Emerson's Brahma

Ralph Waldo Emerson (25 May 1803- 27 Apr 1882, could be Poosam) was strongly influenced by the Vedas, and much of his writing has strong shades of advaita. From wiki: One of the clearest examples of this can be found in his essay "The Over-soul":

We live in succession, in division, in parts, in particles. Meantime within man is the soul of the whole; the wise silence; the universal beauty, to which every part and particle is equally related, the eternal ONE. And this deep power in which we exist and whose beatitude is all accessible to us, is not only self-sufficing and perfect in every hour, but the act of seeing and the thing seen, the seer and the spectacle, the subject and the object, are one. We see the world piece by piece, as the sun, the moon, the animal, the tree; but the whole, of which these are shining parts, is the soul.

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Emerson’s poem Brahma poignantly captures a part of the essence of Gita:

If the red slayer think he slays,

Or if the slain think he is slain,

They know not well the subtle ways

I keep, and pass, and turn again.

Far or forgot to me is near;

Shadow and sunlight are the same;

The vanish'd gods to me appear;

And one to me are shame and fame.

They reckon ill who leave me out;

When me they fly, I am the wings;

I am the doubter and the doubt,

And I the hymn the Brahmin sings.

The strong gods pine for my abode,

And pine in vain the sacred Seven;

But thou, meek lover of the good!

Find me, and turn thy back on heaven.

Kanchivarams and Silk Sarees

Discovered that Chinese empress Lei Zu was supposed to have invented the silk fabric. I wonder what our Indian kings and queens wore before that. (Wiki says silk got established in India only by AD 300). There is one Ravi Varma – ‘Draupadi dreading to meet Kichaka’ with her alluring mild carmine pink sari, that is always fresh in my mind even decades after having seen it. What did Panchaali actually wear in her times? Did the goddesses not mind the killing of trillions of silkworms for covering their bodies?

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What would happen if the lady mulberry silkworms and moth caterpillars’, loved to wear dresses created out of the threads or whatever made from skins of human beings (equivalent of their pupae) thrown in boiling hot water? I can’t imagine such a fate for any jeevan. Anyway silks are supposed to be sacred just like deer skin and tiger skin, honey (vamanam by honeybees), cow's milk (uchishtam). Kaushitaki Brahmana Upanishad states that just as one driving a chariot looks at the wheel of the chariot, so he looks upon day and night; so upon good deeds and evil deeds and upon of pairs of opposites.

Learnt that, there are at least 13 Indian ways of draping a sari, depending on where you are from. (Without including Sri Lankan, Bangladeshi or other Asian countries style) There are at least 38 types of silk saris which I could discern. In Trichy Thailas Silks, where we went for my sister’s marriage shopping, we only had Kanchivarams (samudrika, kodi design, butta, work-embroidery), Pochampally (classical mostly with square patterns), Arani (simple plain around 2k) and Thirubhuvanam (around 12k). And our in-laws feel any sari beneath 15k to be beneath their dignity.

The previous day, I called all cousins, sils, aunts to make a list of who wanted which colour silk sari. We bought 14 kanchivarams (9 samudrika, 1 khodi design, 2 butta, 3 work embroidery) and 24 Aparna silks for gifting relatives and friends. Aparna silks cost around 500, do not require meticulous chemical dry cleaning and look exactly like kanchivarams. However if I were to close my eyes and feel the texture, Kanchivarams are poles apart from economical Aparnas. Rather than silk, I prefer the flowing sensuous feel of plain Mysore silks, synthetic satin, butter silk, soft Japanese crape or muslin on my skin rather than these heavy gold bordered Kanchivaram or Benaras. They say, in those days, the diaphanous silk sarees were so fine that they could be passed through a ring.

I was so exhausted after shopping that I could not move out for 2 days to distribute invitation cards to my mentors or even post invites for my friends. Wish I had a robot or wish my brother was here so that this job of inviting people could be outsourced. And this is only for my friends list. I can’t imagine compiling a list and going physically to everyone’s home for the whole brood of extended family, relatives and friends. What a public fanfare for a strictly private affair? Too much of big fat Indian wedding! How did Valluvar wed Vasuki? What exemplary life they led. Simplicity where have you gone into hiding?

Food and Vasthu

I was searching for a jpeg of Indian thaali which had all the naivedhya items placed as per paak vidhi. But could not find any such pic even after hours of search. Hence this pic.

This being food Vasthu, mom adds the following effects of eating facing various directions:

1. East – Spiritual Growth
2. West – All round prosperity
3. North – Gives Diseases
4. South – Increases material wealth

Order of serving:

1. To start with little payasam on right bottom – EESANYA
2. Cucumber or any pacchadi on top right – VAYU
3. Three types of veg curries; mostly with Okra since it is balancing for all 3 dosas and 6 tastes to the left of pachaddi – spread over VAYU TO VARUN
4. One two kootu or aviyal to the left of pachadis - VARUN TO NAIRUTHI
5. Vaddai or other bakshanam at leftmost bottom – AGNI
6. Pickles at topmost left with salt under it - NAIRUTHI
7. Paruppu served in the middle bottom of the leaf
8. Rice in center
9. Sambar
10. Rasam
11. Payasam
12. Thick flavoured buttermilk
13. Betel nut

For paakviddhi:

http://chiraan.blogspot.com/2011/03/paak-vidhi.html

Water Tank and Himalayas

This was the water tank, N (Rose), Narmada and I tried to scale when we were kids.

Our new quarters is very near the water tank we climbed more than two decades earlier. We three started to climb after our exams got over. We had still worn our KV school uniforms since we had not yet gone home. There are so many mango trees all around the water tank. I was almost stepping over the tank roof, when a nearby school authorities came, bid us to come down, noted down our names and class standard. We were not smart enough to lie at that age and gave our real names. That school authorities called our school principal, the principal informed all the teachers, parents were summoned. So every teacher gave us a round of scolding before they started every class and one ma’m even made me and N write imposition longer than ‘I will not go to another school and climb water tank’ 500 times within one night. The truth was that we had not actually gone to another school, the tank was just in the middle of quarters.

I simply love viewing things from the top. Trekking or flying, doing anything that takes me to the top of the mountain. The bird’s eye view. Of course, once you climb a mountain, there is always another mountain to climb. I want to see the Himalayas, especially the Trishul Peaks in Himalayas, Nainital, Uttarakhand sometime.

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This peak beckons me because it is picture perfect for the swarajathi Shaambashivayanve raajita giri in kamaas.

Nila Kaihirathu Niram Theihirathu

I was just sitting under the tree waiting for music teacher to come. All around me, girls in whitish green kurti and phthalo green pajamas were dancing bharatnatyam.


And suddenly this song floated in the air. In RSK HSS school, this was the song, we sang for a group singing competition. We missed 1st prize and had to be content with 2nd prize. Lovely lilting song from ManiRatnam's Indira.

From Wiki

"As a boy, Clive is reputed to have climbed the tower of St Mary's Parish Church in Market Drayton and perched on a gargoyle, frightening those down below........ on 22 November 1774 he committed suicide......Though Clive's suicide has been linked to his history of depression and to opium addiction, the likely immediate impetus was excruciating pain resulting from illness which he had been attempting to abate with opium."

I vaguely remember one of the English lessons in NCERT textbooks, where some small boy climbs a church and amuses people. "Michael Goes Climbing" was the name of the lesson.

Home Alone

Mom had been summoned to Chennai for final discussions regarding sister’s marriage. So I was home alone after a long time. My sleep had been snatched thanks to strange midnight UK call to which I finally managed to put a full stop in the evening. So I was asleep most of the day, waking up to read, and then sleeping, reading and sleeping taking turns.

I went as usual for vocal classes after watering the vegetable patch and partly collecting the fallen tamarind pods. After classes I made a trip to local temple and was just returning, when periyamma called me. She told me that she was waiting at the locked door entrance. Only then I realized how much mom had been feeding me. I feel hungry only if mom is there. Left to myself, I didn’t even feel like stretching my hands to drink water placed next to bed. I didn't feel thirsty even after 2 hours of singing. I wonder why people precisely give me what I don’t need – making so much hoopla about food. I didn’t even roll my tongue up (my attempts with kecchari mudhra). I just did nothing. I simply had no appetite today. And my periyamma was thinking that I was starving, when I was actually not.

Permaculture update

Pasalai Keerai

We planted the stems after making saag. This one has survived the daily treadings of cows. :-) I wonder if we would ever get to pluck any of its leaves for cooking. Either mom has to put up the fence or the cows and goats have to spare few leaves for us. :-)

Ponnakanni Keerai

Supposed to be good for eyes.

Pudhina

Curry Leaves (Karuvepu illai)

These ones are simply growing wildly all over. I have to walk carefully, so that i don't step on them accidentally. Very good for hair and eyes.

Ara Nellika (Amla)

Ascorbic acid. This along with the lemon tree nearby gives me my daily dose of vitamin C. After drinking lukewarm water of lemon juice with honey on empty stomach, rubbing the left over lemon on skin purifies the skin and makes it glow.

The voice of the silence

Am yet to read The voice of the silence. Panguni Uthiram is a grand fasting and feasting day for Lord Muruga near our place. The full moon on that day was the closest to earth after many years. It was spell bounding to see the full moon that night. Many a full moons, I would just put up a chair on the terrace or balcony and sit simply gazing at the full moon till kingdom comes. There was a line in a contemporary biographical story on Buddha’s life, where it was mentioned that his mother MahaMaya bared her breasts to the full moon to obtain its full grace for her son. There was this Mecano’s song Hijo De La Luna which was on my loop for many a days.

That was the day, I sent a facebook friend request to my teacher who transformed my life. I thought about nothing else in sending my friend request to my teacher, that I uploaded my mobile number also in facebook to quicken his response.

You can guess what happened, folks from all over the world started calling me at all unearthly times. My god, to receive calls with unknown country codes at 00:44 a.m. that woke me and my sleeping family members with a jolt yet with an agreeable nimitham made me wonder. Folks would just speak without coming to the point. To receive greetings sms’ from foreign numbers was unnerving. So I had to remove my number.

My policy is everyone in this world is a friend of mine. Silence and good thoughts are more efficient than alarming phone calls at odd hours. Silence is golden. Friendly and positive thoughts and feelings are more sublime than words and languages, internet and mobile signals.