Vichu Neethi & a Poem
Bhartruhari a famous poet is well known for his work dealing with man’s moral conduct, and this goes by the popular name : “Neethi Shatakam”. One of these100 verses deals with virtues of charity. I have lifted a part of this to suit my own obsession with the subject of “prarabdam” and the following is the result of my efforts in Samskrit.
“Agyaana doshena Bhaveth Prarabda bandanam;
Prarabda Doshena karothi vyavahaaram;
Vyavahaara Doshena avashyam punarjanmam prayaati,
Punar prarabdah punareva vyavahaari.”
Translation:
(Due to ignorance one is bound by cause-effect paradigm of birth/experiences.
This paradigm of cause-effect, determines all individual activities/affairs.
Such indulgences then make re-births absolute certainties.
Only to be bound again to this repeated birth-experience-death-rebirth cycle as a perennial participator.)
Having understood the inevitable “pull” of prarabda can I now be stopped from venturing into my pet territory of derived experiences during this current life? Here is a poem titled
“Blasphemy”
“I wrote a poem which appeared quite wise,
Reading it, my boy said Hmmm nice
A similar theme when espoused by a friend,
became from being nice to quite good indeed.
This is blogged by another pal on a social site,
It is so cute that it is shared, & liked by many a mite.
A well-known guy then dovetails this in a passage
To be included & delivered as a part of a hero’s message.
This now becomes viral & universally instant sensation,
quoted by millions, repeatedly in awesome adoration.
The world has no apparent care about the original author,
Nor an empathetic appreciation for his genuine labor.
Alas it’s not the merit which maketh one great,
It’s the great who are naturals to hog all the merit.
Yet rejoicing in this sham is a trait all too prevalent,
Sophistry then aids in rubbishing others as irrelevant.
If this is part of God’s creation one is given to understand,
Blasphemically, it is only akin to a garland in a monkey’s hand.”
Ekalavya alias Vichu
Vichu,
ReplyDeleteEffortless as usual.Wisdom gets passed on through succeeding generations over so many centuries and flows in from so many directions that no one person or even a school of thought may claim to be the originator of any part of it.Yes,in terms of chronology of exchanges in an immediate past,we see the "heros" hogging credit and universal applause for what we too had "originally" said earlier and for which we drew not even a perfunctory acknowledgment even from our limited audience.We do not seem to want to emulate those that do what they do to acquire such popularity.We abhor packaging,we believe it demeans the value of the product.Arguably the all knowing Monkey hence protects us from sliding into that club by depriving us of popular acclaim misunderstood though It might get to be in the bargain.This Monkey knowingly,not in ignorance,snaps the string and strews the petals of the garland in a playful moment and invests each scattered petal with an intelligence which It constantly guides,for this separated petal to engage with all the other petals in the act of regaining its unified original form along with the others.Knowing you I see the blasphemy in your concluding line of equating God's creation to simian mindlessness more as an expression of your deep dissappointment with the world,judged by your values,than a reflection of your core perceptions about God.Still we could be mindful about how we say what we say since God never minds and that causes acute embarrassment after the outpour.
God bless us all.
Gulpa
You are right. I should be mindful of what I say as outpourings often cause embarrassments later. But of late I have kind of developed another set of anxieties; (a) the outpourings cause lesser and lesser embarrassment and (b)since I have no means to know as to which part of my cause-effect chain will visit me today or in my next birth, I see everything as hopeless. It is no longer the anger of the past or the fear of future which bothers me today. Looking around in awareness "now" seems to be the most difficult part to practice.
ReplyDeleteI vaguely recall that in one of my new-found enthusiasm to write to Acharyal, I had mentioned about the fear that with perceived lack of Grace, I should not become a "naasthika". There is I believe a very thin line dividing unconditional surrender, and extreme terrorism; Both Prahlad and Hiranya Kasibu exemplifying these traits had I am sure "mukthi" as their ultimate aim. It is too tempting to be the latter in these days of terrible strife and His apparent disinterest in general state of affairs during Kaliyug.
Answers elude me is a very disturbing thought, and that I can never become a terrorist in this janma is no consolation. If the desire for recognition gets more and more pronounced, what next is a disturbing query.....
Love
Vichu