Remembering Gandhi

On 2nd October 2013, we celebrate Mahatma Gandhi's 144th birthday.

After a 38 year-long working life in international techno - marketing, after some excellent college years in IIT and IIM, after working for over 34 years with global technology leaders and multinationals, I am now firmly grounded as a Gandhi admirer. It is also true that I subscribe to his religious beliefs in the Gita and prayer.

Now I am able to see- if you know what I mean- what we have done, and what we have seen as a result of this great progress, and it shows beyond doubt that Gandhi was right on so many points. Let me list only a few.

1. When I see Fiji mineral water in convenience stores in Chicago, I realise we don't understand how we can manage to purify and drink water locally, and we ship bottles of water in non-recyclable plastic round the world.
2. The way we live, we burn LOTS of fossil fuel. Just so we go, sit in front of computers, and make phone calls around the world to fix a telephone bill error or a credit card payment statement. One little example of globalisation.
3. We make deadly arms.  We give them through illicit trade to dubious leaders,  who in turn poison and kill their own people.  And then we take bombers and flatten the cities of these bad people, of course killing lots more people. All in the name of peace.
4. We tell our children it is more important to come first in class tests and not important to look around with wonder at what we call our world. That it is more important to prepare keenly and destroy our competitors (=enemy)  than to find a way to live life better as fellow citizens. That it is more important to dream and realise your own future than to think of others and how you can make them happy.
5. We want cheaper and cheaper goods. Like pencils from China and polyester sarees from Taiwan. Really sorry our neighbourhood small-time industrialists and weavers committed suicide.
6. We want to live on the 24th floor, in a futuristic urban township. It is our own flat bought at a crore rupees (25 year loan at 12%). Oh,  our small home in our old town,  we sold and it was pulled down for scrap. They cut down all the coconut and mango trees for development.
7. We are truly religious. We worship Devi during Navaratri,  and Skype-call our dear ones doing garbha dance in Shiva temple, Toronto. They migrated there long back as it offered much better life than this backward country called India. They are global citizens.
8. I just read that young Indian metro professionals of both sexes have alarmingly high  cardiac, hormonal, and orthopaedic disorders because of their changed life-style. They are all our nation's pride- IT and techie professionals. They went to engineering and other advanced courses paying hefty fees, to get good jobs in big name companies. Our country is proud to have such  high quality professionals. About their health and social problems,  we will surely do something. Chains of corporate hospitals with FDI are coming up at a location nearby.

Why I eat with my hand

Read this link:

http://www.rasikas.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=21996

My post there :

Guys
Here is my simple common 21st century sense of why we eat with our hand/s.
1. Eating with my hands makes me more sensitive to food.
2. I wash my hand before eating and so am more mentally prepared to eat.
3. The human hand has an incredible range of manipulation and movement so cannot be matched by any cutlery.
4. I can eat solid, semisolid and liquid food with my hand.
5. I save on material wastage.
6. What I feel with my hand assures me I won't eat poorly cooked or dangerous food.
7. The size of a cupped hand approximates the capacity of my mouth.
8. I won't eat too hot or too cold food.
9. Washing and cleaning, making and buying cutlery wastes precious resources.
10. If I eat with my hands I will better remember the meal I ate and what foods I like and I don't.
11. Half the joy of a banana leaf meal is eating with the hand!

No fool like an old fool

 (Photo from: http://allhomosapienswelcome.wordpress.com/category/archaeology/)

Hearing the word 'retired?' a dozen times in the past few days has set me thinking.

But of course there is something even worse than that... 'Haven't yet retired? Why not?'

As they say, there is no fool like an old fool. The biggest resistance man can ever put up is that resistance to reality. The reality of your growing older but not wiser!

Being around but not being wanted. Being ready to be heard but others want one better not heard.

You know what is the worst tyranny?

"Look we need you to do some things for us, but you're not that wanted otherwise."

Bhaagyaadaa Lakshmi Baarammaa- an interpretation

                                              (Melukote Yadugiri Nacchiyaar or Lakshmi)

This Purandara Dasa song is nearly as famous as JagadOddhArana. Sung usually in Madhyamavati, this creates an auspicious atmosphere right away at home or in temples. it is a must-sing item in any South Indian wedding. It is included in any Dasa composition concert or any Carnatic concert held on Fridays, auspicious for Lakshmi. 

Here is a link to the MSS version. I give below the correct lyric as I understand it.

bhAgyAdA lakShmI bArammA nammammA nI sau
bhAgyAdA lakShmI bArammA

hejjaya mele hhejjeyanikkuta gejje kAlgaLa dhvaniya madutha
sajjana sAdhu pUjeya vELege majjigeyoLagina beNNeyante
(bhAgyAdA)

kanaka vrStiya kareyuta bAre manakE manadA siddhiya tOrE
dinakara kOTi tEjadi hoLeyuva janakarAyana kumAri begA
(bhAgyAdA)

attittalagalade bhaktara maneyali nitya mahOtsava nitya sumangaLa
satyava tOruta sAdhu sajjanara cittadi hoLeyuvA putthaLi gombe
(bhAgyAdA)

sankhye illAda bhAgyava koTTu kankaNa kaiya tiruvuta bAre
kunkumAnkite pankaja lOcane venkaTaramaNana binkada rANI
(bhAgyAdA)

sakkare tuppada kAluve harisi shukravArada pUjeya vELage
akkareyuLLa aLagiri rangana cokka purandara viThalana rANI
(bhAgyAdA)

The literal translation would be that this song is welcoming the gracious goddess of wealth and prosperity to come and reside in our home, showering us with gold, gifts and plenty. Lakshmi is also praised in the song as the consort of Rama (=Janaka's daughter Sita) and the consort of Vishnu.

Whilst our desiring and praying for plenty is a common enough theme for lots of Hindu prayers, I have often thought about what this song could mean to someone not craving for materal well-being. Does one still pray to Lakshmi then!? Like many other songs of Purandara Dasa, I believe this song also has two levels of meaning -the material and the spiritual. People who don't want to be bothered with the esoteric would be quite happy to pray for gold and goodies. But shall we look a little deeper here!?

In school, I was taught a shloka in the Sanskrit class. It went as "udyOginam purushasimham upaiti Lakshmi.." The idea was that when someone strove hard with focus and efficiency, Lakshmi or prosperity would smile on him. In fact the shloka admonishes one not to simply depend on Fate but to strive hard. Even if one fails then one wouldn't wonder if it was for want of trying. So the two necessary conditions for success are effort(preparedness) and grace(opportunity).

So opportunity knocks for the brave. And one can get immeasurably rich in worldly terms, as so many success stories illustrate. Everyone knows that being at the right time in the right place is important, and a good amount of luck seems to work in some people's favour. But unless one strives with focus and efficiency, one will also surely lose any such lucky windfall, again as so many real life stories tell us.

But is prosperity all of the material kind only? I am very much in agreement with Osho when he says that there is inner wealth and outer wealth. He says some are rich externally, but poor within. And vice versa. What he means is that if one cannot see the ultimate futility of material wealth in fulfilling the abiding goals of human existence, and pursues material wealth as the only goal all his life, one is poor within. So one stops running after external wealth when one aquires inner wealth. However, Osho agrees with Abraham Maslow that unless one finds material peace and prosperity, it is extremely unlikely or difficult to start working on inner richness. There are exceptional people like Kabir and Nachiketa who did not crave for material wealth despite their humble station in life. They had the rare insight to see that inner wealth and well-being were what really mattered and worked for it, not caring to better themselves in external terms. Such examples are the exceptions that prove the rule that inner poverty will go only after outer well-being. The more common model for an aspirant on the spiritual path is Buddha, born a rich prince only to see its futility and embrace the begging bowl and become a mendicant. So also the Hindu way of life which extols Dharma and Artha before Moksha.

Now let me give you the alternate, higher meaning of this prayer, in my own mind:

bhAgyAdA lakShmI bArammA nammammA nI sau
bhAgyAdA lakShmI bArammA

Oh mother of mine, goddess of prosperity, please enlighten me on the true meaning of prosperity! (Remember another word for prosperity is Aishwarya or the attribute of Ishwara=God! So unless one moves godward, there is no true prosperity).

--------

hejjaya mele hhejjeyanikkuta gejje kAlgaLa dhvaniya madutha
sajjana sAdhu pUjeya vELege majjigeyoLagina beNNeyante
(bhAgyAdA)

My godward path is made up of small steps, slow and steady. And the truth of the all-pervasive godhood will dawn on me much like the butter inherent in curd manifests itself when churned. That churning is the form of true seeking, true prayer, and may I be granted the inclination to true prayer. 

---------

kanaka vrStiya kareyuta bAre manakE manadA siddhiya tOrE
dinakara kOTi tEjadi hoLeyuva janakarAyana kumAri begA
(bhAgyAdA)

Oh mother mine, please show my mind its true potential, the potential to rise above the mundane and reach its fulfillment. 

---------

attittalagalade bhaktara maneyali nitya mahOtsava nitya sumangaLa
satyava tOruta sAdhu sajjanara cittadi hoLeyuvA putthaLi gombe
(bhAgyAdA)

Oh mother, once firmly established, my inner wealth will be so resplendent that I shall not swerve from the right path to godhood.

---------

sankhye illAda bhAgyava koTTu kankaNa kaiya tiruvuta bAre
kunkumAnkite pankaja lOcane venkaTaramaNana binkada rANI
(bhAgyAdA)

All materal wealth is subject to counting, and that means it can grow as well as diminish. The true wealth is inner wealth, beyond measurement, beyond increase or decrease. It is self-complete and total.

---------

sakkare tuppada kAluve harisi shukravArada pUjeya vELage
akkareyuLLa aLagiri rangana cokka purandara viThalana rANI
(bhAgyAdA)

This godly nature is more sweet than any eatable, it is more lovable than any person. it is more beautiful than anything else. God is the true essence of all beauty, all prosperity, all love. That is your ultimate grace, oh mother! Please grant me that grace, please come home to my inner being.

----------

Three Highlighters

Have you read the two interesting books of Edward de Bono : Six Thinking Hats, and Six Action Shoes?
They neatly categorise situations and thought processes and action modes, which in turn help you to deal with your responses to situations better.

I have thought of my own threesome : Three Highlighters.

Have you noticed that the major issue in human communication is the issue of mistaking the words to be facts when they are actually opinions, and rumours to be facts or opinions? And how information, which should be largely facts, is obfuscated? Take this gossipy news item:

But when will Ranbir REALLY open up about Kat? RK keeps his cards close to his chest!Our 'Besharam' lover boy Ranbir Kapoor is a man of virtue, at least his recent actions with regards to his lady love indicate that he is. Ranbir has allegedly spilled the beans on his chemistry with Katrina Kaif and their pictures with her in a bikini while holidaying in Ibiza. He doesn’t deny seeing Kat, but has kept mum about their marriage prospects. However, he recently mentioned that he wants his children to play football. Does this mean family is on Ranbir Kapoor's mind?
However, it is possible that Daddy Rishi Kapoor will interfere in Ranbir's decision to get married. He has said, “My son can date anyone till he gets married!” It looks like RK is caught in a tug-of-war between his parents and his lady love.
Rumour has it that mommy Neetu Kapoor allegedly frowns upon her son’s relationship. An insider alleges she is suspicious of Kat’s somewhat questionable past in London and her initial struggling days in the industry. Will this relationship survive the scrutiny? Only time will tell.

Now this whole thing seems to be a factual scoop and makes exciting reading for people stuck in beauty parlours or dentist offices.

But if I were to highlight these words with pink for rumour, yellow for fact and green for the writer's opinion, here is how it will read:

Our 'Besharam' lover boy Ranbir Kapoor is a man of virtue, at least his recent actions with regards to his lady love indicate that he is. Ranbir has allegedly spilled the beans on his chemistry with Katrina Kaif and their pictures with her in a bikini while holidaying in Ibiza. He doesn’t deny seeing Kat, but has kept mum about their marriage prospects. However, he recently mentioned that he wants his children to play football. Does this mean family is on Ranbir Kapoor's mind?

However, it is possible that Daddy Rishi Kapoor will interfere in Ranbir's decision to get married. He has said, “My son can date anyone till he gets married!” It looks like RK is caught in a tug-of-war between his parents and his lady love. 

Rumour has it that mommy Neetu Kapoor allegedly frowns upon her son’s relationship. An insider alleges she is suspicious of Kat’s somewhat questionable past in London and her initial struggling days in the industry. Will this relationship survive the scrutiny? Only time will tell.

So whenever you read, or listen, use Three highlighters. That will help you to separate rumour, fact and opinion neatly!

Kashi - the Illustrious City

I simply share three screenshots, the first the cover of a fascinating book (2009, Cambridge Scholars Publishing). The second, its dedication, and the third, the lithograph done of the Kashi Kulpuldhara Talao ghat in by the incomparable James Prinsep done in 1834).

( You can download this from Wikipedia in original resolution 3487 x 2364 pixels)

Puranas: connecting the dots

Have you thought about why the Puranas are full of such a fascinating array of stories of gods, demons, men and life all around us? How the Puranas narrate all kinds of incredible happenings in a tsunami of emotions, ambitions, deeds of daring, conquests and dashed hopes? How rishis turn errant men and women into stones, ashes and worse? How a Bhagiratha struggles for eons to bring the divine river Ganga to earth? How heroes and heroines are born in strange circumstances to fulfill esoteric destinies!?

There is this expression - connecting the dots. As Steve Jobs says, one can develop a sense of fulfillment by connecting life's dots. Quoting his speech at Stanford:

"Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life."

So Puranas help us to connect the dots. We encounter similar people and personality types in our everyday life, and we can imagine how these very people resemble the Puranic characters. But the Puranic narrative helps us to understand how these people will interact with one another and eventually with life at large. That gives us a unique sense of life and our own destiny.

Take the example of Ramayana. There is Rama, the powerful and rule-bound prince. There is Ravana, the powerful, rule-less and ruthless demon. Their story is made even more interesting by the sweet and helpless Sita, the scheming third wife Kaikeyi. The self-abnegating Bharata, the extraordinary Hanuman. The reckless Shurpanakha, the totally ineffectual Dasharatha. We may talk of curses. We may talk of twists of fate. We may talk of strokes of good luck and bad luck. But eventually the narrative simply connects the dots of possibilities and potentials with actualities, how life pans out. If we have the imagination, we will not take the story literally, but understand how it connects the dots!

If Puranas are so powerful, then we are lucky we had good story tellers in those rishis who narrated them. Imagine if they were like the TV Soap storytellers of today. These storywriters commit unpardonably bad acts of omission, commission, concocting coincidences and crazy occurrences, simply to prolong their employment contracts and the serials tenure= number of episodes. 

There are some extremely ugly serials wherein a bad man becomes good, gets murdered, and another  bad man as an imposter takes his place. They both look the same, act the same, but one is the duplicate. And hapless heroines get married to the wrong men all the time, thanks to the schemes of absolutely wicked other women.

Someone was seeing a popular serial. Seeing that a lovely young character simply missed the chance of telling others an essential piece of fact by a whole week, thereby prolonging everyone's misery, they screamed, "oh why doesn't Anandi tell it out just now... Why do it a whole week too late..!!!!" I said, "because the story writer was waiting for his bonus."

When man nurtures nature

India's defective gene: attitude to women

First things first. I don't think this is just India's problem. Other cultures, definitely as I have found in literature from the Far East, the major Semitic religions, and Hollywood movies, have depicted in various ways similar issues. But I shall confine myself to India because that's my intent here.

I strongly feel Indian culture and civilization has been unable to develop a viable attitude to man-woman  relationships or the role of woman in society. One can argue that the problem exists because of wrong attitudes to man's role. But I feel the issues are much more easy to enumerate about women. Hence this post. 

Perhaps we can look at a woman's life in three phases. That of the girl. That of the woman. And finally of the mother.

Girl-Woman

From ancient legends even to the TV soaps of today, it seems a girl grows up to marry and raise a family. She is VERY clearly cut out in India to grow up to be beautiful, well-mannered, artistic, cheerful and finally marry into a worthy family and bring them good luck. 

There are stories in Ramayana and Mahabharata where young girls were hot-tempered, intelligent and adventurous. They did not have happy marriages. They had a lot of adventure, but lots of trouble. Take Kunti. As a youngster, she served a sage well and he gave her five boons, to call up Gods to come and give her children.She called Surya, Dharma, Vayu, Indra, and Ashwani twins, and got six children. Her marriage to the human Pandu was ill-fated. The rest is the story of Mahabharata, where her sons had to fight a terrible war to claim their rights.

There is also the story of Draupadi, who was born from fire. She had a swayamvara, her hand was won by Arjuna. But she had to marry and live with five brothers. As if this was not enough, she had to suffer miseries all her life.

I show here a wonderful Raslila Phad painting on cloth. Yes, Radha and gopis were divine lovers of God Krishna. That is the eternal dream of every woman. But it immediately throws us back to this topic of a defective Indian gene, since I feel such a poetic conception could emerge only from our defective genes! Mira, Andal, Akkamahadevi all fit the same mould.

Stories of Sita, Shakuntala, Damayanti, Subhadra, all show that one great way for a woman to progress in life is to marry a man whom you love, but surely that is not a recipe for happy marriage or great motherhood. Because all of them had huge troubles in their lives. 

Sita is a wonderful case in point. Her husband was the epitome of righteousness. His brother was also a hero showing great devotion to her. She went to the forest, and when her husband went missing, she couldn't bring herself to trust her brother in law. She thought he was secretly lusting for her! She paid the price, being abducted by a lecherous demon. Her husband went and killed him, but refused to accept her back as his wife unless she went through a trial by fire. Afterwards, he found it inconvenient to have her as the queen since she was not a role model for the home-bound woman. And so on. What a story!!!!!

One can argue that legends highlight exceptional stories to make a point, and the average girl may actually have a great life although she is not interesting enough to be the protagonist in legends. Maybe. I can't argue. But despite some great exceptional stories of Gargi, Maitreyi etc, venerable scholarly Vedic women, I do see a clear pattern that a woman's principal role from girlhood has been depicted in India as one of a home-maker.

There is nothing wrong with that. Even in nature, the female of the tribe raises the family and holds them together. How will the species perpetuate otherwise? But by doing this, the female is clearly defined as for a special role in society. 

The problem turns out when you go out and educate girls to become doctors, lawyers, CEO's, journalists, social activists, and career women. How will you now reconcile the changed social circumstances they face with the code, I call it genetic code, that expects them to be only home-makers?

Mother

Inconvenient stories even here. Kunti has to go to elaborate lengths to secure from Karna boons to save her 'legal' children. One can argue that she was punishing Karna's wrong choice of company, but in the first place if she had not abandoned him, he would not have been in such circumstances!

Take Dasharatha's three wives. One is a helpless onlooker when her son is wrongfully sent to the forest. The second is even more helpless since her son follows his elder brother. The third is a young, beautiful woman who uses her hold on her husband to secure boons to help her own son by wronging the eldest, rightful heir to the throne. A case of great calamity due to a mother's miscalculation follows.

What about Krishna's mother Devaki? She was imprisoned just after marriage as her demonic brother heard an oracle that his end would come from her eighth son. Things came about exactly that way, but she lost her first seven new borns to the sword and her eighth son did all his delightful childhood pranks in someone else's home, while she rotted in prison. 

A mother is to suffer. However silently. For her son. (No significant stories of daughter).

Now how about how about the Goddess, the ultimate role for a woman?

Goddess

Lakshmi was born during the churning of the ocean by gods and demons. She was extraordinarily beautiful, ready for marriage. She was immediately asked to select a husband. She chose Vishnu, and lived happily ever afterwards. Can't be a role model for anyone really.

Parvathi has been incarnated just to do penance and win Shiva as her husband. Lots of difficulties come in the way, including Shiva burning down Cupid for hinting at reciprocating her love. But after they are happily married, there are many stories of how she did wonderful things, at the instance of her husband. But one story stands out. Ravana comes to Kailas, and instead of asking for Jyotirlinga as a boon from Shiva, lusts after and covets Parvathi. He wants her to marry him. Some hilarious twists happen, until finally Parvathi is safely back with Shiva. 

Durga, created by the gods to fight the terrible demons, is all fire and brimstone. The Goddess Durga once (here I quote...) takes form as Ambika, the beautiful Divine Energy. Lured by Her celestial beauty, demons Shumbha and Nishumbha,send a marriage proposal to Her, to which She replies, "Only a man who can defeat Me in war will be accepted by Me as My Husband." There indeed is a terrible war but she kills the demons. This story is enacted in every Durga Puja every year as the Goddess is the eternal saviour. This story clearly identifies the flip flop we have between woman and goddess. A good case of the defective gene. So the conception of the Goddess is merely a therapy for India's defective gene!!!!

But coming to the defective gene, if you read Laitha Sahasranama, the first several verses fully describe the physical beauty of the goddess. The poet is doing the same job as Ravana did when he met Sita alone in the forest (read Valmiki Ramayana).  But soon afterwards, this poet shifts gear and says she is so great that Vishnu or Narayana took the ten avataras by emerging from her finger nails.  To my impartial reading, the author is simply displaying the Indian defective gene. I mention also Saundarya Lahari as another example.

We flip flop by deifying women to displaying the defective gene. No wonder from saints to bus drivers and police constables, we commit so many atrocities against women. How we  treat aged women, poor and abandoned, is another story.