The First Convocation

 

I remember many many years back, my husband came home after participating in group Upakarma and shared a delightful tale the Vaadhyaar had shared. Long long ago, far far away, in the times of Maharishi Ved Vyasa, who travelled the length and breadth of the region, (mainly travelled along the Ganges) and taught many students in the settlements all along the river. Much like a visiting Professor, he would travel each year, impart the wisdom and meet all his students. Then one year, he decided to have all of them congregate in one location on the Full moon day in the month of Shravan and conducted a grand ceremony for all his students to mark their graduation in Vedic studies. They all performed the Upakarma together, renewed their vow and thus began the tradition of holding an annual  Convocation of sorts, which is practiced to this day.

 

I remember Swamy came home feeling very proud to be following a practice that was established by Maharishi Ved Vyasa Himself.

 

Isnt it amazing that our practices are so ancient and such little stories shared on occasions like these can kindle so much wonder and amazement in our minds, particularly young children who may take to further reading on this subject. The little story per se may have different versions, but does its job of keeping the traditions alive.

Are you Committed? Really? Read on

One of the nicer parts to Lockdown are the Online sessions one can opt for, from the comforts of our home. I am part of a self study group (Swadhyaya) listening to Swami Suryapada talk on the Srimad Bhagwat Gita. A delightful way to begin the day, a 60 minute session, with easy understanding of the complex shlokas. I love his explanations and the manner in which he connects with the Meditation techniques taught by Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. 

So, we were listening to his discourse on meaning of shlokas from Chapter 5 when he came up with an amazing anecdote which is so fantastic that it has got me to blog after one year:-)

He was talking about the importance of 3 things for progress - Shraddha, Commitment & Discipline. Shraddha loosely translates as Faith & Swamiji said the word can best be described as the faith a one year old child has for his/her mother and tweaked it a bit. He explained that the intellect in a one year old is not developed, but having the same faith after the intellect has developed is Shraddha. 

Commitment had the most interesting anecdote. He apparently heard this from a priest in a temple in Tamil Nadu: Commitment is that which transcends Feelings. So, doing something because one feels like it, is not commitment, but doing something because a Master has asked you to do, although you dont feel like doing it is Commitment. He elaborated from the story of Ramayana. When Lord Rama was preparing to leave for the forest, his brothers wanted to join him too. Lakshmana insisted he join him as he was Lord Rama's shadow and no amount of dissuasion from Lord Rama could change Lakshmana's decision. Bharata then pleaded to accompany Lord Rama as well, as he could not dream of leading a life without Lord Rama. Lord Rama however asked him to stay back and rule the kingdom which Bharata did. So, if we need to understand real commitment, its apparently the commitment Bharata had - although he wished to be in Rama's presence, he did Rama's biding by staying back, transcending his feelings!! Such a beautiful explanation of the word and a new dimension to understanding Bharata's personality.

The third quality is Discipline of the five senses which is pretty straightforward. 

Do leave a comment if this story inspired you as much as it did for me.

The brouhaha of Eco friendly Ganesha today and our family tradition

And Ganesh Chaturthi was celebrated today, muted for some perhaps. At our place, it was the usual works, Ganapathi Sthapana, Puja and a liberal dose of prasadam😊, I had to actually skip dinner today. Off late the shrill noises in media on going eco friendly with Ganeshas has gotten so loud, and this year, it reached some maddening crescendo. I just don't get it. In Chennai, we've always been buying or making Ganeshas made of clay, we either immerse it in the beach / open wells, or in a bucket of water and put it in the garden. 

Marketing gimmicks these days include, use of seeds within the Ganesha, use of cow dung in the clay and what not!! And with partial lockdown still around, we have people making the idol with wheat flour, refined wheat flour (maida) and God knows what else!!

All this takes me down the memory lane, as the cliche goes. At our home, its always been an annual tradition with my dad making the clay Ganesha over 2 days, after getting back from work, late evenings. We would sieve, clean and keep the clay ready for him to begin without delay. He would make different postures each year, use his imagination and create a fairly big one, atleast a 2 feet Ganesha. Each year, he would use different style in making the dhothi, ornaments, the orientation of the trunk (valampuri or otherwise). It used to be our little excitement during that week. It was a family event and we all would chip in. 

All this was done without much ado, no social media in those days (he has been making them from 1980s). It brought us all together, we enjoyed and savoured the activity, and since we were in Mumbai, we did the Visarjan as per local practices. Today, the tradition lives on with my sister making the Ganesha, and more recently, my niece and brother have taken to it. Matter of time, before I take the plunge too! 

Ended up rummaging pics from old albums

The public discourse during & after the deluge in Chennai

Being a Chennaiite, the deluge on December 1 & 2, 2015 is going to stay with me for a while. Enough has been written about the life during and after the deluge but I still feel an urge to pen my thoughts on the disaster and the public debate, later.

Just like the rest of Chennai, we went without power for a few days, managed with inverter /DG set for a day or two and when even that got drained, moved into a hotel! It was unthinkable for me - to stay in a hotel in my own city. Soon, I realized I was one of the more fortunate ones, to be able to get a room when I wanted and also experienced zero loss to personal property. Communication remained erratic for a week and more, which added to the general woes. We suddenly found ourselves living like it was a few decades ago - pretty unconnected digitally, our gadgets seemed to be thoroughly useless toys, and we had real, face to face long conversations with people. We met and spoke to our neighbours often, shared resources, food. This was community living as we knew it! People everywhere seemed so warm, and helpful. 

Usually, during such disasters, when the power goes out, most countries have places like the public library where citizens stay, charge their phones and communicate. But here, the local grocer allowed his customers to charge their phones, I found many charging their phones in the local restaurants and so on. Made me realise the resilience that we all have, very heartening and beautiful to see, all around. So much volunteering happened by each and every Chennaiite that warmed every heart, and this would have pretty much been the story in any part of the country.   

After two weeks, people started getting back to their routine and we had plenty of views on 

rebuilding and rehabilitating Chennai. Political mongering and blame game soon took over and the brief romance Chennai had with people communicating from their heart changed, and things were back to 'business as usual'. We had debates on whether Christmas, Marghazhi fest ought to be celebrated. Many Churches announced cancellations of their celebrations, few artists announced that they wont perform during the December season, some said the proceeds of their show would go towards relief and rehabilitation. The discourse veered around, "can Chennai celebrate when there has been such widespread devastation?"

My personal view is that 'the show must go on'. Most often, it is these festivities that serve to soothe our soul, to use a cliche. These help us overcome our loss and helps uplift the mind. I therefore find it strange when the public discourse draws simple equations and conclusions. Just like the movies run in theatres, people bought their alcohol and cigarettes, festivities need to go on. I often see people succumb to such arguments, very easily. For example, I remember when the treasures at Sri Padmanabhaswamy temple was being discussed and debated, there were groups of people saying that the valuables can be sold and money used to build roads! I so disagree with such shallow arguments; the state of roads in the country are not due to lack of money / resources, surely! Similarly, rehabilitation and rebuilding of Chennai is happening and need not be at the cost of Christmas celebrations or Margazhi Festival or any other Festival. 

In a country that is so diverse in every sense of the word, with multitude of problems, there are many things that need to be done simultaneously. Just like the Mars Mission is as important as getting Indians out of hunger and starvation.

And the TGV can also run late

I had one of the most eventful journeys till date, it was my trip back home (Chennai), from Paris. I thought I had it all sorted, was traveling back in Emirates, one of the best airlines, did the web check, the previous day and was all set. Or so I thought... however, something went terribly wrong in my plan.

I was visiting the University of Tours, which is south east of Paris and a TGV takes about 100 minutes from Tours to CDG airport. So, I kept a generous allowance of an extra 120 minutes before I needed to show up at the airport. I was told by my French friends that the TGV is always on time and 120 minutes was way too comfortable. I believed them and was envious of the confidence and pride they had for their railway network.

It was the first train to leave St. Pierre de Corps (near Tours) to CDG, on a cold Friday morning in December, the beginning to the Christmas break. All the passengers seemed to be headed home, to be with family and there was festivity and cheer all around. Just as I was told, my train pulled in to the station, on the dot. We settled in, and I was looking forward to getting back home, just like the rest.

After about 15 minutes, I heard some announcements on the public address and I heard names of stations being listed, that were en route. I kind of patted myself for understanding their accent and was pleased with my progress with this ten day sojourn in France. Soon after, there was a station and most people trooped out. Soon after, I noticed the train was as fast as a slow, local train in India and I was feeling cheated for paying for a high speed train.

Soon, the train came to a complete halt and it seemed to be in no-man's land. Co-passengers seemed unperturbed and I heard another set of announcements in French. I finally decided to ask around and have them translated in English. It was amazing, how young and old alike, didnt know any English. They just stared back at me with an uncomprehending look. There were boys, aged 16/17, girls about the same, women in their 40s and men likewise. All of them looked puzzled when I asked, "Is the train running late?" in plain English. Finally, a Belgian girl came to my rescue, she understood French and a little English and I was finally told that the train was late and complimentary refreshments were being served in the upper deck! I asked "how late" to more blank faces. Finally, a gentleman at the far end of my coach came up to me and said I must speak with the Captain of the train who would hanging around, near the bar on the upper deck!

I trooped up and found a couple of them, in uniform, enjoying a drink and seeming very pleased about the train being late. I asked them if they spoke English and they nodded. I gathered from them that the train would reach the CDG, 150 minutes late!! Ah, well imagine, I kind of freaked out! I told them I had a flight to take and they coolly informed me that an announcement was made about the train running late and hence passengers travelling to CDG and those who wished, could board another slower train, at a particular station (I chided myself for thinking they were announcing the route the train was taking, much like the Kolkata mini bus conductor:-)). I mumbled something and managed to censure them for making announcements in French and not multi-lingual. The Captains seemed unaffected and agreed that I may not have followed the announcement but there was nothing they could do, except shrug expansively, one even helpfully offered, "Change your flight".

I went back to my seat and was wondering how to handle this unexpected situation. All my passengers showed a little more empathy now and seemed as concerned. With the help of the Belgian, I managed to get a French student to get me the Emirates number on his phone as the Belgian could'nt use hers, just like me (no wifi!!). And I unsuccessfully tried explaining my predicament and the lady on the other line kept repeating that I could show up 90 minutes prior to departure. I gave up. As my last resort, I called my husband back home, in Chennai and asked him to talk to our travel agent who would ask the Emirates staff in Chennai to see reason with their counterparts in CDG. And well, they were helpful and as a special case I was allowed to show up at the Emirates counter latest, by 1.45 pm as the flight was to depart at 2.20 pm. I ran up to the Captains again, and asked the approximate time of arrival in CDG and they said, maybe 1.30 pm and shrugged again!!

I mentally ticked myself off for agreeing to such a close connection and hoped that the train would indeed reach CDG, as promised by the Captains. Soon enough the train started but began moving in the reverse direction!! I pretended to be calm outwards but I was simply turning pulp inside. There was a lady who gestured to me with her palms together and looked up... yes, prayers was all I could do. I ran up to to the Captains again and they said that the train was going back a few stations to take another track, meant for slower trains and will eventually head to CDG.

And yes, the train did pull into CDG at 1.35 pm, I ran out with luggage and back pack, all the way up the escalators, travelators, like in the movies, and reached the Emirates counter, panting and sweating at 46 F, at 1.46 pm, and the counter was closed. Finally, I mentioned the name of the Emirates staff who had spoken to her Indian colleagues and they let me through. It was the huge, Airbus A380 and passengers were still boarding through the multiple entry points and I was the last to board mine. 

Its now six months since that journey but I can remember every emotion that I went through that day.

My take on the movie - Amadeus

Rarely can a dark character be so well portrayed, captured and so compelling! I guess the character of Antonio Salieri is so powerful that he makes Mozart's story filled with intrigue. For those who aren't familiar, Salieri is a contemporary of Mozart and is extremely jealous of Mozart's talent and fame. So intense is his dislike that it consumes him and yet, he simply loves the music composed by Mozart and acknowledges them to be miraculous and sees the hand of God through Mozart. Despite his jealousy, he realises that God had indeed chosen Mozart to compose music who is otherwise imperfect, lewd, vulgar and juvenile.

Unlike other typical characters, his jealousy and animosity of Mozart soon turns to anger with God himself and so his actions and manipulative moves are all aimed at squaring off with God!! I simply loved the way the Director has handled this strong emotion in a person and has so nicely brought out the fact that anger, jealousy clouds and eventually consumes a person and he or she lose their sanity. And so the story goes about how Salieri schemes to kill Mozart and also get him to write his own requiem mass (mass for the dead) and plans to take credit only to have the last laugh with God! But God has his own plans and Mozart dies leaving the Requiem Mass unfinished. The movie ends with Salieri confessing to his deeds to a Priest, as he is confined to an asylum for the insane, for more than 30 years after the death of Mozart.

Salieri is bitter that God chose him to compose mediocre music while he chose to bestow genius on Mozart! Such a brilliant capture of how jealousy, hatred, can simply consume a person to insanity. Extremely compelling

We Indians!

These past few years has exposed the Indian mindset like never before! There is obviously something in us that makes us do what we do! I say this in the background of numerous scams in politics, sports, and industry that seem to make the headlines everyday L And those of us who are not indulging in these, just don’t seem to care, such apathy. Corruption seems very natural in today’s world

This mindset probably comes from complete lack of values. This disease has spread so far and deep into the system today and affects all economic strata of society. It’s not just the deprived and underprivileged who indulge in these activities, there are super rich and moderately rich who seem to be as big a sucker as the poor.

What the reasons could be, I wonder!

While corruption and gambling may have always been there in our society, the systemic rot that has happened in recent times is something we probably cannot ignore. Not anymore! While a Anna Hazare or Arvind Kejriwal kind of Utopian solutions are highly impractical, there needs to be some kind of transformation of Indian mindset. We need to get back to learning from our leaders and heroes of past. A strong dose of our ancient wisdom is the order of the day. Gandhiji put it so well when he said, “Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's needs, but not every man's greed." Very clearly, our problem is that of greed! Perhaps, this is because of lack of faith in some way. At the risk of appearing to over simplify the cause, and being as utopian as some, in my view, if we can kindle this faith for the Supreme, we may be able reverse the decadence we say in society, today.

Being an eternal optimist I think the time has come for people, other than politicians, perhaps spiritual leaders, to bring about this transformational change in society. As Sri Sri Ravi Shankar often says “Faith is realizing that you always get what you need.” I would like to see this change happening very soonJ