Gayatri Mantra in Valmiki Ramayana

Ravana - A Shiva devotee?

It is a misconception that Ravana was a model devotee of Shiva. The nature of Shiva as a God is that asuras and rakshasas pray to him for powers. And his nature is Shiva confers boons instantly in a somewhat innocent way. Then Vishnu has to come and control the damage.The famous story of Bhasmasura is that - Shiva allowed him to burn everything down and then Bhasmasura went after Shiva himself! So Vishnu came as Mohini and lulled the asura into burning himself!

Ravana went to Kailasa to take away Atmalinga from Kailasa to Lanka (which city he had usurped from Kubera). But when he went there he found Shiva meditating so not responsive. He thought he will lift Kailasa and take it away. He got stuck under it when Shiva simply pressed his left big toe down. Then Ravana saw Parvathi and was so besotted he wanted her to be his wife. Shiva agreed and sent her with him! When they halted at Vindhya parvatha, Parvathi rested and Ravana went for a walk. Then he saw Mandodari and went after her and forgot all about Parvathi who smiled and duly returned to Kailasa.

If Ravana was a devotee of Shiva, he would have asked Shiva for guidance before the war, before abducting Sita, after the death of his favourite son Indrajit. Shiva is known to be a devotee of Rama and he would never have liked anyone saying Ravana was his model devotee. 

The various stories of Ravana being a great devotee are spread by "scholars" who want a North - South divide. Ravana was a great scholar, an invincible demon whom only Rama could kill. No one else INCLUDING Shiva. But let us not attribute positive qualities to his devotion. Shiva is a symbol of sacrifice and austerity. No woman-abducting brother-killing and stealer of his own brother Kubera's city kingdom (conferred on Kubera by Brahma because of his trustworthiness as the treaturer of the world) can be called a devotee. 

You think Sita would not have softened to a Shiva devotee? Or Hanuman? They had only contempt for Ravana.

To put it simply: Shiva represents the Universe or God responding to human effort and knowledge - power and ambition driven. Vishnu is the balancing act of the Universe who defeats evil-minded power. It's a bit like the Universe has a plan even against man who has conquered atomic energy which has the power to destroy the world. 

That's is why you have Chernobyl and Fukushima. 

Now Corona virus, which is God's way to tell us that making bio-weapons is a zero-sum game.

For those interested in more information on the true narratives about Ravana, I have scanned from the Puranic Encyclopedia and posted the article on Ravana here:

http://bit.ly/3kuePsO

A Cup of Coffee

Over this lovely cup of coffee this morning, let me present Advaita as I understand it. 

Here I am, sitting and enjoying my coffee. What a delightful experience! 

Every experience requires an experiencer. This is what I call Atma. 

When I experience anything from a sip of coffee, to a beautiful garden view, or the sea breeze and the spectacle of the rising sun, I respond with my life. Atma and life experience are inseparable. 

So to describe this life experience as unreal makes no sense as long as I am around as the Atma! 

But surely the experience keeps changing. It is also multilayered. For example every sunrise on the beach is in its core experience a thing of beauty. It gives an intimation or bliss. These are components of the experience but subjective to the experiencer. In a way the Atma is projecting these subjective experiences we call life. 

However it is easy to see that not only are these moments changing, but my reactions to the experiences are changing. My mind and body respond differently over time. In fact, time,.mind, body, experience are all in a constant flux. That is Prakriti.

Prakriti has both what I like and I dislike. It is also evaporating with time. I react to it from my expectations, past memories, and circumstances. The same great coffee in my favorite eatery on the lovely beach will not taste the same when I realise I am about to miss my train. 

But I keep coming back again and again in search of these same experiences. And when I am not busy running to catch my train or finishing off my coffee, there are a few quiet moments when I am asking myself what I am in fact looking for, in all this activity, with all my plans and actions, and good and bad outcomes. I am reaching out to a sense fulfilment that lasts. And a bliss that is not fleeting. 

But wait. If you ask me, "Are you sure?", I react, "Yes  I know it in my gut". This is something I have as my intuition. In fact this intuition kicks in even before I start thinking about something. In fact I took intuitively to coffee when I was very young. It simply fitted into my Atma, you may say. 

The most blissful feeling I ever felt was when I felt loved. Or I loved someone. 

Now put it all together. My Atma. My intuition, feeling of love, beauty and bliss. And my experiences, which keep changing but all stemming out of my being there in the first place. This vast creation I interact with - for good and bad experiences, seeking something beyond it always, not knowing what.

The whole drama of life is played out around me and I am a part of it. I don't know who set it up in such an infinitely connected, dynamic, colourful, beautiful, blissful, way. I would like to meet Him or Her or It. I have an intuition that creative being is a larger, infinitely larger, version of me. A Paramatma!

Just as I, the Atma, cannot separate myself from my experience, the Paramatma cannot be separated from Creation and Life. It has a constant inside and an ever-changing outside. That's all. 

My IPL Winning Team!

This is the IPL madness season. Great matches played in the desert. With no spectator frenzy or celebrity dance. But cricket none the less! 

I have inside me an IPL team, did you know? It is THE WINNER ALWAYS! 

My opening batsman is my Free Will. 

Other players are

Ego

Anger

Lust

Greed

Attachment

Intuition

Beauty

Bliss

Love

My winning captain is 

The Radiant form of my Master's grace! 

We win every time. 

Because my captain takes care of my weak and troublesome players, gets the most of my top talent always, and we win every contest. 

🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆

The Key to Inner Peace

श्रेयो हि ज्ञानमभ्यासाज्ज्ञानाद्ध्यानं विशिष्यते ।

ध्यानात्कर्मफलत्यागस्त्यागाच्छान्तिरनन्तरम् ॥ १२-१२॥

In the Bhagavadgita, Sri Krishna tells Arjuna in the Bhakti Yoga chapter how one can attain to peace. All pursuit of peace begins with doing something about it. Those who look for a higher purpose in life take to ritual and spiritual practices. 

But ritual and practice is a double-edged sword. When I say I have done Vishnusahasranamaparayanam for 60 years, or have gone to Sabarimala 18 times, or done so many mandalas of Puja, or gone to Tirupati or Kailas 25 times, this is a boast. It is an expression of ego. How can this give peace? 

Sometimes we take up ritual because we hear that someone has done it and gained a lot. Mostly we hear they have resolved some domestic issues or family problems, got over financial problems or got relief from legal troubles or disease. The fact that ritual yields external benefits does not directly imply inner peace. It may lead to peace if there is an inner transformation. 

अभ्यास  or practice has to culminate in wisdom. The first step towards wisdom is the realisation that whatever we are trying to do through practice is a way of connecting to something beyond. If ritual and practice binds me to the other world and boosts my ego, no wisdom can come. 

The word ज्ञानम् means knowledge. Knowledge when processed into deep understanding is wisdom. One can be blessed with wisdom even without much knowledge of the external world. In fact knowledge normally boosts ego and causes debate, dispute, and damage. So ritual may lead to ego. But a humble seeking may lead to wisdom.

However, wisdom is also not peace. Wisdom shows where I am. I have yet to attain peace. 

When wisdom matures into a process of going inward through ध्यानम्, into my infinite inner resources, I begin to see what I have missed all my life. ध्यानम् or going inward is the exact opposite of ritual or अभ्यासः. The peace or bliss I seek by arranging my external circumstances is actually already embedded in my infinite inner reality. Every transient echo of peace or bliss outside, at a beautiful beach watching the gorgeous sea and sky, or gazing at the miracle of sunrise, or sitting by a brook in a verdant forest listening to nature's symphony, is all working in the same way. I am connecting with creation by dissolving myself in the moment. I have given up for the moment the engrossment in I-me-myself and my agenda.

The senses are feeding my mind with something beautiful. The mind feels peace and bliss. This momentary bliss is only a ripple in the infinite lake of bliss within me.

When that insight through going inward dawns, what's left?  According to Sri Krishna of Bhagavadgita, when insight dawns, I discover that I am a part of His dynamic drama of creation.  I decide to go about contentedly discharging my role. My activities acquire a new joy and a new beauty unlike anything before when I was striving and seeking for myself. Now I am only joyously serving Existence. This is called कर्मफलत्यागः. 

Once I make my work my worship of creation and its maker, peace dawns. In fact peace has been within always. It is the same as bliss. 

This peace is unlike the uneasy and temporary quality of truce that is brokered by armies between wars, or peace enforced by mutual scare as it happens in this outer world. 

To summarise, inner peace is a placid lake of bliss. Sometimes its ripples are sensed by us in the outer world when we let go. But it is a welcome world for a sensitive and sensible being who is turned inward and open to this inner world. Outer activities will go on peacefully! 

What is नादः (Naada)

I just saw a beautiful discussion on Naada on YouTube between Sri. Rajiv Malhotra and Vid. Vrinda Acharya:

https://youtu.be/QBiDqqXtR-c

I am inspired by their discussion and this shloka from सङ्गीतरत्नाकरः to write my thoughts. 

How do we distinguish Naada in music, particularly Carnatic music, from sound? 

Sound is any vibration caused materially and perceived within our hearing. Therefore musical Naada is also a kind of sound. But all sounds are not Naada. This is because the core of Naada is human consciousness. 

Consciousness in its highest sense is Brahman, the all-pervading creative intelligence. In all creation, it is most completely expressed in human consciousness. And man can strive to attain to the state of experiencing Brahman. The path is shown by rishis and acharyas like Adi Shankara. 

Brahman is also called Naadabrahman, and Omkara Naada, as explained by Dr. Vrinda. So in the Sanatana Dharma, the original source of everything is Naada. 

The instinct for all music comes from this Naadabrahman=consciousness and has an aestheic dimension without which making or experiencing music is impossible. 

Naada is to be first intuited and then expressed aesthetically. And then it has to be experienced aesthetically. If there is no experiencer there is no Naada. In other words all music is a subjective experience - both its creation and its enjoyment. I daresay it goes beyond sensory pleasure because it seems to have a unique effect unlike other sensory experiences. You don't listen to all that you hear if your consciousness is not tuned in. It's a bit like Bhagavan Krishna tells Arjuna that if he has to see Vishvarupa, he needs a special pair of eyes - the inner eye of an elevated consciousness. 

The Indian classical musical system gives us insight into developing a  profound dimension in music by structuring it on the principles of Raaga, Taala, and Bhaava. Whether it is one musician or an ensemble, they all begin by getting inside the infinite canvas of the cosmic Omkara Naada as created by the sonorously tuned Tambura. Once the musician experiences that Omkara within, as it is said in the shloka shown above, he harnesses the combination of Praana and Agni, the two dimensions of his life force, to express the musical idea. In all this, the first listener is the musician himself. Even when birds chirp and machines make harmonious sounds, they become music only when there is a human to experience them. 

What about iPod and You Tube music? Machines can mimic or store and reproduce music made by humans with varying degrees of efficiency. But the starting point of all those sounds is their creation through a subjective human experience. If and when machines can subjectively feel and create music autonomously, even then, the tag of music will be placed on their creation only by a human who can subjectively experience the aesthetics. 

In the Amazon Prime TV series, Mozart in the Jungle, a Japanese robot is shown as being constructed and programmed to conduct a famous orchestral piece. The protagonist, a great and original conductor, is so outraged by the idea that he dashes the robot into a rivulet and destroys it. He considers it the most repulsive piece of technology to outrage all musical sensibilities through a caricaturing of a sublime subjective aesthetic experience. That is the same experience we connect to Naada Brahman. 

No soul, no music. 

These same aspects will apply, to a lesser extent, to other fine arts and performing arts. Remember the centrality of the subjective human experience which we connect to Brahman or the Supreme Soul. 

ldli and You - the Mirror to your Soul

Shashi Tharoor has always a smart turn of phrase to go with his hair and flair. Without going into other aspects, I agree with him on his statement that a man's relationship with idli reveals a lot about his Samskara (cultural evolution).

I have decided, just after a lovely Idli, chutney, and pure coffee (black) breakfast, to categorise men by their Idli predilections. There are nine categories. 

1. "Idli, what's THAT!?" - A caveman abducted and dropped by an unfriendly UFO in East Mada Street Mylapore at breakfast time.

2. " Yes, now what did you call it? Idli, of course, isn't it that round white thing eaten by people who have no taste buds?" - a boring Englishman who thinks meat pie is the be-all and end-all of food. 

3. " Idli, yes, would love to try it, does it go with Ketchup?" - a much-to-be pitied NRI. 

4. " Lekin Yaar, I prefer my Sambhurr with Medu Vadda and not idli." - A Northie who proclaims that Tandoori Chicken defines Indian cuisine. 

5. "Bengaluru Idlis are great but they don't know a thing about Sambar, macha."  A Madrassi who thinks he invented Idli Sambar before God invented man. 

6. "Have you tried Idli with 5 chutneys at Madurai Idli shop? Heavenly! " A Singaporean. 

7. "Here is the winner from Hot Hot Tiruchirapalli, India. Idli with Mutton Kurma!" - Gordon Ramsay. 

8. " Rama Rama! Poor innocent Idli. Why do these vulgar people torture it by mashing it up in hot and spicy sambar?" Saint Thyagaraja.

9. " The pinnacle of Indian civilization, that holds a torch for all mankind in culture and refinement, is its invention, before the Mesopotamian era in history, of the delicacy called the Idli - since perfected over centuries in Kerala's royal kitchens by Malabar's master chefs who steamed it in the finest Ochlandra Travancorica woks. " Shashi Tharoor.

What do you now say about the Idli!? It's a mirror to your Soul! 

The Five Boys and Tapas or Austerity

 Ishwar-ji speaks often about the five boys that throng our mental home. These are 

Lust

Anger

Greed

Attachment

Ego.

If I look at it closely, Lust and Greed ( कामः लोभः) are mentioned clearly as eternal enemies of man in the Bhagavadgita. Similarly, anger and attachment (क्रोधः मोहः) are well known foes of man when it comes to equanimity. The last one, ego, is an inescapable one - the sense of I, me, and myself, which projects oneself as all-important in the scheme of things. Spiritually, of course, the Self or Atman is at the centre of creation, as  परमात्मा. But the limited self identified with body and mind is the problem because it is driven by false perception and false expectations. 

There is a beautiful shloka in the Bhagavadgita which shows what is the way to deal with these five enemies, lovingly called here by Ishwar-ji as the five boys. In fact Ishwar-ji says that when we reach Sachkhand, we go take a dip in the Manas-sarovar lake. The five boys come till there, take the dip with us, and when we rise again, they have disappeared forever!

The shloka in the Bhagavadgita describes what is tapas or austerity of the mind. 

मनःप्रसादः सौम्यत्वं मौनमात्मविनिग्रहः ।

भावसंशुद्धिरित्येतत् तपो मानसमुच्यते   ॥  १७.१६ ॥

A happy disposition (counters anger), kindliness (counters ego), reticence/silence (instils a meditative disposition), self-control (counters lust and greed), purity of heart (counters infatuation and attachment) - these are called the austerity of the mind in the path to realization of the Soul (परमात्मा). 

.

Vishnu Worship

Today my reading of the Vishnu Sahasranamam brought me to the word, कतिथः । I give the scan of Sri Adi Shankara's bhashya in Sanskrit (Kannada script) and its translation in English by Swami Tapasyananda of Ramakrishna Math.

I was born into a Melkote(+Tumkur) Vaishnava family, on Ananta Chaturdashi, in Bhargava gotra, and raised in front of a Narayana temple. No wonder I feel charged to think of Narayana=Vishnu and His avatars, leelas and prayers. 

Sri Shankara's commentary says how Vishnu is the goal in Vedas, in our scriptures like Ramayana and Mahabharata and is the muktipradaata.

हरिः ॐ तत् सत्

The Healer

From the Buddha garden.com:

The Medicine Buddha is depicted in paintings having blue skin, but whether shown in statue or painted form, the right hand is held facing downward with fingers extended toward the ground, palm facing outward toward the viewer, a bowl of herbs rests in the left hand upon the lap.

This cute little icon is a gift from Sundar and Jass. They brought it from Sikkim. 

Buddha the Medicine Man

I have only one illness - unawareness. 

Toil and strive

Grab and thrive

Only to lose it

Mind and body soon. 

The Buddha offers healing. 

Healing my greed, my needless want, 

My idea of incompleteness. 

For desire, the medicine is awareness. 

For sorrow, the medicine is 

disassociation.

For hate, the medicine is oneness. 

For fear, the medicine is now-ness. 

As Ishwar-ji says, 

Sit still. 

Go within. 

And discover my true spirit. 

हरिः ॐ  तत् सत्

जिज्ञासा + अभीप्सा + तितिक्षा

Earnest enquiry + Intense longing + great endurance 

This is from today's Vijayavani newspaper. The author is a Lingayat Swamini and she writes beautifully about the story of Panini (please read my earlier posts). 

The legend is that Panini was a dunce. His teacher once wanted to cane him for not learning his lesson. He asked the boy to extend his hand and as the teacher glanced at his palm he realised that Panini had no " Vidya Rekha" = line of learning. He felt pity for Panini and asked the boy to go home as he didn't have it in him or in his destiny to study scriptures. 

Panini was walking back home shedding copious tears, when he became very thirsty. He went near a well where some women were drawing water. On the well's stone rim, they were placing their pots in a spot where the stone had a cup-like depression. That caught his attention and he asked the women if the stone has been carved to create that spot for placing the pots. They said No, it had been formed by their constantly placing their pots in the same spot. 

This set Panini thinking. If even a stone would yield to constant effort, May be he could also get knowledge by intense practice! What if he didn't have the Vidya Rekha in his hand so far? He went home and marked his palm with a knife and made his own line of learning!

After some days Panini returned to the teacher. The teacher compassionately told him, "Child, as I mentioned to you, you don't have the Vidya Rekha." Panini said, "Sir, but please see now. I do have it!" The teacher was deeply moved to see that the boy had hurt his palm and etched the line with a knife!

The teacher touched the boy's head tenderly and said, "Child, for acquiring the learning ability, go pray to Lord Shiva. He will grant you the ability." 

Panini went and did long and deep penance to Shiva, praying for His grace. The Aashutosha Shiva, ever-compassionate, chose to bless him at the end of His Tandava dance. Shiva did not speak, but merely played the damaru (hand-drum) 14 times. Those sounds were the divine Maheshwara Sutras! Panini was enlightened. He deciphered the sounds of the Sutras and set upon constructing the entire magnificent edifice of Sanskrit grammar! 

The writer ends by saying that this story is the legend is in Nadikeshwara Kaarika. The world was thus blessed by Shiva through Panini's magnum opus Ashtadhyayi.

जयतु संस्कृतम्! 

Ode to Tea - टीस्तुतिः

Food = 4L +ABCDEF

I was thinking today about the best formula to eat right. Here is my idea. 

Eat Right = 4L +ABCDEF

4L

L = Eat what you like

L = Eat what is local

L = Eat less than you would like to.

L = Leverage food for your life needs. 

Leverage depends on your life needs. 

A = Age

B = Body type (metabolism) 

C = Calorie Plan 

D = Dietary restrictions (diabetes, BP)

E = Exercise 

F = Fatness (BMI) 

So when you Leverage your food, you optimise your intake based on ABCDEF. 

I came to know the hard way that a diet of great south Indian vegetarian food, combined with the usual intake of dairy (curd, ghee, butter, milk with coffee, ice cream etc.) and frequent eating out on Punjabi dishes rich in dairy, drove my weight way beyond what my body would take. 

I am now on the mend, fully vegan, and very careful about diet. 

It is way too easy to lose one's health and VERY difficult to recover it. 

The Birth of Human Speech

I am learning the basics of Paninian Sanskrit grammar from Dr. Sowmya Krishnapur of Vyoma Labs. It is amazing how Panini in 6th c. BCE gave us the complete structure of the world's most complete and refined and developed language. He organised it in basic blocks much like Newton gave us calculus and physics. However, Panini is in my opinion even greater than Newton, because his work is more comprehensive and captures not anything in abstraction but puts a superstructure around human speech which already existed before Panini. The Ramayana and Mahabharata predated Panini by several centuries.

I am now coming to this wonderful shloka that describes the way human speech comes into being. I want to give a versified translation just to share my excitement:

Meaning rises on  the wings of spirit and thought. 

This the mind wants to express, wrought 

By fire in his body made in God's image;

Thus doth he with elemental air engage. 

The same air that vitalises man's core

Emerges carrying the thought in store. 

The sound rises like a rumbling cloud to strike

The cerebrum. Thus rain words from his mouth, pearl-like! 

Hail the goddess of speech in this grand parade, 

For man's faculty of speech is but God-made! 

Postscript:

योऽन्तः प्रविश्य मम वाचमिमां प्रसुप्ताम्

सञ्जीवयत्यखिलशक्तिधरः स्वधाम्ना...