Sri Ramana Maharishi and my father

 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, appended 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."

Srirangam Mohanarangan

***

Memory over the morning tea!

 Morning tea is fantastic. That too with a dash of honey prefaced by banana slices - wow make the morning break great.

The taste buds, are they linked to some archival memories? Suddenly an old memory slips into the cup. Yea some years ago when everything was books to a poor soul (thats me) .. when I was checking out of University Lib, the person who used to give back our bags against the tokens, wanted to see the books I have taken. A bit strange... May be he wanted to just do his duty in seeing the issue seal. But no, he was opening the book and looked here one page there one page, trying to read the title and guess what that book was about. A minute passed, 'Sir what is this book...'

A curiosity which I wanted to see in many of my intellectual acquaintances and on many occasions failed, when shown by that innocent person made me curious and I joined the game. I explained to him what it was about. -- that Aristotle was a great philosopher, a Greek, and Hasdai Cresca has summed up the Physics of Aristotle in some 25 propositions and has appended each with his detailed commentary in Hebrew. Which book along with copious and erudite notes has been translated very ably by H A Wolfson in those hefty two volumes, first the original and translation and the second volume all the notes. Much of what I said was perhaps lost on him. Doesn't matter. I liked his curiosity. In his own way he was 'living', which was quite evident in his dilated eyes. He was trying to 'read ' the book in his own way and that surprised me. He saw the issue slip pasted on the inside page and exclaimed 'Sir! this book was purchased in 1934 and so far only two persons have taken this out for reading!'. I wanted to see who was the yet another person who took that. But I remembered and told him 'no no the first loan out date was also to me only. I am just taking it now again after some five months. His reply threw me into laughs. 'Then, for your only sake this book was bought way back in 1934!' I was happy with him at that moment.

I do not know why the tea conjures up that memory now. But it tastes good even after many many years and perhaps remain so for ever. Wait! I will go for another cup. See you!

Srirangam Mohanarangan

***

Transcendental Joking!

 Sometimes one is led to think that transcendental joking is philosophy. Don't frown! A passing thought. May be wrong. But definitely there is no dearth of jokes among the philosophers.

Just read these quotes and see the natural humour !

"What we cannot speak about we must pass over in silence"

-- Ludwig Wittgenstein

"After all, Mr. Wittgenstein manages to say a good deal about what cannot be said."

-- Bertrand Russell

*

Or again,

How poignant sometimes the ordinary words, when coming through unique persons !

Am thinking on these words -

"How pathetically scanty my self-knowledge is compared with, say, my knowledge of my room. There is no such thing as observation of the inner world, as there is of the outer world." - Kafka.

The mind is doing a parallel reading of 'the differentiation of Drg and Drsya' - Being aware of the Difference of the Seeing One from the Seen things - of Sri AdiSankara.

Srirangam Mohanarangan

***

Truth and the world

 'If I would have met my Master, I would have raised a spiral ladder from here in earth to Sri Vaikunta bringing down all separating walls in-between.' so said Sri Ramanuja regarding his Guru, Swami Alavandar. And one thing becomes certain that there is an impassable wall between this earth and that Transcendent Abode. Are not all ideologies simply this enthusiasm in various forms, the enthusiasm to make this earth a heaven.? To think 'has it ever been possible?' is reckoning. To ask 'Is it first of all possible?' is criticism. To opine 'It is never possible' is pessimism. To be confident that such a thing is after all possible is optimism. Perhaps to think 'we will rest content with whatever is possible to whatever extent' - is it realism? may be. A game of words?

But Michel Foucault has a point here when he says :

Truth is a thing of this world.

Or Martin Heidegger :

The all-decisive question - What happens when the distinction

between a true world and an apparent world falls away? What becomes of the metaphysical essence of truth?

One talks about truth in a singular world. Another tries to tutor us about two worlds, one apparent, another true. So two truths? or one truth in the twin-world?

But is it not funny that all these persons were talking in and about this world, where it has become the custom to make truths saleable.!

Do you want me to say the truth? Who is Ayn Rand?

*

Srirangam Mohanarangan

***

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