It is the fifth day of the first fortnight ( till it reaches the full moon day) of the lunar month of 'margashirsha'. Aai used to honour it hugely as Lord Krishna has himself stated in Chapter 11 of the Bhagvad Geeta, "masanam margshirshosmi", that is to say, "Of the months, I am Margashirsha", the best amongst the months.
Today is 'margashirsha panchami', the fifth day of the month. It is also known as "Vivah Panchami" as the marriage of Lord Ram and Devi Seeta was consecrated on this day. Is it any surprise that in Ayodhya this morning was the flag, rather the pennant, hoisted as the culmination of the Ram Mandir project?
A remarkable moment it indeed is! To understand its relevance, one must, however, free the Ram Mandir project from the immediate party politics of what happened in Samastipur on October 23, 1990, and its political/communal aftermath.
The Ram Mandir, it must never be forgotten, is a five centuries old search for roots. Generations of sadhus, priests as well as common citizens sacrificed hugely for its construction. Much has already been written about it, beginning with the 'mythology versus history' debate to all sorts of legalities. Let us not get in to that warfare.
Instead, I would like to state that with this flag flattering freely, the temple has become a unique symbol of the unity of India. Well, such a "garud dhwajstambh" is unique to the South Indian temple architecture, celebrating the well-known 'garud-Vishnu' legend. In other words, the very construction of the temple is symbiotic, symbolic of the unity of India, beginning from material to this final flag foremost fluttering freely beneath the bluest sky.
To commemorate the occasion, let me try n translate three shlokas from the "Ramraksha" which significantly is a hymn by Budhkaushik Rishi alias Sage Vishwamitra, whose life is a journey from a mighty king's ambitious attempt at acquisition of Kamdhenu to becoming a great sage himself. In other words, his life is an itinerary across 'jati n varna', caste and creed, to (self)knowledge.
Hence attempting to translate his shlokas could be a true tribute to Lord Rama as the "i-deal". Let me first try Shloka Number 30, "Mata Ramo..." This verse, Aai's favourite, she recited it at one of the most defining moments of her life, reveals how central is the deity to our individual existence/experience.
"Mother is Rama, my father is Ramchandra/Master is Rama, my friend is Ramchandra//My whole n soul is the gentle Ramchandra /None else I know nor need to thus know//"
Now let me try Verse Number 35, " apdam aphartaram" as it shows the benificence of the Lord-devotee relationship.
"The annihilator of hardships/the bestower of all abundance//To Shrirama, by all beloved/i bow repeated!"
Finally, Shloka No. 15, because like Sage Valmiki's "ma Nishad", this verse opens up how great (spiritual) poetry is born, as a 'revelation'. It, moreover, unites the Vaishnavite (as Lord Rama is Vishnu manifest, an incarnation of the great God Vishnu) and the Shaivaite (as Lord Shankar thus instructed him) traditions.
"Ordained thus in a vision/This Ramraksha by Shiva divine//Thus scripted in the dawn/ the Budhkaushik awakened.//
Yet another of my dreams, partially fulfilled, on an auspicious occasion!
Pratima@Incidentally, it must be remembered that the notorious Macaulay Minute(s), written in India, in Ooty apparently, in 1835, actually were an aftermath of a debate between the classical (Greco-Latin) versus the modern (science oriented) education debate raging in England itself.
In India, it was labelled as the orientalist versus the occidental duality. Involved actually was the allocation of educational funding, both in Britain, and here in the "jewel" of the colonies.
Well, a blog is not the space to discuss either the Lord Bentick manipulations nor Macaulay's manuscript as a test case for education as a mode of subjugation, not merely of the 'natives', but actually of the emerging working class in Britain itself, given the escalating Industrial Revolution boom.
Oh, yes, better not to create a binary either because multiple issues are involved, the entire Indology debate, et al to Frantz Fanon's argument in "The Wretched of the Earth" of the three stages of intellectual decolonisation, while analysing the psychological impact of colonisation. Fanon himself was a West Indian from Martinique, a French Colony, let it be remembered. We already are marching in to the third stage Fanon presents! Hence the quote of the day which, I think, is relevant to the destiny of an individual as well a polity, a nation.
The quote of the day: "Your talent is," states Leo Buscaglia, "God's gift to you. What you do with it is your gift back to God."
The word of the day: A flag can be unfurled, as on January 26, when the tricolour, rolled in to a compact furled shape atop the flag pole is merely spread out.
A flag, or a pennant as this morning, is hoisted. That is to say, it is raised from the bottom to the top of a pole, as on August 15.
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