Is there a single objective to all our lives?

A Tiger always worries about catching it's prey. A deer worries about how to escape from the claws of the Tiger. So is the case with the dog, cat and a rat. Almost all animals are either worried about their food, shelter, life and partner. Is our life same as them, or are we capable of doing something better than them? Is there something superior than food, shelter, life and partner which a human being can think of?

How many of us have ever thought about it! It looks like a very little percentage of the human population have ever thought about this. Don't we work day-night to fulfill the pleasures of our life? We run through our life silently without even realizing the purpose behind it. Finally we feel we have wasted our entire lifetime in unwanted things. Do you think is this the right life we are living? Do you think is there any higher objective for our lives? Kanaka Dasaru finally concludes his poem with an objective we should think about each and every second in our life

ಉನ್ನತದ ನೆಲೆಯದಿ ಕೇಶವನ ಧ್ಯಾನವನ್ನು |
ಮನಮುಟ್ಟಿ ಮಾಡುವುದು - ಮುಕ್ತಿಗಾಗಿ
ಭಕ್ತಿಗಾಗಿ - ಜೀವತ್ರುಪ್ಥಿಗಾಗಿ |
ಆತ್ಮಶಕ್ತಿಗಾಗಿ - ಅನಂದಕಾಗಿ ||

This thought is different from food and clothing needs. Do animals think about it? No, it is something only human beings think about. Kanaka Dasaru was a great human being. Why was he great... He was great because he had seen Keshava(the eternal truth), he enjoyed his life through his poetry and compositions, he preached the society the objective one should have in their lives. So is our objective just to pray Keshava everyday. Do you think there is only one objective to all of us, a single objective to all in this diverse world? Introspect yourself!

What are we here for?

Swami Vivekananda in one of his letter to the Maharaja of Mysore reads in part "My Noble Prince, This life is short, the vanities in this world are transient, but they alone live who live for others, the rest are more dead than alive".

Then if we have to do something before we pass way, what is that best thing we can do? Before discussing this beautiful question, I would like to mention the name of one of the most famous philosopher, poet, musician and composer from Karnataka. Kanaka Dasaru (1509-1609) [1] was well known for his(avara) Kirtanes and Ugabhoga (reminiscent of Vachanas) compositions in Kannada langauge for Carnatic music. The uniqueness of his(avara) compositions was he(avaru) embedded common people's day-to-day language into the complicated classical carnatic music which was mostly limited to scholarly language[2].

Kanaka Dasaru in one of his(avara) works has explained LIFE beautifully, probably the simplest i have heard so far. Although the words used in the poem are written by keeping in mind the society that was there during Kanaka Dasa's period, the inner meaning implies to all societies of all periods

ಎಲ್ಲರು ಮಾಡುವುದು ಹೊಟ್ಟೆಗಾಗಿ | ಗೇಣು ಬಟ್ಟೆಗಾಗಿ ಮುದ್ಧೆ ಹಿಟ್ಟಿಗಾಗಿ || ಪಲ್ಲವಿ ||
Every one works for stomach, clothing and food. Kanaka Dasaru when saying for Stomach, implies we all earn/work to fulfill our hunger and then we earn/work to fulfill our clothing needs.

ಕೊಟ್ಟಣವ ಕಟ್ಟಿಕೊಂಡು - ಕಟ್ಟಿಗೆಯ ಹೊತ್ತುಕೊಂಡು | ಕಷ್ಟ ಪಾಡು ಪಡುವುದು ಏತಕ್ಕಾಗಿ?
ಹೊಟ್ಟೆಗಾಗಿ - ಗೇಣು ಬಟ್ಟೆಗಾಗಿ ||
Why does one do the difficult task of carrying paddy and wood (referring to the agricultural prominence in India)? for Food and Clothing(the inner meaning is as implied in the previous line)

ಬೆಲ್ಲದಂತೆ ಮಾತನಾಡಿ - ಎಲ್ಲರನ್ನು ಮರಳು ಮಾಡಿ | ಸುಳ್ಳು ಬೊಗಳಿ ಬಾಳುವುದು - ಎತಕ್ಕಾಗಿ?
ಹೊಟ್ಟೆಗಾಗಿ - ಗೇಣು ಬಟ್ಟೆಗಾಗಿ ||
Why does one cheat others by speaking sweet (as sweet as Jaggery) words, and lead life by lying? for Food and Clothing

ಸಂನ್ಯಾಸಿ ಜಂಗಮ ಜೋಗಿ - ಜಟ್ಟಿ ಮೊಂಡ ಬೈರಾಗಿ | ನಾನಾ ವೆಷಗಳೇಲ್ಲ - ಏತಕ್ಕಾಗಿ? ||
ಹೊಟ್ಟೆಗಾಗಿ - ಗೇಣು ಬಟ್ಟೆಗಾಗಿ ||
Why does one wear different attires of saint? for Food and Clothing

When you think of the plight of cows, pet dogs, rats in the gutter, cats, birds etc... Are their needs quite similar?

ಹೊಟ್ಟೆಗಾಗಿ - ಇಷ್ಟು ರೊಟ್ಟಿಗಾಗಿ ||
For Food and just Food alone...

When you think of wild animals like lion, tiger, snakes, eagles, flies and mosquitoes etc... Are there needs quite similar

ಹೊಟ್ಟೆಗಾಗಿ - ಗೂಡುಗಟ್ಟಿಗಾಗಿ |
ಸವಿ ತುತ್ತಿಗಾಗಿ - ಹಸು ಮೆತ್ತಗಾಗಿ
For handful of food, best shelter, and for better sleep

Is this all for which we are here in this world, or are we aiming at things higher? Lets Discuss...

Glossary
avara - Kannada word for its English counterpart "HIS". The kannada meaning denotes more respect to the addressee

avaru - Kannada word for its English counterpart "He". The kannada meaning denotes more respect to the addressee

References
[1] http://www.publicationsdivision.nic.in/b_show.asp?id=857
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanaka_Dasa

A short beginning to a long thought...

This is a short beginning to a very long series of articles I am planning to write in the coming days. I do not want to discuss what will be the soul of all my articles, but the article should itself reflect the true spirit behind it. I hope i do justice to all great Legends while i refer their work when composing the articles.

Sri Dr Devanahalli Venkataramanaiah Gundappa, popularly know as DVG left this physical world even before I came to this beautiful place. I grew without even knowing what DVG had left behind. Left behind? I will come back to this question a little later. DVG was a prominent Kannada writer and philosopher. He was renowned for his famous literary work called as Manku Thimmana Kagga, which is a collection of versus. I do not think there is any matching literary work to this in any other language in terms of the simplicity in which DVG communicates philosophy to all sections of the society. Basically it was for the entire humanity, such is the depth and vastness of DVG’s most of the literary works. In fact Manku Thimmana Kagga is called as the Bhagavadh Gita of Kannada.

I will take up the question which i left unanswered in the last paragraph. What did DVG leave behind? DVG has left behind his thoughts through numerous writings in a language which can never be imitated or can be made more simpler. Leave behind? when we ask this question 40-50 years from now what should be our answer. A teacher asks his students in the class, do you remember your grand father's name, great grand father's name and so on.. Many students say they remember their grand father's name, a couple say they remember their great grand father's name and no one remembers their other ancestors. When the teacher asked them why don't you remember your ancestors, one of the student answered with conviction and arrogance "Not worth remembering sir!" So the teacher said "This is a irony, we remember Chanakya, Shankaracharya, Madwacharya, Ramanujacharya, Swami Vivekananda, Aurbindo, Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Mahatma Gandhiji and there is a long list... without them being our forefathers, Can you tell why do we remember them?" The same student gets up and answers with conviction

"Anyone who lives for themselves will never be remembered and Anyone who lives for others will never be forgotten"

A lesson we should never forget. We are here to leave a MARK BEHIND and not just pass away silently

To be continued ...

The first tears for my country

It was in July 2008, the train whistled and moved forward making it’s usual rattling sound. Although this wasn’t unusual for the train, it was for me. I woke up and the light from the Sun was just trying to explain me they were the last rays which visited the east a few minutes back, they are the first rays waking you up… I just peeped out of the window. My eyes focusing on something that it had never seen before, still focusing on it and feeling amused by the dream which it had presented to the mind. A yellow board went past, the train slowed down and the rattling sound became more dispersed… I suddenly woke up and came out of the compartment; just to make sure what I saw till now was just a dream.

The freshness of the air made me feel eternal. My eyes saw people around… people who were fishermen, people who were religious, people who were businessmen, people dressed in different clothes, people speaking different languages… Feeling still in the dream world, I just leaned out of the door… I spotted a yellow board which had three words arranged as the vertices of an equilateral triangle. The top vertex looked like a brahmi or Indus script to me… the left most vertex looked a lot more similar but still felt ignorant… now my pupil adjusted itself to the rightmost vertex which to the best of my knowledge read “CHILKA”.

I just leaped back… The train had just reached the Chilka lake station en route to Bhubaneswar. The cold wind that carried the warmth and vapor of the largest lake in India slashed my face. The train left the station, promising me an experience I had never felt in my life. I was witnessing the land blessed enough to receive the first rays of light! The landscape with water, water and water everywhere… with tiny little twigs just peeping out of the water to pay their respects to the star that had brought the first life on this beautiful planet called earth. Flowers, trees, birds and animals preparing for yet another day of hard, selfless work which they were bestowed upon by Nature. I didn’t find words to express my happiness, joy and I truly felt so proud and blessed to be part of this land, the land which showed the world how to LIVE 4000 years back! When there was hardly any human population when compared to today’s demography. The land which survived more than 6000 years just to prove to the rest of the world the strength and faith it was built on.

I had once heard how Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, the Bengal poet had composed one of the famous and evergreen poems of Indian history. He was such a patriotic poet that he considered Bharathavarsha(the subcontinent) as the Mother and its people as her children. Feeling terribly sad about the fact that Bharathavarsha, which stood across millennia without any disruption… which stood like a backbone to many other civilizations, had bent its back to the savaging act of the west.. In 1875 when he was traveling from Calcutta to his birth place Kanthalapada in a train, the greenery, the colorful flowers, the sound of the birds made him to close his eyes. What then came out of his mind were just not lyrics of an ordinary poetry but a language that generated patriotism never seen before in the minds of the people. A language that would remain a spectacle and always remind each Indian his role for the country… That song was

Please read the English translation of this [here]. It was truly an amazing feeling which brought tears in my eyes.. the first tears for my country. This was eight months back, the pleasant sight that I had that day on my way to Bhubaneswar… Please forgive me and yourself if you have felt that I have just exaggerated my experience…

Travelogue

It has been an year since i started writing on this blog, it has been a great experience for me. Please follow the link below to read the travelogue of my visit to Tirupathi along with my friend. 

http://vadholasa.googlepages.com/home

Makara Sankranti

All south indians, especially people from Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh are more familiar with this word. Well people from other parts of India know it with a different name. 

Makara Sankranti is the "Harvest festival of India".  Sankranti means the transmigration of the Sun from one Zodiac constellation to another, and Makara Sankranti means the transmigration of the Sun into Makara Rashi (Capricorn Constellation). But what makes this day so important? 

It is on this day Uttarayana starts i.e. Northern movement of the sun starts. This marks the beginning of longer days and shorter nights. After this day the day becomes more warmer and pleasent. The beginning of this period is celebrated across the country with different names

Punjab - Lohri

Uttarakhand - Uttarayani

West Bengal & Maharastra - Makar Sankranti

Assam - Bhogali Bihu

Gujrat and Rajasthan - Uttarayan (Kite Flying Festival)

Tamil Nadu and Tamils in Sri Lanka - Pongal

Karnataka & Andhra Pradesh - Sankranthi ...

Read more about this diversified festival on Wiki 

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Makar_Sankranti)

Wish you all a happy and prosperous Sankranthi Wishes 

A year after the November Sky ...

It was exactly an year back the November Sky had peeped to see the Rocket Boys of Bangalore launch their rocket. If you wondering what i am saying, then probably you should read my previous post here.

It has been an amazing year for us as well as for the rocket. We were thinking about various modifications which we could try out. We are planning to have a better parachute which facilitates a soft landing. We have been thinking about mounting some devices aboard the rocket which can be used for experimentation.

But the most important deal our rocket has won is it has attracted so many young students. Recently we had addressed a group of students near Marathhalli, Bangalore. They were amused and excited about the project. The most wonderful thing was parents also attended the session and they in fact requested us to carry out the science sessions periodically. What better way do you need to celebrate the anniversary of the rocket launch.

Some of the photos of our session with the kids