Collage of cliches Bhashyam Serial no 2

Cliché Number 2 

Before I get to this, permit me to linger on for one brief moment on the first cliche. After I wrote those cliches I wondered as to why I chose the word “scholar” to describe one “who knew his true identity”, notwithstanding the obviously logical extension from “scholarship” to the scholar him/her self. I could have used “gyani” or “the realized one” etc which were more my style.  

This was interesting (or was it intriguing) especially in the context of my innate worry about a conflict with my earlier pieces in the blog. The Sanskrit word for “scholar” as I mulled over was “Pundit”. I remembered then that there was something about this in the blog earlier. 

No doubt there was. In Bhagawad Gita, a Pundit is defined by the lord in a sloka in Chapter 4. This – you guessed it folks -- is a subject of a piece in the blog. The gist of it is that a karma yogi whose fruit yielding power of actions are burnt away by “wisdom” is acknowledged even by Gyanis as “pundit” – the scholar for you and me in the “Cliches” piece. (Page 90 of the book of “jignyaasaa”)

With that, my romantic interpretation took over. I imagined that it was due to His Grace that I remembered this much later, after the cliches were written. If I had remembered this earlier before penning those cliches  my claims to these being providential would have been a bit precious. In tune with the tenor of the clichés:

“It was due to His Grace that I remembered this piece later, it was not as if, once I remembered, I could conclude that it was His Grace”.

Let me now turn to the second cliché in all seriousness and earnestness. It goes like this:

“Aspire to be a Scholar, but do not be fascinated by scholarship.”

Imagine you have to cross a river & reach the other side. You take a boat. The river represents the “life cycle” and the boat “scholarship” needed to cross the river. You reach the other side and what do you do? You leave the boat, and get to your destination. It would be stupid to carry the boat with you while you are ashore. 

So also here; a time comes when in order to reach the ultimate destination of “self-realization” you need to give up your scholarship, dwell inside, meditate and merge. Of course it is your choice to be completely fascinated and prefer to get back to the boat, savor the pleasure of boating, enjoying the scenic beauty along the way, (which would represent the wonderful and sooo beauuutiful creation of His). 

In other words this is akin to getting so fascinated / mesmerized by scholarship that you forget the very purpose of this current life cycle. Only when one is able to rid himself of that tantalizingly attractive lure of “scholarship”, that one gets “Wisdom” and in that moment, there is this realization, that the boat, river, etc are all your own creation merely for providing entertainment. 

One who sees “scholarship” misses the scholar, and one who sees the scholar misses the scholarship. (kalla kanda naayai Kaanalai, naayai kanda kalla kanalai in Tamil)   

By a coincidence again, I had written a piece titled “Finery in Narration -- latent Pitfalls” (page 381 of the book) where there is this reference to an Upanishad which talks of “Shaashtra Vaasana” (I interpret this as fascination for Scholarship) It tells you stories about rishis like Bharadwaja & Dhurvasa who had to be impressed on the futility of unending quest for scholarship, and instead advised to “meditate on that “ABSOLUTE” in “realization”.  

There is also this reference in Mahabharat comparing “us” with the boat, a guru to an oarsman, the Lord being the wind to sail us safely to our ultimate “moksha” goal. The Guru to me represents the “scholar” and he is the one who steers you to that destination. But you still need the Lord’s grace to be able to benefit from the scholarship of the Guru, and be able to rid even this in the final stage to attain “liberation”.   

My regret is that many Gurus of today are so full of scholarship that they are too mesmerizing for one to be able to rid of this. There are others whose followers by institutionalizing the Guru’s greatness have hijacked the agenda of self realization almost completely.  

But yet the texts are very particular about the need for a true guru – the scholar. There is a reference in some texts about a guy who mistaking a crocodile for a log of wood feels that he could easily cross the river, and jumps on to it only to end up with disastrous results. 

So with “scholarship” itself being a difficult thing to properly identify, let alone acquire & master,   where is the need for being enchanted with it? To be able to be a scholar, you only need Lord’s Grace. And it is He, who knows how, in which form and when to take you to that stage. The “guru” would come to you when the time ripens, and in a form you will recognize. Till then though it is understood that scholarship is essential, it should not tempt or fascinate you so much as to forget the life’s purpose itself. 

To be contd…… 

Love

Vichu