Don Bosco and Elocution competitions!

Times have changed. Public speaking competitions in schools today are generally centered on "Model UN" sessions (MUNs) and debates. Rarely do we hear about an Elocution Competition. It is not the flavor of the season anymore.
Not so in the good old days! Don Bosco had an annual Elocution Competition and the best speakers would vie with each other to win the coveted contest. Winning did not matter in the least; may be it did- but only for the participants. For the rest of us, it was a laughing-riot- three hours of non-stop rib-tickling entertainment (at the expense of the contestants of course). The audience was an active participant. It decided how long the competition lasted....and while it did, more classes got canceled, especially the back-to-back Maths periods making the day that much more palatable! Much was tried to rein in the behavior of the audience as it erupted from time to time and drowned the speakers. On that day, even Father Bryganza's iron fist would appear limp- for the offenders were too many!


The recitation at Elocution Competitions followed a standard, time-tested pattern. The audience knew it "by heart". Of the 15 participants, at least 9 (if not all 15) recited the same speech-  Mark Anthony's address on the death of Julius Caesar. It was the one which started with "Friends! Romans! Countrymen!" It was as common place as Gabbar Singh's dialogue from the film Sholay- "Arey O Samba! Kitney admi the!". Needless to say, the competition was eventually to crown the best Gabbar amongst the 15 Gabbars who went up on stage!


It was lost on us that Shakespeare intended this speech for "Romans"! In the hands of the six graders at Don Bosco, this speech had a different connotation altogether. Everyone pronounced "Romans" as "romance"- correctness in enunciation  was not our strength.  For us, Mark Anthony's lines meant "friends romance countrymen!". The open admission, in a public forum, tickled us to no end! Of course, with friends romancing all countrymen, there was one stickling point- how do we reconcile this line with the message on the pledge which said all Indians are my brothers and sisters!! Mehernosh got carried away and giggled on stage when he said the opening lines! It provoked the Elocution teacher (sir) Michael Nazareth. Later in class, with each hit on the knuckle with a wooden ruler, he would correct Mehernosh- it's "Romans!", it's "Romans!", it's "Romans"! Ouch!


The contestants had to pack their speech with emotion. The louder you were, more the emotion, more were the claps. You literally played to the galleries. On an occasion,  Sridhar recited the poem "O Captain, My Captain". We loved it! The poem apparently dealt with the death of Abraham Lincoln. We knew someone had died for Sridhar got too involved with the lines. Convulsed with an overwhelming sense of bereavement, he bawled on stage...."O captain"….sob...sob..."my captain"!!! He buried his face with his hands, his shoulders rocked...and nothing more came out of him! "Abey koi mar gaya kya!?" someone shouted from the audience! The crowd erupted- some jeered, some clapped, some heckled...they were thoroughly enjoying themselves! But Sridhar's grief was too intense! Eventually, he needed an escort to drag him out of the stage, much as he protested to stay on and continue his never-ending act! Father Bryganza's eyes were to be seen. He didn't like it one bit!


We repeatedly told Ms Nattie in class not to select Adhir for the competition. Adhir was a good speaker, but he had got his teeth fixed with braces just that week. Evidently, he had not got used to speaking with braces. When he went up on stage, no one had a clue what he was trying to say. It could have been "Friends Romans" or a piece in Swahili. We knew he was trying very hard, but it was as if he was speaking through a wind-tunnel. Or the kind of sound when you slow down and play a piece of recorded audio.....so that you wouldn't know if it was a man or a beast! He did not like it one bit when the audience drowned him with the cackle of a rooster..."kukrooo koo ku!" To make matters worse, he stumbled down the steps and fell with a loud thud! Just the trigger the audience needed to let themselves loose once more!


There were two different schools of thought when it came to Elocution competitions. One said you could use your hands, gesture animatedly and recite your speech. The other school claimed that you should not use the hands at all because  it would be dramatics and not elocution. The problem was- there was no consistency in enforcing this rule. Some used their hands, others didn't.
If you didn't use your hands, you were at a disadvantage. You got stuck to an unnatural posture. You had to clasp your palms at your belly, with the elbows sticking out (that was the rule). The stance looked plain silly. You felt wooden- like the ventriloquist Ramdas Padhye's puppet, the kind which stays motionless...with only the head bobbing, the eyebrows craning up and down, the eyes bulging out of the sockets and the mouth moving in sudden spurts!!! As Dinesh clasped his palms and rocked his shoulders inadvertently, it was as if he was cradling a baby! The audience had a field day- "Abey Dinesh, kiska bachcha hai...tere haath mey!", they taunted!


"Women are irrational, their heads are full of cotton, hay and rags!"- The speech from My Fair Lady elicited more applause than Vivekananda would have got at Chicago.  Shouts of bravo! bravo! drowned Subra! It didn't matter what he said next! It was a big hit!
It happened year after year- lines were learnt in the last minute and forgotten on stage. Lines were learnt well in advance, but like Karna, you forgot them when you needed them most. You dealt with stage fright as best as you could- frozen like a deer with a bullet between the eyes or casually, by making eye-contact with your friend in the audience and giggling! It did not matter. No one remembered after the event. Everyone was there to have fun, unadulterated fun, to have a good laugh and to live that day with a sense of reckless abandon!
Where is that sixth grader....with that contagious laugh? In time's relentless march, he is lost forever.


P.S. The trigger for this essay was a dream! I woke up dreaming about school days and this event in particular! Before the details evaporated the following morning, I quickly wrote it all out!

Vishvarupa, the cosmic form......

A child of four starts her Bharatanatyam training. The first prayer she learns to dance goes as follows:
"aangikam bhuvanam yasya....
 vaachikam sarva vaangmayam....
aahaaryam chandra taaraadi.....
tam vande....saatvikam shivam" 
"I bow to that Shiva.....who exists as the very cosmos. The world is His limbs; words spoken anywhere, in any language are His words; the stars and the moon are His ornaments. Unto that cosmic Shiva, my prostration!"

It is unlikely that this grand vision will fuel the mind of the child at that tender age. But the seeds have been sown. The dancer will surely reflect on these words someday. These words will become meaningful.
Poets see this world....and see in it something more than meets the eye. There is a special value-add, a rosier hue with which they view the world.  The nature poems of Wordsworth, Tagore's Geetanjali and Bhaarati's verses are but some examples. When Bhaarati writes..."kaakkai chiraginiley nandalaalaa"- he sees a crow differently. It is not that he compares the black of the crow's feathers to Krishna's complexion. No! He sees the black-feathers of the crow as Nandalaalaa!
Indian thought is steeped in this concept, that the Lord exists..... in and as the creation. The Upanishads, the Geeta and religious literature develop this theme systematically. Some examples are presented below:

"Saptaanga" - The Lord seen in a seven-fold form:
In the Mandukya Upanishad, there is a reference to the cosmic form in a seven-fold way. It is called "sapta-anga". As per this, heavens are his head, the sun is his eye, the air is his breath, fire is his speech, the all-pervading space is his body, the ocean is his bladder and the earth is his feet!
The Upanishad cannot paint the Lord's features on a small canvas. For the Upanishad, the canvas has to be stretched to infinity!

"Ashta-murti" - The Lord seen in an eight-fold form:
Krishna, in the Geeta (chapter 7), divides Himself in an 8-fold way (ashtadhaa): as space, as air, as fire, as water, as earth, as the total mind (manah), as the total intellect (buddhi), as the total ego (ahankaara). Every aspect of creation- animate and inanimate is made up of these 8 building blocks, which are non-separate from Him. With this foundation laid, Krishna reels out a series of verses- "I am the taste in water, I am the light in the sun, I am the sound in space, I am the strength in the strong, the intelligence in the intelligent etc."
Yes, Krishna follows it up by allowing Arjuna appreciate this total form as Vishvarupa in Chapter 11.
In some places, the 8-fold form is presented with a little variation. We see it in Ramana Maharishi's work Upadesha Saaram (ashta murti bhrit) and in Adi Shankara's Dakshinamurti stotra. As per this, the 8-fold form is as follows: as space, air, fire, water, earth, sun, moon and surprisingly as each of us (pumaan)!
Though the presentation is slightly different in terms of enumeration, the concept remains the same.....He exists as this world, as everything in it...including each one of us!

"nava-atma" - The Lord seen in a nine-fold form:
Curiously, Shankara in the Soundaryalahari increases the count by one more! Now, what is this nine-fold form (nava-atmaanam anagham)? It is similar to other enumerations- Shankara says, "O devi! Manas tvam, vyomas tvam....You are the mind, you are space, you are the wind, you are fire and water and earth. The sun and the moon are your breasts". But he does not explicitly mention the 9th. Other commentators fill in and mention that "time" (kaala) has to be taken are the 9th. When there are only 8, "time" is folded up with the moon (because time is measured in moon's phases (tithis). If the moon is absent in the 8-fold enumeration, "time" is included along with "space" since time and space go together.

How to acquire this cosmic vision:
All this is fine! How do we acquire this cosmic vision? We read that Arjuna got a special boon (divya chakshu) from Krishna in the Geeta. How do we get our special goggles?
In the Geeta, we get some hints. When Arjuna asks Krishna to show his cosmic vision, Krishna immediately replies, "pashya mey paartha rupaani.." "Behold! See! pashya!"
It's as if the form is always present; it's not as if Krishna had to expand himself into a special, infinite form for Arjuna. All that was required.....was a change in Arjuna's mind, to appreciate a vishvarupa which is always present. A relaxed mind, a pure mind, a straight mind, a non-complaining mind, a non-self centered mind, a mind that accepts itself to be within the totality, that is the "divya-chakshu". For some time, Krishna let Arjuna's mind enjoy that mental freedom. And whatever Arjuna saw.......was the vishvarupa!
As Wordsworth says....
To see a World in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour!

Tirupati Trip

Twilight gives way to the darkness of the night. The car speeds away, skirting the hills of Tirupati. On either side, thick vegetation.....and ahead, the lonesome road. Slowing the car, we crane our neck....between the branches of the trees for one last look. There, up above....the faint outline of the hills...with their characteristic flat top. And the sparkling, necklace-like lights- snaking their way up the hill and ending in a prominent pendant.  "Look! Look! That is Gaali-Gopuram!........ There! Not that one silly! That's the street light! The other side....look there!"
One last glance....and we drive away. Sinking into the car seat, the mind replays the entire day.....frame by frame. It has been one memorable day!


The drive to Tirupati is scenic- vast stretches of empty land, small townships, sudden cluster of rocky boulders and little ponds. Taking the turn past Chittoor, the hills are visible- almost imperceptible at first, till we come close....and watch them take over the entire landscape! The Tirumala Hills cannot be missed. Their tops are cropped flat; and one chiseled vertical cleft in the hill, confirms it has to be this one...and no other. It's February and the hills are covered in a full coat of lush-green...except the rocky top...which is bordered a reddish-brown.
In every avatara of Lord Vishnu, Adi Shesha is always present -as Lakshmana in Rama-avatara, as Balarama in Krishna-avatara. When the Lord came down as Shrinivasa to Tirumala, in what form does Adi Shesha accompany him? Adi Shesha took the form of these hills. He is present as these hills. Hence, the name "Sheshaadri" to these hills.


From Alipiri, we take the hill-route to Tirumala. We drive past the "walkway"- with the giant Garuda at the base and a series of steps ending in the tiny Gaali-Gopuram, framed with the emblem of the shanka and chakra on either side. The walk will wait another day. Presently, we are in the car and gaining altitude....and watch the Tirupati town....down below.... fade away. The route is beautiful. Each turn reveals a new facet- of dense vegetation and rocky outcrops, of sweeping skies and panoramic hill views, not to mention the hordes of langurs...which grab our attention!


Tirumala is spic and span! Everything looks new- the roads, the sidewalks, the cottages and the parking arrangement. For a place which teems with thousands of devotees each day, it is unbelievably well organized! February is a lean month and it takes just about an hour in the queue.


We enter the temple through the outer gopuram.  It is a feast for the eyes- a pillar here grabs our attention; and before we have seen it in full, we drift off to a statue there. There's Krishnadevaraya, there's his successor Achyutaraya...and statues of devotees we've not heard of (Todaramal and Pita bibi)! The "Ranga mandapam" is not to be missed.  700 years ago, Allauddin Khilji's general Mallik Kafur attacked South India. The idol of Ranganatha was brought all the way from Srirangam and housed in this mandapam for safe-keeping. Going past the golden "dhwaja-stambham" and "bali-peetham", we enter the "vimaana-pradakshinam" through the inner gopuram.
To the left is the shrine of Lord Vishnu as "Varadaraja". The idol was brought from Kanchipuram to keep it out of reach from Mallik Kafur's hands. Tirumala had the fortune of having "the big three" Shri Balaji, Rangantha and Varadaraja under the same roof at one point in time! It shows nothing is entirely bad or evil. Even during testing times, grace overflows in unseen ways!


Presently, we are enveloped in a riot of gold- sparkle and grandeur all over! There is the Golden Gate, the bangaaru-vakili which leads to the sanctum, and up ahead, the  golden tower over the garbha griha- the "Ananda-nilaya-vimaanam".
Entering through the Tirumaamani-mandapam with its ornate gold pillars and chandeliers, we catch the first glimpse of the Lord. The full-throated chorus of "Govinda! Govinda!" reaches a crescendo.  From this point onwards, it is trance-like.  Some other force propels us forward. The people, the attendants, the temple premises....the tired body, the aching, the complaining mind...nothing exists! We stretch the moment.....as much as we can...and try and catch every detail. The deity....alive and aglow..... in an orange-tinged light....enveloped in a hazy mist. The crown is noticed, the prominent white forehead-mark, the dot on the chin, the layer upon layer of jewels, the four hands and the feet. One hand is in held in varada-mudra pointing to his feet. The other hand hangs down and touches just above the knee (kati-mudra). Surrender unto Me, unto to my feet. And with that, samsaara, which seems ocean-like and all engulfing now...is reduced to a puddle..so much so that its waters ...come just to the knee! Lord Balaji conveys this message through his mere posture!
The feeling cannot be expressed  in words. It is like no other. As we emerge out of the sanctum and congregate at the pradakshina, there is just one overpowering emotion- of total happiness.


Going around the vimaana-pradakshinam, the replica-image of Lord Balaji on the golden vimaana is not to be missed. The pradakshina takes us past the Hundi, the Vishwaksena shrine, the Yoga Narasimha sannidhi and the Ramanuja shrine.
A fistful of delicious Tirupati Laddoo rejuvenates the body. Another bagful of tempting laddoos will be carried home...for family and friends!


Back in the car. We ponder...as we gaze into the night......
Yes, God exists everywhere.  Still, we want to experience Him at Tirupati. What pull does Tirupati have? Why does it force  us to come back time after time....forgetting the milling crowds and the actual darshana time spanning just a sub-second? What made Adi Shankara come here to install the Dhana-aakarshana yantra? Why does a grammar textbook Tolkaappiyam in Tamil, about 2000 years old, refer to the Hill? Why do the Puranas talk about the mahima of Venkateshwara? Why did Ramanuja climb the hill on his knees? What brought Saint Tyagaraja to Tirumala and sing his heart out...so that the screen would part and the Lord would reveal Himself?
Wrapped as we are with these searching questions, we reach out for the laddoo in the bag. It is irresistible! The sweetness spreads in the mouth. Now...no question needs to be answered. They seem irrelevant. The whole being is filled....saturated as it were, with absolute contentment!
When is the next trip? Let's plan.....and now!!!

The perfect makeover

"Mirror-mirror on the wall! Who is the most wonderful of them all?" Perhaps, for Snow-White, the mirror answered in her favor. For the rest of us, we know the answer would be so disconcerting to accept, that we avoid the question altogether! Even assuming the miraculous possibility that the mirror did spell out our name, the crown rests but precariously. Time, that relentless predator, catches up with the best of us. A quick glance at someone who was a Miss Universe five-decades ago, tells the  whole story. It is unsettling how time batters us out of shape!


We feel a makeover will help-  a makeover at every level, starting from the physical. At the parlor, with the white cloak tightening its clasp on the neck, there is little room to wriggle away. Strapped to the chair and in the absence of other distraction, the gaze must meet the mirror. As the years go by, the experience is anything but pleasant. The features are scrutinized one by one- the hair with more white streaks, the forehead with more real estate, and the eyes with creased corners. The hair-dresser compounds the situation- "Shall I color the hair after the hair-cut? Would you like a facial to remove the warts on the bridge of the nose?" You give him a free hand for it couldn't get any worse!
The self-assessment is not restricted to the physical. With time, the sense of incompleteness pervades other spheres. Emotionally, we feel inadequate and the intellectually, increasingly challenged. Accomplishment wise, there is jarring limitation- success has either been sparse or it has bypassed us altogether! Suddenly, the more we introspect, the more holes we find! We find ourselves totally unacceptable. Wistfully, we question earlier decisions, decisions made in another age and wonder if the present would have rolled out any better if those could be revised.


We turn to Self-Help books. They dole out well-meaning advice all right. "A man complained that he did not have shoes. He stopped complaining, when he saw a man without feet!" The emphasis here is on contentment-  to be happy with ourselves, for others are far worse. Initially, the teaching makes us cheerful. We feel good about ourselves. But the maxim has a certain flaw- it is based on comparison. Soon, we are reduced to proof-readers, forever looking for chinks in other peoples' armor, cutting them to size so that we may appear taller! It brings out the cynical best in us. Earlier, the distance was only within myself. With this revised attitude, others keep a safe distance as well. No makeover seems to help; at best, it reinforces the limitation. It all looks totally hopeless, doesn't it?


It is here that ancient Indian Wisdom comes to the rescue. This timeless message questions the basic premise- Who is that entity who complains about the sense of incompleteness? Who needs this blessed makeover? It turns the attention inwards, to the complainer himself. It is a paradigm shift.
"What you are, you do not see. What you see is your shadow!" The body is a shadow, the mind is a shadow, accomplishments are shadows. The whole of life is spent in the futility of shadow-boxing and the real-you is lost sight of! The real-you is the observer, the observer which is always present, inheriting none of the traits of the observed. It observes with the aloofness of a lighthouse and lights up the waves- the childhood body and the ageing body, the child-like mind and the mature mind, the effervescent thoughts and the despairing ones. In itself, it is full and complete- limitations if any, are in the shadow- never in the original. It frees up the person and gives the necessary space to accept the body, the mind and the world with all its problems. Charged with this self-completeness, the problems of the world are dealt with squarely and cheerfully. If the problems are solved, it is fine; if the problems cannot be solved for whatever reason, it is equally fine. In no way, does it dent my fullness.


Now, each one can face the mirror with confidence and ask, "Mirror-mirror on the wall! Who is the most wonderful of them all?" The mirror need not answer. We claim our inherent glory and roar, "I am the most wonderful of them all!"
The makeover is now complete!

Sakaleshpura......in nature's lap!

Somewhere, midway between Bangalore and Mangalore is Sakaleshpura. Somewhere, midway between this work-a-day world and your make-believe, fairy-tale world is Sakaleshpura.  It is your proverbial Malgudi. How else will you describe it? Where else will you find a saloon which says "Decent Gents Beauty Parlor!"? It's as if you can enter the saloon only after a careful character assessment! Or the other hoarding at the main market which warns- "Girls teasing on road?". Yes, it appears to be a town with a difference- where boys may actually be at the receiving end or so it seems....at least unintentionally! What is Malgudi's River Sarayu is the River Hemavati at Sakaleshpura. It curls its way just outside the town.


The "Bee Keeper's Co-operative Society" is an interesting place, just off Sakaleshpura's main-market. Apart from the bottles and bottles of honey which are stashed away behind its cupboards, it stays arrested in a time-bubble. The wall has a full roll-call of owners in an unbroken list dating back to 1940! A black-and-white photograph fills up one wall- with folks in elaborate coats and turbans. It was the day it celebrated its Silver Jubilee. It was in 1967! Printed portraits by CN Row- of Gandhi, Nehru, Tilak, Shastri and Indira Gandhi peer at you intensely from one end of the hall. The overhead ledge at the other end is cluttered with files- all frayed at the edges, yellowed with age, gathering dust and seemingly untouched....since 1940! And not to be missed is one curious black-n-white photograph- a man in black-boggles and a full beard. Except....the beard is made up of a swarm of bees, all pasted to his face!
Eventually, we did buy the honey and carried off an entire boxful of bottles, enough to last a whole year, or at least till we make it back to Sakaleshpura!


We leave Sakaleshpura town and hit the hills. In 10 km, we've left civilization behind...and land in nature's lap. From now on, it's all about coffee and enchanted woods! The hills are gentle and covered in a full coat of green. A dusty trail takes us through the coffee-plantations- demarcated neatly with the year the coffee-trees were planted, the number of trees and the variety. It's either the "Arabica" or "Robusta" family of coffee. Coffee beans hang off in clusters- bright-red, resembling the Christmas Hollies! From here, these beans get picked, washed, the seeds separated from the pulp, and then cured and dried. They go off to Chikmanglur, where they will be roasted and powdered. That's the amount of human ingenuity required to bring that cup of filter-coffee to our hands!



The trail takes us deeper into the woods- a bison-skull hangs off a tree-trunk, spider and snake burrows dot the sandy mounds on either side. As for the path, we look closely for any animal-footprints. We don't find any- but this is wild animal terrain all right. If you are a bird-lover, there is enough to keep you interested- woodpeckers, orioles and cranes. From time to time, grilled-gates break the monotony of the landscape. They are from an earlier age. These estates date back to 1865! Our trek takes us by a hill-stream, over a wooden-bridge, up a little water-fall and by a lake....covered in a coat of mist with a lonesome house in the distance!


The nights are really cold at this time of the year. But the sky is clear and studded with more stars than you can imagine. It's like a diamond merchant, who in a moment of recklessness, has taken diamonds by the fistful and scattered them with abandon on a black-velvet drapery! Such is the bounty of the night sky! Through a clearing, we spot a couple of hills....their tops on fire- these are forest-fires!
The moon is half, but its beams slice through the trees and light up the trail. The shadows of the tree-trunks and twisted branches pave the path with such clarity....even in the dead of the night....that we need no other light to find our way!


As the head hits the pillow, it is all quiet. So quiet that even a snore is amplified many times over and jolts us out of bed! There is the occasional click of the Cricket. And drum-beats in the distance. Many hills away, the animals are on the move due to the forest fire. The drum-beats keep them away from straying into human-territory. But then, where are these animals headed? Towards us?
There is a "scratch" on the outside walls....muted initially....and slowly picking up both volume and frequency. What is it? A cat, a wild-boar or a wild elephant? No one wants to venture out. Imagination runs riot. And now, sound of footsteps on the roof. Is it a rat...or a disembodied spirit may be? The brooding is broken with the sound of a hoot. It's a train.....down below in the valley, many miles away....snaking its way through these hills and bound for the sea! A faint rattle of the coaches...their trailing sounds swallowed by silence...and all is quiet once more.
Someday, I want to be on that train....pass through these hills and halt awhile at each of these fairy-tale towns! The poet Rumi wrote "Somewhere beyond right and wrong, there is a garden. I will meet you there!"
I will meet *you* in these woods!

Of poets and poetry- "Once is enough!"

To compare between two texts, "consistency in content" is one aspect, examples of which we have seen in the previous posts. In this post, we look at an example of "consistency in style". "Shabda-alankaara" in Sanskrit is essentially a 'turn of phrase', a word-play that poets use to add relish (rasa).


Shankara uses this technique in both works- Shivanandalahari and Saundaryalahari. 
One idea he wants to convey is this - It is enough to surrender to the Lord just once.  If the surrender is total, once is enough!  For this, he uses the word "sakrid" meaning "once", in both texts. The beauty is in the arrangement of the word "sakrid" along with the rest of the words.


"Once is enough" in Saundaryalahari:


In Saundaryalahari, the line reads as follows: "sakrin natva natva sataam sannidhadatey". ('Sakrid' becomes 'sakrin' due to the word following it). Here, we see natva natva repeated as we chant the line. The first natva in the line is "natva"- to bow down, to prostrate. The second natva is actually "na tva" - "not you" and intentionally placed for word-play. The "na" (not) in the second natva should be connected with sannidhadatey (to bestow) so that it should actually read as "na sannidhadatey" ("not bestow"). What Shankara wants to convey is this- "bowing down to you  (O Devi), even once (sakrid), how will it not bestow?" Note the use of the negative for emphasis. And then, in the next line, he conveys the benefit of this surrender- "madhu ksheera draakshaa madhurima dhurinaa phanitayah"- It will bestow upon the devotee the gift of poetry, so sweet, that it is like relishing honey (madhu), milk (ksheera) and sweet-grape (draakshaa) all at once! On a side note, the gift-of-poetry may strike us as a strange result. Do we even want it? If we don't have a value for poetry, this result can be taken in a wider sense to convey the benefit of "effective communication". Whether it is Lord Dakshinamurti or Shankara, the highest teaching has come down to us through communication- silent or verbal! Hence, the benefit is of utmost importance.
The above lines in the text are used to describe Devi in her special form of Saraswati. The reader can look up the verse beginning with "sharad jyotsnaa shuddhaam..." (verse 15). Saraswati, being the embodiment of all knowledge and art, it is fitting that when we bow down to her, even once, she bestows us with knowledge, poetry, fine-arts and all else.


"Once is enough" in Shivanandalahari:


In Shivanandalahari, Shankara uses the same word "sakrid". Let's see how he arranges it here. The reader can look up verse 33. Shankara says- "sakrid eva deva bhavatas-seva natirva nutih". Here again, when we chant the line, we see the same repetition after "sakrid", so that it sounds like "sakri-deva deva". What sounded like "natva natva" in the other text, sounds like "deva deva" here, due to the peculiar arrangement of words! The first "deva" is actually "eva" (even) so that with "sakrid", it should mean "even once" (sakrid eva). The second "deva" is an address to Lord Shiva, as in "hey deva, O Lord". The line now means, "O Lord, even once, is it not enough ('naalam va' in the text) to do any of the following?" And then, Shankara gives a list of sadhanas- "nati" (to bow down, same as "natva" in the other text), "nuti" (to sing, to extol your glory), to do "pooja", "katha-shravanam" (listen to your stories), "smaranam" (think about you), "aalokanam" (see your form) etc.
What Shankara wants to say is- pick any one of these means, whatever we have an inclination for. If even one of them is done, even once effectively, that's enough! He follows up the rest of the verse with the benefit gained from this sadhana. Here, there is no gift of poetry specifically called out. He goes even higher and says that the fulfilment in the performance of these acts is verily moksha itself. Like in the other verse, the whole thing is again framed in the negative for emphasis- "kaa vaa mukti?" What is mukti, other than this? Shankara asks.


Thus, it is amply clear, that these two verses in the two texts are complementary verses. We find a striking similarity across both of them, in the content, and more so, in the style of presentation.


"Once is enough" in Bharati's composition:


Before we close, one more point comes to mind. "oru dharam shiva chidambaram endru sonnaal podhumey". The Carnatic music enthusiast will surely know this line. "Oru dharam"- "once" is enough (podhumey) to say "shiva chidambaram". This line is from the famous composition by Gopalakrishna Bharati, a contemporary of Tyagaraja. We have already seen the context behind this song in one of the previous blogs- how he met Tyagaraja, how Tyagaraja wanted him to sing Abhogi raga, how Gopalakrishna Bharati composed the song "sabhaapatikku veru daivam samaanam aagumaa" in Abhogi raga specially for this occasion.
In the charanam of this composition, we have the above line- "it is enough to say, even once, just the words "shiva-chidambaram". The reader can now easily see the relationship in this usage with the previous topic that we discussed. Interestingly, this Tamil composition seems like a paraphrase of verse 33 of Shivanandalahari. Shankara gives a range of sadhanas and says pick one. Bharati has already made the selection and says, just say "shiva" once! The similarity does not end here. In verse 33, Shankara moves on and asks a question. When Lord Shiva is so magnanimous, what will we get by extolling other fickle devatas (asthira devataa anusaarena aayaasena kim labhyatey)? Bharati begins with a similar question and asks, when Lord Shiva is such a krpaanidhi, can other devatas (veru daivam) equal him in any way(samaanam aagumaa)?
The more we look at verse 33 and the above composition, it looks as if Gopalakrishna Bharati has rendered Shankara's verse in Tamil and set it to Abhogi raga!


A final quote on this "once is enough" topic, this time in English! The quote is beautiful. It says "We live, but once. But if we live right, once is enough!"

Of poets and poetry- Shankara and the laharis-2

Poets have often compared the mind to a thief. It all starts as one fanciful thought. With repetition, the thought grows. And before long, it assumes such monstrous proportions, that fulfilling it becomes a necessity. Soon, it robs us of our peace of mind and even our sense of decorum. The thief that the mind is, its wayward ways are beautifully  captured by Krishna in the Geeta. These are the verses beginning from "dhyaayato vishayaan pumsah...." (chapter 2, verse 62). If the mind is a thief which operates in such a stealthy way, what hope do we have? How do we understand its ways and eventually capture the thief?


It is an eternal cat and mouse game between the thief and the police! The thief is so slippery that even the police are at a loss to keep pace with him! At times like these, to catch a thief, we take help from a bigger thief. He understands the tricks of the trade better! It is like using one thorn to remove another! We find this idea explored in many places. Krishna is often called "chitta chora"- if the mind is a thief, Krishna is such a trickster that he can rob the very thief!


The Veda says that the greatest thief is Lord Shiva! In the famous poem, Shri Rudram, Lord Shiva is called "taskara pati". He is the Lord of all thieves. In fact, an entire section (anuvaka 3) is dedicated to varieties of thieves- petty thieves, occasional thieves, pathological thieves, forest brigands, land-grabbers; you name it- Lord Shiva is the Lord of all of them! Of course, he is the greatest thief because even these local thieves get their eventual result, from whose unerring laws.


Adi Shankara in the Shivanandalahari takes up this idea. He despairs- "This thief of a mind, how do I put up with him? "imam chetash-choram katham iha sahey"? And whom does Shankara turn for help, in taming this tempestuous mind? Quoting Shri Rudram, Shankara in this verse (verse 22) calls upon the bigger thief- "hey taskara patey" to help him out! "Tava adheenam kritvaa mayi niraparaadhey kuru krpaam". Taking the mind under your control, may You, O taskara patey, help me remain fault-free! If Adi Shankara in the Shivanandalahari takes help from a bigger thief- Lord Shiva, he stays silent on revealing the biggest thief.


He has reserved that secret for his complementary work, the Soundaryalahari. Here, Shankara reveals the thief of all thieves- Devi herself! Shankara says that Shiva, in a moment of generosity, wanted to gift half of his body to Devi. He gave her his left-half (vaamey bhaagey) and stayed as Ardhanaareeshwara. Soon, Lord Shiva would be hoodwinked. Give her an inch, and she takes a mile! Shankara says that he went to have the darshana of Lord Shiva. But when he went there, he did not see Shiva at all, not even half of him, not even as Ardhanaareeshwara. She had taken over the whole of His body, so that, all that was there, was Devi! So complete was the theft! She managed to trick the "taskara pati" Himself! In utter surprise and bewilderment, Shankara explores this idea in the verse... "tvayaa hrtvaa vaamam vapur aparitrptena manasaa..." (Soundaryalahari verse 23)! The mind is a thief, a bigger thief is Lord Shiva, and the most supreme one, is Devi!


Thus, the more we look at these two works, the Shivanandalahari and the Soundaryalahari, and study them side-by-side, the more we find correlations like these. What is left as a suggestion in one text (verse 22), is completed in the other (verse 23)! Interestingly, even in terms of numbering between the two texts, we see the sequence maintained!