DISCOURSES AND THEIR IMPACT

Swami Udit Chaitanya is a persuasive and eloquent speaker. I and my family are hearing his discourses for the last few years. His philosophy is seemingly simple. God resides within us. We should seek him within ourselves so as to enhance or elevate our mind and thinking. Seeking God’s help to solve personal issues is futile. (Lord Rama and Lord Krishna had enough problems of their own during their sojourn in the earth. If they could not solve their own problems, how would they solve ours? ). The emphasis is no increasing mental strength to face the tsunamis during our existence.

I find this a frightening idea. I have survived so far by believing that my frequent visits to temples (near and far) and prayers turned the tide during difficult times. Now I am being convinced that God is a silent and perhaps inactive spectator to our vicissitudes. The corollary to this approach would be that while I could continue to make more PPTs to God in Sanskrit, matters would take their own course- with little or no inputs from God.

Actually the prayers recited in Sanskrit slokas sound impressive, but if recited in English or any other language the results would be less impressive. An English translation of one Para of Purushasuktha is given below.

Om= Name of God = World. Experienced as a+u+m.
Experience of waking state is “a’, dream is “u”,
sleep/death is “m”

Sahasra seershaa purushah=God has 1000 (a very large number) of heads.
Because all heads belong to the world=God

Sahasrakshah sahasra path =1000 eyes, 1000 feet. All eyes, feet belong to
God=world

Sa bhoomim viswato vritvaa=Covers the earth from all sides as sky/space

Atyatishtat dasaangulam=Yet he exceeds by 10 digits the whole world.
(exceeds finite space and time)

The real purpose is to understand and digest these prayers and not recite them unknowingly expecting some divine benediction.

While the above approach appeals to logic, the fact still remains that chanting sukthams and similar Sanskrit prayers, especially by a large and coordinated group, arrests our attention- physical and mental. Anyone who has learnt these chants (whatever is the age) starts repeating it mentally. The fact that some of these represent the earliest human record of prayers which were given from generation to generation orally is a testimony of their value and strength. (In today’s parlance – sustainability or Sustainable Development).

Progression in chronological age brings in external changes. But the mind can still retain its youth and strength. (not my original idea, but borrowed from Swamiji). Good example is Narayana Murthy. No one would call him an old fogey or one having out dated ideas. His achievement is to create a sustainable organization which has a huge ripple effect. Another example is Late H T Parekh. After retirement from ICICI , he created HDFC in 1977, at a time when Housing Finance was unknown. I know it because, I was newly married and was looking for my own house in early 80s. So age has nothing to do with freshness of approach or thinking by an individual.

What next? Is a question which gnaws at the back of my mind. If we are fully responsible for our actions and their results, then the sense of responsibility increases significantly (somewhat like boss telling a subordinate that you are on your own on this project, I have nothing to do with it). I wonder what the goal that I desire to achieve is and whether the efforts to reach it are worth it. It is nice to think that there is a fate (Lord Brahma or some other responsible God has a supercomputer which ordains what would happen to me and I could ascribe all actions and results to it) and my life moves according to it. Some paths are one way , some no entry and some you have to definitely pass thru .
Several years back, I used to visit electronic shops to look at latest TVs and Home Theatre systems and ask their prices. After some such visits, my wife refused to accompany me inside the shops for such visits. After I purchased the TVs and Home Theatre systems I desired, I would still look at those shops with longing- that is longing for something to look forward to.

Life is somewhat like that. There should always be something to look forward to. There is a tomorrow which will make a difference to my life and to others. Once that tomorrow holds only bleakness and lots of empty place, then the next cycle should start.

How would that start? According to Swamiji (the one referred to above) the life inside us represents some form of energy which is on continuous journey- thru human bodies. Once this journey ends (trains reaches VT station or Madras Central then the engine is separated from bogies), then another begins.
I find this appealing as under any circumstances, there is something to look forward to.

Do you agree?

Transitions in life

Do we notice the imperceptible changes taking place around us? Mostly not; unless compelled to do so.
The most common culprit of almost imperceptible change is age. “Why do you wheeze when you climb stairs for just two floor?” My daughter asked me last week. I passed it off as a toll taken by age; though the reality is that this weakness is an old one and remained unnoticed.
Most resist the external symptoms of time and related wear & tear. A thumb rule is that the older a person is, the more time taken for formal dressing. So there is a calculated effort to impress- bright colors, branded shirts/pants, hair waved back carefully. Sometimes I wonder, whether the person is comfortable in the role being enacted (for the sake of family). Why not let go and be what you actually are? But then, do many of us know ourselves well to decide to be as and what we are?

God, with His sense of irony, has made human beings attach undue importance to parts of body which have limited utility. Hairs on the head is a classic example of a decorative object. It does not serve any great purpose (unlike hands or legs). But the impact a great hair style has on the subject and his/her viewer cannot be measured. So we find youngsters staring hard at mirror for long periods, patting their hair, men keeping tufts (meant originally only for certain purposes) like women, old men and women dyeing their imperfectly to evade the toll of time and all sorts of odd behavior if examined in the light of reason.
When I was a young boy (several decades back) only school boys and domestic men servants (who washed clothes, vessels, cars etc.) wore half pants in Mumbai. Now of course, it is a fashion statement to wear half pants and odd sized pants on all occasions (except job interview) and thereby attempt to belong to another age group. So, when I wear a shorts (called half pant in the past) to the gym, I have an uneasy feeling that someone would call me to wash their car.

The real changes take place in our sub-conscious and then trickle down to external visibility. This is noticed only if we meet the person after a reasonable gap. Mentally we slow down- that is reduce the pace at which we want to live hereafter. We see this around us but do not observe. We want less surprises- less changes – expected or unexpected. Life has to be same from yesterday to today. But God and the world around us have a gleeful pleasure in altering our well laid down plans. So we find sedentary grandparents rushing off to USA/Gulf countries for a new career in babysitting (most probably no one sits, the baby runs around and we run after it continuously till our legs pain).

Did our parents sit back and ponder over their errors of omissions and commission? Did they even admit it to themselves? My son reminded me recently in non-judgmental manner of the instances when I beat him during his childhood. Did I beat him? Yes, I did. For what reasons? I do not remember. Do I regret it now? Yes. But when I look at my daughter trying to tame my grandson (unsuccessfully at times) by oral requests and then resorting some small corporal punishments, I realize that these are inevitable and cannot be examined by hindsight

Do we lose our ambitions, zest and enthusiasm with age? I would say they become more tempered. The goal posts change. Survival up to the goal post becomes more important than running past it. Some unexpected past time or interest catches serious attention. So it could a social or a religious organization in which there is some lurking desire to play a more prominent role. I have seen several large institutions run by persons most of whom had retired from gainful occupations long back justifying to this logic.
But what is most important in all this is identifying what our heart really seeks- what is it that would give us great happiness. This is the most difficult part of life at any juncture. Long but aimless life serves little or no purpose. At each juncture of life, knowing what we want to achieve in our career, what we enjoy doing in our spare time, what relationships to invest in to make our life more beautiful is vital. This is more easily said than done.

I envy today’s youth some of whom are clear eyed to give up easy choices and seek for what they really want. India has given choices which did not exist some decades back. But whether they are able to achieve a balance between their material success and mental happiness is a moot point. This perhaps applies to youth and younger generation in any point of time- yesterday , today or tomorrow.

So next time I visit the nearby shopping mall, I will take the plunge and buy the black shirt with stripes displayed at Zodiac shop. My family’s puritanical views on wearing such garments can take a back seat.

I will look handsome in that shirt….. or rather as handsome as I looked some decades back.