1. Thomas Babington Macaulay

2. Hinduism is a Panentheistic Religion

3. Friedrich Max Müller

4. Alan Octavian Hume

5. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky

6. The Death of Religions and Becoming Truly Spiritual - Sundarar

7. Science and Spirituality in The Indian Subcontinent

8. Science and Spirituality in The Indian Subcontinent - contd

9. The Raja Rao Award for Dr. V.V. Raman

10. Annie Besant

11. Destroying Alienation and Enjoying a Life of Joys - Vallalar

12. George Uglow Pope

13. Some Western Tamilists

14. Sister Nivedita

15. BEING is Magical - Vallalar

16. Ronald Ross

17. On History and What Macaulay Actually Said

18. On God and Gods: Monotheism and Polytheism

19. On Vedic Deities: Personifications of Principles

20. On Vedic Deities: Personifications of Principles

21. The Hindu Triune

22. The Hindu Triune

23. Skanda-Muruga

24. On cultural symbols and hallmarks

25. The Lotus

26. Hinduism is the Ever Reforming Religion

27. Song of Liberty

28. Infallible Word of God?

29. Musical Instruments

30.. The One Way is the Way of Enlightenment and Love - Vallalar

31. Evolution and Transcending of All Religions - Vallalar

32. Yaadhum Oorae

33. The Peacock

34. The Banyan Tree

35. The Six Great Traditions of Hinduism

36. The Coconut

37. The Six Great Traditions of Hinduism

38. The Cow

39. Narada

40. Agamas Are Caste Free

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Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800 - 1859)

Macaulay was an superb essayist, a very entertaining, if not always reliable,
historian, poet, grandiloquent orator, and enlightened statesman for his times.
He had supreme command of his mother tongue, and learned enough of other
languages to make allusions in his writings to Latin, Italian, French, Spanish
and German authors in the original.

Macaulay came to India in 1834 and spent a little over two years there. He was
not very popular among the English residents in Calcutta who saw him as an
official who was going to curtail their overseas privileges. A topic of long
range import at the time was whether general education in India should be in
Sanskrit and vernacular languages, or in English. Macaulay was vastly learned in
the literatures of Europe, but colossally ignorant of Indian writings. He tried
to make up for this deficiency by discussing with eminent Ori-entalists. His
conclusion was "that all the historical information which has been collected
from all the books written in the Sanskrit language is less valuable than what
may be found in the most paltry abridgments used at preparatory schools in
England."

Such statements were typical of Macaulay's penchant for hyperbole, and his
haughty posture vis-à-vis Non-European cultures. But it must be recalled that
he was just as sharp with all subjects, whether the Earl of Marlborough or James
Boswell whom he called "a man of the meanest and feeblest intellect .... always
laying himself at the feet of some eminent man, and begging to be spit upon and
trampled upon" and described the biographer of Johnson as "servile and
imperti-nent, shallow and pedantic, a bigot and a sot, bloated with family
pride, an eavesdropper."

Macaulay was scathing too in his condemnation of the rottenness of the British
judicial system in Bengal under Impey. "No Mahratta invasion had ever spread
through the province such dismay as this inroad of English lawyers. All the
injustice of former oppressors, Asiatic and European, appeared as a blessing
when compared with the justice of the Supreme Court," he wrote. This is not the
language of an imperialist waving the glorious exploits of his people in
uncivilized lands!

In another speech, Macaulay forcefully condemned the British Supreme Court in
Bengal which he called mischievous, and "the terror of Bengal, the scourge of
the native population, the screen of European delinquents, a convenient tool for
the government for all purposes of evil, an insurmountable obstacle to the
government in all undertakings for the public good." This was no arrogant
imperialist talking. He once asked, "Are we to keep the people of India ignorant
in order to keep them submissive?" He was for the freedom of the press, and
championed the view that Indians and Europeans were equals before the law. He
argued for appointing Indians to high and responsible positions in government,
and for the admission of Indians into the Indian Civil Service. He had the
vision to declare in the middle of the 19th century, "The scepter may pass from
us ... Victory may be incon-stant in our arms."

Macaulay genuinely believed, however mistakenly and haughtily, that the people
of India would benefit from being not simply exposed to, but fully imbued in
Western education. On this matter, he spoke not as a bigoted nationalist, but as
a man who understood the forces of history. He referred to the backwardness of
his own country when Greek and Latin treasures were rediscovered in Europe, and
stated rightly that if Britain had stuck to her Anglo-Saxon and Norman-French
heritage, she would have remained medieval for ever. Macaulay also drafted the
Indian Penal Code.

It was due to Macaulay that English education was introduced in India. The
liberating thoughts of Europe played no small role in awakening the dormant
energies of the Indian mind. It is no irreverence to Sanskrit to admit that ,
not Vedic pundits, but English-educated Indians initiated and led modern India's
freedom struggle. Every language has its day in history. The past three
centuries have belonged to English, French, and German, as the next few may
revert to Chinese, Arabic, or Hindi.

No non-military-conqueror has had greater impact on the intellectual history
of another great nation than what Macaulay has had on India. His introduction
of English in India led to the intellectual and scientific resurgence of its
people. Today, even the most virulent (Indian) critics of Macaulay would want
their children to be educated in English rather than in Sanskrit or in a
vernacular. Strange is history!

I believe it was a French Indophile, whose own country lost to the British in
its attempt to colonize India, who coined the term Macaulayite. (If the French
had won, we would be having Duplexites.) The derogatory word refers to a Hindu
who is so indoctrinated by English education that he looks down upon his own
people and culture. This term derives from Macaulay's hope to form a body of
Indians who would think like Englishmen and help propagate the values and
interests of Europe in India. His hope wasn't fulfilled, but Indians have
benefited immensely from Macaulay's initiatives.

V. V. Raman
27 January 2006

Those of us who have been outreaching to non Indians and non Hindus,
and not just presenting a sectarian but a pan Hindu view, grappled with
this problem long ago. The most correct word to describe Hinduism
would be 'panentheism'. It is the oldest and most widespread form of
belief system and differs widely from the word pantheism as you'll see
below. It straddles monotheism, pantheism and polytheism but is not
limited by those terms.

Panentheism is the belief in a One God who is the creator, preserver and
destroyer of all existence, and where He is immanent and yet transcends
His creation. Apart from this, it includes a hierarchy of several gods
(small g) who are 'distinct and separate' from the One God, and who are
also worshipped. Since creation, preservation and destruction is a one
continuum, we can say that the One God and the many other gods are
co-creators, co-preservers and co-destructors of existence. But this is still
not polytheism.

The One God and the several gods are also polynomenic, polymorphic
and polyadventic, and each icon or murthi in all the half a million temples
represent that. Each murthi has a distinct 'identity and character' from
each other (the 32 forms of Ganesha, 12 forms of Muruga, 64 forms of
Siva, etc). It is these various installed murthis that can be described as the
many forms of God and the gods, each form having being revealed in a
mystic vision to saints in the past, and envisioned yet again by devout
Hindus all through history and even today.

Therefore we see the One God and the many gods are 'distinct and
separate' as well as the envisioned murthis having unique 'identity and
character', while yet the One Lord immanates all gods, and all gods share
the same essence with the One God. It is dipolar. [It encompasses the
various philosophies of advaita and dvaita but negates the inherent
controversy as the ultimate reality does not negate the relative reality.]

Complex? The word to describe this is panentheism. The last sentence
would be 'Hinduism is the worship of a One Supreme God, as well as a
number of other gods, in many forms and names'.

This is what we taught the Hindu and non Hindu children in a few paras
and they understood it very well.

I hope Hindu writers and scholars start using the term panentheism as
this is the only term that would cover all the sampradayas and excludes
none. It is the term that underlines the 'Hindu identity' as well as shares
commonalities with the indigeneous faiths of the world. This view
maintains the uniqueness and identity of all the sampradayas and
philosophies, not placing one above the other, and all are free to use any
name, word, form or term of their choice.

I also hope that this current textbook controversy brings to an end the
old 'politically correct' but seriously erroneous description of 'Brahma the
creator, Vishnu the preserver and Shiva the destroyer'.

Pathmarajah

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From Wikipedia:

Panentheism (Greek words: pan=all, en=in and Theos=God;
"God-in-all") is the view that God is immanent within all Creation or that
God is the animating force behind the universe. Unlike pantheism,
panentheism does not mean that the universe is all God or that God
contains the universe inside Godself. In panentheism, God maintains a
transcendent character, and is viewed as both the creator and the original
source of universal morality. The term is closely associated with the
Logos of Hellenistic philosophy in the works of Herakleitos, which
pervades the cosmos and whereby all things were made.

In short, a panentheistic deity is an emergent property of Existence.

Ancient Panentheism
There are more archeological records of panentheistic cultures than any
other variety in the hunter-gatherer societies. Modern anthropologists
have discovered that virtually all the aboriginees of various continents
have deep panentheistic worldviews when they have the concept of a
Goddess (there are vanishingly few male-centric gods in primitive tribes)
and pantheistic when they do not. In fact, the difference is actually quite
hemispheric: North American natives were largely pantheistic, with the
exception of the Cherokee who were monotheistic, while South American
peoples were largely panentheistic (as were ancient South East Asian
cultures). The Central American empires of the Mayan, Aztec and Incans
were actually polytheistic and had very strong male deities.

Neoplatonism is panentheistic. Plotinus taught that there was an
ineffable transcendant God 'The One' of which subsequent realities were
emanations. From the One emanates the Divine Mind (Nous), the
Cosmic Soul (Psyche) and the World (Cosmos)

Panentheism in Christianity
The Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox Churches have a doctrine
called panentheism to describe the relationship between the Uncreated
(God, who is omnipotent, eternal, and constant) and His creation that
bears surface similarities with the panentheism described above but
maintains a critical distinction.

Most specifically, these Churches teach that God is not the "watchmaker
God" of the Western European Enlightenment. Likewise, they teach that
God is not the "stage magician God" who only shows up when
performing miracles. Instead, the teaching of both these Churches is that
God is not merely necessary to have created the universe, but that His
active presence is necessary in some way for every bit of creation, from
smallest to greatest, to continue to exist at all. That is, God's energies
maintain all things and all beings, even if those beings have explicitly
rejected Him. His love of creation is such that he will not withdraw His
presence, which would be the ultimate form of slaughter, not merely
imposing death but ending existence, altogether. By this token, the
entirety of creation is sanctified, and thus no part of creation can be
considered innately evil except as a result, direct or indirect, of the Fall of
man or similar active rebellion against God.

This Orthodox panentheism is distinct from the "hardcore" panentheism
described above in that it maintains an ontological gulf between the
created and the Uncreated. Creation is not "part of" God, and God is still
distinct from creation; however, God is "within" all creation, thus the
Orthodox parsing of the word is "pan-entheism" (God indwells in all
things) and not "panen-theism" (All things are within/part of God but
God is more than the sum of all things).

Panentheistic God-models are exceptionally common amongst
professional theologians (exegetes, Christian ethicists, and religious
philosophers.) Process theology, Creation Spirituality and Panentheist
Circle, three Christian views, contain panentheistic worldviews.

Panentheism in Judaism
When Hasidic Orthodox Jews first developed as a movement and a
theology, their theology was somewhat panentheistic, even though they
themselves did not use this word. More strictly, since this doctrine states
that the universe is God yet God is more than the universe, it is a type of
pantheism. Non-Hasidic Orthodox Jews viewed this theology as
heretical. However, after the schism between Hasidic and non-Hasidic
Orthodox Jews closed in the mid 1800s, panentheism became an accepted
way of thinking in Orthodox Jewish theology. While not the mainstream
point of view, panentheism has become more popular in the
non-Orthodox Jewish denominations like Conservative Judaism and
Reform Judaism through the writings of rabbis like Abraham Joshua
Heschel, Arthur Green, Wayne Dosick and Lawrence Kushner.

Panentheism in Hinduism
Some interpretations of Hinduism can be seen as panentheistic. Satguru
Sivaya Subramuniyaswami, said that "panentheism is the view that the
universe is part of the being of God, as distinguished from pantheism
("all-is-God doctrine"), which identifies God with the total reality. In
contrast, panentheism holds that God pervades the world, but is also
beyond it. He is immanent and transcendent, relative and Absolute. This
embracing of opposites is called dipolar. For the panentheist, God is in
all, and all is in God."

Certain interpretations of the Gita and the Shri Rudram support this
view. For example, Lord Krishna's saying to Arjuna: "I continually
support the entire universe by a very small fraction of My divine
power," has been interpreted to support panentheism. (Bhagavad Gita,
Chapter 10, verse 42.)

The panentheistic view of Hinduism has been termed by some scholars
as monistic theism. For example, in Vaishnavism, it is interesting to note
that the schools were all panentheistic. Vallabhacharya's school of pure
monism, Nimbarka's school of Dvaitaadvaita and Ramanuja's school of
qualified monism are all panentheistic. Additionally, Chaitayna's school
of Gaudiya Vaishnavism is also panentheistic. In Saivite theology, some
schools of Saiva Siddhanta and Kashmir Shaivism are also panentheistic.

Panentheism in Ayyavazhi
In reference to the concept Ekam, though Ayyavazhi is considered as
monistic, there are also many quotes in Akilattirattu Ammanai to suggest
it as a panentheistic faith. For example, during the Vinchai, inside the sea,
Narayana seeing Vaikundar says that "You are Sivan, you are Thirumal,
you are Nathan, you are the Tapas, and you are the one who
omnipresent in all which exists". And when Vaikundar was jailed in
Thiruvananthapuram he alleviated the Santror by saying "I am the one
who created the Ekam and the one who is omnipresent everywhere"-
(Akilam 13:395).

It is painful to write about Max Müller because it is like recalling a friend
who has betrayed you. This foremost Indologist of the 19th century and
insightful writer on language, religion, and myths who had only the nicest
things to say about Hindu visions in most of his speeches and publications was
also as scheming as any evangelist whose goal is to uproot the faith of a people
and replace it by one's own version of God and the hereafter. This author of 600
plus pages on the History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature, this scholar who
pleaded the cause of Indian languages, especially Sanskrit, in England, calling
for the establish-ment of centers for the study of Indian languages; this man of
erudition who undertook the momentous task of transforming a heap of Sanskrit
manuscripts into a complete edition of the Rig Veda with commentaries and notes;
this editor of the fifty-one volume opus on The Sacred Books of the East, this
scholar who wrote, "If we were asked under what sky the human mind has most
fully developed some of its choicest gifts, has most deeply pondered over the
greatest problems of life, and has found solutions to some of them which well
deserve the attention even of those who have studied Plato and Kant - I should
point to India;" this seeming Indophile whom Tilak described as Veda Maharishi
Mokshamoola Bhatta of Go-teertha (Ox-ford); this savant who studied Hindu
writings more than many practicing Hindus; this same person also made in his
private letters such horrific statements as that, "Large number of Vedic hymns
are childish in the extreme; tedious, low, commonplace;" that his goal was to
show Hindus the root of their religion, for by doing so, one could uproot "all
that has sprung from it during the last three thousand years." In his estimate,
"the worship of Shiva, Vishnu, and other popular deities was of the same and in
many cases of a more degraded and savage character than the worship of Jupiter,
Apollo or Minerva." As he expressed the view that "Hinduism was dying or dead
because it belonged to a stratum of thought which was long buried beneath the
foot of modern man."

As a Hindu, I am incensed when I read such statements. However, from the
perspective of the history of ideas, cultures, and religions, I understand why
thinkers like Max Müller descend to such levels. The fact is, when one is
indoctrinated in any particular religious system and grows up as part of it
with deep fervor, one seldom has much respect for other paths to spiritual
fulfillment, even when one pays lip-homage to them. Whether it was the Buddha
with respect to Hinduism, Shankara with respect to Buddhism, Ramanuja with
respect to Advaita, Tamil Shaivas with respect to Jainism, Dayananda Saraswati
with respect to Sikhism, Christian Crusaders with respect to Islam, or Muslims
with respect to every other religion, the denigration of other religions and the
hope that some day one's own religion will triumph and replace all other
existing ones are characteristics of most people who are emotionally,
culturally, and historically rooted to any specific religion. In this framework,
it is hard to decry Max Müller as evil or hypocritical. In so far as I recognize
the constraints that cultural conditioning imposes on one's judgment, I feel
more sorry than outraged by his anti-Hindu diatribes. It is an expression of
Hindu largesse that notwithstanding his sectarian schemes and myopic views on
spirituality, enlightened Indians still recognizes his unwitting propagation of
Hindu visions and India still accommodates Max Müller Bhavans in some of her
major cities.

Aside from his views which were distorted by the lens of 19th century
Eurocentrism, this accomplished pianist had studied Greek and Latin and other
languages and was drawn to philology. He declared, when still in his early
twenties, that "language will speak and decide whether there has been a
community and connection in the intellectual development of different people."
Linguistic parallels between Sanskrit and some European languages as also
between Vedic and Greek mythopoesy were the foundations of the now defunct Aryan
invasion theory, much more than scheming trickery to justify British
colonization of India. It is too bad that Hindu scholars in the 19th century did
not study European languages, religions, and cultures to as much depth and with
as much thoroughness as the Europeans we readily condemn, to formulate a
convincing Out-of-India theory to explain what are undoubtedly fascinating
puzzles that can't be brushed aside as coincidences.

V. V. Raman
January 31, 2006

Ever since the 1857 battle for independence, the people of India became more and
more politically united in their resentment of the British on their soil.
Ironically, this unity was facilitated by British rule which had imposed a
uniform language (English) among the intellectual elite of the country. The
sense of nationalism was also inspired and intensified by a pride in ancient
Indian history which was being integrally re-cast in systematic ways by scholars
from the intruding race. Organizations were established in various regions of
India to express the sense of national commonalty of the people against the
British presence in India.

Finally, in 1885, the Indian National Congress (INC) was formed as the first
Pan-Indian political group which would voice the call of Indians collectively
and forcefully for the British to leave India. Its ultimate goal was to gain
complete political independence from the British, which it did in a little over
six decades.

The history of that period is complex and still subject to debate and different
interpretations by scholars. But we do know that one of the founders of the INC
was an Englishman. His name was Alan Octavian Hume.

The story of how all this came to be is interesting. Hume was first a member of
the Indian Civil Service. He served the British government for more than three
decades in various capacities in different parts of India. He did much for the
educational system and for the development of newspapers in Indian languages. He
pleaded with the authorities to repeal unjust and immoral taxation of the
subject peoples. Such excessive concern for Indians was not commendable in the
eyes of the authorities. So he was retired from his position.

Hume's claim to glory in Indian history comes mainly from his dedication to the
Indian cause after this retirement from government service at the early age of
fifty three. In 1883, he appealed to the graduates of Calcutta university to
come forth and take over the leadership of India. In this context he read the
following poem:

Sons of Ind, why sit ye idle,

Wait ye for some Deva's aid?

Buckle up, be up and doing!

Nations by themselves are made!

Yours the land, lives, all at stake, tho!

Not by you the cards are played;

Are ye dumb? Speak up and claim them!

By themselves are nations made.

What 'vail your wealth, your learning,

Empty titles, sordid trade?

True self-rule were worth them all!

Nations by themselves are made!

Whispered murmurs darkly creeping,

Hidden worms beneath the glade.

Not by such shall wrong be righted!

Nations by themselves are made!

Sons of Ind, be up and doing,

Let your course by none be stayed;

Lo! the Dawn is in the East;

By themselves are nations made!

Hume convinced the Viceroy, Lord Dufferin, that an organization of educated and
enlightened Indians would be a useful and constructive channel through which the
rising discontent of the intellec-tuals and the masses alike could be prevented
from spilling over into violent actions. Thus it was that on December 28, 1885 a
galaxy of some seventy Indians, professionals like lawyers, teachers,
journal-ists, etc. for the most part, gathered in Bombay to form the Indian
National Congress. Hume served as the First General Secretary of the Congress.

Some have said that Hume was planted by the British government to serve as a
kind of safety-valve for the rising discontent among Indians. To their surprise
and chagrin, the INC took on a momentum of its own, growing in membership and
political protests, defying government bans and imprisonments. But at least one
Indian writer has stated that "those who suggest such a thing are guilty of
ingratitude to that great man who is responsible for founding an institution
which ultimately brought us independence."

Whatever the truth, the simple fact is that the occupation of India by the
British was morally wrong. So whatever they did, their actions were always
looked upon with suspicion. Whether they built schools and railroads or did not
do these, whether they introduced English, or retained Persian and Hindi, they
would be damned. That is the price a nation pays for being in an ethically
untenable position.

V. V. Raman
February 1, 2006

It is doubtful that there has been another woman - or even man - who, in the
19th century had been to more countries and continents than Helena Petrovna
Blavatsky (HPB). Born in Russia, she traveled in ship and on land, in trains and
on horseback, and sometimes walked many miles to Greece, Turkey, Egypt, Syria,
the Balkans, France, England, the United States, Canada, Mexico, Java, Japan,
Burma, Tibet, and India: and this list is not complete.Often she went from
country to country under the direction or guidance of her Master: a certain
Morya with whom she communicated telepathically.

During her Himalayan retreat in 1867 and 1870, HPB is said to have acquired
occult powers. They say she had acquired the truths of ancient civilizations:
Egyptian, Chaldean, Hindu and more which she had come to know through
supernatural means. HPB was convinced that all religions, including the magic of
ancient Egyptian priesthood, embodied secret doctrines about the ultimate nature
of man and the cosmos, and that these had been revealed to her.

Blavatsky landed in the United States in 1873, where she met two like-minded
Americans in New York City: Colonel H.S. Walcott and W.Q. Judge. In 1875 the
trio founded The Theosophical Society. Theosophy was defined as "Divine Wisdom,
or the aggregate of the knowledge and wisdom that underlie the Universe." The
goal of the society was to form a nucleus of Universal Brotherhood of Humanity,
without distinction of race, creed, sex, caste, or color; to encourage the study
of Comparative Religion, Philosophy, and Science; and to investigate the
unexplained laws of Nature, and the powers latent in Man. These embody whatever
is best in the humanistic, spiritual, and scientific realms. Above all, the aim
of the society was to bridge science and occultism and to win over physics to
psychic phenomena, which has always been a popular enterprise. Madame Blavatsky
and Col. Walcott went to India in 1878, because the Master had instructed them
to do so. The following year saw the publication in Bombay of the journal, The
Theosophist, of which Blavatsky was the first editor. The headquarters of the
Theosophical Society were established at Adyar, a suburb of Madras, where it has
flourished since then as a dynamic scholarly, intellectual, and spiritual
center.

Madame Blavatsky wrote extensively. Of her three principal books, Isis Unveiled
(1877) was described as "a master-key to the mysteries of ancient and modern
science and theology." The Secret Doctrine (1888) is the classic text for which
Madame Blavatsky is most famous. This synthesis of science, religion, and
philosophy might strike the uninitiated as a bewildering jumble of 19th century
physics and ancient mysticism, and it could impress the average reader by its
numerous technical jargons. It contains quotes from Newton and Maxwell,
Boltzmann and Clausius. Those with some knowledge of technical and mathematical
physics may find the work to be somewhat confused. The Key to Theosophy (1891),
the third book, has been called "a clear exposition ... of ethics, science, and
philosophy."

Towards the end of her life, prior to the publication of The Secret Doctrine,
something unfortunate, not to say, awkward, happened. Two of HPB's valets in
Adyar, a certain Mr. Coulomb and his wife, began spreading the word that the
mystic was a fraud, and that the display of occult powers arose because of a
secret conspirator. The Society for Psychic Research in Cambridge appointed a
committee to investigate, and came up with a damaging report. This caused a
temporary hurt to HPB's reputation, but not for long run, if only because those
who accept the supernatural are not easily moved by allegations or proofs to the
contrary. If anything, in a world dominated by inscrutable science and its
offshoots, every instance of something magical is acclaimed by the general
public, irrespective of its empirical validity or lack of it.

If one accepts the possibility of occult powers, as many people do, then there
is reason to believe that HPB was as authentic as any. But if one rejects this
possibility, then one becomes as skeptical about her as about anybody. In any
case, the lady had a remarkable memory, a grand sweep of knowledge in a variety
of fields including the qualitative aspects of science. She could recall arcane
passages from ancient lore, and was deeply convinced of karma, reincarnation,
astral planes, and invisible Masters. She was very sure, as a good many still
are, that Vedic rishis had spoken science in Sanskrit. She was also convinced
that there existed worlds beyond ordinary space and time.

In outlook and travels, HPB was a true internationalist, but in heart and spirit
she was more Indian than aught else. Like so many others from across land and
sea, Madame Blavatsky had more than a fascination for India. She loved the
country and its people, its culture, and above all, its spiritual heritage. And
she has left behind a global movement that is dedicated to a spirituality than
transcends nation and language.

Tevaram 7:2

The Death of Religions and Becoming Truly Spiritual
To be genuinely spiritual is to rise above being religious and which is possible only when the soul is absolutely FREE and PURE. As we can see the religious mind is NOT an OPEN mind, it remains basically fixated to scriptures and such stuff and clings stubbornly to them , becoming quite combative and irrational when their believes are challenged. When such a mind undergoes Tiikkai ( > Sk. Diksa) the BURNING of the soul that turns the DIRT within into ashes, then the soul becomes FREE and OPEN to receive and appreciate the bewildering and different ways in which BEING has disclosed Himself and continues to disclose. BEING cannot be arrested into a religion or cult - He always OVERFLOWS all such human attempts remaining always a SURPLUS that humiliates the thinking mind.

The religious mind cannot avoid CONFLICT both internal and external as we can see in world history. The most barbaric crimes have been committed and millions of people have been killed in the name of religion. The fanatic individuals are also denied peace of mind and happiness. Such events that are tormenting are the Tiikkai, the burning that slowly purifies them and make them arise above religions.

These kind of events are enacted by BEING who appears as the Siva who smears Himself with the Sacred Ash pure and white like the pearls, But having burnt the DIRT He also assumes the iconic forms where such souls are replenished - not with the same that has been burnt off but with something NEW and NOVEL and which simultaneously makes them EVOLVE one step higher and with that become better human beings. It is such an understanding of BEING which makes the human beings truly spiritual and with that become a true devotee and who LOVES BEING and in that also loves ALL. The religious person hates and despises the people of other religions but certainly not so the truly spiritual mind. Having freed themselves from such madness, they begin to worship BEING, the Most High, the GROUND of all submitting themselves not to scriptures Rishies prophets messiahs and so forth but only to BEING.

But what would transform a religious person into a truly spiritual one and who would become so humble that he would describe himself not as one in service to BEING but as the one in service to those in such a service as Sundarar describes himself here?

It is the application of the notion of DEATH to religions. All the religions , no matter how mighty they are and widespread are doomed to disappear one day just like so many mighty empires in world history. For the fundamental units of all scriptures, the words and images are doomed to dissolve when the time comes and along with that the religions. Any religion founded upon words and images are subject to decay and death and all because there is Siva the Destroyer who destroys all such fixations to PURIFY the human soul so that they are  FREED to move even higher.

11.
muttu niiRRup pavaLac cenjcadaiyan uRaiyum
pattar pantattu etirkoLpaadi paramanaiyeep paNiyac
cittam vaitta toNdar toNdn cadaiyan abvan ciRuvan
pattan uuran paadal vallaar paatam paNivaaree.

Meaning:
BEING, the Most High shows Himself as the One who smears Himself with the Pearl-white Sacred Ash ( to signify that He burns all dirt) and at the same shows Himself as coral-red bodied with the hair flowing luxuriantly ( to signify that He furnishes with something novel and good). Because of this He and as He shows Himself in the temple of EtirkoLpaadi, becomes the One who is loved by all  those who understand  Him as thus and begin to worship Him as the Most High, above all the gods and so forth. I , the Nambiyuuran, the servant of all those in the sacred service to BEING  and the dear son of Siva, the Long-hared , decided to sing all these metaphysical insights and I am sure all those who sing them with understanding will also begin to worship the FEET of such a BEING.

Loganathan

Lecture by
Professor Varadaraja V. Raman
Presented
At the Conference on
Science & Spirituality
Organized by
Jawaharlal Nehru University
Delhi, India
Sunday February 5, 2006

Introduction
Since the dawn of history, the Indian subcontinent has produced poets and philosophers who reflected on the majesty of the universe, on the meaning of life, and on the mystery of human existence. The ancient wisdom of Indic seers gave rise to a civilization that has stood the test of time and lasted for millennia. It has grown and been enriched by a hundred forces, both welcome and unwelcome, that have forged the course of India's history. The visions and values of the sage-poets which gave rise to Indian culture continue to inform and inspire the people of India in remarkable ways. And they have also had impacts on the thought currents that illumine human civilization.

A perennial refrain that runs through the rich panorama of Indian culture is that there a trans-physical cosmic principle that sustains and stirs the physical world of which we humans gain transient awareness during our fleeting terrestrial sojourn. This insubstantial undergirding entity is what we call the spiritual dimension of the world. It cannot be grasped by the probes of the mind, nor made to conform to the paradigms of logic, and its essence can only be inadequately conveyed through words and symbols. But it is there, proclaim the seers of India, because they have had glimpses of that subtle web that weaves the world of space and time, of matter, energy and causality. This assertion constitutes what may be called the spirituality thesis of Indic culture.

Over the centuries there have been thinkers in India who had challenged or rejected the spirituality thesis. Yet, the fact remains that right from the first utterance of Vedic hymns through the aphorisms of the Upanishads, and all through the massive corpus of the literature affiliated to these, spirituality has been a guiding light in every manifestation of Hindu culture. In fables for children and in grander narratives such as the epics and the puranas, in art and music and dance and poetry, in games and in architecture, even in sculptures representing carnal intimacy, the spiritual light is present implicitly or explicitly in every aspect of Indian mainstream thought.

The science component
All this led to the assessment of Indian culture as being essentially spiritualistic. This assessment did not arise from misrepresentation by foreigners, but has been proudly proclaimed by many eminent Indian thinkers of the 19th and 20th centuries. Though accurate in principle, it also led to the misimpression that Indian thinkers were focused on matters metaphysical, on God and afterlife, on soul and salvation, and on little else. As a matter of fact, however, in classical and ancient India, aside from and superimposed on the spiritual foundation, there have also been serious inquiries into the nature of gross matter and thinking mind, observations of sun and moon and prediction of eclipses, questions about what constitutes life and what is inanimate, analysis of the properties of metals and non-metals, classification of plants and trees, study of the effects of herbs on health, and such other matters that properly belong to the scientific realm. From Vedic thinkers who wondered about how the world emerged to Bharadvâja in the Mahabharata and Uddâlaka runi of the Upanishads, countless sages have posed and reflected on fundamental questions, and proposed hypotheses and theories to explain many aspects of physical reality. Wonderment at the celestial spheres inspired interest in planetary periodicities which led to computations and mathematical insights. Some of these percolated into an awakening Europe through the intermediary of Islamic scholars and later, through Christian missionary commentaries. They were among the factors that led to the emergence of modern science. Thus, classical Indian mathematicians have a legitimate place of honor in objective histories of the roots of modern science. The point to remember is that the thirst for knowledge and understanding which is at the root of all scientific quest was very much present in the classical Hindu world.

Likewise, technology also thrived in classical India. Indian inventors created and produced tools and textiles, manufactured alloys, sculptures and magnificent structures for worship.
During the 18th and 19th centuries, technological, medical, and practical fields of investigation were still flourishing, and metaphysical spirituality remained strong and sturdy. However, by the beginning of the 19th century, the scientific creativity and contributions of earlier eras came to be marginalized and were gradually erased from the collective memory of the people. It was in this context that Western scientific worldviews began to enter the Indian scene.

Western Reactions to Indian Wisdom
At this point let us reflect a little on the scenario in which Indian wisdom entered the Western intellectual arena in the later half of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. At that time, many thinkers in the West were becoming disenchanted with the crass rationality and stringent empiricism of a cold and calculating science that was chopping every fullness of experience into its ultimate irreducible bits, and unweaving the multicolored splendor of the rainbow into water droplets in air and laws of refraction. There was a near-rebellion against a science that tended to regard the human being as little more than a complex machine ruled by the laws of physics and chemistry. This was the period when the Romantic Movement was emerging in European culture. The thinkers therefore welcomed Indic visions for its grasp of the integrated whole, its insights into the nature of consciousness, and its recognition of the relativity of knowledge gained through sensory perceptions.

So, the keenest among them reacted positively to Sanskrit writings. Recall William Jones's exclamation to the effect that "Sanskrit is more perfect than Greek, more copious than Latin and more exquisitely refined than either." Goethe exclaimed exuberantly that "Kalidasa understood in the fifth century what Europe did not learn until the 19th century … that the world was not made for man, and that man reaches his full stature only as he realizes the dignity and worth of life that is not human…" We have all heard of the high praise that Schopenhauer gave to the Upanishads: "In the whole world...there is no study...so beneficial and as elevating as that of the Upanishads. They are products of the highest wisdom." Or again, recall how Emerson referred to the Bhagavad Gita as "the first of books; it was as if an empire spoke to us, nothing small or unworthy, but large, serene, consistent, the voice of an old intelligence which in another age and climate had pondered and thus disposed of the same questions which exercise us."
One can go on and on. The point is that the West did not discover India in an unhappy confrontational context. Enlightened Western thinkers recognized India's greatness without having to become defensive about their own culture. They bore no grudge against the civilization from which the lofty ideas came. Many of them were fascinated and thrilled by what to them were new and insightful visions on life, existence, and the human condition. Such was the case before the obsession of missionaries to save Hindu souls took over.

Indian Encounter with Modern Science
India discovered the scientific framework of the West in a very different setting. It occurred at the same time as British political aggression and economic exploitation were creeping into the land. It was in this unhappy circumstance that Indians of the late ninth and early twentieth centuries encountered the post-Copernican science initiated by Galileo, Newton and other scientific giants of seventeenth century Europe. As a result, in the later half of the nineteenth century, when India confronted Western culture which had barged in with enormous advantages in material strength and craftiness, the reactions to modern scientific perspectives were not excitement and exhilaration, but resentment and anger. Indian reactions were of two kinds. One was to argue that in ancient times India too had a technology that rivaled what the West had in the nineteenth century. Ironically, those who took this position were not aware that great mathematics and astronomy, practical chemistry and physical theories had been developed in classical India. It was only after years of research instigated by Western scholars and later pursued by Indian, that modern India became fully aware of her own ancient scientific heritage.
Another reaction was to affirm our spiritual strength vis-à-vis the materially stronger intruders. Hindu intellectuals played, if not overplayed, the spirituality card to emphasize their own intrinsic strength in this domain. Unfortunately, unlike the kshatriya Vishvamitra when he had to recognize Vasishtha's spiritual prowess, the invaders from the West did not exclaim: "dhik kshatriya balam! Brahma tejo balam, balam!" Instead, they ignored, if not belittled, Indian spirituality and successfully went on with their job of gaining political and economic domination, and succeeded. Many Indians were awe-struck by the practical fruits of Western technology. This stark reality began to sow doubts in the minds of some Indians as to the value and relevance of spirituality in a world which was ruled by a might that seemed to have emerged from a different intellectual framework.

At the same time, Indian thinkers who studied modern science systematically began to realize that there was more to it than gunpowder and gadgets. They understood that modern science is based on meticulous experiments, subtle concepts, sophisticated mathematics, testable hypotheses, falsifiable theories and such. They also realized that the scientific enterprise had no more affiliation to colonialism and imperialism than Hindu spiritual visions have with casteism and untouchability. This recognition led most Indian scientists of the early twentieth century to a deeper understanding of both science and Indian spirituality.

Let us look into this matter specifically with respect to some eminent scientists of the twentieth century. The Vedic sage-poets had said that the one truth is spoken of in various ways by the learned. This is also case of how, in a society of free and independent thinkers, thoughtful persons regard their tradition and philosophies in different ways. The greatness of India lies as much in the freedom she has often given her children in entertaining diverging reflections as in those reflections themselves.

Jagdish Chandra Bose
J. C. Bose was the first great modern scientist of India in that he was the first to contribute significantly to international science. He was abreast of the latest developments in the science of his times. He experimented with the possibility of transmitting electromagnetic waves, and was one of the first, perhaps the first to achieve this, though credit for this has often been attributed uniquely to Gugliemo Marconi. In any case, this was an awesome achievement.

Bose was a thinker deeply rooted in our tradition in the best sense of the term. He did not hesitate to declare that he was sometimes inspired in his perspectives by the spiritual seers of India. He was imbued in the Vedantic vision of the oneness that integrates the world. Often he insisted that we need to seek the unity behind the multiplicity. He talked about erasing the demarcation between the living and the non-living. Long before twentieth century physics developed the notion of a Theory of Everything, Bose argued at the 1900 International Congress in Paris that the goal of science must be to arrive at an understanding of natural phenomena in their seamless all-embracing grandeur. Here was a transference of metaphysical monism into the scientific paradigm of unified fields.

Bose resonated with the universality that is implicit in the utterances of some of our sage poets. The Vedic declaration that all humanity is a single family - vasudhaika kutumbam -, and the prayer for the happiness of one and all, implicit in lokâ-samastâ-sukhinô bhavantu, are visions that emerged in this ancient land. Bose was very aware of these, and when he dreamed of a scientific institution where people from different countries would come and work together, he remembered the glory days of India. He said: "I am attempting to carry out the traditions my country which, so far back as 25 centuries ago, welcomed scholars from different parts of the world within the precincts of the ancient seats of learning at Nalanda and Takhsashila."

In Bose we see how it is possible to integrate India's rich heritage with modern worldviews and develop a scientifically meaningful and spiritually uplifting framework, as long as it is done with due respect for the methodology of modern science.

Prafulla Chandra Ray
Prafulla Chandra Ray was the first great chemist of modern India. Upon his return from Scotland where he had gone to do his doctoral work, the bright young chemist who had absorbed the best from what was still only Western science, returned home to his culture too. Unlike some of the babus of British Raj, Ray gave up tie and trousers, and took on the graceful Bengali attire of dhoti and kurta. After an encounter with Mahatma Gandhi he adopted an even simpler life-style.

His search for a new element led him to a thorough study of the properties of some salts of mercury. His discoveries in this field established his reputation on the international scene. Ray was also a scholar. Inspired by Mercelin Berthelot's work on the origins of alchemy, he undertook a scholarly study of the history of chemistry in India, and brought out an erudite two-volume treatise on the subject, with references and all, which has become a classic.

But this was not the only way in which Ray affirmed his affiliation to his tradition. He lived like a rishi, very much like an ascetic devoting himself to knowledge and to the pursuit of truth. But he was a rishi of the modern age. Scholar and scientist though he was, he realized that there can be no religion or spirituality without caring for fellow humans. Thus, he utilized his knowledge for practical purposes by founding factories and industries which not only produced articles of common use such as soap, condiments, and pottery, but also provided jobs to thousands of people, and gave a boost to the country's economy. Untouched by the honors that were showered on him, he gave away much of what he earned for worthy causes: to students, for scholarships, and for the establishment of research laboratories.

P. C. Ray earned the admiration of his countrymen for his science and learning, and their enormous respect for his humility and humanity. He showed us all that it is possible to imbibe the knowledge and worldview of modern science without abandoning the roots and fruits of one's culture. Ultimately, while all nations must transform and be enriched by new discoveries and fresh insights, every culture and civilization must be nourished by the visions and wisdom that have grown from its soil. The challenge to every generation is to be enlightened by the new without losing the treasure-seeds of its own precious past.

Srinivasa Ramanujan
Let us now turn our attention to Srinivasa Ramanujan who blazed like a brilliant comet in the mathematical firmament and vanished all too soon. He confounded the best mathematicians of the time with his uncanny insights into some of the most esoteric chapters of pure mathematics. Ramanujan brought forth theorems and formulas like multi-colored scarves from a magician's hat. His results demanded days and months and reams of paper for formal proof.

Ramanujan's mind was an extraordinary phenomenon. His creative powers had all the mystery of an unfathomable genius. He reported that his mother's reluctance to let him sail to Cambridge to pursue mathematics was completely revoked as a result of a dream she had had in which the Goddess of Namagiri revealed that one day her son would shine in an assembly of European scholars. It was believed that some of his theorems were unveiled to him in the nocturnal silence of his dreams by the same goddess!
What can we make of all this, except to exclaim that the human brain is far more complex than what science has been able to unravel? Clearly, there is a wealth of understanding that remains untapped in the deepest recesses of human awareness. All the nuggets of information are not within reach of normal brains, but many of them become accessible to extraordinary minds in unfathomable ways.

It seems to be extraordinarily difficult, not to say impossible, to explain the creative genius of artists, poets and mathematicians in terms of genetic codes or complex neural networks. While we must respect scientific exploration into the modes and mechanics by which such matters may be explained some day, perhaps there are more things in brain and consciousness than are dreamt of in our sciences. This unrecognized dimension of human consciousness may well be part spiritual reality. For, like truth and justice, spirituality is intangible, beyond space and time. Yet, it is very much present in a world of meaning and values. Could this be the intangible spiritual basis of the universe of which the sages spoke? Could it be that aspects of that reality are accessible only to the most creative artists, poets, mathematicians and mystics?

Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman
In the Hindu tradition, divine manifestations are sometimes represented in blue. It is said that because the infinite sky appears bluish and dark, and because the Divine too is infinite, its representations are colored blue. This is meaningful from a spiritual perspective, for it sees in the visible vastness of the blue of the heavens a symbolic manifestation of the spiritual substratum of the universe.

But blueness can also be understood from naturalistic perspectives in terms of the properties of matter and the laws of physics. This aspect of the blueness of the sky and of the oceans intrigued Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman, another great Indian physicist of the twentieth century. While investigating this, Raman discovered a till-then unrecognized feature of light when it is scattered from the molecules of liquid or gas. Known today as the Raman Effect, it was a discovery with enormous import, for it has enabled scientists to probe into the structure and composition of molecules in new and ingenious ways. Raman was awarded the Nobel Prize for his discovery: the first Indian, indeed the first Asian scientist, to be thus honored by the international community.

Raman's devotion to physics was like that of a bhakta to his ishtadevata. He breathed science in every waking hour of his life. Religion, for all its cultural and social value, did not appeal to him as much as physics did. If he enjoyed music, it was the physics of music that captivated him. If he marveled at the sky it was the physics of its blueness that fascinated him. If he admired the sparkle of diamonds, it was the study of the play of light on their crystalline structure that drew him to them.
Did this lack of interest in traditional rituals make Raman a non-spiritual person? I think not. Actually, his path to the Divine was through a systematic study of Nature. Raman's goal at one time was "to bring into existence a centre for scientific research worthy of our ancient country where the keenest intellects of our land can probe into the mysteries of the Universe, and by so doing help us appreciate the transcendent Power that guides our activities."

We recall Lord Krishna's message in the Bhagavad Gita that there are three paths go spiritual fulfillment: the bhakti, karma, and jñana margas. Saint Thyagaraja added the gâna-marga or musical path. So too, there is the vijñâna marga for scientists. Here again, we see the recognition of spirituality in the thoughts and visions of yet another great Indian scientist of the last century.

Satyendranath Bose
Satyendranath Bose's investigations into the nature of light led to a momentous discovery about an important property of the ultimate units of light: namely, the photons. It explained why it is possible to generate instantaneously zillions of photons by the strike of a matchstick or the flip of an electric switch whereas this cannot be done with particles like electrons or protons. This is because of a deeply hidden property of the two kinds of particles: They obey what physicists call two different kinds of statistics. The statistics followed by photons is known in technical jargon as the Bose-Einstein statistics, and all particles which, like the photon, are subject to it are known as bosons.

We recall that the rishis of India maintained that the phenomenal world is embedded in a spiritual reality. And they recognized the primacy of jyoti in the perceived universe when they declared: sûryom jyotir , jyotir sûryom; agnir jyotir, jyotir agnir; indro jyotir, jyotir indrah. In the Hindu mystic tradition jyoti refers to transcendent light. Thus, we may say that Satyen Bose's work uncovered features of the ultimate essence of the physical manifestation of jyoti. Through Bose's discovery we became aware of the mathematical basis of the physical laws that make light what it is.

Here again, the physical and the non-physical, the material and the spiritual are deeply intertwined. Claims of the superiority of one over the other arise from partial understandings. Matter and spirit are to be looked upon as the two sides of a single unfathomable mystery. Many aspects of the spiritual world have their reflections in the physical. Only the embodied spirit can reflect on the spiritual. Only the spiritually awakened body can appreciate the complexity of the physical world.

Bose felt strongly that India's scientific advancement should occur through the medium of Indian languages. In this matter he had great respect for Japan and Russia which did not depend on English or French to become equal partners in international science. Whether one agrees or not with Bose's view on this matter, the thrust of what he was saying was that since culture is absorbed and assimilated through language, total abandonment to a foreign language on the part of the thinkers and intellectuals of a nation tends to alienate them from one's own roots, and leads to pale imitations of other cultures. Some Bollywood creations and Indian TV programs show the wisdom in Bose's view.

Subrahmanian Chandrasekhar
Our bodies are made up of chemical elements: nitrogen, phosphorus, iodine, carbon and such. But where did these elements come from? In ancient times, few people even raised this question. One of the achievements of twentieth century astrophysics was to discover that all heavy elements were formed in the core of gigantic stars that at one time became so hot in their deep interior that the simpler nuclei of hydrogen and helium fused therein into heavier nuclei. Such a super-hot stellar furnace is known as a supernova.

During his voyage to Cambridge in 1930, young Subrahmanian Chandrasekhar, barely 19 years old, discovered through the calculations that he made which stars have the potential to become supernovas and under what conditions. There was some initial resistance to Chandrasekar's ideas, but now the theory is fully accepted by the international scientific community. Indic thinkers had stated that consciousness is a spark of the Cosmic Whole. Now we also know that our physical bodies consist of star-dust. And Chandrasekhar was involved with that discovery.

Though he was deeply read in Hindu epics and Indian philosophy, he was one of the Indian scientists of the twentieth century who were disillusioned by Hindu spirituality because they felt that preoccupation with the transcendent had thwarted the emergence of science in classical India. Some of them voiced the fear that the past was unduly enticing modern India to its mystical worldviews, and they regard this as an obscurantist hurdle on the country's path to scientific awakening. So they had little interest in traditional religion or spirituality. Chandrasekhar frankly described himself as an atheist. Megnad Saha, the eminent astrophysicist whose equation provides a key to the understanding of stellar structure and evolution, used to express such views also.

Yet, the works of many modern Indian scientists serve to raise our consciousness to levels from which the world looks rich in spiritual content in the broadest sense of the term. To see the world in a grain of sand and heaven in a wild flower, hold infinity in the palm of your hand and eternity in an hour is a spiritual experience too, and that is precisely what the physics of Satyen Bose, Megnad Saha, Subrahmanian Chandrasekhar, and the like have enabled us to achieve.

continued

A View of Spirituality
We see all around us chaos and cacophony cluttering the world. Even up there in the heavens, amidst stars and galaxies, there is incessant turbulence and turmoil.

Underlying all this is an all-pervading harmony that keeps everything in balance. This is the rita of Vedic vision. Associated with it is a transcendental peace that is invoked by the shanti mantra of the Indic tradition. This is the spiritual basis of the universe, and it can be experienced and envisioned in a variety of ways.

To the scientific inquirer it is unveiled as the laws of nature which govern the world. These laws are intangible. Who can see or touch the law of gravitation or electromagnetism or the symmetry groups that orchestrate the song and dance of the world from the minute microcosm to the inconceivably vast galaxies sprinkled in the cosmic stretch? Their effects on matter are perceived as reality. Yet the laws have been there all through eternity and are omnipresent in the cosmic stretch. They are, in the phrase of the rishis, the akshara or the imperishable essence of the universe.
One may get a taste of its essence in the ecstasy of devotional music, in the bhajans and psalms and sacred utterances of religious traditions. Or again, one may feel the vast encompassing magnificence of it all through concentration and contemplation. Thus, every heart that prays, every soul that meditates, and every mind that reflects and probes into the complexity of the cosmos, and gets a glimpse of the spiritual ocean in which we are bathed, whether we recognize it as such or not.
Modern science has unraveled the principles governing the physical world. This is not unlike the discovery of the rules of grammar and prosody, symmetry and syntax that govern every line in a sonnet. Such analyses, impressive as they are, say little about the grandeur and glory of the poetry. The unraveling of meanings and feelings which are implicit in the cold and calculable world is accomplished through other modes.

At the material level, we are inconsequential in the vastness of space. But without us, the world would be dark like a dungeon in stark midnight. All the light and color, splendor and beauty of the universe are unraveled only in the human head. No proton or planet, no star or supernova has the slightest inkling of the magnificence of the multi-splendored universe wherein they have been spinning and whirling for eons. They know nothing of shrieks of joy or pangs of pain. But for us, all the dust and stone, waves and vibrations would be cast in the dark expanse, unnoticed and unsung for all of eternity.

Without human awareness, there can be no reckoning of space or time and their intertwining. Neither the golden sunset nor patterns on butterfly wings, neither the fragrance of jasmine nor the sweetness of honey would be aspects of the physical universe without the super-complex sensory apparatus associated with our cerebral paraphernalia. And of course there would be neither art nor philosophy, no science or technology, no music or mathematics in the cosmos without embodies consciousness. The emergence of awareness was therefore as great an event in cosmic history as the first big blast of its material birth. It is awareness that detects meaning in a mechanical and mindless world. It is as if by our presence we have lit up the whole universe.

But how did the world subsist for eons before Homo sapiens emerged? The cosmos without humans is like a mindless blind monster wandering in the wilderness of uncharted space-time, and yet without missing a step on the path that has been meticulously carved for it by mathematically precise laws.

But how are we to explain the capacity of human consciousness in relation to its temporal and spatial insignificance? How is it that to none but the human mind the universe becomes comprehensible? According to Hindu sage-poets, if there is splendor in the perceived world and pattern in its functioning, and if it can all can result in the grand experience of life and thought, then even prior to the advent of humans, there must have been a consciousness of a vastly superior order, a Grand Experiencer that spanned the cosmic range in space and time. This is the Brahman of the spirituality thesis.

Brahman is not a He or She that prescribes or proscribes human behavior, nor a principle that is compassionate to the suffering or considerate to the repentant. Rather it is the mute cosmic awareness that has been there before the first tick of time and the first blast the gave rise to the world. It bears witness to every event and episode in a cyclic cosmos, it is there in every heart-beat of cosmic history.
Furthermore, in the pithy Upanishadic aphorism, tat tvam asi: Thou art That, every conscious entity is a spark from the stupendous primordial flash. In other words, in this vision, we are all faint echoes of the Grand Experiencer, miniature lights as it were, which have emanated from that primordial cosmic effulgence, like photons from a glorious galactic core, destined for terrestrial experience for a slender slice of time, only to re-merge with that from which we sprang.

Is this really so, as is it only mythopoesy, one might wonder. If it be mythopoesy, let us remember that poetry and prayer are for the human spirit what the telescope and the microscope are for human eye. Lenses enable us to discern entities beyond our normal visual recognition, and profound poetry is a response of the spirit to that which is not fathomed through logic and reason. Poetry brings home to us, indeed it forces us to reckon, the world of experience, not in terms of sense data and charts and proofs, but in subtle and holistic ways. It reveals meaning in life and majesty in the universe, which lie in a realm beyond the plane of rigid rationality. Poetry is mystic experience verbalized.

Indic spiritual vision paints consciousness on a cosmic canvass; recognizes the transience of us all as separate entities, yet incorporates us into the surrounding infinity. It does not rule out other manifestations of Brahman, sublime and subtle, carbon or silicon-based, elsewhere amidst the stellar billions. It recognizes the role of matter, and the limits of the mind, but sees subtle spirit at the core of it all.

The Samvad India Foundation is a non-profit Public Charitble Trust incorporated in New Delhi. Every year it presents the Raja Rao Award that honours and recognizes writers (including scholars and critics) who have made an “Outstanding Contribution to the Literature of the South Asian Diaspora.” Raja Rao, one of the greatest living writers of our times, has very kindly consented to the Award being named after him. The Award may be given to writers whose contribution is
significant but who may not necessarily be international celebrities or who may not have won major literary awards. Previous awardees include Dr V Dehejia (2003), Professor Edwin Thumboo (2002), Ms Yasmine Gooneratne (2001) and Mr KS Maniam (2000).

This year’s recipient is Professor VV Raman.

Citation presented to him by Professor Nitant Kenkre

V. V. RAMAN, the recipient of the Raja Rao Award this year, is a multifaceted personality. He is an eminent philosopher, physicist, writer, author of superb quality original work in each of those
categories, and a man distinguished by a sense of humor and wisdom as well. Raman's breadth of knowledge, expertise and interests is impressive.

Raman was born on May 28, 1932, in a Tamil family which had settled down in Bengal. Blends of opposites, as of the North and the South in the case of his upbringing as a child, characterize him
and may explain the keen insights he always displays into the nature of his surroundings. As a small boy, he learned to recite Vedic hymns in Sanskrit and Pater Noster in Latin. He read the Koran and the Torah.

He has an impressive facility in German and Spanish, in handling equations of theoretical physics and in constructing verses, in pragmatic practice and historical scholarship, in science and art. His
undergraduate work was in physics, his first postgraduate degree in mathematics. His doctoral work in Paris, carried out in the medium of
the French language under the supervision of the Nobel laureate Louis de Broglie, was in theoretical physics, specifically on the mathematical underpinning of quantum mechanics.

As a youth, Raman was drawn to poetry and philosophy, to mathematics and music, to languages and literature. He was fascinated by the depth
and scope of meaningful knowledge that science has brought to humanity, and impressed by the power and coherence of scientific methodology.

He grew up reading and reflecting on humanity's heritage. With strong links to his own tradition, he now regards himself as a human being most of all, with respect and sympathy for all that is enriching,
ennobling, and enlightening in human culture.

After obtaining his doctorate from the Sorbonne, and publishing his research in the Comptes Rendus de l'Académie des Sciences, he returned to India and worked at the Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics.
Then he served the UNESCO for a few years, during which time he became more interested in the history and philosophy of science. His varied
interests and abilities led him into avenues of work well outside the narrow confines to which many brilliant physicists are limited.

Eventually, he settled down at the Rochester Institute of Technology in the USA as a professor of Physics and Humanities. He went on to publish
extensively on the historical, philosophical, and social aspects of science. His scholarly papers on those matters have been on the history of thermodynamics, the origins of physical chemistry, the genesis of the Schrödinger equation, the early reactions to Einstein's theory of relativity, the impact of the Copernican revolution, and on the
Euler-D'Alembert controversy in 18th century mathematical physics.

He has also written on such topics as the history of the theory of gravitation, of the energy conservation principle, and of acoustics. These writings were published in various scholarly journals,
Proceedings of the French Academy of Sciences, American Journal of Physics, The Physics Teacher, The Journal of Education, Chronicle of Higher Education, Mathematical Intelligencer, Impact of Science on Society (UNESCO), Science and Culture, Indian Journal of History of Science, Journal of Chemical Education, Historical Studies in the
Physical Sciences, Dictionary of Scientific Biography, Science and Sprit, CHOICE Magazine (Journal of the AALS), Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science, Prajna Vihara: Journal of Philosophy and
Religion (Thailand), Hermeia (Germany).

The following are books by Professor Raman on these topics: "Science and Relevance;" "Scientific Perspectives: Essays & Reflections of a Physicist-Humanist;" "Variety of Science History;" "Glimpses of Ancient Science and Scientists." His book "Variety in Religion and Science" discusses the religious visions from intercultural perspectives as well as scientific insights from various people and
cultures.

Professor Raman has received numerous citations from his students about his teaching excellence. In 1988, nominated by his university's president, he was a recipient of the Outstanding Educator award,
presented in Washington D.C. by the American Association of Higher Education.

As to Raman's contributions to the elucidation and propagation of Indic culture, he has lectured profusely on many aspects of Indian heritage
and culture. He is the author of multiple books on that theme. In the early 1980s he initiated a journal called INDHER (Indian Heritage) to educate children of Indian origin living beyond the shores of India on
aspects of their culture and heritage. Out of the articles in this journal grew two books: "Glimpses of Indian Heritage," and "Satanama: Hundred Names from India's Past," both published by Popular
Prakashan in India. He gave a series of lectures on Verses from the Bhagavad Gita of relevance to the Modern World, which were published later as "Nuggets from the Gita" by Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. He wrote a series of articles on Indian perspectives for India Abroad which are the basis of his "Reflections from Alien Shores," also a Bhavan's Book.

Since the 1990s Professor Raman has been very involved with the emerging academic field of Science and Religion. In this field he has published papers in ZYGON: the international journal on Science and Religion, as well as in SCIENCE AND SPIRIT. The following articles are relevant in this context: "Science and Religion," Connections and
Contradictions, CHOICE July, August 1996; "Vedanta and Modern Science," International Vedanta Conference, January 1996, Madras; "Science in
the face of religion and mysticism," World & I, October 1996; "Science and Religion: Some Demarcation Criteria," Zygon, September 2001; "Science and Spirit: A Hindu Perspective," Science and Spirit, November 1998; "Science and Humanism in the Modern World," Prajna Vihara: The Journal
of Philosophy and Religion, Vol. 2, No. 1, 2001; "Which is More Dangerous? Science or Religion," Science and Spirit; "Science and Spirituality from a Hindu Perspective," Zygon, March 2002; and "Was
heisst Kulturelle Differenz?" in Die Macht der Diffetenzen, Hermeia, Band 4.

Over the years, Raman has been a member of the Calcutta Mathematical Society, American Physical Society, American Association of Physics Teachers, Philosophy of Science Association, History of Science Society, the Institute on Religion in an Age of Science. He has served on the Editorial Board of The (American) Physics Teacher. He has served as the President of various cultural/social organizations including The Interfaith Forum of Rochester, The India Community Center of
Rochester, The Bengali Association of Rochester, the Rochester Tamil Sangam which he founded, The Martin Luther King Commission of Rochester, The
METANEXUS Institute on Science and Religion, the Institute on Religion in an Age of Science.
He was elected the 2004-2005 METANEXUS Fellow on Science and Religion, in which capacity he delivered six lectures at the Hillel Hall of the
University of Pennsylvania on Indic Visions in an Age of Science.

He is currently writing a web column entitled "Reflections on Remote Roots," which is widely circulated to people of Indian heritage in many
parts of the world. It is another grand survey of various aspects of Indian heritage and culture with deep insights. The erudition and intelligent understanding of our brilliant past (and present) in
India and also of other human cultures he displays in that column are impressive indeed.

To those who know him from close, Raman is also an intelligent and inspired prankster. This unusual but charming facet of his that arises from his great sense of humor reminds one of Krishna. Listening to
Raman is always an educational experience. Conversing with him is always a pleasant event. It is impossible to come in contact with this person without coming away awed, inspired, and warmed.

The enormous work that Raman has done even in his 'retired' years is definitely deserving of the Raja Rao award.

Even during the days of the Raj, many people born in Britain developed a special
fondness for India, her people, and their culture. One of the more illustrious
among them was a lady known to Indians as Annie Besant. She was Annie Wood
before she married Frank Besant, a clergyman with whom and with whose religion
she severed all connections, after becoming a socialist and atheist.

She fought for the poor and for equal rights for women in her native England.
She co-edited the National Reformer, and re-published a pamphlet on birth
control for young married couples, which had been censured as a work "full of
indecent physiological details." This political liberal was one of the founders
of the British Labor Party.

In 1889, when she was 42 years of age, Annie Besant happened to read The Secret
Doctrine of Madame Blavatsky, which is a treatise on theosophical mysticism,
nineteenth century science and ancient religious. The work had a great impact on
her life. She was drawn at once to Theosophy and to India.

Annie Besant was 45 when she landed on Indian soil. One of the first thoughts
that came to her mind was that she had been born a Hindu in a previous birth.
From then on began a deep love for India and commitment to India's cause which
only increased with time. She adopted the Indian way of life, and decided she
should strive to revive India's past glories which, she felt, had been sorely
marginalized. She proclaimed in her journal New India that she loved the Indian
people as she loved none other, and that her heart and mind had been laid on the
alter of the Motherland. Such was the effect of her inspiring letters and
speeches that Mahatma Gandhi once said that Annie Besant had "awakened India
from her deep slumber."

It was through her efforts and dedication that the Central Hindu College was
founded in Varanasi. She understood more than most English-educated Indians the
relevance of the country's culture and traditions for its people. "Hinduism is
the soil in which India's roots are stuck," she wrote, "and torn out of that,
she will inevitably wither."

Annie Besant was held in the highest esteem by the major freedom-fighters of
India. She was president of the Indian National Congress, and went into British
jails for her stand on Indian independence. She tried to build a bridge between
the rival groups in the nationalist movement; one led by Bal Gangadhar Tilak and
the other by Gopalakrishna Gokhale, but was unsuccessful in this effort. In 1916
she established the Home Rule League whose goal was autonomy for India from the
British. In this context she declared: "There is no birthright in the white skin
that it shall say that wherever it goes, to any nation, amongst any people,
there the people of the country shall give way before it, and those to whom the
land belongs shall bow down and become its servants." She was one of the first
in history to express her abhorrence at racism. She wrote that "the colour bar
and all it implies are largely due to thoughtlessness, to silly pride of race
which has grown mad ."

And again, she had the breath of vision to say: "These are the true tests of the
value of any man or woman, white or coloured: merit of character, merit of
ability, merit of service to country. Those who can serve best, those who help
most, those who sacrifice most, those are the people who will be loved in life
and honoured in death."

Unfortunately, in her later years, after Annie Besant moved to Adyar as
president of the Theosophical Society, a rift developed between her and the
Central Hindu College which was once a topic of great public controversy, though
now long forgotten. A root cause for this was that she imagined herself to be a
mystic, an Arhat and a Mukta with super-psychic powers: such as the ability to
read Mars and Mercury and the Solar System, and to predict the future. More
seriously, she began to assume the role a cult figure, demanding implicit
obedience from one and all her followers. Then again, she prepared the stage for
a new Messiah, declaring the fourteen-year-old Jiddu Krishnamurti to be the
successor in the lineage of Zoroaster, Thoth, Buddha, and Jesus. In this context
she established a World Order of the Star of the East of which she declared
herself to be the Protectress. She managed to acquire a ranch in the United
States and gave it to J. Krishnamurti. In 1929, J. K. let it be known to the
world that he was no messiah, and he relinquished everything she had given him,
except the Ojai Ranch.

Annie Besant was thus a strange mixture of social activism, unbounded love for
India, fighter for India's freedom, delirious mystic pushed to the verge of
megalomania: all of which made her a remarkable person in history. Her rich and
active life spanned more than eight decades. Her contributions to India will be
remembered with affection and gratitude. K. M. Munshi rightly described her as
"one of the makers of modern India; the greatest foreign and the only European
who threw her lot completely and unreservedly with India."

VaLLalaar On Life Free of Death.-7

Destroying Alienation and Enjoying a Life of Joys
More than two thousand years ago , the poet KaNiyan PuuGkunRanaar declared ìyaatum uuree yaavaruG keeLirî ( All cities are my cities and all people are my brethren). This social philosophy has become well entrenched in the Tamil mind and has served the anchor pin in their fight against all discriminatory social philosophies that emerged at various times and in various garbs. VaLLalaar attends to this problem in his own unique way and because of which he was in fact criticized severely by the casteic Hindus of the 19th cent Tamil Nadu.
He says quite clearly: You are NOT an alien to me and I am your loving brethren who would never use any words that will humiliate you, make you small miserable  and so forth but only that are great and edifying. But he goes further and asks the question: How that he, just a normal person like all others who are given over to such alienations and social decimations, has become one who abhors all these and expresses only LOVE unto all?

It is all because he has become LIFTED up in metaphysical maturity and all because he was blessed with metaphysical illuminations that have served to CLEANSE him of all such evil dispositions. One becomes naturally the LOVING kind of person who hates to alienate self from others only when one becomes spiritually lifted up and which can be done only bey being-with-BEING. To purify the souls BEING assumes the icon of Dancer and dances in the common GROUND of all, the Potu Ambalam and which can also be taken as the deepest part of the brain where He enacts various kinds of Cittadal, dances that affect thinking. BEING creates various kinds of tensions and conflicts in the soul and through them makes the person see how inhuman he us whenever he alienates another person and pushes him down in social status.

Here it is interesting that VaLLalaar calls attention to the great importance on REFLECTING on the existing social reality without dismissing it as Maya Irreal and so forth as in done in the Mayavada Vedanta and so forth. Taking the social reality as it is, we must REFLECT on the inhumanity present there without covering it up, closing our eyes to them and pretending it doesn't exist etc. The Hindu society, as some say, is quite barbaric for not only castes exists where different groups of people become alienated groups with inter-dining and inter marriages disallowed, but also there is a pressure to classify them along the VarNa lines - each caste claiming that it is higher than others and so forth and here the Brahmins being the most notorious where they claim such a status by virtue of birth alone.

VaLLalaar was deeply hurt by such social realities and rose above it all into true spirituality only by reflecting and realizing how barbaric it is all. The root cause is that all such people are very low in spiritual development and the only way to solve this problem is to spiritualize them through pulling them unto BEING let Him play His games in their mind.
But why should he recommend this to all? Why can't one go on with a life of hatred where one struggles heroically to maintain the high social status of the caste into which one is born?

No one can be genuinely HAPPY with a such a life. Hatred breeds misery and slowly it KILLS the person who hates. In this way it certainly takes the person away, far far away from the possibility of ever enjoying later the Deathless Existence of immeasurable joy.

The alienating discriminating individual not only suffers but also KILLS himself and becomes an easy victim of the killer forces deep within.

7( 5582)
niir piRaroo yaan unakku neeya uRavalanoo
nedumoziyee uraippan naRik kodumozi colleen
caaebuRavee aruLamutam tantu enai meel eeRRik
tanitta perum cukam aLitta tanittap perumpattitaan
ciir peRavee ti[otuvil tiumeeni tarittuc cittaadal purikinRa tirunaaLkaL adutta
oorpuRavee itu nalla taruNam iGkee vammin
ulakiyal uniyvaaRu uRRiduviir viraintee

Meaning:
O Friend ! You are not an alien to me and I am your loving brethren, I shall never use any of the cruel and hurting words but only those which are edifying and spiritually uplifting. And I do this all because as I stood depending wholly on BEING, He showered  upon me the nectar of deep metaphysical illuminations that cleansed me of all such evil traits. Having destroyed the evil tendency to alienate and discriminate against others, I now enjoy immense joy all blessed by the BEING who stands as One and above all. He assumes the guise of the Dancer and dances various kinds of mystical games in the deepest recesses of the human mimed.  Such days are the noble days and you should reflect deep upon the meanings of such games not forgetting at all meditating deeply upon the social reality where such alienations are to be seen. Thus this bodily existence constitutes the fine opportunity to do all these and lift up yourself to enjoy a life of Deathless Existence of immense joy.

In 1820 there came into the world a child in Prince Edward Island in Nova Scotia
whose family moved to England soon thereafter. The child, who was born in a
family called Pope, was named George Uglow (probably a Cornish name, but of
highly debated etymology). Eventually he came to be called G. U. Pope. He was
barely twenty when he came to South India, landing in a small town near
Tuticorin. He fell in love right away with Tamil and Telugu, as well as
Sanskrit. He had already mastered Latin and Hebrew.

Pope's The Sacred Kurral of Tiruvalluva Nayanar was first published from Oxford
in 1886. In gives an introductory essay which begins with the declaration that
"The weaver of Mayil?r, known now only as Tiruvalluvar, was undoubtedly one of
the great geniuses of the world . He is the venerated sage and lawgiver of the
Tamil people." He affirms from his knowledge of both Tamil and Sanskrit that
Tamil "is an independent language with a copious and original vocabulary, having
a very clear and philosophical grammatical system, very highly cultivated, and
in every respect equal to Sanskrit itself."

The translations themselves are somewhat verbose and contrived for rhyming words
in English. But the work has an exposition of the grammar of the Kural, a
detailed glossary and concordance, as well as several couplets from Beschi's
Latin version of the Kural which is not otherwise easily available.

The Kural is no doubt the most widely known work of its kind in Tamil
literature. But there is a no less interesting work, similar in concept: an
anthology of 400 quatrains authored by various poets, all didactic in nature.
This classic was also translated by G. U. Pope. In one of the verses here a poet
reminds us that we must respect people for their intrinsic worth and
contributions, and not on the basis of their caste (133): "As none condemns the
ferryman for being born into a lower caste, but cross the stream with his help,
so take the good and wise teaching from one who is learned irrespective of his
caste, low or high." Another reflection on caste occurs elsewhere in Naladiyar
(195): "When men speak of good caste and bad caste, it is a mere form of speech,
and has no real meaning. Not even by possessions, made splendid by ancient
glories, but by self denial, learning, and energy is caste determined."

Pope also translated Manimekalai, the classic Tamil epic, and the Tiruvacakam.
He also wrote scholarly papers on the "Poets of Tamil Lands," and "The Lives of
Tamil Saints." He was also a student of Saiva Siddhantam, a topic on which he
reflected deeply and wrote. He described it as "the choicest product of the
Dravidian intellect, and the most elaborate, influential, and undoubtedly the
more intrinsically valuable of all the religions of India." In one of his final
essays he analyzed this system of philosophy and explained the true Saiva
Siddhantic doctrine of emancipation thus: "When the Soul, finally set free from
the influence of threefold defilement through the grace of Shivan, obtains
divine wisdom, and so rises to live eternally in the conscious full enjoyment of
Shivan's presence, in conclusive bliss, this is emancipation."

Pope was a self-made scholar. He did not study for any formal higher degree. He
was awarded a Master of Arts degree by Oxford University when he was almost
sixty. He was also made a Doctor of Divinity by the Archbishop of Canterbury. In
his later years he served as Chaplain of Balliol College, Oxford, and taught
Tamil and Telugu to students of the Indian Civil Service.

G. U. Pope's love of Tamil language and culture is reflected in the following
statement he made. "Tamil is a sophisticated unique language, with a rich
vocabulary. It is the mother of all South Indian languages, Tamil literature was
designed to create high moral standards, ethical codes, and Thirukkural is a
great example of that. It is in a land of people with very high ethical codes
and who nurture human discipline that such moral books are created and could be
created. Thirukkural is as clear as an unpolluted spring. Yes! Thirukkural, the
unique book, has come to remove the impurities of this world. Within a short
time of my learning Tamil, I commenced translating Thirukkural, for the benefit
of Europeans. It took several years to complete the translation and I offer my
gratitude to God for the final result."

In this age when rage towards Western scholars clouds the minds and writings of
many Neo-Hindu intellectuals, it is difficult and unpalatable to recall, let
alone acknowledge, the love and labor of Western scholars who went deep into
Indian culture, religion, and literature. Many of them were Christians and many
were missionaries, for sure, and they were all products of a culture that was
proselytizing both religiously and on the secular-scientific plane, as were the
Hindu and Buddhist missionaries who spread the religion and wisdom of classical
India to other South Asian lands in another era of history. But this did not
diminish their respect and appreciation for whatever was best in India's
heritage.

When, in the sixteenth century, the Portuguese missionary Padre Henrique
Henriques (1520 -1600) set up the first Tamil press in South India, and
published the first Tamil-Portuguese dictionary, he could not have imagined how
many European scholars would follow him in the study, elucidation, and
propagation of the Tamil language, and the translation of Tamil classics into
European idioms.

Robert di Nobili (1577 - 1656) was an early Italian Tamilist who authored such
works in Tamil as Atma Nirunayam and Tivviya Mantirikai. This Jesuit priest came
to be called Tattuva P?ar. Unfortunately, in his eagerness to win converts,
he feigned to be a Brahmin, tuft, dhoti and all, and preached his own religion's
doctrines as if they were from Hindu scriptures.

Another illustrious Jesuit-Tamilist was Constatino Giuseppe Beschi (1680 - 1747)
who wrote a Tamil-Latin dictionary, a work on Tamil grammar in Latin, a
commentary on the Vedas in Tamil, as well as a story entitled Kuruvin Katai:
Story of a Teacher. His many other works on and about Tamil include a Latin
translation of the Tirukkural.

Already in the early decades of the nineteenth century some scholars had
proposed that Tamil and Telugu belonged to a language-family different from the
Sanskritic. This idea was elaborated in the middle of that century by Robert
Caldwell (1814 - 1891) who was a comparative linguist. He was the one to
proposed the name Dravidian for the family of languages that includes, among
others, Tamil, Talugu, Kannada, and Malayalam. He got this name from the
Sanskrit dr?da which occurs in a seventh century Sanskrit text, referring to
the languages of the south. Caldwell has been rightly criticized by some Indian
scholars for making such a bifurcation because it causes a divide between Tamil
and Sanskritic Hindus, but modern linguists tend to regard the Dravidian as one
of four major language groups in India, the others being Indo-European, Munda,
and Tibeto-Burman. We are all familiar with the now defunct Aryan Invasion
Theory. Caldwell proposed an even more silly Dravidian Invasion Theory by which
a proto-Dravidian language came into India with invaders from the north-west.

It was Father Peter Percival who started in 1855 the first Tamil weekly, with
two Tamil scholar-associates. It was called Dina Vartamani. The magazine was
successful for about twenty years. Percival was a great lover of Tamil language
and literature. He wrote a Tamil-English Akar? (dictionary), and also
published a collection of nearly 5,000 Tamil proverbs and maxims in the
original, along with English translations.

Then there was Miron Winslow (1789 - 1864), an American who came all the way to
Ceylon to spread the Gospel. He became so fond of Tamil that he moved to Madras
and lived there for the rest of his life. He published a Comprehensive
Tamil-English Dictionary (975+ pages) which has been reprinted many times. The
equivalent of Monier-Williams' Sanskrit-English dictionary, this is a
comprehensive work with more than 30,000 words, which cover "the Common and
Poetic Dialects of the Tamil language, including its principal Astronomical,
Astrological, Mythological, Botanical, Scientific and Official terms; as also
the names of many authors, poets, heroes, and gods."

One can go on and on with many more names. What is unpleasant in the recall of
all of this is that every author I have mentioned above was a Christians
missionary. We of the Hindu faith do not engage in conversion, and we have
little sympathy for those who come to change people of our tradition into their
fold. But, as history would have it, for whatever selfish reason, a good many
Christians took great interest in Indian culture and literature, even while they
stated explicitly that their goal was to change "heathens" into Christians. From
their perspective, however mistakenly (as we see it), they really believed they
were trying to save Hindus from eternal damnation. We may note in this context
that there have been countless Hindus who have delved into Western literature
and philosophies, and developed respect and appreciation for them, while not
having high regard for Christianity. The difference is, except for some New-Age
Hindu groups, few of us are interested to winning the allegiance of Westerners
to Hinduism.

Be that as it may, while many Hindus understandably deride and despise the
Christian Tamilists, I still admire them for their devotion to Tamil, and I am
happy that they unwittingly propagated the language and lore of the Tamils to
the world at large.

Finally, one must mention a Western scholar of Tamil who was not a missionary:
Alain Danilou (1907 - 1994) was French. In fact, he became a Hindu himself,
grew a tuft of hair, and lived in India for many years. He had great love for
the country, and deep understanding of Indian culture: especially its mythopoesy
and music. He too translated some Tamil works, such as Manimekalai and
Cilappatikaram, into English, besides writing a scholarly work on The Myths and
Gods of India.

On a cold afternoon in London in the year 1895, somewhere in a West-End drawing
room Swami Vivekananda was talking about Hinduism and its worldviews to a
handful of admirers seated in a half-circle. In the audience was a skeptical
young Englishwoman named Margaret Noble. He was fascinated by the Swamiji and by
his answers to questions, and she was touched by the mantras which reminded her
of Gregorian chants. She was converted to the concepts of karma and
reincarnation, and she was intrigued to hear Swamiji say that "Man proceeds from
lower to higher truth, and not from error to truth." She was provoked into deep
reflection by Upanishadic comment that "The universe is like a cobweb and minds
are like spiders; for mind is one as well as many."

Miss Noble was convinced right away, in her own words, that this man was "no
mere lecturer. He was as clearly an apostle . as any poor evangelical preacher,
or Salvation Army officer, calling on the world to enter into the kingdom of
God. And yet he took his stand on what was noblest and best in us." She saw in
Vivekananda a spiritually elevated soul filled with devotion and action.

If Margaret Noble experienced a strong attraction for India, Swami Viveka-nanda
was no less aware of her earnestness and potential for commitment. During next
visit to England, he told her: "I have plans for the women of my own country in
which you, I think, could be of great help to me." He could not have been more
direct. So it was that this Irish woman, whose primary interest was in teaching,
who had been involved with the New Education movement of the turn of the
century, and was also searching for some spiritual light, was drawn to India and
her culture, to Hindu philosophy and religion. She decided to dedicate herself
to the cause of distant India. It was a mysterious beckoning, a call for service
beyond self, which goads some to commitments that benefit many others.

The social and living conditions in India at the time were not exactly
attractive to Europeans. On the one hand, Swami Vivekananda suggested to Miss
Noble that she could be of assistance to him in his plans, because he was
convinced she had "a great future in the work for India," because, he said,
"India cannot yet produce great women, she must borrow them from other nations."
On the other hand, he also warned her: "You cannot form any idea of the misery,
the superstition, and the slavery that are here. You will be in the midst of a
mass of half-naked men and women with quaint ideas of caste and isolation,
shunning the white skin through fear or hatred and hated by them intensely..."
These were not the words of Eurocentric arrogance, but of Vivekananda.

Miss Noble came to India nevertheless. Not long after she arrived at Calcutta in
1898, she became a member of the order of Ramakrishna, and called herself
Nivedita: The dedicated one. She began a girls' school in Calcutta which was not
initially very successful. She read the Gita assiduously. She traveled widely in
India and abroad, lecturing on Indian themes, expounding Indian thought and
worldviews to many audiences. She came back to her school, developed it further
into high school, admitting not only children and youngsters but also adult
women.

It was difficult in those days to be untouched by the political turmoil,
especially in Bengal whose partition in 1905 caused many disturbances. Sister
Nivedita joined the Indians in speaking out against the British government,
urging the youth to a greater sense of self-dignity and awareness. Many of the
outstanding Indian patriots and leaders of the day were moved by her sincerity
and commitment to India's cause. Surendranath Banerjee said that "she was an
Indian through and through, an Indian to the very marrow of her bones."

Nivedita wrote with sensitivity on many facets of Indian culture, philosophy,
art, and history. If some thought that her writings had a touch of romanticism,
painting a rosier picture of Hindu society than was perhaps the case, her works
accomplished two important things: They showed to Westerners that Indian
civilization is far too complex and profound to be judged by the superficial and
parochial standards of some European commentators. And they revealed to
West-intoxicated Indi-ans that theirs was a great and glorious heritage which it
would be foolish to ignore or repudiate, dazzled as they were by the material
might of the West. "Do not let modern fashions and extravagances of the West...
spoil your reverential humility, and your lovable domestic ties...," she
implored to young Indians, an advice that is no less appropriate in our own
times.

To Indian women she declared, "I beg of you always ... to think of me and pray
for me as your little sister who loves this beautiful and holy land, and who
longs to be shown how to serve you more and more effectively." During a visit to
a flood and famine-stricken village in East Bengal, Sister Nivedita fell victim
to malaria. A few years later she died in Darjeeling.

BEING is Magical

One of the meanings of the word  'cittaadal' used here is the Magical Play of BEING and which refers to the various kinds of miraculous happenings in life well beyond the normal reaches of human understanding.  This happens particularly in connection with serious diseases where even after the physicians have given up hope, something happens especially after they approach God in desperation to get well and so forth. There are many cases where even the almost dead are somehow rescued and their diseases disappear. In the life histories of Appar and Sundarar we also see such cures and all as the blessings of BEING. Sundarar lost his eyes but recovered them after he prayed ardently (and in anger) towards Siva.

However one more theme mentioned here has been one of the central themes in Agamism right from ancient times and it is that one can RECOVER the youthful vitality even after nearing death due to senility and so forth. This goes by the phrase 'enRum patinaaRaay vaazvatu' ( living as the sweet sixteen always). As modern medical sconce also affirms there are processes in the biological body which if activated during old age, can in fact rejuvenate the body restoring youthful vitality and so forth and where one can enjoy a second birth as the Dwija and manage to live upto a ripe age of 110 years or so as some Siddhas have demonstrated.

Against the natural processes of aging and moving to a definite death and so forth with the general decline of the whole body and mind, such events may sound unbelievable and as magical or miraculous. But such processes are there undeniably and quite available to anyone who is genuinely religious or metaphysical. That which makes it possible to earn this gift for the soul is becoming genuinely LOVING unto all and nearing BEING with an understanding that He also wholly LOVE and who CARES for all.

Thus the psychological disposition to LOVE all seems to be that quality of the soul which would earn the GRACE of BEING so that He would activate the various biological mechanisms whereby youthful vitality is restored to the soul.

Anyone who becomes deeply loving unto all can become a Dwija, one can enjoys a second lease of youthful life and with that live and eliminate from within the remaining worldly desires so that at the end becomes one who is FREE of all such worldly desires. This also prepares the soul for the genuine metaphysical existence - existing as Pure Spirit and without anymore being thrown back into embodiment which would bring along with it DEATH as such.

        
8.
Virrantu viraintu adaintidumin meetiniyiir iGkee
Meymmai uraikkinReen niir veeRu niniyaatiir
Tiraintu tiraintu uLauttavarum iLamai adaintidavum
cettavarkaL ezuntidavum cittaadal puriya
varaintu varaintu ellaam cey valla cittan taanee
varukinRa taruNam iti varam peRalaam niivir
karaintu karaintu uLam urukik kaNkalil niir perukik
karuNaik nadak kadavuLai ud karutuminoo kaLittee!

Meaning:
O people lost in the worldly life! Hasten and attain the Dancing BEING who is wholly LOVING and CARING towards all. I am telling a truth and don't think otherwise. He can, like a Siddha, play many magical games where people who have become senile with all the youthful powers burnt out within (by the fire mantras) can recover and become youthful again. He can resuscitate those who are  very near death ( that the physicians have given up) and make them walk again like a normal person.  BEING is quite capable of all these and which He does in careful measures. What you have to do is to develop the feeling of LOVE and COMPASION and with the heart melting and eyes shedding tears you must worship Him as the Dancer who dances in the Tillai Ambalam overcome only with COMPASSION for all creatures.

If asked who was the first person born in the Indian subcontinent to receive the
Nobel Prize, most people would say: Rabindranath Tagore. Actually, the correct
answer would be Ronald Ross who was born in Almora of British parents, and
stayed in India till he was eight before being shipped off to England for
schooling. There he completed his studies and became a physician. Eventually, he
won the Nobel Prize in 1902.

As a youth, Roland wrote poems, composed music, and did some painting too. On
the advice of his father, he took a degree in medicine, became an army surgeon,
traveled back and forth between India and England, had an attack of malaria, and
got interested in the then emerging field of bacteriology. He was an idealist.
He tried to better the human condition "by trying to discover the causes of
those diseases which are perhaps mankind's chief enemies." Indeed, his claim to
fame comes from his investigations of the cause of malaria, a disease that used
to kill millions of people in India and in many other (mostly tropical)
countries. The general belief until the late 19th century was that the illness
was due to bad (male: pronounce maalay) air (aria).

During one of his trips to India as a member of the British-Indian medical
services Ross was stationed in Madras where many soldiers were stricken with
malaria. Quinine was already known and used for the treatment of the disease.
Then he was posted at Bangalore. The area where he lived was infested with
mosquitoes which often hovered around a nearby pond. He went to the pond and
noticed tiny grubs which were wriggling constantly. He identified these as the
larvae of the mosquitoes.

Ross was persuaded by a hypothesis put forth by Patrick Manson in 1894 to the
effect that mosquitoes had something to do with the disease. He was also
familiar with the discovery of the French physician Laveran of the parasite
Plasmodium which had been detected in the blood samples of French sailors who
had been to North Africa.

Now the challenge was to find out what connection plasmodium had with
mosquitoes. He dissected mosquitoes to see if they had disease-carrying germs,
but he did not find any. He did not give up, and he eventually discovered that
there were different types of mosquitoes. One of them, when dissected, revealed
something unusual in the stomach. He paid less than a tenth of a cent (by
today's reckoning) per mosquito-bite to a malarial patient, he examined scores
of the creatures until, on 20 August 1897, he discovered that anopheles
mosquitoes were the real culprits. These carry the malarial parasites. The
parasite develops in the body of mosquito. When the creature sucks blood from a
human, the parasites are transmitted through its saliva into the victim's
bloodstream. It took another 50 years for scientists to uncover the various
stages of the life cycle of the anopheles.

Ross's discovery was extremely important for two reasons. First, it pin-pointed
the cause and mode of transmission of a disease which had been taking the lives
of millions all over the world. This knowledge helped in the prevention of the
disease by getting rid of and keeping away from mosquitoes and their breeding
regions. Secondly, it revealed how diseases may be transmitted through complex
and unsuspecting modes. The idea of a disease-vector (agent) arose from Ross's
work. Ross was knighted for his achievement, and he was also one of the early
recipients of the Nobel Prize for Medicine (1902).

When Roland Ross went to England as a professor of medicine, he met with many
(bureaucratic) hurdles. He bore his frustrations with equanimity. Sometimes he
would write verses to give vent to these, as in the following which also reveals
his deeply religious nature and his sense of humility:

Before Thy feet I fall, Lord who made high my fate;

For in the mighty small, Thou showed'st the mighty great.

Henceforth I will resound but praises unto Thee;

Though I was beat and bound, Thou gavest me victory.

So it has been with wars against diseases. Preachers and traditions sometimes
say with smugness that diseases, like earthquakes, are expressions of divine
disgust with misbehaving mankind, in this life or in a past one. But scientists
have a different vision of divinity, and they work hard in god-like fashion to
mitigate the pain, to relieve the suffering, and to uncover the cause rather
than curse the victims to more agony and death as naive God-pictures suggest.

The discontinuance of DDT because of its dangers to the environment has brought
back malaria. One of the goals of the World Health Organization is to eradicate
malaria completely by the close of this decade. Scientists also tell us that
tropical diseases like malaria will be more common in northern Europe and North
America in due course. Globalization is more than free international trade.

The First Modern 'Inadvertent' Indian Renaissance Man?

On a separate issue, forwarded from another forum as it is important to us and has bearings on Dr. Raman's recent writings on modern western indologists, and my views on guna, varna and the puranashastras.

This is excellent. For years we heard our people repeat this misrepresentation endlessly and for decades we too repeated it by rote (in the Hindu tradition ). It is most gratifying the record has been set straight. It strengthens my call that the puranas and the itihasas be eliminated from Hindu records. This clarification would be a first modern deathblow to sankrit too. Please note that 18th and 19th century western Indologists were captivated by the
upanishads and Tamil literature only, not anything else.

We are ashamed of Indologists like Purohit Bhagavan Dutt. They owe us an apology for falsifying texts and the record IN THE TRUE SANSKRIT HINDU TRADITION.

Regards.

Pathmarajah

.
Dr S Kalyanaraman has circulated (19 Feb 06) a report titled Western Indologists: A Study in Motives by Purohit Bhagavan Dutt and that is posted at   http://www.veda.harekrsna.cz/encyclopedia/indology.htm
 
The impression one gains after reading the report is that the author after so much research has chosen to miss the point(s), such may be the compulsion of any Hindutva activist. 
 
If they have difficulty making sense of AND deriving lessons from recent (colonial) history, how much more challenged can they be when confronting ancient history.   
 
If they can so daringly FALSIFY recent happenings that are so explicitly documented (e.g. Macaulay's MINUTE ON EDUCATION, 2nd February 1835), what more can they NOT do with facts relating to the remote past. 
 
It appears that they cannot curb their instinct for myth-making, at which their skills are without doubt awesome and of Puranic proportions.  That's why Indians (or Kalyan's Bharatiyas) are saddled with so much mythology, filling not only the gaps of history but often supplanting (driving out) history itself.   
 
It will, therefore, be useful - in the interest of accuracy and completeness - that at least some of the facts, opinions and complaints raised in the report be addressed.  I will try to do so in segments. 
 
1.  Macaulay's MINUTE ON EDUCATION, 2nd February 1835
 
1.1  It may be useful to start with the end (concluding part) of the report.  The entire report is building up towards this climax:
 
QUOTE
 
Origin of the Western subversive agenda in India
 
It was February 1835, a time when the British were striving to take control of the whole of India. Lord Macaulay, a historian and a politician, made a historical speech in the British Parliament, commonly referred to as The Minutes, which struck a blow at the centuries old system of Indian education. His words were to this effect: I have traveled across the length and breadth of India and I have not seen one person who is a beggar, who is a thief. Such wealth I have seen in this country, such high moral values, people of such calibre, that I do not think we would ever conquer this country, unless we break the very backbone of this nation, which is her spiritual and cultural heritage, and, therefore, I propose that we replace her old and ancient education system, her culture, for if the Indians think that all that is foreign and English is good and greater than their own, they will lose their self-esteem, their native self-culture and they will become what we want them, a truly dominated nation.
(Source: The Awakening Ray, Vol. 4 No. 5, The Gnostic Centre)
 
UNQUOTE
  
The author (Purohit Bhagawan Dutt) has not reproduced the exact words of Macaulay. Instead, Macaulay has been merely paraphrased (His words were to this effect).  If it were a faithful paraphrase or summary, it could be regarded a honest job and serve a useful purpose.  Instead, the paraphrasing is wrongly making out Macaulay as having had said things that he did NOT say in the entire course of his (in)famous speech.  The speech is referred to as the MINUTE ON EDUCATION (2nd February 1835) and is reproduced online at:
 
[URL=http://projectsouthasia.sdstate.edu/Docs/history/primarydocs/
education/Macaulay001.htm]http://projectsouthasia.sdstate.edu/Docs/history/
primarydocs/education/Macaulay001.htm[/URL]
(based on records available with the National Archives of India)
 
 
1.2   No where in his entire speech can Macaulay be made out to be saying anything close to the effect:
 
QUOTE
 
....I have traveled across the length and breadth of India and I have not seen one person who is a beggar, who is a thief. Such wealth I have seen in this country, such high moral values, people of such calibre,..
 
UNQUOTE
 
1.3  For the moment, let us leave aside whether Macaulay said anything - even remotely - to the above effect, as claimed so audaciously by the author (Purohit Bhagavan Dutt). 
 
IF it were true that India in the early 19th century was a country where an extensive traveler (criss-crossing ìthe length and breadth of India) would NOT chance upon 'one person who is a beggar, who is thief', but would instead be impressed by 'such wealth I have seen in this country, such high moral values, people of such caliber', THEN one is faced with the following difficult questions:
 
a)   Would it NOT mean that the Muslims / Mughals must have done a great job as the rulers of India for more than 600 years, much better than free Indians have done for themselves OR shown to be capable of over the last nearly 60 years of independence? 
 
{For the greatest thing that appears to have happened to post-independent India is the INDIAN DIASPORA, i.e. people who have left / fled India to achieve great things OUTSIDE India, things they would not have been able to if they had remained INSIDE.  On the other hand, of recent times, some have been trying to say that the Indian diaspora has been out there trying to rescue the host countries from trouble!}
 
b)  How did a mere few thousand British officers manage to first gain control of such a vast country where milk and honey were flowing (and with a high ìcaliberî population of 200 million and more) AND then govern it 'in the name of the British Crown' for more than 200 years?
 
1.4  Let's now see some key points that Macaulay was really saying in the course of his speech. 
 
1.5  Macaulay was seeking to enable the intellectual improvement of the people of India through effective education (education that would make a real difference in the practical world):
 
QUOTE
 
        .. We now come to the gist of the matter. We have a fund to be employed as Government shall direct for the intellectual improvement of the people of this country. The simple question is, what is the most useful way of employing it?
 
        All parties seem to be agreed on one point, that the dialects commonly spoken among the natives of this part of India contain neither literary nor scientific information, and are moreover so poor and rude that, until they are enriched from some other quarter, it will not be easy to translate any valuable work into them.  It seems to be admitted on all sides, that the intellectual improvement of those classes of the people who have the means of pursuing higher studies can at present be affected only by means of some language not vernacular amongst them.
 
UNQUOTE
 
What were being condescendingly referred to as 'vernaculars', i.e. languages spoken by the common people, were in varying degrees of impoverishment due to centuries of domination by Sanskrit and, during the Muslim rule, Arabic.  In the case of Tamil, for example, its vitality as a language was being further sapped by indiscriminatate importation of Sk words (Sanskritization, often forced).  
 

1.6  Macaulay also found that materials in Sanskrit and Arabic were NOT measuring up, understandably so:  
 
QUOTE
 
       .. I have no knowledge of either Sanscrit or Arabic. But I have done what I could to form a correct estimate of their value. I have read translations of the most celebrated Arabic and Sanscrit works. I have conversed, both here and at home, with men distinguished by their proficiency in the Eastern tongues. I am quite ready to take the oriental learning at the valuation of the orientalists themselves. I have never found one among them who could deny that a single shelf of a good European library was worth the whole native literature of India and Arabia..
 
UNQUOTE
 
For these British officers sitting in Calcutta / Delhi, they were familiar mainly with literature in Sanskrit and Arabic, of the languages then in use in India.  Much of what were there in Tamil would NOT have been known to them, as even the Tamil people themselves were then largely ignorant about the totality of their literary heritage. 

 
1.7  Macaulay had the following to say about the quality of works in Sanskrit:
 
QUOTE
 
.. from works of imagination to works in which facts are recorded and general principles investigated, the superiority of the Europeans becomes absolutely immeasurable. It is, I believe, no exaggeration to say that all the historical information which has been collected from all the books written in the Sanscrit language is less valuable than what may be found in the most paltry abridgments used at preparatory schools in England. In every branch of physical or moral philosophy, the relative position of the two nations is nearly the same.
 
UNQUOTE
 
It appears that Macaulay could not find sufficient 'real history' in 'all the books written in the Sanscrit language'.   How could it be otherwise when myth-making had always been easier than the disciplined effort of faithfully recording history?  For instance, any student of history soon discovers that China has more history, India has more mythology (thanks to the imaginative ways of our Sanskrit pandits, sages, etc.)
 

1.8    Macaulay was clearly agonizing over the choice of language in which to educate the people of British India.  His preference was English and he explains:
 
QUOTE
 
.. We have to educate a people who cannot at present be educated by means of their mother-tongue. We must teach them some foreign language. The claims of our own language (English) it is hardly necessary to recapitulate. It stands pre-eminent even among the languages of the West. It abounds with works of imagination not inferior to the noblest which Greece has bequeathed to us,-with models of every species of eloquence,-with historical composition, which, considered merely as narratives, have seldom been surpassed, and which, considered as vehicles of ethical and political instruction, have never been equaled-with just and lively representations of human life and human nature,-with the most profound speculations on metaphysics, morals, government, jurisprudence, trade,-with full and correct information respecting every experimental science which tends to preserve the health, to increase the comfort, or to expand the intellect of man. Whoever knows that language has ready access to all the vast intellectual wealth which all the wisest nations of the earth have created and hoarded in the course of ninety generations. It may safely be said that the literature now extant in that language is of greater value than all the literature which three hundred years ago was extant in all the languages of the world together..
 
UNQUOTE
 
1.9  Macaulay also reveals that the ruling / higher classes of the natives had already taken to English with gusto:   
 
QUOTE:
 
.. In India, English is the language spoken by the ruling class. It is spoken by the higher class of natives at the seats of Government. It is likely to become the language of commerce throughout the seas of the East. It is the language of two great European communities which are rising, the one in the south of Africa, the other in Australia,-communities which are every year becoming more important and more closely connected with our Indian empire. Whether we look at the intrinsic value of our literature, or at the particular situation of this country, we shall see the strongest reason to think that, of all foreign tongues, the English tongue is that which would be the most useful to our native subjects.
 
UNQUOTE
 
What we must care to note is the nature of the task that Macaulay was engaging himself in.  It was 'LANGUAGE PLANNING' for the education of an entire nation (NOT merely for the classes / castes so privileged under the varnashramic order), whatever the ulterior (or ultimate) purpose may be. 
 
One cannot resist looking at the language situation in India today, particularly Tamil Nadu.   Nearly 60 years after the British had left, Tamil Nadu could not build up sufficient pre-eminence for the Tamil language in education and governance in its own territory.  Tamil Nadu is the only state in all of India (perhaps, in the entire civilized world) where a student can sail through 12 years of formal school education without ever studying his mother tongue (Tamil):  more about this later under a different subject. 
 

1.10  Macaulay then tried to convince himself and others that NOT much of practical value was going to be lost by instituting education in English, apparently based on what he knew about the contents of books then available in the Indian languages:  
 
QUOTE
 
        The question now before us is simply whether, when it is in our power to teach this language (English), we shall teach languages (Indian languages) in which, by universal confession, there are no books on any subject which deserve to be compared to our own, whether, we shall countenance, at the public expense, medical doctrines which would disgrace an English farrier, astronomy which would move laughter in girls at an English boarding school, history abounding with kings thirty feet high and reigns thirty thousand years long, and geography made of seas of treacle and seas of butter.
 
UNQUOTE
 
Macaulay was obviously overwhelmed by the mythologies that abound in the type of (Sanskrit) literature he must have been introduced to by the (Sanskrit) pandits.  He refers to the 'history abounding with kings thirty feet high and reigns thirty thousand years long' and so on. 
 
In fact, a little later in his speech he would say as follows:
 
QUOTE
 
I doubt whether the Sanscrit literature be as valuable as that of our Saxon and Norman progenitors. In some departments-in history for example-I am certain that it is much less so.
 
Assuredly it is the duty of the British Government in India to be not only tolerant but neutral on all religious questions. But to encourage the study of a literature, admitted to be of small intrinsic value, only because that literature inculcated the most serious errors on the most important subjects, is a course hardly reconcilable with reason, with morality, or even with that very neutrality which ought, as we all agree, to be sacredly preserved. It is confined that a language is barren of useful knowledge. We are to teach it because it is fruitful of monstrous superstitions. We are to teach false history, false astronomy, false medicine, because we find them in company with a false religion. We abstain, and I trust shall always abstain, from giving any public encouragement to those who are engaged in the work of converting the natives to Christianity. And while we act thus, can we reasonably or decently bribe men, out of the revenues of the State, to waste their youth in learning how they are to purify themselves after touching an ass or what texts of the Vedas they are to repeat to expiate the crime of killing a goat?
 
UNQUOTE
 
 
2.  Raja Rammohan Roy on Sanskrit education
 

2.1  More than 11 years before Macaulay would make the above speech, one of India's leading social reformers, Raja Rammohan Roy (of Bengal), was highlighting how (i) intellectually stultifying, and (ii) of little practical value would be traditional education in Sanskrit.  He was writing to the Governor-General on 11th December 1823:
 
QUOTE
 
The Sangscrit language, so difficult that almost a life time is necessary for its perfect acquisition, is well known to have been for ages a lamentable check on the diffusion of knowledge; and the learning concealed under this almost impervious veil is far from sufficient to reward the labour of acquiring it. But if it were thought necessary to perpetuate this language for the sake of the portion of the valuable information it contains, this might be much more easily accomplished by other means than the establishment of a new Sangscrit College; for there have been always and are now numerous professors of Sangscrit in the different parts of the country, engaged in teaching this language as well as the other branches of literature which are to be the object of the new Seminary. Therefore their more diligent cultivation, if desirable, would be effectually promoted by holding out premiums and granting certain allowances to those most eminent Professors, who have already undertaken on their own account to teach them, and would by such rewards be stimulated to still greater exertions.
 
        From these considerations, as the sum set apart for the instruction of the Natives of India was intended by the Government in England, for the improvement of its Indian subjects, I beg leave to state, with due deference to your Lordship's exalted situation, that if the plan now adopted be followed, it will completely defeat the object proposed; since no improvement can be expected from inducing young men to consume a dozen of years of the most valuable period of their lives in acquiring the niceties of the Byakurun or Sangscrit Grammar. ......
 
      ......Again, no essential benefit can be derived by the student of the Meemangsa from knowing what it is that makes the killer of a goat sinless on pronouncing certain passages of the Veds, and what is the real nature and operative influence of passages of the Ved, etc........
 
        In order to enable your Lordship to appreciate the utility of encouraging such imaginary learning as above characterised, I beg your Lordship will be pleased to compare the state of science and literature in Europe before the time of Lord Bacon, with the progress of knowledge made since he wrote.
 
       If it had been intended to keep the British nation in ignorance of real knowledge the Baconian philosophy would not have been allowed to displace the system of the schoolmen, which was the best calculated to perpetuate ignorance. In the same manner the Sangscrit system of education would be the best calculated to keep this country in darkness, if such had been the policy of the British Legislature. But as the improvement of the native population is the object of the Government, it will consequently promote a more liberal and enlightened system of instruction, embracing mathematics, natural philosophy, chemistry and anatomy, with other useful sciences which may be accomplished with the sum proposed by employing a few gentlemen of talents and learning educated in Europe, and providing a college furnished with the necessary books, instruments and other apparatus..
 
UNQUOTE
 
For full text:
http://projectsouthasia.sdstate.edu/Docs/history/primarydocs/education/RMRoy001.htm
(based on records available with the National Archives of India)
 
 
Anbudan
ARUL
http://anbudanarul.blogspot.com
 

Srinivasan Kalyanaraman wrote:
Sun, 19 Feb 2006 06:17:15 -0500
 
By Purohit Bhagavan Dutt (with minor additions by authors of "Review of Beef in Ancient India")
Interest Of Europeans In Bharatavarsha And Its Ancient Literature
Result Of That Interest
Primary Reason: Jewish And Christian Bias
The Purpose Of Boden Chair Of Sanskrit In Oxford University
Prejudiced Sanskrit Professors
Most Bharatiya Scholars And Politicians Are Unaware Of This Bias
Conclusion
Verses Worthy Of Attention
The History And Traditional Source Of The Vedas
Origin of the Western subversive agenda in India
Notes
Interest Of Europeans In Bharatavarsha And Its Ancient Literature
The battle of Plassey, fought in Samvat 1814, sealed the fate of India. Bengal came under the dominance of the British. In Samvat 1840, William Jones was appointed Chief Justice in the British settlement of Fort William. He translated into English the celebrated play "Shakuntala" of the renowned poet Kalidasa (Circa 4th cent. B. V.) in Samvat 1846, and the Code of Manu in Samvat 1851, the year in which he died. After him, his younger associate, Sir Henry Thomas Colebrooke, wrote an article 'On the Vedas' in Samvat 1862.
 
(truncated)

[This message has been edited by Webmaster (edited March 21, 2006).]

In the major religious traditions of humankind god is always used in the
singular. In Judeo-Christian thought as in Plato as well in Islam, we find
explicit affirmation of there being but one God. This firm belief in a single
god is referred to as monotheism. On the other hand, there are (and have been)
religious systems which freely recognize a variety of gods. In ancient Egypt,
Persia, and Greece, for example, many different gods were worshipped. We call
this belief polytheism.

In the vision of Hinduism there are no simple answers to complex questions. If
we ask the Hindu tradition, which of the two views, a single god or many gods is
correct, the answer would be, both: There is but one god, and there are also
many.

Confusing as such an answer might seem, a little reflec-tion will show that it
carries much meaning if we recognize that God is not an object or an entity that
is to be spotted at some place and time, but an inherent feature of the cosmos
that is to be grasped as an inner experience. We may approach the question
through an analogy.

Consider music. Is there such a thing as music ? The answer clearly is yes, but
only to those who have heard music. A person born deaf may deny the existence of
music or at best agree with a hearing person who tells him so. But no one can
intellectually grasp music: It is to be experienced, not defined. Now let us
ask: Is there one music or many ? Music is one, but its expressions are
countless. What is more, at least for most of us, we can only know music through
its many expressions. Perhaps, at the highest level, one may be able to grasp
music as such without reference to any particular piece. This, roughly, is the
Hindu view of god. There is but one god, but its manifestations are many. And
god is best experienced through one or more of its multiple manifestations.

It is possible to enjoy a variety of music and yet be fond of one particular
piece more than any other. If we were to ask an avid music lover which is the
most im-portant or enjoyable piece of music, she could very well say, "The one I
am listening to at a given moment." For each piece has its own charm and beauty,
and while one is in the joys of listening to a particular piece, all others
recede into silence. So too, in the Hindu mode, of the many manifestations of
god, the one that is being adored is the most important at the moment. Others
may, at other times, take on the primary role.

In the Hindu attitude to the Divine, the one God is manifest in many different
forms of co-equal importance, yet with one of them taking on major significance
to an individual in a given context. Furthermore, just as every music lover may
have his or her own favorite piece, a Hindu (or Hindu family) may have a
favorite divine form; that is, One Who is worshipped regularly as one's own
hereditarily adopted deity. Such a godhead is called an ishta-devata or chosen
god. And we are told, pratim?rathamo pr?han?the m?is the first step in
worship.

Monotheism is a grand vision, if the term only implied belief in a single God.
Sadly, it often includes a constraining corollary: "That One God is the God
which I worship." It is no small irony of history that there have been more
bloody confrontations between monotheistic religions and among sects within
monotheistic religions than between any of them and a polytheistic one: not a
happy commentary on Middle-Eastern monotheism.

Theologians and leaders of all religions would do well to consider Hinduism's
view on this matter. There is a precious aphorism in the Rig Veda which says it
all:

ekam sat; vipra bahuda vadanti

Truth is one; the learned call it by different names.

The word sat means truth, essence, and also God. God is essentially the ultimate
truth, the quintessence of the Cosmic Whole. In the Hindu framework, by truth
one means that which is real, and by real one means that which is eternal, and
not subject to transformation or decay. Thus, God is the only Reality with a
capital R. Reality with a small r is the passing and perishing panorama that we
experience every waking hour.

Quintessential Truth, however, is infinite, and it can be grasped only in parts
and only parts of it can be grasped by the human mind. So every description of
the Divine, whether from revelation or through speculation, whether from reading
or by reflection, can only be partial. So we all proclaim it in many different
ways. One is not right and the other wrong in this matter. Like the six blind
men who wanted to know about the elephant, we all obtain a glimpse of the
Ultimate. Truth about the Ultimate is like the glitter of a gem, it shines in
different ways when viewed from different angles. For the enlightened heart and
mind, God can be seen in the star of David as in the Cross, in the Crescent
inspired by the Koran as in the abstract sound of the sacred Om.

In the next few essays I plan to reflect on particular representations of the
Divine in the Hindu framework.

As we go through life we take many things for granted, seldom realizing the
thousand factors whose confluence makes existence possible. We know, of course,
that we cannot live without oxygen, but neither can we live without water.
Carbon is no less important, and so is the sun. One can go on and on.

Vedic sage-poets recognized the relevance of such a multiplicity of
life-sustaining principles. They realized that rain and air, fire and sun are
indispensable for survival. They also saw the role of human virtues in the
proper functioning of civilized society.

Having understood this, as sophisticated thinkers they felt that these
principles must be evoked and adored, as a matter of expressing our gratitude.
But how is one to pay homage to air and water, to fire and sky? It is not easy
to revere the forces of nature or the virtues of character in their pure
abstraction. Hence their personification. This may be seen as the insight that
provoked the genesis of Vedic deities. So they gave to the primordial principles
parentage and birth, suggesting they had an origin; mutual rivalries for it is
difficult for us to say which one is more important than the others. Most of
all, these life-giving principles were seen as mighty and every-present.

Of the various Vedic deities, four are primary : Agni (Fire), Vayu (the Wind),
Surya(Sun), and Soma (Moon). Agni gives us our food: after all, every food has
its caloric value. Vayu's place is antariksha: the space above, for the
atmosphere is the earth's subtle mantle. And as breath, it is also the basis of
life. Surya resides in dyaus: the sky. As bright sunshine enlivens the mind, he
is regarded as the vivifier of our intellect. Soma, the waxing and waning moon,
symbolizing growth, diminution, and renovation of life. He resides among the
nakshatras (lunar mansions). He is the principle of immortality. Magnificent
poetry and sublime imagery are woven around these.

Each one of these Vedic gods is regarded as being superior to the others. This
baffles our logic, but the seers recognized that the gods were not subject to
logical constraints. In the vastness of space, what is up and what is down?
Then too, in many human contexts the situation is not very different. Thus, for
example, who is more primary, father or mother? Which is more essential, water
or air? Which is more beautiful, the sunset or the full moon? Which is more
pleasingly fragrant, rose or jasmine? It does make sense to say that each stands
at a higher level than the other.

Ennobling qualities, inherent or acquired, are also deified in Vedic imagery.
Thus Mitra stands for friendship and trust, Ryaman for honor and righteousness,
and Bhaga for inherited qualities. Varuna symbolizes the intractable forces of
fate; Daksha personifies skill and the codes of ritualism, while Amsa represents
that which we obtain through luck or chance. Indra rules the heavens and he
stands for immense power. Yama is god of Death, and so on.

In the course of time, it came to be said that there are three hundred and
thirty million gods. This is metaphor to say that every center of the world is a
manifestation of Divinity. Divine omnipresence is effectively conveyed in this
imagery where gods by the millions are always ready and reachable when the
devout are in need.

By admitting such an enormous number of gods, it becomes easy for the Hindu mind
to incorporate the gods of every religion and alien tribe into its own grand
pantheon. There may be but one god, but that god has been revealed to the
cultures and civilizations of humankind in countless ways over the ages. Instead
of claiming that one rather than another is the correct revelation, we may
accept one and all of them to be equally valid. And if we allow for multiple
representations, there cannot be restriction in the numbers.

The names given to the traditional manifestations of the Divine arise
principally from two sources. First, metaphysical attributes are described by
some of the names. In other words, these are epithets for the god in question.
Or, they refer to incidents and episodes from the epics and the puranas relating
to the deity.

At least one Vedic rishi recognized the limitations of the human mind which
could well have created the entire panorama of names and attributes for the
gods. For he boldly asked, "ko addh?eda ka iha pra vochat, kuth ?th?uth
iyam visrushtiha?: Who really knows! who can here declare it? Whence it was
born, whence arose this creation?" (Rig Veda X.129) And he goes on to wonder if the devas themselves emerged after the universe came into being.

Incidentally, gods are known as devas in the Vedas a word that is very similar
to the corresponding Latin word deus and the Greek word theos, and has nothing
in common with the Tamil kaDavuL. This, it should be recalled, was one of the
inspirations for the Aryan Invasion Theory, and the categorization of the
Dravidian as distinct from the Indo-European languages. To the popular view that
AIT was a plot by the scheming British to justify their intrusion into India,
we may also add this.

The veda samhitas are sheer poetry and contains all the philosophy condensed in
the upanishads. Inbuilt in the vedic sutras are all the root mantras like, 'aum
aim kleem saum hrim hring ham sa ra ha na ba va', etc., the chanting of which
energises the chakras. Most people are not aware but the root mantras 'si and
va' and found embedded all over the vedas - almost not a single hymn that does
not contain it! The same roots mantras are found in tamil texts. It is here I see the similarity and symbiosis of these two languages. The similarities with other
indian languages is much further away.

Further the hymns themselves are a practise in pranayama. Just by singing a
few hymns, one gets established in pranayana and ready for meditation. The
proper chanting forces breath control. The same for tamil hymns sung in pan,
ragam and talam. So no need to practise alternate nostril breathing, holding the
breath and all that.

People relate the devatas agni, surya, chandra, soma, etc to physical objects like the physical sun, moon, fire, an ephedra plant, herb or soup, etc. That is hilarious. A meditator sees surya, chandra and soma in his inner visions exactly as
described. In other words the entire vedas and devatas relates to metaphysical experiences (esoteric) and can only be known to the meditator. It cannot be known by studying the etymologies (exoteric) which is what indologists do.

There are some meditation groups that will show these things immediately on
initiation in ten minutes! There are other groups that will give a clue on how
the vedas and all texts were revealed in their initiation ceremonies. You actually
see the words in your inner vision written in a script one is familiar with, and
hear the words in the inner ear during initiation and known only to you. These
visions lasts for minutes, enough time for you to grab a paper and pencil and write down an entire sentence. And it can be rechecked again at another sitting shortly
afterwards, and again and again as often as one wants. In ten minutes!

We see surya, chandra, soma and more in our meditations and as often as we want. Surya and Chandra are some of the first visions one will see. My hope is that all of you will at least see something before the expiry of you lives, and a new door hitherto closed, will open, unleashing a whole new understanding.

They are Beings just like you and me, (and you can talk to them) and at the same
time they have another dimension where they are also metaphysical metanatural
phenonena that is not at all of this physical world, although this world's
corresponding natural phenonena has parallels to it.

Surya is a being, yet He usually shows himself as a metaphysical sun and this has parallels to our physical sun. I liken their metaphysical metanature to the being's effulgence. In other words the effulgence of Surya is the metaphysical sun seen in meditation. We see his effulgence first, then later we see him as a Being, a real Lord. In our writings and iconography we liken him to the physical sun as thats the closest description we can have.

Because the metanature of these great beings overlaps, we sometimes describe them similarly as greater, higher, etc. Its like all the seven different colors 'overlap' and sometimes seen as just 'one light'. In reference to God and the gods you can say that in Hinduism each of the seven colors, plus the ultraviolet and gamma rays plus the magnetism have been separately identified, named and described. Plus the absence of light.

Why guess and speculate on this for the rest of your lives? See it for yourself
as we have. Only when people have seen this can Saivas, Vaishnavas, Buddhists,
Taoists and others worship and meditate together as they are talking the same
language using the same terms, and we all know what soma means as we have all
seen it.

Every man and woman, every creature and plant and tree has a beginning and a
life-span, and then it dies. But the mountains and planets, the stars and the
world itself seem be there for all of time. Many cultures have thought about the
beginning of the physical world and many imagined what would happen to human
beings or what remains of them when the universe comes to a close.

In the Hindu worldview, emergence, endurance, and end are the triple aspects of
a cosmic principle. The three elements of this abstract triune are given names
and forms in their aspects and functions. From the mythic vision of the triune
have arisen episodes in Hindu sacred history. These pertain to the basic
Divinities of Hinduism. Thus we have the originating principle known as Brahma the sustaining principle called Vishnu, and the one that is behind dissolution,
Shiva.

In the sacred literature, six canonical puranas are dedicated to each of these
primordial triple-principles. These embody the sacred legends of the tradition
associated with Brahm, Vishnu, and Shiva which are of appeal and importance to
the vast number of traditional practitioners. They correspond to the hagiography
of the Christian tradition. They have inspired statues and structures dedicated
to the deific personifications of the Hindu triune.

No matter how we picture the course and the complexity of the world, the human
mind will always be intrigued by the source of it all, not merely in time and in
substance, but by the process of creation as well. Current physics accounts for
cosmic origin through the mathematical abstractions of symmetry breaking and
phase transitions, even as it reckons Planck time and the filtering of
fundamental force fields in this context. In the Hindu framework, beyond all the
mythologies and metaphysics, beyond all the poetry of hymns and the tales of
tradition, Brahma stands for the supreme abstraction of the unfathomable mystery
of Creation from which has sprung this magnificent universe we experience for a
brief slice of time.

The name of the sustaining principle, namely Vishnu, is derived from the
Sanskrit root vish : to pervade. The universe that subsists in time is spread
through the length, breadth, and depth of space.

And then, finally, beyond all names and forms, transcending the pictures and the
puranic lore, there is the abstract principle that brings to naught all that
has emerged. Not just the short-lived bloom of a rose and the steady heartbeat
of a healthy human, but everything ultimately comes to a final end. From the
frail whisper of the gentle breeze to the sturdiest of rocks, from the mute
interactions of elementary particles to the seemingly endless existence of
spectacular galaxies, everything is destined ultimately to vanish. What causes
this ultimate dissolution is the mystery that Hindu mythopoesy represents as
Shiva. Thus, Shiva is the dot that completes every sentence of existence, the
last breath that lulls the lungs, the invisible rope that closes the curtain at
the end of the cosmic show, the ultimate sigh of the grand universe itself.

There are also other metaphysical interpretations for the Hindu triune which
link them to the triple qualities of the essence of the universe. Here, one
looks upon the world as resulting ultimately from three fundamental forces: one
is attractive and it holds things together; another is repulsive or disruptive;
and the third keeps both these in balance, thus giving rise through its dynamic
equilibrium, the endless variety. This third principle is the rajasic quality
(guna), and is associated with the creative process or Brahma. The attractive
principle which builds and sustains is the sattvic quality, and is associated
with Vishnu. This is the principle that generates the light that sustains all
living entities too. As long as this is in the active mode constructive
processes are at work. In modern terminology, we may look upon it as the
negentropy that works against total chaos (entropy). Finally we have the tamasic
or dark quality that disrupts and splinters and ultimately dissolves all there
is.

The wonder of existence is that it comes out of disruption. That all that is
born must die seems obvious enough. But that death is needed for rebirth is not
so obvious. Yet, it is a fundamental truth of biology that creatures cannot
live indefinitely: after a period of life, they must die, yielding place to new
generations. In the Hindu vision, birth, growth and death, are always followed
by rebirth. And this is so not only for living beings but for the universe as a
whole. This cyclic view - sometimes called an oscillating universe - is one of
the models entertained by current cosmology.

It must be realized that in the praxis mode, each of these principles takes on
worship-worthy significance. But one may also look upon this as a cosmological
model developed by Hindu thinkers to explain cosmogenesis. Viewed thus, these
ideas reveal that their proponents were personages of keen intellect and
profound insights. These ideas also provide a sophisticated framework for piety
and devotion.

There are, of course, a hundred variants on the interpretations of these ancient
concepts.

It is true that in the Vedas the Creator is often called Prajapati and
Hiranyagarbha.

However, in the Mahabharata we read that Brahma was born of the embryo which was
formed in Vishnu's mind when he started thinking about Creation.

In the Ramayana of Valmiki, Brahma was called the Self-born.

In the Markandeya Purana, Brahma was described as "the source of the universe
presiding over all creation, preserving like Vishnu, and destroying like Shiva."

The Mundaka Upanishad begins with the statement that "Brahma arose as the first
among the gods, as the creator of all, as the guardian of the world."

In the Brhad-devata?ne reads: "The source of what is not and of what is is,
verily, Prajapati who is Brahm?"

And the puranas give different reasons as to why Brahma is not worshiped in
temples.

At least one interpretation of the avataras (incarnations of Vishnu) is that
Vishnu is the principle that protects and sustains the world.

Shiva is of course the Rudra of the Vedas: The Rig Veda equates him with the
Fire (Agni) that destroys.The benevolent form of Agni is Shiva. He is also
called the Terrible (Bhairava), and the Remover (Hara). The Mahabharata
describes him as one who "sweeps away" all beings. Hara is also described as
disease and death which destroys everything, both good and bad.

There are other interpretations of the Triune. One, for example, relates it to
the states of sleep: Profound sleep in a dreamless state is associated with
Shiva; the images in a dream with Vishnu, while the state of awareness is
represented by Brahman

other says that Brahm?epresents transcendental knowledge, Vishnu represents
the religious experience, and Shiva beyond everything, including existence.

I agree that ultimately all these are but different conceptually
interesting/convenient aspects and names for one indivisible Mystery, and the
specific roles assigned to the three principles are largely of puranic origin.

These do not go back to the Vedas.

Then again, not many of the currently worshiped deities in Hindu temples,
whether Rama or Krishna, Meenakshi or Murugan, will be found in the Vedas.

As you acknowledge there are several variations of themes in the
shastras; for every sutra there is another opposing or variant one
that interchangebly allocates the tripraxis functions - in the same
upanishads, vedas, puranas, mahabharata, and why, even in the
ramayana! In the mahabharatas it says that Siva is the creator, but who is interested in reading all this. The triune presentation is not wrong, but only right when
these opposing verses are ignored.

> These do not go back to the Vedas.

Or agamas. Nor taught by our saints - the teachers of the faith.
Thank you for saying this, as it dramatically changes the view now.

Yes there are several popular misconceptions about Hinduism, its
concepts and of the gods too as you note. Let me share a very
inspiring verse from the rig veda about Murugan which I know you are
aware of (I forget the verse number). The translation is so telling
of events in the three worlds in the distant past, of the reasons for
the creation of a Preserver and Great Guide and Our Savior, by the Creator of the
Gods, His Father.

As you can see it is a situational description
of the the history and geography of the three worlds, the environmental and
social disaster taking place - a pralaya perhaps, and the gods being helpless,
of the creation of a God to be a Savior of the three worlds, metaphorically
suggesting how souls are created by emanation from the OneLord, (doesn't
matter the emanation from which part of the body as suggested in the
purusha sukta) - all this and more clearly indicating that Brahma is not
necessarily the creator, Vishnu not necessarily the preserver and Rudra not
necessarily the destroyer. Indeed they interchange their roles.

There are several creators and preservers in Hinduism, and they intercheangebly perform these functions. Indeed even the sage Vishvamitra created his own world. Creation of the material world does not seem to be a big deal. But creating a God 'here to abide and rule forever' is altogether a whole different ball game.

This mantra below comes under Krishna yajur Veda, Arunakandam ( Surya namaskaram )
1st prasnam, 12th anuvakam, 58th panjathi.

Om nigrushvaira samaayuthaihi
kaalair harithvamaapannaihi
indhraayaahi sahasrayuk
agnir vibraashti vasanaha
vaayusvEtha sikadhrukaha
samvathsarO vishoovarNaihi
nithyaasthE nu cha raasthava
subrahmaNyOgm subrahmaNyOgm SubrahmaNyOm

Om. Afflictions and miseries mounted
And surrounded all, in all three worlds,
Disunity prevailed, harmony was nowhere to be found,
Destruction raged everywhere,
Erupting forth everywhere like fiery rays from the sun.
Even Indra, the Conqueror, with thousands of devas,
And Agni, in a blazing fury, highly vexed,
Though dressed in armour, ready to fight,
Were soon fleeing like the wind to they knew not where,
Their unbound hair streaming out behind them.
Then did our supreme Lord Siva emanate a Child
Of splendour unsurpassed,
Of golden features, exceedingly handsome,
Here to abide and rule forever.
We now praise Him in a voice like thunder!
Om Subrahmanyogm, Subrahmayogm, Subrahmanyom.

Pathmarajah

Murugan is definately vedic as you'll see below, and He is all over the place. I have not referred to the tamil texts at all.

Murugan is all over the vedas and every shastra. The list is immense and
seems endless.

The Atharva Veda describes Kumaran as ‘Agnibhuh’ or son of Agni, the fire god. The Satapatha Brahmana refers to him as the son of Rudra and the ninth form of Agni. In the RV Agni itself is also reffered to as Rudra. The Taittiriya Aranyaka contains the Gayatri mantra for Shanmukha. The Chandogya Upanishad refers to Skanda as the “way that leads to wisdom”. The Baudhayana Dharmasutra mentions Skanda as ‘Mahasena’ and ‘Subrahmanya.’

In the Subala upanishad of the shukla yajur veda, it clearly
talks about meditation and at what stage one can see the Lord Skanda, in
the Skanda upanishad of the krishna yajur veda, praised in the Aditya
Hridayam (107th Chapter) of the Yudha Kanda of the Ramayana, referred to
in the Devi Upanishad in the Atharva Veda - here UmaDevi identified as
'Skanda's Mother who is Vishnu's power', in the Devi Mahatmyam of the
Markandeya Purana, the Atharva siropanishad variously hails the Infinite as
Shiva ( yacchha maheswara ), Brahma and Shakti and finally calls out to him '
yacchha Skanda!' (Thou art Skanda himself), the skanda-gayatri occurring in
the Vedic Maitrayana Samhita and Aitareya aranyaka, etc.

The evolution of Kumara-Skanda-Karttikeya who, during later times
developed into one of the popular and prominent members of the Hindu
pantheon, takes its origin from Vedic times.

The tradition commences from the Rigveda where Kumara appears as related
to god Agni as his father, a feature carried forward down the tradition. Thus
Rigveda 5.2.1-3 mention Kumara as endowed with golden teeth and golden
complexion who had been secreted by his mother in a cave (guha) -- a
feature current in later tradition also -- out of sight of his father. Again,
Agni
is said to have seven auspicious mothers (RV 1. 141.2) and also born of
seven mothers, aspects which betray resemblances to the puranic Skanda.

In the Kathaka Samhita of Krsna-Yajurveda the birth of Kumara in Agni is
made mention of (36.5) and also his exploits (19.11). In the Aatapatha
Brahmana (6.1.3.8-10) there occurs a symbolic account of the birth of Kumara.
It is said that the six bhutas are the six seasons, their lord is the year
(samvatsara) and they drop their seed at dawn, which, after a year, gives
birth to Kumara who is equated with Rudra, bring another traditional name of
Skanda. Elsewhere the same Brahmana states (6.1.3.18) that Agni born as
Kumara had nine names, of which the ninth is Skanda. This Brahmana
equates the Krittikas with Agni (2.1.2.5).5 Again, the same Brahmana states
elsewhere (6.1.3.18) that Agni born as Kumara is given nine names, of which
the ninth is Skanda.

The Maitrayani Samhita of the Krsna - Yajurveda contains a Skanda-gayatri
where three of his names occur: Tat Kumaraya vidamahe Karttikeyaya
dhimahi / tannah Skandah pracodayat // The Taittiriya aranyaka, in
Prapatmaka 10, has a variant form of Skanda-gayatri which reads : tat
Purusaya Vidmahe Mahasenaya dhimahi / tanno Sanmukhah pracoyadat//.

The Siddhantashikhopanisad portrays Skanda as Bhagavan (!!!) and as a
teacher. The Sivopanisad instructs the installation of the image of Skanda
and the Mother Goddess near the Aivalinga. The Atharvasira-Upanisad also
makes a mention of Skanda but identifies him with Rudra.

Among the ancillary texts related to the Atharvaveda, the Atharva parishistas,
one of the texts entitled Dhrtakalpa or Sanmukhakalpa is an elaborate ritual
on the propitiation of Skanda through homa (offerings in the sacred fire) and
worship of his image with flowers, incense, lamps and sandal and offerings of
naivedya (eatables). His names are mentioned as Skanda, Sadanana,
Karttikeya, Brahmanya, Svami and Dhrta, the last meaning 'rogue' or 'master
thief'! He is described as riding a peacock (yam vahanti mayirah) embellished
with bells and banners (ghanta - patakini) and surrounded by the Mother
Goddesses (yash ca Matrganair nityam sada parivrto yuva). His image has six
heads and lips (Sadananostha). About his parentage it is noted:

agneyam Krittikaputram Aindram kecid adhiyate /

ke ca Pashupatam Raudram yo 'si so 'si namo stu te //

stating, 'who-so-ever you are, born of the Fire, Krittikas, Indra, Pashupati or
Rudra, reverence to thee'.

The grammarian Patanjali of the 2nd cent. BC states in his Mahabhasya,
commenting on Panini's sutra 5.3.99 of the Astadhyayi that the images of
Aiva, Skanda and Vishakha were no longer being sold commercially, which
was the case during the times of the Mauryas, and that during his time these
images were used only for worship.

The medical work Sushruta Samhita prescribes a spell for the exorcision of evil
spirits in which occurs the verse mentioning Skanda (and Guha) with some of
his characteristics.

Kautalya of the 4th cent. BC who speaks of temples and images in his
Arthashastra in a number of places, eg., devatagrha (12.5.3), devata caitya
(5.2.39), devata pratima (4.8.4), devata dhvaja (12.5.5; 13.3.45), in the
context of the construction of a fort specifically prescribes the installation
of
Senapati (Mahasena, Skanda) at one of the gates.

In his Natyashastra (III.24) Bharata assigns Skanda to the eastern side of
the hall for dramatic performances.

The Skanda story as depicted in the Ramayana of Valmiki is rather short and
takes up just three cantos of the Balakanda of the epic, 35 to 37. It occurs in
the contexts of sage Vishvamitra leading the princes Rama and Laksmana
across the forest to the kingdom of Mithila, when they reach the banks of the
river Ganges. Out of curiosity Rama enquires of the sage about the origin of
the river and the sages reply trickles on to the story of the two daughters of
Mr. Himavan, Ganga and Uma, the latter the consort of Siva. Two versions of
the birth of Skanda are indicated involving Siva, Agni, Vayu and the Gangas.
In the first version the divine Krittikas find no mention but in the second they
nurse the new-born Skanda.

However, it is patent that Valmiki was aware of several other developments
in the story as indicated by references elsewhere in the epic. Thus, Queen
Kausalya refers to Skanda as a great god (skandas ca bhagavan devah,
2.25.11) (!!!) his being known as Karttikeya (Karttikeyasya ca sthanam,
3.12.21), Aarvana-bhava (ruroda shishur atyantam shishuh sharavana yatha,
7.25.22), Mahasena (yatra jato Mahasenas tam jesham upacakrame,
7.87.10), Guha and Sikhivahana riding the peacock, (Eaktim adya tejsvi guhah
shikhigato yatha, 6.69.31).

It is in the Mahabharata that we get, for the first time, a full-fledged
depiction
of Skanda with his manifold accoutrements and followers, exploits, worship by
the masses, specific spots of pilgrimage, names of clans adhering to him, and
allied matters. The story occurs in three contexts. In the Vanaparva
(Aranyaparva), chapters 223 to 232, in 403 verses.

In the Aalyaparva of the Mahabharatha, in chapters 34 to 55, Balarama, elder
brother of Lord Krsna, arrives after a long pilgrimage upon the scene where,
in the battle-field of Kurukshetra, the warring brothers and Krsna were
holding a belligerent conference. During the long narrations and discussions
that followed, three chapters, 44 to 46, in 276 verses, occurring in the course
Baladeva making a reference to the slaying of demon Taraka, brief statement
on the biography of Skanda occurs. What is significant here is the coronation
of Skanda with an account of the presents made to him by the gods (45.1-54)
and the long list of the names of the warriors who accompanied Skanda to
battle the demons (45.55-77) and their characteristics (45.78-112).

In the Sanskrit puranic literature three texts are directly related to Skanda.
They are the well-known Skanda-mahapurana which is divided into seven
khandas and contains 83,000 verses, the Skanda-Upapurana and the
Aankara Samhita of the Skandapurana in six khandas carrying 73,000 verses.
All these extensive texts carry exhaustive accounts of the Skanda cult,
though with considerable digressions and divergences, but the keynote story
is the same, viz., the extermination of demon Taraka who was the scourge of
the gods.

The other puranas, being the seventeen mahapuranas, the seventeen
upapuranas and the puranic samhitas are very much in the know of Skanda
and the Skanda cult on account of their popularity among the masses.
Incidents from the Skanda story or his exploits are referred to at several
contexts.

The Vayu-purana 72.42 gives the derivation of Skanda as, skandita
danavaginas tasmat Skandah pratapavan.

The Visnupurana 1.15.115-116 speaks of his birth in the forest of reeds.

The Varahapurana 24-49, speaks about sixth lunar day for his ablutionary
rites.

Poet Ashvaghosa states in his long poem Buddhacarita that Buddha's birth
his father felt as much joy as Siva felt when his six-headed son was born:

bhavanam atha vigahya shakyarajo Bhava iva Sanmukha-janmana pratitah/
Buddhacaritam, 1.93 , indicating Skanda worship is very old, pre buddhist.

Many major cities of the world have a symbol or landmark linked them. Thus the
Eiffel Tower immediately reminds us of Paris, Westminster Abbey of London, the
Taj Mahal of Agra, and the Golden Gate Bridge of San Francisco. Likewise, every
religion has its own spiritual symbol: the Star of David for Judaism, the Cross
for Christianity, the Crescent for Islam, and Aum for Hinduism. Aside from
monuments and religious insignia, cultures have other characteristic entities as
well, ranging from fruits to flags.

Man is a symbol-prone species. Human culture is immersed in a sea of symbols
which serve as instruments for thought, communication, and meaning. Words,
whether uttered or engraved, gestures of greeting, invocations in prayer, rites
and rituals: all these are cultural symbols.

Symbols are important because they are compact and concise versions of matters
too complex to be comprehended without them. Some symbols are also powerful in
their impact upon the psyche of cultures. Time and tradition have invested them
with a sanctity that is to be honored and respected by the members of the group.
In our own times, such allegiance is expected even of people who don't belong to
the tradition.

Yet, not everything associated with a culture need be sacred. Thus Italian pasta
and Hungarian Goulash have nothing sacred about them. Nor is there anything
sacred in American Coca Cola, Japanese Samurai, Russian Matryoshka, or Dutch
Delft Blue.

In the Indian context, however, practically every entity connected to the
culture has something sacred about it. Music, dance and grand narratives, trees
and shrubs of significance, grand rivers and high mountains, even some common
creatures like cow and monkey have all acquired spiritual auras about them. That
is what is unique about Indic culture. One may interpret this as an indication
of the enormous power that magic and mysticism have had on the Indian people.
Or, it may be seen as resulting from their recognition that there is nothing in
the world, from sand grains to stupendous stars that is not part of wondrous
Creation. Hence the worldview that everything in the universe, both tangible and
intangible, even the hours of the day and social stratification, has been imbued
with sanctity. So we have plants and leaves like tulsi and bilva; fruits and
flowers like mango and lotus; sculptures and musical instruments like the
Nataraja and veena: every element in the Indic cultural quilt has something
spiritual about it. It is on some of these that I plan to reflect in the next
few essays.

V. V. Raman
March 8, 2006

PS
1. It is of course true that practically all ANCIENT cultures were shaped by the
magical worldview which accepted the existence of supernatural forces which
govern human and animal life. This is also true of most religions.

2. But India is one of the MODERN nations where veneration of animals,
attribution of auspicious days of the week and hours of the day, association of
sanctity to plants and herbs, spiritual significance of orientation of houses,
religious dimension of art and music, and the like are still very strong. This
is not so much religion as culture: or, if one chooses, the permeation of the
religious/spiritual worldview into practically every aspect of living. In this
sense, it seems to me, Indian culture is unique: certainly in the intensity and
pervasiveness of the magical worldview into practically every aspect of life.

The lotus is a beautiful flower. It has ancient cultural relevance. The lotus
is represented in Egyptian hieroglyphics. In the Odyssey we read about an island
where people ate the lotus fruit which made them forget all about the worries of
the world. Homer described the juice of the lotus fruit as "divine and
nectarous."

The lotus is said to be unique in that its fruit and flower blossom at the same
time. It grows from the mud in swamps or beneath ponds, suggesting how the
noblest of things are often rooted in what may seem to be base and lowly. The
flower seems to be floating on the surface of water, surrounded by its magical
leaves. It is pure white or pink, and sometimes even blue. There is perhaps no
other flower that symbolizes serenity and symmetry more beautifully than the
lotus. It has a charm that captures any onlooker.

The lotus has a special place in Indic culture. In Sri Vishnu Tattva one reads:
"The immaculate lotus rising from the depth of the water and ever remote from
the shore is associated with the notion of purity and sattva from which emerges
dharma and j?." The richness of Sanskrit and the ubiquitous role of the
flower is reflected in the many names for lotus in the language. Padma is the
most common name. It arose with Lakshmi during the Churning of the Ocean of
mythic significance. It is therefore an epithet for the Goddess Lakshmi. One of
the major puranas bears the name Padma Purana wherein it is said that in
primordial times the cosmos was a golden lotus. Indeed the lotus is often
invoked in Hindu cosmology. Vishnu is known as Padman?a, because a cosmic
lotus emerged was from his navel (n?a), and on that lotus one pictures Brahm?
e creator.

The petals of the flower open up with the rising sun and close again at dusk.
Therefore one name for the sun is padmabandhu (friend of the lotus). Yet another
name for the lotus is kumuda. And since the lotus is subdued at night, an
epithet for the moon in Sanskrit is kumudapati: Lord of the lotus.

A major posture in hathayoga is the padmasana. The Buddha is sculpted as
meditating in this posture, for this is the ?na best suited for meditation. A
sacred Buddhist mantra is Om mani padme hum. As the Dalai Lama explained, " The
two syllables, padme, meaning lotus, symbolize wisdom. Just as a lotus grows
forth from mud but is not sullied by the faults of mud, so wisdom is capable of
putting you in a situation of non-contradiction whereas there would be
contradiction if you did not have wisdom."

The Stritantric classification, the most beautiful and refined woman is known as
padmini: the lotus-kind.

The Vishnu Purana says that during the V?n?vatara Lakshmi came as Kamal?n
other name for lotus. Indeed, all the major manifestations of the Divine are
associated in some way or other with the lotus. As Lakshmi is on a pink lotus
and Saraswati is with a white lotus. Durga also carries a lotus.

A dry variety of lotus is known as aravinda. There is an ancient legend to the
effect that once Vishnu was worshiping Shiva with lotuses, but towards the end
he fell short of one last flower. Whereupon he plucked his own eye and offered
it as a lotus. This earned Vishnu the epithet Aravindaksha: One with the
lotus-eye. [TAmaraikkaNNan in Tamil.] Those who recite the Vishnu Sahasrannama
may recognize this as one of the thousand names by which Lord Vishnu is
eulogized.

Another variety of lotus is called nalina. This is the root of a beautiful
feminine name in the tradition: Nalin?which means one who is like a lotus in
beauty and tenderness.

In Hindu mysticism, one speaks of a miniature lotus within every human heart,
and it is there that the ?an is said to reside. This may be a metaphor for
saying that the ultimate in goodness is like the most beautiful thing in the
world (lotus) and that it resides in the human heart. But it is also taken
literally by some who ask us to concentrate on that lotus in the heart's core as
if it were a real flower with petals.

Water droplets roll on lotus leaves like little balls of mercury. Lotus leaves
let them pass on them without getting wet themselves. So it is a common saying
in the Hindu tradition that such should be our involvement with the world: being
part of it, and yet not getting attached to it. The simile comes from the
Bhagavad Gita where Lord Krishna tells Arjuna (V.10) that a person who does his
duty without attachment, surrendering the fruits of all actions to the Supreme,
is unaffected by anything sinful, like a lotus leaf in water (padmam-patram iva
ambhas?) In no other living culture is a flower given such symbolic, spiritual,
mythic, and metaphysical significance.

It was appropriate therefore that the lotus was chosen as the national flower
when India became a modern nation in 1947. As the poet said:

And every secret Nature told of golden wisdom's power,
Is nestled still in every fold within the Lotus flower.

All along in history there has been reforms in Hinduism as well as its society. Major large scale reforms. Brahma worship is dead. Worship of vedic gods is dead. Sanskrit is dead. Buddhism is dead. Jainism is dead. Most dharshanas / philosophies are dead. The bakti saints have been supremely reformist and successful. The reformists of the past were 'iconoclasts'. There tore down whole structures. There is no religion that is reformist as Hinduism. There are no reformers like Hindu reformers.

But modern reformists were only partly successful because they worked within the system. Because they were not iconoclastic they were only partly successful. Yet no reformer has failed.

Imagine if there had been no modern reforms; today there will still be child marriages at age 8, sati, widow headshaving, no widow remarriages, polygamy, sanskrit and arabic schools only, no entry of dalits to temples, no crossing oceans, no NRIs', no temples outside India, no womens' emancipation, etc. What a horrible situation!

Let us be guided by what our saints taught us. What the saints told us was that 'we are not subject to anyone, because we have submitted to Him'! Let us be inspired with this hymn by Appar aka Tirunavukkarasar 1,400 years ago which was the first cry of freedom, the first document on liberty in the world.

We are free of shastras, free of kings and govts, free of social rules and regulations, free of acharyas. We will not submit to anyone, nor accept any authority. We obey no one. We answer to no one. We are fearless, and not even afraid to die. We stare Yama in the eye. We do not fear him. We will not suffer even if thrown in hell. Misfortunes and calamities we will not know.
Sickness and unhappiness is unknown to us. We do not know what that is.

Forever we live in dignity. We are unbound, because we belong to Him, the Boundless One, who is the Redeemer of All. Because we have submitted to Him, we have become people who have been redeemed of all shackles.

This freedom encompasses physical, mental, emotional, political, free of all shackles, and freedom from rebirth too as we have been redeemed!

We therefore speak and act fearlessly.

naamaarkkung kudi alloom namanai anjcoom
narakattil idarpadoom nadalai illoom
eemaappoom piNi aRiyoom paNivoo malloom
inbamee ennaaLum tunbam illai

taamaarkkung kudiyallaat tanmai yaana
cangkaran cangkaveN kuzaiyoor kaatiR
koomaaRkay naamenRum iiLaa aaLaayk
koimalar chevadi iNaiyee kuRukinoomee
 
 
We are not subject to anyone, we do not fear Yama,
Even if in hell we shall not suffer, nor will we face misfortunes,
Forever in self dignity, free of ailments, not submitting to anyone,
Ever in happiness, we will not know sufferings at all, Because,

To the King who is Supremely Autonomous,
To Shankaran, the Redeemer of All, who wears a brilliant white conch on his ear,
To this KING we have totally submitted, people of unredeemable servitude,
To His Feet covered in fresh blossoms, we have submitted.

I hope everyone realise the power of the words of that hymn. There is nothing like this in any Hindu shastras, or anywhere in the world! Everytime that hymn is sung in the temples, I see men and women in tears bowing to the diety again and again, japanese style, in reverend thangsgiving, in surrender. Here the 'love of god' and 'surrender to the Lord' takes precendence over and above any dharma, shastra, acharya or even notions of truth.

The saints resisted the kings, battled them even when thrown into a kiln, or drowned in the sea, but still in the end converted them. These are the only saints in our history who performed miracles like floating on water, curing the sick, raising the dead and even disappeared into the sanctum of the temples.

From their hymns we know that they were battling the buddhists, jains, carvakas, ridiculing the varnashraamists and those beholden to shastras as 'Chaatira Paiykal' or shastra devils who realise nothing but quote endlessly from texts and engage in word play.

We can study the implications of this hymn from spiritual, religious, social, and political angles. Once we take this view to heart not just in the 'belief' but in the inherent 'knowing' of this truth, then the first thing is that we have freed
ourselves from all mind constraints, as well as empty hopes and a false sense of security. A deep sense of confidence builds in up and nothing seems impossible as the forces of god's law of love is aligned with us. This abiding love and confidence overwhelms all other persons and opposing views, and our voice and speech too takes a tone of irreproachability and convincing.

We speak fearless, we rebuke others for their ruinous worldviews. We have no strategies, no tactical moves, we have no gameplans as all of this will fail. We leave all that to the OneLord to work out. We work without thinking of tomorrow, without forethought of success, as we dont know what success or failure is, as it is all the same to us. The more we surrender to Him this way, the more we become His instruments.

We owe nothing to anyone. We owe nothing to India, or to its govt and its polity. Nothing to the acharyas. We will resist them all, and convert them to our views. We will challenge them head on, show and tell them what they are, their hypocrasy, and demand that they follow our path, not caring for the outcome. We are not afraid of being oucasted. We will not listen to them
anymore or be beholden to their views.

We will tell the Hindus directly that they are not subject to any acharya or any shastra and there is not need to listen or follow them. We will tell the womenfolk that they are not subject to anyone. We will point to the dieties of the temples as the refuge and sanctuary for all Hindus, and that they belong to Him.

We will work with all the forces of human rights, economic freedom and free
trade.

Regards.

Pathmarajah

Few things in human culture are more spiritually elevating than music. Small
wonder that music is more ancient than civilization. Perhaps the first mode of
music was vocal, and then it may have been accompanied by clapping. In due
course, music came to be enriched by a variety of instruments. Before the advent
of electronic music, aside from the human voice, there were three main broad
modes of generating music: through percussion (striking on a membrane covering a
resonant cavity: membranophonic), vibration of strings (chordophonic), and
vibration of air columns (aerophonic).

A whole variety of musical instruments of all these kinds were invented in
practically all cultures, adding to their aesthetic enrichment. Needless to say,
there have been mutual influences and imitations among these.

There are many different musical instruments under each of the three main
categories in India. As in other aspects of Indian culture, these too are
related to the religious/mythic framework of the culture. Indian percussion
instruments include the mridangam, dhol, dholak, ghatam and the tabla. Then
there is the small two-headed rattle-drum called damaru with which Lord Shiva is
most often associated. The rhythmic vibrations of the damaru are said to embody
the essence of the physical universe which, at its core, is pure vibration. In
Hindu mythopoesy, the sound of Aum was generated by Shiva's damaru during the
divine dance of cosmic creation, producing at the same time the fundamental
octaves of all music. In Indic culture, one welcomes the arrival of important
personages by blowing the conch and beating the drum. We see reference to this
in the Ramayana. We may note in passing that in Japanese mythology the role of
the drum is of less cosmic significance and more modest: Raijin, the
thunder-god, beats his many drums causing the sound of thunder.

The flute, in its various forms, is one of the earliest wind-instruments. It is
also associated with many myths in different cultures, as with Pan in the
mythology of Greece and Rome. In the Hindu context, the flute is primarily
associated with Lord Krishna. In many representations, we see his figure playing
the flute: Hence the name Muralidhara (Holder of the Flute). There is a wondrous
magic in Krishna's flute which is the source of joyous music. It beckons us to
become one with nature in a carefree world, unfettered by conventions and social
taboos. It is a call to merge with the universal soul. The music from Krishna's
flute is to give us a taste of divine ecstasy. Bereft of its spiritual
undertone, Krishna's luring the gopis with his magic flute would remind one of
what Aristotle wrote: "The flute is not an instrument which has a moral effect;
it is too exciting."

Coming to string instruments, chikari, kinnara, and mahati are not as well known
as sarod, sitar, and tamboura. But the quintessentially Hindu version of it is
the veena. It is grand in appearance: more wholesome than the guitar, more
majestic than the violin, and more manageable than the harp, the veena which is
in use today is of more recent origin. Its construction in its present form with
24 frets and 7 strings of which 4 are for playing and 3 as drone strings, is
usually attributed to a certain Raghunath Nayak who is believed to have lived in
the 17th century in Tanjavur.

But since the most ancient times there have been stringed instruments in India
which are referred to generically as veena. There are references to such
instruments in the Vedas, in the Brahmanas, and in other ancient writings. It is
said that Valmiki's Ramayana was recited by Lava and Kusa, accompanied by a
stringed instrument. In Ravana's harem women played string instruments. There is
a story in which a sage who was blind-folded and incarcerated had to tell when
dawn broke for his release. At sunrise he heard the veena and announced the
advent of morning. In Buddhist lore there is the story of Udayana who wins the
heart of princess Vasavadatta through his skill in veena.

The deity associated with the veena is Sarasvati: the divinity that symbolizes
music, numbers, and knowledge. There is hardly an image of this goddess where
she is not holding the veena. The linking of music to knowledge and numbers is a
beautiful feature and profound insight in Hindu mythopoesy.

In another interpretation, the wood of which the body of the instrument is made
symbolizes Lord Shiva. The strings themselves are Uma. The gourd is Brahma, and
the navel is Sarasvati. The bridge in the instrument is Lakshmi. Thus all the
divinities are present in this instrument. Indeed, says this commentator, the
mere sight and touch of the veena liberates one from worldly sins. Such is the
reverence for the veena in Hindu culture.

There is more to the Hindu world than caste and politics. As with all great
civilizations, art, music, sculpture, poetry, and cuisine are what ultimately
enrich Hindu culture.

The One Way is the Way of Enlightenment and Love

When the development of thinking goes along with the development of feeling then we have the WAY that is the Universal Way for all. In the depths of all religions we have this dimension and Saivism identifies this and calls it also Siva NeRi the way that would destroy the DIRT within the souls and illuminate it. Thus Saivism, the Siva NeRi is NOT a religion among religions but rather that which addresses and in a rational manner the underlying commonality of all religions.  Every religion at its deepest core cultivates LOVE as well as UNDERSTANDING so that there is emotional development as well intellectual development of man. Developing only the intellect is useless if there is no development in the humanity of a person. Developing just the emotional side of man will not enable him to UNDRSTAND existence and hence diffuse the inherent IGNORANCE.

Most of the world religions as they are practiced by people remain largely egoistic where the spirit of combat and intolerance is cultivated . This is the Karu NeRi, the Way of Darkness and because of which Saivism seeks out the DESTRUCTION of such religions and which if sustained will lead to further turmoil and absence of peace in the world.

Now if there is this Way for all and it is the way of Love and Enlightenment (Samarasa Sanmaarkkam) and if this is the Objective Truth, something already there is the world, it seems reasonable to ask what evidences are there for it.

Here in the true scientific spirit  VaLLalaar does not slide in the irrational claims that it is the WORD of God and that he is a messiah, especially privileged by God to reveal such truths and hence all are obliged to follow it and so forth as is done in the various world religions.

VaLLalaar offers TWO kinds of EVIDENCES that any one can attest for Himself by living it out.

One is that if one moves in this way there is the flow of AMUTU (ambrosia) that would make both the soul and body healthy. Such a person will shine with a golden heart as well as golden body as he has described even before. This will be equivalent to living the Deathless Life, a life where death as the decay of the body and soul will not be experienced.

The second is that on the way, BEING as the Great Donor will bless the soul with a large range of psychic powers, the Cittu where the person can effect in fact many that are ordinarily impossible and hence would count as miraculous and so forth. For example such a such person, capable of Transductive Perception will enjoy the visions of the Third Eye and hence foretell the FUTURE of people who approach them as many Siddhas are noted to have done.

Thus we have objective measures for ascertaining that which is called SivaneRi also called the One Way for all. This  is the Scientific Way, an objective truth that anyone serious enough can ascertain for himself and here without resorting to such irrational notions as it is the Word of God and so forth.
 
12.
tiruneRi onRee atutaan samarasa sanmaarkkam
sivaneRi enRuNarntu ulakiir ceerntidumin iiNdu
varuneRiyil enaiyaadkoNdu aruL amutam aLittu
vallapa sattikaL ellaam vazaGkiya oor vaLLal
peruneRiyil sittaadat tiruvuLag koNdaruLip
peruG karauNai vadivinodu varum taruNam ituvee
karu neRiyil viizntu uzalaatiir kalakkam adaiyaatiir
kaNamiyinaal karuttu orumittu uNami urautteenee!

Meaning:
O people locked up in widely life ! Do not follow  the Way of Darkness and suffer many miseries and confusions. There is the One Way, the Sacred Way and which is the way of both love and enlightenment.  This is also the Way that would purify the souls and all of you should join this way and live accordingly.  For I followed this great way and BEING overpowering me has blessed me with the ambrosia (that has enabled  me to enjoy Deathless Existence). If you follow this Way, you will also be empowered with many Siddies with which you can do many things that are miraculous to the ordinary people. BEING has decided to Play many Magical Games and assuming the appropriate shape full of Love has decided to Disclose Himself as thus now.  This is the great moment and after contemplating and bringing together all my thoughts now I tell the TRUTH with a mind that is definitely clear.

Evolution and Transcending of  All Religions

The Disclosive Evolution of the Saivites does not exclude any dimension of human culture and here VaLLalaar attends rather brilliantly to the  issue of religions where he sees them as belonging to some intermediate stages of the evolution of the metaphysics of the human mind.

The first stage he notes is that of the birth of the competence to SPEAK or verbalize and from which emerges the Religions of the Books where the WORD is claimed to be the word of God and hence of incontestable authority and so forth. This was the case with the degenerate Vedism where the Vedas are claimed to be the only authoritative scripture that can bestow Moksa and so forth. Then we have such religions as Christianity and Islam where they uphold the Bible and Al Koran as the WORD of God and hence absolutely authoritative and so forth. But as the mind matures and perhaps because of various of kinds of inner and outer conflicts the understanding evolves and the soul begins to TRANSCEND all words with mantra-recitals and finally practices Deep Silence in absolute transcendence of all languages and be-with-BEING without any fissure and enjoy Njaanam in that state.

Thus there is an inner dynamics within all religions which finally lead all towards the Deep Silence where there are no fixations with words and languages and where the soul being-with-BEING enjoys the absolute and atemporal Njaanam in Deep Silence. The verbose mouth is silenced with the burst of true Njaanam from which it follows that only the unripe souls will indulge in the worship of the WORD.

This evolutionary development is also clearly outlined by a number of apt metaphors. We have a tree that yields unripe fruits and which later ripen and become tasty and edible. Then we have a father and mother who give birth to children who also suffer stages of growth -the infant becomes the crawling child, then the adolescent with sexual desires then the adult and so forth.

Then in self development a person begins as egocentric then because of various kinds of conflicts in social existence becomes freed of the Ego and becoming egoless and pure, and with that destroys the alienation the egoism promotes,
The religious mind is an egoistic mind, still not sufficiently evolved and because of which it remains essentially combative. However and possibly because of these conflicts and the inner tensions they bring forth, indulges in ego-destruction and at which point it evolves into a UNIVERSALITY where there is destruction of the alienating tendencies of the egoistic mind.

BEING becoming all these individuals and collectivities plays a GAME whereby He makes the souls EVOLVE and finally enjoy Moksa.

11.
Vaayaaki vaayiRanta mavunamaaki
Matamaaki mataGkadanta vaaymaiyaaki
Kaayaaki pazamaakit taruvaay maRaik
Karuvi karaNaatikaLin palappaay peRRa
Taayaaki tantaiyaap piLLaiyaaki
Taanaaki naanaakic cakalamaaki
Ooyaata sattiyellaa udaiyataaki
onRaakip palavaaki ooGkun teevee!

Meaning:

O Maka Deva!
You become the mouth of speech and later  Deep Silence that transcends all speech. In the process you become the various religions and later the TRUTH that transcends all such verbose religions of the WORD. In all these you are like a tree that yields unripe fruits and later become ripe (and ready for eating) You unite with all kinds of internal and external utensils and serving as the Mother and Father bring to birth the various souls as embodiment and make them develop ins stages like the infant, child adolescent adult and so forth. In that process you also make them egocentric and later become egoless and pure and at which point they also destroy the alienation from all others and exist with a oneness of mind with all. In order to bring about such a evolutionary growth of all, you wield all kinds of powers and play various kinds of games in which you stand as the various kinds of individual things as well as the collectivities.

...An individual is bound to develop in himself a set of behavioural consequences which shapes the perspectives that ultimately lead to the typical orientation of his personality. The poem attempts to present this orientation as follows:

[IN TAMIL]
yaadhum oorae yavarum kaelir;
theedhum nandrum pirar thara vaaraa;
nodhalum thanidhalum avatroranna;
sadhalum pudhuvadhu andre;
vazhdhal inidhu ena magilndhandrum ilamae;
munivin innadhu endralum ilamae;
minnodu vaanam thann thuli thalaie,
aanaadhu kal porudhu irangum mallal per yaatru neer vazhipadum punnai pol,
aar uyir murai vazhipadum' enbadhu thiravor kaatchiyin thelindhanam aagalin,
maatchiyyin periyorai viyathalum ilamae,
siriyorai igazhdhal adhaninum ilamae.
 
All places are my abodes dear,
And every one is my kith and kin;
Good and bad are caused by none,
Sickness and convalescence are just but natural;
Nothing is new in death,
Rejoice life as sweet we do not, Nor despise it as sour;
Since,
Convinced are we through the serene vision of the seers,
That,
Along with lightening pour down cold drops;
The Mighty river rolls down the stone
Into pebbles with constant noise, lo!
The Boat sails in the river.
Likewise precious life has it’s course
In the course of Nature.
Hence, We do not wonder at the great
Nor look down upon the small.
 

The poem purports to place on record the water mark of the life style of the saints and seers of ancient Tamil Nadu. Tamil Nadu is one of the sites of ancient civilization in India. It was part of a vast continent, called Lemuria where the Dravidian Civilization flourished. The major part of Lemuria has submerged into the Pacific ocean due to a great flood that occurred several centuries ago. The saints and savants of Tamil Nadu thus represent a sample of highly evolved people who lived in a highly civilized society. Purananooru belongs to the collection of literature evolved during the Sangam Age. Sangam stands for Society or Association and the Associations of Tamil Poets mark the age of Sangam. The poem provides a description of the personality orientation of the perspective personalities who represent a population of highly evolved individuals in an ancient civilization of the world.

Simple paraphrasing of the poem brings out the profound wisdom contained in it. The poem states that we are all convinced through the serene vision of the seers and saints, that in the process of evolution the big bang occurred and the fire globe started to cool off, ultimately giving rise to the geography of seasons and climate. The rain started pouring down and the rocks were turned into pieces and pebbles giving way to the courses of rivers. The power of the water current of the river constantly changes responding to the geographical state set in by the evolution at a particular point of time. The freedom and bondage available to the sailor at one point of time is dynamically determined by internal and external forces—internal contingent on physical and subjective resources of the sailor and external based on the velocity of the wind, the power of the water currents, etc. Such a balancing of forces within and without occurs constantly due to the ongoing process of evolution and such frictions are never inimical to anyone in particular at any point of time.

The poem further adds that since the truth of the above is adopted in our basic perspective as a basic stance of our thinking, willing and feeling, we could derive the following inferences. And, these inferences reinforce our perspective, installing in us the probabilistic orientation.

We believe that all places are our dear abodes and are as good as our native place. We regard every one as our kith and kin.

We are convinced that no one can do good or inflict harm to us since every event is but a derivation from a random phenomenon conceived in the process of evolution.

We do believe that natural processes mediate the sources of sickness and the capacity for convalescence from the sickness. These processes are just but natural phenomena and are not inimical to any one in particular.

We do not consider death as anything strange or new. There is nothing new in death which is again a natural event.

Since we are given to the above convictions, we do not rejoice life as sweet nor despise life as sour due to stress and strain.

We do not wonder at any one for achieving greatness nor would we look down upon the small who are weak and meek. Since each one rises to his station due to natural processes over which no one has any simple and direct control or mastery.

The probabilistic orientation of personality

S.Narayanan and N. Annalakshmi

Many birds and beasts are venerated in the Hindu world. The peacock is probably
the most beautiful of them all. The bird is known to biologists as Pavo
cristatus (crested peacock). It has been suggested that the Latin word pavo is
related to the Sanskrit pavana (purity). The peacock is a native of India. But
it does have cousins in some other parts of the world as well.

How can one not be impressed by the sheer majesty of the bird when it grandly
un-furls its upper tail, and displays its uniquely captivating plumage which is
colorful and captivating? The bird does this primarily to impress and attract
the peahen for the primordial purpose of pro-creation. But humans, extrapolating
to animals their own tendencies, have interpreted this as an expression of the
creature's pride, like fashion models proudly showing off their latest styles.
William Blake exclaimed: "The pride of the peacock is the glory of God."

They say that the peacock was brought from India to the Middle East and to
Greece already in very ancient times. References to it may be found in Greek
mythology, in Egyptian writings and even in the Bible. Thus, in the mythical
framework of the ancient Greeks, Hara, the queen of Zeus, had a chariot pulled
by two peacocks to show that this was a proud goddess. In the Old Testament we
read in two different books that peacocks were brought along with gold and
silver, ivory and apes to King Solomon by his navy. In Islamic mythology, the
peacock stands at the gate of paradise.

Though graceful in stature, this beautiful bird is not a friendly one, and has
a tendency to being quarrelsome. Perhaps this is why it was never domesticated.
Also, quite possibly, because of this, ancient Hindus made it the vahana
(vehicle) for Karttikeya, the God of War. In the Yuddha Kandam of the Tamil epic
Kandapuranam we read one account of how this happened during the confrontation
between Murugan (Skanda) and the evil demon Surapadman. It is said that the
latter assumed the form of a mammoth tree and stood firm in the sea. Murugan
cleaved the tree in two, of which one became a cock and the other a peacock. The
cock was etched on Murugan's flag and the peacock became his vahana (vehicle).
The same symbols are associated with Kumara or Karttikeya, as one reads in
Kumarasambhava.

Then there is the legend of how Parvati took on the form of a peahen (mayil) and
paid her homage to Shiva at a temple. The region where Parvati appeared in the
mayil form came to be known as Mylapore: now an important section of Chennai.
Sometimes the Goddess Sarasvati, whose vahana is a swan, is pictured with a
peacock by her side, which is looking at her, as if waiting for a command.

During the momentous churning of the Sea of Milk for extracting amrita, some
poisons also emerged, and it was the peacock that took it all in. That is why
the bird is regarded as a shield against evil, and its meat is said to be
poisonous in the Hindu world. The sanctity of the animal in the Hindu world
arose from such associations with gods and goddesses. The peacock-feather used
to symbolize the power and pelf of Rajas and Maharajas at once time.

There is a lot of peacock myth in the Christian world also where there is
particular reverence for the large peacock eyes. There was the belief, perhaps
instigated by St. Augustine, that the flesh of the peacock never decays; in
other words, there is something supernatural about the bird. At the same time,
there was the superstition that the blood of this bird would ward off all evil.
In Christian art, angels are sometimes depicted with peacock feathers.

The capacity for fantasizing about the powers and properties of unusual birds
and beasts is not confined to any particular culture. It is universal, and is
certainly an inspiration for myth-making.

It is said that the peacock used to be eaten as a delicacy in ancient Rome as
well as in medieval Europe. Often, other birds were stuffed into the much
larger peacock's body, and the whole dish was presented as a delicacy. The
practice has long since been discontinued. During the British occupa-tion of
India, some Englishmen used to shoot the bird for sport, incurring the wrath of
Hindus who looked upon this as sacrilege. But in our own times, (I have read)
some Indians have adopted the animal as a game for their hunt-ing pleasures.

At one time, peacock feathers used to be in great demand in Europe for
decorative purposes. India has always been the principal source for this
commodity. Even today, one makes manual fans and ornamental articles with
peacock feathers. Parts of the feather are sometimes used as bookmarks.

The peacock has been adopted as the national bird of India.

The grandeur of the natural world is seen in many forms and kinds. There are
huge rivers and high mountains, stupendous falls and awe-some glaciers. Then
there are mammoth animals and minute organisms, spanning an incredible range of
possibilities on our planet. And of the plants and trees that enrich and nourish
earth's life there is one that amazes any spectator by its impressive
dimensions. This is the banyan tree.

The Indian variety of the banyan is known as Ficus bengalensis or Ficus
indica. These sprawling banyan trees are all over India. There is one in Pune
that is one of the largest. The banyan often rises to heights ex-ceeding a
hundred feet. Its heart-shaped leaves have pin-like pointed tips. Most
remarkable of all, shoots (actually adventitious roots) emerge from its many
bran-ches, and they grow earthwards; and these eventually become a horde of
thick and intertwining trunks themselves, supporting the vast and expanding
tree.

They say that Alexander's friend and general Nearchus left a report
according to which the great Greek once set up camp with 7000 soldiers under the
shade of a single banyan on the banks of the River Narmada. This may sound like
a bit of occidental hyperbole about the Orient, but it could have been true.
This tree is believed to have survived the ravages of time and history for more
than two millennia. An Englishman in the eigh-teenth century referred to it as
still having a circumference of 2000 feet with almost 3000 shoots supporting its
branches like pillars holding a canopy.

Another famous banyan tree today is the one at the Botanical Gardens near
Calcutta, which was planted in the late 1700s. By the beginning of the twentieth
century its principal trunk had grown to over 40 feet in diameter, while some
250 subsidiary trunks supported the tree between branches and ground. The main
trunk has probably died by now, for the thickest of them is barely 12 feet wide.
Walking around this entire banyan tree is a stroll of 900 feet. The whole tree
with its countless intertwining roots and spreading branches covers an area of
some four acres. There is something magnificent about such a vast canopy of
leaves at various levels, about a tree whose flower it is difficult to spot for
it is within the banyan fig, so intricately formed by the silent forces of
nature, as if an invisible artist were erecting a three-dimensional masterpiece.
Birds are fond of the banyan fruit, and their droppings help spread the seed far
and wide. Certain wasps make their way into its fruits and lay their eggs there.
The pollens stick to the emerging larvae which get out and fertilize other
flowers. What wondrous processes we find in Nature!

The Sanskrit name for banyan is vata. According to one questionable
etymology, a few hundred years ago a group of merchants from India set up shop
somewhere in the Middle East under a tree of this kind. The Arabs transformed
vata by changing the v into b, and referred to the tree as banij. Another theory
says that because the banias (vaNij: merchants) used to sit under these trees
and sold their wares, the tree came to be called baniya. The Portuguese took
over the word into their language and call-ed the tree banyan. Since the banias
used to wear a simple collarless short-armed shirt (a T-shirt) this garment came
to be called baniyan in Indian English, a word which has crept into Hindi also.
Again, since Indians were known to be kind to animals, animal hospitals in
England came to be called Banyan hospitals at one time.

Inevitably, there are references to the banyan tree in Hindu lore. At the end of
every Yuga, Vishnu is said to rest for a while on a banyan leaf. When the wise
father in the Chhandogya Upanishad tries to teach his son about the nature of
the Supreme, he refers to the minuteness of the seed which is hardly visible to
the naked eye, but which contains within itself the vast banyan. Likewise does
everything exist in that Supreme Self, explains the father, and adds: "Thou art
That."

The banyan is believed to embody the trimurti: Brahma in the roots, Vishnu in
the bark, and Shiva in the branches. In Vedic imagery, Indra sat under a banyan,
as the Buddha did for a whole week. Wisdom is said to flow into one that sits
under the banyan. It was under a banyan tree that Savitri had Satyavan resting
his head on her lap when Yama came to carry him away.

About a year ago there was a news item in the Hindustan Times to the effect that
in a village called Etaunja people prayed to a banyan tree which is at least
250 years old. The people of the village are convinced that all one's wishes
would be fulfilled by paying homage to this tree. Childless couples pray to the
tree to get children. We will find such extremes of nature worship in few other
places in the world. This is the magic of India: her poetry and ageless myths
persist as sturdily as ever, alongside with modernity of every kind, for
computers and cell-phones also abound here, and information technology services
clients in the United States. This is not surprising in a land where all the
narrowness of casteism mars the fair face of a religion in which the highest
spiritual visions have found expression. Appropriately, the banyan is India's
national tree.

V. V. Raman

March 20, 2006

PS

1.Two Literary Traditions

There are Two Literary Traditions in Hinduism in which original Hindu
teachings have been recorded; the Sanskrit Tradition and the Tamil Tradition.
(There is a third Pali Tradition but it focuses on Buddhism only). Of these
three traditions, only Tamil is still a living tradition whereas Sanskrit and
Pali are dead for all practical purposes.

Most Hindus are not aware that the tamil texts are equally voluminous as the
sanskrit texts and some parts are thought to be as ancient as the rig veda
although admittedly most of these old texts have been lost. These tamil texts
are even more profound in its universalist and all encompassing views
covering not just Hindus but all mankind, all life as many of you are already
aware.

The tamil texts are approximately half of Hindu literary-shastras. Only now
are Hindu scholars beginning to realise this, that all this while half of Hindu
shastras are not known to most Hindu scholars, swamis and acharyas in this
last century as it is in tamil. In the last hundred years, most scholars and
swamis wrote about Hinduism knowning only about one-half or less of its
shastric heritage.

Tamil literature is still growing. More has probably been written on Hinduism
in tamil in the last 300 years compared to sanskrit and all other vernacular
languages in the last 1,000 years! Imagine that.

( Check it out. Here is a part listings of modern tamil writings at
http://www.geocities.com/athens/5180/chrono2.html and be mesmerised by
a glimpse of the the extent of growing Hindu shastric heritage!)

2.Two Shastric Traditions

Two bodies of texts govern Hinduism as revealed scripture or shruti; the
Vedas and the Agamas, and both are in sanskrit. The vedas are well known
and is fire-ritual based worship or homas.

The agamas are far more voluminous (28 saiva plus 77 shakta plus 215
vaishnava texts, PLUS their upa agamas) than the entire vedas and all other
smirthis together, but nobody knows much about the agamas or quote from
it. This is because it was entirely written by south Indians and maintained
entirely in south India, and that it was written in the grantha script, not
brahmi, nagari or devanagiri. Grantha is old tamil script!

Have a look at grantha at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grantha and convince
yourselves once and for all of the centrality of tamil to Hinduism, as is
sanskrit.

In other words the agamas were verbalised in sanskrit and written in tamil.
Herein lies the symbiosis of these two great literary and shastric traditions.

Today, Hinduism all over the subcontinent is based on the agamas, and is not
vedic as Vivekananda too observed. Agama worship is temple, home altar
worship, temple ceremonies, holy days and festivals, birth-to-death
sacramants, etc which is what Hinduism is today. While there are
commonalities in agama and veda worldviews, they are poles apart in rituals.
Even more telling is that they are unambiguous and specific in their teachings,
unlike the vedas.

We might as well call our religion the 'Agama Religion' rather than 'Hinduism'
which is an Iranian corrupt and now an english word, or even 'Sanathana
Dharma' which is a description and not a name, and besides it contains the
word 'dharma' which can quite easily be extrapolated to include varnashrama.
I'm wary of that. So we, the followers are 'agamists'.

However the agamas are only now being translated into english and will soon
be available to scholars.

3.Two Sectarian Traditions

The two great living sectarian traditions are Saivism and Vaishnavism which
are embodied in the above four traditions. Of course there are many other
traditions, like Shaktism which is related to Saivism, as well as Smarthaism
which is related to all the preceding three in its practice, as well as hundreds
of other sampradayas and vernacular traditions.

Conclusion

The non availability of tamil and agama texts in english is what led Hinduism
to be presented in an unbalanced and distorted way to the westerners as
well as the modern Hindus who have been blinded to believe that there is
varna in the religion, and it is benign. There is no varna system in saivism or
even in shaktiism. There is 'supposed' to be no varna in vaishnavism. (If only
they realised that their own saints sang contradictory teachings to those
contained in the varnashrama texts, the BG and SB. That would have to be
dealt with separately).

Now what shall we think of the writers from Mueller to Vivekananda right
down to Sivananda and everyone in between and after, who studied and
wrote based on half the literary traditions, then half of the shastric
traditions?
Their views as well as those of the western indologists was based on about
one-third of Hindu heritage, an incomplete, unbalanced and less informed
view.

Of interest to us here is that there is no varna in the tamil and agama
traditions which comprise two-thirds of Hindu heritage, and perhaps our
objectives and concerns were, well, unfounded.

If Hinduism was properly and proportionately presented in the first instance
varna would have little or no place in Hinduism. The proper and balanced
presentation of The Agama Religion would be our goal now, and in that
process show the world that our religion, Agamism, is universalist, humane
and egalitarian. It always has been!

So it is time for scholars and swamis to study tamil if they want to know
about Hinduism. Reading all those english commentaries and analysis of
Hinduism is useless. Its 'garbage in garbage out' for we already know its only
a small part and that too a misinterpretation of Hinduism.

They still have to study tamil script if they want to read sanskrit texts! How
about that! If not they are not knowledgeable about Hinduism.

This blows away 200 years of Hindu scholarship.

Pathmarajah Nagalingam

It has a hard and hairy shell, and its inside has a whitish, crunchy pulp.
It encloses a delicious liquid which we call its milk. It is hefty and heavy,
marked with three dark spots, referred to as its eyes. It is tasty and
nutritious. It is known as Cocos nucifera or coconut.

The coconut palm is tall and gracious, sometimes with a gentle curvature,
rising to heights that may reach a hundred feet and more. Its trunk could swell
to more than a foot in diameter. The pinnate leaves at the distant top often
grow to impressive lengths of several feet. The green fruits the tree bears are
massive and football-like, enclosing a soft, sweet meat that is kept cool by the
refreshing milk. In this state and in its more dried out condition of the
hardened nut, coconut has quenched the thirst and tickled the palate of
countless millions in tropical climes.

The contributions of coconut go beyond the pleasures of drinking and chewing.
The timber from the tree's trunk is used in home con-struction, for furniture,
or simply as firewood. The leaves are often patterned to fabricate pretty fans
to be waved by hand. They also serve as thatches for dwellings, and provide
material for mats. Its fibers are used to make ropes, and the coconut shell can
form little cups to drink from. The oil from the dried pulp goes into soaps and
candles.

The coconut has achieved great sanctity in the Hindu world. It is endowed, as
many other things in nature are, with esoteric significance. It is not only
offered to the gods, it is itself venerated in a formal mode known as nariyal
puja (coconut worship). It is regarded as representing the purity of Divinity.
The possession of three eyes qualifies it as a manifestation of Shiva. It is
classified as a satvic food, meaning that it is healthy for the body, wholesome
for the mind, and helpful for spiritual growth. Modern nutritional analysis,
uncovering high levels of cholesterol, has no place in the spiritual context.

The coconut plays a role in Hindu ceremonies. It is also known as sriphala or
auspicious in Sanskrit. Anointed with turmeric and vermilion, it is part of the
ritual offerings to gods. It plays a prestigious role in Hindu marriage
ceremonies where the purnakumbha is a sine qua non. This is a well-shaped
pitcher filled with sanctified water around which leaves from a mango tree are
neatly tied together, and on whose aperture sits a whole coconut. This
combination comes into play on many auspicious occasions.

In many Hindu homes, especially in the South, a fresh coconut is broken open on
Fridays in the context of weekly prayers. Some have interpreted this custom as
the vestige of an ancient ritual when animals were sacrificed at the altar. The
coconut symbolizes the head of the animal and its milk stands for the blood.
Like the phallic interpretation of the lingam, few practicing Hindus even think
of such grotesque meanings in our times; some question the legitimacy of such
unpleasant interpretations.

According to one legend in the lore, the coconut tree was brought into existence
by the eminent Rishi Vishvamitra - who is credited with the composition of the
gayatri mantra - when he assisted Trishanku in flying to heaven in his physical
body. This was a rare and perhaps the only instance of a rishi initiating an
entirely new botanical species.

I recall hearing from a Punjabi friend a weird legend which said that at one
time in the remote past babies came out of coconuts. Anyone wanting a child
would simply pluck a coconut and break it open, and a baby would bounce out!
When an infant got sick, it used to be dumped at the foot of the coconut tree.
Once, an elderly man happened to pass by a tree and saw a heap of ailing babies
under it. He prayed to God to let babies be born through a mother's womb rather
than from the inside of coconuts. God granted this wish. The coconut ceased to
produce babies.

The range of edibles in Indian cuisine that has coconut as their base forms an
impressive and delectable array. But the palm tree also provides a juice known
as toddy which, when fermented, becomes a potent beverage that has ruined many a
poor laborer.

The general consensus seems to be that the coconut had its origins in Malaysia
or Polynesia, though it is now very much part of the Indian landscape. The
erudite historian of ancient India D.D. Kosambi informs us that though it was
probably brought to the Eastern coast of India as early as the first century
B.C.E., it was relatively unknown in many parts of the subcontinent before the
sixth century C.E. If this was the case, then the Vishvamitra legend must have
been a later creation. The coconut is mentioned in the Ramayana in more than one
context. In a description of the coastline of Lanka the epic mentions coconut,
Palmyra, and other tress.

The coconut is also important in the myths of the Polynesian people. The coconut
tree is said to have emerged from a spot where a god's head was buried.

Here are two responses.

Pathma-bhai,
I agree with what you have said so far, with my only substantial disagreement being the issue you just addressed regarding Sanksrit not being central to Hinduism.Since you have revised your earlier comment, however, I must note there is nothing you have written so far with which I disagree.

I have come to the conclusion that Sanskrit and Tamil are both central, that Dravidic and so-called "Aryan" Hinduism(s) converge and diverge in a number of ways, and that, furthermore, both have oral, textual and "folk" traditions that diverge within their larger Dravidic and non-Dravidic contect.

I strongly suspect that one reason Sanskrit is generally favored over Tamil--beyond Postcolonialist obervations that Sanksrit textual traditions were exchewed due to European colonialists' assumptions about "proper" religion and to half-baked racial notions (i.e. "Aryan" theory)--is due to is due to the relative difficulty speakers of European and Sanskrit-derived languages (Such as Hindi) encounter in learning Tamil (and/or Tamil-derived) languages. Intentionally or not, the emphasis on the "easier" language(s) has produced more scholarly studies of those texts and traditions--which, in turn, has tended to reinforce the idea that Sanskrit is the "official" voice of Hinduism as there is a greater body of scholarly studies on can point to as "proof" of this claim. However, even in the U.S., Tamil scholars, such as Vasudha Narayanan, are increasingly challenging these assumptions.

-Jimi

From: "vraghavan26"
Date: Sun Apr 2, 2006  5:51 pm

The main problem in the sideline of literary circle is the
simplistic assumptions left over by the colonials of this country
over the 200 years they ruled.

1.The Tamil Text are simply the translations of vedic and
upanishadic schools to the utter neglect of the metaphysical
background of the authors and their relative independent thinking
and deductions.

2.Medieval india has seen lot of population transmigration into the
Tamil land which were patronising invariably SK(a varient of Tamil
for courtly and religious purposes)they had probably appended
contextual references linking orginal works in Tamil to SK.

3.Sanskrit itself as it exposes was never a spoken language and
hence it became archiac no sooner it was penned and with every
authors death since one cannot peep into the metaphysical insights
of Dead person unless that person penned it in day-to-day spoken
language of communication.

4.Stronger view persist that SK could have been embedded version of
Tamil (Tantric Tamil) when we look at Rg veda specially later, however
the language SK had accomodated more words from all around but one
definitely fix these to Base Tamil or dravidian with deeper insights.

5.It would be interesting to probe the territorial extention of
language C.Tamil 1000 years ago (pre-muslim) and 2500 years ago(Tol
period where he refers to Kodun tamizh in twelve adjoining regions
of Tamil land which extends to Vada-VengKadam (I strongly believe
this could verywell extend to Hindukush).

Cows and bulls graze on large fields in Argentina, Australia, and North America,
fed well and fattened, to be milked or sent to the slaughter-house. They are
strong and wholesome mammals, always gentle in demeanor and graceful in gait,
only seemingly wild when teased on a toreador's arena. They are said to have
been domesticated in India some ten thousand years ago, and they have walked to
the pastures accompanied by men with sticks since time immemorial. Bison and
banteng (Bos javanicus) are among their cousins in biological taxonomy, and with
them they sometimes interbreed. We speak of them collectively as cattle: bull is
the male and cow the female. The young one we call the calf .

Indian cattle with their characteristic hump and large dewlap comes under the
class of Bos taurus indicus, and distinguished them from the Bos taurus of
Europe. They are also called zebu. One variety of zebu is known as Brahman. Cows
and bulls roam in many towns and cities in India even today. The sturdy animals
that pull the carts on many Indian roads are castrated bulls, also known as
bullocks. People accustomed to mechanical vehicles may find bullock carts to be
too slow, and inhuman in the subjugation of the poor creatures. But the air
pollution from that mode of transportation is very near zero compared to the
toxic levels that result from gasoline-powered cars.

Like brain power and human muscular exertions, cattle power too has gone from
India to other lands. Africa and Madagascar have been enriched by Indian bulls
and cows. The European Charolais and the Brazilian Chanchim trace their ancestry
to the zebu.

Many animals have been regarded as sacred in many cultures, but perhaps none
other has attained the degree of sanctity as the cow in the Hindu world. The
animal is treated with reverence, and literally worshipped. It is taken as a
symbol of wealth, indeed as the source of all earthy prosperity; hence sometimes
identified with the earth itself. This view was not peculiar to India. Abraham
was rich in cattle. The English word capital and cattle is derived from the same
Latin root meaning wealth.

In the Mahabharata, the significance of giving cows as gifts to Brahmins in
certain ceremonies is expounded. the animal is extolled in impressive ways. We
read that cattle are strong and energetic, that they are the source of
immortality, the means for the attainment of wealth and heaven, the eternal law
of the universe, and that they possess the qualities of the sun and the moon. It
is also said that if a person takes the help of the five products of the cow,
cattle can confer blessings upon a person like the river Sarasvati does, and can
serve to alleviate the effects of some diseases. There is a pious prayer which
says: "Oh cattle, you bring to us all kinds of merits. Gratified with me,
appoint a desirable end for me!" There is reference to a red cow. It is called
Rohini.

The epics refer to a magical cow which could grant whatever one wished. This was
the Kamadhenu. In Greek mythology Zeus was raised by Amalthea on goat's milk. As
a mark of appreciation, Zeus gave Amalthea the horn of the goat (cornucopia)
which, like Kamadhenu, would give anything one wished. Kamadhenu is said to
have emerged during the momentous churning of the ocean. In Middle-Eastern
Shilluk creation story, a magical white cow arose from the River Nile.

The Vedas say that cows should not be slaughtered. But bulls, even cows on
occasions, were sacrificed in jaj? Such sanctified beef used to be eaten by
priests. Historians tell us that during the first centuries of the Common Era,
cows came to be look-ed upon as a divine principle. One began to worship the
animal, and by the fourth century the killing of cows came to looked upon as
more heinous and sinful than the killing of Brahmins.

During Puranic times, especially with the development of the Krishna lore, the
cow became exceptionally holy. Krishna was Gokula-vasa: resident of the
cow-station. Gopala the cow--herd, Govinda the recoverer of the cow, and
Gopi-manohara: enchanter of cow-herdresses are all epithets for Krishna.

In the Tamil country there is the feast of the Mattuppongal: the cow-pongal at
the advent of spring during which the cow is decorated and venerated. It is a
way of showing our gratitude to the cattle which give us milk and butter, and
pull our plows, and whose excrement serves as a fuel-source.

This well-deserved respect for the animal led to the notion that various deities
reside in different parts of the cow. It followed that anything from the cow
must be sacred. This led to the concoction and sanctification of the panchagavya
(literally: that which is made up of five ingredients from the cow): milk,
(clarified) butter, curd, cow-dung and cow's urine. The drinking of cow's urine
is recommended in the Mahabharata, and by Manu.

Yet, it is not unusual to see a cow sitting on a public thoroughfare with an
open wound on its hump at which flies congregate or crows peck, while
indifferent passers-by ignoring the creature's plight. That is the India of
contrasts.

Narada is a most interesting rishi in Hindu sacred history. The puranas give
different accounts of his genesis. According to the Narada Pancha Ratra, Narada
was born of Brahma. The Vishnu Purana says that he was one of Kashyapa's
progeny. The Bhagavata Purana regards him as Vishnu incarnate. Many fascinating
stories are told about him.

Metaphorically speaking, Narada was the first jet-setter in history, for he
traveled widely: not just all over this planet of ours, but to heaven and hell
as well. For this reason he is known as triloka sanch?: a traveler of three
worlds. But he was no passive tourist. In epic and puranic literature, Narada is
often described as a messenger. In this capacity he often fed secret information
which led to quarrels and misunderstandings among friends. This won him the
unfavorable epithets of Kalikarana: strife-maker and kalahapriya: one who likes
misunderstandings. In the Hindu world, a person who gossips with the intention
of provoking misunderstandings is sometimes called Narad-muni.

Brahma once advised Narada to get married and settle down. Narada said Brahma
was no good as a teacher since devotion to Krishna was the path to felicity.
Brahma cursed Narada to get addicted to erotic delights. Narada first wept at
Brahma's severe curse; and when he gained his composure, he cursed in turn that
Brahma become incestuous with his own daughter, adding, "You will not be
worshipped for three yugas," and tempered by saying, "after that, you will be
worshipped for you are worthy of it ."

In the Vayu Purana Narada tells the sons of Daksha (who were about to multiply)
that they were foolish to undertake this without even knowing how big or small
the earth is, for without this knowledge how would they determine if they were
overpopulating or underpopulating the world? Daksha cursed Narada for this.

In the Mahabharata, there are many references to Narada. In one episode, he
explains the origin of death thus: When Brahma created the universe, he soon
recognized that they would be everlasting. This might not be good, he thought,
and became very angry. His anger expressed itself as a universal conflagration
which destroyed everything. At this Rudra advised him that he should not destroy
everything at once. So, Brahma created the personification of Death who would
destroy individual lives at various time, rather than all at once. That is why
not everybody dies at the same time.

In another episode of the Mahabharata, Narada is reported to have told a story
whose thrust was to preach ahimsa. In that story Dharma, who had disguised
himself as a deer about to be sacrificed by a Brahmin in a yajna says: "The
slaughter of creatures does not conform to the ordinances of yajna Injury to
animals is no part of yajna We also read here that a full-fledged religion is
one which abstains from doing harm (himsa). This is interesting in that the
Mahabharata was before Mahavira of Jainism.

Narada was a scholar, and also a great lover of music. He is said to have
invented the veena. He is also remembered as the one who initiated the art of
dancing.

This great rishi was not always modest. Once he told the Divine principle
(Narayana): "I always respect my elders, I have never spoken to others about
secrets, I have read the Vedas studiously, I have practiced severe austerities,
I have never uttered untruth, I have always been virtuous, I have always treated
both friends and foes alike, I always adore the Divine." By these, he claimed
his right to see the Divine in person.

Valmiki's Balakanda begins with the poet asking some questions to Narada: "Is
there anyone who merits to be called a perfectly virtuous man? Is there anyone
who understands fully the power of ethical comportment? Who is there that fully
realizes the value of selfless service, who always speaks the truth, and is also
firm in his resolutions?..." Narada answered by saying, "Yes, indeed, I do know
of such a hero, one who has all the noble qualities which you have mentioned."
He then went on to narrate the saga of the great Rama which Valmiki wrote for us
all to read.

This inspired one saintly personage to write: "In Brahmaloka, Ramayana has 100
crores (10 billion) shlokas and Brahma wanted to introduce it to Bhooloka. He
searched for a good narrator and He found in Narada. an eligible candidate."
Such exaggerations are not unusual in the Hindu world when it comes to lauding
great works.

The choice of Narada for telling the Ramayana is appropriate: Narada was
scholar, minstrel, spiritual soul, and traveler. The Ramayana too has
scholarly and musical components. Like Narada, it has a spiritual dimension.
Like Narada again, the Ramayana has traveled to distant lands through
translations in many languages.

Some hymns of the Vedas are attributed to Narada. A treatise on law, the
Naradiya Dharma Shastra, is believed to have been written by Narada.

The agamas are caste-free, and that has been the case since time
immemorial.

Pathmarajah

"The Saivas recognise twenty-eight Agamas, of which the chief is Kamika....
They are open to all castes and both the ***es."

Swami Sivananda
Divine Life Society

The Agamas Are Pre-Buddhist

....To bring a harmony between these two contesting movements, the
calvinistic doctrine, the doctrine of grace and the Chosen man appears in the
Hindu scene and we come to the age of Agamas. All agamas claim that they
are all God-inspired and all of them claim their origin to God himself. To the
Saivas they are the earliest revealed works in the Sanskrit Language on their
religion and Philosophy. Since Tirumoolar (2nd century A.D.) mention nine
Saiva Agamas by name (Thirumantiram. Samya Ed. 63) we may ***ume that
those Agamas were written a long time before him. The Pidagagama is the
name giben to the Buddhist Scripture Tripidaga. This came into existence
immediately after the Buddha attained Nirvana. The nomenclature of the
Buddhist religious treatise was obviously taken from the then existing Saiva
treatises. Hence we may conclude that the Saiva Agamas were in existence
before the 6th century B.C.

M. GNANAPIRAGASAM
Former Principal Parameswara College Jaffna.

Here is a sample of sutras from the saiva and shakta agamas:

"It has been laid down by the Lord that there can be no moksha, liberation,
without diksha, initiation; and initiation cannot be there without a teacher.
Hence, it comes down the line of teachers, parampara."
Kularnava Tantra

"Even the incompetant, indeed, should worship, ending with the offering of
the sacrificial food, ending with light. He who does this shall obtain progress
towards the Auspicious."
Karana Agama

(Pujas shall be conducted by all and nobody shall be exempt, even the
incompetant. No community is excluded from being pujaris.)

Offerings of perfumed substances, flowers, incense, lamps and fresh fruits -
these are the five elements of the traditional puja which culminates with the
offerings of the lamps.
Karana Agama

He should repeat the Siva mantra according to his ability, and (there should
be) circumnambulation, obeisance and surrender of the self.
Karana Agama

Cutting all the stones to be cut, carving all the stones to be carved, boring all
the stones to be bored, such are the three aspects of the silpis art. The
architect and the sutragrahin build the temples and craft the images, but 'it is
with the takshaka that the architect effects the opening of the eyes of these
images', and similar rites.
Suprabheda Agama

(It is the architects (stapathis) and the chilpis (sculptors) that convert an
ordinary stone into a Living Diety with eyes, etc., fit for worship, with the
pujari merely maintaining the Diety 'like a living being'. This servant (pujari) of
the Diety can be anyone, and cannot make the Diety impure, for a servant
cannot make the Sovereign Master impure. The pujari cannot bring the
Diety alive, for it is already alive when consecrated. Hindus only worship
this 'Living Being' and not just any idol, statue, stone, art or decorations.
These are the first principles of Icon Worship.)

Let the aspirant for liberation behave in an unselfish way and kind way and
give aid to all, let him undergo penance, and let him study this agama.
Devikalottara Agama

(all shall study the agamas)

One who has recoiled from sensual pleasures and devoted himself to
undefiled, pure wisdom is sure to achieve everlasting moksha, even if he
does not consciously seek it.
Devikalottara Agama

(I mentioned this before that a regular temple goer can obtain moksha just a
day or two before expiry, whether he knows it or not, or whether he is able
to recognise and articulate his last experience to loved ones.)

These worlds, tiered one above the other from the lowest to the highest,
make up the universe of transmigration. Knowers of Reality describe it as a
place of effective experience.
Mrigendra Agama

All these visibles and invisibles, movables and immovables, are prrevaded by
Me. All the worlds existing in the tattvas from Sakti to prithvi (earth) exist in
Me. Whatever is heard of seen, internally or externally, is pervaded by Me.
Sarvajnanottara Agama

Never does a man attain moksha by his own skill; by no means other than
the grace of Siva, the dispeller of evil, is such an attainment possible.
Paushkara Agama

The bodily form of the Almighty, being constituted by powers is not
comparable to ours. Most conspicuous is the absence of anava. His bodily
form, having a head, etc., is composed of five mantras, corresponding to each
of the five activities - Isa, Tatpurusha, Aghora, Vama and Aja.
Mrigendra Agama

(indeed the Lord has a form somewhat like a human being with head, arms
etc, and not just as a formless brahman)

Devoid of beginning, duration and ending, by nature immaculate, powerful,
omniscient, supremely perfect - thus is Siva spoken of in the Saiva tradition.
Ajita Agama

Unequalled, free from pain, subtle, all pervading, unending, unchanging,
incapable of decay, sovereign - such is the essence of Siva, Lord of the
summit of all paths.
Svayambhuva Agama

[This message has been edited by Webmaster (edited January 10, 2007).]