Pashupatinath Temple, NepalClick the photo to enlarge
When beauty transforms itself into grim reality
When all curtains of illusion fall
When the mind comes face to face with the truth of death
When the mind gives up all attachment
When joy is overcome by the futility of existence
When it feels that this is Now the end
You're at Pashupatinath temple, Nepal.
On a cold wintry morning Nepal presents an ancient quaint little town basking in the morning sunlight. It is a beautiful city with ancient temples, plenty of emblems and the echo of Lord Shiva and Buddha surround you as you explore its lanes. Narrow streets, wooden walls, strange and exquisite carvings along roof edges against the mountains behind, it cannot get more picturesque, its a treat to the eye.
But as one walks down the narrow lanes of life along the Bagmati river with the anticipation of Pashupatinath in the mind one also sees endless burning ghats, bodies perishing into flames, souls departing and all of life coming to an end. It is a smoky lane to cross, where the blinding mist is overpowered by the thick curtain of smoke rising from these funeral pyres.
And there it stands by day. A gold roofed temple at the top, with a flight of ancient steps leading up to it. A gorgeous courtyard meets us right after the treat of death looming all around us. Its like we rose up to paradise or heaven , reaching the abode of Lord Pashupatinath. Dotted with smaller shrines and pillared halls, this is a "delicate" wooden temple with exquisite sculptures blanketing its wooden exteriors. A small wooden structure plated with gold, leads one into the tiny sanctum approached from four cardinal directions. And there He stands in the center in the form of a chaturamukha linga. The four faced Shiva, Lord of all the directions is seated at the center of this sacred shrine chamber. Each of his mukhas(faces) represent Isana, Tatpurusha, Vamadeva and Aghora attributed as guardians to the four directions.
This is the moment when all life halts, all desires for health and wealth fade away, all pain and agony in the mind disappears, and the life in us wakes up and the mind goes blank. The only reality of Lord Shiva lies ahead in front of us, the only question of what the value of this life is echoes in the mind. The limits fo existence wake the mind, we are born, we will die, we owe nothing, we belong no where, we have come and we have to go, the only constant is Lord Pashupatinath, our only reality and hope in our transition to the next world. The arti rises and the faces of the Lord glow within the dark misty interior. Its a moment of tranquil existence where, neither death or birth matter. Life will cease.
The landscape around Pashupatinath temple is dotted with smaller shrines of Lord Shiva along the river side. As one looks through all the shrines the thought that runs through the mind is the repetition of births we take and continuously toil through our many lives. At every stage we come face to face with the Lord as we go from one life to another, rather aimlessly. As one walks down to the river, to take her blessings and purify oneself, a small linga beckons us to come its way. A personal worship, a small abhishekam, with the river water and blessings for a fruitful life are granted at this little shrine out in the open. At the end of this small ritual, a lamp is lit, a flame of enlightenment as it burns and sails down the Bagmati. A fire, the light for the rest of our lives.
With a heavy heart and a torn mind, the steps lead back to our familiar worlds that lie ahead of us. With the vision of the Lord, His all pervading self, deeply engraved in us, one can't stop but think about the value of life. As one journeys back to the grind, Pashupatinath Temple leaves an uneasy void, that we are missing the presence of a greater reality, one before which all else is just nothing.
Pashupatinath temple on the night of Shivratri.Click the photo to enlarge
47 comments:
Kavitha, a very good description of the environment reflected by a beautiful man-made edifice, which a crematorium anywhere on earth also apparently presents, and which helps genaerate a ‘zero’ state of mind… However, as soon as one enters the’kalchakra’, or the grinding wheel of day-to-day life, the mind gets tele-ported to the unending or infinite universe…
The ‘zero’ state was, therefore, called ‘shmasan vairag’ that is detachment temporarily created, but which the Yogis, in the isolation of Himalayan/ concrete jungles, attempted to achieve by control of mind to reach the Absolute Truth…
Physical ‘Nepal’, as we all know, is one of the ‘Himalayan countries’ that were understood by ancient Hindus as Ma Parvati’s abode where as a young girl she believably worshipped Sun God with a desire to wed a Yogi, Shiva and Shiva only...
One can perhaps visualize Shiva as one of the Yogis who, perhaps, had come from the plains to the Himlayan forest, from Kashi that is Varanasi, in search of ‘Truth’ after his first wife’s death...
Imagined with reference to the ‘present day’ expeience also, when a girl belonging to a king’s/ rich man’s family wishes to marry a materially poor but handsome young man, there generally is resistance. The idea, therefore, then also wouldn’t have found acceptance by the concerned ‘society’ that generally continue to follow certain accepted practices over a certain duration only - in this ever changing world - because of ‘slavery of time’, or attachment with material and therefore unable to accept a change, as part of a ‘natural’ design. And, although such marriages might finally get solemnized, perhaps the couple wouldn’t be welcome and the ‘born-rich-girl’ might have to live a simple life with her spouse. Of course, a ‘story writer’ might find various versions…to break monotony to the ‘spectators’…
However, in exceptional cases only, ‘time’ might prove the very same society to hold the couple in high esteem…That’s the essence of Shiva-Parvati’s marriage, that apparently copied evolution of Earth-Moon, that eventually attained immortality thanks to Parvati’s brain! For, as per the essence of human life, “Behind every successful man there is a woman”. And, as we have seen earlier also elsewhere, a woman’s brain is more versatile in design, but that apparently generally renders apparent frivolity to the female of the human species…and in the Kaliyuga, ‘when ignorance was bliss’ in the ‘dark age’, the female appears the most exploited by ‘brute male strength’, explained as natural for in the first stage of churning emergence of poison is believably natural…Therefore, ‘what can’t be cured must be endured.’ And, Krishna in the Gita says, ‘Surrender all actions in ‘Me’...(because ‘I’ is supreme knowledge)…”!
Perhaps realizing the ‘Truth’ of illusory world, an Urdu language poet said, “But humko khein kafir/ Allah ki marzi hai…, which is one of the lines of a popular song sung by a character named ‘Ghulam Ali’, a ‘Pakistani’ singer who is popular in’India’ also. For music was realized by ‘wiser ancients’ as part of the Omnipresent and is, therefore, apparently is able to break all imaginary barriers created by ‘humans’ at any time. With the background knowledge that ‘temporary man’ was realized by ancients - both in the east and the west – as an image of God, the Omnipotent and Omnipresent, the poet in effect says that it is God’s will (or part of a grand design) that (due to lack of knowledge) an ‘image’ calls another ‘image’ as ‘image worshipper’! Perhaps the same can be seen applicable to temporary, or transient, or fictitious, characters themselves in the ‘present day’, in Kaliyuga, call ‘Lord Rama’ as fictitious – perhaps because of apparnt frustration, on account of inability to realize the ‘Truth’, or Earth, also as fictitious, a thing of the past of the immortal Formless Creator in Super energy form housed at its imaginary centre!
When we were school kids, we used to play with marbles. And, in one of the games each player had a marble which was thrown from a distance by each with push from one of the fingers, generally the middle one - to try to make it land as close as it was possible to a very small hole dug out into a plain ground at some distance…
The person whose marble landed the closest was then the ‘chosen one’ who then attempted to strike the marbles of others and drive them away from the hole as it was possible...
However, in this continuing process if one missed to strike any one of the marble, all other non-strikers were required to stand on one leg, hold the marble between two toes, and bring it back to the hole to become eligible for the next round. The striker, irrespective of what his mother tongue was, like a Bengali boy, generally attempted to distract the attention of the non strikers by saying, “Nake dordi diye khotabo”, that is, ‘I will drive you with a rope in your nose, (like a camel is led by its owner)’…
And, if all successfully did it, the game was repeated. Otherwise, the same striker would repeat and play with the marbles that had failed to reach the goal and thus had remained at some location way from the hole…
Maybe a 'seeker' could see the communication from ‘Nature’ that we as children experienced as part of the ‘truth’ but without realizing it, because of poor analytical power, and then forgot all about it – unless ‘I’ flashed it on one’s mind’s eye’!
Physical ‘Nepal’ - with its administrative centre located at Kathmandu as its capital city where Pashupainath Temple also is located - is connected to River Ganga in ‘India’ through two major River systems, Gandak & Kosi that flow through the state of Bihar in ‘India’, which act as two of the main arteries of Shiva’s physical form, which connect His head with life-giving Ganga waters acting also as part of the sympathetic nervous system that is located on the eastern side.
Thus ‘souls’ released in Nepal, because of the last rites of human forms being performed on the banks of River Bagmati, believably join Bhootnath at Kashi – water acting as carrier of the souls! For water is known as a universal solvent, and ‘Hindus’ considered it as one of the ‘panch-bhoota’, or literally the ‘five ghosts’, as friends of Bhootnath Shiva who married Parvati the daughter of the Himalayas!
One would need to keep the ‘mind’s eye’ open to visualize the two Divine Personalities of Hindu Mythology: Formless Vishnu, or Nadbindu the infinite unique source of universal energy originally existing at the centre of our earth, as the Creator of tehphysical universe (symbolically shown on bed formed by celestial serpent, Shesha, meaning the one who alone exists after ‘Pralaya’, or Ananta, meaning unending in the middle of the ‘milky ocean’ – visualized, in essence, or as its model, as the Centre of our Milky Way Galaxy, called ‘Krishna’), who is believed to recline West-East along the trend of the Himalayan range; or Gangadhar Shiva (generally represented by Shivalinga), indicated to recline NW-SE, as it is reflected in the tilt in the axis of earth, the whole globe, (hint given by His being called Gangadhar, that is the one who holds Sacred Ganga; and Chandrashekhara too, that is, the one who receives moonlight, and thus crescent of moon is symbolically shown in Shiva’s forehead…immortal Shiva, as the physical form of the Formless being sustained by he Solar system…in which our Sun, although immortal, considered as one of the phases of Trimurty Shiva, that is Brahma, is required to ‘go to sleep’ at the end of a day of over 4 billion years…
Each life form, small or big, was understood by the ‘wiser ancients’ as a carrier of a soul, as a medium. Similarly, water (and air also) in atmosphere, like in rivers today is understood as carrier or medium of travel for silt - suspended in it or rolling on the river bed - dissolved chemicals; microbes etc., and even animals, including humans…dead or alive…
And, man, live or dead, himself is believably known as a carrier of innumerable numbers of innumerable forms of micro-organism, each of which believably thus carrries an independent soul (comparable with ‘my’ photo that is made up of dense, black or coloured, dots on white background, which when enlarged cannot be recognized as me!) .
The ‘wiser ancients’ thus appear to have understood human form as a model of the physical universe itself, or an image of God who apparently remained unseen and unknown to man, although man was His Own image…like my own reflection in water/ mirror; fictitious characters in a story or a novel, as fictitious creations of an apparently known author who, similarly himself, is fictitious! And the physical universe was believed to be ‘Maya’ or illusion created by the Supreme Being!
Like be-tal, in legendary Vikramaditya’s 25 stories, believably used to return to the same tree, human being ever finds himself or herself ‘back to square one’. Just as Vidramaditya failed to answer the '25th truth', the ‘wise ancients’ also reportedly failed to find the beginning or end of the ‘Shivaling’, they therefore called the Formless Creator, the apparent source of the 'universal hum', that is, OM, or Nadbindu, as unborn and unending – a mystery that has ever remained unsolved, although ‘super intelligent characters’, in the east and the west, appear to claim, ‘nothing is impossible’!
There is a saying in Hindi, “Hathhi ke pere mein sabka pere”, that is, elephant-foot’s impression can contain the foot impressions of all other animals.
Nadbindu, similarly, was believed as the one and only Supreme Being within whose head the entire infinite appearing universe was located – as a thought, reflection of which appears in human dreams, which also remains a mystery to us humans.
But, one is perhaps sure that it couldn’t have been the job of humans in the ‘present’ although one apparently sees its reflection in projections of films on ‘silver, or TV, etc. screen’…and IT appears to be still evolving, and still very far from the goal to act 'God' himself!
The progressive reduction in physical and mental efficiency in humans, with time, was understood to happen on account of inherent opposite characteristic properties of the components of human body, which is believably formed out of two components – the material exterior, and the spiritual that remains unseen within the form, imagined like the relation between a fruit’s pulp and its seed, naturally (like a model) embedded within it...
The exterior material appears to deteriorate with time - to eventually exhibit in a symbolic manner as in ripening of a fruit that then naturally falls of the parent tree...
In human form, this phenomenon believably gets reflected in ‘death’ of the concerned individual, indicating similar to maturity of the seed, baturity of soul, the indestructible component that is believed to be a tiny fraction of the supreme soul or god itself…ready for acquiring another body...
'Krishna', therefore, in the Gita, asks one not to feel sorry for it is the soul or the seed that is important, and not the body or the fruit! For, the goal of teh sol is to reach the supreme soul, tht is Pashupatinath or theLord of man, he head of the animal world...
Perhaps we could also approach the ‘Truth’ from the ‘present day’ knowledge, or finding that ‘life on earth’ evolved in water near the sea-bed where required energy (‘fire’ in the words of ancients) from the core of earth released through fissures is available.
And we find even today the ocean waters teeming with a variety of ‘aquatic life’.
In so far as life on land is concerned man appears to be the most evolved among all life forms, (he is thus Pashupati, the caretaker of all animals, just as Krishna is believed as a cowboy, or/ rather a super cowboy and, therefore, symbolically Pashupatinath’s representative, ‘Yogiraja’)…
Now, although man’s ‘roots’ are in the sea-water, he cannot imagine even a few hours inside it, the saline water isn’t now potable for him and tears at his natural fiber, the skin. In (sea) water He is ‘like a fish out of water’! He can thus be imagined as reflecting the property of the fruit that although holds the seed(s) that can help in arithmetic, that is multiplication, but cannot directly get connected to his roots – he needs a medium.
Hindus, that is, Indians correlated this phenomenon with functions of apparently separated Heavenly Bodies – Earth, provided environment for sustenance of life forms, whereas its absence in Moon, which thus was seen reflecting the 'ocean', and thus water was believably related with Moon!
Camel is called the 'ship of the desert', and the Hindus believed the better half as the boat that acts as medium form crossng the earth, imagined as sea!
Can we also take it as a hint from God when - apparently earlier existing variety of ‘natural’ life forms in abundance in a grand variety - birds are becoming extinct (maybe some samples preserved by God in certain pockets that are kept beyond humans), along with plant life, being replaced by (imperfect) man-made iron machines or robots that we very well know cannot perform multiple functions, as efficiently as the natural, or God-made, life forms did...bird flu and resultant culling of Cocks and hens, the species whose natural function it was to announce the appearance of Sun in the sky as a mark of start of yet another day…
(Read it with the ‘Hindu belief’ of Sun’s night – Brahma’s in their words…)
Kavitha, keying 'my' loud thoughts 'I' sometimes get the feeling that perhaps 'i' alone exist, just as 'I' is believed to do - and the entire physical universe as His Own illusory images out of which He perhaps seeks the image that's His true image! And, perhaps therefore the eternal repetitive cycles!
Similarly, with the background information available in Hindu Mythology that the Creator is Formless, ‘Nadbindu’, ‘I’ recalled my engineering college days study of subject of sanitary engineering, included in the curriculum, when for a few days we had the opportunity to see the unseen mico-organism, or bacterium, in water samples through a microscope (an instrument that uses just two lenses made from glass,with a mechanism to adjust properly the distance between them by having them fitted within telescopic metal tubes) that the naked eyes had failed to see (due to deficiency in vision)...
A few typical samples collected from different sources were then fixed in the ‘agar media’, in circular glass dishes, that were viewed through a microscope.
They all appeared to be ‘life-less’. The next day, however, although nothing seemed wrong with the sample that was collected from drinking water tap, the other samples showed some black spot(s) (like the saying in Hindi,”Dal mein kala hai”), the most in the sample from sewage water collected from the sewage treatment plant.
Over a few days, however, except for the sample pertaining to drinking water from a tap, (which gave us assurance that it was safe), other dishes were seen to appear completely filled up and thus completely dark, for the bacterium that was originally seen as black dot(s) had multiplied by division, facilitated by their favourite food in agar media, and formed a bigger circle that gradually filled the entire circular dish.
Thus, apparently the sample from sewage water was the first in the race, like the possible alternative of the popular story of ‘The hare and the tortoise’ imagined with possibililty of hare not sleeping in the middle of the race, the sewage water had won, in so far as ancient Hindu thought regarding God filling up the entire entire universal void with physical forms instantaneously is concerned.
However, conforming to the generally drawn moral of the story, i.e., “Slow and study wins the race,” for sustenance of human life over longer duration was demonstrated by the clean drinking water, in so far as reducing danger to human life from ‘harmful’ bacteria is concerned, but we also know that their exist ‘helpful, or selfless bacteria’, also!
And therefore, as per general observation of the apparently helpless masses, as Mira Bai also said, ‘foolish men’, as a design, appear to act as ‘judges’ (‘today’, believably because of ‘time’, and its inherent characteristic property, which gets reflected through inefficient functioning in humans, the most in Kaliyuga that is believed to be the ‘present’).
Perhaps this is the prime cause of all ‘wrong’ acts, at any time, which is reflected in the thoughts received by the ‘common man’, who unfortunately is helpless and is obliged to endure the apparent ‘pain and suffereing’…
Thus assistance is felt needed by humans at all times from some super energy that, as per Hindus, has blessings of both mothers, ‘Gauri & Kali’, .i.e, ‘Black & White’ energy forms (Super Gravity housed as the centre of our galaxy, & relatively weaker Sun, as the apparent sources of energy received by planet earth and life sustained upon it)…
Nepal, the only ‘Hindu country’ for long is apparently disintegrating ‘today’ due apparently to ‘Mao’s communism’, the ‘seed in Nepalese minds’ received from the neighbouring country, China - the country of ‘opium smokers’, a practice apparently copied by Nepal as well as China due to the influence on account of ‘Shiva’s India’ once upon a time – like ‘being paid in the same coin’ when time is being seen in the descending order!
Krishna, the cowboy or Pashupatinath, however, says in the Gita, to the effect that the whole ‘Nature’ is copying Him – maybe apparently indirectly because of existence of hierarchy and not being realized in Kaliyuga ‘the dark age’ due to lack of overall knowledge of the design!).
Hindus understood Parvati’s 'left hand', Ganesha, to ‘copy’ the characteristic property of Krishna – that acts as link between man and the Formless Creator, existing in man also as His model or image, as essence of planet Mars, or the orange colour, housed at the base, clled ‘mooladhar’ or the ‘basic root’…
'I' is not surprised as 'left-hand batsmen' of team India / pAKISTAN are hitting centuries or doing better than right handed Kartikeya, at Bangalore teh meeting point of North & South 'India'!
The concept of model can be seen to a certain extent in the ‘present’ that is Kaliyuga the ‘dark age’, and also called Kalyuga the ‘machine age’ where, with ‘animals’, as evolved forms in mind, man is seen ‘today’ to create iron computers and other machines with inbuilt computer programmes, or sodftwares, for performing certain jobs at faster speeds than man or animals, that today appear to have become relatively much less efficient than in the apparent ‘past’.
But, although the speed has apparently increased, and thus bloating human ego, however, the net outcome appears to be leading to confusion, mutitudonous and chaos. The invaluable human resoiurce management itself has become a problem – inefficient machines thus have replaced naturally efficient, but abused or misused man…as per ancient ‘wise’ ancients, due to lack of overall knowledge of utilizing man the natural robot!
Once there was a cartoon about a young boy’s visit with his old father to a farm away from a concrete jungle where he was used to getting milk from a vending machine. Thus, he laughed at his father, thinking he was being fooled, when his father pointed at a cow, and anxious to educate him, excitedly told him that it was the animal whose milk he drank every day!
TV channels continue to educate us today how, maybe unknowingly, we are drinking ‘synthetic milk’ made from detergent, urea, etc dissolved perhaps in ‘dirty water’ even!
Dr. Anilji, or teh majority Kavitha or her silent visitors might be able to tell how still some people continue to remain ‘bahubalis’, that is physically powerful, while the majority is experiencing diseases that weren’t even heard of in the ‘golden past’!
But, although they appear to have relatively had a more peaceful life, at slow speed like a tortoise - a form that was considered by ‘Hindus’ the second re-incarnation of Vishnu - they too couldn’t conquer death in human form, but, maybe comparatively speaking, the majority perhaps were happier and had enough leisure, or ‘time to burn’ in their hands, though maybe not money, while the average man doesn’t have both today!
Man is, therefore, as a consolation prize is happy to ‘conquer Mount Everest’ or the Moon by symbolically help landing a few specimens for some time there as one’s life-time achievement, although at the back of human mind is the thought to become immortal in human form itself despite apparent physical pain and suffering, and through some Yogis demonstrated that they would then have to live like stone pieces – like Ahilya!
Of course, it was perhaps thus realized by the ‘wiser ancient Yogis’ that it reflected the preference of the immortal to perhaps exist as a chain of innumerable mortals, that is, ‘enjoy life’ in short but continuous spans inside an eternal chain of innumerable physical forms whereby one could forget the pains and sufferings of the ‘past’!
The ‘wiser ancients’ appear to have realized the soul to have passed through 8.4 million different ‘yonis’ or ‘wombs’ to have eventually attained the human form, with ‘Sadashiva’ (the composite earth), as the model of ‘Mahasadashiva’ (the entire universal void with physical forms acting its vital organs) as the one and only perfect physical form as the true image of the Formless, Nadbindu.
In short, it appears that our planet earth was visualized by the ‘wiser ancients’ as ‘Pashupatinath’, Lord of the caretakers of animals…and each human form as model of Sadashiva supports innumerable micro-organisms - as their models - within or upon one’s physical form…
In general, having passed through all animal yonis, man was realized by elevated souls, or Yogis, or ‘Siddhas’, the all rounders who sought the ‘Truth’, and in the process reached the ‘Absolute Truth’ also about ‘Time’ and its one and only controller, to have essence of all animal forms in his person that wasn’t known when they were ‘ordinary persons’. They thus found that mental maturity was independent of physical maturity, which everyone ‘naturally’ anyway attained. Thus ‘mind’ was realized to be apparently independent of the body, and thus it was known that it needed to be exercised by each individual to have a better vision.
[Analogously, the phenomenon is like inability to see the outside world when one is inside a ‘natural cave’ or within man-made four walls of a building, made from any opaque material primarily for security reasons to provide protection from various natural elements. However, if one were to climb the roof that is open to the sky, he is able to command view over a greater area of the outside world (but due to inefficient vision today needs satellite images that are recorded by cameras fitted in geo-synchronous ‘artificial’ satellites in space that function like ‘natural’ satellite, that is, moon that is functioning since time immemorial with the same face always towards the earth, (like a good student who isn’t distracted by the various other activities around her, and apparently keeping a constant watch on the book, or like any ‘good’ mother always consciously watches her infant)].
And ‘Yogiraja Krishna’ the cowboy of Dwaper-yuga who evolved to Pashupatinath by the end of Sat-yuga says in the Gita that the entire nature is copying Him, while adding that because of ‘Maya’ or illusion He appears within each, but in reality the entire creation is within Him (thus the physical universe reflects the vital inner organs of Mahasadashiva)!
With the above as the background knowledge of the ‘Truth’ realized by the ‘wise ancients’ or Yogis, perhaps one could attempt to search one’s own image within this vast body, or ‘Bhimkaya’, or ‘virat’ form of one and only God! Maybe, one would realize oneself as unidentifiable, just a bacterium-like dot sandwiched between innumerable other similar dots! And, ‘I’ am thus appearing magnified thanks to the ‘third eye’ or microscopic vision of Shiva – it is His greatness that He found some role for ‘me’ too, who a film-maker would reject me even if ‘I’ somehow manage to, Abhimanyu-like, ‘penetrate the chakravhuha’ created by material man today!
Aren’t the bacteria, virus etc. the micro-organism (came to be called ‘little animals’ when they were re-searched in the ‘west’) doing some useful work for ‘Nature’ since time immemorial, as ‘Cell Bilogists’ have found an ordinary bacteria to have been in existence on earth for a much longer duration than man, the apparent latest arrival among various other animal forms, who holds innumerable miro-organism in his form too, that apparently remained unknown to him for long. And also one doesn’t yet know completely how, and why, they help or harm him and why or how the ‘harmful’ ones eventually apparently become victorious in the ‘battle’, or ‘struggle for existence’?
And, nothng is found useless in ‘Nature’. Could then any man be useless? It is thus because of such questions that led ‘ancient man’ to seek answers to questions, considered as the ‘burning issus’ then: Who am I? What is my purpose? And so on…
Thinking of location of a particular individual in a crowd, I recall our PT (Physical Training) teacher in school when the entire school gathered for prayer and physical exercises before long periods of mental exercises began for overall knowledge in different Classes. Because of lack of knowledge, or impossibility of a teacher capable of innumerable names, and associated faces therewith, of all students, he could find fault only with the Sikh students, associating the particular person with the colour of his turban and not his name (“Hari pugree wale sardar”, i.e., the sikh with green turban, and so on)…
My nephew’s, around 3-year-old daughter then, who bcause of ‘churning’ was in New Delhi for a few years and got attached to ‘me’ for reasons unknown to ‘me’, reportedly thought a grey-haired person, in the photograph of a big crowd that had appeared in an Ad in a magazine, to be ‘me’!
Some taller men, apparently lost in a crowded market, say, are easily located by friends and relatives thanks to the natural variations in heights of humans, although one can’t rule out mistakes because of similarity ‘by chance’ (or maybe because of child Krishna’s believably mischievous nature)!
There is a popular saying in Hindi, an essence, to the effect, ‘All black persons appear like one’s uncle” (alluding perhaps to the believable similar relationship between Krishna & Kansa, Kansa perhaps was considered as ‘black in heart’, while Krishna might have had dark skin, and “beauty is skin-deep only”, and “handsome is that handsome does”)!
The above reference also brings to my mind the virtual death by crushing in a crowd that ‘I’ as a child had experienced on Krishna’s birthday in Laxmi-Narayan Temple (popularly called Birla Mandir, and thus diverting one’s attention from God, because He is Formless)! The event virtually scared me to keep away from crowd, anywhere for long, and even now ‘I’ do not feel comfortable when ‘I’ am obliged to face it.
However, today with a mature mind, isolated in a ‘concrete jungle’, ‘I’ can realize it as a reflection of the Centre of our Galaxy’s location far away from other innumerable Heavenly Bodies that go around it, and where ‘Black Hole’ or Krishna believably is housed (astrologers associate this property with Saturn)! And, Krishna says He resides within all, maybe felt because of ‘Maya’! He is believed to appear as the most evolved forms as crocodile in water; lion, among wild animals, and so on as an agent of death! And on the other hand, he says (in essence) not to be afraid of ‘death of the exterior’ because it is the soul within that is the VIP, a part of Mahasadashiva that is constantly passing from one form to another in repetitive cycles and is being watched by Yogeshwar Shiva/ Vishnu, the Formless Creator!
I appeared to be good in Sanskrit language that we in the junior school had till Class VIII, after which one who wished to study Science subjects, besides Physics, Chemistry & Maths had the liberty to opt for three years of study of either Hygiene Physiology (for those who wanted to pursue Medicne; Geometrical & Mechanical Drawing (for those who wanted to pursue Engineering, which I too selected); and Sanskrit, which my teacher thought I should opt for. In view of that he selected me and a cousin of mine to present a small skit in Sanskrit in some School function. However, it flopped! For I forgot my lines because of nervousness and quit the stage in the middle!
In a dissertation competition organised by Rama Krishna Mission, I thought of participation in both English as well as Hindi. But, there too I failed miserably as I forgot the lines, and walked away from the competition and didn’t even respond when my name was being called for the English dissertation!
Later, one of my French Language teachers at Alliance Francaise once shook my hand saying, ‘an expert in writing but poor in speech”! Also, an astrologer friend, similarly, independently, told me that I would succeed by writing!
And, I recall that when our class in school/ or some particular groups of students made noise/ some mischief, our teacher used to punish us by making us sit after the school hours and write some paragraph 100 times or so!
Now, I feel that perhaps some bird, a parrot or a mynah, would have performed better than ‘me’ – of course in so far as repeting the given line is concerned, perhaps a tape recorder is the best! I can only have consolation that the ‘wiser Hindus’ believed in ‘originality’, which the TV/ Film stars while talking of their role in a film that is yet to be released, as ‘different’! And the ‘wisest of the lot’ however punctured one’s ego by saying that life is all about ‘Maya’ or illusion, where everyone is in fact rendering dialogues written by the one and only ‘Supreme Being’ (a phenomenon similarly reflected in Politicians reading their speech that is written by some other ‘experienced diplomat’, as if the words are his/ her own (if you repeat something ten times, even a ‘white lie’ starts appearing as the ‘gospel truth’ – even to the speaker)!
Ancient ‘wise Hindus’, therefore, based on realization by Yogis, who could apparently see, projected in their mind’s eye the events related with the apparent future (as it happens sometimes in somebody’s dream also even today), called the earth ‘a market where only lies are sold’! The Vedantis believed in the existence of one and only ‘super conscious being’, that being perfect, is able to see His Own History, that is, His journey from zero to infinity. The phenomenon gets reflected in the essence, realized in the saying, “Travelling is education” that apparently involves travel in time and space, both…whereas these both were zero in the beginning as well as at the end of the journey of physical form, which achieved perfection at its peak. Thus in the rising stage there would have got reflected imperfection getting reduced with time. Whereas during the return journey, the perfect being would see evolution in reverse order, or apparent degeneration as it appears in the ‘present’. The ‘wise ancients’ believed one such downward review takes place in 4.32 million years through human eyes. And to cover the entire 360 degrees of space, and also the three aspects, such over 1,000 or maybe precisely 1080 cycles are needed during one day in the life of the creative aspect of Trimurty Shiva, which works out to over 4.6 billion years seen through animals’ eyes, or through the superior most human form, that is, the leader of animals, or Pashupati who has the blessings of the Pashupatinath Shiva…
Let us one more time review the basic finding or realization of the Yogis, with Pashupatinath Shiva as the Yogeshwar and Mahakal the controller of time and related events in the drama of animals, or the ‘pashus’, on Earth: The exterior physical form is illusory and it is only the dot-like soul - a fraction of Formless Nadbindu, that is, the source of infinite unique energy or Supreme soul – which is the VIP, (Very important personality, or micro- chip-like energy form for recording of information).
Following a grand design, each soul believably keeps on passing through an eternal cycle of actions and rests - within various physical forms from time to time - which may be short (nap/ sleep), longer (coma), and exit from one form when the chip is full to its designed capacity, and to attain a new form immediately, or maybe remain lying ‘frozen’ for long till a suitable body appears in some womb (such as that of the most evolved ‘Krishna’ as the agent of ‘death’, who apparently arrives when it is time to restart the cycle).
Before any soul can attain human form for the first time, the soul is believably obliged to pass hrough 8.4 million animal forms, in some pre-determined order for the required end-product at that particular time and location for certain specific purpose or purposes over a certain period, such that the required hierarchy in all aspects of ‘Nature’ gets reflected through the media of the cross section of the various exixting forms.
The ‘best’ or the ‘purushottam’ and the ‘worst’ during a particular period, for example, Rama & Ravana respectively in Treta-yuga provide the ‘role models’ for the generality of us, or ‘We The People’, that is, Rama reflecting the ideal characteristics to be attempted by all, i.e., the ‘dos’; and the characteristics of Ravana lays down the ‘donts’ or the characteristics that one should attempt to avoid. However, each person, because of the inherent inclination of one’s thought plane behaves differently. And thus the ideal characteristics only help in ‘judgment’ by the concerned system at the concerned era, which according to ‘Hindus’ appears defective because of the natural design…and hence the advise by the ‘wiser ancients’ to surrender in Krishna, the representative of the Creator…to be able to enjoy, or even reach the’eternal bliss’ state that can come only when ‘Supreme Knowledge’ is attained – like the state the Formless believably ever remains because only He is aware that the physical world is illusory, and that time and space are ‘zero’!
Based on the apparent knowledge about natural evolution of souls and its obligation to pass through ‘inferior forms’, or animal forms, led to the ritualistic practice or ‘tradition’ of ‘pashu bali’, that is, sacrifice of animals and birds to ‘liberate the imprisoned soul’, (which was understood as comparable to liberation of an encaged bird), was started – perhaps originally with ‘knowledge’, but later due to ‘slavery of time’, ‘foolishly’ for selfish interest only that was originally advised to be avoided… Krishna the cowboy (a symbol of motherly love) who became Pashupatinath Shiva, the rider of Nandi the bull (a symbol of super power, and whose head is naturally sculpted by ‘Nature’ or the ‘panch-bhootas’ also in the form of the ‘down under’ continent, ‘Australia’ in the Southern hemisphere, that is, literally below the ‘Indian sub continent’ located in the North, which also has ‘North America’, naturally sculpted as the bird, Garuda, or Eagle, the vehicle of Vishnu, for His representative, Krishna who resides within all forms, to keep vigil over ‘Hindus’ through Eagle-eyes!) says that all ‘wrong acts’ result from lack of overall knowledge…
As per the essence of ‘Hindu Mythology’ or ‘Sanatan Dharma’, believably a ‘seeker’ only reflects an ‘inclination’ to reach the ‘Truth’. And, if one continued to puruse deeper and deeper, despite all apparent hurdles that pop up on the way, one might eventually reach near the ‘Absolute Truth’, that is, realization of the existence of the one and only Supreme Knowledge.
And, also realize, therefore, that rest all physical forms are illusory, His Own images that have varying quantum of knowledge stored in their individual souls, but to a limited range varying from near zero and tending to infinity, close to the “Supreme Knowledge’, the Nadbindu…also depending on the stage of evolution, in differet Yugas (one could perhaps notice it getting reflected in the ritualistic practice of garlanding a VIP, or necklace/ beads of Rudrakasha and pearl and other gemstones etc worn by a person – where the beads naturally rest against the chest while being located lowest in the middle, at the pendent level, and the highest at the shoulder level – on both sides of the body).
The efficiency range of utilization of 100% - 75% potential available in a Sat-yuga to humans believably is the lowest in a Kali-yuga, i.e., 25% to 0%, it literally being the ‘Dark age’ that has its ‘material roots’ in the ‘Dark Continent’, Africa in the ‘west’ of Kashi, as also realized in the ‘present’ as the root of Homo sapiens all over the globe.
And, the ‘spiritual roots’ in Kaliyuga get reflected in Indonesia in the east of Kashi and, say - like Banyan tree - Buddhism spread to the far east and found its new roots there…and even Rama-Sita etc., the characters pertaining to Treta-yuga are worshipped reverently in the far east region too!
The ancient ‘Hindu sages, or Yogis’, call human spinal column as ‘Meru danda’, the word carried through time immemorial, passed on from one generaion to another. The ‘seeker’ therefore shouldn’t normally be much surprised to find Meru Town located on the slopes of Mount Kenya in Africa! And, to also similarly note that the state that has come to be known as Uttarakhand today, has the ‘Kurmanchal’ region (meaning related with tortoise, the second re-incarnation of Lord Vishnu) with its HQ at Almora Town, which is located at almost the same altitude as Mery Town... And that Adi Shankara, famous for ‘vedanta’ before his disappearance in the Himalayan forest region had also visited Jageshwar Temple located in that region…
One could perhaps also note how all major eight numbers directions were believed to be controlled symbolically by animals in the form of elephants (and the direction west was believably controlled by semi evolved Krishna, as Neelamber the one who Peacock-like wears blue garments, also like the colour of ‘sky’ during the day, when earth is ruled by milky-white Swan-like Sun, whose rays were symbolically represented by the Goddess of learning, white sari clad Saraswati) is different from the east (believably controlled by ‘Child Krishna’ the beloved of both, the cowboys as well as the milk-maids of Mathura-Vrinadaban, or red colour of the molten magma in planet earth’s core, symbolically represented by Ma Kali’s protruding tongue), as reflected in a joke that I happened to come across in a magazine.
A young woman was wearing a golden necklace that had a model of an airplane as a pendent. She was a bit uneasy when she noticed a young man staring at her necklace.
In order to restore her calm, she asked him if he was appreciating the airplane. But, the young man said he was appreciating the landing ground!
A ‘Hindu by thought’ might see it as a reflection of ‘Natkhat Nandlal’ and 'Krishna-leela' or drama in illusory human life, when He believably used to play pranks with the milk-maids - by stealing butter from their homes, ‘alongwith his gang’; breaking their pitchers with stones when they carried water from the river to their homes’, and so on,,,
However, as he matured he believably sobered (like a river before it meets the sea, or the sea itself that holds all the water drained into it by different rivers, irrespective of their size, or silt/ pollution content)…He was therefore remembered for all His good qualities for all times to come, as ‘selfless’ and powerful benefactor of the masses…a role model for Political Administrators to follow (perhaps in Treta-yuga and thereafter only)!
Thus it is perhaps a folly to expect Sat-yuga-like behaviour in Kalli-yuga the 'drk age'...
‘I’ think cat, as well as, mouse also deserve mention when animals (vis-Ã -vis Pashupatinath Shiva) are being discussed.
The ancient Hindus appear to have included mouse as a symbol of the slow moving vehicle of ‘Lambodar’ or big-bellied Lord Ganesha, who had an elephant’s head over his shoulders.
Ganesha is believed to be the favourite son of Mother Parvati - designed by Her to act as ‘vighna harta’ or the ‘trouble shooter’ for Her as well as Her devotees’ security, even from Her all powerful consort, ‘Shiva the Destroyer’, the immortal ‘true image’ of the Formless Creator, Vishnu the Nadbindu that acts as storehouse of souls, their origin that gets embedded within each form in the physical universe, as well as their goal at the end of a cycle – physically reflected by water droplets that form the clouds to provide life-giving potable water in the form of rain, collected on land in ponds, lakes, and underground storages etc; and flowing in rivers, and so on, which ultimately meet the seawater or, in fact, are constantly in touch with each other through ‘earth’, ‘air’, and ‘fire’ within the ‘sky’!
Cat is perhaps included by ‘Krishna’ - mentioning in the Gita - Lion, belonging to cat’s family, as the most evolved form among the wild beasts as one of His Own many images.
The Cat, as a domestic animal, generally finds use for catching rats that, otherwise, damage many articles in a house that are being put ot use by man, although itself it has an inherent property to stealthily drink milk, whenever it gets an opportunity (perhaps as a reflection of child Krishna!).
And, particularly black cats were apparently used as medium by some who practiced ‘black art’…
The Hindus gave protection to cats also by imposing fine, on any person who kills a cat, to donate a cat made in gold of he same wight as teh ct killed!
The cat believbly has 'nine lives', maybe linking it to all nine planets, or Navagraha worshipped in the form of nine Shivlingas in certain temples/ places...
As a child I had observed some grown up men walking on the street suddenly come to stop because some cat had happened to cross their path from one side to another in front of them. They would then wait quietly for someone else to cross the imaginary track of the cat before them and then only proceed further!
Although I have narrated this incident earlier also elsewhere, later one day while traveling on the National Highway from Imphal, the capital of Manipur state, to Guwahati, the capital of Assam state, the two cities in northeast ‘India’, I happened to see a black snake hurriedly cross the road from the right side to the left in front of the vehicle.
The belief about black cats being used by some apparently ‘evil spirits’ in human form, heard in the childhood resulted in some sort of expectation that something could go wrong and, in conformation with Murphy’s law, it happened after a few Kilometers - the vehicle turned turtle due to puncture in one of the wheels (leading to its deflation and thus letting ‘air’ to escape!) and road becoming slippery due to dust (or ‘earth’) and (rain)-‘water’, although it was just a mild drizzle!
Out of the six passengers, only I was hurt a bit. My middle finger’s (that represents planet Venus!) nail cracked into two parts because some skin along with one part had partly peeled off (like the open lid of a box that is hinged to its back-side) and was then put back and held in position with a handkerchief wound and a knot tied.
It had happened because I had caught hold of the sill of the window, which, therefore, came in touch with the hard surface of the road before the vehicle rolled over to rest on its roof while facing the direction from which we had come.
Another time, later when traveling from Manipur-Mizoram border to Imphal, when it had become a bit dark, in the light of the headlight, I believed I saw a strange spectacle!
I saw a white hooded serpent moving backwards from the hill side to the valley side while it appeared as if it was also revolving! Just after we had crossed the imaginary line drawn on the road, the head-light bulb fused and although the driver immediately switched on the fog lamp, I asked him to stop (so that I could touch the ground!).
Prior to that event, I had heard on the radio about the local belief of the ‘younger son of ‘Sidaba-mapu’(?) the God who doesn’t die’, called Pakhangba, as the ruler of the earth, to appear in the form of a serpent, while His elder son, Sanamahi (meaning liquid gold) ruled over the houses.
Thus the story apparently was a Manipuri version of Shiva and His sons, Kartikeya and Ganesha. A local also confirmed that Pakhangba is believed to be white, (just as Sheshanag that acts as Vishnu’s bed is believed to be), but additionally has black diamond shaped marks on the white background…
The person was surprised that their God had appeared before a person who apparently didn’t even believe in Him!
Pashupatinath Shiva (in Nepal) was perhaps thus called Adbhutnath also (in Rajasthan, where I had stayed for 4 years for studies in the ‘western’ style while on the other hand ‘Nature’ also believably silently acts as ‘my’ spiritual teacher to ‘seek Her’)!
It was exactly four months after the above narrated minor accident that the incident already indicated in detail elsewhere - related with my then about 10-year-old daughter virtually predicting in advance the cancellation of the scheduled flight, New Delhi to Imphal via Guwahati, at around the time when it was scheduled to depart from New Delhi, but due to delay, although it reached late but it didn’t go to Imphal at all – had happened, leaving me flabbergasted at the unknown and untapped capabilities of the human brain (with background knowledge of certain capabilities observed in 'Tantrics' there)!
With the status of my mind then, I wondered if it indicated the hand of some unseen force in the air around us that enveloped all animals on earth. If so, I reasoned, why it didn’t tell me directly?
Then I thought maybe it communicates only with relatively ‘simpler souls’, and that too only to those who have the in-built receiver at the right frequency and wave-length…
It thus pleased me greatly when, after about 18 months, I heard someone sufficiently loud and clear, as if located a few inches above my left ear and tell me in Assamese that I was supposed to buy ‘koni’, meaning eggs from the market, just the one word, which I wasn’t able to recall when I was on my way back home in the evening - for around 30 minutes of concentrated efforts to recall what my wife had requested me to bring...
I have discussed this event in greater details earlier also elsewhere. However, I would like to add that recently it had appeared as a newspaper item that the human left ear can pick up even small sounds, distinctly amidst other loud noises in the surrounding!
At that time I thought the phenomenon was spatial location related. But, when even in a packed bus in New Delhi I heard some lady singing, and the sound appeared to emanate from a magenta coloured woolen shawl wrapped around his body by a passenger who was standing close to me, it was perhaps confirmed that the phenomenon was related with ‘me’ a an instrument!
Maybe, my attitude towards life had undergone a sea change over those years, and that, perhaps, had helped tune with the ‘spiritual world’ to a certain extent…needing constnt endevour though, till I ‘exist’ in this form, which is believably the outcome of innumerable cycles since the beginning of this particular day in the unending life of Brahma, that is, our Sun, as one of the main media of the Formless, on which the whole planet earth (Shiva) is dependent (Shiva believably worships Brahma – His right hand (the source of energy for ‘material development’)! And also Vishnu – His left hand (the indirect source of overall energy, for both ‘material’ as well as ‘spiritual’ development, and, realizing it, Brahma was thus not worshipped by ‘Hindus’ at a certain stage in the form of anidol)! (Krishna says that He illuminates both Sun & Moon)!
Hindu Mythology read between lines - with the apparent present day information being gradually released through the west as hints in mind for interpolation or extrapolation - makes it absolute clear to the seeker that emphasis was given on ‘immortal energy’, and not innumerable ‘mortal material forms’ of energy that help only to distract one’s attention.
The phenomenon gets reflected in ‘students’ or ‘shisyas’ exhibiting varying concentration power in individuals universally – which, for example, like separation of cream from other ‘unimportant’ components in milk, led to emergence of ‘Sikhism’ in ‘India’ at a certain stage of ‘churning’, conforming to the saying, “Old order changes, yielding place to new”. All healthy young ‘Hindus’ were segregated to form a ‘new class’ (which is no different from sieving of dust, say, that removes the fines from the coarse material)…just as perhaps ferocious ‘wolf’ evolved to the most loyal among animals, ‘dog’, or lion evolved into the ‘domestic cat’! Or, maybe mosquitoes, with their syringes/ acupuncture needles duly incorporated into their natural form, perhaps evolved into ‘medicine men’!
A doctor wrote in an article, to the effect, that with the apparent accumulation of knowledge about our environment, and finding dangerous micro-organism in the dust even on the table we use, it isn’t surprising if a man falls sick. However, what is surprising is how still some people continue to remain healthy!
It is rather confusing to an ‘ordinary man’, in case of some illness to some family member, to decide what system of treatment one should follow that would result in 100% cure, at the earliest and with minimum expenditure.
Perhaps everyone would prefer some personality, such as Jesus, to save lot of harassment and expense to all family members, particularly as it is being experienced in cases related with chronic illnesses, or ‘incurable diseases’, the numbers of such diseases and that of patients apparently increasing with time.
The phenomenon is explained, from ‘Hindu view-point’, due to approaching end of Kaliyuga, that is, the beginning when ‘Krishna’, as the representative of Vishnu the Formless Supreme Being, had just started the ‘churning’, or had begun the eternal or unending drama with His Own innumerable forms or illusory images with near zero knowledge – that according to the Gita belonged to just two categories, the selfish and the selfless in human forms, however each also functioning as model of the universe…
Thus the wise ancients recommended ‘surrender of all actions in krishna’, and witness the drama in human life as a spectator, for the real actor was realized as Formless or a unique energy beyond human comprehension – even beyond the wisest of the wise men, or demi-god, Brahma & Vishnu (in physical forms)…
With ‘Maya’ or illusory physical forms in mind, hypotheticaly speaking, a perfect three-dimensional figure, say a sphere, can be imagined to get reflected by innumerable equidistant lines or rays projecting from a point (like Nadbindu, the point source of infinite energy is believed to cover the infinite void of the universe) on a vertical plane to form a circle that, when seen from the side, would appear as one single vertical line of a certain length as desired, which could tend to infinity, as Hindus believed Shivalinga of energy or ‘fire’ to be. And, if this figure, or many of its components, could be made to rotate around the vertical plane through 180 degrees (as observed if a circulard card is made to rotate around its vertical axis appears like a sphere, or as it is reflected in the stories by Natraja the dancing Shiva that is earth and other Heavenly Bodies too that represent Mahasadashiva), spheres of various dimensions could be imagined to be formed in space with components of the original big sphere – like utensils, for various purposes, felt needed by humans, can be visualized made from the one and the same steel plate…
In practical terms, perhaps we would have to combine bits and pieces of information extracted from the ‘Hindu mythology’, for the ‘wise ancients’ called child Krishna as mischievous or ‘Natkhat Nandlal’.
We have, for example, seen child Shiva’s description as Bhairavanath, as Kavitha also stated while discussing His believable dance with 64 Yoginis said, “…Bhairava, popularly depicted as a naked mendicant, like Bhikshatana with a dog on his side and jatas in flames…”
Also read it with Shiva’s dumroo, a percussion instrument formed in the shape of an hour glass with a string tied to its waste that have beads tied to the two ends. When the instrument is held by its waist, and is shaken like a see-saw, it results in the beads striking the dry animal skin at the ends of the instrument, producing rapid sounds that get magnified due to the air locked up inside the wooden instrument.
Now those who have observed a shaggy dog immediately after it has been bathed (as I saw the cocker spaniel, Kim, my father had when I was a young boy) can perhaps realize how the dog shakes its body similarly, lke a dumroo, and makes the water drops fly off to great heights away from its body!
Kavitha, here is another reaction to a nespaper article...
This has reference to the Mind Opener article Darwin's Last Gasp, 15/12...
Speaking like Sardar Khushwant Singh in his famous column 'With Malice…' Or like a Haryanavi from Gurgaon that once upon a time believably was Guru Dronacharya’s Ashram (in dwaper-yuga, that is a period ranging between around 4,32,000 - 12,96,000 years ago (with the assumption that ‘we the people’ today are close to the end/ beginning of a Kaliyuga and thus one of the Mahayugas of over 4 billion years), it looks like as if the reporters in the media aren’t allowed these days - by whosoever has laid down the rules for their functioning - to use their own brain before they believe ‘west’ that is believably controlled by Neelamber Krishna, the Natkhat Nandlal can ever reach the ‘Truth’:-)
Krishna reportedly ate just one grain of rice that had stuck to the bottom of the cooking vessel, and angry sage Durwasa’s whole team forgot about harassing Draupadi (who by the end of Sat-yuga evolved as Mother Parvati the consort of Shiva) by self-invitation for lunch when the Pandavas had already finished their lunch and no provision was left in the house :-)
With teh above background, 'Editors' also can imagine what would happen if Shiva the Yogshwar Himself eats the dope. And He believably swallowed ‘halahal’ or ‘Kalkoot’ the deadliest poison (Potassum Cyanide, in short KCn, which sounds like Krishna – and life was believed to be only symbolic!) that resulted in His throat becoming blue, like the ‘sky’ or Peetamber :-)
It is analogous to ‘be-tal’ (who does not sing at the proper tempo), suspended inverted from the branch of a ‘peepal’ tree (of Banyan’s family) trying to read a book held in the hand of a soul (with body) seated underneath the tree at ground level (like Newton):-)
‘Truth’ of Krishna-leela or the eternal drama of the representative of the Formess Creator, or Bhootnath, obviously for Bhootnath’s benefit, was perhaps better understood by the ‘advanced east’ in the long lost past, which needs ‘divya-chakshu’ or divine eyes to read it through the eyes of Peetamber Krishna…to understand the phenomenon in its true essence – which, in short, indicates evolution to have taken place starting from infinite models to reach the unique physical form (they called Him Shiva), imagined, for example, with the form of a cone with infinite base area and infinite height…
And now it is Bhootnath who is reviewing the different stages of evolution (through His Own images or bhootas) from peak to the base of the cone (simplified by the form of a Pyramid built in the African Continent) – numbers thus appear increasing with passage of apparent time, while real time and space remains zero :-)
“Prayers go up/ Blessings come down.”
May God bless our souls!"
In the ‘siddhasan’, the yogi sits with tips of both thumb and the index finger of the hand touching.
Now, if one were to observe the gap between these two on one’s right hand without any conscious effort to make the figure look like numeral ‘0’ or letter ‘O’, maybe one would find the shape to appear like the island known as ‘Sri Lanka today’...
However, if now one were to look at one’s left hand also, with fingers kept in straight line and thumb kept normally open, maybe one would notice the gap to represent the southern coastal region of ‘India’, as it appears today. The arm thus could be visualized representing the waters in the Indian Ocean…in both cases…
The above-sited figure of ‘Sri Lanka’, made with left hand instead, could perhaps be imagined to have represented ‘India’ that was ‘the island called ‘Jambudweep’ before emergence of Himalayas from under the sea-bed in its North…
The ancient Hindus believed the whole solar system to be reflected in human hand...
In one of ‘my’ comments above, 'I' had said, “…assistance is felt needed by humans at all times from some super energy that, as per Hindus, has blessings of both mothers, ‘Gauri & Kali’, .i.e, ‘Black & White’ energy forms…”
The above reflection perhaps can be seen by everyone in the ‘natural appearance’ of the animal, called Penguin, at ‘the base of the globe’, that is Antarctica...
However, what might be surprising is that ‘lawyers’; who are very well known to all to mostly speak lies - thanks to the ‘papi pate’ that is the ‘hunger of stomach’ - even when their function apparently is to help the judge to separate ‘truth’ from ‘lies’, like a white coloured Swan believably separates milk from water; continue to dress up like Penguins – in black coat on top of white pants at the bottom! (And, only cricketers, when they played the game as 'gentlemen', sported pure white!)...
In the case of 'white milk', it is the cream that rises to the top when ‘fire’ or ‘energy’ is applied at the bottom of the ‘exterior form’, i.e., the vessel that contains it (comparable to the believable ‘tapasya’, or Herculean/ Bhagirath-like valiant efforts, for achieving a relatively superior or ‘elevated’ soul)...
However, in water that an average man is believed to ‘naturally’ copy in its different aspects of growth, it is only the ‘scum’ that rises to the top!
And, today one apparently sees even ‘Rama’s Ganga’ to have reached a high level of pollution – perhaps thanks to poison, related with planet Venus’ (reflecting personalities, such as Neelamber Krishna, associated with relatively more polluted Yamuna, and Kartikeya etc) who in the beginning were believably responsible for ‘material development’ alone, resulting in imbalance between ‘material’ and ‘spiritual’, and hence the need for Peetamber Krishna/ Ganesha to appear and play the desired role to save Ganga and also Gangadhar Shiva, that is, planet earth…a phenomenon that had taken place when evolution was undertaken, and unfortunately, or as the 'Truth' we are heading towards the end of Kaliyuga...maybe to start afresh fro Sat-yuga, or go for 'hibernation' like frogs and other innumerable creatures...
However, there apparently exist some specimens, Yogi-like Yudhister in Dwaper-yuga, and, say, Mahatma Gandhi in Kali-yuga who, although originally practiced himself as a lawyer, believed also in experimenting on ‘Truth’, although they did not seek it in seclusion, and as realized by Swami Vivekanand also, believed in attempting detachment while maintaining attachement with the community to which they belonged...and thus apparently act as ‘role models’ for others to follow…made difficult by 'Time'...
Similarly perhaps, one could realize frog to have acted as ‘role models’ to the ancient day debutant Yogis in their attempt to levitate, as ‘Maharshi Mahesh Yogi’ also taught it as the first step towards that goal…And, in his book, Autobiography of a Yogi, 'Paramhansa Yogananda' cites a Yogi who most of the time was found in the room with his head (like a hydrogen gas balloon, or like certain mosquitoes, and lizards etc, who like 'be-tal' might be seen as if stuck to the ceiling, in an inverted position!) resting again the ceiling! He, therefore, used to sit on a chair close to the dining table so that he wouldn’t fly away!
Krishna the Yogiraja, who claims Himself to reside within all forms, was perhaps, therefore, called mischievous!
And, it indirectly applies to Child Bhairavanath Shiva too, for Krishna apparently evolved eventually into Mahesh, that is, the geatest and the Bholenath or simple God – a journey from a crooked state, to start with, to a perfect state as the objective in mind (as the word ‘Lakshamana’, Rama’s younger brother in Treta-yuga, also conveys)!
The frog inspired not only the ‘Indian Yogis’, but it inspired the ‘west’ also.
In France, in Europe, frog legs (as food item) are considered a delicacy. One of our French Language teachers had married an Indian. She told us that these were available very cheaply in New Delhi!
In the USA, regular competitions are reportedly arranged where frog owners participate, and the owner whose frog jumps the highest wins the award.
There are, of course, competitions organised for other animal owners also, such as, dogs, hares, and so on, to run in competitions just as humans also do, which, of course, is also copied in the ‘east’, such as races organized for camels, bulls etc., and the declared award winner is the owner in human form, as the head of the animal world, that is, Pashupati, perhaps on behalf of Pashupatinath, who believably rides the bull (in invisible form)!
Another reaction to a newspaper article...
"This is with reference to the article It’s time to rethink parliamentary system - by Shri Shashi Tharoor (STOI).
He rightly concludes, “The disrepute into which the political process has fallen in India…can be traced directly to the working of the parliamentary system. It is time for a change.”
The above conclusion was realized by ‘We The People’ of ‘Independent India’ in the early sixties itself, when China entered into the stage and unexpectedly and shockingly played villain’s role in the drama that was being performed to the satisfaction of all in the stage called ‘India that is Bharat (and not Mahabharat – like it apparently was once upon a time in the past)’, which therefore revealed that it wasn’t perhaps a pragmatic one, (called ‘The Dream of Nehru’, and now, ‘The ’Dream of Rajiv’), the apparent ‘story writer’ of which originally was literally the ‘Red Jewel’ (reflecting, Bengal’s favourite, Ma Kali’s tongue), that is, Jawahar Lal, who was well known for his disbelief in God, explained by him on account of his upbringing – for he thought religion was meant only for females as he saw the ladies in his family only indulge in related rituals. And, his father, being a ‘rich and famous’ lawyer and his ‘role model’, had no time for it! Like Krishna befriended Arjuna, the ‘spiritual’, Mahatma Gandhi, felt affinity for Jawahar Lal, but which didn’t last long thanks to time!
A poet explained such phenomena - that get repeated from time to time as the truth of ‘Nature’ - in the words, “Woh din hava ho gaye/ Jab Nawab sahib fakhtey urdaya karte thay”, that is ‘Gone are the days when rulers virtually reached the sky’. That is like Akbar or Rama believably had ‘elevated souls’ within – thanks to ‘Time’ (Mahakal , that is, the real Controller of Time, to a ‘Hindu by thought’)!
Yes, it is now High Time for Mahakal or Yogeshwar Shiva to personally act, which anyway He appears to be doing through global heating – and ‘defrosting His fridge’!
Only a ‘Hindu by thought’ perhaps can appreciate the significance of the mythological story of King Sagar, apparently due to lack of knowledge, similarly, deciding to perform ‘Ashvamedha Yagya’ at the wrong time to attempt expansion of his empire...
And, his 60,000 sons (!), therefore, on finding the ‘white horse’ (model of Sun in animal form!) that was used in the ceremony, in the hermitage of sage Kapila tied to a tree there mischievously by Indra (the model of Sun in human form), due to lack of knowledge, believing him to be the culprit disturbed the sage who was then in ‘dhyan’ or ‘zero state of thought’...
It obviously angered him and, therefore, he turned (Shiva-like or ‘Durvasa-like!) the 60,000 sons of Sagar into ash (perhaps alluding to tributaries and rivers that then drained into the Bay of Bengal) a phenomenon related with big holes in Ozone layer (or opening of Shiva’s Third Eye) allowing the full quota of Ultra-violet rays that otherwise are only partially allowed by the Ozone layer in earth’s atmosphere… thus necessitating ‘Herculean efforts’ by King Sagar’s grandson, in due course, to revive the dried up land and bring Ganga waters on to the parched land again – thanks, of course, to Shiva, the Gangadhar, agreeing to help him in his efforts!
As in the ‘present’ till recent times horses, besides being used in horse-driven vehicles, were used in major battles by soldiers...
In Dwaper-yuga, the horse apparently found use in driving the chariots of the ‘Maharathis’, literally the ‘big chariot riders’, as in the battle of Mahabharat between Pandavas and Kauravas, i.e., the selfless and the selfish persons, which as if by design continues to rage all the time!
And, by Treta-yuga Prince Rama’s father was known as ‘Dashratha’, which of course, was perhaps understood to link the evolved ‘suryavanshi kings’ in human form with ‘ten chariots’, i.e., Sun-like individuals who had control over all the ten major directions, whereas, the other ‘maharathis’ represented the planets that do not have energy of their own, and thus were understood to control only eight directions each – such as the prefix ‘ashtabhuja-dhari’, as associated with Ma Durga, the second consort of Shiva after death of His original consort, Sati, when He was Ardhanarishwar or the Androgynous God…which of course alluded to Moon as the part of Earth itself, i.e., Gangadhar Shiva who is symbolically shown to have the crescent of moon on His forehead!
Shiva is associated with bull, while Parvati is relted with cow, as 'mother'. And, their elder son Kartikeya is related with beautiful appearing peacock while Parvati’s favourite younger son, Ganesha, is related with the bulky elephant, the animal that is both intelligent, (having sharp memory, compared to forgetful average human being), as well as physically powerful.
Trained elephants find use in the Himalayan forests in logging works, and were used in temple building works at isolated and difficult locations also, only for real ‘seekers’ of ‘Truth’ by ‘sanyasis’ or ‘spiritualists or all rounders’ - and not for pure ‘materialists’!
Kaliyuga being the 'dark age', or just the beginning in hte evolutionary process, the najority of the 'souls' that couldn't reach the 'Truth' appear to be vortually 'blind' like Dhritarashtra, the physically blind Kuru King in Dwaperyuga...
However, even among blinds one finds ‘historical charactes’ that do not behave ‘selfishly’, like Dhritrahtra, for example, ‘Surdas’ the ardent devotee of Krishna whose ‘bhajans’ or devotional songs in praise of Krishna are repeated even today by bhajan singers, which prove that blinds are able to ‘see’ – perhaps better than us, the two-eyed ones who live in ‘fools paradise’!
Even in the ‘present’, ‘scientists’ have found that animals too dream, and perhaps they are able to decode those, maybe to a limited extent for performance of their day-to-day actions, and we have ‘specialists’ who try to interpret in human language their meanings (in Kaliyuga), and perhaps unlike the 'wise ancients' fail to reach the ultimate source of this mysterious phenomenon – the ‘Absolute Truth’ or the Formless, a ‘mere’ dot!
Maybe, ‘scientists’ would like to find out how, when they do not have as big a brain as human’s, micro-organism perform actions – either helpful or harmful to ‘humans’ that believably are more intelligent and perhaps once headed the animal world (when Shiva in human form believably attained perfection’ at the end of Satyuga, and not at the beginning of Kaliyuga!)
The ‘wise ancients’, who had reached the ‘Absolute Truth’, like the function of Superiors or Gurus conveyed it for the benefit of the masses at large perhaps believing that it would help bring discipline into the life of the masses with consciousness of existence of a ‘Supreme Being’ as the real Head of all animal life forms, and thus called it ‘Pashupatinath’, the ‘King of kings’ or ‘Queen of queens’ (adopted as names for alcoholic drinks also!) - as reflected in the ‘animal world’ by the bees, who could perhaps help see, similarly, parallels in human system too, to have acted as ‘role models’ in the ‘past’ that, in reality, was realized as ‘future’, which can be seen also in ‘kal’ being used in Hindi for the ‘day before’ and ‘tomorrow’ as well! Beautiful butterflies however are like the Yogis, for they, unlike the bees, do not appear to store honey in bee-hives that tempts bears and humans also to act as their enemies!
In retrospect, 'I' can perhaps now realize why ‘I’ was given an opportunity to visit the Buddhist Himalayan virgin forest country, Bhutan, one of the neighbouring countries of Nepal, besides the north-east region of ‘India that is Bharat’.
While there, although even otherwise while moving through the forest, along the bouldery river, sometimes ‘my attention’ used to be attracted, as if by design, by beautiful butterflies in the ‘natural environment’ landing close to where ‘I’ was and opening and closing their wings (like sometimes ‘I’ played ‘hide and seek’ with infants!). ‘I’ luckily had the opportunity to visit a museum also, where all the variety of specimens of butterflies in Bhutan is displayed. The Governement also has brought out beautiful postage stamps on some butterflies, some of which are 3-D ones, besides stamps on some other animals and birds too.
In retrospect, 'I' can perhaps now realize why ‘I’ was given an opportunity to visit the Buddhist Himalayan virgin forest country, Bhutan, one of the neighbouring countries of Nepal, besides the north-east region of ‘India that is Bharat’.
While there, although even otherwise while moving through the forest, along the bouldery river, sometimes ‘my attention’ used to be attracted, as if by design, by beautiful butterflies in the ‘natural environment’ landing close to where ‘I’ was and opening and closing their wings (like sometimes ‘I’ played ‘hide and seek’ with infants!). ‘I’ luckily had the opportunity to visit a museum also, where all the variety of specimens of butterflies in Bhutan is displayed. The Governement also has brought out beautiful postage stamps on some butterflies, some of which are 3-D ones, besides stamps on some other animals and birds too.
The letter ‘B’, for busy bee, might surprisingly appear like the eyes of a bee to the one who hasn’t herd/ doesn’t know about the mischievous nature of Krishna, and that life is only symbolic and illusory too - for it is Pashupatinath or Bhootnath who is actually viewing His Own past through the eyes of different forms created by Krishna under His direction an presented to Him like His exclusive album!
In the drama of animal life, there are busy characters in all forms. Mostly, one would notice that the female of the species are always busy with their daily chores. For instance the ants can be seen going in long lines in search of food or carrying their eggs from one place to another. One however learns from TV programmes etc. ‘today’ that, in the wild, even ants once were big and poisonous too!
Another hard worker among animals is an ‘ass’, ‘a beast of burden’ or a donkey - the word also conveying a dull and stupid fellow among humans - whose work is generally not appreciated and its song is found jarring to the ears (except to its owner, the washerman, say, who can have his meal peacefully assured that it isn’t lost, identified because of its typical sound as it grazes grass in some field nearby – whereas the nightingale finds appreciation by humans, although it doesn’t do any useful work for man!
In ‘India’ the asses in the Rann of Kuchchh perhaps are the hardiest among the species as they manage to exist even in the saline land in that region as water from the Gulf of Khambat deposits salt on the land during high tides.
And, in the olden days it was the most economical medium of transport for the washermen in ‘India’ for carrying dirty clothes of humans to the river bank, and washed clothes back for drying in sun. However, they still find use, by some builders, in certain regions for carrying dug up earth to the designated dumping grounds.
Krishna says that if you abuse someone, you are in fact abusing Him for He resides within all forms! Thus a ‘seeker’ is supposed to love all creations equally with the belief that the exterior is only a ‘lie’ and the Truth’ is the soul within the form!
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