The Art of Wow Factors in Ancient India

While going through sacred texts I can’t but help draw a parallel between the works of Adi Shankaracharya in the Soundarya Lahari and the poetry of Bharavi in the Kiratarjuniya Mahakavya, both poets were contemporaries of each other ranging between the 6th century and 8th century. There was a flurry of activity in the world of literature and poetry at the time. Bharavi was the Pallava court poet with affluence even in the Chalukyan courts of the time. Adi Shankaracharya in comparison was an ascetic and yet both personalities dived into literature and poetry to showcase the depth of their devotion. Adi Shankara sang his poetry in the name of Kamakshi Amman of Kanchipuram while Bharavi cleverly combined the story of Arjuna and the hunter in the forest with Bhagirathi’s penance in the Descent of the Ganges, attributing his deep devotion in both stories to Lord Shiva. 

The panel of Mahabalipuram describes the story of Arjuna as the hunter who fights Lord Shiva and finally gains his confidence and is blessed with the Pasupatrastra to fight the Kauravas in war. In the same breath, Bhagirathi is also potentially inscribed on the same panel worshipping Lord Shiva (shown with the ganas) seeking his intervention to break Ganga's force when she descends to earth from the heavens. While there is a lot of politics sculpted on one side on this panel, there is a narrative that shows a hunter doing chores in the forest in a sculptured comic strip. They main focus though is Shiva, the largest overwhelming being on the sculptural panel.

Kiratarjuniya Panel, Mahabalipuram

So where is the wow factor in this elaborately carved out canvas in rock? The beauty in the panel is on display when it rains. The water collects at the top of the rocky panel (now blocked and filled with rubble!!) and flows down through the “river” carved into the rock right at the centre depicting the beautiful descent of the Ganges, reliving the poetry of the great Bharavi. The water falls into the pool below bring the large elephants back to life as they drink water from the pool. This experience is not just about viewing a panel coming to life but packed with a lot of spiritual and political meanings within the depictions of the panel. One can keep staring at the panel to just relive the moment as seen through the eyes of Bharavi. 

Let's move to the poetry of Adi Shankara in the Soundarya Lahari. He describes the sensuous beauty of the Goddess through his lines and at the same time prescribes the way to higher spiritual progress through the activation of the Kundalini Shakti. In the same breath he elaborates the various swarupas on the Goddess’s face as she blesses her devotees. The experience of shanta swarupa (peace), ghora swarupa (terrific), sounmya swarupa(happy) and most importantly, the movement of her eyes in her side glance has been greatly described in Adi Shankara’s poetry. The poetry itself comes with its rhythm and mystical flavour that brings devotion and power through the sounds embedded in individual verses. Here too there is a hidden wow factor, not in the poetry itself but in the experience of its knowledge while viewing the sacred Abhishekam of the deity at the temple of Kanchi. 

In the early hours of the morning, at the time of sunrise, the Goddess is given the sacred bath - Abhishekam. It is not just a sacred bath, it comes packed with an experience of pure bewilderment for the eyes to behold. And if you are well versed with the work of the great poet Shankara, you have signed up for an amazing experience of reliving the poet’s artistic work. Through a devotional experience of two hours at the temple, as the priests meticulously bathe the Goddess, she expresses her features. Pure water pouring over her form reveals her ghora rupa, the milk abhishekam reveals her shanta swarupam, and the sandalwood paste on her face reveals her Soumya swarupam. And just as we imbibe this magic of discovery, the priest takes the flame up to her face in Arti to reveal the side glance of her eyes, with a slight smile on her face. 

Is it the play of light or the genius of the sculptor to make such a ravishing form and almost brings her to life when light moves over her divine face. Its not just the breath taking beauty of her form and the symbolism of her love, but the very experience that she sits there alive and breathing in front of us, giving us the grace of this wonderful experience of her side glance.  

In both examples, the poets sang in praise producing great literary works and the sculptors brought their works to life in stone. Water was used as an essential ingredient to bring up the wow factor seasonally or daily in each case. And the experience was left in the hands of the viewer to imbibe and relive every time they looked at these phenomenal works of art that drove devotion, touching the emotions of the onlooker. Now this is pure user experience at play, when art, literature, mythology and lifestyle work hand in hand to bring an emotional experience embedded deep within the onlooker’s heart to life. 

Photo courtesy: www.holidify.com, Remote Traveler.

Time - A Concept apparently Understood but not Realised

They say the only constant is change.

Spiritually speaking there is a big flaw in this statement. On the face of it, it is as true as it can get but if we chose to deep dive, it will have a degree of inadequacy that we failed to see. 

Change starts with the knowledge of time, and in our world time governs every thing. It is in our nature to accept time as a part of our life so much that we have taken it for granted. We have never attempted to question what life would be like without it. That question is so difficult to answer. The idea of time is ingrained within us, as a part of our nature. On the surface it appears as a clock, but deep inside it far more vicious than that. If we could attempt to eliminate the concept of time from our ideology, we would see the world in a lot different way. 

Our very growth, from childhood to adolescence to youth to old age is a journey bound by time. But if you dig deeper into the concept, it is limited to the physical body. The physical body has an expiry date. It will last only that long and if we abuse it constantly it may not last as long as wished. And hence if we had to reduce the attachment we had to this physical body, bring down the importance of it, and run it like a sheath the notion of time as an overpowering reality ceases to exist as I am no longer the body. 

We can actually dig even deeper into this idea. Our relationships are equally time bound, not by death but by the nature of perception of the relationship. We are social yes, but each relationship has a flavour. Those who we thought we knew since childhood are potential strangers today. We don’t relate to some of them. And those with whom we build relationships, have their own lives to lead, hence the relationship itself can move from stranger > acquaintance > best friend > contempt (familiarity) > disagreement > distance > stranger. This journey that we do with people brings in an ageing of the relationship. It doesn’t always have to be negative as in the case of the previous example, but if it is positive and if we want to push the boundaries of the relationship itself, it can lead to bigger miracles unexplored by humans. Most relationships of (pure) love (not lust), where the love is a definition between a man and a woman, potentially move in the direction of unity as we are wired that way. It is in the nature of a human to love, and it is in the nature of a human to express that love physically, mentally, ideologically. But there too, the love has its age. The familiarity brings in the change. It is time bound, the relationship has a maturity - defined by time, whether it lasts or not is not the concern. The point is, the relationship goes through a journey, time bound journey with growth and maturity of the individual players and depending on each one’s capability to evolve, it teaches them new things or it enables them to tolerate each other. The bottom line is, what the relationship started out as and what it ended as are not the same thing. There is a journey and hence the relationship too is heavily dependent on time. 

The very nature of our existence needs questioning. The scriptures talk about 4 states, Brahmacharya, Grihasta, Vanaprastha, Sanyasa. These are essential states to go through before death, to enable us to reach the maturity to accept death. At birth we are alone, helpless and bewildered and at death too we have the same state. The in-between, is a time bound affair that is a set pattern handed down to us as the way of “optimal living” to evolve as human beings. While Sanyasa is given up as a practice unfortunately, old age is starting to look like a horrible monster that needs to be tamed. Each state has a significant learning to add to our maturity. 

I am actually going to apply the 4 D methodology of User Experience to define this. The first stage of life is Barhmacharya which is all about Discovery - of the self, of the others, of the world, of the tantalising nature of the opposite sex. It is overpowering and we succumb, we remain bewildered for a while. In fact we are not even taught how to question it or fight it, we are tuned to go right into it with great "pomp and show". 

The state of Grihasta is all about Defining - Who we are, what we want from life, what our dreams are, who we want to procreate with and take the seed of immortality further. Note, people may not find a purpose to life, but they definitely find purpose in a family. Our core animalistic purpose is to procreate and there is excitement to fulfil. We are incomplete without it, our potency is defined by it, it is a matter of pride. 

The third state is Vanaprastha, a state where we need to Design our path towards the inevitable. It is cyclic, mundane, every day looks the same. It borders on boredom as we are slaves of time. We start to fail here, because the core purpose of this state is to understand the purpose of the previous state and move on. To let the offspring fly off from the nest. To emotionally disconnect from owning the offspring. This stage is to bring the maturity that we need to move on, on our own, into silence, into the self. 

The last stage is Sanyasa, to Deliver oneself fully mature and ready to exit. There is no point fighting to keep the body running, there is no point fighting to stay in the family and there is no point to want to be relevant. We simply are not, not physically, not ideologically, we are not relevant and to come to terms with that truth is an art to be pursued in this stage. We are ready to be delivered to the next stage of existence, what ever it is for the body now is going to fall, the mind is going to cease and the soul will leave. 

This degree of maturity needs be arrived at and we are built to use the mind and the heart to do the right kind of evolving. Logic and emotion if controlled can surpass the illusion created by time because it is so subtle, it is difficult to work with. The true meaning of detachment is to look at time from a distance, to look at relationship from a distance and to look at the body from a distance as if none of these three aspects ever belonged to us. 

It is therefore possible to dive into the inner meaning of the self. The actual constant, is within us and it is not change or time. It is that state of mind which is NOT bound by time. That which is perennial. The Vigyana Bhairava Tantra tries to explain this state. The time we have from now to death, is to practice this way of life, to make death understandable. The outer bodily sheath has to be discarded, that is the rule of life. It is the evolution of the self to want to leave it and conquer the illusion of time that really matters.