Small Minds

Globalisation….glocalisation….glocal…there are so many jargons to describe the ever increasing India’s move towards liberalization.. it is almost 16 years that right from politicians to laymen talking about how India is growing in the global economy. The Indian parents say that they never ever heard about the salary what the Indian youth are earning now…. Do all these have any impact on the society? Of course… I think there can be anyone who would think pessimistically for this question. But what had this transformation do to the society? Has it become more individualistic? Some humanists argue that individualism is an essential characteristic of a developed economy. They say that as India is in the process of economic development, such cultural changes or rather shocks are inevitable ingredient in the transformation phase. Narrow thinking in terms of individualism…everything happens because of self.. and “don’t care attitude”.  I happened to see this quotation in one of the street shops…”Don’t tell your problems to others, because 70% of them are not bothered and the rest 30% would be happy”…..I was just thinking of this for a while and tried to comprehend the reason why the author would have written such a rude and crude statement. Especially in this world where every one treats the other one as a competitor and threat to the other person’s survival which starts right from kindergarten and continues in the work environment and sometimesin person life as well. As a matter of fact, this thought leads to braggy attitude in the work space and creates tension, anxiety and people seem to be perturbed all the time. Concern for others is slowly fading away and there might be a situation where would be some workshops regarding the same. Why are we going in such an inhuman path? Is to cover ourselves from societal evils or is it just for being by oneself? We need not have to get transformed to a mahatma; we definitely can be reasonable person to a certain extent in order to maintain our human status…

Purpose of BEING

Being literate..Being independent..Being confident..Being intelligent..Being successful..Being happy..Being smart..Being jovial..Being “I am what I am”.. In this routine life, “being” is the word replaced for “living”. Thesaurus says that BEING is a state of act or existence. Animals exist in this world…But humans are meant to live..The current wave of individualism along with the spurge of opportunities to the youth has made them feel successful. And all the “beings” stated above makes them feel that they have achieved success and so they are capable of many things in life. YES…of course that is true..but only partial. The befogged reality is something different and that needs human effort to LIVE the life rather than being in existence. 

My friend happened to tell me about a book, “The ant and the elephant: Leadership for the Self” by Vince Poscente. I tried correlating my thoughts with that of the author and came up with some logical vantage point. The author says that humans exist in this world like an ant on an elephant. If the ant wants to move in east direction while the elephant moves in the opposite direction, then the ant does not get anywhere. Same way, the ant is the conscious mind and the elephant is the sub conscious mind. Humans are in a constant struggle between the both and suddenly they realize that we don’t go anywhere and become dejected and depressed and start complaining about life, people, work, place, etc..etc..Why don’t we just pause and comprehend where we are, what we are doing, where we are going and what we need in this life. Training the conscious mind (elephant) to go along the dreams and wishes of the subconscious mind (ant) is the trick. Every individual will have and can find their own way of finding purpose of their existence.

The Fifth Veda

Rig, Yajur, Sama and Atharvana are the four principle vedas in the Hindu philosophy. There seems to a fifth veda which has helped for the foundation of fine arts in India. It is nothing but the principal work by Bharatha Muni namely “Natya Shastra”. It primarily deals with stage craft and talks in detail about how the performance should be made on the stage. It can be said that this natya shastra influenced music, dance and literature to a great extent and even the bhavas and rasas in natya was a part of this shastra. It also talks about subtle aspects like stage design, make up, costume, acting, directing and music. This shows that Bharatha Muni and the scholars at that time were very particular and set forth detailed principles for our Carnatic Music and Bharathanatyam which are integral part of our rich heritage.

Do we need a Thenali Raman Today?

We are what we are in terms economy, society, ethics, value, etc because of our fore runners’ major contribution to the society. Some of them knew that they are doing good for the economy while many of them dont have a clue of what they are doing, but still they were doing just because it was a part of their dharma.. But there were some catalysts in the society who were accelerating the progress of the society. On such character is Thenali Raman who served as the court jester in Krishnadeva raya’s Vijayanagara empire. Once we closely observe the characteristics of Thenali Raman, we can view an eccentric personality. He is jovial, made all kinds of mockery and even made the King furious many times. But the intent behind Thenali’s acts had a purpose….that purpose was to do something good for the human race..to make them realise that they were still rational beings.Coming to the modern era…what we are now…Are we still rational beings? Do we still understand  and sensitize others which is an essential quality of humanity or do we need a Thenali Raman Today to make us realize the way we are heading this human race?

Empowerment …

The human race has gone through tremendous ups and downs and has a great legacy. We are in an era where the respect for individuals is going down and more people are becoming more vivid and actually……they are getting intellectually transformed. But still do values and ethics still linger around these gigantic intellectually muscled creatures? Ethics and values are integral part of culture…Are these jargons still valid in today’s context?

The field of ethics, also called moral philosophy, involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior. In today’s context, the society is becoming more individualistic and so are the ethics. Each individual has their own reasons for their behavior whether right or wrong because their argument is that the good and bad are subjective terms and depend on various factors such as situations, societal pressures, etc. But there should be a common threshold to have any amount of truthiness…There might be some who justify their behaviors with the fact that the entire society is doing it and so am I.

Two things that are essential in life are Respect and Unselfishness..Respect would include respect to others (younger or elder, inferior or superior, male or female), respect to the society, rules, constitution, environment. Ultimately respect to each and every matter and not interrrupting their normal way of action, but inducing the way they can function better. The second part is unselfishness. Again being unselfish is an anomaly. As said by many of the psychologists and economists, human beings are selfish in nature and this matches with the Darwin’s evolution theoy – “survival of the fittest”. But as educated human beings we should realize that we are being endowed with a logical frame of mind which should serve societal cause. There is nothing wrong in being selfish. But there is an extent of being selfish. The selfish character should end when any of the elements to whom we should show respect is affected severely in a way that they are unable to get back to their normal course of action.

Oh! forgot to mention why the article title is empowerment! This article is dedicated to the souls who want to get consciously empowered for societal evolution….

Tanjore Temple

Tanjore is a night’s journey from Chennai. As a tourism spot Tanjore is visited by most of the foreigners who come to India to learn about its culture. Raja Raja Chola during his rule built the Tanjore Brihadeeswarar temple. Otherwise called ‘Big Temple‘ (Periya Koil) the temple was built by the King on a sprawling piece of land. The greatness of this temple is marked by the enormous Lingam – the ‘Brihadeeswarar’ which is the prime deity of the shrine. The tall Lingam is reached by the Gurukkal (priests) through the stairs leading to the top. All the carvings were done by the kingdom’s best artisans. There are even stone figures of all the architects in the main gopuram. One noticeable figure is that of a foreigner who was there at that time and has contributed to the work The Linga measures 9 ft in height, 23.5 ft in circumference. The Linga was brought from the shore of Narmadha river. This Linga is also called as “Raja Rajeswara Mudaiyan ” because of its bright appearance.

The Story of Thirukadaiyoor

The people of Thiru Kadvoor (the holy place in which Goddess Abirami is said to reside) did not like Abirama Bhattar because of his abnormal behaviour. He always appeared immersed in his contemplation of the Goddess and totally unconcerned with worldly matters. When the king of Tanjore, Saraboji made a visit to this town, people complained to him about Abirama Bhattar, and his inexplicable abnormal behavior. The King went to the temple to worship the Mother. At that time, Bhattar was in meditation thinking about Mother’s glowing face. Just then, King approached him with due respect and asked him what the day’s (Thithi) was.Without remembering that the actual thithi of the day was New Moon Day (Amavasya), Abirami Battar mentioned to others that the day was a Full Moon Day (Pournami). Every one burst out laughing at him. The King became incensed with Bhattar’s reply and ordered that he be burnt alive if his words (i.e. the appearance of Full Moon on that day) turned out to be untrue. He was put to test from a hanging platform with lots of fire underneath. Abirami Bhattar realized his mistake and put the blame on the Goddess . He said to her that he had made this mistake only because of her as he had been immersed in thinking about her.. He started singing with complete devotion about the Goddess Abiraami in 100 slokas.Bhattar’s verses or slokas belonged to a class of Tamil poetry called “Andhaathi”. This means that the next poem should start with the ending from the previous one. This required spectacular talent to be able to compose such Andhaathis and it was clearly an instance of Divine Grace that Abirama Bhattar could sing all these beautiful 100 songs in one single night. Another hallmark of Abirami Andhathi is, there is no starting and ending. The first verse starts with “udhikkindra sengathir utchi thilagam….” and the 100th verse ending with ” …… udhikindravE”.
Bhattar’s singing of these spectacular slokas ended with the Goddess Abiraami becoming so pleased that she appeared before him. More wondrously, the Goddess thew her earring (thadanga or kundalam) into the sky which brightened up the horizon in such a manner that it was as if a full bright moon was shining forth!As Bhattar completedng the 79th verse, “vizhikke arulundu vEdam sonna “, his crestfallen challengers, awed by the bright full moon that had suddenly appeared in the sky on what was said to be a New Moon Day realized the awesomeness of the Goddess and her majestic powers. The King tendered his apologies to Abirama Bhattar and prostrated to him with great respect.

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