Happiness

A Happy World

Happiness is there, very much
In the deep recesses of mankind
Every little child knows this
When they jump in glee
On a puddle, frolicking in the rain.
Chirping laughter comes most naturally
When the cool winds beat their face
Climbing a mountain, they see not the obstacles
Flitting between pebble and boulder
Their light heart leads their lighter footsteps.
A tender word and a friendly pat
Moves them so to bring all the joy within
They hug and kiss in innocent delight
Cares, they know not any
Too young to mind it
They grow and grow and this cheer goes out
Forlorn with worries, drooping at insults,
Ready to offend and cowering with fear
Adulthood an enemy to happiness becomes
Till they get someone to remind them
Their joyous childhood days
Till they were taught that
Happiness lay in being like a child
Impervious to insults,
Quick to cheer up
Neither joy nor sorrow
Their being reacts to
Learning to help others
In wiping a tearful eye
In sharing a burdensome task
Lending a shoulder to the one in distress
Being at peace, calm or storm
Bearing praise and raillery
With equanamous placidity
Happiness they become
When they live and are
Nothing else than
An ocean of love, peace and harmony.

- Swahilya.

Spinning...

....wheels of energy

My mind is spinning these last two days. Reason. I am now full of Chakras, the spinning wheels of energy from Mooladhara to Sahasrara, after attending the programme by Swami Akshara.
There are only two aspects to existence - the unmanifest spirit and the manifested universe. It is the same with the body which is a combination of both matter and spirit. The spirit which is invisible energy is concentrated in seven centres of the human psychic body which is as if attached and superimposed on the physical body. The psychic being which is invisible and subtle, governs the activities of the physical being and uses it as an organ of expression. It can be compared to ink filled into a fountain pen. However beautiful the pen may be, it is the ink that impresses itself on paper for us to see. The body is much like a big pot filled with big pebbles, filled with sand, filled with water, filled with air and space. All occupying the same arena and co-existing.
Just as everything, visible and invisible about the universe is energy meant to be used for one's progress in evolution of life, the wisdom of Chakras is also to be used and applied in life. Mooladhara - the root provides the security and stability of mind. Swadhishtana, the second allows the individual to enjoy life and indulge. Manipura is where the individual energies begin to branch out to reach the world to provide help and serve. Anahata is when the flowers of love begin to bloom. Vishuddhi is the centre of compassion that transcendes bounded love. Agnya is the command centre of wisdom that decides and governs. Sahasrara is the flowering of bliss when every sight, sound, smell, taste, touch or activity in life becomes one humungous mass of sheer bliss.
The science of Chakras also point out that the stability, the fun, the wealth, the love, compassion, wisdom and bliss are all the attributes within one's own self. Life ultimately revolves around hitting the top or touching base or just hovering around one of these or more energy zones for varying periods of time. When angry I hit the rock bottom and when blissful, I soar like a mountain eagle into the sky. Settling down with home and family keeps me in Swadhishtana, while earning a living and distributing it to family, friends and society takes me to the Manipura. Entertaining love with a chosen few, I am at Anahata. Transcending it and reaching with love to the whole Universe brings me to compassionate Vishuddhi. Becoming the master, controlling, ordering and directing the course of my life lifts me to Agnya. The last - Sahasrara is not because I do anything. Having worked my way to Agnya, I make myself a fit receptacle and when grace descends that is the eternal truth, consciousness and bliss - Sat Chit Anandam - to realise which is the very purpose of this birth time and again.

*****

Treading

....dangerous ground

When I was in the Indian Express, I wrote a story of a 10-year-old girl who was rescued from a borewell when a bureau mechanic was reminded of a Malayalam film, later dubbed into Tamil and dragged his oxygen cylinder to the well, pumped in the gas and the fire service rescued the girl and two others who got down to save her.
The next week, I read a story of how a child was rescued from some pipeline in the US. A couple of years ago, a child fell into a borewell in Chennai's Mannady and after a five day rescue drama, the police could just get the body out. This is one for safe pedestrian space.

The Perilous Path

What a cherubic boy was he
Barely five and raring to go
His eyes had just opened
To the joys of this Earth.

Tamilmani, he was named
By hopeful parents
That one day he will adorn
His mother tongue, like a jewel in the crown.

Only cheer knew he when
He was trotting home from school
Satchel yoked behind
Eager to gorge on mama's evening delicacies.

He knew not what was in store
When eyes gaping and heart jubilant
He set foot on soil loose
Down he went and eight feet deep.
And thus began a saga
That brought inconspicuous Mannady,
A tiny spot in North Chennai
To hog the international flashlights.

Was it for this that the fateful path
Was named Aadiya Padam Street?
Nataraja danced, but surefooted
He did not fall into a
Thirty feet borewell.

And when Tamilmani did fall
Every tongue wagged
About how peruilous
Our city roads are
Lip sympathy, the easiest help.
Sure there was assistance.
For the milk of human kindness still flows.
They tugged at his shirt
And his collar was ripped off.
Not content with hilding him at eight feet
Mother Earth sucked in the lad
Loosening her innards
Into her 30-feet long mouth.

There he stayed for two days and nights
As humanity worked above
Pumping gallons of oxygen
Digging and re-digging wells about him.

When the whole world watched
On television and newspapers
Fire service remaining hopeful each minute
At 1.30 past midnight, they sniffed death.

Onlookers aghast, their prayers in vain
When personnel in mask drew out of the cruel earth

Chirpy, joyous and bouncy Tamilmani

Secure in a jute sack.

When it was all over - the three-day drama

All went back home

Like dispersing after a thrilling school game

Letting Tamilmani into the hospital morgue.

The Government announced solatium

Of a few lakhs of Rupees.

But the grief of loss

For the dear parents, can it ever replace?

Here was one case of social apathy

an illegal borewell covered

Like a camouflage trap

Laid in the forest to catch an elephant

But how many we have

In our cities, towns and villages

Pushing the poor pedestrian

To the edge of extinction.

Let us think now if

One Tamil Mani is enough

For safer walkways to carry us bipeds.

- Swahilya.

Desire

Icha Shakti

Kama, Icha, Asha or desire as one may call it, is the one and only reason why this Earth and together with it, all of us exist. The cells are held together by force of gravitation, which is nothing but desire to be together. The Sun, Earth and planets revolve in their orbits by sheer desire to be. Else, where's the need for the Earth to spin around itself. Where's the need for the moon to wax and wane. Where's the need for the sun to shine. Where's the need for this whole Universe to exist. Everything can remain in that expansive Brihat, Param - as a state of nothing.
That nothing, takes forms by conglomeration of particles, for a sheer desire to know itself and that is what we see as the manifestations around us. If scientists at NASA peer at the stars above - the innate governing factor is this desire of the primordial essence to know itself. If the rishi is sitting under a bodhi tree in meditation - it is the desire of the divine to go within itself for a complete knowledge of its own self.
Many Masters such as the Buddha have said that 'Desire is the root cause of all evil,' no doubt. But Sanatana Dharma - something that existed aeons before the word Hinduism was invented some centuries ago, calls Desire as 'Icha Shakti.' Icha - Desire. Shakti - Power. Progress is possible only with desire. A child can learn only if she desires to open a book, desires to read, desires to memorise, a man and woman can be in love only if they have the desire for each other, parents can bring forth a child only with the desire to come together, I can get a job only if I desire, I can eat, sleep, play or enjoy only if I desire. And please note, even death happens only when there is a desire to die - that is, it is deep within the sub-conscious mind, not apparent.
So desire is a propelling force. It is energy. It is personified as Shakti. It is the foundation for the next force of creation - Kriya Shakti. The desire leads to action - Kriya. And the third is Gnana Shakti - Knowledge. The desire to study science, the inventions and discoveries and better and better understanding. It is the desire of scientists, mathematicians, literateurs, poets, actors, sculptors, artists, musicians that is responsible for all the activities happening around the Earth. It is the desire of the Sanyasi to attain Moksha that makes him walk the path towards Enlightenment. Nothing can be wrought on the stage of this Earth without this energy.
But any energy can be harmful when it is imbalanced or used without understanding. Electricity is fine. But I will be a fool to touch a hanging live wire. Water is fine. But I will not go and drown in a river to drink it. Rocks are fine. I can build beautiful houses using them but will not stand in front of a rolling boulder.
Same way with desire. It is an energy. It should be taken with a pail from the ocean to build the little edifices that we want to. Desire, when matched with action results in the achievement of wisdom. I can achieve all that I desire, provided I am clear about what I want and I am aware of the consequences. I may have the desire to rule the world, but it works only if I have the matching capacity.
In my personal experience, I have discovered that generally I do not desire for this or that. But when situations arise and I want something - have a desire totally and forget about it. Lo and behold it materialises. A small example: I was travelling to work by bus. Around last year, I had to go every Saturday - my weekly off to take Aksharabhyas classes for children, I felt that having a two-wheeler would be useful. Just a desire and the next week I was riding my Honda Activa.
If this example may be simple, here's another one. I was staying in a rented house last year. Suddenly with a water crisis, I felt that it was foolish to pay monthly rent for just nothing at the end of so many years. I wished I owned a small flat for myself. I made the necessary applications and told my house owner that I would vacate in three months. Nothing seemed to click. I just sat quietly one day in meditation, felt intensely that I should own a beautiful home and left the whole thought to itself. At the end of three months, someone told my parents about a house for sale. We went and saw it. All of us liked it. Approached the Housing company for loan. Just the previous week I attended a meeting on work and they asked me to apply for housing loan. In 15 days, I moved into my new house on Jan. 1, 2005.
Desire, empowered by meditation works. But the funniest thing about desire is, it has no end. So the trick is to remain quiet and act when one has to. When the work is over get back to being quiet and still. Desire is there to be used. But the consequences are dire if abused.
*****

Harnessing

...the Mind

The Mind. Man. Manas. Manu. Manidan. Manushan. Manush. Manisha. Manishi. Mansi, Mana or even Manam Pochu! It's an ocean in which we live and die. Just as fish are born in water and die and are again born and die. Man is born in the ocean of the mind and the cycle continues...till he gets out of it into the quiet expanse of stillness.
In Manikkavasagar's Tiruvasagam, now made famous by Ilaiaraja, there is a beautiful verse: Pullagi, Poondagi, Puzhuvagi, Maramagi, Palvirugangalagi, Paravaiyai, Pambagi...vallasurar agi, Munivarai, Devarai...ella pirappum pirandilaithen.
A beautiful line which outlines evolution. Mind is at the end of this evolutionary process. First Nothing or rather Everything - the essence. Then manifestation of light, sound, gases, rocks, sand, water, fire, air, space - can see the transformation getting subtler than the first. Just as everything is in invisible space, we are living, rather thinking in an invisible ocean called mind. Anything vast and wild has to be harnessed. For we do not need all of the mind to put the thread into the needle. Just as we do not want all of the river's water to quench our thirst!
So taking that little bit out of the ocean of the mind is called harnessing the mind. Just as one harnesses wind energy, electricity or ocean thermal energy.
Leaving the science of the mind to itself and coming to the fundamentals of using it for our day to day life, the body can be likened to a pot and the mind to water. When the pot is leaking or constantly shaking, all the water is either drained out or spilled and wasted. The first step to harness the mind is to bring the body to a state of stillness. There are innumerable ways - exercise, Hatha Yoga and all forms of focussed physical activity. One has to also watch the wasteful movements of the body that happen unconsciously by force of habit - shaking legs, or any part that moves unnecessarily and without control. Proper diet and sleeping habits also have a big role to play.
After the body, another way to harness the mind is Pranayama. Prana is the life force that flows in and out of the body. In this case, the breath is the vessel and prana is the essence contained in it. The prana also contains in it the mind. So when I regulate my breathing, get more and more conscious of it, I am aware of the flow of thoughts in and out of me. Instead of wasting my mind in a fit of anger, I just have to inhale and exhale deeply to hold my mind in my control. That will help me to respond, rather than react. In response, I am having my mind in my hands and using it according to my discretion. In reaction, I lose control of the situation and things happen on their own.
I now seem to be falling in line with Patanjali who outlined the Ashtanga Yoga in the Yoga Sutra. It is everything about harnessing the mind. Yama and Niyama - do this and don't do this, eat this and don't eat this etc. all to maintain a steady state of mind. Then is Asana - a lying down posture or a stoop also bends and warps the mind accordingly. The person gets in tune with a warped flow of thought that in turn makes him take warped decisions. The result too is warped. In a perfect healthy posture, the person is in tune with the best that is possible and the subsequent thoughts, action and results are the best.
Pranayama is the fourth. If not regular breathing practise, at least a constant watching of breath is possible at all times, silently, without even your neighbour's knowledge.
Then comes Pratyahara: Reactions to outside situations. Boss shouts. I fume within. It's a mind game and the energy flow is wayward. But Boss shouts. I maintain my cool. I am able to quietly correct my mistake or point out where the problem actually is.
Dharana: Total focus in the work at hand. Stringing beads or checking out the drops of liquid in a pippette at the laboratory. That's where our friend Robbie comes in when he says being in the lab makes him meditative! Dharana helps to increase mind power. Just like a parabola that helps focus the solar energy which otherwise is spread out, a focussed mind is like a parabola that can analyse, pick and choose with sheer brilliance. That's where our dear friend Vinayaka comes in - symbolic of a sharp mind, keen eyes, wide ears to listen, a trunk that can pick up a needle or lift a log of wood. Such a mind can break barriers in the progress of work. So he is Vighna Nashana Vinayaka - destroyer of obstacles.
Dhyana: Meditation. When body is still and the mind is quiet, like a placid and crystal clear lake, the innate brilliance of the individual just shines. They become the reflector of what they see, throwing light at all times. A meditative mind is at peak performance at all times. Wakes when it has to, sleeps well when it has to, work when it has to, has fun when it has to. Celebrates and enjoys life.
Samadhi: Well, now we have crossed the mind and gone beyond it. Remaining in bliss, just like the tall mountains, the flowing rivers, the roaring oceans, the green trees, the many coloured flowers, the fighting and struggle of the animals or the Yogi in a state of unalloyed bliss. Doing nothing. Just being.

*****

Creation

From Birth to Being

In the beginning there was nothing
In that expanse, something stirred
It was love.
It moved the two into
An embrace of togetherness.

In a cosmic infrasonic explosion
Their elements met.
The seed was sown.
Life blessed the to-be new born
And they all danced together
In the fun and cheer
The tiny freak of energy got solid
Is out today into the world stage
Looking, hearing, speaking, touching and smelling
Trying to figure out whence it came
But the search ever continues
'cause It can never be found!
But Just Can Be In That Primordial Nothing
From Whence It Came!

- Swahilya.

Spirituality...

...as I see it

- Swahilya.

Spirituality. How often this word is used these days. What is this Spirituality after all, I ponder. And as I ponder, my fingers typing on the keyboard, my eyes close in meditation. Behind the closed eyes, I see something. That is, I see nothing. It is the same nothing that is outside of my physical frame. The same nothing inside, in the space between my eyelids and eyes. (my eyes are closed as I type this) And when I close my eyes, I am able to feel something that surges up to my head. Not surging, but I am able to feel what is already there, only when I attend to it. Well, that's force, that's energy. Now I open my eyes. That force that energy, within me, that which propels my thoughts, which in turn propels my action, which in turn impresses upon the others who read this, which sometimes formulates their thoughts and their action....that is the spirit, that is the force and that is spirituality.
The human species, is the most wondersome type in Nature's creation, for just this reason. He can simply close his eyes and realise, what he is, what is the force that moves him, what is the force that propels the earth to spin around itself, wonder, study about anything he perceives with his five senses.
The other creatures and beings are in this same spirit - the sun shines, the river flows, the trees sprout and grow, the animals breathe, kill, eat and reproduce. They all exist in the same consciousness, but the human has the faculty - the mind - to contemplate and study and know that all this is God or whatever he may call it, all this matter is spirit and that the spirit is the essence of matter.
Let me get back to the Nothing, I said I saw behind my closed eyes. In that Nothing, there is something I can perceive. They are invisible beings called thoughts. Some thoughts have form. Some are abstract. Some thoughts say that it is him, it is her, it is it, it is that and it is this. There is also one main thought - it is that which tells me that I am "I". The thought that tells me, "I" and the thought that tells me "it, they and them" - are the same thought, not even plural. Singular thought that takes many shapes and forms.
If spirituality is too abstract to grapple with, may I move to the more gross. The body. This body, the process by which it is born, everybody knows. What was nothing, became something when two microscopic particles now called the sperm and the ovum, united to form another microscopic lump called the zygote. And that zygote gave expression to all the aeons of contents stored in that eternal nothing. The heart, hands, legs, eyes and body comes into our plane of vision, finally. It is from a spiritual essence called love, that a matter called child takes birth. And this child feeds on love and then food and grows to be a man or woman.
The body grows, no doubt. But for what purpose. Of what use is a pot if there is nothing to store in it, nothing to cook and nothing to serve. The body is and exists to hold the spirit. Besides the all pervasive consciousness that contains space and holds the Earth and everything else, the spirit that the body holds are the thoughts and emotions. The thoughts and emotions get their inputs through the body and express themselves through it.
And why this body and why this thoughts? Well, that's where the whole game is all about. Evolution - not just of mankind, but of all nature. Nature in Meditation. Nature in its way to self realisation. Every individual is a bit of that nature. It began from nothing. It took shape as something. Now it's trying to find out what happened and how all this happened. The vehicle to find this out is human kind. We are all here to do that work for nature. And all the rest, cooking, eating, sleeping, playing, watching films, listening to music, hiking, trekking, studying, writing exams, working, earning, reproducing...they are just time pass. Evolution is the work. Evolution is the way. Evolution is the goal.
Evolution from what to what. From water to vapour, from Earth to Space, from the gross mind to the subtle consciousness. That's the way. That's the path and that's the goal...towards the destination of spirit. This body will be as long as that goal is reached. Till then, it will be back again and again and again in one form or the other...tirelessly. For it is here for that purpose and nothing else. And the deadline for evolution - well, it is eternity! So relax and chill. We're doing what has to be done anyway!

******

Searching for Shiva

....on Pradosham

Somebody told me that to visit a Shiva temple, continuously for six weeks during Pradosham time is a sure way to Liberation. As the story goes, when the Devas and Asuras stirred the milky ocean, there were so many divine beings that came out of it. There were also not so pleasant things. And one was a poison called Halahala. When they were looking for someone who volunteered to drink this up as nobody wanted to even come near it, Shiva offered to drink it. Parvati, his consort stopped it from entering his body by catching his throat. His throat has remained blue and he has since got the name Neelakanta - the blue-throated one. Pradosham is the time when Lord Shiva swallowed this poison. It falls a day before the full and the new moon days and is an auspicious time for devotees of Lord Shiva.
I have taken part in Pradosha poojas in temples when I was a child, without much knowledge of why it was being done. Later, as an adult, when I never gave it a thought, I happened to be in a Shiva temple many a time during Pradosham time.
But recently when I visited Shivagiri in Kerala's Kollam on Pradosham day, I resolved to visit a Shiva temple for the next five Pradoshams. If people have said that is a way to Liberation, then let me experience the truth in the statement.
Just before I could go to an assignment, I went to Chennai's famous Shiva temple, the Kapaleeswarar Temple in Mylapore. And my God, I was amazed to see the crowd of over 2000 people. With a Vilva garland, I was walking, wondering how to reach the sanctum sanctorum and even go to the assignment. Someone clad in white shirt and pants, with a long knot of hair bundled up in a white turban called me and gave me some hot 'Ven Pongal' prasadam. Introducing himself as a researcher on God, he asked me, "Which are the three main Gods, without whom this body is not possible?" I tried answering, "Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva?" "Have you seen them?" he asked. No. Then I told him, "Ida, Pingala, Sushumna?" No, for that also. I said I don't know and he told me, "Agni Bhagavan, Vayu Bhagavan and Varuna Bhagavan - Fire, Air and Water," he said. This is a message to you from Shiva through me.
When I was wandering trying to grasp subtle thoughts and ideas, here he was bringing me down to the basics - And these visible fundamentals of existence, indeed is God! And this was told to me where I was, even without making it to the sanctum sanctorum.

*****

The Quake...

...and the wake

It was a refreshing experience to go amid embroidered and well-stitched cotton salwar, skirts, kurtis and kurtas at the Self Employed Women's Association exhibition. What was more touching is the flag inside the collar of the dresses which said "Buying the hand-embroidered products of the member artisans from Kutch and Banaskantha districts, 65 per cent of the sales will go to the artisans directly affected by the Gujarat quake.
This took me down memory lane. When the quake occurred in Gujarat in January 2001, I was shaken and moved to tears, in Chennai, just reading the newspaper articles and seeing the photos. I wrote a long poem then which I will share with you now. But in December 26, 2004, the tsunami hit Chennai and I was one of the journalists on the scene covering the rescue and relief operations - watching dead bodies being hauled up from the Bay of Bengal, ambulances speeding by, a line of funeral processions - the same death and destruction. But there were neither tears nor poems - probably 'cause they had been already exhausted.

WHEN DISASTER STRIKES

From the birth of the Mahatma
The total solar eclipse
To the disaster that jolted the millennium
Porbandhar, Bhuj and Ahmedabad
Have united the hearts of the country.
Gujarat has weathered many a storm,
But this quake it seems is too much for her
She shakes and sobs from deep within
Swallowing her own children in her hungry dance.

How can a mother be so cruel
Or what was the torture she did face
That she can get so gory
as to slash, maim and kill
All her children - young and old.

Was it to teach them all a lesson
That such a harsh game she was forced to play
when her quaking innards brought crumbling down
All man-made creations
Shaking and killing.

What was it you wanted to say
By ravaging thus you cruel mother:
"Tampered with me enough; stay off and away," or
"Stop meddling will you
with my lands and seas, greens and plains
Hills and rivers, air and water."

Why do you have to wait so long
To tell your children
To lessen their numbers
To build simpler houses
to live with the minimum
And not be greed.

Why were you so patient
To tell your people
To cut lesser trees.
Today they have come to a time
When they don't have enough
Even to cremate their dead.

What did you do when
Your children wer busy
Filling with concrete, their multiple storeys.
Why the silence, when in avarice they grabbed
Acres upon acres of your sylvan lands

Why the patience,
When they unmindfully chopped
The loving branches of your green country.
What for you were quiet
When your children paved
Your brown body with hot tar and concrete.
Should you have remained still
When they hammered so long
To build those mighty structures
That made them feel proud to possess.

What for the calmness
When they stopped the course
Of your sweet waterways
Damming it to be damned.

Now your children are crying
You who have failed
In your duty to chide
Your innocent wards
Even when they began to play
Very dangerous games.

Where went your warning
When your kith and kin
Spewed chemicals and poured fertilisers
choking your breath
Poisoning your food.

Tell me should you be so patient
Till you have to get so angry
And swallow your children
In such a violent upheavel.
But dear mother, at least now
You taught us your lesson
When man and women were on the road
Fighting about Ram and Rahim
You have now told them
what it means to love each other.

When man went about burning mosques and raping nuns
You couldn't find another way to stop him.
When your leaders were blabbering about Krishna or Babur
Your violent protest did shut their mouth.
When your businessmen were very busy
Exporting all your wealth abroad,
Emptying gallons of milk into the sea,
Your silent struggle in poverty
Is killing them all at one go.
They did not listen to your cry
When they built room upon unnecessary room
Shutting their hearts to their fellow humans.
Today you have shaken them
From their 10th floor complacence.
And from that height they fall
To be humbled in line with their jhopdi bretheren.

But tell me mother,
What harm did your tiny children do,
All the 400 that were buried
The innocent hearts crumbling with the debris
For this alone, I will forgive you not.

But better late than never at all.
For at least now you taught your children
How to get together to help others
at loeast now they learnt their lesson
That with calamity comes unity
at least with this it has struck them
Not to tamper too much with you,
At least at this point they realise
The rich and the poor are
One and the same.
Though 'tis the eleventh hour
They have found out
That they should lend a ear
to your whispers and warnings,

What Mahatma Gandhi could not teach,
What the scriptures and texts failed to convey,
Your silent quake has shown them the need
To work in harmony and with content be.
*****

Oh so

...painful

Pain is so difficult when it comes. Many have said that it is a great teacher. To philosophise and contemplate, it is all fine. But when it does strike, there is no way to escape but just bear it in silence.

Pain

If it is the head that aches
Or the heart that throbs
A gnawing knee or pulverised stomach
Human body afflicted with pain
Groans and moans for eternity.

Why should man endure sorrow
What need for pain to come and go.
There today, gone tomorrow.
Is pain a necessity for progress?
For life to move forward
Should we suffer pain?

Why should the poor man suffer poverty?
Why should the rich suffer indigestion?
Why should the child suffer from cancer of the brain?
Or the little boy limp with a polio foot?
What need for young lovers to suffer separation?
Why should the mother bear pangs of labour?

If pain is progress with suffering
Why need birth, existence and then death?

* * * * *

Seized with

.... a desire to post

At the end of a holiday, with loads of work pending in my mind and my body begging to get back home and take rest, I see my blogsite and the responses from different pockets of this lovely planet. I am seized with a desire to post, though it is with 15 more minutes left at a sweltering hot internet centre in Chennai.

Love binds. As long as I was posting which began in April and there were none reading it, there wasn't any reason for me to hurry. It was just the liesure and the pleasure of seeing my own thoughts on the web. Those were the times when there were no visitors. Even if there were, not many who ventured to post a comment. And as if a bolt from the blue, I got one from London, someone who's blog said was a girl of 15. Her comments were just there, replete with four letter words and she disappeared after that. I answered her patiently. My Guru chanced to see the site then and messaged me: "Construct a temple with all the mud that people throw at your blog!" That was great encouragement indeed.

And then there was Hari who was for long my lone visitor who faithfully posted his comments. He has even followed up with phone calls if I had not posted for a day or two when I was away. He probably wondered if I lost hope about the zero comments, most often.

But now, the response is indeed heartening. I am in fact getting to love this idea of people across the globe wishing to put their minds in thinking together and spending their precious time to do something about the world. It's a great great world after all.

Namaste to all my blogger friends. Namaste is a beautiful word. Not Me But You. And that's exactly what this blog is all about, though the title is Aham!

Castaway

.....your caste

You eat your food
And he cleans up your table.
You mess about your room
And she sweeps and mops it clean.
You step on clean porcelain
To relieve yourself
and he with a broom and brush and water
Swipes it sparkling clean.

Think if you had to
Clean up your table,
The mess in your room
Or your toilet bowl.
Two hands are not just enough.

Then why remove the door mat
When your toilet cleaner walks through.
Why throw up your screen cloth
For your servant maid to pass by
Why stand away a distance
When the cesspool cleaner walks past.

Washing plates, cleaning clothes,
Mopping floors and flushing loos,
They do it all
all that you can't do for yourself
He is your hands and legs
That work to make your life better.

Different parts make the body.
Incomplete is the human sans head or toe.
Don't despise anymore
Your own head or foot.
Don't call your own hands untouchables.
Don't avoid seeing your own feet
Just because they are dirty.
Don't squirm at your face
Standing before the mirror.

He and she are your images.
If you can't touch her
Your are an untouchable.
If you keep away from him
Then you have to be kept away from.
If you despise their lot
The it's you who is despicable.

- Swahilya.

Conversations

...with my mind

A very interesting thought cropped up while I was riding to my office. Conversing with my own mind. During that 45-minute ride, I discovered that all the work that I could not run up and do myself without much difficulty would be finished smoothly by my mind.

This was probably the genie that was asked to do work by Allauddin and his magic lamp, I guessed. So, if I had a big list of things to do, file my income tax returns on time, get to the assignment on time and write my copy well, and all the odd jobs and small and big purchases that I have to do. I found out that the mind is very much like my body, with a capacity to finish the work I give it, instantly at the speed of thought. Like the genie that threatened to eat the master up if he did not keep giving it work, the mind I found finished all the work to come back to me in a jiffy. And so I ordered, "Do the work I ask you to do. The rest of the time, you will sit quietly in meditation."

Whether it is dance or martial arts, the training is to practice all the movements in the mind, when body is seated at rest. Lo and behold, the body just springs into action when the practice has happened in the invisible domain. But there are times when the mind refuses to co-operate. For example, I was trying to practice the exercise of squatting on one foot, rising and squatting on the other, which I found it difficult during my Karate practice. The exercise refused to happen even in the mind, when no body movement was involved.

I thought at first that this was because there was a mind block that prevented me. My Guru, Swami Akshara corrected me: No it's not a mind block. Your mind is very realistic and not co-operating when you want to do unrealistic exercises. If that is the case, you will even begin practising to crawl up the wall or even get flying!"

A very interesting world indeed when the groundwork for the visible happens in the realms of the invisible.

- Swahilya.

Miracles

....they actually happen

Miracles have always remained an enigma. Are they true? Can they happen? Is it all one big bluff? Well, in my experience, miracles are as true as the rising of the sun in the morning. But when the process is known, it ceases to be a miracle. We know how the computer and the internet works, how the mobile phone works. So it is no longer a miracle how two pieces of instruments across many oceans are able to send and receive words, pictures and sounds.

I have a friend called Gangotri. We have known each other since childhood, studied in the same school, college, university. She is now a very busy housewife with two brats for boys. Everytime she will come up with, "You know this miracle happened..." and now I know her only too well to disbelieve her.

Both of us were interested in the works of Sri Aurobindo since we studied his play, 'Perseus the Deliverer,' in our B.A. English class. She got hooked on to the books by the Mother and Sri Aurobindo later. She once read Wilfried's biography of The Mother and kept the book safely. When I went to her house to meet her, she searched for the book to show it to me. It was not there. Without a moment's delay she chanted "Om Namo Bhagavate" the mantra given by The Mother. And it was right in front of my eyes, she just stretched out her hand and picked up the book from a place she never would have kept it.

Well, to ordinary eyes, this might be a miracle. But I see it this way. When Gangotri was in an excited mind, wanting to show me the book, there was disturbance of vision and she couldn't see where it was. But when she chanted the mantra that she has been usually chanting, the mind quietened down and she could clearly lay her hands on the book. Simple.

Another bigger miracle in Gangotri's life, which I have been witness to. She wanted to admit her elder son in a school. By quirk of fate, her husband was not then employed. There was none to help or recommend for the child. She prayed to The Mother. Yet the child got a reject letter from the school. The headmistress said, "There are 150 seats and 600 applications, Where do I make the child sit, on the trees!"

Gangotri was unruffled. She continued with her prayers. A very queer incident happened. She had to take both her sons to the doctor for a chest x-ray. A group of sisters from the same school her son went for admission were also there to admit a teacher.
Seeing her alone with the baby and the elder boy, a teacher was looking after the elder one when the doctor was examining the baby. During the conversation, Gangotri's son, who was rattling of with the teachers said, he went to a school for an interview and the headmistress looked like custard and cerelac (the woman was Irish!). The teachers reported the conversation and the boy was admitted.!

Not just Gangotri. I have seen it in my life too. Just pray and get what I want. Whether I misplace a fire tongs in the kitchen, or I have to get on time for my assignment I just chant my Guru's name, "Om Namo Bhagavate Sri Aksharaya Swaha:" and miracles happened. Recently I was caught in a heavy traffic jam on my way home at night. In a main four-road junction, half the road was filled with vehicles because the lorries and containers refused to obey the red light. As the confusion prevailed, I was happily chanting and singing behind my helmet unmindful of the chaos around. Suddenly I looked behind and saw a train of vehicles and thought, "When I just need to pray and set things right, why am I not exercising my option." I prayed, "Swamiji, please help the traffic to get going." It was not more than half a minute when the trucks listened to the cops and the way was cleared for vehicles from all directions.

Now no Mother, no God or no Swamiji comes in person to do anything. Miracles just mean going to one's innermost self which is always watching. Then the consciousness is activated, the thoughts necessary for the desired situation to materialise, spring forth. The thought leads to the suitable actions and what one wishes happens. The chanting and prayer is not to produce any god, but to let our mind to know the presence of god.

*****

Home

The Sky Above and The Earth Beneath

What is that we call a home?
Of brick and binding, rods and shingles
In squares and rectangles, that shut us in

Possessive that we get over inches and feet
Its length and breadth
And a few feet in height
Makes us so happy or happy are we

Secure a few thousand acres
We don't settle down but go on
To see if we get at least 500 more.
And in the grind fail to enjoy,
What the happy beggar has
With neither floor nor roof to call his own.

Sit back to think if we were born
To own by inches and centimetres
Chunks of this brown earth
That has come free of cost

Think if the earth were to
In real estate value demand
For all her acres
What if the trees were to ask
a rent for its green canopy,
If your rivers, streams
And oceans billed you
For drinking, swimming or frolicking
Will the pittance you earn
Be enough to settle your debts?

The blue sheet above your head
Turns pink at morn, dips into orange,
Blazes like yellow gold
Metamorphoses into a pale green
And then a glowing red before it
Sleeps into purple black.
What if she asked for vallue added services.

In acres and hectares, there is quantity.
In the vast expanse, it is quality.
In the few square feet, there is vain possession.
In those lands we cannot hold
There is the joy of life for free.
The air that flows through hills and plains,
Over the forests, deserts and oceans
Pass through your tiny windows
But alas, includes no transportation overheads.

The sun works from morn to eve,
Taking rest on cloudy days
Paying electricity bills to the paisa
You don't see he never hikes his tariff.

The snow that piles up on the hills and mountains
Or the dark cool clouds pregnant with water
And just the plain mud pot
Condition our temperature without even peanuts.
And they don't need any CFC, HFCs or Halogens.

Men and women, they buy
In thousands, lakhs and crores.
A piece of land to call their own.
Why can't they see they don't buy
But take from what is there.
And when they leave, they leave behind
What they thought they bought with money
Only to realise even the last square foot is not their own.

Richer is the owner
Who has no belongings
Freely draws from air and water, land and sun
Toils by day and rests by night
Just as the sun, moon and the flowers do.

Instead of taking, he gives
In giving he takes
The joy in return he makes
His only possession
During his brief tenure
Between birth and death.

- Swahilya.

God protects...

....them children

My work today took me to Karunalaya a home for street children in North Chennai's Tondiarpet. As I was leaving the place, a bunch of children came rushing to shake hands with me. "Miss...Auntie...Akka...Madam," they called me as they pleased, for a handshake. I can't forget that little boy who refused to give me his hand and instead joined his palms together to say 'Namaste'.

As I was listening to the director talking of runaway children, telling how children who ran away from their homes were rescued and grew in homes, sometimes happened to reunite with their parents, my memory took me to 1999 to an incident that has left a deep impact on my mind.

I was sitting in an MTC bus at Parrys Corner. A cycle rally by a political party halted all traffic for two hours. I had to be on time for a function where I was to be given an award by the Animal Welfare Board of India for an exclusive story about 30 dogs and pups that were killed in Porur Town Panchayat.

In the 17 M bus that was ready to leave, one girl (at first I thought it was a boy), just wearing a shirt, full of dirt, nose running, was walking inside the bus. Many shunned her because she was dirty and smelling. The driver also insisted that she get off the bus at a couple of unscheduled stoppings. I was watching all this for some time.

The moment I had to get off at the LIC bus stop to reach the Indian Express office, where I was working then, this thought flashed my mind: "What if my son was in the place of this child?" I decided then that it was OK even if I reached late to the award function. I caught hold of this girl. She wouldn't listen. I had to use the threat of "Police!" and made her walk up with me to the Indian Express office. I told my friends about this and they came up with all the help and soon she was sent to Childline home for destitute children. My friend carried a small report about this incident in the paper. I reached on time for the function too!

I forgot about the whole thing. Next week, the girl came with her parents. They were in tears of joy at finding their daughter. The girl who was suffering from down's syndrome just walked out of the house when her parents were away and happened to board a bus and was lost.

A friend of theirs spotted the news item in Indian Express and traced the girl who was kept at a children's home in Kilpauk. And till last year, the family has called on all of us who had a part in getting Indra Priyadarshini back to her parents on her birthday, November 19 and celebrated with sweets.

Today when I heard of some stories by Mr. Paul Sundar Singh, Director of Karunalaya of how children get back to their parents or how they are picked up at railway stations and bus depots by social workers and sent to children's homes and taken care of, I thought - that's how the God within protects these innocent ones.

*****

Waiting

.....Silently Patiently for the Divine is Meditation'

- Swami Akshara

'Manaha Trayate Iti Mantraha' - A Mantra is that which saves the mind. Whenever my mind goes into a sudden flurry of anxiety about not getting something it wants, these words of Swami Akshara just flash as if a solid support was provided from nowhere. The words of the Guru, in whatever language it may be, are Mantras.

Waiting, most often with patience, has come naturally to me and when I found it a problem and refused to learn, circumstances enforced it upon me. Waiting to pay fees, waiting in the bank for withdrawals and deposits, waiting in a bus shelter for a bus to come, waiting in traffic traffic jams, amid vibrating two-wheelers and smoking buses, waiting in Government offices while working on news stories to meet officials playing truant, waiting in meetings for the seemingly endless speeches to get over, waiting quietly to meet the people I want to meet....

Waiting has taught me the most important lessons of life. I am reminded of a joke I cracked at a function on Meditation. I was sharing the dais with six other speakers at a seminar in North India. The speakers were from all parts of the country and each took off, unmindful of the pain they inflicted on the listeners, with their long speeches. Seated on stage and with my turn to speak just following, I did not have the freedom to walk out as did several persons among the audience. Amusing myself, I nudged my friend and said, "One need not do any Yoga. Listening to all the speeches for three hours without any complaint can lead one to instant Mukti."

Jokes apart, I realised that when caught in situations of waiting, if it happens without complaints, without sulking - all those long hours can be converted to precious moments for meditation on the person speaking, on the situation trapped in or on anything I can lay my mind on at that moment. Waiting is Zen.

*****

Aham

The Search and the Find

Sathesh, one visitor to this blog has requested me to share more about my search and what is it that I have found. He is quoting from what I have written in 'About Me' and asks what I exactly mean by the Truth.

Well. It is a long story. But yet it is also a very short story. Here I go then with the long and short of it. By nature of being born to parents who had certain ideas of upbringing, I learnt carnatic music - vocal and instrumental and shlokas and chanting in Tamil and Sanskrit.

I took to reading the books of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother in the 1990s. As Sri Aurobindo has said, when the mind is travelling on a single plane of existence, force of circumstances gives a jolt in some form or another. This jolt came in the form of an auto accident on August 15, 2000, Sri Aurobindo's birthday. A woman seated just next to me suffered grievous injuries while I just scraped my elbow and knee. Getting back to work after four days of leave, for the first time, I had this thought: Why was I spared in this accident. What is the purpose of my existence?

It was this question that took me on a path of what is popularly known today as Yoga, Meditation and Spirituality. But even then, I did not go in search of truth, but I was just answering some call and saw myself being taken to all the places and people who were providing me with the answers. When I dithered or just forgot, someone would come to remind me or tell me what to do.

Truth of Existence is a difficult thing to explain. But all the music, all the Sanskrit or anything that I learnt by heart, began unfolding the deeper meanings to me. I now see the same roads, same polluting MTC buses, the same people, the same poverty or prosperity, the same clean or unclean roads, the same everything. But earlier, they were all different and I was different. Now the Truth is - I and Them, I and It, I and Him, I and Her are all one. The person who asks the question is me. The person who replies is me. My answer for Who Am I? will now be - Well, Nothing. If you don't like this answer, I will say, Well, then Everything. It makes no difference.

* * * * *

Learning....

...an eternal process

I have always loved to learn new things. But now my latest fad is to learn many things, only to discover the unity between all subjects of learning. Whether it is singing, instrumental music, bharatanatyam, kung fu, karate and other martial arts, painting, writing, speaking or doing anything for that matter - I discovered that they are all actions, sounds and images that leave an imprint in the consciousness wherever we go.

This consciousness in my understanding is like a white, or rather colourless film screen. Film screens are rectangular and confined by dimensions. But this screen of consciousness is present everywhere. If I speak, the words remain there for eternity. If I paint, the picture is there. If I move my body in a dance or jump, punch and kick in Karate, these exist as particular vibrations for ever. It is the same for every bit of work we do or thoughts we think. Consciousness is an eternal slate on which we can go on writing without any need to erase and it always offers space to write beyond time and place.

For instance, if I lock my fingers in a particular manner to represent Shakti in Bharatanatyam - I find energy surging through me. It is not finding any surging energy, but movement of the body in a particular posture makes me experience the presence of energy. Same way with Kung Fu or Karate - when I stretch out my hand in a punch with a bellowing shout of a "Kiaaye,' I realise the power existing within. While I sing a song that takes my mind to the blissful presence of the divine, till the time I am singing or listening to a song, I am in That Presence, one with it. Photography - when my mind takes pictures of any scenery or situation, from its inner state of quietitude - the picture radiates the presence of the energy.

Painting - of late I've been having an urge to try it out and I have now also set my eyes on sculpting. Beautiful pictures or idols again take the mind to that state of Yoga with what has been painted or sculpted.

When the learning happens out of love, I see it has a chain reaction with one faculty pointing its finger to another. The nuances of each might change. But they all have their origin and lead to the same essence of existence.

* * * * *

Missing

..... and being

Most of the poems I write, has just happened. And some times wen I get caught in situations where I go back to what I have written and they teach me lessons, which I remembered and forgot then. Here is one such.

*****


A B S E N C E


Absence makes the heart grow fonder
Absence makes love get stronger
Absence brings friendships closer
Absence binds relationships tighter
Absence gives time for people to ponder
Absence helps wounds heal faster
Pangs of separation -
Hard though the shafts may be
The distance, time and suffering
Are life's greatest teachers.

- Swaha.

On chat

....with friends

After a hectic day of sleeping, waking, reading, eating, dancing, singing, scootering, working, talking, thinking, I just finish my day chatting with a friend I have not yet met or spoken in person. Wondering at the great blessing of internet technologies. Travelling places, just sitting in a cubicle. After passing through a miserably laborious phase of ASL Pleases in public chatrooms, it is heaven to chat with a few friends who think like you and feel the same way as you do! And when that happens, minutes become hours without much ado.
Chatting - what the mind feels, words silently falling on the computer screen, no sound made, not a word spoken. Except for the click-clacking of the computer keyboard. But so much happens, between the two at the end of the terminals. So much is conveyed. The silence of technology. The celebration of invention. The joy of living. The Ananda of Anubhavam - just experiencing!

*****

Kollam

God's Own Capital

It was my long time wish to know why Kerala is called 'God's Own Country.' Recently I learnt that Kollam was 'God's Own Capital.' When the Trivandrum mail chugged in through all the greenery of Kerala with bits of land fully covered with a green coat, now and then breaking into a backwater outside my train window, I found out. There is no scene that I can say I missed. The names of the stations are different, Trichur, Kaladi, Chenganacheri, Ernakulam, Thiruvalla...only the signboards are different. The scenery outside is the same. Rains washing the lush green leaves. What is grown in Chennai homes as crotons, grows without any asking just like that on the Kerala landscape. There is the manifestation of God in the beauty of the land. The land where Parasurama's axe fell.
Narayana Guru's mahasamadhi sthalam was a beautiful climb of stairs at Sivagiri in Varkala. Then the Sree Janardhanan Temple. The sthalapuranam of this temple says that this was where Devarishi Narada's Valkala or the Angavastram fell on earth and the temple to Janardhana was built here. It was on Pradosham day and I had the darshan of the Shivan shrine in the Vishnu temple. I enjoyed with delight to see the Malayalee women worship in silence, "Ende Bhagavaane."
What one sees in the hill stations, is found in abundance in the plains in Kerala. The beaches in Kollam are fiery, with ferocious waves crashing against the shore.
For the first time I got the opportunity of seeing the simple Malayalee wedding in full, with the bride party's invitation of the groom, the sabha vandana by the bride and the groom and then the marriage in a pandal decorated with coconut flowers, lamps and garlands.
All the hotels serve boiled and luke warm chukku vallam for drinking water. But there are not many people eating at hotels. One co-traveller back to Chennai explained that people prefer to eat at home in Kerala rather than hotels.
Everything is absolutely fine, I thought. There is so much prosperity that meets the eye. Not so, said the traveller. "there is no development and progress here. We can't do anything because of the political situation. So we don't stay in Kerala. Only come here for holidays!"
I chanced to meet a Swami, Tathwananda by name. He was from Kasargode. He asked me to say what I feel was Meditation. I told him, "Meditation is bringing your mind fully to the present and not let it wander in the past or worry about the future." "But do you think one can live without the past or the future?"he asked. "The past is there, and so is the future. But going back in time or thinking of the future - I will lose my present and meditation keeps me rooted here," I told and he seemed to be satisfied with my reply.
I asked him about the meditation activity and interests of people in Kerala. His reply was pointed, "The curse of the Kerala mind is that, people think that if one does meditation they will take up Sanyas!" God's own Country - Yes. But that is the present result of the past. Today, Kerala is different.

*****

Tiruvasagam

Hearing the Sublime Melody

Today, I got the opportunity to hear in full, what I heard in bits and pieces. When I was listening to it at home as I went about my household chores, it was just music. But this particular rendition of Tiruvasagam demands more of my attention. It wants my total focus, attention and concentration. The power of Shiva's silence is not so easy to obtain from one corner of the mind. It has to be total.
This opportunity was also soon given to me when I plugged on the headphones to listen to the music with a stereo surround effect and Oh My God, I should say it is mind-blowing as Raaja fans describe Tiruvasagam.
"Aaa Hu ....aaa hu," the most powerful Kundalini Mantras that awaken the energy within mark the beginning. The initial chants are like the Vedic tunnes beginning with ‘Poovar chenni mannan.’ Just as Ramana Maharishi's mantra for contemplation, "Nan Yaar? or Who Am I? Ilaiyaraaja’s contemplative thought process revolves around "Thaame Thamakku Chuttramum...Yamar, Yemadar, Pasam Yaar?
The sounds of the drums and violins not just blows the mind off all the crowding thoughts but wakes up the sleeping energies within as the song concludes again with the mantras, "O A..hu ahu ahu a..hu ahu ahu a.."
Ilaiyaraaja's voice cries along with the words Polla Vinaiyen,’ The silence that follows is broken by the shrill notes of the violins with the drums in tow. Raaja's favourite lines in English translation: I'm just a man Imperfect lowly! How can I reach for something holy?" The sacred conversational oratorio begins here.
when the words refer to the worldly body, the music falls down and with greatness of the self, it rises to a magnificent crescendo. "Polla Vinaiyen," one with the worst of sins - the notes nosedive to the ground and with "Pullagi Poodai Puzhuvai," it rises as it goes on to the higher and higher manifestations of life, the Munivar, Devar and the highest Omkara, it zooms out into an enormous silence.
After Gnanam comes the outpouring of Bhakti. "Namasivaya Vazhga," There is the cheer, joy and dance of the bhakta drunk with the divine ecstasy.
"Valvinaiyen Thannai,"is full of the sorrow of life on earth and the violins support the moods and emotions as they change. One can actually hear the dance of Shiva with "Thillaiyut Koothane! Thenpandi Nattane!"
"Masattra Jothi," is a dance of a song and then Bhavatharini sings with Ilaiyaraaja in "Pooeru Konum Purantharanum." Ilaiyaraaja takes the cake with the meditative verses in that part and sings it himself.
Umbarkatkarase with chorus is contemplative and sung without rhythms. I know no fear is the essence of the last song "Puttrilvazh Aravum Anjen! Poyyar Tham Meyyum Anjen."
I end this as does Ilaiyaraaja:
Vaadavoor Adigal Vazhga: Vazhthmavar Adiyar Vazhga.
*****

Tiruvasagam

Ilaiyaraja's Symphony in Oratorio

I don't know what is Symphony, I don't know what is Oratorio. Not just that I don't know, I don't care to know. For music gives me that freedom to not know but just close my eyes and feel it moving within me. Listening to Ilaiyaraja's Tiruvasagam Symphony in Oratorio was exactly such an experience.
It was the most crowded function I have ever gone to. I was lucky to just be there and not take any notes. So I could relax. It was an occasion when theists and atheists were together on stage to discuss Spirituality transcending religion.
The story is this. Ilaiyaraja got this idea of doing a piece on Tiruvasagam when he was circumambulating the Girivalam in Tiruvannamalai. The divine that gave him the thought for such a composition also finds the people to accomplish it. Father Jegath Gaspar Raj, a catholic priest and founder of Tamil Maiyam came into the picture. He has been nursing a love for Tiruvasagam since his childhood.
It became a great synergy with musicians from Budapest rendering the soulful background for six verses from Tiruvasagam.
Music Academy in Chennai was seamlessly bursting with Ilaiyaraja fans thronging the programme. Chairs replaced vehicles in the parking lots and I had to park my bike in a neighbouring street with a houseowner threatening that she would remove the air of my tyres. (With God's grace, it remained just a vain threat!)
Amid all the shoving and pushing, I got a seat in the second row and had a good view on a large screen before me as a bonus to the stage. When Bhavadharini, Ilaiyaraja's daughter began an invocation with 'Om Namah Shivaya - Shiva shakthya yukto - Adi Sankara's Soundarya Lahari and then concluded with Janani Janani,' the waves of a spiritual gathering actually began to manifest, thought there was a lot of noise, fighting and hooting by some Raja fans in the balcony.
Dakshinamurthi Swamigal, Ilaiyaraja's Guru, blessed his Sishya in a feeble voice that he may live many many years to produce more and more works such as this.
Soon the CD was released. The ruckus that continued on the balcony was temporarily silenced by the police who intervened. But bits from Raja's Tiruvasagam 'Nama sivaya vazhga nathan thazh vazhga,' did the trick. While the general audience drew into pin drop silence, the more perceptive ones could feel the waves reverberating. The music makes the eyes close, the fingers draw into a chin mudra and the body is quiet in meditation.
It was an exciting day, when atheists almost spoke about the presence of God, the power of Tiruvasagam almost manifested through each speaker MDMK leader Vaiko, actors Kamal Hassan, Rajnikanth, director Bharathiraja, Balamurali Krishna....
The purpose of the sacred oratorio: "So that I will not have another birth," says Ilaiyaraja. But his fans want him back, again and again and again.

*****