Down to Earth in the Divine

 Earth symbolizes all the domestic cares, concrete values, immediate concerns and inevitable necessities. Earth is rooted in our senses. None can differ in these objective conditions, which are quite independent of our subjective acceptance. But the human soul, is it of this earth alone? If it would have been such, will we be talking like this now? Nay. The human soul, even though it stems from the soil yet fulfills itself in the transcendent beyond, perhaps symbolized by the sky.

That transcendent flight is hatched deep in the consciousness. Meanings cascading meanings measure out the symbolic sky of Chit or Consciousness. That is what is called Atmikam, may be you translate it as spirituality provided you sterilize the linguistic moorings. Otherwise we are left with a dichotomy, earth vs sky, matter vs spirit. But the ancient Hindu goal as visualized by the sages has been the integral vision of Abhyudaya and NisrEyasa. Mind you, not Abhyudaya 'vs' Nisreyasa, but 'and'. Pulling oneself out of the society, achieving in the inner reach finds its fulfillment only by ultimately taking the society along up the path and by bringing the eternal waters back to the parched earth!

Mahakavi Bharati sings in a poem -

‘கனவென்றும் நனவென்றும் உண்டோ? - இங்கு

காண்பது காட்சி அல்லால் பிறிதாமோ?

மனையில் இருப்பது வானம் - அந்த

வானத்தின் வந்தவர் தேவர் முனிவர்

நினைவது செய்கை அறிவீர் - எந்த

நேரத்தும் தேவர்கள் காப்பது வையம்

வினவிற் பொருள் விளங்காது - அக

விழியைத் திறந்திடில் விண்ணிங்கு தோன்றும்.

தத்தரிகிட தத்தரிகிட தித்தோம்.’

Dream and wake never two apart

Here what is seen from vision never depart

In our courtyard is the heaven

From Dyaus descend Devas and Munivars

Thought fabricates action

And ever anon Devas protect our Earth

Querying no meaning dawns

If inner eyes open manifests the Beyond

Tattarikida tattarikida titthom'

And does not our great Nammalwar say, 'Never is seen That Form by the eyes of embodiment but by the eye of Inner Awakening That is verily seen in intuition'? - ’என்றேனும் கட்கண்ணால் காணாத அவ்வுருவை நெஞ்சென்னும் உட்கண்ணேல் காணும் உணர்ந்து’

Srirangam Mohanarangan

***

Tamil Alphabets, Thirukkural and Nammalwar

 It is highly thought-provoking if we study the Tamil alphabets, the nomenclature of vowels and consonants. Vowels in Tamil are called 'uyir' letters. Again the name given to 'letter' is very significant. 'Letter' is called 'ezhutthu'. The base of the word 'ezhutthu' is 'ezhu', meaning 'giving rise to'. Now back to vowels. Why vowels are called 'uyir' ezhutthu? And again consonants are called 'mey' ezhutthu (consonants mute). Vowels are called 'soul letters' and consonants are called 'body letters'. Without soul body does not function. Without vowels consonants are not 'moving', operational. When 'uyir' letters combine with 'mey' letters 'uyirmey' letters, consonants which can be sounded are obtained. So the philosophical thought of soul animating the body, 'uyir' 'ensouling' the 'mey', is right there inscribed at the level of learning the alphabets.

Now how the great Tamil savants down the time have made use of this philosophical aspect inscribed in the nomenclature of the alphabets, is another quite interesting matter. Thiruvalluvar in his Thirukkural, in the very first Kural, viz., 'akara mudala ezhutthellAm Adibhagavan mudaRRE ulagu', brings this philosophical aspect to the right and full focus. In the first Kural he says: 'Vowel A is the prime-most and fundamental to all the letters of the alphabet. Likewise is Adibhagavan for the world.' Vowel A is also called the uncaused and natural sound which again forms the most basic letter. Why is it called natural and uncaused? Because it does not require any strain or effort to make the sound, vowel A. Just opening the mouth and start of the vocal chords you get the vowel. All the other vowels and consonants are acquired just by the various phonological efforts of the mouth, lips, tongue, throat and the jaws. The physical system of speech providing by various contortions, the different contexts which occasion the other vowels and consonants, for all of which, the basic vowel A forms the natural and uncaused fundamental sound. The natural vowel A forms the basis and soul of not only all other 'soul letters' but also of all the 'body letters' as well. Just like that is the case of Adibhagavan with the world. The world consists of both souls and matter. As Vedanta Visishtadvaita will say 'the world consists of chit and achit, conscious beings viz., souls and material substances devoid of consciousness.' ParamAtmA or the Uncaused and Natural Almighty Soul or Adibhagavan is giving existence to both the souls and the matter by being the inner soul of both chit and achit, souls and material substances. The simile employed to bring home this philosophical concept is the relationship of the basic uncaused natural sound, the vowel A forming the inner soul of both the 'uyir letters' and also 'the mey letters, other vowels and consonants. The commentators of Thirukkural have done well by employing hermeneutics to explain this beautiful point of Vedanta.

Again we come across this concept succinctly illustrated and explained in detail in TolkAppiyam, Ezhuttadikaram, commentary by Nacchinarkkiniyar. Tolkaappiyam aphorism says - 'meyyin iyakkam akaramodu sivaNum'. While commenting on this sootthiram or aphorism Nacchinarkkiniyar says :

“இங்ஙனம் மெய்க்கண் அகரங் கலந்துநிற்குமாறு கூறினாற்போலப் பதினோருயிர்க்கண்ணும் அகரங் கலந்து நிற்குமென்பது ஆசிரியர் கூறாராயினார், அந்நிலைமை தமக்கே புலப்படுத்தலானும் பிறர்க்கு இவ்வாறு உணர்த்துதல் அரிதாகலானுமென்று உணர்க. இறைவன் இயங்குதிணைக் கண்ணும் நிலைத்திணைக் கண்ணும் பிறவற்றின்கண்ணும்

அவற்றின் தன்மையாய் நிற்குமாறு எல்லார்க்கும் ஒப்ப முடிந்தாற்போல அகரமும் உயிர்க்கண்ணுந் தனிமெய்க்கண்ணுங் கலந்து அவற்றின் தன்மையாயே நிற்குமென்பது சான்றோர்க்கெல்லாம் ஒப்பமுடிந்தது. 'அகரமுதல' என்னுங் குறளான், அகரமாகிய முதலையுடைய எழுத்துக்களெல்லாம்; அதுபோல இறைவனாகிய முதலையுடைத்து உலகமென வள்ளுவனார் உவமைகூறிய வாற்றானுங், கண்ணன் எழுத்துக்களில் அகரமாகின்றேன் யானேயெனக் கூறியவாற்றானும் பிற நூல்களானும் உணர்க.”

(நச்சினார்க்கினியர் உரை; தொல்காப்பியம்)

Again coming to Nammalwar we see him singing surcharged by this concept:

'நிலம் விசும்பு ஒழிவறக் கரந்த சில் இடம்தொறும்,

இடம்திகழ் பொருள்தொறும் கரந்து எங்கும் பரந்துளன்’

‘திட விசும்பு எரி வளி நீர் நிலம் இவைமிசைப் படர்பொருள் முழுவதும் ஆய், அவைஅவைதொறும்

உடல்மிசை உயிர் எனக் கரந்து, எங்கும் பரந்துளன்’

‘Earth or Sky, leaving nothing, in all the finest material forms everywhere and also in all the subtle souls embodied in such matter-forms, He has pervaded everything, immanent everywhere'

'The so-called firm Sky, Fire, Wind, Water, Earth in all these and in all the objects, He has become every existing thing and in all existents He has become immanent in each and everything like the soul embodied in the form, immanent in all'.

Starting with the alphabet and in very erudite and mystical works, the philosophical spirit is suffusing through out.

Srirangam Mohanarangan

***

Vaidyanatha Dikshita and Harmony of Sampradayas

 Sri Vaidyanatha Dikshita was a great scholar who lived in Thanjavur, Nannilam, Kandramanikkam. He lived perhaps some 300 years ago. He made an exhaustive compendium of the principles and practices of achara, prayaschitta and dharma. It is called Smrutimuktaphalam and it is of six parts. Many years ago one Brahmasri Srinivasa Sastri of Nadukkaveri published Smrutimuktaphalam with the Tamil meaning. Then Veda Dharma Paribalana Sabha in mid twentieth century brought out the book again. Then again in 2010 the same reference work was brought out by Vaidhya Sri Radhakrishna Sastrigal. The speciality of the work is - under different subject heads various references and ancient authors like Dharma Sastras, Nirnayasindu, Mitakshari, Madhaveeyam were all arrayed together in one copious reckoning.

There an important idea is given as occurring in a work called Paddhathi. The quote says to this effect : in Puranas in various places may be you find one deity extolled and one deity not so i.e. May be Vishnu is praised over Shiva, Shiva prasied over Vishnu, in another place Brahma praised and so on. The purport of this practice was not to belittle any deity. Because all the deities are various forms of the self-same Ishwara. Then the reason for doing like that is to enhance one's devotion towards one's Ishta Devata and not anything else. This applies to all puranas, epics and Vedas. This is clearly in line with the ancient and prominent concept of Hinduism, which is so clearly expressed even in Rig Veda - 'Ekam Sat vipra bahuda: vadanti'. The Ultimate Existent Divinity is One. Sages describe it various ways. This same idea is elaborately explained in the quotation from Paddhati. The quote is follows :

"Eka eva IshwarO jagatshrishtikaraNAya mAyayA brahmavishnurudrEndrAdi vigrahAnusvIkrutya tattat vigrahE baktAn tEna tEna rUpENa anugruhNan vardatE | ashtAdasa purANAnAm kartA vyAsOpi tattat vigraha baktAnAm tatra tatra baktyadisayOdpAdanAya tattat rUpam sthauti | 'ayam Eva sarvagna: sarvEswara: sarvatmA nAnyE | athO ayam Eka Eva sEvya' ithi | sA thu nindA thEshAm na nindAparA bhavati | kintu prakruta vigraha stutiparA |"

One cannot but wonder at the uniform importance and focus this concept has occupied down the time from Rig Veda till date in Hinduism.

Srirangam Mohanarangan

***

Five meanings and Upanishad

 Sri Vaishnava Sampradaya talks about five inevitable meanings that anyone interested in their own Mukti should know and know those meanings well. You can call those five confirmed learnings. About Jiva, about Brahman, about the final state of existence to attain, the means to be adopted towards the attaining and the hurdles one must manage on the way. This in Sanskrit is called Artha Panchakam or in Tamil 'anjartham'.

Sri Vidyaranya, while discussing about the meaning of the term 'Upanishad' nearly strikes a resonant card to this concept of five meanings. Sri Vidyaranya says that the term Upanishad itself indicates Brahma Vidya or knowledge about Brahman. Who acquires that knowledge? It is the Jiva or the human being concerned. So of the five meanings only three are remaining - the way, the goal and the hurdles. Sri Vidyaranya beautifully explains that in the very term Upanishad itself all these three meanings are derivable. Only you have to view the word-formation in different ways. In the word Upanishad there are three parts upa + ni + shad. The syllable 'upa' itself indicates nearby or vicinity or near access. That which takes the Jiva near to Brahman is Upanishad. So the meaning of means is indicated. The syllable 'ni' indicates definiteness, verified certainty or confirmation. The syllable 'shad' has three meanings suggestive by the roots. 'shad' means to vex, to loosen out, to deprive of strength. Also 'shad' means becoming the means by which one is made to attain something. Also 'shad' means destroying, eradicating. The root formula which is quoted for this triple meaning is - 'shadl visraNa gati avasAdanEshu'. 'visaraNa' means to loosen out, to tire out, 'gati' means path or means, 'avasAdanEshu' means to destroy. Upanishad does all these three functions to whoever studies it. Upanishad means the goal and Upanishad means the way to attain the goal and Upanishad clears away the hurdles on the path by eradicating the root-cause of all troubles viz., ignorance. Upanishad is indeed an all-comprehensive term!

Srirangam Mohanarangan

***

Sankarananda and Chidgananandagiri and Tamil Vedanta

 Sankarananda was a great 'Mahaan' of 13th - 14th CE. He was said to be the teacher of Sri Vidyaranya Swami, who has written Panchadasi, a work explaining Advaita tenets. Swami Sankarananda was also a great Yogi. He was said to be keeping himself under the earth by the feat of Lambika yoga. He wrote a rare work called Atma Purana. The ultimate import of even all the Puranas is said to be the knowledge of Atman. So it is in a way more fitting to write Atma Purana. Are we not all, adepts in 'I' Purana? Day in and day out, every second we are extolling our ego, unabated. Perhaps he thought of teaching us a new way of talking not about oneself but about one's Self, to be involved more deeply into our Atman.

A couple of centuries ago one great person translated this Atma Purana into Hindi. We do not know where he was born, when and all that. But his name was Swami Chidgananandagiri. Perhaps he was born in Sindhu Desa as people used to say. In his Brahmacharya stage he learnt Grammar residing in Kankal and went to Kasi to learn Vedanta under Paramahamsa Swami Uddhavanandagiri. He was initiated into Sanyasa by the same Swami. He was then for quite some years deep into Samadhi and then it was perhaps divinely communicated to him his mission in life. He started Theerthayatra and while at Bavanagar in Kathiyawad, due to earnest requests of Diwans SriGaurisankar and Vijayasankar, who were highly matured Sadhaks in spirituality, he stayed there for thirteen years and composed a lot of works. The Diwans requested him to venture upon a project. It was to compose compendium-like works in Hindi, one Atma Purana, two, SriGudartha Deepika on Gita, three, a work on Brahma Sutra, viz., Thathvanusanthanam, four, a summary of all the views in both old and new schools of Nyaya called Nyayaprakasa. His Nyayaprakasa was also a comparative summation of both Nyaya and Vaiseshika systems.

Perhaps you may be taken aback if I say all these four Hindi works of Swami Chidgananandagiri have been translated into Tamil, even by 1917 itself. Atma Purana has been translated by Sri Veera Subbaiyya Swamigal of Kovilur Math. Again Sri Veera Subbaiyya Swaamigal has also translated Sri Gudartha Deepika on Gita. The work on Brahma Sutras viz., Thathvanusanthana has been translated by Sri K Aranganatham Pillai. Nyaya Prakasa, which is a thousand pager has been translated by Sri Nagarathina Nayakkar of Sadhu Rathina Vedantha Vicharanai Sabha, Chennai, ably published by Sri Murugesa Mudaliyar. From 1907 to 1917, all these four great works of translation from Hindi to Tamil have been brought out. All the four together numbering more than 3500 printed pages !. Are not all these illustrious, our forefathers? Have they not done what best they could in their times to advance the cause of Hinduism and the betterment of Hindu society? Coming after them will we just be bickering and quarrelling, definitely not. With all our added technic comforts how much we can do ! Is it not?

Srirangam Mohanarangan

***

My Bharath

People are born to work out their karma.
But you were born to weed out our karma.
Liberation is the general goal.
But you were born for transforming
The very world into spiritual in its core.
Evolution just a primary schooling
You have taught the world
The Param Atman's involution
Carrying the destiny of beings
To the final Realisation.
You are the Terra of the Divine
Lotus, Aravinda of Transcendence!
All loving Mother of beings, every and all!
My Bharath Divine!
You are my worship,dream and solace.
Suprabhath pranams on this happy day.
Srirangam Mohanarangan

Reality and Ideology

 What is reality? What is Ideology? Does Ideology reveal and underline Reality? Or Does Ideology block the vision of Reality? When I touch a stone I am just touching a stone. But if I begin to think I am touching matter then do I bring in an idea of matter. Does the idea matter become a cover over the stone? Or am I always in touch with only ideas and pure things are only later deductions? But sensations are they not immediate? Or are they really mediate? The sensations become things only after mediated by processes and interpretations. Such mediation if tampered may not be informative about objects out there but will furnish their details as their own content.

But Thirumoolar makes an axially different statement when he says ' Wood is hidden in the elephant visible. Image elephant now is hidden in the wood. Ultimate Reality now hidden by the world of five elements. In Ultimate Reality is merged this world of five elements.'

Srirangam Mohanarangan

***

Domestic superstitions

 There are some superstitions in persons who ring the calling bell.

First, thinking that the host is just waiting behind the door for the bell to go.

Second, thinking that the host is intentionally delaying to respond even after two successive rings.

Thirdly, thinking that the host will be able to smell from the absence who has come and gone away when the door is opened.

Coupled with this is the comedy - reaching back home or going somewhere, from there making a call through mobile saying that having waited and rang the bell a couple of times, returned with the door unopened.

Best answer to this is always : 'oh sorry my friend. A mismatch. When opened the door nobody was around. It was you at last. Great. Sorry yea.'

Of course you need lot of ascetic practice to maintain the civic temperance.

Srirangam Mohanarangan

***

Transcendent Symbol

 I am wondering at the genius of Rishis. Making fire, Agni, itself as the symbol - idol - sign of the Supreme Being. The fire that is lit, even at birth looks inverted as if coming from beyond into the mundane, with his mouth on things and take-off to the beyond always. Established There participating Here. What better natural symbol-idol-sign can be there than this to meditate on Param Atman, Transcendent Supreme Being? And lo! the Rishi makes another stroke of Ojas when he says that the fire Agni resides always as the fire inside our cave of heart, our consciousness. 'Guhaiyil vaLarum kanalE'. - Nihitam GuhAyAm.

Srirangam Mohanarangan

***

About a Russian book in translation

 A book in translation in Tamil which I like is 'manidan eppadi pErARRal mikkavan AnAn'. I bought it some decades ago, in street pandalled book shop of Russian books in translation, (into English, into Tamil, on various subjects Science, History, Literature etc). The book I mentioned is one written by M Ilin and E Segal. In English translated by Beatrice Kinkead. Who translated in Tamil I do not remember. But the get up of the Tamil book was so aesthetic, that you wanted to read it just because you take it and open it. Not only that, how the Tamil translator was able to capture full tones of the original is something amazing. In Beatrice Kinkead's translation the theme of the book is on the following lines:

"There was a time when man, too, lived in just such an invisible cage and was bound by just such an invisible chain. If we want to find out how he succeeded in breaking the chain and getting out of the cage, we'll have to go to the woods and see how our relatives there, who are still prisoners, live.

So we must begin this book about man with a walk in the woods and a talk about wild animals and birds.

You've often heard people talk about being "free as a bird." But do you suppose a woodpecker is free ? If he were a "free" bird he could fly anywhere he happened to take a notion and live wherever he pleased. And that's absolutely not the case. Just try moving a woodpecker to a treeless prairie. He'd die, for he can live only where there are trees. It's just as if he were chained to a tree by an invisible chain which he can't break."

But can we appreciate this sentiment just at present moments? Then are we caged by our own blindness of the haughty ahankara? Knowledge can liberate but perhaps wisdom alone can maintain freedom from the great onslaught ever possible, that is, from our own selves.?

Srirangam Mohanarangan

***

Proof of faith.. ?

 Are there proofs for faith? Proofs are there if you do not believe in things of common experience. But for faith? Faith alone may be common but not its contents. May be you will like to say what does not need proof is actually faith. But who knows? Faith sometimes may search for anchor or a collateral yes, however remote. In the great commentaries of Sri Vaishnavaite devotion there goes an observation to this effect. That when you are sleeping, who is in charge you? your system? voluntary and involuntary? Who maintains your fort till you wake up? (of course even after you wake up, there are so many things happening to make it possible for you to make conscious moves, that is a different matter). If the supreme principle immanent in you is in charge during your sleep, if Paramatma is taking care of you when your eyes are closed, your system shutdown, then why should you doubt when you are awake? - 'who protects you while asleep will not fail you when you are awake'.

Czeslaw Milosz, a great Polish/Lithuanian poet, who won Nobel Prize in 1980, expresses his sentiments on faith in a poem, which are so resonating with what I understood about the Sri Vaishnavaite observation in the commentaries.

"Faith is in you whenever you look

At a dewdrop or a floating leaf

And know that they are because they have to be.

Even if you close your eyes and dream up things

The world will remain as it has always been

And the leaf will be carried by the waters of the river."

Perhaps dispassionate details may not interest you unless and otherwise accented by a hurt personal, reminding and reassuring. But can one call such hurts painful? when they really are soothing scathing bruises of doubts?

"You have faith also when you hurt your foot

Against a sharp rock and you know

That rocks are here to hurt our feet."

*

Things concrete sometimes come as proof of things abstract. Things tangible may underline our transcendent hopes. Perhaps our humility must become more and more understanding rather than just a vehement stance.

Srirangam Mohanarangan

***

How we approach..

 How we approach, our methodology may be illuminating the subject of study or just discounting it whole and thereby prove a torch of not light on something but a torch of darkening something. Do we ever doubt that such a thing may happen? Perhaps not. When we have our reasoning, why not all subjects behave themselves accordingly. We may expect the subjects of study to learn discipline, to behave to our approach. Swami Nampillai, a great commentator of Tamil songs on Sri Vishnu, sung by the Tamil saints Alwars, has something to say on this. According to him, this human being by approaching all things in ego-centric ways finds itself ultimately destroying whatever is touched by its approach. Rather it can choose to change its approach. By realising its intrinsic nature of meaningful subservience to the Inner Soul, Bhagavan, the approach will become divine-centric and instead of destruction it will find exuberance and fulfillment of whatever is being touched. It all depends on seeing one's own fulfillment in the Immanent Soul, Bhagavan.

Resonating with this thought are these poetic lines frrom Lucian Blaga, the Romanian philosopher and poet.(died 1961)

Non compromising to the communist regime, he was an important Romanian poet. In his book of poetry, 'At the court of yearning' -

"I will not crush the world’s corolla of wonders

And will not kill

with reason

the mysteries I meet along my way

in flowers, eyes, lips, and graves.

The light of others

drowns the deep magic hidden

in the profound darkness.

I increase the world’s enigma

with my light ....."

Parallel reading has its own resonance and mutual illuminations.

Srirangam Mohanarangan

***

How to read Savitri?

 "It does not matter if you do not understand it, but read it always; you will see that everytime you read it there will be something new revealed to you. Each time you will find something new, each time a new experience; things which were not there, things you did not understand arise and suddenly become clear. Always something unexpected comes through the words and lines. Everytime you try to read and understand, you will see that something is added, something which was hidden behind is revealed clearly and vividly."

"To read Savitri is indeed to practise Yoga, spiritual concentration; one can find there all that is needed to realise the Divine. Each step for you is noted here, including the secrets of all other Yogas also. Surely if one sincerely follows what is revealed here in each verse, one will finally reach the transformation of the Supramental Yoga. It is the infallible guide who never abandons, it is support; he is everywhere always there for him who wishes to follow the path."

(Mother on Savitri)

So true, every word of it. Pranams Mother and thanks for expressing these thoughts.

***

Meditation

What if we all meditate during this time,
thinking positive thoughts,
shedding off all feelings of hatred,
wishing for the welfare of the world !
Will it not be great to do it ?
Perhaps it will open in us
an inward path,
an inner door
all the time locked and not seen!
Perhaps a period of reset
of our emotions and stances
Perhaps we evolve spiritually
more into the higher stages
An Old Relative
whom we never visited
is waiting inside
in the heart of each one of us
now when we have all the time
at disposal sans exposure
when Time itself bends inward
forcing us as it were
to visit the Great Mother
deep into our hearts
who has been waiting ages
waiting for us to turn and see
Her graceful and benign watch.
Perhaps... we can meditate.
Mother please pardon us
and give your grace.
Srirangam Mohanarangan

***

me and Self

A dark enclosure
me inside
nothing else around
a hole in the enclosure
opening out to the blue bright sky
contours of the hole
silhouetting the bluish bright beyond

Or a piece of round blue 'skyish' object
fixed on to the enclosure
if you want to be loyal to your perception.
Anyhow I have a choice, an option
if I say it is blue object round
I am dark enclosed and me inside
If I see the bright blue sky beyond
with the hole as just an 'upadhi'
a chance condition helping the appearance,

I am not inside, not out
but as space and sky
blue and formless
spread everywhere
as unseen and seeing eye;
I do have the option
which way I choose
the sky is there ever
the truth is here for ever

but of course I can choose
to be the enclosure and enclosed
dark with a bright blue round around
an option
I do have a choice
or do I

Srirangam Mohanarangan

***

Details.. and details

Details. Is there perhaps a philosophy of details? Of course Soren Kierkegaard or Nietzsche might have told something. But the enormity of details and variations and variations even in those which are seemingly repeating. Why bother? Carry on... yea it is an option we can give to ourselves or at least imagine so. Or with the poet of ancient Tamil 'aestheticize' the problem with 'knowing you only finish by coming to know that there is yet to know'. Or with Nammalwar you can make a devotion on that 'within every hidden micro space within every subtle matter in that, He resides in full as if in the whole cosmos'.

Or to get the feel of wonder and fear at the same time on the phenomenon of details of this our world you can watch George Steiner how he is able to recreate in words chaos in cosmos or cosmos in chaos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1z3sMGYjNk

Festival of Tiruvaimozhi

It is not just an honorary encomium to call Srirangam as Sri Vaikunta on Earth. It closely follows the descriptions of Sri Vaikunta given in Agamas. Great scholars like Parameswara Samhita Govindachariyar Swami were able to say the significance of each and every piece of the theological topology around - so I have heard it said by scholars. In Vedanta and Agamas there are descriptions of souls after death reaching through the path of Archiraadi, the Ultimate Divine Land. Archiraadi comes from the root 'archis', which means light. How very positive the very eschatology becomes! The picture of grim death is transformed into a journey through light!

But alas! we have left everything to the fag end of life, all things spiritual to be bothered only after 60th or 70th year. And before we turn 50 we incur all diseases and eye problem, ear problem, if we walk our body lags behind, we cannot attend to anything for long, too much strain is against doctor's advice and so on so on. Such is our involvement and luck!

'Hey! you do not know what cares, what problems, ... bread winning is tough... Job's demands rule large and thick! No time.. as if it is not enough, family worries raking'

Yea yea... of course... but no problem prevents us from long hours of watching cricket, our favorite cine shows, and and... Nothing wrong. World is full of different tastes. But sometime, if at all we care and stop and listen to this line of Nammalvar, "Before the brimming youth withers away, Temple of Mayon of abounding brilliance, wit and wisdom indeed to go and worship undelaying", if one really understands these lines and takes to heart to go to Srirangam, a rare scene indeed to be seen there during the month of Margazhi.

Day break, the cool fogs and the streaming chants of Thiruppavai making the very land of Srirangam as Sri Vaikuntam. Hot pongal and the pleasing morning rays beating rhythm with divine music and Sri Ranaganatha showing the path of liberation all through the month. Araiyars chanting and reciting the Divine Tamil of Divya Suris to Aranga! Who made it possible when? It was Thirumangaimannan. He built the wall around the town. Encircling Truth fashioned his Tamil. Sri Andal woke up the dormant devotion. The unwinking God was fully aware in His wakeful sleep. And Sri Ranganatha, the chasing lover of Tamil, is all attendence in His Divine Office when Tamil is pouring forth all around. Kaliyan was so fond of Nammalvar and his Tamil. He was waiting for an occasion. Once the divine voice spoke to him, 'Kaliyan! what is that you want?' Kaliyan said, 'You must hear our Alwar's Tiruvaimozhi beginning from Ekadasi of Sri Vaikunta.' So it started and so it is coming down. The Tamil planted by Kaliyan, watered by Nathamuni became Karpaga Vritcha in Sri Ramanuja's time, Tamil of Sanga blossoming as Tamil of Ranga.
Srirangam Mohanarangan 

***

Vedanta in Tamil - Coimbatore V Kuppuswamy Iyer's translation of Gita

At the start of the twentieth century a wonderful book of translation in Tamil has come out. It is the translation of Srimad Bhagavad Gita. Why this translation is wonderful, when more than one translation were coming out even in nineteenth century and even after this translation in the twentieth? It is because of the format and coverage of this attempt. This translation was by one V Kuppuswamy Iyer of Coimbatore. He is Villavarambal Kuppuswamy Iyer, who was a Vakkil in Coimbatore District Court in 1901 (the traditional year of publication given is Kali 5002).

The book runs to nearly 900 pages. Perhaps a further edition came out later which contains 995 pages in total published in two volumes. The slokas are given in grantha lipi, followed by word by word meaning in Tamil. Then follows explanatory elaborations which contain varied and many interpretations of great Acharyas and Commentators, sometimes in great detail and sometimes only the portions which bear on the differences. The author seems to have avoided as per his own declaration the caustic criticisms among various schools of thought. His approach seems to be a new one whereby we can see the varied perspectives on Gita slokas in a continuous narrative in Tamil. Perhaps he might have missed the detailed nuances of colloquy that happen back and forth across time between different schools. But it is a unique treat for the somewhat deep and common reader to get a feel of the variety without the heat of the difference. In the second volume Sri V Kuppuswami Iyer has done a great thing in the 18th chapter on the subject of Brahma Jnana. He has collected nearly all the relevant passages from the various Upanishads on the theme of Brahma Jnana and has given it in 60 pages as part of the elucidations. 

It is really astounding to see how many persons down the centuries have put forth their efforts in Vedanta in Tamil.
Srirangam Mohanarangan

***

Vedanta in Tamil and Sri Ramakrishna Math

I have been writing every now and then on the subject of Vedanta in Tamil. And this subject will not be complete and meaningful if we do not mention and praise with our full heart the glorious services of Sri Ramakrishna Math. Not only in Tamil, but in very many languages across India and all over the world, RK Math makes available in easy and accessible style the great scriptures of Hinduism. Accessible mainly to the lay public and common readers everywhere. In Tamil in the recent years a great feat has been accomplished by a monk of the Ramakrishna Order, viz., Swami Asutoshananda.

The main books basic and referential in Hinduism in a broad sense can be listed as the following three books - Upanishads, Sri Brahma Sutras, Srimad Bhagavat Gita. These three books have been termed as 'Three systems of books'. In Sanskrit it is termed as 'Prasthana Traya'. Ten Upanishads form the most referenced and universal out of a vast collection. Sri Brahma Sutras otherwise known as Vedanta Sutras, a systematic presentation of the core concepts of Upanishads. Again Sri Bhagavat Gita is a summary in poetic form of all important ideas of the Upanishads. All these three sets of books have been engaging great minds of our Hindu society belonging to different schools of conviction and as a result we have in our heritage many libraries of commentaries and meta-commentaries down the millennia. But in Tamil for the common people and lay public good and readable translations have been a recurring necessity. There have been excellent attempts to satisfy this need many times in premodern and modern days. (Sri Anna of R K Math Chennai, Sri Kuppuswamy Raju of Thanjavur) But now we can be satisfied that a solid attempt has been made by Swami Asutoshananda. Care for the common reader is so very evident in each and every page of the monk's efforts. 

Of course each and every book deserves praise from an eager reader. But what he has achieved in Brahma Sutras is so brilliant by way of communication and easy putting forth. It is not to say that there are not points to differ and argue between scholars but when viewed from what a common reader will be getting for the meagre price, it is wonderful. And the duty of a common reader of Hindu society, if not of any serious minded reader, begins with investing in such rare sets of the three books of reference.
Srirangam Mohanarangan

***

Holy Company

What is Satsanga?

It is just the narrow aisle behind the door in Tirukkovalur.
Just a space for one spanning for two accommodating standing for three and all together with the transcendent thrust as the four. All four in good unison consciousness. Such is good company.

The first entrance of spirituality is Satsang. And holy company is very precious and immeasurable. Is it for nothing that Sri Adisankara says 'by holy contact all wrong contacts wither away. Bad contacts gone make the intellect strong. When the intellect is strong and unshaken it is verily freedom in life.'

Holy company has the capacity to bring the Transcendent above alive on earth. Our Ego is the multiheaded snake Kaaliyan. To quell it we need the feet of Sri Krishna to dance on its heads. Holy company is verily those divine feet of Krishna. Sages are the sacred feet of the Supreme Soul. Sri Krishna Premi used to say in a talk. 'why do you bother that you are not having company? Resort to holy books. Great sages will meet you there in those pages. When you open Bhagavata the great Suka himself will come and talk to you. If you open Bharata the great Vyasa will give you company. You will never be alone.' Premi has a point in saying that.

In those times of old to meet holy company you have to travel physically, time-consuming and very exerting. But in our days how facile and helpful is technology! Kaliyuga is not all that bad. It has its benign aspects also. In Kali, the Divine Name and the Holy Company are very powerful. Whether we travel in person or we make virtual contacts modern science and technology have made things much more easier and joyful. It is up to us to put things in proper use. Take for instance Puri Jagannath ! How holy the land is! What association of Holy Personages! The great Chaitanya with his singing HariBol! Sri Ramakrishna brought some sand from the land of Brindavan to be laid in his Dakshineswar sadhana cottage. When he went there he saw divine visions. But when we visit we see only carts and trains, monkeys and birds only. Yea we have willfully closed our inner eyes and introvert ears. We have forgotten how to open them also. No problem. When the right time comes the buds will blossom! When the tunes from His flute reach our souls, the drooping shriveled hearts will light up and aflame again the journey will be resumed! Till that time perhaps we can play with pebbles.
Srirangam Mohanarangan

***

Sri Parasara Bhattar and Thirunedunthandakam

An episode from the life of Sri Ramanuja. In his ripe old age Sri Ramanuja who was called Emberumaanaar asked somebody to go and fetch Sri Parasara Bhattar. Sri Parasara Bhattar was young then and so full of erudition and wisdom even in that young age. Seeing Sri Bhattar with eyes full of affection and kindness, Sri Ramanuja told everyone around to hold Sri Bhattar in high respect equal to himself. Sri Ramanuja then in a very affectionate tone told Sri Bhattar, "My child! I have become very old and there is a task yet to be finished. My age will not allow me to take that up. I am leaving that task to you. When time becomes ripe you must finish that task without fail. That task is nothing but bringing Sri Madhava Vedanti of Mysore to our Visishtadvaita Darsana. He is now busy and deep in Mayavada and he is an adept in all six systems. This is what I am leaving with you to finish and I believe you will do it.

Sri Parasara Bhattar was firm and he was waiting for an opportune time to initiate the task. Once an itinerant brahmin came to Sri Bhattar's residence and began to narrate his various experiences in different parts of the country. He began to talk about Sri Madhava Vedanti of Mysore and Sri Parasara Bhattar's attention grew keen. The itinerant person was saying that while conversing with Sri Madhava Vedanti, he dropped a reference about Sri Parasara Bhattar himself and the said Vedanti became very much interested to know more about Sri Bhattar. As a consequence, the itinerant person seemed to have briefed the Vedanti about the voracious studies and erudition of Sri Bhattar in all known subjects. When Sri Bhattar heard this he just smiled and observed, 'why Sir? you have just narrated about me only those details which are ordinary and not of much significance. You are a person of great civility having visited very many cities and towns. A person of culture and exposure like you should be able to specify the most extraordinary qualifications of a person, while introducing him to another reputed scholar. Whereas you have left out what is extraordinary in my acquisitions and just described about me only the ordinary things which are common everywhere in the scholarly world.'

The itinerant person was taken aback and said that he would be doing amends the next time. But first he must know for himself what is that extraordinary thing about Sri Bhattar's erudition. Sri Bhattar told him about his deep involvement and knowledge in a particular work of Sri Thirumangai Alwar, viz., 'Thirunedunthandakam'. It was a poetical work of deep theological import containing some thirty verses in all. But the meanings of the work when elucidated are really deep and vast. The next time when the itinerant person met Sri Madhava Vedanti in Mysore, he unfailingly remembered to mention this fact about Sri Bhattar to him. Sri Vedanti was very much intrigued and he began to wonder 'what is this scholar in Srirangam! He is so thorough and deep in such a work, even the name of which is unheard of by me! My God!'

And in his round of holy visits to temples and towns the itinerant person came to Srirangam again and updated Sri Bhattar about the dismay and wondering of Sri Vedanti. Sri Parasara Bhattar after some days set out to Mysore with the aim of meeting Sri Vedanti and holding discussions with him. People who knew about Sri Vedanti told Sri Bhattar that he could not just like that go and visit Sri Vedanti, for, the disciples of Sri Vedanti will never allow him to go past themselves and approach the main Scholar. They would engage him in endless arguments and circles of debates and vex him even for months together. So how then to approach him? The only way seemed to be going incognito as if for alms, in the beggars' queue. This queue will not be inspected by anybody and what more, the said Vedanti himself used to attend doling out alms personally.

So Sri Bhattar went like an ordinary person-in-need in that queue and when he was nearing where the great Pandit was standing, Sri Bhattar broke the queue and went straight towards the Pandit. Everybody was crying at him. 'Hey this way this way, go for alms there!'. But Sri Bhattar was intent at his target. Sri Madhava Vedanti was also perplexed at the very strange behaviour of this man of alms. He asked him, 'What bhiksha do you want?' Sri Bhattar replied, "Traka bhiksha. It is the alms of debate which I want and not of any food.'

Then and there they sat for discussion and the debate went on for days, both sides silently appreciating in their hearts the extraordinary erudition of each other. At last, as the great Bhagavan willed it, things became suddenly so very clear in his dreams for Sri Vedanti and after that he became just a silent admirer and enthusiast of Sri Bhattar. Sri Vedanti wanted to follow his new found Master back to Srirangam. But Sri Bhattar desisted and told Sri Vedanti to take all his time in absorbing the changed perspective in full. And in more composed times and confirmed moods to take proper decisions.

When Sri Parasara Bhattar reached back Srirangam, he went straight to the shrine of Sri Ranganatha and began to narrate everything that happened to the Lord. It was his custom always to do so, after visiting any place and coming back, to go and report to the Lord personally. And it was the day prior to the start of Pagalpatthu - Day Ten festival of Sri Vaikunta Ekadasi. Sri Ranganatha asked him how he won over the Pandit. 'It was by the merit of explicating Thirunedunthandakam my Lord!' was Sri Bhattar's reply. Hence the hoary custom of Thirunedunthandakam chanting being held before the start of Pagalpatthu even to this day.
Srirangam Mohanarangan

***

Sri Ramana Maharishi - some thoughts on

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."

*

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)

***

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.)

***

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!

***

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,

***

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)

***

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 !

***

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?

***

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.

***

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.

***

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.

*

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. 

***

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.

***

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.

***

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.

* 

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! 

"We are the worshippers of that God, who by the ignorant is called Man." so said he.

*

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)

***

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?

***

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)

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