Pithukuli, A melody in madness

Vamanan

As one sat beside him a year ago, there was the uncanny feeling of not being with an individual but with somebody, or even something, that simply is without making claims for itself or demands on others. Those around him refer to him as Muruga, the vocative form of Murugan mostly used by devotees to address the deity, adding to the feeling of a shift in vision that is reinforced by his own references to himself in the third person as ‘evan’ (this man).

‘Evan’ that the world knew by those unmistakable dark glasses that hid a lifelong odyssey with vision problems, saffron bandana,  trimmed beard, and of course that magnetically melodious voice shimmering to the nuanced oscillations of the keys of the harmonium, has apparently set off on yet another voyage to the other shore quietly in his sleep. This culminates a marathon 97 years and wanderings twice over across the Indian sub continent and manifold sojourns across the globe.
He sang a single film song, appearing in the 1972 film Deivam with ‘Naadariyum Nooru Malai’ on his lips. The song was a hit, but he desisted from singing again in films as he believed he had transgressed and been punished for the transgression. Pride and egotism were qualities he was disallowed, and the success of his life was that despite all the adulation he received, the song and the deity to which it was addressed, and never the singer, took precedence in his mind.

As such, he was a cultural and religious phenomenon among the Tamils, especially in the Tamil diaspora communities in Sri Lanka, South Africa, Malaysia, Singapore, Seychelles, Mauritius and later in Europe, US, Canada and Australia. No wonder, Nelson Mandela, who doted upon him during the World Hindu Conference in Durban in 1995, affectionately remarked that Murugadas was more popular than him in South Africa!  MGR, who was an admirer Murugadas, took particular interest in conferring the Kalaimamani award on him in a special function in 1984. The Sangeet Natak Akademi award was conferred on him in 1997.

Born in 1918 in Coimbatore to C. S. Sundaram Iyer and Alamelu on a Thai Poosam day sacred to the deity Murugan, he was appropriately named Balasubramanian. A blinding wound in the left eye when he was seven, as well as a rejection by his father were traumatic childhoold events, but the meeting with a wandering saint, Brahmananda Paradesi, who branded him a ‘Pithukuli’ – divinely mad – proved life changing. The word which became his epithet sums up the script which he lived up to all his life –  a singer inspiring god love through his song.

As a teenager, the freedom struggle inspired him into action that led to his incarceration. Soon, his restless spirit got the better of him and made him journey across the land with a song on his lips and an ektara in his hand. What ultimately turned out to be an episodic 18,000 mile criss-crossing of the land mostly on foot  brought him into close contact with spiritual stalwarts like Swami Ramdas, Matha Krishnabai, Ramana Maharishi and Swami Sivananda. His journeys also gave him a tremendous physique. A close associate and singer, Delhi Prakash remarks on the resounding power of Murugadas’s whistle which the latter used while trekking through forests to keep wild animals at bay. Murugadas also practiced yoga and gave instructions in it from a centre in Ranganthan street.

Self-taught on the harmonium, Murugadas was a lyric writer and poet himself. He had learnt the Tiruppugazh from Vallimalai Swamigal.  ‘Paada Vaaithaay Naan Paadugiraen’, ‘Kandasamiye Engal Sondha Saamiye‘, ‘Devi Kanyakumari’ are among the simple lyrics that he made famous himself. He also drew liberally on the compositions of Oothukaadu (Alaipaayudhe, Paalvadiyum Mugam, Swagatham Krishna) and Mahakavi Bharati (Kaakkai chiraginile, Om Shakti Om).

The footloose singer who lugged his heavy harmonium, his only constant companion, everywhere and sang with the instrument on his lap, finally acquired a permanent address when Devi Saroja, a 38-year-old younger sibling of G. K. Ponnamma, musician and harmonist, wooed him. It was not an easy decision for the 60-year-old peripatetic singer – even his admirers were more or less divided on the issue – but he eventually took Devi’s hand. There was only one visible change that came with the change of marital status.  Devi joined Murugadas in his concerts and her entire family became his followers, but only after ensuring that he had vouchsafed his belongings to public causes.

Murugadas’s stirring song as well as his spiritual outlook which he put into action by routing the proceeds of his successful singing career to laudable causes, have touched others and transformed their lives. Those who came as admirers became followers. But Murugadas went on as before, hitching the one thing that he did best, singing, to the Supreme. His passing on a Kanda Shashti day marked by the Soora Samharam festival is bound to add to the mystique of the minstrel of Muruga.

In a state that is polarized between the classical Carnatic and the plebian cinematic, Murugadas was one of the few who with his unique voice and style practised the devotional music genre with remarkable success. His dedication in achieving his iconic status as a bhakti singer makes him a role model waiting to be emulated.

(Article appeared in edited form in Times of India, Chennai on Nov 25,2015)

Can Abrahamic religions have respect for people of other religions?

I had a chance meeting with a Muslim gentleman in the bus.

Walking together for some distance, we exchanged some thoughts about our respective religions with utmost friendliness and calm.

He was a gracious gentleman, but had this to say about people of other religions, especially Hindus.

He quoted the Quran saying, People who worship other gods don’t have sight, they have no hearing.

The implication was that at most, the sentiment that the Muslim can have about the Hindus is pity!

The irony of the matter is that the Muslim gentleman is a tourist guide and had, just a day to two earlier, guided a Russian couple around a Hindu temple!

He also agreed that it is Hindus alone who have respect for other religions.

This is exactly the reason why we must protect Hinduism and while not coming in the way of religious freedom, take strong action against campaigns for religious conversion of Hindus.

While the mainstream media and English educated Hindus frown upon Hinduism because of shortsightedness, it is only the Hindu religion that is a guarantee for religious pluralism.

We must not allow this respect for other religions to be misused, while at the same time ensuring that inequalities in the Hindu fold are done away with.

Ramayana is the story of Hinduism

The Hindus revere the Ramayana.

It is like a scripture for many Hindus. But even as they revere the Ramayana they don’t hold every word of it as inerrant. In fact the Hindus have freely built their racial imagination on the Ramayana.

Kamban, who lived during a highpoint of Tamil history in the 12th century, adored Rama and wrote one of the grandest works of Tamil literature on the theme of the Ramayana. He was ostensibly making Rama an example for future Tamil kings.

Though Kamban made changes here and there to suit the literary conventions and social mores of the Tamils, he was an ardent admirer of Valmiki and drunk deep from the Sanskrit fount.

Bharati, Tamil’s own national poet imagined that Kamban’s Ramayana was his attempt at indicating Infinity through symbols.

For Thyagaraja, who passed away some thirty-odd years before Bharati’s birth, Rama was more than a magnificent hero or a potent incarnation of Vishnu, he was the Supreme Being itself.

The Hindus have sought transcendence through symbols. And Rama has been a channel through whom they have sought to voyage into the divine.

There are those who belittle Rama’s story as a myth. But no religion knew how to make a myth work for uplifting the race as did the Hindus. For them the word myth did not translate into untruth…it was for them a way to the truth! Every region viewed itself through Rama, every art configured the Ramayana, every tongue lisped the name of Rama and his ilk.

Thyagaraja worshipped a family icon of Rama and swore by the name of Rama…and what did he achieve? A supreme musical creativity and a spotless life of giving himself off to hundreds of disciples.

Amudhanar of Srirangam, who celebrated the Vaishnava Acharya Ramanuja wrote of the Ramayana as the flood of devotion. He had it that Ramanuja was the temple where this flood of devotion was stored (Ramayanam Ennum Bhakti VelLam, Kudi Konda Kovil Iraaamanuja………….)

Monotheists who tomtom their dogmas against the worship of ‘idols’ should remember that Hindus have the example of thousands of great souls who have shown that the worship of icons of the divine is a way to god.

Should we follow a Ramanuja, a Raghavendra, a Tukaram, a Gnanasambanda, a Namdev or should we believe unscrupulous dogmatists thumping on their heavily manipulated books?

Tulsi took Rama’s story to the masses in the North in their own tongue…but he spoke a language redolent with the sacred fragrance of devotion. And great kathakars like Morari Bapu and Kanakeshwari take this sanctifying story to its soulful heights.

Rajaji, scarcely given to exaggeration and literary effervescence, declared in the foreword to his rendering of the Valmiki Ramayana, that Rama and Sita and Hanuman and Bharata would serve as armour to Hindu children and protect them.

Dec. 1, this day that I am writing this post, is the birth anniversary of Yogi Ramsurat Kumar, a seeker from Kashi who became a saint in the streets of Tiruvannamalai. His mantra was the name of Ram. And through it he attained a spiritual clarity and many could see and feel. And Ram is a name that even the likes of Kabir, who look askance at story and myth, swear by as the path to the world beyond all paths.

Sri Rama Jaya Rama Jaya Jaya Rama…

Sri Rama Jaya Rama Jaya Jaya Rama…

Why I am a Hindu

Despite not being a devotee of many a mutt head and despite making only rare visits to temples — though I have shot a documentary or two on temples — I am a Hindu, and a proud one at that.

Let me try to enumerate my reasons for being one.

1. Hinduism has no Satan. So I need not look upon life as a perpetual fight against darkness. I need not have the feeling of being shadowed by an Arch Villain.

2.  Hinduism is not about believing, but experiencing. Hinduism doesn’t say that you must believe all that it says You can joyfully disbelieve many Hindu ideas without inviting curses from God, of all persons.

3. Hinduism doesn’t have eternal damnation. So you do not need to squirm at eternal retribution being awarded for some actions. Even human courts are prepared to look kindly upon a reformed criminal. Would God do otherwise?

4. Hinduism doesn’t go about telling other people that they are worshipping false gods. Thankfully, Hinduism is free from the worse-than-AIDS virus of conversion. It believes in a million ways to God…but none that is dyed in hatred and narrow-mindedness.

5. HINDUISM IS FREE FROM THE TYRANNY OF ONE SACRED BOOK. In Hinduism, Revelation does not Rail at me. Despite looking upon its Vedas as scriptural proof of God, there are enough traditions in Hinduism which give more weight to individual experience – anubhooti. ‘The words of the Veda return without reaching Him’, says the Veda itself. I appreciate this humility a great deal. I cannot stand scriptural inerrancy.

6. Hinduism adapts itself to the times. Once Hindus were used to child marriage ; now they have almost given it up entirely. I need my religion not to be oppressively unchangeable.

7. Unlike the Semitic religions, Hinduism believes that Man can become truly liberated in a spiritual sense. The word for such a man in Hinduism is, ‘Jivan Muktha’. Jainism has the jina and the siddha, the liberated soul, and Buddhism has the bodhisatwa (bound for nirvana).

8. Hinduism has had hundreds of Mahatmas who have lived the highest ideal. They are living proof of the divine life on earth.

 9. While being culturally bound to the Hindu way of life, Hinduism does not seek to be theocratic and take the law into its hands. Hinduism has no shariah.

 10. THERE IS NO ‘JUDGEMENT DAY’ IN HINDUISM. The law of karma says you are the maker of your Destiny. You are your own judgement day, every second of your life.

 11. HINDUISM LOOKS TO GOD IN THE HEART (you need not look to prophets, books and divine intimations amidst thunder and lightning).

 12. IN HINDUISM, God and divine beings are INTIMATE BEINGS CLOSE TO US. Unlike the followers of Abrahamic religions, Hindus don’t shudder at the sight of an ‘angel’ or of God.

 13. CASTE WAS INDEED A FACT OF HINDU SOCIAL LIFE, BUT HINDUS ARE LEARNING THAT IT’S NOT HINDUISM PER SE.

 14. HINDU MAJORITY INDIA HAS OUTLAWED UNTOUCHABILITY. THE TRUE SPIRITUALITY THAT HINDUISM FOSTERS, SHOULD MAKE MEN HOLD CHARACTER, NOT CASTE OR ITS ABSENCE, AS OF PRIME IMPORTANCE

 15. Hinduism has a spectrum of practices – yoga, tantra, mantra, yantra — to make for a higher consciousness in man.

16. I support Hinduism not for itself, but because it paves the way for a greater life of the spirit. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yoga is indeed demonic, it frees you of the demons of anger and greed

Yoga is demonic, a pastor (Seattle Mars Hill Church’s Mark Driscoll) in the US has declared.

He has drawn a lot of flak for this statement, but in my view this could be the first true statement he is making.

Yoga can surely be construed as demonic, because it helps a person, whatever his creed or country, to gain mastery over the demons that bedevil humanity.

Yoga does not ask anyone to believe in any outside force…Yoga does not make a flock or sheep of people…it makes them masters of themselves. Can there be anything more demoniacal than that? What would happen to churches and other spiritual authorities if a man became a light to himself? Dangerous demonology isn’t it?

Another church head (R Albert Mohler Jr, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kentucky) has declared that yoga is against Christianity.

I however don’t see it as such….in fact in my neighbourhood in Chennai I know of a Christian near a Catholic church who runs yoga classes!

So which Christianity is the church head talking about?

I suggest that both the pastor and church head meet the Tamil Nadu chief minister Karunanidhi to conquer their own demons.

A known and self-declared enemy of Hinduism (the only religion he has attacked all his long life), he is a self-confessed practitioner of yoga asanas and pranayama.

Once the demoniacal churchmen (that is the churchmen who allege that yoga is demonic) meet the most honourable chief minister they will be freed of the demons tormenting them.

It may also help the chief minister garner some ‘Christian’ votes in the coming elections.

The chief minister is at present beset by the demons of family strife. Some people are suggesting yoga for this problem too. So yoga is demonic on this score also.

Three cheers to yoga…the greatest demoniacal challenge to dogmatic religions!

Amitabh Bachchan, Modi and the Congress

The ruckus over Amitabh Bachchan’s participation in the Bombay sea link function is sickening to say the least. And the way the media sensationalises such petty politics, baah…mad-ia!

The world is supposed to be shrinking due to globalization, but minds seem to be shrinking faster.

Amitabh Bachchan took part in a function of the Maharashtra govt which is a coalition of the NCP and Congress. He was invited by the NCP chaps. But the Congress is disturbed because Amitabh is a brand ambassador of the Modi government in Gujarat.

Okay you don’t like Modi, and you don’t like Amitabh being Modi’s brand envoy, but is Amitabh only that? Is he not an actor gentleman of proven artistic credentials and a dignified old chap about town. An ex friend of the dynasty, to boot! Why have a quarrel with the shadow of a celluloid icon?

And the BJP and Modi are not demons a thousand worlds removed…and anybody who touches them or dines with them is not a dyed in the wool villain. What newfangled untouchability is this?

The Congress goes about saying that the BJP and its parivar are not representatives of the Hindus. But can the Congress stand up and say that it will protect the rights of the Hindus? If it truly does that, will it not take the wind out of the sails of the BJP?

But the Congress will never do that, because it has a vested interest in promoting the enemies of Hinduism. The latest sniping at Bachchan only proves that.

Men of god enrich Hinduism, make it a symphony of plural paths

Gurus and Godmen – why Hinduism revers them

There is quite a lot of confusion among ‘educated’ Hindus and brainwashed followers of other religions on the Hindus’ worship of gurus…derisively termed godmen by the English language media.

When there are religions which claim fanatically that there is only one god, and there should be no visual representation of that God, the Hindu goes about not only worshipping a million images, but a milliion men and women as God!

If it were not downright funny, they would have called this heresy of the worst sort. That is why some labelled the Hindus as pagan, others called them Kafir.

Well, though the Hindu has his given book, his revealed tome in the Veda, you will find that he is not so touchy about it…he is not going to launch a war against anybody based on it, or its perceived misrepresentation. For the Veda is not merely chapter and book, it is living truth, the breath of one’s life.

One of the reasons for the Hindu’s proverbial ‘tolerance’ – again a wrong word…because there is more than mere tolerance, there is an appreciation – of other religions- is the diversity of great gurus and mahatmas who are being revered by them.

From unorthodox saints like Kabir and the Siddhars of Tamil Nadu to the Nath saiths of north India and the Nayanmars of the Saiva tradition, men of god from diverse backgrounds and men of god with divergent streams of thought, have all mingled in the adoration of a greater power.

If it were not for the saints and gurus – who would have been termed godmen by our English media were they not so removed in time from us – Hindus would also have been caught in the tyranny of the book. When Swami Vivekananda was in the United States with the message of the Vedanta, he was not short of traducers who assassinated his character at every turn.

Hinduism is a religion of the devotee, for the devotee and by the devotee. It starts from the earth, not from the heavens. It not only makes representations of gods in clay, it invokes the all pervading divine force to manifest itself in it. It connects man with God at every turn…not only a man of god but every form of life, and every aspect of nature is fit for worship when viewed as a manifestation of the supreme.

”Eesha, or the Lord, pervades everything, all that is animate and inanimate. Therefore live this life in that spirit…don’t grab anything…” declares the Isaavaasya Upanishad…or the guru who gave that Upanishad..

HInduism does not grab followers of other religions…It does not compete in the market for converts. The only conversion it seeks is the spiritual conversion. Not the jealous faith of the angry god for it..but the manifestation of godliness in man.

While others are cynics and pessimists and kafirs when it comes to the divine destiny of man, the Hindu believes it is possible.

Of course there will be fakes, impersonators. But when were they in short supply in all facets of life. From our currency notes, which come with the visual of the father of the nation and the attestation of the reserve bank governor, from politicians who shed crocodile tears for the public but are only crocodiles in the swamps of their illbegotten wealth, from corporate doctors who sharpen their scalpels on unsuspecting human flesh to business heads who plunder their own companies, fakes and sharks abound.
There are also those who fall by the way…for the spiritual path is a razors edge. Our media gods who are innocent of the Buddha’s middle path will keep stoning them till their orgiastic fury comes to an end, or till another scandal releases their pent up energy.

The spiritual search is India’s forte. Thousands of years ago Indian seekers sought not for a thundering god or blazing deity and its overbearing commandments, but the knowledge after knowing which everything becomes known, the one experience after experiencing which man becomes ever full.

India sought a dimension never ever imagined by any other nation or people, and the faith that the Hindu has…call it a hunch…call it an intuition, is that Man can become God…well not a monotheist God, or a no-notheist God…but a divinity surcharged and suffused with universal consciousness.

All I ask of our English educated brethren is this : do not spit and pee at this extraordinary force called the Sanatana Dharma, the path of eternity..which takes man from one fullness to another..which cannot be burnt by fire..which cannot be engulfed by water and refuses to be swept away by the wind. Of course it can be adapted to the times, of course it should shed needless rituals and laws that go by its name.

The Bengal renaissance was sparked by the unique power of the Upanishads…kindly.O .kindly…don’t demean that invaluable Legacy.

India is an old civilization…it never sought an empire on earth. But the empire of the spirit is its destiny….an empire that will not bind…but an empire that will free. Don’t bind the forces that are shaping that empire with the fetters of borrowed ideologies. Barbed wires cannot cleave the scented air.

Nithyananda – Hinduism goes on and on

The video showing Nithyananda and Ranjitha together (allegedly I might add), is indeed graphic, but I cannot say whether it was generated through graphics. With whizkids everywhere, how am I to be sure that some graphics guru has not been able to put sex into a sanya-sin (sic).

The Swami, speaking on camera from an undisclosed place, has denied that it was his own august person in the video, and claimed to be collecting evidence to disprove his traducers. Considering that the dhoti version of being caught with pants down has been visited on his persona, he appeared jaded, tired and unconvincing.

Ranjitha has not denied that the female in the video is herself. Of course, everybody knows that she was a film star who had to do a dare-bare scene or two as part of her profession. But figuring in an explicit bedroom scene which is the talk of the town is not a very respectable thing to happen even to a former heroine. Even then there is no sign of any denial from her end. There was a report in a Tamil eveninger suggesting that she was against acting against the swami. Perhaps in her case it is a case of operation accomplished. Menaka come and gone. Viswamitra devastated. There is nothing more to say on her behalf.

The video shows two willing participants. As such one does not see what the charge against a swami in such a case could be. That it is an act unbecoming of a swami? Under what dispensation?

The swami seems to have been drawn to Rajneesh’s style of thinking, and even visited Osho’s ashram before launching his own. How does anybody know that he was not engaged in some tantra stuff? Of course our modern know-alls may not believe in it, but who gave them the right to judge somebody who does, as long as he does not break the law? If mindless hopping on a disco floor is therapy for a call centre girl, who says some tantalizing tantra is bad for a continent hopping swami peddling sedatives to a zany world high on TV, booze, drugs, and godmen, one may add.

There have been also laughable attempts by the cops at making more substantial charges than having sex in ochre robes. The alleged kingpin of the controversial video, a man who goes by quaint name of Lenin Karuppan (apart of course from the ashram name ending in some ananda), comes in handy in this regard. Considering that Nithyananda can be anything but happy about this man who has shattered his carefully constructed world of hundreds of meditative ashrams all over the world, a mineload of charges can be brought against the disgraced godman.

The expose of Nithyananda, seen in tandem with the alleged nefarious activities of Ichchadhari Baba in the country’s capital, has sets tongues wagging all around about the Hindu’s ‘godforsaken’ fatal instinct for godmen. Hinduism does believe in great gurus. Hinduism does not believe that man is so evil that great things and visions and great sacrifices and great values are alien to him. Hinduism does not believe in just one book, one saviour, one prophet, one fraternity of uniform(ed) believers. It is this extraordinary zest for plurality that makes Hinduism one of the most exciting religions of the world…a religion like no other, because it believes in no other dogma except that man can evolve and grow into a greater spiritual height, which in fact is his real nature, his real destiny, his real Self. The only category in Hinduism that is One.

Hinduism is an ever present witness to the eternal tussle between the lower self and the higher self (the two birds of the Upanishads in the tree of life), between the flesh and its sublimated energy, between the clouded understanding and the luminous glow of the soul.

Hinduism considers every living creature an experiment at achieving a greater consciousness…not through some mandatory belief, but as one’s birthright, as the realisaton of one’s essential nature.

With every failed effort it seems to falter….but gathers greater strength for a flight into a greater horizon.

‘Out of a thousand men’, said the Gitacharya, ‘one strives for the goal. Of those who strive thus, only a few reach me’. But that does not make any effort a wasted one.

‘Even a little of this dharma’, he says, ‘frees one from great fear’.

Withered flowers are not a failure of the spring…they are the invitation to the more fragrant flowers of the next dawn.

Hinduism has not been afraid of its external traducers. Hinduism is not afraid of its failed saints and fakes. Fakes proliferate everywhere, in politics, in the media, in the bureauracy, and even among sportsmen.

Many gods and goddesses of India

Script of video, Gods and Goddesses of India, written and directed by Vamanan (Superaudio)

Why are there many gods and goddesses in Hinduism? What is their meaning and import?

(Offscreen Narrator)

From the mighty peaks of the Himalayas in the north to the oceans in the south, India is a great nation with more than a billion people.
About eighty percent of the population, follows broadly the Hindu religion, which is based on manifold texts, many teachers and many gods.

Hinduism is founded on the deep experience of sages and mystics. It is therefore called the Sanatana Dharma, or the Eternal Way of Life.
Nourished by the faith and adoration of the people, the living truths of Hinduism journey from a diverse world of manifold deities to one godhead

(Vamanan on Screen)

We hear it said often that God is one.
Of course god is one. God is singular and has to be one.
But perhaps it is as true, that gods are many. And not only because gods is plural.
We see a world of multiplicity…and this multitudinous world as it were, has to have many deities, many powers, many gods…
And this is the basis on which Hinduism works…
It gives many gods, because we see many worlds…
Actually, the experience of the Oneness of God, is the highest experience as Hinduism sees it….
So Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita… that, that man who has experienced the oneness of god behind the multiple worlds that he sees, that man is rare….
Vaasudeva Sarvamiti sa Mahatma sudurlabaha…
That is why Hinduism shows many gods to people who see many worlds….

Subtitles :
The Gods Beckon….
Ganesha, First Worshipped, First to Bless…
Ganesha, Son of the Universal Parents
Mother, the Matrix of All Creation
Shiva Infinite, Limiting Himself in name and form
All Pervasive Vishnu, the Protector
Karthikeya, Commander of the Celestials
Sun God and the God in the Sun
Saraswathi, Goddess of Learning
Lakshmi, Goddess of Wealth
And all the Great Avatars of Vishnu
Hinduism also adores those immersed in God

(Offscreen Narrator)
The ancient Vedas are taken to be the spiritual anchor of the truths of Hinduism.
The Vedas speak of many gods like Indra, Agni and Varuna….but their final discovery is that of one ultimate reality ….that reality after knowing which everything becomes known..after experiencing which nothing more needs to be experienced….
The Vedic sages, so India believes, found that One truth which can make man realize immortality…give his temporary life the light of eternity.
To lead common people to that One Truth, the Vedic visionaries unfolded a system of adoration that would lead them from the known to the unknown….from the finite to the infinite….
(Famous Sloka on Vinayaka Sung) – Gajananan Bhootha Ganaadhi Sevitham…

(Interviewee – Art critic Lakshmi Venkatraman) –
We have also given characteristics to every personality of the gods…Some Gods we take as very genial …kind…very friendly kind of god like Ganesha…

(Subtitles)
Affable Ganesha relates to common folk…from shrines by water tanks …
..and from under the shade of sacred trees…

Ganesha has become the darling of devotees who celebrate his blessings with glee…

(Interviewee – Sculptor Murugan)

People cuddle up to Ganesha as if to a child. That way Vinayaka Chathurthi is being celebrated in India and even all over the world with fanfare…Vinayaka is shown with computer or playing instruments like violin, flute or veena. These are instruments we use..We link them with god and picture him as using them. This is the impetus for making such images. As the computer is everywhere now, we make an image of Vinayaka as using the computer…

(Offscreen Narrator)
The young are taught to worship Ganesha for knowledge and clarity of thought. Women fulfil vows when he answers their prayers.
But Ganesha also beckons his devotees to wider spiritual horizons. A poetic work credited to the legendary Tamil poetess Avvai celebrates the power of Ganesha in liberating the coiled psychic energy at the base of our spine.
Tilak, the freedom-fighter, revived the Ganesh festival to instill patriotism. Today it is Maharashtra’s greatest social and religious event.
Muthuswami Dikshithar, the classical composer, celebrated Ganesha as the auspicious form of the Ultimate Truth…the very fountain of consciousness, truth and joy. Elements of Tantra and Mantra sastra mingle in his worship of Ganesha.

(Devotee T. P,Ramamurthi) – My Priority in prayers was always to Lord Ganesha…Wherever I go…My deep faith is soaked only in Lord Ganesha…who I consider as God Absolute

….(Subtitles …)
Muthuswami Dikshithars Vathapi Ganapathim is a masterpiece on Ganesha
Subtitles shows translated lines from Vaathapi Ganapathim
Worshipped by Agastya (the pot-born one) from ancient times…
Ganesha resides in the triangular yantra…
Worshipped by Murari, Worshipped by Vishnu and other Gods
Is established in the Mooladhara…
Ganesha embodies the creative energies from the grossest to the subtlest form…
He is the very form of the mystic symbol Om and sports a curved trunk…

(Offscreen Narrator)
Salutations to the Divine Mother….who is the body, mind, life and soul of all beings…
As mother earth, she begets, sustains and nourishes all life….
As the cosmic mother, she is the progenitor of all the deities….
As Yogamaya, she is the matrix within which all the experiences, hopes and strivings of living creatures are configured…
As the mystic Ramprasad said, You can find mother in any
home…she is Bhairavi with Shiva, she is Sita for Lakshmana, she is mother, daughter, wife and sister…what more can one say…Who can understand the goddess in all her glory? Can ants grasp the moon? The scriptures say that she is the fount from which all life flows…she is the ocean into which all rivers merge…

(The song Nityanandakari….is heard…)
Ocean of Beauty, Bestower of Everlasting Joy, Destroyer of Sin, Great Goddess
The Heavens and the Stars are her ornament…Her graze brims with compassion…
Presiding deity of Kashi, holiest of cities…
Giver of Yogic Bliss, Destroyer of Foes…
Resplendant with the sun, moon and fire…

Giver of All wealth, fruits of penance,
And the great blessing of wisdom….
She is Durga and Kali, Destroyer of Fear
A veritable ocean of compassion

Mother, who art ever full, consort of Shiva
Grant us the blessing of wisdom and dispassion

(Offscreen Narrator)
The great Carnatic composer Syama Sastri adored the mother as the golden Kamakshi through musical masterpieces brimming with sublime devotion…the Maratha king Shivaji derived strength from mother Bhavani for his daring military exploits ..In our times the modern mystic Sri Aurobindo and the Tamil poet Bharati sought her blessings for the national cause… For Sri Ramakrishna, she was Bhavatarini, the mother who guides the soul past the ocean of phenomenal life to the plenitude of divine consciousness

(Offscreen Narrator)
Who can unfold the divine glory of the great Mahadeva, from whom the worlds emerge.
How can one contemplate the greatness of the Lord who transcends the ways of all thought. What offerings can be made to Him whose body is the entire cosmos. To which direction can one turn to pay tribute to the One who pervades all the directions and transcends all of them as well.
Yet, the Formless and nameless Lord, assumes names and forms and wears the apparels of time and space out of love for devotees who adore him. The Lord of the World, Vishwanatha, takes the form of a beggar. The Yogi of Yogis, becomes the greatest of Lovers who shares half of himself with his consort. The Silent Teacher becomes the Cosmic Dancer showing that eternal silence and eternal motion can unite in the divine. Who can comprehend the glory of Shiva?
(The song Bho Shambo…Hark O Shambu, Self revealed)

(Subtitles on Nataraja bronze…)
The Damaru Symbolises Creation
The Raised Hand Protection
Fire Means Destruction
The Smile signifies sport
Subtitle – The sacred names of Shiva….
(Recitation of the names of Shiva…)

Words of interviewee –

In Hinduism, we have what are called Sahasranamas or a thousand names for each of the main deities…
These names of god…these names of these deities…give certain particular names that are relevant only to them…but most of them are general names…and point to the infinitude, to the limitlessness…to the namelessness…to the transcending nature of god….
God is Ananta…he is beyond any limit…so each of these gods is like an ocean..which has its beach…which has its limit….but each of them calls us to the experience of the infinite,unnameable, ineffable divine experience…
Hinduism invites each of us…to have our own particular gods…but through them to see the Infinity…that is god…

(Srimannarayana…song )

(Subtitltes)
Vishnu, the one who pervades all the worlds…
Vasudeva, the supreme who resides in every atom of the universe
In the classic four armed pose, he holds a mace, conch and discus
He is Shiva, Soorya and Narayana put together…
Beloved of Sri, the very embodiment of compassion
Flanked by Sridevi and Bhoodevi
Protector of Gajendra, the great elephant

(Interviewee – S. Vijayaraghavan, vaishnavite devotee)
……I am referring to Anandasagarasthava by Neelakantha Diskshitha…Going through this particular work, my restlessness regarding the mode of worship ended…and I practiced single minded devotion to Mahavishnu…That has given me immense satisfaction…This is an important milestone in my lifetime…

(Offscreen Narrator)
Vishnu…the name itself means all pervading…even the thousand-hooded serpent on which he reclines is called Ananta, the infinite…The divine personality with a thousand heads, a thousand eyes and a thousand feet…he encompasses the worlds…but transcends it says the Purusha Sookta…Yet, the infinitude becomes embodied in its divine descents to restore equilibrium in the world…Vishnu’s divine embodiments are called avataras.

(Subtitles – the ten avatars from Matsya, Koorma, Varaha, Narasimha, Vamana, Parasurama, Rama, Balarama, Krishna and Kalki…)

(Offscreen Narrator)
The avataras of Vishu embody great truths about momentous events in various epochs…But down the centuries, the worship of some of them has been more prevalent.
The Varaha or boar descent retrieved the earth from the waters of the nether regions. An embodiment of the spiritual wisdom, Varaha also destroyed the demon, Hiranyaksha, who represents the greed for absolute power.

Vamana, the divine dwarf, overcame King Bali, who also sought world dominion. Vamana sought three steps with his little feet, and measured the three worlds and crushed Mahabali’s greed. The little overcoming the awesome. Spirit conquering Matter.

Narasimha, the man-lion is an avatar adored by many. The terrific form was dictated by the boons a demon had gained against being killed by man or beast. The demon sought material might which his son Prahlada sought the spiritual vision. Ultimately Vishnu burst out of a pillar to show the son right, and gave the demon his just desserts.

The modernists and so called secularists like to think of him as a mythical hero, but Rama’s footprints are evident all over India and the spirit of the land bears the fingerprints of his deeds…great minds in India’s recorded the power of his personality in literary masterpieces in the many tongues of the nation…His name Ram became a mystical key to the metaphysical world…Literature, art, temple sculpture, mysticism and religion reflect the sway of Rama…

But it was left to one man to soar to the musical apogee on Rama’s wings…A great Telugu who burst into creative profusion in the heart of Tamil land on the banks of the Cauvery…Thyagaraja…(the song Jagadanandakaaaraka)

The call of the mystical flute player…the magic of Sri Krishna’s personality lures adorers down the millenia…Born in the darkness of prison, Krishna brings the light of divinity into our lives… Prankster kid, Supernatural hero, King and Diplomat, Master strategist, Inimitable lover, Greatest Philosopher of all times…the personas worn by Krishna, God in human form, challenge enumeration and escape description…

Andal, the Tamil poetess and other Alwar mystics deep in Tamil Nadu, penetrated through their mystical vision into the divine ambience of the Krishna of Mathura and Brindavan… They drank rapturously from the fount of Krishna’s divine personality.

Mira of Rajasthan breathed Krishna and is said to have merged in him. Chaitanya in Bengal lived and moved in Krishna and became a movement of Krishna consciousness….

(Subtitles)

Child Krishna crushing the
vicious serpent Kaliya

Krishna lifting the Govardhana hill
to quell the pride of Indra

Krishna dispatching the
demon Bakasura
Krishna sports with the cowherdesses
– the Raasa Leela

Andal, 8th century C.E.

Azhwars, Tamil adorers of Vishnu

Mirabhai, 16th century mystic

Chaitanya, 16th century saint, himself
considered to be an avatar of Krishna

(Bhavayami Gopalabaalam…)
(Maajhemanu…Namadeva abhang) Subtitles –

At Pandarpur in Maharashtra, Krishna is worshipped as Vithala

At Udaipur, Rajasthan Krishna is venerated as Srinath
At Puri, Krishna is worshipped with brother Balarama and sister Subhadra…
Deities worshipped in temples are also considered as divine descents…

Most promiment is Srinivasa, or Balaji,
Vishnu’s aspect in the Seven Hills

Without a wink of sleep perhaps, Balaji showers
Boons on the meek and the mighty
The meek give their hair and faith, the rich
Shower their riches
Karthikeya, the spiritual son of Shiva
And the paragon of youth and beauty

The Tamils call him Murugan, most of their hills
Are the abode of the deity

Muruga’s six faces symbolize the six chakras, he
Is the truth that shines beyond

Ayyappa, the spiritual son of Shiva and Vishnu…
He reigns from his famous temple at Sabarimala

Ayyappa is reached after crossing dense forests
And a vow well kept

Past the symbolic eighteen steps, devotion
comes face to face with its object

Horseheaded Hayagreeva, a wisdom avatar of Vishnu
Dhanvantari, the divine physician

Dattatreya, combined aspect of the Trinity…
The ultimate spiritual master

The Buddha, once considered a heretic…then
Vishnu’s avatar

Hanuman…from the pages of the Ramayana
To the shrine…as Rama’s greatest devotee
Hanuman, the soul of strength, sincerity and humility
Hanuman, whose spirituality uplifts Hindus all over India

The Navagrahas…nine planets…are propitiated by Hindus…
They are considered to give humans the fruits of past actions

(Interviewee – Sanskrit scholar P. G. Subramanian)

Hinduism gives us the choice the path to the public…or the individual….We…as an individual have the right to choose the right path…to reach the ultimate destination…which is only one…We call that destination in Hinduism as the Parabrahman or the Atman…or the Paramatma…We are the Jeevatma…and we call that as Paramatma…it is up to this Jeevatma to reach that Paramatma in a hurdlefree path…To reach that destination in a hurdlefree path…we are given multiple choice to choose the deities…The deities are nothing but the different manifestations…of that Paramatma…which we would term as a cluster of energy…or the source from which the entire world is being created…To reach that Paramatma we can just choose any of the deities who are nothing but the different manifestations from that Paramatma…Whether it be lord Ganesha, whether it be lord Muruga, whether it be Ambika or Devi Parameswari…let it be Parameshwara…or let it be Mahavishnu…It can be any deity…it can be any deity…but the ultimate goal is to reach that Paramatma…or that salavation…or that mukti…
Hinduism has that much of leniency…It gives the individual that much of lenience or freedom to choose their own path…to reach that destination…

We have no differences ( as between the deities)…It is only the layman who has differences…as this is my god…this is your god…I like only Ganesha…I like only Muruga..I like only Mahavishnu…I like only Parameshwara…I like only Ambika…It is only the layman’s view…It is only the beginning stage…

Starting from putting bindi…or wearing vibhooti or thirumann…or gopichandana…whatever it is…has a scientific significance…having tuft…wearing earrings…each and every…part and parcel of our life…a scientific background behind it…

(Offscreen Subtitles)
Temple car festival – April 2009
Devotees from across the social spectrum
Pull the chariot of the deity together

A hot day when the founts of devotion
Flow in full strength….

(ends)

Sagarika’s kumbh, Heroic Sushmita, Endangered honesty, Road to safety

Sagarika’s Kumbh

Fastest talking anchor in town, Sagarika Ghose on CNN IBN presiding over yet another ‘secular’ discussion, this time about Hinduism through Kumbh Mela. Much scope to bashing superstition and dirt (generally synonymous with Hinduism and always applicable to Hindu organisations which wouldn’t be there but for opportunists like her). The question for the viewers poll itself was highly loaded, whether the faith trade had hijacked the festival, which naturally elicited the yes from a majority, giving lip smacking satisfaction to Sagarika, Sardesai and those who employ them.

Madhu Kishwar (now known as Madhu Purnima Kishwar for numero-logical or logical reasons) let loose a cannonade against the shit that was flowing into the ‘sacred’ Ganga, and seemed to be fixated on the youth who were on an undefinite fast for definite steps to clean up the river. Good. She also put Hinduism baiter Kancha Ilaiah, who shed hot tears over the money that was pouring in into Hindu coffers, in his place, pointing out that he speaking on behalf the missionaries. This in a country where the government runs most temples in the land and siphons off the funds given by the Hindu faithful for totally extraneous purposes.

Heroic Sushmita

Sushmita Sen might have beaten Aishwarya Rai (now Bachan) in a Miss India contest by a whisker! way back in 1994, but the latter of the blue-green-grey eyes is generally way ahead in the film world and otherwise. After entering tinsel town through Maniratnam’s Iruvar ( a projection on celluloid of Tamil Nadu’s political tangle and triangle of Karunanidhi, MGR and Jayalalitha), Aishwarya managed to cast herself as a celebrated Bollywood heroine. Sushmita’s film career has in comparison been tepid, with recognition coming more as a supporting actress than as a leading lady. But that’s only in the world of make believe. In the real world, Sushmita seems more of a dominant force. She didn’t marry, but adopted a daughter Renee in 2000. Obviously the experience was a good one, as she has repeated it. After clearing a legal hurdle (posed by the Hindu adoption and maintenance act), another baby is in her lap. This is one (more) sphere where Akbar’s Jodha pales into insignificance…unless you consider going in adoption to Bollywood’s B company as comparable to Sushmita’s heroic real life acts of humanity.

Endangered Honesty

India Illegitimate has done it once again…killed a crusader for honesty. Pune’s 38-year-old RTI activist and exposer of land scams, Satish Shetty has been brutally murdered in the outskirts of the city while he was on his morning walk. Masked hoodlums chased him and attacked him till they were sure he was going to die. This is the price of championing honesty in public life.Shetty had feared for his life and applied for police protection. As he wont be obviously needing it now, the cops can double the protection for the goons.

The stakes have been so high for the land mafia that it even planned to knock off Magsaysay award winner Anna Hazare, who happens to be Shetty’s guru. Giving ‘supari’ (killing contract) for Shetty was therefore no big deal.

But India of the new millenium must not take this is as any routine killing. The culprits must be found (a lawyer and his sidekicks have been held), the truth established and all convicted. It must be hanging as in the rarest of rare cases. Are not honest men of integrity the rarest of the rare in today’s India?. If their killers are not punished in this way, then even before the tiger is extinct India’s Mahatmas will be a species of the past, and new India’s history will not be about experiments in truth, but extravaganzas of lies.

Road to safety

There is a move to bar those above 72 from driving on Indian roads, on which more than a lakh people die every year. From a layman’s point of view I can say this is nonsense. It is not well-maintained old men and women whose eye-sight has been sharpened by cataract operations and whose sense of balance helped them sail through seven decades that drive over sleeping pavement dwellers or bang into two-wheelers. There is chaos on our roads, with overspeeding, overtaking and law-infringements going on without any hindrance. The cop surfaces only to register a case for the book, or for the grease amount. No will or discipline is being enforced on the traffic from above. There are rash drivers…intimidating drivers…and killer drivers. These can be easily identified and weeded out. But where is the will, where is the heart?

Recently, a Madras high court judge called for stringent measures to prevent accidents on roads (there were 12,000 road deaths in Tamil Nadu in 2009) . But unless rash and negligent driving, and the lackdaisical attitude of the police that allows it, are made punishable, and every life on the road gets its due respect and regard, road deaths are abound to hurtle towards two lakh a year. The insurance companies are feeling the pinch and the bite and moving the courts…but will the government of the republic feel for its citizens and bring sanity to our roads? Where there is a will, there is a safe and secure road…and our seventy plus citizens are the green signals on that route.