How I responded to Universal Ramayana in Times of India

There was this article which left me sad for two days ... why do the Hindus have to be logical but not any other religious believers? That too why do they have to suffer in their own land? What harm have they done to anyone? Check out this outrageous article "Universal Ramayana" in Times of India. I think its time we disallow "unauthentic" people to write about our religious beliefs.

My two cents that was sent to the editor goes as follows

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For centuries Indian saints have worshipped the most compassionate Form of the Lord in Sri Rama. Great penances have been done and noble virtues have been attained purely by the Power of the Lord’s Name. Samartha Ramadasa, Tulasidasa, Thyagaraja, Bhadrachalam Ramadasa and such holy souls were great devotees of Sri Rama.


By scientific analysis we stand to ruin cultural and traditional values. Don’t we see Science and Industrialization as instrumental in causing Universal Pollution and destroying simple living of human beings by burdening them with unnecessary accoutrements?


Given the present day predilections to destroy icons, there is urgent need to resuscitate ideals in human beings. Ethics should be given more priority than Engineering. Faith and Unity need the pure ambrosia from our hearts in the form of Godliness and Virtues. Lord Rama is an exemplary ideal for us. When one considers Sita Rama as one’s own divine Father, where is the question of researching on His existence. Do we do the DNA check for our kith and kin?


Let us give up on such "scientific" pursuits and focus on the great human ideals and matchless character of Lord Rama and ennoble ourselves. Let us not unnecessarily use science and empiricism as a weapon against religion and lose the joy of living a noble and blissful life in this speck of a moment called human life. Let the Lord Rama bless us with more discrimination and moral strength.

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read the Universal Ramayana ... actually a dilution of Sri Rama's greatness from an "intellectual" non Hindu

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Universal_Ramayana/articleshow/2440590.cms

This is what I wrote about the Hindu Caste System

Dear Sir, the four types of work - pursuit of divinity, governance, business and labour will exist in any system. It will exist in the US, in the UK, in Pakistan, in Sri Lanka, nay even in China! ...

Lord Krishna is beautiful and brilliant beyond imagination and He is beyond the ability of our highly limited intellect and sick mind. Let us please pay respect to Him and not cast Him (God) in bad light.

Every cause will have an effect. Every action will bear fruit, good and bad. Every soul has to take multiple births according to its Karmic tendencies. The Hindu religion never said the Brahmins are always superior, in fact it warns that good actions lead to good results and evil actions result in evil results. No politician or king can alter this "cause and effect" situation. An evil brahmana and a good "sudra" will reap evil and good results respectively. A brahmana may be born as a Vaishya and a Vaishya may become a Kshatriya in his/her next birth. Let us not be shallow in our thinking and cast aspersions on the great Hindu Philosophy.

There are only two sections of people in this world. They are the good and the godly and the evil and the demoniacal. Good will prevail over evil. Sathyameva Jayathe. The Hindus will overcome any type of difficulties because they never harmed anyone and they are the followers of Ahimsa, Dharma and Sath Karma!

What I posted in orkut and the website

Dear friends,

I did not see anything wrong with the image.

http://www.merinews.com/bigSearchImage.jsp?imageCount=0&search=default&imageID=429

Nearly 50% of this country is filled with fools and non-patriots. A 25% of this country is undermining its religious traditions and going against the Hindu religion. Another 25% are fighting over territories and languages like Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Jharkhand, Assam etc. etc. I think the country is already gone to dogs. There is corruption even in the Army, which is supposed to be the most noble profession! Above all this our Congressmen and Communists are the most wonderful among the citizens and enabling all the good people to become better by the day and are assisting in the Nation's progress. A woman cannot go to the market without being teased. Pack of dogs hunt down innocent children. Pack of human beings torture other human beings. The government is a sick elephant incapable of moving itself and dispensing justice. "When a person's blood does not boil at all these things, how come it boils when a great spiritual lady has the flag at her feet?" I think we should not be part of such propaganda. I don't consider this lady inferior to even Jesus. I think she is a great lady, and her blessings are needed for this country to revive itself from the bad shape it is currently in. God and Saints are above all things, above the differences of land, language, caste, creed and religion. We need their blessings so that the country is saved from immorality, doom and destruction. Let us not be shallow men who see everything superficially and forget the "tathwam".

May the Divine Mother bless the country. Jaya Bharatham!

Krishnan

Poem - The Necklace

Wrote a poem, have only my inspiration to blame :-)

God is the central ornament in The Necklace, the most brilliant
Saints are the gemstones (like Samartha Ramadasa, Sivananda, Ramakrishna, Socrates, Sadashiva, Thyagaraja, Meera) of pearl, ruby, sapphire, emerald, cats-eye set alongside The Central Piece (Him)
Thread is the bond of unexplainable Love that exists between the central piece and the other gems of The Necklace
Mystery is verily this thread
Gold is the or austerity on which gems (called Saints) are set
Lustre is the pure shine of accomplishment, of perfection and joy and bliss The Necklace displays
Time (by its travails and tribulations) fashions the shape and size of the various gemstones
Mother Earth proudly adorns The necklace (as a symbol of the Union of God and Saint )
Guests are the mortals whom She beckons to marvel at the necklace
Thieves are the guests who want to own this necklace
Rulers are the guests who guard The Necklace so that Mother Earth can wear it in peace
Good men are the guests who slowly assist the bringing of another gemstone to the necklace
Bad men are the souls who speed up the bringing of some other gemstone to the necklace
Traders are the guests who discuss the virtues of each gemstone and estimate its value
Poets are the guests who are authorized to finally determine the value of the necklace
Language is the currency of these poets

Short Story - The Slave and the Wise Old Man

The Slave and the Wise Old Man

A rich man once freed his slave since he was very happy with the slave's services. The slave was given a ship and riches with which he could make a happy living.

Thus gifted, the slave steered the ship to find a new island with the hope of establishing a new life. But as fortune would have it, his ship was caught in a storm which dashed his ship and also his hopes of prosperity. As a consequence of this he was marooned in an island.

The island was a peculiar one in the sense it was customary here that whoever marooned in this island would be garlanded and made king for an year and then banished to a nearby island, uninhabited and full of wild animals, after that for the rest of their life. Our slave was thus coronated with regal merriment, but he did not know that his luck would stand him only for a year in good stead.

A wise old man of the island who had seen many a king thus banished, seeing the good nature of the erstwhile slave and now new king, intending to do good to him, apprised him of the malicious custom of that island and that all the pleasure here would last only an year and death was certain to overcome the slave-king after his banishment.

The slave in turn thanked the wise old man for his warning. He did not stop with that. Being wise and desiring more than just the temporary pleasure for that one year, he asked the old man for a solution so that his term in the island would be better for a long time.

The old man advised. "O king live not this year a life of merry making and wantonness but plan to re-construct the other island and make it habitable with the help of your citizens and workmen so the next year in that island for you would be safe and comfortable"

The "slave" glorified the wise old sage, thanked him for his invaluable advise and pleaded with him to always be with him to share his wisdom every time. The old man acceded to his request and said it was his will to always accompany and guide the ones who hearkened his words.

The slave then acted according to the wise old man's advice. He called his dutiful citizens and reconstructed the uninhabitable island that had devoured many a king before him. He planned and created settlements, gardens, water bodies, agricultural land for crops, safe houses and built for himself, a palace in the erstwhile inhospitable island. He also trained an able army for protection from the dangerous creatures in the island. He thus made a wonderful haven of the erstwhile dense uninhabitable forest where he would have to have lived in the next year.

At the end of his term, he moved to the island and lived happily and ruled wisely and was always wary of too much pleasure and put long term welfare, ahead of petty pleasures. He consulted the wise old matters on all matters and lived a life of harmony.

Moral of the story

The slave is each one of us. The rich man is fortune or Providence which blesses us with a good life. The storm suggests that life is full of vicissitudes. The one-year island-term is the allegory for our tenure on earth. The old man is God (and wise men who are one with Him). The uninhabited cruel island is our future. The acts of building palace, agricultural land etc. are the good actions one performs according to God's injunctions so that after death our residence elsewhere (in heaven) is peaceful. God always protects those who seek protection that is why the old man seems to say he would live with the ones who listen to him.

"Let us do good and live according to the will of God and not be engrossed in pleasure forgetting the future"

India is the oldest heritage in the world - which I posted @ Orkut

The Indian civilization is the oldest living civilization. It is the blossoming of a variety of flowers in one garden, nurtured by the Lord and which perennially emanates fragrances of equanimity, joyfulness, peace, contentment and simplicity to the whole world. India is the land of the Gods and the origins of Yoga, Dharma, Nyaya, Sankhya and great texts. India is the land of Sanskrit, of great and holy rivers. The crest jewel of India is the Himalayas from where the Lord of Kailasa protects the entire Universe. India is the land where Mother is worshipped as God. India is where the great sages trod and decided to make their home. Adi Samkara, Shirdi Sai Nath, Parthi Sai Nath, Vivekananda, Ramakrishna, Samarth Ramadas, Meerabhai, Guru Nanak, Jnaneshwar, Tukaram, Meher Baba, Appayya Dikshitar, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Sadasiva Brahmendra, Saint Thyagarajar, Bhadrachalam Ramadas, Ramana Mahaishi, Namadeva, Kabir, Surdas and so on... and such innumerable saints and holy men were born in this most Divine land. The ancient kings never persecuted their men. They lived in harmony with nature. All humans are treated lovingly here. Duty and Dharma was given a high precedence even by the Lord Krishna who gave the Bhagavad Geetha to erring souls for their upliftment.

As today's youth, it is our most important duty to protect the Indian heritage. Temples may be razed down with force, aspersions may be cast to confuse and sow seeds of doubt, but the great Nation called Bharatham should always shine in our hearts where it cannot be destroyed by any one! Let us pledge to remember the greatness of this ancient land and live in harmony and with love even in the perilous society, aptly termed Kali by the great Rishis of yore

God Bless Bharatham! Jaya Bharatham!

The Resplendent and Divine form of Sriman Narayana

The most auspicious Lord of all Jeevas (worldly beings), Sriman Narayana (God with Form) took a wonderful four-armed Form which is most pleasing to the eye. Here is my description of it.

The Lord stands on a pedestal indicating that He is above all.
The Lord has a conch shell in His upper left Hand indicating that He is the Originator of Naadam or Omkaram or primeval sound which is the Cause and Dissolution of the Universe
The Lord holds a Chakra in His upper right Hand indicating that He is the Supreme Master of Time or the cycles of Time
The Lord holds a mace in His left lower Hand indicating that He is willing to fight for the victory of virtue and for the establisment of Dharma. But it is in His left hand because it is His Last Resort!
The Lord holds a lotus in His lower right Hand indicating that He is the most detached, like how a lotus is detached from the water and rises above it.
The Lord sports a bewitching smile which indicates that He is compassionate and merciful and well wisher of His Devotees, namely all creation
The Lord wears various costly ornaments indicating He is extremely wealthy and is a bestower of wealth
The Kaustubha in the Lord's chest indicates that He is extremely fond of the Rishis and even adjusts to their whims and fancies.
The tilak in the Lord's Forehead indicates He is most ethical and cultured among all

May the Glorious Lord bring Peace to all. Om Shanthi Shanthi Shanthi. Sarve Jana Sukhino Bhavanthu!

Old is Gold

Wanted to share with you my conversations with a relative who is 83 years old and who is a "Bhagavathar" - carnatic music singer of olden days (old is gold)

I had a small book of Swami, Sri Sathya Sai Baba, titled "Become Me" and showed it to him when I first met him. I abruptly asked him if he knew about "Him". Then pat came a somewhat frustrated reply which meant something like "how can anyone not know Swami?". He went on to share some experiences Baba's devotees had. How a lady from Durban, who visits Puttaparthi in frequent intervals, was saved from some wicked men, and thus was blessed with Baba's Grace and how a child's mother was saved from the fire accident when he was in Baba's presence, and so on. Baba asked a 10th standard student to explain this sentence "I saw a saw to saw a tree, such a saw I never saw" it seems... this relative wondered to what detail Baba's knowledge seems to be.

I started another thread about Saint Thyagaraja ... and he even talked about how Thyagaraja reached Godhead and cast his body away.

Two nice incidents about Lord Rama were told by him. One is that Sri Guha was the only person who was granted the vision of the "Manthahasam" or bewitching smile of Sri Rama. He said that it seems when the Lord was about to climb on to Guha's boat by ascending on a piece of stone, Guha request Rama to take care lest the stone become another lady by contact with the Holy Feet, to which the Lord laughed. Even rishis crave for this sight, so it seems. I am not able to recount very well thanks to my limitations in using English. But it filled me with some inexplicable happiness to hear this.

Also, another incident is when Lord Rama sees Tataka as a mother and is unable to use the "astram". Vishwamitra goads Sri Rama to kill Tataka and when he sees the locks of hair falling on Lord Rama's forehead and His expression after that, he is simply transported to ecstasy (Samadhi).

The elderly relative recounted to me many incidents where "dead" people came back to life after being taken to other planets or should I say planes. It seems when a man died and went "up" he saw a bearded man, beard almost touching the floor who said "Visargaha" in Sanskrit and the dead man only remembs coming back into his body, this after 12 days of unmitigated fever and subsequent "death".

One other incident about Fate is worthy of recounting to you. The sage Vasishta's disciple was sad one day and when the sage enquired the reason for his despondence, the disciple admitted that he was destined to die at 10:30 am (time is concocted by me). Vasishta becomes "upset" and immediately goes to the abode of the Lord Yama and enquires the reason for his disciple's Fate. Yama declares that it is God's wish and requests Vasishta to check the annals ("ettu chuvadi" in Tamil). Yama also declares that whatever time mentioned in that record cannot be overridden by Yama Himself. Vasishta searches for tha annals and gets his disciple's record and finds written therein "When Vasishta reads this, his disciple will die". It is 10:30 am by the earthly standards that moment

What a fortune! This elderly person told me he sang before Sri Ramana Maharishi! I have invited him to our house to share his wonder-full experiences with us in the family. What a fortune!