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 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 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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