Forgiveness

 The Jain community, espcially of the Shwetambar sect, has a very interesting custom. Every Bhadrapada Chaturthi, that is on the Ganesh Chaturthi, they have the "michchami duggadam" day. The expression means 'forgive me for the unintentional hurt that my words or actions might have caused you.' It is indeed a wonderful concept. At times, due to stress, may be, we might unknowingly, unintentionally hurt someone, and it is but basic decency to ask for forgiveness for that minor mistake.

Should, however, conscious and vicious ill-treatment for decades on end be forgiven? Such villainy, moreover, refuses to stop because the crook of a perpetrator (and his minions, the gang/mafia, however much may they pretend to be gooood and decent) enjoys the ill-treatment! Should it be forgiven?

Should conscious black magic intended to ill-treat be forgiven? Should the conscious ganging up to ruin a brilliant career, through subtle viciousness  born out of jealousy and malice, be forgiven? Should vicious most ugly canards knowingly spread to tarnish an innocent reputation so as to cover up one's own ugly meannesses and pervert practices be forgiven? 

Sure these are rhetorical questions because the only answer to such blocking ( or is it blacking?) out of a person's very existence to suit one's own lust for power-n-control, for gossiping endlessly, for one's hidden desires of the worst variety, for hiding one's total dislike of certain individuals in one's own life is that all such wickedness-es can and never should be forgiven, no, not even by the gods!

What must the victim of such deliberate targeting and conscious injustice do? Surely not forgive it because that entire undeserved suffering is a joke to the perpetrators  to be laughed at,  a time-pass that they continue to find funny!

 Better forget it  out of one's conscious mind so that one goes on as per one's ideals and principles, and attains the dreams that are so valuable to one's own self. Equally it is important, I suppose, to believe in the justice that governs the universe, and which makes one's good wishes absolutely potent! Equally important it is to never ever be like the self-obsessed perpetrator(s) because the victim's plight and pain are truly intimately known!

Pratima@To forgive conscious vicious targeting is foolish. To continue most honorably despite it is divine! 

Instead of turning the other cheek, better get away from the range of the hand, however long it may imagine itself to be!

Happy Ganesh Chaturthi!

 Nobody need specially wish me, "Happy Ganesh Chaturthi"! Well, I AM the happiest on this day. As it is, I adore Ganapati. In my opinion, Ganapati is not only a god, distant, different, difficult. He is one with us, a friend, a philosopher and a guide, to quote a phrase rather trite!

Yes, of all the gods, He is the most human(e) in my opinion. Forever He has a gentle smile playing around/on his lips. He is least bothered about how He looks. No body shaming for this god who is contentment incarnate. He is good at very many arts, and yet He chooses to be the scribe for "Mahabharata"! He is a smart thinker as the 'circumambulation' story proves. 

I can go on and on and on reciting His greatness. Let it suffice for the time being to admit that even an amateur artist like me can draw Lord Ganesha, open to any and every abstract depiction. Every kid can make a clay Ganesha, right? He is that accessible to delineation.

No wonder, Lokmanya Tilak chose the ten- day-long Ganesh fest, a 'religious festival for political rallying'. In fact, looked at historically, He transcends the territorial bounds. With the traders, He, too, reached the entire expanse of South-East Asia, Nepal to Japan!

It was hence one of the loveliest moments for me to 'be' at the Mana village Ganesh temple where He supposedly wrote down the 'Mahabharata' Vyasa was dictating. Nearby the effervescent flow of Saraswati was making a huge noise, and hence apparently Vyasa ordered her to be quiet. A few meters away the river plunged in to a gorge, to be forever present and yet absent.

The holy becomes whole thus when related to Lord Ganesh, my favourite most God. Happy Ganesh Chaturthi to all!

Pratima@Each of his names shows how beneficient is this god of wisdom, of all initiation, and of all ends to all evils. Happy indeed to be with Him yet again!

Dog(-)ged Devotion!

 Today is indeed special. Absolutely unique! Why? Because it is "Hartalika" today. Sure, Saraswati as THE goddess is my eternal inspiration. My favourite most goddess, however, is Parvati. Why? Is that your question?

Well, hers must be the first ever love marriage in the whole universe. She follows her passion with a dogged determination. Nothing can repulse her. Her chosen one stays in the coldest of abodes. He does not follow any dress code. From his head, the Bhagirathi flowed. Simply fearsome is the force. Time and again, he gets in to trouble to save the world. Remember the Amrit Manthan? He is, moreover, very naive n straightforward. 

Yet she is adamant about her choice. The outward appearance does not deter her. She knows, he is Shiv, the purest. He is "kaivalya", the utmost knowledge. He can renounce everything. Even "kama", the ultimate desire, cannot move him. He can slay all possible demons. He is the "adi", the beginning and the "ant", the end! 

Look at her, too. She, too, is as unique and special as her choice. Hers is the utmost devotion. Absolutely passionate it is. Truly tough is her penance. In fact, she can be the female version of the lodestar, 'an ever fixed mark', to quote Shakespeare's definition of love. In the process, she becomes the mother of Gajanana, the god of all that is good n beneficient, and of the entire universe.

Now let me discuss the second reason why today is special. That would explain the title of our blog as well.  What is the date today? It is August 26, right? The day is dedicated to 'him' who loves with the whole heart, nay, the whole being. Nobody else except you exists in the universe for him. He can gauge your mood without you uttering a single sound. Treat him with love, and all that is gentle would be yours forever. This is a truth universally acknowledged!

Any guesses about who is thus referred to? But, of course, the dog, literally the most devoted member of the family. August 26 is the international dog day. The world over, in every mythology, the dog is the symbol of faithfulness, devotion and love. Hence the title of our blog. 

Pratima@ Right now, in the Indian capital, the dog sure is the bone of contention. I suppose, we, human beings, who create those mountains of refuse, especially the leftover food, are responsible for the foraging and fearsome canines whom we, moreover, choose to call 'curs', while we actually are the real curse!

Understanding a myth

 If you love English literature, and especially the clean stark honest writing of George Orwell, what do you associate a pig, a boar with? Yes, Snowball, an idealist who is not only hounded out, but whose memory is consciously tarnished as well. 

Much more than that, in most minds, a boar would be Napoleon, the ambitious, cunning, crafty and hugely jealous competitor who lacks Snowball's intelligence, creativity, and most importantly, his care and concern for the good, both the good people who lack voice, and the common good that must reign supreme, whatever/however the powerful who manage the boot-lickers and yes-(wo)men may pretend!

Well, in the Indian imaginary, the boar has another meaning as well. Here is a look at that allusion. Now that the Hindu Consciousness has risen, what with scholars and youtubers batt(l)ing for it relentlessly, suddenly there is now an open admission of the Varah Jayanti. Varah, the Sanskrit word for a boar, is the third avataar of Vishnu.

Very interesting is the story. Many may not know the myth. Sure the Vedas might tell it a little differently  from the Puranas. The Vaidic consciousness looks at it slightly differently, while the Puranas explain it from the avataar perspective. 

Whichever perspective you may read up, how can it be explained in today's terms? May be, through the environmental consciousness? The demon Hirnyaksha who takes the earth deep in to the ocean would be the human indulgences that drown the earth-n-environment? May be! Sure I need to develop this perspective, this interpretation better, read up more and critically! In the meanwhile, thanks be to the Indic awareness that opens up the space for such discussions!

Pratima@ I would also like to compare and contrast the Varah avataar with the Persephone myth. Interesting insights should emerge, I suppose.

The Avian Danger

 What do you think about the title of our blog? Oh, you think that my spelling is gone wrong! No way! No, I did not want to write 'aviation'. True, post the Ahmedabad tragedy in June, such 'flying' menace seems so dangerous that even the "flying discs" of the supposed aliens, too, appear less fearsome.

No, I am not referring to aviation. Yes, the theme today is related to wings and flying. These are of the non-artificial variety though, unlike the wings of aeroplanes or of "flying discs". 

Yes, you have guessed it right. I am referring to the bird menace, a much debated topic currently. Birds are currently making people more furious than the "angry birds''! Yes, let us talk about the seed-, eh, feeding of pigeons publically.

As it is, the cityscape growing taller by the day has expelled the sparrows long time back. Now the only birds roaming the city/metro skies seem to be crows and pigeons. Of the two, crows could at least be supposed to be cleaning the garbage heaps, typical of the cityscapes, in their own winged (who said ' wicked'? True in a way because they do dirty the garbage area still more!) way.

Pigeons, however, are no help in any way, but are sheer menace. Used as they are to bulk feeding twice daily, they choose balconies and all such human households to shit. That refuse is positively dangerous as it carries particles affecting the human pulmonary organs, threatened hugely by pollution anyways.

Unfortunately, religious sensitivities have got intertwined in the whole issue as those feeding the pigeons in a huge and regular way argue that it is a caring and religious practice. They seem to overlook the fact that this comparatively recent custom is literally killing human beings. The complex effect the bird droppings have on human beings seem to be multi-drug resistant, and appear to be leading to a very painful death

Hence the need to control the avian danger. The Covid, which, too, is supposed to be avian in origin, should have taught us the lesson that nature should not be tampered with. Nature does have its own way of species control and balanced relationship between species. When human beings cross those limits for fancy food or for feeding the birds due to a much misplaced pity, dangerous are the final outcomes. Time human beings realise the avian danger!

Pratima@ "Nothing in the world," argued Martin Luther King, "is more dangerous than sincere ignorance or conscientious stupidity." 

Eat to live!

 Time was when there used to be grannies in the family who would have simple but highly effective remedies for typical illnesses such as stomach upset or its other extreme, that is, not enjoying food at all! Soon  such grannies were replaced by family doctors, kind, considerate, curing with simple remedies.

Come specialists and medicine as well as food habits became technical so much so that terms like bumilia, anorexia became household names. Princess Diana was a great help in this process! Actually, as in the West, there is an obsession now with looks, hence on bodily shape. Hence such extremes as either obsessing over food or not eating at all.

In a way, these disorders are, as Pavlov, yes, the one about the mouse and food lever in a cage or about dogs drooling, proved in his Nobel winning research that it is 'classical conditioning' that controls such responses, an observation much discussed in the cognitive-behavioural discussions.

Now, however, neither specialists nor even the googling as an alternative to  medical expertise matters! The AI doctor cum self medicating patient is already here, and may be proved by the "bromism patient."

This gentleman is a shining example of how half baked knowledge is a danger. This sixty year old man consulted the ChatGPT, and replaced sodium chloride, salt with bromide. It had dangerous consequences as he started suffering from bromism which is a condition marked by hallucinations, et al. As this practice was common in the nineteenth century, it is also calld the Victorian disease. The patient, almost near death, had to suffer the psychiatric ward as well.

In other words, the receipe to a happy and healthy gastronomical satisfaction is to eat to live. Nothing "obsesses" in such a case. You need no extreme diets that have a yo-yo effect on weight gain. Actually, the traditional lunch/dinner plate from Maharashtra is the best. Well, food is the real medicine in a way. Yes, sure one should indulge the taste buds now and then. Yes, it is necessary to make our guts strong enough to stand the street food now and then.

But never live to eat! It leads to terrible obsession with weight, and hence with grams and milligrams of protein and fat and the BMI, and so on. Most importantly, never follow the ChatGPT for advice about food! Better to remember that it is still a student, hence prone to mistakes, right?

Pratima@Actually, I intended to write about the glories of the Indian Space mission as August 23 is the Space Day. Yes, india is making very confident strides in the space. What I like about India's space walk is that it is ready to take along other countries in this journey as proven a few years ago when the Indian shuttle carried along other specimens, too, including those from advanced countries! We have already celebrated Shubhanshu Shukla in our blog. Hence better to avoid the repeat as there is a surfeit of such information!

The "Matru Din": Mothers' Day, the Indian Way

 Shrawan is, in my opinion, the month that tells us how to be. That is my take on the rituals in Shrawan. Let me put forth a few examples to fortify my argument. "Nag Panchami", for example, teaches us how not to treat a snake merely as a menace. Extremely benevolent for farmers, snakes, too, have a place in the scheme of things, is the lesson indirectly imbibed in us. 

Look at the story of Nagpanchami. A farmer's plough cuts the tails of the hatchlings of a serpent. Furious, the snake wants revenge. It forgets to bite when it sees the daughter of the family praying to God to keep her 'brothers' safe. The tale tells us not to harm even a snakelet as the earth belongs to all, and to seek a bond across species.

It is this spirit that prevails on the Narali Purnima Day, too, i think. A sea in fury due to the monsoon can be hundred times more dangerous than a cobra. However, just as a farmer needs a snake, so does the fisherman the sea. The month of Shravan,  in my opinion, teaches us to consider such a bond, holy, beyond mere utility. Hence the typical rituals, I suppose,  associated with the Shravan festivals!

It is but natural hence that the month ends with a celebration of the most misunderstood animal considered brainless,  actually toiling the hardest, the bullock. True, in the era of hydroponics, who cares for a bull? Yet the traditional rituals associated with the day reveal the deepest concern for this beast who labours in the field, without any complaint or without (m)any thanks!

The month of Shravan, the month of regeneration across Nature, what with even the barest hills lush with greenery due to the monsoon, is actually a month that venerates the maternal bond. The very first day of this festive season begins with the "Jivti Pooja", a mother's ardent prayers for the well being of her children.

The very picture of the "Jivti" that adorns the "devhara" of most all Maharashtrian households is a tribute to this life sustaining relationship. Is it any wonder hence that the holy month ends with the Matru Din, a day devoted to commemorating the mother?

The last day of the lunar month, the no-moon day, the amavasya  according to the Hindu calender, is otherwise never considered auspicious. Yet the last day of the Shravan, dedicated to the mother-child bond, becomes holy. Such is the power of the mother love!

Pratima@i would like to conclude by saying that the way Shravan is celebrated and the manner in which it ends, it is a great tribute to the mother principle that sustains, and beyond mere biology. In other words, the Mothers' Day in our culture is larger in signification, is more empathetic, and hence truly special! Long live the Matru Din, the Indian Mothers' Day!