Category: A12– Everything under the Sun

From my first son Ananth’s house to my second son Atchuth’s house is 21/2 hrs drive. When we started around 7 P M , the sky was very bright. Between 70 and 80 Mph, the car was moving. I was amazed at the celebration in the sky to bid farewell to the Sun . The whole of the western horizon was golden as if thousands of lamps had risen high from the woods all of a sudden . Hei, wait a minute . Look at the left side, not far from the sun. There is a large assembly of clouds and they are all pure silver shade, brilliant, lavishly bright. How are these bright silver heavenly bodies maintaining their original colour completely unaffected by the bright gold close by. I look at the sides . The thick woods, oaks, maples and other earthy bodies are all in high spirits, maintaining their dark green .

‘Appa, would like to have some coffee?”, asks my son. I am not answering. I am gazing at the sky, alternately at the woods. Any thing with a beginning has to have an end. Like a huge serpent with thousand hoods, darkness leaps and swallows the sun, clouds, the whole sky. I am sad. Look at my left, to my right. Everywhere the demon darkness has swallowed every thing. I look at the speedometer- crossed 80. Gold or silver, it makes no difference in the darkness. Good or bad, wealthy or poor, pious or sinner, it makes no difference for the Death. I never, usually think about Death, but ‘ why now ‘ I ask myself. I blame the darkness in the sky, all over the woods, for my thoughts. What a fool you are ?’, asks someone from within. ‘The darkness is the mother of brightness. the sky is in the process of conceiving now and in a few hours another sun will be born’

So, there is hope and we live on hope.
‘Appa, coffee?’ Sharath asks. “Hm” I nod yes. How many suns I have seen born and dyeing ! how many clouds I have seen being formed and getting liquidated ! So, there is no birth or death. Just a process of recycling.

“More you give, more you get”. What is it?

‘Help’

‘No, abuses’

”More you fill up, more you have space’ . What is it?

‘Cotton wool bag’

‘No. Desire’

“More you gift ; more she asks for?’ Who is that?

‘Your wife’

‘No, Chethal, wood worms’

‘More wrongs ; more pinches ‘. Who is that?

‘Your class teacher’

‘No. Your conscious’

Woman is born as woman.
But, man becomes one by training.
Train your baby son to become a man!

Singing is a Devine experience. Singing and hearing, fully understanding the bhAva of the composer and experiencing a bit of his feelings, is an inexplainable anuboothi, experience.
Those interested in Carnatic music should try to understand the bhAvam, the feelings of the composer so that they can enjoy the music, better.

‘Did you come all the way walking, to protect me?,’ asks Thyagaraja to Sree Rama, addressing Him as, ‘nA prAnanAthA!’

‘Nannu pAlimpa nadasivochithivo?’.

In another song, he asks, ‘Ela nEe dayarAdu?’ (more…)

That strike was so harsh that I thought the world had come to an end.
No, it hadn’t.

After a while, I realized that the world was very much there and only I had gone blind and deaf.

Again after sometime I could hear a melody flowing in the air.
I was not deaf!

Then, in a dim light, I could see a lovely hand lifting me up from the ground.
I was not blind!

Slowly I realized that the hand which lifted me up, wiped off my tears and pain was the same as the one that slapped me earlier.

‘Come on, let us move,’ a whisper into my ears, ‘ you have a purpose to live’

I picked up courage and asked ,’ what about my things, which I lost?’

‘They were not yours’ The reply was cool. ‘If they were, they would have come with you’

‘I didn’t get you,’ I seek a clarification. ‘Have I lost everything?’

‘No, you have me with you. You are mine and I’m yours’

‘Why did you slap at my face, if I’m yours?’

‘Naaku eami thelusu? What do I know?’

That was followed by a sweet laugh .

The melody of that laugh intermingled by the moving sound of steps, is imbedded in my memory.

But where is He?

‘Naaku eami thelusu?’

We are all shining objects but with a black dot on our head!

‘Janma, mrithyu, jaraa thaptha
Jana visraanthi daayini!’
is one of the namas of Ambal in the Lalithasahasranamam, one can meditate upon, for long.

‘You are the ultimate solace for the sufferers from the routine of birth, aging and death, Mother!’

The Samskritham hymns give you immense happiness if you recite those understanding their meaning. ( Even otherwise, you go to Swargam, say learned men. But that is not my aim. I think only about the life here).

I’m yet to meet a single person in my long walk of life, who haven’t suffered the pangs of living in one way or the other.
Super rich, ultra successful, extremely intelligent all undergo pain, unbearable pain mental and physical at some stage or the other in their life.

Last week , while in my son in law ‘s house in Florida, a close relative, a successful professional, who was once and whose children are now in high position, mentioned that there is a small black dot in every manjadikuru, മഞ്ചാടിക്കുരു, which is otherwise uniformly, bright, polished, colorful, attractive. You know manjadikurus are the uniformly oval shaped redseeds, heaped in a big metal vessel, before the sanctum of Guruvayoorappan.

I’m aware of the story behind that, but when the relative compared the knock everyone, however big, receives on his head from the Destiny, for a moment, I thought, ‘could it be to remind us that suffering is very much a part of life, those bright red seeds with a black dot at the end are placed at the entrance of the temple?’
When we collect them in our cupped palms and drop we tell God, ‘yes, Lord, we are aware of our plight, but make your knock on our head, tolerable, please!’

More over the seeds have uniform weight and that was why old goldsmiths were using those for measuring. Yes, for Him, we are of the same weight. You may be the brightest and me, the dullest but for Him, we are all shining objects of uniform size, of course with a black dot on our head, a knock -mark from the Fate!
( Images from the web)