pachai maamalai pol mene

Showing posts with label kumarasambhavam. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kumarasambhavam. Show all posts

Thursday, June 12, 2025

exchange seven words



a friendship between two nice people, according to Indian culture can happen if the two exchange seven words,, (it is not mentioned whether it is spoken or written words) or alternately taking seven steps together..
This is significance of Sapthapadi in marriage..
Kalidasa in Kumarasambhavam endorses this, when Siva in the Guise of a Brahmachari tells Uma..
यतः सतां संनतगात्री संगतं मनीषिभिः साप्तपदीनं उच्यते..
yatah sataam sannatagaatri sangatham maneeshibhiH saaptapadeenam uchyate..
Meaning.. Oh damsel of very slim and well shaped body,
it is said by the wise people that the friendship between nice people is established by conversation of even just seven words.."(saaptapadeenam can mean seven steps by foot too, that is walking together just seven feet)

Wednesday, March 20, 2024

Physical fitness comes first



Physical fitness comes first
Uma the Patvathi is doing penance in a forest in Himalayas to gain Shiva as her husband.
Shiva visits the place to test her.
He has disguised himself as a young brahmachari.
Parvathi receives him with honours due to such a personage.
He is enquiring about her welfare.
अपि क्रियार्थं सुलभं समित्कुशं जलान्यपि स्नानविधिक्षमाणि ते।
अपि स्वशक्त्या तपसि प्रवर्तसे शरीरमाद्यं खलु धर्मसाधनम्।।
api kriyArthaM sulabhaM samit kushaM
jalAnyapi snAnavidhikSamANi te.
api svashaktyA tapasi pravartase
sharIramaadhyaM khalu dharmasAdhanaM..
""Are you getting twigs and darbha grass easily for your daily rituals in connection with the tapas?
Are the waters here suited well for your ritualistic bath?
Are you doing penance within the limits of physical strength you have?
Remember , the body (its fitness) is the foremost requirement for achieving the merits through spiritual practices.
( this is the meaning of the full sloka which occurs in kalidasas kumarasmbuavam 5th chapter )
കായിക ക്ഷമതയാണ് ഏറ്റവും പ്രധാനം
ദേവി ഉമാ പാര്‍വതി ഭഗവാന്‍ ശങ്കരനെ വരിക്കാനായി ഹിമാലയ ത്തിന്‍റെ താഴ്വരയിലെ ഒരു ആശ്രമത്തില്‍ തപസ്സനുഷ്ടിക്കുന്നു. അവളുടെ പ്രേമത്തിന്‍റെ ആഴം പരീക്ഷിച്ച് അറിയാനായി ഭഗവാന്‍ സ്വയം ഒരു യുവാവായ ബ്രഹ്മചാരിയുടെ വേഷത്തില്‍ ആ ആശ്രമം സന്ദര്‍ശിക്കുന്നു.
ദേവി ഭഗവാനെ അത്തരം ഒരു വിശിഷ്ട അതിഥിയ്ക്ക് അനുയോജ്യമായ മര്യാദകള്‍ സമര്‍പ്പിച്ച് ആദരപൂര്‍വ്വം സ്വാഗതം ചെയ്യുന്നു.
ബ്രഹ്മചാരി(ഭഗവാന്‍) ദേവിയുടെ തപസ്സിനെക്കുറിച്ചും അത് ചെയ്യുമ്പോള്‍ അവര്‍ക്ക് അഭിമുഖീകരിക്കേണ്ടി വരുന്ന ശാരീരികമായ പ്രയത്നത്തെക്കുറിച്ചും എല്ലാം ഏറെ കരുതലോടെ അന്വേഷിച്ച് അറിയുവാന്‍ ശ്രമിക്കുകയാണ്.
അപി ക്രിയാര്‍ത്ഥം സുലഭം സമിത് കുശം ജലാന്യപി സ്നാന വിധി ക്ഷമാണി തേ
അപി സ്വശക്ത്യാ തപസി പ്രവര്‍ത്തതേ ശരീരമാദ്യം ഖലു ധര്‍മ്മ സാധനം. ഭദ്രെ, തപസ്സിന്‍റെ ഭാഗമായി
“ഭവതി ദിവസേന ചെയ്യേണ്ടുന്ന അഗ്നിക്രിയകള്‍ക്ക് ആവശ്യമായ ചമതയും ദര്‍ഭയും എല്ലാം ഇഷ്ടം പോലെ ലഭിക്കുന്നുണ്ടോ ?
ഭവതിയുടെ സ്നാനതിന് അനുയോജ്യമായ ജലം തന്നെയാണോ ലഭിക്കുന്നത്.?
ഭവതി സ്വന്തം കഴിവും കായികശക്തിയും അനുവദിക്കുന്ന പരിധിക്കുള്ളില്‍ വര്‍ത്തിച്ചുകൊണ്ട് മാത്രമാണല്ലോ തപസ്സില്‍ ഏര്‍പ്പെടുന്നത് ?
ഓര്‍ക്കുക, എത്ര ഉന്നതമായ ധര്‍മ്മം നേടിയെടുക്കാന്‍ ശ്രമിക്കുകയാണെങ്കിലും സ്വന്തം ശരീരത്തിന്‍റെ കഴിവും കാര്യക്ഷമതയും അതിന്നനുസരിച്ച് അനുയോജ്യം തന്നെയാണോ എന്ന കാര്യം എപ്പോഴും ശ്രദ്ധിക്കണം. എന്തും നേടിയെടുക്കാന്‍ ആദ്യം വേണ്ടത് ശാരീരികമായ ശേഷി ആണ്. “
(മുകളില്‍ കൊടുത്ത ശ്ലോകം കാളിദാസ മഹാകവിയുടെ കുമാരസംഭവം അഞ്ചാം സര്‍ഗ്ഗത്തില്‍ കാണുന്നതാണ്. )

Wednesday, July 12, 2023

the perfect is yet to come..



the perfect is yet to come..
वर्णप्रकर्षे सति कर्णिकारे दुनोति निर्गन्धतया स्म चेतः।
प्रायेण सामग्र्यविधौ गुणानां पराङ्ग्मुखी विश्वसृजः प्रवृत्तिः॥
कालिदासप्रणीते कुमारसम्भवे महाकव्ये ३-२६
varṇaprakarṣe sati karṇikāre dunoti nirgandhatayā sma cetaḥ|
prāyeṇa sāmagryavidhau guṇānāṁ parāṅgmukhī viśvasṛjaḥ pravṛttiḥ||
kālidāsapraṇīte kumārasambhave mahākavye 3-26
----------
A very interesting quote from Kumarasambhavam of Kalidasa.. Sargam 3
--------------
The yajna of Daksha is over.. and Mother Sati has immolated herself in the sacrificial fire.. Carrying her burning body the crying Rudra ran across the length and breadth of india, and Vishnu followed him to pacify him.. in vain.. As rudra was running helter skelter, vishnu sent his discus again and again and cut down parts of the burning body of Sati the Dakhaayani , and wherever a part fell becam a holy Shakthi Sthala in India.. Thus Her body covers the entire hallowed land of Bharatha Varsha.
Shiva whose mind became almost blank after losing the Shakthi, is in solemn penance.. indifferent to everything.
The enemies of the gods are on the increase and only the Son born to Shiva can conquer them and restore peace for the Devas..
Shiva who is single now after the tragic fire accident to Mother Sati, and is singularly averse to any external attention or pleasure had to be united with the Divine mother so that the Divine couple can beget a worthy son.
To achieve this object the penance of Shiva is to be broken.. and he has to be brought back to lovely worldly thoughts.
Sati is already reborn as Uma the darling daughter of Himavan.. And Shiva is doing penace nearby in the beautiful valley of Himavan..
The Devas depute the god of love Kamadaeva, on a mission to stir up the meditative Lord Shiva from his penance..
It is indeed a risky job..
The Lord can be quite destructive if he is disturbed against his will..
But Kamadeva, the Manmatha has no choice..
He had to send his flowery darts on the Lord in meditation , even at the risk of his own life..
The God of love Kamadeva sets out on his mission in the company of his lovely wife Rati, and his constant companion, Madhava..
They enter the forest where the Lord is doing penance.. It is spring time..
As they enter the forest they see the Karnikara.. Kanikkonna കണിക്കൊന്ന Konnai. in full bloom with golden yellow flowers all over.. the flowers covering the trees even submerging the green leaves, and covering the entire area with the beauty of the golden colour of the flowers..
But then the poet finds that the Creator Brahma never endows perfection to anything..
The spring is beautiful..
The flowers are beautiful to watch..
In that perfect backdrop,
it would have been a befitting tribute to nature if these attractive flowers were endowed with catching fragrance too..
But that was not to be so..
The flowers did not have any fragrance..
---------------
The meaning of the slokam is
========-
On seeing the play of golden colour lighting up the Karnikara flowers the mind of the viewer while being ecstatic at the beauty, becomes inexplicably sad because of the thought that these beauties are not endowed with fragrance..
One is tempted to think regretfully of quirkly reluctance of the Creator Brahma in hol endowing perfection or completeness in any of his creations..
==========
Yes, God has not created anything as perfect..Perhaps he reserves the perfection for himself.. or pehaps for his final creation which is yet to come..
--------
The story continues.. Kamadeva sends his dart of flowers on the Lord, the lord opens his eyes in anger.. the lord of love is turned to ashes..
But then the mind of the lord Shiva stirs.. in time He meets Uma doing penacnce in the same forest.. He marries Her.. The son Kumara is born..
Kumara or Karthikeya is anointed as the commander in Chief of the army of Gods.. He defeats the demons like Tharaka and restores peace and plenty for the Gods..
The pathetic lamenatations of Rati.. the heart rending cries that reverberated the valleys of Himalyas.. after her beautiful husband Kamadeva is burnt to ashes.. converted to beautiful verses called Rathivilaapam.. is one of the classical situations of pathos in the annals of Sanskrit literature.. or for that matter any type of poetry ever written..
Regards.
k v ananthanarayanan.

Tuesday, February 07, 2017

न रत्नम् अन्विष्यति मृग्यते हि तत्



॥न रत्नम् अन्विष्यति मृग्यते हि तत्॥
|ṁa ratnam anviṣyati mṛgyate hi tat||

A precious stone does not run around the marketplace canvassing its own sale.. Wherever it is, it would be sought after by the genuine seekers.

This statement occurs in the great Mahakavyam of Kalidasa, "Kumarasambhava"

Uma is seen doing penance and undergoing severe austerities to get Shankara as her husband

Once the lord visits her in her hermitage, and seeing austerities observed by such a rich, attractive and accomplished her, He is just wondering why she was subjecting herself to such penance..
He goes on to say that for a girl of her beauty and status, eminent suitors would throng around he fathers abode, and it was meaningless to do penance..

A precious Gem need not canvas for itself..

Elsewhere we find

यस्य नैसर्गिकी शोभा तन्न संस्कारमर्हति।
कः कलाम् शशिनो मार्ष्टि कौस्तुभः केन रज्यते॥
yasya naisargikī śobhā tanna saṁskāramarhati|
kaḥ kalām śaśino mārṣṭi kaustubhaḥ kena rajyate||।

an object which has inherent lustre (greatness) will not require further embellishments to make it presentable or marketable. nobody travels to moon to clean its surface, nor anyone ever tries to polish the Kaustuba gem adorning the bosom of Krishna.

I think the modern marketing pundits and many activists in Social Media will not entirely agree.

Window dressing and packaging are part of their promotion drives...
they will better try to polish a metallic piece to such perfection that it sells in the market as lunar crescent

and
with a grinding stone and a more grinding tongue they may market a pebble as the original Gem Kaustubham

and

also make people believe that Krishna in his austerity drive has already sent his prime gem for auction

Monday, September 22, 2014

the five great sins



the five great sins



the five mahapathakams or five  most heinous sins according to Hindu belief are

ब्रह्महत्या सुरापानं स्तेयं गुर्वङ्गनागमः । महान्ति पातकान्याहुः संसर्गश्चापि तैः सह.l
manusmriti 11-54

Killing learned men 
Drinking hooch 
Stealing
 Desecrating the preceptor's bed 

and finally the act of supporting or helping in any of the four acts above..

Yes, we believe that abetting a wrong deed is as bad as committing it.

न केवलं यो महतो अपभाषते शृणोति तस्मादपि यः स पापभाक्

Not only the one who scandalizes or insults others but those who hear that ( and support it covertly or openly ) are also partners in the sin..

This is what Kalidasa puts in his Mahakavyam-- Kumarasambhavam -- in the words of Uma

Thursday, July 12, 2012

to measure one's own mind



I think the difficulty we face is that we are trying to measure the possibilities lying within our own mind using the same mind.

Just think how difficult it is to cut the knife with the same knife unless we break it into two.

 If it is possible to stimulate some particular part of the mind and shield and insulate  it with something like cellwalls or air-tight separations just like something  we find in vegetable cells and isolate on part of the mind from the other parts of the mind, we may be able to gain greater insights by using that isolated part of the mind in probing the activities of the other parts of our own min. 

.One learned friend was telling about concentration in one of his posts. The aim of the premier concepts of yoga starting from the chittavrittinirodha is aimed at this concentration, but the Endocrinol flows in the biological body often prove to be roadblocks. 

 Chemistry and spirituality get into conflict here. .

 The upward flow of kundalini energy is envisaged somewhat as an antidote to our hormonal flows.
 The famous dhyanamantrm of Viswaroopa shiva.. 
ऋतम् सत्यम् परंब्रह्म पुरुषम् कृष्णपिङ्गलं ऊर्ध्वरेतम् विरूपाक्षं विश्वरूपाय वै नमः
ṛtam satyam paraṁbrahma puruṣam kṛṣṇapiṅgalaṁ ūrdhvaretam virūpākṣaṁ viśvrūpāya vai namaḥ

Here the lord after controlling all his senses is having a flow of semen upward through his Sushumna.
.He is called uurdhwaretaaH..

That is why when Shanmugha was to be born the life energy emanated from Shiva's  five faces and also his Sahasraara face.. 

If people really reach such stages connection with the superior wisdom may be possible-- it is only a speculation.. 

The ancient rishis who discovered mantras including  Gayatri ( they are called manthradhrishtaas) achieved such discoveries by such intense concentration of their own minds with the universal wisdom.. like we do of electromagnetic waves of the various measurable frequencies.
But the difficulty is that even the best of the minds of the yore had only partial experiences, and even when they would have had experiences, such experiences were either not properly documented, or were not capable of documentation and whatever that was documented has been more or less lost.

 The kindling of the intellect by the superior bharga of Savita (is it the Sun we see?) as prayed in the mother of mantras Gayatri reflects the yearning of the human mind to connect with the supreme mind.

 No one can say anything categorically on this point because the experiences may not be similar or complete for different minds. 

Still everyone would have experience some elation or foreboding when some good or bad news is about to arrive.

 These premonitions are also perhaps part of this package.
This is also one of the reason why people are advised to remain optimistic, because negative thoughts originating especially in trained and strong minds can find resonance in some distant superior mind and might bring about the feared catastrophe. 

This premonition is used to great advantage by the astrologers and soothsayers.

Ma and Tha put together makes a word which is holier than the holiest..Maatha... of course it is not the same tha in malayalam..

And  they talk a lot about the hasta mudras, chinmudraas.. etc.
 Jagatguru Dakshinamruthy sit under a Vata vriksha and the disciples sanatkumaras sat around him and they exchanged knowledge in silence.. 
"gurosthu maunam vyaakhyaanam shishyaastu chchinna smashayaaH.". 

Symbols which are perceived by mind need not be vocal or visual.

 We talk about the transfer of energy quanta.. can we define the shape of the quantum? 

We may use some symbol in science, but it is only for the person who have learned the language of that faculty.

 But the transfer of knowledge between the supreme mind and the receptor human mind is direct.. and no platform or operating system may be required for that. 

The mother who has delivered a child a few hours ago communicates with her child.. what is the language or symbol used? 

I think the phenomenon is more important than the mode of communication and the symbols.

.I always feel human beings who arrogate to themselves the possession of sixth sense and all waste more time in the preface, and appendix and bibliography rather that the real stuff governing the core of the matter. 

When will we come out of this scholastic approach? 

What Ramana or Ramakrishna or Radhakrishna or Russel said is less important that the interaction of the mind, and the ideas. 

What is done is more important than who asked me to do it.

The hypothesis is not mine.. It is the primordial idea available in our ancient scriptures.
At the end of every Kalpa the entire world is destroyed. 

The sum and substance of all knowledge which is symbolically the Vedas are withdrawn from the human minds at that stage, and is taken over by the universal puruSa. 

At the beginning of the next Kalpa the Supreme deity is born and also the Brahma. 

But the vedas are not revealed by Brahma .

The sons or manasaputras of Brahma are created, and they are directed to do tapas(penances and austerities) or contemplation and in that contemplation alone the knowledge is once again revealed to them. 


So the creation by Vishnu and Brahma are only putting the foundation and superstructure of the universe. 

The Rishis are given the duties of getting power supply through contemplation.

 Like a NoaHs ark the entire living species are perhaps kept in some place, may be the belly of Damodara but the data base or universal wisdom or knowledge is just stored in some unknown contraption, may be what we call ether or whatever receptacle one may choose to call.. and through concerted mental exercise the newly born Rishis have to revive that knowledge, set up connection between that great source-house of knowledge and the human mind. 

We on earth who have received only maybe very little portion of that knowledge, do not know really  how much knowledge is in store somewhere.

 And if a lucky or great person is born who can connect with greater antennae of mind more effectively with that endless source, he may be able to draw greater knowledge and since the minds of other human beings in the world would find it easier to receive the knowledge channelized through a human mind, such people become prophets, or Gurus, or seers... whatever we call them.

 They are actually like the relaying stations or sorts of transponders.. 

Maybe it is for this reason that we believe that we cannot attain knowledge without the intervention of the Guru. 

The books we read are also our gurus, but as we were discussing at great length , we try to imbibe knowledge contained in books through visual symbols.

 Such symbols have limitations.. 

What is conveyed by such symbols at some point of time may not induce the exact resonance in the mind of the reader sitting in a different frame of space- time.

 But the sadguru uses books, audio signals and more significantly his knowledge base gained through perhaps direct communion  with the universal repository of wisdom and conveys to the disciple all that he has got. 

The supreme burning intellect of a Vyasa, Krishna, Dakshinaamoorthy, or Shankara cannot be explained unless we believe that they were more in sync with the great stored knowledge and wisdom than their peers. 

We can see even from the level of depth of discussion in this thread itself that the capacity to perceive and interpret things is present in varying degrees among the participants. Here the difference is negligible, although.

 And we have to remember that our attempt should be to gain more knowledge than dishing out whatever half-baked ideas we have formed and adding so much of garbage to it.

 I was always mentioning for this reason alone that we can convey to others only hundred words carrying sense, only if we have digested ten thousand words. 

We should be able to differentiate between the signals carrying knowledge and the background noise and static.. as we conceive in the language of electronics.. 

We should be able to apply suitable filters, oscillators and amplifiers. 

These are easy with the known wavelengths of electromagnetic spectrum but when the knowledge is transmitted and received in a bandwidth which we are not able to identify we face limitations.



There is an interesting slokam in Kumarasambhavam.. Parvathi the Uma  when she was a child was being imparted knowledge on Vidyaas .
How strange? She is the Vidhya Herself ..

All the knowledge reached Her  when she in Her form of a little girl  is just  reminded of the treasure  of the knowledge..

The rich poetic imagination of Kalidasa describes this in a very picturesque manner.

तां हंसमाला शरदीव गङ्गां महौषधीं नक्तमिवात्मभासः 
स्थिरोपदेशामुपदेशकाले प्रपेदिरे प्राक्थनजन्मविद्याः
tāṁ haṁsamālā śaradīva gaṅgāṁ mahauṣadhīṁ naktamivātmabhāsaḥ
sthiropadeśāmupadeśakāle prapedire prākthanajanmavidyāḥ


as the swans reach 
Ganga naturally in the Sarat season, the intrinsic lustre visits the great medicinal herbs at night, when she was just  reminded of the vidyaas through proper advise. all the vidyaas of ealier lives  reached her so naturally.. 


This lead to another thought which is not exactly subject matter of this thread.. do we. at the time of birth inherit some wisdom which we have acquired in our earlier lives.. that is to say, our connection with the supreme intelligence is revived to a certain extent when our mind is activated for action after we attain the present birth?

The ideas are hazy..we do not have empirical proof for the existence of a super brain connected to mundane brains. I do agree. 

But regarding the tenets of religion, if we go into the basic core of any religion the principles evolved would be more or less the same.

 The procedures and rituals, and later interpolations causing strife among believers are all only peripheral additions.

 But the similarity in thoughts manifesting in various time frames and various geographical areas could be simply attributed to the identical brain structure, logical patterns and other common features obtaining across the whole human race.

 The religion is basically one thing.. there is someone other than the group of humans who is in control..the extent of control, the form of control etc may vary from religion to religion, schools of thoughts within the religion, and even some atheists and agnostics have directly or indirectly subscribed to the idea of existence of a collective superior being.

 I think howsoever we argue, we may not reach any finality in this matter because our thoughts are created essentially by this mind matter and what we call logic is for the die hard seeker of proof only materials which can be perceived and proved by the human senses with the mind presiding over it.
The question whether there is anything above and beyond the perception of mind and sense organs cannot be answered sitting in our restricted frame of reference. 

This may be the reason why the Great Logician, Krishna the blessed lord, concluded his Gita with a call to Arjuna that he has expounded the various aspects of the philosophy which he is fairly confident to be representing the truth and supporting the logic.

 But then He leaves it to arjuna to take a choice between accepting it or rejecting it 
"Yadechchasi tada kuru.. you do what you think is right.".
 this is the greatest advice that has come from the Lord and Master that is Krishna. We have the power to accept or reject.


The storage of the super intelligence in any particular medium or in any form should  not be   the core issue..If that is what you are searching for, you will never reach any particular location. 

 The loud thinking is that there is some repository of all that is to be ever known and the cognitive faculties in the living creature..with five, six, seven or eight senses can connect (strangely we do not know how, but such connections do occur)  with that storehouse and draw from it according to the receptive capacity of the beings.

 This thought in some form or other is present in philosophy, spirituality and may be in a muffled way in science. It would appear that even super brains like Hawkings and Einstein speculated on this.

 If we are missing the core issue and are discussing on the modalities, we can discuss for ever and ever with each one us  pulling in diverse directions of his own. 

  In fact the Vedic speculations like Naasadidya suuktham do not reveal anything definite.

 The Vedic man just looks up at the expanse of the vast universe and utters many speculative words in awe.

 I do not think we have proceeded much from that state even now.

 We are insignificant creatures before that great force which is beyond any definitions. We have to shed our ego and prejudices if we are  to think freely.



Thursday, March 22, 2012

all is well that ends well

क्ळेशः फलेन हि पुनर्नवतां विधत्ते ।।

when incessant hard toil is rewarded by matching restults, it gives impetus to futher attempts.

this is a simple but very true statement  by Kalidasa. 
This remark appears  in Kumarasambhavam. 
 The Divine mother is born as Parvathi and she is yearning for reunion with her Lord Shiva. 
 With this desire in mind, she set out to the forests in the valleys of Himalaya and set up a hermitage and started doing penance. 
 A vibrant, beautiful and affluent girl blessed with all virtues and wealth and having the whole world offered to her as if in a platter for mere enjoyment, gave up all the pleasures of the world just to attain the company of her Lord. 
 It is remarked by Kalidasa in the words of the Sakhi of Parvathi... 
" This girl. having attained marriageble age, has rejected all the affluent suitors starting from the Lord of Gods, Indra and the masters of the directins, but is intent on having Pinakapani the Shiva as her husband, in spite of realizing that the Lord has simply annihilated the lord of love, Kamadeva..
इयं महेन्द्रप्रभृतीनधिश्रियः चतुर्दिगीशानवमत्य मानिनी
अरूपहार्यं मदनस्य निग्रहात् पिनाकपाणिं पतिमाप्तुमिच्छति॥
iyaṁ mahendraprabhṛtīnadhiśriyaḥ caturdigīśānavamatya māninī
arūpahāryaṁ madanasya nigrahāt pinākapāṇiṁ patimāptumicchati||

Shiva had reached the hermitage of Parvathi to test her and receive her (the Lord is disguised as a young initiate) and Parvathi's friend tells Him in desperation.
" the saplings which were planted by this girl as souvenirs of the start of her penances have all borne fruit, but the plant of this girl's desire to attain the company of Shiva does not appear to have even given out little sprouts.. and the chariot of imagination of her communion with the Lord is a non-starter "

द्रुमेषु सख्या कृतजन्मसु स्वयं फलम् तपः साक्षिषु दृष्टमेष्वपि
न च प्ररोहाभिमुखोऽपि दृश्यते मनोरथोऽस्याः शशिमौलिसंश्रयः॥
drumeṣu sakhyā kṛtajanmasu svayaṁ phalam tapaḥ sākṣiṣu dṛṣṭameṣvapi
na ca prarohābhimukho'pi dṛśyate manoratho'syāḥ śaśimaulisaṁśrayaḥ||

The Lord was listening to all this with keen interest and was blissfully happy, but he pretended as if the girl was doing the most foolish thing by opting for Shiva. 
 He tells that girl that she is so rich and beautiful and Shiva is a wandering mendicant clad in the bark of an elephant, wearing matted hair and snakes as ornaments and his chariot was an old wizened bull.  
He adds that the whole world would laugh at her if she committed the blunder of accepting of all the people, Shiva as the husband . 

Parvathi is enraged. She is hurt by the sarcasm and she feels that not only one who tells ill of the great people but also one who happens to hear of it, becomes a sinner.

न केवलम् यो महतोऽपभाषते शृणोति तस्मादपि यः स पापभाक्
na kevalam yo mahato'pabhāṣate śṛṇoti tasmādapi yaḥ sa pāpabhāk

Then in impossible rage, the young girl simply tells that she is going to withdraw from the presence of the foulmouthed youth.. (shiva in disguise)
She started going away in haste, and the bark of trees which covered her bosom just fell away and even without caring for it she tries to make a quick retreat.
 But enough was enough. Thinks Shiva 

  The lord with the bull as insignia in his flagstaff could not persist with the playful activities.
 He simply assumed his Regal form and caught Parvathi by her Hand.
इतो गमिष्याम्यथवेदि वादिनी चचाल बाला स्तनभिन्नवल्कला
स्वरूपमास्थाय च तां कृतस्मितः समाललम्भे वृषराजकेतनः
ito gamiṣyāmyathavedi vādinī cacāla bālā stanabhinnavalkalāa
svarūpamāsthāya ca tāṁ kṛtasmitaḥ samālalambhe vṛṣarājaketanaḥ


He says, 
"from today onwards, I am your slave, as you have purchased me though your sincere penance.. 
Then, and at that point itself, all the tiredness and physical debilities she had imposed upon herself left her and she was jubilant and was in the seventh heaven of happiness. 
 When even unbearable hard work  culminates in its expected result, the body and mind gets rejuvenated and one  forgets all the past tiredness. 

अद्यप्रभृत्यवनताङ्गि तवास्मि दासः क्रीतस्तपोभिरिति वादिनि चन्द्रमौलौ
अह्नाय सा निय्मजं क्ळममुत्ससर्ग क्ळेशः फलेन हि पुनर्नवताम् विधत्ते॥
adyaprabhṛtyavanatāṅgi tavāsmi dāsaḥ krītastapobhiriti vādini candramaulau
ahnāya sā niymajaṁ kḻamamutsasarga kḻeśaḥ phalena hi punarnavatām vidhatte||

All is well that ends well.


--

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Analogy between thought process and data on a disk

The basic idea in deleting a data is only removing its header address.Unless and until a new data is taking over the incapacitated area, the old data remains there sleeping. Then the individuals receptacles that keep the zero and one signals are too accommodating and make the first set of data quiescent and another set of data which is having address and is recognizable becomes prominent. It is only because such units have sufficient space where some sort of cell is charged with a small unit or electricity or is kept not charged. So the medium is already there. The charging or discharging of the elements of the disk only takes place. and the electron is infinitesimally small so also the positive charged particle. When the disc is formatted a huge surge of current makes the entire disc blank. Even this can be done by going through the process about 19 times. So the memory signals actually go nowhere. They are just siiting in the background. If the thought process is retrieved through some means the whole thing comes back again. The deleted data does never vanish fully. The sum and substance of this analogy is that one thought, once created does not die away.. It is only living concealed. That is why we use mantras with auto suggestion, like Gayatri. To force in positive thoughts. While describing about the spontaneous study process of child Uma parvathi in the house of Himavan, Kalidasa said..
 तां हंसमालाः शरदीव गङ्गां
महौषधीं नक्तमिवात्मभासः।
स्थिरोपदेशामुपदेशकाले
प्रपेदिरे प्राक्तनजन्मविद्याः॥
काळिदासः कुमारसंभवे


Taam Hamsamaalaa shardeevaa gangaam,
 mahaushadiim nakthamivaatmabhaasaH, 
 sthiropadesaam upadeshakaale prapedirre 
praakthana janmavidhyaaH.. 
for her, like the crowd of swans reaching ganga spontaneously in the sharat season, like inherest glow visiting the herbs at night, when she was advised, the knowledge and education of earlier life (of Dakshayani Sati) came back spontaneously. Such comeback was caused by the fact that originall thoughts never fade away, unless erased through sterile means.

Sunday, May 08, 2011

virtue is worshippped by all

तदापि निघ्नं नृप तावकीनैः प्रह्वीकृतं मे हृदयंगुणौघैः।
वीतस्पृहाणामपि मुक्तिभाजां भवन्ति भव्येषु हि पक्षपाताः॥ ३-१२॥
महकविभारविकृते किरातार्जुनीये महकाव्ये
tadāpi nighnaṁ nṛpa tāvakīnaiḥ prahvīkṛtaṁ me hṛdayaṁguṇaughaiḥ|
vītaspṛhāṇāmapi muktibhājāṁ bhavanti bhavyeṣu hi pakṣapātāḥ|| 3-12||
mahakavibhāravikṛte kirātārjunīye mahakāvye

In the celebrated mahakaavyam Kiratarjuneeyam  of Bharavi, the art of statecraft is dealt with in detail and the story-line is only incidental. As we reach the  third chapter of the work, the king Yudhistira, the queen and the younger foursome are seen to have already discussed ways and means on how to get out of the forced excommunication clamped on them, through a deceitful game of dice.
 Now, the great Author of epics, vedas and puranas and the grandfather of the princes, Krishnadwaipayana the Vyasa, visits the king in exile. 

 The king is surprised beyond limits. Then the great sage explains..
" I know you are not in the best of fortunes at present. But noble hearts like mine which are absolutely devoid of any attachment in worldly affairs, are somehow drawn to you because of the  great virtues of yours. it is  as if  we are drawn to you by some unknown force. Even for those who have renounced all worldly desires and aiming at only mukthi(emancipation) from the whole samsara(worldly attachments) , the mind tends to be partial towards the noble and enlightened gems of men like you."


We can see how the worship and the blessings of jeevanmukthaas(who lived emancipated in this world itself) like Paramaacharaya of Kanchi and other realized souls are very important. Even though they have nothing in this world to achieve, they are all partial to good deeds and if such deeds casually reach their exalted minds, they may be pleased, even if not in a selfish way, and that prasadam will sustain the world.
A parallel to this can be seen in Kumarasamabhavam of Kalidasa. Lord Shiva comes to Parvathi's hermitage in the guise of a young reclues, the epitome of celibacy. The princes was in penance and detached from everything mundane, and was just thinking of Lord Siva. But the celibate who came in was respectable and merited worship.
So

तमातिथेयी बहुमनपूर्वया सपर्यया प्रतुदियाय पार्वती। भवन्ति साम्येपि निविष्टचेतसां वपुर्विशेषेष्वतिगौरवाः क्रियाः॥।

tamātitheyī bahumanapūrvayā saparyayā pratudiyāya pārvatī| bhavanti sāmyepi niviṣṭacetasāṁ vapurviśeṣeṣvatigauravāḥ kriyāḥ||| "the hostess Parvathi, received the ascetic with due respect and oblations.. even for those who are detached to worldly affairs, the duty is cast to give proper respect to noble people." Kalidasa echoes the idea that great men are to be respected even though there may be no worldly reasons for doing so.
 The meeting of Paramacharya and Gandhiji at an agraharam in Palakkad, Nellissery, is history.
--

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

rewards of toil


क्ळेशः फलेन हि पुनर्नवतां विधत्ते ।।

when incessant hard toil is rewarded by matching results, it gives impetus to further attempts.

Kalidasa  in Kumarasambhavam 

ക്ളേശഃ ഫലേന ഹി പുനര്‍നവതാം വിധത്തേ ।।
കാളിദാസന്‍ കുമാരസംഭവത്തില്‍ 

ഒരുപാടു കാലം അധ്വാനിച്ച്  വിജയം നേടുമ്പോള്‍ ആ വിജയം  ഒരാളെ പുതിയ മനുഷ്യനാക്കുന്നു.. വീണ്ടും വിജയം ആവര്‍ത്തിക്കാനുള്ള ഊര്‍ജ്ജം പകരുന്നു