Remain cool and composed.. come whatever may..

न पृथग्जनवच्छुचो वशं वशिनामुत्तम गन्तुमर्हसि।

द्रुमसानुमतां किमन्तरं यदि वायौ द्वितीयेऽपि ते चलाः॥ ९०

काळिदासमहाकविप्रणीते रघुवंशे अष्टमे सर्गे॥

na pṛthagjanavacchuco vaśaṁ vaśināmuttama gantumarhasi|

drumasānumatāṁ kimantaraṁ yadi vāyau dvitīyepi te calāḥ|| 90

kāḻidāsamahākavipraṇīte raghuvaṁśe aṣṭame sarge||

When a whirlwind blows, trees would shake and be uprooted.. But the mountains would just remain erect and unmoving.. 

The character of the great is revealed there..

This situation is driven home by the great poet Kalidasa in the eighth chapter of his great Kavyam.. Raghuvamsham

Aja a great emperor of the Solar Race ( He is the father of Dasharatha) married the beautiful princes Indumathi in a swayamvara.. and the couple lived happily for a long time.. 

The princess was actually a divine damsel who had come to earth due to the curse of a sage.. 

The release from the curse happened when a flower from the heaven fell on her.. 

Immediately she attained her divine form, left the earthly human bodies and joined the Apsaras in heaven..

Aja was overcome with unbearable grief.. 

His pathetic laments grieving the separation of his lady love is the legendary Aja Vilapam.. 

A masterpiece in literature of pathos in Sanskrit.

However, life had to go on.. 

Sage Vasishta, the purohita and guru of the Solar race came to know of the depressive state of mind suffered by the emperor.. The sage was in a Yajna Deeksha and could not visit the king in person and console him..

Therefore he left a message through one of his disciples..

The inevitability of death and departure was clearly underlined in the message..

Vasishta further reminds the Emperor that ordinary people had the choice to grieve but men of Aja's stature and nobility were expected to be stoic and bold and were expected to show boldness under any circumstances..

The sloka quoted above appears in the Raghuvamsha Mahakavyam in this context.

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Meaning.

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You, the noble king of a great dynasty, you who is expected to be the role model for other, you must not become slave to excessive grief, as is the habit of ordinary human beings.

Tell me, what is the difference between a tree standing on the groud and a mountain with many cliffs standing firm on the earth if both shake and fall when they face a torrential wind..

The tree can afford to fall and collapse.. not the mountain..

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In crisis situations men of character are expected to remain calm and stoic, come whatever may..

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word analysis 

वशिनां उत्तम oh best among exemplary people

त्वं you 

पृथक्जनवत् just like ordinary people 

शुचो of grief

वशं गन्तुं becoming dependent, getting overwhelme 

न अर्हसि do not deserve, should not permit yourself

द्रुम सानुमतां between a tree and a range of mountains 

किं अन्तरं what is the differnce 

यदि if 

वायौ in the wind, in the whirlwind or cyclone

ते द्वितीये both of them

अपि चलाः भवतः.become disturbed, move and sway, in a similar fashion..

Musings 54

Someone quoted.. When we think all the doors are closed on us and are locked too, we fail to understand that some closed doors might not be locked at all.

My thoughts on it

"There are no locks and keys and even doors in reality..

either the lock or the key or even the door is in our minds..

with a little care and diligence we can remove the locks, keys or even the doors..

But any purpose would be served if and only if we have something original to contribute..

There is a saying in Malayalam.. പൂച്ച കണ്ണടച്ചാല്‍ ലോകം അസ്തമിക്കില്ല.. The world will not disappear just because the cat closes its eyes.

Often we just close our eyes.. or our minds and think that everything is over..everything has disappeared 

Only we are responsible for that.. 

Our eyes can be opened only by ourselves.."

Chonnam goes to Mundur..

In our agraharam.. there is a story about Chonnam going to mundur .. Chonnam Mundoorukku pona pole..ചൊണ്ണം മുണ്ടൂരുക്ക് പോന പോലെ 

Our agraharam is in the heart of Palakkad town.. and Mundur is a place about twelve kilometers away from here.. a place en route to Mannarkad.. and Mundur is semi hilly.. and full of very fertile arable lands.
The brahmins of the agraharam in yonder years, owned a lot of agricultural lands there..

They would leave the lands in the control of tenants and a few would visit there often and stay in temporary shelters called kalappura.. Such kalappuras were used for extra curricular activities too.. That is a different story.

One brilliant mama in our village had an equally brilliant son whom he christened Swarnam (Swarnapureeswaran or something like that).. and assigned a pet name of Chonnam..


This mama had extensive areas of agriculture lands in Mundur..
He wanted to inspect the progress of agricultural activity and the activities of the tenants at Mundur and also wanted to collect something in cash or kind from them for the daily use of the family..

So one evening he called his darling son Chonnam and told him


Chonnam nee nalaikku kaarthaale mundurukku ponam..
ചൊണ്ണം നീ നാളയ്ക്ക് കാര്ത്താലെ മുണ്ടൂരുക്ക് [പോകണം

you should go to Mundur tomorrow morning.

The obedient son agreed as if the fathers order is a Vedavakyam


The next morning the sun rose, and the father was searching for the son to leave instructions as to what he should do at Mundur

He called the golden boy.. and there was no response..
Then he enquired about the whereabouts of his wise son.

No one around  had any clue.


All knew that the  august presence of Chonnam was not felt since early morning..

But by ten O clock in the morning, the son was sighted, running back after a long, long trek

Nee engeda ponaay..  നീ എങ്കേഡാ പോനായ് ? where did you go.. asked the father.

Pat came the reply... Neengal Chonna pole Mundurukku poyittu Vandaachu..    നീങ്കള്‍ ചൊന്ന പോലെ മുണ്ടൂരുക്ക് പോയിട്ട് വന്താച്ചു   I have gone to Mundur and come back as per your directions..

Enthukku daa ponaay.. എന്തുക്ക് ഡാ പോനായ് ? what was the purpose of your travel.. asked the father..

Appa, neengal athu chollalaye.... അപ്പാ നീങ്കള്‍ അത് ചൊല്ലലയെ father , you did not tell me that..

The son had obeyed his father to the dot.. but with no purpose served..

A brilliant father, an equally brilliant son whose weight is worth is gold.. and a great journey..

This anecdote might be found in the annals of many paatti stories with different heroes and dramatis personae..
But our agraharam story goes like this..

We iyers though brilliant in many ways, are capable of extremely absurd actions.. innocently but foolishly..

Share and be blessed.. grab and be ruined.

.

मोघमन्नं विन्दते अप्रचेता सत्यं ब्रवीमि वध इत्स तस्य।

नार्यमणं विन्दति नो सखायं केवलाघो भवति केवलादी॥

ऋग्वेद १०-१७-६

moghamannaṁ vindate apracetā satyaṁ bravīmi vadha itsa tasya|

nāryamaṇaṁ vindati no sakhāyaṁ kevalāgho bhavati kevalādī||

ṛgveda 10-17-6

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A very thought- provoking message from Rigvedam.. 

The mantram underlines the importance of social commitments and our duty of sharing of the resources with others..

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The simple mindless person eats and eats away food (annam) more and more..

But actually he is just eating away and going to face (unceremonious) death round the corner.

A fellow who just eats away without sharing and without perfoming his duties never would acquire the blessing of the Aryaman.. 

Nor will he gain any friends

One who merely eats all alone will be all alone in suffering for his sins.

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Aryaman.. is the God of manes of Pitrs. 

The word Aryaman means "Close friend".. bosom play companinon' 

He is the son of Aditi and Kashyapa.

He is the protector of Mares, the presiding deity of the Milky way galaxy..

And in Rigvedam which is the earliest Veda, He is of equal status of Mitra, Varuna Bhaga, Brihaspati etc

There are suggestions in Rigvedam that even Indra the leader of gods receives favours from Aryaman..

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Remember this mantra..

शं नो मित्रः शं वरुणः शं नो भवतु अर्यमा शं न इन्द्रो बृहस्पति शं नो विष्णुः उरुक्रमः..sham not mitraH sham varuna sham no bhavatu aryamaaa sham na indro brihaspati sham to vishnuH urukramaH.

( May Mitra bring us welfare.. May Varuna Bring us welfare May Aryama bring us welfare.. May Indra bring us welfare.. May Brihaspati bring us welfare.. May Vishnu who pervades the whole universe bring us welfare..

evolution of Mahabharatham

नारायणं नमस्कृत्य नरं चैव नरोत्तमं देवीं सरस्वतीं व्यासं ततो जयं उदीरयेत्

Narayanam namaskritya naram chaiva narottamam 

deveem saraswatheem vyaasam tato jayam udeerayet..

Jeyam is treated as the primary synopsis of events originally conceived and which in due course got elaborated to eighteen huge Parvas or chapters of the epic Mahabharatham ..

It would appear that Jeyam has got included in the first Parva of Bharatham already..

And it seems that part of it has crept into subsequent parvas too..

Many descriptions of the same incidents or episodes have minor or even major variations in the narratives in different Parvas..

but no attempt has been made by any ancient author to cover up the contradictions..

It is a Herculean task to read the whole of Mahabharatham.. and even when I attempted that with the huge translated material of Kisari Mohan Ganguly,

I found that the Sanskrit text in original is too much of a challenge.. 

Moreover there are many versions of Mahabharatham .. of Vyasa himself as available across India and many incidents that are included in some editions are not finding place in other editions..

Often hundreds of chapters found in some editions are missing in some other editions..

So we can read, enjoy, evaluate and derive benefit.. 

but we may not succeed if we dig too much into the historical authenticity of all parts of Mahabharatham..

Not only with Mahabharatham, this is the case with many ancient texts too..

For example part of Balakandam and the whole of Uttarakandam in Valmikiramayanam are held as interpolations by scholars, 

and they have based their views on the style of narration and grammatical style and such factors..

Sanskrit was a living language for millenniums and the language evolved.. 

But thanks to the very sane and crisp approach of the greats like Panini, the basic foundation of the language has been enduring and consistent in spite of all the vagaries of space, time and attitudes..

Most other languages lost their shape even within four or five centuries.. 

Take the case of English which we use here.. an article in this language written five centuries ago will be abracadabra for almost anyone today..