Ramakrishna Upanishad by Rajaji

 

Ramakrishna Upanishad

Part 1

Ramakrishna did not write any book. He did not give any lectures. He led a pure life of renunciation. His teaching is in the talks he had with his devout disciples. They have later reduced them in writing.

Ramakrishna saw god in his heart and in everything outside. Just as we see with clarity and certainty others we interact with, he saw god in everything. Such wonderful souls are born from time time in many countries. There is a special power to the words of such divine personalities. When Maharishis speak, their entire life speaks, not just wisdom.

Ramakrishna said once, “As soon as a traveller arrives in a city, he seeks an abode, lodges his baggage there, goes around his business and then returns to the abode he has already secured. If he had not fixed a place to stay in advance, he would have been in a spot at night. Likewise, the abode for rest of mind is god as we go about the affairs of the world. There will come a time when our happiness is at an end and a darkness envelopes our life. We need a refuge at that time. Let us realise the need for the abode that is god.”

When we take water from a pond, we take the clear water from the surface. We should not muddy it. We should not sully our minds with needless debates if we want to lead a pure and dharmic life. Our limited knowledge is like water in a small pond. If we stir it much, only mud will come up.

All of us know that curd has butter in it. It will come up only if we churn, not by just knowing or chanting. If we want to know god, we must have bhakthi and yearn for knowing just like a child yearns to see the mother that is out of sight.

Part 2

Different Religions

About a hundred years ago, Ramakrishna preached:

“We can attain god and his grace in several divergent ways. Have you not seen several ghats in a river? Similarly, there are several ghats to the flood of bliss of god. We can reach it by any ghat, bathe and collect water. Whatever be the way, if we are pure and devoted, we can reach god. Everyone must follow his creed. Whichever creed you follow, if you are devout, people of other creed will respect you.”

We see the same teaching in the inscriptions of Asoka that dates back two millennia. In Gita, Krishna said the same thing thousands of years ago. The message of Gandhi, who took birth in our lifetime and guided us in many aspects, is much the same. Let us adhere to it steadfastly and conduct ourselves accordingly.

Part 3

Pure mind

While looking at a beautiful lady, one must meditate on Devi, Mother of the world. Ramakrishna followed this. We should not cast aspersions on women, talk ill of them or castigate them as deceitful.

Think of Sita languishing under Asoka tree if you get swayed by a beautiful woman.

The spring of good and bad is in our minds. The thoughts that inhabit the mind materialise as external action. Do not think that no one would know your mind and sully your mind progressively. If you do so, you will fall into evil ways.

Part 4

Scriptural knowledge is not wisdom

One day, the renowned Kesava Chandra Sen of Brahma Samaj was talking to Ramakrishna, “For some reason even educated vidwans are infatuated. Though well versed in scripture, they struggle without giving up desire and attachment.”

Ramakrishna said, “The vultures fly high in the sky. But, their eyes are fixed on carcasses below.”

Even if one reads great books, mind will be attracted to objects of desire. Education and desires are different. Desire and attachment prove a stumbling block to wisdom from scripture.

The almanac predicts rain. It may even come to pass. But by squeezing the almanac, not even a drop of water can be obtained. We can learn many good things from dharmic books, but that itself will not lead to bhakti. Only if one follows its precepts and controls the mind, bhakti will manifest.

We take a list of things to buy from a shop. After buying the items, the slip is of no use. By memorising what is in the slip, one will not get the things in the list. Knowing the route to a place is necessary, but not enough. One must go in that route.

Part 5 

The recluse and the dasi

A recluse lived near a temple. A dasi’s house was opposite his abode. He used to watch a number of people visit her daily. He was worried that so many were falling to bad ways. One day, he called the dasi and told her, ‘Sinner, you are into evil. What will you do when the messengers of Yama call you to account?’

She felt sorry and prayed to god to find a way for her to end her sinful life. She had no other means of livelihood and continued in her ways. But, her mind was devoted to god.

The recluse felt disappointed and in disgust, he started to keep a log of how many people visited her. Again, he called her and showed her the log. She trembled and prayed to god at her mounting heap of sin. She prayed to god to end her life.

After some time, she died and by coincidence, the recluse also died at the same time. The messengers of Yama attended on the recluse, but those of Vishnu escorted the dasi to heaven. The recluse was furious and shouted. The messengers of Vishnu told him, ‘Please do not shout. Your life was superficial. Though a renunciate, you were after fame and paraphernalia. Look at your body which you kept pure. People are venerating it. But, you are on the way to hell. On the other hand, the body of this dasi was sinning. See her body being used like carrion by the scavenging birds. Her mind was pure. So we are leading her to the abode of god. You took her sin by constantly thinking of it. On your advice, she was truly penitent and was pure at heart. That explains why you both are going where you are headed.’

It is not the duty of a devotee to mind the sins of others. We must keep our mind pure and look at the faults of others with a compassionate heart.

 

Part 6

Boat on water

A boat floats on water. But, you should not let water into the boat. It will sink. The same applies to life in the world by bhaktas. One must be engaged in worldly affairs for conducting life. But, one must not let worldly affairs enter the mind. If one does, the boat will sink.

Lead a householder’s life. But, do your worldly duty with one hand, while clutching at the feet of god with another. When not doing the duty, hold the feet of god with both hands.

Part 7

Public service

One day, a few youths approached Paramahamsa and told him, ‘We have decided to engage in social service.’

He told those lads who were high-spirited, ‘What you have decided is noble. It is a good thought to engage in social service. But, first pray to god, purify your mind and then take to the work you have in mind. Meditation on god will energise you. If you pray sincerely, you will get the capacity to do good to society. You will gain by god’s grace the skill and facility to do what you intend to.”

It is good to bear in mind for anyone getting into public service. Do not go after some task in the eagerness to do public good. Involve yourself in the work that presents itself of its own. Do not have an eye on name and fame and look for what is best. To work for the community involves doing one’s duty without the desire for gain or publicity. 

Part 8

Idol worship

While building a house the construction worker uses a scaffolding, but after it is built, there is no use for the scaffolding. For one who is advanced in jnana, there is no need of temple and tank. For those who are not able to keep mind steady in meditation, puja and dip in holy water becomes necessary.

If one makes a lingam with mud in bhakti, that itself is god. God who is everywhere has not quit that lingam.

A person asked Ramakrishna, ‘This idol is nothing but clay. How can one think of it as god and meditate?’

‘Why do you think of clay, stone, copper, etc.? Why don’t you visualise it as the Supreme Being? When god is in everything and everything is god, why is this idol not fit for meditation as god?’

Part 9

Rituals

“Paddy has the grain inside the husk. We remove the husk, cook and eat. But, rice will go off faster than paddy. Only paddy will germinate, not rice. The rituals and festivals have been provided like husk. For the enlightened one, they are not required. If only the jnana was preserved without rituals, it would have perished like rice sown in the field.

When we get injured, a scab forms till healing is complete. When healing is complete the scab falls off on its own. To do away with rituals before attainment of jnana is like removing the scab before healing.

It is not wise to give up achara (rituals, etc.) before attainment of jnana. The fruit ripened by smoke will not be sweet.”

Compare:

ॐ त्र्यम्बकं यजामहे सुगन्धिं पुष्टिवर्धनम्I उर्वारुकमिव बन्धनान् मृत्योर्मुक्षीय मामृतात् ॥

Here the creeper urvaruka (cucumber) is referred to. When the fruit ripens, it snaps from the creeper without effort. Jnana also is like that. (explained by Kanchi Paramacharya)

Part 10

Not worth a copper

One may get occult powers by yoga, practice, etc. Such powers make one demonstrate unnatural feats not possible to an ordinary person. Ramakrishna advised against them. He did not dub them as hoodwinking. His teaching was that it was not the right way to god. ‘These are thorn bushes on the path to realisation. Do not get in their tangle. True devotees do not desire anything but the lotus feet of the lord. They do not desire occult powers which may sometimes manifest in the normal course also.’

When we eat, the waste products are formed and excreted. No one eats to produce the waste. The occult powers are like that waste. They only increase conceit and impede bhakti.

A parable of Ramakrishna: A yogi went to his guru and told him, ‘I penanced alone in the forest for fourteen years and attained the capacity to walk on water’. The guru said, ‘Why did you suffer thus? You wasted fourteen years. If you shelled out a copper, the oarsman would have reached you across a river. Your achievement is only worth a copper.

Part 11

Pot, rice and fire

Man’s body is a pot. His brain and senses are like the rice, pulse and water cooking in the pot. The pot is on the boil on the stove. It will be hot to touch, so will be the contents. It will scald if one dips one’s hand in it. The heat in the pot and the rice is not of the pot or the rice, but of the fire beneath. In the same manner, Brahmam gives the living and the non-living their characteristics. The action of the brain and the senses is that of Brahmam only. Not a splinter will move without it.

 

Part 12

If you ache for it, She will appear

A disciple asked Ramakrishna, “What is the way out of maya?”

Ramakrishna said, “If there is a sincere desire, god will show the way. Desiring is not a superficial intention, but a melting of the heart in the keenness to emancipation. We cry shedding bucketfuls of tears for children, wife and money. Who cries to get god’s grace?

When the child is playing with toys, the mother is busy with her chore. The child is done with the toys, throws them away and cries aloud. The mother drops what is in her hand and rushes to the child. So also will Bhagavati rush to a bhakta who  cries his heart out.

In Kali, we need not do arduous penance. It is enough if people meditate for three days with a sincere desire. They will attain Iswari’s grace. It is no exaggeration. Try. Look at me. Pick up confidence.

The child says, ‘Ma, wake me up when it is time to eat.’

The mother says, ‘No need for me to wake you up. When you feel hunger, it will wake you up.’

When a true bhakta cries in earnest yearning, Iswari cannot remain indifferent.”

Part 13

The goldsmith’s wife

Water flows under the bridge. It does not stagnate and stink. Handle money likewise. Do not let it accumulate and stink. Spend it liberally and do good. let it be your servant, do not become its servant.

Look at the goldsmith’s wife. She is pushing the paddy into the mortar with one hand. With the other hand, she is keeping the child in her lap and patting it. Alongside, she is bargaining with the customer who had come to buy flattened rice. Though she is multi-tasking, she guards against her hand getting hurt in the mortar. Like that, even while involved in mundane activities, keep god in mind constantly.

While cutting jack fruit, we smear oil in the hand before cutting. That prevents the resin from the fruit sticking in the hand. In like manner, we should fix our mind on god while doing worldly duties. If we do, however much wealth and comforts we come across, the resin of attachment will not stick in our mind, nor will difficulties break it.   

Part 14

Sacred shrines

The cow gives milk. The milk is latent in the blood and is delivered though its udders. But, if we squeeze its ears, we will not get milk. It is true that god is everywhere in the universe. But, the sacred shrines are like the cow’s udders. The devotees go there, get the milk of bhakti and attain to god. The shrines are hallowed by the penance, meditation, chanting, prayer, puja of countless devotees. There is a special efficacy in the shrines where millions of devotees, learned as well as the laity, have visited, rolled on the precincts and worshipped. It becomes easier to relate with god in such shrines.

We may get water by digging the earth. But, there are already wells, ponds and lakes full of water. Is it not easier to draw water from them and quench our thirst? Temples, pilgrimage centres and holy water sources are similar. We can quench our bhakti thirst in such places.

Just as cattle settle down to chew after gazing, we must internalise the divine experience of visiting such shrines after our return.

Part 15

Why still lie and deceit?

We have got independence and become a republic. Our nation has attained a status of pride. The world elders praise and respect our leader. With all this, why do we still behave like beggars and cheats? Why do we think that lie and deceit are the way of life? Why do we demean ourselves oblivious of the greatness of Bharata Devi? To those who pine thus, the following parable of Ramakrishna may be cited.

“One day, a tiger attacked a flock of sheep that was grazing in a forest. It was pregnant and in the strain of the attack, it delivered the cub there and died. The cub survived and grew amongst the sheep. It behaved as a sheep. A few years later, another tiger attacked the flock. The sheep ran helter skelter. The cub also ran with them. The attacking tiger wondered how the cub was there. It held the cub by the scruff of its neck. The cub bleated. The tiger took the cub to water and shoed it its real form and said, ‘Fool, see you are also a tiger like me.’ The tiger also fed it meat and forced it to eat it. The cub relished it and sought more. It regained its true nature of a tiger. The cub was taken back among the tigers.”

Let us break loose from the slavish mindset of the past and reclaim the glory that is ours. Poverty is not suffering; lowliness is suffering. We can live honourably even if poor. Let there be no dishonesty, stealth and lie. Let us uphold the new glory of Bharata Devi.

Part 16

Prayer

Do not pray to god for anything in particular. Leave it to him. That is what scriptures enjoin, but human nature is not content with it. We plead for particular good.

As the nature and character of god is beyond our intellect and as we do not know for sure what is good or bad for us, it is best to leave it to god. However, there is no harm in conversing with god as we do among ourselves. That is natural. If we converse with god at least once a day, playing with him and crying to him, it will cleanse our minds in course of time. This is experiential truth.

It does not matter if you cannot worship god in idols like laymen with blind faith. Pray, ‘I do not know whether you have a form or not. Your nature is unintelligible to me. Be that as it may, show me grace.’ He will take care of you. No one else will take care of you like him. He has answered your prayers. He knows what is good for you. He will reveal himself to you at least at the time of death.

Part 17

As the thought that lie and cunning only will be fruitful has taken root and become the norm, people dismiss dharma as useless. But, only dharma will be beneficial. Fraud and cheating will destroy society.

A few fisherwomen went to a fair to sell fish were returning with their creels. On the way back, it rained and became dark. They were taking shelter near a gardener’s hut. The gardener advised them to spend the night there and return the next morning. They agreed. But, they could not sleep. The gardener had kept in a basket jasmine collected from the garden. They complained, ‘What  is this bad smell?’ They sprinkled some water on their creels and lay down. With the fish smell overpowering the jasmine smell, they passed into deep sleep and snored away to glory.

Each person lives in the paradise of his wonted practices. If we are not used to good practices, the bad practices will appear superior.

In these days the only penance we can do is to talk the truth. We do not adhere to it also. Everyone, even in business, must talk the truth. That is real cleverness, worldly wisdom and the way to attain god.

Faith in god is the perpetual lamp we light at home. We must keep it burning always. It will ensure success in our endeavours. 

Part 18

One day Ramasamy Padayachi went to the neighbour’s door at midnight and knocked. He shouted, “Sengoda, Sengoda.” He came out and asked, “Why do you wake me up at dead of night? What do you want?”

Ramasamy said, “Please give me a match stick. I need to light my cigar.”

Sengoda replied, “Strange! You hold a lantern and asking me for match stick.”

We are also like that. We carry god within us, but look for him elsewhere. Ramakrishna gestured to his heart and said, “If we realise the god here, we will see him pervade the entire universe. If we do not see him in the heart, we can’t see him anywhere else.”

Reading on diverse topics

 Stoicism

Gist

Stoicism was a school founded in Athens by Zeno of Citium around 301 BC. 

Three Stoic principal leaders: Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus, Seneca

“Stoicism teaches how to keep a calm and rational mind no matter what happens to you and it helps you understand and focus on what you can control and not worry about and accept what you can't control.”

A. 10 principles

1.Live in Agreement with Nature – The Stoic Goal of Life

The ultimate goal of life was agreed by all ancient schools of philosophy to be ‘Eudaimonia’. Eudaimonia – is a bit tricky to translate. Think of it as the supreme happiness or fulfilment attainable by human beings.

‘Living in agreement with nature’ is about behaving rationally like a human instead of randomly (and out of passion) like a beast.

2 Live by Virtue – It Is the Highest of All Goods

What the Stoics meant with ‘virtue’ was excelling or flourishing in terms of our rational human nature. .. ‘Virtue’ really refers to excelling at one’s own character and applying reason in a manner that’s healthy and praiseworthy. .. The Stoics classified these different forms of virtue under four broad headings, the four cardinal virtues:

Wisdom or Prudence (vidya, jnanam)

Justice or Fairness (samatvam)

Courage or Fortitude (dhairyam)

Self-Discipline or Temperance (yama and niyama)

Virtue must be its own reward. You do something because it is the right thing to do. Doing the right thing is enough, it’s your nature and it’s your job. (Cf. Buddha’s teaching).

3 Focus on What You Can Control, Accept What You Can’t

(This message comes like a refrain in Swami Paramrthananda’s discourse on Gita.)

Some things are up to us and some things are not up to us. ‘Up to us’ are our voluntary choices, namely our actions and judgements. Thoughts, judgements, actions are up to us; everything else like body, health and death, job, wealth and reputation, outside events and other people’s actions, are not up to us.

“It makes us completely and utterly responsible for the single most important thing in life, depriving us of any excuses for not flourishing and attaining the best possible life, because this is always within our grasp.” Donald Robertson

“We can control our behavior but not their outcomes – let alone the outcomes of other people’s behaviours.” Massimo Pigliucci (Cf. karmanyevadhikaraste).

4 Distinguish Between Good, Bad, and (‘Preferred’) Indifferent Things

The good things include the cardinal virtues; the bad things include the opposites of these virtues (folly, injustice, cowardice, and indulgence). Indifferent things include all the rest, but mainly health, wealth, and reputation.

We should learn to be ‘indifferent towards indifferent things’ and learn to be satisfied with whatever nature puts on our plates.

Stoics differentiated between ‘preferred’ and ‘dispreferred’ indifferent things. Indifferent things such as good health, friendship, wealth, and good looks were classified as preferred indifferents, while their opposites were dispreferred indifferents.

People will always prefer joy over pain, wealth over poverty, and good health over sickness – so go ahead and look for those things, but in accord with virtue.

It is not what you have or don’t have but what you do with it that matters.

5 Take Action – The True Philosopher Is a Warrior of the Mind

Donald Robertson, “Events are not determined to happen in a particular way, regardless of what you do, but rather along with what you do… The outcome of events still often depends on your actions.” (ma sangostvakarmani.)

Stoics were doers. .. A stoic goes out in the world and practises his ideas.

6 Practise Misfortune – Ask “What Could Go Wrong?”

The Stoics vaccinated themselves for misfortune. (Tapas is perhaps the Indian equivalent. Sri Ramana simulating death is perhaps a case in point.)

Be ready for things to go differently than planned. Have a backup plan.

Seneca is saying that we’d be crazy to want to face difficulty in life. But we’d be equally crazy to think that it isn’t going to happen.

7 Add a Reserve Clause to Your Planned Actions

8 Amor Fati – Love Everything that Happens

“Seek not for events to happen as you wish but rather wish for events to happen as they do and your life will go smoothly.” – Epictetus

Imagine a dog leashed to a moving cart. The leash is long enough that the dog has two options: (1) either he can smoothly follow the direction of the cart, over which he has no control, and at the same time enjoy the ride and explore the surroundings, (2) or he can stubbornly resist the cart with all his force and end up being dragged for the rest of the trip anyway.

Do not get carried away by initial impression about external, but (1) look at the events objectively and (2) choose to use them for their best.

10 Be Mindful – Stoic Mindfulness Is Where it All Begins

We basically give up being philosophers, and Stoics, when we are not mindful, when we act on autopilot and forget about what we’re doing.

Take 5 minutes each night and go through your day and find opportunities where you could improve.

B. What Does a Stoic Look Like?

The Classic Misconception – Stoics Are Unemotional. The feelings are normal. But the Stoic tries to not act out of feeling but out of reason. The Stoic is not a man of stone without any feelings. He does have feelings but he is not enslaved by them.

Donald Robertson:

“A brave man isn’t someone who doesn’t experience any trace of fear whatsoever but someone who acts courageously despite feeling anxiety. A man who has great self-discipline or restraint isn’t someone who feels no inkling of desire but someone who overcomes his cravings, by abstaining from acting upon them.”

Stoic Ryan Holidays:

“Real strength lies in the control or, as Nassim Taleb put it, the domestication of one’s emotions, not in pretending they don’t exist.”

“A good person ‘displays love for all his fellow human beings, as well as goodness, justice, kindness and concern for his neighbour’, and for the welfare of his home city.” – Donald Robertson

We live in accord with virtue and therefore benefit ourselves when we act for the common welfare. Also, the better a person has developed himself, the better he can serve mankind. As Rudolf Steiner said, “If the rose adorns itself, it adorns the garden.”

Do good for the sake of doing good. Expect nothing in return.

Don’t hate the wrongdoer, he does not know any better.

True Beauty Lies in Character. .. The true value of a person lies in their core, their character or personality, and it does not matter if it’s a banker or baker.

https://www.njlifehacks.com/what-is-stoicism-overview-defi…/

THE INFLUENCE OF VEDIC PHILOSOPHY ON NIKOLA TESLA'S UNDERSTANDING OF FREE ENERGY

http://arizonaenergy.org/CommunityEnergy/INFLUENCE%20OF%20VEDIC%20ON%20TESLA%27S%20UNDERSTANDING%20OF%20FREE%20ENERGY.htm

Consciousness

Importantly, conscious level is not the same as wakefulness. Rather, consciousness seems to depend on how different parts of the brain speak to each other, in specific ways. .. Tononi argues that consciousness simply is integrated information. This is an intriguing and powerful proposal, but it comes at the cost of admitting that consciousness could be present everywhere and in everything, a philosophical view known as panpsychism. The classical view of perception is that the brain processes sensory information in a bottom-up or ‘outside-in’ direction. Helmholtzian view inverts this framework, proposing that signals flowing into the brain from the outside world convey only prediction errors – the differences between what the brain expects and what it receives. A number of experiments are now indicating that consciousness depends more on perceptual predictions, than on prediction errors. But just as consciousness is not just one thing, conscious selfhood is also best understood as a complex construction generated by the brain. Our experiences of being and having a body are ‘controlled hallucinations’ of a very distinctive kind. It now seems to me that fundamental aspects of our experiences of conscious selfhood might depend on control-oriented predictive perception of our messy physiology, of our animal blood and guts. We are conscious selves because we too are beast machines – self-sustaining flesh-bags that care about their own persistence. The-hard-problem-of-consciousness-is-a-distraction-from-the-real-one. 

Simple Life

The good life is the simple life. Through much of human history, frugal simplicity was not a choice but a necessity – and since necessary, it was also deemed a moral virtue. But with the advent of industrial capitalism and a consumer society, a system arose that was committed to relentless growth, and with it grew a population (aka ‘the market’) that was enabled and encouraged to buy lots of stuff that, by traditional standards, was surplus to requirements. As a result, there’s a disconnect between the traditional values we have inherited and the consumerist imperatives instilled in us by contemporary culture. Living simply now strikes many people as simply boring.(It becomes imperative from environmentalism also now.) But if our current methods of making, getting, spending and discarding prove unsustainable, then there could come a time – and it might come quite soon – when we are forced towards simplicity. In which case, a venerable tradition will turn out to contain the philosophy of the future. 

Limits of Knowledge

It would be one thing to concede that science may never be able to explain, say, the subjective experiences of the human mind. But the standard take on quantum mechanics suggests something far more surprising: that a complete understanding of even the objective, physical world is beyond science’s reach, since it’s impossible to translate into words how the theory’s math relates to the world we live in. The theory only predicts what scientists may see at the instant of observation — when all the wave function’s latent possibilities appear to collapse to one definitive outcome — and provides no narrative at all for what particles actually do before or after that, or even how much the word “particle” is apropos to the unobserved world. The act of observation itself is then posited to somehow convert this nonsensical situation into the world we see, of objects having definite locations and other properties. "Success is nothing,” his father taught him. “Proper work is what counts.” (Bassi's) “Yes, it is like that,” he said. “The idea that there is truth and simplicity behind phenomena, if you wish, you can relate it directly to a faith in God that is a unity that gives rise to everything.” “The simple things in life are the more genuine ones,” he explained. “When a person is simple, he’s a better person. ”Even if the world is ultimately not understandable, there is no reason to believe we have hit the bottom with quantum mechanics. 

Evolution

The article from Aeon on evolution discusses how it is not just about adaptation, the species shapes the environment too, not only sapiens, others too. Some detailed research material on earthworms (6000 varieties) is also discussed. [T]he organism influences its own evolution, by being both the object of natural selection and the creator of the conditions of that selection,’ acc. to the evolutionary biologists Richard Levins and Richard Lewontin "Researchers need to understand not just how niche construction evolves through natural selection, but how the environmental sources of natural selection are themselves transformed by niche construction." Organisms-are-not-passive-recipients-of-evolutionary-forces. 

Knowledge is of our Ignorance

The discovery of Higgs Boson and gravitational waves were no ordinary triumph of physics and confirmation of scientific predictions made rather speculatively. The laws of physics hold true and explain natural phenomena rather consistently. But, there are riddles that daunt physicists; we have no idea what actually happened at the beginning of the Universe; if it was inflation, what was driving it; how it came about; and how it ended. If what happened at the beginning of the Universe is a mystery, what’s happening now is no less puzzling. "We know little about dark matter which outnumbers ordinary matter by a factor of six to one. So with dark energy that accelerates the expansion of the universe. "These three puzzles – how the Universe began, what dark matter is, and what dark energy consists of – make a compelling science case for future. There is yet more confidence that there’s some form of dark matter, some form of dark energy, and that the beginning of the Universe did undergo inflation. But we still won’t know what the dark matter or dark energy is, or what drove inflation. We’ll have a much more precise statement about our ignorance but nothing more." In this field, scientists work 'not pushed by experiments but pulled by imagination. "They come up with possibilities – such as a huge family of new particles, or the notion that space-time should have more than four dimensions. Or even more exotic proposals – e.g., that space-time doesn’t really exist as such, and instead emerges from the relationship between the quantum building blocks of the Universe." "While the hardcore theorists are driven by lofty ideals, the phenomenologists are more practical and crave a more immediate connection with the observed Universe. There's no clear guide, apart from personal or aesthetic inclinations about how to choose the correct solution." "There’s a limit to how much of the whole sky we can observe, and how far we can look back in time." "..;a sound principle is to keep your eyes on the fundamentals, being careful not to jettison the things we know to be true." "There’s a glorious history of research in fundamental physics driving technological change – forcing researchers to come up with ingenious new devices and experiments that allow them to measure elusive phenomena." Einstein: ‘Let the people know that a new type of thinking is essential if mankind is to survive and move toward higher levels._

New Year Thoughts

 

New Year Thoughts

 

1987

Let noble thoughts come to us from all sources. May our speech be harmonious. May the Sun direct us towards excellence in action. 

1995

May the God Savita (Sun) reach us in the best of activity. 

1996

Goodness is the abiding value for existence. There is no greater principle of life. There is no richer experience than getting to know good people and living in constant contact with them. 

1997

Beliefs are central to our action and personality. The world we live in responds to our beliefs. It is in shaping and refining our beliefs that our call and destiny lie.

Eternity is an idle craving. Transcending time is an idealist view and has little to do with our living which concerns with our rendering a creditable account of how we spent our time. 

A new year born is a reminder of the passage of time. Be it in business or personal life, time well spent brings handsome rewards. 

To spend the time purposefully and with full attention to what is taken on hand is a worthy aim. 

1998

Dharma protects those that protect it.

We act quite often out of emotional necessities than on rational considerations. It is difficult to explain why we acted in a particular way.

There is no need to regret the past just as it is equally futile to exult in the glory of the past. 

2001

To begin and to end aptly are always difficult. To depart gracefully when one’s job is done or when one is required no longer calls for character.

A new year may not always be an occasion to begin; one may look forward to close a chapter.

When the chips are down, it is what we are that matters. What we are is what we have been doing. To do well whatever we do is the only useful lesson of life.

 

2002

मौनं हि प्रकटितं व्याख्यानम् शिष्याः छिन्नसंशयाः

Few appreciate the power of silence, silence that is pregnant and communicative.

We need to enshrine freedom of silence in the constitution.

A year of the third millennium has passed away. It was like any other. 

2003

‘May we always serve humanity without demanding the price of our service.’ Rig Veda. 

Ad majorem Dei glorian: - to the glory of God (Jesuit motto)

 

2005

सर्वे जनाः सुखिनो भवन्तु सर्वे सन्तु निरामयाः

सर्वे भद्राणि पश्यन्तु मा कश्चिद्दुःखभाग् भवेत्

May all people be happy; may everyone be free from fear; may all see good; may no one suffer sorrow.

Let it be a non-stop occurrence of auspiciousness.

Happiness is a state of mind. Fear destroys happiness. Good is in perception more than in what we see. No one should be dealt sadness.

This is a lofty prayer that has come down to us by hearsay. May this message go round universally. May everyone learn to be happy, free themselves from fear, see the good in everything and make everyone else happy. 

2006

Make no resolutions and break none.

Speak ill of none or nothing.

காய் பழமாகி மரத்திலிருந்து பிரிகிறது. அது போல ஞானம் காலப்போக்கில் வரும். பற்று அறும். 

2008

Just Be. Be just happy. 

2009

TRUTH ALONE TRIUMPHS

Satyameva Jayate. 

What is truth? What is triumph?

That from which everything emanates and finds refuge in is truth. Bliss is triumph. Bliss is realised by one who has attained to truth.

 

2011

All is for Good.

 

2012

“May I talk not ill of anybody.” (Ramakrishna)

“..a poor struggling soul yearning to be wholly good.” Gandhi 

2013

குறை ஒன்றுமில்லை. 

1.      Talk that which you know to be true.

2.      Do not complain

3.      Do not talk ill of anyone

4.      Do not discuss health.

5.      Do not discuss economising

6.      Do not lose temper

7.      Do not advise/ offer opinion.

 

(From a forward)

Give up

       - the need to be always right

       - need for contro

       - blaming others

       - negative talk about self

       - limiting beliefs

       - complaining

       - criticism

       - impressing others

       - resistance to change

       - fears

       - excuses

       - past

       - attachment

       - labels

       - living as to others’ expectations 

2015

Spend not more than 2 hrs on web music. Continue reading books and Upanishads. Restrict FB/Rasikas.org visits to twice a day.

        

      

Some Episodes / Experiences

 

Monkey plays guest 

I was doing something in the kitchen and was engrossed in my work. I turned for a second toward the microwave oven, I do not remember why (when you read on you will understand how it might have easily slipped from my mind even if I had indeed a purpose for that), and what do I see there? A monkey, of course, seated comfortably on the platform next to the microwave in the space made for it, as it were, by amma. (She had removed the mixy in order to work on the grinder). The monkey had entered the kitchen unobtrusively through the balcony window kept wide open as an informal invitation to it, shall I say?

I have been dull-witted even in reading the minds of higher mortals like humans (I am confident that the monkey won’t read this and take umbrage at the statement that humans are higher mortals). How was I to divine what went behind the mind of a monkey? For all I knew, it was from Pakistan with hidden weapons of mass destruction. I did not know how to shoo it away. I sort of had learnt the noises to make in respect of crows (coosh), dogs (vettu), etc., but not for a monkey. It is a different issue whether the animals learnt the terms we coined for them. I was all nerves and thought at first of throwing the sugar container, but better sense prevailed even in that emergency that it would only sweeten the kitchen floor. Moreover, it was no match for WMD the monkey perhaps had in its arsenal. It would be more like the soldier in ‘Arms and the Man’ of Shaw, carrying chocolates in his pocket in the place of bullets.

I decided that I should rush out of the room (having worked in a reputed institution for a long time, it has got deeply ingrained in me that fleeing the scene of conflict is the most discreet step to be taken by an astute manager) to look for a stick. My sense was with me and I remembered that patti usually kept some stick with her. My plan worked. I saw an acrylic pipe used as a stick by her. I took hold of it and returned to the scene of action.

My mind was not idle meantime. The discourse of one Sastrigal on Ramayana flashed in my mind. He was narrating how, during one such discourse, a monkey entered and occupied a vantage point. He felt unsettled as also the audience. The monkey sat through quietly for some time and then slunk away without inflicting any harm. The audience came to terms after the menace disappeared to conclude that it was Hanuman who came on the scene. The Sastrigal recited a stanza that says that wherever Ramayana is narrated, Hanuman is present. I did not want to leave anything to chance. Maybe Hanuman was pleased to pay a visit to our house also though Ramayana was not even in my mind at that time. Nevertheless I recited a sloka praising Hanuman in my mind. All this happened in a trice.

When I returned I saw amma slamming the door of the kitchen. She perhaps thought that she was confining the monkey in the kitchen as if she was Mumbai police catching Kasab. I was furious. How could she leave the kitchen at the sole disposal of the monkey? (The thought of Hanuman had flashed out as easily as it came).

We have the philanthropic practice of leaving everything in the kitchen open for flies and mosquitoes, ants and cockroaches. Now one more species has been added in the list of our donees. The monkey would have a field day, I thought in anger. Anger was my surrogate emotion for fear. In physics we have read about the transformation of one form of energy to another, which has made several inventions possible. We can in like manner transform one emotion to another, though the simile falls short of completeness as in my case it resulted in annoyance to amma, not any benefit.

I shook the handle of the kitchen door to open it. You may think uncharitably that my hand was shaking in any case. When I opened, I did not see the monkey where I last saw it. The storeroom was open too and I thought that it must have entered there. (If it were Hanuman, it ought to have gone there in right earnest as it is pooja room as well). I was afraid to enter and find out. What if it pounced on me as I peeped? I made some sort of noise and banged the pipe on the door of the storeroom. Patti had brought another longer and sturdier pipe. I now had two pipes to fight with. In the event, I peeped and surveyed the room well, but the monkey was not there.

Then I went to the balcony. Amma was shouting from behind (to my rattled mind it sounded as gibberish) whether I had removed a half-litre packet of milk. I was disturbed by her voice and told her to keep quiet and not bother about the milk packet when I was fighting a life and death battle with a monkey. Patti butted in and asked whether we had left any milk for the monkey as it was drinking the milk outside. She gave a sagacious advice from her wizened old age that we should keep the doors closed. I told her to keep her advice to herself. It was still to dawn on me that the monkey had left our premises. Amma was still harping on the milk and I told her why she did not put it straight into the fridge. I also ticked her off for watching the TV in neglect of her work and threatened to smash the TV. She started to say something, but I outshouted her and she knew better not to waste her breath. The altercation thus died young.

I realised late that the monkey was playing guest (my coinage, in case you have not already given me the credit for it) and looking for breakfast and did not come for human blood wantonly. However, I do not recommend to anyone to entertain monkeys for breakfast. After all, the recent visitors to Taj and Trident went there not for breakfast, but for human lives! 

Pigeon Visit

A rat, a monkey and now a pigeon..
Amma's camaraderie with species that are less endowed than humans reminds me of Ramana Maharishi, who tended and gave salvation to, birds and animals that lived in the precincts of his ashram.
I was at the crossword and amma looked to be at the crossroads from the despondent shriek that pierced my ears and shook my frail heart, quickening its beats and letting me gasp. I looked up to the dining area where the scene of action lay. I saw the area turned to an aviary with a pigeon at large and amma in some sort of rock-n-roll. As it happens, the genesis of the problem overwhelms the solution thereto. The question cropped up how the pigeon found its way and having seen the balcony door half ajar, the answer was quickly grasped. The next crucial issue was how to make the pigeon retrace its path. First, all entrances except to the balcony were closed to restrict the flying zone of the pigeon. Next, a broomstick was chosen as the weapon to chase it with. It sat apprehensively on the kitchen loft, looking hither and thither finding neither a prey nor a way. We teased it waving the broomstick near it. It flew into the dining area and towards the doorway into the hall en route to balcony. So we thought, but, what was clear to the man of six senses was not clear to the pigeon. It sat on the curtain rod of the bedroom.
I brought the cobweb stick from the master bedroom on amma's prompting. I also brought a bed sheet to hold as screen to prevent the bird getting back to the kitchen area, but the ploy did not work. The bird did find its way back into the dining hall and sat on the fridge. Amma frightened it with her hoos and haws and it escaped back into the kitchen loft. I shouted at her why she needled it from the dining hall side. I gave her lessons, like Krishna to Arjuna in the battlefield, that she should have tried to chase it from the kitchen side. She drove it from the kitchen and this time like Gajendra in trouble of tortoise-grip cried for heavenly help, the pigeon flew into the pooja shelf and rattled a few non-pooja stuff that normally lands on top there instead of into the fridge. We persisted with our tactics that included waving stick or shouts. The pigeon flew low and sat at the threshold of the hall and there was a ray of hope. With some nudging, the bird flew out into the portico, playing no more hide and seek with us. Seeing it perched on the portico parapet, we quickly closed and bolted the door.
Thus ended the visit of the pigeon. It would have branded us as bad hosts, but we are safe since it will not be able to tom-tom it or compare notes. 

Post Office 

What an amusing experience it is to go to the post office! Here is an age-old institution that sticks to its original ways no matter what has happened around. Everything is done manually. The registers look like coming off loose leaf. They are stacked around the staff. The staff have developed a way of recognising them, like a mother cow would identify its calf, though to a dumb one like me they all look alike. What a good exercise for the arms, pulling them and putting them back! What a relief to the eyes which do not have to face electron beams! 

I envy the efficiency and the courtesy of the staff. They are in the seats at the appointed hours and do their work non-stop. What a sea of difference from the banks! 

I went to draw the monthly interest as a ‘messenger’. People ask me what I do in retired life. Why, I act as a messenger for my wife! She was the payee in all the slips that were filled in for drawing the interest and she authorised me as her ‘messenger’ to get the cash. Let no one take the word ‘messenger’ to be slighting. Great souls are called ‘divine messengers’. You may chuckle that I am comparing wife to ‘God’. These are changed times. Previously husbands were to be considered ‘Gods’. I have no way of saying whether it was honoured or not. But, now wives are to be considered ‘God’. At least you have one example that it is taken seriously. 

Even as the person before me was in the midst of transacting his business, the counter staff took my slips, added the amounts mentally and enquired whether I was to get Rs. 6500 (it was Rs. 6470). I nodded and he replied that there might not be enough cash. He suggested that I come the next day or take a chance till 3 PM when he would take the collections at other counters and pay me if possible. I decided to wait. One way of spending retired life and a way to build my patience, though belatedly! 

I stepped out and had to get back as Anbumani’s persona non grata (smokers) were puffing out nicotine that I had no intention of imbibing. To while away the time, I started reciting something. After the queue in front of the counter spirited off, I sat in a chair. The Post Office did its planning meticulously to ward off unwanted occupants in the chairs. The first two chairs, which were a little away from the counter, were kept busy with a lot of files and papers. The one next was so dirty that sitting on it might infect you with any disease. The last chair which was alright by P.O. standards could be occupied only when there was no queue at the counter. 

I suddenly felt an impact on my hand. I turned to see that a gentleman had sat on the adjoining chair flailing his limbs beyond its boundary. I adjusted to cause no inconvenience to the esteemed customer of the P.O. He got up and went away quickly. It was so considerate of him.

As it was close to 3 PM (I was looking at the clock every minute), I was getting anxious. Another customer came with slips like what I was holding. The staff asked him whether he was depositing money or withdrawing. He said that it was withdrawal and that the amount involved was Rs. 2500. The staff told him that there might not be cash enough and pointed out to me and said that I was waiting. The customer was an optimistic soul and requested ‘Nodi’. I got up to make sure that my slips got priority. The staff went to the other counter, brought some cash, augmented it with cash taken out from the handsafe by the postmaster and worked on my slips. Finally, I moved out of the P.O. at 3:30 PM with cash. 

What an achievement and what a noble way to spend retired life!

 

Dinner at Mr. Krishnan’s place 

Mr. Krishnan called me over for dinner (changed from original invitation for lunch) and sent a car to pick me up. When I reached his lavish bungalow, I realised I was the first one to arrive. He had told me that he had invited Professor N.S.Ramaswamy, that being his birthday. I realised much later that it was got up to honour him on his birthday. He was the second to arrive with his wife. I greeted him saying, ‘I pray to God that you should live the full Hindu span of life’. He said okay. Later guests had brought bouquets. Mr. Ramanathan, retired from Kudremukh, later regretted that he had not brought one. Mr. And Mrs. Koehlo, Mr. C.R.Srinivasan (ex-SAIL) and his son, Mr. and Mrs. Prasanna Chittori (NRI from San Francisco), some neighbours, one sardarji couple made up the invitees. Drinks were served with snacks and I was watching.

I was talking to Mrs. K for a few minutes. She had been to San Francisco three times or so. Their daughter had given birth to a girl. Their son is with Morgan Stanley in NY. He is thirty-one and is shunning marriage ostensibly because there is uncertainty in investment banking jobs. They were in India in December.

Krishnan narrated the rude behaviour of one manager from SBI before the full house assembled. I had no defence. I also mentioned two instances where the executives in the Bank let the Bank down. But, the Bank service is not to be judged by exceptions.

Mr.Ramaswamy did much talking. He was involved in one institute called Institute of Hindu Studies. I took a brochure from him with the commitment to work for it. He claimed that Indian sages had discovered several phenomena attributed to western scientists long back by the process of meditation. 82 such phenomena are listed in the brochure. I wondered whether we had developed science but not technology and also whether we should start from the present level of knowledge or from where the sages have left. He remarked that we need to acknowledge the contribution by India, which is not publicised enough.

I opined that in India we have two issues, one is number and the other culture. R gave a contrarian view regarding population. Suppose our population today is 100 million and not 1000 million, it would have been, say, 20 million in 1800 and the Europeans would have run over India like they have done in other places and we may be living as tribals. The Europeans have colonised Americas, Australia and part of Africa, destroying the aboriginal culture and reducing the natives to second class citizens. If they had stayed put in Europe, their number would have been oppressive.

He said, prompted by a sardarji close at hand, that the Punjabis were the gatekeepers for our culture. We would have lost everything but for their brave resistance. They have seen 69 invasions. No temple of the stature of the South Indian ones could be maintained there because of the invasions.

He acknowledged that unlike the other invaders the British did not destroy our culture. But for the British, we would have become a Muslim nation. He presided over a seminar on conversion. The dalits said that they would convert if a mass conversion could be organised. The Muslims said that it would have been easy if partition had not taken place because the number of Muslims would have been large enough to steamroller conversions. Partition is a blessing in disguise.

He advised that we should have a few aims in life, as many and as diverse as possible and that all our actions (whatever we do) should be focused on those aims. That will give a sense of purpose. He held a three-day workshop on management very long ago and 11 of the participants had become Chairmen. One of them was V.Krishnamurthy. Mr. Koehlo and Mr. Srinivasan worked under V.K. They were full of praise for V.K.

Srinivasan was busy as advisor in steel industry. Steel is doing well and his service is in demand. He had been to Ranchi and felt that Bangalore, with its myriad problems, is a heaven compared to many other places. I said that Bangalore is certainly livable and that is why many of us have settled down here though we are not natives. The movement of Raj Thackeray figured in the talk. People of different ethnicity have contributed to Bombay’s prosperity.

Mr.R. suggested that we should organise party for the birthday or marriage anniversary day of Mr. Krishnan who has been hosting such parties frequently without any motive. The few around agreed readily. It was not clear at the time of parting whether the idea died young or is dormant.

A cake was cut for the health and happiness of Mr. R. before the invitees dispersed. I came away with Mr. Ramanathan who was going to Koramangala. 

Jan 14, 2005

Ms Srivastava. I came to know the name by looking over the tag for the luggage she prepared with surgical precision, yes, she is a general surgeon practising in Lucknow. She showed me her onward flight coupon from Delhi to Lucknow and wondered whether she would miss the connection to Lucknow. I told her that there was plenty of time. Nothing to worry about the delay in the flight timing from Jaipur to Delhi. She gave a strange look and spoke nothing in reply. We discussed later in the lounge after passing through security, the big Haj crowd that invaded the area much to her discomfiture. To kill a non-Muslim is the bounden duty of a devout Muslim, enshrined in their scripture, which straightaway reserves a prized birth in heaven, she said with an indubitable air of finality. She was wondering whether future generations of Hindus would be safe in India. My mind was in half agreement. I thought that there are moderate-looking, but not moderate Muslims. Not quite perhaps, but then we make sweeping general conclusions. The happy part is most of our conclusions are idle and we do not proceed to act on them. Intention may be punishable in religious context, but in ordinary law it would be wrong to prosecute a person on intentions even if expressed.

Jun 30, 2007

Away from the madding crowd, along the roaring see, alone I walked on the damp sand hardened by the fickle waves, caressed by the salty breeze. I looked for the moon now and then but it seemed to shy away from the multitudes that thronged the beach, even on a full moon day or the next to it. The lights of the planes climbing down substituted for the absent moon. I checked my thoughts which were not different from years ago. Then it occurred to me that most of us grow outwardly, and inwardly we are still the same. The great ones grow inwardly.

From my diary Feb 1999

We went to Bannerughatta zoo. It turned out to be better than expected though the van was quite uncomfortable. The lion and lioness hovering about the cage where perhaps their food would be served made me introspective – how often I too hover around kitchen. Moreover, food seems to precede freedom in one’s choice. Who is more cruel – the lion or the man who holds it captive?

The fruit vendor in front of the house was missing for a few days. He said that he received a call that his mother had fallen and that he was called home 40 kms away. She had been managing her affairs so far but might need help now. She was 95. That typifies an average Indian, taking care of the aged parents.

It was 1987. The BBC channel was on. A woman was bemoaning that her mother was not taken care of well in the old age home. That shocked me. Why did she not take care of her mother? That is western culture.

Crazy Mohan describes how he was part of a joint family and how he owed his success to the training in the joint family. Joint families were the norm till the twentieth century beginning perhaps. They did not produce many Crazy Mohans, but carried on producing crazy people, some may say. People got on with bickering and friction, but got on. There is no going back to joint family system now.

We are now progressing. Families have gone nuclear by and large since there is no NPT for families. Old age homes are on the rise.

A senior colleague has described his experience in selecting a match for his son in the form of a skit.

Husband, wife and son went to see a girl.

The girl asked the boy during the interaction, ‘What about these things?’

The boy was puzzled and asked, ‘Which things?’

The girl pointed to his parents.

The boy was annoyed, but replied politely, ‘They will be with me of course.’

The girl said, ‘That settles it. We will part as acquaintances. Do not bother. We will not charge you for the refreshments.’

Madras Nalla Madras

That was a song (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMzW_hrs2Us) in a movie.

‘Pattanam’ (city) is the word used in the ordinary man’s parlance for Madras. There is another song ‘Pattanamthan pogalamadi pombale’ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iP9WPo0iWYE).

Pattikada pattanama is yet another song (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaT9m9SzjMI).

Pattanama Pattikada was a film.

I thought a filmy introduction would attract readers.

I moved from pattikadu (village) to pattanam (Madras) in 1957 for studies. For the next ten years I lived in Madras during school/college days and in the village during vacations for a week or longer. It is difficult for me to answer ‘pattikada pattanama’. I would like to call myself pattikadu to invite sympathy. A classmate of mine pushed me a century behind, not just ‘pattikadu’, still more backward.

I want to write my humdrum impressions on Madras. I lived there from 1957-1969, 1974-1978, 1985-1987, and in 2007 – in all 19 years of my life of 73 years. Bengaluru comes next - 18 years running, followed by Mumbai – 10 years. I choose ‘Madras’ as it was so called in the times I was there mostly.

The first impression that I recollect is rikshas – hand-pulled and cycle rikshas. I used to hire them as a boy whenever the distance was long or I had heavy baggage. The charge was decided by ‘beram’ (haggling). It did not trouble me that I was using human labour for my personal comfort. The rikshavala will keep shouting ‘oram po’ (move to the side) to make way for the risksha.

Drinking water was scarce and corporation taps were the source. Water would come in the morning and evening for one or two hours and there would be a queue of people and vessels of all types at the taps. Some altercations were routine.

Cinema as movies were called in common man’s lingo was an attraction, but it was ‘bad’ to see a movie, a belief that suited a light purse more than orthodox perception. Occasionally, my aunt would take me to some films she watched, rather rare. There were too many theatres around, Crown (next to the Mint where no minting seemed to be taking place), Krishna near a crematorium, significant perhaps, Murugan, Regal, Broadway, Prabhath, Bharath. Krishna was perhaps a tad better than the others. Lower middle class and poorer sections patronised these theatres. (An uncle of mine was critical about calling them ‘theatre’, which must be used for drama hall; it is ‘cinema’, he would say). Better placed people went to theatres in Mount Road perhaps.

One thing that comes to mind about Madras is the beach, touted as the second largest beach. It was yet to become a statue-yard or graveyard. Even the portion near the railway track was still accessible to the public and was called high court beach as it was close to the stately high court building which was partly damaged by Emden bombing. It housed then the light house which was open for public viewing. It was fun going up the spiral staircase.

Talking of theatres, an incident pops up in mind. When the slew of statues were being out up in the sixties, I shared a feeling with my professor, ‘Why have they not included U.V.Swmainatha Iyer, who took great pains to unearth Tamizh works?’ He laughed and said, ‘Do not say it aloud. You will be mocked at. There is already a statue for him in the University campus, and people used to joke about the crows perching there and excreting.’

The zoo was close to the Central station abutting the railway line. It was an apology for a zoo. At that time, the zoos in Calcutta, Hyderabad and Thiruvananthapuram were better, I think. I have not visited the Vandalur Zoo. Poor animals!

Moor Market was in a Victorian building (since demolished with railway booking office housed there). One went there for second-hand books and curios.

The fourteen story building of LIC became the first sky scraper of Madras in the sixties, I think. It was an attraction, but I never went up.

The George Town (GT) area is a crowded place. You will bump into someone if not careful. Noise was constant inside a many-tenanted dungeons called houses and outside with variety of traffic including cattle. In fact, in the street just behind our house there was a cattle shed and we used to get milk from that owner who seemed to get water without any hassle.

Kothwal Chavadi was the whole sale vegetable market situated in the ground belonging to Kannika Parmeswari temple. Occasionally I have gone there with my uncle. The vendors used to cheat in quality and weight. Flower and fruit wholesale market was near Esplanade where the bus stand for buses plying to outstation areas was also situated. The law college and law courts were nearby and lawlessness everywhere.

I used to catch a bus in the bus stand to my village and also go and wait for the rice that would be sent by my father in a bus. I would sit on the low compound wall near the LIC building that was there and watching out for the bus. Getting out the bag from atop the bus using a coolie and taking it home employing a riksha was one of my chores.

Madras Tamizh is a speciality one should not miss. It has been the butt of comedy in many plays and films, after Brahminical expressions. Coming from North Arcot, it was not quite strange to my rustic ears. One thing Madrasis have been dismissive about is ‘hair’ and my badness is partly explained by it.

Commuting by bus used to be an ordeal. After the incentive was introduced, buses were crammed worse than pens. The conductor would ask everyone to move in, and often that would be possible only with some moving out through the front exit opening. The conductors were good whistlers, the whistle given being used occasionally. The bus would be stopped before every stage for issuing tickets. The conductor would be a good juggler with deft fingers, with ticket books and currency notes stacked in the space between fingers. The finger in the free hand will move between the tongue and the ticket every time a ticket was issued. Anyone who gave a currency note like a hundred rupee, will be labelled a candidate for death (savu girakki). The driver for his part would address any cyclist etc. crossing his path as someone who has a death wish (oottile sollikinu vanduttiyaa). The driver was nearly an acrobat. He would start and stop the vehicle in a way even a healthy person may suffer heart strain. The accelerator would be used as horn also. He would keep the clutch pressed and accelerate, and anyone would think that the bus was going to run over them.

I came to know much later that GT had the abodes of people like S S Vasan, Dhanammal, Patnam Subramania Iyer, and so on. Obviously, living in GT alone does not lead you to fortune or fame!

11/11/18

He sells vegetables. Lean and of middle height, he owns a small tempo and is seen in the morning near the park. The walkers-cum-talkers stop by and buy vegetables when they return home.

He is not too educated, but knows enough Maths to count the money, enough economics how to price his goods, enough management as to what to trade that day, where to buy and how to transport it, enough inventory management skill not to carry over the perishable, enough articulateness to have minimal conversation with his customers.

One day, a customer haggled. He told him, ‘It is one price for all.’ Another day a customer suggested that he put placards of prices on the items. He said, ‘Not done.’

He trusts people and does not mind being paid later or giving the change later. He does not ask. You return and he says, ‘OK.’ You demand the deferred balance and he gives without any demur.

He seems happy. He did not complain even when demonetization dampened business.

He earns to live and his possessions must be modest. He may not have any superannuation package, maybe not even superannuation. He may believe or may not believe in god. But, he is not in knots as to why we live and what will happen tomorrow, let alone after death. From my convoluted brain, it seems that his life is spiritual. I may be making up a story, but I like it.

May 07, 2015

Attitude

I was travelling in a crowded suburban train in Bombay (as it was then). A group of office-goers were playing cards. That is a speciality of Mumbai, people playing cards even standing. One of the players was smoking. Right behind where he was sitting, the notice was there- No Smoking. I pointed out to him the notice. He turned back, saw it and said, ‘likhnewala likta hai’, and got busy with his play.

Another day, I objected to a person smoking in the train and he took out of his pocket a rupee hundred note, waved it and said, ‘I have the money to pay the fine.’

In Bengaluru recently, a passenger was about to throw out the window a used ticket and I told him, ‘Please do not throw it; it is our city.’ He threw and said, ‘Why are the corporation people not doing their job? Let them do.’

An Indian wanted to engage a cab in UK, and there was one too many for the allowed number for a cab. He pleaded with the cab driver to take them as one was a child. The cab driver replied, ‘We make rules here to obey them.’

There was an officer posted abroad, a senior who retired as GM, who I believe used to buy clothes and return them after a week as return was possible there. He used to enjoy new clothes free until the store noticed it.

23/1/17

I took an auto. On the way, a motorist took a right turn blindly ahead of the auto and dashed on it. He stopped, came out and looked at the damage to his car and the auto. The auto driver also inspected. No altercation! The motorist, a young man, pulled out his purse and offered some cash. The auto driver refused. He said coolly that there was already damage to the auto. The young man tried to force it, but the auto driver would have nothing of it. 

When he dropped me, I paid him 70 as the metre showed 66. He promptly shelled out the change, something the auto drivers normally do not have.

We perhaps get rains still because of such people.

3/3/18

I am trying to cross near St Joseph’s college. As the signal does not seem to be on, I walk up to the policeman. He puts his hand out and walks across escorting me. I thank him wondering whether it is a dream.

I look for Sundaram Mutual Fund in Phoenix building, but it is not there. I ask a person in the stairway, and he suggests that I try in another building a few yards away. There also there is no trace of it. I ask a gentleman. He goes out of the way to find it for me using his mobile and calling a few numbers. Then, he looks around for the watchman who just returned from lunch. He says that they had moved near Trinity Church.

A good day when I met people who try to help. Never mind that I did not go to Trinity Church.

9/12/17

I waved but many autowalas ignored or refused as the distance was short. One stopped and took us in. He did not turn on the metre. He put his hand on it, but withdrew and murmured inaudibly something. I did not press as I know the fare.

The driver saw me talking to my wife in Tamizh and started a conversation. He said that there was too much evil, injustice and strife in the world and gave a laundry list of sufferings. He asked me why it was so and answered himself that it was because we have man’s rule on earth. He assured me that soon god’s rule would come and there would be no suffering. I suggested to him that even now there is only god’s rule and suffering will be part of life and without problems life would not be there. He brushed me aside and said that it is man’s view. I looked at him and he too looked like a man only.

He kept haranguing at every signal when the auto had to wait. But, as in life, in journey too there is an end mercifully. I paid him more than the normal fare in appreciation of his taking us when others refused.

As I got down, I saw the name ‘Emmanuel’.

That is mobile evangelism.

 January 4, 2017

I attended briefly the new year party in a complex. The compere was a young girl dressed queerly. She asked a girl her name. The girl said Samskriti. She asked the girl the meaning of the word and the girl replied culture. The compere asked her to tell about Indian culture. The irony was loud.

The music was thunderous making the whole body shake as in an earthquake. It is a wonder how they call it music. Long back I attennded Rolling Stones performance. The name was apt. Rolling stones might have been sweeter perhaps.

After every performance she said it was fantastic, awesome, and such things, making me wonder whether she was a dictionary or human being knowing the meaning of what she uttered.

After the first two performances, I left to save my ears and heart. The immediate reason was that the performance of my grandchildren was over.

January 15, 2017

My daughter was saying that a friend of hers was expecting a child. My grandson asked, ‘How is it known? (eppadi theriyum)?’ My daughter smiled and said, ‘They told us.’

August 24, 2016

Proceedings or the rigmarole of the occasion were indeed a hindrance.

After the function was over, one boy said, ‘It was such a bore. They could have given it in the next class.’

Children love play, excitement, animation, fight, chat and what not.

I made no noise and heard no meaningful syllable. After the event, I found myself alone as everyone left me dreaming, a favour conferred on old age. Luckily I knew the way back.

February 3, 2016

I collect flowers on the way to buy milk. As I was plucking the flowers from the tree, a young boy (less than 5 perhaps) picked one from the ground and offered to me. I took it from him with a smile and said, ‘Thank you.’ The next day again, he looked at me and pointed to other flowers in another plant. He was happy to be part of the life he was observing. I wondered whether it is for good that we chain them in school and cram into their heads humpty-dumpties. The school bus arrived and he was lifted and taken into it. I saw the name of the school on the bus, ‘Freedom International’ Good joke!

 July 25, 2015

He wanted to get a grandson and his wish was answered and he was all joy. In Madurai, an old lady in mid-eighties takes care of the home when he goes there. His son lives with his mother in Chennai, he said.

Then, he said that his elder brother died in an accident at the age of 29. His father was shattered and died of grief a year later. The wife of his brother and a year old child were left to be cared for when his brother died. His mother was also there, who died at 94 years of age. He devoted himself to taking care of all of them. A family of his own would have cut into this duty, he said. He added, 'I do not call it sacrifice. It is duty.' The son, he referred to is his nephew.

He would have shared more information. But, my legs rather than my ears got tired. I invited him to come home some time and took leave.

July 17, 2015

I went across to buy medicine and was waiting to cross over. The fruit vendor asked, 'When will madam return?' His wife added, 'It was lively with her around with a number of people turning in for yoga (bhajan actually).' Their warmth was touching. I do not even buy fruits from them and they owe nothing to me. Is not life rich with such fellow-feeling that is spontaneous?

June 2, 2015

I returned for reuse the plastic bags in which the lady flower vendor supplies flowers. She remarked, 'Are they clean? Hope no flower petal is stuck inside, in which case I cannot use it as my customers use the flowers for puja.'

I stopped an auto and told the driver our destination. He demanded a fixed fare which I refused. I did not quite hear what he said after that. I imagined that he wanted meter plus something. My wife informed me that he was agreeing to go by the metre.

That brought to mind a story my mother told me as a boy, something she must have read in a magazine.

A deaf one (that was the normal expression sixty years ago) planned to visit a friend who was ill for some time. He visualised (his sight was in order!) how the meeting would go. “I will ask him how he is and he will say ‘better’, and I will express satisfaction, I will probe about his diet, and he will say some porridge, and I will recommend to continue it, and I will ask him who his doctor is and he will mention some renowned doctor’s name and I will endorse it.” He went and the actual interview took the following pattern:

“How are you?”

“There is some deterioration.”

“Glad to hear. What diet do you take?”

Irritated, the friend exploded, “Mannangatti (clump of mud).”

“That is the proper diet. Keep it up. Which doctor are you consulting?”

“Yamadharmaraja.”

“He is the best doctor. Follow his advice.”

That answers my curiosity about how my listeners take my responses!

The Rat!

This happened more than a decade ago in Jaipur.

We were sleeping in a house that had six openings to outside. Suddenly I felt someone caressing my feet. I asked my wife whether she touched me and she denied sleepily. I consoled myself that my imagination was running riot. I tried to sleep, but a second time I felt something disturbing my feet. I could no longer blame my hallucination. It was physical, not psychological. I switched on the light. 

All was quiet but it looked eerie. 

I remembered my granny narrating how a cat caressed and bit her leg in the village. She imagined the cat bite was hurting her all through life. 

After several anxious moments, the cause of the nocturnal overtures became known. It was a rat. As I wrote, the openings to the rat were many, but they find some subterranean route in any case. That was not relevant. I was proceeding like my service days' practice - probing accountability as the security and chances of recovery deteriorate meanwhile.

We became active in expelling the rate. We closed as many ways to remain locked down inside as possible. We succeeded in cornering it to the bathroom and as it happened, it fell in the commode and the smooth surface was slippery for its climb. Not to take a chance, I closed the lid of the commode under the supervision of my wife.

I called the watchman for removing the rat safely to a place from which it may not find its way. He said plaintively, 'Maim brahman hoom.' The right man for last rites! He arranged for the rat to be removed, dead perhaps. Not sure if it was escorted to heaven under the power of some mantra. 

Jun 6

The clouds loomed in the horizon. The heat was still insufferable. Slow drizzle fell rhythmically on the windshield. A furlong from the guesthouse. Precipitation gathered in momentum. While getting off the car, the rain drops were big and drenched you partially. The wind speed was increasing. Rain was lashing. It was lightning one moment and thunder came the next. The thunder was deafening. Why did the clouds become so suddenly boisterous? Pent-up pressures? The gale and rain snapped the electric cables because of falling trees. It was dark. It was hot and breathless inside. Two more hours before the connection would be restored, we were told. There was no way but to sweat it out. The order returns at midnight. Life goes on. It dawns. Another day. Another experience. Not quite different. Life appears to be a meaningless repetition of whimsical moments, fleeting feelings and tentative action. It might be worse otherwise!

May 4, 2016 ·

Varanasi

I first visited Varanasi in 1974 when I performed rituals in Allahabad and Varanasi. But for the religious fervour I possessed, it was a depressing visit. The city was dirty, roads narrow, crowded and it was anything but holy. The three cities I saw on the banks of Ganga, Allahabad, Varanasi and Kolkata, did not make me feel reverence for Ganga. Later I saw Patna and it further turned my mind rebellious.

While in varanasi, an anecdote was said how some ruffian threw human waste on a person carrying heavy luggage. The person walked on homeward as the ruffians were trying to divert his attention so that they could bolt away with what he was carrying. That added to my chagrin.

Later I visited in the nineties twice. It was from bad to worse. A local took me to take bath in Ganga that was at the backyard almost. Human waste was mingling at the point and I skipped the holy bath and went and bathed in what was perhaps the same water through the tap.

I nearly missed the train once as the rikshaw was not able to move. It was less than a kilometer. I got down and struggled to walk to the station which was a settlement sort of. It took quite a while to live off that memory.

I do not think there is any holiness in unruly crowd and filth. Even though god is everywhere, he does not prevent us in going after him in clean places.

May 28, 2015

When I go to buy milk in the morning, it is my custom to collect some flowers. As I was plucking flowers one day, a girl, who was returning rom walk in the park, smiled genially, plucked some flowers for me and went her way.

Living is fulfilling with such trivia.

Monkey plays guest

I was doing something in the kitchen and was engrossed in my work. I turned for a second toward the microwave oven, I do not remember why (when you read on you will understand how it might have easily slipped from my mind even if I had indeed a purpose for that), and what do I see there? A monkey, of course, seated comfortably on the platform next to the microwave in the space made for it, as it were, by amma. (She had removed the mixy in order to work on the grinder). The monkey had entered the kitchen unobtrusively through the balcony window kept wide open as an informal invitation to it, shall I say?

I have been dull-witted even in reading the minds of higher mortals like humans (I am confident that the monkey won’t read this and take umbrage at the statement that humans are higher mortals). How was I to divine what went behind the mind of a monkey? For all I knew, it was from Pakistan with hidden weapons of mass destruction. I did not know how to shoo it away. I sort of had learnt the noises to make in respect of crows (coosh), dogs (vettu), etc., but not for a monkey. It is a different issue whether the animals learnt the terms we coined for them. I was all nerves and thought at first of throwing the sugar container, but better sense prevailed even in that emergency that it would only sweeten the kitchen floor. Moreover, it was no match for WMD the monkey perhaps had in its arsenal. It would be more like the soldier in ‘Arms and the Man’ of Shaw, carrying chocolates in his pocket in the place of bullets.

I decided that I should rush out of the room (having worked in a reputed institution for a long time, it has got deeply ingrained in me that fleeing the scene of conflict is the most discreet step to be taken by an astute manager) to look for a stick. My sense was with me and I remembered that patti usually kept some stick with her. My plan worked. I saw an acrylic pipe used as a stick by her. I took hold of it and returned to the scene of action.

My mind was not idle meantime. The discourse of one Sastrigal on Ramayana flashed in my mind. He was narrating how, during one such discourse, a monkey entered and occupied a vantage point. He felt unsettled as also the audience. The monkey sat through quietly for some time and then slunk away without inflicting any harm. The audience came to terms after the menace disappeared to conclude that it was Hanuman who came on the scene. The Sastrigal recited a stanza that says that wherever Ramayana is narrated, Hanuman is present. I did not want to leave anything to chance. Maybe Hanuman was pleased to pay a visit to our house also though Ramayana was not even in my mind at that time. Nevertheless I recited a sloka praising Hanuman in my mind. All this happened in a trice.

When I returned I saw amma slamming the door of the kitchen. She perhaps thought that she was confining the monkey in the kitchen as if she was Mumbai police catching Kasab. I was furious. How could she leave the kitchen at the sole disposal of the monkey? (The thought of Hanuman had flashed out as easily as it came).

We have the philanthropic practice of leaving everything in the kitchen open for flies and mosquitoes, ants and cockroaches. Now one more species has been added in the list of our donees. The monkey would have a field day, I thought in anger. Anger was my surrogate emotion for fear. In physics we have read about the transformation of one form of energy to another, which has made several inventions possible. We can in like manner transform one emotion to another, though the simile falls short of completeness as in my case it resulted in annoyance to amma, not any benefit.

I shook the handle of the kitchen door to open it. You may think uncharitably that my hand was shaking in any case. When I opened, I did not see the monkey where I last saw it. The storeroom was open too and I thought that it must have entered there. (If it were Hanuman, it ought to have gone there in right earnest as it is pooja room as well). I was afraid to enter and find out. What if it pounced on me as I peeped? I made some sort of noise and banged the pipe on the door of the storeroom. Patti had brought another longer and sturdier pipe. I now had two pipes to fight with. In the event, I peeped and surveyed the room well, but the monkey was not there.

Then I went to the balcony. Amma was shouting from behind (to my rattled mind it sounded as gibberish) whether I had removed a half-litre packet of milk. I was disturbed by her voice and told her to keep quiet and not bother about the milk packet when I was fighting a life and death battle with a monkey. Patti butted in and asked whether we had left any milk for the monkey as it was drinking the milk outside. She gave a sagacious advice from her wizened old age that we should keep the doors closed. I told her to keep her advice to herself. It was still to dawn on me that the monkey had left our premises. Amma was still harping on the milk and I told her why she did not put it straight into the fridge. I also ticked her off for watching the TV in neglect of her work and threatened to smash the TV. She started to say something, but I outshouted her and she knew better not to waste her breath. The altercation thus died young.

I realised late that the monkey was playing guest (my coinage, in case you have not already given me the credit for it) and looking for breakfast and did not come for human blood wantonly. However, I do not recommend to anyone to entertain monkeys for breakfast. After all, the recent visitors to Taj and Trident went there not for breakfast, but for human lives!

11/11/18

He sells vegetables. Lean and of middle height, he owns a small tempo and is seen in the morning near the park. The walkers-cum-talkers stop by and buy vegetables when they return home.

He is not too educated, but knows enough Maths to count the money, enough economics how to price his goods, enough management as to what to trade that day, where to buy and how to transport it, enough inventory management skill not to carry over the perishable, enough articulateness to have minimal conversation with his customers.

One day, a customer haggled. He told him, ‘It is one price for all.’ Another day a customer suggested that he put placards of prices on the items. He said, ‘Not done.’

He trusts people and does not mind being paid later or giving the change later. He does not ask. You return and he says, ‘OK.’ You demand the deferred balance and he gives without any demur.

He seems happy. He did not complain even when demonetization dampened business.

He earns to live and his possessions must be modest. He may not have any superannuation package, maybe not even superannuation. He may believe or may not believe in god. But, he is not in knots as to why we live and what will happen tomorrow, let alone after death. From my convoluted brain, it seems that his life is spiritual. I may be making up a story, but I like it.