GROWING IN UNDERSTANDING

NATIVE  CHARM

GROWING IN UNDERSTANDING

Learning is one of the chief pleasures of growing up. The modern age has mistaken schooling for education , and education for learning. But we of the older generation know better.  The inimitable Chesterton said education is what remains after we have forgotten all that we have studied. And when we properly digest our education, we really learn. If we keep our eyes and ears open, and the mind too, keen and open, there is no limit to what we may really learn.

Learning does not mean getting to know new information or facts or ideas. It is often a new way of looking at old 'knowledge'. It is a new insight suddenly gained.  We take so many  ideas for granted, we use words routinely; sometimes, someone opens our eyes and new understanding dawns. That changes the world, for us!

We learnt  while young ( not necessarily at school) Tamil National poet Subramanya Bharati's songs.

He was  revolutionary, but not like the modern loonies. He had a strong dharmic base. Classical poet Avvaiyar had written a few charming lines of moral instruction for children. Bharati took them up and modernised them- and how! 

Grandma Avvai  said: Desire to follow dharma (Aram seyya virumbu), Subdue anger ( Aaruvadu sinam) etc. Bharati said: Achcham Tavir, Aanmai tavarael! ( Avoid fear, do not slip from manliness.) Bharati was writing for a generation of Indians meekly submissive to foreign colonial looters and he was teaching their children to be bold and brave!

And what is this fear? The child  is afraid of the dark. Many people are afraid of ghosts and spirits.  Most people are afraid of the unknown. Most fear poverty and illness. Youngsters fear old age. Older people fear financial instability, ill-health,etc. Statesmen like  Roosevelt taught us that fear alone was to be feared. Our great celluloid poet Shailendra sang:

Apne saaye se bhi log dhar ne lage

Ab kisi ko kisi par bharosa nahi

( People are now beginning to fear their own shadows.. Now, no one trusts another.)

Thus we see that as we grow old, we don't grow out of fear, but catch hold of new things to be afraid of!

And yet, what is the greatest fear?  It is that great unknown- death. The subject is even taboo in western culture. Indians have a better way of stating it. We are not afraid of death- but birth! Yes- we are afraid of the repeated births in Samsara- which cause repeated deaths.  The Bhagvad Gita calls this 'Mahato bhayaat'= the great fear. It calls this world 'mrutyu samsara sagara', 'mrutyu samsara vartmani', etc. 

So, the Hindu Deities are always shown with an arm showing the sign of freedom from fear:  Abhaya hastam. The first thing they do is to assure the devotee  freedom from fear. But they also show the way. The second arm points to the feet of the Deity. Yes- the Lord's feet are our refuge, and there is no fear there. That is the only place which is free of fear!As we grow old and also in understanding, we traverse the lands of many fears and reach fearlessness. Once we have learnt to look death in the face, we lose every fear on earth!  

Lord Nataraja- symbolising the Cosmos.

Look at his lower right hand- it shows the Abhaya hastam= the sign of the assurance of freedom from fear. And the left hand points to his feet which is our refuge and source of fearlessness. Every aspect of Hindu iconography is symbolic.

John Donne wrote this sonnet which has been called the Holy Sonnet. 

Picture from Wikimedia.

Death, be not proud, though some have called thee

Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;

For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow

Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.

From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,

Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow,

And soonest our best men with thee do go,

Rest of their bones, and soul's delivery.

Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,

And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,

And poppy or charms can make us sleep as well

And better than thy stroke; why swell'st thou then?

One short sleep past, we wake eternally

And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.

Some seek to overcome death ie attain immortality by leaving their name behind through great acts.  Again, Shailendra sings:

Ganga aur Jumna ki gehri hai dhaar

Aagey ya peechey sabko jaana hai paar

Dharti kahe pukar ke

Beej bichale pyar ke

Mausam beeta jaaye

Apni kahani chod ja

Kuch to nishaani chod ja

Kaun kahe iss ore

Tu phir aaye na aaye.

(The waters of Ganga and Jumna run deep. Early or late we all have to traverse to the other side.#

Earth demands that  you go along, sowing the seeds of love. The seasons pass away.

Leave your story behind.& Leave some marks before you leave.Who knows whether you will pass this way again)

# Ganga and Yamuna have been running deep. ( That is, before you were born, and will do so even after you are gone. Life is unfathomable)

& Give up your preoccupation with your own little concerns, and make some contribution to the world.

Really, 50 years after his death, Shailendra lives in his poetry, which lives in the memory  and mind of the people! His words still move us.

Our philosophy teaches us that to understand the true nature of life and death is the only way to overcome the fear of death, and death itself!

 Our Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi taught us:

Those who have intense fear of death seek refuge at the feet of Lord Supreme who is birthless, deathless. Then their egos and attachments die. Can they fear the thought of death again? They become deathless.

( Reality in Forty Verses- Invocatory verse 2. This is a very loose rendering of the exquisite and profound Tamil verse of Bhagavan himself. Who can translate it?)

(Picture from the cover of a publication from  Sri Ramanasramam)

Most of us must have read the poem 'The Brooke" by Alfred Lord Tennyson, at school or on our own

I come from haunts of coot and hern   I make a sudden sally, And sparkle out among the fern   To bicker down a valley. By thirty hills I hurry down,   Or slip between the ridges By twenty thorps, a little town,   And half a hundred bridges. Till last by Philip's farm I flow   To join the brimming river, For men may come and men may go   But I go on for ever. Picture from the National Portraits Gallery, London. There are of course ten more stanzas. While at school, we thought it was just about the stream. If we came from the countryside,we might actually have seen such streams (called Odai in Tamil), emerging suddenly from the hills yonder, and running with all noise, among the stones and pebbles.  The poem describes how the brook chatters,bubbles flowing through fields and fallows, how it winds about, in and out. But as it nears its destination, the chatter turns to a murmur, it glides and glances, curves and flows. All the initial noise and high spirit get subdued as it joins the river. That was all in the poem- so we thought when young. But later, the same words made us think again.  What is this 'I' business? What does joining the river mean? As men come and go, this 'I' goes on forever!  Everything in the world is impermanent; then how can this "go on forever"? So we are led to 'learn' that this poem is not about the earthy brook, after all! The brook is a symbol or metaphor for the eternal Spirit in man- his Atma- which is not destroyed when the body is destroyed. It  then joins its Source and/or Destiny- which is the river. Thus we see that Tennyson is talking about the indestructibility of the Soul (in the Western usage) and it joining the Maker. We Hindus are mightily pleased as it expresses the Vedantic idea that our final goal is Union with God, no less. The brook and  the river are of the same stuff- water. They appear separate due to name and form, but are one in essence. Realisation of this Eternal Unity brings to rest all the wanderings through hills and valleys, fields and fallows- the endless wandering of the mind! Our entire Vedic poetry is symbolic like this. Western idiots like Max Muller and mere academics like him could never understand  such poetry. It takes a poet to appreciate poetry. They get and give us a glimpse. Not that Tennyson is Vedantic, but the spirit is unmistakable. This is how we grow in understanding, as we keep learning. Salutations to all the masters who help us learn.