaatma and dislikes anything which makes one forget Paramaatma.
So intense devotion to God itself makes you detached from worldly things. That is the meaning of Theertha.
Nammazhvar's poems are personifications of such intense devotion and not only that, those who have mastered and dedicated their hearts to his poems are also forms of Theerthams.
***
'The Lord of Beauty sanctifies
and wins you for ever and ever;
knowing well that there is no other refuge,
mentally resolved, happy, restful in Him, the great refuge;
Satakopa of the rich land of Kurukur
has uttered these thousand sanctities,
these thousand poems pure;
of these, even this decad, if anyone masters,
that person will be worshiped
by the Eternal Citizens of Vaikunt
and those celestials will fondly
describe that person illustrious
as the walking purifiers
to their mates
in their thick moments of service
to the Great God.'
(Reflecting meekly the EEdu..)
The key word in this poem is the Tamil word 'Theerthan'.
Theertham - taan parisuddhamumaai, tannai Sparisittaarukku parisuddharaampadi paNNumatAyirRu.
Theertham - that which itself is pure and also again that which purifies whatever comes in contact with itself.
theerthanukkaRRapin - He has won over me by His beauty and has made me dislike everything else.
When the heart goes after Tirumaal
pleasures all lose their hold on me
who is crazy over Paramaatma and dislikes anything which makes one forget Paramaatma.
So intense devotion to God itself makes you detached from worldly things. That is the meaning of Theertha.
Nammazhvar's poems are personifications of such intense devotion and not only that, those who have mastered and dedicated their hearts to his poems are also forms of Theerthams.
***
Unlimited Grace in the context of limitations
A beautiful poem from Kalhana on the form of Ardhanaari of Siva.
'His form seems limited
by sharing his left with the daughter
of the Mountain-King;
On His head shines the moon
limited by digits few;
And He has a weapon
with a break in the middle;
But how does His grace abounds
unlimited on every being
taking refuge in Him !'
(tr mine)
text -
வபு: கண்டே கண்ட: ப்ரதிவஸதி சைலேந்த்ரதுஹிது:
சிகண்டே கண்டேந்து: ஸ்வயமபி விபு: கண்டபரசு:|
ததாபி ப்ரத்யக்ரம் சரணமுபயாதம் ப்ரதிவிபோ:
அகண்டோ வ்யாபாரோ ஜகதி கருணயா விஜயதே ||
(அர்த்தநாரீச்வர ஸ்தோத்ரம்)
*
The tension and the contrariety between the temporal and the eternal, the limited and the unlimited, the local and the universal, the atomic and the all-pervading, the imperfect and the perfect is captured poetically in the form of Siva. His grace alone is the bridge which connects the transient being with the ever-abiding. But nothing can limit that Grace, which is the only saving factor. All else, we do not know and perhaps we can never know.
***
'His form seems limited
by sharing his left with the daughter
of the Mountain-King;
On His head shines the moon
limited by digits few;
And He has a weapon
with a break in the middle;
But how does His grace abounds
unlimited on every being
taking refuge in Him !'
(tr mine)
text -
வபு: கண்டே கண்ட: ப்ரதிவஸதி சைலேந்த்ரதுஹிது:
சிகண்டே கண்டேந்து: ஸ்வயமபி விபு: கண்டபரசு:|
ததாபி ப்ரத்யக்ரம் சரணமுபயாதம் ப்ரதிவிபோ:
அகண்டோ வ்யாபாரோ ஜகதி கருணயா விஜயதே ||
(அர்த்தநாரீச்வர ஸ்தோத்ரம்)
*
The tension and the contrariety between the temporal and the eternal, the limited and the unlimited, the local and the universal, the atomic and the all-pervading, the imperfect and the perfect is captured poetically in the form of Siva. His grace alone is the bridge which connects the transient being with the ever-abiding. But nothing can limit that Grace, which is the only saving factor. All else, we do not know and perhaps we can never know.
***
Sunday, August 11, 2019
A story about Kalidasa
Sometimes the stories about the poets are as poetical and interesting. Once an ordinary person approached the great poet Kalidasa and expressed his difficulties and dire need of money. Kalidasa had an idea. 'OK today is the birthday of our King. Go and bow down before him and say 'Let you be free of three hurdles'. Definitely you will get something. Don't show in the Sabha that you are known to me or that I have given you this hint.
The person came to the Sabha and bowed before the King and said forgetting the exact words 'Let you be three hurdles!'
What will happen? Dare any person on the face of the King say that the King be three hurdles! Poor man he forgot the exact wordings - Let you be free of Three hurdles. The King became furious and was about to order something dangerous. But the presence of mind of Kalidasa ! Kalidasa told the King 'Oh Great Emperor of the world! The poor man has said only blessings on you but he has been too economical with his words. Some poets happen to be like that. You see what he said 'Let you be three hurdles" Yea when you sit on the throne he wishes you to face often the hurdle of standing up and welcoming extraordinary scholars to your court. That means he wishes for you the abounding of world-renowned scholars in your court. It is a blessing really even though it is worded as hurdle. It is a welcome hurdle.
And again, while eating he wishes you to face often the hurdle of being disturbed by the pranks of your children, rising up on your laps, snatching your morsels of food, taking sweets away from your plates and eating themselves. Again this hurdle is a blessing in reality. This person wishes such a hurdle for you.
Again in your bed you must be disturbed by your wife and thereby you must lose your sleep in dallying of pleasure. Again is it not a welcome hurdle, a real blessing?
So it is we who must read this person in the right way.'
Wow.. the person got rewarded in extra.
***
The person came to the Sabha and bowed before the King and said forgetting the exact words 'Let you be three hurdles!'
What will happen? Dare any person on the face of the King say that the King be three hurdles! Poor man he forgot the exact wordings - Let you be free of Three hurdles. The King became furious and was about to order something dangerous. But the presence of mind of Kalidasa ! Kalidasa told the King 'Oh Great Emperor of the world! The poor man has said only blessings on you but he has been too economical with his words. Some poets happen to be like that. You see what he said 'Let you be three hurdles" Yea when you sit on the throne he wishes you to face often the hurdle of standing up and welcoming extraordinary scholars to your court. That means he wishes for you the abounding of world-renowned scholars in your court. It is a blessing really even though it is worded as hurdle. It is a welcome hurdle.
And again, while eating he wishes you to face often the hurdle of being disturbed by the pranks of your children, rising up on your laps, snatching your morsels of food, taking sweets away from your plates and eating themselves. Again this hurdle is a blessing in reality. This person wishes such a hurdle for you.
Again in your bed you must be disturbed by your wife and thereby you must lose your sleep in dallying of pleasure. Again is it not a welcome hurdle, a real blessing?
So it is we who must read this person in the right way.'
Wow.. the person got rewarded in extra.
***
Mahabharata and medicine
Do you know Mahabharata? Yea.. you must be knowing. Mahabharata has been written in Tamil poems as Villibharatam by Villiputhurazhwar or Villiputhurar. Also by Nalla pIllai. Also there is one Perundevanar Bharatam, an old work in venba metre. But what I am going to tell is completely different.
This is Mahabharata. That too in Tamil. But it is a medical book. I will come again. This work deals with Vyasa's Mahabharata in so many parvams. Yea sure. And the story is the story of Mahabharata. But it is a medical book. :-) Perplexing?
That is the whole work which is called Theraiyar Maruttu Bharatam is loaded doubly, each verse with two senses, one of the story and one of the medical info. The prosody of Slesha Alankara has been used by Theraiyar to do this.
The book has come out in 1909 published by Mr K S Murugesa Mudaliyar in Vijaya Vikatan Press, Chennai. The book is called Theraiyar aruliya Maruttu Bharata Natakam.
மொழிந்த மருத்துப் பாரதத்தின்
முறை நாடகத்தின் உரை அருத்தம்
உன்னிச் சிலேடை இருபொருளும்
முடித்துக் கொள்ளுவார் பண்டிதரே....
மொழிந்த தேரப் பெருமானும்
உதவியாகப் பண்டிதர்க்கு இங்கு
உறுதி மரும நூல் உரைத்தான்
ஒன்றும் இனிமேல் உரையானே.
So this is perhaps the final work of Theraiyar in his series of medical works in different genres. Here in this work he has spun the epic and the medicine into one. Even the opening prayer song is doubly loaded.
வாதமாய்ப் படைத்துப் பித்த
வன்னியாய்க் காத்துச் சேட்பச்
சீதமாய்த் துடைத்துப் பாராந்
தேகத்திற் குடியாம் ஐந்து
பூத இந்தியமாம் ஐவர்
பூசைகொண்டு அவர்பால் விந்து
நாதமாம் கிஷ்ணமூர்த்தி
நமக்கென்றும் துணையாவாரே.
How very creative people have been down the time! But does anybody care for such rare things in our heritage? That too nowadays people have become highly cell-centric.
***
This is Mahabharata. That too in Tamil. But it is a medical book. I will come again. This work deals with Vyasa's Mahabharata in so many parvams. Yea sure. And the story is the story of Mahabharata. But it is a medical book. :-) Perplexing?
That is the whole work which is called Theraiyar Maruttu Bharatam is loaded doubly, each verse with two senses, one of the story and one of the medical info. The prosody of Slesha Alankara has been used by Theraiyar to do this.
The book has come out in 1909 published by Mr K S Murugesa Mudaliyar in Vijaya Vikatan Press, Chennai. The book is called Theraiyar aruliya Maruttu Bharata Natakam.
மொழிந்த மருத்துப் பாரதத்தின்
முறை நாடகத்தின் உரை அருத்தம்
உன்னிச் சிலேடை இருபொருளும்
முடித்துக் கொள்ளுவார் பண்டிதரே....
மொழிந்த தேரப் பெருமானும்
உதவியாகப் பண்டிதர்க்கு இங்கு
உறுதி மரும நூல் உரைத்தான்
ஒன்றும் இனிமேல் உரையானே.
So this is perhaps the final work of Theraiyar in his series of medical works in different genres. Here in this work he has spun the epic and the medicine into one. Even the opening prayer song is doubly loaded.
வாதமாய்ப் படைத்துப் பித்த
வன்னியாய்க் காத்துச் சேட்பச்
சீதமாய்த் துடைத்துப் பாராந்
தேகத்திற் குடியாம் ஐந்து
பூத இந்தியமாம் ஐவர்
பூசைகொண்டு அவர்பால் விந்து
நாதமாம் கிஷ்ணமூர்த்தி
நமக்கென்றும் துணையாவாரே.
How very creative people have been down the time! But does anybody care for such rare things in our heritage? That too nowadays people have become highly cell-centric.
***
Ideology and human goodness
Anything which makes us more human, more awakened is good. If religion makes us more broad-minded and more humane then it is good. If what we read makes us more understanding and cognitive of democratic virtues and humane vales then our reading is in the right direction. But if our religion or studies make us more narrow-minded and tradition-bound then what good can come out of it? To become an educated fool cannot be the end of a really worthy life.
The spirit and the letter of a book, that too ancient books, are always different. The letter belongs to an age which is archaic. But if understood in the best of human interests, the spirit of the book may still be inspiring. When you try to understand the spirit, the 'authorities' of the letter become tense and expect you to apply for their sanction, nod and approval. According to them, preferably, you get the whole sense of the text from them. Generally people who are meek and who want easy ways to wisdom prefer to toe their guidance. But it need not be like that, especially if you prefer to retain your freedom of thinking and self-autonomy. Your sincere efforts and meticulous study are guidance enough to make you arrive at any essential and meaningful concept of any path. So don't load any 'authorities' over your head, when you are quite sufficient as a human being.
*
You see, we take to reading to gain knowledge and expand our awareness. The immediate help are the books. Thank God, not like the olden days, when to read or study a work you have to devote a considerable part of your time to get the work from others in any form. Then aids to understanding are another task in those days. If you are fortunate you may get something. But our age has crossed all such miasma. Now chances for knowledge are plenty and free. Only thing is you must have that passion and need.
But while reading there are subtle games played by us, by society and by who not and by what not. When we are deep into any subject we tend to appreciate great people who have very clearly explained things. And we feel extremely grateful when we read the original masters who have given us various theories in various subjects. But so far so good. But the matter does not end there. Slowly we idolize the authors we like in our minds and develop what is called 'hero-worship'. Any worship makes you blind to the aspects of criticism in the person or the field. We tend to attribute only great and sweet things to our idols. That is either we must eulogize or spew hatred. These extremity-addiction is another virus that slowly gets into our mind. But all these show that we possess a bad self-confidence. If we are confident about ourselves we should be more creative in our reading and that too in our reading of very ancient masters to whom we think nothing but salutations should be in our minds.
Another thing, just because we identify something wrong in what has been said by a person contemporary or old need not disturb our general attitude of like or respect to that person. Perhaps we must be more realistic and compassionate both to that person and to us.
***
The spirit and the letter of a book, that too ancient books, are always different. The letter belongs to an age which is archaic. But if understood in the best of human interests, the spirit of the book may still be inspiring. When you try to understand the spirit, the 'authorities' of the letter become tense and expect you to apply for their sanction, nod and approval. According to them, preferably, you get the whole sense of the text from them. Generally people who are meek and who want easy ways to wisdom prefer to toe their guidance. But it need not be like that, especially if you prefer to retain your freedom of thinking and self-autonomy. Your sincere efforts and meticulous study are guidance enough to make you arrive at any essential and meaningful concept of any path. So don't load any 'authorities' over your head, when you are quite sufficient as a human being.
*
You see, we take to reading to gain knowledge and expand our awareness. The immediate help are the books. Thank God, not like the olden days, when to read or study a work you have to devote a considerable part of your time to get the work from others in any form. Then aids to understanding are another task in those days. If you are fortunate you may get something. But our age has crossed all such miasma. Now chances for knowledge are plenty and free. Only thing is you must have that passion and need.
But while reading there are subtle games played by us, by society and by who not and by what not. When we are deep into any subject we tend to appreciate great people who have very clearly explained things. And we feel extremely grateful when we read the original masters who have given us various theories in various subjects. But so far so good. But the matter does not end there. Slowly we idolize the authors we like in our minds and develop what is called 'hero-worship'. Any worship makes you blind to the aspects of criticism in the person or the field. We tend to attribute only great and sweet things to our idols. That is either we must eulogize or spew hatred. These extremity-addiction is another virus that slowly gets into our mind. But all these show that we possess a bad self-confidence. If we are confident about ourselves we should be more creative in our reading and that too in our reading of very ancient masters to whom we think nothing but salutations should be in our minds.
Another thing, just because we identify something wrong in what has been said by a person contemporary or old need not disturb our general attitude of like or respect to that person. Perhaps we must be more realistic and compassionate both to that person and to us.
***
Swami Vivekananda's Chicago speech and Tamil translations of early decades
Some event in history becomes a sort of magnet-event, attracting the enthusiasm, efforts and involvement of contemporary and succeeding generations. Swami Vivekananda's speech at the Parliament of Religions, Chicago was one such event. Otherwise why should the owner of Anandabodhini journal Mr N Munisamy Mudaliyar ask the Tamil teacher of National College High School in Trichy, Mr E S Varadaraja Iyengar, to translate the Chicago speeches of Swamiji. This was happening in 1929. The Tamil teacher was living in Uraiyur, Saraswathy Nilayam.
Anandabodhini was given its name by His Holiness Karapatra Swamigal, who was at Sadhu Nilayam, Vyasarpadi. From 1915 it was running as a monthly, attracting a subscription of 20000, as the blurb in the backpages says. And when the translation of Chicago addresses was coming out in 1929, in the same year Sri Ramakrishna Math Chennai was bringing out a selection of Swamiji's words bearing on Nationalistic themes and about our country as .Namadu Thaainadu, selected and translated by Ra Krishnamurthy, with the foreword of Swami Yathiswarananda. In the Munnurai Swami Yathiswarananda says that the complete works of Swami Vivekananda was yet to come out in Tamil at that time, 1929 and opines that the said selection of Swamiji's words will well fill the gap in the meantime.
Already in 1921, Mr M S Nateson of Trichy brought out the Tamil translation of the paper on Hinduism by Swami Vivekananda, which forms part of Chicago speeches through The Vivekananda Publishing House, Teppakulam, Tiruchi.
I think even this itself will form a good research theme. i. e. various translations in various regional languages both during when Swamiji was living and after his time in the following decades. And also what were the reactions, informal and written or some comments occurring in some other places.
Yea .. An event having reverberations through time.
***
Anandabodhini was given its name by His Holiness Karapatra Swamigal, who was at Sadhu Nilayam, Vyasarpadi. From 1915 it was running as a monthly, attracting a subscription of 20000, as the blurb in the backpages says. And when the translation of Chicago addresses was coming out in 1929, in the same year Sri Ramakrishna Math Chennai was bringing out a selection of Swamiji's words bearing on Nationalistic themes and about our country as .Namadu Thaainadu, selected and translated by Ra Krishnamurthy, with the foreword of Swami Yathiswarananda. In the Munnurai Swami Yathiswarananda says that the complete works of Swami Vivekananda was yet to come out in Tamil at that time, 1929 and opines that the said selection of Swamiji's words will well fill the gap in the meantime.
Already in 1921, Mr M S Nateson of Trichy brought out the Tamil translation of the paper on Hinduism by Swami Vivekananda, which forms part of Chicago speeches through The Vivekananda Publishing House, Teppakulam, Tiruchi.
I think even this itself will form a good research theme. i. e. various translations in various regional languages both during when Swamiji was living and after his time in the following decades. And also what were the reactions, informal and written or some comments occurring in some other places.
Yea .. An event having reverberations through time.
***
Something about old books in Tamil
Sometimes the uncle and nephew combination works in a great way in history. One person, who is the uncle is a great poet. He has sung the great epic Ramayana in a shortened form as 'Sangraha Ramayanam'. His name is Narayanaswamy Iyer. It was in, say, before 1908. In about 1000 stanzas in Tamil Mr Narayanasswami Iyer has wrought a miracle. The diction is chaste and the flow is streaming and the imagination is cool. One example is when Hanuman returns back to Sri Rama after seeing Seetha Devi. The famous line in Kambar starts with 'Kanadanan' 'Have seen'. So also here in Sangraha Ramayanam
கண்டனன் சனகன் குலமானைக்
கடுவா யரவங் கலைமதியை
யுண்டா லனைய முகத்தாளை
உணவுன் உணர்வாய் உடையாளை
வண்டார் பொழில்சூழ் இலங்கைநகர்
வனத்தோர் மரத்தின் வடமுகமாய்த்
தண்டா மரையா லுலகேழுந்
தந்தா யெந்தாய்த் தவநிலையை.
Seen the dearest girl of Janaka
with face sorrow-engulfed
like the moon swallowed by the nodes
Her only food is awareness of Thee
seated in the grove under a tree
of Lanka facing the direction north
seven-fold world begotten by Thee
through a Lotus yea I have seen
austerity itself as a form. (Tr mine)
Mr Narayanaswamy Iyer's nephew was one Govindaswamy Iyer. The nephew has written a beautiful life history of the great teacher of Advaita, Sri Sankara. His work is Sankara Vijayam in 767 verses in Tamil. How both are competing each other in diction style and rhythmic flow of poetic fibre! This book came in 1909. One example is when Govinda Yogi teaches Sri Sankara -
நான்கு மாமறை முடிப்பொருள் நான்கையும் நவின்று
வான்க ருப்பொரு ளொன்றிட உத்திகள் வழங்கித்
தான்கு றிப்பொடு பிரணவப் பொருளினைச் சாற்றி
ஊன்க ழித்திடு யோகமுந் தெளிவுற உரைத்தார்.
Teaching the great four Mahavakyas of the four Vedas and instructing on the methods of gaining the nondual identity and giving the secret special teachings about Pranavam and clarifying the salient steps of non-bodiness in Yogic practice Govinda Yogi taught the Great Teacher. (tr mine)
Such an uncle and such a nephew... sometimes it happens so. Is it not?
***
கண்டனன் சனகன் குலமானைக்
கடுவா யரவங் கலைமதியை
யுண்டா லனைய முகத்தாளை
உணவுன் உணர்வாய் உடையாளை
வண்டார் பொழில்சூழ் இலங்கைநகர்
வனத்தோர் மரத்தின் வடமுகமாய்த்
தண்டா மரையா லுலகேழுந்
தந்தா யெந்தாய்த் தவநிலையை.
Seen the dearest girl of Janaka
with face sorrow-engulfed
like the moon swallowed by the nodes
Her only food is awareness of Thee
seated in the grove under a tree
of Lanka facing the direction north
seven-fold world begotten by Thee
through a Lotus yea I have seen
austerity itself as a form. (Tr mine)
Mr Narayanaswamy Iyer's nephew was one Govindaswamy Iyer. The nephew has written a beautiful life history of the great teacher of Advaita, Sri Sankara. His work is Sankara Vijayam in 767 verses in Tamil. How both are competing each other in diction style and rhythmic flow of poetic fibre! This book came in 1909. One example is when Govinda Yogi teaches Sri Sankara -
நான்கு மாமறை முடிப்பொருள் நான்கையும் நவின்று
வான்க ருப்பொரு ளொன்றிட உத்திகள் வழங்கித்
தான்கு றிப்பொடு பிரணவப் பொருளினைச் சாற்றி
ஊன்க ழித்திடு யோகமுந் தெளிவுற உரைத்தார்.
Teaching the great four Mahavakyas of the four Vedas and instructing on the methods of gaining the nondual identity and giving the secret special teachings about Pranavam and clarifying the salient steps of non-bodiness in Yogic practice Govinda Yogi taught the Great Teacher. (tr mine)
Such an uncle and such a nephew... sometimes it happens so. Is it not?
***
Thursday, July 25, 2019
Goethe's Faust in Tamil...
A real character who lived about the first half of the sixteenth century in Germany, who was deep into magic, occultism and transcendent secrets soon became a legend and a myth about a person who was transacting with the devil and ultimately whisked away by the same devil itself and slowly became the main character of Christopher Marlowe's Dr Faustus. And this Marlowe's creation travelled back to Germany and metamorphosed into famous puppet-show on the streets. Seeing the puppet-show, one young genius of Germany was fascinated by the Dr Faustus and right from the twentieth year of Goethe Faust was in the making in the genius mind, written rewritten, adapted, changed to varying stages of life-realisation of the Master Goethe. All these stages reflected beautifully into the magnum opus. And it has become so to say, the soul of Europe, nay, a mirror to man's eternal agony if not to his ecstasy.
When the 100th anniversary of Goethe was celebrated one vibrant Tamil mind took fascination to Goethe's Faust. He was one A Duraiswami Pillai, who was close to Sir C P Ramaswamy Iyer. Perhaps discussions with Sir C P would have fanned his ardour much more and hence followed a beautiful translation of Faust of Goethe into Tamil as 'Vaasthu' in 1954. Mr Duraiswami Pillai thought it better to change the names of main characters of Faust into near-sounding Indian names like Faust to Vaastu, Wagner to Varagunan, Margaret to Maragatham, Valentine to Vijayan and so on.
(This of course I don't like generally. Any translation should not be made too homely in the receptor-language. The strangeness should be kept on to the essential limits, so that you are doing justice to both the cultures. If you make it too homely then you are hiding the difference instead of trusting the readers that they will appreciate those who are different from themselves. Moreover the very idea of translation is introducing the strange rather than a rendezvous of the familiar)
In the opening Faust is saying -
'I have, alas! Philosophy,
Medicine, Jurisprudence too,
And to my cost Theology,
With ardent labour, studied through.
And here I stand, with all my lore,
Poor fool, no wiser than before...'
The Tamil translation of Mr A Duraiswami Pillai speaks -
'சொல்லும் பொருளும் தொடரா ஒன்றின்
எல்லையைக் காண இரவும் பகலும்
தத்துவ சாத்திரம் மெத்தவும் கற்றேன்.
புத்தேள் இயற்கை இத்தகைத் தென்றிடும்
கொள்கைகள் ஒன்றோடொன் றொவ்வாச்சமய
சாத்திரம் பலவும் பார்த்துச் சலித்தேன்;
நீதிநூல் மருத்துவம் ஓதினேன் எனினும்
அறிவொரு சிறிதும் சிறந்திடக் காணேன்!
கற்றறி மூடனாய்க் கழிந்தேன்; அந்தோ!..’
Yea, we in our Tamilnad have never been lacking in our interests in Vedantha, Literature, Poetry, Arts and Science.
***
When the 100th anniversary of Goethe was celebrated one vibrant Tamil mind took fascination to Goethe's Faust. He was one A Duraiswami Pillai, who was close to Sir C P Ramaswamy Iyer. Perhaps discussions with Sir C P would have fanned his ardour much more and hence followed a beautiful translation of Faust of Goethe into Tamil as 'Vaasthu' in 1954. Mr Duraiswami Pillai thought it better to change the names of main characters of Faust into near-sounding Indian names like Faust to Vaastu, Wagner to Varagunan, Margaret to Maragatham, Valentine to Vijayan and so on.
(This of course I don't like generally. Any translation should not be made too homely in the receptor-language. The strangeness should be kept on to the essential limits, so that you are doing justice to both the cultures. If you make it too homely then you are hiding the difference instead of trusting the readers that they will appreciate those who are different from themselves. Moreover the very idea of translation is introducing the strange rather than a rendezvous of the familiar)
In the opening Faust is saying -
'I have, alas! Philosophy,
Medicine, Jurisprudence too,
And to my cost Theology,
With ardent labour, studied through.
And here I stand, with all my lore,
Poor fool, no wiser than before...'
The Tamil translation of Mr A Duraiswami Pillai speaks -
'சொல்லும் பொருளும் தொடரா ஒன்றின்
எல்லையைக் காண இரவும் பகலும்
தத்துவ சாத்திரம் மெத்தவும் கற்றேன்.
புத்தேள் இயற்கை இத்தகைத் தென்றிடும்
கொள்கைகள் ஒன்றோடொன் றொவ்வாச்சமய
சாத்திரம் பலவும் பார்த்துச் சலித்தேன்;
நீதிநூல் மருத்துவம் ஓதினேன் எனினும்
அறிவொரு சிறிதும் சிறந்திடக் காணேன்!
கற்றறி மூடனாய்க் கழிந்தேன்; அந்தோ!..’
Yea, we in our Tamilnad have never been lacking in our interests in Vedantha, Literature, Poetry, Arts and Science.
***
Preface and Grace !
Preface and Grace. What connection is there between these two? Preface introduces a book that follows. Grace introduces you to the God who follows. That is, before you are about to get realisation of God, Grace of God ccomes prior to that and prepares you for the great moment.
Preface comes to your level and takes you to the level of the book. In the same way Grace comes to your level and takes you to God's level.
This point is used as a simile by the author of Maran Alankaram, Thirukkurukur Perumal Kavirayar. Maran Alankaram is an old Tamil book about structural beauties and embellishments of a composition, mostly in verse. We can say it is an old form of structural literary theory in Tamil. In that book the author wants to impress on the minds of readers the necessity of a preface in any work. Any work big or small should be having a preface to facilitate the understanding of those who study the work. There in that work he says
'Just like literary features of any poem
And like truthfulness in the words of those who are well-read and clear in their understanding
Just like Grace which suits the God Narayana
So is apt and a must, a preface for any real book.'
பாவிற்கு அணிபோல்
பனுவல் தெளிவுணர்ந்தோர் நாவிற்கு வாய்மை போல்
நாரணம் ஆம் - தேவிற்கு
வாய்ந்த அருள்போல வாய்ந்ததே நூலகத்தாய்
ஏய்ந்த பொருட் பாயிரம்.’
(பாயிரம் - preface)
***
Preface comes to your level and takes you to the level of the book. In the same way Grace comes to your level and takes you to God's level.
This point is used as a simile by the author of Maran Alankaram, Thirukkurukur Perumal Kavirayar. Maran Alankaram is an old Tamil book about structural beauties and embellishments of a composition, mostly in verse. We can say it is an old form of structural literary theory in Tamil. In that book the author wants to impress on the minds of readers the necessity of a preface in any work. Any work big or small should be having a preface to facilitate the understanding of those who study the work. There in that work he says
'Just like literary features of any poem
And like truthfulness in the words of those who are well-read and clear in their understanding
Just like Grace which suits the God Narayana
So is apt and a must, a preface for any real book.'
பாவிற்கு அணிபோல்
பனுவல் தெளிவுணர்ந்தோர் நாவிற்கு வாய்மை போல்
நாரணம் ஆம் - தேவிற்கு
வாய்ந்த அருள்போல வாய்ந்ததே நூலகத்தாய்
ஏய்ந்த பொருட் பாயிரம்.’
(பாயிரம் - preface)
***
Vedantha with three meanings
When you are wondering about the great efforts taken in bringing out the first four sutras with the commentaries of Sri Ramanuja and Sudharsana Bhatta, how will you react to this one which came out in 1905. It is captioned 'Sankara Ramanuja Nilakanta bhashyangalai anusarittha padavurai koodiya Brahma sutra dravida bhashyam'. i.e. Tamil commentary of Brahma sutras which incorporates the meanings from the commentaries of Sankara, Ramanuja and Nilakanta. The meanings were translated from Sanskrit by Tarkatheerthar Sriman U Ve Singapperumal Kovil Maatabhoosi Ramanujacharya Swamigal, assistance in corrections was by Advaithappravanar Vidwan Seetharama Sastri and published by A Ananthacharya, printed in Sastra Sanjeevini Press. The book covers the whole Brahma Sutra of four Adhyayas in about 350 pages.
Ventures big and small, comprehensive and in depth have been always there to take Vedantic knowledge to the people through Tamil. Whether it is Vedantic anthology many centuries ago or Jnaana vaasittam with commentaries or translations in Tamil of Sanskrit Commentaries, the continued efforts and activities and the team-work of scholars and enthusiasts are astounding.
***
Ventures big and small, comprehensive and in depth have been always there to take Vedantic knowledge to the people through Tamil. Whether it is Vedantic anthology many centuries ago or Jnaana vaasittam with commentaries or translations in Tamil of Sanskrit Commentaries, the continued efforts and activities and the team-work of scholars and enthusiasts are astounding.
***
Tirumaal Kural
And who is this man, Punnai Maadabhoosi Srinivasachariyar? Tamil Pandit of Chennai Presidency College in the year 1899. He has written a very small book in Tamil, 'Tirumaal Kural', just 14 pages in print, containing 108 kurals or short couplets on Tirumaal or Sri Vishnu. Who would have read this book... perhaps he gave the copies away as complimentary. But some would have really read this small book at least in his own days. Why I am asking is this, nobody has referred such a beautiful little composition in Kural metre on the theme of Tirumaal. I have heard nobody mentioning such a work or such an author, even in devotional circles not to speak of in academic. And really Oh me! the couplets are a real treat.
திருமா மகளிருக்குஞ் சீர்மார்பன் பாத
மருமா மலர்பணிந்தேன் மன்.
விடகோப வாயரவின் மேவுபிரான் பாதச்
சடகோபா நீயே சரண்
அவந்தீர வென்னெஞ்சே யானைமருப் பீர்த்த
நவநீதக் கையனையே நாடு
ஆங்கமல நீர்போ லமைந்தும் பிரிந்திருப்பார்
தாங்கமலை மார்பன் றமர்.
அருளா லுலகெல்லா மன்றளக்க நீண்ட
கருளக் கொடியானே கா
குஞ்சரநீள் கையெடுத்துக் கூவக் குளக்கரைவா
யஞ்சலென வந்தா யளி.
... so on and on... it goes in doubles till 108
புகலரிய நான்மறைக்கும் போற்றரியாய் நிற்குக்
குகன்றம்பி யானதுமோர் கூத்து
அருளொழுகுங் கண்ணினையு மம்புயநேர் வாயும்
மருளறயான் காணவெதிர் வா
வாயுனையே வாழ்த்துகவுன் வண்ணத்தைக் காண்கவிழி
மாயவுன்பேர் கேட்கசெவி மற்று.
And the whole work runs in Andaadi, previous ending beginning the next.
***
திருமா மகளிருக்குஞ் சீர்மார்பன் பாத
மருமா மலர்பணிந்தேன் மன்.
விடகோப வாயரவின் மேவுபிரான் பாதச்
சடகோபா நீயே சரண்
அவந்தீர வென்னெஞ்சே யானைமருப் பீர்த்த
நவநீதக் கையனையே நாடு
ஆங்கமல நீர்போ லமைந்தும் பிரிந்திருப்பார்
தாங்கமலை மார்பன் றமர்.
அருளா லுலகெல்லா மன்றளக்க நீண்ட
கருளக் கொடியானே கா
குஞ்சரநீள் கையெடுத்துக் கூவக் குளக்கரைவா
யஞ்சலென வந்தா யளி.
... so on and on... it goes in doubles till 108
புகலரிய நான்மறைக்கும் போற்றரியாய் நிற்குக்
குகன்றம்பி யானதுமோர் கூத்து
அருளொழுகுங் கண்ணினையு மம்புயநேர் வாயும்
மருளறயான் காணவெதிர் வா
வாயுனையே வாழ்த்துகவுன் வண்ணத்தைக் காண்கவிழி
மாயவுன்பேர் கேட்கசெவி மற்று.
And the whole work runs in Andaadi, previous ending beginning the next.
***
Tuesday, July 23, 2019
Non-antagonistic Awareness....
I am going to tell you a unique story. Story..? Nay.... it happened in reality. So how can it be a story? But while narrating about it we have to make some story-line you know. Some 700 hundred years ago (some may say no no 600, some others 500, some again 400...) but as per the editors of the book 'Sivappirakasap Perunthirattu' K Vadivelu Chettiyar and M Shanmuga Mudaliyar, the book of anthology of Vedantic verses available in Tamil some 700 years ago was made by one Swarupanandar in the name of his Master Sivappirakasar. Hence the name Sivappirakasap Perunthirattu - which means 'The Great anthology of Sivappirakasa'. Swami Swarupanandar has made this anthology of Vedantic poems and verses out of nearly more than 140 Tamil works of Vedantha which were all available then. How many of those have survived the flow of Time, nobody knows. But whatever verses have been included in this anthology are a net gain to us. This anthology was published in 1912, printed in Chennai Komaleswaranpettai Press. Nearly all the poems are nuggets of gold in Vedantha. We can be really proud of our Vedantic heritage in our Tamil. One verse caught my attention somehow. It is this.
’எடுத்த எம் மதம் எந்நூல்கள் யாவையும் தமதாய் ஆங்கு
வடித்த நற்பொருளே கொண்டு வளம்பட மகிழ்வதல்லால்
படித்து ஒரு பொருளைப் பற்றிப் பாங்கினால் அதில் ஒதுங்கிப்
பிடித்தது பிடித்துக் காதும் பேதைமை பெரியோர்க்கு இன்றே.’
Meaning -
'Great men consider whatever ideologies and whatever books they come across, they read those books deeply and make whatever good thoughts in those books and ideologies they are able to find, their own and rejoice in such good things. Such men never become partisan and take sides with any single thought in the books they read and they never make quarrels based on their likes and dislikes.'
What great sentiments and mature approach !
And by the by this verse comes in an old Vedantic Tamil work, viz., 'avirOdabOdam', meaning may be 'Non-antagonistic Awareness'
*
"If there is one feature more than another, which characterises Hindu thought, it is its hospitality to the different conceptions of reality. Man's attempt to comprehend the truth, which is limitless, is bound to result in different views. To take our stand on one limited view and make it adequate to the vast reality is the mistake which all dogmatists make. The acceptance of a limited view becomes a barrier to the understanding of truths. A seeker should recognise the immensity of reality and the inadequacy of limited views and formulas."
(Sir S Radhakrishnan, Foreword to Darsanodhaya of Mahamahopadhyaya Panditaratnam Lakshmipuram Srinivasachariar)
***
’எடுத்த எம் மதம் எந்நூல்கள் யாவையும் தமதாய் ஆங்கு
வடித்த நற்பொருளே கொண்டு வளம்பட மகிழ்வதல்லால்
படித்து ஒரு பொருளைப் பற்றிப் பாங்கினால் அதில் ஒதுங்கிப்
பிடித்தது பிடித்துக் காதும் பேதைமை பெரியோர்க்கு இன்றே.’
Meaning -
'Great men consider whatever ideologies and whatever books they come across, they read those books deeply and make whatever good thoughts in those books and ideologies they are able to find, their own and rejoice in such good things. Such men never become partisan and take sides with any single thought in the books they read and they never make quarrels based on their likes and dislikes.'
What great sentiments and mature approach !
And by the by this verse comes in an old Vedantic Tamil work, viz., 'avirOdabOdam', meaning may be 'Non-antagonistic Awareness'
*
"If there is one feature more than another, which characterises Hindu thought, it is its hospitality to the different conceptions of reality. Man's attempt to comprehend the truth, which is limitless, is bound to result in different views. To take our stand on one limited view and make it adequate to the vast reality is the mistake which all dogmatists make. The acceptance of a limited view becomes a barrier to the understanding of truths. A seeker should recognise the immensity of reality and the inadequacy of limited views and formulas."
(Sir S Radhakrishnan, Foreword to Darsanodhaya of Mahamahopadhyaya Panditaratnam Lakshmipuram Srinivasachariar)
***
Something not here and not there...!
Oh, me! I am stuck in focus on these lines of Bert Meyers -
"Once, in autumn, I saw the sun
pause in the wrinkles of a tree
like passion on an old man’s face...."
What lines! You feel the rough skin of the trees rubbing on words. As if the universe of words overstepping the universe of things !
***
It seems there are quite a number of victims of History in the field of thought. One such seems to be Herbert Spencer. He is one who wrote about evolution years before Darwin. But of course minus the part of natural selection. But more comprehensive than Darwin's, in that, Herbert Spencer was able to talk about evolution in the spheres of society, culture. What he wrote seems to be that evolution works towards more perfection, from the gross and banal and militant towards being more cooperative, finer and humane mutual transactions. But, lo...! history being sometimes reckless and devoid of any considering... has branded HS with the idea of 'social darwinism'.
( History..! sometimes you do not read your texts well... be good and behave well..! :-) )
*
A great philosopher of the logical positivist school, A J Ayer, was uncompromising in his stand that statements which do not lend themselves to empirical verification or analytical exercise are quite meaningless. A great hit at the traditional metaphysics indeed. He was not a shy away philosopher when he confronted the unwanted advances of Mike Tyson on a new model in a party given by a fashion designer, saying 'I suggest we talk about this like rational men'.
Just one year before his death, A J Ayer had a near-death experience. On recovery he said that the experience slightly weakened his conviction that his genuine death will be the end of him. Later he opined that he should have rather told instead 'my experiences have weakened, not my belief that there is no life after death, but my inflexible attitude towards that belief'.
Strange! We demand that we should experience ourselves to accept anything. But will we allow ourselves to accept our experiences?
*
"Once, in autumn, I saw the sun
pause in the wrinkles of a tree
like passion on an old man’s face...."
What lines! You feel the rough skin of the trees rubbing on words. As if the universe of words overstepping the universe of things !
***
It seems there are quite a number of victims of History in the field of thought. One such seems to be Herbert Spencer. He is one who wrote about evolution years before Darwin. But of course minus the part of natural selection. But more comprehensive than Darwin's, in that, Herbert Spencer was able to talk about evolution in the spheres of society, culture. What he wrote seems to be that evolution works towards more perfection, from the gross and banal and militant towards being more cooperative, finer and humane mutual transactions. But, lo...! history being sometimes reckless and devoid of any considering... has branded HS with the idea of 'social darwinism'.
( History..! sometimes you do not read your texts well... be good and behave well..! :-) )
*
A great philosopher of the logical positivist school, A J Ayer, was uncompromising in his stand that statements which do not lend themselves to empirical verification or analytical exercise are quite meaningless. A great hit at the traditional metaphysics indeed. He was not a shy away philosopher when he confronted the unwanted advances of Mike Tyson on a new model in a party given by a fashion designer, saying 'I suggest we talk about this like rational men'.
Just one year before his death, A J Ayer had a near-death experience. On recovery he said that the experience slightly weakened his conviction that his genuine death will be the end of him. Later he opined that he should have rather told instead 'my experiences have weakened, not my belief that there is no life after death, but my inflexible attitude towards that belief'.
Strange! We demand that we should experience ourselves to accept anything. But will we allow ourselves to accept our experiences?
*
Francis Thompson is as usual rocking! He has always an unexpected twist and tinge of mystic note.
This is unusual about poets -
'Thou canst foreshape thy word;
The poet is not lord
Of the next syllable may come
With the returning pendulum;
And what he plans to-day in song,
To-morrow sings it in another tongue.
Where the last leaf fell from his bough,
He knows not if a leaf shall grow;
Where he sows he doth not reap,
He reapeth where he did not sow;
He sleeps, and dreams forsake his sleep
To meet him on his waking way.'
How different in tone and timbre this one ! --
'I sprinkled a few drops of verse,
And said to Ruin: 'Quit thy hearse;'
To my Loved: Pale not, come with me;
I will escort thee down the years.
With me thou walk'st immortally.'
And in the Echo of Victor Hugo these beautiful lines --
'Life's a veil the real has:
All the shadows of our scene
Are but shows of things that pass
On the other side the screen.
Time his glass sits nodding by;
'Twixt its turn and turn a spawn
Of universes buzz and die
Like the ephemeris of the dawn.'
***
This is unusual about poets -
'Thou canst foreshape thy word;
The poet is not lord
Of the next syllable may come
With the returning pendulum;
And what he plans to-day in song,
To-morrow sings it in another tongue.
Where the last leaf fell from his bough,
He knows not if a leaf shall grow;
Where he sows he doth not reap,
He reapeth where he did not sow;
He sleeps, and dreams forsake his sleep
To meet him on his waking way.'
How different in tone and timbre this one ! --
'I sprinkled a few drops of verse,
And said to Ruin: 'Quit thy hearse;'
To my Loved: Pale not, come with me;
I will escort thee down the years.
With me thou walk'st immortally.'
And in the Echo of Victor Hugo these beautiful lines --
'Life's a veil the real has:
All the shadows of our scene
Are but shows of things that pass
On the other side the screen.
Time his glass sits nodding by;
'Twixt its turn and turn a spawn
Of universes buzz and die
Like the ephemeris of the dawn.'
***
Philosophy of English Grammar
Usually people think that English grammar is not so nuanced and if you familiarize yourself with some subject, predicate, object ok the working English is ready at hand. But it is not so. There are very many nuances in the structure of English sentences which pay attention to aspects of psychology, cognition and culture. For example the adjectives and the noun. You cannot put adjectives before nouns in haphazard manner. There is a priority and scaling spanning from right to left preceding the noun itself. There are seven such positions receding to left from the noun. An adjective of material of which the noun is composed or an adjective of origin from which the noun has come should take the immediate preceding position before the noun. Then any adjective which describes the colour; then the adjective which informs about the age; then the adjective which describes the state or condition of the noun; then the adjective of shape; then the adjective which tells about the size; then in the last place to the left comes adjectives of our opinion about the noun. Just think about the philosophical chain connecting the observer and the object. The adjectives scale from the most subjective which is nearer to the observer to the most objective which is nearer to the object - left to right. And seen otherwise from the most objective next to the noun to the most subjective near to the speaker - right to left. The chain of observation is scaled subjective to objective by the adjectives. Thank God I didn't become an English teacher !
***
***
Hindu Philosophic Thought
There is a very great potential in Hindu philosophic thought, which opens up only when you engage in it in all seriousness. And comparative philosophical study can provide a great tool to cognize the depth and implications. Of course it need not be said that bromides are hurdles in the path of right understanding.
Take the case of 'will and desire' as Spinoza juxtaposes them or 'language and thought' as Wittgenstein will put it. Let us imagine the whole human being as an intricate machine and nothing else. Let us say that desire is just the bio-face and the cognition by the brain in flux-mode. i.e. a set of impulses read with the tag 'value' by the nature's computer is what is felt as desire. Just let us suppose. Then what is will? i.e. the set of thrusts which come inside out in efforts of attaining or obtaining the 'desired'? Now we have slipped a word 'effort'. So 'willing' 'taking effort' all depend on and at the initial point of cognizing. If all these are only bio-processes superannuating one over another linearly or recursively, if we ever think so, then we can heave a sigh of relief which will be only short lived. Because the fundamental problem of the core of being which cognizes, wills and/or engage in action still crops up all the more brutally after our suave attempts at reductive burial into matter. Hindu philosophic thought openly admits and recognises this problem of infinite regression and straight-away admits it. Instead of positing shilly shally stands Hindu thought says that the core of being where all these infinite regressions inhabit is what is called soul. The Atman is defined by these basic energies or potencies of 'knowing' willing' and 'acting'. Jnana, Icchaa, Kriya sakthis.
In the spectrum of world when you are able to read features of knowing, willing and acting you can honestly admit of the soul rather than attempting makeshifts.
In this train of thought one book shadows up in memory with its cover and first page, which I read in District Central Library Chennai some years ago- Language and Silence by George Steiner. Not that the book may have any bearings on this but sometimes the vague memories team up or the vague memory steams up. any way.
***
Take the case of 'will and desire' as Spinoza juxtaposes them or 'language and thought' as Wittgenstein will put it. Let us imagine the whole human being as an intricate machine and nothing else. Let us say that desire is just the bio-face and the cognition by the brain in flux-mode. i.e. a set of impulses read with the tag 'value' by the nature's computer is what is felt as desire. Just let us suppose. Then what is will? i.e. the set of thrusts which come inside out in efforts of attaining or obtaining the 'desired'? Now we have slipped a word 'effort'. So 'willing' 'taking effort' all depend on and at the initial point of cognizing. If all these are only bio-processes superannuating one over another linearly or recursively, if we ever think so, then we can heave a sigh of relief which will be only short lived. Because the fundamental problem of the core of being which cognizes, wills and/or engage in action still crops up all the more brutally after our suave attempts at reductive burial into matter. Hindu philosophic thought openly admits and recognises this problem of infinite regression and straight-away admits it. Instead of positing shilly shally stands Hindu thought says that the core of being where all these infinite regressions inhabit is what is called soul. The Atman is defined by these basic energies or potencies of 'knowing' willing' and 'acting'. Jnana, Icchaa, Kriya sakthis.
In the spectrum of world when you are able to read features of knowing, willing and acting you can honestly admit of the soul rather than attempting makeshifts.
In this train of thought one book shadows up in memory with its cover and first page, which I read in District Central Library Chennai some years ago- Language and Silence by George Steiner. Not that the book may have any bearings on this but sometimes the vague memories team up or the vague memory steams up. any way.
***
Saturday, July 20, 2019
The Writer and the Society
Do writers change the society around them or is it perhaps the writers rise to the silent demands and expectations of the public? That means the about-changing society creates a silent need which the writers fulfill by their creative ventures. Or is it just a writer writes something and the society wakes up by that and goes in a new direction? Yea we can think a lot both ways. This thought was occurring to me having the great poet Bharathi in mind, when I was reading the introduction written in the DeLuxe edition of Joseph Addison's Essays. Perhaps it is written by John Richard Green who has edited it. Of course an old book. And Joseph Addison is a master of language of the yester-years. But so what, the crux of the problem is still fresh.
'If Marlborough and Somers had their share in shaping the new England that came of 1688, so also had Addison and Steele. And to the bulk of people it may be doubted whether the change that passed over literature was not more startling and more interesting than the change that passed over politics. Few changes, indeed, have ever been so radical and complete. Literature suddenly doffed its stately garb of folio or octavo, and stepped abroad in the light and easy dress of pamphlet and essay. Its long arguments and cumbrous sentences condensed themselves into the quick reasoning and terse easy phrases of ordinary conversation. Its tone lost the pedantry of the scholar, the brutality of the controversialist, and aimed at being unpretentious, polite, urbane. The writer aimed at teaching, but at teaching in pleasant and familiar ways; he strove to make evil unreasonable and ridiculous; to shame men by wit and irony out of grossness and bad manners; to draw the world to piety and virtue by teaching piety and virtue themselves to smile. And the change of subject was as remarkable as the change of form.'
Then he draws attention to what change of subject was there. It is interesting that such attentive writing has been done about the abstract features of the social interests and expressions.
'Letters found a new interest in the scenes and characters of the common life around them, in the chat of the coffee-house, the loungers of the Mall, the humors of the street, the pathos of the fireside. Every one has felt the change that passed in this way over our literature; but we commonly talk as if the change had been a change in the writers of the time, as if the intelligence which produces books had suddenly taken of itself a new form, as if men like Addison had conceived the Essay and their readers had adapted themselves to this new mode of writing. The truth lies precisely the other way. In no department of human life does the law of supply and demand operate so powerfully as in literature. Writers and readers are not two different classes of men: both are products of the same social and mental conditions: and the thoughts of the one will be commonly of the same order and kind as the thoughts of the other.'
He has put forth his observations in a clear and forceful way. And I was thinking of the situations as applied to the days of Bharathi and his times. It is easier to think that a writer comes as a lever to push ahead the society and the society gains momentum only at that instant. Or should we think in more details and only then we arrive at the real picture.?
***
'If Marlborough and Somers had their share in shaping the new England that came of 1688, so also had Addison and Steele. And to the bulk of people it may be doubted whether the change that passed over literature was not more startling and more interesting than the change that passed over politics. Few changes, indeed, have ever been so radical and complete. Literature suddenly doffed its stately garb of folio or octavo, and stepped abroad in the light and easy dress of pamphlet and essay. Its long arguments and cumbrous sentences condensed themselves into the quick reasoning and terse easy phrases of ordinary conversation. Its tone lost the pedantry of the scholar, the brutality of the controversialist, and aimed at being unpretentious, polite, urbane. The writer aimed at teaching, but at teaching in pleasant and familiar ways; he strove to make evil unreasonable and ridiculous; to shame men by wit and irony out of grossness and bad manners; to draw the world to piety and virtue by teaching piety and virtue themselves to smile. And the change of subject was as remarkable as the change of form.'
Then he draws attention to what change of subject was there. It is interesting that such attentive writing has been done about the abstract features of the social interests and expressions.
'Letters found a new interest in the scenes and characters of the common life around them, in the chat of the coffee-house, the loungers of the Mall, the humors of the street, the pathos of the fireside. Every one has felt the change that passed in this way over our literature; but we commonly talk as if the change had been a change in the writers of the time, as if the intelligence which produces books had suddenly taken of itself a new form, as if men like Addison had conceived the Essay and their readers had adapted themselves to this new mode of writing. The truth lies precisely the other way. In no department of human life does the law of supply and demand operate so powerfully as in literature. Writers and readers are not two different classes of men: both are products of the same social and mental conditions: and the thoughts of the one will be commonly of the same order and kind as the thoughts of the other.'
He has put forth his observations in a clear and forceful way. And I was thinking of the situations as applied to the days of Bharathi and his times. It is easier to think that a writer comes as a lever to push ahead the society and the society gains momentum only at that instant. Or should we think in more details and only then we arrive at the real picture.?
***
Old and ever new !
And Anne Bronte(sister of Charlotte Bronte) of the olden years.(mid 19th C E). but the lines feel fresh as hidden leaves in the rain --
'I'll rest me in this sheltered bower,
And look upon the clear blue sky
That smiles upon me through the trees,
Which stand so thickly clustering by;
And view their green and glossy leaves,
All glistening in the sunshine fair ;
And list the rustling of their boughs,
So softly whispering through the air.
And while my ear drinks in the sound,
My winged soul shall fly away;
Reviewing long departed years
As one mild, beaming, autumn day'
*
Francis Thompson is as usual rocking! He has always an unexpected twist and tinge of mystic note.
This is unusual about poets -
'Thou canst foreshape thy word;
The poet is not lord
Of the next syllable may come
With the returning pendulum;
And what he plans to-day in song,
To-morrow sings it in another tongue.
Where the last leaf fell from his bough,
He knows not if a leaf shall grow;
Where he sows he doth not reap,
He reapeth where he did not sow;
He sleeps, and dreams forsake his sleep
To meet him on his waking way.'
How different in tone and timbre this one ! --
'I sprinkled a few drops of verse,
And said to Ruin: 'Quit thy hearse;'
To my Loved: Pale not, come with me;
I will escort thee down the years.
With me thou walk'st immortally.'
And in the Echo of Victor Hugo these beautiful lines --
'Life's a veil the real has:
All the shadows of our scene
Are but shows of things that pass
On the other side the screen.
Time his glass sits nodding by;
'Twixt its turn and turn a spawn
Of universes buzz and die
Like the ephemeris of the dawn.'
*
And how oft we have run after strange ideals and stranger visions! All in the passionate longing that we must reach those one day. We profess in our progressive youth many plans for our future. And all at last how oft many have returned back to their childhood faith! However simple and however unpretentious the childhood idol beckons and quite unsung and feeling no need of noise we lay our heads on its laps. Our fevers assuaged, our world reassured.. our childhood thickly remembered.
Thomas O'Hagan has something to say on this -
'Hearts oft bow before strange idols,
Strength of power and breath of fame,
And forgetful of life's morning
Dream of noontide's gilded name;
But the idol that I cherish
Knows no glory e'en in part—
'Tis the simple faith of childhood
Long grown strong within my heart.
In the darkest hour of trial,
When each star has veiled its face,
Turn I fondly to my idol,
Full of heavenly light and grace;—
Then my step grows firm and steady
Down the mystic path of night.
For the simple faith of childhood
Guides me, leads me ever right.'
Perhaps the adage is true - 'Child is the father of man.'
***
'I'll rest me in this sheltered bower,
And look upon the clear blue sky
That smiles upon me through the trees,
Which stand so thickly clustering by;
And view their green and glossy leaves,
All glistening in the sunshine fair ;
And list the rustling of their boughs,
So softly whispering through the air.
And while my ear drinks in the sound,
My winged soul shall fly away;
Reviewing long departed years
As one mild, beaming, autumn day'
*
Francis Thompson is as usual rocking! He has always an unexpected twist and tinge of mystic note.
This is unusual about poets -
'Thou canst foreshape thy word;
The poet is not lord
Of the next syllable may come
With the returning pendulum;
And what he plans to-day in song,
To-morrow sings it in another tongue.
Where the last leaf fell from his bough,
He knows not if a leaf shall grow;
Where he sows he doth not reap,
He reapeth where he did not sow;
He sleeps, and dreams forsake his sleep
To meet him on his waking way.'
How different in tone and timbre this one ! --
'I sprinkled a few drops of verse,
And said to Ruin: 'Quit thy hearse;'
To my Loved: Pale not, come with me;
I will escort thee down the years.
With me thou walk'st immortally.'
And in the Echo of Victor Hugo these beautiful lines --
'Life's a veil the real has:
All the shadows of our scene
Are but shows of things that pass
On the other side the screen.
Time his glass sits nodding by;
'Twixt its turn and turn a spawn
Of universes buzz and die
Like the ephemeris of the dawn.'
*
And how oft we have run after strange ideals and stranger visions! All in the passionate longing that we must reach those one day. We profess in our progressive youth many plans for our future. And all at last how oft many have returned back to their childhood faith! However simple and however unpretentious the childhood idol beckons and quite unsung and feeling no need of noise we lay our heads on its laps. Our fevers assuaged, our world reassured.. our childhood thickly remembered.
Thomas O'Hagan has something to say on this -
'Hearts oft bow before strange idols,
Strength of power and breath of fame,
And forgetful of life's morning
Dream of noontide's gilded name;
But the idol that I cherish
Knows no glory e'en in part—
'Tis the simple faith of childhood
Long grown strong within my heart.
In the darkest hour of trial,
When each star has veiled its face,
Turn I fondly to my idol,
Full of heavenly light and grace;—
Then my step grows firm and steady
Down the mystic path of night.
For the simple faith of childhood
Guides me, leads me ever right.'
Perhaps the adage is true - 'Child is the father of man.'
***
The message of the stars !
A life-time of extensive and deep and intense scholarship makes one a good student at last. Education's humility just makes you come to senses.
What a wonderful collection is this The World's Best Poetry - set of ten volumes which came in 1904, published by John D Morris and Company! In the first volume I came across the full form of that old beautiful nursery poem - 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star...'
Who has written this, perhaps nobody knows. The author is given as anonymous.
'TWINKLE, twinkle, little star;
How I wonder what you are!
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky.
When the glorious sun is set,
When the grass with dew is wet,
Then you show your little light,
Twinkle, twinkle, all the night.
When the blazing sun is gone,
When he nothing shines upon,
Then you show your little light,
Twinkle, twinkle, all the night.
In the dark-blue sky you keep,
And often through my curtains peep;
For you never shut your eye
Till the sun is in the sky.
As your bright and tiny spark
Lights the traveller in the dark,
Though I know not what you are,
Twinkle, twinkle, little star! '
What sentiments! And what passion with nature !. All along the child's mind and outlook is kept intact. And with that all which need be told is told. My salutations to the poet whoever he might have been.
***
What a wonderful collection is this The World's Best Poetry - set of ten volumes which came in 1904, published by John D Morris and Company! In the first volume I came across the full form of that old beautiful nursery poem - 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star...'
Who has written this, perhaps nobody knows. The author is given as anonymous.
'TWINKLE, twinkle, little star;
How I wonder what you are!
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky.
When the glorious sun is set,
When the grass with dew is wet,
Then you show your little light,
Twinkle, twinkle, all the night.
When the blazing sun is gone,
When he nothing shines upon,
Then you show your little light,
Twinkle, twinkle, all the night.
In the dark-blue sky you keep,
And often through my curtains peep;
For you never shut your eye
Till the sun is in the sky.
As your bright and tiny spark
Lights the traveller in the dark,
Though I know not what you are,
Twinkle, twinkle, little star! '
What sentiments! And what passion with nature !. All along the child's mind and outlook is kept intact. And with that all which need be told is told. My salutations to the poet whoever he might have been.
***
Tuesday, July 16, 2019
Full Moon of the Masters
People are wondering, 'can a single man write so much? is he one author or many called by the same name?' All such bewilderment is meaningless. For one Vyasa, you are thinking like that. What about such persons of extensive calibre, not one but many down the time? Some persons write one or two books in their lifetime. But some write not one or two, but libraries of books. Occasions have been many even till our own time. Otherwise how can you explain a Ganganatha Jha? Do you know what he has produced?
A scholar who has translated into English the tough commentary of Logic, Vatsyayana's Nyaya Bhashya. And he has written his own commentary. In our scale, simply a job of lifetime. Even this alone.
And again he has translated that still more tough and dry commentary of Purva Mimamsa, Sabara Bhashya. In my scale it is a job of two lifetimes. Not only that. There is a commentary on Sabara Bhashya by Kumarila Bhatta. One commentary? Nay but two. Slokavartika and Tantravartika. All these are running into more than 1000 pages 1500 pages or 2000 pages when translated and put into printed pages. Can you imagine the tediousness of translating, that too from a highly technical treatise in Sanskrit? It is a real challenge to your powers of imagination.
The giant is not satisfied with doing all these immense jobs. He has translated Manusmriti with commentaries in five volumes. And of course he has also translated Yoga Sastra with its commentary. And there is another book, Buddhist, Tattva Sangraham by Santarakshita with the commentary of Kamalasila. Our G Jha has translated the whole text and commentary into English in two volumes, all more than 1500 pages. And Chandogya Upanishad with the commentary of Sankara translated. I am trying to list only what comes to my mind. There are many more.
In addition to all these herculean tasks, our 'Vyasa' has written a lot of original treatises, which are superb and sine qua non. Books like Purva Mimamsa in its original Sources, Sources of Hindu Law, Prabhakara School of Purva Mimamsa and again many more.
In addition, yea, in addition to all these, he has edited innumerable texts. And not to speak of hundreds of articles written for scholarly journals.
As for me, Vyasa has always been a Present Tense in our history. And he will remain so for ever. Salutations to Vyasa on this Full Moon of the Masters.
***
A scholar who has translated into English the tough commentary of Logic, Vatsyayana's Nyaya Bhashya. And he has written his own commentary. In our scale, simply a job of lifetime. Even this alone.
And again he has translated that still more tough and dry commentary of Purva Mimamsa, Sabara Bhashya. In my scale it is a job of two lifetimes. Not only that. There is a commentary on Sabara Bhashya by Kumarila Bhatta. One commentary? Nay but two. Slokavartika and Tantravartika. All these are running into more than 1000 pages 1500 pages or 2000 pages when translated and put into printed pages. Can you imagine the tediousness of translating, that too from a highly technical treatise in Sanskrit? It is a real challenge to your powers of imagination.
The giant is not satisfied with doing all these immense jobs. He has translated Manusmriti with commentaries in five volumes. And of course he has also translated Yoga Sastra with its commentary. And there is another book, Buddhist, Tattva Sangraham by Santarakshita with the commentary of Kamalasila. Our G Jha has translated the whole text and commentary into English in two volumes, all more than 1500 pages. And Chandogya Upanishad with the commentary of Sankara translated. I am trying to list only what comes to my mind. There are many more.
In addition to all these herculean tasks, our 'Vyasa' has written a lot of original treatises, which are superb and sine qua non. Books like Purva Mimamsa in its original Sources, Sources of Hindu Law, Prabhakara School of Purva Mimamsa and again many more.
In addition, yea, in addition to all these, he has edited innumerable texts. And not to speak of hundreds of articles written for scholarly journals.
As for me, Vyasa has always been a Present Tense in our history. And he will remain so for ever. Salutations to Vyasa on this Full Moon of the Masters.
***
Sunday, July 14, 2019
Some bits of thought....
Oh, me! I am stuck in focus on these lines of Bert Meyers -
"Once, in autumn, I saw the sun
pause in the wrinkles of a tree
like passion on an old man’s face...."
What lines! You feel the rough skin of the trees rubbing on words. As if the universe of words overstepping the universe of things !
***
No matter to what high you rise, to what low you sink, you can never escape discovering yourself where you are in the logging of the Life Divine. What a giant book and what sympathy the Super-Yogi should have had on human beings in pursuit, to have taken so much pains and time to have penned it! Thanks is a very self-shy meek word when one realises more and more the importance of the Book.
***
A great philosopher of the logical positivist school, A J Ayer, was uncompromising in his stand that statements which do not lend themselves to empirical verification or analytical exercise are quite meaningless. A great hit at the traditional metaphysics indeed. He was not a shy away philosopher when he confronted the unwanted advances of Mike Tyson on a new model in a party given by a fashion designer, saying 'I suggest we talk about this like rational men'.
Just one year before his death, A J Ayer had a near-death experience. On recovery he said that the experience slightly weakened his conviction that his genuine death will be the end of him. Later he opined that he should have rather told instead 'my experiences have weakened, not my belief that there is no life after death, but my inflexible attitude towards that belief'.
Strange! We demand that we should experience ourselves to accept anything. But will we allow ourselves to accept our experiences?
***
It seems there are quite a number of victims of History in the field of thought. One such seems to be Herbert Spencer. He is one who wrote about evolution years before Darwin. But of course minus the part of natural selection. But more comprehensive than Darwin's, in that, Herbert Spencer was able to talk about evolution in the spheres of society, culture. What he wrote seems to be that evolution works towards more perfection, from the gross and banal and militant towards being more cooperative, finer and humane mutual transactions. But, lo...! history being sometimes reckless and devoid of any considering... has branded HS with the idea of 'social darwinism'.
( History..! sometimes you do not read your texts well... be good and behave well..! :-) )
***
The human gaze has the power of conferring value on things; but it makes them cost more too.
- Ludwig Wittgenstein
என் நெஞ்சினால் நோக்கிக் காணீர், என்னை முனியாதே !
"Once, in autumn, I saw the sun
pause in the wrinkles of a tree
like passion on an old man’s face...."
What lines! You feel the rough skin of the trees rubbing on words. As if the universe of words overstepping the universe of things !
***
No matter to what high you rise, to what low you sink, you can never escape discovering yourself where you are in the logging of the Life Divine. What a giant book and what sympathy the Super-Yogi should have had on human beings in pursuit, to have taken so much pains and time to have penned it! Thanks is a very self-shy meek word when one realises more and more the importance of the Book.
***
A great philosopher of the logical positivist school, A J Ayer, was uncompromising in his stand that statements which do not lend themselves to empirical verification or analytical exercise are quite meaningless. A great hit at the traditional metaphysics indeed. He was not a shy away philosopher when he confronted the unwanted advances of Mike Tyson on a new model in a party given by a fashion designer, saying 'I suggest we talk about this like rational men'.
Just one year before his death, A J Ayer had a near-death experience. On recovery he said that the experience slightly weakened his conviction that his genuine death will be the end of him. Later he opined that he should have rather told instead 'my experiences have weakened, not my belief that there is no life after death, but my inflexible attitude towards that belief'.
Strange! We demand that we should experience ourselves to accept anything. But will we allow ourselves to accept our experiences?
***
It seems there are quite a number of victims of History in the field of thought. One such seems to be Herbert Spencer. He is one who wrote about evolution years before Darwin. But of course minus the part of natural selection. But more comprehensive than Darwin's, in that, Herbert Spencer was able to talk about evolution in the spheres of society, culture. What he wrote seems to be that evolution works towards more perfection, from the gross and banal and militant towards being more cooperative, finer and humane mutual transactions. But, lo...! history being sometimes reckless and devoid of any considering... has branded HS with the idea of 'social darwinism'.
( History..! sometimes you do not read your texts well... be good and behave well..! :-) )
***
The human gaze has the power of conferring value on things; but it makes them cost more too.
- Ludwig Wittgenstein
என் நெஞ்சினால் நோக்கிக் காணீர், என்னை முனியாதே !
- நம்மாழ்வார்
(The modern artists may say, 'look! don't ask for meaning. You confer meaning by your Gaze...:-) - just for kidding...)
(The modern artists may say, 'look! don't ask for meaning. You confer meaning by your Gaze...:-) - just for kidding...)
What is it to 'Know'?
What is it to 'Know'? Knowing is not a linear acquisition or a log of tasks finished or a line of books read. It is always being present in awareness in the present tense. It is better explained negatively as becoming aware of one's ignorance. Gadamer is right when he says "But this is not the way of human wisdom. A knowledge of our own ignorance is what human wisdom is." when he is trying to explain what exactly the socratic method consists in. Taking great pains to know you end up by realising that you have been unsuspectingly ignorant even in things which you thought you knew very well.
That is why many persons are not convenient about 'knowing as such'. It always disturbs. Great efforts are put only to come up with a realisation of one's ignorance, unsuspected so far. So rather they compromise and become comfortable with a pseudo. That is, words, quotations, others' books as authority.
Study the books rather and attain the scholarship. So tangible and a permanent credit score, is it not? So the unambiguous explaining of Books becomes the fashion and a silent substitute. The process of real 'Knowing' is so threatening. Every moment, every time you are shown that you have been ignorant. Bah! you can't happily recline on your 'credits gained easy chair' !
But 'Knowing' knows no compromise. If you want to know you must be ready for being humiliated by the reality any time and what time one does not know. Humility becomes a better definition of you to yourself.
***
That is why many persons are not convenient about 'knowing as such'. It always disturbs. Great efforts are put only to come up with a realisation of one's ignorance, unsuspected so far. So rather they compromise and become comfortable with a pseudo. That is, words, quotations, others' books as authority.
Study the books rather and attain the scholarship. So tangible and a permanent credit score, is it not? So the unambiguous explaining of Books becomes the fashion and a silent substitute. The process of real 'Knowing' is so threatening. Every moment, every time you are shown that you have been ignorant. Bah! you can't happily recline on your 'credits gained easy chair' !
But 'Knowing' knows no compromise. If you want to know you must be ready for being humiliated by the reality any time and what time one does not know. Humility becomes a better definition of you to yourself.
***
On translating Sri Bhashyam into Tamil...
Srirangam.... some 82 years ago. A great savant of Sri Vaishnavism, Kaarappangaadu DesiVaradhacharya Swamigal, who was residing at Srirangam then, was giving a series of lectures along with a close reading of Sri Ramanuja's Sri Bhashya.
Sri Bhashya is the commentary written by Sri Ramanuja on the Brahma Sutras of Maharishi Vyasa, explaining and establishing the VisishtAdvaitic theory of Vedanta. After Sri Ramanuja, a great follower of the Acharya, Vyasaacharya as called by Periya Perumal (VyAsAcharyA's real name was Sri Sudarsana Bhattar) wrote a commentary on the commentary of Sri Ramanuja. It is called SrutaprakAsikA. SrutaprakAsikA explains word by word, phrase by phrase Sri Bhashya of Sri Ramanuja. So the two commentaries together make the meaning of Brahma Sutras clear and distinct and establish the Visishtadvaitic school of interpretation.
Needless to say, the commentaries, the text everything is in Sanskrit and that too in very terse and technical parlance. That means every word is seen in its etymological, grammatical, linguistic-philosophical and logical senses. In my young age I have seen many scholars studying this great Library of Vedanta every day at fixed hours sitting before a teacher, who used to meticulously explain line by line, passage by passage, para by para, i e taking the meaning-units into focus. It is a great way of close and intense reading of the texts. The study runs into years and when one batch of students finish their course, the next batch is ready, sitting on the same old Thinnai. Their 'read-aloud, repeat and explain' rigmarole accented by only the notes of the sparrows picking at grains and the daylight growing into midday. Sometimes our pebble-play used to irritate the scholars and we used to get chastening hisses silencing us.
I was telling about the Kaarappangaadu Swami. Yea. And those who were regularly hearing his lectures given at Udayavar Sannidhi were becoming terribly interested in Sri Bhashya. They thought of a great project. People who were well-versed in Sanskrit and people who did not know that language, all of those came together and decided to bring the great system of learning accessible to all anxious persons, solving the problem of language by translating the Work into Tamil.
Sometime before 1930, during one Iraappatthu festival, a great committee of savants and important people of the town of Srirangam and other Divyadesams was formed. And who was the Chairman?
'SriBhashyam Tamizh Mozhipeyarppu Sangam' so was the name of the committee called and its President was Prapanna Vidwan Sriman T D Ramaswamy Naidu of ThiruppuRambiyam. He was so earnest that he put in a great part of his money into the project along with many like-minded donors. As the initial part of the project, the first four sutras of Brahma Sutra were taken for translation into Tamil, SriBhashya along with the supra-elaborate commentary on that viz., SrutaprakAsikA. The first four sutras or aphorisms of BS forms the introduction part of the Vedanta Sutras. The said four as a group is called UpOdgAtam, preface or foreword. And every sutra in the first four forms an adhikarana by itself. An adhikarana is so to say 'a topic'. Usually many sutras form one addhikarana. But in the case of the first four sutras or aphorisms, every sutra by itself is a topic apart.
The first sutra or the first topic is explained very elaborately and as a result, you have a whole book-size portion of commentaries attending to the first. Translated, the commentaries SriBhashya and SrutaprakAsikA for the first sutra comes to more than 800 pages. And the book is large size, microprint, the Tamil translation occupying all the space in the pages. And this for the very first sutra alone. The translation of SriBhashya in a bigger font-size and the SrutaprakAsikA in a smaller font, the translation is stupefying and extraordinary. The first sutra was translated by Mahamahopadhyaya Srimat U Ve T V Srnivasacharya, Head of the Department of Sanskrit in St Joseph's college Trichy. All these happened in 1930.
And it is not the end of the story. Sri Villiputhur Kanthadai Srimat U Ve Srinivasacharya of Nampillai Sabha, Tiruchi conducted a continued Kalakshepa based on the Tamil translation, perhaps to make a test run of the Tamil book.
And enthusiasm is contagious you know! Seeing these people deep into the project, a Trichy Advocate Mimamsaratnam, Srimath U Ve A V Gopalacharya joined the project. He at a stroke finished the commentaries for the remaining three sutras in the Introduction part of four sutras. The second volume containing 2nd, 3rd, and 4th adhikaranas came out in 1937. What a glorious decade ! 1928 to 1938. And who will say that He is a Sleeping God! No never.
And who collated, fair-copied, collected and streamlined the regular installments from the translators? He was a silent giant. Srimat U Ve N K Raghavacharya, a teacher in Srirangam Boys High School. He was Prapandha Upadhyaya in the School. And another great silent soul who took charge of publishing and other managerial matters related was Sriman R A Bangaruswami Naidu, Honorary Magistrate, Srirangam at that time. And it was printed in SriVilasam Printing Press by Srimat U Ve S M Sundararaja Iyengar.
No details as to whether the project ran its full course completing the whole canon. At least as to my knowledge of the matter so far. But the work done, even though it is only for the Upodgatham of first four sutras, 840 + 390 pages of a large size book of micro size print, for the first time translation into Tamil was done, test run and the project for the introduction part of four sutras completed.
Are they of a different race, giant and extra terrestrial ! And all sections of people coming together in a great project... is it not what is signified by all common social worships and celebrations !
Sri Bhashya is the commentary written by Sri Ramanuja on the Brahma Sutras of Maharishi Vyasa, explaining and establishing the VisishtAdvaitic theory of Vedanta. After Sri Ramanuja, a great follower of the Acharya, Vyasaacharya as called by Periya Perumal (VyAsAcharyA's real name was Sri Sudarsana Bhattar) wrote a commentary on the commentary of Sri Ramanuja. It is called SrutaprakAsikA. SrutaprakAsikA explains word by word, phrase by phrase Sri Bhashya of Sri Ramanuja. So the two commentaries together make the meaning of Brahma Sutras clear and distinct and establish the Visishtadvaitic school of interpretation.
Needless to say, the commentaries, the text everything is in Sanskrit and that too in very terse and technical parlance. That means every word is seen in its etymological, grammatical, linguistic-philosophical and logical senses. In my young age I have seen many scholars studying this great Library of Vedanta every day at fixed hours sitting before a teacher, who used to meticulously explain line by line, passage by passage, para by para, i e taking the meaning-units into focus. It is a great way of close and intense reading of the texts. The study runs into years and when one batch of students finish their course, the next batch is ready, sitting on the same old Thinnai. Their 'read-aloud, repeat and explain' rigmarole accented by only the notes of the sparrows picking at grains and the daylight growing into midday. Sometimes our pebble-play used to irritate the scholars and we used to get chastening hisses silencing us.
I was telling about the Kaarappangaadu Swami. Yea. And those who were regularly hearing his lectures given at Udayavar Sannidhi were becoming terribly interested in Sri Bhashya. They thought of a great project. People who were well-versed in Sanskrit and people who did not know that language, all of those came together and decided to bring the great system of learning accessible to all anxious persons, solving the problem of language by translating the Work into Tamil.
Sometime before 1930, during one Iraappatthu festival, a great committee of savants and important people of the town of Srirangam and other Divyadesams was formed. And who was the Chairman?
'SriBhashyam Tamizh Mozhipeyarppu Sangam' so was the name of the committee called and its President was Prapanna Vidwan Sriman T D Ramaswamy Naidu of ThiruppuRambiyam. He was so earnest that he put in a great part of his money into the project along with many like-minded donors. As the initial part of the project, the first four sutras of Brahma Sutra were taken for translation into Tamil, SriBhashya along with the supra-elaborate commentary on that viz., SrutaprakAsikA. The first four sutras or aphorisms of BS forms the introduction part of the Vedanta Sutras. The said four as a group is called UpOdgAtam, preface or foreword. And every sutra in the first four forms an adhikarana by itself. An adhikarana is so to say 'a topic'. Usually many sutras form one addhikarana. But in the case of the first four sutras or aphorisms, every sutra by itself is a topic apart.
The first sutra or the first topic is explained very elaborately and as a result, you have a whole book-size portion of commentaries attending to the first. Translated, the commentaries SriBhashya and SrutaprakAsikA for the first sutra comes to more than 800 pages. And the book is large size, microprint, the Tamil translation occupying all the space in the pages. And this for the very first sutra alone. The translation of SriBhashya in a bigger font-size and the SrutaprakAsikA in a smaller font, the translation is stupefying and extraordinary. The first sutra was translated by Mahamahopadhyaya Srimat U Ve T V Srnivasacharya, Head of the Department of Sanskrit in St Joseph's college Trichy. All these happened in 1930.
And it is not the end of the story. Sri Villiputhur Kanthadai Srimat U Ve Srinivasacharya of Nampillai Sabha, Tiruchi conducted a continued Kalakshepa based on the Tamil translation, perhaps to make a test run of the Tamil book.
And enthusiasm is contagious you know! Seeing these people deep into the project, a Trichy Advocate Mimamsaratnam, Srimath U Ve A V Gopalacharya joined the project. He at a stroke finished the commentaries for the remaining three sutras in the Introduction part of four sutras. The second volume containing 2nd, 3rd, and 4th adhikaranas came out in 1937. What a glorious decade ! 1928 to 1938. And who will say that He is a Sleeping God! No never.
And who collated, fair-copied, collected and streamlined the regular installments from the translators? He was a silent giant. Srimat U Ve N K Raghavacharya, a teacher in Srirangam Boys High School. He was Prapandha Upadhyaya in the School. And another great silent soul who took charge of publishing and other managerial matters related was Sriman R A Bangaruswami Naidu, Honorary Magistrate, Srirangam at that time. And it was printed in SriVilasam Printing Press by Srimat U Ve S M Sundararaja Iyengar.
No details as to whether the project ran its full course completing the whole canon. At least as to my knowledge of the matter so far. But the work done, even though it is only for the Upodgatham of first four sutras, 840 + 390 pages of a large size book of micro size print, for the first time translation into Tamil was done, test run and the project for the introduction part of four sutras completed.
Are they of a different race, giant and extra terrestrial ! And all sections of people coming together in a great project... is it not what is signified by all common social worships and celebrations !
***
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