Lord Ganesh, Cat & Dumbing down Hinduism

The story of Ganesh playfully hurting a cat & later finding his mother Parvati injured similarly is quite well-known in Hindu mythology. But apart from Ganesh realising that all creation is part of his Mother, the rest of the legend is not much publicised nowadays. That is that, He realised all females are part of his Mother & consequently remained unmarried. This view is further reinforced by Adi Sankara's "Soundarya Lahari" Verse 73.

"O, Goddess (Parvati), your two sons, the elephant-faced one (Ganesh) & Kartikeya, who have drunk your milk, remain even today, innocent of sexual desire."

Abandoning this high-toned interpretation, many modern preachers assert that Ganesh was indeed married to Siddhi & Buddhi, (which is obviously metaphorical) & to add insult to injury, had two children, Profit & Happiness! So they have dragged down the celibate God of Spiritual Wisdom to their own level of a married man, running after profit & worldly transitory happiness! 

This is as ridiculous as taking literally, the adolescent Krishna's frolicking with milkmaids, association with the older Radha  & two marriages, not to speak of later 16,000 wives! If this is also taken literally, the God remains a philanderer & not a Deity!

The fact is Celibacy & Voluntary poverty are the sine qua non of any real Spiritual Journey as evinced by Jesus Christ, Sri Ramakrishna, Ramana Maharshi, Sri Aurobindo, & the two Sai Babas, though the later created massive education & health care facilities, financed mostly by his foreign devotees, like his predecessor, Swami Vivekananda.

The two other religions originating in India, Buddhism & Jainism, though non-vedic in origin, stress the importance of celibacy & poverty, by having large monastic communities, like the Roman Catholic Church.

Even in the Qur'an, Surah 64, Verse 15, it says "In your spouse(s) & your children, you have enemies. Beware of them. Your wealth & your children are but a temptation; God's recompense is great.", implying family life & wealth are an obstacle to Allah.

In other religions, like the Sixth commandment in the Bible & forbidding relations in the Qur'an, men are exhorted to keep away from women (other than their wives). But Hinduism teaches its men to love all women as their blood relations, i.e., mothers, sisters or daughters so that they are protected from harm & only good is wished for them. (Rakshabandhan). Even in the Harry Potter books, Harry feels only a natural fraternal love for his close friend, Hermione, & nothing else. How many Hindu mothers are teaching this idea to their sons? Such ideas give great social stability.

The New Age gurus, having large numbers of followers, who continue to be in the rat race, have number of girl-friends, observe no food restrictions, consume alcohol can hardly be expected to give "spiritual" guidance to them.

As opposed to Spiritual Life, a religious life, commonly practised, may give purely worldly benefits like becoming a CEO, Chief Minister, good obedient progeny, accolades from people etc., After death, they may get to Heaven, where after enjoying the fruits of their good deeds, take rebirth & go through the same grind ad infinitum.

Is this real Hinduism?

Nainsukh & his Western contemporaries

Nainsukh of Guler (1710-1778) was probably the most accomplished of the Kangra (Pahari) valley painters, which itself is the most pleasing school of Indian painting. He has received belated recognition & monographs & even a full length film have been created on his life & works. His subject matter was figures from mythology & royal families.

It is instructive to find out who were his western contemporaries & what were their contributions. Fragonard (1732-1806) painted in the Rococo tradition & his masterpiece is the delicious "The Swing". Hogarth (1697-1764) was famous for his satirical series of pictures, like "Marriage a la mode." Reynolds (1723-92) was celebrated for his portraits & was the first President of the Royal Academy, typical work being "The Brown Boy." Gainsborough (1727-88), though a lover of landscape painting (like the later Constable), produced excellent portraits for commercial reasons like "Mr.& Mrs.Andrews."

Evolution of Indian fast bowling

Md. Nissar
(One of the earliest
Indian Fast Bowlers) 

The earliest Indian fast bowlers were Amar Singh & Mohammad Nissar, about whom not much is known. After them there was a long hiatus before "Tiny" Ramakant Desai arrived. For the first time, one could see four slips fielding for an Indian fast bowler.

After him came Kapil Dev, a legendary cricketer, who in addition to bowling fast, was a swashbuckling bat (175 against Zimbabwe in World Cup) & an instinctive captain, who won the 1983 World Cup against all odds. After him, came the "vegetarian" Javagal Srinath, who was the first Indian to clock 150 kmph. After him, a stream of useful fast bowlers came up, until now, in 2021, the Indian pace attack is one of the most fearsome in the world.

Sharmila Tagore's Father-in-law & Bodyline

In the recently concluded Lord's Test, intimidatory bowling was copiously used by both sides. It is useful to recall the start of this. In the days of the rampaging Australian Don Bradman, England were clueless to control him in the "Ashes" series. Their captain Douglas Jardine came up with the infamous "Bodyline" bowling consisting of bouncers bowled at the batsman's head with a packed legside field. He had Harold Larwood's extreme pace to make it effective. Larwood, a poor coal miner, had to obey the captain.

Not so the Senior Nawab of Pataudi, Sharmila's Father-in-law, who was playing for England, as at that time India was a colony. When Jardine asked him to field in the leg-trap, he flatly refused, considering Bodyline unsporting. Jardine could do nothing about him, & placed him elsewhere on the field as Pataudi was a deserving batsman for England & moreover a Nawab, whom the British were treating with kid gloves, for their own ends.

So Jardine had to content himself by snide remarks like "So Your Highness is a 'conscientious objector' (borrowing the wartime phrase) in the war against Australia!"

Aristotle, Da Vinci, Nature & Constable

Aristotle was the first of the "natural philosophers" as scientists were called in those days. He wrote extensively on the natural world around him & was considered an authority. But this had the unfortunate effect on his successors as they studied Aristotle rather than nature.

Leonardo da Vinci, the Renaissance Polymath was the first to go back to studying nature at first hand, as pointed out by Fritjof Capra in his two books on Leonardo. Even the flora & fauna in his paintings were specific to the region & season depicted in the painting, rather than being merely ornamental.

Similarly, the early landscape painters created their art from nature, but coloured by myths & prevailing conventions. Their successors also copied them instead of going back to nature. John Constable was the first to go back to nature & depict her in all her true glory, untainted by any preconceptions. His paintings were so accurate that the time & place where they were depicted became clinically accurate. To use the phrase "time space continuum" in an entirely different artistic context, his works were rooted even to the hour & mile of the natural scene inspiring them. Even so, he was disappointed by the landscape paintings (presumably including his own) noting that they were a watered down imitation of the true glory of nature, as remarked by John Sunderland in his magnificently illustrated monograph on Constable.

"Samskara" (1970) & "Grahana" (1978)

These two Kannada films start with the problems of the funerals of people who died in ambiguous circumstances. The first film, too well known, deals with a born brahmin, who did not lead a conventional life & had no children to conduct his obsequies.

The second film, lesser known, was the directorial debut of Nagabharana, now one of the best film-makers in the language, assisted by Girish Kasaravalli, who also rose to eminence later.

There was curious custom earlier, whereby in a certain area, a Brahmin girl, if not married before puberty, was blindfolded & abandoned in a forest by her parents. One such girl was found & rescued by the "untouchables." As a consequence of this, periodically six selected "untouchables" were invested with the sacred thread, taught the Gayathri mantra & converted into Brahmins for a few days.

The problem started when one of the six died during his temporary brahminhood. The brahmins refused to do his obsequies & so did the "untouchables". The body remained so for a day, when the Patel's son, a progressive, brought the police & got the body removed. This earned him the ire of all the village & he was barred from the village. The film deals with the aftermath, with grave economic & social consequences.