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.

The Wrong Bitch!

                                      POEMS AND POETS

                    24. The Wrong Bitch!

Many years ago, in 1961 or 62, I read a joke printed as a page-filler in that lovely monthy, The Reader's Digest. An American tourist was  in  London. He got into a city bus,  but found no seat. He noticed a fat lady occupying a seat, with her dog next to her. He looked at her for some time, then bent forward, gathered the dog in his arms, and threw it out of the window. An occupant of a near-by seat remarked: " You Americans always do the wrong thing. You eat with the wrong hand, drive on the wrong side of the road, and now have thrown the wrong bitch out of the window!"

Come to think of it , we are all Americans now!   Dealing with the wrong bitch all the time!

Look at our economics. The more we talk about growth, development,wealth, the more poverty grows, and  so does the gap between the rich and the poor. In politics, the more they talk of empowerment, the more people are getting marginalised. New groups of deprived , or new forms of deprivation,emerge. Look at health-care. The more we talk about it, the more we turn it into sick-care, building more and more hospitals; health-insurance is the label for payment system for sickness attention. If you don't have insurance, you can't buy health, by definition! But which company will sell you a policy to cover real health care- buy good walking or jogging shoes, a tennis racquet, a bicycle, use a jogging track,etc? Just last week, we read how the American medical system is swindling the public, and  how the Judiciary is dealing with it.

This economic preoccupation with wealth seems meaningless, considering how counter-productive it has become. In Sanskrit, the word 'artha' is used for wealth. But artha also means 'meaning' ! So what does wealth really mean?  What is real wealth? Philosopher Sankara said: " artham anartham"., which means wealth causes harm, or  untruth depending  on how the word 'anartham' is spelt . Stunningly, in Tamil too there is just one word: 'Porul' which means both wealth and meaning!

What about our philosophy and organised religions? The one has become incomprehensible to uninitiated minds like us, and the other has become irrelevant to our times and needs. So, both have ceased to be guides to life. Many people have indeed thrown both out of their lives, which is our biggest window on the Universe! This is a pity.

Structured, systematised philosophy is not sure what it has to deal with , or how to go about it. Books are written only for the peers, and perhaps understood only by them. Religion is not sure of what it has to concern with- Life or Death, Man or God. Actually, there is no choice here. One means and involves the other.

It is said that once Tennyson was seriously ill, and was slowly being nursed back to  health. But he was grumbling. The nurse asked him why he could not write some poetry,  in gratitude for his recovery, instead of grumbling. So, he composed a poem and read it out to her. She heard it and silently ran from the room. This is the poem.

Tennyson : "Crossing the Bar"

Sunset and evening star,
   And one clear call for me!
And may there be no moaning of the bar,
   When I put out to sea.

But such a tide as moving  seems asleep,
   Too full for sound and foam,
When that which drew from out the boundless deep
   Turns again home.

Twilight and evening bell,
   And after that the dark!
And may there be no sadness of farewell,
   When I embark.

For tho' from out our bourne
   The flood may bear me far,
I hope to see my Pilot face to face
   When I have crost the Bar.

Tennyson said the poem "came in a moment." When questioned about the presence of the Pilot, and why the speaker sees him only when the vessel reaches the open sea, Tennyson clarified:

"The Pilot has been on board all the while, but in the dark I have not seen him".

 He further said:

He is " that Divine and Unseen Who is always guiding us."

                                                                 (  From Tennyson's Memoir.
                                                                    See: Tennyson's Poetry -
                                                                     Norton Critical Editions.)

Is this sad? Morbid?  To me, it does not seem so. Can it be sad, when we get to meet the Pilot? In fact, this conveys to me the whole failure of religion: the Pilot has been with us all along, but we are taught to look for him elsewhere! It is only a genuine poet who can remind us.

Tennyson believed in personal immortality, and its mysteries. " burned for ever and for ever! I can't believe that", he said.  He also said:

" I can't call myself orthodox. Two things however I have always been convinced of-God,- and that death will not end my existence."

Here is an ancient Tamil poet singing on this theme:

Tirumular

Is the sweetness of honey black or red?
You fools, who search for God in the high heavens,
Just as sweetness pervades honey
God pervades as our Self,  this very fleshy body.

The Pilot is with us all the time, but we do not get  or try to know!

Here is John Donne confronting the subject more directly, defiantly.

John Donne:  DEATH BE NOT PROUD

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.

Donne is almost mocking death. From where does he get the courage ? Death is like a longer sleep and rest. If we find pleasure from rest and sleep, which is usually short, how much more should we get from a longer sleep  and rest! And then, death only catches our body, but can it touch our spirit? It becomes free!- rest of the bones, but soul's delivery!

Donne is not called a metaphysical poet for nothing!

But our dear Shakespeare is not so sure! Let us see what he says.

Shakespeare: Hamlet. 3.1.

  "...............the dread of something after death,
The undiscovered country from whose bourn
No traveler returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than  fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action."

We do not know what happens after death and so fear it. This fear   ( 'Conscience' here ) makes us cowards. distorts our thinking and results in our messing up with our action. But there is a rub. Earlier, when we read Tennyson and Donne, we knew the poets were speaking to us. But here? It is Hamlet- and this occurs in that most famous passage beginning " To be, or not to be?". So, we are not sure it is Shakespeare speaking  out his thoughts here.

How do we resolve this? It is where true philosophy and religion will have to teach us. The only true question in philosophy is whether life/existence/world  has any meaning or purpose. If everything ends with death, life on earth has no meaning. That is, if death has no meaning, life will have none either! What is the point in having a little fun on the ship, when we know it is going to sink? It is the idea that there is a Pilot who is guiding it safely that gives us comfort.

It is this sense of certainty or certitude- and not this or that doctrine- that is what we mean by philosophy. It is an attitude, rather than a formula.  What we make of this world immediately raises the question how we relate to it.It provides us with a view of life, and also a way to live it! It leads to uncomplicated thinking, and uncluttered living. Great poets give that. Both by their words, and their lives. William Blake is one of the greatest in this respect. 

William Blake

Throughout his life he was guided by visions. He produced his songs and illustrations by a process which came to him in a vision, when his deceased brother appeared to him and explained the process. But he had the larger vision too- he " kept the Divine Vision in time of trouble". He firmly believed in the spiritual reality of the universe. He wrote:

 " Now I a fourfold vision see
And a fourfold vision is given to me;
Tis fourfold in my supreme delight
And threefold in soft Beulah's night
And twofold Always. May God us keep
From Single vision & Newton's  Sleep."

Blake had said to a friend earlier:

" I cannot consider death as any thing but a removing from one room to another."

Blake died a glorified death.

" Just before he died, His Countenance became fair-His eyes brighten'd and He burst out in Singing of the things he Saw in Heaven.....He Died like a Saint."

iIt is such poets who provide us a true,simple approach to life.

'Newton's Sleep' here refers to Newton's laws which make of this world a mechanical device, denying the spiritual reality. Ironically, science itself has travelled far from Newton's days and views, and the present view of science is that the universe is more like an organism, rather than a mechanism, which is but a tool of the former. Jacob Needleman,philosopher,explains:

"Every day, in almost all its branches, the revelations of modern science offer evidence that the universe,reality itself, is alive- alive beyond all imagining. All those who love science must know this truth in their bones, whatever may be the view officially sanctioned in the corridors of our universities and institutions of research. In any case, this is and always has been the view offered by the great spiritual traditions of the world, East and West, in all cultures and  at all times previous to our own."

"The very word "cosmos" signifies that the universe itself is a living organism.....Mechanism is the instrument of organism."

                                                 From the Preface to the 2003 Monkfish edition
                                  of 'A Sense Of The Cosmos'  .

Where a poet conveys such a spiritual view, he is restoring our real sight!  But poetry is also now taught in the very same universities  which  may not allow the poets to speak of their vision  or faith. Browning's religious convictions may not be discussed  in academic books, just as the dream experiences of Srinivasa Ramanujan, from where he got his theorems, do not find mention!

                                                 

Poets and Philosophy-2

                                       POEMS  AND  POETS

                    21.Poets and Philosophy-2

All that we have been struggling to say, John Donne conveys so beautifully, as only a poet can.

John Donne: For Whom The Bell Tolls

No man is an island.

Entire of itself,

Every man is a piece of the continent,

A part of the main.

If a clod be washed away by the sea,

Europe is the less.

As well as if a promontory were,

As well as if a manor of thy friends

Or of thine own were.

Any man's death diminishes me.

Because I am included in mankind.

And therefore never send to know for whom the bell                                                                       tolls

It tolls for thee.

Actually, these words come from a prose work. The church bell tolls for someone's funeral, but it reminds us of our own mortality. But it is also reminder of greater possibilities- of our immortality, if we know our true connections:

"if by this consideration of another's danger I take mine own into contemplation,and so secure myself by making my recourse  my God who is our only security."

If we know our connections to God who is the creator and the source, we also would know our connections to entire creation, not just humanity. So it gives a cosmic dimension to our existence. Let William Blake say it.

William Blake: Auguries of Innocence

To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a wild Flower ,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.

A Robin Red breast in a Cage
Puts all Heaven in a Rage.
A dove house filld with doves & Pigeons
Shudders Hell thro all its regions.

A dog starved at his Master's gate
Predicts the ruin of the State.
A Horse misused upon the Road
Calls to heaven for Human blood.

Each outcry of a hunted Hare
A fiber from the Brain does tear.
A sky lark wounded in the wing,
A Cherubim does cease to sing.

Kill not the Moth nor Butterfly
For the Last Judgment draweth nigh.
He who shall train the Horse to War
Shall never pass the Polar Bar.

A truth that's told with bad intent 
Beats all the Lies you can invent.
It is right it should be so;
Man was made for Joy& Woe.

And when this we rightly Know
Thro the World we safely go.
Joy & woe are woven fine
A clothing for the soul divine;
Under every grief  pine
Runs a joy with silken twine.

Every Tear from Every Eye
Becomes a babe in Eternity.

He who mocks the Infant's Faith
Shall be mocked in Age & Death.
he who shall teach the Child to Doubt
The rotting grave shall neer get out.

The Child's Toys & the Old Man's Reasons
Are the Fruits of the Two seasons.
The Questioner who sits so sly
Shall never Know how to Reply.

God Appears & God is Light
To those poor Souls who dwell in Night
But does a Human Form Display

To those who Dwell in Realms of day.

This is a long extract I have given, but the poem is still longer. Man has a role to serve the whole creation. The world is a mixed place: misra lokam, as we say in Sanskrit. Joy and woe are both here; we have to see our way through. Those scientists who have raised all sorts of questions about life and existence- have they given a single answer? Except perhaps, that they do dot know? What have they achieved in the end, by making man lose faith- in every thing?

I Rose Up At The Dawn of Day

Then if for Riches I must not Pray
God knows  I little of Prayers need say
So as a Church is known by its Steeple
If I pray it must be for other People.

Songs by Shepherds

Welcome stranger to this place,
Where joy doth sit on Every bough,
Paleness flies from every face,
We reap not, what we do not sow.
.......

When silver snow decks Sylvio's cloaths
And jewel hangs at shepherd's nose,
We can abide life's pelting storm
That makes our limbs quake,
                  if our hearts be warm.

Whilst virtue is our walking staff,
And truth a lantern to our path;
We can abide life's pelting storm
That makes our limbs quake,
                  if our hearts be warm.

Blow boisterous Wind, stern Winter frown,
Innocence is a winter's gown;
So clad, we'll abide life's pelting storm,
That makes our limbs quake,
                  if our hearts be warm.


It is important to remember that these poets do not paint a rosy picture of life in the world, as evangelists do. They do believe in a truth Higher than the visible world, only by the light of which we can perform our journey here. But this truth does not make suffering and woe disappear-  they are facts of existence. Winter and rough weather, as Shakespeare said but in a metaphorical sense; but they also give us tools, to keep our hearts suitably warm. Virtue, Truth, Innocence- and also the fact that what we sow, we will have to reap! This is a fine combination of true philosophy and practical wisdom- the USP of a genuine poet! Have you seen it, friends, in any high philosopher-old or new?