measured silence...

भो भद्रं कृतं मौनं कोकिलैर्जलदागमे।

वक्तारो दुर्दुरो यत्र तत्र मौनं हि शोभनम्॥

bho bhadraṁ kṛtaṁ maunaṁ kokilairjaladāgame|

vaktāro durduro yatra tatra maunaṁ hi śobhanam||

ഭോ ഭദ്രം കൃതം മൌനം കൊകിലൈര്‍ ജലദാഗമേ 

വക്താരോ ദുര്ദുരോ യത്ര തത്ര മൌനം ഹി ശോഭനം

As the clouds gather as a prelude to rains, cuckoos stop singing.. 

This action looks very apt.. 

They must be knowing that the best thing to do is to keep quiet when the spokesmen and orators of the season are the frogs..

A nice lesson to learn from the happenings in nature.. 

In the spring season when nature is at here loveliest best, the cuckoos and nightingales sing to their hearts' content and add to the beauty and merriment.. 

There they are appreciated too.

Come the rainy season, the birds of song choose to keep quiet.. 

But the frogs embark on their noisy exercise.. perhaps, their pleasure is in making the noise and they hardly care if they are heard or not

Musings 6

There was a discussion elsewhere or Curse by departed forefathers on pithru shapam.. Some people where raising a question as to why the departed fathers and grandfathers and their great grandfathers who all love their children so much would curse them just for not offering some rice morself or gingely seeds and water in time.. 

In my view the curse does not come from the Pithrus, but the controller of the order and truth in life.. the Supreme being himself..

I give below my own post there

===========================================

We have to look at it in a diiferent way. The moment we are born to our parents we become debtors to our pithrus. 

The debt account is not managed by our affectionate fathers who will definitely condone and pardon everything.

But the account is handled by the eternal keeper of righteousness rtam and satyam. 

Call him Shankara or Narayana or Dharmaraja or Varuna or Chitragupta. 

The liability is arising from drawal of credit from universal dharma. 

Pithrus have no control over the balance, deposits or withdrawals. 

When there is default there can be interest penalty and even prosecution. 

This can add up to papam and shaapam from the controller of rtm..Narayana or others.. 

it is called pitrusapam not because it is the curse of pitrus but because the cause of the curse is failure on our part in respect of our duties to pitrus.

Note that if I injure my mother she may pardon me but the law of the land will not. 

Such punishments are given by the State not on the basis of complaint by affected party

Republic Day

May Krishna bless our Mother India and all of us Indians.. 

May He keep us united, prosperous and affectionate to one another 

Let Peace Prevail 

Om Shanti Shanti Shanti 

Greetings to all on Our Republic day..

Musings 5

One's mastery over a language cannot be tested just by his capacity to speak, read or write in that language..

He is good at a language only if he can form thoughts too and arrange mental and visual ideas in the language in which he is trying to express himself..
If he is using more than one language, he should be able to keep away the influence of the languages other than which he is applying for the present


we see funny pieces of literary and verbal acrobatics submerged in absurdity because the user just thinks and sees only in his own favourite langauge and is trying to give expression to such thoughts and visions by some sort of translation to another language..

Actually many Indians are multilingual..

For example a palakkad iyer can easily think separately, as the occasion demands, in Malayalam, Tamil, English and a little Sanskrit too..

And the Mumbai Iyer of Kerala Origin adds Hindi and often Marathi too to this..

And a Bangalore Kerala Iyer will adopt Kannada too like this.

Of course people with messy thought process and having smatterings of vocabulary of various languages create hybrids.. funny as they are..

But exclusive and water tight linguistic processing by the mind in thoughts and actions is actually very easy..

Translation can be hazardous..Thoughts lose their life and grammar too in the process..

However, this will apply to people who want to think and transact their business in an orderly manner..

Nothing applies to great jnaanis and absolute morons.

Musings 4

My post below was in response to an anecdote shared where Arundathi the wife of Sage Vasishta manages to serve thousand and eight vegetables to sage Vishvamitra.. I am not going into the story.. But it is remarked in that post that Arundathi belonged to a lower caste..
And the story finds a shadow in the Vararuchi and Parayi episode which is a legend in Kerala..
==================================================
My views--


Arundathi is the daughter of Kardama Prajapathi and Devahooti.. Kardama is the son of Brahma.. and many divine beings including Kapila Vasudeva the incarnation of Vishnu were born to the couple..

So I do not understand how Arundathi is termed as a low caste lady.. And the incident of thousand curries has nothing in particular to do with the caste of the lady..

In fact there is a story about Vararuchi and a Parayi.. a Paraya( A supposedly low caste) Lady who became wife of Vararuchi

Once Vararuchi visited a household where the girl was growing as a foster child..

And she was growing in a high caste household, it would appear..
Vararuchi, on his visit to the household put a condition that if he were to take food in the house he should have a meal with 1000 curries of vegetables..

The master of the house was baffled..
But the girl in the house said that this could be managed.. When Vararuchi came for food, she served a curry made of Ginger or Inji...
In Kerala it is believed that the Inji Curry is equal to thousand curries.

Pleased with the resourcefulness of the girl Vararuchi married her..
But he came to know that the girl belonged to the Paraya caste..

He did not abandon her but wandered across the length and breadth of Kerala..
Twelve children were born to them..
When the first child was born he asked her whether the child had a mouth..
When she said yes, she ordered her to abandon the child and continue with their journey..
His theory was that if God has given the child a mouth, He will feed the child too..

This child was adopted by a high nambudiri family and became the great Mezhathur Agnihotri.
.
Other children followed..
Pakkanar was adopted by a low caste parents, and various parents adopted children like Perunthachan, Uppukottan, Karaikkal Ammayaar etc..

When the twelfth child was born, the lady told a lie  that the child had no mouth, in a bid to keep the child with her ..
Immediately the child became mouthless..
This child was consecrated as Vayillaam Kunnil Appan.. the child with no mouth residing in a hillock..
The place Vaayillyaamkunnu and the deity are still there in Palakkad District in Kerala..
All the population of Kerala is believed to consist of the twelve clans started by the children born to sage Vararuchi.. the grammarian of eminence and the Parayi or Paraya woman
Parayi pettra panthiru kulam..
പറയി പെറ്റ പന്തിരു കുലം

A lot of details on this can be read from the monumental Aitihyamala of Kottarathil Shankunni..

Dhyanaslokam of Saasthaa....

स्निग्धाराळविसारिकुन्तलभरं सिम्हासनाद्ध्यासिनम्

स्फूर्जत् पत्रसुकॢप्तकुण्डलमथेष्विष्वासभृद्दोर्द्वयम्।

नीलक्षौमवसम् नवीनजलदश्यामम् प्रभासत्यक-

स्फायद् पार्श्वयुगम् सुरक्तसकलाकल्पम् स्मरेदार्यकम्॥

snigdhārāḻavisārikuntalabharaṁ simhāsanāddhyāsinam

sphūrjat patrasukḷptakuṇḍalamatheṣviṣvāsabhṛddordvayam|

nīlakṣaumavasam navīnajaladaśyāmam prabhāsatyaka-

sphāyad pārśvayugam suraktasakalākalpam smaredāryakam||

snighdha aaraala visaari kuntalabharam the bunch of hair arrayed with bright and slightly damp tiny hairs at the tip

simhaasana adhyaasinam being seated in a seat adorning the insignia of lion or sitting in the pose of a lion

sphoorjat patra-sukluptakundalam shining forth with ear ornament shed like a leaf 

atha and 

ishu arrow 

ishvaasa the bow

bhrut holding 

dordhvayam two hands pair of right and left hands 

neela kshaumavasam wearing silk clothes of blue colour

naveena jaladha shyaamam having the black colour of a fresh rain bearing cloud 

prabhaa satyaka sphaayat paarshvayugam having Prabha ( the wife) and Satyaka ( the son) on either side

surakta kalaakalpam 

having adornment all in dark red colour

smared aaryakam we should remember Lord Aryaka

This is a dhyana slokam of Sashtaa a form of Lord Ayyappa. Here he is called Aaryaka

The word analysis is given above..

The meaning is

We may meditate upon Aryaka the Dharmasastaa..

who is having shining tiny hairlets fluttering in the air from his tied lock (of hair),

who is sitting in a seat adorned with Lion insignia.. ( it can also mean that he is sitting in the fiery pose of a lion)

who is having ear ornaments shaped like beautiful leaves

who is holding an arrow and a bow in the two hands (may be ready to shoot)

who is wearing silk clothes of blue colur

who is himself having black colour resembling a fresh rain cloud

who is flanked on either side by Prabha the consort and Satyaka the son

and who is having decorations all around in deep red colour

( It has to be noted that Shasta is worshiped both as a Brahmachari and as a grihasta in different temples.. The names may differ. Some cite Prabha as the wife of the Lord while others say there are two named poorna and pushkala.)

The Sasta or Ayyappa legend is not from major puranas of old.. So local traditions and legends hold.

Sasta finds a major place in texts of Kerala Tantram.. especially Tantrasamucchayam..

Musings 3

from good company we graduate to existence even without any company

from there we proceed to withdrawal of all desires..

when desires are abandoned or they withdraw, we start getting the taste of that unwavering and unshakeable Supreme spirit.

And that taste of the supreme leads us to liberation in absolute terms.. from all wants and woes, desires and hatred,

there is no other way..

Social media can only give either good or bad company..

If the company is bad, at least we will know what is really bad..

And from there we might try to seek good too..

But seeking good company and even attaining it is not good enough..

It is just the start of a journey..

My findings are not entirely mind.. Shankara is supposed to have taken similar view

( Of course not about social media.. Shankara must have found himself in a very awkward situation if he reads posts about him in social media)

सत्सङ्गत्वे निःस्सङ्गत्वं 

निःस्सङ्गत्वे निर्म्मोहत्वं 

निर्म्मोहत्वे निश्चलतत्त्व्वम् 

निश्चलतत्त्वे जीवन्मुक्तिः

Musings 2

the biggest error I committed in my life appears to be that at one stage in life I began to delude myself that I was an important person.. 

I really do not know when the bug of self importance bit me..

But then, that vanity is there in every person even if he or she can easily spot the lack of realism in such thought..

After all each living being is a cog in a big wheel.

The Maker can easily run the wheel without such cogs.. or He can easily find spare parts or even spare wheels.. 

By some chance, this life happened.. It has to be just proceeded with till He calls it a day.. 

Silly arrogance... what to do..?

musings 1 No one is ever born into any religion..

Religion or any faith should be there only to foster goodwill among human beings..

No one is ever born into any religion..

The cellular and genetic contents and physical or nervous architecture of any human being is not ever dictated by the religion he belongs..

And decent human life lies in one being controlled and dignified first in his own behaviour and deport..

Maybe use of force to defend ones basic existence may be called for..

But defence is not hatred, defence is not prejudice..

One can understand if one fights for food, if one fights for clothes and if one fights for his right to mind his own business at least to the extent it does not make inroads into similar rights of his neighbour

Of course even wars have happened in the name of religions..

But if an unbiased analysis of the causes and results of such wars is effected later, it is invariably found that it is not exactly faith or religion in is pure form but the tendency of vested interests in the establishment to perpetuate the ascendency gained by them was the real cause for such strife...

The leaders of faiths mostly fight for their personal gains and the paid coterie works for the crumbs..

but they create a smoke screen which mislead the innocent followers who are carried away by the guiles of these leaders..

What is the pupose of any religion if it cannot permit all humans to respect and love one another and facilitate their harmonious co existence..?

My religion is that..

If that is not my religion, then I do not want any religion..