Ramprasad Sen’s father was an Ayurvedic vaidya (physician) and a Sanskrit scholar in the town of Halisahar, in Bengal, where Ramprasad was born. As a youth, Ramprasad showed promise in poetry and learning new languages. He learnt Persian, Sanskrit and Hindi. However, he seemed very detached from worldly pursuits and his father realized that Ramprasad was not inclined to train in the family profession. Moreover, Ramprasad was always immersed in longing to see his real cosmic mother Kali. This was a cause of immense anxiety to his parents and they soon concluded that marriage would wake up Ramprasad to the real world and therefore, he was married.

After the wedding, by tradition, the newly married couple was initiated into the family’s method of worship and records indicate that when the guru whispered a mantra into Ramprasad’s  ears, he became consumed with intense feeling of love and longing for Ma Kali. After this, Ramprasad took up tantric study with Krishnananda Agamavagisha, who incidentally happened to be a tantric himself, and the author of the Bengali book by name Tantrasara. He was initiated into sadhana (spritual practices). Ramprasad spent most of his time practicing and perfecting these sadhanas and was always drowned in a deep and meditative mood. One day, all of a sudden, his father died before having set the affairs of the house in order. Soon, the entire family was dragged into poverty and responsibilities finally forced Ramprasad to go to work as an accountant in Calcutta.

In between his routine work,  Ramprasad would scribble a song or two to the goddess at the back of his account ledger. Some colleagues found this objectionable and immediately complained to the boss. Ramprasad was summoned into the boss’s room immediately. Angrily, the boss grabbed the ledger from Ramprasad’s hand and turned over to the last page. But the songs moved him so much, that instead of dismissing Ramprasad from duty, he requested Ramprasad to go home and worship his Ma Kali day and night, while he agreed to continue to pay him the thirty rupees salary every month.

Ramprasad happily went back home to his village and continued to sing for Kali. One day, while Ramprasad was reprimanding his daughter for not painting the fence properly, mother Kali is believed to have come in the form of his daughter and the fence was painted well before sunset. Even though he doubted why his daughter was looking extremely beautiful and radiant that day  despite receiving scoldings, he did not recognize  it was Ma Kali herself. When he praised his daughter that night for the job completed, she denied having completed the job. In fact she even confessed that she sneaked away to play with her friends after getting scolded by her father. This is when Ramprasad realized that Ma Kali had herself come to complete the job and he repented for having failed to recognize her.

Through his later years, Ramprasad immersed himself in sadhana and got many visions of the Goddess through out his life. Even though he continued to remain aloof from wordly matters, it seemed as if Mother Kali herself was taking care of the rest of his family. They were never in deep poverty again and somehow magically they always seemed to have everything they needed. Ramprasad always participated in the Durga puja festivities every year. Once, Ramprasad went into a trance as he was singing and dancing in the Kali procession that was taking the idol to the Ganges for immersion, that he followed the idol into the river. And there, when the water was neck deep, he just gave up his body. And just like that, when Kali merged into the Ganges, Ramprasad Sen’s soul merged into the infinite Kali herself.

Ramprasad’s poems are so touching that they act as windows to his soul. His relationship with Ma Kali is so beautifully depicted in his poems. In some poems, he considers her as his child, while in others Kali is his mother, his wife or his sister. While Ma Kali merely remains a concept in many people’s mind, to read about Ramprasad’s actual relationship with her is indeed soul-filling. Before I end this post, here is a translation of a beautiful song that Ramprasad wrote -

Who in this world
can understand what
Mother Kali really is?
The six systems of philosophy
remain powerless to describe Her.
She is the inmost awareness
of the sage who realizes
that Consciousness alone exists.
She is the life blossoming within
the creatures of the universe.
Both macrocosm and microcosm
are lost within Mother’s Womb.
Now can you sense
how indescribable She is?

The yogi meditates upon Her
in the six subtle nerve centers
as She sports with delight
through the lotus wilderness
of the pristine human body,
playing with Her Consort,
Shiva, the Great Swan.

When anyone attempts to know Her,
the singer of this song laughs.
Can you swim across
a shoreless ocean?
Yet the child in me still
reaches out to touch the moon.

Kashmir ranks amongst the most beautiful and pristine lands in all of India, reverberating with the sacred sounds from the Himalayas. The real Kashmir is the residence of Ma Sharada Devi – (recall the verse “namaste Sharada devi kAshmirapuravAsini”. Sri Adi Sankara after his visit to Kashmir, set up the Sharada Peeth here). Kashmir is the also land of the accomplished Kashmiri pandits – who Monier Willams described as being the ‘finest representatives of the Aryan race’ – and it is also the land which gave us the supreme philosophy of Kashmiri Shaivism.

The accomplishments of Kashmiri Shaivism alone more than surpass all contributions to Shaivism made by a majority of India put together. Kashmiri Shaivism is a philosophy that is entirely experiential in nature. It is also called the Trika or the threefold path that deals with understanding manifestations of Siva and Shakti. Instead of encouraging blind belief in dogmas that promise experience verifiable only after death, Kashmiri Shaivism provides an aspirant with tools enabling him to experience the divine right here and right now.

Looking at the political circumstances in Kashmir today, it is difficult for one to believe that this tradition is still alive and that as recent as the past century, Kashmir still produced a great master in this tradition. In a previous post on this blog, we have seen the story of Lalleshwari (link), another Kashmiri Shaivite saint who lived in the 14^th century. This post is dedicated to the master Swami Lakshman Joo who lived between 1907 and 1991.

Swami Lakshman Joo, born into a pious pandit family showed spiritual inclination from a very young age. His parents were devotees of one Swami Ram. Under Swami Ram’s tutelage, the young lad Lakshman studied the scriptures and was initiated into the path of yoga. Swami Lakshman Joo spent his youth studying Sanskrit grammar and scriptures and literature of Kashmiri Shaivism as well as those of all allied schools of Indian philosophy. As a young boy of 20, Lakshman Joo was able to achieve realization of the Self and from then on, his urge to renounce the world and pursue an intense journey within the Shaivite literature and scriptures increased multi fold.

When he was merely 25 years of age, Swami Lakshman Joo added extensive footnotes to the Abhinavagupta’s commentary on the Bhagavad Gita. At Swami Lakshman Joo’s ashram – the Ishwara Ashram, in the village of Ishaber – he gave discourses and wrote commentaries on fundamental works of Shaivism – Abhinavagupta’s Tantraloka, SAmbapancasika, the Siva Sutras, Yogavasistha, the Agama sastras, Vignana Bhairava Tantra, Utpaladeva’s Sivastoravali, to name a few. All important literature of Kashmiri Shaivism before Swami Lakshman Joo was written in Sanskrit. As Sanskrit usage among common people in India started declining, every subsequent generation of spiritual seekers began to find Sanskrit scriptures increasingly difficult to approach, let alone understand and practice.  Swami Lakshman Joo’s contribution to Kashmiri Shaivism lies in making these arcane ideas accessible to a wider audience, using contemporary languages and modern idioms.

This incredible verse which uses just one vowel (a) and one consonant (ya)- infused with imagery, love, devotion and poetic sense- is taken from the Paduka Sahasram, an epic poem of 1008 verses praising the footwear of Lord Ranganatha of Srirangam. Verses like the above are created only with beautiful Sanskrit as a powerful tool, with a thorough knowledge and understanding of the real truth, and with a poetic mind that is also devoted to the supreme. And, definitely, despite being an expert in Sanskrit, only incarnations of the divine are capable of producing such striking work of word-play. Of course, the paduka sahasram was written by the unparalleled mulitilingual poet and VisisthAdvaita philosopher – Sri Vedanta Desika.

Sri Vedanta Desika was born in Thoopul, near Kanchipuram to two devout parents, through a boon they received from the Lord of Venkatagiri (Tirupati) and hence he was named Venkatanatha.  He began his Vedic education at the age of five with his maternal uncle, who was himself a very great scholar and a direct disciple of Swami Ramanuja. By the age of 20, Desika had already attained complete mastery of all the scriptures. His thorough knowledge and deep insight helped him defeat every philosopher who opposed Vedanta. Thus, he was always invited for debates and polemics across the country. Sri Vedanta Desika caused Vedanta to gain a firm footing in the 14^th and 15^th century India.

Vedanta Desika translated his knowledge to the common man, through nearly hundred different works in the languages of Tamil, Manipravalam and Sanskrit. Each of these works is so exceptional that it is almost impossible to pick one and call that Desika’s magnum opus. Sri Vedanta Desika also wrote elaborate commentaries on the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita and the works of Sri Ramanuja. His works also include treatises on visistAdvaita, and expositions on the nalayira divya prabandhams. All his contemporaries considered him to be the sole authority on Vedanta. His brilliance in poetry and his mastery of all languages in which he wrote, also earned Desika the title “Kavi tArkika Simha” which means the Lion among poets. A few English words here do no justice to describing in full effect, the greatness of Sri Vedanta Desika.

Coming back to the Paduka Sahasram – It is believed that Desika was challenged one night, to demonstrate his Sanskrit knowledge by producing atleast a 1000 verses in the praise of Lord Ranganatha before day break. After supper that night, apparently Desika went to sleep. When one of his close disciples woke him up and reminded him about the challenge, Desika spontaneously started composing the paduka sahasram, in praise of the Lord’s footwear. The next day, he recited this 1008 verse epic poem and surrendered them at the feet of Ranganatha. Lord Ranganatha of Srirangam was extremely pleased with Desika that He appeared to confer the title of “Vedantacharya” on Desika and to add to this, Ranganatha’s consort Ranganayaki conferred him the title “Sarva Tantra Svatantra”. And you might have already guessed – the challenger could barely come up with a few hundred verses that night, and Desika won the challenge hands down.

The paduka sahasram has several stunning verses that will cause one to drop their jaw in awe. Another example below is shown where Sri Vedanta Desika solves a mathematical puzzle that we now call Euler Chess Knight problem through Sanskrit poetry. The solution of the problem involves placing the knight in one corner of the chess board and without touching any square twice, landing the knight on every square on the board. Euler found an answer to this problem in the 17^th century and that is why the modern world calls this the Euler Chess Knight problem. Sitting in medieval Europe, Euler had neither heard of Sri Vedanta Desika nor read his elegant solution depicted in stunning poetry hundreds of years before Euler solved it, not to mention the fact that the solution was spontaneously found at the wee hours of the night in preparation for the poetry challenge.

In the solution presented below, there are 2 verses on after another. When the syllables of the first verses are written in order on the squares of the chessboard, the second verse is formed by the syllables that follow the movement of the knight. (Please see excerpt below taken from the book “The Wonder That is Sanksrit”, by Sampad and Vijay)

O sacred sandals of the Brahman, you are always adorned by those who have committed unpardonable sins; you remove all that is sorrowful and unwanted; you create a musical sound; (be pleased) and lead me to the feet of Lord Rangaraja.

The sandals which protect those who shine by their right attitude, whose place is the center of the blissful rays, which destroy the melancholy of the distressed, whose radiance brings peace to those who take refuge in them, which move everywhere,  -may those golden and radiating sandals of the Brahman lead me to the feet of Lord Rangaraja.

Desika might have been an incredible genius, yet one often wonders how at all did Desika accomplish so much in his lifetime and this further inspires young minds to think about their own capabilities.  India has repeatedly produced men with exceptional accomplishments, and reading about these great men should remind every person about his own hidden potential and hopefully, that will motivate him to carve out his own path in search of the ultimate truth.

सरफ़रोशी की तमन्ना अब हमारे दिल में है
देखना है ज़ोर कितना बाज़ुए कातिल में है

वक्त आने दे बता देंगे तुझे ए आसमान
हम अभी से क्या बतायें क्या हमारे दिल में है

(ऐ वतन,) करता नहीं क्यूँ दूसरा कुछ बातचीत
देखता हूँ मैं जिसे वो चुप तेरी महफ़िल में है

रहबरे राहे मुहब्बत, रह न जाना राह में
लज्जते-सेहरा न वर्दी दूरिए-मंजिल में है

अब न अगले वलवले हैं और न अरमानों की भीड़
एक मिट जाने की हसरत अब दिले-बिस्मिल में है

ए शहीद-ए-मुल्क-ओ-मिल्लत मैं तेरे ऊपर निसार
अब तेरी हिम्मत का चरचा गैर की महफ़िल में है

खैंच कर लायी है सब को कत्ल होने की उम्मीद
आशिकों का आज जमघट कूचा-ए-कातिल में है

सरफ़रोशी की तमन्ना अब हमारे दिल में है
देखना है ज़ोर कितना बाज़ुए कातिल में है

(बिस्मिल आजिमाबादी)

In this post, I would like to present a brief account of the life of this great poet and patriot. He is yet another among those valiant men who smilingly went to the gallows fighting for India’s freedom. (See post on Khudiram Bose). Bismil was born in 1897 in Shahjahanpur, Uttar Pradesh. He spent his early years gaining education in Urdu and English. Even at a young age, he got introduced to the Arya Samaj and he quickly took to their philosophy. After reading Swami Dayananda’s Satyaartha Prakash, Bismil became very influenced by the concept of Brahmacharya and started practicing it very strictly. He soon gave up his evening meals as well sweet and spicy foods. This sincere practice made his face radiant, his mind calm and his body healthy. He regularly participated in the activities of the Arya Samaj, however their ideas and methods were very conservative. Ram Prasad was a radical and a revolutionary. He believed in using violence to attain freedom, while the others in the Shahjahanpur Arya Samaj stuck to non-violence. There were a few others like Bismil, who broke away from the Arya Samaj to form the revolutionary group – the Kumar Sabha.

In 1916, when he learnt about the 43 death sentences offered to freedom fighters in the Lahore Conspiracy case, a  raging fire was ignited in Bismil’s heart. He made a vow that he will take his revenge on the evil British government for putting these patriots to death.  Ram Prasad Bismil was upset that his countrymen were too pusillanimous to stand up to the injustices of the British. He thought that writing books would help people inspire the sleeping countrymen. He wrote two books titled “How Did America Attain Freedom” and “A Message to My Countrymen”. He had to borrow money from his supportive mother to get these books published, but the sales of these books brought him enough money to pay back his debts. However, the British government banned these books. With the extra money he made, Bismil started buying some weapons from Gwalior. His initial weapons were muzzle pistols, but quickly started to understand more about weapons and started collecting them for his Kumar Sabha activists. Somehow the Gwalior police scented that Bismil’s interest in weapons. They tried to trap him by sending an undercover officer to him in the pretext of showing him where to buy new and powerful weapons. When that disguised man took Bismil to the weapons warehouse, Bismil realized that he was in fact being led to the house of the police inspector and he immediately escaped. Once he realized that the police had already scented him, he gathered all his weapons from his stock at Gwalior and escaped to his hometown Shahjahanpur.

When Bismil returned to Shahjahanpur, there were some misunderstandings and mistrust between the members of the Kumar Sabha over the trouble Bismil had gotten himself into with the Gwalior police. Despite trying to explain to them that he had gotten away safely, they plotted to kill him. Sadly, the ostracized Bismil escaped into hiding in the outskirts of Gwalior. When the police started threatening his parents about confiscating their property if they did not reveal the whereabouts of his son, Ram Prasad’s parents decided to sell their belongings and joined him in hiding. While in hiding, Ram Prasad became a farmer and a cowherd. He used his free time during this period to translate many Bengali works into Hindi. He also wrote several books of his own during this time. After World War 1, the government removed the charges that were pressed on revolutionaries earlier and this enabled Ram Prasad to return to Shahjahanpur and start over in life. Slowly he started to rebuild his family’s life by taking on jobs and starting up businesses. He also started reorganizing the revolutionary movement. Since he was very poor now, it was difficult for him to monetarily support the revolutionaries’ day to day activities. This forced some of his followers to turn  to dacoity in order to get their money to run their freedom movement. But very soon, Ram Prasad realized that it was a futile effort to loot Indians to save India. Therefore, he began to encourage these young revolutionaries to find alternative subjects to loot from, preferably the British.

One day, while Bismil was traveling between Shahjahanpur and Lucknow by train, he noticed some British men bring bags of money and put them in the guard’s carriage. He also noticed that there was no specially appointed guard to take care of the money bags. Suddenly, Bismil realized that stealing this money was his only way to fund the revolutionaries that were fighting for  the Indian cause. Near a stop called Kakori, he along with his accomplices, looted the money and escaped. The British government was shaken by this well planned dacoity. Investigations started immediately and 4 people were caught in this Kakori Rail Dacoity case. Among them was of course Ram Prasad Bismil – the mastermind, and 3 of his faithful friends – Ashfaqullah Khan, Roshan Singh and Rajendra Lahiri. These 4 people were sentenced to be executed.

Their sentence caused a huge wave of uproar across the country. All public leaders appealed on behalf of these 4 men. Dacoity was not a crime serious enough to be given a death sentence for. However, the British government remained unyielding. On the 18th of December 1927, Rajendra Lahiri was hanged. Ram Prasad and Ashfaqullah were executed on the 19th and Roshan Singh on the 20th. Thus ended yet another magnificent chapter in the history of the Indian freedom struggle. While awaiting execution in the Gorakhpur jail, Ram Prasad Bismil wrote a heart-rending autobiography in Hindi. (The full text can be found on the Hindi Wikipedia).

Waiting for death is an unimaginably fearful situation to be in for most normal people, but time and again we have seen that every patriot who sacrificed his life for India gave up his life smilingly and without fear. It is very clear that their love for India exceeded the love for their life. The British might have been successful in uprooting revolutionaries by putting them to death, but they never succeeded in uprooting them all. When one was put down, that single loss triggered an entire army of  patriots who had much more passion than the ones that were killed. Reading the stories of the lives of these great patriots should remind us again and again of what it cost India to become free. That would in turn enable us to appreciate what we have and find out novel ways to preserve it.

Filed under: Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh ]]> http://ourdharma.wordpress.com/2010/04/28/sarfaroshi-ki-tamanna-ab-hamare-dil-mein-hai/feed/ 2 Srividya http://ourdharma.wordpress.com/2010/04/05/the-mandana-misra-vs-adi-sankara-debate/ http://ourdharma.wordpress.com/2010/04/05/the-mandana-misra-vs-adi-sankara-debate/#comments Tue, 06 Apr 2010 04:29:13 +0000 Srividya KR http://ourdharma.wordpress.com/?p=397 ]]> Six primary orthodox schools of philosophy exist in India. They are – nyaya, vaisheshika, mimamsa, vedanta, sankhya and yoga. At different periods in time, India has produced exceptional scholars who were unconditional masters in these respective schools of thought. It has often been the custom among learned men to debate the merits and demerits of these various systems of philosophy. When one scholar won, typically the other would renounce his philosophy to serve the winner as a disciple. Of course, the disciple’s disciples also became new disciples. One such famous debate took place between the two very renowned scholars – Adi Sankara and Mandana Misra in the latter’s residence in present day Bihar.

Mandana Misra was a distinguished practioner of the mimamsa philosophy. The mimamsa philosophy is mainly derived from the karma kanda portion of the Vedas and emphasizes on the importance of rituals. In this school of thought, a particular ritual is done, and the results are achieved instantaneously. It displays a straightforward cause-effect relationship if practiced accurately. Mandana Misra was a perfect and adept ritualist who preached widely. The young and charming advaita vedantin, Adi Sankara, on his country wide tour was eager to debate with Mandana Misra, who was by then already very old. Mandana Misra reasoned that since he had spent more than half his life learning and preaching mimamsa, it would be unfair to debate with a youngster in his twenties who barely had any experience. Hence, with the intention of being fair on Sankara, Misra allowed Sankara to choose his own judge. Sankara had heard greatly about Misra’s righteousness and appreciated him for his act of fairness. But he was quick to decide that none but Mandana Misra’s wife herself can be the most appropriate judge for this debate. The debate between them commenced, and continued for six months nonstop. Thousands of scholars gathered everyday to watch and learn. Mandana Misra, at a ripe old age, still remained a man with very sharp intellect and a very solid grasp of logic, but he was slowly losing. Despite being such a young man, Sankara’s realization of the ultimate Brahman and his knowledge of Maya, enabled him to win over Misra’s arguments easily. Misra was a very accomplished ritualist, yet he seemed to lack some understanding of higher spiritual truths that Sankara seemed to have experienced already. At the end of this 6 month period, Misra was almost ready to accept defeat, when his wife, Bharathi, declared that in order to defeat a man in debate, the opponent should also defeat his wife.

Bharathi was a learned scholar herself and a very clever one at that. Knowing very well that Sankara was a strict celibate, she immediately started discussing conjugal relationships and marital obligations. Sankara confessed that he had absolutely no knowledge in this area, because he was a celibate. However, Bharathi felt that she should give Sankara some time to study about this topic before resuming the debate. Sankara immediately accepted the offer and left to start his studies. Through his yogic powers he came to know of a certain king who was about to die. He instructed his disciples to preserve his body, which he temporarily left to enter the dying king’s body. The king happened to be a very evil man. Yet his wives were loyal to him and were in tears when the king was in his deathbed. Suddenly, when the king’s body woke up, one of the wives noticed that the king had recovered under rather mysterious circumstances and appeared to have become a changed man. Sankara learnt from that woman, all that he needed to know about conjugal experiences and on his way out of the body, he blessed that lady who had taught him so much. Empowered with this new knowledge, Sankara returned to resume the debate with Bharathi. This time, he was clearly unbeatable. Bharathi and Mandana Misra bowed their heads in humility and accepted defeat and became followers of Adi Sankara and staunch vedantins.

This debate throws light on the healthy competition that existed in India among followers of different philosophies. Essentially they were travelling towards the same unknown destination, yet they had the open mind and immense courage to test their faith, to question their beliefs, and to change their philosophies, if reason demanded the change. Similar to how different paths could still take one to the top of the same mountain, so too do all philosophies lead to the same goal of self realization. However, even though staunch belief in one’s path is necessary to make spiritual progress, when one meets obstacles, one should remain accepting towards new concepts, experiments, or questionings because these can potentially unlock some deep doors in our mind.

* . *
A year has not yet passed.
It was evening of a day in April,
in spring season.
The branches of the way side trees were full of blossom.
Gay notes of a flute came floating in the
warm spring air from a far.
The citizens had gone to the woods for the
festival of flowers.
From the mid sky gazed the full moon on the
shadows of the silent town.
The young ascetic was walking along the lonely street,
While overhead the love-sick koels uttered from the
mango branches their sleepless plaint.
Upagupta passed through the city gates, and
stood at the base of the rampart.
Was that a woman lying at his feet in the
shadow of the mango grove?
Stuck with black prestilence, her body
spotted with sores of small-pox,
She had been hurriedly removed from the town
To avoid her poisonous contagion.
The ascetic sat by her side, took her head
on his knees,
And moistened her lips with water, and
smeared her body with sandal balm.
“Who are you, merciful one?” asked the woman.
“The time, at last, has come to visit you, and
I am here,” replied the young ascetic.

-Rabindranath Tagore

“India is not just geography or history. It is not only a nation, a country, a mere piece of land. It is something more: it is a metaphor, poetry, something invisible but very tangible. It is vibrating with certain energy fields which no other country can claim.

It is strange because it has renounced everything for a single search, the search for the truth. It has not produced great philosophers – you will be surprised to know it – no Plato, no  Aristotle, no Thomas Aquinas, no Kant, no Hegel, no Bradley, no Bertrand Russell. The whole history of India has not produced a single philosopher – and they have been searching for truth! Certainly their search was very different from the search that has been done in other countries. In other countries people were thinking about truth; in India, people were  not thinking about truth – because how can you think about truth? Either you know it, or you don’t; thinking is impossible, philosophy is impossible. It is absolutely an absurd and  futile exercise. It is just like a blind man thinking about light – what can he think? He may be a great genius, may be a great logician – it is not going to help. Neither logic is needed nor genius is needed; what is needed is eyes to see.

Light can be seen but cannot be thought. Truth can be seen, but cannot be thought; hence we don’t have a parallel word in India for `philosophy’. The search for truth we call darshan, and darshan means seeing. Philosophy means thinking, and thinking is circular – about and about, it never reaches to the point of experiencing. India is the only land in the  whole world, strangely, which has devoted all its talents in a concentrated effort to see the truth and to be the truth.

You cannot find a great scientist in the whole history of India. It is not that there were not talented people, it is not that there were not geniuses. Mathematics was founded in India, but it did not produce Albert Einstein. The whole country, in a miraculous way, was not interested in any objective research. To know the other has not been the goal here, but to know oneself.

For ten thousand years millions of people persistently making a single effort, sacrificing everything for it – science, technological development, riches – accepting poverty, sickness, disease, death, but not dropping the search at any cost… it has created a certain noosphere, a certain ocean of vibrations around you.

If you come here with a little bit of a meditative mind, you will come in contact with it. If you come here just as a tourist, you will miss it. You will see the ruins, the palaces, the Taj Mahal, the temples, Khajuraho, the Himalayas, but you will not see India – you will have passed through India without meeting it. It was everywhere, but you were not sensitive, you were not receptive. You will have come here to see something which is not truly India but only its skeleton – not its soul. And you will have photographs of its skeleton and you will make albums of its skeleton, and you will think that you have been to India and you know India, and you are simply deceiving yourself.

There is a spiritual part. Your cameras cannot photograph it; your training, your education cannot capture it. You can go to any country, and you are perfectly capable of meeting  the people, the country, its history, its past – in Germany, in Italy, in France, in England. But you cannot do the same as far as India is concerned. If you try to categorize it with other countries, you have already missed the point, because those countries don’t have that spiritual aura. They have not produced a Gautam Buddha, a Mahaviraa, a Neminatha, an Adinatha. They have not produced a Kabir, a Farid, a Dadu. They have produced scientists, they have produced poets, they have produced great artists, they have produced  painters, they have produced all kinds of talented people. But the mystic is India’s monopoly; at least up to now it has been so.

And the mystic is a totally different kind of human being. He’s not simply a genius, he is not simply a great painter or a great poet – he is a vehicle of the divine, a provocation, an  invitation for the divine. He opens the doors for the divine to come in. And for thousands of years, millions of people have opened the doors for the divine to fill the atmosphere of  this country. To me, that atmosphere is the REAL India. But to know it, you will have to be in a certain state of mind. When you are meditating, trying to be silent, you are allowing the real India to come in contact with you. Yes, you are right; the way you can find truth in this poor country you cannot find anywhere else. It is utterly poor, and yet spiritually it has such a rich heritage that if you can open your eyes and see that heritage you will be surprised. Perhaps this is the only country which has been deeply concerned with the  evolution of consciousness and nothing else. Every other country has been concerned with a thousand other things. But this country has been one-pointed, a single goal: how  human consciousness can be evolved to a point where it meets with the divine; how to bring the human and the divine closer.

And it is not a question of one person but millions of people; not a question of a day or a month or a year, but thousands of years. Naturally, it has created a tremendous energy field around the country. It is all over the place, you just have to be ready.

It is not coincidental that whenever anybody is thirsty for truth, suddenly he has become interested in India, suddenly he has started moving towards the East. And it is not only today, it is as old as there are records.

Pythagoras, twenty-five centuries ago, came to India in search of truth. Jesus Christ came to India….

…And down the centuries, seekers have been coming to this land from all over the world. The country is poor, the country has nothing to offer, but to those who are sensitive it is the richest place on the earth. But the richness is of the inner. This poor country can give you the greatest treasure that is possible for human beings.

-The Osho Upanishad, Chapter 21

“India is an eternal journey, a path of nectar, stretching from eternity to eternity. This is why we have never written any history of India. Is history something worth writing? History is the name for the ordinary, the mundane everyday happenings which rise like a storm today but tomorrow not even a trace of them is left. History is just a whirlwind of dust. India has never written history, India has only tired to touch the eternal, in the same manner as a chakor, a red-legged partridge, goes on gazing at the moon, without even blinking….

I want to remind those who have forgotten, awaken those who have fallen asleep, so that  India can regain its inner dignity, its pride, its snow-capped peaks – because the destiny of the whole humanity is linked with the destiny of India. It is not only a matter of one country: If India is lost in darkness, man has no future. And if we are able to give India its wings again, its sky again, fill its eyes again with a longing to fly towards the stars, we will not only save those who have an inner thirst, we will also save the ones who are asleep today, but who will become awakened tomorrow.

The destiny of India is the destiny of the whole humanity – because of the way we have refined human consciousness, because of the lamps we have lit within man, because of the  flowers that we have cultivated in man, the fragrance we have created in man. It has been ten thousand years of ceaseless perseverance, of ceaseless yoga, of ceaseless meditation. And for the sake of this, we have lost everything else. For the sake of this we have sacrificed everything else. But even in the darkest nights of man we have kept the lamp of man’s  consciousness lit. No matter how dim the flame may have become, that lamp still burns…..”

Ideally, I want to cut and paste the entire book here, because every word in this book resounds with deep meaning and magnificent beauty. Instead, I have to end this post with the  lines that end this wonderful book.

“But there is another India: the India of the Buddhas, the eternal India. I am part of it, you are part of it. In fact, anywhere, wherever meditation is happening, that person becomes part of that eternal India. That eternal India is not geographical, it is a spiritual space.”

Posted in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra ]]> http://ourdharma.wordpress.com/2010/01/18/osho-answers-what-is-india/feed/ 2 Srividya http://ourdharma.wordpress.com/2010/01/11/the-inevitability-of-death-explained-with-mustard-seeds/ http://ourdharma.wordpress.com/2010/01/11/the-inevitability-of-death-explained-with-mustard-seeds/#comments Tue, 12 Jan 2010 05:33:17 +0000 Srividya KR http://ourdharma.wordpress.com/?p=378 ]]> The Buddha visited village after village giving discourses on Dhamma (Dharma in Sanskrit), the righteous ways of living.  He was always very well received everywhere he went. Years of penance and pursuit of truth had strengthened his aura so much that people were able to sense him approaching even when he was still miles away from a village. And, on each one his trips, thousands of people were shown the path of the truth and they all benefited from the Buddha’s teachings by being liberated from their worries and grief. In this story, the Buddha delivers a lady from her grief by explaining death to her using mustard seeds.

During one of his trips, a crying lady approached him. She was clutching the lifeless body of her two year old son and was crying inconsolably. The Buddha cast his very kind glance upon this wailing lady, and asked her what the cause of her grief was. Her name was Kisagotami. She told Buddha how she had been childless for almost a decade, and after a lot of prayers to various gods, she had finally been gifted with a beautiful baby boy. Soon, she had become very attached to him and her entire life started revolving around the boy. Her sorrow knew no bounds when suddenly her boy had died. She had refused to believe that her boy was dead. She was not ready to be separated from him yet. Now, somehow her neighbors had found out that this lady was holding on to her dead son and trying desperately to wake him up from his sleep, without even realizing that he had died. They even tried to forcibly separate him from her baby, but the only effort in which they succeeded was in convincing her that the boy was in fact dead and not merely sleeping.

Thus grief-stricken Kisagotami had now come to the Buddha to beg him to use his powers to revive her son, without whom she could no longer live. The Buddha listened to her sad story and very sympathetically conveyed his condolences to her. But she continued to beg the Buddha to revive her boy. The Buddha gently tried to convince her that no matter what powers anyone possesses, there was no way to conquer death. Even the most powerful of the Gods also can’t revive a person who is dead. Even after listening to this, Kisagotami would not stop crying. Now, there was only one way for the Buddha to teach this lady about life, without being very harsh to her. He gave her his begging bowl and asked her to get up. Anticipating that the Buddha was going to perform a ritual to revive her son, she stopped crying momentarily. The Buddha told her to take his begging bowl and bring back a fistful of mustard seeds from any household that was ready to give it to her. This appeared to be very easy. Kisagotami was very happy that she was given an easy task in return for her boy’s life. She was about to take leave of him to commence her mission of bringing back the seeds, when the Buddha reminded her that he had one small condition. He told her that she should only accept mustard seeds from that house which had never experienced any death before, otherwise the ritual that he was going to do would turn out to be unsuccessful. Kisagotami was not discouraged. She accepted the condition and set out expectantly.

She went to the first house she could see on the street. She knocked on the door and an old withering lady greeted her. She explained how the Buddha was doing a ritual to revive her dead son and that she needed a fistful of mustard seeds. The old lady sympathized with her and offered her the entire bag of mustard that she had in the house. Then Kisagotami remembered the condition. She asked the old lady “Has anyone died in your house before?” and the old lady said “My husband of 55 years has passed away, leaving me behind.” Dejected, she refused to accept the mustard seeds and set out to the next house. There, she met a beautiful young girl who said “My mother is dead, and I live with my step-mother”. While one said “My son died last month”, another said, “My daughter died 2 years ago”, and yet another said “My grandmother died when I was very young” and so on.

Dusk approached and Kisagotami had roamed the entire city searching for one house which had no death from where she could get her mustard seeds. But she found not even one! Tired and disheveled, she walked back to where the Buddha was sitting. The all-knowing Buddha smiled, and enquired about the success of Kisagotami’s trip to town. Kisagotami had learnt her lesson. She said “All this while, I thought that no one could take away my son from me. And all this while, I have grown so fond of him and got so attached to him, without even realizing that one day either I would die or he would die and that inevitably we would have to be separated. I have understood how futile this world is. I have learnt the truth about attachment and the grief it results in.” Seeing that she was now ready for the next step in her life, the Buddha very kindly initiated Kisagotami into his order and taught her Dhamma, and becoming a wandering monk herself, Kisagotami spent the rest of her days helping to relieve other people from their sorrows in this transient world.

Posted in Nepal ]]> http://ourdharma.wordpress.com/2010/01/11/the-inevitability-of-death-explained-with-mustard-seeds/feed/ 5 Srividya IMG_0031 http://ourdharma.wordpress.com/2009/12/19/dattatreya-%e2%80%93-the-guru-who-had-24-other-gurus/ http://ourdharma.wordpress.com/2009/12/19/dattatreya-%e2%80%93-the-guru-who-had-24-other-gurus/#comments Sat, 19 Dec 2009 18:21:52 +0000 Srividya KR http://ourdharma.wordpress.com/2009/12/19/dattatreya-%e2%80%93-the-guru-who-had-24-other-gurus/ ]]> Dattatreya was India’s first Guru in the tradition of the Nath Sampradaya to which other famous gurus like Gorakhnath and Matsyendranath also belonged. Dattatreya was the first among these Naths and undoubtedly the greatest too. The story of the birth of Dattatreya is well known in Indian culture. Dattatreya is worshipped all over India and also in Tibet and Nepal.

Dattatreya was born to Sage Atri and his wife Anasuya. Anasuya was the ideal of perfect wifehood. Her pati-vrata (devotion to her husband) was envied by Sarasvati, Lakshmi and Parvati, the consorts of Brahma, Vishnu and Siva. They envied Anasuya because everyone in the world considered Anasuya to be the most dutiful wife, while each of these three ladies considered themselves to be the most dutiful of all wives. Filled with jealousy, they coaxed their husbands to be participants in a ploy to set Anasuya up in a situation where she would be forced to choose between being unfaithful to her husband or be the cause for Atri and herself to be subject to a terrible curse.

Brahma, Vishnu and Siva dressed up as wandering mendicants and approached Atri’s hermitage while he was out performing his daily prayers at the river. They approached Anasuya with their begging bowls in their hand and expressed their wish to be fed some good food. Anasuya had just prepared meals and was ready to serve these Brahmins but they said that they had one condition that Anasuya must satisfy for them to be pleased with her. If she did not satisfy that condition, they were going to curse her and her husband Atri. Their condition was that she must feed them naked. The moment Anasuya heard this, she realized that this must be a test and she recognized these three medicants to be none other than the Trimurtis -Brahma, Vishnu and Siva themselves. She immediately prayed to her husband to give her the presence of mind to fulfill the three Gods’ desire without being unfaithful to him. Anasuya quickly thought of an idea. Anasuya’s chastity and devotion to Atri had given her immense powers and before the three Gods realized what was going on, Anasuya had turned the three Gods into 3 new born babies. Seeing these three babies and being childless herself, she developed a very maternal feeling for them and immediately fulfilled their desire of feeding them naked. At this time, Atri returned from his daily prayers and was very pleased to see Anasuya’s intelligent action. Meanwhile, the Gods’ wives realized what trap they had gotten into – their husbands had been turned into new born babies by the powers of Anausya’s chastity and their plan to humiliate her had been foiled. Now they rushed to the scene and begged forgiveness and pleaded to Atri and Anausya to restore their husbands to them. In return, they were willing to offer them a boon. Anasuya asked that a son be born to her who had all the best qualities of the three Gods. This boon was immediately granted and Brahma, Vishnu and Siva were restored to their original forms. Later, Dattatreya (meaning given to Atri) was born to them who turned out to be a great master and teacher who illuminated the minds of people with the wisdom in his teachings.

Dattatreya’s three heads symbolize that he was born with the qualities of the three Gods Brahma, Vishnu and Siva. Each of his three pairs of hands hold items that Brahma, Vishnu and Siva also hold in their hands. The cow he stands near symbolizes Kamadhenu (Kamadhenu fulfils all wishes. She also symbolized the mother earth and dharma). The 4 dogs that are at his feet represent the four Vedas.

Dattatreya became a wandering mendicant from very early on in his life. Being very perceptive, he adopted different creatures and things from the universe as his teachers and learnt different lessons from them. One day, he narrates the different teachings he received from nature’s 24 gurus to King Yadu –

1. Earth and Water– All creatures live on earth by assuming different forms based on their prior karma. All creatures take the earth for granted. Man burns fires on the earth, digs, ploughs and drills the earth. Yet, the earth continues to provide abundance to all her creatures and houses and feeds them. Dattatreya learnt from the earth the essential qualities of patience and unconditional love for all beings. Water quenches the thirst of all living beings, yet never feels proud. A sage should get inspired by the humility of water and remain modest in service of others, while still bestowing everyone with health, peace and joy.
2. Sky and Air – Air is pure and odorless by itself. It blows on foul and sweet smelling things without discriminating between them. Even though it blows over foul smelling things also, air’s odorless nature does not get affected. The sky is omnipresent, just like the soul. It reflects the beautiful rays of the rising and the setting sun. It also dons the morose misty look when dark clouds fill the sky. Nevertheless, despite the duality, the sky remains unaffected and it does not identify with the colors. Similarly, Dattatreya learnt that living in the duality of this world, man must still maintain the purity of his inner mind and try to remain unaffected by joys and sorrows.
3. Fire and Sun – The fire by itself has no form. Whatever the fuel is, the fire dons the color and the shape of the fuel that we throw into it. The fire does not discriminate against the person who throws items into the fire. Whatever the object is, the fire burns it to ashes. The fire teaches us that the Self manifests itself in various forms depending on its manifestation, but inherently it has no form, just like the fire. The quality of the fire is to burn, and we should inculcate the burning quality in ourselves to burn down all our impurities. Similarly, the sun is just one, but when reflected by water in different vessels, appears to be many. In the same way, the Self is one, but it is being reflected in all beings as many souls. The fire and the sun teach us the true nature of the Self.
4. Pigeon, Moth– A pigeon couple and their babies once lived on a tree. The mother and the father pigeon had gone to get food for their babies when a hunter caught these babies in his net. When the mother returned, she was unable to bear the separation from her little ones that she jumped into the snare as well. The same happened to the father pigeon when he saw his whole family caught in the snare and they were all killed by the hunter. Blinded by ignorance, man also gets caught in the net of joys and sorrows in this world without realizing that he is actually the soul and is free from identity with the body. Thus man gets caught in the vicious and endless cycle of birth, death, happiness and misery. This is the lesson taught by the pigeon. Similarly, a moth always gets attracted to the fire and destroys itself in the fire. Like the moth, if a wise man is attracted to the fire of knowledge, it will ultimately cleanse him.
5. Python – The python does not move around too much to get its food. It waits until some creature comes near it and immediately devours it. The python eats only as much as it needs to satisfy its hunger, not to satisfy its greed. The python taught Dattatreya the lesson of contentment.
6. Sea – Innumerable rivers merge into the sea, yet the sea remains exactly how full it was before. Just like how the sea never overflows or crosses its limits, a wise man would never cross his standards of morality even amidst passion.
7. Elephant and Fish – Poachers of tusker elephants have an easy way of luring the elephant. The poachers raise a cow-elephant and let it loose around the area that they are carefully watching. As soon as the elephant sees the cow, he is overcome by his desire for sex and is lured into the trap that the poachers have set for him. When until man learns to control his desire for sensual pleasures, he will not be truly liberated. In this manner, the elephant is a teacher. The fish, overcome by greed for food, bites into the bait without realizing that the greed for food is the cause for its death. A man also, in order to reach the destination of liberation, must give up his greed for food.
8. Ant – The ant works tirelessly towards its goals of collecting food and storing. While we can learn from the ant about how to work tirelessly, we should also observe that the ant neither eats all the food it hoards in its ant-hill, not gives it away in charity. In some sense, the ant is a miser, and hoarding treasures increases the chance of the ant-hill being plundered by stronger animals like the rat or mole. Man also increases his chances of being robbed and murdered if he stores wealth unnecessarily and remains miserly.
9. Pingala – A dancing girl named Pingala expectantly awaited a customer who would way her handsomely for her performance and services. However, when he did not show up that particular night, Pingala was extremely disappointed. However she did come to her senses immediately and realized that she is sad only because the man she is waiting for is not eternal and the thing she wants –money – is not eternal either. So from that moment onwards, she realized that the only thing worth craving for is the eternal Self. Uniting with the eternal Self is the only source of lasting happiness. Dattatreya learnt from Pingala that once man starts expecting to receive things from others in order to make him happy, his misery starts. Renunciation is the route towards happiness.
10. Arrow-Maker – There was an arrow-maker that Datattreya once saw who was totally absorbed in his work of moulding an arrow. There was a lot of noise outside as a royal procession was taking place. There was loud music and people everywhere, but the arrow maker did not even lift his head up and continued to work oblivious to all disturbances outside. Dattatreya understood from the arrow-maker that a man seeking the true Self should have such one-pointed concentration to achieve his goals.
11. Little Boys and Girls – Little boys and girls do not have the concepts of honor, dishonor, mine or yours. Their minds are free from prejudices and from these unfettered minds spring forth abundant joy. A very wise man also becomes child-like as he becomes closer to the realization of his true Self. They are so happy and content within themselves that they never require any external object to make them happy. Their natural state is happiness.
12. Moon – While the moon waxes and wanes through various stages every fortnight, the body of man is also continuously changing forms. But, all these changes are pertaining to man’s body only and not to his true self. Just like how the waxing and waning of the moon is caused by the reflection of sunlight on the moon’s surface, the soul/mind of a man is also a reflection of his true self.
13. Deer and Birds of prey – The deer get caught by hunters and poachers because it is easily lured by sweet music that is being played. This taught Dattatreya that if man is caught in sensual pleasures and desires, he brings ruin and destruction onto himself. In the same manner, a bird of prey that is flying with its catch gets attacked by many other birds like crows and vultures who are eyeing the prey and want to snatch that away from this bird. The minute the bird realizes this and releases its prey, all these crows and vultures end their pursuit of the bird and go behind the prey instead. Thus the bird has become free now. The objects of desire and man’s attachment to them attract a lot of trouble. The minute man lets go of all these attachments, he is free.
14. Maiden – A young maiden had guests in her house that she had to entertain. She went into the kitchen and started making food for these guests. When pounding grains with a pestle, the bangles she wore were making a lot of noise. She was worried that the noise would bother her guests. She took off half of the dozen bangles she was wearing, but the noise was still there. She took off all but 2 bangles, yet some noise remained. When she removed all but one bangle, there was no noise and she could finish cooking the meal for her guests, without bothering them with any noise. Dattatreya interprets this in a very beautiful way. When man is surrounded by other people that causes a lot of noise and disturbance in his mind. In solitude alone can a spiritual aspirant carry on his quest of the truth. This inspired Dattatreya to resort to solitude. In this manner, the maiden was also one of his gurus.
15. Serpent – Dattatreya observed that a serpent never builds a dwelling for itself. Whenever it finds an old anthill the serpent begins to dwell in it. Worldly men raise monasteries and monks live in it. Or a monk simply finds an old temple or shady trees under which to live in. Also, just like how the serpent sheds his moult, a Yogi, in full awareness, gives up his body, as happily as an ordinary unrealized soul gives up old clothes for new ones.
16. Spider – The spider weaves it web from its bodily fluids, and after sometime almost effortlessly, rolls them all up into itself. Similarly, the soul bears the senses and the mind within itself. At the time of creation, the mind and the senses spawn from the soul and at the time of dissolution, they all are withdrawn into it again.
17. Caterpillar – The wasp takes its young one – the caterpillar to a safe corner and buzzes around it. The caterpillar is frightened by the wasp and constant contemplation on the qualities of the wasp transforms it into a wasp too. Dattatreya interpreted this very creatively. A guru trains a disciple to attain the qualities of the guru by making the disciple constantly meditate on those qualities he wants him to acquire. Thus, the caterpillar became Dattatreya’s guru also.

Dattatreya is believed to be immortal. On the peaks of mount Girnar in Gujarat, he is believed to be alive and visible to those who seek him as a teacher.

Saint Tulsidas was among the several others who reinforced the Bhakti Movement (devotion to God) in medieval India when the people’s faith in the divine was being intensely tested by the plundering foreign invaders. Tulsidas was born to a Brahmin family in Rajpur, in Uttar Pradesh in 1532 CE. When he was a child the first word he ever uttered was “Ram” and hence he was called RamBola (literally translated to “he said Ram”) by all the villagers.

Tulsidas had a non-descript childhood and after growing up, he married a devout and pious woman called Ratnavali. Tulsidas was extremely attached to his wife. One day his wife went to her parents’ home to a neighboring town across the river Yamuna. That night, Tulsidas felt very lonely, and even though he tried to sleep, he could not. It was a stormy night and Tulsidas, experiencing an unexplainable longing for his wife, decided that he had to see her right away in order to get rid of his restlessness.

He ran outside his house. He was in a great hurry so he decided to take a short-cut through the cemetry. It was raining heavily but he did not care. The rain had caused some dead bodies to be left half burnt. But Tulsidas was so unaware of all this that he just stepped on the skulls, flesh and the half burnt pyres and finally reached the shores of the Yamuna. The river was on high tide and he could not at all swim against the currents to the other bank. He needed a wooden plank or a boat to cross the river. He thought he picked up a wooden plank from the cemetry and sat on it and rowed himself to the other bank of the river. He mind was so fixed on thoughts of his wife, that he did not know what he used as boat and oars were actually a trunk of a half burnt dead body and a few bones. And having crossed the river he rushed to the house of his parents-in-law. He knew that his wife’s room was on the first floor. He saw a rope and used it to climb to his house’s window. He did not even realize that the thing he thought was a rope was actually a python. When he was able to reach his wife, his intense longing subsided. But his wife was actually stunned at Tulsidas’ stupidity. She repimanded him -  “O Tulsi, you have so much love and lust for my flesh and bones, which will decay as we grow older. If you have even half this love for Lord Ram, you probably would have seen him by now.”

This statement struck Tulsidas very hard. Thanking his wife, he renounced his family ties, took Sanyas (renunciation) and became a wandering ascetic. It was as if an entire blanket of darkness was removed from his mind and suddenly, all his love was directed towards the great Lord Ram himself. He went on long pilgrimages across India longing for a sight of his beloved Ram. He lived for many years at Ayodhya (where Lord Ram had lived). He sung hymns to his Lord and constantly meditated on his lotus feet longing to see him at least once before he died.

Everyday after his morning wash at the river, he would bring some water in his kamandalu (pitcher) and then pour it at the roots of a pepul tree before going back to his hermitage to start his daily lectures and discourses. One day, as he did his daily routine pouring the water in the roots of the tree, a spirit appeared before him and said – “O Tulsi, I am very satisfied with you. You have been sincerely feeding me water every day for many years now, and I want to give you something in return. What would you like to ask me?” Tulsidas was surprised and said – “O Spirit! I did not know at all that you lived here. I absent mindedly brought water in my kamandalu and poured it here. I am glad you are satisfied with me. For many years I have been longing to see my Lord Ram. Is there any way you could show him to me or make him appear before me?” The spirit replied that she might not be able to show Tulsidas Lord Ram himself, but she told him “I am afraid I do not have that much power, but haven’t you noticed Lord Anjaneya, Lord Ram’s servant visiting your hermitage everyday to listen to your discourses about Ram’s lives and sing the bhajans with you?” And so, the spirit gave Tulsidas a description of how Lord Anjaneya looks like when he comes to listen to the stories about Lord Ram that Tulsidas recited to the public everyday.

Tulsidas knew that if he recognized Anjaneya and begged him, then Anjaneya would definitely be able to show Tulsidas his beloved Lord Ram. So that day, after his encounter with the spirit, Tulsidas happily started his daily lectures. And slowly people started flocking to listen to him. After a while Tulsidas noticed that there was a leper sitting at the back of the rest of the audience, enjoying the lectures with a smiling face and closed eyes, drowned in happiness. Tulsidas immediately recognized this leper to be Anjaneya. After his lectures, he rushed to the leper and washed his feet with water. For a few minutes the leper protested and acted like he disliked being touched, but when he realized that Tulsidas has identified his true identity, he smiled and blessed Tulsidas. With the blessings of Anjaneya, Tulsidas was able to meet his Lord Ram and his goal for the entire lifetime was fulfilled.

Tulsidas is believed to be an incarnation of Sage Valmiki, who wrote the Ramayana in Sanksrit. Tulsidas, however wrote the story of Ramayana in the local vernacular of Hindi/Awadhi. Tulsidas’ Ramayana is known by the name of Ramcharitamanas. The Ramcharitamanas was his biggest work as a poet. But he also composed many bhajans and songs in praise of Ram, and he spent many years living blissfully as a wandering saint, still immersed in thoughts of Lord Ram, till he died at a very old age. He spent the last years of his life in Benares.

It is the servant who shows any visitor to the master. Even in the case of trying to approach the magnificent Lord Ramachandra himself, Tulsidas was assured success when he went through his sevak – Lord Hanuman. Tulsidas also composed the Hanuman Chalisa (40 couplets in praise of Lord Hanuman). Hanuman Chalisa is still widely sung in almost every household in India. Some excellent renditions of the Hanuman Chalisa in various western styles can be found here – http://www.krishnadas.com/media/photos-featured-cd.cfm

While Aurangazeb, the Mughal ruler, sent out his army to further invade into Assam and annex more territory, the Ahom army, under Lachit Borphukan prepared to recapture Guwahati,  and claim that which rightfully belonged to them. Lachit Borphukan won the option to pick the battlefield, and he picked Saraighat due to the favorable terrain that would help the defending Ahom army to engage in guerilla warfare. The incoming Mughal army would have to expend a lot of energy trying to cross the mountains that flanked the Saraighat plains. Also Saraighat was at a strategic position on the Brahmaputra river, and this allowed the Ahom army to attack the Mughal navy. Lachit Borphukan knew that the navy was the weakest part of the Mughal army, and hence he chose to take advantage of the opponent’s weaknesses and decided to attack the opponent from the waters. Lachit was an intense patriot and he strived to fulfil his duties towards his people by using the smartest military strategies also paying attention to causing the least damage to his own army.

When the battle started, Lachit had fallen very ill and was incapable of going out to the battlefield to fight. The advance of the strong Mughal army was scary and it was discouraging the morale of the Ahom army. When Lachit discovered how discouraged and scared his army was, he could not rest himself. He reasoned that his duty to protect his people was far more important than taking care of his health. He immediately ordered that seven boats be brought to him, fully loaded. He dressed for war and got ready to attack from the water. Seeing their ill commander chief gear up for action and listening to his effective pep talks about why the war must be won and why the people of Assam need to be protected, the rest of the army also got inspired and together they set to action. The Mughal army had not expected this sudden attack from the waters. Also, the charged Ahom army had wreaked a lot of havoc and caused a lot of damage to the Mughal side. At this stage, the Mughal army retreated and Guwahati was returned to its rightful rulers.

Shortly after the war, Lachit Borphukan died.  His immense courage and dedication to his people is remembered with great respect by the Assamese people. They celebrate the 24th of November as Lachit Divas (Lachit Day), in honor of their brave leader who died on this day.

It is impossible for many people to strain their body to fulfil a higher cause. Even small problems like a headache or stomach ache can bring people’s morale down. These small pains can draw so much of attention that a man forgets about everything else but his pain.When most people’s minds are so weak, only someone driven by exceptional sense of patriotism and love for his people, would forget his intense pain and be ready to sacrifice his life to fulfill the duty of protecting his people. Such was the patriotism of this great Lachit Borphukan. It is recorded that he said – “When my countrymen are suffering from invasion, and when my army is fighting and sacrificing its life, how can I think about resting my body due to a mere illness? How can I think about going home to my wife and children when my entire country is in trouble?” Saying thus, he got out of bed and prepared to fight, despite his illness.

We do not have any pictures/portraits of Lachit Borphukan anymore. But it is recorded by poets that he had a very handsome face that shined with the brightness of the full moon. A man’s face would no doubt radiate beauty when his heart is filled with pure love. The heart of Lachit Borphukan was filled with love indeed – pure, sincere, fierce and untainted love for his country and countrymen. Such are the kind of patriots India produces.

The early life of Neem Karoli Baba was not clearly documented. He was known to have been born in a rich and influential Brahmin family in Akbarpur, Uttar Pradesh and was named as Lakshmi Narayan Sharma. It is believed that even as a teenager, he was deeply spiritual and liberated. He lived as a householder for a few years but he left home one day and disappeared. After several years, word was sent to his family in Akbarpur that a look alike of Lakshmi Narayan Sharma was seen wandering in a saint’s attire in the village of Neem Karoli. After his family found him and begged him to go back home, he came back home and continued to live the life of a householder, as well as be a saint and continue his meditation and yoga practice.

He set up ashrams in Kainchi in Nainital, as well as in Vrindavan, Mathura where he attained mahA samAdhi. This post will narrate an event where Neem Karoli Baba performed unbelievable miracles out of immense love for his disciples and arising out of his yogic powers resulting from years of austere penance and practice.

In 1973, Swami Chidananda (the former president of  Swami Sivananda’s Divine Life Society) was driving through Kainchi while on a tour in his party. One person from the party took a detour to find out if Baba was available at his Ashram for a quick darshan. Neem Karoli Baba sent them a cordial invite and asked them to stop by at the Ashram for some rest and water. Upon seeing the Baba, every one in the party fell at his feet to seek his blessings. One among Swami Chidananda’s party had about 8 oranges wrapped in a small piece of cloth. He went forward, and placed those oranges as an offering to the Baba in an empty basket that was lying nearby. Baba smiled and blessed them all. He briefly spoke to all of them and then started distributing those oranges as prasAd to everyone there. One by one everyone in the party bowed to the Baba and received an orange from the basket. Soon eight people had already received the 8 oranges that were initially placed in the basket.

But as the next person bowed and extended his hand for the prasAd, Baba put his hand into the basket and took out another orange. Swami Chidananda seemed to notice this miracle and was stunned. Hearing that Baba was distrbuted oranges to all the disciples, many people from the ashram came running to receive prasAd from Baba. About 10 more people had arrived by that time, and each person went forward, bowed, extended his palms and received an orange from Baba out of that basket.

In this manner, aroung 8 oranges were distributed to 18 people. Only the merciful and kind Neem Karoli Baba knew where all the other oranges came from. He seemed to be producing oranges out of thin air out of the empty basket. When the last person in the room had received an orange, Baba finally put down the empty basket and went on and took his seat.

After this meeting, Baba retired and the party took leave of Baba. Swami Chidananda was filled with utter surprise and immense respect for this great yogi who possessed magical powers through the austere practice of yoga. Swami Chidananda writes about Neem Karoli Baba that he was a great yogi who had conquered the dimensions of space and time. He was a trikAla jnAni – knower of the 3: past, present and future and a siddha purusha – perfected man. [1]

Many of his devotees have claimed to have seen him at different places at the same time. For example, when two devotees invite him for lunch on any particular auspicious day, he would never turn down an offer. He would be present at both devotees’ house to eat and then bless them when he left. His devotees would claim that they saw him walk down the end of the street and then take a turn. As soon as he turned on to another road, he would just disappear from there. So it would always appear as if he walked down the road, and then turned. But the minute he turned, he would have disappeared.

Great souls like Neem Karoli Baba are incarnations of the compassionate divine. They wander from village to village, bless the local people who come to them asking for blessings and help in solving their wordly problems. They may visit temples, infuse their idols with their yogic powers and then move on to the next village to bless more people and so on. They are infinitely compassionate beings who only care about helping the innocent people and they expect nothing in return.

His devotees maintain a website [2] where they recount the miracles Baba performed and how he touched their lives. The photographs that are present in this post were taken from [3].

References:

[1] Swami Chidananda, Baba Neem Karoli – A wonder mystic of Northern India. Available here.

[2] Neeb Karori Baba. Website

[3] Sri Neem Karoli Baba Maharaj-ji. Website

Phototgraphs of Neem Karoli Baba’s Ashram in Taos, New Mexico, USA:

The photographs below were taken by a friend of mine – Mr. Sudhir Sawarkar and his group, when they visited Neem Karoli Baba’s ashram in NM in July 2009.  According to them, the ashram was beautiful and well maintained and very peaceful and conducive to meditation.

Peacock in Ashram

Ganapathy in Ashram

Close up of Ganapathy in Ashram

Saint Tyagaraja is the most well known among the trinity and one of the most celebrated Carnatic musicians. Even as a young boy, he was a staunch devotee of Lord Rama. He spent most of his life composing devotional kritis (songs) about Rama and sometimes neglecting his householder responsibilities. One day, the king of Tanjore sent an invitation to Tyagaraja to come to the court and accept his patronage, but Tyagaraja remained detached from this golden opportunity. He was so happy leading a life of poverty with his Rama idol that he did not care about riches or fame. He chose to remain at home worshipping his Lord Rama and not go to the court and get involved with money and politics. Even his own family members were not able to understand the pure and devoted heart of this sincere devotee. His elder brother was very disappointed at this seemingly irresponsible behavior and in a fit of anger, threw the Rama idol into the Kaveri river. Tyagaraja was heartbroken at this loss and composed several devotional songs in his grief also. It is believed that Lord Rama appeared in his dream, and told him the spot in the river where the idol could be retrieved. Following the idol’s retrieval, Tyagaraja composed happier songs celebrating his reunion with his divine Rama. Because of his intense bhakti (devotion) he was respected like a Saint. He attained Samadhi (realization) in 1847 in Thiruvaiyar, a small town in the Tanjore district, on the banks of the Kaveri. Every year on the Bahula Panchami day of the Pushya month, the Tyagaraja Aradhana festival – in commemoration of Tyagaraja’s Samadhi day – is celebrated in Thiruvaiyar and Carnatic musicians from all over the world congregate to pay their respects to this genius composer and to sing his kritis – especially the pancharatna (five gems) kritis.

Muthuswamy Dikshitar was also born in Thiruvarur, in the Tanjore district. His father was himself a well-trained Carnatic musician and composer. Muthuswamy Dikshitar composed kritis in Tamil, Telugu and Sanskrit. He travelled extensively throughout peninsular India and composed songs on all the deities he visited. He has sung songs in every one of the 72 melakarta rAgams (rAgams that have all the 7 notes). His extensive knowledge of the Advaita philosophy and the SAstras is deeply reflected in his work. He was solely responsible for reviving some dyine rAgams like Narayanagaula, Purvagaula, and Chayagaula. Among his famous compositions was the Navagraha Kritis (songs in praise of the nine planets). Muthuswamy Dikshitar was a practicing tantric and his songs has tremendous impact on people. Once Dikshitar was travelling through Etayapuram district in Tamil Nadu. His heart went out to the thousands of people who were living in the drought-stricken area. In his compassion, he composed a brilliant song in the Amrutavarshini (meaning a rain of nectar) rAgam called Ananda amrutakarshini. In the song he begins by pleading to the skies to rain some showers and it ends with the words “varshaya varshaya varshaya (meaning rain down, rain down, rain down). The minute he sang “varshaya!” tender rain drops wetted the parched soils of Etayapuram –which had not seen rain for several consecutive years. The amrutavarshini rAgam is compared to the Megh Malhar rag in Hindustani –when sung correctly these rAgams have the power to cause rainfall. We can still hear several kritis of Muthuswamy Dikshitar beign sung in present day concerts.

The legendary Shyama Shastri deserves no lesser praise than his two other contemporaries. Shyama Shastri’s compositions were also mainly in Tamil, Telugu and Sanskrit and his mastery over tAlam (beats) is clearly depicted in his work. He has composed songs in some of the most difficult tAlams. His swarajathis in tODi, bhairavi and yadukula kAmbOji rAgams are very popular among musicians to this day. Like the other two, he also lived in the Tanjore district. It has been recorded historically that there was some amount of interaction between the three musicians and that they interacted with one another occasionally and respected one another very deeply. Once, a certain talented but arrogant musician called Poppili Keshavayya came to the court of the Tanjore king and challenged any Tanjore musician to defeat him in a concert competition. Shyama Shastri agreed to take up the challenge and he prayed to the Goddess KamAkshi to be kind on him and give him the skills to defeat the arrogant musician. Even though Poppili Keshavayya rendered a fine performance, Shyama Shastri left the audience astounded and speechless by an impromptu improvisation of a tAlam called Sharabhanandana (having 49 beats in a cycle). This tAlam is the rarest of all tAlams and even the most skillful musician today is afraid to take up singing with this tAlam.

Just because this blog post covered only 3 musicians doesn’t mean the list of famous contributors to Carnatic music ends there. There were numerous famous and influential musicians following the Trinity and many preceding them. However, the devotional nature of the Trinity’s work really endears the soul of the listener and helps him see glimpses of divinity through the medium of their songs, and hence we fondly remember the Trinity and greatly respect them.

References:

1. Tamil Nadu’s Contribution to Carnatic Music – A Bird’s Eye View (by B.M. Sundaram)
2. Saint Tyagaraja
3. Shyama Shastri
4. Incredible feat in Carnatic rhythm

Chanakya was a famous professor at the (then) world-famous Takshasila University after his graduation from the same university in his early youth. He was aware of the corrupt practices of the Nanda king who was ruling over Pataliputra (present-day Patna, Bihar) in the Magadha kingdom. The Nanda king was imposing unreasonable taxes from his citizens and was hoarding his treasury, while the population was dying from famine and impoverishment. Similar to the Magadha kingdom, all other kingdoms around the country were divided and they attacked one another without ever developing a feeling of belonging to the same larger nation. In this divided state, it was becoming easier for foreign invaders like Alexander to politically play one kingdom against another and annex territories. Chanakya identified that this lack of unity was detrimental to national security. When Chanakya picked up some leads about Seleucus’ plan to invade India, he realized that the only way to save the nation and its people from the impending invasion would be to give up teaching and set out to unite the countrymen first. He began his first mission with the first task of addressing the issue of the corrupt Nanda king of Magadha. He handsomely marched into the capital city of Pataliputra after several weeks of journey. Chanakya’s reputation gained him an entry into the presidential office of the Magadha kingdom, and thereby he began his massive social reform. He restructured the taxation system, magnanimously redistributed the wealth among the needy and strived to eradicate corruption within the system. However, like in any corrupt system evil elements plotted against Chanakya and had him removed from the post. Dhanananda did not defend Chanakya but took the side of the evil plotters and hence Chanakya was thrown out of the presidential post without reason. Angered by this adharmic action Chanakya vowed to defeat Dhanananda and his entire dynasty.

This was the critical point in history where the deep friendship between the legendary Chandragupta Maurya and Chanakya began. After leaving the palace in great anger, Chanakya sat down at the boundaries of Pataliputra in deep thought, when he noticed a queer little boy intelligently playing strategic games with his other friends. On further inquiry this young boy was known to be the son of a street worker and he was Chandragupta. Chanakya knew that this smart young boy was the tool that he was going to use to unite the country. Through intense training Chanakya transformed the young boy into a brilliant strategic warrior and together, they slowly went from one small kingdom to another to build a strong army of supporters to overthrow Dhanananda. And finally, the war happened and Dhanananda was overthrown. Dhanananda here represented the bigger evils of society like corruption, greed, avarice, neglect of citizens, etc. So even though it appears that he used his army to merely defeat the Magadha ruler, Chanakya had ultimately succeeded in uniting hundreds of other kingdoms in the spirit of dharma. Chandragupta – Chanakya’s disciple was declared the king of Magadha and also the supreme emperor of all its allies. And a strong united nation was now able to defend itself from foreign invaders.

It is documented in several books in history that Chanakya’s constant military and political training enabled Chandragupta to achieve great heights. Together they made an invincible team and their most impressive strategy was completely based on dharma. It is known that Chanakya fed Chandragupta small amounts of poison with his food every meal without his knowledge, so that he would become immune to poison and hence an enemy’s effort to poison Chandragupta would be rendered futile. However, the unassuming Chandragupta on a particular occasion fed some of the food from his plate to his pregnant wife. The queen was not accustomed to the daily dose of poison and it was clear that she was going to die before childbirth. But Chanakya acted fast. He skillfully removed the foetus from the womb of the dying mother, so that the kingdom is not left heirless. But a small drop of  the fast spreading poison had somehow entered the head of the foetus, but his life was saved. This prince was named Bindusara (Bindu – Drop, Sara – head; meaning a drop of poison in the head). Bindusara followed the footsteps of his father as an unparalleled dharmic emperor of the country under the tutelage of the genius Chanakya. However, there was another scheming evil minister in the court of Bindusara who was plotting against the removal of Chanakya as the chief advisor of the emperor. This bad man Subandhu was jealous of Chanakya’s closeness with Bindusara. No one in the country had told Bindusara the story of his birth. Subandhu decided to distort the story and told Bindusara about how the man he trusted most had in fact actually killed his mother. This immensely angered Bindusara and without further questioning, he banished Chanakya from the kingdom. The elderly Chanakya by now realized that he had succeeded in his goal of uniting the country, and he was confident about the abilities of his student Bindusara to take on the task of maintaining unity and peace going forward. Time had come for Chanakya to retire to the forest in meditation.

After he left for the forest, the others in the court narrated the real story of his birth to the emperor, and he felt deeply ashamed about himself. Subandhu, still being a trusted courtier of the emperor was sent on the mission to convey the emperor’s apology and bring back Chanakya to the kingdom. The story now becomes very clear. Subandhu hunted down Chanakya’s hermitage in the forest and pretended to convey an apology, underestimating Chanakya’s ability to see through the trick. However, the older Chanakya had given up on life and did not defend himself. On the way out, Subandhu secretly set fire to Chanakya’s hermitage while he was asleep. This was the unfortunate way in which the great Chanakya died.

Chanakya has been recorded in history as the legendary character that shaped a nation through his focused vision, impeccable judgment and exemplary actions. Chanakya was the author of books about far-sighted ideas on nationhood, foreign policy and warfare, the principles of which were later adopted by other regional authors like Machiavelli from the 15^th century Italy and Clausewitz from the 18^th Germany. During his political partnership with Chandragupta, Chanakya produced his masterpieces – the Niti-Shastra: a treatise on political science, and Artha Shastra: a treatise on statecraft, economic policy and military strategy. Chanakya also wrote under the names of Kautilya and Vishnugupta. Chanakya was not only a shrewd statesman and a ruthless (yet dharmic) administrator but also probably the smartest diplomat in the history of the human race.