Kapaleeshwarar temple, Mylapore Chennai: This is a strange happiness I felt when I went to the temple last Saturday morning. I had my ipod plugged into my ears and had Ray Charles playing while I walked through the Kapaleeshwarar koil in Mylapore Chennai.
You know, much as it sounds incongruous, to listen to blues and stare at the Lord within the walls of the garbha griha, it’s quite an experience in itself.
It is a strange combination, to stare at the Lord in all His alankaram, far within those deep walls almost wet with the humidity around. The whole floor is mine, the music in my ears, the rhythm in my feet, the excitement in my heart and suddenly all the ganas appear in a wild line playing across the ceiling. The flames dance around the dark walls, the rock creating the ambience of complete high with the smoke rising within the chamber, highlighting the ganas as they strangely begin to move with the beat within my heart. Dim lighting, and I follow the line of ganas in rhythmic movement, a dance of intoxication, a dance of freedom, a dance with no inhibitions, a dance of love, a dance of complete consciousness, a dance where only the Lord and I exist.
The drums reverberate, the beat charging my heart, the music relaxing the grey cells... there is no room for thought. It’s the moment of living, the moment without worry, the moment of bliss, the moment of no bondage, the moment when the heart is in perfect beat with the feet, the whole body has a single rhythm running within itself. And there He stands, in all His finery, Lord Nataraja Himself. An the music mounts, and the heavens open and begin to sing along, the Lord descends from his seat, holds me and leads the way, the whole hall lights up and the Gods shower down flowers into the hall, now beaming with fire torches across the walls.
The Lord dances with me, a dance of love, gentle steps, the moon glowing among his locks, his warm eyes, the snake sways along, a ribbon of moonlight, as he dances to the ever growing rhythm in my heart. I merge into him, with the Lord himself, such love, such warmth, such happiness, such beauty, such a sea of calm… silence, peace.
A glorious welcome into the family of the Lord, into the world of Kailasa, the whole hall now dances in perfect unison, everyone onto the floor. It’s a welcome into the kingdom of heaven! Its love love, love, crazy love! A whole new world, dancing with Lord Shiva down the hall, the music all around me, as Lord Nataraja leads the way, the ganas follow behind us…A dance into life, a different life, free, no hang ups, no hard feelings, just pure love. Truly is the kingdom of love, love, love crazy love!
Thank you Ray Charles… Thank you God! What a place, what a song!
31 comments:
Hi Kavitha...
When one attempts describing 'nothing', one could end up in 'infinite' words. What matters is the happiness one feels and also gives to others, even though the content be small.
One 'eccentric' comment follows...
I stands alone
Capable of extension either way -
Upwards to touch the sky
Downwards to reach the nether land
But no one to appreciate it.
Whereas the I
In it has a companion.
As in ipod i is a small woman
With big memory
As if stored in a dot
On her forehead.
A mother who belongs to ‘India’
Apparently pushed downwards
Because of immobile formless dot.
And her accompanying son
Perhaps is like Christ
Who while remaining
Ever on the ground zero
Because of twist
In the t of the tail
And although bears the cross
With blessings of the mother
Can reach the sky!
Hi Kavitha,when you wrote about Kapaleeshwara temple, i thought you would have mentioned the story of its origin. Anyway the story goes like this,Lord Parvathi had once disturbed Lord shiva during his penance and she was cursed to be born as a peacock. It was at this place where Parvathi(as a peacock) regained Saba Vimcochana(Realease from curse) by worshipping the linga.(the strangest part is that the original linga is outside the temple and it is found under a tree)Due to Parvathi's Sabavimochana ,the whole place got the name as Mylapore(in tamil Mayil means "peacock").
Today, it is among the most visited shiva shrines in chennai next to Thiruvotteeswara in Triplicane .
Kavitha, My narration may be faultybecause iam not a historical expert, but Kapaleeshwarar is supposed to be atleast a thousand years old. So it would be better if you could include the history of a temple while writing articles.
Thanks you .
Hi Aswin…
In the Hindu mythology, shivlinga - as a symbol of he origin of evolution – appears to have been generally accepted to represent the Formless creator. Whereas (Maha)Shiva in human form came to be understood as the evolved form of the universe (or our galaxy) that contains the eight ‘chakras’ at the location of the essences of selected members of our solar system (to form Ashta Chakra). Saturn acts as the ninth, or the cut-off, or zero, planet…
Nabagraha temple in Guwhati that I saw has nine shivlingas – a bigger one in the centre (taking care of the upward and downward directions) and eight smaller ones marking the eight cardinal directions - thus forming an octagonal Mahalingam, each linga is covered with a cloth of different colour and thus indicating correlation with one another and different energy content of each – to indicate hierarchy among planets…
Shiva however seems to have been generally understood by the terrestrials as our earth (with the hint that He has Moon on His forehead; as ‘mrityulok’ reference of crematoria’s ash applied on His body; holy river Ganga flowing through the Himalayan forest or His locks; and so on…) Parvathi thus similarly refers to Moon, the second consort of Shiva after Sati’s death, i.e., indicating evolution of Moon from Earth from the heart of Shiva, as per present day finding from the molten magma in the core of earth… The story that you have indicated perhaps is a version indicating Venus as an inferior form of Parvathi, having location in the throat of Shiva, (referred as Neelkantha also as represented by Peacock blue colour formed due to ‘halahal’) and not the final one of essence of Moon (Yellow colour associated with Sarasvathi) on top of His head – as the superior most or Guru, a rise or promotion as a result of ‘shrapa vimochan’ or getting rid of Shiva’s curse……
Hi K,
Unbelievably interesting way to feel the place of worship. Infact, a manner that I would most prefer. Usually we have a song that runs inside us when we worship, when we work, when we sleep, all the time. And to hear your song and feel it with what you relish is... an unexplainably beautiful experience.
I believe worship is from the body and soul and what form can be greater than music that will tend you to make the union with the Greater.
The post: "A myriad experience, featfully drawn by words"
Hi Uncle,
Your poem... I couldn't help but have a wide smile right through. I loved the way you wrote it. Very interesting :)
A friend once told me, Natraja's dance is the rythym of life, love and the universe. It is brilliant to think that music is a soul of its own that dances with ours.
Hi Aswin,
Thank you Aswin for the history of the temple. Unbelievable, a blog where people give just about everything and every angle of one point. Culminating one Comprehensive thought from several minds. I am any short of amazed.
~fEelix
PS: The Dance, Music and the Lord what a way to experience reaching upto His Feet.
Hi Joshi uncle, Felix, Aswin,
Thank you Aswin for that description of Kapaleeshwarar temple. You are indeed right, the actual shrine is on the side and is fairly withdrawn from the rest of the temple's flamboyance. Yet, Parvati is depicted as a beautiful peacock worshipping the Lord. A small shrine but interesting, that a huge temple has been built around it, huge enough to hide its real reason deep within its walls.
Thank you aswin for the description of Kapaleeshwarar temple.
Joshi uncle, a really nice poem indeed, when you come out with these outbursts, its a pleasure. You have done this before and poetry just flows! Its simply wonderful that i can trigger such a thought in your mind.
Regds
Kavitha.
Hi Felix...
While discussing the presence of music in every aspect of 'Nature', I had posed the question to my daughter: Whether there was someone who enjoys braying of a donkey - perhaps more than any other music? Her immediate answer was, "No!"
I asked her to think of the washerman in olden days, who depended for his earnings on his donkey, the simplest of all animals - (And, for background I am aware that Shiva also is called 'Bholanath' or 'simple God'! And, there is a 'Hindu' belief that God can appear in any form!) - to carry his washings to the river, loaded on its back, without much ado. And of course those still are used for transportation of certain materials to construction sites at certain places, and so on. Wouldn't its owner, busy in carrying out his washings etc, feel happy on hearing its braying, thus knowing that it was somewhere around close by, and not lost!?
She replied that only I (an eccentric in her eyes, perhaps) could think of such questions:-)
Hi Kavitha...
I am aware that human brain believably is an analogous computer - it receives a pictorial communication (a visual image) together with sounds associated with it (for audio effect) to complete the picture... For example, the word 'cat' brings before one's eye (who has studied English, otherwise some equivlent word in the language one is conversant with, viz., 'chat', 'billi', and so on) an animal with pointed ears, narrow eyes, pointed whiskers, furry coat, and so on, together with its meow to complete overall comprehension of the animal under consideration... It might also bring before one's eyes some incident related with the animal (I can relate many such because of personal experience!) - just like as if one was watching a film recorded in some part of the brain, which is considered as capable of recording material contained in all books available in the world and much more!
To a Tamilian, the word Chennai might bring before her eyes the cross-section of the important aspects of the city according to her interest...
Communication of a thought in verses, sometime doesn't require use of many words - leaving all that for the reader/ listener to find within herself according to her level of education and understanding, and thus makes it short and sweet and thus easy to remember also... In fact, it is found that the best way to learn a new language is to learn through songs in that particular language (in our college there was a Malyalee boy who melodiously and correctly sang Hindi film songs even when he couldn't read Hindi at all!)... Infants pick up poems much more easily than prose...
Of course, I consider my brain to be 'God's garbage dump' from which I need to pick up some matching rags, stitch them together to form an interesting appearing pattern (like a piece of 'modern art' just by random strokes of the brush!) which might find some buyer:-)
very very unconvetional! very very you!
Hi Kavitha, Revathi, Felix, Aswin...
I could have used the conventional Mother& Child example of Parvathi and Ganesha, with added example of his vahana - the slow moving mouse with tail that helped his parents decide in his favour as the ruler of the earth, in place of his fast moving powerful brother Kartikeya on his Peacock (the present day symbol of pride - "As proud as a peacock!")
Maybe it is my initials that sometimes make me think of Jesus Christ, Julius Caesar, JC Bose, Jesse (JC) Owens, and so on! (In Gita, Krishna also cites only 'good' characters as Him! Although He also says that everyone sees Him within oneself because of 'Maya' or illusion!)
Hi Joshi Uncle,
Sometimes Uncle, you take the cake!! You do have a real good sense of humour.
Regds
Kavitha.
Hi all,
Yes, truely Music is a marvel. I completely agree, that the braying of a donkey could be a music that could appeal in a different manner to one based on his/her state of being.
"Music to the ears" a famous term we use, not necessarily involves Instruments. I guess they knew what they said when they coined it. Or unknowingly as embedded in themselves the truth has come out in that phrase.
What appeals to us we call Music at that moment and what doesn't as Noise.
Breaking it down; the cymbal is nothing but the clanging of metal. If we were to get that from the radio, it seems like music, if we got it from the kitchen, we freak.
Every aspect that is shown to us is meant and appeals differently at different times, sometimes maybe we View it with an Evolved Ear. And in this case a song from Ray Charles seems to be dedicated to the Lord, like Everything is. So to say He is everywhere. Our mind is truely A Beautiful Work of His Art, sculpted so, that it has no par. The most brilliant Sculpture ever.
~fEelix
Hi Kavitha, Felix…
Maybe I am the nth soul now sitting or aspiring to sit by His side in the pavilion:-)
The concept of ‘Adwaitvad’ or one single (formless or supreme spiritual) God responsible for the whole universe - also called ‘Eternal Bliss’ or ‘Satchidanand’ - communicates a person who is ‘spiritually’ satisfied with His (illusory) creation in the ‘present’...
In other words He, as an all knowing spectator, could also be said to be going through the pains as well as pleasures of each of His own part, out of the innumerable ones that participated in the race starting from zero or purely spiritual form with the beginning of Brahma’s day for attaining ‘perfection’. And, He (as one of His own reflections) alone eventually becoming ‘number one’ out of all that had acquired physical forms (say that of some microorganism) to start with, and now waiting for the last one (believably in human form) to eventually join Him with the start of a fresh Satyuga - as the others have perhaps also been regularly joining him one by one at different times in the 'past' (please visualize with the help of participants of a Marathon race, or other such races that are often being organized these days in some of the Metros)!
Hi all...
Maybe the above example could also help in visualizing why Kenyans (Africans) generally comes first in Marathon races (being given to understand that Africa believably is the 'root' or 'Mooladhar' of the Homo sapiens found all over the world today)...
Hi all, again...
The above can also be visualized with the help of a tree - the root ever remains underground, attached to earth or Shiva. And, though the fruits become distant from the earth, those too return at a certain stage later to earth only - maybe via some animal's stomach:-)
The same phenomenon can be seen from the relationship of the kite and its flier (the kite touches the sky or symbolic infinity, to eventually return to its flier - who ever remains attached to Earth:-)
As I had indicated elsewhere also, as per Hindu mythology, time (and thus the human life events also) is moving from peak to the origin (1008 repetitive cycles of Mahakalas in one day of 4.6 billion human years in a day in the life of Brahma, our Sun). And, in the human body, the essence of moon is believed to be housed at the top most level, i.e. the human head, and the essnece of Mars at the tail-bone end, called 'Mooladhar'...
In the apparent race for space travel, man first reached Moon, after acquiring related knowledge, and is now preparing to reach Mars - initially gathering sufficient information via space probes!
Can one see the hand of the unseen?:-)
Hi Kavitha, Felix and Joshi uncle, you all are great writers and have immense knowledge, but please keep in mind that the person reading your blog is a layman. So please write in such a way that even a layman can understand the blog info and make it more interesting by writing about the history of temples and gods. Remember a blog attains its peak when it is reached by all levels , mix theism with normal concepts, explain to the normal person who shiva is, why he is the supreme lord and why we shoudl worship him . IF you all are gonna write comment and articles which are so philosophical, your knowledge gets stagnated within yourselvs. SO whatever you blog or comment , plase use simple words.
For Example: Dvaita means dual , tell that it means that the soul is divided into two (the atma and paramatma) The concept of two within one, the atma is the immortal soul which in some way is binded to the body, the paramatma is the supreme power that is unaffected by all.
Bye:-)
Hi Aswin,
Thanks for the suggestion...
That's, however, the problem when one writes - the writer doesn't come to know who the readers are (unlike a teacher in his class)whether the readers are understanding it or not, unless someone says it or asks questions. And, in fact, sometimes their interpretation could be exactly opposite of what originally was intended by the writer and thus he could be misquoted even, either inadvertantly or deliberately (because of some selfish interest, say), without even his knowing it
:-)
The 'Hindu philosophy' basically is very simple, i.e., the Creator is formless (like heat, light, sound, electricity, magnetism - the different forms of energy one realizes today and it is bellieved posible to convert matter into energy and maybe vice versa too - as stories indicate) or 'nothing' material! And, things or physical or material forms that we (who ourselves might be some chracters in His thoughts or unending story) apparently see are results of optical illusion, e.g., the apparent vision of an oasis in the desert as an example!
It is thus a matter of faith or belief:-)
The innumerable, interesting, mythological stories however try to explain the logic adopted by the formless creator for presentation of these stories, through different characters, maybe as hints given to reach Him - as in a quiz...
The basic format is division of the apparent forces in 'Nature' broadly into three categories, helpful or positive or 'good', indifferent or neutral, and opposing or negative or 'bad'... It would be noticed that the society invariably gets divided in to these three categories even on the smallest of small issues...
Thus although there is only one Creator - called Parambrahma, or Nirakar, i.e., without form - his three apparent physical forms are named Brahma (for creation of forms, i.e., our Sun), Vishnu (for sustenance of forms, i.e., centre of our galaxy) and Shiva for destruction or transformation - from one form to another, i.e., our earth or the 'Mrityulok' where death of life forms is inevitable...
Hi joshi uncle, thanks for the comments, our religion is one of the most simplest and yet comlicated, each view contradicts itself, for example: in Hinduism, some consider Vishnu as the supreme, Some consider Shiva.
Our ancestors knew that, in Kaliyuga , man's mind is absorbed by evil and he will lose spirituality, thats why our ancestors gave forms to gods so that man can reach god through their forms.
But stupid man has misunderstod the whole concept.
The whole concept is simple,
God is the most supreme power,
He is like water, water takes the form of the vessel it is poured in, like tht god takes the form what we think.
No matter what you call him god is the same. It is our duty to make others understand about the real spiritual, remember the only way to reach god is to accept the ultimate truth and attain NIrvana.
Hi Aswin...
There are innumerable stories available which need to be 'decoded' first with the help of 'scientific material' available today. It has been realized that one life span is insufficient even for reading all the material that is available on earth on just one subject... One has to reach 'siddhi' or an integrated study of teh available material...
Call it God's design that despite catastrophic events from time to time India today relatively has innumerable material on 'spirituality', in different languages carried over from from ancient times, which would generally make it impossible to comprehend the subject but for the 'essence' or 'satva' attempted by the ancients - and yet the total outcome with time becomes infinite, perhaps to confuse one again :-)
That's why one has to look for right data. For example, it has also been expressed, 'Vishnu is Shiva and Shiva is Vishnu'. If you also see the basic formula in 'Nature', that macrocosm and microcosm have similar functions, and that 'man is a model of the universe' as per Hindu belief and 'an image of God', as per Bible (that covers the part about illusory world or 'mithya jagat' of the Hindu philosophy also), it could be interpreted as Shiva or Earth is a model of the formless Vishnu, i.e., the void of the universe...
It is a question of logical interpretation from various angles to reach the 'Absolute Truth' out of the so many 'Truths' available...
For the majority to come to one 'Truth' apparently is difficult for humans today, with so many religions practised in India itself... It is easy for one to put down one's interpretation, like 'leading a horse to water, but difficult to make it drink'...
Only 'Time' or 'Mahakal' or Shiva can do it, and that too only when it is ripe :-)
One needs to have patience and tolerance in the meantime :-)
Hi Karthik
Thank you for visiting my blog. Its a very interesting proposal indeed, i shall try to contact you soon regarding this.
Regds
Kavitha
Hi again, Aswin...
The 'Hindu Philosophy' refers Shiva as Bhootnath, and indicates Earth, Fire, Air, Water & Sky as 'panchbhootas' or 'panchtatvas', that is, 'five elements' that go into the formation of all physical forms in the universe...
Yogis attempted 'tapasya', or literally, 'heating', (perhaps based on observation that bricks made of clay, water, air become hard and strong with the help of 'fire' or Sun in open air, or in 'artificial fire' in man-made kilns, as man evolved. Bricks are found used in Lothal, or 'mound of the dead', in Gujarat by ancients as dug out by Archaeologists, much before the 'modern man'!) & 'Pranayam' or control of air breathed in for improving the performance... In this process they seem to have acqured certain powers, which were considered 'miracles' by the generality of man present at that time...
Thus (apparent) 'time', Kal, and human life event cycle related to it (kalchakra) were apparently attempted by ancients in the 'Vedic Era' (with Palmistry, Astrology etc) when they were highly advanced in Astronomy and had known the secret of origin of 'life' itself , that apparently interests also the 'Scientists' today...
They however appear to have failed to reach at the root and expanse of the universe. The mythological stories indicate that they surrendered and stated that the Creator was Swayambhu or appeared on his own and that He is unborn and unending... Another name of the Creator or Shiva thus referred is 'Shambhu'...
The dwarf variety of cereals etc today is called 'Sankara' (meaning narrow), perhaps therefore Shiva as a small scale model of the universe also came to be known as 'Shankara' :-)
Thus Shiva (physical Earth) and Vishnu (formless creator) acquired 'shashtranam' or thousand names :-)
Once again...
It was because of the five realized physical senses available to human being that man became more dependent on these to make judgment during day-to-day life (despite their short-comings!)...
And, although existence of Formless creator was accepted, any out of all physical forms - considering all these to be His reflections that showed apparent hierarchy between those as 'Maya' or illusion - were worshipped while remaining conscious of the Formless as it was considerd difficult to visualize Him...
In the 'present' Hindus are called idol worshippers and having 33 crore demi-Gods! In fact those are innumerable, and continue to increase with time :-)
As Kavitha had also pointed out (when India was perhaps in the shape of an island, relatively flat or zero, called Jambudweep) Brahma (or Sun, as the soul source of energy on earth) and (physical) Vishnu (or the near zero 'black hole' housed at the centre of our galaxy, or Krishna, an 'avatar' or reflection of formless Vishnu that makes the entire galaxy go round it or gope-gopis to dance around Him!) competed with each other regarding who was superior of the two... till one day when Kailash-Mansarovar (Shiva-Parvati), as a part of the 3000 Km long Himalayas emerged from within the sea bed that once existed on the north of Jambudweep to communicate the concept of plus and minus infinity (Mt. Everest or Gauri Shankar & Indian ocean in the South indicating a bigger scale model of Kailash Mansarovar/ Shiva-Parvati in our temples!) Mean Sea Level at Karachi is the present day Zero or the datum of reckoning relative altitudes of all other places (above or below MSL)...
Hi Aswin…
Talking of shortcomings in physical senses let us take up, say, the relatively higher ‘drishtidosha’ or the ‘shortcoming in vision’ compared to that of our ancient Hindus who were influenced by ‘wise’ Yogis, very briefly…
In the daytime, human eyes apparently function better than in the night, when one needs to take recourse to the North direction as determined from the location of the fixed star, 'Dhruva' or the Polar star, to guide the sailors in open seas and others who are ‘lost’…
The direction from which sunrise takes place helps in determining East, and a Hindu (believably made up of the ‘panchbhootas’) while doing ‘pranayam’ or control of ‘air’, one of the ‘panchabhootas’, (or controlled breathing to attain the breathing pattern of turtle, i.e,, four breaths per minute) could salute the sun then (‘surya namaskar’ or a symbolic worship of Brahma/ ‘fire’ in the ‘sky’, two of the ‘panchbhootas’) by offering small amount of ‘water’ in its direction dropped in to a bigger pool of it - wishing the sun, the source of energy on earth, in selfish interest, a long life [water, as one of the ‘panchbhootas, acting as a symbolic representation of the infinite dark (krishna) space of the universe via the centre of galaxy (as its incarnation or model) that sustains the physical forms within it – including ‘earth’, a model of the universe itself! The small scale model (in human form) thus worshipped the prototype (the infinite and formless void that is filled up with energy) :-)]
The present day models, generally speaking, appear to need overhauling/ replacement by fresh 'instruments'. The reflection of this characteristic phenomenon - of rejecting the old ones and adopting new models - was earlier seen more in the ‘west’ (where teh sun sets) and now the ‘east’ has also caught up with this ‘disease’. And a sixteen-year-old reflection of God today proudly copying the 'west' says, “I don’t believe in God!”
:-)
Hi Aswin...
Another example on a person with ‘6/6 eyesight’ compared with - the believable King of poets, who shines like Sun over the sky of India, and also number one devotee of Lord Krishna (in North India) - Surdas’ nil…
When one looks towards the pole star he is in fact covering an area about seventy degrees on either side of it too. That is, our eyes, whatever might be the eyesight, as long as one has vision, cover around 135 degrees (while a ‘wise’ owl can cover 360 degrees just by twisting its head around the neck!)… In other words, our brain receives photographic impulses from a large area, and even carried over perceptions recorded in some part of the brain in the ‘past’ also! Thus, although, one apparently should be able to see objects right in front of the tip of one’s nose, one might actually not see some of those because of the brain being busy elsewhere at that moment :-)
And man is supposed to be the most evolved out of all life forms on earth to head the animal world!
As per Hindu belief he is an outcome of a long process of a part of supreme soul having to pass through 8.4 million different animal forms, and thus man having in essence the characteristics of all the animals – but like a raw diamond that unless sculpted is just a piece of hard coke (“If one has faith on an idol it believably is God/ Otherwise a mere stone”)
:-)
In Gita Krishna the Yogiraj told Arjuna that he was merely an instrument and advised him in the battlefield of Mahabharat, at Kurukshetra, to listen to Him with pointed concentration, gazing at the tip of his nose!
Yogis, similarly, attempt to increase one’s concentration power by exercises of the eyes - moving the eye balls, relative to a central point, in all directions, as well as to improve their power to centralize at the ‘third eye’ (the meeting point of the nose and the forehead) the recorded perceptions or images of the ‘past’ making use of the lighted flame of a candle (a model of our sun) to do it...
'Highly elevated' individual souls (with forms) are thus able to see the events likely to occur in ‘future’ (which could also be 'past'), or happening at another place at that given instant (I met such a person who told me of one of my relatives suffering from high blood pressure thousands of km away just by looking at me during our first meeting!)…
We believe our ancients to be ‘backwards’, and, therefore, all these exercise as useless and a waste of time! And we blame an immature student today when he is unable to concentrate on the contents of his books, or becomes a drug addict, and so on :-)
Now, today, when the society is in apparent chaos, Yogis are much in demand and Yoga is being taught all over the world, maybe sometimes without being able to judge whether the Guru’s own fundamentals are clear or not :-)
(Thus resulting in temporary effect, called 'shmashan bairag' or the effect of detachment within the compounds of a crematorium, as long as one is hearing a discourse only, and back to normal life on return to one's place!)
That brings us to the eternal question: Who can judge the Judge?
Ultimately, as experienced and expressed by the ‘wise’, one has to find the Creator within oneself – by following the advice of ‘surrender in Krishna’ and to live life like a ‘spectator’, attached, but with detachment - like believably what the formless creator does – if at all one could do so in body, mind and spirit, and better still with all round knowledge or ‘Siddhi’ as otherwise negative forces are likely to push the person ‘outward’ only
:-)
Hi Joshi uncle
This is a very interesting analogy you have drawn here, very original thinking i would say. To equate the man to a clay pot that gets hard and mature when "fired" by heat, be it internal or external. In the case you mentioned, tapasya it would be the building of internal heat, with/without the influence of external factors. It is a concept definitely worth thinking about, very very eye awakening indeed.
As regards Maya, and man's dependency on the 5 elements, you do have a very strong point. Yes, a high dependency on the elements have literally made man stop seeing sense in thing, rational thinking has given way to different kinds of other thinking, emotional, heavy desires so much so that that today's man has lost his sense of understanding. Now they want the simpler way - prove and i will believe. Cant blame them, the priests messed it up.
But when people dont use their brains and see the larger picture, but get sucked into the various nuances of Maya, they miss the point and thats when death laughs into their face, when its time up.
There is a truth out there, there is something there that stirs us, the absense of which, makes us feel depressed even when we have our lives laid out with nothing to worry about.
What is it... we need to understand, and the only way to do it is to go within, not anywhere else... its a long search.. a good search for the self, an every changing self.
regds
Kavitha
Hi Kavitha...
If there is anyone to blame, it is time or, rather, 'apparent time' which makes the different 'images' of the one and only one (formless) Creator see the same phenomenon differently to result into different versions of just one of those... And there apparently are infinite phenomena happening at the same time needing one to draw essence of all those to reach the single 'Truth', which isn't possible because of the hierarchy or different capacities of each in all aspects of day-to-day life...
Thus we have 'experts' or 'specialists' in innumerable subjects as seen today. And, the subjects are multiplying many folds with passage of time to accommodate the growing population, thus making it much more difficult for any individual... "Birds of the same feather flock together", and look how many different flocks we have today, each making noise to draw attention towards them... 'Bird flu' could be one of the hints to all 'birds', not only the ones that wear the 'red crown' :-)
"Man is a clay moulded by fire!" One of the oldest thoughts on earth. nothing original about it.
It is sad that I see so many people passing down layers of thoughts, philosophy, and mysticism experienced or expressed by others.
There has only been one original thinker in the 20th century in the spiritual world or domain: Jiddu Krishnamurthy.
I think reading his works may give different perspective.
Mr Joshi, you and many others have misinterpreted the Vedas into believing that there are 33 demi-gods. There are not so many.
I suggest you read Before the Beginning and Beyond the End or something like that by an Indian author. i forgot his name.
Point is, westerners have misinterpreted eastern philosophy. they have misinterpreted the meaning or jeeva, ishwara, parameshwara.
the vedas are more scientific than spiritual in nature.
Hi Mr. Anonymous ‘reader’…
Glad to have your comments… It is for your information that the essence of the basic ‘Hindu Philosophy’ is that ‘man is a model of the 'universe', which is called ‘Brahmand’ or Creator’s egg, literally, indicating the Creator as ‘unborn’ and ‘unending’. And that the apparent physical forms are all illusory or transient in nature, a result of ‘Maya’ of the Formless Creator, called Nadbindu or the point source of energy… (In Gita Krishna says that all reside within Him. Howerver because of illusion or Maya everyone sees Him within himself).
With the entire universe believably reflecting the one and the only 'super being', one also practically sees any form existing on earth being literally worshipped in India from a mouse to Ganesha, having an elephant's head, or Nandi the bull and Shiva. Even Sonia Gandhi, a ‘foreigner’ in the eyes of some/ Manmohan Singh (Shiva-like in appearance), by the ‘Indians’ today for her ‘sacrifice’, although they didn’t know what an ‘office of profit’ is, and head the party that rules the Country today that lays down rules for We The People, who are supposed to know all the rules, and (the poor, and not the 'rich and famous')get punished for not knowing it, and ‘Hindus’ rightly called Shiva as Bholanath or the simple God who was troubled by 'demons', such as Bhasmasur, while Vishnu (formless God) enjoyed the ‘drama’ in a state of 'Yognidra’ or ‘sleep in super conscious state’ as the ‘boss’, to eventually get poor Shiva/ Brahma out of trouble :-)
Perhaps you haven’t heard of Mirabai, a Rajasthani queen, a well known devotee of Krishna and a poet…
She addresses Krishna, to the effect, “A foolish person becomes a ruler, whereas a pundit remains poor - thanks to You”, and adds, “Outcome of actions, or 'fruits of karma', are strange.”
(In Gita, Krishna is shown addressing Arjuna to the effect that he being merely an instrument he has no choice but to act, like a warrior that he was from birth, instead of remaining in (a Hamlet-like) state of indecision or inaction, which although being the best, isn’t meant for one who has entered the ‘grinding wheel of time’ :-) (What’s wrong if another character by the name of Shakespeare also called earth ‘a stage’…?)
There is another who said, “No one became Pundit reading books after books. Only the one who reads just two and a half letters of love (Prema in Hindi) becomes a Pundit.”
Jiddu Krishnamurty was also a grand reflection of the Formless God at one time! No one doubts it. Although he too apparently failed in the experiment carried out by the Theosophical Society of India to ‘down load’ the soul of Buddha in to his body - who believably hadn’t taken human form till then - to receive advice on world peace… or some such thought…
Hindus had realized humans as models that reduced in efficiency from 100% at the beginning of Satyuga to 0% at the end of Kaliyuga. So where is the problem if there is apparent chaos in the 'present'? Is the end of Kaliyuga near? Of course, it could be anybody's guess!
God may bless ‘India’!
Hi Mr. reader, and all others, again...
A 'Hydrologist' would tell you that the amount of water on earth ever remains constant - in three variable forms or states: solid (ice) , liquid (water) and gaseous (clouds)... Aren't they continuing to repeat in the 'present' what ancient 'Hindus' said about it as one of the 'panchbhoota'- associated with 'earth', 'water' and 'sky'... Formless 'Fire', i.e., state of temperature hot (cloud/ steam) and cold (snow & ice/ snowmelt) is understood, together with the presence of 'air' that helps in setting up of the 'water cycle' or 'churning' in the words of ancients...:-)
If one wants to say something original, let one find out what is God's purpose in setting up this unending cycle?
The ancients appear to have failed in finding this out as both, (physical) Brahma and Vishnu, apparently failed to reach the beginning or the end of Shiva's linga made up of fire (formless or 'point source of energy' - as the cause or origin of the apparent physical matter in the universe)...
P.S.
I present a quote, an essence, which, I am sure, all mature persons know already from personal experience :-)
"It is not that you read a book, pass an examination, and finish with education. The whole of life, from the moment you are born to the moment you die, is a process of learning." - Jiddu Krishnamurti (Source - The Times of India, April 14)
[I hope it is not considered a 'coincidence' or 'accident' - perhaps a design of the formless?
:-)]
Kavitha,
We conversed at Orkut/About Indian History.
I'm a Siva dancer.
Have a look at the images, stories and energy ethos at Siva Dancing. Let me know if it resonates -- best if you scrap me on Orkut. Thanks.
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