Newton, Bucket List & Bhagawatha

After the Upanishads & the Bhagavadgita, the Srimad Bhagavatham is the most authoritative of the Hindu scriptures. It was supposedly composed by Vyasa & taught to his son Suka. Suka narrated it to King Parikshit under special circumstances.

King Parikshit, while hunting, saw a meditating Sage Samika. Being thirsty, the king asked for water. The absorbed sage didn't reply. This perceived neglect enraged the king, who picked up a dead snake lying nearby, hung it round the sage's neck & went away. The sage's son Sringi, returning saw the indignity to his father, & learning the reason, cursed the King Parikshit to die of snake bite in a week. Here one can see the king's karma catching up with him. It can also be viewed as a generalised aspect of Newton's third law, which states that action & reaction are equal & opposite.

The king also came to know of the curse, & thought of a Bucket List of only one item, listening about the glories of God. (Here it may be mentioned in passing that Thomas a Kempis, William Law, Julian of Norwich & Rabia of Basra among others also had the same one item Bucket List.)  He approached Suka & asked for guidance, who recited Srimad Bhagavatham to him. It contains stories of Lord Krishna's life, other related Stories & most importantly, Krishna's last message to his disciple Uddhava, known as "Uddhava Gita", an advanced spiritual text.

As the recitation came to an end, the allotted week also ended, & despite all precautions, a snake entered & bit the King, completing the cycle of Karma.

Manu Smriti & Koran on Women - A brief comparison

Manu Smriti, whatever might have been the time of composition, had become a standard text of Hinduism in the early centuries of the Common Era.

Koran was supposed to be revealed to the Prophet of Islam (PBUH) around 7th Century of the Common Era.

But there are some similarities in the outlook towards women in both texts, which are listed below: 

Men must make their women dependent, as they are not fit for independence. They should be guarded by their father in childhood, by the husband in youth & by the sons in old age. (Manu)

Men have authority over women because God has made the one superior to the other & they spend their wealth to maintain them.

Good women are obedient. (Koran)

There is no difference between the goddesses of good fortune who live in houses & women who are the lamps of their houses, worthy of reverence & greatly blessed. (Manu)

Those who defame honourable but careless believing women shall be cursed in this world & the next. (Koran)

Women will have a share in what (property) their parents or kin leave. (Koran)

The remarriage of widows is not mentioned in the marriage rules of the Vedas. (Manu)

Muslims who die leaving wives behind shall bequeath their widows a year's maintenance without causing them to leave their homes; but if they leave of their own accord, they may pursue any course of action deemed fit. (Koran)

Even if a man has married a woman according to the rules, he may reject her if she is ill, corrupted or married with something concealed. (Manu)

If a woman fear ill-treatment or desertion on the part of her husband, it shall be no offence for them to seek a mutual agreement. (Koran)

A wife who drinks (spirits), is dishonest, rebellious, ill, violent or a spendthrift can be superseded at any time. (Manu)

Brothers & Sisters in iniquity

In literature, many instances of brothers & sisters instead of correcting, aiding each other in iniquity are observed, probably owing to their shared DNA.

In Virata Parva of Mahabharatha, Queen Sudeshna, wife of King Virata, instead of advising her brother Kichaka against his philandering, aids him & even puts pressure on Draupadi (who was serving her in disguise as Sairandhri) to accede to his wishes, resulting in the death of Kichaka.

In Tolstoy's "Anna Karenina", the adulterous behaviour of the title character, which led to her tragic death, was mirrored in the behaviour of her brother Prince Oblonsky, who himself was not a faithful husband, causing immeasurable problems to his  family.

In Jane Austen's "Mansfield Park", the siblings Henry & Mary Crawford, try to fool around the affections of the "made for each other" couple of Edmund Bertram & Fanny Price. Henry, true to his nature, elopes with a married woman. When Mary, defends him to Edmund, saying if Fanny had married him, he would not have done it, Edmund's eyes are fully opened to Mary's insidious behaviour, leading to his discarding her, & uniting with his true love Fanny.

A review of "The Story of Classic Crime in 100 Books" by Martin Edwards

This invaluable volume will be treasured by all aficionados of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction. Even though the author, himself a detective novelist, disowns any encyclopaedic pretensions of this book, the fact remains that it is so in its scope. Though the title says 100 books, about 750 titles are mentioned in the body of the work, superbly indexed to increase ease of reference. There is a separate author index also.

Separate chapters subdivide the titles into sub-genres, each with a comprehensive introductory essay & longer discussion of a few typical examples, without providing "spoilers", as far as possible. The essays are extremely concise, packing maximum information into least possible words.

The only possible improvement might have been to print on a whiter paper with darker letters to facilitate easier reading. Also the purpose of colour & black & white photographs of the first editions & selected pages, inserted in the middle of the book, is of dubious interest to the general reader, & could have been avoided to bring down the cost.

All in all, a treat for interested readers.

Kautilyan Utopia

Kautilya aka Chanakya was an Indian economist & administrator about 2000 years ago, who compiled his "Arthashastra", a manual of the above subjects.

His ideal state was a hereditary monarchy, helped by an efficient multi-layered civil service, somewhat like the former monarchy of Mysore ruling with the services of Diwans like Sir M. Viswesvaraya. But there were startling differences from the present day democratic government.

The penal system was mainly by fines imposed on offenders. There did not seem to be any prison system as such. The prison system, though globally adopted now, seems highly unjust in principle, as offenders against society, are maintained at the expense of society, through the revenue contributed by the tax payers. It has also become a breeding ground for organised corruption.

In the crowning allocation of responsibility, the security officers were required to apprehend the thieves & restore the stolen objects within a time frame to the owners, failing which they (not the state) were forced to reimburse the value from their own pockets.

In a major faux pas, the Income Tax department was honoured by a commemorative coin some years ago, bearing an effigy of Chanakya, whereas in his Arthashastra, there does not seem to be a mention of tax on income at all.

Kautilya mocked at astrology, & only permitted temples for worshipping vedic deities to pander to the then current beliefs of the populace.

The status of women was noticeably higher than in subsequent periods of history. They had right to property, could engage in economically productive activity (preferably at home) & widows could remarry.

In a surprising move, numerous restrictions were placed on musicians & actors from entering towns for performing their art, whereas gambling, betting, selling alcoholic beverages & "the oldest profession in the world", were highly organised & run by the state itself for its economic benefit.

To end this essay on an astonishing instance of premonition, there is a clause in the chapter on the King's security, saying "The King shall inspect armed troops only when armed himself & riding a horse, an elephant or a chariot (& not on foot.) Memories of late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi being attacked while taking a guard of honour on foot in Sri Lanka are still fresh in India.

Madalasa, Ashtavakra & Sri Ramakrishna

Queen Madalasa in "Markandeya Purana" was an enlightened mother, who composed the following lullaby for her children.

You are pure, enlightened & spotless.

Leave the illusion of the world & wake up from the deep slumber of delusion.

Body growing in size or becoming lean depends on consumption of food & drink.

You do not have growth or decay.

You are in the body which gets worn out day by day.

Do not have the notion that you are the body, which is for the fructification of good or bad karmas.

Some may call you Father, & some Son.

Some may call you Mother, & some daughter.

Some may say "You are mine."

Some may say "You are not mine."

Do not identify with them.

The "deluded" look at objects of enjoyment as giving happiness.

The "wise" clearly see that the same objects which give happiness now, may become a source of unhappiness later.

How foolish to think "I am the body."!

The antithesis of Queen Madalasa can be considered Queen Kaikeyi, who (symbolically) pulled her son Bharatha away from God (Rama) with wordly enticements of Kingship, with unexpected results of her son disowning her & choosing the spiritually correct path.

Ashtavakra Samhita, also postulates the same eternal truths. This sage was born with eight deformities caused by his father's curse, when Ashtavakra in his foetal stage itself heard & corrected eight mistakes committed by his father while reciting the Vedas.

In the very opening pages of "The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna", his disciple 'M' arrives to meet him with preconceived general notions of education (purpose being conferring wordly knowledge, status & livelihood). When Sri Ramakrishna questions him about his wife's education, he confesses that she is not (meaning the above definition). Sri Ramakrishna straight away punctures his ego by asking whether he is (meaning Queen Madalasa's definition).

Religious vs Spiritual life

Contrary to popular perception, the two are quite different in their objectives & results. The goals of the former are mostly worldly in nature like wealth, status, & a good family. No permanent change in mentality or lifestyle is expected. Most of the organised religions cater to this common human need & thrive in the number of their adherents. The most simple of these is the five requirements of the youngest world religion.

The mentality & requirements of the second kind of life is a quite different cup of tea. Some spiritual souls found out that a very few humans are not content with satisfying the natural desires, which is a mixed bag at the best. They wanted something more lasting. But this requires some sacrifice on their part. Patanjali, in his "Yoga Sutra" says, Yoga is going against the natural inclination of the mind.

The same is reiterated by the Mother Superior in Kathryn Hulme's popular novel "The Nun's Story" (also made into a fine film) to the nuns in her order that they are entering on a life against nature. The core texts of Christianity like Thomas. A. Kempis's "The Imitation of Christ" & William Law's "A Serious Call to a Devout & Holy Life" substantially support this view. Even John Bunyan's "The Pilgrim's Progress", envisages a normal worldly life as an intolerable burden.

The requirements of spiritual life consists in giving up all the natural requirements of human life like wealth & family. This is the teaching of the Upanishads, reiterated by Lord Krishna in "Bhagawad Gita". Similar exhortations are made in the Gospel according to St.Matthew (One cannot serve both God & Mammon) & the life of the Muslim Saint Rabia of Basra, stressing the mandatory requirements of celibacy & voluntary poverty, before even considering a spiritual life.

Also, it may be wondered, if by following a conventional religious life, one's needs are satisfied, what was the relevance of the advent of saints like Sri Ramakrishna, Ramana Maharshi & Sri Aurobindo, who led lives which did not procure for them what the normal human desires? Why should they  be adored & worshiped? This question can be answered in the affirmative only if one is prepared to accept that worldly goals are not the sine qua non of human existence.

To sum up, the lives of the two child devotees in Hindu Scriptures, illustrate the two aspects. Dhruva, though he performed great austerities, did it initially to get his father's love (being religious to get worldly rewards), whereas Prahlada even antagonised his father (being spiritual to get the love of God.)

Use of the technique of "time lapse photography" as a spiritual tool

In the "Dhammapada", the canonical Buddhist text, this story is related (no.150) in the Jara Vagga. 

A beautiful woman became a nun but lacked faith. Fearing that the Buddha would speak depreciatingly of her beauty, she would not visit the Buddha.

One day, when she came to the preaching hall with the others, the Buddha conjured the vision of a beautiful woman fanning Him. The Buddha then caused the vision to change gradually, reflecting the ravages wrought by old age & death. The Truth dawned upon the woman.

Thereupon the Buddha uttered this verse:
"Of bones is this body made, plastered with flesh & blood. Herein are stored decay, death, conceit & detraction."

(My comment: The last para sounds partly  like an anatomy lesson!)

Novels & films based on them

Usually when some popular novels are filmed, the film version may be quite different as the two are separate mediums with their own grammar, besides the reading public usually being more cultured than the film going public.

There are two films which have actually  raised the cultural quotient of the novels on which they are based. The first is G. V. Iyer's "Hamsageethe" based on the novel of the same name by Kannada writer Ta Ra Su. In the prologue portion of the novel, an investigator tries to meet elderly people who remember the stories of the protagonist, a legendary singer. Many of these elders have an unsavoury past, which has been made explicit in the book. But Iyer's camera dwells only briefly on the impedimenta of their trades, while their voice over narrates the memories of the singer. Iyer himself acknowledges the influence of Dreyer & Bergman.

The second film is Satyajit Ray's "Jalsa ghar" (The Music Room) based on Tara Shankar Banerjee's novel of the same name. In the book, the professional woman singer giving the private concert in the zamindar's mansion is his mistress also. Ray detaches this private angle & shows her only as a professional singer.

So to quote & paraphrase Jane Austen writing in the final chapter of "Mansfield Park", "Let other pens dwell on guilt & misery.  I (Iyer & Ray) quit such odious subjects as soon as I can, to restore every body to tolerable comfort & to have done with all the rest."

Evolution of new ragas

Theoretically, it is possible to have an infinite number of ragas from the available notes & their permutations & combinations. However only a few hundred are currently in circulation because of their tradition & familiarity to the listeners.

But after considerable experience with the existing material, new ragas can still be discovered, subject to stringent requirements. One such is Komal Bihag (discovered by the present writer). This word discovered is consciously used because nothing is new in art. (Michelangelo said he did not sculpt the image, but it was hidden there in the marble & he only removed the extra material hiding it.) It substitutes the Komal Rishabh for the Shuddha Risabh (already weakened by using only in the descent sparingly) in the parent Raga Bihag.

Also the beauty of Bihag is only in the "Uttaranga" (latter part) of the octave, which is undisturbed in this new version. Pakad (typical phrase) being PMGmGS.

So if this version is performed, the listener feels the familiarity of Bihag, along with the occasional piquancy of the Komal Rishabh, taken glidingly in the descent. Of course this has been developed only after considerable familiarity not only with Bihag, but also with related extant ragas like Maru Bihag, Hem Bihag etc.,

Eastern Religions & Darwin and Wallace

Much before the two westerner's theory of evolution, Hinduism (quite accurately) & Buddhism (in a diffuse way) seem to have an inkling of the humans having developed from non-human species. In fact, even Kusha grass is envisaged as an ancestor in Buddhism!

The difference is instead of the species evolving as a whole, the deity is evolved here.

But first the ten incarnations belief of Hinduism. The deity is believed to have incarnated successively as fish, tortoise, boar, man-lion, dwarf, axe-wielding Rama, Rama, Krishna, Buddha & (to come) Kalki. It is interesting to note that the founder of Buddhism, a non-Vedic religion, is also incorporated in the scheme!

Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, features in 547 Jataka stories, reminiscences of his previous births, a sort of spiritual evolutionary cycle, to attain the ten perfections, namely, Generosity, Virtue, Renunciation, Wisdom, Effort, Forbearance, Truth, Resolve, Loving Kindness & Equanimity.

It is a co-incidence that the number of incarnations in Hinduism & the number of perfections to be attained in Buddhism are both ten in number.

Some of the non-human earlier births of the Buddha, as related in the Jatakas are, monkey, partridge, fish, kusha grass, mouse,  hare, deer, goose & snake. The fish birth is common with the fish incarnation of Hinduism. Even though the tortoise features in the Jataka tales, it is as a nemesis of an evil doer, rather than the Buddha himself.

Another curious feature of the Jataka Tales is the presence of Devadutta, a cousin of the Buddha, who even though he joined the order, continued being the bete-noire of the Buddha!

Boethius, Thomas More & Pollyanna

Boethius wrote "The Consolation of Philosophy" when he was in prison, awaiting execution for treason in 523 A. D. Like Sir Thomas More later, he also held high office &  was convicted on false testimony. The book is an imaginary conversation with Lady Philosophy, who counsels him that happiness is still attainable amidst fickle fortune & that it comes from within.

The same general idea was also taught to Pollyanna by her father & she propagated it in the town where she lived among a wide cross-section of people as the "glad game". Her father, a clergyman, when in the doldrums, found about 800 verses in the Bible, which exhort the people to be "glad & rejoice." The people helped by her in this way to realise that "happiness comes from within" as told by Lady Philosophy to Boethius, rally behind her, when she has to face the prospect of life-long paralysis, due to an accident. However due to a new treatment, the catastrophe is avoided.

John Bunyan's "The Pilgrim's Progress" from a Hindu Perspective

This is a great masterpiece of English Literature (Bernard Shaw famously compared Bunyan with Shakespeare & with numerous excerpts proved the former greater.) It is also the greatest religious allegory, more popular with the readers than critics. But Bunyan was a dogmatic Calvinist, with its attendant demonisation of Catholics.

In this, arguably the first English novel, there is a "Village of Morality" recommended by a Mr. Worldly Wiseman, inhabited by Mr. Legality & his son Civility. They are quite good, even have a church, but their concerns are purely worldly, so hypocritical to a great extent. It is definitely not the "Celestial City", which is the goal of the protagonist, Christian.

In the Hindu doctrine of Karma & re-incarnation, even good deeds have to be paid for, by being born again & enjoying the good worldly fruits of Karma (along with the collateral discomforts of a human birth.) So good deeds can lead us to a "Village of Morality" at the most. The quintessential Hindu goal of "Moksha" (liberation from the cycle of birth & death) is not attained by good karma alone. "Moksha" can be likened to the "Celestial City" of Bunyan, which can be attained only by Vairagya, as noted in St. Mathew, 19, 29 (for those who have left everything for My sake etc.).

It can also be emphasised that unlike the dogmatic Semitic religions, Hinduism, especially after the advent of Sri Ramakrishna, his near contemporary Sri Shirdi Sai Baba & later saints, always points out the validity of all religions.