श्री विट्ठलनाथजी (गुसांईजी) के प्राकट्य दिन की मंगल बधाई।
Have purposely taken up this writing today as people outside the Pushtimarg rarely know the life and works of Vitthalnathji, fondly called as Gusainji.
He too, like Mahaprabhuji, has moved around India to spread the idea of Pushtimarg and taken efforts to build and shape the Sampradaay. His 28 ‘Baithakji’ (a seat of learning and propagating the Pushti thought) are very well known and respected amongst the Shree Vallabh Sampradaay.
The second son of Shree Mahaprabhuji and Shree Mahalaxmiji was born on the 9th day of dark moon phase of the Hindu month of Margshirsh. Having hobbies like music, dance, painting and Horse riding, Vitthalnath completed the studies of the scriptures at the age of 10.
Being the son of Mahaprabhu Vallabhacharya, the task of building and shaping is not easy. Vallabhacharya had his work well defined that is to promulgate the Pushti thought, leaving the work of shaping it to the next of his kin. Vitthalnathji lived upto the expectations and not only built up the thought but also gave it a shape. His work of making the followers of Vallabhacharya understand the Pushti thoughts and imbibing them in life is unparalleled in history.
The story behind the Jalebi Utsav is also interesting. One evening the Mukhiyaji (head priest) of the Gopalpur temple is said to have got a divine call to celebrate Vitthalnathji’s birthday. It is said that it was Shrinathji himself who told the Mukhiyaji to make Jalebi’s. Bhagwaan explained, that life of Vitthalnathji is filled with “Ras” (full of savoury thoughts) and what a better way to celebrate than to savour the “Ras purna” (full of sweet juices) Jalebis. So the Mukhiyaji followed the diktat. The next day morning, when Vitthalnathji arrived at the Gopalpur temple, he was a bit perplexed and so he enquired about the Jalebis. That is when he came to know that it is the diktat of Bhagwaan Shrinathji, Himself, to celebrate his birthday. And from that day onwards, the birthday of Vitthalthji is celebrated as Jalebi Utsav.
Sometimes I wonder, like many of you must also be, that is it truly possible? But faith can move mountains. Bhagwaan through his devotees can get things done as He wishes. Maybe the Pushti Sampradaay started celebrating Gusaiji’s birthday in such a way as it was Vitthalnathji who filled their lives with the right devotion towards Bhagwaan. And then as it is our Sanatan Parampara, we say that it was Bhagwaan’s wish to celebrate in the same way.
Vitthalnathji and his works like Shreesarvottam Stotra and Vidnyapti are treasures of the Pushti Sampradaay and need to be read to understand Mahaprabhuji’s thought.
It is his Vrat of leading atleast 2 persons onto the path of Bhagwaan and then partake any morsel of food during a day is something which we all, modern day devotees, should emulate. This can be our true Namaskaars to Gusainji.
The rains have begun. And so has the month of Asadh (Hindu month for July). The nature will now bloom with all its greenery and the atmosphere will be cool but rainy.
Today on the 12th of July, Swadhyay Parivaar celebrates this day as Vrushmandir (Tree Temple) Day and Madhav VrundDay. The Great Human and the propounder of the thought of Human Dignity, Pujaniya Pandurang Shashtriji Athavale, the founder of the Swadhyay Parivaar, has given the above experiments to the world to learn and understand the importance of nature in one’s own life as well as social life.
I need not tell my reader the importance of nature conservation. The newspapers, the social activists, the NGO’s are trying to do so in their own way. But the motive behind the conservation is nothing but utilitarian. There might be nothing wrong in it, but it does not motivate the society to participate. It has it’s own limitations.
Many objectify nature. It is one of the worst attitudes mankind can ever have. Nature is not an object that can be degraded. We need to remove this from our minds and thoughts. But then how do we look towards nature.
This is where Pandurang Shashtriji’s thoughts, which are based on the Vedic way of life, help us. He says that we need to look towards nature with devotion. As God resides in everything, God resides in nature too. We need to identify and develop an attitude. The way we look after God and take care of him, we need to do the same for nature.
And with this understanding which He inculcated in common people living in villages , He came up with the experiment of Vrukshamandir – the Temple of Trees. People from 20 villages gather and plant trees one barren land with an understanding of devotion. These trees, or saplings rather, which they plant are not only plants but God Himself so they take care of these saplings and today we see the grand trees taking their place.
This all may sound like a miracle but it is not. One needs to see it to believe it. And it has taken long years for this to take a form. Shashtriji waited for the common man to understand the thought and imbibe it in their life. And later to give some action to this thought he established Vrukshmandirs. Today there are 27 such Vrukshmandirs in states of Gujarat, Maharashtra and Telangana.
My reader, by now, you must have a question regarding reverence for the youth and its significance today. Well, Pandurang Shashtriji always says “I confide in the triad of God , Shruti (Vedas) and the Youth”. In the times of turmoil and unrest, of which youth is a part and his energy is being used for destructive abilities, Shashtriji, has channelised this energy into constructive activities. He has given them the platform to air their views, discuss about them and come to conclusions based on logical reasoning and Vedic way of life.
The platform, He has called it Yuva Kendra (formerly known as Divine Brain Trust), turns 50 this year. The youth between the age group of 16 to 30 have been meeting regularly every week to discuss various values and characters as well as debate upon topics which help mould their lives. They perform street plays during Janmashatami and conduct elocution competitions during Geeta Jayanti. They also have an annual sports day and 4 yearly sports conclave called “Charam Samkridan”. This has led to drawing out the creative energies amongst the youth and inculcated the value of devotion towards parents, teachers, society and above all God.
This transformation taking place around the world is not visible but has a great effect in personal and family lives. And in all this, their guiding force during the last two decades, has been none other than Shashtriji’s daughter, Jayshree – Athavale Talwalkar, better known as Didi Talwalkar. The pains She has taken to nurture these youth is unparallel in history and to celebrate Her efforts, the Parivaar celebrates Her birthday, that is on 12th July, as Yuva Din.
The youth as envisioned by the Vedas: युवा स्यात्साधुयुवाऽध्यायकः। O Human! Be youthful; be a well mannered youth; be studious. आशिष्ठो दृढिष्ठो बलिष्ठः। Optimistic, Determined and strong. तस्येयं पृथिवी सर्वा वित्तस्य पूर्णा स्यात्। O Yearnful Youth! This Earth is filled with wealth and it is all yours… स एको मानुषःआनन्दः। … And all this in youth is bliss of Being Human…
We get to see an effort on the part of the youth in moving towards this goal.
On this day, I can only offer my Pranaams to both Shashtriji and His daughter and take pride in being moulded by Her.
Wishing you all a very Happy Vrukshmandir Din and Yuva Din.
Namaskaars all my readers a very Happy Adi Shankaracharya Jayanti.
We bow down to the great Avtaar who came to earth out of Universal necessity and showed Human beings the path of enlightenment and led them onto it.
Shankaracharya, in his life span of 32 years has led a life, which even people his age cannot even think of. He reached out to the four corners of India, on foot. Leading a difficult ascetic life, He propounded the philosophy of Adwait Vedanta (non dualism). His guru Bhagwatpaad Gaudpadacharya initiated him into a monastic life at Omkareshwar, on the banks of river Narmada.
During his life, he had many debates with scholars belonging to different thoughts and won them over. Chief among them is Mandan Mishra who later became his disciple and was called Sureshwara.
Totakacharya was also one of his disciples, who has given the music world a new meter called the ‘Taka’ or ‘Totaka’ meter.
Shankaracharya established 4 mathas in the four directions of India to establish Vedic supremacy and gave these mathas to his disciples the responsibility to learn, teach and preach and also research on the Vedas. Totakacharya was given the responsibility of the Northern Matha of Jyotirmath. Sureshvara was installed on the southern Sringeri Sharada Peetha; Padmapada, the eastern Govardhan Peetha and Hastamalakcharya the western Dwarka Peetha.
Not only this, He also gave a structure to the monastic fold of India. He formed 10 different subdivisions wherein all the monks were place which was called the Dashnaami Sampradaay.
All of them gathered every 12 years at Prayagraaj for the Kumbh. It was here that the theories and experiments about the Vedic thought, culture and civilisation were discussed and the future course of action of coming 12 years was decided. Adi Shankaracharya took all these pains to see that things take place as decided. He called it the “Aamnaay” (systems) and the 4 Shankaracharya Peethas were given this responsibility to take care to see that it is followed.
My salutations again to the Acharya today and May God give us the strength to read, learn and understand Him.
A day when Bhagwaan Rishabhdev broke His year long fast by drinking sugarcane juice through his cupped hands (Varshi Tap Paarna)…
The day when Bhagwaan Vyas started dictating Mahabharat to Bhagwaan Ganesha…
Theday when farmers in India start the farming work for the monsoon season by decorating their cattle and worshipping their fields (Bhoomi Pujan)…
A day when Maa Ganga descended on Mother Earth…
The day when Lord Parshuram was born…
At the beginning, I mentioned that its is one of the 3 and half mahurats, auspicious time to begin anything new. Akshay Tritaya alongwith Dusshara, Gudhi Padwa and Kartik Poornima (half day) are considered as the most auspicious days to begin a new venture. Akshay Tritiya day falls on the 3rd day of the bright half (shukla paksha) of Vaishakha of the lunar month. (It falls in later half of April or first half of may according to western calendar). The whole day is a day to acquire wisdom, think and begin anew.
“Akshay’ means one which never diminishes. Tritiya means the third day. So it is believed that anything that we acquire or begin on this day, will never be diminished.
It is also considered as the birthday of Goddess Annapurna (the Goddess of Food). She too is worshipped today.
The Bengalis worship Lord Ganesha and Laxmiji and begin their new audit year, this day. It is called “Halkhata” in the local language.
Bhagwaan Rishabhdev, the first Tirthankar of the Jains, broke his fast on this day. A year long fast! I always wondered how they could do it. But this is “Tap”, ( the readiness to bear both pain and happiness, not to be delighted in one’s happiness and not to be bogged down in distress). Also, they (24 Tirthankara’s) in their pursuit of finding the truth about oneself, sometimes got lost in themselves and forgot to partake food. The fire within, for this pursuit was so hot that it engulfed all other worldly desires. This pursuit of truth has always been, is and will always be “Akshay”.
Mahabharat, the great epic, was started to be written today. It has covered all relations and all topics under the Sun. There is an episode before the Mahabharata was started to be written. When Bhagwaan Vyas asked Ganesha, the God of wisdom, to write his dictation, Ganesha said that it would be possible only on one condition that Vyas would not stop once he starts dictating. Bhagwaan Vyas readily agreed and put forth his condition that Ganesha will understand what is being told and then write it down. And so it is said that Vyas would speak a few sentences which were difficult to interpret for Ganesha and would take a break. The truthulness behind the episode is difficult to be adjudged, but this conveys to us the greatness of Bhagwaan Vyas. The Mahabharat in it’s true sense is a book of undiminished “akshay” wisdom.
Mother Ganga descending upon the earth is one of the most beautiful glacial phenomenon, an human can envisage and see happening in his own lifetime. Bhagirath, the great King, was able to do this. It’s an engineering marvel. Even today, people go upto ‘Gomukh’, the caves from where Ganga appears, but the exact place of Her origin is still unknown. The flow of Ganga is continuous and divine. The divinity within Her waters is something which will never be diminished “Akshay”.
On this most auspicious day of Akshay Tritiya, I wish all my readers a very Happy Akshay Tritiya.
May Goddess Annapurna bless every field with lots of crops and every kitchen with unlimited and delicious meals.
May Bhagwaan Rishabhdev bless us all with the zeal and enthusiasm in our unending pursuit of eternal truth.
May Bhagwan Vyas and Ganeshji bless everyone with undiminishing wisdom.
May the ever flowing Ganga cleanse our bodies and minds and fill them with divine thoughts.
Many of you might have felt that why begin with wishes for May Day first and Maharashtra Day the last! Cause that answer lies in its history.
My kid, a few years back, on 1st May morning asked me, “Pappa what is the importance of this day? Why is it celebrated as international workers day and Maharashtra day?”
An unexpected question from a 7 year old made me think. I did explain to him about the socialist revolution and their fight for the cause of workers. A lot of workers blood was shed while fighting for their rights. How 1 May was chosen to be International Workers’ Day to commemorate the 1886 Haymarket affair in Chicago. In that year beginning on 1 May, there was a general strike for the eight hour work day. On 4 May, the police acted to disperse a public assembly in support of the strike when an unidentified person threw a bomb. The police responded by firing on the workers. The event lead to the death of eight and injury of sixty police officers as well as an unknown number of civilian killed or wounded. Hundreds of labour leaders and sympathizers were later rounded-up and four were executed by hanging, after a trial that was seen as a miscarriage of justice.
And also how India after independence was divided into linguistic states. How Maharashtra and Gujarat were born! How there was bloodshed for the same! Some politicians just for their own selfish motives dividing India on basis of language. India after being divided on basis of caste, class, kingdoms (small and large), religion; now was Her turn to be divided on basis of language. And as I write today, do not know how many times more will She be divided and on what basis and in which context…
While explaining all this I was lead to think that, is this the only reason to celebrate / commemorate 1st May? Or is there some other reason too? Can our human history be so narrow-minded? So took to the internet to find my answers. And I was proved right. History is always broad minded, not like humans who write it.
Sharing a few excerpts of what I found on the internet…
“The earliest May Day celebrations appeared with the Floralia, festival of Flora, the Roman goddess of flowers, held on April 27 during the Roman Republic era, and with theWalpurgis Nightcelebrations of theGermanic countries.
The day was a traditional summer holiday in many Europeanpagan cultures.
While February 1 was the first day ofspring, May 1 was the first day ofsummer; hence, thesummer solstice on June 25 (now June 21) wasMidsummer.
As Europe becameChristianised, the pagan holidays lost their religious character and May Day changed into a popular secular celebration.
A significant celebration of May Day occurs in Germany where it is one of several days on whichSt. Walburga, credited with bringing Christianity to Germany, is celebrated.
The secular versions of May Day, observed in Europe and North America, may be best known for their traditions of dancing around themaypoleand crowning the Queen of May.
Fading in popularity since the late 20th century is the giving of “May baskets,” small baskets of sweets or flowers, usually left anonymously on neighbours’ doorsteps”.
(Source – Wikipedia).
I hope my justification for wishing May Day first and Maharashtra Day last will be understood by you all now.
Humans have been naturalists from the very beginning. The last few hundred years have made them more aggressive towards nature and environment. On this very day, let us all pledge to take care of our environment and love the nature.
Let’s save Mother Earth not out of necessity.
She is our mother and takes care of Her Children without any expectations.
Let us coexist and thrive to achieve what the Creator has made us for.
One of the five main acharyas in India, the other being Aadi Shankaracharya, Madhvacharya, Nimbakacharya and Ramanujacharya.
Vallabha means “dear one“.
Born today, that is the 11th day of the dark half of lunar month of Chaitra at Champaranya.
Son of Illamma and Lakshman Bhatta.
People say that His was a still birth so his parents left Him under a tree wrapped in white clothes. Later Shree Krishna appeared in their dreams to tell them that it is He who has arrived in this form and is well alive. The bewildered parents rushed back to the place to find the kid alive.
Studied Vedas at a very young age and earned the title of “Baal Saraswati“. Participated in many debates and earned the titles of “Acharya” and “Jagadguru” at the age of 12.
Later travelled throughout India, not once, not twice but thrice to explain Krishna bhakti and spread Vaishnavism.
He gave discourses on Bhagwat at 84 different places known as “Baithakji” (seats of learning) today. These “Baithakji’s” still have a relevance for all the practising Vaishnavas even today and a visit to any Baithakji is a divine experience. Every Vaishnava wishes to visit all the 84 places once in his life time.
Later, in Gokul he initiated his first disciple and laid the foundations of what we know today as Pushtimarg (Path of Grace). He made the first Vaishnava by giving / teaching him the important “Brahma Sambandh” (Realisation of a person’s relation with the Almighty).
He gave the mantra, “Shree Krishna Sharanam Mamah” (श्री कृष्ण शरणं ममः) to Surdasji and initiated him to the Vaishnavaite fold. We all know Surdas through his devotional songs which he has sung for the Lord Incarnate. The mantra itself explains complete devotion to Lord Krishna.
“SHARANAM” means to offer oneself to the wish of God. To believe that it is only Krishna who can take care of oneself. To believe that He operates our life and full submit oneself to Him and become His instrument.
He took Samaadhi at a very young age of 52 into the waters of the Ganges at Kashi.
His work “Madhurashtakam” is a lucid yet romantic version for Shrinathji, the deity at Nathdwara. In it, He glorifies Shrinathji and all His activities, ending every verse with the line “Madhuradhipate Akhilam Madhuram” (every act of the Lord is madhur). Madhur as a noun means sweet, tender, full; as an adjective means melodious, beautiful, sweet.
Many of His works are still being read and His followers are still trying to understand what the Acharya has written.
He talks about God being in the form of a child. He has hence asked Vaishnavas to worship the “Baal Krishna” (Krishna in child form). And treat the Lord as a child. As we fulfill all the wishes of the children, we should fulfill all the wishes of the Lord. The devotees express their love for the Lord by acts of giving Him a bath and feeding Him and making Him sleep. The tradition of 8 Darshans, from Mangala (Rising) to Shayan (Sleeping) are started by Vallabhacharyaji. The significance of these 8 darshans is that the Lord is just like us. He is no different and so we need not be afraid of Him, rather as He is a child, shower Him with all the love we can.Such a personality is called the Mahaprabhu.
Our seer’s called him so meaning He is the greatest amongst the Gods. Revered Pandurang Shastriji Athavale explains it in his own simple way that “Jo Bhagwaan ko milne bulaaye aur Bhagwaan ko aana pade, aise jo log hain unhe Mahaprabhu kehte hain”, (the Lord upon being called, is compelled to come to meet, such is a Mahaprabhu)
On this day of Varuthini Ekadashi, I bow down to this anshavataar and during these days hope that we all will chant the mantra he gave to this world
Wishing all my friends, students, fellow bloggers and their families a very Happy New Year on occasion of Gudhi Padwa, Ugadi, Yugadi, Navreh (Kashmir) and Cheti Chaand.
The day, when :
Brahma (The Creator) created the world. It is believed that after the deluge, Brahma, recreated the world. The time restarted.
Shalivahan defeated the Huns and returned to Paithan, his capital.
As it is considered an auspicious day, (one mauhurat amongst the 3 and a half auspicious mahurats), it is said that Shivaji along with his Mavlas began his conquest for a Hindavi Swaraj on this day.
Today, I want to talk about Shalivahan, the great Satvahan King. A few thousand years back, after Gazni had invaded and looted and plundered India, the Huns entered India. They were just interested in two things. Women and Gold. They were considered amongst the most uncivilized people, then. They faced no or little resistance when they entered India and so entered deeper and deeper and reached Central India.Here they faced the first big resistance. It was from none other than the Satvahan King Shalivahan. He invigorated his soldiers and forced the Huns back to their country. He emerged victorious and returned back to Paithan. People welcomed him by hoisting Gudi’s outside their houses.
(There is another version of historical events, wherein it is said that Shalivahan defeated the mighty Vikramaditya and returned to Paithan. I leave upto my reader to decide his/her own version)
But the question which comes to everyone’s mind is that every king, to expand his kingdom attacks another kingdom, and one of them would surely emerge victorious. So what is so big that an entire calendar was started in Shalivahan’s name?
As I said above, that Shalivahan defeated the Huns. The folklore says that the people of his kingdom had heard about the exploits of the Huns and were not ready to fight them, fearing their ferocity. Shalivahan, then made these mud doll soldiers (mud dolls made into soldiers) and brought them to life and led them into the war to defeat the Huns.
Now this sounds mythological and against scientific temperament. And I agree.We need to understand our history with a right perspective. The people were not ready to fight. They were mentally not prepared to fight. They had become doll like, just did their routine work and tried to live happily. They didn’t want any problems in their lives. Shalivahan toured his Kingdom, talked to his people and motivated them to lift up arms to defend their motherland. The people trusted their King and his will to defeat the enemies. So they with this new found vigour fought against the Huns and emerged victorious. The citizens of Paithan welcomed their brave King by hoisting Gudhi’s outside their houses.
The Gudhi signifies Brahmadwaj. Sometimes it is also referred to as Indradhwaj. Gudhi is a bright colorful silk scarf-like cloth tied at the top of a long bamboo. On top of it, one or more boughs ofneemleaves and mango leaves are attached along with a garland of flowers. This arrangement is capped with a silver, bronze or copper pot (handiorkalash) signifying victory or achievement. The whole arrangement is hoisted outside each household, typically to the right, or through a window or terrace and will be visible to everyone passing by. Gudhi is believed to ward off evil, invite prosperity and good luck into the house.
The delicacies cooked at home on this day is just the one which blends with the season of Spring. And we all wait to just get back him to nourish them.
On this day,
Let us all decide to give up all wrong in our lives and start anew and afresh.
Let us fill our lives with the sweetness of talks, ripeness of thoughts and remove the bitterness of our jealousy and hatred.
Let us all learn to live like one big family “Vasudhaiv Kutumbakam”.
Deepawali – the Festival of Lights. Literally meaning a line of Lights.
Let the light fill our lives with happiness, virtues, wealth and knowledge.
Let the light remove all the vices, sadness and darkness from our lives.
Let the light shine our path we are treading on and guide us onto the right path.
On Dhanteras, we pray to Goddess Laxmi to bless each and every household with the different wealths asked by the great Seers in Shree Suktam and remove the ‘alakshmi’ from our homes.
On Narak Chaturdashi, pray to Goddess Kali to kill the asura within us and liberate us from the selfish motives and lifestyle. Let Krishna liberate our 16108 nerves from the worldly pleasures and guide them on the path of good.
On Deepawali, pray to Goddess Saraswati to guide us unto the path of God. Let Ram be born in every heart. Let us pray for a long and lasting peace in the world. Let us all walk on the path to attain nirvana as attained by Mahaveerswami. It is also the Day when our Avtaar’s left this world for their Abode.
On the New Year, let us start anew and have an auspicious beginning in our lives. Let us enlighten ourself like Gautamswami.
On the Day of Bhai Beej, learn to respect every woman in this world like a sister and nurture these relationship.
On the Day of Panchami, let us learn to understand the importance of knowledge and try to imbibe it in our lives.
Wishing you all and everyone at home a very Happy and Auspicious Deepawali and a Prosperous New Year.
“If you do not get Him here, then I will break the jail sentence and go out to meet Him” – Sarman Munja. A don of yester years spending his life sentence in jail talking to the Superintendent of the jail. His life had transformed. He had repented for his crimes and given himself up to the law of the land and accepted the punishment. He is talking and longing to meet that person whose thoughts have transformed his life, Pandurang Shashtriji Athavale, fondly called as Dadaji.
The world today knows Dadaji as the receipient of the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership and the most coveted Templeton Prize for Innovation in Religion. He has been awarded the second highest civilian honour Padma Vibhushan, given by the Government of India and many more awards.
His thoughts have transformed life of many a people, from a commoner to the most notorious. The superintendent approached Dadaji through his seniors and Dadaji agreed to visit the jail to meet Sarman Munja.
The city of Porbandar, the city where Mahatma Gandhi was born, after independence had become a city of crime. It was a witness to the most dreadful crimes. The animosity between the Kharwas and the Mehers was bearing its brunt on the city. The state government and the local administration had resigned to this fact and accepted this was of life instead of finding a way out.
At this juncture, Param Pujaniya Pandurang Shashtriji Athavale and His Swadhyay thoughts and work reached the common people of Porbandar. With the thought of God residing in the every Heart and Divine Brotherhood under the Fatherhood of God, Dadaji’s thoughts and love resonated with the local communities in Porbandar and slowly but surely brought about a transformation. As the people changed, so did their leaders and Dadaji was able to remove the animosity between the two warring communities. Slowly they gained confidence in one another that they sat side by side to perform the Satnarayan Pooja as envisaged by Dadaji.
Pandurang Dada has brought about a revolutionary change in more than 10000 villages in India through his thought of Swadhyay (self introspection). He has put the philosophy of Shreemad Bhagwad Geeta into action and throught it brought about a change in a person’s life. Through it, we can see the changes in the social fabric of the society.
The crux of all this is the transformation of Humanity with God at it’s centre. The change in the individual. The change not through beheading but through the changing of the thoughts in ones minds and brain. This is true revolution. And so Swadhyayee’s celebrate Dadaji’s birthday as Human Dignity Day. His human centric life is always like a lighhouse in the vast ocean.
Today I bow down upon this Modern Rishi on his 101th birthday.
Let us burn the vices of Ravan and embed values of Ram within us…
Let the Ram within, win today and from today onwards forever…
Let us all prepare to welcome Ram into our lives and accept our limitations as Good Humans…
The day of “Seemolanghan” (सीम्मोलंघन). It literally means to cross the barriers / borders. Not the borders drawn on the maps but the borders drawn in our society and in our minds.
Biggest barrier / border in our life is
“I Can’t Do“.
Next is
“I Can’t Accept“.
And the last is
“I Cannot Change“.
We have set these limitations in our lives and live with them. Today is the day to remember that “I CAN”. Let us all recall, remember and understand that Bhagwaan Ram had Vaanar’s to fight on his behalf. Vaanar means the one who is not sure about being Human. Ram took them together, revived their spirit and fought with their help to win the war. We all are like the Vaanars. Let us recognise the Ram within. The day we shed our inhibitions, we too will win the war.
Let us all remember, recite and learn the Shlok given below. It talks about the Surya. The problems he has and yet how He keeps on working. रथस्येकं चक्रं भुजगयमित सप्ततुरङ्गः
(The sun in the sky travels everyday with all odds against him, like a chariot with one wheel, seven horses trod by serpents and the driver without legs. Great people don’t depend on their accessories. They achieve their goal by their spirit and determination)
Let us all remember that it is the spirit within which keeps us going. So on this Dusshara, let us pray to God that He removes this vice of “I Can’t Do” from our lives and lead us to the light of “I Can Do“.
Second I cannot accept. Can we imagine ourselves accepting our own enemy? No we dont. We dont even accept our own, if they do wrong to us. But when we study Ram’s life, we learn to accept. He not only accepted the self doubting Vanars but also the brother of his enemy, Vibhishan. He accepted him with full faith and crowned him the King of Lanka, the day He accepted him. If He can, can we not?
I would say let us begin with accepting our small mistakes in life. Let us begin by accepting the vices within us. Let us accept the people as they are and not what we like them to be. I know it’s difficult but it’s a border which we need to cross in our lives. We need to crossover from I cannot accept to I can accept. Let us keep Bhagwaan Ram as our ideal.
Last is I cannot change. But change is something which is only permanent in life. One needs to accept that one needs to change. Cause change is for good. Change also leads to development and helps us move ahead in life.
Nowadays we see people not ready to change and being rigid. Let us recall the story of the oak and willow which we studied in our younger days. The large gust of wind could not harm the willow but it over rooted the oak tree which was unable to bend. So change is what we need to be ready for.
On this day of Seemolanghan let us decide to overcome these barriers.
On this day let us decide that I can and will do, I can and will accept and I can and will change.
Let Ram be our Idol and let us follow Ram.
Wishing you and everyone in your family and friends a very Happy Dusshara…
The days of expressing gratitude to our elders who passed away,
Remembering them and their deeds lest our mind sway,
The things they have done and their work for us to complete,
Let us not sit back, relax but work and not look to others to compete…
Their work a big task is to spread civilisation and safegauard humanity,
We run after religions and their race for supremacy has lead to insanity,
Many have forgotten and just live in their self interest or ego or vanity,
These days are to live, love, give warmth to others and regain sanity…
Let us be open to new thoughts as founding fathers said Aano Bhadraha,
Let us go within, deep inside, realise our goal and self as in Tenatwam Asi,
Let us meet as brothers as He said Sarvasya Chaham Hradisannivishta,
And thank our forefathers for leading us on this path of Tat Twam Asi…
Some from the new generation shun this very idea of Pitrupaksh calling themselves atheist (trending word amongst the youngsters nowadays) or non believers. Our Rishis have been humble and open enough to accept this as our way of life. But then my request to them is that please live with the same thought life long. And if not, please do not call yourselves atheist or anything, but try to find answers. “Quest about knowing is a sign of being Human”.
Let me begin by saying that these are the most auspicious days of human life as these days are of remembrance. Remembering the Love and warmth of our parents, grand parents and great parents. Days of remembering the Rishis, Acharyas and all those who worked for our upliftment and social upliftment. And if we have to do all this, then how can we have social functions? Social gatherings? And so the practise or the the social custom of not doing any other work except our routines and remembering our ancestors. But then people consider these days inauspicious.. How can the days when we think about our ancestors be inauspicious? Just that we don’t want to do anything else and interfere in our remembrance is what it is.
It’s such a beautiful concept and belief given to us by Rishi Atri. It is said that it is he who explained Shraddha to Rishi Nimi, who started practising the ritual. Rishi Nimi started offering to various Gods through Agni and so the ‘Havan’ finds its place in the rituals. Agni is considered the mouth of God’s. Also it tells us that we need to cook our food before eating it. The presence of Agni in every Vedic ritual is also out of gratedulness about the people who first found the use of fire. This led to the strengthening of the civilisation which we all call as Humanity, now.
The ritual also has a practise called the Pind Daan. Westerners call the Pind as balls of rice, due to the literal translation of the word. But atleast we Indians should know that they are not balls of rice, but signify our ancestors. (Will write someday about the rituals dine on the 10th, 11th, 12th and 13th day of a person’s death in some other blog). The process of Pind Daan is so tremendous and has such a deep psychological meaning hidden in it. But we all just do it out of routine and are not interested in listening to the mantras being recited. It’s a matter of pride that our ancestors find a place with the great Rishis and Munis on these days. And when we realise this, we become satiated about our ancestors and we feel their presence with us through the great Seers.
Another myth which needs to be clarified that it is the son only who can do Pind Daan. Maybe we have become a patriarchal society after the coming of Moghuls and British, but originally we are not so. A daughter too can perform the Pind Daan of her parents in absence of a brother or if the brother is not interested. After all, these rituals are for each and everyone. Nowadays the daughter’s even give Mukhagni to their parents. And it was and is never banned in our society. A daughter is treated equally as a son in our society.
The last day, 16th day, the first day of Navratri, is the day of Matamaha Shraddh. It is for the married daughter’s who are at their in-laws and want to perform Shraddh of her parents. One needs to do Namaskaars to our Rishi’s who gave this right to the daughter’s as well. Always had this question in my mind about parents who have no sons. A few years back I got the answer. My elder sister ( Dhanashree Talwalkar – Athavale), Didi, performed the last rites of her father, Param Poojaniya Pandurang Shashtriji Athavale and till date performs Her duties towards Her ancestors every year. She brought this outlook to my knowledge.
Let us remember our ancestors during these days and offer them our tarpan.
Let us try to understand the meaning of these days and many such days given to us by our Rishis.
Let us make their sankalp, ours and try to be a good son or daughter.
Let us all try to pass on the right things to our next generation.That would be the true Shraddh of our Rishi’s and Acharya’s.
On this 10th day of the festival, the thought and feeling of seeing off a near and dear one very painful. It is always difficult to see off a dear one, and remember this is God. He is just not only our family member, but our Guide, who guides through various difficulties. The stay of the God at our place has broken many a shackles in our personal lives, family lives and social lives. It uplifts our feelings towards our nation too. But anything that comes has to go, is the basic education from Visarjan.
It is a teaching to us, that every Srijan ( creation) has to move towards Visarjan (destruction). It’s a part and process of the cycle of evolution of the Universe. If we think, we will know that it is because of Visarjan that we are able to enjoy life. Can we imagine an infinite life? (the scientists have been trying to find the elixir of life, but it has evaded us till now.) If we knew that we are going to have an infinite life, will we be able to enjoy life? So, the seers, wanted us to understand the finiteness of life and so they introduced us to this process of Srijan – Visarjan through celebration of Ganeshotsav.
Also let us look at it in our everyday life. Visarjan is a part of our daily life. We have to immerse many of our thoughts, beliefs and emotions, otherwise our very existence will become very difficult, living with them. Let’s understand it with an example. Say we had a fight and now we hold a grudge for the person with whom we fought. Now if we keep living with this grudge, we cannot move ahead in life. So as soon as that person goes away, we have to forget it and move on. Yes we might remember it again when we see or meet that person. But it does not or cannot stay with us for every moment of our life. Otherwise our lives will become miserable. So better immerse the feeling.
Visarjan also signifies to develop an outlook from “looking outside” to “looking inside”. Everything is destructible, but not the Love of God, the Soul. We need to understand that the flow of the river of love is within out body and keeps us going. We need to immerse the Ganesh into it. Leave our bodily desires and immerse ourselves into our souls.
Yet another way to look at it can be that death (visarjan) is going back to where we came from. Going back to our mother. Our mother will remould the Soul, and we will get a new life. We can also understand the importance and necessity and conviction about Life after Death. Why fear Death?, when we are going to come back again and again, till our Karma makes us do this. Death is only a changing of bodies, as we change our clothes, is what Shreemad Bhagwad Geeta describes. As I mentioned in my last blog, it is the Parthiv Ganesh which we bring home. Parthiv means made from earth. “From dust thou art, to dust thou shalt be, was said of the body” it comes from earth and returns back to earth.
I would request my readers to sit back and think over what we are doing. Are we doing it the way our Rishis have told us too? Is the social responsibility that Lokmanya Tilak envisaged being fulfilled? If not, then we need to ho backto our roots and correct our course as well.
May Ganesh give us all the necessary understanding and intellect to do it.
नमस्तेऽस्तु लंबोदारायैकदंताय विघ्ननाशिने शिव सुताय।
श्री वरदमूर्तये नमोनम:।।
(Namo Vraātpataye Namo Ganpataye. Namah Pramathpataye. Namaste astu Lambodaray Ekdantaay Vighnanashine Shiv Sutaay Shree Varadmurtaye Namo Namah.)
Today I want to talk about Ganpati as the Devi of Buddhi. What can we as students of life learn from Her? What does the Idol of Ganpati wants to convey? Does the concept of the Elephant headed God have any meaning?
My readers, our seers have done everything which has some logic and wanted to convey some understanding by celebrating a festival. They want us to ponder over many qualities and try to imbibe them into our lives. The festival celebration always has a learning part hidden in it.
Today we just want to dance to the tunes of music and pass our time. At the same time I see people being emotionally attached with Ganpati as the countdown of arrival begins many months before actual arrival, or even in some cases, from the day he leaves. People await the arrival as it liberates us from worries and sorrow and keeps us happy. But will we be stuck in this. Will we not move ahead in our understanding and let ourselves grow. Or just go on doing it the ritualistic way? At the same time, am not against rituals. We all do the parayan of Atharvashirsh every year. Many of my friends do get the Parthiv Ganesh Murti at home. But let’s try to understand it today from a student’s perspective.
The Ganpati word itself has a meaning, the leader of the masses. Ganesh means the Eshwar of the Ganas (leader of the masses). So the Lord exhibits the characteristics of a leader. And to be a good leader, we need to educate ourselves (to draw out the qualities within us).
1. The Ganpati has an elephant head. Elephant signifies wisdom. So we all need to be gaining wisdom through what we study.
2. He has narrow and small eyes. It is not so that the eyes are small, but the face is so big, that the eyes look small. But the best part about the eyes is that they can see even the smallest needle in their path. As students when we study, we need to understand the smallest of the nuances of the topic which we are learning. We need to be alert for each and every information, and in whichever corner it may be, however small it may be.
3. His ears are like the “Sup” (grain whinning plate). The Sup keeps the grain intact and at the same time removes the dirt from them. The enormity of ears suggest us to be open to listen to all but decide what to discard while we listen. As a student, one needs to be focussed on studies. We may be exposed to various things around us, but we have to decide what to keep and which to blow off. Also at the same time keep our ears open for good thoughts however far they maybe or however faint they may be. Amongst the different thoughts/informayion, we need to find out the most important one for us, as students.
4. A crooked trunk signifies the length and the reach of oneself. The knowledge we get must be kept in such a way (folded) that it does not interfere in someone’s life. At the same time it should unfold at the right time and be used for the rightful thing.
5. Ganpati is Mahakaay. A huge body. A big belly. Big belly is for keeping all things in the stomach. It is a storing place. Similarly we have to gain such huge knowledge that we need a big belly to keep it.
6. He has a small mouth. It signifies to talk less. A student needs to talk less and listen more. Keeping ones mouth shut means concentrating on what is being spoken and taught. At the same time, it also means that open up at the right time, ask questions, discuss, argue and draw conclusions.
7. The modak in his hand has its own significance. It is sweet inside even if tasteless outside. It reminds us, students, that go into the depth of every topic ones learns. Any topic is always sweet and interesting from within. Outside it is always bookish and boring.
8. He rides a mouse. It signifies a control over worldly desires. Similarly a student needs to have his own control over his desires and concentrate on his/ her studies. He needs to ride his wishes and will.
We can go on and on with lots of things about the Lord. But somewhere we need to leave the things for next time. Many thoughts still lie in my mind which need to be emphasized and talk about. But leave to it Ganesha to give me an opportunity to pen them down some other day.
Wishing you all again, a very grand Ganeshotsav.
MAY GANESHA BLESS US ALL WITH LOTS OF INTELLECT AND WISDOM
Dedicated to all our Rishi’s. A very humble namaskaar to them and their efforts to make us civilised. Am reproducing the poem which I had written 2 years ago.
You lived and worked hard to make us civilised,
You loved and touched every heart to become humanized,
The extent of understanding that you all have sowed,
Grateful will we always be, with our heads bowed…
The father of Indian soil, Kashyap, got the Vaishyas together,
To keep the whole human race from running helter skelter,
Mother Earth prospered and bloomed and thrived,
“Kashyapi” or “Urvi” as what to call Her, you decide…
The father of Democracy is none other than the Atri,
With Anusuya by his side, Dattatrey belongs to this tree,
The upliftment of Humanity is the goal of their lives,
To find God within is what every being now strives…
Vashishtha is the proponent of Anarchism, (self rule )
To unearth His work and learn the methodism,
He is not the slave of a king, but an epoch king maker,
The clan of Ikshvaku would be indebted for their raker…
Vishwamitra the king, who overcomes his vices,
To compete with oneself is the process he realises,
The one who gave “Gayatri” to one and all
And gracefully saved himself from the fall…
Next is the ever angry Jamadagni divine,
Who fought his life to save the bovine,
Renuka, his consort, is an epitome of justice,
The footwear and umbrella are at their service…
Parashar is the one who spoke Vedas in the womb,
Gave his “Smriti” to live in Kaliyug (modern world) and doom,
If a person learns to live by his ten commandments,
He will prosper as they will be a man’s adornments…
Bharadwaj is known as the Father of Medicine,
He delivered the mankind from physical sin, (not taking care of ones body)
Father of Dronacharya and a guide to Lord Ram,
“Bringing about nourishment” is a work for the calm…
Thus the Saptrishis do tread on Mother Earth,
To spread the faith and remove our dirth,
“Rishi Panchami” is the day to remember them,
And gratefully keep them at our lives helm…
Let us bow down to these Rishi’s, all stalwarts in their fields who have tried to charter a path for Human upliftment.
Frankly even after writing all the meanings I still feel that the names mean the leader of the masses. Also the different meanings convey the same thought that the one who leads.
The idea itself is so heart warming that the God himself comes to reside with us. We all go to the temples to get a regular Darshan. But today is the day when He comes to our place to meet us, to stay with us, to eat with us, to bless us. This itself is such a beautiful thought.
Ganesh at my place this year
I always wondered who must have thought of this idea of getting the God home. How that idea must have percolated to the masses! The amount of time and energy spent on this idea is something beyond the pages of history, date and time.
Such thoughts always keep me trying to find answers to my questions. And I know Ganesh, the Goddess of Intellect helps and satisfies the curious with an answer.
There is a story that when Ved Vyas, decided to write the Mahabharata, he was trying to find a writer who would wite his story. It was a humongous task and the writer too has to be of the same iintellect as the story teller. So Muni Narad suggested that Ganpati, the son of Shiva, can write it.
Ved Vyas did approach Ganpati who readily agreed. They both had an understanding that once the writing of the book was started, it would not stop till the end. Also the writer would just not write down the book as a dictation but understand every word being spoken before writing it down.
Two great personalities, and, one great epic.
Ganpati had decided not to stand up while writing, so sitting in one place would increase the heat within his body and make him uncomfortable. So Ved Vyas came up with an idea of applying mud packs on Ganpati’s body to keep him cool. Ved Vyas served Ganpati food that he loved to eat the most, Modaks.
As the mud packs were applied, Ganpati’s murti, even today, is made from mud (Shadhumaati). Yet, even after these 10 days when the wrting of the book was completed, the heat had increased inside Ganpati’s body. The mud packs too had dried and stuck to his body. So it is said that Ved Vyas took Ganpati to a nearby river to bathe him to soothe his body as well as remove the dried packs from his body.
Thus began the culture of getting Ganpati in the idol form at one’s house for 10 days and immersing them in water on the 10th day. Later, as it was found that it is difficult to get and look after such a big personality at home for 10 days, Rishis must have come up with the idea of keeping Him for 1 and half day or 5 days.
Some may disagree with this story, but it’s a start of the quest to find the reason behind it. Its going to be long journey, but will tread on it slowly and steadily. I trust that Ganpatiji will help me.
Wishing you all a very Happy Ganesh Chaturthi and a zestful Ganeshotsav.
If knowing or unknowingly, have caused “Dukh” (rough translation “pain”) to any one, living or non living, by my thoughts, words or deed, thenfrom the bottom of my heart, I bow down to you and ask for your forgiveness.
“MICCHAMI DUKKADDAM”
The 8th day also known as Samvatsari. It is a Day to ask for forgiveness from the creatures of the world and the creation itself.
In my last two blogs, we are talking about the ten fold path or the ten virtues we need to imbibe in our lives to be a good Jain, follower of Jin (The Teerthankar). We have talked about 7 virtues till now. Will briefly recap them before moving on to the last three.
Kshama, the virtue of forgiveness. Mardav, to be modest in all situations. And the straightforwardness, Aarjav. Satya to accept one’s existence and the journey of life is to find the truth. Sauch, the purity of body and our thoughts. Sanyam, restraining ourselves and our Panch Indriya. Tap, the art of practising non food intake. These seven if implemented on would help us in our quest to find ourselves. Now, we move onto the last three.
TYAGA (Renunciation) – To leave things behind. Here Tyaga also means keeping the bare minimum and slowly giving away that minimum too. That is what the Jain Sadhu does. Bhagwaan Mahaveer too had a loin cloth when he left the kingdom, and slowly that too wore off. It happened naturally.
Internally renuncing the attachments and emotions is like removing a big hurdle from the path of development.And this is possible by realising the true nature of the soul.
AKINCHANYA (Non-attachment) – This assists the person in detaching from external possessions. Historically ten possessions are listed in Jain scriptures: ‘land, house, silver, gold, wealth, grain, female servants, male servants, garments and utensils’. Being unattached from these, helps control our desires and leads to an influx of meritorious karmas.
Also akinchanya assists us in being unattached from our internal attachments of false belief, anger, pride, deceit, greed, laughter, liking, disliking, lamentation, fear, disgust, sexual desires.The more we are unattached, the more we purify our soul.
BRAHMACHARYA (Celibacy) – It might have been talked about at last but it is equally important as the others. It’s only sexual context needs to be clarified. It means staying away from desires and our wishes. To the extent of staying away from our senses. Not even being led off by the scent of a rose or a cool breeze.
Brahmacharya has two words in it. Brahma + Charya. Brahma here means the soul and Charya means to dwell. It simple means to dwell in one’s soul. When we reside in our soul, we can become the master of the Universe. To reside outside means to become a slave of desires.
All the above ten virtues make us a good Jain or the follower of Jin. Many of you may wonder that we never heard anything like what you have written. But dear readers, we are followers of Jin. Let’s go back to our roots. Follow what Jin Prabhu has said. Our Sadhu and Sadhviji’s are our teachers. They can show us the path and lead us unto it. It is we who need to walk on it.
“Paryushan introduces one to oneself. It reminds us of souls ultimate goal. पर्यूषण is actually made of two words. परि + उष्ण. परि means from outside and उषण means to come home stay. It means to come out of all materialistic things and stay in oneself ie आत्मा मा वास करवो.“
Now if you read all the three blogs together than my writing would make sense. Fasting is good, but at the same time the person who is fasting is thinking about these 10 virtues and is in the thought process of how to imbibe them into our lives. So let us all who fast, pray or ask for forgiveness celebrate the greatness of these days, try and live in the divine and pure atmosphere and immerse ourselves in it.
At the end of this series, I beg for forgiveness if I have hurt any one by my words or thoughts or deeds. I ask for forgiveness from all Guru Bhagwan for any mistakes in these blogs.
My readers may ask me how is it that you Jains celebrate Mahaveer Jayanti twice in a year? Actually I too had the same question few years ago. But the fact is a little different. It is during the days of Paryushan, the Holy Book “Kalpsutra” is read. The life of the 24 Teerthankars is read and understood. On the 5th Day, the story of Mata Trishala’s 14 dreams (16 according to Digambar sect) and birth of Bhagwaan Mahaveer is read out. So it is called the Mahaveer Janma Vachan. And people celebrate with pomp as Mahaveer Jayanti.
We continue from my last blog about the ten fold path or ten virtues to be imbibed into our lives during these days of Paryushan. Last time, we gave a thought about 3 virtues. Kshama, the virtue of forgiveness. Mardav, to be modest in all situations. And the straightforwardness, Aarjav.
Today we talk about SATYA, SAUCH, SANYAM and TAP.
SATYA (TRUTH) – The only truth in this world is the existence of Self. Every other truth is relative. Excepting our own existence is the one and final step towards self realisation. Being in self denial, living in self denial is not going to help anyone. The first thing in life is to except oneself as one is and then move ahead in life.
At the same time, we can begin with small steps of speaking the truth and living that truth. At the same time being truthful does not mean to hurt others with our truthfulness. In our quest of the truth, we have to see to it that we do not hurt otherswith our truth. सत्यं ब्रूयात्, प्रियं ब्रूयात् . (Speak the truth, speak it with love). Any truth needs to be spoken with love and care. It also means that unless we share a good relation, we should not speak the truth. We need to develop relationships and let them thrive, for the truth to be told or spoken.
Also when we lie, we need to speak a hundred new lies to justify one lie. Which in turn hampers the process of imbibing Satya in our lives. So at the end, I will say one needs to realise the truth hidden within oneself.
SAUCH(Purity/Contentment) – Here the word means purity of body to purity of thoughts to purity of mind/brain. We all are aware about the external purity of our body due to the education, we receive in our schools. But we need to slowly go inwards, towards oneself. Getting contentment from material desires is not the only goal of life, but leading a contented, pure life so that it can be an ideal for generations, constitutes Sauch.
The characteristic of the soul is purity. So it is within us, which we need to find and not get stuck in material gains only. We need to go deep inside oneself and dig out this hidden virtue within us. And for this we need to practise restraint.
SANYAM(Self restraint) – I feel this is one of the virtues with whom Jains are largely identified today. Yes, we believe in restraint, not killing anyone outwardly as well as inwardly. But that is not only Jainism. Not harming anyone, not even the smallest of the creatures, is evident in all thoughts originating from Bharat. But here SANYAM means restraining oneself from desires. It is painful when our desires take over us. These 8 days constantly remind us to be away from desires. So to remember and learn this thought, we need to read the Kalpasutra. Learn from Teerthankar’s life. They never showed off. So should we?
It is also through SANYAM that we can win our desires and tread on the path of Moksh. Lesser we are attached to material things, nearer we are to ourselves and our goals of attaining Moksh. That is the reason Jains take up Sadhu dharm. The road to find one’s true self.
TAP (Austerity) – TAP means fasting, control over food. Restricting the intake of food. But after that do we gain control over our habit of eating food. Are we able to control our desires? Why is there a queue outside restaurants a Day before Paryushan and a Day after Samvatsari ie Dnyan Panchami? Restricting food also means restricting desires. Do we think about it? Are the celebrations of TAP justified?
Do we meditate during Tap. Do we sit back and introspect? Do we feel the nearness with our self? Our God? Cause after abstinence of food we need to move onto the next step of going towards one self.
I hope, my readers, you will give a thought about what we have read today. I just want to point out that we are becoming too ritualistic. Am not against rituals but we cannot get stuck in the rituals. Jain philosophy is loosing it’s sheen due to this. It is like eating the coconut from outside instead of enjoying the original tender coconut inside. So my friends, let’s think.
Still have 3 more virtues to go through. But ours is a journey long and slow, so let’s tread on it.
Listen to the Kalpasutra carefully.
Listen to what the learned Sadhu-Sadhviji’s have to tell us.
Listen to the voice within and learn to live by it.
Oh! Forgiving Gurudev, I am giving up all my wrongful acts with all my strength and bow down to you with my head near to your feet.
Parvadhiraj Paryushan.
The festival for asking forgiveness and to forgive.
The festival of celebrating life with a different perspective.
The festival of coming together and abiding.
The festival to follow and uphold the ten-fold path of
1. KSHAMA (Forbearance)
2. MARDAV (Modesty)
3. AARJAV (Straightforwardness)
4. SATYA (Truth)
5. SHAUCH (Purity)
6. SANYAM (Restraint)
7. TAP (Austerity)
8. TYAGA (Renunciation)
9. AKINCHANYA (Non-attachment)
10. BRAHMACHARYA (Celibacy)
Before treading on this Ten-fold path, let me share with my non- Jain readers, that Jainism is one of the most scientific way of living and thinking. The way of worship is the same, except for the Sthanakvasi fold of the Shwetambar sect, that is everyone follows Idol worship.
Jainism, itself is divided into two big sects, the Shwetambar’s (the ones whose sadhus clad in white) and Digambar’s (the ones whose clothes are the sky, ie their sadhus accept and live a life without clothes). Shwetambar’s are further divided into 2 folds, the Deravasis (one who go to temples ie follow Idol worship) and the Sthanakvasis, as already mentioned before (one who do not go to temples and do not believe in Idol worship). Even with these outward differences, the thought of Jainism is followed uniformly in any part of the world. It is the uniqueness of the thought process in India, that even after having different ways of worship, we all are one.
Secondly, my readers might know Lord Mahaveer as the one who established Jainism. Again that’s not the complete information. Mahaveer is the 24th Teerthankar belonging to lineage of Rishabhdev or Adinath, as He is called, being the first. A Teerthankar is the one whose soul is sublime and one who has compassion towards all living beings. He is the realised one. And Jainism believes that anyone and everyone can transform his life to become the sublime self. All the 24 Teerthankars command the same devotion as any one of them.
I have decided not to go into the historical part of Jainism nor it’s cultural impact. I want to talk about the Ten-fold path propagated by these 24 men, for which the following eight days/ten days are to be celebrated. I said it’s a celebration of life because during these days one needs to sit back and brood over the above virtues and think about how to imbibe them into our life. All the 10 virtues mentioned above are equal with none more important or less important. All are equally important. We will talk about the first three today and during the course of coming days, will talk about others, as and when the Lord permits.
1. KSHAMA(Forbearance) – My readers must have read the small prayer at the starting of the blog. It asks for forgiveness. Forgiveness is asked by bowing one’s head onto the feet of the person who is expected to forgive. As a mortal with lots of ego it is difficult for a person to bow down onto the feet of the person whom we have wronged. So we begin by bowing down to our Guru, the Teacher. If this becomes our routine, the person sheds all his inhibitions and attachment to self and will be brave enough to ask for forgiveness from the person whom he has wronged. And slowly we all can ask for forgiveness from all the creatures in the world. He is Mahaveer. This is what is Samyak Darshan. (Right Belief).
Forgiveness is like the oil to the machine, it helps us live in harmony with our fellow beings. Forgiveness begins with self. One should learn to forgive oneself. We all are sometimes too tough with ourselves. It is necessary in today’s world, but at the same time we need to be forgiving ourselves for our own spiritual development. We may be wrong in our way of living and thinking, but the day we realise we have been wrong, we need to forgive ourselves and move ahead in life. Do learn from our mistakes so that we do not repeat them, but forgive oneself too.
Forgiveness is the pain we inflict upon ourselves so that we may learn from it and brighten our lives with better karma. People have a wrong notion about forgiveness. They feel that it means to forgive others. But here the Jain darshan guides us to forgive oneself. It is only then, one can realise his true self.Forgiveness (Kshama Dharm) teaches ones soul to correct one’s identify oneself by encouraging to contemplate its true nature and hence achieve state of right belief (Samyak Darshan).
2. MARDAV(Modesty) – Humility is the diamond amongst the virtues. It is humility that makes great people, great. They never boast of their greatness nor talk about it or even give a hint about it. Sometimes our looks, money, social status, the virtue of forgiveness may make us a little / lot self-centered. Hence Kshama is followed by Mardav. There should be modesty in life after forgiveness. People believe in themselves being superior to others. We all come across such people in our lives. We might be like them too. We measure everything by temporary material objects. But this dents our life in the most dangerous way and makes our penance full of ‘Rajas’ gun. So we need to be very alert about this. The Paryushan days remind us of Humility.
All souls are born equal. No one is superior nor inferior. This is the true nature of our soul, every soul. Each soul is born divine. And the most important aspect is that every soul has a potential within to liberate itself. This belief will lead us to Mardav.
3. AARJAV(Straightforwardness) – People are deceitful. They deceive others and think that they are something great. But in doing so, they are deceiving themselves. One thinks different, speaks different and acts different. Our scriptures tells us to stay away from such people. Deceitful people loose the trust of others and they are considered less credible. Such people are a curse to the society as a whole. Whereas straightforwardness makes a person trustworthy. Such straightforward people are considered to be reliable and slowly they win the hearts of the people around them.
A straightforward person realises that the countless qualities with a being are an instrument to attain his final destination. Again the thoughts, the karma, are different from the realisation of self. So Arjav helps the person to tread on the path of realisation.
My dear readers, it’s a path we have got due to our karma’s of last lives and we need to make everything of this opportunity that we have got. We are on the path of Jin. On the path of Arihant. On the path of Siddh and Upadhyay. Let us all together decide to stick to this path and abide to live by the teachings of the Teerthankars. Then we can become true Jains.
Today is the New Moon Day (Amaavasya) of the Shraavan month. The last day of the month. Month of Bhadrapad begins tomm. Today is celebrated as “Pola” in Maharashtra and South India. Cattles are worshipped today.
And today is Mother’s Day. A day to remember all the great mothers like Jijabai, Kaushalya, Devaki and many more and their contribution towards parenting their kids. Also a day to express our gratitude to the “Gaumata”, “Tulsimata” and “Bharatmata”. By naming them, I just want to convey that every person and every substance which has help us nurture our life, is like our Mother, and today is the day to remember them all.
And overall our own Mother, who has not only given us birth but also took care of us and help us grow.Someone can ask me that shouldn’t we remember our Mother everyday? I agree with them. But today is the day to not only remember them but also express our gratitude towards them.
1. Mother, a shade : I still remember my mother standing right by my side with a ruler in hand and hitting me when I erred, while learning Gujarati. Coming from a convent school, again her decision to educate me in an English Medium School, she took the pains that I learn my mother tongue Gujarati, when I was in 8th std. She made me do it the whole vacation. Today, I say with pride, that if my language and my grammar are good, it is just because of Her. I thank her today for her efforts.
Secondly my English teacher. Can never forget her. Ms A Coutinho. The effports she has taken for my Grammar, rather for the whole class, is showing its effect with our communications today. Every free period of our 9th standard was taken up by Her for grammar. We used to tease her and dislike her for this, but today we all are very grateful to her for her efforts. She treated every child as hers and put in equal efforts towards each one of us.
2. Mother, the last resort : I still remember that whenever we siblings wanted to get our things done, my mother was our last resort. Rather when it came to dealings with my father, it was always Her, who stood strongly for us.
I, am a father today, and see the same trait in my wife today. The way she prods our kids, the way She pushes them to exceed their limits and excel in their doings is mind blowing. The way She always stand by them and is always there to help them is something we fathers rarely do. And after all this, if the kids feel that She is their last resort, they are right.
3. Mother, a security-giver : Mom is the best security a child can ever get. The way she takes care of her child can only be compared to a lioness taking care of her cubs. She will go to the extent of fighting and killing the enemy. She will protect and teach the kid to protect himself.
Am reminded of Jijabai who took Shivaji under her care and nurtured him to grow up to become a great king. In the initial years of growing up, she has played not only the role of a mother but also protected Shivaji from all the evils of the society.
4. Mother, the ever giving : A child growing up without a mother is a difficult job for a father, but the mother can also fill in for the loss of a father and bring up the child. A mother showers all her love and warmth and affection on her child and does not leave anything for next time.
There is no great personality who wouldn’t acknowledge the contribution by his/her mother into their lives. Satyakaam Jabaal is known by his mother and so are many. Even today, a childs good mannerisms and characters are attributed to its mother more.
In the end, would just request all my readers to give a thought for what their mothers have done for them and always remember to be grateful to them.
Also that our great culture and civilisation has already given us a Mother’s day, centuries back, so we have been, foremost, in acknowledging the role and contribution of a mother towards building a home, society and country, which the West is acknowledging from last few decades ot maybe a century or two. Let’s not forget that and educate our next generation about it too…
It is the time of reiterating our commitment towards nature and Her living as well as non-living forms
Gratitude is the core philosophy of Vedic way of life. To be grateful is to be Human. This month makes us express our gratitude to whosoever, who has been a help to us to lead a beautiful and healthy life, socially and humanely.
So today we would be talking about the festivals which enlighten our way and are the Vedic way of expressing ones gratitude to Nature.
We believe that God resides in everything. Rather it is the will and wish of God, that He created us, the non living and the living. We both co-exist. We believe (even science today believes) that we have come from the non-living. Science believes that there is ‘chetan’ (atoms) in everything and we believe that there is ‘chaitanya'(God) in everything. The Theory of evolution as suggested by Darwin has already been proposed many thousand years back by us in the form of 10 avatars (incarnations) of Vishnu. (I have written a few independent blogs on the incarnation of Shri Vishnu.)
So with this broad outlook we will look into 3 festivals which we are celebrating during these 3 days. Nag Panchami (नाग पंचमी) and Shitala Saptami (शीतला सप्तमी). In between these two days, we celebrate Randhan Chhath (रांधण छठ्ठ). Let us understand them one by one.
Nag Panchami is a festival celebrated to worship the Serpents. The serpents are representatives of the reptile world. As human civilisation thrived, we had to cut down forests to make big towns and cities to accommodate more and more people. We knowingly had to drive out the reptiles from their natural habitats. As these reptiles cannot speak and express their emotions to us, they just left. For a few time they must have resisted but after finding their fight futile, they sacrificed their homes and went deeper into the jungles. Our Sages had a great intellect and an emotional heart. They felt that we need to express our gratitude to this class of animals who are sacrificing their abode for Humans. So they inculcated this practise of celebrating Nag Panchami.
My readers, our festivals have a divine but human outlook, which we need to understand and not laugh upon. The westerners may call us the land of magic and serpents, but we are far more ahead in our understanding about nature than them. We need to develop our own attitude and understandings about all our festivals.
Also there have been many studies about the Nag people. They are considered as the sons of Sage Kashyap, the father of Indian soil, from whom Kashmir has got its name. We also need to study those Nag people, who some say were Brahmins but were driven out of Kashmir. This part of our history has been deliberately kept out of the reach of common people so that the connect between India and Kashmir cannot be established and we keep on believing that it has been a Muslim majority state. But readers many a new research is shedding light on the work of Sage Kashyap in today what is called Kashmir. But again will leave it upto you, my readers, those interested to look further and research and read.
The next day is Randhan Chaatth. A day of cooking. A day of putting all the culinary skills to work and cook the best food possible. A day when one cooks from Morning to Evening. It is the day of cooking the best delicacies possible and yeah at the same time in away that one can savour the next day. The women of the household start the preparations early morning itself. In some villages of Saurashtra, Gujarat, the women get together to cook. They sing devotional and folk songs and enjoy this whole process. The households offer this food as Prasad to Devi Annapoorna – the Goddess of Nutrition.
Also the diet of Indian people has been very simple. Being an agrarian economy, people are always on their fields working hard to survive, and for the survival of the human civilisation. Their diet is simple, of jowar, bajra chappati with jaggery or green chillies or rice with curry. This may be incorporated so that people may atleast for one day savour the various delicacies available in their homeland.
Also Ayurveda does not allow to eat food cooked the day before. Rather our households are such that we do not even eat food cooked in the morning. So eating it the next day is a dream. Man is more attracted towards things he cannot do or is not allowed. So our Sages must have kept a day to eat food cooked a day before. In the modern world, it’s a holiday in the kitchen for the womenfolk. Whatever may be the reason, but frankly many people wait for this day.
The next day is Shitla Saptami. It is the day of non cooking. Food prepared the day before is savoured on this day. Some of my readers may feel it is unhygenic to do so. But frankly we all love cold food. Especially many foods like Khichadi and foods made from spices tastes great when eaten, the next day after preparation. But it is unhygenic and unhealthy to eat it everyday. So our Sages have kept one day in the whole year when we can satisfy our urge to eat food cooked overnight through this festival. At the same time, people who regularly eat canned foods need to understand the quotient of healthiness inherent in daily cooked food.
In the morning, the lady of the household, wakes up early and worships the stove. They pray to the Agni (Fire) and Annapoorna Devi. They make a swastik with red vermilion and put a twig of a mango tree over it as an offering. The mango signifies sweetness and it is said that it imparts coolness. She prays to the stove to help her cook food which will be healthy to eat and impart health to the one who eats it. Apart from this, it is also a way of expressing our gratitude to the stove who burns the whole year for giving us cooked food. This whole day, the stove is not lit. In our way, we would say that’s it’s a holiday for the stove.
Mata Shitala – The Goddess of Health and Immunity
Also, it is day to worship Goddess Shitala, the Goddess of cleanliness and health. Goddess Shitala is represented as a young maiden crowned with a winnowing-fan, riding a donkey, holding a short broom (either to spread out or dust off germs) and a pot full of pulses (the viruses) or cold water (a healing tool). Sometimes, she is shown to be carrying a bunch ofneem leaves, aherbused throughout India since ancient times that is believed by some to be an effective remedy to most of the skin diseases to this day. Even today in India, we keep neem leaves around the patient suffering from Chicken pox. And after 5/7 days, parents take their kids for a darshan of Shitala Mata and worship Her and thank Her for curing the child of the disease. (Medicines are administered regularly, but at the same time it is a matter of faith and gratitude towards nature).
On this day, we are expected to offer our gratitude to the broom and every other object which helps to keep our food and surroundings clean. Some people do worship the broom and the winnow on this day.
These days are of showers. Showers heavy and light keep the atmosphere clean and cool. The combination of the showers and these festivals are like a combination of lime and jaggery. They are good for health and taste both.
On these days,
Let us learn to inculcate a feeling of gratitude towards even the smallest of the things which make out lives healthy and better.
Let us learn to keep our surroundings clean and keep ourselves clean and healthy, free from diseases.
Let us know our ancestors and their vision and their efforts to keep us civilised.
येन बद्धो बलि राजा, दानवेन्द्रो महाबल। तेन त्वाम् प्रतिबद्ध्नामि रक्षे मा चल मा चल ॥
(O Brother! I tie you (towards your responsibilities) in the same way the King Bali was tied to, by his sister, Goddess Lakshmi. And pray that you may not waver from your path of responsibilities).
The day of celebrating relations with our siblings. It is celebrated on the Poornima (Full Moon Day) of the Hindu month of Shravan. The beauty of this day is just not in the celebration or tying a rakhi around the wrist or the give and take of money or things; but it lies in developing the understanding of staying together and understanding each other. Actually this festival has its importance for the sister as well who is married. She gets an oppurtunity to visit her brother’s place and spend time together.
Then what is the importance of tying a Raksha (thread) around Brothers wrist? The understanding today is that the sister asks for her brothers protective covering. The brother would help and protect his sister in times of need. I feel this thought become the line of thinking during the last 1000 years of foreign rule. Our women needed to be protected from the foreigners and so who would do that; but her brother. Question that arises to my mind is that in case of married man, what will he do for his wife? And a larger picture today is that woman today is herself quite qualified to take care of herself. And keeping this fact in mind, this festival will loose it’s sheen slowly and fade into memories in the coming years. Or it will become just a ritual or a formality.
This festival is basically not for protection of women, but to develop an understanding amongst men on how to look towards women. Rather what should be a man’s attitude towards a woman. ‘Every other women, other than my mother and wife is like a sister to me,’ is what the festival wants to convey. The sister applying tilak on brothers forehead is giving him this understanding. It’s a third eye (tilak) for the brother through whose lens he learns to see every other woman as his sister. The thread around his hand conveys that the brother promises the same and promises not to deviate from this outlook or path (मा चल मा चल). It’s a Bandhan (commitment) that he is accepting. Hope, my readers atleast will understand this and try to inculcate this understanding in their lives, and this year would share with their siblings too.
I know am talking to a generation which asks “Can a boy and girl just not be friends?”, “My sister is my best friend.” I truly sometimes wonder whether todays generation thinks beyond friends and about the relations they have got. I personally have no such problems with their questions but do they think before they ask?; is what I ponder over. My dear readers, let us all learn to enjoy every relation that we have got. Try to understand them and live in that way. And my question is if you both can be friends, then what’s the problem in accepting the girl as your sister or the boy as your brother. I leave this thought for you, my reader, to think, discuss and debate.
On this day, I pray to God to help me strengthen my bond with my sister/s and at the same time grant us both the understanding behind celebrating this festival.
Give the siblings the strength to stay in the best of their conditions at home and away.
Today is the last day of Asadh as celebrated here in Western India. It is the last day of the month. But for the Northern India it is the 15th day of the 2nd month of Chaturmaas ie Shraāvan. (Why so? is another topic of research and study). In Western India, a month begins after Amaāvasya whereas in Northern India, Amaāvasya is in the middle of the month. So it is Amaāvasya (No / New Moon Day) today all around India.
Today is Deep Amaāvasya. The day to clean all the Diyas (earthern lamps) made of copper, steel, silver and gold. (Or any other metal) All the used and the unused Diyas are thoroughly cleaned today. And then in the evening time, they all are lit with rangolis (geometrical design with different colours) drawn around it. The Diyas are then worshipped and offered flowers. And the family members then share sweets with each other.
The worship has its own significance. It is spreading light in our lives and the lives of others too. Light is considered auspicious. It removes the darkness from the outer world and at the same time enlightens the inner self. We, Indians, light a Diya everyday and say the following shlokas invoking the blessings of the Gods :
शुभं करोति कल्याणं आरोग्यं धनसंपदः । शत्रुबुद्धिविनाशाय दीपज्योतिनमोऽस्तु ते ॥
दीपज्योतिः परब्रह्म दीपज्योति जनार्दनः । दीपो हरतु मे पापं दीपज्योतिनमोऽस्तु ते ॥
(I bow to the Light, which brings abundance and prosperity of Health, and wealth and which destroys the intelligent enemy [darkness]…
It is you O Light! That is the creator and the operator and you will lead me to light away from sins, so I bow down unto you…)
The Mother Goddess (Shakti) is also symbolised by a burning flame of a diya. Fire helps the mother cook the food. At the same time, they both symbolise energy. And so one of the names of the mother is “Shakti”. Will deal upon it in some later blog.
Lastly am reminded of a short story (or maybe it’s a poem). The Sun is ready to set. The Sun asks everyone in the Universe that who will take his place and give light to the world in his absence? No one answers. A small earthen lamp moves upto him and humbly says, that it might not be as large as the Sun and may not have enough energy to lighten up the world but it will try to lighten up the area around, in which it is kept. This makes the Sun very happy. It signifies the importance of small things in life. However small may one be, with determination one can do the work done by the great ones.
Also I understand the Sun as God and the earthern lamp as Humanity. The Human being promises to be His representation in this Universe and it is his/her responsibility to lighten up the world. So let us all try to be small and humble Diya’s and try to enlighten our lives and the lives of the people around us.
Also would like to draw my readers attention to the fact that many people consider Amavasya as inauspicious. But see the far sightedness of the Rishis. Today is Amavasya of Asadh which is celebrated as Deep Amavasya. The next Amavasya of the month of Shravan is Matrudin. The Amavasya of the month of Bhadrapad is Sarv Pitri Amavasya. And the next Amavasya of the month of Ashwin is celebrated as Diwali. So now the question arises is Amvasya auspicious or inauspicious?
Guru is Brahma, Guru is Vishnu,Guru is Maheshwar (Shiv) Himself, I bow down to The Guru.
GURU is the one who uplifts his disciple and guides him nearer to God.
GURU is the one who shows the right path and leads us unto it.
GURU is like the light house in the sea, which keeps the disciples away from the obstacles (rocks) of life.
GURU is the one who instills self confidence and self esteem in the disciple.
GURU is the other Mother of the child who cares, shares warmth and showers love on.
The basis of the Indian Civilisation is to find a Guru, who will help to find oneself. A road traced upon by many but it is upto the individual whether to follow or charter his or her own path. But the Guru is a must for self realisation.
The Guru – Shishya parampara has it’s own place in Vedic culture. It can be seen in the lives of
Krishna – Arjun,
Aruni – Shvetketu ,
Haridrumata Gautam – Satyakaam Jabal ,
Mahaveerswami – Gautamswami
Buddha – Anand and many more.
We can find it even in the life of the Acharyas, Narad – Nimbarkacharya, Godpadacharya – Shankaracharya, Chyutrapreksha – Madhavacharya and many more. They take pride in citing their Guru’s name even after getting so much fame and following.
Even more recently,
Ramdas Swami – Shivaji and
Ramkrishna Paramhans – Vivekanand too.
Even the Jain Sanghs have a Guru of the Sangh whom the Shravaks and Shravikas look for guidance. (Whether Mahaveer or other Tirthankars would approve of this is another question to be dwell upon).
From the above examples, my readers, I just want to point out the importance a Guru plays in human life.
Can a man not attain self realisation without a Guru? He can, but it’s very difficult. Only one in crore can become a Mahaveer or Buddha. Otherwise it is the guidance of the true guru which can lead us to God and realising the God within.
On the day of Guru Poornima, bow down to the Aadiguru Shankar, all the Rishis who took the pains to see Human become civilised and all the Acharyas and the Saints who showed the Humanity the right path.
गुकारस्त्वन्धकारस्तु रुकार स्तेज उच्यते ।
अन्धकार निरोधत्वात् गुरुरित्यभिधीयते ॥
“Gu” means darkness and “Ru” means light, so a Guru is one who leads us from darkness to light.
It is the birthday of Maharshi Ved Vyas, the writer of the Brahmasutra, Shreemad Bhagwad Geeta, the one who divided the Vedas into 4 parts, who wrote the Puranas and the Mahabharat. Have already written a blog on Him last. The link to the blog is attached herewith.
On the 11th day of the month of Asaadh, the Gods are put to sleep. This day is widely celebrated across India as Devshayani Ekadashi. (Do they sleep? Can we exist without them? is another question) But it is such a beautiful concept of “Sagun Bhakti” (Idol worship). As I sleep, so does my God.
Our rishi’s have given a thought about people’s pshycology. The agrarian people will be busy with their work in the fields and will not be able to take care of the rituals associated with God’s. So the best way is to put Them to sleep. In this way, people can just concentrate on their work and give it 100% and at the same time do not feel bad or gulity about not doing their regular rituals and religious practises.
It is being celebrated today on 19th of July, this year, without any fanfare, in every simple manner, at Pandharpur, the residing place of Lord Vitthal or Pandurang.
The saints Dnyaneshwar, Tukaram, Namdeo, Eknath, Gora Kumbhar, Chokha Mela, Muktabai and many others have done a tremendous work through this Bhakti movement in Maharashtra during the Mughal rule. They have visited hut to hut and touched the hearts of many a people and taken their Pandurang unto the last person of the society.
Who is this Pandurang?
Who is this Vitthal?
Why does He stand with Hands onto his waist?
He is none other than Krishna who has travelled all the way from Dwarka to meet His Devotee Pundalik. Pundalik is the only son of two parents who have taken utmost care in his upbringing. Pundalik is a “ananya bhakt” of Krishna. He is spreading the word of Krishna to the people around him. His karmayog (work) is very big, but sadly lost today to history. When Shree Krishna hears about Pundalik and his work, He feels an urge to meet him. He rushes to Pandharpur in His chariot. The dusty roads make the dust stick to the skin of Shree Krishna. The already ‘Shyam’ (black) Krishna gets a new skin colour due to this dust. Hence He is called “Pandurang”.
When Krishna reaches the doors of Pundalik, He calls him out. It is said that Pundalik is busy with taking care of his parents, so throws a brick (eint) towards Him and asks him to wait. So Lord Pandurang puts His hands on His waist and waits for Pundalik to come out to meet him. Now this sounds a little weird to us. A devotee would never make his God to wait. Even the parents of Pundalik would have rushed out to meet Him. But due to poverty, there was no proper place to make Him sit, so they must have offered Him the brick shaped stone to sit on or stand on. We see Pandurang still standing on that stone at Pandharpur.
Jagadguru Shakaracharya gives us the meaning of this whole episode in his stotra “Pandurangashtkam.”
The God through this form of Pandurang wants to explain to His devotee thus:
“For those who are mine and reside in my heart, the waters of the Sansaar sagar, the Bhav sagar, are only upto the waist. So there is no question of drowning. One just needs to walk through these waist deep waters to meet me“
My dear readers, isn’t it big thing? It is generally, the devotee who goes to meet his God. Here it is the God, Himself, coming dow to meet His devotee. Namakaars to Pundalik and his karmayog. And so Bhagwan Shankaracharya calls this place the “Mahayogpeeth“.
Let us all today promise our Bhagwaan that we will do your work and spread your message hut to hut and heart to heart so that you may sleep at ease for the next 4 months.
Let us all read the lives of the saints, understand what they have taught us and try to imbibe those things in our lives.
Let us pledge to see God in everyone, living or non-living and slowly develop an out of reverence for the same.
Will end with an ovi which is one of my favourite written by Sant Dnyaneshwar…
देवाचिये द्वारीं उभा क्षणभरी । तेणें मुक्ति चारी साधियेल्या, हरि मुखें म्हणा हरि मुखें म्हणा । पुण्याची गणना कोण करी, असोनि संसारीं जिव्हे वेगु करी । वेदशास्त्र उभारी बाह्या सदा , ज्ञानदेव म्हणे व्यासाचिया खुणें । द्वारकेचा राणा पांडवां घरीं,
At the beginning of my blog itself, wishing all my Kutchhi brothers and sisters a very Happy New Year
असां जे कच्छी माडुओ के नव वर्ष की लख लख वधाई।
मेठो पांजो कच्छडो, मेठा पांजा माडु,
मेठी पांजी गालीयुं, ने मेठी पांजी प्रीत,
हलो हलो रे… आवई अषाढी बीज ।
The 2nd day of the month of Asaadh is a day celebrated as the onset of monsoons in Gujarat and Kutchh. The monsoons bring a smile on everyone’s face and people rejoice and celebrate as if it’s a new year.This day is celebrated all over India, especially Odisha, as the Rathyatra, “the procession of Chariots”. Lord Jagannath alongwith his elder brother Balbhadra and sister Devi Subhadra moves in their chariots around the Odia town of Jagannath Puri. This annual rath yatra attracts tourists from around the world. People get to touch their Lord and pull his chariot which is a once in a lifetime experience.
Jagannath Swami rides in the rath which is majorly decorated in yellow and called the “Nandi Ghosh.” Lord Balbhadra rides in “Tala dhwaj” decorated in green. And Devi Subhadra rides in her “Padma Dhwaj” black chariot. It’s the time when the siblings move out of their temples to meet the people, common folk, of their town. From their temple, they go to Gundicha temple, 3km away. Hence this yatra is also called as the Gundicha Yatra.
The names of the chariots and the colours too have their own significance. The chariots have their own charioteers. Daruka is on the Nandighosh, Matali on Taladhwaj and Arjun on Padmadwaj.
First the Deities are brought out from the temple in a very typical way. The deities do not have full body, but just a the face. So they need to be lifted and got out. This ritual is called the “Pahandi“. When one sees the deities being taken out, it seems as if they are being dragged. The multitudes of people try to catch a glimpse of the Lord and touch Him.
As soon as the Lord settles on His rath with His siblings (note that each deity has His or Her own individual rath), the erstwhile King of the Gajapati clan, arrives in a dress of a sweeper and cleans the rath and the roads with a broom in hand. This ritual is called “Chera Pahara“. It signifies that in the presence of the Lord, everyone is equal. The Kings, too through the years, have been very humble andgrateful to the Lord, to let them serve Him.
Then begins the journey.
The journey of the Lord to see His own people
The journey where the people can see their Lord
The journey of life to eternity.
The common man gets an opportunity to pull the three Raths and carry their Lord to His destination. The millions who have assembled, all, just try to touch the ropes attached to the Rath and feel grateful. The idea of a mere Human pulling the Rath of the Lord is in itself such a beautiful thought. It is He who pulls our lives throughout, but this day we get an opportunity not only to see Him, but pull his Rath as well.
Being elder, Balbhadra leads the triad. Followed by Subhadra and lastly comes Lord Jagannath himself. The idea of the brothers taking care of their sister is so divine. At the same time, it also signifies that Strength (Balbhadra) and Power (Jagannath), need to be balanced in Life. It would be possible only when one has the “bhadra” outlook (Subhadra).
Once the deities reach the Gundicha temple, they stay there for 9 days and will return back to their house after that, in the same manner as today. These 9 days are of Nagar Yatra and Darshan. The people get to see their Lords amongst themselves. The Lord too through this Yatra demonstrates that people in power need to keep their feet firmly on the ground and also keep in touch with the masses living in his or her kingdom.
The Yatra lasts for 6-7 hours and sometimes even takes 15-16 hours depending upon the wish of the deity. It is truly a very divine atmosphere in itself to be witnessed. I would request my readers to atleast visit Jagannath Puri once in a life time and if possible during the Yatra time.
A stotra written by Jagadguru Shankaracharya called Jagannathashtak is worth reciting. Quoting a shlok from it for Lord Jagannath. रथारूढो गच्छन् पथि मिलित भूदेव पटलैः स्तुति प्रादुर्भावम् प्रतिपदमुपाकर्ण्य सदयः । दया सिन्धुर्बन्धुः सकल जगतां सिन्धु सुतया जगन्नाथः स्वामी नयन पथ गामी भवतु मे ॥५॥(“When Lord Jagannatha is on His Ratha-yatra cart and is moving along the road, at every step there is a loud presentation of prayers and songs chanted by large assemblies of brahmanas. Hearing their hymns Lord Jagannatha is very favorably disposed towards them. He is the ocean of mercy and the true friend of all the worlds. May that Jagannatha Swami, along with His consort Lakshmi, who was born from the ocean of nectar, be the object of my vision.”)
On this day, let’s pray to Jagannath, Balbhadra and Subhadraji to bless all us and our siblings and bless us that we live like they lived together.
Let’s pray to the siblings that may the bonds among our families become stronger day by day.
Let’s pray that our families always stay together happily and merrily.
Wish you all, my readers, a very Happy Vruskshmandir Din, Madhav Vrund Din and Yuva Din.
All 3 festivals celebrated by the Swadhyay Pariwaar, across the globe, on the same day, ie today, 12th of July. These 3 days also coincide with the birthday of the current head or the Elder Sister of Swadhyay Pariwaar, Revered Dhanashree Athavale – Talwalkar. She happens to be my mentor and guide too. Will write about the parivaar and its founder Revered Pandurang Shashtriji Athavale (Dadaji – elder brother in Marathi) in another blog some day.
Today wanna talk about the outlook that they both have inculcated into thousands of lives in India and abroad.
The Vedic philosophy believes in the 4 basic principles –Reverence for self, -Reverence for others, –Reverence for Nature; and –Reverence for the Creator.
The Creator himself resides within me as He, Himself said so in Shreemad Bhagwad Geeta. “सर्वस्यचाहं हृदि सन्निविष्टो ।” sarvasya caham hrdi sannivisto श्री मद्भग्वदगीता – अध्याय 15 श्लोक 15 (I reside in every heart) So am divine. In the same way, He resides in every heart. So there is no question of looking down upon others too.
And goes a step forward to say, “अश्वत्थ: सर्ववृक्षाणाम् ।” Ashwathaha sarva vrukshaanaam श्री मद्भग्वदगीता – अध्याय 10 श्लोक 26 (Am the Peepal (Ficus religiosa)among the trees) So if the Creator Himself says so, the Nature is divine too. Then how can I even think of harming it!
But Human mind based on reasoning and scientific attitude talks about the need of tree or a cow once it loses it sheen as an object of utility. And slowly loses the feeling of reverence for everything, that has been inculcated in his or her childhood. I need to clarify that am not against the usage of things and objects in our lives, but at the same time it is distressing to see Humans become so emotionless towards fellow human beings, fellow living creatures and nature.
At such a time of distress, comes a Great Man (Human history is full of such great people) who takes us back to our roots and makes us understand to water them, and not bereave them from water. They come out of Law of Universal Necessity, and not out of Law of Attraction and Repulsion or Law of Karma. They teach the Universe about the morals and ethics of life and show the right path to tread on.
Param Pujaniya Pandurang Shashtriji Athavale, Dadaji, is one such person. He explains that people, that is we, look towards nature with a sense of Utility or a sense of Objectivity (being beautiful). But He further explains that we Humans who can think and reason and feel, should move a step ahead and try to find and see the divinity within everything. It is based on this thought that He has given an experiment called Vrukhsmandir (A temple of forests).
Swadhyayees from 20 villages around plant trees in a barren land. Take care of them as family members and grow them. As it is a community work, no one is the owner of the produce. It’s rightful owner is God, Himself. It may sound like some social experiment, but my readers I should draw your attention to the fact that it is purely divine. Everyone who participates here is learning to see God, even in the trees. Through this, I feel, that Shashtriji has revived the feeling of Reverence towards Nature. There are 27 such Vrukshmandirs in the state of Gujarat and Maharashtra.
And for this novel experiment of Vrikshmandirs, Shashtriji has been awarded the Indira Priyadarshini Vrikshmitra Award too.
It is an experiment which does have social impact, but Shashtriji explains and propounds that, we do plant trees and take care of them, but we are not environmentalist, we are ‘Bhakts’ (devotees). There are so many instances where lives of people going to Vruskhmandirs have changed and this is the basic idea of what Shashtriji wants to do. He further explains, that if we see changes in the mindset of the society or a positive attitude develops towards nature, for society as a whole, then it is the ‘side effect’ of this experiment. The Vrukshmandir is basically for a human to look into himself and change. This is Swadhyay.
Representational Image
Similarly, the people living in metro cities like Mumbai and Bengaluru or Kolkatta and Delhi and in town and cities have been encouraged to plant a small shrub at home to develop a healthy and a divine attitude towards Nature. Everyday morning, the family members get together and water the plant and utter the ‘Narayanopanishad’ while watering. Two small changes can happen. One is that the family comes closer and their bonding collectively with nature too increases. Singing the Narayanopanishad helps develop the understanding of seeing Narayan, ie God in the tree or sapling planted at home.
This understanding based on the thoughts of Bhakti has transformed lives of people and families. Created a sense of unity amongst society. And yes, indirectly helped in environment conservation too.
This year too the Swadhyayees have contacted their friends and family who do not know about Swadhyay and talked to them about the concept of Madhavvrund and have gifted them a flowering plant and requested them to nurture them in their respective houses.
Shastriji has also asked upon Swadhyayees to conserve water at home, in fields and in lakes around their villages. Swadhyay parivaar has built thousands of lakes and check dams across many states in India. They call them ‘Nirmal Neer’. Also many Swadhyayees have taken upto rain water harvesting in their individual houses and many villagers have started helping in recharging the ground water levels through an experiment of “Shosh Khadda” (a pit that helps absorb kitchen water into the ground).
My readers might have a question that even after doing all this, we have never heard about it. Because both, Shashtriji and His daughter are of the firm belief that we have to go and share such ideas with people personally. First develop a relationship and then share. It is not a system but their conviction that changes are desirable in the minds of the people. The moment they realise and develop a bond with their God within, then a small Human can do big things. It is this firm belief that has kept the Parivaar together. And so they keep away from Media. There has been no such media propaganda of the ground work that they have done.
Today, also happens to be the birthday of Dhanashree Didi (Didi – elder sister). She has been nurturing the Parivaar with lots of love, warmth and affection. The way She connects with people through Her talks and action is just unbelievable. For people who dont know Her, they would feel that am just exaggerating. Then I would say that Seeing is believing. I have seen it and I believe it.
Representational Image
She has taken a lot of efforts to gather all the different pearls (people of different states, linguistic preferences, castes, creed, nationaities) into a single thread. The youth, in particular, will remain indebted to Her for generations to come. According to the wishes of Dadaji, She has organised the youth and given them dynamic activities through which the generation of today understand the morals, ethics and more importantly, the nearness of God. So the youth on Her birthday, celebrate Yuva Din (Youth Day). It is a way of expressing their Gratitude to both these ‘ Mahamaanavs.’
At the end, I pray to God that
May He, help us to develop strong bondings amongst Humans that these binds transcend faith and uplift Humanity.
May He, help us develop the understanding of oneness with Nature and the Universe as a whole.
May He, take us closer to Himself and bless us with understanding of oneness with God.
As we end the series today, am thinking about the journey when we began as a rivulet and now entering the ocean today. The narrow mindedness turning to broad mindedness. The art of looking at the world outside to the world within. It may be a complex process but we all have to undergo it one day. So let’s begin the last leg of our journey today.
परद्रव्येष्वभिध्यानं मनसानिष्टचिंतनम्।
वितथाभिनिवेशश्र्व मानसं त्रिविधं स्मृतम्।।
10. To wrongly insist / persist
“Vitathabhivniveshashva” – to wrongly insist. Try to impose things on others which may not work for them. We all have this habit of insisting for things which have worked for us forgetting that different people have different solutions for the same problem. And that is how the Universe works.
Maa Ganga treads Her own path. She does not depend on others at the same time She does not expect others to follow Her. She goes Her own way. If people follow, fine. If they dont, then too She has no problems. She is “Nisang“
At this stage of development we too need to learn this quality of being selfless. No attraction, no repulsion. No submission, no justification. This leads to the feet of Bhagwan Vishnu. This is the ultimate goal of life.
As we take the 10th and the last dip in Maa Ganga today, we pray to Her to bless us with the quality of being “Nisang” and attain the lotus feet of Bhagwaan Vishnu.
एतानि दश पापानि हर त्वमथ जाह्नवी।
दशपापहरा यस्मात्तस्माद् दशहरा स्मृता।।
O Ganga ! you are the one who will deliver me from the above said 10 sins and so I remember you (bow down to you) on the Dusshara day as “Duspaaphara”.
We bow down to Maa Ganga today and thank Her for guiding us all through this journey.
We thank Her for being there for us from eternity to eternity.
We bow down to Her and plead Her to keep us on this path of development and growth.
My dear friends / readers I thank you too for being a part of my quest to find answers to the questions which torments the Humans and trying to find an answer to them. Have we been able to find the answers? Have we learnt something? Have we grown during these 10 days? I leave these questions for you to answer.
Pray to Maa Ganga to keep writing about Her and get closer to Her through my writings…
As we go closer to our destination, the form of the river becomes a delta and grows bigger but slower so as to smoothly enter the ocean. That is the purpose of our lives too. We began with the physical sins and moved on to the mental sins and we try to understand how to remove them from our lives. We move on to the second but last stop of our journey.
परद्रव्येष्वभिध्यानं मनसानिष्टचिंतनम्।
वितथाभिनिवेशश्र्व मानसं त्रिविधं स्मृतम्।।
9. To think that bad happen to others
“Manasanishtchintanam” – to think bad about others. We think bad not only about others but also whom we consider close to us. Thinking about the loss of a close one is also a sin which we do without even understanding that it creates a negative feeling in our minds.
Negativity is the biggest hurdle in our growth and development. It hurts us badly without us even realising that it is hurting us. Negativity is slow poison – kills us slowly. From thinking negative about others we slowly move towards thinking negative about ourselves.
Maa Ganga is full of positivity. Her flow through all the obstacles is never hindered nor slowed down. She guides us to live and lead our life through every good and bad situation and reach our destination, the feet of Lord Vishnu, who resides in the ocean. Our destination will be reached when our lives be filled with “Positivity“
Positivity not only help us move ahead in life but also accelerates us towards our goal. Being positive in all things is a big step in our development. Am reminded of the story we all have heard or studied in our childhood days – “It’s all for the Best”, where a king by mistake cuts his finger and the minister says its for the best. This angers the king and he sends the minister to prison. Later when he goes for hunting and attached by a wild animal, the wild animal leaves the king due to the smell of the blood from the cut finger. The king realises his folly, comes back and releases his Minister. But he asks how was the cut finger best for the minister. Then the witty minister replies that hadnt he been in prison he would have accompanied the Kind on the hunting trip and got killed himself.
So as we take our second but last dip in the Holy Ganga, we pray to Her to help us inculcate positivity in our lives and lead us to our development.
Tommorrow we will reach our destination and also celebrate the festival of Ganga Dusshara. See you all tommorrow…
As we move onwards our journey from the Ganga ghats of Kashi towards Ganga Sagar, we have come to that node where we have to think beyond physical sins and sins expressed by our thoughts. Today onwards we think about the last 3 sins for which we need to be very careful and sensitive about. The first 7 can be seen by others too and they can help us correct them. But the last 3 are “mansik” – within our minds and no one except us can correct them. So let’s gear up ourselves and introspect.
परद्रव्येष्वभिध्यानं मनसानिष्टचिंतनम्।
वितथाभिनिवेशश्र्व मानसं त्रिविधं स्मृतम्।।
8. To think about snatching others wealth
9. To think that bad happen to others
10. To wrongly insist / persist
These are the 3, and the last of 10, sins committed in our minds
“Pardravyeshvabhidhyanam” – to think about snatching others wealth. To think about taking something which does not belong to us. How many of us have thought of this? I without any doubt would say everyone of us. Just imagine the guilt now while reading about what we have been doing.
I very well understand that first we have to come to terms with what I am trying to say. Secondly we need to accept it. Thirdly we need to decide to work on it. Fourthly we need to work on it and change it. We are at the first step today.
Also I was thinking that if we think about snatching wealth of others then wouldn’t they be thinking the same. What chaos would be created if the thought would be implemented! Just imagine the society then.
Maa Ganga never snatches. She rather deposits the silt which She has been carrying with it on the plains which She flows through. She has been giving to Human kind for time immemorial. And the thought of snatching never crosses Her mind. She just gives and teaches us to give “Datum“
This is a situation exactly opposite of what we have been thinking. Instead of snatching we think about giving. And give, we have. When we think about Emperor Harsh and the way has has given or Emporer Raghu, the ancestor of Ram, has given away all his wealth to his citizens. We have a great tradition of giving.
So as we take our 8th dip in Maa Ganga let us inculcate the value of giving and start with sharing atleast.
As we move towards our destination let us keep sharing the various stops of our journey. See you all tommorrow…
Being arrogant and the art of lying is what were thinking about in our last two blogs. It tells us the importance of what we speak and how we speak. And we speak what we think. And these sins we are commiting are not helping us grow, rather they deter our growth.
पारूष्यमनृतं चैन पैशुन्यं चापि सर्वतः।
असंबद्धप्रलापश्र्व वाङ्मयं स्याच्चतुर्विधम्।।
6. To backbite about others
The best time pass of Humanity is to back bite. To gossip is Human is what my teacher always used to tell us. At that age I didnt understand its meaning but today as I grow in age, I fully understand what she meant then. Who doesn’t back bite? Everyone does and no one is an exception to it.
Well was thinking about the different instances to write about but one thing which is striking with this “Paap” is that one cannot see the other human being good or gain popularity or grow big. It has become Human tendency to judge the other person’s growth with suspicion and caste a doubt on his / her growth.
It is a vice which has infected all ages. We all have at some time or the other being a part of it and helped in spreading it. This attitude of not being able to accept other person’s growth needs to worked upon and moulded into better understanding.
Maa Ganga through Her flow demonstrates not to be bothered by anyone’s growth and keep on doing the good work one has been doing. From the time Bhagirath got Her down to Mother Earth, She has been doing Her own work and working towards Her own growth. She isn’t selfish or self centered but at the same time She is “Inclusive“.
We need to be inclusive about people’s growth and development. Accept others as they are and at the same time accept how we ourselves are. Stop being suspicious about others and stop judging others. This will slowly make us inclusive and start accepting others.
While taking the 6th dip let us learn to be inclusive about others and ourselves in particular and remove this vice of back biting about others.
Tommorrow we will be talking about the senseless talks or as we call it chatter in our day to day language…
Let us continue with our understanding of the sins we commit with our thoughts and express through our mouth. Yesterday we were trying to understand about being arrogant and how Maa Ganga teaches us to be humble.
पारूष्यमनृतं चैन पैशुन्यं चापि सर्वतः।
असंबद्धप्रलापश्र्व वाङ्मयं स्याच्चतुर्विधम्।।
5. To lie (To spread falsehood)
Today we talk about lying. “Anrutan” as they call it in Sanskrit. Lying is an art which we all have mastered in our lives. We have been seeing, observing and learning how to lie from our early childhood days. Will not like to state instances how we learn.
We lie to come out of an awkward situation, to save oneself from embarrassment, to save oneself from harm, to win admiration from others, to avoid being punished, to obtain an reward not otherwise really obtainable, to maintain privacy and many more reasons one can think of.
People will share instances and quote shlokas from the scriptures explaining that lying is allowed. But the thing is that it is allowed in certain extreme circumstances. And now where is it said that spread the lie. So there is avery fine line between spreading a lie and allowed to lie, which we all need to understand.
Also there will always be a justification for lying as the person who lies thinks that he or she is doing it for his or her own good. It might be as well, but the amount of harm it causes to the person’s integrity and character building and the society as a whole is something which people do not think about while lying.
Maa Ganga is always flowing and in now way does She ever stop Her flow in any situations. She may be facing Her problems of extinction or being made dirty, not once does She stop. She keeps flowing removing the dirt within Her. She has been flowing from the day She has arrived on Earth till date. She is always “TRUTHFUL“.
Being Truthful has it’s own problems. It can lead us to problems but they will be solved without causing any difficulties and in due time. It might not yield quick and easy results but in the long run it does help. Truthfulnees is a virtue adored even by the Gods.
Let us plead to Maa Ganga to help us be truthful, as we take our 5th dip in Her today.
Let us continue with our journey tommorrow. We have reached half way and should reach our destination in the next half…
The last 3 days we have been talking about the different physical sins which we commit as humans and how Maa Ganga delivers us from them. Today we try to understand the different sins in words by us. These are such sins that we do not even realise that we are doing them.
पारूष्यमनृतं चैन पैशुन्यं चापि सर्वतः।
असंबद्धप्रलापश्र्व वाङ्मयं स्याच्चतुर्विधम्।।
4. To speak arrogantly,
5. To lie (To spread falsehood)
6. To backbite about others
7. To talk without any reason and what make no sense ie senseless talk.
The above mentioned 4 sins are committed through tongue (thoughts)
This is a topic which is the most sensitive to all our relations which we try to make and sustain. A small word here and there can break the relations. The bonds of relations are very delicate and they can be broken easily with even a single wrong word.
May a people have a habit of speaking very arrogantly. Their arrogance arises either from their intellect, wealth or the position they have in the society. Sometimes it comes very naturally to all of us and makes such a dent that it becomes difficult to repair.
Let us begin with an example of a person scoring good marks or ranks in the exams they appear for. After such consistent effort and performance, it happens that the person develops a feeling of knowing everything under the Sun and starts looking down towards people not scoring good mark’s or ranks. Now this alienates them from their surroundings and creates another problem of aloofness.
Sometimes the wealth plays a big factor in how we speak. A wealthy person starts feeling that he or she owns everything due to their wealth and they start treating people very arrogantly and by belittling them. People start staying away from such people thus creating the class war in the society.
And for people with power, there is need of any description about this for people in India. How power is abused by people in power is no secret! Even the smallest of people in power (for example – the hawaldaar); their tone is very arrogant.
Maa Ganga, through Her flow guides us with a soft and melancholy sound. Even after helping a civilisation to grow on Her banks, She has been very humble. She doesnt make any arrogant noises of helping someone grow or being the most important person around. She is very “HUMBLE“.
Humility after attaining power is the most important value which one needs to imbibe in life. A humble person is not only loved by everyone but also wanted by everyone, in case of need. A person who is humble can help the society to its fullest and can be a shining armour in the otherwise dull and arrogant world.
While taking this fourth dip today, let us pledge to be humble in life even when we reach the highest echelons of life.
We come to the last of the ‘Vaachik’ paaps we are trying to understand from last 3 blogs. I know they can be elaborated a lot and a lot more can be written but want to keep them short so that everyone with whom I share finds time to read them. Yesterday we talked about back biting about others.
पारूष्यमनृतं चैन पैशुन्यं चापि सर्वतः।
असंबद्धप्रलापश्र्व वाङ्मयं स्याच्चतुर्विधम्।।
7. To talk without any reason and what make no sense ie senseless talk.
Chatterbox, Badbad (in Hindi), are the terms we use oftenly nowadays. These words are used for people who keep on talking which make no sense or have no reason to talk about. These people just have a habit of going on and on and on. And the best part is that they are made a thing to be showcased by their parents and the peer group.
To talk is to use energy. It takes up a lot of energy to keep on talking. Ask the teachers and the professors. But here we are talking about people who talk for no reason as such. They just want some attention and so they just chatter. Kids especially nowadays due to over exposure have become chatterboxes and this has become an object of showcasing.
It is a common misconception that women talk endlessly, but the men do too. Rather men do it more!
There may be many reasons of keeping on talking continuously but is it right? Does the person talking endlessly take into consideration the person who is listening? Is there a need to go on talking endlessly?
Maa Ganga has demonstrated through Her flow that She knows when to make her presence known and when not. While flowing through the ghats of Varanasi and through Bhar towards Kolkatta, She flows while making minimum or no sound. Her flow is so smooth that people truly are awed with what they have seen Her at Rishikesh. She does teach us the value of “Balance” in life.
It is not that one should not talk. But one shoukd know when to talk! What to talk! And how much to talk!. This fine balance is a must for every person to grow in life. The world always likes “a man of few words”. But these few words have to be gentle, humble, truthful and balanced.
As we take our 7th dip, and the way we are moving, am sure that we will in our lives try to think over what we have spoken and shared during this discussion and try to live the way.
Devprayag – Confluence of Alaknanda and Bhagirathi
We are trying to understand the “Paap” which Maa Ganga removes from our lives. We are now at a node where we need to think about the third “Kaayik” paap.
अदत्तानामुपादानं हिंसा चैवाविधानतः।
परदारोपसेवा च कायिकं त्रिविधं स्मृतम्।।
ADATTANAMUPADANAM – To take away even if not offered ie to steal.
HIMSA CHAIVAVIDHANATA – To commit violence for no reason.
The third sin “Pardaropaseva ch” – To commit adultery or To have adulterous relationships. With the growing influence of “Being open minded” and “It’s a free world” we, humans have transgressed a path from “Shame” to being “Shameless”. Commiting adultery has become so common that it has become a topic of discussion from a topic of gossip.
The way, we, the society is behaving and opening up is just not distasteful but a disgrace. The way a man looks towards a woman, as an object of lust and propriety is something which one cannot even imagine. The mental state of the youth of our country in this regards, though still under wraps, is disillusioning. The days ahead will be of utter chaos and disbelief regarding relationships.
At this juncture, when we see Maa Ganga and Her pious flow, it leads us to a divine outlook of Motherhood. She holds us in Her bosoms very gently and awakens a emotion of reverence for the creation. She gently carries us on Her back and nurtures the quality of “Brahmacharya” within us.
Brahmacharya not only means abstinence from physical relations but it also means to walk on the path of God. To keep on walking continuously to spread His name far and wide. It also means to become one with God.
Maa Ganga too from Her emergence to Her submission is a Brahmacharini, spreading the message of God to every part of land and to every living being encountered in Her path.
Today as we take out third dip, let us today rise above the petty thoughts of adultery and pledge to live a life of Brahmachari and make efforts to spread the word of God far and wide.
Now as we discussed about the Kaayik (physical) paap, we shall move to the next mantra and try and understand the four “Vaachik” (Spoken) paap…
Rudraprayag – Confluence of Alaknanda and Mandakini
We started yesterday with the aim to develop an understanding about how Maa Ganga is Das (10) “Paap” Haarini. And we began with the 3 “Kaayik” paap.
अदत्तानामुपादानं हिंसा चैवाविधानतः।
परदारोपसेवा च कायिकं त्रिविधं स्मृतम्।।
We tried to understand the first one yesterday : ADATTANAMUPADANAM – To take away even if not offered ie to steal
Today we talk about Himsa Chaivavidhanata – To commit violence with no reason.
I think Himsa or Violence is the most spoken and thought after word or “paap” in today’s world. We all understand that Himsa means violence and it is done with no reason. From assaulting kids to wives to friends and today even countrymen, the word Himsa needs no description. The morning newspapers carry only the news of violence all over the world.
The word Himsa includes all acts of violence and destruction. All the types of activities that lead to violence should also be termed as Himsa.
Even when one starts to think negatively about oneself and demotivates oneself is also a type of Himsa – destroying one’s esteem, self confidence. The biggest Himsa we do to ourselves is when we say “I can’t do.”
When one sits at the banks of Maa Ganga, in Her lap, Her flow removes all these negative thoughts of demeaning and demotivating oneself and rejuvenates, recharges us with positive thoughts and motivates us for action. This is the true “Ahimsa“
Friends, when one talks of Ahimsa it means Non Violence. And people take it as way of not doing anything – Nivrutti. To that extent that one should take care while walking too as it may kill the ants and the microbes around. Cover the mouth while talking so that the sound waves do not kill. And so walk less or talk less. Am not against this understanding but we need to move a step ahead. Ahimsa – means to spread the love all over. To love every part of the creation selflessly. And this is what all the Avatar’s born anywhere on Earth have propagated.
Similarly Maa Ganga too loves Her children. Maa Ganga and Her flow have always been non destructive. She flows so smoothly and elegantly from the Gomukh to Ganga Sagar. She just cleanses all the lands and their people and leads them to prosperity.
Today when we take a dip at the confluence of Alaknanda and Mandakini, let us pledge to understand the right meaning of Ahimsa and spread the love of Maa Ganga and through Her, the work of the Avatars and the greatness of this Holy land unto the last person on Mother Earth.
With the dip, let us leave the thought of Himsa behind and give prominence to the phrase ‘I can do’ in our lives.
We will take our third dip at the confluence of Alaknanda and Bhagirathi tomm…
On the auspicious occasion of Ganga Dusshara falling on 20th June this year, am planning a series of blogs explaining the meaning of the word “Dusshara”
GANGA DUSSHARA means the one who takes away our 10 sins (Duss + Hara) from our lives.
These 10 sins are ‘Kaayik’, ‘Vachik’ and ‘Mansik’ (physical, speech (thoughts) and pshycological).
We begin with the first of three physical sins today. But first what are they? A shlok describes them as thus:
अदत्तानामुपादानं हिंसा चैवाविधानतः।
परदारोपसेवा च कायिकं त्रिविधं स्मृतम्।।
ADATTANAMUPADANAM – To take away even if not offered ie to steal
I think it is the biggest problem we all are facing today, STEALING. Steal things, Steal the process, steal the thought to Steal someone’s peace. The question which comes to my mind is that how can one think of getting something which is not theirs. Isn’t it uncivilized?
Let us also understand that there is nothing wrong in copying someone’s method or process or experiment, but calling it, one’s own is stealing. We see many such people who behave in this manner. Also calling someone’s idea or thought one’s own is also stealing.
Again accumulating thoughts or amassing wealth and also not sharing with anyone is stealing. So in itself the word stealing has a huge or a very broad meaning which we all need to think about.
Maa Ganga takes away this sin from our lives. When we see Her flow and hear Her soft and tinkling sound, the thought to steal just goes away. Rather looking at Her flow, just removes the thought of belongingness towards things, processess and thoughts. The soft sound of the flow instills harmony in our thoughts and strikes a balance of “Aparigraha“.
What does Maa Ganga take from us? Nothing. Rather She gives us everything from life, water and alluvial soil which in turn helps us grow crops for our food. Learning from Her, we too can remove the vice of stealing from our life. We can live our life like Her sharing our most prized possessions with others.
Today when we take our first dip in Maa Ganga let us all pledge to give up this sin of Adattanamupadanam (stealing).
We continue our journey along the banks of Maa Ganga tommorrow…
The Avatars come to Earth to maintain a balance between Optimism and Pessimism, Action and Non- Action, Pravritti and Nivrutti. The world moves like a pendulum from one end of “Action – Pravrutti” to the other end of “Non Action – Nivrutti”. Mankind always loves extremes but does not understand that both are detrimental to its growth and development. A balance needs to struck between the two and the Avatar comes to strike that balance. An Avatar demonstrates how to lead a balanced life.
Today we talk about Kurm Avatar. The form of Tortoise. The story goes as such:
One day the Devas and the Asuras decide to come together to churn the ocean and obtain the nectar – an elixir of life. Asuras are humans like you and me. Just that they have decided to spend their life in Eat, Drink and Be Merry, lead a life involved only in sensual happiness. “असुषु इन्द्रियेषु रमन्ते इति असुराः। So they are not considered bad by humans.
Now the ocean is big body of water and we need a big churner so they approach the Mandrachal Parvat (mountain) to be their churner and the King of Snakes; Vasuki to be the thread bare to move the churner. They both readily agreed and so began the churning of the ocean.
The churning with Devas on one side and the Asuras on the other side was a sight to see. But the Mandrachal Parvat began sinking as the ocean was deep and the mountain had no base to rest upon. At that time it is said that Vishnu took the form of a tortoise (kurm) and gave a base to the mountain and took it upon it’s back with which the process of churning took place. Many a things came up during churning like Kalpvriksh, Laxmi, a bowl of poison and lastly the Nectar. Naturally there were discussions on who should have what.
Amongst the things that came out during the churning, the most wanted by both the parties was the Nectar and the most unwanted was the bowl of poison. Poison was taken by Bhagwaan Shiv and it is said that He drank it and stopped it in his neck, did not let it go down below His neck. So His neck turned blue and He is called Neelkanth.
Next was the discussion and fight for Nectar as the one who drinks it will become immortal. What is the secret to immortality? Something which Kurmavtaar has explained to Humanity.
Now let us look at it with a perspective that will help us understand better. A society is always made up of people with good thoughts and work and people with lots of wealth and a little lax about life. Now there is always a fight amongst the two about who is better? Both shun each other, one the other for their wealth and the other, the one for its intellect. Can they coexist? This is an eternal question which the Human race has tried to find an answer to. Here Kurmavtaar shows us the right direction.
When the fight reached its pinnacle and it started hurting the development of mankind, people from the above groups came together at the foot of the Mandrachal hills to find out a solution. At that time, the people who had developed and understood the importance of both intellect and wealth mediated and made both the groups understand the importance of each other. At that time different questions were discussed and the poison of accepting wealth as an important proposition of life was accepted by the group who considered it lowly. Thus balance was struck. The people realised the nectar of accepting both wealth and intellect as well as each otherand living with each other.
The person / s who mediated showed great skills and adaptability during the discussion and demonstrated the skills of withdrawing and appearing at the right time. The way a tortoise does in different situations. So all of them started calling him / them “Kurm” (tortoise). We can find these descendants of Kurm, known as Kurmis, even found today in and around the state of Bihar. This is the Kurmavataar.
Bow down to this person / s on his / their birthday.
Let us all decide to strike a balance between wealth and intellect and accept them both as a part of peaceful living.
Let us all decide to be ready to drink the poison of our egos and wishes and whims for the betterment of Humanity as whole.
Let us all decide to be slow but firm like a “Kurm” as well as learn the art of adaptability in life.
I bow down and go to the Sangh, Dhamm (Religion) and Buddha for enlightenment.
Buddha means the enlightened one.
Buddha means unattached.
Buddha means the great leader.
An individual who guides lacs and crores of people to lead a simple and an austere life should be accepted as an Incarnation of God. And Buddha is no different. From the days of His sermons till today, He guides Humanity onto the path of peace and tranquillity. And till date and many years in future will He be the guiding light for Humanity.
Son of Mayadevi, Gautama is said to become either a great King or a great Monk. The parents are worried and are said to have kept him in the four walls of the grand palace built for him. Got him married at the age of 16 and had a son Rahul. But Gautama is inclined towards finding the way or the path of renunciation from miseries. His chatioteer Channa might have led him to those famous night trips around the city where he is said to have discovered old age, disease and death. And so he leaves his wife, kid and palace to find the path of greater good.
Sometimes I wonder can a prince be kept away from the truth of life? Can any person be kept away from it rather? I feel that Gautama always knew all the misery and he was continuously trying to find a path to come out of all this. And one fine day, he decided that enough is enough and left the palace with due permission from his wife. How can a Mahatma who leads an austere life forget his duty towards his consort? And Yashoda must also have consented to let him go and find his goal. I say so, cause once when Gautama became Buddha and He visited His father’s kingdom, it was Yashoda who urges her son Rahul to take up the life of a monk with the Sangh and a few days later, with due discharge of duties and permission of elders, herself joins the Sangh.
Also those who have come to guide the world, can they be stuck in all the worldly matters? Is a question which I always have. He got married and fulfilled his duties towards his wife, son and parents and left to find his own self.
The tree, under which He is said to have attained enlightenment, the Bodhi tree, still stands there with it’s full grandeur as a witness to the divine phenomenon. People all over the world today visit the place, to find peace and solace.
His philosophy, “Sarvam Dukham, Sarvam Kshanikam” explains to us the basic principle of Science, that the world is continuously fleeting and changing. And it is fact that everyone needs to acknowledge that there needs to be rationality behind any and every thought one propagates.
He talks about ‘Shunyatva (nothingness)’, not even emotions. Was there any reason for an enlightened soul to live on Mother Earth. But He not only did live but went around meeting people across villages, janpadas and kingdoms. Its was selfless love in action. His action is not out of pitiness towards our lives, but out of pure selfless love towards us, his brethren. People today have belittled Him and His philosophy and mould it according to their whims and wishes.
Another question which people frequently ask; Why are the followers of Buddha, a proponent of Ahimsa (non – violence), fish eating or meat eating? Has He allowed this? Friends, let us go back to the era when He lived. To propagate His thought, he approached the intellectual class at that time. This class did not respond to His call. So He accepted whosoever responded to His call. He accepted them as they are and yes believed that slowly they would change their ways of eating. And change, they did. But if it is translated as meat eating is allowed by Buddha, then it’s our misconception about Him. He cannot be blamed for the misinterpretation.
I purposely began with Sangham Sharanam Gacchami as opposite to what people say. Cause I believe that even He, The Enlightened One, will agree with it. Go the the Sangh first. Follow your “Dharma” second. And then come to me.
Buddha, as history tell us, is the first to establish a Sangh, for propagation of religion. He gave a very well designed way to spread religion through the Sangh. India will always be indebted to Him for this. And as a result, we see that Buddhist thought and philosophy has not only spread all over Asia, but also dominates the thinking process of Asia in a way.
On His Birthday, bow down to Him and may we be blessed to be accepted in the Sangh, He established.
Let us all set upon the path to find ourselves, answer our questions and attain Enlightenment
Let us all learn to understand in the right perspective, the work of the Buddhavtar.
Let us all together wake up and arise and keep on working for the upliftment of the Human race as a whole.
Today is the Vaishakh Sud Chaturdashi, Narsimha Jayanti.
The day Hiranyakashyap was killed by the Avatar of Vishnu known as Narsimha, half lion, half man.
The day Prahlad was saved from the wrong ways of his father.
The day people realised the strength within them and banished / killed an autocratic King.
Let us take ourselves back to a time, more than 15000, maybe 17000 years back, (a time I leave upto historians and archaeologists to decide) when Man had learnt agriculture and started settling down. The Varah Avtaar had started a civilisation. The Avtaar of Vishnu had just killed Hiranyaksh (the one whose eyes see Gold everywhere and in every thing). People were moving from an only materialistic outlook to a spiritual one. From looking outside to looking inside. For that they needed to settle down, and not move from one place to another like nomads in search of food. Vishnu, the Operator, had taught his people to sow and cultivate and this led to their settling down at a place. Once the problem of basic necessities was solved, people started looking inwards. Now it is very easy to write the whole transformation in a few sentences, but it must have taken years of toil to do this. Imagine how much time we take when we want to change one habit! But, the road to civilisation is always filled with obstacles.
There were many people who just loved the life of a Nomad and just loved accumulating wealth. Their leader at that time was Hiranyakashyap, the brother of Hiranyaksh. He did not believe in the ways of Vishnu and did not want a civilisation to thrive. He believed that action is the highest good and sitting back, looking inside oneself, would make people, lazy and overdependent on a God who is never seen nor heard. So he simply didn’t believe in God and tormented and tortured people who believed. He had built his empire on the basis of Action, Action and only Action to earn Gold, Gold and only Gold.
Many people despised him and his ways but did not have the courage and strength to fight Hiranyakashyap. Such people like Hiranyakashyap have been called “Rakshas”, the one who believes that one can take care of oneself. They did not have any horns on their head or have any long teeth like the ones shown in serials or as articulated in books and by “kathakaars”. They were normal people like you and me, dressed in their best attire and ornaments. Only difference was they believed only in today and worked for today. They did not believe in the authority of the Vedas. They did not believe in Life after Death. They believed in “Aham Rakshyami” ( I can take care of myself)
But Nature has its own ways.
Hiranyakashyap had a son “Prahlad”. He was an ardent devotee of Shree Vishnu. He believed in civilisation and used to go house to house to spread His thought. He was a small kid so used to share his thoughts with his friends. Some elders found this irritating so they complained to Hiranyakashyap.
The King tried many methods of changing Prahlad’s way of thinking. The first being through education. He sent Prahlad to the best teachers in town. Prahlad would question and counter question them, leading to the other kids gathering around Him and slowly they started doing what Prahlad said. The teachers tried to drive sense in this boy! But he was very firm with his thoughts. The kids in turn would go home and share these thoughts with their parents. The thoughts spread like wild fire and slowly the tide started changing. The believers of Vishnu started gaining strength. Now all this must have taken some years to happen. At last the teachers became completely frustrated and sent back Prahlad to Hiranyakashyap citing their inabilities to teach him.This enraged Hiranyakashyap.
It was like the whole world listened to him and did his biding, except his son. He tried various methods to kill him. Throwing him down a cliff and setting the most poisonous of the snakes onto him. He also planned to get Him killed by intoxicating an elephant, which failed. The people who were given the tasks loved Prahlad so much that they either refrained from performing the tasks or went underground to escape the wrath of Hiranyakashyap. This torture by Hiranyakashyap slowly started increasing the already growing love, of the people, for Prahlad. Cause even in all difficulties Prahlad stood firm in his belief. The anger against Hiranyakashyap started brewing inside the hearts of the people.
The torment reached its pinnacle when Hiranyakashyap with his sister Holika planned to burn Prahlad to ashes on a pyre. It is said that Holika had some kind of technology (maybe what the fire fighters wear today, a coat of asbestos which does not burn) with which she could stay alive in fire and not get burnt. They both decided to make a spectacle of this. So, in midst of the town, Prahlad was asked to sit on the lap of Holika on a wooden pyre and the pyre was lit. But the winds that day were so forceful that the coat which Holika wore to save herself from fire, blew off and killed her before she could even get Prahlad on her lap. The people rejoiced. But the anger witihin had reached its peak.
One day, Hiranyakshyap was sitting in his palace courtyard with Prahlad bound in chains. The people had gathered at the palace. He shouted at Prahlad to show him his God. Prahlad said that He is everywhere. Hiranyakashyap took his mace in hand and pointing to the people standing there asked whether God existed in those people who stood in front of him like dead pillars? And Prahlad replied in positive. This enraged Hiranyakashyap who lifted his mace to kill Prahlad. But this time, the people had seen and heard enough. They just lost all their senses and in a bid to save Prahlad, pounced upon Hiranyakashyap and killed him. The “nar” (people) had turned to “simha” (lion). Thus Narsimha was born.
After killing Hiranyakashyap, they just went on a rampage. Prahlad approached them and asked them to come back to their senses. People realised that it was only Hiranyakashyap who was to be blamed and not others, accepted their folly and apologised. They lifted Prahlad on their shoulders and crowned him their King. And they celebrated the Day with colours and ashes left from the pyre lit to kill Prahlad. From that day, Holi is lit to remember the trouncing of evil and the advent of the good.
Let us all awaken the lion within us and fight to defend ourselves, our country, our Dharma.
Let us all understand the importance of the strength within us and learn to grow it day by day.
Let us all become the hidden Narsimhas and devour the bad found in the society with our sharp minds (claws) and establish a Dharm Rajya in our country.
Meaning : Parshuram who is well-versed with the four Vedas and sports the bow and arrow upon his back, that is the one who has the radiance of both the Brahman and the Kshatriya, will destroy the evil doers either with a curse or with an arrow.
Today we talk about his birth. There is a long history about his birth and many people have this question that why born a Brahmin did he hold weapons? Why did he have the qualities of Kshatriya (warriors) being from a class of intellectuals (Brahmins).
We begin this story with Parshuram’s Grandfather Rishi RUCHIK. During his times the warrior class (Kshatriyas) had both wealth and power. They had become very arrogant and led a money – centered life and they gave these Rishis a hell of a time. Ruchik felt very bad about this and felt that the Brahmins need to make these Kshatriyas understand the importance of a God-centered life. So he started moving around amongst the masses educating them about the same. He was very fearless in his approach and this earned him a lot of respect. While moving around the Aryavrat he reached Rishi Vishwamitra’s Ashram. There he met Satyavati, daughter of a powerful king – Gadhiraj. They both met and felt the need to get married.
Now Gadhiraj even though a Kshatriya had lots of respect for Rishi’s and was delighted when he came to know that Rishi Ruchik wanted to marry his daughter. And Ruchik too readily agreed to this as he felt this may lead to smothering of his work of making the other Kshatriyas understand the importance of God centric life.
Now as their family life progressed, Rishi Ruchik got more and more engrossed with his work so Satyavati one day told him that she wanted a son. It is said that Rishi Ruchik prepared a potion with magical powers to give the potion born kid the characteristics of a Brahmin and asked Satyavati to drink it. Satyavati kept it aside saying she will drink it when she will need the son. A few days passed and she again told Rishi Ruchi that as I dont have a son so I dont have a brother. So Rishi Ruchi made a potion for Satyavati’s mother whic would give the option born child the characteristics of a Kshatriya.
Now as destiny would have it, Satyavati took both the options to her mother and told her the whole story. The mother felt that the potion made for Satyavati would be stronger as Rishi Ruchik would certainly want his son to be better and stronger. So she coaxed Satyavati to exchange the potions and they did. They drank their potions.
Satyvati was a very transparent and noble lady.She came and told Rishi Ruchik the whole episode to which the Rishi replied that she will now have a son with Kshatriya qualities.
Satyavati realised he mistake and begged of Rishi Ruchik for forgiveness. And asked to transfer those characteristics into her grandson and not her son. The simple logic was that she believed that she is not going to live that long to see her grandson. And so was born Jamadagni, her son. He is well known for his anger but lived a Rishi’s life.
And this Jamadgni is the father of Parshuram.
So goes this story. Now people might doubt the story and ask intriguing questions too about the same. But I would just point out that today the spread at which genetical science is developing something liked what is told above in the story might be possible in next few decades. We need to learn more about Gene’s, Genetical Sciences and Genetical Engineering. Maybe Rishi Richik did study the Human Genime and knew how to handle it with care.
Let us remember that all this powers with God in center are very beneficial to the society but if they fall in wrong hands can be very evil. And then to destroy such an evil, an avatar called Parshuram will have to take birth.
There are still many stories surrounding Parshuram regarding beheading of his mother and his cleansing of the Kshatriya Clan 21 times. But leave it for next time.
On this day of His birth, we not only bow down to the Great Parshuram but also need to acknowledge the work done by His ancestors in the upliftment of the society.
Let us all pledge to study these characters in the right way so that the Science hidden behind the stories is revealed to us and we understand them better.
Let Bhagwan Parshuram deliver us all from untruth and lead us to truth.
PS : Those who would love to know the details can read the discourses of Param Pujaniya Pandurang Shashtriji Athavale on Avatar in his book “Dashavataar” based on which my thinking and this blog has taken shape.
A day when Bhagwaan Rishabhdev broke His year long fast by drinking sugarcane juice through his cupped hands (Varshi Tap Paarna)…
The day when Bhagwaan Vyas started dictating Mahabharat to Bhagwaan Ganesha… day when farmers in India start the farming work for the monsoon season by decorating their cattle and worshipping their fields (Bhoomi Pujan)…
A day when Maa Ganga descended on Mother Earth…
The day when Lord Parshuram was born…
At the beginning, I mentioned that its is one of the 3 and half mahurats, auspicious time to begin anything new. Akshay Tritaya alongwith Dusshara, Gudhi Padwa and Kartik Poornima (half day) are considered as the most auspicious days to begin a new venture. Akshay Tritiya day falls on the 3rd day of the bright half (shukla paksha) of Vaishakha of the lunar month. (It falls in later half of April or first half of may according to western calendar). The whole day is a day to acquire wisdom, think and begin anew.
“Akshay’ means one which never diminishes. Tritiya means the third day. So it is believed that anything that we acquire or begin on this day, will never be diminished.
It is also considered as the birthday of Goddess Annapurna (the Goddess of Food). She too is worshipped today.
The Bengalis worship Lord Ganesha and Laxmiji and begin their new audit year, this day. It is called “Halkhata” in the local language.
Bhagwaan Rishabhdev, the first Tirthankar of the Jains, broke his fast on this day. A year long fast! I always wondered how they could do it. But this is “Tap”, ( the readiness to bear both pain and happiness, not to be delighted in one’s happiness and not to be bogged down in distress). Also, they (24 Tirthankara’s) in their pursuit of finding the truth about oneself, sometimes got lost in themselves and forgot to partake food. The fire within, for this pursuit was so hot that it engulfed all other worldly desires. This pursuit of truth has always been, is and will always be “Akshay”.
Mahabharat, the great epic, was started to be written today. It has covered all relations and all topics under the Sun. There is an episode before the Mahabharata was started to be written. When Bhagwaan Vyas asked Ganesha, the God of wisdom, to write his dictation, Ganesha said that it would be possible only on one condition that Vyas would not stop once he starts dictating. Bhagwaan Vyas readily agreed and put forth his condition that Ganesha will understand what is being told and then write it down. And so it is said that Vyas would speak a few sentences which were difficult to interpret for Ganesha and would take a break. The truthulness behind the episode is difficult to be adjudged, but this conveys to us the greatness of Bhagwaan Vyas. The Mahabharat in it’s true sense is a book of undiminished “akshay” wisdom.
Mother Ganga descending upon the earth is one of the most beautiful glacial phenomenon, an human can envisage and see happening in his own lifetime. Bhagirath, the great King, was able to do this. It’s an engineering marvel. Even today, people go upto ‘Gomukh’, the caves from where Ganga appears, but the exact place of Her origin is still unknown. The flow of Ganga is continuous and divine. The divinity within Her waters is something which will never be diminished “Akshay”.
I have decided to write on Bhagwaan Parshuram, the 6th incarnate of Lord Vishnu, today in my series on Avataar. But later in the day.
On this most auspicious day of Akshay Tritiya, I wish all my readers a very Happy Akshay Tritiya.
May Goddess Annapurna bless every field with lots of crops and every kitchen with unlimited and delicious meals.
May Bhagwaan Rishabhdev bless us all with the zeal and enthusiasm in our unending pursuit of eternal truth.
May Bhagwan Vyas and Ganeshji bless everyone with undiminishing wisdom.
May the ever flowing Ganga cleanse our bodies and minds and fill them with divine thoughts.
Today will share a few poems written by some of the poets about Mothers.
Mother o’ Mine
If I were hanged on the highest hill, Mother o’ mine, O mother o’ mine! I know whose love would follow me still, Mother o’ mine, O mother o’ mine!
If I were drowned in the deepest sea, Mother o’ mine, O mother o’ mine! I know whose tears would come down to me, Mother o’ mine, O mother o’ mine!
If I were damned of body and soul, I know whose prayers would make me whole, Mother o’ mine, O mother o’ mine!
– Rudyard Kipling.
Gods Special Creation
The hand that rocks the cradle also makes the house a home. It is the prayers of the mother that keeps the family strong.
Mother rises early in the morning and bathes her day in prayer. She talks to God about her family and places them in His care.
Mother communicates her love in a thousand different ways. When there’s a need, she is there, whether it is night or day.
Mother seasons life with love and gives so much of herself. God placed in her the best He had and made her unlike anyone else.
When challenges come our way and when trials block our view, Mother kneels down beside her bed and prays the family through.
Mother is God’s special creation. She is a light shining in the dark, illuminating the path for her family and pointing them toward God.
– Lenora McWhorter
Thank You MOM
You tell me that you love me when I don’t love myself. You’re the one who holds my hand when I need the most help. You smile when you’re sad to make me smile too. You make my life so much better by everything you do.
The first time you held me, I knew I was safe. Being in your arms is still my favorite place. Every second of my life I know that I will be loved, Because God sent his most loving angel from above.
Your heart is so pure, your smile is so genuine. You taught me how to love and how to be a gentleman. You’re the only girl in the world that I will ever need. Thank you for teaching me how to love and believe.
You make my life so easy by making your life tough. I could give you the world for that, but that wouldn’t be enough. Every day of my life I try to be like you, Because the world would be a better place with someone else like you.
– Miller Motla
Friends I reiterate myself that Everyday is a Mother’s Day.
Many of you might have felt that why begin with wishes for May Day first and Maharashtra Day the last! Cause that answer lies in its history.
My kid that day morning asked me, “Pappa what is the importance of this day? Why is it celebrated as international workers day and Maharashtra day?”
An unexpected question from a 10 year old made me think. I did explain to him about the socialist revolution and their fight for the cause of workers. A lot of workers blood was shed while fighting for their rights. How 1 May was chosen to be International Workers’ Day to commemorate the 1886 Haymarket affair in Chicago. In that year beginning on 1 May, there was a general strike for the eight hour work day. On 4 May, the police acted to disperse a public assembly in support of the strike when an unidentified person threw a bomb. The police responded by firing on the workers. The event lead to the death of eight and injury of sixty police officers as well as an unknown number of civilian killed or wounded. Hundreds of labour leaders and sympathizers were later rounded-up and four were executed by hanging, after a trial that was seen as a miscarriage of justice.
And also how India after independence was divided into linguistic states. How Maharashtra and Gujarat were born! How there was bloodshed for the same! Some politicians just for their own selfish motives dividing India on basis of language. India after being divided on basis of caste, class, kingdoms (small and large); now was Her turn to be divided on basis of language. The founding fathers of India never have envisaged India divided on language and history will never forgive the leaders who fought for such petty political gains. Yet we citizens accept this division and will wish each other Jay Maharashtra and Jay Gujarat as if we are different. It is a day to think that are we different? Aren’t we all Indians? Having an identity with language is not a problem, but dividing people on basis of language is. Indians need to get out of this mentality, respect each other’s language and rise above the narrow minded borders that have been created. Yes let the borders exist for administration and better working of a country and now after all the carnage lectures accept these borders. As trying to draw new borders will come up with new problems.
While explaining all this I was lead to think that, is this the only reason to celebrate / commemorate 1st May? Or is there some other reason too? Can our human history be so narrow-minded? So took to the internet to find my answers. And I was proved right. History is always broad minded, not like humans who write it.
Sharing a few excerpts of what I found on the internet…
“The earliest May Day celebrations appeared with the Floralia, festival of Flora, the Roman goddess of flowers, held on April 27 during the Roman Republic era, and with theWalpurgis Night celebrations of the Germanic countries.
The day was a traditional summer holiday in many European pagan cultures.
While February 1 was the first day of spring, May 1 was the first day of summer; hence, the summer solstice on June 25 (now June 21) wasMidsummer.
As Europe became Christianised, the pagan holidays lost their religious character and May Day changed into a popular secular celebration.
A significant celebration of May Day occurs in Germany where it is one of several days on which St. Walburga, credited with bringing Christianity to Germany, is celebrated.
The secular versions of May Day, observed in Europe and North America, may be best known for their traditions of dancing around the may pole and crowning the Queen of May.
Fading in popularity since the late 20th century is the giving of “May baskets,” small baskets of sweets or flowers, usually left anonymously on neighbours’ doorsteps”.
(Source – Wikipedia).
Humans have been naturalists from the very beginning. The last few hundred years have made them more aggressive towards nature and environment. Human wants to control nature. But the last 14 months have proved otherwise. Let us accept our limitations and not try to ride nature. So, on this very day, let us all pledge to take care of our environment and love the nature.
Let’s save Mother Earth not out of necessity but love for her.
She is our mother and takes care of Her Children without any expectations.
Let us coexist and thrive to achieve what the Creator has made us for.
Last 4 years the one character whom I am continuously writing upon is Hanuman, Maruti.
An embodiment of strength and valour
An epitome of devotion and dedication
An unbiased and transparent intellectual
An observant messenger and conveyor
Bow down to such a servant of Ram – Shree Hanuman.
Today on His Birthday, am at a loss of words and thoughts when I realise that I need to imbibe in my life what I write about Shree Hanuman. And so am just sharing the links to my last 4 blogs on Maruti. Would request my readers to go through them again and together let’s pray to Ram to help us imbibe the qualities of Hanuman discussed in them, into our lives.
But the one who is brave, can kill yet forgives is Mahaveer.
I wish all my readers a very Happy Mahaveer Jayanti.
Mahaveer
– an apostle of Non Violence (Ahimsa)
– an apostle of Non attachment (Aparigraha)
– an apostle of Non stealing (Asteya)
– a proponent of Truthfulness (Satya)
– a proponent of Chastity (Brahmacharya)
A great soul born to King Siddhartha and Queen Trishaladevi of the Ikshvaku dynasty. He was called Vardhamaan, as his birth brought lots of wealth and name to his father’s kingdom.
He lived a prince’s life. He married Yashodhara and had a daughter from her, Priyadrashana.
He renounced life at an early age of around 30 and left all the attachments, even clothes. It is said that he took just a piece of cloth on renunciation and that too during the journey through the woods tore of and was entangled in the thorny bushes. He became “Digambara” (one whose clothes are the directions of the sky).
He performed severe penance for 12 years and attained Keval Gnan (blissful knowledge) before he gave his first Deshna. In total it is said that he gave total 55 pravachans in his life as an ascetic and He travelled the breadth and width of India. His final teachings (sermons given on the last 6 days of his life) are still studied by the munis of the Jain order.
At the age of 72, he attained Nirvana (liberation of the soul from the law of karma and life after death). A Jal Mandir exists even today in Pawapuri, in Bihar where he attained Nirvana. It is a very revered place of pilgrimage for Jains.
Let us also understand that Mahaveer did not start the Jain Dharma. He just carry forward the legacy of the 23 Teerthankara’s before him, from Adinath also known as Rishabhdev to Parshvanath. But it seems that He reached out to the masses and Jain thought came to be established as a Dharma.
Mahaveer’ s legacy was carried forward by the word of mouth by his 11 disciples called the Gandhara’s. They spread His thought far and wide. Many of His works are lost and a few which remain are a part of the Jain Agamas, which were compiled later.
It is difficult to write everything all that Bhagwaan Mahaveer did in his life in a single blog, so today will just bow down before Him.
Last year on Ram Navmi I shared about Ram being an ideal son. There are many facets to His life but today let’s talk about Ram being an Ideal Brother.
It is well known that Ram had 3 other siblings namely Bharat, Laxman and Shatrughna. But very few people know that Ram had a sister too, Shanta. But the great poet philospher Rishi Valmiki too has not tried to describe the relation between the brothers and their sister. So I too rest my words by just acknowledging her presence.
Regarding the brothers we all know how well knit their relationship was. When Ram learns about his father wishing to install Bharat as the king of Ayodhya, he happily accepts the decision as he has never considered himself different from Bharat. Even in the jungle, when Bharat comes to Chitrakoot to take him back to Ayodhya and Laxman castes aspersions over Bharat’s coming, it is Ram who has calmed Laxman with his belief in Bharat. He clearly states that Bharat has come to take them back. The trust which He had in his brothers is remarkable and needs to be emulated in these new times.
His love for Laxman is unparalleled.
They both are inseparable.
They live for each other.
They listen to each other.
They compliment each other.
They breathe for each other.
When Laxman fell unconscious by an arrow fired by Indrajeet, the way Ram has lamented is something which everyone needs to read. It clearly shows how much he loved his brother. He is ready to fight with the whole world for his brother. His anger, his grief, his anguish are nothing but out of love for Laxman.
Another instance which makes things crystal clear is when Laxman has to give up his life for breaking a rule. Will not go into the whole story, but Ram was not ready to order Laxman to give up his life. But it was a rule, and in Ram Rajya, even if Ram breaks the rule then he has to undergo punishment. So he does tell Laxman likewise, but he cannot take this idea if separation from his brother. And he too gives up his life by immersing himself in Sarayu river.
Such love between siblings is difficult to find and understand.
So on this Ram Namvi day, let us pray to Ram to give us the understanding about our relationships with our siblings and bless us all with the same.
Wishing you all and everyone at home a very Happy Ram Navmi.
Readers I plan to write on a topic which is very close to my heart – The Avatars of Vishnu.
Let me at the beginning itself clarify that I do not equate Avatar as an incarnation. As there is a difference between the meaning of the 2 words itself. Avataran for me is प्रादुर्भाव। Incarnation is an embodiment of a deity/ spirit or quality in the flesh. When we Indians say Avataran we mean that the “परब्रह्म” takes a form. Simple logic being that one who made these different forms, cannot He decide and take a form for Himself!
I know that when I speak this, am from the minor few in this world who believe in any form of “परब्रह्म”. But I have my strong convictions about the same. In the same breathe I respect those who do not believe or are not ready to accept any form of “परब्रह्म”. Cause they believe anything which has form, needs to be born. Once born, it has to deteriorate and later at some time die. But “परब्रह्म” is never born. Respecting this point of view, I quote Whitehead – ” Human form is the most intimate form for me”, meaning that we all need someone or something in whom we can confide and trust. Then why not confide and trust in the “परब्रह्म” I believe in. And so if I need to talk and share, I need HIM to be in some form. That’s the need of a Human form.
Avatar means to “come down”. But that makes HIM different from me. And I cannot exist without HIM. So I like the word प्रादुर्भाव – HE rises from me, from amongst us. And I will narrate the story of Matsya (Fish) keeping this meaning in mind.
Today is Matsya Jayanti. The day when “परब्रह्म” took the form of a Fish to save the mankind.
At this juncture should also clarify the Shlok which is always quoted for Avatar. The most famous Shloks of Chapter 4 of the Shreemad Bhagwad Geeta :
यदा यदा हि धर्मस्य ग्लानिर्भवति भारत | अभ्युत्थानमधर्मस्य तदात्मानं सृजाम्यहम् || 7||Whenever there is a decline in righteousness and an increase in unrighteousness, O Arjun, at that time I manifest myself on earth.
परित्राणाय साधूनां विनाशाय च दुष्कृताम् | धर्मसंस्थापनार्थाय सम्भवामि युगे युगे || 8|| To protect the righteous, to annihilate the wicked, and to reestablish the principles of dharma I appear on this earth, age after age.
In the reasons of HIS coming to the Earth, “परब्रह्म” says the main reason is to increase the righteousness. Also people generally believe that the Avatar is to annihilate the wicked but let’s read the understanding of the shlok 8 again. It says – to protect the righteous परित्राणाय साधूनां. This is the first reason behind the Avatar. Yes while protecting the righteous if the wicked need to be annihilated, then they will be annhilitated. But the reason of coming is not only annihilation.
So all those who say that let the world deteriorate and the “परब्रह्म” will come and save this world are wrong. The basis of Avatar is “प्रयत्नवाद”। HE comes to save the people who are making efforts – to save the Civilisation, Humanity and Righteousness. In the middle ages when India was being ruled by the Moghuls and the British, our History has been changed or twisted in a wrong way. And we the people of our Motherland have stopped thinking critically about our own History and are just learning what our rulers told us then and tell us now.
So as I said that I take the meaning of Avatar as प्रादुर्भाव and keeping HIS promise (Geeta Chap 4 Shlok 7-8) in mind will write about Avatar.
Also our Purans have many different Avatars of Vishnu, Shiv and other Gods. But I will be sticking to the different Avatar of Vishnu – 10 to be specific. We begin with the first Avatar of Vishnu – Matsya Avatar.
Wishing all my friends, students, fellow bloggers and their families a very Happy New Year on occasion of Gudhi Padwa, Ugadi, Yugadi, Navreh (Kashmir) and Cheti Chaand.
The day, when :
Brahma (The Creator) created the world. It is believed that after the deluge, Brahma, recreated the world. The time restarted.
Shalivahan defeated the Huns and returned to Paithan, his capital.
As it is considered an auspicious day, (one mauhurat amongst the 3 and a half auspicious mahurats), it is said that Shivaji along with his Mavlas began his conquest for a Hindavi Swaraj on this day.
Today, I want to talk about Shalivahan, the great Satvahan King. A few thousand years back, after Gazni had invaded and looted and plundered India, the Huns entered India. They were just interested in two things. Women and Gold. They were considered amongst the most uncivilized people, then. They faced no or little resistance when they entered India and so entered deeper and deeper and reached Central India.Here they faced the first big resistance. It was from none other than the Satvahan King Shalivahan. He invigorated his soldiers and forced the Huns back to their country. He emerged victorious and returned back to Paithan. People welcomed him by hoisting Gudi’s outside their houses.
(There is another version of historical events, wherein it is said that Shalivahan defeated the mighty Vikramaditya and returned to Paithan. I leave upto my reader to decide his/her own version)
But the question which comes to everyone’s mind is that every king, to expand his kingdom attacks another kingdom, and one of them would surely emerge victorious. So what is so big that an entire calendar was started in Shalivahan’s name?
As I said above, that Shalivahan defeated the Huns. The folklore says that the people of his kingdom had heard about the exploits of the Huns and were not ready to fight them, fearing their ferocity. Shalivahan, then made these mud doll soldiers (mud dolls made into soldiers) and brought them to life and led them into the war to defeat the Huns.
Now this sounds mythological and against scientific temperament. And I agree.We need to understand our history with a right perspective. The people were not ready to fight. They were mentally not prepared to fight. They had become doll like, just did their routine work and tried to live happily. They didn’t want any problems in their lives. Shalivahan toured his Kingdom, talked to his people and motivated them to lift up arms to defend their motherland. The people trusted their King and his will to defeat the enemies. So they with this new found vigour fought against the Huns and emerged victorious. The citizens of Paithan welcomed their brave King by hoisting Gudhi’s outside their houses.
The Gudhi signifies Brahmadwaj. Sometimes it is also referred to as Indradhwaj. Gudhi is a bright colorful silk scarf-like cloth tied at the top of a long bamboo. On top of it, one or more boughs ofneemleaves and mango leaves are attached along with a garland of flowers. This arrangement is capped with a silver, bronze or copper pot (handiorkalash) signifying victory or achievement. The whole arrangement is hoisted outside each household, typically to the right, or through a window or terrace and will be visible to everyone passing by. Gudhi is believed to ward off evil, invite prosperity and good luck into the house.
The delicacies cooked at home on this day is just the one which blends with the season of Spring. And we all wait to just get back him to nourish them.
Like the last year on the New Year Day, we are all at home.
Let’s plan to do something which is good for everyone of us in the family.
Let us decide one thing that we all will sit together in the evening and pray to God for the well being of Mankind. Ram Navmi is coming up, if we all know, we can chant Ram Raksha Stotram together.
Let us study our history, culture and Sanskruti.
Let us understand the importance of values and try to imbibe them in our lives.
Again wishing you all a very Happy New Year and a Happy Chaitri Navratri.
The day of Holi has arrived. We all will lite up wooden logs to mark the arrival of Summer. The Prasad of coconut and Jaggery is to cool our body and prepare it for the coming summer’s. The next day is celebrated as “Dhulivandan” or “Rang Panchami”.
But do we know the historical significance of Holi?
Why do we celebrate it?
How is it related to Prahlad?
Who is Holika, who is supposed to have been burnt of the Holy pyre?
Let us take ourselves back to a time, more than 15000, maybe 17000 years back, (a time I leave upto historians and archaeologists to decide) when Man had learnt agriculture and started settling down. The Varah Avtaar had started a civilisation. The Avtaar of Vishnu had just killed Hiranyaksh (the one whose eyes see Gold everywhere and in every thing). People were moving from an only materialistic outlook to a spiritual one. From looking outside to looking inside. For that they needed to settle down, and not move from one place to another like nomads in search of food. Vishnu, the Operator, had taught his people to sow and cultivate and this led to their settling down at a place. Once the problem of basic necessities was solved, people started looking inwards. Now it is very easy to write the whole transformation in a few sentences, but it must have taken years of toil to do this. Imagine how much time we take when we want to change one habit! But, the road to civilisation is always filled with obstacles. There were many people who just loved the life of a Nomad and just loved accumulating wealth. Their leader at that time was Hiranyakashyap, the brother of Hiranyaksh. He did not believe in the ways of Vishnu and did not want a civilisation to thrive. He believed that action is the highest good and sitting back, looking inside oneself, would make people, lazy and overdependent on a God who was never seen nor heard. So he simply didn’t believe in God and tormented and tortured people who did believe. He had built his empire on the basis of Action, Action and only Action to earn Gold, Gold and only Gold. Many people despised him and his ways but did not have the courage and strength to fight Hiranyakashyap. Such people like Hiranyakashyap have been called “Rakshas”, the one who believes that one can take care of oneself. They did not have any horns on their head or have any long teeth like the ones shown in serials or as articulated in books and by “kathakaars”. They were normal people like you and me, dressed in their best attire and ornaments. Only difference was they believed only in today and worked for today. They did not believe in the authority of the Vedas. They did not believe in Life after Death. They believed in “Aham Rakshyami” ( I can take care of myself)
But Nature has its own ways.
Hiranyakashyap had a son “Prahlad”. He was an ardent devotee of Shree Vishnu. He believed in civilisation and used to go house to house to spread His thought. He was a small kid so used to share his thoughts with his friends. Some elders found this irritating so they complained to Hiranyakashyap. The King tried many methods of changing Prahlad’s way of thinking. The first being through education. He sent Prahlad to the best teachers in town. Prahlad would question and counter question them, leading to the other kids gathering around Him and slowly they started doing what Prahlad said. The teachers tried to drive sense in this boy! But he was very firm with his thoughts. The kids in turn would go home and share these thoughts with their parents. The thoughts spread like wild fire and slowly the tide started changing. The believers of Vishnu started gaining strength. Now all this must have taken some years to happen. At last the teachers became completely frustrated and sent back Prahlad to Hiranyakashyap citing their inabilities to teach him.This enraged Hiranyakashyap.
It was like the whole world listened to him and did his biding, except his son. He tried various methods to kill him. Throwing him down a cliff and setting the most poisonous of the snakes onto him. He also planned to get Him killed by intoxicating an elephant, which failed. The people who were given the tasks loved Prahlad so much that they either refrained from performing the tasks or went underground to escape the wrath of Hiranyakashyap. This torture by Hiranyakashyap slowly started increasing the already growing love, of the people, for Prahlad. Cause even in all difficulties Prahlad stood firm in his belief. The anger against Hiranyakashyap started brewing inside the hearts of the people.
The torment reached its pinnacle when Hiranyakashyap with his sister Holika planned to burn Prahlad to ashes on a pyre. It is said that Holika had some kind of technology (maybe what the fire fighters wear today, a coat of asbestos which does not burn) with which she could stay alive in fire and not get burnt. They both decided to make a spectacle of this. So, in midst of the town, Prahlad was asked to sit on the lap of Holika on a wooden pyre and the pyre was lit. But the winds that day were so forceful that the coat which Holika wore to save herself from fire, blew off and killed her before she could even get Prahlad on her lap. The people rejoiced. Now the anger had reached its peak.
By then, Hiranyakshyap was back in his palace with Prahlad bound in chains. The people had followed them to the palace. He shouted at Prahlad to show him his God. Prahlad said that He is everywhere. Hiranyakashyap took his mace in hand and pointing to the people standing there asked whether God existed in those people who stood in front of him like dead pillars? And Prahlad replied in positive. This enraged Hiranyakashyap who lifted his mace to kill Prahlad. But this time, the people had seen and heard enough. They just lost all their senses and in a bid to save Prahlad, pounced upon Hiranyakashyap and killed him. The “nar” (people) had turned to “simha” (lion). Thus Narsimha was born.
After killing Hiranyakashyap, they just went on a rampage. Prahlad approached them and asked them to come back to their senses. People realised that it was only Hiranyakashyap who was to be blamed and not others, accepted their folly and apologised. They lifted Prahlad on their shoulders and crowned him their King. And they celebrated the Day with colours and ashes left from the pyre lit to kill Prahlad. From that day, Holi is lit to remember the trouncing of evil and the advent of the good. The next day is celebrated as Rang Panchami.
People and many respected historians call this mythology and try to belittle our history. But for Macaulay kids, it is simply unimaginable, that India could be so advanced then. They look through their own myopic lens and judge every event from their lessons and own understanding of history. The Wendyputras and putris from India atleast need to open their eyes and look at our history with our perspective and try to understand and explain it.
Hope that the winds on this day will blow off the covers from their eyes and burn their bias towards Indian civilisation.
Let us pray to Bhagwaan Vishnu to lead us to a life that all our Rishis have lived for.
Let us be blessed with unflinching love towards God, like that of Mahatma Prahlad.
Let us all burn all our vices today and fill our lives with colours.
Wishing you all a very Happy Holi and Dhulivandana.
PS: The whole idea behind the history written above is inspired by my guide and elder brother Revered Pandurang Shashtriji Athavale.
I liked the last two lines of the above stotra, as they convey the importance of Intellect, Knowledge in a Human’s life. It says that Saraswati stays on the tongue of the people who recite the stotra regularly. Also Saraswati has eyes of the shape of lotus and the one with Knowledge has large eyes. This is actually the essence of all Knowledge. These are the qualities of an intellectual.
One would ask me about the world today full of www and wikipedia’s and Google searches available that isn’t everyone an intellectual. Frankly it is not so. What you and me gain through all the sources on Internet is mere information. Information about the world, happenings in the world about the past and about the present and lastly about the future. Whereas Knowledge is different. It comes through experience. The thought put in action, experimented upon and ready to be tested by anyone is knowledge. In the language of the Vedas, it is the answer to the questions, Who am I? Why am I Here? What is the cause of the Universe? Where is God? All other things are just information. In simpler words any thought without experience is information, but put it to test, and it becomes knowledge.
These are the days of bloom. And we worship Saraswati on the first day itself. It has it’s own significance. It signifies that our mind and Brain need to bloom as the flowers and fruits. And only when they bloom will we get the sweet fruits of knowledge. We will be able to fulfill our quest for knowing ourselves. And when we gain knowledge, there should be an iota of doubt that whatever we speak will be out of experience and always for the good of oneself and the society as a whole.
Spring is celebrated across the globe. But the way our Rishi’s have connected it with Sarawati is something we need to think about and pass it on to our next generation. Spring follows Fall. In the world of technology it signals “Upgradation“. We need to keep on upgrading our experiences and our tests and keep a check on our thoughts. This is the time to do that. Keep away the unuseful part of old, and add on to the retained parts. It signifies an upscaling of ideas.
Our Rishi’s have described every God or Goddess of having lotus eyes and broad or large eyes. It tells us to be open to different thoughts and be ever accepting of good ones. At the same time, be lotus like so that the wrong ones slide off and we are unaffected by our surroundings. We all can be so with the help of knowledge. It is always seen that a lotus grows in marshy lands. Similarly, intellectual can come from any place, irrespective of their surroundings.
Today on the occasion of Vasant Panchami let’s pray to God to give us the strength to think, to experiment, to test and also the ability and openness to accept our limitations in all this.
May we gain the right knowledge as envisioned by our Rishi’s.
May Goddess Saraswati reign our hearts and mind, and through them our lives.
Wishing you all and everyone at home a very Happy Vasant Panchami and the coming of Spring.
नमस्तेऽस्तु लंबोदारायैकदंताय विघ्ननाशिने शिव सुताय।
श्री वरदमूर्तये नमोनम:।।
(Namo Vraātpataye Namo Ganpataye. Namah Pramathpataye. Namaste astu Lambodaray Ekdantaay Vighnanashine Shiv Sutaay Shree Varadmurtaye Namo Namah.)
Wishing all my readers a very Happy Maaghi Ganesh Chaturthi. It is also known as Magh Krishna Chaturthi. It is said that Lord Krishna looked at the moon on this day and was accused of stealing. He fasted on this day to get off the curse befallen on him.
People in Uttar Pradesh celebrate it as Tila Chaturthi. They make a mound of vermillion (sindoor) and worship it. They offer Til laddoos (sweets made from Jaggery and sesame seeds) to the Lord.
Today let us try to understand about Ganpati as the Devi of Buddhi (Goddess of learning). What can we as students of life learn from Her? What does the Idol of Ganpati want to convey? Does the concept of the Elephant headed God have any meaning?
The Ganpati word itself has a meaning, the leader of the masses. Ganesh means the Eshwar of the Ganas (leader of the masses). So the Lord exhibits the characteristics of a leader. And to be a good student, we need to educate ourselves (to draw out the qualities within us).
1. The Ganpati has an elephant head. Elephant signifies wisdom. Elephant is considered the wisest among the animals in the Animal Kingdom. So we all need to be gaining wisdom through what we study.
2. He has narrow and small eyes. It is not so that the eyes are small, but the face is so big, that the eyes look small. But the best part about the eyes is that they can see even a small needle in their path. As students when we study, we need to understand the smallest of the nuances of the topic which we are learning. We need to be alert for each and every information, and in whichever corner it may be, however small it may be.
3. His ears are like the “Sup” (grain whinning plate). The Sup keeps the grain intact and at the same time removes the dirt, the husk from them. The enormity of ears suggest us to be able to listen to all. At the same time keep the thoughts important for us and discard what is not. As a student, one needs to be focussed on studies. We may be exposed to various things around us, but we have to decide what to keep and which to keep away from. Also at the same time keep our ears open for good thoughts however far they maybe or however faint they may be. In all the different thoughts, we need to find out the most important one for us.
4. A crooked trunk signifies the length and the reach of oneself. The knowledge we get must be kept in such a way (folded) that it does not interfere in someone’s life. But it should unfold at the right time and be used for the rightful thing.
5. Ganpati is Mahakaay. A huge body. A big belly. Big belly is for keeping all things in the stomach. It is a storing place. Similarly we have to gain such huge knowledge that we need a big belly to keep it. Also we might get to know a lot about others (friends), good and bad, but we need to keep it with ourselves.
6. He has a small mouth. It signifies to talk less. A student needs to talk less and listen more. Keeping ones mouth shut means concentrating on what is being spoken and taught. At the same time, it also means that open up at the right time, ask questions, discuss, argue and draw conclusions.
7. The modak in his hand has its own significance. It is sweet inside and tasteless outside. It reminds us, students,thatgo into the depth of every topic, one learns. Any topic is always sweet and interesting from within. Outside it is always bookish and boring.
8. He rides a mouse. It signifies a control over worldly desires. Similarly a student needs to have a control over his desires and concentrate on his/ her studies. He needs to ride his wishes and will.
We can go on and on with lots of things about the Lord. But somewhere we need to leave the things for next time. Many thoughts still lie in my mind which need to be emphasized and talk about. But leave to it Ganesha to give me an opportunity to pen them down some other day.
Wishing you all again, a very Happy Maaghi Ganesh Chaturthi.
MAY LORD GANESH BLESS US ALL WITH LOTS OF INTELLECT AND WISDOM.
The word itself is self explanatory. It is when the Sun while moving through the different constellations moves into the constellation of Makar ( ), we call it Makar Sankranti
The social customs begin from today. They had been barred till now from last few days. The simple reason being, that the crop being ready to cut, needed to be harvested in time. So, the best way to keep farmers busy in their work, was to stop the social customs. This helps them concentrate on their work and do it perfectly. By this time, the harvesting is done and people are comparatively free.
Also the day is dedicated to worshipping the Sun. Sun being the source of all energy and in turn life needs to be understood. We Indians express gratefulness to the Sun for all that He has done for us.
On this day, would wish you, all your family members and your extended families a very Happy Makar Sankranti, Bhogi, Lohri, Khichadi and Tirmoori.
Pls read my older blogs on Makar Sankranti too. The links are provided below…
The Son of God came down to spread the love of his Father.
He came, He loved, He conquered the hearts.
Wishing all my readers a very Happy Christmas and a Happy New Year in advance.
Am not going to write about the story of Christ, as we all very well know about it. But will share a few instances which touch us, the people, who love Him and for whom He cared. Many critics talk about His magical powers and challenge His authority over religion. Am going to share my views about those.
The most magical thing about Christ’s life is His resurrection from death. Did He truly die on the Cross? Did He get up from death? Many critics say no and tell us that He did not die on the Cross, He fell unconscious out of pain and so He never did resurrect. He just regained back His consciousness. I would say this is quite possible as there is no definite proof about the resurrection and we are dependent on the Holy Bible, which has different versions from His own disciples. In the same breath, I state, that this is a matter of faith and belief. If such a thought fortifies my belief in God, then so be it. I, for once, want my readers to understand that non-believers would spread their thoughts and ideas and we stick to ours. Am not against the agnostic, nor am of the view that they be kicked away from this life and the world, but they may have their views and I respect them without going into a debate or discussion about my beliefs. A debate is a medium to prove the superiority of oneself or one’s point over the other. But would Christ like it? Would Christ answer back? No, He would just go and embrace that man and spread His love. What I learn from Christ’s life is that Love everyone, beginning with oneself.
Another instance of His life is that Hefed many from two loaves of bread. A cooked up story say some. But maybe He had two loaves and when He shared His food with the hungry, His disciples who might have hidden their food, shared theirs too with the hungry. And while sharing it, said that it is Christ who has sent it. A perfect example of demonstration of the Teacher to His disciples. Atleast my readers would perfectly understand the meaning of compassion and demonstration. Cause that is how our teachers are. They teach through their own action, “Acharya”.
There are many instances which can be cited and discussed. But I leave them for another day. I just say that, Yes, I believe in Christ and in all that He did which is attributed to Him and He did resurrect.
What I personally do not like is the way the Roman Catholic Church and the Evangilical Church have decided to spread His word! Conversion is no answer or solution to the problems faced by the world. At the same time, I bow down to the people who willingly give up life for this cause of spreading the word of Christ. Would any Hindu, Jew, Mohammedan go into the deep jungles of Africa, knowing for certain that Death is imminent, to spread the word of God? Go to uninhabited places and islands to spread the word of God? No individual or organisation should criticise the work/conversions being carried out, unless they themselves are trying to spread the word of God in their own way. Let us learn not to play to the gallery and try and imbibe these characteristics within us. Let anyone who wants to criticise or even talk about them, leave the sofa sets of their living rooms and go to the last person living in remote places.
In the end, I would just say that Christ said ‘Love Thy Neighbour‘, so let us learn by beginning to love ourselves. God, His Heaven and His Kingdom are all within us, let us learn to love Him and go closer to Him.
At the end let us all pray,
Our Father who art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread; and
Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us; and
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil
O Sanjay, after gathering on the holy field of Kurukshetra, and desiring to fight, what did my sons and the sons of Pandu do?
It is no coincidence that all 4 characters of the Geeta are related in as a warrior and his charioteer. Both Arjun and Dhritrashtra are warriors and both Krishna and Sanjay are their charioteers respectively. Just as the charioteer guides the chariot through the battlefield, so does the God and His song, Shreemad Bhagwad Geeta, guides us through our battlefield of life.
Coming back to the reference to the first Shlok of Geeta, it conveys the essence of the whole battle. मामकाः पाण्डव (mine and yours), my sons and the sons of Pandu. Similarly our life is full of mine and yours (not mine / other). We are fighting this battle and Geeta guides us through it. Geeta explains the beautiful concept of “Dharma”- the way, the thought, the concept of deciding between mine and yours. Had Dhritrashtra not fallen for this difference between his own sons and his brother Pandu’s sons, the battle wouldn’t have happened! So, in a way, Dhritrashtra is one of the many reasons for Humanity to be blessed by the divine guidance of the Geeta. And maybe so the first Shlok of the whole song begins with him. Never to be heard again during the whole song. It also leads us to understand a beautiful word ‘Relationships‘.
Mine and yours can be understood in many ways. One of the ways that Geeta teaches me and I understand it is that we are all one as the divine manifests within us all. So we cannot be two different entities but two parts of the same entity. And so he exists everywhere and within everything. HE is OMNIPRESENT.
I am seated in the hearts of all living beings, and from Me come memory, knowledge, as well as forgetfulness. I alone am to be known by all the Vedas, am the author of the Vedānt, and the knower of the meaning of the Vedas.
So He is seated everywhere. Nothing can exist without Him. Nothing is different from Him. We can say that we are just His reflections. So how can it be mine and yours.
And readers this can be a way to understand the world and best solution towards the problems faced by mankind especially about relationships. Even the last Shlok of Geeta conveys the same
(Wherever there is Shree Krishna, the Lord of all Yog, and wherever there is Arjun, the supreme archer, there will also certainly be unending opulence, victory, prosperity, and righteousness. Of this, I am certain.)
Here too if we understand that both He (Yogeshwar Krishna) and myself (Arjun) are no different as the word यत्र is used for both. So they are together at the same place, that is the Atman and the jeev are the same place. And once we understand this then there is unending prosperity, opulence and righteousness and so is victory.
On this day, we bow down to the greatest Charioteer who came to guide Humanity about the most beautiful and cherished moments of its lives – ‘Relationships’.
It isnt that Geeta is explaining only relationships, it has many facets, but leave that for another time.
Best wishes on the occasion of Geeta Jayanti.
Also the festival of Christmas coincides today. So wishing all of my readers a very Happy Christmas too. Will come up with a blog on Christmas tomorrow.
The Gods have risen on Kartik Ekadashi. Now married to Tulsi too! A beautiful thought showing our childlike behaviour. It is like parents arriving from an outing and before the parents ask us anything, we get them involved in some other work or thought so that they forget to ask us what we did when they were away. God has slept last 4 months. He has awaken. So before He might ask us anything, we get Him married so He is busy with His family life. It sounds silly but the beauty is in the thought and how deep our seers have dwelled upon human psychology.
Today is Poornima. The Chaturmaas ends today for Jains (according to calendar it ended for Hindus on ekadashi). The Sadhus and the Sadhviji’s who had stayed at a single place from last 4 months will start their VIHAAR again. VIHAAR means to move from one place to another. No Sadhu is allowed to stay at a single place for more than 3 days, as there is a possibility of developing a sense of belongingness. Hence the VIHAAR. (All of Hindusim has the same set of rules).
Also today is Guru Purab. The birth of Guru Nanakdevji. A strong advocate of Hindu beliefs and ideals, he was born during the Mughal rule in India. He saw the atrocities being meted out on the Hindus and so started the SIKH way of life to save the Hindus from the atrocities. He advocated the 5 K’s for every SIKH. KIRPAN (a small steel sword) KESH (non cutting of hair throughout life) KANGA (wooden hair comb) KARA (a steel bracelet) and KACCHHA (a cotton underwear). Each and every SIKH is supposed to follow these 5 K’s throughout his life. He travelled around India and aroused the feelings of patriotism and brotherhood.
On His Birthday, bow down to Him with utmost humility. We express our gratefulness for His foresightendness and His bravery.
Wishing you all and everyone at home a very Happy Diwali…
In these times of the pandemic, all I ask from God is to bless us all with a very healthy life. May these clouds of fear and danger pass soon and let the Sun shine upon us as always!
Let us all be socially responsible and follow the Covid-19 guidelines to their fullest and spend time with our individual families. Let the time spent be not only of fun and frolic, but also spent on thinking about our responsibilities towards self, family, society, nation and the world as a whole.
Wishing you all and all your extended families a very Happy Diwali and a Prosperous New Year.
Let us burn the vices of Ravan and embed values of Ram within us…
Let the Ram within, win today and from today onwards forever…
Let us all prepare to welcome Ram into our lives and accept our limitations as Good Humans…
The day of “Seemolanghan” (सीम्मोलंघन). It literally means to cross the borders. Not the borders drawn on the maps but the borders drawn in our society and in our minds.
Biggest border in our life is
“I Can’t Do“.
Next is
“I Can’t Accept“.
And the last is
“I Cannot Change“.
We have set these limitations in our lives and live with them. Today is the day to remember that “I CAN”. Let us all recall, remember and understand that Bhagwaan Ram had Vaanar’s to fight on his behalf. Vaanar means the one who is not sure about being Human. Ram took them together, revived their spirit and fought with their help to win the war. We all are like the Vaanars. Let us recognise the Ram within. The day we shed our inhibitions, we too will win the war.
Let us all remember, recite and learn the Shlok given below. It talks about the Surya. The problems he has and yet how He keeps on working. रथस्येकं चक्रं भुजगयमित सप्ततुरङ्गः
(The sun in the sky travels everyday with all odds against him, like a chariot with one wheel, seven horses trod by serpents and the driver without legs. Great people don’t depend on their accessories. They achieve their goal by their spirit and determination)
Let us all remember that it is the spirit within which keeps us going. So on this Dusshara, let us pray to God that He removes this vice of “I Can’t Do” from our lives and lead us to the light of “I Can Do“.
Second I cannot accept. Can we imagine ourselves accepting our own enemy? No we dont. We dont even accept our own, if they do wrong to us. But when we study Ram’s life, we learn to accept. He not only accepted the self doubting Vanars but also the brother of his enemy, Vibhishan. He accepted him with full faith and crowned him the King of Lanka, the day He accepted him. If He can, can we not?
I would say let us begin with accepting our small mistakes in life. Let us begin by accepting the vices within us. Let us accept the people as they are and not what we like them to be. I know it’s difficult but it’s a border which we need to cross in our lives. We need to crossover from I cannot accept to I can accept. Let us keep Bhagwaan Ram as our ideal.
Last is I cannot change. We talk about it next time.
Wishing you and everyone in your family and friends a very Happy Dusshara…
The shlok uttered by Arjun, the disciple of God, talks about Him being the Creator of everything that you and me can see, hear, feel or touch with our senses, again created by Him and he offers a 1000 salutations to Him again and again.
You are Vāyu (the god of wind), Yamraj (the god of death), Agni (the god of fire), Varuṇ (the god of water), and Chandra (the moon-God). You are the creator Brahma, and the great-grandfather of all beings. I offer my salutations unto you a thousand times, again and yet again!
Have purposely taken this shlok today to celebrate the coming of my elder brother, my teacher, the creator of Swadhyay Parivaar, the recipient of Ramon Magasaysay Award for Community Leadership of 1996, the John Templeton prize for Progress in Religion of 1997 and the Padma Vibhusan, the second highest civilian honour in India of 1998, Param Poojaniya Pandurang Shahtriji Athavale ( Dadaji, as he is widely known to Swadhyayees). We celeberate His birthday as Manushya Gaurav Din, “Human Dignity Day“.
It is His 100th birthday and today we sit at His feet, trying to understand His thoughts and His work and His experiments on humanity. The work of human upliftment. Instilling a sense of gratitude towards God, society and self, He has guided millions of people, mainly Indians, across the world.
In the early 1920’s, a feast in the temple in a village of Roha, situated in the Konkan region of Maharashtra. The rituals have just finished and people rush towards the area designated for lunch. The Gods have been offered a “bhog” which will be distributed as “Prasad” amongst the devotees. Some people wait at the steps of the temple for the Prasad. A few moments later, the head priest of the temple emerges from temple onto the steps with a few leaf – plates in hand and some morsels of food in it. He throws them onto the group of people waiting there who just grab it and eat out from them. It is an intriguing sight. A boy, very small, is watching this from not so long a distance and feels that something is wrong. He questions, “Why are these people being treated in this inhumanely manner? How come they do not feel bad being treated in this manner?”
The same boy after a few days, asks his grandfather the reason for taking a bath after returning from the so called downtrodden slum after teaching them the Dnyaneshwari. Laxmanraoji, a Brahmin scholar by himself, used to go regularly to the slums and teach the Dnyaneshwari to the people living there. A time when even the shadow of these people falling on oneself was considered inauspicious, he on his own went there and sat amongst them and taught them Dnyaneshwari, which in itself was very revolutionary. But keeping the sentiments of his community in mind, after returning would take a bath and then enter the house. On being explained this, the boy asked a pointed question to his grandfather, “If it is God who has made us all, how can they be down trodden? If God resides in us all, then how can they be considered inauspicious?”
After a few years, the boy is now in his youth, and has come to Mumbai to live with his parents. He has taken up reading at the Asiatic library. One monsoon evening after the library closed, he went and sat at the shores of Gateway of India. The waters of the Arabian Sea have swelled up due to the strong winds. A fisherman in his small boat is trying to balance his boat by resisting those winds and waves and trying hard to sail and save himself. The youth thinks to himself “What a brave man! Just look at the amount of energy he has. And people blame him and his society and look down upon them for all the vices. But if someone sits near this person and makes him realise his strengths and that God resides within him, then he can do anything which people feel is impossible for him to do.”
This youth today has transformed many lives and societies and has given them a self identity. He is none other than Pandurang Shashtriji Athavale, fondly called Dadaji, whose 100th birthday, is being celebrated by the Swadhyay Parivaar today.
An activist philosopher, who has not only propounded , but lived the philosophy of Indwelling God and Universal Brotherhood under the Fatherhood of God. These are not mere concepts, but today have become a way of living for many, who call themselves, Swadhyayees. These thoughts have changed the lives of many a people and society as a whole.
To imbibe and practise these two concepts Dadaji has given a small experiment, amongst his many experiments, a prayer, called Trikaal Sandhya, meaning to remember God, 3 times a day. He calls it an Atom Bomb. A householder might find it difficult to remember God at every instant, but he can do so at atleast 3 important junctures of his everyday life. First, in the morning, when he awakes. God gives us back our memory which we had forgotten when we slept. “SMRUTIDAAN“. Second during lunch/dinner time, when we eat our food and that converts to energy. God is there to oversee this process. “SHAKTIDAAN“. And at night, when God takes away all the thoughts from our mind, so we can sleep well. “SHANTIDAAN“. Being grateful to God slowly helps in experiencing the nearness of God and oneness with God. At the same time it develops an understanding, that what He does to me, He does unto others. So the other is not other. The other may not be related to me by blood, but we are related by the same maker of blood, God. So other is my divine brother. It’s a chain reaction which spread slowly Trikaal Sandhya being the neutron bombarded on the Human, the uranium atom.
This prayer, for you my readers, might sound like another ritual. But it is not so. If done with an understanding, it creates wonders. There are umpteen examples of what started as a ritual, but on understanding brought in transformation. A tobacco addicted man used to say it everyday. One fine morning, he thought that when I say “करमध्ये तू गोविंद ” meaning God resides in my palm, it means that when I rub tobacco on my palm, I rub it into Him. Now this thought changed his whole understanding and he left tobacco that moment itself. Yes, you may ask that this must be taking time. It does. It is slow and gradual, but permanent. And what if he never realises his folly? Then too it’s fine. He may change in his next life.
Let’s also talk about the transformation in the lives of the fisherman folk whom I mentioned about at the beginning of my blog. Dadaji went to them, into their houses and sat with them. He told them to identify themselves and live a dignified life. He told them “You are from the lineage of Vyas and Valmiki. Then why do belittle yourselves? You are following your father’s profession. ( आ पाप नो नहीं, तारा बाप नो धंधो छे।)” Instilling this self identity in them, the fisherman folk today see their lives change and transform. Dadaji calls them “सागरपुत्र”, the sons of the ocean. The relations that Dadaji built with them and their families is unparalled in the recent history. Similar is the case with the other castes and classes. In this modern world, where caste systems are still predominant amongst the society, people from the upper caste go to the houses of the outcastes ( called untouchables). Not only go to their houses, but live with them and share food with them. All this has been possible by a mind boggling thought of Indwelling God i.e. God resides in everyone.
Dadaji has stressed upon building relations. He says when you go to meet a person, first listen to what the person has to say. This is the stepping stone of any relation. Hear them out. You first relate with them. We do not go to them to change them, or give any advice to them or interfere in their ways of living. But we go to them as they too are sons of the same God who takes care of us. We are divine brothers. And It is believed that Dadaji himself has cultivated such relations with more than a lac families personally, transcending caste, class and creed. It’s mind blowing to see a philosopher so down to earth and ready to mingle with the common man.
His experiments of Yogeshwar Krushi, Matsyagandha, Vrikshmandir, Shreedarshanam, Loknath Amrutalayam to name a few amongst the many have brought about transformation in village and society as a whole. It is an alternative society in the already prevailing one. A society with no vices but just pure love and warmth for each other. A society of selfless relationships. It all sounds like an utopia, but one needs to see it to believe it.
But the crux of all this is the transformation of Humanity with God at it’s centre. The change in the individual. The change not through beheading but through the changing of the thoughts in ones minds and brain. This is true revolution. And so Dadaji’s birthday is celebrated as Human Dignity Day. His human centric life is always like a lighhouse in the vast ocean.
Even today his thoughts and methodology are the same which were at the onset of His Godly effort. The family spread across 6 continents and many countries works in the same way everywhere. This universal approach has been a guiding spirit to Swadhyayees through Dadaji’s daughter, Pujaniya Jayshree Athavale – Talwalkar (Didiji). She works with the same understanding as that of Dadaji’s and guides every Swadhyayee to work with the same spirit. As every year, even this year Swadhyayees are meeting their family, friends and relatives with this thought of God to build God centric selfless relations.
So, today Swadhyayees aptly celebrate Dadaji’s birthday as Human Dignity Day – Manushya Gaurav Din.
Wishing you all and your families a very Happy Human Dignity Day.
(Maadi Taaru Kanku Kharyu Ne Suraj Ugyo Jag Mathe Jaane Prabhutae Pag Mukyo Kanku Kharyu Ne Suraj Ugyo.
Mandir Sarjaayu Ne Ghantaarav Gajyo Nabhno Chandarvo Maa Ae Ankhyumaa Aanjyo Divo Thaavaa Mandir No Chando Aavi Pugyo Kanku Kharyu Ne Suraj Ugyo…
Maavdi Naa Rath Naa Ghugharaa Bolyaa Ajavali Raate Maa e Amrut Dholyaa Gagan No Garbo Maa Na Charanomaa Zukyo Kanku Kharyu Ne Suraj Ugyo…
– Avinash Vyas)
A beautiful poem by Avinashbhai comparing the advent of dawn, with the vermilion applied on the forehead of the Goddess. He goes on to describe that it feels as if the feeling of Godliness has taken over. The grandiose of the Goddess as described in the poem is truly the one that need to observe and behold in our eyes. The grand celebrations started two days back.
The Goddess is worshipped in different forms and every form has its own name and characteristic. Of the different forms, the three forms, namely Maha Kali, Maha Laxmi and Maha Saraswati represent the Female trinity. Again all the three forms are just one of the different forms of the omnipresent. The three signify destruction, wealth and knowledge as well as death, prosperity and birth respectively. They are also worshipped as consorts of Shiv, Vishnu and Brahma respectively.
These days of Nav Ratri (Nine Nights) actually mean 10 days. The 10 days of the battle between Mahisasur and The Goddess Durga. On the 10th day, the Asur was slained and is celebrated as Dusshara (दशहरा). An Asur is someone who is enjoying life and is completely immersed in one’s senses and worldly gratifications only and denies the existence of anything except self. Here the Asur is named as Mahisasur meaning a person who lives and behaves like cattle. Goddess Durga kills this characteristic found within Humans. The fight is within and without too. To overcome or slay these vices one needs to arouse the feminine characteristic within oneself. And this feminine characteristic is Durga. Durga means to takes oneself beyond all difficulties. It is the divine energy that protects the soul from known and unknown, adversity and opposition. Durga means to deliver oneself across the turbulent ocean of ignorance to the radiant other shore beyond all darkness. To remind oneself a Durga Idol/ Ghat/ Kalash is installed in every household of India.
Many households especially in Maharashtra and Gujarat celebrate the festival as ‘Ghatsthapana‘ or ‘Garba‘. The flame or a Diya (small lamp) is kept in a specially made earthen pot with pores (holes) in it. The pot represents the omnipresent Goddess. The rays of light coming out through the pores signifies the importance of knowledge and strength. The Garba is placed at the centre of a circle and the men and women play a disciplined dance, also called Garba, around it on its periphery. It has many a significance. It reminds us that every action of ours needs to be God centric. And also we need to work in tandem with everyone. There needs to be a rhythm in our movement and we cannot afford to miss one step. The village as a whole comes together to celebrate.
At this juncture, need to talk about today’s Garba played in our cities. The youth today calls it Gujarati Sunburn, which is absolute humbug. They just feel that it is a place for entertainment and fun. A place where we can make friends for fun. A place to pick up boys / girls and to spend the nights with them. And then forget everything and live an uncontrolled and non-obstructive life. My readers, I urge upon you to give a thought about the thoughts and rituals which we have got from our elders through our past generations and would they like the way we celebrate them today?
The blaring music and the obscene dance steps add to the joke we have made out of such divine festivals. It affects the environment too. I myself remember playing Garba, the whole night, but it was quite a smaller scale in those times. Every lane had it’s own Garba celebrations and everyone from children to the elderly, participated. I have vivid memories of the girls and the boys playing at different times. In Gujarat, Girls playing is called ‘Garba‘ and the boys playing is called ‘Garbi‘. It is expected that both the sexes play differently. Also it was played on a single Dhol (drum) accompanied by the singing. Men and Women both sang during their routines. It used to be a grand affair and we all learnt the songs well. There were variations in steps then too. But today, the picture has changed. We just want to dance and vent out our feelings. We too like Mahishasur have started leading our lives for our senses and pleasure. We do not deny the existence of God, but at the same time we behave as if He does not exist. The time has come to arouse the Durga within us.
Friends,
Let us be environment friendly and at the same time instill faith and devotion towards the Goddess during these days.
Let us learn to develop an outlook of treating every woman with respect, as She is the embodiment of Maa Shakti.
Let us remember to keep God in the centre of our life and plan and execute things around Him.
नमस्तेऽस्तु लंबोदारायैकदंताय विघ्ननाशिने शिव सुताय।
श्री वरदमूर्तये नमोनम:।।
(Namo Vraātpataye Namo Ganpataye. Namah Pramathpataye. Namaste astu Lambodaray Ekdantaay Vighnanashine Shiv Sutaay Shree Varadmurtaye Namo Namah.)
Wishing all my readers a very Happy Ganeshotsav. The days of rejoicement. A time when God arrives at our homes. It’s a beautiful concept in itself that God arrives as a guest at our homes.
Generally every household does have a Mandir (temple), so then why does God need to come home? Just to explain to Humans that every Sarjan (construction) has a Visarjan (destruction). The Ganesh which visits our houses is called the Parthiv Ganesh, Ganesh made from sand.
Today I want to talk about Ganpati as the Devi of Buddhi. What can we as students of life learn from Her? What does the Idol of Ganpati wants to convey? Does the concept of the Elephant headed God have any meaning?
My readers, our seers have done everything which has some logic and wanted to convey some understanding by celebrating a festival. They want us to ponder over many qualities and try to imbibe them into our lives. The festival celebration always has a learning part hidden in it.
Today we just want to dance to the tunes of music and pass our time. At the same time I see people being emotionally attached with Ganpati as the countdown of arrival begins many months before actual arrival, or even in some cases, from the day he leaves. People await the arrival as it liberates us from worries and sorrow and keeps us happy. But will we be stuck in this. Will we not move ahead in our understanding and let ourselves grow. Or just go on doing it the ritualistic way? At the same time am not against rituals. We all do the parayan of Atharvashirsh every year. Many of my friends do get the Parthiv Ganesh Murti at home. But let’s try to understand it today from a student perspective.
The Ganpati word itself has a meaning, the leader of the masses. Ganesh means the Eshwar of the Ganas (leader of the masses). So the Lord exhibits the characteristics of a leader. And to be a good leader, we need to educate ourselves (to draw out the qualities within us).
1. The Ganpati has an elephant head. Elephant signifies wisdom. So we all need to be gaining wisdom through what we study.
2. He has narrow and small eyes. It is not so that the eyes are small, but the face is so big, that the eyes look small. But the best part about the eyes is that they can see even a small needle in their path. As students when we study, we need to understand the smallest of the nuances of the topic which we are learning. We need to be alert for each and every information, and in whichever corner it may be, however small it may be.
3. His ears are like the “Sup” (grain whinning plate). The Sup keeps the grain intact and at the same time removes the dirt from them. The enormity of ears suggest us to be open to listen to all but decide what to discard while we listen. As a student, one needs to be focussed on studies. We may be exposed to various things around us, but we have to decide what to keep and which to blow off. Also at the same time keep our ears open for good thoughts however far they maybe or however faint they may be. In the different thoughts, we need to find out the most important one.
4. A crooked trunk signifies the length and the reach of oneself. The knowledge we get must be kept in such a way (folded) that it does not interfere in someone’s life. But it should unfold at the right time and be used for the rightful thing.
5. Ganpati is Mahakaay. A huge body. A big belly. Big belly is for keeping all things in the stomach. It is a storing place. Similarly we have to gain such huge knowledge that we need a big belly to keep it.
6. He has a small mouth. It signifies to talk less. A student needs to talk less and listen more. Keeping ones mouth shut means concentrating on what is being spoken and taught. At the same time, it also means that open up at the right time, ask questions, discuss, argue and draw conclusions.
7. The modak in his hand has its own significance. It is sweet inside even if tasteless outside. It reminds us, students, that go into the depth of every topic ones learns. Any topic is always sweet and interesting from within. Outside it is always bookish and boring.
8. He rides a mouse. It signifies a control over worldly desires. Similarly a student needs to have his own control over his desires and concentrate on his/ her studies. He needs to ride his wishes and will.
We can go on and on with lots of things about the Lord. But somewhere we need to leave the things for next time. Many thoughts still lie in my mind which need to be emphasized and talk about. But leave to it Ganesha to give me an opportunity to pen them down some other day.
Wishing you all again, a very grand Ganeshotsav.
MAY GANESHA BLESS US ALL WITH LOTS OF INTELLECT AND WISDOM
If knowing or unknowingly, have caused “Dukh” (rough translation “pain”) to any one, living or non living, by my thoughts, words or deed, thenfrom the bottom of my heart, I bow down to you and ask for your forgiveness.
“MICCHAMI DUKKADDAM”
The 8th day also known as Samvatsari. It is a Day to ask for forgiveness from the creatures of the world and the creation itself.
In my last two blogs, we are talking about the ten fold path or the ten virtues we need to imbibe in our lives to be a good Jain, follower of Jin (The Teerthankar). We have talked about 7 virtues till now. Will briefly recap them before moving on to the last three.
Kshama, the virtue of forgiveness. Mardav, to be modest in all situations. And the straightforwardness, Aarjav. Satya to accept one’s existence and the journey of life is to find the truth. Sauch, the purity of body and our thoughts. Sanyam, restraining ourselves and our Panch Indriya. Tap, the art of practising non food intake. These seven if implemented on would help us in our quest to find ourselves. Now, we move onto the last three.
TYAGA (Renunciation) – To leave things behind. Here Tyaga also means keeping the bare minimum and slowly giving away that minimum too. That is what the Jain Sadhu does. Bhagwaan Mahaveer too had a loin cloth when he left the kingdom, and slowly that too wore off. It happened naturally.
Internally renuncing the attachments and emotions is like removing a big hurdle from the path of development.And this is possible by realising the true nature of the soul.
AKINCHANYA (Non-attachment) – This assists the person in detaching from external possessions. Historically ten possessions are listed in Jain scriptures: ‘land, house, silver, gold, wealth, grain, female servants, male servants, garments and utensils’. Being unattached from these, helps control our desires and leads to an influx of meritorious karmas.
Also akinchanya assists us in being unattached from our internal attachments of false belief, anger, pride, deceit, greed, laughter, liking, disliking, lamentation, fear, disgust, sexual desires.The more we are unattached, the more we purify our soul.
BRAHMACHARYA (Celibacy) – It might have been talked about at last but it is equally important as the others. It’s only sexual context needs to be clarified. It means staying away from desires and our wishes. To the extent of staying away from our senses. Not even being led off by the scent of a rose or a cool breeze.
Brahmacharya has two words in it. Brahma + Charya. Brahma here means the soul and Charya means to dwell. It simple means to dwell in one’s soul. When we reside in our soul, we can become the master of the Universe. To reside outside means to become a slave of desires.
All the above ten virtues make us a good Jain or the follower of Jin. Many of you may wonder that we never heard anything like what you have written. But dear readers, we are followers of Jin. Let’s go back to our roots. Follow what Jin Prabhu has said. Our Sadhu and Sadhviji’s are our teachers. They can show us the path and lead us unto it. It is we who need to walk on it.
My student (Khushi Maniyar) had shared with me the meaning of Paryushan which I reproduce here as it.
“Paryushan introduces one to oneself. It reminds us of souls ultimate goal. पर्यूषण is actually made of two words. परि + उष्ण. परि means from outside and उषण means to come home stay. It means to come out of all materialistic things and stay in oneself ie आत्मा मा वास करवो.“
Now if you read all the three blogs together than my writing would make sense. Fasting is good, but at the same time the person who is fasting is thinking about these 10 virtues and is in the thought process of how to imbibe them into our lives. So let us all who fast, pray or ask for forgiveness celebrate the greatness of these days, try and live in the divine and pure atmosphere and immerse ourselves in it.
At the end of this series, I beg for forgiveness if I have hurt any one by my words or thoughts or deeds. I ask for forgiveness from all Guru Bhagwan for any mistakes in these blogs.
Frankly even after writing all the meanings I still feel that the names mean the leader of the masses. Also the different meanings convey the same thought that the one who leads.
The idea itself is so heart warming that the God himself comes to reside with us. We all go to the temples to get a regular Darshan. But today is the day when He comes to our place to meet us, to stay with us, to eat with us, to bless us. This itself is such a beautiful thought.
This year at our place
I always wonder who must have thought of this idea of getting the God home. How that idea must have percolated to the masses! The amount of time and energy spent on this idea is something beyond the pages of history, date and time.
This thought always keeps me trying to find answers to my questions. And I know Ganesh, the Goddess of Intellect helps and satisfies the curious with an answer.
There is a story that when Ved Vyas, decided to write the Mahabharata, he was trying to find a writer who would wite his story. It was a humongous task and the writer too has to be of the same iintellect as the story teller. So Muni Narad suggested that Ganpati, the son of Shiva, can write it.
Ved Vyas did approach Ganpati who readily agreed. They both had an understanding. Once the writing of the book was started, it would not stop till the end and the writer would just not write down the book as a dictation but uunderstand it before writing it down.
Two great personalities, and, one great epic.
Ganpati had decided not to stand up while writing, so sitting in one place would increase the heat within his body and make him uncomfortable. So Ved Vyas came up with an idea of applying mud packs on Ganpati’s body to keep him cool. Ved Vyas served Ganpati food that he loved to eat the most.
As the mud packs were applied, Ganpati’s murti, even today, is made from mud (Shadhumaati). Yet, even after these 10 days when the wrting of the book was completed, the heat had increased inside Ganpati’s body and the mud packs had dried and stuck to his body. So it is said that Ved Vyas took Ganpati to a nearby river to bathe him to soothe his body as well as remove the dried packs from his body.
Thus began the culture of getting Ganpati in the idol form at one’s house for 10 days and immersing them in water on the 10th day. Later, as it was found that it is difficult to get and look after such a big personality at home for 10 days, Rishis must have come up with the idea of keeping Him for 1 and half day or 5 days.
Some may disagree with this story, but it’s a start of the quest to find the reason behind it. Its going to be long journey, but will tread on it slowly and steadily. I trust that Ganpatiji will help me.
Wishing you all a very Happy Ganesh Chaturthi and a colourful Ganeshotsav.
My readers may ask me how is it that you Jains celebrate Mahaveer Jayanti twice in a year? Actually I too had the same question few years ago. Even many Jains call it Mahaveer Jayanti. But the fact is a little different. It is during these days, the Holy Book “Kalpsutra” is read. The life of the 24 Teerthankars is read and understood. On the 5th Day, the story of Mata Trishala’s 14 dreams (16 according to Digambar sect) and birth of Bhagwaan Mahaveer is read out. So it is called the Mahaveer Janma Vachan. And people celebrate with pomp as Mahaveer Jayanti.
We continue from my last blog about the ten fold path or ten virtues to be imbibed into our lives during these days of Paryushan. Last time, we gave a thought about 3 virtues. Kshama, the virtue of forgiveness. Mardav, to be modest in all situations. And the straightforwardness, Aarjav.
Today we talk about SATYA, SAUCH, SANYAM and TAP.
SATYA (TRUTH) – The only truth in this world is the existence of Self. Every other truth is relative. Excepting our own existence is the one and final step towards self realisation. Being in self denial, living in self denial is not going to help anyone. The first thing in life is to except oneself as one is and then move ahead in life.
At the same time, we can begin with small steps of speaking the truth and living that truth. At the same time being truthful does not mean to hurt others with our truthfulness. In our quest of the truth, we have to see to it that we do not hurt otherswith our truth. सत्यं ब्रूयात्, प्रियं ब्रूयात् . (Speak the truth, speak it with love). Any truth needs to be spoken with love and care. It also means that unless we share a good relation, we should not speak the truth. We need to develop relationships and let them thrive, for the truth to be told or spoken.
Also when we lie, we need to speak a hundred new lies to justify one lie. Which in turn hampers the process of imbibing Satya in our lives. So at the end, I will say one needs to realise the truth hidden within oneself.
SAUCH(Purity/Contentment) – Here the word means purity of body to purity of thoughts to purity of mind/brain. We all are aware about the external purity of our body due to the education, we receive in our schools. But we need to slowly go inwards, towards oneself. Getting contentment from material desires is not the only goal of life, but leading a contented, pure life so that it can be an ideal for generations, constitutes Sauch.
The characteristic of the soul is purity. So it is within us, which we need to find and not get stuck in material gains only. We need to go deep inside oneself and dig out this hidden virtue within us. And for this we need to practise restraint.
SANYAM(Self restraint) – I feel this is one of the virtues with whom Jains are largely identified today. Yes, we believe in restraint, not killing anyone outwardly as well as inwardly. But that is not only Jainism. Not harming anyone, not even the smallest of the creatures, is evident in all thoughts originating from Bharat. But here SANYAM means restraining oneself from desires. It is painful when our desires take over us. These 8 days constantly remind us to be away from desires. So to remember and learn this thought, we need to read the Kalpasutra. Learn from Teerthankar’s life. They never showed off. So should we?
It is also through SANYAM that we can win our desires and tread on the path of Moksh. Lesser we are attached to material things, nearer we are to ourselves and our goals of attaining Moksh. That is the reason Jains take up Sadhu dharm. The road to find one’s true self.
TAP (Austerity) – TAP means fasting, control over food. Restricting the intake of food. But after that do we gain control over our habit of eating food. Are we able to control our desires? Why is there a queue outside restaurants a Day before Paryushan and a Day after Samvatsari/Rishi Panchami? Restricting food also means restricting desires. Do we think about it? Are the celebrations of TAP justified?
Do we meditate during Tap. Do We sit back and introspect? Do we feel the nearness with our self? Our God? Cause after abstinence of food we need to move onto the next step of going towards one self.
I hope, my readers, you will give a thought about what we have read today. I just want to point out that we are becoming too ritualistic. Am not against rituals but we cannot get stuck in the rituals. Jain philosophy is loosing it’s sheen due to this. It is like eating the coconut from outside instead of enjoying the original coconut inside. So my friends, let’s think.
Still have 3 more virtues to go through. But ours is a journey long and slow, so let’s tread on it.
Listen to the Kalpasutra carefully.
Listen to what the learned Sadhu-Sadhviji’s have to tell us.
Listen to the voice within and learn to live by it.
Today is the New Moon Day (Amaavasya) of the Shraavan month. The last day of the month. Month of Bhadrapad begins tomm. Today is celebrated as “Pola” in Maharashtra and South India. Cattles are worshipped today.
And today is Mother’s Day. A day to remember all the great mothers like Jijabai, Kaushalya, Devaki and many more and their contribution towards parenting their kids. Also a day to express our gratitude to the “Gaumata”, “Tulsimata” and “Bharatmata”. By naming them, I just want to convey that every person and every substance which has help us nurture our life, is like our Mother, and today is the day to remember them.
And overall our own Mother, who has not only given us birth but also took care of us and help us grow.Someone can ask me that shouldn’t we remember our Mother everyday? I agree with them. But today is the day to not only remember them but also express our gratitude towards them.
1. Mother, a shade : I still remember my mother standing rigat by my side with a ruler in hand and hitting me when I erred, while learning Gujarati. Coming from a convent school, again her decision to educate me in an English Medium School, she took the pains that I learn my mother tongue Gujarati, when I was in 8th std. She made me do it the whole vacation. Today, I say with pride, that if my language is good and my grammar strong, it is just because of Her. I thank her today for her efforts.
Secondly my English teacher. Can never forget her. Ms A Coutinho. The effports she has taken for my Grammar, rather for the whole class, is showing its effect with our cmmunications today. Every free period of our 9th standard was taken up by Her for grammar. We used to tease her and dislie her for this, but today we all are veRyan grateful to her for her efforts. She treated every child as hers and put in equal efforts in each.
2. Mother, the last resort : I still remember that whenever we siblings wanted to get our things done, my mother was our last resort. Rather when it came to dealings with my father, it was always Her, who stood strogly for us.
I, am a father today, and see the same trait in my wife today. The way she prods our kids, the way She pushes them to exceed their limits and excel in their doings is mind blowing. The way She always stand by them and always there to help them is something we fathers rarely do. And after all this, if the kids feel that She is their last resort, they are right.
3. Mother, a security-giver : Mom is the bst security a child can ever get. The way she takes care of her child can only be compared to a lioness taking care of her cubs. She will go to the extent of fighting and killing the enemy. She will pprotect and teach the kid to protect himself.
Am reminded of Jijabai who took Shivaji under her care and nurtured him to grow up to become a great king. In the initial years of growing up, she has played not only the role of a mother but also protected Shivaji from all the evils of the society.
4. Mother, the ever giving : A child growing up without a mother is a difficult job for a father, but the mother can also fill in for the loss of a father and bring up the child. A mothers showers all her love and warmth and affection on her child and does not leave anything for next time.
There is no great personality who wouldn’t acknowledge the contribution by his/her mother into their lives. Satyakaam Jabaal is known by his mother and so are many. Even today, a childs good mannerisms and characters are attributed to its mother more.
In the end, would just request all my readers to give a thought for what their mothers have done for them and always remember to be grateful to them.
Also that our great culture and civilisation has already given us a Mother’s day, centuries back, so we have been, foremost, in acknowledging the role and contribution of a mother towards building a home, society and country, which the West is acknowledging from last few decades ot maybe a century or two. Let’s not forget that and educate our next generation about it too…
Oh! Forgiving Gurudev, I am giving up all my wrongful acts with all my strength and bow down to you with my head near to your feet.
Parvadhiraj Paryushan.
The festival for asking forgiveness and to forgive.
The festival of celebrating life with a different perspective.
The festival of coming together and abiding.
The festival to follow and uphold the tenfold path of
1. KSHAMA (Forbearance)
2. MARDAV (Modesty)
3. AARJAV (Straightforwardness)
4. SATYA (Truth)
5. SHAUCH (Purity)
6. SANYAM (Restraint)
7. TAP (Austerity)
8. TYAGA (Renunciation)
9. AKINCHANYA (Non-attachment)
10. BRAHMACHARYA (Celibacy)
Before treading on this Ten-fold path, let me share with my non- Jain readers, that Jainism is one of the most scientific way of living and thinking. The way of worship is the same, except for the Sthanakvasi fold of the Shwetambar sect, that is everyone follows Idol worship.
Jainism, itself is divided into two big sects, the Shwetambar’s (the ones whose sadhus clad in white) and Digambar’s (the ones whose clothes are the sky, ie their sadhus accept and live a life without clothes). Shwetambar’s are further divided into 2 folds, the Deravasis (one who go to temples ie follow Idol worship) and the Sthanakvasis, as already mentioned before (one who do not go to temples and do not believe in Idol worship). Even with these outward differences, the thought of Jainism is followed uniformly in any part of the world. It is the uniqueness of the thought process in India, that even after having different ways of worship, we all are one.
Secondly, my readers might know Lord Mahaveer as the one who established Jainism. Again that’s not the complete information. Mahaveer is the 24th Teerthankar belonging to lineage of Rishabhdev or Adinath, as He is called, being the first. A Teerthankar is the one whose soul is sublime and one who has compassion towards all living beings. He is the realised one. And Jainism believes that anyone and everyone can transform his life to become the sublime self. All the 24 Teerthankars command the same devotion as any one of them.
I have decided not to go into the historical part of Jainism nor it’s cultural impact. I want to talk about the Ten-fold path propagated by these 24 men, for which the following eight days/ten days are to be celebrated. I said it’s a celebration of life because during these days one needs to sit back and brood over the above virtues and think about how to imbibe them into our life. All the 10 virtues mentioned above are equal with none more important or less important. All are equally important. We will talk about the first three today and during the course of 8 days, will talk about others, as and when the Lord permits.
1. KSHAMA(Forbearance) – My readers must have read the small prayer at the starting of the blog. It asks for forgiveness. Forgiveness is asked by bowing one’s head onto the feet of the person who is expected to forgive. As a mortal with lots of ego it is difficult for a person to bow down onto the feet of the person whom we have wronged. So we begin by bowing down to our Guru, the Teacher. If this becomes our routine, the person sheds all his inhibitions and attachment to self and will be brave enough to ask for forgiveness from the person whom he has wronged. And slowly we all can ask for forgiveness from all the creatures in the world. He is Mahaveer. This is what is Samyak Darshan. (Right Belief).
Forgiveness is like the oil to the machine, it helps us live in harmony with our fellow beings. Forgiveness begins with self. One should learn to forgive oneself. We all are sometimes too tough with ourselves. It is necessary in today’s world, but at the same time we need to be forgiving ourselves for our own spiritual development. We may be wrong in our way of living and thinking, but the day we realise we have been wrong, we need to forgive ourselves and move ahead in life. Do learn from our mistakes so that we do not repeat them, but forgive oneself too.
Forgiveness is the pain we inflict upon ourselves so that we may learn from it and brighten our lives with better karma. People have a wrong notion about forgiveness. They feel that it means to forgive others. But here the Jain darshan guides us to forgive oneself. It is only then, one can realise his true self.Forgiveness (Kshama Dharm) teaches ones soul to correct one’s identify oneself by encouraging to contemplate its true nature and hence achieve state of right belief (Samyak Darshan).
2. MARDAV(Modesty) – Humility is the diamond amongst the virtues. It is humility that makes great people, great. They never boast of their greatness nor talk about it or even give a hint about it. Sometimes our looks, money, social status, the virtue of forgiveness may make us a little / lot self-centered. Hence Kshama is followed by Mardav. There should be modesty in life after forgiveness. People believe in themselves being superior to others. We all come across such people in our lives. We might be like them too. We measure everything by temporary material objects. But this dents our life in the most dangerous way and makes our penance full of ‘Rajas’ gun. So we need to be very alert about this. The Paryushan days remind us of Humility.
All souls are born equal. No one is superior nor inferior. This is the true nature of our soul, every soul. Each soul is born divine. And the most important aspect is that every soul has a potential within to liberate itself. This belief will lead us to Mardav.
3. AARJAV(Straightforwardness) – People are deceitful. They deceive others and think that they are something great. But in doing so, they are deceiving themselves. One thinks different, speaks different and acts different. Our scriptures tells us to stay away from such people. Deceitful people loose the trust of others and they are considered less credible. Such people are a curse to the society as a whole. Whereas straightforwardness makes a person trustworthy. Such straightforward people are considered to be reliable and slowly they win the hearts of the people around them.
A straightforward person realises that the countless qualities with a being are an instrument to attain his final destination. Again the thoughts, the karma, are different from the realisation of self. So Arjav helps the person to tread on the path of realisation.
My dear readers, it’s a path we have got due to our karma’s of last lives and we need to make everything of this opportunity that we have got. We are on the path of Jin. On the path of Arihant. On the path of Siddh and Upadhyay. Let us all together decide to stick to this path and abide to live by the teachings of the Teerthankars. Then we can become true Jains.
Wishing all the Indians a very Happy 74th Independence Day.
On this day, I first bow down to God as He is the one who got India, Her independence. You, my reader, may ask me, How come God gave India independence? What was His role in it? How come you Indians always get God involved in everything? On the onset let us clarify this point as such. Yes, God is always a part of my writings and our Indian thought cause we believe that we exist because of him. Not only us but the whole creation exists because of Him. And yes we can logically prove that India got independence according to His wishes. Also at this point I should clarify that this thought has been imbibed in me by Pandurang Shashtriji Athavale. The World War II ended on a victorious note for Great Britain and it’s allies. Winston Churchill, the then prime minister, had led his country to victory through one of the toughest wars. It was he who has given the world the sign of Victory as “V”. He had kept up the high morale of the British troops and citizens during the war. The elections were due that same year and after this victory Churchill coming back to power was a foregone conclusion. But the results were surprising. Labour party with Clement Atlee as its head came to power. Labour was of the view of granting independence to British colonies including India. Winston Churchill’s idea and arrogance about India and Indians is well known to us by now. Now how did this happen? How did the electorate change its mind? I feel that God must have changed their minds. God had his own expectations from India, that let Her be free and guide the world over. (Have we been successful in living upto His expectations? is another question). Thus I first bow down to God.
I secondly bow down to the people who left their careers, families and laid down their lives for the independence of our country. My young readers in today’s times, it is difficult for us to imagine the situation or the battle at that time. Whom were we fighting against? A nation on whom the sun never set. Yet these people (freedom fighters) just selflessly offered themselves to the country without expecting. anything in return. Neither success, nor an expectation from Indians to remember their sacrifice. They just jumped into the burning fire of the independence struggle. A 16/17 year kid, Khudiram Bose, went to the gallows with a smile on his face. One 65/70 year man, Lala Lajpat Rai accepted the brunt of the English batons and gave up his life. A youth of an age of 30/35, Swatantryaveer Vinayak Damodar Sawarkar, accepted a two 50 year sentence in jail with a question “Will British Raj rule India for that much time?”. Our heads are held high even today while taking the names of Bhagatsingh, Rajguru and Sukhdev for their supreme sacrifice. Tatya Tope, Mangal Pandey, Vasudeo Balwant Phadke, Chandrasekhar Azad, Ramprasad Bismil, Ashfaqullah Khan, Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Bipinchandra Pal, these and many other names make us feel a sense of pride. Let us also not forget the women power of India. Their participation too was to the fullest. Rani Laxmibai, Kittur Rani Chenamma, Kalpana Dutt, Aruna Asaf Ali and many such brave women participated actively in this fight. We can go on and on with these names, but we will just pause here and now bow down to all the known and unknown freedom fighters.
Thirdly I bow down to the person who unified India, as it exists now, and for that he travelled to every nook and corner of India. He is called the Chanakya of Modern India. He integrated more than 500 big and small kingdoms into India with love and understanding and persuasion. Those which could not be pursuaded through understanding and love were then integrated in the way and language they understood well. The person is none other than, the most ardent follower of Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. If Congress was strong then, ready to listen to and follow the Gandhian way, it was because of Vallabhbhai Patel who went around meeting person to person, village to village, city to city to propogate the ideas and ideals of Congress then. It does not matter whether we honour this great man with Bharat Ratna (the highest civilian honour in India), but he is truly a gem produced by Mother India. It is with utmost sadness, Will we be able to understand the sacrifices this man has made? is a question that I leave to my reader to ponder over. Does India know the living generations of his family? The behaviour / treatment with the family of this great martyr makes one think, that did we fight for this? He did not have any expectations, agreed. But the question is that do we have any responsibility towards people like Sardar?
As the day is of celebrations, so is the day to sit back and think about a few things. Where do we stand? Where does Bharat stand today in the world? Are we the torch bearers of humanity for the world? Will only technological development and strong economic policy make us one? There was a time when the world recognised Bharat for its spiritual doctrines and borrowed from them. Swami Vivekanand and Gurudev Aurobindo were it’s guiding light. We had selfless social workers in Vinoba Bhave and Ravishankar Maharaj (Gujarat) who tirelessly worked towards the betterment of the society as a whole. Where are we today? Lest someone understand am against technological development, let me clarify that am not. But only technological development is not going us to lead unto overall development. Don’t we feel that we are taking care of just one part of the developmental process and ignoring others? We, Bharatiya will have to think holistically. That will help us regain our prosperity and respect. We will have to change the way we think. Will have to imbibe love and emotions for our country through our education system. If we do this today, then we will be able to see it’s fruits a few years later, cause change is slow.
Today we need to inculcate one’s love for his country and the pride of being an Bharatiya amongst all of us. We will have to study our true history for this. We will have to come out of the dogmas of left wingers and right wingers and think; write in that manner and live what we write and demonstrate. . त्यजेदेकं कुलस्यार्थे ग्रामस्यार्थे कुलं त्यजेत् । ग्रामं जनपदस्यार्थे आत्मार्थे पृथिवीं त्यजेत् ॥ (For the good of many, we will have to leave out one. For the good of the village we will have to leave out many. For the good of our country we will have to leave our village. And for self development and realisation, leave this worldly pleasures) We all have to rise above the narrow mindedness of selfishness, victory and listen to each and every citizen of India. We do not know, who will be guided by the God’s to suggest or speak the truth!
We will have to take all our decisions keeping Bharat and Her greatness in mind. We have done this before. The best example is our constituent assembly consisting of people coming from different areas, thoughts and leanings. Yet, for India, they all discussed, argued, debated and made unanimous decisions. Every person should know that it is his responsibility, our responsibility to run this country in a proper manner. To take care of it and to carry it forward on the path of progress is my responsibility, our responsibility. The day we realise this and are able to do this, will be the day when we will be democratic and independent in its true sense.
And for this, we will have to reach out to every nook and corner of Bharat. Reach out selflessly to each and every Bharatiya and develop a relationship based on love for our country. Will have to rekindle the fire of Spirituality with love and affection. That will be the rise of true nationalism. From that day onwards, India will again be a true torch bearer of humanity.
My readers, if we are unable to do this, let us all be helpful to people who are into it. If not helpful, let us appreciate the people who are trying to do it.
On this 74th Independence day, let us all pledge to contribute to Bharat in our own small ways, so that our Bharatmata would be happy and would also bless us with Her most valuable blessings.
Madhurashtakam is the sweetest description of the sweetness of child God, Shri Krishna by Mahaprabhu Shri Vallabhcharya. Every body part and all the actions of Shri Krishna are sweet and by his sweet contact anything living or non-living becomes sweet. Whatever sweetness we see in this material world should be understood as a small fraction of the sweetness of Shri Krishna. So the devotees of Lord Krishna should continuously remember the butter stealing form of his. It is not possible to describe the sweetness of Madhurashtakam; probably it contains the sweetest eight verses written in worship of Lord Sri Krishna on this earth.
O Krishna! your lips are sweet, your face is sweet, your eyes are sweet, your laugh is sweet, your heart is sweet, your gait is sweet. O Lord of sweetness! everything about you is sweet only. ॥1 ॥
O Krishna! your words are sweet, your acts are sweet, your clothes are sweet, your bent posture is sweet, your movements are sweet, your roaming is sweet. O Lord of sweetness! everything about you is sweet only. ॥2 ॥
O Krishna! your flute is sweet, your garland is sweet, your hands are sweet, your feet are sweet, your dance is sweet, your friendship is sweet. O Lord of sweetness! everything about you is sweet only. ॥3 ॥
O Krishna! your songs are sweet, your drinking is sweet, your eating is sweet, your sleeping is sweet, your beauty is sweet, your mark of forehead is sweet. O Lord of sweetness! everything about you is sweet only. ॥4 ॥
O Krishna! your deeds are sweet, your floating is sweet, your act of stealing is sweet, your love is sweet, your words are sweet, your silence is sweet. O Lord of sweetness! everything about you is sweet only. ॥5 ॥
O Krishna! your berries are sweet, your garland is sweet, your river Yamuna is sweet, her waves are sweet, her water is sweet, her lotus are sweet. O Lord of sweetness! everything about you is sweet only. ॥6 ॥
O Krishna! your Gopis are sweet, your playing is sweet, with them you are sweet, without them you are sweet, your glance is sweet, your manners are sweet. O Lord of sweetness! everything about you is sweet only. ॥ 7 ।।
O Krishna! your friends are sweet, your cows are sweet, your stick is sweet, your creation is sweet, your destruction is sweet, your boons are sweet. O Lord of sweetness! everything about you is sweet only. ॥ 8॥
Now what is given here is the literal translation of the words and verses written. We need to dwell upon every word and find out the reason why Mahaprabhu has written every word and through his learn the Krishna way of life.
After talking about learning and parenting in my last two blogs on Krishna Janmashtami day, today wanna look at all together another aspect of Krishna. His relation with his family. Am going to quote only two poems (pad) written by Surdasji, for the same and leave it upto my reader to find their meaning.
मैं नहिं माखन खायो
मैया! मैं नहिं माखन खायो।
ख्याल परै ये सखा सबै मिलि मेरैं मुख लपटायो॥
देखि तुही छींके पर भाजन ऊंचे धरि लटकायो।
हौं जु कहत नान्हें कर अपने मैं कैसें करि पायो॥
मुख दधि पोंछि बुद्धि इक कीन्हीं दोना पीठि दुरायो।
डारि सांटि मुसुकाइ जशोदा स्यामहिं कंठ लगायो॥
बाल बिनोद मोद मन मोह्यो भक्ति प्राप दिखायो।
सूरदास जसुमति को यह सुख सिव बिरंचि नहिं पायो॥
This is a pad written by Surdas describing the act of stealing curds by Shree Krishna. And when caught by the mother, Jashoda, the different reasons given by Lala how curd is seen on his face.
Another pad where Surdasji describes Krishna’s question to his mother Jashoda, regarding the colour of her skin and His skin. And how it has become a point of mischief for his friends. A beautiful pad explaining the relation of Krishna, his brother Balaram and mother Yashoda
मैया मोहि दाऊ बहुत खिझायौ ।
मोसौ कहत मोल कौ लीन्हौ, तू जसुमति कब जायौ ?
कहा करौं इहि रिस के मारैं खेलन हौं नहिं जात ।
पुनि-पुनि कहत कौन है माता को है तेरौ तात ॥
गोरे नंद जसोदा गोरी, तू कत स्यामल गात ।
चुटुकी दै-दै ग्वाल नवावत, हँसत, सबै मुसुकात ॥
तू मोही कौं मारन सीखी, दाउहि कबहुँ न खीझै ।
मोहन-मुख रिस की ये बातैं, जसुमति सुनि-सुनि रीझै ॥
सुनहु कान्ह, बलभद्र चबाई, जनमत ही कौ धूत ।
सूर स्याम मोहि गोधन की सौं, हौं माता तू पूत ॥
All I want to say is that Krishna, the Divinity Himself, came to earth to guide us, Humanity, on how to live life. Instead of studying and understanding that, we are just interested in dancing, singing and making pyramids to break the pot of curd hanging at great heights. Am not against any form of celebration cause I myself too participate in it, but cannot leave such a great life, limited only to these things.
On this day of Janmashtami, I bow to Krishna, the Purnavtaar, for guiding mankind, on how to live through his life.
I bow to Krishna for giving us Shreemad Bhagwad Geeta, a guide to lead a better life.
I bow to Krishna for accepting us as we are and leading us on the oath of finding oneself.
येन बद्धो बलि राजा, दानवेन्द्रो महाबल। तेन त्वाम् प्रतिबद्ध्नामि रक्षे मा चल मा चल ॥
(O Brother! I tie you (towards your responsibilities) in the same way the King Bali was tied to, by his sister, Goddess Lakshmi. And pray that you may not waver from your path of responsibilities).
Am in two minds from many days whether to write or not on this caring and a beautiful relation. The great poet Valmiki too has refrained from describing Ram’s relation with his sister, Shanta. (Many of my readers may not that Ram too had a sister.) And Vyas too has not written any details about relations shared by Krishna – Balram – Subhadra or 105 Kuru Princes – Dushyala. If these great poets refrain to describe this relation, then I am just a student of this great culture and civilisation. At the same time, it is a relation which I want to write on and let the new generation also know and understand the real meaning behind this relation.
फूलों का तारों का, सबका कहना है एक हज़ारों में मेरी बहना है सारी, उमर, हमें संग रहना
I love these lines as they convey my feelings, or rather every brothers feelings towards his sister/s. Sister is the one and only relation where we can have fun and share what we like and don’t. She takes care of her brother as a protective Mother. She is a guiding force to her brothers. And so She is unique amongst the thousands of women on this Mother Earth.
This relationship is truly unique as there is a Day celebrated for it in our culture. We have Matrudin and Rakshabandhan. Both these festivals celebrate the most important and valued relations in our lives. It is considered a matter of pride to be a brother to a sister. It’s a truly selfless relation which needs to be taken care of and enjoyed.
Then why tie a Raksha (thread) around Brothers wrist? The understanding today is that the sister asks for her brothers protective covering. The brother would help and protect his sister in times of need. I feel this thought become the line of thinking during the last 1000 years of foreign rule. Our women needed to be protected from the foreigners and so who, but her brother. Question that arises to my mind is that in case of married man, what will he do for his wife? And a larger picture today is that woman today is herself quite qualified to take care of herself. And keeping this fact in mind, this festival will loose it’s sheen slowly and fade into memories in the coming years, if this would be our understanding. Or it will become just a ritual or a formality.
This festival is basically not for protection of women, but to develop an understanding amongst men on how to look towards women. Rather what should be a man’s attitude towards a woman. ‘Every other women, other than my mother and wife is like a sister to me,’ is what the festival wants to convey. The sister applying tilak on brothers forehead is giving him this understanding. It’s a third eye (tilak) for the brother through whose lens he learns to see every other woman as his sister. The thread around his hand conveys that the brother promises the same and promises not to deviate from this outlook or path (मा चल मा चल). It’s a Bandhan (commitment) that he is accepting. Hope, my readers atleast will understand this and try to inculcate this understanding in their lives.
I know am talking to a generation which asks “Can a boy and girl just not be friends?”, “My sister is my best friend.” I truly sometimes wonder whether todays generation thinks beyond friends and about the relations they have got. I personally have no such problems with their questions but do they think before they ask is what I ponder over later. My dear readers, let us all learn to enjoy every relation that we have got. Try to understand them and live in that way. And my question is if you both can be friends, then what’s the problem in accepting the girl as your sister or the boy as your brother. I leave this thought for you to think, discuss and debate.
God! Let my bond with my Sister be strengthened more in this coming year and let things get done from me, which will make Her happy.
Today is Shitla Saptami. It is the day of non cooking. Food is prepared one day before (yesterday) and is savoured today. Yesterday had its own significance too.
Yesterday was Randhan Chaatth (the day of cooking). It is the day of cooking the best delicacies possible and yeah at the same time, the ones which we can savour the next day. The women of the household start the preparations early morning itself. At some villages in Saurashtra, the women get together to cook. They sing and enjoy this whole process. Some households also offer this food as Prasad to the Annapoorna. This festival (It cannot be called a festival as it is more a gathering) of cooking is always awaited during the year.
Some of my readers may feel it unhygenic to eat food cooked a day before. But frankly we all love cold food. Especially many foods like Khichadi and foods made from spices tastes great when eaten, the next day after preparation. But it is unhygenic and unhealthy to eat it. So our Rishis have kept one day in the whole year when we can satisfy our urge to eat food cooked overnight through this festival. People who regularly eat canned foods need to understand the healthy habits inherent in daily cooked food.
In the morning, the lady of the household, wakes up early and worships the stove. She makes a swastik with red vermilion and put a twig of a mango tree over it as an offering. The mango twig signifies sweetness and it is believed that it imparts coolness. The lady prays to the stove to help her cook food which will be sweet to eat and impart coolness to the digestive system of the one who eats it. Many families chant “Annapoornastotram” as a prayer to the Goddess of Food, who provides and feeds us everyday.
Apart from this, it is also a way of expressing our gratitude to the stove / gas burner who burns the whole year for giving us food. This whole day, the stove is not lit. In our way, we would say that’s it’s a holiday for the stove. It is one way of looking at the presence of Chaitanya in non-living too.
Also it is day to worship Goddess Shitla, the Goddess of cleanliness and health. Goddess Shitala is represented as a young maiden crowned with a winnowing-fan, riding a donkey, holding a short broom (either to spread or dust off germs) and a pot full of pulses (the viruses) or cold water (a healing tool). Sometimes, she is said to be carrying a bunch of neem leaves, a herb used throughout India since ancient times that is believed by some to be an effective remedy to most skin diseases to this day. And so even today in India we keep neem leaves around the patient suffering from Chicken pox. And after 5/7 days, parents take their kids for a darshan of Shitla Mata and worship Her and thank Her for curing the child of the disease. (Medicines are administered regularly, but it is a matter of faith and gratitude towards nature). (Also reading reports nowadays that Neem is effective as a precautionary measure of Covid – 19). On this day, we are expected to offer our gratitude to the broom and every other object which helps to keep our food and surroundings clean. Some people do worship the broom and the winnow on this day.
In these days of Covid-19, hope we Indians atleast understand the importance of cleanliness of ones house, kitchen and surroundings. Also personal hygiene, today signified by taking a bath after coming from outside or back from work; or washing hands after coming from outside was a must in the olden days. These were not habits which consumed time or we did not use any tissues to rub, but it was a compulsory wash which was required. Even today there are many households where the lady of the house does not touch the utensils of her kitchen without taking a bath. There is nothing religious in it, but hygiene. Our Rishis were great enough to male such practices part of our day to day life through activities and giving a religious connotation to it.
Shitala is the also considered as the form of Goddess Katyayani. She gives coolness to the patients of fever. According to Devi Mahatmya when a demon named Jvarasura gave bacterial fever to all the children, Goddess Katyayani came in the form of Shitala to purify children’s blood and to destroy the bacteria of fever in blood. In Sanskrit ‘Jwar’ means “fever” and ‘Shital‘ means “coolness“. She is worshipped all over India by different names.
These days are of showers. Showers heavy and light keep the atmosphere clean and cool. The combination of the showers and these festivals are like a combination of lime and jaggery. They are both good for health and taste.
On these days,
Let us learn to inculcate a feeling of gratitude towards even towards the smallest of the things which make out lives healthy and better.
Let us learn to keep our surroundings clean and keep ourselves clean and healthy, free from diseases.
Let us know our ancestors and their vision and their efforts to keep us civilised.
Today we talk and understand, the Vedic way of expressing ones gratitude to Nature. We believe that God resides in everything. Rather it is the will and wish of God, that He created us, the non living and the living. We both co-exist. We believe (even science today believes) that we have come from the non-living. Science believes that there is ‘chetan’ (atoms) in everything and we believe that there is ‘chaitanya'(God) in everything. The Theory of evolution as suggested by Darwin has already been proposed many thousand years back by us in the form of 10 avatars (incarnations) of Vishnu.
So with this broad outlook we will look into the festival of Nag Panchami (नाग पंचमी) being celebrated today. It is a festival celebrated to worship the Serpents. The serpents are representatives of the reptile world.
As civilisation thrived, we had to cut down forests to make big towns and cities to accommodate more and more people. We knowingly had to drive out the reptiles from their natural habitats. As these reptiles cannot speak and express their emotions to us, for a few time they must have resisted but after finding their fight futile, they sacrificed their homes and went deeper into the jungles.
Our Rishis had a great intellect and an emotional heart. They felt that we need to express our gratitude to this class of animals who are sacrificing their homes for Humans. So they inculcated this practise of celebrating Naag Panchami.
On the occasion of Nag Panchami also want to talk about, the Naga people and Naglok, and giving a broader cultural and social outlook towards the society at large.
Were Nag people humans? Were they part of India? Yes 100%. They were humans and they were a part of India. We have had social and cultural relations with all the different tribes which exist in India even today.
Even today, in modern India, we have the Nagaland. The people residing there are called Nagas. It is just one tribe residing there, from many.
From our history we are all familiar with Vasuki, the serpent King. Just feel like sharing an anecdote about Him. Vasuki has played an important part during the churning of the ocean. Vasuki took part in the incident of churning of the ocean (samudra manthan) by allowing both the devas and the asuras to bind him to Mount Mandar, which was used as a blender in the churning of the ocean to extract “amrut” (nectar). Today it is found that Mount Mandaar or Mandar Hill or Mandar Parvat, as it is popularly known, is located in Banka District, in the State of Bihar in India. A the temple of Lord Shiva, called Vasukinath, literally meaning “the Lord of Vasuki”, is just a few kilometres away from Mandar Parvat, in the State of Jharkhand, in Dumka District.
I believe that this is my countries history and the Serpent King must have played an important part during the debates and discussion which the Devas and the Asuras had during the yesterday years. All these serpents, devas and Asuras were basically humans but names of different types of people who got their names from their characteristics. And the Serpents must have been the anchors of the debate or discussion which took place between the Devas and the Asuras.
Lord Krishna in His celestial song, Shreemad Bhagwad Geeta has called the serpent Vasuki as one His “vibhuti’s.” सर्पाणामस्मि वासुकि: (Amongst the serpents, am Vasuki. And it is this Vasuki, which can be seen around the neck of the lord or lords, Mahadev.
We know and have read about the Nagalok and how Arjun was married to a Nagkanya Ulupi, who gave him a son Iravan, who had participated in the Mahabharat war. And also a reference to that when Bheem, the second Pandav, was poisoned in his childhood and was drowned into a river, it was the Nag people who had saved him. Bheem’s strength is attributed to the potions given to him by them.
So friends, Nag people have been an integral part of our civilisation from years and we have had cultural and social relationships with them. We might have adopted this Nag pooja from them.
So, my readers, our festivals have a divine but cultural and social outlook too, which we need to understand and not laugh upon them. The westerners may call us the land of serpents, but we are far more ahead in our understanding about nature and humans, unlike them. Hence, we need to develop our own understanding about all our festivals.
Yes, I wrote the month of Shraavan and not the holy month of Shraavan as in our tradition all the months are holy. Who can decide which God of the trinity is superior? Shiv, Vishnu or Brahma? None as they all have their work decided for the and they just follow. So if someone says a particular God is more important and not another, then it’s the impression of the medieval thought that has become prevalent after the rise of Christianity and Islam.
I do not want to belittle even those schools of thought, but what I want to convey is that superiority was never a question which the Vedics had to answer or even tried to answer, as they knew very well that every work / thought has its importance. They believe in
“आ नो भद्राः क्रतवो यन्तु विश्वतः।”
– Let all the good thoughts from all over the world come to me
And so Bharat never had a problem with welcoming Zorastrians, Arabs or the English. Nor did it have a problem with the rise of Jainism or Buddhism in Bharat itself. Rather it opened up its arms and accepted them with warmth and an open mind.
Let’s come back to our topic of Shraavan. Actually the farmer is now done with his sowing work and now he needs to take care of his growing crops and nurture them. His family is very busy with all this work. And lest they forget the indwelling God or the omnipresence of God in their work, our Rishis must have given these festivals to celebrate so that Work centered life returns / comes back to God centered.
Through these festivals, the Rishis want to inculcate a feeling of Reverence for the Creation and through them, Reverence for the Creator. At the same time, the utilitarian attitude or selfish attitude of humans should also be God centered. So a slow bit gradual change is expected in Humans while celebrating these festivals.
Yesterday I wrote about Deep Amaavasya. The new moon day is considered unlucky by many but the Rishis have given 4 festivals on all 4 amaavasyas of the Chaturmaas. Yesterday was Deep Amaavasya, next would be Matrudin, later Sarva Pitra Amaavasya and last one is Diwali. All 4 festivals have their own importance and also have tried to explain the importance of the festival culturally and emotionally. They do have a spiritual connect but I still have to develop that outlook, understanding and depth.
So next few days will keep sharing about the festivals during these months.
Today is a Tuesday. Shravan Tuesdays hold a different connotation for the newly married women of Maharashtra, especially amongst the women of Konkan. It is the day of “Mangala Gaur Pujan”. It is also known as “Sharavan Mangala Gaur Pujan”. The newly wed girl comes back to stay with her parents for the month of Asadh. Then on one of the Shravan Tuesdays, this puja is performed. The puja is for her well being.
It’s a time for the women of the family to come together and celebrate. Women play the whole night after the puja. The games are itself delightful yet completely physical as it would be evident from the pitcures see above. The women folk are fit and fine and play these games with festivities, laughter and a sense of competition. It’s a time to forget everything and just engross oneself in the game.
After this puja, the girl can now return to her in-laws. This puja is done for 5 years. The next 4 puja’s are performed at the in-laws place itself. At the end of the 5th year, the girl gifts her mother a pot full of cereals. A way to celebrate for the newly wed at her own place till she adjusts herself at her in-laws. Also a time to be oneself cause the bride would still be formal at her in laws but not at home. Just a way to help her adjust slowly to the new environment.
So as we can see that our Rishis have taken a lot of pain to understand the psyche of the people and given us these festivals. We will try to understand this outlook through my blogs in the coming days.
Today is the last day of Asadh as celebrated here in Western India. It is the last day of the month. But for the Northern India it is the 15th day of the 2nd month of Chaturmaas ie Shraāvan. (Why so? is another topic of research and study). In Western India, a month begins after Amaāvasya whereas in Northern India, Amaāvasya is in the middle of the month. So it is Amaāvasya (No / New Moon Day) today all around India.
Today is Deep Amaāvasya. The day to clean all the Diyas (earthern lamps) made of copper, steel, silver and gold. (Or any other metal) All the used and the unused Diyas are thoroughly cleaned today. And then in the evening time, they all are lit with rangolis (geometrical design with different colours) drawn around it. The Diyas are then worshipped and offered flowers. And the family members then share sweets with each other.
The worship has its own significance. It is spreading light in our lives and the lives of others too. Light is considered auspicious. It removes the darkness from the outer world and at the same time enlightens the inner self. We, Indians, light a Diya everyday and say the following shlokas invoking the blessings of the Gods :
शुभं करोति कल्याणं आरोग्यं धनसंपदः । शत्रुबुद्धिविनाशाय दीपज्योतिनमोऽस्तु ते ॥
दीपज्योतिः परब्रह्म दीपज्योति जनार्दनः । दीपो हरतु मे पापं दीपज्योतिनमोऽस्तु ते ॥
(I bow to the Light, which brings abundance and prosperity of Health, and wealth and which destroys the intelligent enemy [darkness]…
It is you O Light! That is the creator and the operator and you will lead me to light away from sins, so I bow down unto you…)
The Mother Goddess (Shakti) is also symbolised by a burning flame of a diya. Fire helps the mother cook the food. At the same time, they both symbolise energy. And so one of the names of the mother is “Shakti”. Will deal upon it in some later blog.
Lastly am reminded of a short story (or maybe it’s a poem). The Sun is ready to set. The Sun asks everyone in the Universe that who will take his place and give light to the world in his absence? No one answers. A small earthen lamp moves upto him and humbly says, that it might not be as large as the Sun and may not have enough energy to lighten up the world but it will try to lighten up the area around, in which it is kept. This makes the Sun very happy. It signifies the importance of small things in life. However small may one be, with determination one can do the work done by the great ones.
Also I understand the Sun as God and the earthern lamp as Humanity. The Human being promises to be His representation in this Universe and it is his/her responsibility to lighten up the world. So let us all try to be small and humble Diya’s and try to enlighten our lives and the lives of the people around us.
Wish you all a Shubh Deep Amaavasyaa.
Tommorrow onwards is the month of Shraāvan. A month of Devotion and Festivals. Naag Panchami, Shitla Saptami, Janmashtami and many others.
Have decided to write a series during these months of monsoon on the different festivals we celebrate. Will write about the known ones and the lesser known ones too as I have done today. Will try to keep them as short as possible.
Wish you all, my readers, a very Happy Vruskshmandir Din, Madhav Vrund Din and Yuva Din.
All 3 festivals celebrated by the Swadhyay Pariwaar, across the globe, on the same day, ie today, 12th of July. These 3 days also coincide with the birthday of the current head or the Elder Sister of Swadhyay Pariwaar, Revered Dhanashree Athavale – Talwalkar. She happens to be my mentor and guide too. Will write about the parivaar and its founder Revered Pandurang Shashtriji Athavale (Dadaji – elder brother in Marathi) in another blog some day.
Today wanna talk about the outlook that they both have inculcated into thousands of lives in India and abroad.
The Vedic philosophy believes in the 4 basic principles –Reverence for self, -Reverence for others, –Reverence for Nature; and –Reverence for the Creator.
The Creator himself resides within me as He, Himself said so in Shreemad Bhagwad Geeta. “सर्वस्यचाहं हृदि सन्निविष्टो ।” sarvasya caham hrdi sannivisto श्री मद्भग्वदगीता – अध्याय 15 श्लोक 15 (I reside in every heart) So am divine. In the same way, He resides in every heart. So there is no question of looking down upon others too.
And goes a step forward to say, “अश्वत्थ: सर्ववृक्षाणाम् ।” Ashwathaha sarva vrukshaanaam श्री मद्भग्वदगीता – अध्याय 10 श्लोक 26 (Am the Peepal (Ficus religiosa)among the trees) So if the Creator Himself says so, the Nature is divine too. Then how can I even think of harming it!
But Human mind based on reasoning and scientific attitude talks about the need of tree or a cow once it loses it sheen as an object of utility. And slowly loses the feeling of reverence for everything, that has been inculcated in his or her childhood. I need to clarify that am not against the usage of things and objects in our lives, but at the same time it is distressing to see Humans become so emotionless towards fellow human beings, fellow living creatures and nature.
At such a time of distress, comes a Great Man (Human history is full of such great people) who takes us back to our roots and makes us understand to water them, and not bereave them from water. They come out of Law of Universal Necessity, and not out of Law of Attraction and Repulsion or Law of Karma. They teach the Universe about the morals and ethics of life and show the right path to tread on.
Param Pujaniya Pandurang Shashtriji Athavale, Dadaji, is one such person. He explains that people, that is we, look towards nature with a sense of Utility or a sense of Objectivity (being beautiful). But He further explains that we Humans who can think and reason and feel, should move a step ahead and try to find and see the divinity within everything. It is based on this thought that He has given an experiment called Vrukhsmandir (A temple of forests).
Swadhyayees from 20 villages around plant trees in a barren land. Take care of them as family members and grow them. As it is a community work, no one is the owner of the produce. It’s rightful owner is God, Himself. It may sound like some social experiment, but my readers I should draw your attention to the fact that it is purely divine. Everyone who participates here is learning to see God, even in the trees. Through this, I feel, that Shashtriji has revived the feeling of Reverence towards Nature. There are 27 such Vrukshmandirs in the state of Gujarat and Maharashtra.
And for this novel experiment of Vrikshmandirs, Shashtriji has been awarded the Indira Priyadarshini Vrikshmitra Award too.
It is an experiment which does have social impact, but Shashtriji explains and propounds that, we do plant trees and take care of them, but we are not environmentalist, we are ‘Bhakts’ (devotees). There are so many instances where lives of people going to Vruskhmandirs have changed and this is the basic idea of what Shashtriji wants to do. He further explains, that if we see changes in the mindset of the society or a positive attitude develops towards nature, for society as a whole, then it is the ‘side effect’ of this experiment. The Vrukshmandir is basically for a human to look into himself and change. This is Swadhyay.
Representational Image
Similarly, the people living in metro cities like Mumbai and Bengaluru or Kolkatta and Delhi and in town and cities have been encouraged to plant a small shrub at home to develop a healthy and a divine attitude towards Nature. Everyday morning, the family members get together and water the plant and utter the ‘Narayanopanishad’ while watering. Two small changes can happen. One is that the family comes closer and their bonding collectively with nature too increases. Singing the Narayanopanishad helps develop the understanding of seeing Narayan, ie God in the tree or sapling planted at home.
This understanding based on the thoughts of Bhakti has transformed lives of people and families. Created a sense of unity amongst society. And yes, indirectly helped in environment conservation too.
Shastriji has also asked upon Swadhyayees to conserve water at home, in fields and in lakes around their villages. Swadhyay parivaar has built thousands of lakes and check dams across many states in India. They call them ‘Nirmal Neer’. Also many Swadhyayees have taken upto rain water harvesting in their individual houses and many villagers have started helping in recharging the ground water levels through an experiment of “Shosh Khadda” (a pit that helps absorb kitchen water into the ground).
My readers might have a question that even after doing all this, we have never heard about it. Because both, Shashtriji and His daughter are of the firm belief that we have to go and share such ideas with people personally. First develop a relationship and then share. It is not a system but their conviction that changes are desirable in the minds of the people. The moment they realise and develop a bond with their God within, then a small Human can do big things. It is this firm belief that has kept the Parivaar together. And so they keep away from Media. There has been no such media propaganda of the ground work that they have done.
Today, also happens to be the birthday of Dhanashree Didi (Didi – elder sister). She has been nurturing the Parivaar with lots of love, warmth and affection. The way She connects with people through Her talks and action is just unbelievable. For people who dont know Her, they would feel that am just exaggerating. So even I would say that Seeing is believing. I have seen it and I believe it.
Representational Image
She has taken a lot of efforts to gather all the different pearls (people of different states, linguistic preferences, castes, creed, nationaities) into a single thread. The youth, in particular, will remain indebted to Her for generations to come. According to the wishes of Dadaji, She has organised the youth and given them dynamic activities through which the generation of today understand the morals, ethics and more importantly, the nearness of God. So the youth on Her birthday, celebrate Yuva Din (Youth Day). It is a way of expressing their Gratitude to both these ‘ Mahamaanavs.’
At the end, I pray to God that
May He, help us to develop strong bondings amongst Humans that these binds transcend faith and uplift Humanity.
May He, help us develop the understanding of oneness with Nature and the Universe as a whole.
May He, take us closer to Himself and bless us with understanding of oneness with God.
Moras Bhaji is a beautiful salty succulent that grows in damp regions like mangroves, dunes, beaches, etc which is mostly available during early monsoons.
It is a perennial creeper with small thick flat leaves. The size of the leaves goes up to 1 1/2 to 2 inches in length.
It is considered as a Halophyte. Halophytes are salt tolerant plants that grow in waters with high salinity, such as mangrove swamps, marshes, seashores and saline semi deserts. Only two percent of the plant species found on the earth are Halophytes.
The reason I planned to write about Moras as I came to know about its importance and use in one of the ‘Vrats’ (penance) done by the unmarried girls of a small age, in Gujarat. It is called “Molakaat”. The girls stay away from use of salt in food for 5 days. It is unimaginable for people like me who like a pinch (a bit large) of salt in their food. But the girls do dedicatedly follow the rules and abstain from salt.
Here is where Moras comes in. As it is rich in salt, some girls consume it during these 5 days. As the vrat coincides with the onset of monsoons, Moras is also available in plenty. They consume Moras in the form of theplas, parathas or falafels. They are very delicious to taste and are eaten by all in the family. Many a girls even abstain from consuming these.
But overall, I was just thinking about the vrats have been made to coincide with the seasons so my Namaskaars to the people who have come up with these novel ideas to make us learn some control in life too.
Well, I was very happy to consume the falafels made at home, which have left a taste to savour more. Will ask everyone of my readers to find out more such local delicacies and enjoy them during this lockdown…
A question mark bowing down to an exclamation mark. It’s mind boggling.
At the same time Awesome. Beautiful. Creative.
It wholly explains the openness of Vedic literature in a simple yet lucid manner. Vedas have always given an impetus to asking questions. “Veda” itself means “to know“. This is has been and should be the underlying principle of development of the Human, His soul and the entire Human race.
The questions:
Who am I?
Where have I come from?
What do I have to do?
Why am I chosen to play my part?
How do I do it?
need to be asked by one and all. Everyone might find a different answer to these questions. But the end result is the salvation of the soul from this circle of life and death.
The quest is the road from life to death to life, till the soul finds it’s rightful place. The day when the soul gets to sit in the lap of God, as “Dhruv” has found it. As many others have found it.
Some go to the extent of saying that stick to a thought and live your life with it and accordingly and you will find your salvation. Though I am no one to disagree with these Great souls, I feel that it is not possible. Say for example Mahatma Gandhi. By sticking to the lone principle of Ahimsa, he might have earned the title of a Mahatma, but if someone tells me that his soul was liberated due to this, is what I am not ready to believe. (Pls try to understand what I want to say and do not argue or counter argue on the example given. It can be anyone else.) I just want to convey that the development has to be whole, entire, complete.
Coming back to the quest, what I am fascinated by is the last question “How do I do it?”. There is no particular answer to this question. It will be varied. A “few” may find their own way to do it. They are the ones who have come, or rather, been sent to Mother Earth out of Law of Universal Necessity. The “many” need to follow them, do what they do and say what they say. Again accepting the master or a teacher is a human choice.
This is where I loved the picture, as for common people like me or rather us, we all need to bow down to these great people of wisdom – accept them as our Teachers, Guru…
Bowing down is to find the answers to our questions.
Bowing down is to signify the acceptance of their being a step ahead of us in the quest of develooment.
Bowing down means ” समर्पण”. I offer myself and my life to you and please guide me.
Bowing down means having full faith in the person we bow down to, after testing and questioning and reasoning every word the person has said.
Bowing down means merging our life into his and walk onto his path.
And then,
Here the questions rest.
Here the quest for development not only through thought but action begins.
Here we tread on the path to become an enlightened researcher.
As Shreemad Bhagwad Geeta propounds “बुधा भावसमन्विताः।” (Chapter 10 Verse 8) (a combination of Intellect and Emotions), this can be the only way to find the answers to our questions.
So my readers, let us begin this journey and be blessed by the right teachers who show us the path on which we need to tread on.
असित-गिरि-समं स्यात् कज्जलं सिन्धु-पात्रे। सुर-तरुवर-शाखा लेखनी पत्रमुर्वी।। लिखति यदि गृहीत्वा शारदा सर्वकालं। तदपि तव गुणानामीश पारं न याति।।
Pushpadant in his Shiv Mahimna Stotra has written this Shlok for the Lord. It translates thus:
O Lord! Even if we make paper of the land mass present on earth and ink from the water of her oceans, use the trees as a pen and if Saraswati, intelligence personified, sit backs to write about you for the time infinite, then too, it’s a mammoth and daunting task to describe all your qualities.
Today is Vyas Poornima. People celebrate it as Guru Poornima. Indian culture / civilisation personifies God in the form of a Guru. To lead and follow a spiritual life, a guru is needed. Kabirji in one of his doha’s (couplets) describes the importance of guru thus
गुरु गोविंद दोऊ खड़े, काके लागूं पाय। बलिहारी गुरु आपकी, गोविंद दियो बताय।।
Both the Guru and the Lord are standing in front of me and am confused whom should I bow down to first?.
The next line can be translated in two ways:
1. As you, my Guru, have shown me this form of the Lord, I bow down to you first
2. You being my Guru, pointed to the Lord saying, bow at His feet first.
It’s such a beautiful feeling that Kabirji has expressed stating that both the interpretations can be right. As they both, the Lord and Guru are no different.
Ved Vyas is the son of Rishi Parashar and Satyavati, a fisherwomen. The story goes that Rishi Parashar was in a hurry to reach a “Yaag” and had to cross a river to reach the other side. At that time, it was Satyavati who helped him cross the river. In lieu, Rishi Parashar gave her a mantra to beget a son. He also told her that the son would be very intelligent and no one would compare to him in intelligence. Satyavati at that moment invoked the mantra and conceived a child. The boy when born was called “Krishna” as he had black skin. The child was born on an island so was known as “Krishna Dwaipayan” (Dwaipayan – island born). [There may be other stories about the birth of Vyas, and I leave it upto my reader to decide which they like, but one thing is a fact that he was a son of Parashar and Satyavati].
As Krishna grew into an adult, he left Satyavati and promised her to return whenever she needed him. He gained knowledge from the four Kumar’s, Muni Narad and Brahma, Himself. After acquiring his education, he took upon a great task of bifurcating the Veda mantras.
Till then, the Vedas were all one. Krishna took upon him the task of understanding each mantra and started dividing them into Rigved, Yajurved and Samved. Rigved has all the mantra’s invoking Mother Nature and the Gods. Yajurved has mantra’s describing rituals and the technical modalities of performing them. Samved has the same mantra’s of Rigved (a few are different), but they are written in a meter and so can be sung.
It is easy for me to describe in three sentences the work he has done. But to be fair and to give you, my readers a fair idea about the volume of work, am just quoting one figure. Rigved had 12/13 shakhas of which only 2 are available today. The available 2 shakhas have more than 10000 mantras. It was a mammoth task. Also it was Krishna, who with a large heart accepted Tantra and Medicine as Vidya and clubbed them together to make a fourth Ved, Atharvaved. It covers many topics from the duties of the king to a common house holder. (Courtesy – Kanhaiyalal Munshi) The contribution of Krishna Dwaipayan cannot be put into words but due to his effort, people started calling him “Ved Vyas”. (One who has bifurcated the Vedas). He is considered by many as the incarnation of the Trinity, of Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh.
अचतुर्वदनो ब्रह्मा द्विबाहुरपरो हरिः ।
अभाललोचनः शम्भुर्भगवान् बादरायणः।।
(He does not have 4 heads yet He is Brahma, He has just two hands yet He is Vishnu, He does not have a third eye, yet He is Shiv, He is none other than Bhagwaan Badrayan)
After his work was complete, which includes the writing of many Upanishads, he has written the 18 Puranas of which Bhagwat Puran is very famous and known to us. He wrote these Puranas as he realised that what he has written is difficult for a common man to understand. So he has written all the thoughts of Vedas and Upanishads as short stories. This is the height of intelligence when one starts thinking about all this mammoth work.
The one thing I should also mention is about Brahma Sutra. A collection of 555 sutras (aphorisms) in which is said to have compiled the whole philosophy of life. Brahma Sutra is associated with Badrayan as Vyas is also sometimes addressed as. It is said that the island in which he was born was covered with “Badara” (ber/ Indian Jujube) and so the name.
Last but not the least, Mahabharat. It is said to cover every relation and emotion under the sun. It has always attracted researchers from every field, be it historical, social, pshycological, archaeological and many more. It is said that when Vyas invited Ganesh to write the Mahabharat, Ganesh put forward a condition that Vyas will not stop when dictating the story. To which Vyas replied that he will not, but Ganesh too will first understand what is being told and then write. And so was written the Mahabharat of which Shreemad Bhagwadgeeta was the heart.
The Prasthantrayi of Upanishads, the Shreemad Bhagwadgeeta and the Brahmasutra is a gift to this world from Ved Vyas. All the Acharyas have written their commentaries on the three. The Trayi holds a very pious place in the Vedic culture.
It is very difficult to write all the work, in one blog cause as a point is written, a new thought arises which can be written about Ved Vyas. So on this auspicious day, believed to be his birthday and also the day when He completed and gave to the world the 4 Veds, I just bow down to Him with humility.
One last thing I wanted to share with my readers some of whom are my students too. I know that we all feel indebted to our school and tution teachers, rather we all should. But today is not the day to wish them. For them, in India, we celebrate 5th September as the Teacher’s Day. Today is a day to bow down to those teachers (guru) who have taught us how to lead a good and humane life and who leads us onto the path of spiritual development. The wishes should be “Guru Poornima ke Namaskaar” or “Bow down to you on this auspicious day of Guru Poornima”.
Let’s end with the Namaskaars to Lord Krishna as he is Jagadguru in the words of Ved Vyas, himself,
On the 11th day of the month of Asaadh, the Gods are put to sleep. This day is widely celebrated across India as Devshayani Ekadashi. (Do they sleep? Can we exist without them? is another question) But it is such a beautiful concept of “Sagun Bhakti” (Idol worship). As I sleep, so does my God. And our rishi’s have given a thought about people’s pshycology. The agrarian people will be busy with their work in the fields and will not be able to take care of the rituals associated with God’s. So the best way is to put Them to sleep. In this way, people can just concentrate on their work and give it 100% and at the same time do not feel bad or gulity about not doing their regular rituals and religious practises.
It is being celebrated today on 29th of June, this year, with a lot of fanfare, yet in a every simple manner, at Pandharpur, the residing place of Lord Vitthal or Pandurang. Lacs of waarkari’s have converged at the banks of Chandrabhagaa river and are waiting to visit the deity residing in the temple. The waari ( वारी) as called in Marathi begins some 15/20 days before the Ekadashi. The devotees carry the Paduka’s (wooden sandals) of the great saints Tukaram from Dehu and Dnyaneshwar from Alandi, their birth places to Pandharpur for the Darshan of their Lord.
The roads are filled with the chants of
‘DNYANOBA MAULI TUKARAM”
“NIVRUTTI DNYANDEV SOPAN MUKTABAI,
EKNATH NAMDEO TUKARAM”.
All of them converge at Pandharpur on the day before Ekadashi. It is a divine trip from home to the temple, signifying the upliftment of the physical body to the spiritual soul. There are many waarkaris who have been taking this trip for years or from generations now. Their zest and enthusiasm irrespective of age and gender cannot be appreciated, but we can just offer them our ‘Namaskaars’.
The best thing about Warkari’s is that there is no distinction between caste or creed, rich or poor, King or layman and male and female. Not even between the child and the older people. They call each other ‘Mauli‘ and bow down to everyone whom they meet. It is a heartening picture to see a husband bowing down to his wife and a father bowing down to his son. The basic thought behind it is that I bow down to the God (Mauli – Mother) within you.
The saints Dnyaneshwar, Tukaram, Namdeo, Eknath, Gora Kumbhar, Chokha Mela, Muktabai and many others have done a tremendous work through this Bhakti movement in Maharashtra during the Mughal rule. They have visited hut to hut and touched the hearts of many a people and taken their Pandurang into the last person of the society.
Who is this Pandurang?
Who is this Vitthal?
Why does He stand with Hands onto his waist?
He is none other than Krishna who has travelled all the way from Dwarka to meet His Devotee Pundalik. Pundalik is the only son of two parents who have taken utmost care in his upbringing. Pundalik is a “ananya bhakt” of Krishna. He is spreading the word of Krishna to the people around him. His karmayog (work) is very big, but sadly lost today to history. When Shree Krishna hears about Pundalik and his work, He feels an urge to meet him. He rushes to Pandharpur in His chariot. The dusty roads make the dust stick to the skin of Shree Krishna. The already ‘Shyam’ (black) Krishna gets a new skin colour due to this dust. Hence He is called “Pandurang”.
When Krishna reaches the doors of Pundalik, He calls him out. It is said that Pundalik is busy with taking care of his parents, so throws a brick (eint) towards Him and asks him to wait. So Lord Pandurang puts His hands on His waist and waits for Pundalik to come out to meet him. Now this sounds a little weird to us. A devotee would never make his God to wait. Even the parents of Pundalik would have rushed out to meet Him. But due to poverty, there was no proper place to make Him sit, so they must have offered Him the brick shaped stone to sit on or stand on. We see Pandurang still standing on that stone at Pandharpur.
Jagadguru Shakaracharya gives us the meaning of this whole episode in his stotra “Pandurangashtkam.”
The God through this form of Pandurang wants to explain to His devotee thus:
“For those who are mine and reside in my heart, the waters of the Sansaar sagar, the Bhav sagar, are only upto the waist. So there is no question of drowning. One just needs to walk through these waist deep waters to meet me“
My dear readers, isn’t it big thing? It is generally, the devotee who goes to meet his God. Here it is the God, Himself, coming dow to meet His devotee. Namakaars to Pundalik and his karmayog.
From that day onwards till today, Pandurang through His various forms and lives, has guided His devotees to carry His word from heart to heart and hut to hut. It is through this thought, the saints came up with the thought of Dindi, or Wari, where devotees on their way to meet their Lord, walk from village to village. Visit hut to hut. Touch heart to heart. And spread the message of the Lord.
And after seeing, the work taken up and being done by His devotees, the way He wants them to, He goes to sleep. Why so? Is another topic which we will discuss and dwell upon when He gets up 4 months from now, on Prabodhini Ekadashi day.
PUNDALIK VARDE HARI VITTHAL.
SHREE DNYANDEV TUKARAM.
PANDHARINATH MAHARAJ KI JAY.
Today is also National Doctors Day… Wishing all of them a very Happy Doctor’s Day and expressing my gratefulness for taking care of the nation and its citizens….
Today is National CA Day… The Chartered Accountants look after the economic health of our families and society at large. Expressing gratitude towards them as well….
At the onset of my blog itself, wishing all my Kutchhi brothers and sisters a very Happy New Year
असां जे कच्छी माडुओ के नव वर्ष की लख लख वधाई।
मेठो पांजो कच्छडो, मेठा पांजा माडु,
मेठी पांजी गालीयुं, ने मेठी पांजी प्रीत,
हलो हलो रे… आवई अषाढी बीज ।
The 2nd day of the month of Asaadh is a day celebrated as the onset of monsoons in Gujarat and Kutchh. The monsoons bring a smile on everyone’s face and people rejoice and celebrate as if it’s a new year.This day is celebrated all over India, especially Odisha, as the Rathyatra, “the procession of Chariots”. Lord Jagannath alongwith his elder brother Balbhadra and sister Devi Subhadra moves in their chariots around the Odia town of Jagannath Puri. This annual rath yatra attracts tourists from around the world. People get to touch their Lord and pull his chariot which is a one in a lifetime experience.
Jagannath Swami rides in the rath which is majorly decorated in yellow and called the “Nandi Ghosh.” Lord Balbhadra rides in “Tala dhwaj” decorated in green. And Devi Subhadra rides in her “Padma Dhwaj” black chariot. It’s the time when the siblings move out of their temples to meet the people, common folk, of their town. From their temple, they go to Gundicha temple, 3km away. Hence this yatra is also called as the Gundicha Yatra.
The names of the chariots and the colours too have their own significance. The chariots have their own charioteers. Daruka is on the Nandighosh, Matali on Taladhwaj and Arjun on Padmadwaj.
First the Deities are brought out from the temple in a very typical way. The deities do not have full body, but just a the face. So they need to be lifted and got out. This ritual is called the “Pahandi“. When one sees the deities being taken out, it seems as if they are being dragged. The multitudes of people try to catch a glimpse of the Lord and touch Him.
As soon as the Lord settles on His rath with His siblings (note that each deity has His or Her own individual rath), the erstwhile King of the Gajapati clan, arrives in a dress of a sweeper and cleans the rath and the roads with a broom in hand. This ritual is called “Chera Pahara“. It signifies that in the presence of the Lord, everyone is equal. The Kings, too through the years, have been very humble andgrateful to the Lord, to let them serve Him.
Then begins the journey.
The journey of the Lord to see His own people
The journey where the people can see their Lord
The journey of life to eternity.
The common man gets an opportunity to pull the three Raths and carry their Lord to His destination. The millions who have assembled, all, just try to touch the ropes attached to the Rath and feel grateful. The idea of a mere Human pulling the Rath of the Lord is in itself such a beautiful thought. It is He who pulls our lives throughout, but this day we get an opportunity not only to see Him, but pull his Rath as well.
Being elder, Balbhadra leads the triad. Followed by Subhadra and lastly comes Lord Jagannath himself. The idea of the brothers taking care of their sister is so divine. At the same time, it also signifies that Strength (Balbhadra) and Power (Jagannath), need to be balanced in Life. It would be possible only when one has the “bhadra” outlook (Subhadra).
Once the deities reach the Gundicha temple, they stay there for 10 days and will return back to their house after that, in the same manner as today. These 10 days are of Nagar Yatra and Darshan. The people get to see their Lords amongst themselves. The Lord too through this Yatra demonstrates that people in power need to keep their feet firmly on the ground and also keep in touch with the masses living in his or her kingdom.
The Yatra lasts for 6-7 hours and sometimes even takes 15-16 hours depending upon the wish of the deity. It is truly a very divine atmosphere in itself to be witnessed. I would request my readers to atleast visit Jagannath Puri once in a life time and if possible during the Yatra time.
A stotra written by Jagadguru Shankaracharya called Jagannathashtak is worth reciting. Quoting a shlok from it for Lord Jagannath. रथारूढो गच्छन् पथि मिलित भूदेव पटलैः स्तुति प्रादुर्भावम् प्रतिपदमुपाकर्ण्य सदयः । दया सिन्धुर्बन्धुः सकल जगतां सिन्धु सुतया जगन्नाथः स्वामी नयन पथ गामी भवतु मे ॥५॥(“When Lord Jagannatha is on His Ratha-yatra cart and is moving along the road, at every step there is a loud presentation of prayers and songs chanted by large assemblies of brahmanas. Hearing their hymns Lord Jagannatha is very favorably disposed towards them. He is the ocean of mercy and the true friend of all the worlds. May that Jagannatha Swami, along with His consort Lakshmi, who was born from the ocean of nectar, be the object of my vision.”)
Today, in these difficult times of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Lord will come out to bless us all and the world . Wishing you all a very divine and spiritual Yatra (journey).
Today on the occasion of Ganga Dusshara, I extend my wishes to you and everyone at home.
Let Maa Ganga delivery us from all our sins and so let us understand this utsav in this context.
GANGA DUSSHARA means the one who takes away our 10 sins (Duss + Hara) from our lives.
These 10 sins are ‘Kaayik’, ‘Vachik’ and ‘Mansik’ (physical, speech (thoughts) and pshycological).
अदत्तानामुपादानं हिंसा चैवाविधानतः।
परदारोपसेवा च कायिकं त्रिविधं स्मृतम्।।
1. To take away even if not offered ie to steal
2. To commit violence for no reason
3. To have adulterous connections
These are the sins committed by the body ie physical self.
पारूष्यमनृतं चैन पैशुन्यं चापि सर्वतः।
असंबद्धप्रलापश्र्व वाङ्मयं स्याच्चतुर्विधम्।।
4. To speak arrogantly,
5. To lie (To spread falsehood)
6. To backbite about others
7. To talk without any reason and what make no sense ie senseless talk
The above mentioned 4 sins are committed through tongue (thoughts)
परद्रव्येष्वभिध्यानं मनसानिष्टचिंतनम्।
वितथाभिनिवेशश्र्व मानसं त्रिविधं स्मृतम्।।
8. To think about snatching others wealth
9. To think that bad happen to others
10. To wrongly insist / persist
These are the 3, and the last of 10, sins committed in our minds
एतानि दश पापानि हर त्वमथ जाह्नवी।
दशपापहरा यस्मात्तस्माद् दशहरा स्मृता।।
O Ganga ! you are the one who will deliver me from the above said 10 sins and so I remember you (bow down to you) on the Dusshara day as “Duspaaphara”.
While writing the meanings, and you my readers, while reading the meanings must have realised that we do commit some or the other sin/s from the above 10 everyday. These first 3 Shlokas bring inferiority complex in us while reading them, but the last ie 4th shloka installs the confidence that Maa Ganga will deliver us from them.
And for this, Param Pujaniya Pandurang Shashtriji suggests thus :
“Human has to bathe / cleanse his body, his thoughts and his mind daily. The body has to be cleansed with water, the thought with ‘Swadhyay – self introspection’ and the mind with ‘Bhakti – devotion’. If we dip in Ganga with this understanding, then Maa Ganga will surely deliver us from our sins”
– Sanskruti Pujan (Utsav Vibhag), based on discourses given by Param Pujaniya Pandurang Shashtriji Athavale.
Lastly, A humble pray to Maa Ganga to keep blessing all of us in the way She has always.
Pray to God that may India receive the rainfall it needs.
Pray to God that let the world feels it oneness with its Creator
And once again Pray to deliver us from our above said 10 sins.
I bow down and go to the Sangh, Dham (Religion) and Buddha for enlightenment.
I purposely began with Sangham Sharanam Gacchami as opposite to what people say. Cause I believe that even He, The Enlightened One, will agree with it. Go the the Sangh first. Follow your “Dharma” second. And then come to me. Buddha, as history tell us, is the first to establish a Sangh, for propagation of religion. He gave a very well designed way to spread religion through the Sangh. India will always be indebted to Him for this. And as a result, we see that Buddhist thought and philosophy has not only spread all over Asia, but also dominate the thinking process of Asia in a way. The famous travellers HuenTsang and FaHien with the help of King Ashok, King Bimbisara have translated many of the Buddhist literature into Mandarin and helped in spreading the word of Buddha far and wide.
Buddha means the enlightened one.
Buddha means unattached.
Buddha means the great leader.
Readers, last blog had left a question unanswered that why are the followers of Buddha, a proponent of Ahimsa (non – violence), fish eating or meat eating? Has He allowed this? Friends, let us go back to the era when He lived. To propagate His thought, he approached the intellectual class at that time. This class did not respond to His call. So He accepted whosoever responded to His call. He accepted them as they are and yes believed that slowly they would change their ways of eating. And change, they did. But if it is translated as meat eating is allowed by Buddha, then it’s our misconception about Him. He cannot be blamed for the misinterpretation.
And so I believe what my spiritual master has told me.
An individual who guides lacs and crores of people to lead a simple and an austere life should be accepted as an Incarnation of God. And Buddha is no different.
I bow down to Buddha today, and submit myself to His care and warmth.
Indian first 
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