Kartikeya - an interesting god

First thing : it is Karttikeya. Double t, and it comes from Krittika. The other spellings, Kartikeya and Karthikeya, can be condoned as common errors. Similarly the name Shanmuga comes from Shat-mukha (six heads), and SaravaNan comes from Sharavana-bhava ( meaning one born in a forest of shara grass).

This interesting deity is the darling of people from the South, with many lovely temples and rituals. Every Tamilian home has a Murugan (aaru-muga) picture day wall-calendar and many articles especially cloth-bags with the word Murugan.

This Hindu god is unique. He combines masculine valour, a boyish precociousness and also grace. He is in fact the military chief of the gods, and is considered the God of War, like Mars in Greek mythology (devasenapati). He is esoteric, and hence called "Guha', living in forested hills.

There are several Carnatic compositions of Muthuswami Dikshitar whose chosen deity was Guruguha or Karttikeya. But my favourite is the Todi piece Karttikeya Gangeya Gauri Tanaya, by Papanasam Sivan. It is a majestic composition with alliterative beauty, metrical grandeur, lyrical profundity, and to cap it all, the musical element does, in my opinion, justice to this unique raga which is a challenge to any musician, especially a vocalist. It is a raga that plumbs the depths of the lower notes and sets up edifices at Ga and Ma, with lovely glides along other notes. Somewhat like the glorious mountain peaks inhabited by Karttikeya, with delightful valleys and rivers. The above picture from an Internet website is charming in many dimensions.

Did you know that Karttikeya was born out of the fire, and nourished by Ganga, and breast-fed by six celestial deities called Krittikas (the star cluster)? And in only one stream of mythology was he born of Gauri as Kumara, in the story so well told by Kalidasa in Kumarasambhavam. The rest of the iconography showing him as the younger brother of Ganesha etc. is of popular value.

That Karttikeya is worshipped by forest and mountain dwellers is appropriate, and in all probablity he was the earliest male god in the Hindu pantheon, stemming from early man's idolatry of young war heroes.

Here are links to two great renderings of the Todi masterpiece:

M.S. Subbulakshmi

Lalgudi G. Jayaraman

Now, let me show you the entry under Karttikeya in A Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology and Religion by John Dowson, published first sometime about the middle of the 19th century and quite well-researched, like most European compilations (for that matter the most authoritative dictionary of Sanskrit is by Sir Monier Williams, as much as other Indian language reference dictionaries are by European scholars!)

So let us join in worshipping this wonderful deity, Karttikeya!

The Flute-player of Brindaban

The Flute-player of Brindaban

Sarojini Naidu

Why didst thou play thy matchless flute

'Neath the Kadamba tree,

And wound my idly dreaming heart

With poignant melody,

So where thou goest I must go

My flute-player with thee?

Still must I like a homeless bird

Wander, forsaking all

The earthly loves and worldly lures

That held my life in thrall,

And follow, follow, answering

Thy magical flute-call.

Bauls sing of the Beloved

I knew about the Bauls from the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna. But the experience of reading Osho's words on Bauls was profound (The Beloved Vols. 1 and 2) Here are some of his words:

The Bauls are called Bauls because they are mad people. The word 'Baul' comes from the Sanskrit root VATUL. It means: mad, affected by wind. The Baul belongs to no religion. He is neither Hindu nor Mohammedan nor Christian nor Buddhist. He is a simple human being. His rebellion is total. He does not belong to anybody; he only belongs to himself. He lives in a no man's land: no country is his, no religion is his, no scripture is his. His rebellion goes even deeper than the rebellion of the Zen Masters -- because at least formally, they belong to Buddhism; at least formally, they worship Buddha. Formally they have scriptures -- scriptures denouncing scriptures, of course -- but still they have. At least they have a few scriptures to burn.
Bauls have nothing -- no scripture, not even to burn; no church, no temple, no mosque -- nothing whatsoever. A Baul is a man always on the road. He has no house, no abode. God is his only abode, and the whole sky is his shelter. He possesses nothing except a poor man's quilt, a small, hand-made one-stringed instrument called AEKTARA, and a small drum, a kettle-drum. That's all that he possesses. He possesses only a musical instrument and a drum. He plays with one hand on the instrument and he goes on beating the drum with the other. The drum hangs by the side of his body, and he dances. That is all of his religion. Dance is his religion; singing is his worship. He does not even use the word 'God'.

There is a great Baul singer, performing and travelling a lot these days, Parvathy Baul. She is one of rare female Baul singers, and has a presence that locks you in. This You Tube video is a good one:

then, there is an hour-long interview, very well done, in English. You can watch this, and please don't mind the marketing clutter around the video. It is a good interview that brings out the authentic Baul singer that she is.
One final word. When asked how she handles people who want to surrender to her and wish her to lead them spiritually, she shrugs off that onerous responsibility... she says she's after all a singer. That is the reality of life. There is no "One", whether a musician, a dancer, an artist or a master, or a self-proclaimed guru, to whom you can surrender and hope to move ahead. Finally your guide is within yourself.. at the centre of your being, and not at the circumference which is our sensory world. But surrendering to anyone or anything is a vital first step... it cuts off your head!
Here is the video interview link... and happy watching!
http://video.webindia123.com/interviews/dancers/parvathybaul/index.htm

Winter in Finland - music that cheers

I watched last night a wonderful DVD produced in Australia, capturing Vivaldi's Four Seasons on video with great musicians performing the respective portions in Japanese spring, Australian summer, New York's autumn and Finnish winter.
The music and the filmography leave you with wonderful imagery. But I was most impressed with the music performed by a young violinist Pekka Kuusisto in a warm farmhouse in the middle of winter.
I was lucky to find two You Tube clips of the Winter scene... so here you are, and I give the one with the folk song!

Sea Lions and Orchids - Singapura!

Here are two videos we shot in the Orchid Garden and the Singapore Zoo... beauty and the beast - both thrilling!

The signs of human nature

+ - X ÷=

Have you thought of this - the entire gamut of human evolution and spectrum of human emotions can be depicted using the basic symbols of math!?

+ The Book says that God created Adam. Adam was lonely, and so God made Eve. They fell in love and the rest of mankind happened. And that love was surely a positive, additive, collaborative, communicative phenomenon. No wonder it was exactly what the PLUS sign says. And then the community organized itself in its activities, the most significant being prayer and religion. That profoundly influenced society and eventually controlled it. No wonder PLUS is the Greek Cross!
- The first effect of organized religion was to categorize believers and non-believers. That created distance between any two men more emphatically than anything else before. Now came a distance between two people which was not visible, but which was conceptual. That distance became the first major negative influence on mankind, the symbol of distance and reducing the total of happiness, emphasizing differences rather than commonality. That is the symbol MINUS...
X Then men organized themselves into groups, clans, countries and fought to expand their group or clan or country. They crossed swords and hoped to multiply their own at the expense of others and grow more powerful. Nothing can describe this expansionism better than the symbol X. MULTIPLY or die it was!
÷ Once wars were fought, they ended when there was a victor and a vanquished. The Victor ruled over the vanquished, and that was the most divisive social structure of high and low. That cannot be better symbolized than the symbol of DIVIDED BY ..
= Finally came the peace-makers, who went around saying everyone is equal and let there be peace. The EQUALS sign is very significant.... two equal lines, that never meet......



Thus has mankind moved through the signs.... Five signs that tell the story of man.

Happy Deepaavali!

Happy Deepaavali! May your life be full of light and delight!

The Sentosa Songs of the Sea, full of light, laser, fire, fountain, laughter and music made our Deepaavali!

(Photo by Sumana Sachi)