THE ENLIGHTENED NICHE: hemanth thiru

Thirugnana Sambandar, the Impaler?

By h e m a n t h - December 03, 2012

7th century Tamil Nadu, India. A little boy is born to pious Brahmin parents in the quaint little town of Sirkazhi. As the boy attains the age of three, he is taken to a nearby Shiva temple. While the father takes a dip in the temple’s pond, Lord Shiva and his consort Parvathi appear in front of the boy. Before the father comes back to the son, they disappear and the little boy is left with drops of milk on his lips. When asked who fed him, the little finger points up towards the sky and the soft lips start singing a hymn praising the lord. Over the following years, the boy goes up to sing the most amazing hymns in Tamil that forms the Holy Book of Saivism (religion of the Shiva devotees). The little boy was none else than - one of the most renowned of the 63 Nayanmars - Thirugnana Sambandar. The lad who was fed by the Goddess herself!

15th Century Eastern Europe. The cruel of the cruelest King reigns over the country. The Ottoman Empire is being eroded away by this ruthless warrior. As tens of thousands of enemies' bodies get cruelly impaled in long and sharp arrows, the horrific image of this King spreads throughout Europe as a forest fire. He was none else than King Vlad III Dracula - the demonic warrior whose very thought and the bloody cruel punishments bring shrills and shivers to people up to this day!

Now, why are these two different people being juxtaposed? Do they share anything in common? What if they do?

To understand the link here, readers should first clearly understand what "Impalement" is, and how it made Vlad Dracula stand out in history as the most horrific ruler. For the movie-buffs out there, impalement ("Kazhuvettram") is what Kamal Haasan (“Rangaraja Nambi”) gets as punishment for not practicing Saivism (worshipping Lord Shiva) in “Dasavatharam” movie. It's a kind of punishment where the body of a human is pierced from his bottom and pushed up through the body, to reach out through the head. (This being such a gory punishment is precisely the reason why the movie didn't show the way the punishment exactly works, but toned it down a bit). It was such a torturous execution method used in the early and medieval ages.

Now to the story that links everything up. It was the 6th century in ancient Tamil Nadu when the saint Thirugnana Sambandhar lived. It was a time when Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism coexisted in the land. However, oftentimes there were quarrels among these different groups, usually followed by persecution of the losing religious group. (Note that the Hindus were divided into Saivites and Vaishnavites, and the quarrels between them is yet another story!) The Pandya King called Koonpandiyan who ruled around the region of Madurai, was coaxed to convert to Jainism by the Jain monks in his country. This displeased the Queen and his ministers to a great extent, who were ardent worshippers of Shiva. After knowing about the young Saivite saint called Sambandar, they solicit his help to cure the king's recent illness and also to convert him back to Hinduism (Saivism). Sambandhar travels to Madurai and successfully cures the king's illness (that the Jains couldn’t) by singing a hymn and smearing holy ash on the king's arm. Unable to accept the defeat, the Jains set up a second test wherein the Jain literature palm leaves and the Saivaite palm leaves (of Sambandhar’s) are to be fed to fire, and whichever group defies the test of fire, wins. As the leaves are fed to fire, the Jain leaves are burnt to ashes, Sambandhar’s leaves are untouched. Unable to accept the defeat again, the Jains challenge Sambandhar for a final test - this time, a test of water.

In the final test of water, palm leaves containing religious hymns from each side are dropped into the Vaigai River. While the Jain leaves drown and get washed away, Sambandhar’s leaves swim against the water currents. Sambandhar wins over the Jains in all the three tests. Amazed at Sambandhar’s feat, the king accepts to convert to Hinduism. What is more worthy to be highlighted here is that all the defeated Jains were impaled one by one, headed by the saint Thirugnana Sambandhar himself. A grand total of 8000 Jains were cruelly impaled on that gory day!

When the novelist Bram Stoker embarked on creating the world-famous horror novel, Dracula in 1897, he aptly named the protagonist with the name of the cruel warrior Dracula. King Dracula’s thousands of impalements speak of his horror. The same kinds of impalements have happened in the name of religion in our Sambandhar story as well!

Now when I step into a Hindu temple and touch the feet of the 63 Nayanmar saints one by one - and when I reach Thirugnana Sambandhar - I would stop for a moment. To think.

~

7 Comments

anbe sivam

A Close encounter with GOD –II

By h e m a n t h - June 09, 2012

(Continued from previous post)

Humanity has seen humongous amount of changes over centuries, but the search for God has been one common thing right from Stone Age, up until today. Some people believe in God, while some people believe in themselves more than anything else. There is a third category of people who don't fall in either of these categories- they neither believe in God to a full extent, nor in themselves. Many of us fall into this category, and that’s the main reason for most of the miseries faced in life. (What do YOU believe in?) Even a more intriguing question to mull over is- Is there actually a difference between believing in God and believing in yourself at all??

Zooming back to my contemplation atop the sacred hills – As I finished hearing each of the personalities’ mystical answers to “WHO IS GOD?”, I felt the stars pulling me towards the unfathomable realm of GOD again. As I remained in the incredible trance, I saw myself gliding into thoughts of two experiences from my own distant past…

It was many years ago - the time when I was a college student. All that I got from my dad was a meager amount as pocket money. Just after finishing my lunch, I walked on the street on a late Sunday afternoon when I was confronted by a little, shabby clothed old lady who was in her late eighties. She came closer to me and earnestly implored, “Son, I’m very hungry. Can you please spare me 1 Rupee for buying a vada for lunch…?” I felt sorry for her, and without any hesitation, I spontaneously emptied out my pocket of all the crippled notes and coins and gave her all the money that I had. She was dumb-struck for a moment. I asked her to rather go and eat a sumptuous Biryani for lunch. She became totally overjoyed which reflected in the way her tiny old eyes shined. She smiled gratefully, baring her toothless mouth and glowed with radiance. I felt as if the petty money in my wallet illuminated her and the light transformed to everywhere- to every nook and corner of the street - the whole area was glowing with an aura of benevolence, joy and karma. All for a day’s pocket money.

Initially I felt the stars pulling me towards the realm of GOD was just an act of my mind. But soon I realized that this was not bound within my mind. It transcended to a limitless space of wholeness and oneness. This realm was not limited to time, space or any other boundaries. Continuing my journey towards this realm, I quickly slid into the thoughts of my second experience.

It was after I got my first job. I wanted to give away half of my first month’s salary to people who are in darn need. However, I didn’t believe in just “donating” money in the name of a cause, but wanted to go to an old age home, organize a free lunch, serve them all myself, and indulge in the whole experience. The free lunch at the old age home happened as I had wished. After their hunger was satisfied, all the old men and women sat around me and chatted leisurely. However, one among them still did not seem glad.

This old lady was staring at the wall as she spoke to me: “If you find Murugesan, can you please ask him to visit me sometime?” She kept repeating the same sentence at least 3 or 4 times. I thought for a moment and could easily guess that this Murugesan was the old lady’s son who didn’t take care of his mother in her old age. I went closer to her, held her hand and said with warmth, “I know Murugesan. I’ll definitely ask him to visit you soon!” She smiled with all her heart, this time turning her face towards me. Finally as I was preparing to leave from the old age home, some of them asked me what the occasion was, that made me do a good deed today. I said to them aloud, “I got to meet and have a special lunch with you all, and that’s the occasion!” This day, I was able to fill a few empty stomachs, bring smile to the barren lips, and console a few wounded souls – all for just half of my monthly salary and some warmth in heart. I left the place not just “donating” or “serving food”, but it was much more than that.

Now that I was in a constant contemplation, all the answers to "WHO IS GOD" by those personalities and my two experiences flashed in my mind back and forth. All their answers didn't quite refer to someone very far and external. And my mind brought me my own experiences as answers. I was at the verge of understanding the answer to the question. As the stars put me to a sudden halt, I knew that I was already within the realm of GOD. With an eye-blinding luminescence and an enchanting realization, I saw God, Himself.

He was indeed the closest one to me in my life, who I have been with, all the time I have existed.

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Atheist view God

A Close Encounter with GOD!

By h e m a n t h - May 22, 2012

A chilly February night on the hills of a less-visited holy shrine in Tamil Nadu. I sit atop a boulder and gaze at the starry sky. The small towns around the base of the hills are so noisy as opposed to the meditative silence here. Even crickets and other nightly insects seem to maintain silence at this place. This place had been one of the most-revered places of the ancient saints, and claimed to be abode of God himself. After starting to climb up the hill early this morning, right from the moment I reached the peak, I feel as if all the connections with my regular worldly life have got severed. My mind sees a never-experienced tranquility and stillness. As I continue to gaze at the sky, I have a feeling as if I’m being pulled by every star, as if using several strings, away from the world and into an unknown realm closer to God.

As moments pass, I feel that the silence has changed into a mild, rhythmic and collective chant of the name of God. As I stay focused in my seeming journey to that realm, my human intellect pulls out a question from the world beneath the hills and shoves into my mind- “WHO IS GOD?” It repeats the question harmoniously over and over again- “WHO IS GOD?” “WHO IS GOD?” As the stars abruptly stop pulling me to that realm, I start looking for an answer to this question. And I see several well-known figures from my under-the-hill-life popping up and filling my mind’s vastness. They are Buddhist monk Bodhidharma, Siththar Thirumoolar, Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, psychologist Dr.Joseph Murphy and Indian movie star Kamal Haasan. As I bewilderedly ask them why they are all here, they all tell me in harmony- “I HAVE THE ANSWER!”

The first one to speak up is Bodhidharma, the Kanchipuram-born founder of Shaolin Kung Fu and Zen Buddhism. With a stern look on his face, he says, “As long as you look for a Buddha somewhere else, you will never see that your own mind is the Buddha!” Sensing the puzzled look on my face, he continues, “To find a Buddha, all you have to do is see your nature”. As I was trying to decrypt what he said, I heard someone singing a poem. It was the mystical Tamil Siththar saint Thirumoolar.

Siththars were the mystical Tamil saints, astrologers, alchemists and scientists of ancient India. Thirumoolar being one of the most mystic of them begins to sing an odd poem that goes like this (translated version):

This poem of Thirumoolar sounded like a simple kindergarten school rhyme, but only after moments did I realize that it’s just the superficial meaning. The hidden meaning is that the five senses of a person are like the five cows he keeps at his house. When he succumbs to these senses, these uncontrolled senses make him go crazy in life, but when controlled, they reap him the ultimate benefits of human life. Thirumoolar adds, "Controlling the senses is the key to evidence the Master". I suddenly hear someone laughing. It was Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev.

With his typical chuckle, Jaggi Vasudev puts forth a radical question of how one knows where the “boundary of a person” lies - which is your own body and which is external to your body. The body that we humans have built up is nothing but accumulated food, since birth. The grain that we eat today becomes blood and bone tomorrow. So, in essence, body is nothing but accumulated food, taken from the earth over several years of life. If our body is all borrowed from outside, where is “You”??, he questions. As I wonder with my mouth wide open, he chuckles again and says graciously that the human mind is not limited to the human body that is accumulated over the years, but transcends everywhere in the universe, and is boundless and limitless. Phew... This still adds even more mystery to my original question.

As psychologist Dr. Joseph Murphy starts to speak, I yearned for a straight forward answer at least this time. He pulls out from one of his books and quotes from the Holy Bible,

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you”. (Matthew 7:7)
When I was about to quickly judge him and anticipate his answer, he smiles as if he knew what I thought, and repeats, “If you ask in faith, you will receive. But who do you ask?
-The treasure house!” To me, his response was utterly confusing. I should ask the “treasure house”?!?! He smiles again and continues, “if you ask in firm belief, your prayers will get answered. For all your sincere prayers are listened by, and answered by the treasure house within you - which created you, healed you and continues to shape you every second - the “treasure house” within you – your subconscious mind.

It is versatile Indian actor Kamal Haasan who begins to speak now. As I look at him, all that comes to my mind is his well-known atheist ideologies and rationalism. He says in a matter-of-fact manner, “God is omnipresent!” It blew me off for one second. Kamal says, God is everywhere?! He continues, “God lives in you and lives in me, for God is none other than you and me”. This leaves me even more perplexed.

All these people I’m evidencing in front of my eyes are from different lifetimes and varied backgrounds. Some are dead and some are alive. Some are saints, psychologists and some are show-biz personalities. Together, they bewilder me even more about my original question of “Who is God?” I feel lost in a world of mystics. As I stare at them as I think, all of them disappear with a momentary flash in the dark sky of the night. The silvery stars collectively begin to pull me again. As I move, I start to see a huge blazing light in the distant horizon of my mind, and I knew - I was not very far from the realm of God…

To be continued in the next post..

9 Comments

agastya

My Naadi astrology experience- a truly bewitching one- Part II

By h e m a n t h - October 12, 2010

(continued from my previous post)

As I was totally immersed into reading the article on the wall, I didn’t notice a hand coming towards my shoulder. “Tap!”
Someone patted at my back. My contemplation was instantly disturbed. “Please stand in the queue!!”, a distant voice yelled. I joined the long queue stretching out to the street. Finally when it was my turn, I was taken to the ‘pooja’ (prayer) hall. As I entered, I was awestruck to see thousands of old palm leaves stocked inside a series of cupboards. A big picture of siddhar Agathiyar quickly caught my attention. Then my right thumb impression was taken on a small card and my initial and place of residence were also noted down on the card (my full name wasn’t asked). Then I was asked to wait in the lounge along with the rest of the crowd. Time rolled on, and lot of people in the lounge were called out at regular intervals, informing that their leaf had been identified. As for me, it had been two hours, and no news yet.

I was pondering about how I would prove to my friend that this is fake and convince him tonight. Soon it was lunch time, and I went for a light meal, and returned to the place again. I had whiled away five hours in that strange place, and no news yet! I sighed, and almost confirmed that this whole thing was just a poor old trick. Suddenly, one of the employees appeared in the lounge and called out, “Sanatorium – H, your leaf has been found. You may proceed to the room downstairs!”. Sanatorium was the place where I lived, and H is my initial. Yes, it was me. My palm leaf had been found out.

The story grips. As I anxiously proceeded to the room, an astrologer who seemed religious with his simple outfits and a wide forehead fully covered with holy ash, beckoned me inside. He had a set of old, crippling palm leaves (written in vatteluthu Tamil script). He claimed one of those palm leaves to be mine (WHAT?!). He flipped through the hundreds of palm leaves in the set one by one, and read out some info. Every time before he moved on to the next leaf, he asked if any of the information was about me. After several such questions, he said he brought a wrong piece, and that he’d bring the right one. I could almost hear a loud cynical laugh from my deep insides.

He was back soon with a new set of palm leaves. He asked me so many yes-or-no questions and I almost lost interest in this game, and frantically shook my head for all his questions. As he flipped through the leaves, suddenly he uttered a name and questioned me if that was my dad’s name. I slowly raised my head, looked at him in astonishment and nodded. This was indeed the moment of truth. My dad has a very unique name that is often misspelled, but he uttered my dad’s name in its perfect spelling! I was totally flabbergasted how in the world my dad's name could have been written on that leaf!

Then he sat back, now seemed even more poised, and said that he had identified my own naadi leaf. He continued reading an ancient incomprehensible Tamil poem from the leaf and I was put to shock again- I heard him uttering my mom’s name. He read on, to say that I’ve sought Naadi at my age of 21. ("well, it's not rocket science to say what my age was, after looking at me. But how come my dad and mom’s names?!") He read out a hymn as Agathiyar praising Lord Shiva, and then came my name, what I was studying, how many siblings I have, what my dad and mom’s professions were, etc, etc, etc. I had an uneasy feeling that I was starting to lose the battle. He read out the exact date when I was born, and all the planetary positions during my birth. He also added that I was born on a Friday. But to my joy, this one wasn't true!

I quickly said to him that it was wrong and that I was almost sure that I was rather born on a Wednesday, and not a Friday. With a confident smile, he replied back that he was just reading what’s written on the leaf and asserted that the leaf says that I was born on a Friday and that couldn't be wrong. Then he continued reading. He started to read about my future- when I would start working, where and what will be my profession, whether and when I will fly to a foreign country, when would I get married, so on and so forth, up until the end of my life. I gasped at the moment he uttered my dad’s name, and I remember I breathed again only after he completed reading about my whole life.

Thousands of questions were spawning and proliferating in my mind, from several directions. Is this real, or am I still dreaming?? I could wake up right now, right at this moment and prove that this is all fake! But well, my excited heart rate asserts to me that I’m awake. This is happening for real. But how could it be possible? How could someone have written each and every detail about me, my family and my future, several thousand years ago? My senses were eating me for finding an answer, but in vain. After an hour’s time, I was given a notebook where the whole manuscript was copied on to.

This was truly a mind-boggling experience. All of these seemed to be unquestionably authentic and true, except for my day of birth. Interestingly, just this seemed to be wrong. I quickly sent a text message to my dad: “Dad, was I born on a Friday?!”. I was forced to think about all possible tricks that could have made this possible. I got reminded of a skill that a handful of people possess- ‘Mind-reading’. Some people are supposed to possess this extrasensory skill with which they could “pull out” words from one’s fresh memory. Before a mind-reader would tell what your name was, he would start with, “so, your name is...”. As your mind would be instantly waiting with your name to validate with his answer, a mind-reader can pull it out – as it is commonly believed. I was cross-checking my event with a suspicion of mind-reading. The naadi astrologer could’ve been a mind reader, and that’s how he was able to tell me my name and my parents' names. But there is no explanation for the future predictions. But wait- when I myself thought I was born on a Wednesday, why did he say that to be a Friday?! So, this cannot be mind-reading too. Sigh.. But why just my day of birth was wrong in the palm leaf? I left the place. Besides being thoroughly amazed, I was also confused.

During my journey back home, I was riding a local train that was too noisy and unusually crowded. But I was deaf to the external world. I didn’t hear a thing other than the millions of questions being asked within myself. I was deeply contemplating. “BEEP- BEEP!” My mobile phone’s SMS tone distorts my contemplation.

It’s from dad: “Yes, indeed”.

Now, only the amazement persists.

113 Comments

agastya

My Naadi astrology experience- a truly bewitching one!

By h e m a n t h - October 08, 2010

It was 6 years ago. I was living with my college friends in the city’s suburb. We never got the real seriousness until it’s the final exam time of the semester. It was such a joyful evening when my friend dropped by my place. Soon my roommates also joined for a chat with him. As we were discussing, rambling and laughing about college trivia, he suddenly started a new topic that jumped off the track of our conversation- it was about ghosts and spirits.

Though I never believed in any of these stories, I did not ever miss a discussion on ghosts. These discussions invariably start with 2 or 3 people and end with a big crowd of 10-12 people. Spooky stories are always enchanting and definitely a crowd puller. Back to the story- my friend said that he had been long suspecting that his house was haunted by a spirit. He also cited some creepy unexplainable incidents like “black images”, “hollow space” “shadows without an object” moving hither and thither at his place. This was happening for long. Only later did he learn from his landlord that the house had been vacant for years, before he moved in. It had been occupied by a family which moved out after a 9-year old girl in the household committed suicide. Though his narrative made us hold breath at irregular periods and left us open-mouthed, to me, it was just a nicely concocted story.

Then he added that the spirit of a killed or a prematurely dead human would lament, cry aloud and beg, on seeing its body being cremated in grave yard, longing to get back to its body. It sounded so irrational to my senses and I argued back. My roommates also started making fun of him for all that he had been saying hitherto. It definitely kindled his wrath and being unable to prove anything that he said, he quickly stood up, and snarled, “You guys may laugh at me now. But you will understand very soon!” He added, “I’m sure you guys won’t believe if I said, you can even know what your previous births were, and where your next birth will be! Naadi astrology tells you that. Go, see it for yourself!” He quickly disappeared from the spot. Even after a long time after he left, his last sentence was haunting me during the darkest times of that night. Rest is the main story.

The word ‘Naadi’ kept resonating in my mind even the following day. I’ve heard about such an astrological practice many times during the previous years. But I was never so interested in seeking it, and even at times when I thought of giving it a try, I was indifferent or I had more important things to do. However, this time, this overwhelming force made me become all the more keen on seeking it. But only for one simple reason- to prove to my friend that all that was just a humbug. The next moment, I was standing in front of this place where Naadi astrology is sought. I couldn’t help myself.

It was just a big house, with a board ("Agathiya Naadi center") hanging in the front. I entered the building with some reluctance as I’ve never been to an astrology place before in life. The place was buzzing with activities and packed with people who I could easily identify to be of different cultures, and some were from different countries too. I noticed a picture of a king who I later understood to be the Maratha king Serfoji, who had preserved the naadi palm leaves. The wall opposite to it was almost left with no space as a lot of paper cuttings of magazine articles had been stuck. It was obvious that each of the paper cuttings was from magazines in different languages such as German, Japanese, Chinese, English, Tamil, etc. I was attracted to an article titled, “Is there a next birth?”. As I was totally immersed into reading the article, I didn’t notice a hand coming towards my shoulder. “Tap!”

To be continued in my next post…

27 Comments

Ancient India

I learnt Indian history from the Dutch today!

By h e m a n t h - August 29, 2010

Dutch East India Company. As this bug bites me more and more every day, I finally ended up travelling to The Hague where the Dutch National Archives is located, which is the treasure house of all the antique VOC records!

As I entered the building, I felt like setting foot on a venture of a lifetime (like boarding the Titanic! :). I got the 3 historical documents that I had requested for. These were HUGE books, with sizes of around 1 feet x 1.5 feet,and weighing almost 4 KGs each! These were the travel journals prepared by Dutch east India company in circa 1672 (yes, almost 340 year-old books!!). Such a journal was published almost each time when a VOC ship sailed back to Holland. The books I read, had precise details on Dutch occupation in India, with detailed maps of the cities and towns, the culture of the inhabitants, their food habits, the vegetation, etc. etc. It was just mind blowing to see several maps of my birthplace, the port town of Tuticorin (had been spelt as Tute Coryn). [image credits: Nationaal Archief] One of the maps shows intricate details of pearl fishermen (Paravas community) displaying oysters in the market, fished from the sea, while some Dutch men stand by. It also shows a VOC ship supervising the fishing activities. Sea farers diving into the sea for pearl fishing can also be seen- and much more intricate details that today’s Tuticoriners would not even know that these existed here!

Well, Tuticorin is just one place where the VOC had a trading post. I also saw several maps, and records of Masulipatnam (Machilipatnam), Pulicat (Pazhaverkadu), Negapatnam (Nagapattinam), Cotchin (Cochin), Covelang (Kovalam), and many more places. And remember, today’s India was not the only country under the VOC. Cities like New Amsterdam (New York city), Cape of Good Hope (Cape Town), Batavia (Jakarta, Indonesia) were too!

Here’s a VOC map of port town Tutecoryn (1672) and a Google map of today’s Tuticorin city (2010). I still like the VOC map of Tutecoryn much more, with its beautifully illustrative and intricate details!

View Larger Map

Well, we must not forget the most important thing here- 400 years ago, our place’s map had been drawn by a European company, and today, our place’s map is being created by an American company.
What are WE doing????? It’s heart-breaking indeed.

Thirugnana Sambandar, the Impaler?

A Close encounter with GOD –II

A Close Encounter with GOD!

My Naadi astrology experience- a truly bewitching one- Part II

My Naadi astrology experience- a truly bewitching one!

I learnt Indian history from the Dutch today!

Dead Dutch men and My VOC coins?

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