Why I am a Donkey

Because

I am the Whole; I am Perfection; I am Eternal Bliss.

Yet I delude myself that I am this

 limited, imperfect, unhappy 

combination of Body, Mind and Intellect!

A Tale of Two Swamijis

I was a  bit reluctant to publish this post as I have done my best to avoid negative comments. Yet, the sentiments expressed here are meant to promote thought rather than provoke comment. 

There was a swamiji. He was the local head of a spiritual organization. The swamiji was a great orator. People loved to hear his fiery discourses. Some even felt he was almost like the founder of the organization.

The organization was a registered society. To increase the number of members the organization forced the parents of children joining their schools to become life members. A life member is someone who will be your member till he dies. But these parents lost their interest once their children finished school and went to college and then abroad and so on; some stayed connected. Most did not.

So although there were thousands of LMs on the record only a very few helped the organization. These were people who admired the founder and loved his teachings But  the monthly News-letter had to be sent to ALL the LMs. That was the rule! This cost money!

Now, the swamiji was upset. But as he was a brilliant swamij and he got this idea. So he called a meeting of the LMs. A few attended. At that meeting the swamiji made them pass a resolution that any LM who did not attend two General meetings will cease to be a life member (No! The swamiji will not kill them! But they cannot be life members! How? I don’t know! Luckily I am not a swamiji. ;-)

Then the swamiji called another meeting. The swamiji did not call the meeting. He has to be detached. Someone else did it. In the invitation to that meeting it was stated that any LM who did not come will cease to be one! The LMs who were connected to the organization and who admired the founder came to that meeting.

They came because they valued their membership.

But many LMs did not come. May be they were parents of children who had left the school and had gone to college and then abroad and so on.(I don’t know).

The swamiji was upset. He started haranguing the LMs who had come. He was upset with the people who had not come. But he gave a severe lecture to the people who had come! The swamiji was quite upset. A few people mildly pointed out that some of the things the swamiji was proposing to do were not correct. The swamiji lost his cool then! He pounced on these blasphemers and started accusing them of disloyalty and arrogance,

The swamiji became an Angry Man.

Huh!

An angry man can become  a swamiji by conquering anger,

How can a swamiji become an angry man?

But this is what happened. Forget it.

There was another swamiji. He was a brilliant writer of spiritual essays and books. These essays were published in popular magazines. The swamiji was famous all over the world. He had many rich devotees. These devotees gave him lot of money so that the swamiji could lead a luxurious life. They themselves preferred to live like beggars.

The swamiji liked to have young girls near him. It is good for a young girl to be near a swamiji. But, is it good for the swamiji?

Hinduism says it is better to enjoy life and then become a sanyasi. But many swamijis is think it is better to become swamiji and then enjoy life.

Why can’t we all enjoy our life and allow others to enjoy theirs? You don’t have to be swamiji to be spiritual. Just be a good human being.   

The Here and Now

Verily the Cosmos resides in the Flesh

The Flesh is inside the Cosmos

Thus intertwined and oft intersecting

All that we have is the HERE and NOW;

It is ALL that we can OWN

Sum of ALL that we can KNOW.

Sreesri

Relaxed man--Obviously not married

Some girls make a man go mad by refusing to marry him;

the rest of them do it the other way.

Losing oneself in the Immensity of Life

This year August 15th Independence Day has fallen on Monday giving us a glorious long weekend!

I spent the weekend relaxing on The Big Beach, Puducherry. Though the place is in Puducherry itt's almost Cuddalore. Big Beach is a partr of the Zest Brand of properties. It is really exclusive and has a club house feel rather than a resort. The magnificent view of the green lawns and the sparkling sea beyond is spectacular.

I took time off to sit by the beachside on 14th Evening. Totally at one with nature. Huge sea. Stretching Beach. Sky looming overhead. What are we? A small speck hanging on to the surface of something so immense and large, we do not have the equipment to comprehend fully.

The best one can do is to lose oneself totally in it. Immersed. Enveloped. Surroiunded. A part of it. IT.

No Preparation is the Only Preparation

The Motto of the Boy Scouts is "Be Prepared." But I feel that sometimes its simply better to float with the flow and not plan too far ahead. This is possibly a great change in Paradigm for me as I am a meticulous "planner" and believe in thinking about and preparing for every eventuality. Meticulous planning and review have been quite useful to me in professional and training work. But, as I said, too much of a concern for the future robs us of the here-and-now expereriential joy of living.

Moreover, in a very real sense, who can predict the future? And even assuming we can arrive at degrees of certainty abvout the future, external events cannot be foretold. The recent events in my life have helped me form this view. So many things are just happenstance. But they have a bearing on the quality of our life.

Does this mean that I am against planning as an activity. Not at all; There must be strong focus on a coherent long term strategy which is rooted in values and principles. But, micro-management of the details of day-to-day living may result in fussiness and frustration. Our approach should be robust enough to adapt to changing events while keeping in mind our long term vision and direction. The best metaphor is a river that uses every weakness in the terrain to cut its way through while never losing sight ofd its ultimate direction, the sea!
In the words of Lee Lozowick, " no preperation is the only preparation."

Listening in Silence

LISTEN and SILENT are two words with the same alphabets and are very closely associated. To LISTEN you have to be SILENT!

Glimpses of the Life Eternal

Sometimes in moments of inspired intuition when the ego sublimates, the veil of ignorance is lifted slightly and I glimpse the dizzying splendour of life eternal.

The Flute and the Football

This is a nice story related by Mr. T R Pachamuthu, Chancellor, SRM University in his acceptance speech on receiving the For The Sake of Honor Award from my Rotary Club:

The flute and the football went to God. The football complained that although both of them were essentially filled with air in order to perform their duties, the flute was kissed while it was kicked. God smiled and said, “ You take in all the air and keep it inside, while flute gives out everything that it gets. No wonder that you are kicked and it is kissed!”

I liked this story and related it at a seminar on the Seven Habits at Chennai. I was giving the participants who were senior Chartered Accountants an overview of the Seven Habits and my own experiences in internalizing them. I repeated this story in the context of Being Proactive. One of the participants Mr. Sekhar a Chartered Accountant gave a different take on this story. He made the point that the football could never follow God’s advice because its role demanded that it retained the air. The role of the flute as a corollary precludes retaining even an mg. of air that it gets. He brought out clearly the need for role clarity without unnecessary emotional overtones.

I continue to marvel at how different people view the same thing so differently!

A thought to begin the year

And let no one imagine that it is a mere fancy, the attaching of importance to the birth of the year. The earth passes through its definite phases and man with it; and as a day can be coloured so can a year. The astral life of the earth is young and strong between Christmas and Easter. Those who form their wishes now will have added strength to fulfill them consistently.

—H. P. Blavatsky

Lucifer, January, 1888

Imagine the Earth devoid of human life, inhabited only by plants and animals. Would it still have a past and a future? Could we still speak of time in any meaningful way? The question “What time is it?” or “What’s the date today?” — if anybody were to ask it —would be quite meaningless. The oak tree or the eagle would be bemused by such a question. “What time?” they would ask. “Well, of course, it’s now. The time is now. What else is there?”—Eckhart Tolle in “The Power of Now”.

Throughout the recent Coonoor trip, I did not wear a watch. Nor did I plan anything based on time schedules. I went with the flow enjoying every minute as it came to me and allowing it to pass by without regret or happiness.

I am slowly understanding the meaning of silence and its role in promoting true happiness. Sometimes words are inadequate. Silence alone can satisfy certain situations. I continue my experiments with silence.

Silence promotes contemplation.

Silence promotes listening.

Silence Promotes Concentration.

Silence promotes understanding.

Silence forces the other person to make himself clearer by speaking from his heart.

When I speak I ASSUME; so I make an ASS of U and ME.

When I am silent there are no assumptions. So I don’t make an ASS of U and ME!

Ayn Rand and Covey

One of the studentsat GITAM, Ms. Moithri, who hails from Bengal really impressed me with her erudition . She was one of the three in thee class who confirmed that they had read Ayn Rand’s seminal works. During the break we were chatting in the coffee shop when she remarked that she had liked Fountainhead rather than Atlas Shrugged. I personally prefer the latter over the former as I feel Roark the hero of Fountainhead is a bit too idealistic. I remarked that Ayn Rand’s philosophy was utopian and that applying it in real life would be highly impractical due to the essential complexities inherent therein. It is so easy to develop a philosophical theory within the construct of a novel where the writer has the power to “ignore” or suitably “modify” uncomfortable issues.

Ms. Moithri agreed in principle and went on to state that in this sense the Seven Habits of Covey though essentially idealistic are more practical and provide an approach that is holistic and can be applied in all aspects of our life. Due to the consistent efforts to practice the Seven Habits in my life, I firmly believe that there is a Seven Habits solution for all conceivable managerial and personal issues. I raise my hat to the lady in admiration and appreciation.

The Dice Game

It must be reiterated a thousand thousand times that Hinduism is a monotheistic religion! There is only One creator/Supporter/Destroyer! Hinduism does not prescribe worship of idols! A true Hindu can easily repeat the first half of the first Kalima—There is no God except God. In fact this monotheistic base so clearly brought out in the vedic mantra “Ekam Eva Advatiyam” (There is only One..No Two!) The vedic hymns are essentially in praise of a formless One. This formless one is praised in its manifold manifestations. It is here that the problem starts.

Even Visistadvita or Vaishnavism contemplates the following five secret stages of Sripathy Sriman Narayana: Paramapatha, Vyuha, Vibhava, Antharyamithva and Archroopa in the order of ease of access. In this sense the Archa Roopa or idol form is very simple and easy to reach for the devotee. But later he will slowly (depending on his ability and willingness and more importantly his vasanas from previous births) transcend each stage till he is always with the One in thought, speech and action. In this sense he will finally become immersed in the lord. But before reching this stage, it is necessary to have an object for focus and that is the idol. Around this idol worship both in Temples and at home a whole mountain of ritual and misconceptions have arisen, obliterating the true meaning and symbolism behind the actions and words. Be that as it may, here is Swami Chinmayananda on the Vibhootis of the Supreme Lord (The Divine Glories by which He exists, pervading all these worlds) as described in the tenth chapter of the Bhagavad Gita:

“Verses 21 to 38 of the tenth chapter enumerate 75 vibhootis of the Lord. Herein, Lord Krsna provides 75 thoughts to help seekers who are on the path of knowledge to meditate upon and intensify their integration and sharpen their single-pointedness. These are 75 independent exercises in meditation. (The first person pronoun “I” herein refers to the Lord).”

The tenth chapter is a favorite of G Ramachandran who frequently quotes from the 75 Vibhootis. In his letter he refers to the line Sleight of hand I am in the Dice Game! (In all fairness this is a liberal transliteration of the actual line which is “I am the gambling of the fraudulent”(10:36). But the point is well made. The Lord is that which masks our rational thinking in the dice-game. This colossal fraud keeps us constantly “in the game”. The solution is to open our eyes with His help and see the game for what it is…a zero-sum Win/Lose game! Then the Lord will fulfill his final promise: “The Knowledge of the Knowers am I”. (10:38)

Pakistan Bina Hindusthan Adhora Hai

I received a letter from Mr. G Ramachandran today. He is a relative in the sense he is the father-in-law of my wife’s elder sister. But, my friendship with him has been more on an intellectual plane, that transcends the gross ties of relationship. Formerly of the Indian Archeological Service, he is a highly learned person and a veritable encyclopedia of Sanskrit aphorisms. Casual references in a conversation will start him off on a discourse on a line from the Gita or Valmiki! He is going to celebrate his eightieth birthday in August. Even at this age he keeps reading voraciously. I share books that I am reading with him. Recently I was gifted the book “The Difficulty of Being Good” by my good friend B Ramakrishnan. I had lent it to G Ramachandran. Here is his outpouring on paper of his reactions after reading the book:

My dear Sreedharan Sreekanth (Many people spell my name this way!)

You are burdening (me?) with your deep love towards me. The book “The Difficulty of Being Good” is an epitome of Mahabharatha. Mahabharatha is only a two-dimensional tome (Book) of our country which is Mahabharatha with dimensions to infinity. Its vastness extended beyond the present truncated one.

GR quotes Ex-Prime Minister Mr. Vajpai here. When the Pak Prime Minister remarked that “Kashmir Bina Pakistan Adhora Hai.” (Without Kashmir Pakistan is incomplete ), the rebuttal which was quite witty was ‘Pakisthan Bina Hinusthan Adhora Hai. ( Hindusthan is incomplete without Pakistan).

GR links the present conflicts in the north and south with the puranic conflicts. The conflict is not of a present nature but continuing from Mahabharatha of yore! The Southern most part of our Mahabharat is divided where the Rama-Ravana conflict existed in itihas period. It nothing but continuation of ancient itihasa period to modern itihasa period!

G Ramachandran makes his lightning changes in topic and moves on to the transition from Ramavatar to Krishnavatar. In the Mahabharat Krishna is the sole hero playing his dice game most efficiently. What is this dice game? In the next blog.

Purity of Thought

Speech Sullies thought.

The purest thoughts are made unclean as they are stated in words spoken or written.

Conceptualization loses in verbalization.

Communication, then, is the process of improving the efficiency in conversion pf pure thoughts human sensible words.

Sreesri

No one is Normal

No one is normal.

There are only degrees of abnormality.

A majority of us operate at acceptable degrees of abnormality.

Sreesri

The Fountainhead of Creativity

I keep hearing that the movie “Ravan” Starring Vikram and Aishwarya Rai is based on Ramayan where Vikram is Ravan and the First Lady of India is Sita. Attempts to reinterpret Ramayan and project Ravan as a hero are rife in India, especially in Tamilnadu.

We have great thinkers like E V R Periyar painting Ravan as a representative of the downtrodden Dravidians, and more particularly, the Tamil races and Ram as the embodiment of the Aryan invasion of Dravidian lands south of the Vindhyas.

Many of our Dravidian brethren proudly display the name plate Ravanan outside their government cabins little realizing that Ravan was a pure Brahmin and son of a Maharishi. He took great pride in his assiduity in performing the Vedic rituals and was himself the greatest exponent of Sam Ved in his time!

Mahakavi Bharathiyar has also attempted a spoof of the Ramayan all be it in humorous vein.

In recent times we have the great Drama Actor and Director R S Manohar reinventing the role of Ravan as a benign and valiant hero who slipped and met his downfall due to his own arrogance. In this version, Sita is portrayed as Ravan’s daughter!

Many social dramas and movies have used metaphors from the Ramayan to depict love for children, love for wife, devotion to master, love for brother and so on.

The point is, with so much already done, how will merely moving the basic story of the Ramayan into a twenty first century context be new or different. Wait and hope…I suppose!

The broader question is when did the fountainhead of creativity of our artists and intellectuals dry up and our collective genius become so impoverished that we are unable to think of better and more modern themes and are forced to ransack old and bygone themes or make feeble attempts to reenact old success stories?

When will Tamil Cinema produce an Ameer Khan or, for that matter, another Kamal Hasan or a K Balachnder or a Bharathi Raja again? While KB changed the themes, BR changed the locale and the construct. At least, they did their best to remain honest unto themselves.

The Five Elements

09.06.2010

Rituals are acts that are performed repeatedly. They derive their meanings from their association with past events. When we are aware of why we we do something, what we are doing becomes enhanced and leads to the mental attitudes of humility, reverence and prayerful expectation which are the foundations of success in any activity.

I attended the Ganapathi Homam at Mahalinga Puram Ayyappan Temple. The Ganapathi Homam is performed at this temple between 4:30 AM and 5:30 AM. This is the Brahma Muhurtham. The Tantric Ritual is performed by the Tantri with the appropriate gesture or Mudra.

The sacrificial fire grew high and the tongues of flame came out of the mouth of Agni (God of Fire) to accept the sacrificial offerings.

When I left the temple, there was no sign of rain. But on my way back, there was heavy wind movement. The wind blew with a circular movement. The trees and other tall structures not firmly attaached to the ground were swaying as Vayu (The God of Wind) blew hither and thither.

Thereafter it rained heavily for about two hours. The blessed Varuna (God of Rain) made the earth wet, preparing it for growth and prosperity.

Later I visited the Rathna Girishwarar temple at Besant Nagar. As I prostrated myself before the Linga Rup of Shiv, my foreheat touched the Earth (Bhoomi) reminding me of the ultimate destination of the body.

Finally, as I stood before the Shrine of the Devi with her benign smiling face, bedecked with golden ornaments and adorned in all her splendor I glimpsed, for a nano second, the infinite Aakash within me and for that minuscule moment in time became at one and aligned with the Life Principle from which we emerge, with which we fail to converge and into which we shall ultimately merge. .

In the Begining...

In the beginning there was an immense amount of energy; this energy was directionless, formless, devoid of content, and importantly purposeless. This huge energy force discovered a miniscule mass, an atom, of matter and entered it.

When an infinite force enters a microscopic space the result is a massive explosion. This explosion enabled the matter to expand, take forms and shapes having names, to evolve as such into what we now call the universe. The universe is made up matter pervaded by energy.

The energy is inert in some forms of matter whilst in others it is exuberant. These exuberant forms further evolved to become various life forms and sentient beings.

Gene Carriers

This is a photo of my son Srivatsan with my parents. As I took this photo, I could not help but feel that we are no more than Gene carriers passing on the gene from one generation to the next.

Children are our greatest chance to rectify the mistakes of our life and prevent them from being repeated again by another generation.

Penance is not in a lengthy Beard

Contemplating on the Paramahansa Nithyananda debacle, one wonders what is true Sanyas? Is it merely the outward showw of penance such as saffron robes, long hair or shaven head or is it an inner peace that emanates from the attainment of perfect balance with the whole universe?

Thiruvalluvar, the Divine Poet is emphatic in Kural 280 when he says, "There is no use of Shaven Crown, nor of tangled long hair if a man abstains from those deeds which the wise have condemned."

So emphatic is his condemnation of those who defraud the public in the guise of Sanyaasis. In fact the main thrust of the 28th chapter of the Thirukural is to warn the gullible about the wiles of these charlatans who have the external appearance of monks but are rogues at heart.

I am also reminded of a great poem which goes like this:

Penance is not in the lengthy beard;

Knowledge is not in clever argument;

The world cannot be contained in your shoulder bag.