Practising and Being

Warning: This article is spiritual (as I understand)

I still remember the news that I heard sometime back where a temple priest was involved in sexual activities inside the temple itself!! MMS released, that created a stir, near the place kanchipuram.

I still see many Orthodox (so called) people, stubborn in their way of life, get skipped off in silly matters like passion, anger, etc. One of the butchery shop owner told me - " Nee yenna sami!! Andha kovil iyeru en kadaila dhaan vaangittu poraaru"..

As a Prabandham goes, the Lord Brahma who is very near to Maha Vishnu, himself has never seen Vishnu's divine feet. I could recollect my own circle of people, my elderly friends, relatives, old-age people, who seem to be excellent when it comes to practising religion, but get let down when it comes to common life. If that be so, is religion / spirituality is something that is off the normal way of life? Is practising religion / spirituality required or not? Especially when it does not have any impact on one's thought process in his routine life style....

I came across an interesting lecture which gave some good answers to me for this question. Below is the extract of it -

Knowledge, Discipline and Devotion are the path to salvation [Gnana, Vairaakyam, Bakthi]. This can be done as a practice [anushtaanam] or it can be your own character [swaroopam]. The later is superior [being it as a swaroopam].

As an example, if a person wants to quit smoking and he tries controlling himself, it takes a longer time to achieve success. Sometimes he might even fail. But however a non smoker doesn't feels difficult to stay without smoking. Both the people are trying to stay without smoking .But the latter feels easy to stay (instinctly) where the former tries his 100% always to keep himself calm.

I understand that Bakthi, as a state of mind should not be practised; rather it should be a part of one's personality. As a mother loves her child (and not practises to love everytime), so the bakthi should be, which should come instinctly from within.

What if it does not comes from within? I do not feel like loving the God.. So what can I do... simply nothing... But probably one answer which i can feel now is - better look into those people who are roaming around with bakthi... I would feel better then.

I have a client who always is punctual. Within 2 or 3 encounters with him, I started being punctual. My efforts for being punctual is very minimal. Just that the simple change that i had from within made me stay punctual (atleast with that client). Where I had lot of excuses with other people on my time management, with this guy i am the most disciplined person (with little or even no efforts).

Once this bakthi (divine love) creeps in the mind, then automatically we withdraw ourselves from all the other external pleasures (with no efforts). This is what is real vairaagyam. Then gnana is automatic.

Good day

How to say Eunuch.....in Tamil???

Language.... something which is very vital for our livelihood.... something that we use to communicate our thoughts.... (which we even use to hide our thoughts)

For me even silence is a language... which conveys many meanings.....

Some time back, I came across an interesting article about the development and origin of languages... an information about the language Tamil...

Tamil, as a lingo has got
(a) vowels -ex., a, aa, e, ee, vu, vuuu, yae, yaaeee, ai, oh, oooh , ow - (referred as 12 Uyir Letters) and
(b) consonants - ex., ik, ing, ich, iny, it, in, ith, inn, ip, im, etc (referred as 18 Mei Letters)...

these vowels and consonants form the basic letters of the language (called as UyirMei)

Stop Not!  there is a peculiar letter called as "akkkk" (that is "aaidha" letter). what is so peculiar about this "akkk"... the letter is denoted by the symbol three dots forming a triangle.... you invert the triangle, it is again a triangle... anyway it resembles one and the same... that which is out of any change...

In ancient literatures, uyir letters are called as "Male letters" and Mei letters are called as "Feminine" letters.

And the male letters are classified into two:
1. Soft Men - Kuril - a, e, vu, yae, oh (short vowels)
2. Hard Men - Nedil -aa, ee, vuu, yaaee, oooh, etc (long vowels)

Feminine letters are classified into three:
1. Vallinam - Hard Natured - ka, sa, da, tha, pa, rra (so hard to pronounce)
2. Mellinam - Soft Natured - nga, nya, na, nna, ma, naa (using nostrils to pronounce - not so rigid)
3. Idayinam - Mediocre Natured - ya, ra, la, va, zha, lla (mediocre difficulty in pronounciation)

Lets learn a little bit of Tamil grammar here:
Principle 1: when this letter "akkk" has to be used in formation of words?
Answer: When a kuril is joined with the vallinam then this "akkk" has to be introduced in-between.

ex., "a" is a kuril.... "thu" (any form of tha) is a vallinam.. when we join it we get "athu" or bingo!!! "akthu..."

Genetic Formula:
A lesson that is derived from nature here is that... when a Hard Natured woman mates with a Soft Men, then in between what you get is an Eunuch.!!!!????

If we apply this theorem and categorize men and women and try to find out whether this formula really works in practical scenarios, there seems to be a positive reply. There is a research report on that (the article that I read claimed that! but not sure of the report)

Really I wonder how people imbibed genetic theory into the Grammatical Rules of the language.... Still more research can be done of these lines, decoding the language from a genetic perspective...

Have you every worshipped xxx... welcome to my group (Adults only)

Now its approx 11.30 p.m. and I am writing this blog. I am not exactly in a sexually inclined mood now (though my topic title would resemble so).

Neither am I going to write something on Vatsyayana's works (in btw, eventhough I havent read the entire text, the first part 5 chapters are drafted well.. which talks about the generic nature of human and the purpose of life in a very simple way.. according to me, its a gateway to the past)

For a long time, what I am discussing here is guarded as an evident secret.. I mean that which is evident, but still not talked of. That which everyone sees everywhere, which forms part of life but was not spoken of. Definitely I am not talking about sex here.

Indian way of worshipping is, so far, subject to higher level of criticisms in terms of blind believes, etc. Modern thinkers feel that worshipping should be more logical (involves mental part and not too much of emotional parts). But name any temple in India, you will find only the emotional part standing up first; a story attached to that temple (say, an epic related one); some guy was in trouble for sometime and the Deity came up for the rescue. Hence the temple.

Different Gods, different names, different postures, different purpose and they are all for different devotees.. But then there was one form of God which is a tremendous perception of ancient Indians.. that of Lord Shiva.. Now I am not speaking about the one with four hands, riding on an Ox and slays the demons.

I am talking about the simple form of Linga (an Inverted "U" with a base), which has been a topic of meditation from time immemorial in India.

This Lingam has two parts - one is an inverted U (cylindrical formation) and a base (most commonly referred to as Aavudai). The prayers on Lingam has been found in both Yajur Veda (Upanishads) and also in Atharvana Veda. This is the form that is a representation of Lord Shiva, is said to be fit for meditation practice.

On a careful look, it appears to me (rather its an accepted proposition) that this inverted U would resemble the male genital and the base (Aavudai) would represent the femal organ - the combo of these two signifying creation.

I cannot just imagine a set of people who dare to think on a sexual process as a form of God and start building temples on that - as I said, something which is made public but not spoken of. I could say that this is the most abstract form of worship.. to mean that I pray the act of creation. We dont talk sex here but we talk pure logic.

Further an irony is that in sanskrit the term "Linga" could mean a mark or a cylinder or a male sex organ. I could say that there is every possibility that this shape of God could only mean a Union, nothing else. That can be male and female; or can be perceived as space and time; or whatever.

But the fact remains that we people are too good in visualising and abstractions.

Let see further.

All about kasmaalam

daye "kasmaalam".. said a rickshaw-man in Triplicane addressing a fellow guy

but what exactly "kasmaalam" means.. roughly i could recap what my paatti said when i have stomach ache.. "jeernam kashmala dhooshitham"... could that mean waste, scraps? bingo..well, it could mean that.

so a rickshawman speaking sanskrit as his slang? wow!! so what.. when a robber could write an epic (i mean wall-mickey here).. whats so aweful in rickshawman speaking sanskrit?

sanskrit has always been my subject of awe from childhood. Panini, who wrote first grammar book on Sanskrit (Vyakarana-sutra) says that Lord Shiva when struck his udukkai for 14 times came the first 14 syllables of this Language. I was told by one ayurvedic doctor that these syllables are now being used in Osmania university for treating hearing impaired, as these resemble originating syllables.

Neural pathway... that which connects different neurons in our body.. which transmits brain signals to various nervous systems and vice versa. Like my hand says "its heat", the msg carried over to the brain and the brain says "remove your hand".

from our childhood, we keep on sending and receiving signals thru this pathway and at some point of time this pathways dominate our emotions.. !!

what i mean here is, if i were to be arrogant throughout my childhood, even if i want to be soft, the pathways are not used to send these signals, which it feels abnormal. instantly those kind of softer emotions stop at the brain's end without being reacted or expressed.

probably our rishis are of the view that the neural pathway can be opened up by mantras.. making the emotional flows more flexible.

I believe this is the only language wherein you have a meaning for an alphabet (or a syllable to be more specific)... "ring" means to destroy, "vu" means "only for" and it goes on.

the pranavam and the gayathri mantra are the best examples of mantras having significant impact on brain's impulses and increasing seratonin (by the by let me introduce you to a liquid that is secreted in the brain which will reduce the stress levels - mr. seratonin)

But vedic tradition says - Mananat thrayathe ithi - Mantraha (that which saves (thrayate) by constant recollection (mananat)).. it gives best results only when thought (not said)...

but today i feel that most of the mantras have been publicized or rather made in mp4 forms.. as ringtones, calling bells, four wheeler reverse tones, etc.. ooof!! crazy people

on the contrary we have sthothras.. which can be recited. but we have that in pdf.. full stop... almost many of the sthothras are becoming extinct nowadays.

more research on language to make.. lets see

The Cultural Exchange

When I was in my Class 5, if I remember right, I learnt in my history that the Aryans were the native Middle East or Farther East ppl. They took over India. Native Indians at that time were Dravidians. The Aryans drove the Dravidians to the southern part of the Nation and they occupied the Northern Part. Full stop the story.

I was really interested in this story and thought I could learn it more... Thats the time I was introduced to Max Muller (whom I would call as Mooksha Moolachariar) and his book on "the Sacred Book of the East", where he clearly states that Aryans had the book - the Rig veda, Indra refers to the God of Destruction, whom they worshipped and they drove away the Dravidians who were living in the Northern part of India.

Good one.

But one more controversial book that I read written by Swami Vivekananda wherein he says that the Mooksha Moolachariar is neither a Historian nor an Indian. How come his theory be accepted and being taught in schools.. His theory is basically intented to divide and rule India and take away the prestige of Vedas and other Scriptures out of India, by dis-associating it from the Home Land.

Following are the facts to support this:
(a) The word "Aryan" is a term coined by Mooksha Moolar and not in Vedas. There was no race called as an aryan race as proposed in vedas. Only once in Ramayana the term has been used to denote Rama (as the word arya means one who is high born or disciplined)

(b) The Aryans called the river Saraswathi (now extinct) and Ganga as the Holiest rivers. Had they been originally from middle-east or still farther, why would their scriptures refer to a place in India as being holy.

(c) Remember Mohenjo-daro and Harappa..The earliest civilisations in India.. Indus valley civilisations. Mooksha Moolar says that it belongs to India and has been devastated by the invaded Aryans. If so, how come that the city is originally constructed according to vedic principles. If Aryans brought in Vedas to India and Harappa was there at that time, then its clearly a contradiction to say that the existing Indus valley civilisation confirms with Vedic Principles.

and on and on.. Swami Vivekananda concludes that the Vedic tradition has its roots in India.

Still I want to know further on this and am reading.

Recently I came across a great cultural exchange.. around 1200 BC a battle being fought in the city of Kadesh (in Syria) between two Egyptian kings. The battle ended with a peace treaty and that treaty has been documented in a stone tablet... in that stone it is inscribed that 100 male and female gods of Iran are the witness to the treaty along with Yama, Varuna and Aswins.

I was stumped to hear that translation as it makes me very clear that there has been a cultural exchange (could be from there to here or from here to there).

Cannot conclude anything now on this.. but i am continuing my pursuit of seeking.

A Kick Start

Indian... Hindu... Punjabi... Sikh... Seth...Brahman... All these words are words for Identification. To locate a particular person.

But how far these words are relevant in current day's context? I really dont know the answer.

My cousin lives in Dubai and he is there for the past 30+ years. He went there when he was 23. He has no plans to return to India. All the more I would call him a Dubai citizen rather than an Indian. But whenever he visits my home, he doesnt seems to me like a foreigner. Like, I dont treat him like a foreigner. Not becoz hes my cousin. I hardly saw him 4 times in my life. Still he is born and brought up in India. This makes me feel that he still belong to the clan to which I belong.

So does it means that the place of birth matters? So if someone is born of a particular place, religion, caste, he belong to that? Or is that any kind of embracement that we do, which decides who we are? A cat is always a cat no matter how loud it tries to roar.

India is a country where every religion, caste is fixed upon birth. Even I was told that the so called Vedas speaks of the same thing.

The first qn that I need to answer myself, is that "who am I". I dont mean any philosophical qn. here. By default am I structured any way, am I configured already or am I too flexible enough to take the form that I want.

This blog of mine is an attempt to understand the History of India (I mean the cultural history), the mind-set of people, who are my so-called ancestors, what did they achieve, that they tried to communicate to us, to pass on the next generation, etc.

Any piece of info abt the Indian culture, that I feel attractive and not so normal, I am presenting it here.

Lets seek.