"World Elder Abuse Awareness Day - June 15"

It is the "new normal" to neglect elderly parents & consign them to old age homes. It may also be due to the fact that millennials are not well read enough to realise that there are better role models in literature.

In Ramayana, a teenager named Shravan Kumar appears, whose filial piety is exemplary. Dasharatha, Rama's father, kills him accidentally & is cursed by his grieving parents to die when separated from his son, Rama.

In Padma Purana, the story of Pundalik appears. Unlike Shravan Kumar, he was married, uxorious & neglected his parents at first. However, a Sage named Kukkuta, advised him to mend his ways. He did, to such an extent that when Krishna visited him, he asked him to wait till he finished serving his parents!

Even in Western literature, two novels stand out. In George Eliot's "Silas Marner", Eppie, abandoned by her rich father, is brought up by Silas. When her biological father later offers her wealth & status, she refuses & stays with Silas as a loving pillar of strength even after marrying a poor but good farmer.

In L. M. Montgomery's "Anne of Green Gables" Anne Shirley, an orphan, adopted by elderly siblings Matthew & Marilla, sacrifices her higher education to live with Marilla in her old age after Matthew's death. It should be noted that both Eppie & Anne are not even related by blood to the elderly people they choose to live with!

Raga of Two Legends

When Satyajit Ray passed away in 1992, his friend & early collaborator in providing music for his films, Pandit Ravi Shankar created a Raga named "Satyajit" to pay respect to his memory. He recorded it in 2012, when he himself was 92!

As Panditji himself has stated, this Raga is derived using the "murchana" system from the popular morning Raga, Ahir Bhairav, by shifting the tonic to the fourth. So the notes of the new Raga are, 

1.Shadja.                      C

2.Shuddha Rishabha       D

3.Komal Gandhara.        Eb

4.Shuddh Madhyama.    F

5.Teevra Madhyama.     F#

6 Shuddha Dhaivata.     A

7.⁠ ⁠Komal Nishada.         Bb

Panchama (G) is omitted. The use of both Madhyamas (F & F#) side by side, gives the Raga shades of another morning raga, Lalit.

Connosieurs of Western Classical Music will notice that "Murchana" is conspicuous there also by the name of "Modulation." The Master of Modulation was Mozart.

"Generation Gap" natural or man-made?

The root of this idea of separating the generations into artificial compartments could have been started in the Bible, Genesis (2:24) saying "Therefore shall a man leave his mother & father & cleave unto his wife." Even if "cleaving unto wife" is accepted, why should a man leave his mother & father, who brought him into this world & nurtured him into adulthood?

In a contrasting & more inclusive view, Taittiriya Upanishad says "Mathru Devo Bhava, Pitru Devo Bhava" (Mother is God, Father is God.), the reason being they have brought one into this world & nurtured into adulthood. Gratitude plays a major role in this, if nothing else.

The break-up of the family system in the western world, probably inspired by the Bible quote, is painfully visible. Shared family values, irrespective of the age of the members, have disappeared. Another reason may be, excessive & exclusive association with peer age groups to the detriment of a more inclusive interaction with diverse age groups, from infants to more mature people.

Unfortunately, confusing modernity with westernisation, Hindu populace have also forgotten their Upanishadic roots & climbed on the wagon of arbitrarily classifying people into different generations, as if they are aliens to each other.

Famous "Quartet" Novels

These are famous works of literature which encompass four volumes each.

The first is Romain Rolland's "John Christopher", a fictionalized biography inspired by Beethoven. It comprises volumes titled "Dawn & Morning", "Storm & Stress", "In Paris" & "Journey's End." It comprises 1496 pages & was awarded the Noble Prize for Literature in 1915. Sir Edmund Gosse, the English poet, called it "The noblest work of fiction of the twentieth century."

The second is Lawrence Durrell's "The Alexandria Quartet" (1957-60) comprising Justine, Balthazar, Mountolive & Clea. The characters comprise a motley crowd of Jews, Christians & Muslims in Alexandria. Durrell said "Three sides of space & one of time constitute the continuum. The first three parts interlap in the spatial relation. The fourth part represents time & is a true sequel." Totalling 896 pages, it is considered a towering achievement.

The third is Paul Scott's "The Raj Quartet" comprising "The Jewel in the Crown", "The Day of the Scorpion", "The Towers of Silence" & "A Division of the Spoils". The subject matter is the tumultous time just before the end of the colonial rule in India. The set comprises 2239 pages & was written during  1965-75 & was awarded the Booker Prize. The Times Literary Supplement called it "A Veritable Taj Mahal of a Book."

Two Modern Myths

There are two universally accepted myths. One being that Science (including Medicine) can solve all humanity's problems & the second being that marriage (or romance) is the goal of life, almost guaranteeing lifelong happiness.

While it is undeniable that Science has made the quality of human life better & medicine has controlled the innumerable scourges which plagued humanity, they have by no means made earth a paradise. Though plague, cholera, polio have been tamed, new scourges like AIDS, COVID etc., have surfaced, spreading with lightning rapidity across the globe because of air travel.

As far as marriage is concerned, free choice of partners of choice was supposed to alleviate the agony of arranged marriages. But, no, incompatibility of natures led these also into divorces. The irony is that hardly is the (metaphorical) ink on the divorce papers is dry, than the partners rush headlong into another marriage, proving that (futile?) hope triumphs over (bitter?) experience.

One probable reason for the above myths is the marginalising of religion & spirituality in human life. Not only Hinduism, but Christianity & Islam also unequivocally teach that love of God must take precedence over wealth & human relationships, which are transient at best & repulsive at worst. How else to explain that the same features which attracted the partners to each other, are themselves the cause of repulsion later on in many cases?

Here Schopenhauer, the German philosopher, felt that the attraction between the sexes is a ruse contrived by nature only to ensure the propagation of the species in which the happiness of the partners is of no interest to nature.

Quantum mechanics applied to human relationships

A Quantum object can exist in multiple states simultaneously until an observer appears. In human terminology, for example, a female can be at the same time, a daughter, sister, wife and mother, depending on whether her parents, siblings, husband or children are observing of her. She remains the same exact object. Only the observer (or relations) see her differently. 

Also this view puts paid to the illusory nature of the so-called romantic love. How can a husband see in her attractive points which her brothers have not noticed since birth, unless he has projected his mind's image onto her? Using this momentary self-projected illusion as the foundation for building a lifetime of happiness, makes for a very shaky marriage indeed, as shown by the increasing divorce rates.

The only justification for marriage is the biological necessity for parents to nurture the children when they are helpless, to ensure the continuation of the species, & not the "happiness(?)" of the husband & wife as commonly believed. This is simply brought out by the word "Sahadharmini" in Hinduism emphasising that the wife is primarily a companion in the path of right living. This is also implied surprisingly in the last of "The Canterbury Tales" by Geoffrey Chaucer, called "The Parson's Tale."

Islamic Mystic Abu Yazid & Advaita

In his insightful treatise "Hindu & Muslim Mysticism", R. C. Zaehner writes about Abu Yazid, the Sufi Mystic. He was born in the village of Bistam in Western Khorasan, Iran, in 804 A.D. His father & uncles were ascetics & so was he, who for the first time in Islam, dared to make himself equal with the deity. It was he who first said "I am He", echoing the famous "Tat Twam Asi" of the Chandogya Upanishad & the "Aham Brahmasmi" of the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad.

He also reportedly said "Subhani" (Glory be to me), which is blasphemous to Muslim ears. But "Mahyam Eva namo namah" says Brihatsannyasa Upanishad, meaning "Homage, homage to me." He is also reported to have said "I have sloughed off my skin like a snake & I am He." Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, (4.4.7, 12) says "As the sloughed off skin of a snake lies, so does this body lie." But a man should know himself & should say, "I am He."

"As soon as I reached God's unity, I became a bird, flew & perched on a tree. I Iooked down & then I knew it was all deceit." says Abu Yazid. So did Shankara in his "Brahma Satyam Jagat Mithya" in his "Viveka Chudamani." Incidentally the Quran (47:36) also says "This world is but a sport & diversion", echoing the "Maya" theory of Advaita. This tree also seems to be none other than the Cosmic Tree of Katha Upanishad (also mentioned in the Mundaka & Svetasvatara Upanishads.)

To avoid a head-on collision with the religious authorities, he encouraged the idea that he was mad. Also Naradaparivrajaka Upanishad says that the perfect sannyasin should behave like an idiot. Dr. Margaret Smith, in her "Early  Mysticism in the near & middle East" writes that early Muslim  Mysticism is, in its overwhelming emphasis on the love of God, so much indebted to the thoughts of the Christian Mystics of a slightly earlier period. On the contrary, mainstream Islam, promises believers the delights of a sensual Paradise, while making it quite clear that Allah does not reside there.

To conclude, Abu Yazid may have absorbed the new (for Muslims) doctrine of "Fanaa" (dying in mystical union with Allah) from his mentor, Abu Ali al-Sindi. He was also born just later than Adi Shankaracharya (8th Century.) Abu Yazid's s ideas seem quite similar to the ideas of "Jeevan Muktas" of Advaita, namely Sri Ramakrishna & Bhagawan Ramana Maharshi.

Bibliography:

The Following Upanishads.

1. Brihadaranyaka.
2. Brihatsannyasa.
3. Chandogya.
4. Katha.
5. Mundaka.
6. Naradaparivrajaka.
7. Svetasvatara.

Others:

1. Adi Shankara, Viveka Chudamani.
2. Smith, Dr.Margaret. "Early Mysticism in the Near & Middle East.
3. The Holy Quran.
4. Zaehner, R.C. "Hindu & Muslim Mysticism."