Contribution from member Sri T K Jayaraman on Higher Wisdom

POSSESSIONS POSSESS US - A VIRAL INFECTION

 

1.   Possessions possess us -A viral infection I was quite busy with one thing or another and this blog remained dormant for a long time. What is the provocation for this post now? An issue of Time dated 23 March 2015. The article is entitled," The Joy of Less". I have not yet completed reading the article. The photos accompanying the said article set me thinking. The country is USA. Since, here in India, we copy unabashedly everything American what I write will be relevant for my own countrymen. A study reveals that 75% of the garages surveyed are filled with so many things that the owners couldn't park their cars inside. All sorts of things are dumped in the garages as the dwelling places are already full of things. It is stated that professional organisers help homeowners decide which possessions are worth saving and which can be purged. It is stated that US children make up 3.1% of the world kids, but buy 40% of the toys. The point I want to make is that this is really a disease, the mania to buy and possess even when you don't need them. This disease is one of the important reasons for our environmental degradation. Nowadays it is easy to purchase anything sitting at home thanks to Amazon.com. Many of us are tempted to buy online thanks to the advertisement techniques to which we easily succumb. The result: Our home is filled with lots of things which we no longer use. Instead of we possessing things, the things possess us. What is the result? Clutter everywhere including our own minds. This should stop. Now I feel that after all Mahatma Gandhi whom we have abandoned is correct. He would not waste even a bit of paper. The American way of consumption is wrong. We should rid ourselves of this viral infection.

 

 

2 UNIVERSAL PRAYER - WHAT IS IT?

 Dear Friends, This is a very beautiful prayer to the universal Spirit by the Sage Thayumanavar who lived in Tamilnad in 18 the century. There is nothing sectarian in this prayer. It is couched in poetic Tamil. A great challenge in translating into French and English. Again it is not a literal translation. I tried my best to bring out the message of this poem in both the languages. My aim is that people other than Tamil knowing public should benefit from the thoughts contained therein. I call this a UNIVERSAL PRAYER. Here I am omitting the French version.

TAMIL VERSION

அங்கிங் கெனாதபடி  எங்கும் ப்ரகாசமாய்

 ஆனந்த பூர்த்தியாகி

 அருளொடு நிறைந்ததெது தன்னருள் வெளிக்குளே

 அகிலாண்ட கோடியெல்லாந்

தங்கும் படிக்கிச்சை வைத்துயிர்க் குயிராய்த்

  தழைத்ததெது மனவாக்கினில்

 தட்டாமல் நின்றதெது சமயகோ டிகளெலாந்

 தந்தெய்வம் எந்தெய்வமென்

 

றெங்குந் தொடர்ந்தெதிர் வழக்கிடவும் நின்றதெது

 எங்கணும் பெருவழக்காய்

 யாதினும் வல்லவொரு சித்தாகி இன்பமாய்

  என்றைக்கு முள்ள தெதுஅது

  கருத்திற் கிசைந்ததுவே

கண்டன வெலாமோன வுருவெளிய தாகவுங்

  கருதிஅஞ் சலிசெய்குவாம்.    

 

ENGLISH TRANSLATION

 Neither here nor there

 It shines everywhere

Pinnacle of joy, full of grace

Tell me what is IT?

Its benign space,

 true to Its will,

contains the universe whole

Becoming the soul of all souls

Tell me what is it?

 Beyond mind, beyond word

Yonder beyond our reach

 It exists Tell me what is IT?

Faiths galore claim

It's my own God

Endless quarrel everywhere

But It exists still untouched Everywhere!

 Becoming the most powerful Mind

And joyous

 Existing eternally.

Tell me, what is IT?

 It abides in a region of neither day nor light

 Tell me what is IT?

 That indescribable substance

 Accords with our ideal.

Everywhere we see

It is the form of SILENCE PURE

IT is that we adore!

 T.K. Jayaraman

 08/02/2015

 

3 UNIVERSAL VALUES UNIVERSAL VALUES

I recall a poem from Classical Sangam Period in Tamil literature . I have translated the poem into English and French. The poem teaches us certain universal values. I thought it should interest everyone, especially in this troubled era when men butcher each other in the name of false values. I am omitting the French translation here. The poet was Kanian Poonkunranar.

 

 

 

TAMIL VERSION

 

“        யாதும் ஊரே யாவரும் கேளிர்

தீதும் நன்றும் பிறர்தர வாரா

நோதலும் தணிதலும் அவற்றோ ரன்ன

சாதலும் புதுவது அன்றே, வாழ்தல்

இனிதென மகிழ்ந்தன்றும் இலமே முனிவின்

இன்னா தென்றலும் இலமே, மின்னொடு

வானம் தண்துளி தலைஇ யானாது

கல் பொருது மிரங்கு மல்லல் பேரியாற்று

நீர்வழிப் படூஉம் புணைபோல் ஆருயிர்

முறை வழிப் படூஉம் என்பது திறவோர்

காட்சியில் தெளிந்தனம் ஆகலின், மாட்சியின்

பெரியோரை வியத்தலும் இலமே,

சிறியோரை இகழ்தல் அதனினும் இலமே. (புறம்: 192

 English Rendering

 The whole world is ours.

All are our kith and kin.

Good and bad, others do not cause

 Even suffering and relief.

 Death is not new;

 nor are we

Overwhelmed by the pleasures of life.

Neither do we escape life in disgust.

Like a barge caught in a river

 Inundated with the downpour caused

By lightning and clouds thundering

Our life's movement follows nature's law.

 Thus spake our sages.

And we abide in that truth

We are neither dazzled by those

 In standing ,above us,

nor we deride those with lesser fortune.

T.K Jayaraman

4/02/2015

4 THOUGHT EXPERIMENT-DEATH-ILLUMINATION

 

What do you expect from a boy of 10? He is growing up. Exploring everything around, playful. Mischievous. Boys are Boys. After all, he is a boy. All pranks are excused. Even you enjoy them. A certain liberty is assumed. But strange is the story of this boy. He was not sick. Very healthy indeed physically. He played football. He was also going to school. Then what is so unusual about him? Listen. All of a sudden, he got an idea. He did a thought experiment.  We have heard of scientists devising ingenious thought experiments. You may be aware of Einstein's thought experiment of chasing the light and to understand what would be the consequences. The consequences are that he revolutionised our concept of time and space fathering the Theory of Relativity. But this boy also revolutionised things in another sense. He lies down on a bed. Closes his eyes, assumes that he is dead. In other words, he enacts death. Ok. I am dead. He keeps all limbs so tight to enact rigor mortis. Thought process goes on. Ok. What will happen? They will take this body to the cremation ground and cremate. The dead body will be would reduced to ashes. Ok. In that process, is everything obliterated? Is it the end of everything? Is it a complete annihilation? Of course many scientists who have scant regard for men’s religious feelings would answer these questions with YES. But this boy did not get that answer. Even when this body is turned into ashes which form part of the physical world, the “I " is still there. It is eternal. It is immortal. It is never destroyed. He got that Illumination in a flash. The rest is history. And that thought experiment gave to the world a remarkable personality who would be a beacon for generations to come. Don't think it is a mythological story. The boy lived in twentieth century. He was none other than RAMANA MAHARSI . We don't know what triggers transformation in individuals.

T.K.Jayaraman

 22/02/20