Upanishads' guide for living 06

When we are talking about guide for living where comes the talk of death? It is an unalterable fact of life. So just leave it at that and better don't think about it. This thought will come naturally to anybody. And it is commonsense also not to break one's head on unalterable things in life. This avoidance comes handy in day to day living. So people who want to stop at that can very well do like that. But our mental activity which has been geared towards finding meanings in what is surrounding us and what is happening in us and about us, will be always hitting at this mute point. Every time the avoidance should be done consciously, withdrawing from any serious enquiry. May be, there comes a time, when we change our resolve from avoidance to clarifying. At that moment we can remember that thinkers have been seriously engaging themselves for millennia to pursue this topic. One of the earliest records is our Kata Upanishad. The pursuit continues even now with thinkers but additional methods of science have made this topic more a topic of science than conjecture. There is now a whole field of Near-Death Experience studies or NDE studies or Out-of-Body Experience studies or OBE studies carried out meticulously throughout the world. The accumulated logs or videos so far got from persons who have gone through NDE or OBE experiences show some common features, which are interesting and when understood underline the great efficacy of living. It seems ironic that life is better understood by the records of death. 

We were talking about 'the uninvited guest of death'. Metaphorically and philosophically this carries a different meaning. Instead of trying to avoid the subject of death, when human beings boldly begin to study and understand this phenomenon or un-phenomenon  of death, we may say they are in one way 'the uninvited guests of death'. As William Shakespeare writes in one of his Sonnets: 

'Buy terms divine in selling hours of dross;
Within be fed, without be rich no more,
So shall thou feed on death, that feeds on men,
And death once dead, there's no more dying then.'

Swami Vivekananda used to define renunciation as love of death. Sanyasa is making love to death. 

But in our days, in the records of NDE and OBE experiences we see a literal meaning of this phrase, 'the uninvited guests of death'. What these guests, even though they did not have any inkling about the sudden catastrophes that they underwent, have recorded unique experiences they had before coming back into life. Modern Kata Upanishad is all scientific and experimental, with all measurements of vitals and revivals. A singular message that we read across these various NDE records of various persons in various places and various times is this: 'come out of your atomic corner and reach the divine or universal corner or center, diligently work for it and  make sure the fellow human beings also wake up to this innate call and enjoy life in a sublime way.' 

Even the template of Namavali contains this great message. Om indicates the Universal Spirit. The ending 'namaha' indicates 'I have come out of my atomic corner'. In between is the name and form in which one wants to meditate on the Universal Spirit. So the namavali is structured like this : 'The Universal Spirit' + one's own chosen name and form of that Universal Spirit + I have come out of my atomic corner'. Namaha means not mine. So we are blossoming towards the Divine. That is the basic nature of living. Let us make our living meaningful, in tune with its basic nature. Let us not jeopardize it. 

Srirangam Mohanarangan 

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Upanishads' guide for living 05

The guidance of Kata Upanishad is on a different level. Isavasya and Kena ask us to look into the structural aspects of life and experience of the world out there. Both the Upanishads try to make us realise how we are conniving against us by leading  ourselves into our own atomic corner. Kena Upanishad reminds us to be ourself. But Kata Upanishad is taking us to the end questions of life. It knocks at the door of our atomic corner and comes straight into it much to our shock to take us out of the hole. Already we are in the heart of our hearts shivering at the idea of death. Whereas Kata Upanishad asks us to go and encounter death right at its face. To become the uninvited guest of death is not so bewitching a theme to us. Our wrong identification is like a virus. Anything that will stop it, it will abhor. And create a fear and anxiety in us so that we will never go for anything that will remedy the virus from us. Kata Upanishad is the best anti-virus available. This virus of misidentity has to disappear when Kata approaches. But the virus can tweet into your head various alarm messages, 'don't read.. don't understand... thinking about death is abominable,, don't do it.. rather do some pleasant things instead..' But just remember, the virus is desperate to sustain itself. Apply the anti-virus cool and see for yourself what happens afterwards. So much energy, so much wide and panavision, so much universal reach that was all yours all the while, deprived just because, by mistake you lent yourself to the shrinking virus. 

And Kata Upanishad does apply the anti-virus in a poetical way or a cinematic way rather. Just like a beautiful Malayalam film, it settles down into your personality, alters the jammed coordinates back to originals. The uninvited guest at the door of death, Nachiketas asks Yama the question, 'Hi Death! you know well whether there is any soul after the point of death. Tell me what is the truth.' The dodging death finally has to come around to reveal the eternal truth. Of course Nachiketas took the first step of coming out of his atomic corner. Coming out of it, it was but natural to him to interrogate any hidden truth, anywhere. Death pleads with him to return back to his cubby hole. But no. Once you wake up there is no deluding you again. 

Srirangam Mohanarangan 

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Upanishads' guide for living 04

Kena Upanishad tells us to study the basic structure of our own self, that is the physical self, our identity in the world. This word Kena means 'by what'. By what our identity is structured. What constitutes us? We see. hear, feel, taste and smell. Basic data that we get about the world outside. We think and decide. We imagine. We have our inner subjective field, about which only we have the authentic experience. Kena Upanishad asks just basic questions regarding this system. 

You are saying that you see what is out there. By what do you see anything? Why ? by eyes. Of course by eyes. But the seeing actually does not happen in the eyes. The optical data is received through the eyes and that data is processed in the brain. Ultimately when seeing happens, when you say this is that object, some seeing thing or some seeing point or the 'seer' must be there. Only to the 'seer' or 'the seeing point', the phenomenon of sight happens. Till then the data is only optical pulses. In the same way, for the other senses also. 

In short Kena asks us to check our motor. We have a car. Some problem is there. We raise the hood and check the connections and wires. We just check where the flow of function is blocked. Kena Upanishad asks us a simple question. 'What is that which makes you see ultimately? feel ultimately? taste, hear and so on.?' Eyes are just instruments in use. The cognition 'sight' happens by what? Can you see that 'what' by these eyes, which see all things? Can you feel that 'what'? smell that 'what'? taste that 'what'? hear that 'what'? No. So, that something, that 'what' makes your sensations possible in you but is not available to these very senses. That 'what' makes you think, but your thinking does not grasp that 'what'. So that 'what' transcends this system of senses and mind. But it is very much there in us, making it possible, all our sensations, our thinking. So it is there but just transcends this system. All these data produce 'meaning' only in its presence and also for its sake. 

Kena Upanishad says that 'what' is the real you. Only for your sake this whole system functions and you 'see', making it possible. You are inhabiting this system. But mostly you begin to believe that you are this system. Instead of seeing this system as your machine, you are so tied up with believing that the machine is you. Once that happens, your angle becomes atomic. The divine becomes just a dream, a lazy dream perhaps, whereas you become the busiest person of this world. You, the machine, has no meaning. How can it be? Only for you, in your presence, the machine will present data, so that the meaning happens because of you. When you have fallen into your own trap, hallucinating that you are this machine, then what meaning can happen for whom? You have deserted yourself. 

Kena Upanishad just says 'be just the owner of the car, driving it, using the machine. Don't make this car your world or more wretchedly, you yourself. You are the operator. Come out of this self-inflicted delusion. Assume your post. The divine angle is yours ever and ever'. 

Srirangam Mohanarangan 

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Upanishads' guide for living 03

There is a wonderful  line in Isavasya, the literal reading of which is 'gold covers the face of Truth'. Even the literal reading is so meaningful in our present day world. Money blinds our vision. 'Hiranmayena patrena satyasyabhihitam mukham'. But when we think deeply on the phenomenon, it comes to mean what we have been saying. Seeing from our own atomic angle we lose sight of the divine angle. Seeing from the divine angle is seeing 360 degrees. But our own atomic view becomes so precious like gold to us. And we miss our real claim, the greatest treasure from the divine. 

But we are locked as if in our own situation. Is it not? May be it is atomic. But once we crouch into it, it seems quite convenient. It becomes our comfort couch. We would rather like to drag the Divine also into it. But the Divine beats us into it. Knowing well all the tricks of the tiny, the Divine has gone already immanent into our soul. Long before the start of everything, it has hid itself into us, goading us unseen from the inside, to go and claim our real inheritance, the constant voice driving us from within. 

How it does this, how we can cooperate in this divine plan imbedded in us from the start, is the guidance which Kena Upanishad is going to give us. 

Srirangam Mohanarangan 

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Upanishads' guide for living 02

How can one see from the Divine point of view? Is it possible to see from an angle other than our own? Why not? In our daily life we do see from many others' angles rather than our own. In fact our success depends on that. A person appearing for an interview does see his or her manners, answers and personality from the angle of the person who is going to interview him or her. A good teacher is one who sees from the students' angle. A good leader is one who sees from the peoples' angle. The mother sees her own life from the angle of the child in her womb. So seeing from an angle other than our own is what practical life is about. Just we have to push it a little to see from the angle of the Divine. 

Isavasya gives you another thought. You begin to know so many things. We gather data. We become well informed. We attain knowledge and scholarship. But do we know the art of being and becoming? Being totally in a context, becoming others in empathy is an art. Without that, just being knowledgeable is mere dryness of the soul. Isavasya explains this beautifully. Being merely a person of knowledge is inadequate in itself. And being just a person of empathy also is not complete. A human being crosses death as it were by empathy, by being a person of awareness but to enjoy immortality calls for great knowing. Of course the Upanishad employs a lot of parallel terms to bring out the efficacy of possessing this twin capacity - the capacity of knowing and the capacity of being and becoming or the capacity of empathy. We can understand this in short as - being a person of the head and also being a person of the heart make a complete personality. An authentic person is one who knows vast and also feels deep about the human life. 

Srirangam Mohanarangan 

***

Upanishads' guide for living 01

Upanishads form an important part of Vedanta and a unique guide for spiritual living. A wonderful record of discussions among Rishis, who were intensely aware of the fundamentals and the universals of human life. Basically they saw the human being in its total make up. A human being of hunger and natural needs is also a being of emotions. And a human being is rational in its core activity. Not only that, a human being is also literary in its attitudes. A human being is intensely analytic and at the same time frivolously playful. A human being can achieve beyond limits. Also a human being can fail miserably in unexpected ways. A human being can love madly and also a human being can hate fiercely. A human being can meticulously plan for centuries and also a human being can be blinded by the range-of-the-moment likes and dislikes. And more so, a human being can transcend its own organic identity and structure and realise moments of pure spiritual essence. Any good prescription for human living must be aware and encompass all these features and facets, failures and excellences. Denying any part of the reality of human being will not do full justice as a guide. It is here that the Upanishads fulfill being such a guide for living. 

Let us take for instance, Isavasya Upanishad. The name is just after the first word with which the Upanishad starts. It simply means 'Being included into God'. Yea everything that is, everything that face us, everything that links with our living, the Upanishad says just include it into God. See yourself, with all your imperfections, achievements and failures, predicaments and chances, everything be included into God. Transact with anything, enjoy or suffer your experiences, after seeing them from the Divine angle. Give up the habit of seeing from where you are situated and start seeing even yourself from the viewpoint of the Divine. A human being is born with the default habit of seeing everything from its own atomic angle. But you have solved the great riddle of life once you start seeing even yourself from the point of the Divine. This is in short the message of the upanishad Isavasya. 

Srirangam Mohanarangan 

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Know Your Heritage - 08

We of the modern world are in one sense, people of the Book. This may sound theological to some but no, not in that sense. But we are the people of the Printed Book. The printed book is something which keeps you engaged with yourself by what is within its two covers. If you know the language and if you are interested in the subject, the book opened may be closing for you, many of the things around. But what you are able to take from the book is mainly dependent on you and your reading. Unless some professional or academic consequence is there for your reading, mostly your reading remains unchallenged and untested. Hence reading, by and by, degenerates into mere going through pages or browsing or picking at random or just getting at a sense of what is written. Approximation over approximation makes you ultimately a proud owner of undigested books. Yea you have gone through, seen through, got it roughly and you have some opinion. That is how we are as people of the printed book, mostly. Our busy life justifies it. And not only that, many books are written based on such opinions 'arrived at'. 

But in our heritage they were thinking in terms of 'the study'. It is not the book that counts but your study of it. They have a beautiful word for it. 'Adhyayana'. Adhyayana means studying. Adhyaya means study. Yea. we are using it, the word in the sense of 'chapter'. By contrast, in our heritage, they were people of the study. It is studying which makes you learned. The printed book can just make you an owner. 

When the stress is laid on the studying, you cannot duplicate, you cannot just form an opinion and you cannot be just going through. You have to encounter the whole body of thought that comes in the shape of a book. 

So in our days we can do slight changes in this concept of Adhyaya, study and bring in a culture of reading. In other words becoming 'people of reading' will empower us more as human beings. Not being mere people of books, counting how many books we happen to possess, we can choose to measure our enthusiasm by how many books we have processed in by active reading. Here again we can read through words and pages, while picking up some snippets here and there and call it reading. But active reading is facing the arguments, para by para, withe an eye to the key words and phrases that underline the development. Just beginning by doing one book, makes our process more facile afterwards. And becoming people of the reading is creative in its function. 

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Know Your Heritage - 07

Progress is a big word in our modern world. If you say 'progress' you can justify anything as it were. But in our heritage there is a balanced view. The so called 'Progress' is put in its place. In our modern world 'Progress' is self-authentic. But in our heritage 'Progress' needs to be authenticated by something larger. Because the whole human life itself is seen in its cosmic context rather than as the exploiting core of the dull world around. 

The artifice by which they keep up this dynamic balance between the progress of the parts and the stasis of the whole is itself interesting. Every individual life is understood as the development of stages. A human being born is unfinished and becomes finished human being only after the completion of education. That is the basic stage of the human life. After that, the human being must progress, multiply whatever is at his hand, whatever he has acquired by way of skills or knowledge while learning. He is expected to excel in whatever he chooses. He must create money not grab it. He marries and brings forth children. And he must vouchsafe their education. 

While engaged in progress he must take care of five important things. He must take care of his forefathers by raising good children. He must take care of the masters of wisdom by preserving and strengthening the great books and the education on such books. He must take care of the piety, the social understanding of the divine. He must take care of helpless human beings. And last but not least, he must take care of the animals, birds and other beings around. Even our understanding of progress is detailed in this way. Mindless exploitation and frantic grabbing have never been our concept of progress and will never be. 

Even this concept of 'progress' is not endless. The human being who engages in this stage of life is reminded of more important things and much broader concerns. His involvement with 'progress' is only time-bound. He must yield to the next generations and take up more important tasks in life. This scheme is not something imposed on him from outside. It is something deeply inlaid in the very living itself. After you have gone all speed in external life you are expected to slow down and reverse your aims. You must now begin trekking in the internal explorations. You were reveling in the world of things. Now you are expected to learn and master in the world of concepts, values and ideas. You were driving through avenues of reality out there. But now you must go uphill in the reaches of your inner reality. You were speeding through roads. Now you are trekking through forests. The symbolic name of this stage of life is 'Vanaprasta'. 'starting into the forests'. 

You were chasing progress outside before. Now you have to chasten down by progressing in the inside. You were contributing to the society by way of things and more things. Now you are contributing to the same society by way of values and wisdom. This thermostat you have to keep up, this system of checks and balances. 

Srirangam Mohanarangan 

***

Know Your Heritage - 06

When do you call a thing 'heritage'? Something coming as a tradition may become or may not become 'heritage'. That means, heritage involves a process of 'stop, look and think'. A revisionary outlook which identifies the good and abiding aspects to be preserved in contradistinction to anything not constructive and hence not worth preserving. Heritage involves a positive approach towards future based on revisions of reading the past. 

Tapas is one of the concepts in our heritage which needs understanding. Again a misunderstood concept, which may kindle in us pictures of long beards and forest huts and being immobile for long periods of time. But if we look into it deeply, it is a great concept and a skill never to be missed. 

Tapas is looking into a thing afresh. To become aware of a thing in all its aspects. To overcome one's own prejudices, to give up one's own preconceptions about the thing concerned - all these form part of tapas. Tapas is a highly sensible way of understanding. In tapas you begin to scientifically handle the mind as an effective instrument, whereas before, mind was a field of distractions. 

Tapas sharpens your perception not only regarding what you understand but also regarding the areas and issues that you have not understood. Of course 'tapas' has a root meaning of 'being heated' or 'burning'. But in usage it has become a way of being cool and attentive without conditions. After an initial practice, tapas becomes a jolly way of being totally receptive and perceptive, being closely at an issue or subject in awareness tending towards becoming full. It is an unconditional way of being attentive to the object or the subject concerned. With no anxiety or exploitation in mind being attentive takes one deeper and closer to the reality instanced right before us. We have paid too much interest in symbolisms and lost sight of the real principles behind. 

Srirangam Mohanarangan 

***

Know Your Heritage - 05

Respect towards nature doesn't stop with water, light and wind. Trees are very important. They bridge the earth and the atmosphere. Atmosphere is called in our culture as 'antariksha'. In between earth and sky, antariksha forms an important place of exchange. Trees strengthen the soil, purify the air and please the atmosphere in one stroke. Trees by becoming habitations of birds propagate themselves across lands. 

Rivers form another important part of our ecosystem. When the trees make the atmosphere yield their water content to the soil as rains from clouds, the water as rivers flow across the landscape, enriching the soil and giving life. Flora and fauna are but siblings nourished by the flowing life before reaching the great deposits of seas. 

All these cycles of nature are considered facets of divinity in our culture. They are not there as commodities for human beings to exploit. They form part of the great chain of being which houses human beings also. What part these play as natural functions, human beings should play knowingly and in full awareness. What was added to the human being as knowledge is compensated by the lack of automaticity in the discharge of nature. The human being born is not automatically human being in function. For that the human being must choose to reach upto its own nature and function. Intelligence is a great thing given to the human being but not as automatic. The human being must choose to be intelligent and choose to stay intelligent. 

A place of divinity should be a topos where all these elements of nature are held in deep consideration. That is why in our temples, the sthalavruksha play an important part. Sthalavruksha is 'the tree of the place'. Rivers or bodies of water form the Tirtha attached to the temple. Tirtha is 'what is purifying'. In our concept the divine not only resides in the sanctum but also in the form of all these elements of nature. You cannot be cruel to the trees and say you are devoted to the God inside. You cannot desecrate the rivers and say you are a bhakta of the divine form inside. Our worship starts from our conscience. 

Srirangam Mohanarangan

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Know Your Heritage - 04

Another important concept in our heritage is the respect and understanding towards nature. Nature consists of five elements. The soil forms the basis of our living. When we lose ourselves in abstract concepts even symbolically we say 'let us come down to earth'. We feel the earth as surest basis of our living. Space and the sky contain us and our living. The water, the light and the wind form the essentials of our sustenance. This fact is imprinted in our minds right from childhood in a spiritual way. 

Every morning we are expected to invite the source of all light, viz., the Sun, having water in our hands and measured breath in our nostrils. We are made aware of the earth on which we stand and the sky towards which we look into. We are made to realise that we form part of the whole nature and as mindful creatures we should in full awareness hold these elements in gratitude and respect. All these are the physical faces of the self-same divinity that is in our hearts and the same divinity that is shining like the Sun and also in the Sun. The same Sun in midday is again remembered and thanked with water in the hands and mantras in the mind. The light removes our darkness. The water purifies us. And the wind in peace bestows long life. Every day we are made to vibrate in tune with cosmic movements. 

Again in the evening we give a thankful send-off for the day by pouring water to the setting Sun with mantras. And we invite the night. These junctions of night and day in the morning and the day and night in the evening, form important part of our daily life along with the midday salutations to the Sun. We ground ourselves to the cosmos thrice a day. These junctions are beautifully named as 'sandhya'. To salute during these junctions is sandhya vandanam. Becoming aware totally of the water, the light and the wind, we stand firm on the ground and look with love to the sky. When we make peace with our own breathing and do it as an art, it is called Pranayama. 

Srirangam Mohanarangan

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Know Your Heritage - 03

An important concept in our heritage is the concept of dharma. Much misunderstood concept is also this dharma. Dharma is essentially meaning 'the sustaining'. What sustains what, what is sustained by what, how is it sustained, just physically or externally, or also internally and intrinsically are the various aspects connected with this dharma. In nature and society we see that the structures are a series of supports and supported. Something rests on something else. A thing exists only in relationship with various things. If the mutual relationships are healthy then the whole structure and functioning are healthy. 

In inanimate things what constitutes an object exists purely for the object to be whole and functioning. Suppose we have a chair, what constitutes a chair exists in that form of chair purely to enable the chair to be whole and functioning. If a part fails in this status of being a subsidiary to the object 'chair', then that part loses its reason to exist in that form. Either we repair it and bring it into the overall usage or we remove it, so that that part no more belongs to chair. In living things it is not that simple. The parts assume more and more individual status in addition to being subsidiaries to something else which comprises them. And the principle of sustaining is also more complicated in that it has become more organic and intrinsic. In bio-things the roots assume much importance. In animals the principle of life and feelings become more visible and the principle of sustaining is again more nuanced. 

In the world of human beings, the principle of sustaining is more anchored in the mind, even though physical and biological aspects are also there. Hence the concept of dharma, which is nothing but the principle of sustaining, centres around the education of the mind. The mind to function fully as mind needs to be educated. In human scale of living nothing is automatic. Education assumes prime importance. A human baby born doesn't become automatically a citizen. It needs education. So dharma makes it necessary that each and every child should be educated. When dharma is misunderstood as convenient human assumptions, confusion sets in. 

Srirangam Mohanarangan

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Know Your Heritage - 02

A very important concept in our heritage is Yajna or Sacrifice. Immediately we should not imagine a fire-lit centre around which people sit and pour something into the fire. We must look into the symbolism and the dynamic concept that is behind. 

A Yajna or a sacrifice consists of certain elements. In a sacrifice there is somebody with an intention and a purpose. And there is something poured into the fire. And it is believed what one wishes for even though not visible gets formed to be delivered to the sacrificer in the future. What comes out of the sacrifice is the transformed and materialised wish. It may look something odd. 

But let us think about how we act in the real world. We are aware of some present conditions. We want to change the present to a more agreeable future. For that we take all the steps. Say, the roads are damaged by rains. Transport is difficult. So people inform the departments and also take some steps in the meanwhile to ease the passage of vehicles and beings. We put in our time and energy by cooperation. Where? Into the locus of the problem, partly visible partly invisible. By collected efforts some result comes about. It has become more pliable. In the meantime people from the department also reach the spot and the road is made perfect. 

Our Sastras ask us to view all these activities in terms of Yajna - somebody having the intention, some efforts are put into, some results are reaped. The visible-invisible locus where what tangibles we sacrifice into gets transformed into what we want, that locus is Agni. Fire. Our Sastras say even in nature there are series of such Yajnas taking place to vouchsafe continuity and prosperity. The rains from the sky are the oblations poured on the parched earth, soil is drenched, all the beings and vegetations get their water and rejuvenate. This is one Yajna. 

The Sun's rays fall on the earth. Water gets evaporated and as if poured into the rays. Vapour goes to the sky and clouds are formed to migrate to the places panting for rain. Again a Yajna. In society we change an old order; bring something new to suit our needs. In technology we change our gadgets, instruments according to the growing necessity. 

Nature is controlled by blind cause and effect. But in social decisions, if what we bring in is not in tune with the general good, then our sacrifices have not been deivic but asuric. That is not benevolent but malevolent. Deivic is godly. asuric is demonaic. If our choices as individuals or as society go in tune with the overall good, long range, then we are doing the Yajna in the divine way. If not in the demonly way. We can correct ourselves. This point is beautifully illustrated in our mythology by stories of demons doing Yajna in a highly selfish and short-sighted way. Whereas Devas do it only in line with the cosmic good. 

Srirangam Mohanarangan 

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Know your Heritage - 01

The world is a beautiful place. Variety is the soul of nature. At the same time harmony weaves the happy note all  through this variety. Similarity and patterns help us understand the rich fabric. Meanings we arrive at integrate us. And integration is meaningful only when there is variety around. Imagine sameness all around. How boring will it be! 

It is only the principles which are same and not forms. This important point was understood very early in the Hindu civilization. So they were able to give a call to people to integrate and come together and move towards common meanings understood. In Rig Veda we find this call coming out upon human society anywhere. 'Let us come together. Let us talk about things where we concur. Let us together move towards truth by sharing our understanding.' (R V X.191). 

Why Rig Veda was giving this great call even at such a remote age? It understood the value of society and family much earlier than many civilizations. A human being is born into a family. He/She has to start as a good social being even before becoming a good individual. It is only in a good family that an individual can also grow to full maturity. A human being must blossom into a good individual. For that the family provides a good base, a good training. The family acts as a good coach for the individual. 

As it is in the case of family, so also it is with respect to society. In the society a human being has to act as an individual. In the family a human being is born as a biological being. The faculties are playing out towards full form in the family and the school. An individual is the result of those surroundings. In the society, the individuals must come together. They must act in cooperation with other individuals. He/She must be authentic in the sense he/she must be responsible for one's thoughts and actions. Assessing oneself and accessing others form part of an art. Realising one's position means knowing one's limitations. If you are not aware of your limitations you can never cognize the others as free individuals like you. As an individual what you realise as something not possible, as a society, by cooperating with others you can achieve. 

To respect others and to understand the common goals one must be active in mind. Perceiving what others mean, expressing oneself so that others may perceive what we mean becomes very essential in the society. Hence the call peculiar from Rig Veda. This has set the tone nearly of our heritage down the time. 

One of the serious problems of our time is the question of individuality vs society. But in our heritage this problem is taken in all seriousness and solutions given. A man is expected to respect his individual needs quite as seriously as his social duties. Any human being is born with three duties or debts as per our ancient books. Those debts are debt towards forefathers, debt towards sages and great scholars and debt towards gods. Only because the forefathers chose to procreate and maintain their family, now we are here, each and everybody. So any human being born is  indebted to the forebears. How to repay that debt? By marrying and continuing the lineage. Great sages and great scholars have given us great thoughts and discoveries to live by. They have enabled the happy continuity till our time. And the debt towards them is repaid by studying what they have done and improve upon their ideas and discoveries. To cherish their memories with gratitude. Many divine forces have been at work globally and cosmically to make it possible for us and our existence to sustain. Their debt is repaid by doing our actions in the full awareness of the cosmic sense and as offerings to them, There is a fourth debt we owe unto ourselves. We have our soul born with all desires. We have to educate our soul with patience in managing the desires and transcending them in full understanding. For that we must not deny unjustly any ethical desires of the soul. May be allowing ourselves in compassion to enjoy ethically is a step towards liberation. In Sri Ramayana, Bharadwaja while solacing Sri Rama and trying to bring him out of his grief over his father's death, says this point. viz., Dasaratha repaid all the four debts in his life including the debt towards his soul by allowing himself to ethical fulfillment. 

In our heritage never individuality and social commitment are seen mutually contradictory or mutually cancelling. For a proper understanding of one's place in society was natural in our culture. 

Srirangam Mohanarangan

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Study Tours to Srirangam -- II

Our study tour to Srirangam was not only across spaces but also across time. I had to take the troupe to travel towards that past ethos with all that I had learned till then. People who were perched in the present cares had to feel the past responsibilities in all their total bearing to the future. I was not only accessing the past by way of study but also entering the future by way of interpretation and actually, all these happening thru creative imagination in the present. I taught my troupe, learned with them, and knew from them. What I taught to them was philosophical, what I learned with them was cultural and what I knew from them was reactional, in the sense, how the text is received by the current pocket of active listeners, no matter if they are not previously exposed. I feel even now in vivid fibre the pristine occasion of my friend, Mr. T. Ramesh, one day announcing to me that the whole set of Bhagavath Vishayam, the 5- fold commentaries with ancient notes to the greatest of the 5 commentaries, viz., Idu, recorded by Vadakkuththiruveethip Pillai with no loss of even a syllable, whatever he was hearing from his master Nambillai expounding on the 1000 songs of ThiruvAimozhi, by NammAzhvAr --- was available as a free gift to me from his paternal aunt, who is the daughter-in-law of Mr. Ethirajulu Chettiar. I became impatient of the passing half an hour till we reached her house in Saidapet. She was so joyous to meet me, for the reason that she was thankful that I was able to link back Ramesh to the cherished heritage, kept up so fondly by Mr. Ethirajulu Chettiar, who was a disciple of Sri U. Ve. P.B. Annangarachariyar of Kancheepuram. They perhaps saw the Chettiyar alive again in my friend. To see such occasions of homecoming, psychologically and culturally and maybe ideologically gives unique instances of joy, with great flux of currents passing across generation gaps, eventing comradaries across times. Now, what are these?, commentaries, Nammaalvaar, Bhagavath Vishayam, and such peculiar sounding names may be to your ears and a whole culture that has evolved around a text and sustains itself by active hermeneutics of the same even now. I will explain all these in another entry on ensuing occasions. Till then let it suffice that the picture shows the frontispage of the sthalapurana of Alwarthirunagari or Thirukkurukoor, in the Thirunelveli Dt, renowned as the birthplace of Nammaalvaar.

STUDY TOURS TO SRIRANGAM -- 1988 (CONTD)

The first photo is the Thai Car festival in Srirangam. I am giving my Tamil poem on the Temple Car in my Tamil Blog entry. The poem visualizes the Car or ThEr, as it is called in Tamil, as the symbolic form of the social communion of the whole society with its own values. It exhorts all and sundry to participate not only now but always in order to make meaningful and total the topographical filling of one's existence. The second photo is a rare pic of the Shakespearean play Merchant of Venice staged by my father and Prof C.S.Kamalapathi in aid of The Boys High School, Srirangam in 1980s. See the lively action arrested in some ancient architect's work of an elephant being tamed! Last one above is fundamental to the mythology of the Temple Town, Srirangam. Srirangam temple is called in tradition as the Ikshvaaku Kuladhanam. The story dates itself from the times of SriRaamaa, who on his coronation finals gave away important gifts to his friends and associates in the hardtimes and the war. Vibheeshanaa, the brother of Raavanaa of SriLanka, was given a special gift of the family tutelary deity of Ikshvaaku kulaa, viz., SriRanganaathaa. Vibheeshanaa chose this place to consecrate the Deity and built the temple around. The local story is that Vibheeshanaa comes even now in the mid of night, unseen to worship the Lord of the Lords, PERIYA PERUMAAL . In the snap shot of a statue on a pillar of Sesharaayar Mandapam, Vibheeshanaa is portrayed as carrying the Divine Casket, perhaps towards Srirangam.

STUDY TOURS TO SRIRANGAM -- 1988

                                                                                                                                                                   About 1988 or so we went on consecutive study tours to Srirangam and other places. Srirangam the headqrs of theology was our favourite roosting place, where each was unto his own visions and understandings sought. SriRamanuja was becoming our obsession. On the right you see the Math, where Udaiyavar (SriRamanuja) stayed in the 11th centAD. Myself, Mahendran and Ramesh from left to right are seen before the gate. Our official fotographer was Raghuraaman seen in the picture left with the red shirt, myself, Ramesh, Mahendran on the backs of an excavated piece of elephantine architecture, may be symbolic of our reexcavating the understanding of SriVaishnavism to ourselves. In the first large picture myself, Raghu and Ramesh are seen with the committed couple of SriVaishnavism Sri U.Ve.Krishnaswami Iyengaar, Sri Vaishnava Sudharsanam.

What is Vedanta? - 01

Before knowing about Vedanta, we must understand the meaning of the term 'Veda'. What is 'Veda'? We are too much familiar about the usage of the term, so that we have not stopped and thought about the meaning of the term 'Veda'. Of course Vedas are classified into four Rig Veda, Yajur Veda, Sama Veda and Atharva Veda. But why certain texts are named Vedas? What qualifies a text to be called 'Veda'? 

For this our best source can be the great commentator of all the Vedas, namely, Sayana. In his commentaries on Yajur Veda and Rig Veda he is dealing extensively with this question, namely, what is Veda? what is the meaning? what qualifies a text to be identified as Veda and so on. 

We come to know many things in life. We see many objects. We see many things are happening. And the things do not change in nature. And the happenings do sometimes repeat and thereby we come to know what causes what. And nowadays Science is there which determines by experiments. Basic to all these understanding are two ways of knowing or epistemology. The two ways are perception and inference. Based on these and much more sophisticated by technology and instrumentation is scientific method. What can be known by these methods cannot be termed as Veda. What can be known by perception and inference is not Veda. 

We want to attain something and we want to avoid something in the regular course of our living. And we use perception and inference to attain what we want and avoid what we do not want. By experience and memory of others' experiences our regular course of living goes on. But when we come to a stage, when we resort to means that are beyond perception and inference to attain our goal and avoid the impediments, what texts are going to guide us in that stage and need, those texts are termed as Vedas. This is as per the explanation of Sayana in his introduction to the Taittiriya Samhita commentary. 

This is what he says : 'Ishta prApti anishta parihArayO: alaaukikam upAyam yO grantO vEdayati sa vEda:| alaukika padEna pratyakshAnumAnE vyAvartyEtE |' 

And he quotes a famous sloka of his times which says : 'pratyakshENa anumityAvA yastu upAyO na budhyatE | Enam vidanti vEdEna tasmAt vEdasya vEdatA || ' 

The meaning of the sloka is : 'Either by perception or by inference, which means is not known, that means is known by the Vedas. That explains why it is called Veda' 

So Vedas are the ways of knowing that which is beyond the world and the means of attaining the real purpose of life and avoid that which prevents attaining that. Vedas do not ask you to know the things of the world through them and that which can be known by perception, inference and scientific method. It never asks you to confuse between the world and the beyond. 

Again to refresh our understanding, 'what is beyond the world'? That which is beyond perception and inference is denoted by the phrase 'beyond the world'. It expects you to be fully scientific with regard to the world in which we live and it never gives any counter claim regarding the area or issues in which science has authority. It fully honours the jurisdiction of science in the world. When the human being comes to a stage of introspection when all the world and the regular epistemology do not satisfy the human being's inquiry, then alone and in that transcendental enquiry alone Vedas come as the guide to the struggling soul. 

Whether this understanding is prevalent among us people I do not know. But this is the clarity which the great Master Sayana is giving in his introduction to the Vedic commentaries. Understanding this basic principle will go a long way to solve many of our own doubts in our religious life. And again it is Sayana who like great masters before him, categorically explains that in Vedic mantras, even though it seems various deities are sung, really it is the one Supreme Reality or Parameswara is sung through various forms : 

''yadyapi indrAdaya: tatra tatra hUyantE tathApi paramEswarasya Eva indrAdirUpENa avastAnAt avirOdha:' 

Meaning ; 'even though in many places deities like Indra are prayed to by mantras, in all those places it is ParamEswaraa alone in the forms of Indra and the like is prayed to and so there is no contradiction.' 

So never confuse your life in the world and your spiritual quest. 

Srirangam Mohanarangan 

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What is Vedanta? -- Introduction

Too many books on Vedanta are there in English. Then why again?. Of course I personally feel that the works of Swami Vivekananda, the works of Sri Aurobindo, Swami Chinmayananda and others are sufficient for any serious inquirer and student. But, for the youth, I intend to say something on the subject. Before that, it is better that I openly state my frame of mind. 

Three things I have avoided studiously in my life, even to entertain as an attitude. That means three things I have upheld even from my school days. Because of my father's influence, the effect of Bharathi on me, again due to my father, and my early involvement in Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda, this frame of mind has come about even in my early years. I have changed my perspectives, undergone radical shifts of standpoints and all that. But in spite of all such changes of mind and all through such changes, three things have never changed in my considered conclusion. One, I subscribe to the thought that all human beings are equal and there is no superiority or inferiority based on birth. Second, I subscribe to the thought that human beings, irrespective of being male or female, enjoy equal status and equal claim. That is discrimination based on gender, I never subscribe to. Third, I subscribe to the thought that all religious paths are various ways to one Super Reality, viz., God. Of course, naturally, I am personally devoted to Sri Ramakrishna. So caste-bias, gender-bias, religion-bias are the three things I have resolutely avoided all through my life. And I believe most of the human ills are avoided if these three are avoided. 

But you may ask, if it is so with you, how come you are writing about Vedanta, in which caste is entertained by acharyas of old if not by modern sages like Swami Vivekananda. Not only that, in nearly all the ancient books, you find the problem of caste and caste-prone statements. Many teachers of the tradition have glossed on such statements rather than refuting such statements. Yes. I know that such is the situation, if you go by the traditions obediently. But even here I remain myself. Anything which is against the equality of human beings, I refuse and don't subscribe to, even if it is by great masters and sages. The same way with the problem of discrimination against women. And I believe whatever remains after giving up all these discriminations that is enough, at least, for me. So when I write about Vedanta, I am not too obediently voicing all the old tunes, but select what I think, the strong points of Vedanta. Only such thoughts of strength I intend to communicate to the young generations. If you are adamant in your sympathy of caste, gender discrimination and religious exclusivism, sorry, I am not your author and I do not write having you in my mind. I will earnestly request you to think deeply and reconsider your sympathies. 

And coming to the subject, Vedanta subsumes the idea of what is Veda. And Vedanta has its own three most important canons, called Prastanatrayam. (important three books). Upanishads, Sri Bhagavad Gita, Brahma Sutras are the three important books. My approach will be simple. I intend to introduce some ideas of Vedanta succinctly mainly to the young generations. Especially the ideas which are philosophically thought-provoking and have great implications in the progress of human thought and comparative philosophy of the world. 

Srirangam Mohanarangan 

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The concept of Yajnam, Danam, Tapas

Sri Krishna gives a lot of great thoughts in Bhagavad Gita. But one thought many of us have neglected to see is this one - The concept of  Yajna, Danam, Tapas. Why it is so important is what this small write up is about. Sri Krishna calls these three as great purifiers. Purifying what? What in yajna, what in danam, what in tapas qualify these three as agents of purification? If these three are purifying what are the impurities in us which these address? 

First, Yajna. What is this? Perhaps a large open space, some geometric shapes in the center, perhaps some fire lit, some ghee poured in with chanting. This is the picture that may come to our mind on hearing the word. But no. That was one form of doing it, people chose to do so in some period of time. It was ritualistic. But if we go deep into the concept it is interesting. 

Yajna means that you sacrifice something of yours to get something better or reach something more satisfactory. When you do this openly, stating your intention and readiness to wait and requesting others' cooperation towards achieving that aim, you are more or less entering into a contract with yourself and others. Since you discuss your intentions openly, your wishes and plans become conducive to the common good and definitely selfish exploitations are avoided even at the outset. This is the way of achieving your personal goals, purified of all malicious and vested interests and discussed with others in your immediate contexts. Achieving what one wants, justly and in tune with and never against the common good is the way of yajna. 

Was this understood in the past in the exact terms in which I express, is a question. But the real import and the original motive of whoever found out this concept seem to be nearly like what I say. This we can see if we study deeply the srauta-sutras, mimamsa-sutras and their commentaries. It is not that we need to go back to the old forms. But understanding the essence of the concept and applying that in our contexts will surely enhance our relationship with nature and human beings. Since there is no dark area in our dealings or thoughts, this yajna is purifying. Ordinary actions anybody can do and are doing. Some with malicious intent, some as a waste, some with an exploiting motive neatly hidden. Yea actions do happen all the while with all sorts of psychology behind. That is why Sri Krishna says ordinary actions do bind us and are having a cheapening effect on the soul. But actions done as yajna are always auspicious, in the sense it brings about goodness to you and goodness to others. i.e., Subham. 

Now some of you might have thought when we were saying about yajna, what guarantees a person to behave all truly even in yajna. He may state something in public but he may be having his own plans. Yea here comes the concept of Tapas. Individual betterment in mind and thinking. This tapas is a culture of introspection and openness to oneself, which is inculcated even from small years. This tapas helps improve the human being from inside out. An exercise of blossoming towards light. The person is inducted into a culture of light-loving rather than being addicted to darkness. This tapas is what makes a human being or draws out more and more the real human being out of potentiality. 

Individuals may be made or allowed to blossom forth by Tapas, so that their actions become yajna and never mere raw actions prone to all ills. But the others with whom the human being relates and the society which consists of all types of others for all the members, they form a community or a society. What educates the society towards individuals and what educates the individuals towards the society is what is called Danam. We may think in a too-commonplace manner that danam is charity. May be, it is right in one way. But it is not what danam is really about. Danam is sharing between the individuals and the society, the society learning from individuals, the individuals imbibing culture from the heritage coming down and preserved by the society. It is educating the individual from the biological to the cultural. And more so, the individuals lifting the social from getting mired in dead habits and customs to more creative expressions. It is dynamical both ways. If it is not so, then the danam is not working properly. Properly restoring danam meaningfully brings in purity into the parity of individual vs society. 

If these three are in pure shape, yajna, tapas, danam, then the whole picture is healthy. Positive cycles go on. Negativity is resolved. The goals of individuals and society are complimentary and creative. That is why Sri Krishna is saying in Bhagavad Gita 

Yajna dAna tapa: karma na tyAjyam kAryam Eva tat | 
yajnO dAnam tapas chaiva pAvanAni maneeshiNAm || 

Yajnam, Danam, Tapas are actions that must never be given up. Because these three Yajnam, Danam, Tapas are always purifying for the human beings who use mind. 

Srirangam Mohanarangan 

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