Mallinatha

Kalidasa is regarded as kavikulaguru (=the preceptor of the clan of kavi-s). Almost as famous as Kalidasa in the literary circles, is Mallinatha, who has written commentaries regarded very highly by scholars, upon Kalidasa's works.

There is this little-known story (which is, in all probabilities, a legend, ದಂತಕಥೆ) about Mallinatha that I would like to share. I concluded that it was little known, because I could not find references to that story on the internet. I had read it long back, in a Kannada book for children.

Mallinatha was a pampered youth from a rich family. He was made to learn under capable teachers, but he was too lazy to be competent at learning, and abandoned his studies soon. He grew into a handsome youth and since he was from a rich family also, he was in high demand as a son-in-law. He was finally married to a very learned woman.

Mallinatha's wife noticed soon that her husband was too un-knowledgeable for her liking. When one day, Mallinatha praised the beauty of a flower lying on the road-side, she remarked "Of what use is its beauty? Since it does not possess fragrance, it cannot be used for worship". These words stung Mallinatha, and he resolved to restart his learning.

He enrolled himself in a gurukula, and began his studies. For a married youth who had passed his life thitherto in nothing but luxury, life in a gurukula was really hard, but he did not mind that. His guru had instructed his wife, the gurupatni, that mallinatha had to get neem oil instead of ghee, with his meals. Mallinatha was so engrossed with his studies, that he did not notice that he was being served neem oil daily. Because of his assiduous efforts, he made progress in his studies by leaps and bounds.

One day, while he was having his meals with his guru, he noticed that there was something wrong with his food. He said to the gurupatni "Mother, the food is bitter today!". The guru who was sitting next to him, smiled and patted his back, and said "Your education is complete today. You may go home now". He then explained to the puzzled Mallinatha that all during his stay at the gurukula, he was being served neem oil and that he had not noticed it at all, till then.

Mallinatha went back home to the joy of his wife and parents, and wrote the famous commentaries on Kalidasa's works.
The story does not end here. The next part of the story is from Dr.R.Ganesh's "kavitegondu kathe".
Seeing that her husband was now a very learned man, Mallinatha's wife asked him to write a poem about her. After much coercion, mallinAtha wrote a poem, likening her to shoorpanakhaa (रामवैरिभगिनीव राजसे !)
Mallinatha's wife was irritated by this description of her, and was waiting to get back at her husband. Now, in his commentaries, Mallinatha had the habit of writing "ityarthaH" (=this is the meaning), "iti bhAvaH"(=this is the import). He used to be so engrossed with his work, that he used to use these words even during normal conversation. When, one day, Mallinatha asked her what was for lunch, she replied
इत्यर्थ-क्वथितं चैवेतिभाव-तेमनं तथा
सज्जीकृतेद्य भुक्त्यर्थं तुष्यतां भवदाशयः ।
"There is boiled ityartha, majjigehuLi called iti bhAva. Have this lunch and be satisfied!"
Mallinatha was justified in being proud of his wife!

Tiruvannamalai

Tiruvannamalai had been on our must-visit-soon list for a long time. We had planned several one, two and three-day trips, but none of the plans came into action. This weekend, however, we did not plan a lot, and just left for Tiruvannamalai early in the morning. It is just over two hundred kilometers from Bangalore, a good three and a half hours' journey. The road is good. For some distance it is very good, but as one nears T., it worsens. However, it is much, much better than the roads of Karnataka.

Tiruvannamalai (tiru-aruNa-malai = shrI aruNAchala) houses the shrine of Lord aruNAchalEshvara and apItakuchAmbA . Siva is said to have appeared here as a mountain of fire, to test Brahma and Vishnu. Therefore, the tattva here in this lingam is that of fire. Part of the temple (a thousand-pillar-hall and the kalyANi) has been built by our own Krishnadeva Raya.

In the praakaaram of the temple, there are other small temples of shiva, like kAlahastIshvara, jambukEshvara, etc. I was thrilled to see a small shrine of kAlahastIshvara. The story of tiNNanar is one of little biyadiya's favorite bed-time stories. I took him to that shrine and showed kaNNappa to him. I do not know how much he understood, but as I said, I was thrilled.

I have one problem with the temples of Tamil Nadu. They are all beautifully built with stone, but have been un-beautified by paints of various glaring colours. Look at Tiruttani or Kalahasti or any other temple, they are all painted blue and green and red and what not. In my opinion, the temples would look much better and 'cooler' if they were not painted. However, to each, his own...

The hill Arunachala is really beautiful. It is revered as Lord Shiva himself. On the hill, a saint called 'arunagirinaatha' (I am not sure of the name, and I could not find any reference on the web) is still supposed to be performing tapas, much like babaji in the Himalayas (remember Rajnikant's movie baba?). Parikrama or circumambulation of the hill is supposed to be equivalent to circumambulating Shiva himself. We just went around Arunachala by car.

Almost as famous as the Arunachaleshvara temple is the aashrama of shrI Ramana Maharshi.It is a beautiful aashrama. My husband was saying that one should go there for the silence. Coming to think of it, it was not really that silent. People were talking, the peacocks and peahens were shouting at each other (peacocks are called kEkI in Sanskrit, because of their characteristic sound) and there were vehicles passing on the adjacent road. But the place is so calm that one can hear oneself thinking. I guess that is what one would expect out of a place like Ramanashramam.

Ramanashramam has two attractions - one is Shri Ramana himself and the other is the peacocks. There are many peacocks here. A couple of peacocks even spread their feathers and it was a treat to the eyes, especially for a first-timer like me. Little biyadiya followed a peacock everywhere it went, and finally gave it up.

This was an unforgettable trip. True, we could not find good hotels there, and it was sweltering (hey, the tattva here is fire, after all), but aruNAchala is one place I will want to visit again and again (hopefully for regular parikramas...)

Time Travel

Okay, this happens to me whenever I am reading about/working with non-causal systems. I start thinking a lot about time-travel. Wouldn't it be great if we could travel back in time and set right many of our wrongs? Or if we could travel to the future and see how our great-grand children would look? Practicalities aside, it is an amazing concept.

Time-travel has been a pet subject for sci-fi movie makers, for a long time, and it does not seem to get old at all! There used to be this series telecast on the Sci-fi channel. A man is tossed from one body to another body and another, all in different times, so that he can set right the wrongs done by other people, and finally return to his own body to the present. He has only one friend throughout this exercise - Al (I think), who appears to him as a hologram. It was an enjoyable series. Fi, yes, but Sci? I should think very little Science was involved :)

And there are those gadgets that have invited a lot of speculation but have always eluded serious research for practical reasons - the time machines. H.G. Well's book 'Time Machine' was even made into a movie starring Guy Pearce. I still have to read the book. A more famous movie and a personal favorite involving time machines, is the 'Back to the Future' trilogy. Who can not love the bungling 'Doc' and the spirited young Michael? And there is another good movie called 'Frequency', where a man communicates with his father from the past and saves his parents from fatal accidents. Even the famous 'Star Trek' has a few episodes on time travel. Coming to Indian cinema, we have 'Aditya 369' which is a pretty good movie too.

There is this theory about how time-machines may work. I had read it someplace, years ago. The events happening on the earth can be seen from the Sun eight minutes later, because the light from the earth takes eight minutes to reach the Sun. So, if you can travel faster than the speed of light (Ah, there is that limit again!), you can 'view' the events that happened eight minutes ago, first hand. There is no way of checking it because we still have not found a way to travel faster than light. And interfering with the past still cannot be explained.

Traveling to the future only gets trickier. There is absolutely no explanation that even remotely makes sense, of how one can travel into the future. Some argue that there are millions of futures etched out for you, and you just pick one each nanosecond of your life. Keep choosing futures one after another and - well, you can travel to the future! However, this argument is not even worth considering. There are just too many unknowns in the equation.

Theoretical physicist Kip Thorne suggests that wormholes, which are allowed by the laws of Theoretical Physics, can be used for traveling in time. Something that comes from an eminent physicist like him cannot be disregarded. But we have to continue being in the present, and see what direction research takes.

As far as I know, the concept of time-machines and time-travel is quite recent. I have not come across that in Indian or Western mythologies that I have read. From all practical observations, our conclusion is that Time flows only in one direction. That is what our ancients also seem to have thought.

That is the sensible thing to think, too. As a subhAShita goes -
गतशोकं न कुर्वीत भविष्यं नैव चिन्तयेत्
वर्तमानेषु कार्येषु प्रवर्तन्ति विचक्षणाः ।

Steinbeck ತರಿಸಿದ ಯೋಚನೆಗಳು

ಸುಮಾರು ದಿನಗಳ ಹಿಂದೆ ನಾನು ಓದಿದ ಒಂದು ಪುಸ್ತಕ John Steinbeck ಬರೆದಿರುವ To a God Unknown ಎಂಬುದು. ಈ ಪುಸ್ತಕದಲ್ಲಿ ಮನುಷ್ಯ ಮತ್ತು ಅವನ ಪರಿಸರದ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಇರುವ ಅವಿನಾಭಾವಸಂಬಂಧವನ್ನು ಬಹಳ ಚೆನ್ನಾಗಿ ಚಿತ್ರಿಸಲಾಗಿದೆ. ಪುಸ್ತಕದ ಮುಖ್ಯಪಾತ್ರ ಜೋಸೆಫ್ ಎಂಬುವವನು ತನ್ನ ತಂದೆಯನ್ನು ಒಂದು ಮರದಲ್ಲಿ ಕಂಡುಕೊಂಡು ಅದನ್ನು ಪೂಜಿಸುತ್ತಾನೆ. ವಿಗ್ರಹಾರಾಧನೆ ಮತ್ತು "ಪೇಗನ್" ನಂಬಿಕೆಗಳನ್ನು ವಿರೋಧಿಸುವ ಅವನ ಅಣ್ಣ ಆ ಮರವನ್ನು ಸಾಯಿಸಿದ ವರ್ಷವೇ ಅವರಿರುವ ಸ್ಥಳಕ್ಕೆ ಕ್ಷಾಮ ತಲೆದೋರುತ್ತದೆ. ಇನ್ನು ಹೆಚ್ಚು ಹೇಳಿದರೆ ಪುಸ್ತಕವನ್ನೋದುವ ಆಸಕ್ತಿ ಕಡಿಮೆಯಾಗಬಹುದೆಂಬ ಕಾರಣದಿಂದ ಹೇಳುವುದಿಲ್ಲ.

ಪುಸ್ತಕದ ಮುನ್ನುಡಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ಹಿರಣ್ಯಗರ್ಭಸೂಕ್ತದ ಕಾವ್ಯಾನುವಾದವನ್ನು ಬರೆಯಲಾಗಿದೆ. ಆ ಸೂಕ್ತದ "ಯಾವ ದೇವರಿಗೆ ನಮ್ಮ ಹವಿಸ್ಸು ಸಲ್ಲಲಿ?" ಎಂಬ ಪ್ರಶ್ನೆಯೇ ಇಡೀ ಪುಸ್ತಕದ ಬೆನ್ನೆಲುಬು. ಇಲ್ಲಿಯ ಪ್ರಕೃತಿವಿವರಣೆಯನ್ನು ಓದುತ್ತಿರುವಾಗಲಂತೂ ಒಂದು ಸುಂದರ ಪದ್ಯವನ್ನು ಮೆಲುಕು ಹಾಕುತ್ತಿರುವ ಅನುಭವವಾಯಿತು. ಪುಸ್ತಕ ಸಿಕ್ಕಿದರೆ ಖಂಡಿತ ಓದಿ.

ಪುಸ್ತಕದ ಗುಂಗಿನಲ್ಲಿದ್ದಾಗ, ನಮ್ಮ ಭಾರತೀಯರ ಹಬ್ಬಗಳು, ಮತ್ತು ಮಿಕ್ಕ ಆಚರಣೆಗಳು ಪ್ರಕೃತಿಯೊಂದಿಗೆ ಸಂಬಂಧವನ್ನು ಗಟ್ಟಿಗೊಳಿಸಲು ಅದೆಷ್ಟು ಸಹಾಯಕಾರಿ ಎಂಬುದು ಮನಸ್ಸಿಗೆ ಬಂದಿತು. ಪ್ರಾಯಃ ನಮ್ಮದು ಪುರಾತನಸಂಸ್ಕೃತಿಯಾದ್ದರಿಂದ ಪ್ರಕೃತಿಪೂಜೆ ನಮ್ಮಲ್ಲಿ ಹೆಚ್ಚು ಮುಖ್ಯವಾಗಿದೆ. (ಮಿಕ್ಕ ಪುರಾತನಸಂಸ್ಕೃತಿಗಳು ಇಸ್ಲಾಂ ಮತ್ತು ಕ್ರೈಸ್ತಮತವೆಂಬ ದೊಡ್ಡ ಅಲೆಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಕೊಚ್ಚಿಹೋಗಿವೆ.) ಹಿಮಾಲಯವಾಗಲಿ, ತಿರುಮಲವಾಗಲಿ ಅಥವಾ ಇಲ್ಲಿಯೇ ಪಕ್ಕದ ರಾಮದೇವರ ಬೆಟ್ಟವಾಗಲಿ, ಎಲ್ಲವೂ ಪೂಜಾರ್ಹ. ಹಾಗೆಯೇ ನದಿಗಳೂ ಮರಗಳೂ ಸಹ ದೈವತ್ವಕ್ಕೆ ಏರಿಸಲ್ಪಟ್ಟಿವೆ. ನಮ್ಮಲ್ಲಿ ಗಿಡಮರಗಳ ಪೂಜೆಯಂತೂ ಸರ್ವೇಸಾಮಾನ್ಯ. ಸಾಮಾನ್ಯವಾಗಿ ಎಂಥ ಕಿಷ್ಕಿಂಧೆಯಂಥ ಮನೆಯಾದರೂ, ಅಲ್ಲಿ ಚಿಕ್ಕ ತುಳಸಿ ಗಿಡ ಇರುತ್ತದೆ. ಅಶ್ವತ್ಥವೃಕ್ಷದ ಪೂಜೆಯಂತೂ ಕಾಂಪೌಂಡ್ ಇರುವ ಪ್ರತಿ ದೇವಾಲಯದಲ್ಲೂ ನಡೆಯುತ್ತದೆ.

ಆದರೆ ಈಗ ಒಂದು ಪ್ರಶ್ನೆ. ಸೂರ್ಯ, ಮರ, ಬೆಟ್ಟ, ಗುಡ್ಡ, ನದಿ, ಸಮುದ್ರ ಮುಂತಾದುವನ್ನು ದೇವರೆಂದು ಪರಿಗಣಿಸುವ ನಮಗೆ ಪರಿಸರದ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಕಾಳಜಿ ಒಂದಿನಿತೂ ಏಕಿಲ್ಲ? ಪರಿಸರಕ್ಕೆ ಹಾನಿಯುಂಟುಮಾಡದೆ ಬದುಕಲು ನಮಗೆ ಸಾಧ್ಯವಿಲ್ಲವೇ? ಬೆಂಗಳೂರಿನಲ್ಲಿ ನಗರಪಾಲಿಕೆಯು rain water harvesting ಅನ್ನು ಕಡ್ಡಾಯ ಮಾಡಿದೆ. ಇದರ ವಿಷಯವಾಗಿ ಒಬ್ಬರೊಂದಿಗೆ ಚರ್ಚಿಸುತ್ತಿದ್ದಾಗ ಅವರು "ರೂಲ್ಸ್ ಪ್ರಕಾರ ಇಂತಿಷ್ಟು ಆದರೆ ಸಾಕು, ನಿಜವಾಗಿಯೂ ಮಳೆನೀರಿನ ಕೊಯ್ಲು ಮಾಡುವವರು ಹೆಚ್ಚು ಜನ ಇಲ್ಲ" ಎಂದು ಹೇಳಿದರು. ನನಗೆ ಇದನ್ನು ಕೇಳಿ ಬಹಳ ಬೇಸರವಾಯಿತು. ಇನ್ನು ದಟ್ಟವಾದ ಹೊಗೆಯನ್ನು ಬಿಡುತ್ತಾ emission check certificate ಪಡೆಯಲು ಕೈಯಲ್ಲಿ ಹಣ ಹಿಡಿದು ಹಲ್ಲು ಗಿಂಜುವುದು - ಇಂಥ ಪ್ರಕರಣಗಳು ಭಾರತದಂತಹ ದೇಶದಲ್ಲಿ ಮಾತ್ರ ಕಾಣಸಿಗುವುದನ್ನು ನೋಡಿದರೆ ವ್ಯಥೆಯಾಗುತ್ತದೆ.

ನಾವೊಬ್ಬರು ಅಂಥ ತಪ್ಪನ್ನು ಮಾಡುವುದಿಲ್ಲವೆಂದು ಪ್ರತಿಯೊಬ್ಬರೂ ನಿಶ್ಚಯಿಸಿದರೆ ಸಾಕಲ್ಲವೇ?

A good way to save trees and widen roads

This Saturday, we visited our village. The traffic was bad, as usual. The heat added to our discomfort. One thing that was very noticeable was the dwindling number of trees on the highway. Yes, roads are necessary, but is there a way to keep the trees and widen the roads?

It struck me today when I was coming by bus on North Road. I saw that trees had grown on the tar road. It was wonderful (though how the roots are able to breathe, beats me). I felt very happy and thoughtful, and that is the reason for this post.

I have not been to Mysore a lot, but I have immensely enjoyed the few visits that I have made. A relative's house was right opposite the court. It was a beautiful place. There was a jackfruit tree in their compound... it was just heavenly. Well, anyways, the point that interests us is that on the road adjacent to their house, trees have been used as a sort of a divider. It is wide, and I remember that there are even benches under the trees, so one can actually sit in the middle of the road and watch the traffic go by. (My last visit to this relative's place was eight years ago, so I do not know the state of affairs now. I only hope that the trees remain.)

There is a similar system near my house in Bangalore, too. A park has been constructed right in the middle of the road. The park runs all the way along the road, and is really a sight for sore eyes.

When I saw the trees on North Road and thought of the park near my house, I heaved a sigh of relief. All is not lost...

Public Transport

I love taking public transport. Even in the US, though it was extremely time-consuming, I used to love taking the local bus to school. To get to know a place, one has to take the public transport and walk in busy roads. One gets to see a lot of different kinds of people, and the experience is just great (of course, when you have the time).

I had made friends with a jazz musician and a bus driver, of name Ron ___. He was a Christian American, but of middle-eastern descent. And the point was that he had visited India and Bangalore. I still cherish my long talks with him. We used to discuss Politics, Religion, culture and what not. The local transit in the Bay Area has a service for senior citizens, called VTA Paratransit or something. One day, I asked Ron what that was. He could not hear me properly in the din, and asked me excitedly - "Are you asking me about Paramahamsa Yogananda?". He had actually read 'Autobiography of a Yogi' and said he would lend it to me. Now I was flat. It was really amazing. When we left the US for good, he gave me a CD of 'Yonder Tree' by Gino Vanelli.

I remember the time when I explained the meaning of the red dot on my forehead to an American. Another time, early in the morning, a drunk lady took my book (Oppenheim and Schafer) from me, turned the pages, and remarked - "Do you really understand all this? You must be very smart", and then pointing to her husband/boyfriend, also drunk, said "He has been to college... he might understand this", and then turning to him, said "Don't you, ____?". I was scared! I have not seen many drunk people, and this was like, totally unexpected! I mean, it was early in the morning, and these people were fully drunk! It was nice when they returned my book and said "Good luck", though.

Public transport is not always pleasurable. I have had my share of bad experiences. But sometimes, one can think about the bad experiences later and laugh at them.

One day I was taking 32 to school. Most of us in the bus were foreigners - South Asians and Chinese and Vietnamese. The driver was black. Now a blonde lady got in. Once she settled in her seat, she started mouthing expletives towards people of other races. It was *bad*. The driver got very irritated and told her that if she did not stop, she'd have to get off the bus. Well, she did not, and was made to get off the bus.

Public transport in Bangalore is a wholly different sort of experience. A few days ago I took a BMTC bus to my place of work. A couple of women with a framed photograph of the Mother Goddess, were in the bus. These women are, for all practical purposes, beggars. They show the Goddess's photograph to people and say "give something to please Her". The women did not have money to buy the tickets. The poor conductor was demanding ticket-money from them, and a young girl shouted at him "ರೊಕ್ಕ ಇಲ್ಲ ಅಂದರೆ ಏನ್ ಮಾಡಕ್ಕಾಗತ್ತೆ? ಗೊತ್ತಾಗಾಕಿಲ್ವ ನಿಂಗೆ?"I had half a mind to pay for their ticket, but the other half prevented me from doing so. Finally the conductor exempted them from buying tickets. Or, rather, he was forced to.

It takes all sorts to make a world!

Thoughts on Valentine's day

It is Valentine's day today and many millions of couples and wannabe couples are expressing their love for each other in many millions of creative ways. I, for one, do not believe in "celebrating" Valentine's day... I see its promotion by card-companies as a well-planned marketing strategy. I am not against it, either. If people want to express their love on a specific day, then so be it! If they want to celebrate their love all year-round, then let them!

Sepia Mutiny gives an interesting information. Apparently the perennial trouble-mongers, the Shiv Sainiks, want to marry off the couples that are seen together on V. day, if they are Hindu!. I could not contain my laughter for some time! When will they understand that Afghanistan should not be the model for our country? I am all for social health, but to have a healthy society, I think that it is necessary to have some minimum level of open-ness and personal freedom. (In the same article on Sepia Mutiny, there was another, more hilarious bit about some women's organizations working to thwart the sainiks in their attempts to disturb lovers, but let's not go there.)

Near my house, almost daily I see couples (I am sure they are not "just friends") standing and talking for hours together.. Once a policeman shooed a couple away, saying "ಏನು ನಿಮ್ಮ ಮನೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಕಾಸು ಕೊಟ್ಟು ಕಾಲೇಜಿಗೆ ಕಳಿಸೋದು ಇದಕ್ಕೇನಾ?".. I had mixed feelings about this incident. On one hand, I felt that the kids did not need to be shooed away so rudely.. As long as they are not in the way of law and order, it is fine.. But, on the other hand, at 15-16 years of age, one usually does not find lasting loves. Gullible and insecure girls may become victims of malicious people, even if only emotionally. In that sense, it is good to have a sort of moral policing (how I hate the term!). At any rate, I am sure that the parents of the two kids would be grateful for the policeman, for giving them a good talking-to.

I think that a good way to solve this problem would be to accept dating as a fact of a teen's life (grrrr! To think that we returned from the US because we thought it was easier to bring up kids here!). Parents should keep track of who their children are talking to, and should set the limits for their kids, and most of all, believe in them. Yeah, yeah, I know this sounds too simple to be of any practical use, but we have to do something like this to keep our kids safe and our society healthy. Clandestine affairs have not done a lot of good to anyone.

I am worried about little biyadiya...