I have been very busy on all counts - family, official, personal... I have often observed that when i am busy on one facet of life, somehow it spreads to other facets and keeps me occupied... blogging is an activity that needs some special time... I just can't blog with no clear thoughts... i.e. don't want to blog crap things; one might read mine and say well you have got enough craps, why not add more?
A few things in the last couple of weeks - the financial markets, bomb blasts in my home country, debacle of labour leadership in my adopted country etc etc. People have blogged all over about these things and today my favorite topic is about my mother tongue - Tamil. My parents are here visiting their grandson and i have been re-living some of our past time moments and one fine evening i played Pulavar Keeran's kamba ramayanam (Click here to know more about it) discourse. I was born and brought up in Neyveli, TN, India - a planned city that meets prime % of India's power needs using lignite based combustion technology. Wiki talks about the culture of neyveli - a multi-cultural one.
During 1980s Tamil Nadu was facing anti-Hindi and anit-brahaminical, atheistic fanaticism. People who were in those buckets had to hide their backgrounds. Brahmins were attacked and their hair do (Kudumi) was cut off in aggressive attacks, and the fanatics bashed all hindi/sanskrit speaking people... Life was such and i was 4 or 5 then and hearing those scary stories was pastime. Anyways in such a climate Pulvar keeran stood tall for his pro-theist discourses and those were in Tamil. His oration on Kamba ramayanam was the best of all. Day before, we listened to one of his discourses on kamba ramayanam. That's the one that brought back the memories! Pleasant memories - every year summer holidays were usefully spent on listening to his discourses on various Hindu epics. The speeches were interlaced with academic references to tamil poetic and prose rules/grammar etc. an example - 'asathi aadal' is a subject area within a classification - 'samayam' i.e. Under the topic of 'Religion' this particular 'asathi aadal' is a style of writing the writers use to express his/her pleasure/displeasure to God as he would do it to a friend that too in a mocking manner! As and when possible ,he would relate such academic references and imparted knowledge to the youngsters like me, hence our Tamil flourished.
On the contrary, the fanatics who adopted aggressive anti-hindi positions spoke rubbish tamil interlaced with uncultured and un-parliamentary words. But children like us who listened to Keeran's speeches have our tamil living in very good states. That's true - my tamil is better than most of the tamilians around and its just not in speech, but in vocabulary, capability in understanding very difficult proses etc. Though Pulavar keeran is not with us today, I am proud to say his works have inspired and instilled some of the good things that i have today. (also to mention that during his discourse he presented prizes to kids who answered his questions correctly - i got one of his books signed by him in one such occasion and I still have it proudly)
I need to put down some of my thoughts on Ramayanam... Two key things from the epic. I believe Ram existed and he stood up for Monogamy in the times when polygamy was prevalent and was not frowned upon. In fact, his father the King who ruled from Ayodhi was said to have 60,000 wives and situation were so bad those days, that Rama had to stand up and live faithfully in conditions where one could have so many chances to be an infidel. He was the prince and a son of the powerful king, where no one could question him and he could have ignored Sita and led a 'happy' life; but he stood up for Monogamy and went in search of his wife.
In his search he had to cross the sea and he had a bridge to move into Srilanka. (Ram Setu aka Adams Bridge). In his times, the sea division between India and Srilanka could have been very less and he could have very easily built a bridge and one such floating stone is still found in a north Indian temple, where the record says the stone was brought over from Ram Setu when they returned to Ayodhi. This stone still floats in water and is living proof of Ram Setu. I recently saw this in TV. The bridge is a memoir for us to remind ourselves to be faithful to our marriage life. In the day of AIDS and other VDs, we should think about our lessons from Epics and make a point to ourselves.
Then i come to my second point - Ramayan means - The path of Rama - Ram + Ayan = Ramaayan. Ayan means path in Sanskrit. So we got to remind ourselves the path of Ram and the key message is to be in one marriage. In fact Ram was known for his three 'ones' - One Word, One Arrow and One Wife. He sticks to his word; Just needs one arrow to bring his enemy down; People would come up with this question why did he doubt his wife - Sita, when she returned from Ravana's captive. Rama's to that question are very much in detail. To keep a house at its best, one could sacrifice a member of the family and to keep a county at its best, a house could be sacrificed and to keep a state at its best, one can sacrifice a county and it goes on to a country as well. In this case Rama who stood for virtuous life heard a fisherman foul mouthing Sita as she was in Ravana's captive. Rama was taken aback and he had to keep his wife away to be an example to his state subjects. To do so, he thinks for quite a long and this though process is well documented in some forms of Ramayan. People who would like to understand these can well read those. So this was not a mere excuse for Rama to exile Sita, but a well thought and painful decision.
Two key messages from the epic - one to be a faithful husband at any cost and what all hardship he went through and the second much more insightful as to why he had to exile his loving wife and the one he loved so much! Contrasting but very meaningful messages... Could we think of any such acts in the world history?
A few things in the last couple of weeks - the financial markets, bomb blasts in my home country, debacle of labour leadership in my adopted country etc etc. People have blogged all over about these things and today my favorite topic is about my mother tongue - Tamil. My parents are here visiting their grandson and i have been re-living some of our past time moments and one fine evening i played Pulavar Keeran's kamba ramayanam (Click here to know more about it) discourse. I was born and brought up in Neyveli, TN, India - a planned city that meets prime % of India's power needs using lignite based combustion technology. Wiki talks about the culture of neyveli - a multi-cultural one.
During 1980s Tamil Nadu was facing anti-Hindi and anit-brahaminical, atheistic fanaticism. People who were in those buckets had to hide their backgrounds. Brahmins were attacked and their hair do (Kudumi) was cut off in aggressive attacks, and the fanatics bashed all hindi/sanskrit speaking people... Life was such and i was 4 or 5 then and hearing those scary stories was pastime. Anyways in such a climate Pulvar keeran stood tall for his pro-theist discourses and those were in Tamil. His oration on Kamba ramayanam was the best of all. Day before, we listened to one of his discourses on kamba ramayanam. That's the one that brought back the memories! Pleasant memories - every year summer holidays were usefully spent on listening to his discourses on various Hindu epics. The speeches were interlaced with academic references to tamil poetic and prose rules/grammar etc. an example - 'asathi aadal' is a subject area within a classification - 'samayam' i.e. Under the topic of 'Religion' this particular 'asathi aadal' is a style of writing the writers use to express his/her pleasure/displeasure to God as he would do it to a friend that too in a mocking manner! As and when possible ,he would relate such academic references and imparted knowledge to the youngsters like me, hence our Tamil flourished.
On the contrary, the fanatics who adopted aggressive anti-hindi positions spoke rubbish tamil interlaced with uncultured and un-parliamentary words. But children like us who listened to Keeran's speeches have our tamil living in very good states. That's true - my tamil is better than most of the tamilians around and its just not in speech, but in vocabulary, capability in understanding very difficult proses etc. Though Pulavar keeran is not with us today, I am proud to say his works have inspired and instilled some of the good things that i have today. (also to mention that during his discourse he presented prizes to kids who answered his questions correctly - i got one of his books signed by him in one such occasion and I still have it proudly)
I need to put down some of my thoughts on Ramayanam... Two key things from the epic. I believe Ram existed and he stood up for Monogamy in the times when polygamy was prevalent and was not frowned upon. In fact, his father the King who ruled from Ayodhi was said to have 60,000 wives and situation were so bad those days, that Rama had to stand up and live faithfully in conditions where one could have so many chances to be an infidel. He was the prince and a son of the powerful king, where no one could question him and he could have ignored Sita and led a 'happy' life; but he stood up for Monogamy and went in search of his wife.
In his search he had to cross the sea and he had a bridge to move into Srilanka. (Ram Setu aka Adams Bridge). In his times, the sea division between India and Srilanka could have been very less and he could have very easily built a bridge and one such floating stone is still found in a north Indian temple, where the record says the stone was brought over from Ram Setu when they returned to Ayodhi. This stone still floats in water and is living proof of Ram Setu. I recently saw this in TV. The bridge is a memoir for us to remind ourselves to be faithful to our marriage life. In the day of AIDS and other VDs, we should think about our lessons from Epics and make a point to ourselves.
Then i come to my second point - Ramayan means - The path of Rama - Ram + Ayan = Ramaayan. Ayan means path in Sanskrit. So we got to remind ourselves the path of Ram and the key message is to be in one marriage. In fact Ram was known for his three 'ones' - One Word, One Arrow and One Wife. He sticks to his word; Just needs one arrow to bring his enemy down; People would come up with this question why did he doubt his wife - Sita, when she returned from Ravana's captive. Rama's to that question are very much in detail. To keep a house at its best, one could sacrifice a member of the family and to keep a county at its best, a house could be sacrificed and to keep a state at its best, one can sacrifice a county and it goes on to a country as well. In this case Rama who stood for virtuous life heard a fisherman foul mouthing Sita as she was in Ravana's captive. Rama was taken aback and he had to keep his wife away to be an example to his state subjects. To do so, he thinks for quite a long and this though process is well documented in some forms of Ramayan. People who would like to understand these can well read those. So this was not a mere excuse for Rama to exile Sita, but a well thought and painful decision.
Two key messages from the epic - one to be a faithful husband at any cost and what all hardship he went through and the second much more insightful as to why he had to exile his loving wife and the one he loved so much! Contrasting but very meaningful messages... Could we think of any such acts in the world history?
Dear Sir,
ReplyDeleteIf you have kamabaramayanam discourse by Pulavar Keeran, i want to have one copy..
my mail : gurus_bala78@rediffmail.com
I too would like to have a copy of all keeran's discourses.I have a few with me and can sharte with you.
ReplyDeleteI served in neyveli from 1959 to 1969;may be you were studying in the school at neyveli at that time!!
my mail address balutr@airtelmail.in
Thank you
TRB