Youtube is one website which i keep regularly watching. I see lot of carnatic songs and most of them are Balamurali's. His amazing voice mesmarises me and i'll be in the world of trans. As i was going through different programs available in it, i encounterted a small program where in a white speaks wrong about hindisim. i was a little upset for the whole day as i have my roots with it. Later i gave a deep thought over this. he basically opposed idol worship in the program.
I was a staunch hindu in my early days when i was with some fundamentalist groups. Anything against my religion was something which i could never digest. many times in my college days we friends used to have discussions over babri masjid demolition and i would be a candidate who was for the matter. later over a period of time my thoughts eased and i grew more tolerent to all these. pbly Shankaracharya's teaching made me more flexible over religion, caste and people. But still this was running in my mind and drilling my thoughts. Let us question ourselves why his opinion was so. I could see somthing missing which made the boy speak so. What's that...........
He was not wrong saying so as Max Muller too initially said that vedas are worst than sevage and India must be conquered with education of modren time, as this religion gets doomed. So this small boy is not an exception. but Muller later in one of his books says that "whatever may be the age of vedas whether 1500 yrs or 15k years they have their own place in the world's literature. It is sceintefic and indigineous". It was over a period where he explored this. Probably if the source was understandable to that boy he might have not commented so. many of us have this problem, we take literal meaning of sanskrit words and understand it different. Leave about that person, many of us also feel so. This is obvious because most of us do not spend in understanding the concepts or the reasons behind but we oppose as others do it. It is just like as said in khatopanishad "Andhenaiva niyamana yadandhaha" which means "blind follows a blind" and finally we all fall in a ditch. Its the time to question ourselves now. People in other countries know Bhagavad gita more than what we all know. I remember a kannada saying here "Hittalina gida madalla" meaning man is so foolish that he is in search of medicine when he has it behind his door. If somebody asks us a question why we celebrate vinayaka chaviti we have no answer. We just cover up saying it to be an old practiece that we are following. Or in the name of modernisation we feel it to be non-sense or the moderate answer would be " Its a day where we all family members sit together and celebrate, eat and end merry making". With all this, still the answer is not got. this is because of the hard reality that none of us know the reason behind. Did any of us question this with in ourselves. Probably some would have got such "strange question" and would have asked the parents but again the fact is, many of our parents themselves do not know. the day is not far where we may have to get preachings from germans or US people.
We encounter lot of people in our daily life. Some belive in god and the others are atheists. Bannaje govindacharya puts this beautifully in his preachings on gita. he says both have a point in common. The believer does not know why he belive's and the atheist also does not know why he disagree in god's existance. Again blind follows a blind here. Either we follow our parents in worshipping or we follow ideals who preach about non-existance. irony is both cannot prove the existance. Hence Shankaracharya says things felt are beyond the range where our language can express. This is the biggest limitation of a language. If we say brahmananda or amrutha, can any language explain its charecters or describe the taste. It can only be felt. Tyagaraja a very famous vaggeyakara says intakannanada yemi "Sohamainade chalu""I am one with him" or "Kamalaju kaina galuguna" "Can Brahma ever expirience this". So much was felt by him. he challenges brahma that even he cannot explain the ananda that was felt. Ananda are in grades actually like keetananda, mrugananda,manushyananda,devananda and brahmananda. so each of this are felt but cannot be explained. So is the ecstesy one can feel.
hence i want all of us to get familiar with what our religion says. Hinduism is also called sanatana dharma or the oldest among the religions if it is literally understood. but sanatana has more to convey here, it means it is eternal with no begining no ending but fully with essance. this is a better way if we can understand the meaning of the word "sanatana". it is a religion which preaches morality and ethics.
Man's mental agony and the failures that he encounters takes him to a stage where he gets dipressed. This mental condition of him makes him think that there should be a co-existant who is more strong and more stable than him to whom he can surrender. The ultimate realization is, nature has a supirior to whom all should shelter. this makes him dig nature, however deep he penitrates so much further it would take him in leangth and analysis. Doing so he arrives to find that a supreme being exists and terms it as Cosmic power. Cosmic power is something which is spread across and found in all elements of nature. God in hinduism is explained more stronger than this cosmic power. It is said that he can be visualised in a small atom. Upanishads have always tried to describe his presence in all. Hinduism proclaims everthing to be the divine god and he resides in all. this is quite subtle to understand and imagine. If everything is he, how do you term him with words or explain him with expressions. he is limitless, beyond imagination and expressions. That is the very reason it does not have a name and form. Upanishads call it as "THAT" or Nirguna Brahman(formless superpower). There is no other. There is no second. It is the source of all energy, of all power, either in nature or in living beings. It is subtle, complex and beyond the imangination of humans. To perceive this as god, it was beyond humans range. Anythting which cannot be seen or imagined cannot be thought off. human brain is a tool which can process what his eyes see. Say if the man is blind then it takes the support of feelings or his intellect. But has a limitation to think of objects which we can never imagine. So in hinduism they derived a method where in they see this formless superpower in forms and by names but still has the same attributes. Since he is formless but present in all he can take any form or any name. This is what they call as Suguna brahman (superpower with a form).
This grew as a concept and people started giving names and forms that would suite their mood and requirement. This is like, take a barrel of water from sea and name it as a pond. Both sea and pond are inseparable and yet one is different to the other and called with seperate names. No single name or form can describe the limitless spirit, but still is a part of him who is beyond our visual representation. hence the trial to make an array of forms and names that could glorify him as full, was tried. Hyms like vishnu sahasranamam or rudra supports this concept. The 1000 names of vishnu explains the thousand forms that he can manifest. Madwacharya says he could still give 100 meanings to each of the name of the lord in this sahasranama. So he is spread over. Anything you call, it is he. In this trial Hinduism gives the option to people to opt and name the form of their own choice. hence the concept of ishta- daivata (one's own form of god) came up.
Our puranas are also drawn in the same way. it gives confidance to people who are weak. It is just that mind has to get eased from tensions. this is the beauty of hinduism which say's all forms and names just repersent him. Any object that represents him is great, and as he is found in everything, hence all objects are great.
watching ramayana serial that used to come on sundays would be amazing. we will be surprised to know that many people would have bath and sit in front of tv's to watch it. My whloe family including my father would finish all our activities or postpone it just not to miss this serial. Rama as we all know is an ideal to may and an incarnation of superpower. he before construction of the bridge to lanka offers prayers to lord shiva. this was where my doubt started. but as i grew did not think much on this. i usually did not like watching purans in hindi or anything directed by north indians. this was because i was so much used to the dress and costumes our andhra actors used and the way they used sing songs. Rama for me is always NTR and never arun gowil. But i got to see a serial called shiva puran where in i saw shiva worshipping vishnu, here my doubt grew stronger. when reading khatopanishad i got to know the reason behind this and it is that, to any form the other form of him is a god. See the smiplicity behind this, i was wonder struck with such comments.
I am a great fan of K.Vishwanth a telugu director. In one of his movies called "Saptapadi" somyajulu has acted as the grand father of a brahmin girl, who wishes to marry a lower cast person. I dont know who has written the dialouges to that movie, the last 15 mins of this movie has made such an impact on me, all that i could put up here is because of the inspiration i got after watching the movie. This made me to read more and think more on this matter.
i wish to give you an other incedent where we see Brahman in all objects. Every year hindus have so many festivals to celebrate of which vinayaka chaviti is one. It is one festival which is celebrated by all. we have a practiece that at home an idol of lord ganesh made out of clay is brought and worshipped. Even clay can be worshipped when we can percieve brahman in it, is the message that it gives.
mantras that we have at the begining of any ceremony starts saying "Ishta devam namaskritya" meaning, salute the god of your choice and begin a work. So much is the liberty that we have and so strong the concept is. The reason for this article of mine is to say that let us not be dumb henceforth and spread irrelevant things which made the white boy speak so. When we have the chance to read and understand let us do it. Let us get into deeper understanding of anything than to discuss it at the perifery. The concept of single supreme power is not just told by hinduism but is common across all religions and is an accepted fact. The credit is for we hindus because when humans did not know about civilization these were given as inputs to them. To percieve this supreme being, one should feel whatevert he does is in the direction to know him. It is in the direction to worship him and see him in what we do. this makes him more matured and over this process he would have known himself more and tried to do only good. Hence gandhiji used to call Bhagavad Gita as his mother. this is because any mother has check points for her son. She will never allow a son to commit mistakes. As shankara said knowledge is a means of liberation, let us attain and realize his supreme power. Hope we can also dream as tyagaraga, to be one in him.
