The new TN government has finished its 100 days at the helm and claims that it has fulfilled almost all the promises made in their election manifesto! They also promise that the rest would be fulfilled soon enough. They claim that they are providing the best regime – ‘nallaatchi’! And as a resident of Chennai, the only visible change I have felt is that across all the roads, across all the parts of Chennai, there are big digital banners with Stalin and MK laughing at the public!
Now I would highlight one of the stories from the Mahabharata.
After the great war of Kurukshetra, Yudhishtra (Dharma putra) started ruling the kingdom. He set very high standards from the governance perspective. There was no theft, agriculture and arts flourished, and everyone in his kingdom lived safely and happily. Seeing all these slowly self-pride and ego settled in Dharmaputra’s mind. He started thinking great about himself – there is noone who could match his caliber of charity, his willingness to give etc. Lord Krishna was silently watching all these and decided that Dharma’ needed a lesson or two to be taught.
He invited Dharmaputra to visit the underworld (Paathaala loga) ruled by emperor ‘Maha Bali’. MahaBali arranged for a ceremonious welcome to Lord Krishna and Dharmaputra. People of the country chanted the great deeds of the Lord and Dharma through their way to the emperor’s palace! Dharma’s self ego and pride was kindled even more – that the power of his valor and generosity has spread to even the underworld!
As they settled in after all the ceremonies, Krishna told Maha Bali. “Bali – do you know that Dharmaputra is known for his charity and generosity. Infact he defines the whole meaning of words like Dhana & Dharma. And in his kingdom everyday he provides free food for more than 10,000 poor people and he takes care of their needs for free!. Have you seen anybody else in this world who could provide such a wonderful regime to his citizens?”
MahaBali started laughing! He said “Krishna. How could you say that a ruler who has kept more than 10,000 of his citizens at a beggar’s status for so long is providing the best regime in the world? In my kingdom even if you promise to give a village as Dhakshina, no body would wait for you to provide food for them. They know how to earn their food and they live their lives according to Dharma. A government which has kept its citizens as beggars and lazy by providing free food and other needs, is only doomed to die soon. There is no prosperity in Dharmaputra’s kingdom Krishna! I pity its citizens!”
Hearing this, Dharmaputra’s self-pride and ego got eradicated completely. He started providing the right regime after this and understood the fact that the thought of ‘HIMSELF’ would only lead himself and his citizens to death.
How relevant is this story for today’s scenario in TamilNadu. I request you to read THIS post of mine. The government is driving towards making TamilNadu as ‘Beggars Own Country’. It stops people who live below poverty line from any progressive thinking. All these free stuff make them lazy and bored. An idle mind would only think of the evil. This is not good for the nation. Like people who lived in Dharmaputra's palace with free food and other stuff, the people of Tamilnadu are also living in an imaginary 'Happy' mood. Nobody cares for the future of this nation. There was one Lord Krishna during the time of MahaBharatha to educate Dharmaputra. But who is there to educate our politicians today?
Once upon a time our mother land used to be 'God's Own Country'. Now slowly we are becoming 'Beggars Own Country'...
Sunday, August 20, 2006
Saturday, August 19, 2006
A trip to home - Final
Current day of view of the 'once beautiful' river 'Sitraaru'. In the back drop of the coconut groove, paddy fields and then the western ghats!
The visitors having a field and stomach full day...
The rich green vegetation. The courtallam falls at a distant backdrop...
The Rajagopuram from another angle. The 'Seevalaperi' tank is to the brink after many years. But one cannot dream of venturing into this because of obvious reasons - Not all the homes at my town has a toilet!
This is what 'tourism' has done to the serenity of my home town. Plastics, plastics everywhere blocks all the water ways, kills the vegetation. On the way to Five Falls at the Boat house...
From Vivekachoodamani
Vivekachoodamani, a master piece of Shri Adi Sankaracharya, provides a cream of the Upanishads and Bahagavad Gita. I have been fortunate enough to read some of the verses from this great literature. The following is one of my all time favorite verse:
"Sabdhaathibi: panchapireva pancha panchathvamaabu: swagunena baththaa:
Kuranga – maathanga – pathanga – meena – brungaa: nara: panchapiranjitha kim"
In this verse, Shri Adi Sankara gives examples from the animals on how they are doomed to their own destruction because of their own addiction to one of the five senses and tries to educate the most advanced animal as in human.
Kuranga – means the Deer. Deer has the tendency to get attracted by good music (Sabdha). It tends to get mesmerized by good music and hence gets distracted from its usual vigilant self – it can be caught easily.
Maathanga – is the ‘Elephant’. Elephant is addicted to ‘touch’ (Sparsha). Elephants are commonly attracted by its own clan’s touch. It is a common practice to use one ‘tamed elephant’ to catch the untamed ones. Because of its addiction to the sparsa from its opposite sex, the elephants with its mammoth size & stamina could be easily tamed.
Pathanga – is the Moth or Fly. These are mesmerized by the ‘light’ that they see. There is no food for the Moth or Fly in the ‘light’ – but still they get attracted by the image (Roopa) and lose their lives.
Meena – is the Fish. Fish lose their lives because of their addiction to ‘taste’ (Rasa). Fish have no real reason to jump for the food shown to them. They have enough vegetation to feed them in the water. But still they tend to search for a different taste and lose their lives.
Brunga – is the honey bee. Honey bees are the hardest workers. They are attracted to deadly flowers by their beautiful smell (Gandha). Even after collecting the honey from such flowers, the bees tend to sit for some more time on such flowers as they get mesmerized by their scent only to lose their lives. The flowers close their petals to ensure their end.
Each of these animals loses their lives because of their addiction to one of the five senses. But as humans, the most intelligent animals, most of us are addicted to all the five senses. What would be the status of us if we fail to control our senses?
By this verse, Shri Adi Shankara drives the point that human kind should not give it over to the five senses via, Sabdha, Sparsha, Roopa, Rasa and Gandha.
Why is this one of my favorites? It is simple, gives great examples, and kindles you to think but very hard to practice. Like all those animals, we are all still controlled by our senses, only to face our own ultimatum…
"Sabdhaathibi: panchapireva pancha panchathvamaabu: swagunena baththaa:
Kuranga – maathanga – pathanga – meena – brungaa: nara: panchapiranjitha kim"
In this verse, Shri Adi Sankara gives examples from the animals on how they are doomed to their own destruction because of their own addiction to one of the five senses and tries to educate the most advanced animal as in human.
Kuranga – means the Deer. Deer has the tendency to get attracted by good music (Sabdha). It tends to get mesmerized by good music and hence gets distracted from its usual vigilant self – it can be caught easily.
Maathanga – is the ‘Elephant’. Elephant is addicted to ‘touch’ (Sparsha). Elephants are commonly attracted by its own clan’s touch. It is a common practice to use one ‘tamed elephant’ to catch the untamed ones. Because of its addiction to the sparsa from its opposite sex, the elephants with its mammoth size & stamina could be easily tamed.
Pathanga – is the Moth or Fly. These are mesmerized by the ‘light’ that they see. There is no food for the Moth or Fly in the ‘light’ – but still they get attracted by the image (Roopa) and lose their lives.
Meena – is the Fish. Fish lose their lives because of their addiction to ‘taste’ (Rasa). Fish have no real reason to jump for the food shown to them. They have enough vegetation to feed them in the water. But still they tend to search for a different taste and lose their lives.
Brunga – is the honey bee. Honey bees are the hardest workers. They are attracted to deadly flowers by their beautiful smell (Gandha). Even after collecting the honey from such flowers, the bees tend to sit for some more time on such flowers as they get mesmerized by their scent only to lose their lives. The flowers close their petals to ensure their end.
Each of these animals loses their lives because of their addiction to one of the five senses. But as humans, the most intelligent animals, most of us are addicted to all the five senses. What would be the status of us if we fail to control our senses?
By this verse, Shri Adi Shankara drives the point that human kind should not give it over to the five senses via, Sabdha, Sparsha, Roopa, Rasa and Gandha.
Why is this one of my favorites? It is simple, gives great examples, and kindles you to think but very hard to practice. Like all those animals, we are all still controlled by our senses, only to face our own ultimatum…
A trip to home - Part 1
Hurray!! It was a long weekend. And quite naturally with some last minute hurry-burry I managed to reach my home town on a beautiful Saturday morning. After quite some time, I had an opportunity to visit my home town during the Independence Day weekend. And the trip became just perfect with the ‘season’ being at its very best this year. Courtallam (a place nearby our town) is famous for its ‘Saaral’ apart from its waterfalls – you have to be there to realize this experience. It would rain, the sun would be out, and you feel that you are getting wet, but as you reach home you would see that you are quite dry! And you would feel like giving away all yourself to enjoy that wonderful breeze that gently caresses your body and you tend to lose your soul for that! This is one of the very unique gifts of nature that I was privileged to enjoy throughout my life. With our place fastly losing its identity of being one of the serene places around, in the name of ever expanding tourism, this year Mother Nature still showed her mercy on this cute little town. I captured some of those moments and here are they for your views and comments…
The ever imposing Rajagopuram from our terrace. The pegions are offering their prayer by flying round the gopuram. Its about to dawn...
And a picture perfect sun rise...
Rays of the Sun God glorifies the majesty of the Rajagopuram. With dark clouds lurking in the back, you feel divinity!
Will post some more snaps in the next one...
... to be continued ...
The ever imposing Rajagopuram from our terrace. The pegions are offering their prayer by flying round the gopuram. Its about to dawn...
And a picture perfect sun rise...
Rays of the Sun God glorifies the majesty of the Rajagopuram. With dark clouds lurking in the back, you feel divinity!
Will post some more snaps in the next one...
... to be continued ...
Saturday, August 05, 2006
Those Nostalgic Years - Part 6
Festivals
Temple festivals dominated our lives as children at Tenkasi. There were so many of them throughout the year. As a group of kids we were extremely busy during those days. Decorating our street with festoons, used to be so much fun! We required tender palm leaves for making those small articles. We would ear mark certain homes at the street, whose owners would have got into rift with us at some point in time for plucking the tender palm leaves!
Most of the times, the problems would start with we shouting during calm lazy afternoons, hitting the cricket balls into their homes or our cricket ball breaking their tiles (Glass windows did not form a part of Agrahaaram homes). The common reaction mostly would be that the uncle (owner of the house) would come out with a stick and land a couple of blows on the nearest target (usually somebody who would be watching the game!), or abducting our play things or complain to our parents! Each of these would hurt us! These things would be discussed in our afternoon meetings and we would plot for revenge plans. Normal revenge plans would include puncturing cycle/scooter tyres, throwing cow dung rolled in a paper at their door steps so that when they open their door in the morning their first step would land on cow dung, tearing their cycle/scooter seats with our compass, stealing coconuts and Guavas from their trees etc. In some extreme cases we would also damage their water meters!
Such houses would become our primary target to steal tender palm leaves! We would plot a plan, a day before the festival day! We would gather at around Ten at the night and two of the courageous souls would venture out into the dark backyards! Before the dawn we would have done with the palm festoons and so nobody could exactly claim that their trees were stolen!
We had heavy duties during the Tamil month of ‘Marghazi’! The weather would be at its fantastic best as we lived near the Western ghats. Air would be so fresh and smell nice! Trees, plants, flowers would blossom around our street! The entire street would wear a divine look!
All of us used to get up very early in the morning. The ladies and girls would spend atleast an hour in decorating the street the big ‘kolams’ (Rangolis) as we walk around the street. In the center of the kolam would sit a set of flowers (usually Hibiscus) inserted into a small lump of cow dung. We would bathe early, and be at the temple as early as 6am. The bhajans would start! Before us, group of young girls reciting ‘Thirupaavai’ (a Tamil verse by Andaal on Lord Vishnu) would walk through the street! The group of men would walk through the street singing Bhajans.
Each one of the families in the street would bear the Pooja expenses for one day during the month of Marghazi. Some well to do families would provide the Bhajan party hot coffee! (In the picture). The female group used to be lucky that they would get some nice small gifts ranging from hair clips to bands to bangles to what not! We had to be satisfied with the coffee! Bhajan sessions used to be fully engrossing. The main competition would be on who would get to play the ‘Harmoniam’!
K used to dominate on this as well! We would also compete to get the best pair of ‘Jalras’! Jalras are bronze or brass plates bent to a concave shape and attached to the ends of a string – these were used as the percussion in all the Bhajans. Those who come early would get the best one! We learnt good music, a lot of songs on various gods and we had loads of fun! The Bhajans and the Thriupaavai groups would reach the temple with a grand Archana and Deepa aaradhana. Then the distribution of prasaadams would start and we would compete for that also. At the evenings we would recite ‘Vishnu Sahasranama’ & some other exerts from Vedas at the temple and would close the show with Prasaadams!
(Very recently, there are not many people around at the street as of today but in my childhood days these were really big events - Missed to preserve them as snaps :-( But truly happy that atleast the practice is not still lost!)
... to be continued ...
Temple festivals dominated our lives as children at Tenkasi. There were so many of them throughout the year. As a group of kids we were extremely busy during those days. Decorating our street with festoons, used to be so much fun! We required tender palm leaves for making those small articles. We would ear mark certain homes at the street, whose owners would have got into rift with us at some point in time for plucking the tender palm leaves!
Most of the times, the problems would start with we shouting during calm lazy afternoons, hitting the cricket balls into their homes or our cricket ball breaking their tiles (Glass windows did not form a part of Agrahaaram homes). The common reaction mostly would be that the uncle (owner of the house) would come out with a stick and land a couple of blows on the nearest target (usually somebody who would be watching the game!), or abducting our play things or complain to our parents! Each of these would hurt us! These things would be discussed in our afternoon meetings and we would plot for revenge plans. Normal revenge plans would include puncturing cycle/scooter tyres, throwing cow dung rolled in a paper at their door steps so that when they open their door in the morning their first step would land on cow dung, tearing their cycle/scooter seats with our compass, stealing coconuts and Guavas from their trees etc. In some extreme cases we would also damage their water meters!
Such houses would become our primary target to steal tender palm leaves! We would plot a plan, a day before the festival day! We would gather at around Ten at the night and two of the courageous souls would venture out into the dark backyards! Before the dawn we would have done with the palm festoons and so nobody could exactly claim that their trees were stolen!
We had heavy duties during the Tamil month of ‘Marghazi’! The weather would be at its fantastic best as we lived near the Western ghats. Air would be so fresh and smell nice! Trees, plants, flowers would blossom around our street! The entire street would wear a divine look!
All of us used to get up very early in the morning. The ladies and girls would spend atleast an hour in decorating the street the big ‘kolams’ (Rangolis) as we walk around the street. In the center of the kolam would sit a set of flowers (usually Hibiscus) inserted into a small lump of cow dung. We would bathe early, and be at the temple as early as 6am. The bhajans would start! Before us, group of young girls reciting ‘Thirupaavai’ (a Tamil verse by Andaal on Lord Vishnu) would walk through the street! The group of men would walk through the street singing Bhajans.
Each one of the families in the street would bear the Pooja expenses for one day during the month of Marghazi. Some well to do families would provide the Bhajan party hot coffee! (In the picture). The female group used to be lucky that they would get some nice small gifts ranging from hair clips to bands to bangles to what not! We had to be satisfied with the coffee! Bhajan sessions used to be fully engrossing. The main competition would be on who would get to play the ‘Harmoniam’!
K used to dominate on this as well! We would also compete to get the best pair of ‘Jalras’! Jalras are bronze or brass plates bent to a concave shape and attached to the ends of a string – these were used as the percussion in all the Bhajans. Those who come early would get the best one! We learnt good music, a lot of songs on various gods and we had loads of fun! The Bhajans and the Thriupaavai groups would reach the temple with a grand Archana and Deepa aaradhana. Then the distribution of prasaadams would start and we would compete for that also. At the evenings we would recite ‘Vishnu Sahasranama’ & some other exerts from Vedas at the temple and would close the show with Prasaadams!
(Very recently, there are not many people around at the street as of today but in my childhood days these were really big events - Missed to preserve them as snaps :-( But truly happy that atleast the practice is not still lost!)
... to be continued ...
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