We, as a family, recently made a trip to vindhayachal , one of the main religious centers of Hindu faith . Of the thirty six hour journey that we made to and from the place, we hardly got to spend some half an hour in front of the idols of deities. The first thing that strikes you is the gross commercialization and even worse the monopolisation of religion. We paid dakshinsa to a panda and were accompanied by his six-foot friend who made sure that we have a good look at the temple by talking to the right people inside and by making or breaking the line as per our convenience. It does feel bad to take this path but then I look at my mother who made this entire journey and the existing holes in the system and I would prefer to take all these sins upon myself. At each step we were offered something or the other as the particular chadava for god. Many a times we came out of the temple with much of the paraphernalia intact, either there wasn’t enough time or it simply wasn’t to be used. However the icing on the cake was when we bought some channe for the monkeys inside, the shopkeeper said that it too has become some kind of a ritual. We passed the whole temple way just to be troubled by more of our kind and no sign or comforting view of a monkey. By the time I was stepping out of the temple with the “channes” in my hand I was silently smiling at the shopkeeper. Just then I saw a small monkey on the other side of the road, I silently walked up to it and fed all that we had saved and soon we had a bunch of them feasting. I felt more calm and serene than I had in the whole day and probably spiritual for the first time in the day, for me there was more of religion involved in feeding the monkeys than in visiting the temples. I walked back to my family and said to my mother that probably god would have been more pleased had we donated all the money that we spent in the journey. Mother dearest listened calmly and said “Doing one does not mean you cannot do the other, try to do both the things in life” and I made the return journey smiling, becoming wiser in ways more than one.
singh.ranjan@gmail.com
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Spirituality unbound
My mother, who handles the spirituality department for the entire house, recently made mandatory the viewing of the religious discourses on TV at various channels. It is not exactly mandatory but since the home minister’s order and advice are given in the same breath, none of us change the channels during the morning discourses. Though my early morning waking up is as rare as the sighting of ice man yeti, I distinctly remember one such occasion. My twelve hour sleepathon during the day forced me to wake up early. Shifting from one religious channel to another, I saw one in which a boy barely twelve or fourteen was giving discourse to a crowd whose average age was about forty five plus. I stopped the surfing and listened to him for about ten or fifteen minutes. The boy was calm and serene but despite all things, something natural gave away his childlike nervousness. Also his interpretation of Geeta was very verbose. But what I fail to understand was the response of the masses that clapped and swayed slightly from side to side. Switch to any channel and you will see people listening with ardent fervor to what is being said on the dais, whether by a god man, a mahatma, a child or a foreigner or probably anyone or anything.
Spirituality is on sale, whether you like it or not. I can empathize or sympathize with you if you agree. The basic thing seems to do our own bit towards god by attending all these religious discourses. People come with the idea of celebrating god and their own faith and probably any less involvement would mean doubting their own faith. But as I said “something natural in the boy gave away his childlike nervousness”, I seriously doubt the
meaning of all this. Is it a search for spiritual enlightenment or just a short cut of lightening our heavy heart that we are doing the mandatory as above average believers?
Well if it’s about faith, Hindu religion was always based on the theory of karma. Why don’t all these people do something to bring about a change in the life of destitute around us? Just like a state that will put the statues of great men with much funfair and speech but refuse to follow what the great man said during his life. All this because it comes easier, since great men like Gandhiji cannot be followed it is important that be praised and set aside. Much of the same is being singled out for god and religion. Since our righteous religion becomes increasingly difficult to follow requiring a constant input from our side, the easier part is what we see around all the time. Hear the discourses; fight for religion, raise voice for or against religion, criticizing a Muslim makes me a better Hindu and going to a mosque makes me a lesser Hindu. These are simply easy escapes, quick fix solutions.
Well coming on to the second part – if it’s all about enlightenment and soul searching. I remember a simple story very apt for this discussion. Once a few river fishes came together to discuss what an ocean is like and what’s it like to swim in an ocean. None of them had ever been to an ocean. They started arranging stones to give a physical shape to the cumulative thought. One said that the ocean is very big, another said it moves very fast as if it has four legs. The fishes arranged the stones accordingly. One said that the ocean is very dangerous – none of his friends that went to the ocean have ever returned so they gave the ocean two dangerous attacking teeth. Similar discussions carried on. Finally the picture that emerged from the stones depicted a big elephant or an ancient mammoth. The point that I am trying to make is simple – swimming in an ocean is a first hand experience, it cannot be experienced second hand, it’s not a vicarious pleasure. It’s only after swimming in an ocean that the fishes can understand or appreciate the boundless nature of ocean. The same is true for enlightenment , talking or listening to an enlightened soul will never make you enlightened, it will remain a step in our journey, a journey that each one of us must make alone . We all have to transverse the distance between our three dimensional world of money, power and survival to the stage when all of these cease to be an issue. We all might cross a highlighted or traveled path but that’s just a part of the journey neither the beginning nor the end. At the end we all must discover our gods and banish our own demons.
singh.ranjan@gmail.com
Spirituality is on sale, whether you like it or not. I can empathize or sympathize with you if you agree. The basic thing seems to do our own bit towards god by attending all these religious discourses. People come with the idea of celebrating god and their own faith and probably any less involvement would mean doubting their own faith. But as I said “something natural in the boy gave away his childlike nervousness”, I seriously doubt the
meaning of all this. Is it a search for spiritual enlightenment or just a short cut of lightening our heavy heart that we are doing the mandatory as above average believers?
Well if it’s about faith, Hindu religion was always based on the theory of karma. Why don’t all these people do something to bring about a change in the life of destitute around us? Just like a state that will put the statues of great men with much funfair and speech but refuse to follow what the great man said during his life. All this because it comes easier, since great men like Gandhiji cannot be followed it is important that be praised and set aside. Much of the same is being singled out for god and religion. Since our righteous religion becomes increasingly difficult to follow requiring a constant input from our side, the easier part is what we see around all the time. Hear the discourses; fight for religion, raise voice for or against religion, criticizing a Muslim makes me a better Hindu and going to a mosque makes me a lesser Hindu. These are simply easy escapes, quick fix solutions.
Well coming on to the second part – if it’s all about enlightenment and soul searching. I remember a simple story very apt for this discussion. Once a few river fishes came together to discuss what an ocean is like and what’s it like to swim in an ocean. None of them had ever been to an ocean. They started arranging stones to give a physical shape to the cumulative thought. One said that the ocean is very big, another said it moves very fast as if it has four legs. The fishes arranged the stones accordingly. One said that the ocean is very dangerous – none of his friends that went to the ocean have ever returned so they gave the ocean two dangerous attacking teeth. Similar discussions carried on. Finally the picture that emerged from the stones depicted a big elephant or an ancient mammoth. The point that I am trying to make is simple – swimming in an ocean is a first hand experience, it cannot be experienced second hand, it’s not a vicarious pleasure. It’s only after swimming in an ocean that the fishes can understand or appreciate the boundless nature of ocean. The same is true for enlightenment , talking or listening to an enlightened soul will never make you enlightened, it will remain a step in our journey, a journey that each one of us must make alone . We all have to transverse the distance between our three dimensional world of money, power and survival to the stage when all of these cease to be an issue. We all might cross a highlighted or traveled path but that’s just a part of the journey neither the beginning nor the end. At the end we all must discover our gods and banish our own demons.
singh.ranjan@gmail.com
NAMESAKE
Like any other dreamy eyed, love-less and miracle-waiting dreary teenager, I grew up with a lofty idea of love. Somewhere someone is made for you. (In the face of hugely skewed male-female ratio, this eternal optimist risks being lunacy charged). Well anyways our teenage tendencies begin after or nearing the end of the “age old” English definitions. I for one not only believed this eternal optimist’s words but also found/conjured something about that ‘someone’. I don’t know why but I grew up with an attraction for the name ‘anjali’. Nature played the sleigh of hand; I didn’t find love and didn’t meet anyone by the name of anjali. Somewhere something or rather all the things inside me said both will happen at the same time. Teenage went, years sped by, never found love, never met anjali … well that’s called being on track and time reinforcement of hearty beliefs.
Made lots of friends, good friends, great friends and simply friends, had lots of friends who were girls but never had a girlfriend. In the third year of my engineering I went for industrial training to pune. I was doing my training in the design department of an automobile major. Just next to my paraphernalia of drafter, sheet, board and all was the desk of a beautiful and decent girl called anjali.
It was totally strange... I mean I had come to pune for the first time , I guess was rather the first member of my family to visit the place .I left my training offer at my home town despite just recovering from a bout of food poisoning. My confirmation for training came just a week ago and I and my friend came like vadco-da –gamas, on a waiting ticket, to an unexplored land, not a friend or even an acquaintance there. We talked to people during our thirty six hour journey, got an idea of the place, took a room in lodge, used to do training in the day and search for the room from evening to dinner and then back to lodge. Well not say that I took any of it as destined but it was all different as I would recall now. To begin with she was sweet and self possessed. I spent a lot of time studying the new designs, which basically was to position my hand and head in such a way so as to be able to gaze at her without being noticed.
Days, few days, few more days passed... hiii , sorry, thank you and passing the hand book.All this continued for some time. Then somewhere down the line, “anjali” remained just anjali. I mean one of the first things I noted about her was that she was not technically sound, and was more or less a misfit among the engineers and draftsmen. But what she did exceedingly well was greeting the seniors and sweet talking them, which I sincerely believe is an admirable qualified but must be supported by others qualities not ancillary in nature. My initial talks with her did bring some truculence in tone of my other workers their age varying from a few years senior to her to almost her father’s age. What my belle did exceedingly well was bring new design sheets to her table and then position her hand and head so as to be able to sleep carefully. This evoked initially amusing reaction, also a sense of disbelief but finally the mischievous spirit in me. As my anjali shifted to vistas of time , I and my friend softly starting whispering “ jaagte raho” and “ yaar yeh to phir so gayi”, much to the discontent of the only audience of our vocal exercise .
Well training passed, talks remained to “thank you sorry and similar stuff”, due to my new found disinterest and the all pervading brotherly, fatherly and boy friendly attitude of the seniors around. Finally all things come to an end and I had to return back to campus as companies started coming for campus recruitments .well I again retraced my steps back to college on a short notice on waiting tickets. Well just hope I also find someone else my love life will remain what it started from--- namesake.
singh.ranjan@gmail.com
Made lots of friends, good friends, great friends and simply friends, had lots of friends who were girls but never had a girlfriend. In the third year of my engineering I went for industrial training to pune. I was doing my training in the design department of an automobile major. Just next to my paraphernalia of drafter, sheet, board and all was the desk of a beautiful and decent girl called anjali.
It was totally strange... I mean I had come to pune for the first time , I guess was rather the first member of my family to visit the place .I left my training offer at my home town despite just recovering from a bout of food poisoning. My confirmation for training came just a week ago and I and my friend came like vadco-da –gamas, on a waiting ticket, to an unexplored land, not a friend or even an acquaintance there. We talked to people during our thirty six hour journey, got an idea of the place, took a room in lodge, used to do training in the day and search for the room from evening to dinner and then back to lodge. Well not say that I took any of it as destined but it was all different as I would recall now. To begin with she was sweet and self possessed. I spent a lot of time studying the new designs, which basically was to position my hand and head in such a way so as to be able to gaze at her without being noticed.
Days, few days, few more days passed... hiii , sorry, thank you and passing the hand book.All this continued for some time. Then somewhere down the line, “anjali” remained just anjali. I mean one of the first things I noted about her was that she was not technically sound, and was more or less a misfit among the engineers and draftsmen. But what she did exceedingly well was greeting the seniors and sweet talking them, which I sincerely believe is an admirable qualified but must be supported by others qualities not ancillary in nature. My initial talks with her did bring some truculence in tone of my other workers their age varying from a few years senior to her to almost her father’s age. What my belle did exceedingly well was bring new design sheets to her table and then position her hand and head so as to be able to sleep carefully. This evoked initially amusing reaction, also a sense of disbelief but finally the mischievous spirit in me. As my anjali shifted to vistas of time , I and my friend softly starting whispering “ jaagte raho” and “ yaar yeh to phir so gayi”, much to the discontent of the only audience of our vocal exercise .
Well training passed, talks remained to “thank you sorry and similar stuff”, due to my new found disinterest and the all pervading brotherly, fatherly and boy friendly attitude of the seniors around. Finally all things come to an end and I had to return back to campus as companies started coming for campus recruitments .well I again retraced my steps back to college on a short notice on waiting tickets. Well just hope I also find someone else my love life will remain what it started from--- namesake.
singh.ranjan@gmail.com
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