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General Discussion / Re: Rough Notebook-Open Forum
« on: September 19, 2019, 07:46:48 PM »
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3
General Discussion / Re: Rough Notebook-Open Forum
« on: September 18, 2019, 07:54:10 PM »
I presented to the Maharshi the Awadhoota Gita and the Ashtavakra Gita and drew His attention to the first verse of the Awadhoota Gita, which says : "It is only through the grace of God that in men with knowledge is born a desire to experience cosmic unity, a desire which protects them from the great dangers of Samsara (worldly life)."
With infinite compassion in His eyes the Maharshi looked at me and instructed one of the followers to bring a book. This was the Maha Bhakta Vijayam. Bhagavan opened the book and began to read. (I noted with awe that the book opened exactly at the page where He intended to read.)
The look, which the Maharshi gives you, is a question. At least I felt it so. The question is: "I see a unity, but you keep grasping at the variety. Why don't you know yourself properly and realise your true Self?". Nothing is so helpful as the august presence of the Maharshi for those who seriously intend to progress on the spiritual path.
There is spiritual communication and kindliness in His looks, eliciting what is best in a person. His presence acts as a catalyst, enabling us to secure our spiritual yearning. There is grace and benignity in the way He looks at the devotees as mother looks at her children.
- Manu Subedar, MP, Face to face, Page 28
With infinite compassion in His eyes the Maharshi looked at me and instructed one of the followers to bring a book. This was the Maha Bhakta Vijayam. Bhagavan opened the book and began to read. (I noted with awe that the book opened exactly at the page where He intended to read.)
The look, which the Maharshi gives you, is a question. At least I felt it so. The question is: "I see a unity, but you keep grasping at the variety. Why don't you know yourself properly and realise your true Self?". Nothing is so helpful as the august presence of the Maharshi for those who seriously intend to progress on the spiritual path.
There is spiritual communication and kindliness in His looks, eliciting what is best in a person. His presence acts as a catalyst, enabling us to secure our spiritual yearning. There is grace and benignity in the way He looks at the devotees as mother looks at her children.
- Manu Subedar, MP, Face to face, Page 28
5
General topics / Re: Quotes of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
« on: September 16, 2019, 04:48:15 PM »
?For now I will be talking about that power which looks like an individual but because of whose presence the whole world is carrying on its business
I am talking about this power which is in the body, but which is the root of the existence and maintenance of the entire universe. What there is in my body, is in everyone else?s body also. But everyone else is concerned more about this ?corpse? that he is living with rather than that which lies within that corpse.? ?I am referring to the vital force, Prana. Make friends with the Prana and the Prana will help you to know God. The mind is only a witness: your real friend is the Prana, because it does everything. Waking, sleeping, digesting food, all these activities are done by the vital force. Atman is only a witness; so give importance to this vital force and worship it, and you will be able to know God. In order to do any meditation, you should make friendship with the vital force [which allows any meditation at all to happen]; it is readily available without any effort. Because of the Prana, there is mind. And because of the mind, there are the [scriptures], That is why I give full homage to the vital force. Without it, what would be your value? Your body would collapse . You can know about God and world only when the vital force is there. Who knows the greatness of this Prana? That itself is God, Pranesvar [Lord ] ?For all the species, including human beings, this vital force itself is godly. And this vital force also contains that Isvara or consciousness principle. Now you should find out: How are you going to focus your attention [intuitively, subjectively] on that vital breath and meditate on the Self? That is for you to discover.? ?Do understand that this life force is God, and God is the life force, and be one with it?. This life force is the acting principle; and that which gives sentience to the person is the consciousness.? ??I am? is Great God, the Isvara principle. And that Prana, vital force, is Great Power or Great Energy, the kinetic principle without which there cannot be consciousness.? ?The life force and the consciousness are not really two; as a concept they are treated as such, but they are really one. ?Consciousness and life force are two components, inextricably woven together, of one principle. But consciousness is only the witnessing principle or the static aspect, the dynamic aspect or the working principle is the life force.? ?Who is this God who is your companion every moment of your existence? What can it be other than this life force and the consciousness?? ?For one who has identified himself not with the body, but with this life force, can there be the need for anything else from any source??
?Life force, love and consciousness are all one in essence. By all means use your body to work in the world but understand what it is. The body is only an instrument to be used; you are not the body. You are the everlasting, timeless, spaceless [life force / Principle ] principle which gives sentience to this body. This is the most secret but simplest principle as far as spiritual knowledge is concerned.?It is this life force?s conscious presence, without any form, which has been called God in various names
Repeat the fact to ourselves that I am not the body but the life force or consciousness; that is my nature.? ?If you do not consider yourself as anything else, then at least consider yourself as the vital force. Identify yourself as the vital force and be like that [universal, formless, shapeless, timeless aliveness].? ?It seems you never feel happy unless you get identified with the body. Get instead identified with the vital force?. What is the vital, primary capital available to you now? It is the vital force only, and with that you perceive through the senses [and can think, act]
You are the vital force. And the vital force is universal.? ?The sum and substance of my teaching is this: Don?t be dishonest to your vital breath, worship that only, accept it as yourself. And when you worship in this manner, it can lead you anywhere, to any heights. Then you will realize , that this touch of ?I-am-ness,? which is dwelling in the vital breath, will open up [to the Absolute Reality].? ?Knowledge about the vital force is not generally available; it has not been recorded anywhere. So this information might be new to you.?
Sayings From a source Nisargadatta Maharaj .
I am talking about this power which is in the body, but which is the root of the existence and maintenance of the entire universe. What there is in my body, is in everyone else?s body also. But everyone else is concerned more about this ?corpse? that he is living with rather than that which lies within that corpse.? ?I am referring to the vital force, Prana. Make friends with the Prana and the Prana will help you to know God. The mind is only a witness: your real friend is the Prana, because it does everything. Waking, sleeping, digesting food, all these activities are done by the vital force. Atman is only a witness; so give importance to this vital force and worship it, and you will be able to know God. In order to do any meditation, you should make friendship with the vital force [which allows any meditation at all to happen]; it is readily available without any effort. Because of the Prana, there is mind. And because of the mind, there are the [scriptures], That is why I give full homage to the vital force. Without it, what would be your value? Your body would collapse . You can know about God and world only when the vital force is there. Who knows the greatness of this Prana? That itself is God, Pranesvar [Lord ] ?For all the species, including human beings, this vital force itself is godly. And this vital force also contains that Isvara or consciousness principle. Now you should find out: How are you going to focus your attention [intuitively, subjectively] on that vital breath and meditate on the Self? That is for you to discover.? ?Do understand that this life force is God, and God is the life force, and be one with it?. This life force is the acting principle; and that which gives sentience to the person is the consciousness.? ??I am? is Great God, the Isvara principle. And that Prana, vital force, is Great Power or Great Energy, the kinetic principle without which there cannot be consciousness.? ?The life force and the consciousness are not really two; as a concept they are treated as such, but they are really one. ?Consciousness and life force are two components, inextricably woven together, of one principle. But consciousness is only the witnessing principle or the static aspect, the dynamic aspect or the working principle is the life force.? ?Who is this God who is your companion every moment of your existence? What can it be other than this life force and the consciousness?? ?For one who has identified himself not with the body, but with this life force, can there be the need for anything else from any source??
?Life force, love and consciousness are all one in essence. By all means use your body to work in the world but understand what it is. The body is only an instrument to be used; you are not the body. You are the everlasting, timeless, spaceless [life force / Principle ] principle which gives sentience to this body. This is the most secret but simplest principle as far as spiritual knowledge is concerned.?It is this life force?s conscious presence, without any form, which has been called God in various names
Repeat the fact to ourselves that I am not the body but the life force or consciousness; that is my nature.? ?If you do not consider yourself as anything else, then at least consider yourself as the vital force. Identify yourself as the vital force and be like that [universal, formless, shapeless, timeless aliveness].? ?It seems you never feel happy unless you get identified with the body. Get instead identified with the vital force?. What is the vital, primary capital available to you now? It is the vital force only, and with that you perceive through the senses [and can think, act]
You are the vital force. And the vital force is universal.? ?The sum and substance of my teaching is this: Don?t be dishonest to your vital breath, worship that only, accept it as yourself. And when you worship in this manner, it can lead you anywhere, to any heights. Then you will realize , that this touch of ?I-am-ness,? which is dwelling in the vital breath, will open up [to the Absolute Reality].? ?Knowledge about the vital force is not generally available; it has not been recorded anywhere. So this information might be new to you.?
Sayings From a source Nisargadatta Maharaj .
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General topics / Re: Quotes of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
« on: September 13, 2019, 10:54:01 PM »
Sri Nisargadatta maharaj on meditation :-
I simply followed my teacher's instruction which was to focus the mind on pure being 'I am', and stay in it. I used to sit for hours together, with nothing but the 'I am' in my mind and soon peace and joy and a deep all-embracing love became my normal state. In it all disappeared -- myself, my Guru, the life I lived, the world around me. Only peace remained and unfathomable silence.
My Guru ordered me to attend to the sense 'I am' and to give attention to nothing else. I just obeyed. I did not follow any particular course of breathing, or meditation, or study of scriptures. Whatever happened, I would turn away my attention from it and remain with the sense 'I am', it may look too simple, even crude. My only reason for doing it was that my Guru told me so. Yet it worked! Obedience is a powerful solvent of all desires and fears.
Nisargadatta Maharaj
I simply followed my teacher's instruction which was to focus the mind on pure being 'I am', and stay in it. I used to sit for hours together, with nothing but the 'I am' in my mind and soon peace and joy and a deep all-embracing love became my normal state. In it all disappeared -- myself, my Guru, the life I lived, the world around me. Only peace remained and unfathomable silence.
My Guru ordered me to attend to the sense 'I am' and to give attention to nothing else. I just obeyed. I did not follow any particular course of breathing, or meditation, or study of scriptures. Whatever happened, I would turn away my attention from it and remain with the sense 'I am', it may look too simple, even crude. My only reason for doing it was that my Guru told me so. Yet it worked! Obedience is a powerful solvent of all desires and fears.
Nisargadatta Maharaj
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General topics / Re: Pointers to Presence
« on: September 09, 2019, 11:11:23 AM »
Just as a fish lives his entire life in the water, most of humanity lives their entire life in the ego personality.
The fish doesn't know anything about the water, unless a fisherman captures him and pulls him onto dry land. The fish flops and wiggles and seeks desperately to return to the water.
A human being doesn't know that he or she is immersed in an ocean of ego (their own and every one else's), unless some rare and unusual experience pulls them out of it into a higher or deeper dimension of experience. Usually, this experience is welcomed, but after a little while, we start to squirm and flail about in discomfort. We long to return to the safe confines of the ego mind.
We secretly love our ego because it gives us our identity. Without the ego and its rich and varied content, we feel as though we are nothing at all. We may even feel that we don't exist.
The ego provides us our sense of identity through objects we own that make a statement about who we are: a nice car, a beautiful home, pretty clothes, the newest electronic gadgets, the best music collection. We surround ourselves with objects that make us feel good about ourselves and make us look good to others. Many of the things that we buy and own are simply "identity enhancers". How many purchases have you made based on the reason that the item will improve your status or popularity?
The ego also provides us our sense of identity through its attachments to particular qualities we may have. You can find out what these are by completing the sentence "I am intelligent, I am a star athlete, I am a talented painter, I speak four languages, I am the tallest boy in my school, I am the prettiest girl in my family, I am an engineer for a top secret space project, I am an award-winning journalist."
Ego is our identification with form, ideas, status, talents and even events. We live, trapped, in the surface level of these identifications. This is a cause of great suffering because so much of we identify with can and will change. The beautiful girl will eventually grown older and lose her looks. The athlete will eventually surpass his prime and lose his edge.
It's very important that we recognize what we are attached to and that it will change. We must bring a deeper dimension of meaning into our lives so that we're not doomed to suffer the trappings of the shallow surface level of living, which will someday let you down.
The fish doesn't know anything about the water, unless a fisherman captures him and pulls him onto dry land. The fish flops and wiggles and seeks desperately to return to the water.
A human being doesn't know that he or she is immersed in an ocean of ego (their own and every one else's), unless some rare and unusual experience pulls them out of it into a higher or deeper dimension of experience. Usually, this experience is welcomed, but after a little while, we start to squirm and flail about in discomfort. We long to return to the safe confines of the ego mind.
We secretly love our ego because it gives us our identity. Without the ego and its rich and varied content, we feel as though we are nothing at all. We may even feel that we don't exist.
The ego provides us our sense of identity through objects we own that make a statement about who we are: a nice car, a beautiful home, pretty clothes, the newest electronic gadgets, the best music collection. We surround ourselves with objects that make us feel good about ourselves and make us look good to others. Many of the things that we buy and own are simply "identity enhancers". How many purchases have you made based on the reason that the item will improve your status or popularity?
The ego also provides us our sense of identity through its attachments to particular qualities we may have. You can find out what these are by completing the sentence "I am intelligent, I am a star athlete, I am a talented painter, I speak four languages, I am the tallest boy in my school, I am the prettiest girl in my family, I am an engineer for a top secret space project, I am an award-winning journalist."
Ego is our identification with form, ideas, status, talents and even events. We live, trapped, in the surface level of these identifications. This is a cause of great suffering because so much of we identify with can and will change. The beautiful girl will eventually grown older and lose her looks. The athlete will eventually surpass his prime and lose his edge.
It's very important that we recognize what we are attached to and that it will change. We must bring a deeper dimension of meaning into our lives so that we're not doomed to suffer the trappings of the shallow surface level of living, which will someday let you down.
9
General topics / Re: Pointers to Presence
« on: September 09, 2019, 01:27:08 AM »
Realizing the ?Deep I?
There are two dimensions to who you are. The first is what I sometimes call the ?surface I??the person with a past and a future. This is your historical identity, which is relatively fragile because the past and future only exist as thought forms or concepts in the mind. Most people on the planet are completely identified with the ?surface I.?
The second dimension to who you are is what I like to call the ?Deep I.? The most vital realization in your lifetime is to see that in addition to being a historical person or a ?surface I,? you are more fundamentally the ?Deep I.? This realization frees you from looking only to the ?surface I? for your ultimate sense of identity?where it can never be found. It frees you from the frustrating sense that there?s always something missing or not quite right in life.
So, how do you realize it? You realize it in the gap between two thoughts, the space in which the historical person of the ?surface I? momentarily subsides and disappears. What?s left of you is nothing that you could talk about or even understand conceptually. All you know is there is an underlying sense of presence, of being-ness, that is at once still, alert, and vitally alive. This is what it means to become aware of awareness. The practice is to invite moments of presence into your daily life so that you don?t spend your entire day dragged along by the stream of thought in the mind.
It?s important to recognize that the ?surface I? and the ?Deep I? are ultimately not separate. The ?surface I? is a manifestation of consciousness in the same way that the ripple on the surface of the ocean is a manifestation of the ocean. It?s only when the ripple is unaware that it is the ocean that a sense of separateness arises?which of course is an illusion.
This realization of yourself as the ?Deep I? is so freeing, so liberating, because you?re being liberated from the burden of knowing yourself only as the ?surface I? and its so-called ?drama.? When you realize yourself as the ?Deep I,? it enables you to have a compassionate attitude toward everything that makes up the ?surface I??your physical form, your personal identity (or the historical person), the thoughts and emotions you experience, and so on. It also gives you access to true creativity and true intelligence?both of which are rooted in the formless dimension.
So, welcome moments of quiet and stillness into your life whenever you can. It doesn?t have to be for an hour; even a few minutes throughout the day to step out of thinking and sense yourself as the ?Deep I? is enough. Over time you will live more and more continuously with an awareness of the ?Deep I? in the background of your life, so to speak. And you will find it easier to maintain this awareness even when challenges arise.
There are two dimensions to who you are. The first is what I sometimes call the ?surface I??the person with a past and a future. This is your historical identity, which is relatively fragile because the past and future only exist as thought forms or concepts in the mind. Most people on the planet are completely identified with the ?surface I.?
The second dimension to who you are is what I like to call the ?Deep I.? The most vital realization in your lifetime is to see that in addition to being a historical person or a ?surface I,? you are more fundamentally the ?Deep I.? This realization frees you from looking only to the ?surface I? for your ultimate sense of identity?where it can never be found. It frees you from the frustrating sense that there?s always something missing or not quite right in life.
So, how do you realize it? You realize it in the gap between two thoughts, the space in which the historical person of the ?surface I? momentarily subsides and disappears. What?s left of you is nothing that you could talk about or even understand conceptually. All you know is there is an underlying sense of presence, of being-ness, that is at once still, alert, and vitally alive. This is what it means to become aware of awareness. The practice is to invite moments of presence into your daily life so that you don?t spend your entire day dragged along by the stream of thought in the mind.
It?s important to recognize that the ?surface I? and the ?Deep I? are ultimately not separate. The ?surface I? is a manifestation of consciousness in the same way that the ripple on the surface of the ocean is a manifestation of the ocean. It?s only when the ripple is unaware that it is the ocean that a sense of separateness arises?which of course is an illusion.
This realization of yourself as the ?Deep I? is so freeing, so liberating, because you?re being liberated from the burden of knowing yourself only as the ?surface I? and its so-called ?drama.? When you realize yourself as the ?Deep I,? it enables you to have a compassionate attitude toward everything that makes up the ?surface I??your physical form, your personal identity (or the historical person), the thoughts and emotions you experience, and so on. It also gives you access to true creativity and true intelligence?both of which are rooted in the formless dimension.
So, welcome moments of quiet and stillness into your life whenever you can. It doesn?t have to be for an hour; even a few minutes throughout the day to step out of thinking and sense yourself as the ?Deep I? is enough. Over time you will live more and more continuously with an awareness of the ?Deep I? in the background of your life, so to speak. And you will find it easier to maintain this awareness even when challenges arise.
10
General topics / Re: Buddhist Teachings and Practices
« on: September 06, 2019, 09:35:59 AM »
Bringing the mind to stillness is easy. You need only to pay attention to one thing. As long as your mind is listening to the rain it is not thinking about anything else. You don?t need to try to still your mind. You need only to relax and continue listening to the rain. The longer you are able to do so, the more still your mind becomes.
Sitting in stillness like this allows us to see things as they truly are. When the body is relaxed and the mind comes to rest, we can see clearly. We become as still and clear as the water in a mountain lake whose tranquil surface reflects the blue sky above, the clouds, and the surrounding rocky peaks just as they are.
- Thich Nhat Hanh, in ?The Art of Living?.
Sitting in stillness like this allows us to see things as they truly are. When the body is relaxed and the mind comes to rest, we can see clearly. We become as still and clear as the water in a mountain lake whose tranquil surface reflects the blue sky above, the clouds, and the surrounding rocky peaks just as they are.
- Thich Nhat Hanh, in ?The Art of Living?.
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Tripura Rahasya and other ancient works / Re: Veda Parayana / Vedic Chanting at SriRamana Ashram
« on: August 29, 2019, 09:16:41 AM »
Visited Sri Ramana Ashram with my mother and stayed there ( this is the first time for my mother ) from 25-27 August 2019 and also Participated in the Punarvasu program ( Monthly Birth Star Celebration of Bhavagavn ) and after having an excellent lunch returned back fully refreshed and had an opportunity to spend one full day in the entire Ashram Schedule and it was very refreshing
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General topics / Re: Buddhist Teachings and Practices
« on: August 28, 2019, 02:48:50 PM »
We have a habit of running after things, and this habit has been transmitted to us by our parents and ancestors. We don?t feel fulfilled in the here and now, and so we run after all kinds of things we think will make us happier. We sacrifice our life chasing after objects of craving or striving for success in our work or studies. We chase after our life?s dream and yet lose ourselves along the way. We may even lose our freedom and happiness in our efforts to be mindful, to be healthy, to relieve suffering in the world, or to get enlightened. We disregard the wonders of the present moment, thinking that heaven and the ultimate are for later, not for now.
To practice meditation means to have the time to look deeply and see these things. If you feel restless in the here and now, or you feel ill at ease, you need to ask yourself: ?What am I longing for?? ?What am I searching for?? ?What am I waiting for??
- Thich Nhat Hanh, in ?The Art of Living?.
To practice meditation means to have the time to look deeply and see these things. If you feel restless in the here and now, or you feel ill at ease, you need to ask yourself: ?What am I longing for?? ?What am I searching for?? ?What am I waiting for??
- Thich Nhat Hanh, in ?The Art of Living?.
13
General Discussion / Re: Philosophical Statements and poems in Tamil
« on: August 24, 2019, 08:07:03 AM »
?To understand south India and its culture you need Tamil, and you need Sanskrit to understand north India?
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/treasurehunt/to-understand-south-india-and-its-culture-you-need-tamil-and-you-need-sanskrit-to-understand-north-india/
Language in Tamil Nadu has a fraught relationship with politics. Last month, it showed up in a controversy over a school text which compared the antiquity of Sanskrit and Tamil. Vairamuthu, a Sahitya Akademi Award winner, whose oeuvre includes popular culture, in a conversation with Narayani Ganesh unpacks the role of language in Tamil identity and its influence on the politics of the state:
The AIADMK government recently scrapped a chapter in a Class 12 textbook over a controversy on the antiquity of Tamil. How old is Tamil?
Tamil is the oldest living language. Sanskrit is part of our culture. To understand south India and its culture you need Tamil, and you need Sanskrit to understand north India. Creative mythology says Tamil and Sanskrit are ancient languages, like the two sides of Shiva?s ?damroo?.
Tamil is an adi (ancient) language; its grammar is more than 3,000 years old. Its literature is naturally even older, because grammar cannot exist without literature. Just like oil is extracted from the seed, grammar emanates from literature.
Periyar (EV Ramasamy) has sometimes been vilified as one who dubbed Tamil a barbaric language. Why was that?
Periyar was concerned that without democratising access to Tamil language and literature, the pandits were rendering it archaic and so the language would not be relevant in a world embracing new knowledge. He loved Tamil; hence he said bring Tamil out. Don?t think all that is old is good. He asked what is there in Tamil apart from bhakti songs and shlokas? Once you deduct these what do you have in Tamil ? so bring in science and technology. Why use Tamil only to praise God, we have to make it practical to apply to the modern world. We want to bring God out into the streets, then why not bring Tamil out? A blacksmith hits iron to make it a useful tool. Periyar was not angry with Tamil.
Periyar was an atheist and demolished roadside temples. How has the complexion of the rationalist movement changed over the years?
When DMK came out of DK (Dravidar Kazhagam), a social movement founded by Periyar, Annadurai said: ?One community, one God.? Periyar had said, ?There is no God?. Periyar made it an intellectual, rationalist movement, but with later avatars, it acquired a democratic, political flavour. Periyar was in Congress and then Justice Party, before he started DK.
Periyar never had political aspirations. Anna said, without political power, we cannot do good for the people. There has to be a compromise and the good points of both have to be included ? the intellectual and the practical.
Periyar broke the Pillaiyar (Ganesha statue) and what did Anna say? He said, ?I will not break Pillaiyar (Ganesha), nor will I break a coconut in front of Pillaiyar.?
Periyar was asked, is caste big or religion big? And he said, caste is more important, because you can change your religion but you cannot change your caste. That is why he focused on self-respect ? the superior and inferior caste system had to change, so that one does not lose one?s self-respect on account of one?s birth.
You talk of time and space as concepts that Tamil seers were intuitively aware of. Could you elaborate?
?Nilamum pozhuthum,? says Tholkappiyar, 3,000 years ago. That is, every nilam (landscape) has a pozhuthu (time) and civilisation is created from there. For instance, Kurinji, the mountainous landscape is for hunting; Mullai, the pastoral for cattle grazing; Marudam, the riverine for agriculture; Neydhal, the coastal area for fishing and Paalai, degraded land for dacoity.
These occupations are decided by landscape. According to that, civilisation arose. The first philosophy was related to time and land in Tholkappiyar?s ancient grammar work.
You say Tamil language is reflective of a far more progressive culture and civilisation, than that of Sanskrit. What?s the basis for that statement?
The Tamil word ?karpu? for ?chastity? is gender neutral whereas in Sanskrit, the word for chastity, ?pativrata,? applies only to the female gender. All four divisions in the caste system for humans emanate from Brahma?s anatomy, on the basis of a God. Tamil poet-philosopher Valluvar said, don?t classify according to occupation as that creates superior and inferior hierarchies, because, by birth, we are all equal. There are many such examples to show Tamil (language) reflects a progressive society.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/treasurehunt/to-understand-south-india-and-its-culture-you-need-tamil-and-you-need-sanskrit-to-understand-north-india/
Language in Tamil Nadu has a fraught relationship with politics. Last month, it showed up in a controversy over a school text which compared the antiquity of Sanskrit and Tamil. Vairamuthu, a Sahitya Akademi Award winner, whose oeuvre includes popular culture, in a conversation with Narayani Ganesh unpacks the role of language in Tamil identity and its influence on the politics of the state:
The AIADMK government recently scrapped a chapter in a Class 12 textbook over a controversy on the antiquity of Tamil. How old is Tamil?
Tamil is the oldest living language. Sanskrit is part of our culture. To understand south India and its culture you need Tamil, and you need Sanskrit to understand north India. Creative mythology says Tamil and Sanskrit are ancient languages, like the two sides of Shiva?s ?damroo?.
Tamil is an adi (ancient) language; its grammar is more than 3,000 years old. Its literature is naturally even older, because grammar cannot exist without literature. Just like oil is extracted from the seed, grammar emanates from literature.
Periyar (EV Ramasamy) has sometimes been vilified as one who dubbed Tamil a barbaric language. Why was that?
Periyar was concerned that without democratising access to Tamil language and literature, the pandits were rendering it archaic and so the language would not be relevant in a world embracing new knowledge. He loved Tamil; hence he said bring Tamil out. Don?t think all that is old is good. He asked what is there in Tamil apart from bhakti songs and shlokas? Once you deduct these what do you have in Tamil ? so bring in science and technology. Why use Tamil only to praise God, we have to make it practical to apply to the modern world. We want to bring God out into the streets, then why not bring Tamil out? A blacksmith hits iron to make it a useful tool. Periyar was not angry with Tamil.
Periyar was an atheist and demolished roadside temples. How has the complexion of the rationalist movement changed over the years?
When DMK came out of DK (Dravidar Kazhagam), a social movement founded by Periyar, Annadurai said: ?One community, one God.? Periyar had said, ?There is no God?. Periyar made it an intellectual, rationalist movement, but with later avatars, it acquired a democratic, political flavour. Periyar was in Congress and then Justice Party, before he started DK.
Periyar never had political aspirations. Anna said, without political power, we cannot do good for the people. There has to be a compromise and the good points of both have to be included ? the intellectual and the practical.
Periyar broke the Pillaiyar (Ganesha statue) and what did Anna say? He said, ?I will not break Pillaiyar (Ganesha), nor will I break a coconut in front of Pillaiyar.?
Periyar was asked, is caste big or religion big? And he said, caste is more important, because you can change your religion but you cannot change your caste. That is why he focused on self-respect ? the superior and inferior caste system had to change, so that one does not lose one?s self-respect on account of one?s birth.
You talk of time and space as concepts that Tamil seers were intuitively aware of. Could you elaborate?
?Nilamum pozhuthum,? says Tholkappiyar, 3,000 years ago. That is, every nilam (landscape) has a pozhuthu (time) and civilisation is created from there. For instance, Kurinji, the mountainous landscape is for hunting; Mullai, the pastoral for cattle grazing; Marudam, the riverine for agriculture; Neydhal, the coastal area for fishing and Paalai, degraded land for dacoity.
These occupations are decided by landscape. According to that, civilisation arose. The first philosophy was related to time and land in Tholkappiyar?s ancient grammar work.
You say Tamil language is reflective of a far more progressive culture and civilisation, than that of Sanskrit. What?s the basis for that statement?
The Tamil word ?karpu? for ?chastity? is gender neutral whereas in Sanskrit, the word for chastity, ?pativrata,? applies only to the female gender. All four divisions in the caste system for humans emanate from Brahma?s anatomy, on the basis of a God. Tamil poet-philosopher Valluvar said, don?t classify according to occupation as that creates superior and inferior hierarchies, because, by birth, we are all equal. There are many such examples to show Tamil (language) reflects a progressive society.
