MARGAbandhu Academy

West Mambalam remembers MC with Love

desikan — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 14:45:16 +0000

Addressing a gathering at Chennai on the occasion of the birth centenary celebrations of M C Subrahmanyam, founder of The Public Health Centre at West Mambalam, on Monday the 12th December 2011, Columnist and Chartered Accountant S Gurumurthy described M C Subrahmanyam as an institution. He said the great personality, who dedicated his life entirely to public service, was an outstanding writer in English as well. He quoted the respected elder statesman Rajaji, at the time he was Chief Minister of the undivided Madras State, “Subrahmanyam believed in speaking and writing for the least intelligent audience. He was one of the best writers, who used simple language for communication.”

Recalling his association with Subrahmanyam, Gurumurthy said he came in touch with the nationalist during the Emergency.“Whenever I was depressed over the prevailing situation (in 1975), Subrahmanyam advised me not to take any decision in haste and said the situation will change if the truth about happenings is being spread among the people,” he added. “A majestic personality, Subrahmanyam led a simple life full of achievement and in fact, he is an institution. The ‘institution’ founded by him must grow further” Gurumurthy said.

Earlier, writing in the Tamil periodical Vijayabharatam (28-10-2011), Subrahmanyam’s close, though younger friend during India’s Emergency days, S. Gopalan compared Subrahmanyam’s services to a prudent person’s regular deposits in a bank, which enable the bank to engage in public benefit activities. He differentiated this person’s behaviour from the activities of most modern householders who use banks only to borrow from them to the hilt to accumulate personal assets.

Subrahmanyam was born in a low income Brahmin family of North Arcot district, lost his father at an early age and had to live very frugally to be able to pursue his education. During his schooling at Muthialpet High School, Chennai, he came under the enlightening and benevolent influence of the Vedic exponent and Aurobindo scholar T. V. Kapali Shastri, who taught there. This instilled a great love of our Sanatanic values in the young man apart from developing his mind in an all round fashion. Shastriji is once believed to have found this youngster joining a group of students who were protesting against the repressive Simon Commission and therefore not attending school. He quietly enquired from the School Office whether the school examination fees had been paid by Subrahmanyam, and learning that they had not, paid them out of his own funds to make sure that his favourite student did not miss out the examination.

Subrahmanyam went to College too at Chennai and obtained a degree in English literature. During his study for the degree he attended without fail all meetings addressed by the freedom fighter Srinivasa Iyengar and got inspired to dedicate his life for the welfare of the people around him. He became a journalist and served in the Sunday Times. He also wrote independently under the pseudonym, “Kumar”.

Following his mentor Kapali Shastri, who surrendered to Ramana Maharishi through guidance from Ganapathi Rishi, MC (that is how Kapali Shastri addressed Subrahmanyam and how all friends in West Mambalam remember him till today) too sought the feet of the Sage of Tiruvannamalai. He cooperated with Shastriji in bringing out a number of books on Ganapathi Rishi. He continued helping Shastriji’s literary efforts in a limited way even when the latter went away to Pondicherry and began carrying out extensive research on the Vedas and on Aurobindo’s thought.

I was sixteen when, in 1952, independent India held its first election. My father Parthasarathy Iyengar was a Reporter in The Hindu and was already in the 28th year of his service, which was to continue till he retired as Acting Chief Reporter twelve years later. We were among the earliest residents of West Mambalam. All Mambalam rejoiced when T T Krishnamachari got elected as MP from Madras that year. MC who had campaigned for him was particularly happy. TTK was foremost among persons whom MC had approached to help improve the civic conditions of low lying West Mambalam, which did not then have even elementary hygienic facilities. Open drains and rain water stagnation facilitated growth of mosquitoes and spread of diseases. Just on the other side of the suburban rail track, T Nagar was urban, modern and nice to live in.

TTK encouraged MC to organize and collect funds for building a Public Health Centre in West Mambalam. MC of course accepted large offers from the well to do, but wanted West Mambalam to participate joyfully in building its own health centre and his band of volunteer friends went from house to house on the funds drive, with proper receipt books and all.

The centre (Number 114, Lake View Road; the new door number is 174) came up pretty fast and could be inaugurated in September 1953. It has grown from strength to strength and now has excellent maternity and child care facilities. The golden jubilee celebrations in 2002-3 coincided nicely with the inauguration of a new block named after MC himself. Many national leaders who have been passing through Madras found some time to visit it either officially or on their own and always had something nice to say about it. The visit of the Union Minister Govind Ballabh Pant in 1957 is remembered by several old timers, because it innocently stirred up a storm in a placid tea cup. Only a few months before Pant’s visit, TTK had resigned his place in Nehru’s cabinet as Finance Minister after a parliamentary probe initiated by a question from Feroze Gandhi had established that a large number of LIC shares had been sold cheap to the industrialist Haridas Mundhra, resulting in a loss of Rs. 1.24 crores to the Corporation. TTK had resigned on principle as the public sector insurance giant was under his ministry. And when GB Pant spoke at the Public Health Centre he naturally eulogized the founder MC and the vision of TTK who had been behind the great effort. Most papers went to town, unnecessarily referring to the Mundhra affair, hinting that it was not proper for GB Pant to have praised TTK right then. My father had attended the meeting for the Hindu and true to the tradition of the reporters of the paper at the time, had neither added a word nor missed one when reporting the Minister’s speech. The Hindu’s report was used in parliament by the Minister a few days later to clear the air.

But I am digressing. I would like to get back to MC and to more information provided by the Tamil article by his friend S Gopalan.

· After MC had canvassed energetically for the Congress O (later to be called Congress Kamaraj) candidate against Karunanidhi in Saidapet constituency in 1971, Kamaraj sent an emissary to him with some money acknowledging his services. The offer was politely declined.

· MC was very close to the Congress party, but that did not prevent him from thinking primarily of the nation’s interest on most issues. It became obvious on a number of occasions when he was in charge of the Department of Information during Kamaraj’s Chief-Ministership.

· When he retired from the Madras Government, he became the Editor of ‘The Indian Review’ and ran the monthly very ably for several years.

· Many principled politicians whose vision went above party lines became his friends. When JP raised his voice against the Congress excesses in 1974, senior leader K Santanam wrote to a number of leaders explaining the emergent situation in the country and it is significant that he remembered to send a copy to MC as well.

· MC visualized India not just as so much real estate. To him the country was Mother, Devi Bharata Mata deserving his loving worship. In 1976-77, MC took enthusiastic part in leading the celebration of the Vande Mataram centenary in Madras city (Chennai)

· MC chose not to marry, as he found enough to do in the public domain right from the day he stepped out of college

· MC also chose not to build his own house. Right up to the end he lived in rented accommodation. When friends secretly arranged to build a small residential annexe in his favourite haunt, the PHC in West Mambalam, he refused to move in and arranged instead to find PH use for the space.

I wish to thank my cousin Lalitha Srinivasan for providing the copy of S. Gopalan’s article. Lalitha is an honorary instructor guiding mentally challenged teenagers (both boys and girls) and teaching them simple career oriented vocational skills for several years. Her place of work is an arm of the Public Health centre, called BVSN Murthy Centre and situated very close to the Main PHC building.

I wish to thank the Infinite for having allowed direct view and personal experience for me of some of the great work of this special son of West Mambalam during my formative years.

On Stones and Shells

desikan — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 15:00:44 +0000

Of Stones and Shells

Partha Desikan

The rain, which falls on a mountain and flows as a river on to the sea, carries mementos throughout its course. Boulders and smaller pieces of rock accompany it in the beginning. Smaller and still smaller rocks and rounded pebbles go with the flow afterwards. Still smaller pebbles and sand accompany it right up to the time of its mingling with the sea. Sand and dissolved salts accompany it into the sea. Magical processes involving the living exuberance of the sea convert some of the sea-deposits into various shells, which include the pearl oysters and the corals.

Our ancestors learnt to decorate themselves and the icons of their deities with noble metal jewellery having gem insets. These gems could either be selectively concentrated rock gems from land or selectively created pearls and corals from the sea. The gems from nonliving rocks and from the bowels of the earth, when shaped properly by nature or artificially, have the ability to capture light and throw it out in beautiful patterns of brilliance. The ones from the sea glow beautifully and dully or are just beautiful and do not glow.

Sanskrit has individual names for different gemstones, but also two common names for all of them, mani and ratna. It has got individual names for pearl and coral, mukta and pravala. Vyasa talks of an ocean of milk in the dhyaana sloka of Sri Vishnu Sahasranama which occurs in the anushasana parva of Mahabharata. His ocean does not have coral beds. But pearls it certainly seems to abound with, to delight, decorate and illuminate Bhagavan, if Bhagavan would care to be illuminated. See, listen to and feel the pearls and the white-gemstone-look-alikes through Vyasa’s imagery: White is the theme colour everywhere except for the bluish glory that Bhagavan is! In fact, Bhagavan too should appear bright white in this setting, Om namo bhagavate Vasudevaya!

In the region of (adjoining) the Milky Ocean, where the sand glistens like the purest of gems (manis), Sri Mukunda is seated on a throne/seat decorated with garlands of pearls, himself too decked with pearls glistening almost like crystalline quartz gems, while being blissfully bathed by pure, plentiful, nectarine, pearly shower sprays from the ocean. Mukunda is holding in his hands ari (the chakra), nalina (the lotus), gada (the club )and shankha (the conch).

The ocean, Bhagavan’s asana and Bhagavan himself give a mani-mukta Seva (Darshan).
How appropriate that the nalina flower too should have joined the weapon group comprising the circular discus spinning out to cut the enemy down, the fiery conch sending out its threatening message through a spiral path and the club that is swirled in an arc before being dispatched at the enemy! Its petals too unfold from the bud centripetally starting from the outermost members, when the Sun of Bhagavan’s vision shines on it. The hand holding the lotus is not for dushkritvinasha, but for sadhuparitrana. Holding the lotus in the gap between the thumb and the index finger, the palm is displayed to the devotees and all sadhus in abhayamudra.
If the milky ocean is in Manimukta mode, like the Milky way spiraling and sparkling in the sky, a poet can see sphatika manis and muktas also in any majestic river in flow.
Imagine pristine sunlight falling at the base and on the body of a waterfall location, especially where the fall from a few thousand feet above sea level makes the fall foam as it touches base. While a number of falls in our country and elsewhere would qualify for the above description, one whose photograph you can see in the link
http://www.flickriver.com/photos/milkasingh/3266448726/
must have been seen by a poet long long ago when he named it straightaway in Tamil manimuthaaru (mani+muthu+aaru) the river of gems and pearls! Manimuthar(u) has its source in the dense jungles of the Eastern slopes of the Western Ghats in Tirunelveli District. Its source is known as Senguttheri (vertical lake) at a height of 1300 metres above mean sea level, from which it meanders through jungles and crags and level ground only to a distance of about 9 km, before merging with the famous Tamraparni. river. While Manimuthar itself is fed after reaching the ground by two smaller tributaries, it is recognized as a major tributary of the Tamraparni.. The name Manimukta Nadi has been given also to a small stream near Vriddhachalam, also in Tamilnadu but further north, which constitutes a pilgrimage spot along with the temple of Sri Vriddhachaleswarar.

Parents in Northern and Eastern India who name their daughters Manimukta may either be thinking of the legendary Nagaratna after it is released by a Naga or must be hoping that their child will be able to display her intelligence or keep it to herself as the situation demands.

We have looked at the combination of Mani the mineral gem with one shell-gem, namely Mukta, the pearl. What about the other shell-gem, Pravala, the coral? What is meant by Manipravala?
Manipravalam was a style of speaking developed in the Cheranadu area of South India, where persons well versed in both Tamil and Sanskrit, spoke with the word order of Tamil and following Tamil grammar substantially, but mixing a number of Sanskrit words as the context required. It continues to be used in Vaishnavite religious discourse and literature in all of Tamil Nadu and Malayalam literary works in Kerala. Various hagiographies on the life of the Vaishnava saint Ramanuja were written in Manipravalam. Vaishnavites thus skilled were also called Ubhayavedantis. The language of Kramadeepikas and Attaprakarams, which lay down the rules and regulations for some Malayali dramatic performances, is considerably influenced by the composite literary dialect of Manipravalam.
Tamil language was the language of the Chera region at the time of Manipravalam's genesis and use, and its introduction caused a significant transition from Tamil to pre- Malayalam in Kerala. Mani-pravalam literally means ruby-coral, where Mani means ruby in Tamil and any gem in Sanskrit, while Pravalam means Coral in Sanskrit. Malayalam/Tamil is referred to as ruby and Sanskrit as coral. Since Tamil Vattezhuttu did not have characters to represent some Sanskrit sounds, letters from the Grantha script, which had been developed for handling Sanskrit, were used to represent them. Regional words and grammatical endings were written using Vattezhuttu, and Sanskrit words were written using Grantha. A parallel literary tradition existed during the period that derived inspiration from the Tamil poetic tradition, known by the name paattu. Leelathilakam, a work on grammar and rhetoric, written in the last quarter of the 14th century in Kerala, discusses the relationship between Manipravalam and Paattu as poetic forms. It lays special emphasis on the types of words that blend harmoniously. It advises that the rules of Sanskrit prosody should be followed in Manipravalam poetry.
The advent of the Manipravalam style of writing, where letters of the Grantha script coexisted with the traditional Vattezhuttu letters, made it easier for people in Kerala to accept a new Grantha-based script aarya ezhuttu, which subsequently became the modern Malayalam script.
Is it not interesting that pearl combined with white mineral gems to create a name for a water fall and river on the Eastern slope of the Western ghats, and coral combined with a red mineral gem on the western side of the same mountain range to name a different kind of flow, of a spoken and written language blend?

Another Sequel to Sri Matsya Narayana: Nepali Homage in Malmas

desikan — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 17:18:47 +0000

I had the pleasure of interaction with our friends on the Sri Matsya Narayana avatara through two blogs posted earlier this year. It is now possible to add another sequel to those blogs, because I have just learnt about an enduring Nepali tradition of the worship of Sri Matsya Narayana.

Siddhi. B. Ranjitkar writes in the 19th issue of the online publication Khatmandu Metro, dated May 9, 2010 about Nepali Hindus considering it very important to offer worship to Sri Matsya Narayana in the Malmas month. The Nepali calendar follows the Nepali sambat, which, similar to North Indian Shalivahana samvatsara, is a lunar-movement-directed year. At the end of every three sambats the Nepali Hindus observe an additional month called Malmas, during which they avoid several joyous or auspicious home celebrations, but consider it essential to visit the Macchegaon temple on the western side of the Khatmandu valley and pray to Sri Matsya Narayana there. The author describes the preparations of one Nepali Hindu couple, Ramu and Anita for such a pilgrimage this Spring. The artless narrative is in the form of a conversation between Ramu and Anita. I am giving it below without any alteration whatsoever, in Siddhi Ranjitkar’s words.

Anita has proposed her spouse to visit Macchegaon for revering Matsya Narayan in the first week of the month starting off the religious festival on April 15, 2010. However, Ramu wanted to do so only in the mid of the festival. He wanted to invite some other relatives and take them together in a car to Macchegaon. However, they could not do so after the Maoists have launched a movement for ‘peace and constitution’ shutting down every business starting on May 2. So, none of the devotees has been able to visit the area except for those living nearby villages. The festival ends on May 14. So, time is running short for all devotees wishing to visit Matsya Narayan.

‘I have told you we need to go to Matsya Narayan as soon as possible but you did not care about it. Now, we cannot go anywhere because of the shutdown enforced by the Maoists. I don’t know how long it will last. The religious festival ends at Macchegaon on May 14, and then you have to wait for another three years to have ‘malmas’ again. I don’t know what will happen during those three years. I have never been there,’ said Anita in an irritating tone to her husband Ramu.

Ramu said, ‘I simply wanted to go with our sisters and other relatives together on our car to Macchegaon, and make offerings to Lord Matsya Narayan together with our loved ones. I did not anticipate the shutdown would last for so many days. It might end any day, have patience.’

Anita said, ‘We never know what will happen with the politics but we have suffered from it and we will surely miss going to Matsya Narayan this year if the shutdown does not end soon.’

Ramu said, ‘You are not alone suffering from this shutdown. Thirty million Nepalis are suffering from it. According to the news reports, attendants to the Matsya Narayan are losing thousands of rupees they would have received daily from the offerings made by the devotees, as the shutdown has reduced the number of visitors drastically; vendors selling items of offerings including butter lamps, teashop owners and other sellers of other items anticipating large business during the religious festival have rented houses, pitched tents and have stored their items there anticipating to sell those items during the festival period but the shutdown has almost halted their businesses. Hundreds of thousands of devotees visit Matsya Narayan on Saturdays and on the eleventh day called ‘ekadasi’ of every fortnight and tens of thousands of devotees every day but now the number of devotees visiting Matsya Narayan has reduced to less than five thousand a day, as only the devotees from the nearby villages could visit Matsya Narayan on foot. The attendants to Matsya Narayan have lost hundreds of thousands of rupees they otherwise would have received from the offerings of devotees to the lord. So, you are not alone that has suffered from the shutdown.’

Anita said, ‘I have hoped to see the religious event and the area this year but it might not be possible.’

Ramu said, ‘You would have seen a number of vendors selling items of offerings lined up on the way to the temple to Matsya Narayan, number of stores selling soft drinks, tidbits, and other items, and teashops serving tea and hot doughnut like fried objects called ‘sale’ in the shape of an inflated ring to the devotees. In fact, people make a lot of money during this festival. This is the picture of the area you want to see.’

Anita said, ‘I love to see the temple and the pond in which people take a holy dip.’

Ramu said, ‘The temple is very simple one, the same Nepalese styled temple stands at the center of the pond but it has been old enough. Nobody knows who has built it. One of the stone inscriptions found nearby the temple has stated that more than four hundred years ago, the temple was renovated but nothing about the first builder of the temple. Scholars believe that the temple must be more than one thousand years old, as it must have been built by one of the Licchavi rulers during their reign starting in 400 AD and ending in 800 AD. Concerning the pond, you have seen such a pond elsewhere at the temple to Narayan. Devotees take a dip in the water of such ponds. Men wearing only loincloths and women wearing only petticoats take a dip in the water. Women wearing thin petticoats and taking dip in the water and coming out of it give quite exciting scenes to the men but most of the men avoid watching such scenes fearing they will miss the blessings of the god if they pay an attention to such scenes.’

Anita said, ‘Is the temple nicely maintained?’

Ramu said, ‘No. The temple has lost the land kept for earning revenue for its upkeep. So, it has no revenue for repairing and maintaining. Local devotees and attendants have kept the temple to Matsya Narayan intact so far. Local devotees continue to sing the hymns every morning but the area has been awfully kept for the deity of such status.’ Anita said, ‘Why the ‘malmas’ happens only once every three year?’

Ramu said, ‘We follow the Nepal Sambat for celebrating religious and social events while we follow the Vikram and Gregorian Calendars for all practical and official purposes. Nepal Sambat is a lunar calendar made following the movement of the moon. So, every three-year, we have an extra month. We call this month ‘malmas’ means an extra month. Some people call this month as ‘purusotam’ by the name of Lord Purusotam: another name of Lord Vishnu’. This year 2010 (2067), ‘malmas’ has started on April 15, and ends on May 14.’

Anita said, ‘Why we revere only Matsya Narayan in this ‘malmas’ month.’

Ramu said, ‘If you read our Hindu scriptures, one of them says that the ‘malmas’ month belongs to Lord Matsya Narayan, as Lord Vishnu has descended the Hindu world from the cosmic world and has taken the form of a golden fish to save a Veda from a demon that has grabbed a Veda from Brahma while Brahma is in hibernation in this month. In order to save the Veda from the demon, Lord Vishnu took the form of a fish and swam deep into the ocean for rescuing the Veda from the demon. This has happened in the ‘malmas’ month. So, Nepalis revere Matsya Narayan in this month. You know Veda is the original Hindu scripture that Brahma himself has authored. So, if we lose it means losing the entire Hindu faith to the demon. Lord Vishnu as the savior of the Hindu world has taken the form of a fish and saved the Veda from the demon for Hindus, and has been known as Matsya Narayan since then. Matsya means a fish, and Narayan means the deity originated from water. So, Matsya Narayan means the fish deity originated from water. Matsya Narayan is one of the nine incarnations of Lord Vishnu that has taken to save the Hindu world from different demons and the challengers to the Hindu deities.’

Anita said, ‘How does Matsya Narayan look like?’

Ramu said, ‘Matsya Narayan is actually a four-limbed Vishnu. The upper portion of the deity is a full scale four-limbed Vishnu; the upper right hand holds a spinning disc, lower right hand a bronze baton, upper left hand a conch shell, and lower left hand a lotus. The lower part of Matsya Narayan from the waist to the down is a fish.’

Anita said, ‘Do we have any other temple to Matsya Narayan other than the temple at Macchegaon?’

Ramu said, ‘In Kathmandu, we have a village called ‘Macchegaon’ and there is a temple to Matsya Narayan, you know it. ‘Macche’ means fish and ‘gaon’ means a village. The name of this village is derived from the name of Matsya Narayan. For the whole month of ‘malmas’, a religious festival is held at this temple; most of the people living in the Kathmandu Valley visit the temple to revere the deity at least once in this month.

In Bhaktapur, they have made a replica of the temple to Matsya Narayan and placed at the center of a pond to the north of the temple to Tantric deity called Mahakali. Bhaktapurians and people living nearby the area visit Matsya Narayan in the ‘malmas’ month. So, a religious festival is held there, too.

Similarly, elsewhere in Nepal, we have many such shrines to Matsya Narayan for making devotees easy to reach the deity and revere him once in the ‘malmas’ month every three-year. In the areas not having a shrine to Matsya Narayan, people simply visit any shrine to Narayan once in the ‘malmas’ month.’

Anita said, ‘You say that Nepalis don’t eat fish in the ‘malmas’ month but we see so many fish vendors, yet.’

Ramu said, ‘The Nevah community surely does not eat fish for the entire ‘malmas’ month. I don’t know what other Nepalis do in this month concerning the fish eating. The Nevahs believe that Lord Vishnu dwells in every fish during this ‘malmas’ month; so, we don’t kill fish and eat it during this period. So, ‘malmas’ is the month of a fish holiday for devout Hindu Nevah Nepalis. You see still vendors selling fish elsewhere in Nepal because Nepal has a large number of different communities that believe in different faiths. So, people believing in the faiths other than in Lord Matsya Narayan eat fish.’

Anita said, ‘You sent me to my parents during the first ‘malmas’ month after our wedding, why?’

Ramu said, ‘We believe that if a woman conceives a baby in this month then such a child will not be a good one. So, Nepalese women avoid being pregnant in this month. ‘Malmas’ is a month of the marital holiday for a newly wedded couple. It is not auspicious for them to live with their husbands for that month. So, newly wedded women go to their parental home for spending the first ‘malmas’ month after their wedding. Thus, husbands and wives live separately for the entire month called ‘malmas’.’

Anita said, ‘Why don’t we hold any auspicious religious and social events other than visiting Matsya Narayan and making offerings to the lord in the ‘malmas’ month?’

Ramu said, ‘Nepalis don’t hold any auspicious events such as wedding, and adulthood ceremonies for their children in the ‘malmas’ month, as this month is entirely dedicated to Matsya Narayan. We believe that any offerings we make to any deity goes to Matsya Narayan in this month; so, it does not make any sense to make offerings to any deity other than Matsya Narayan or simply Narayan in the ‘malmas’ month.’

Ramu said, ‘Nepalis need to call on 33,333 Hindu deities and make offerings to them while performing wedding or adulthood ceremonies. These deities become the witnesses of performing wedding and other lifecycle rituals. During the month of ‘malmas’ they won’t descend the earth from the cosmic world to accept the offerings made to them. So, Nepalis don’t perform any religious and social ceremony. Hence, astrologers don’t make any provision for any auspicious day for performing any such ceremony in the month of ‘malmas’ in the Nepal Sambat.’

So, Nepalis don’t have any auspicious ceremony to be held in this ‘malmas’ month in their lunar calendar called Nepal Sambat. Consequently, Nepalis don’t have any large dinner parties usually held celebrating auspicious wedding and other life-cycle ceremonies in this month. We revere only the fish deity during the ‘malmas’ month every three-year. We don’t eat fish dishes during this month believing Narayan is dwelling in fish during this month.

Buzz, learn and lead- Chapter-3

desikan — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 16:18:25 +0000

Buzz, learn and lead!

A story in four chapters presenting the potential for a fast-forward in evolution through a guided tour

Chapter 3
Innate Immunity

“We have a lot in common, bees and humans, I mean.” announced Master the next morning, and neither Nari nor I showed our surprise at finding ourselves in our regular shapes on his matted head once again. We also had no idea where exactly the three of us had arrived. The landscape did not appear different. Plenty of birds, including terns were still in evidence. The communication, of course, was very silent as before and as effective as before. “You dance to communicate and so can we, though we have languages, these days,” he continued, “and both love to go out in search of food for ourselves and others, even when we do not feel hungry. You see, we have this herd instinct, social inclination, shall we call it? And we like to keep our houses clean, though these days some of us have got so busy making or collecting useless things, that hygiene in human society has become secondary. We both instinctively love warmth and stay in groups to keep warm or at least feel warm.”

Nari and I were wondering at the pause which followed, when he continued slowly, as if he wanted us to be sure to get the weight of his words. “My children, in the past three years, expert scientists in genetics around the world have been studying carefully the sequence of genomes in the genes of some well known insects, considered of importance to men, as providers, disease carriers or just good models for study. You came third after the fruit fly Drosophila and the malaria mosquito anopheles. Next in line are a flour eating beetle, an aphid and a wasp, I am told.”

We were informed further by Master that both bees and humans should have had a common ancestor some 6oo million years ago and that unlike the fruit fly or the mosquito which have also been studied to some extent, we the bees had been evolving more slowly, rather like mammals! This is supposed to have given us some 10,000 to 15,000 genes arrayed on 16 chromosomes, almost comparable to the 24,000 genes and 24 chromosomes of human beings. Some of our genes, the ones responsible for internal ‘clocks’ and circadian rhythms are believed to be more like the mammalian counterparts than like genes from flies. Master said jokingly that if we had not become fixed on honey, we could have become men or apes! But the point is, he observed, you did not and you chose to be insects instead, with a very necessary instinct for hygiene, because you live most of the time crowded indoors at a warm 94 degree Fahrenheit home. Some of us stay indoors all the time, not just most of the time, we reflected sombrely, and attended to what he wanted to teach us.

The world outside suddenly began to loom much larger and we knew that the three of us had become teeny weeny micro organisms, the only ones not reproducing in a colony of pathogens like us. Master said that we would tag along with the group, but would be able to reassemble finally. He bade us to be fully aware till our lessons from the group were over. The responsibility was his and we had nothing to worry. We were told that we were still on the same tree at Sultanpur, but had shifted from the tern’s body to the base of the tree first and then to the gooey flesh of a rotting fruit, on the tree. We felt we were in a viscous mire of sorts and instinctively felt like invading the body of an insect-monster that was happily perched on the fruit and tasting its pulp. Master informed us that the insect was a fruit fly of the family Drosophila melanogaster, which he told us had been the object of extensive and intensive studies in the recent past. Master also told us that Nari and I were rather different from each other in our pathogen-class, which he would explain to us later. Meanwhile he asked us to do whatever occurred to our minds and report to him whatever we experienced. He told us not to bother about any danger to us in the process, as we were continuously in his protection.

The normal fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster

Presently I lost track of Master and Nari and found myself in a mass of pathogens exactly like me. Some of us went into the fly as he gobbled a bit of the spoiled fruit and we quickly reached what most certainly was his intestine, a winding tunnel, whose walls were our instinctive target. We were, however thwarted by a membrane barrier, which Master would later tell us as being made of a substance called chitin, from entering the intestinal epithelium. It was uncanny, and we felt that the membrane knew exactly who was attacking it. As our numbers grew, however, some of us managed to get in and were immediately swamped by an army of some species, clearly confirming that our identity was only too well known. I passed out and came to my senses only to find that Master, Nari and I were alone again on another part of the fruit, well away from the mouth of the fly.

The account given by Nari to Master was exactly like mine, except that in describing the features of the structure that attacked her, Nari differed a little in detail from the account of the adversary whom I faced. This had to be so, because Nari did not resemble me in detail. She resembled Master, however, and asked him whether he had accompanied her. Master smiled and said no, but that he had gone in separately inside to pick up whatever remained of the two of us and bring the stuff out for the sake of formally reviving us to our latest incarnations. When Master asked whether the things that successfully fought with us were discreet creatures like ourselves, we could not answer him satisfactorily.

Master said that scientists even now are not quite aware what the natural bacterial enemies of this kind of Drosophila were. However, they had recently worked both on the insect itself and its larvae, by inserting known microbes using very thin needles. Even in experiments when a microbe was ingested into the midguts of larvae rather than the flies themselves, they found the effectiveness of the chitin membrane barrier. Such injections caused injuries and were not the most satisfactory procedure for induced infection of the fly or the larvae, but the scientists got some very definite clues. Apart from evidence of the chitin barrier, they learnt that depending on the nature of the ingested pathogen, expression or pushing out of suitable antibody genes occurred from the body of the host. The peptide structures encoded by the genes could be analysed and were found to be antifungal or antibacterial depending on whether a microbial fungus was ingested or whether natural bacterial infection took place. The kind of bacteria also determined the nature of the genes expressed.

Master confided that he and Nari had become members of an entomopathogenic fungal species, whatever that may mean. To attack Nari, the immune mechanism in the fruit fly’s intestine had projected or expressed from the intestinal wall material genes of the drosomycin variety, with encoded peptides having antifungal properties. The genes that came for me and my kind, a gram-negative bacteria, from the intestinal wall of the Drosophila had encoded peptides with decided antibacterial characteristics and were known to be of the diptericin variety, Master told us. Because of its excellent capacity for identifying the invading pathogen or equivalent material the correct fighter genes were expressed always. Sometimes they were one kind and sometimes both kinds. The defence also included encapsulation, melanisation and coagulation of enemy depending on type and size.

‘Rani and Nari, your hardworking species has settled in the course of its evolution to the option of a clean environment to keep disease-micro-organisms out of reckoning.
Your evolution did not take into account the possibility and desirability of strong natural immunity against unfriendly pathogens and the resultant irrelevance of hygiene and the tough housekeeping it involves. In the millions of years since you perfected the symphony of your existence, there has however been an explosive increase in the complexity and numbers of unfriendly micro-organisms, which have affected the safety and cleanliness of all living spaces including yours. You may need to reconsider the sanctity of hygiene above natural immunity, I am afraid.’

We listened as we were given this silent capsule for thought and decided that we were sleepy. Tomorrow was sure to bring in more nuggets of wisdom. But even as we were dropping off, Master’s parting message of the day was sinking clearly and deliberately into us.
• With excellent hygiene at home, you may keep a large number of unfriendly pathogens out most of the time, but not all possible pathogens all the time.
• Some of you get out and get back home and this can affect hygiene adversely some of the time.
• If you have strong natural defences, you can manage such aberrations easily.
• In fact, it should be possible to build natural immunities to such an extent that hygiene may appear irrelevant.
• Human society has very rich experience and records of the superiority of natural or induced internal immunity over external disinfection.
• Sage Valmiki would have pointed out to you the resourcefulness of his hero, Rama, whose balam or strength had several components to it, like courage, stability, valour, ability to use fighting skills, inbuilt fighting prowess and willingness to do his heroic best during fight.
• The natural immunity of the houseflies is like Rama’s inbuilt fighting prowess.
• It is more effective than the confidence available from external props such as weapons. These flies had their weaponry too, but strictly as part of their natural immunity system.

Seeing Mother Durga In Agni

desikan — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 04:55:23 +0000

Seeing Mother Durga In Agni

Partha Desikan

Let me express my hope that all our friends had a glorious Navarathri, filled with the joy of the Grace of Ma Shakti in all her manifestations and providing fresh opportunities to deal effectively with obstacles in their paths with her help.

When Varshakal ceased its downpour and Sharad smiled on the land, year after year, our ancients knew that the time was ripe to resolve again to get one’s shatrus defeated. When Kishkindha kanda smoothly glided over to Sundarakanda in Valmiki’s epic, Varsha was over and Sharad had risen. The symbolism had been sketched for Ravana’s downfall. Even if Valmiki did not spell out to the devout the future date of the actual fall of the demon-king, they would know that the first nine days of the bright fortnight (shukla-paksha) after Bhadrapada Amavasya had to again bring about this symbolic fruition; for, did not Rama taste victory finally precisely after these 9 days, on another Vijaya dasami day?

Devi Mahatmya describes in 700 slokas, recited by the devout as Chandi parayana, the advent of Parashakti as Mahakali, Mahalakshmi and Mahasaraswati to destroy exremely formidable demons, who made Devas tremble and mortals miserable. Madhu and Kaitapa, the frightful Mahisha, Raktabeeja, Chanda and Munda and finally Shumbha and Nishumbha! All the engagements of Mother Shakti with the forces of evil could have taken long, very long, but they are all remembered during the Sharad navaratri. Including of course, the victorious dasami, to make up the dasa-ra.

By shatrus our wise ancients did not simply mean external enemies disposed maliciously towards one. They referred to the internal nityashatrus one had to guard against. The kamakrodhadi aberrations that can infect the mind and indriyas of a person who does not observe control. They referred to ignorance, to half-baked knowledge, to vanity coming out of achievement without vinaya, out of wealth without moderation. They referred to laziness, procrastination and lack of diligence.

They wished one to remember intensely the power of Bhagavan’s shakti, atleast nine days in the year, so that restarting one’s education on vijaya dasami, man can resolve yet again to conquer his nityashatrus and become fit for the Love of the Universal mother.

Long before the puranas arrived in our land to tell us how Shakti had to accompany the creator right from the first moment of creation so that selectively good will keep triumphing over evil and survival of good can be assured, our Rishis to whom Vedas were revealed had looked at the natural phenomena near and afar in space and realized the raw energy of Tejas or Fire. Fire that they could raise in their homa spaces. Fire that destroyed forests. The Sun that sustained them in a myriad ways and the stars afar. The comets and the meteors. The mysterious happenings in outer space. They knew that they needed help from all manifestations of tejas, agni, energy, shakti. They prayed to fire in the homa, and to jyotis in all of space. They thought of Fire as a male; it could also be Indra , Vayu and it could be accompanied by Varuna. It could guard like Virochana and destroy like Rudra. They took some time to think of energy as a female; energy would then become Ma Durga above durgas, a Fortress protecting them from different kinds of obstacles, and a Boat transporting them away from the obstacle zones. Rigveda began the process of crystallizing this concept which got developed, when they understood the sustaining Narayana principle, as revealed joyously in the Mahanarayana Upanishad contents of Yajur and Atharva Vedas.
The Wikipedia entry on Mahanarayana Upanishad points out that this is the name of more than one Upanishad.
• The tenth chapter of the Taittiriya Aranyaka is known as the Mahanarayana Upanishad of the Yajurveda. It exists in two recensions, now known as the Dravida, of 64 anuvakas, and the Andhra one, of 80 anuvakas.
• There is a Mahanarayana Upanishad associated with the Atharvaveda, with similar content, in 25 khandas.
• A medieval text called the Tripadvibhuti, listed in the Muktika canon, is also sometimes called the Mahanarayana Upanishad. It is not related to the others.
Of these, the two recensions of the Yajurvedic upanishad and the one from Atharvaveda are substantially similar in content. In all three of them you have the beautiful, small sukta, called Durga Sukta.
From several nice renderings available in the web, here is a beautiful one. You will notice the change from the trshthup chanda or metre of the first seven slokas, when the 8th, which is the gayatri of Durga Mata, is recited.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bo2_Zfz3cJM
A simple English translation of the 8 slokas of the sukta is as follows:
1. We shall press out the Soma Juice to Jatavedas (Deva Agni). May the all-knowing Agni annihilate our enemies. May Agni protect us against all obstacles and evils and take us across them like a boatman who takes people across the river in a boat.
2. I take refuge in that Goddess Durga who is of the color of Fire, who blazes with her tapas (spiritual fire), who is the consort of Virochana (the Supreme Being) and who is the bestower of the fruit of actions. Obeisance to You who are skilled in ferrying people across the river of the World. Be pleased to ferry us across.
3. O Agni, who are worthy of Praise, take us across all obstacles by ways that are safe. May our town and our lands expand. Make our children happy.
4. You Jatavedas, who are the remover of obstacles, take us beyond all evil like the boatman who ferries the people across the river. O Agni, may you be a careful protector of our bodies like Atri who is always concerned with the welfare of all beings.
5. Let us invoke, from the highest places, Agni the vanquisher of enemy hosts, who is powerful and invincible. May that Agni protect us against all obstacles and evils.
6. O Agni, praised in sacrifices, you increase bliss. You are the ancient and the new invoker at sacrifices. O Agni, make yourself happy and grant us prosperity.
7. O Indra, all-pervading! We shall follow you blessed with abundant cattle and unbroken happiness. May those who live on the heights of heaven bring here the world of Vishnu.
8. We shall try to know Katyayani, we shall engage in contemplation on Kanyakumari may Durga be pleased to guide us.
The first 7 slokas occur together as the 2nd anuvaka of prasna 4 of Mahanarayanopanishad in both recensions of Yajurveda. And the 8th which is the gayatri mantra of Durga Mata is recited customarily at the end of the 7 slokas.
Only the first six are available as slokas 2 to 7 of the 7th khanda of Mahanarayanopanishad in Atharvaveda.
Rigveda, as we saw already does not contain Mahanarayanopanishad. However the only sloka/sukta of the 6th anuvaka of the first mandala of Rigveda, for which the devata or deity is agni, and author or Rishi to whom it occurred/was revealed is Kasyapa, son of Mareeci, happens to be the same as the 1st sloka of Durgasukta. My grandfather’s translation of the sukta in his 1935 publication is naturally found to be very close to the above translation of sloka no.1 in Durgasukta. It reads:
May we offer the Soma oblation to Jatavedas. May he, the knower, consume the wealth of those, who behave hostilely to us. May he transport us over all the dangerous paths. May he carry us past all wickedness, as a boat over the stream.
Now listen to this single sukta anuvaka in Rigveda all by itself. It has a new name, Agni-Durga sukta! Here is the link to the audio.
http://www.esnips.com/doc/698f9527-a896-4072-9377-63c49cc9ea6f/Agni-Durg...
Was the seed for understanding Narayana and Durga not planted already in Rigveda?

Buzz, learn and lead- Chapter 2

desikan — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 02:03:24 +0000

Buzz, learn and lead!

A story in four chapters presenting the potential for a fast-forward in evolution through a guided tour.

Chapter 2
Long-distance Flights

When I awoke, I did not find either my companion or the sage. I knew why I woke up with a start though, because I had somehow become very sensitive to sounds, and there was indeed a tremendous racket. Wherever I looked I saw identical looking birds making a loud unpleasant sound and generally seeming to be fighting with each other. It was not at all cold and there were no large mountains around. I seemed to have mysteriously changed into a small mite of some kind and was cosily perched over the plume of one of the birds. My eyes began to focus better and I found two more mites beside me. I knew at once that one of them was the sage and the other the worker bee.

I learnt from the sage that overnight we had drifted down southwest about two hundred and fifty kilometres and were at Sultanpur bird sanctuary and that we were in the middle of a flight of birds known as common terns. I found the typical member of the group to be about 12 to 15 inches long from the black tip of its sharp red beak to the ashen grey tail-end. It had a greyish white body with a striking black top covering all of the head up to just below the eyes, and lovely red feet too. The tail was forked and the outer web of the outer tail feathers provided a grey border to a paler grey breast and underbelly. I was told that these were mostly summer adults and that the few among them which had blackness only in the hind part of their crowns, mottled backs, shorter tails and a distinctive dark mark on the inner fore wing were juveniles. The sage told me that winter adults were like summer ones in all respects except the colour of the head in which they resembled the juveniles. When I asked him why there were no winter adults in this flock, he told me that they had already gone home to Liverpool. Was Liverpool up in the hills where we came from, I asked and was told to my great astonishment that it was a cool 8,000 kilometres away.

Year after year these cousins of my host bird travelled this distance in April to England and returned in October-November, when they felt that they could not take the extreme cold anymore. Some of the summer variety however had preferred to stay on in Haryana, especially near lakes and marshes where they were assured of an abundant supply of fish.

I was curious about the cacophony and the fights that seemed to go on and on and was told that the noises were made by male birds keeping other males from approaching their mates. The fights were also in the same cause. The tempters seemed to approach their quarries with good-sized fresh fish dangling from their beaks and were not averse to cheating when the fish were not so fresh by re-dipping them in water before approaching the potential mate. They almost invariably failed, because only relatively old females were known to shift their partners around, getting every year a younger replacement for their mate. Outwardly, to me at least, the males and females looked the same.

I saw too an amazing division of labour when the male partner brought fish for his young, but these were fed to the young only by his lady. Only very rarely did a female entrust the actual feeding of the young to the male. My observation of a mother in this act of possessive love was rudely interrupted as my host, who had been a silent sentinel of his unit up till now, suddenly took off at great speed to give all he had to an intruder who had been ogling his wife. All three of us had to cling to him with all our strength to avoid being blown away.

Our saintly master’s gentle words were like a steering nudge, “I want you both to forget that you started off as bees, or that you are required to be in the form of mites today and some other creatures tomorrow. This is because I have provided both of you with superb awareness. Whether you are awake or whether you go to sleep, this awareness will stay with you throughout the duration of your training. And while you will note and record in your inner being all that you see, feel and hear, significant qualities which have the potential to confer leadership status to the being who has them will have to be branded on your mind-screen, whenever you come across them in the course of our journeys. I will also underline and emphasize them on such occasions for you. What do you think of the winter-adult terns travelling thousands of kilometres twice every year? Remember, the terns have the option not to return home in summer. They can stay on in sub-tropic climes all the time! In fact, some of them do precisely that. Only some of them though. Think!”

My companion thought more data on such compulsive flyers was in order. She posed her question straightaway. She asked Master, “Sir, are the common terns the only birds which keep flying between temperate and cold zones every year?”
“Not at all, Nari. Yes, that is the name I am going to call you by while your princess-friend will be called Rani. Every year nearly 100 migratory bird species arrive here in search of feeding grounds and to pass the winter. In winter the migrating birds include greater flamingo, ruff, black-winged stilt, Siberian crane, common teal, common greenshank, northern pintail and northern shoveler. Then we have yellow wagtail, white wagtail, rosy pelican, gadwall, wood sandpiper, spotted sandpiper and spotted redshank. Eurasian widgeon, black-tailed godwit, starling, blue throat and long-billed pipit also arrive here in winter. In summer about 11 species of migratory birds such as cuckoos, central Asian koel, black-crowned night heron, Eurasian golden oriole, comb duck, blue-cheeked bee-eater and blue-tailed bee-eater come here. This season I find that the foreign bee eaters are not here and none of the other birds local or visiting will eat you up, either, I shall vouch! How is that for a particular trait among several of these creatures in flight, not to give up home and not to give up comfort, and being willing to exert themselves for the double advantage?”

Nari, who was not listening with full attention, seemed to have spotted a black-crowned night heron and checked with Master whether indeed she was right about its identity. When he said yes, she asked him whether we could all go back to that bird’s home along with him/her. Master laughed and said that they would all have to wait for several months before this lonely marauder decided to go back home. “Look at the way she is slouching by herself on the leafy low branch there,” he said, “she will start foraging at night very sluggishly, waiting in key places for a passing frog or fish that may pause. She may also plunder the nest of another heron, because she is lazy. She would love to take her chicks along and visit this colony of terns in the night also to plunder food. I thought you girls were looking for some good examples! Let us talk about terns. Common terns, like the ones before us and other extraordinary terns, I mean.”

He paused and continued, “The common tern does not take a winter holiday in places like Haryana. In fact the tern is very well adjusted to the cold climate at home, whether it is Liverpool, England for this group, or any other cold country well away from the tropics. The bird has learnt to put up with cold surroundings, provided a good meal is assured for the family. The mother as the guardian of the young can motivate the male partner to keep finding the food so the young ones are also fed properly. They leave in groups for warmer climes not for the warmth but knowing locations where similarly food supplies are adequate. Instances are not wanting where they may just go from one cold place to another. In all this activity, clearly the guidelines come from the female heads of nest-families. The male, the father, has to keep moving to procure food and the female knows his motivation as the favours he expects to get from her in return. She has to feed the chicks and herself from what he brings.”

“Men who study the migrations of birds mark the birds by a process called ringing,” continued the sage, “which provides the individual bird studied a distinct number as well. By this method a common tern has been found to have travelled 17,639 km (10,963 miles) north to south, non stop! An arctic tern, which is slightly different
from the common tern, has shown greater stamina and there are frequent recordings of flights exceeding 30, 000 km, for instance from Maine in north America, via Africa all the way down to Antarctica! It is known too that freshly hatched chicks accompany their parents on such a trip, stay back for two years and are able to navigate themselves back home unaccompanied by guiding elders! Birds known by the name sooty shearwaters have been tracked recently as they made their way back and forth across the Pacific Ocean. Tracking the birds by satellite, scientists found they would make a round trip of about 70,000km over 200 days in search of food, averaging 350km per day. While several flocks undertake these flights around the same time, the number of birds in a single flock is usually a fixed number for a given type of tern. How this selection takes place is not fully known and it is possible to speculate about some individuals chosen by female family-heads, acting as leaders in flights for each flock.”

“Nari and Rani, are you able to get at the full significance of this specially evolved quality? You will note that the terns and other birds making these extraordinary annual two-way flights demonstrate capability in a strategy involving
1. use of two (or more) sources of food, even if they are very distant from each other,
2. leaving a source adequate time to restore stocks, by not feeding off it, part of the year,
3. being willing to travel long distances in entire groups, with manageable small flocks as subgroups, to keep this balance working and
4. having a genetic mechanism that enables coming generations to learn their travel cycles, including fine details.

There is an old epic legend among the people of this country about a great king named Rama who was a real treasure-house of enviable leadership qualities. The narrator of the epic, a sage named Valmiki, talks about his dharmarakshanam, namely the quality of upholding of one’s duties for optimal benefit to an entire community with no harm to anyone concerned. Don’t you see something similar in the capacity of the terns to travel as a community, giving their food sources time for replenishment and having a mechanism to train their young in their survival methods?”

Both of us silently signalled that we followed, though neither of us would have known how mites were supposed to signal such understanding, if they had to.

Buzz, learn and lead- Chapter 1

desikan — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 09:07:11 +0000

Buzz, learn and lead!

A story in four chapters presenting the potential for a fast-forward in evolution through a guided tour.

Chapter 1
I want a Change

You will agree with me that I am in a rather serious kind of predicament. Yesterday I was in my own cell in our hive, eating honey, pollen and my special larval food of royal jelly secretion loyally administered by some of our worker bees. I am no longer in the larval stage, but mother has been insisting on continuing larval rations for me for a few more days. Today I am out in the wide world like any worker bee, not having either the equipment or any training in collecting nectar on my own. I have also learnt that I certainly do not have a home to return to.

I was exactly like my queen-sisters at birth, as I came out of my egg with my long body expected to become longer and larger because of special feeding. This would have continued uninterrupted ceremoniously till the day I would feel like mating any one or more of the silly looking drones in the hive. In any case they looked silly to me! Something must have gone wrong when I came out of my egg last of all in that hatch- event some three weeks ago, making me more rebellious and more questioning. Every morning when the forager gang stepped out to collect nectar, I would look at my mother as if to ask whether I could go too and she would somehow know my unspoken yearning and freeze me into inaction. For conveying my desire, every time I had to get into the range of her lateral vision and set up a whirring dance, and promptly get away looking at the gleam of anger in the eye that was close to me.

This had been going on day after day for the past twenty days and I had been eating much less than my permitted rations, hoping to stay slim enough to go out whenever I was permitted. No such luck was coming my way, however, and this morning I decided that enough was enough. I just flew out of the hive when the workers came out. They paid no attention to me but flew in a beautiful expanding spiral path to this lovely valley so full of flowers in dazzling colours and captivating scents. I followed with great care. The workers dispersed to different flowers to do their nectar gathering. All except one, that is. She buzzed and kept in slow motion close to me and found that I was lost in admiration of the floral splendour before me without choosing any one kind of flower to work on.
I could see a friendly question hovering in the halo around her head. Silently she changed course and proceeded in a different direction and I knew I had to follow her. Her path was once again in near circular spirals taking us out of the valley on to a human habitation. There were some clean looking cottages and a snow clad mountain loomed in the distance. The rock-faces close by were lush with both conifers and leafy trees and the top of the distant snowy peaks gleamed partly golden in the morning sun.

My good companion entered one of the cottages as if fully aware of its identity and settled on the matted locks of a silent man seated in deep meditation. I felt like joining her and did so and immediately knew that I could now communicate all my thoughts with the worker. So could she and it was she who started talking to me silently without using any of the few signals of dance language which had been our limited means of communication so far. It also appeared that the totally silent human below us was furnishing us with a lot of information without our asking him, enabling the two of us to carry on our silent communication. Several thoughts whose form and structure would have been quite alien to our limited vocabulary now seemed to flow with great facility into and out of our minds.

My pal told me, “Sister, I know that you do not care to become a queen bee. But you are physically equipped to become only that, alas! You do not have my kind of working tools, such as pollen baskets or wax-secreting glands, not to mention a well-developed honey sac. You cannot collect nectar even if I teach you how. Of course I can collect for the two of us and we can stay here at least till I die and my master here will not mind our resting on his head and enabling us meanwhile to learn as much as he must have decided we ought to know about several things.

I asked her innocently, “Why? Can we not go back to our hive?”, and she seemed to shake from one side to the other to indicate a full-fledged No. She then said, “No, indeed. You have deviated from hive-discipline and will not be admitted back into the hive. I have come away from the gang and will find it difficult to get back into my signal movements and communication dance routines without the right smells about me. In any case I have decided to stick with you till I die. The hive will not miss us, however. Your mother has been laying eggs regularly and when they hatch there will be a good number of foragers like me and enough number of princesses like you with royal qualities. But tell me, you had all the luck and had been born a princess. Why did you run away from an easy life?”

I said, “Do we really understand why some of us behave differently from the routine crowd? What about you? You should also have ignored me and gone after your flowers, should you not? Alright, I do not think we should go back on our progress and worry. Tell me, how did you get to know this sage? He must be a great man indeed, if simply by sitting on his hair we are able to think clearly and talk to each other through our minds.”

Before my friend could answer, I got the answer from the sage himself, once again by mind to mind transport. He was talking to both of us simultaneously, it appeared from his words. “My children, neither of you had anything to do with your having arrived here. I brought you both to sit on my head. I like a bee or two in my bonnet, I do.” He seemed to laugh and he continued, “Through you, princess, and you, my labouring friend, I want to create in this Badari forest up in the Himalayas, a highly evolved strain of bees, not merely by the nature and strength of your genes, but by giving you a visual education in evolution of life in different forms. You will watch with my help and learn how some extraordinary qualities with the stamp of real greatness have evolved in different forms of life.”

The worker asked him and I heard it in my mind, “Sir, I agree that we are really lucky to have been found by you and hope we can prove worthy of your trust in us. But, as you will surely know, by the time you finish teaching us, I could very well die and princess here could also get fairly close to old age. Of course you know that we worker bees last just some five to six weeks if we are born in Spring, as is the case with me, though if we are born in cooler months , we could last four to six months. This girl here is longer lived if she gets to be fed suitably, but typically a queen bee can last only a couple of years or three at the most, you see.”

She paused a while and continued, “Sir, do you mean to imply that we bees do not have great qualities? Or, are you going to tell us that great attributes of some other species will help us better through our lives, which I suppose you are planning to extend to an extent through your powers?”

The reply was felt in our minds with the soothing effect of a balm and I wondered whether the face below me was lit with a compassionate smile even though the sage was still deeply in meditation. I knew I could never even begin to comprehend his special faculties which enabled him to keep his eyes closed and his mind in meditation while also engaging in a thoughtful conversation with both of us.

He said, “I see that you have asked for clarifications on three different issues. First let me assure you that your life expectancy is irrelevant. You will not even need any nourishment till you finish learning with me and we can think about your future when you are ready to be launched into it. Second, like every other living species, you bees have also fine-tuned your characteristics over millions of years and some of your qualities are outstanding and serve your communities very well indeed. It is the occasional rebel in any community that sees a flaw in a highly evolved system and when that happens he needs to learn if he can, or to rise to a level from which he can teach, knowing that he may fail in either objective. The answer to your third query will be obtained by you yourselves at the end of the ‘learning’ process. In this process, till the rebel and the group get together into equilibrium, there is always scope for the rebel to look at a few alternate models, some of which may enter into his calculations fully or in part towards newer ways, or help him to slide back into his older routines with a wiser head.”
There was a meaningful pause before he continued, “I told you that I brought you both to my side and that I hope to create a new bee strain by mere addition of knowledge. My aim may have been much simpler. In the course of my meditation, the high level of traumatic vibrations that I felt emanating from the young princess may have helped steer the pair of you to me so that some solution has the chance to emerge. Or destiny may have a grander scheme. The educational tour we are about to take may bring about a general awareness, of what prompts living beings to take quantum leaps to greatness, not only in you but in a few other forms of life which we are bound to learn about in due course. Relax and go to sleep now.”

-to be continued

Harvey Hyman’s mission, Lawyers’ (and Others’) Wellbeing and IMBT

desikan — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 05:33:21 +0000

The Upward Spiral is a powerful paperback written by the lawyer turned author, speaker and educator on the wellbeing of lawyers, Harvey Hyman J. D, who is now CEO of Lawyers’ Wellbeing Inc.

The Amazon Editorial review says this about the book and the author.

Product Description

Lawyers help others but take very poor care of themselves. In their quest to max out their earning potential and afford the best material goods our economy has to offer, lawyers lead a narrow, grimly serious existence without emotional rewards. They work inhuman hours yet always feel pressured for time. Since they never stop, breathe, and relax, they are frequently tense, irritable and ready to bark. Lawyers are highly competitive, results-oriented and easily shamed by losing. They see opposing lawyers as the enemy and they substitute suspicion, cynicism and verbal abuse in place of peaceful, connected communication. This has made lawyers sick, sick of being lawyers and sick both mentally and physically. In polls of career satisfaction, more than half of all lawyers say they would quit today if they could afford it. One out of every five lawyers has major depression or alcoholism. Lawyers are 3.6 times more likely to be depressed than all other people working full time, and twice as likely to be alcoholics. It doesn't have to be this way. Lawyers can learn to let go of their manic pursuit of material wealth and value things like love, friendship, self-discovery, authenticity, spirituality and working with others to create something deeply meaningful. Lawyers can learn to overcome the polarizing us/them mindset which turns colleagues who deserve inclusion, respect and cooperation into enemies to be feared, mistrusted, hated and attacked. They can be taught to practice law with inspiration, enthusiasm, zest, pride and pleasure. They can learn how to practice effectively and yet still give themselves what human beings need - freedom, sunshine, fresh air, rest, ease, play, laughter, spirituality, creativity, and the pleasures of family, friendship and community. This book is a comprehensive self-help guide that can save the careers and lengthen the lives of lawyers under stress, and help them achieve the unthinkable - to feel happy, joyful, grateful to be alive.

About the Author

Harvey Hyman majored in philosophy at Yale University, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1978. A graduate of Georgetown University Law Center he practiced law for 25 years. From 1986 to 2007 he successfully handled plaintiff's personal injury cases in San Francisco and Oakland. He consistently received an AV rating from Martindale Hubbell signifying his peers viewed him as highly competent and ethical. In the 1990s he began representing many clients with traumatic brain injury (TBI). Mr. Hyman served on the Board of the Brain Injury Association of California, wrote many articles for the Neurolaw Letter on the effects of brain injuries, and lectured to attorneys and health care providers on cooperation to help people with TBI. In 2007 Mr. Hyman experienced a severe depression with hospitalization that changed his life. Prior to depression he hadn't acknowledged or dealt with the stress from constant work. He didn't care for himself by engaging in vigorous exercise, healthy eating, adequate sleep, quality family time, meaningful community involvement, spirituality, restful leisure, play or creativity. Before depression, he was hard on himself - always demanding victory in court no matter how weak his client's case or how strong his opponent's, and always quick to blame and criticize himself if did not achieve all out victory. To recover from depression Mr. Hyman began daily Buddhist meditation, daily physical exercise and other habits to promote health and happiness including gratitude, forgiveness, kindness to others and self-compassion. He is now a much healthier, happier, more social and more spiritual person, who notices and appreciates what the present moment has to offer rather than ruminating obsessively about his cases. Mr. Hyman is now in touch with his heart and his feelings rather than a brain in a glass case. Meditation helped him realize that all lawyers want and deserve to be happy, yet all of them suffer from stress and emotional pain; that all of them could use compassion; and that all of them could use education on stress management, especially those with chronic anger, depression, addiction to substances or suicidal thinking from stress overload. Mr. Hyman spent two years researching and writing this book.

Harvey describes his mission in his website on his present preoccupations as follows:

There are nearly 1.2 million lawyers in the United States. Twenty percent of them suffer from Major Depression or alcoholism. This is much higher than the rates of Major Depression (6.5%) or alcoholism (10%) in society at large. Lawyers are 3.6 times more likely to be depressed than all other persons generally employed full time. They have the highest rate of divorce among all occupational groups and are near the top of the suicide list. Surveys show that more than half of all lawyers would quit their field and try something new if not prevented from doing so by economics. As it now exists, law practice generates levels of stress, misery, mental illness and substance abuse that are both shocking and unacceptable.
More often than not, lawyers develop depression first – in response to chronic distress from the conditions of law practice – and then begin drinking to excess or using recreational drugs to “medicate” their depression. Lawyers weakened by depression and/or substance abuse need to heal. Because of the stigma associated with admitting you’re depressed, alcoholic or addicted to drugs, too many lawyers wait to seek help until after they’re charged with a disciplinary offense. This compounds their difficulties, because they must deal simultaneously with an illness that is devastating their law practice, intense psyche-ache and a State Bar prosecution that could take away their career. Their stress is heightened by the uncertainty of what will happen to them and by the need to come up with funds to pay for their state bar defense attorney at a time when their law practice is falling apart and funds are short. Sometimes they must go through the embarrassment of asking family, friends and colleagues for a loan, and the pain of being turned down.
I created Lawyers’ Wellbeing, Inc. to help the lawyers who are struggling with depression or chemical dependency to avoid this downward spiral or pull out of it before it’s too late. Through my book, blog, MCLE lectures and speaking events I will give lawyers the tools to remake their lives into an upward spiral. The tools that I teach include meditation, mindfulness, anger management, transforming the harsh inner critic to an inner colleague, nonviolent communication, attitudinal change, life-work balance, scientific principles of happiness, healthy nutrition and exercise.
Although I advocate change on an individual level to help relieve the suffering of lawyers already burdened by depression or substance abuse, I also advocate systemic change in legal culture, legal education and the hourly billing system to alter the conditions that dispose lawyers to these problems.
Behind their mask of competence, self-assurance and professional distance lawyers are not the greedy sharks the public has portrayed them to be in jokes. Rather, they are fragile, vulnerable human beings. Like the clients they serve lawyers need interpersonal satisfaction through social connection, love, friendship, admiration and appreciation; transpersonal satisfaction through articulating and pursuing a life purpose which provides genuine meaning; and a mixture of play, creativity, laughter, pleasure, happiness and joy.
I have heard time and again that nothing can be done to change the fact that law is a "tough business" and a "pressure cooker." I have also heard time and again that lawyers have nothing to complain of, because they are consciously choosing to gain an affluent life style (with a big house, new cars, exotic family vacations and top colleges for their kids) in exchange for the daily suffering which results from having to battle the world's most arrogant, rude, insulting, offensive and obnoxious people (other lawyers). I do not believe either statement.
Law practice is a human activity which involves thinking, communication, disagreement over positions, efforts at persuasion, bargaining and rarely a trial. It can be done in a respectful, cooperative, and peaceful manner that does not involve the high degree of tension, animosity, verbal abuse and dehumanization which is so common today and which drives the stress level of lawyers into the red zone of illness.
Law practice need not serve shallow materialism or narcissism. It can express higher ends such as creative problem solving between individuals or groups to help each have their legitimate needs met; or the release of grudges, healing through forgiveness and the making of true peace. Empirical studies by experts in positive psychology have demonstrated that the selfish pursuit of money fails to produce lasting happiness, and that the only true wealth is the psychological wealth that comes from being a friend, being positively engaged with the world and having meaning from working with others to achieve a common goal.
Based on my personal experience and my research I believe that the adoption of a meditation practice and a meditative style of law practice can be a very potent driver for positive change. A lawyer who meditates is not agitated, anxious, defensive and reactive. He is calm, observant, aware and able to take time to respond from heart and head, not just blind impulse. Too many lawyers believe they must act immediately and decisively in every situation even if this leaves no time for considered reflection following the emergence of feelings and intuitions. They are also unduly influenced by the movies and TV series which portray successful lawyers as selfish, aggressive, combative, rude, deceitful and willing to double cross anyone to get their way. This way of being does not serve their clients and it undermines their mental and physical health.
There can be no doubt that legal education must be changed to help young lawyers be less adversarial, more willing to see each other as people (not automatic enemies), less interruptive and more willing to listen attentively without judgment. Adoption of Marshall Rosenberg's system of nonviolent communication would go a long way in improving lawyer-to-lawyer communication, because it focuses on needs and requests rather than negative judgments and coercive threats.
The present system of hourly billing must also be changed so that lawyers are not deprived of sunshine, fresh air, exercise, a social life, a family life, hobbies and healthy sleep to meet their employer's bottom line. Reducing the total number of work hours and making those hours more flexible would be a huge help.
For many years we heard about the conspiracy of silence by physicians which referred to the fact that doctors used to refuse en masse to testify against each other in medical malpractice cases no matter how egregious and harmful the malpractice in order to protect the profession from damage awards, discipline and raises in malpractice premiums. Now we have a conspiracy of denial in which lawyers will refuse to admit they are depressed or alcoholic and seek treatment before it's too late. All across the country lawyers are getting sued and disciplined because they kept their mood disorder or substance abuse disorder to themselves until they crossed too many lines.
I am personally in favor of promoting a culture of confidential disclosure in which impaired lawyers can seek and receive the help they need before they hurt clients and ruin their health and careers. Lawyer assistance programs in all fifty states exist to do this, but sadly they are very poorly funded. I hope to raise awareness of the magnitude of the problem facing lawyers and spur the investment of more funds to help them. Ailing lawyers hurt their clients, families and society unintentionally. It makes sense for us to help them, because by doing so we help ourselves.

It is no surprise, therefore that Harvey looked for and liked Dr Yiyuan Tang’s IMBT for Stress reduction and is warmly recommending it for his lawyer clients. This is his enthusiastic blog on his finding.

http://lawyerswellbeing.com/blog/?tag=imbt-for-stress-reduction
The following article in the Yi Yuan website talks about Dr Yiyuan Tang and gives a good bibliography on IMBT

http://www.yi-yuan.net/english/tyy.asp

Dr Posner and Dr Tang are busy investigating the entirely positive effects of IMBT at the University of Oregon and we can await their findings for the benefit of all classes of professionals, including, of course, Harvey’s own kind.

curcumin, the component of interest in turmeric

desikan — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 07:42:14 +0000

Here is a link to a very recent review on the therapeutic values of curcumin/turmeric.
www.springerlink.com/content/18n558v11ru33516/
Most of us are aware of these benefits and of course have been using turmeric as a food additive for ages.
Here is a dramatic announcement by Divya Gandhi in today's issue of the Hindu online.
www.thehindu.com/health/article520903.ece?homepage=true
It is dramatically captioned as well, 'Turmeric, a recipe for trouble too?'
In my opinion, Ms Gandhi is reading too much into the doubtlessly interesting research findings.
Think of the following:
The IISc findings do not negate or question the therapeutic values of turmeric in its anti ageing and anti cancer properties.
They only point out that salmonella thrive, if fed turmeric.
Salmonella would most probably thrive equally vigorously if fed any number of other food components and nutrients.
In India, when a person is having fever and is diagnosed with bacterial infections, feeding the person is rationed substantially.
In suspected enteric infections, diets are indeed very carefully controlled.
No alarm bells need ring. We shall thank the IISc scientists for the additional data on typhoid bacteria and on turmeric and go about our ways.

Professor Sethuramiah’s haiku, Avani and Ishaan

desikan — Mon, 24 May 2010 15:46:22 +0000

Professor Sethuramayya’s haiku, Avani and Ishaan

Partha Desikan

Our friends will remember Susumu Takiguchi’s Keynote Address at the World Haiku Festival, Bangalore 2008, and my blog in the medha journal (http://www.medhajournal.com/columns/partha-says-mainmenu-206.html)highlighting its focus on Tagore and haiku. The Address itself was available to me from the online literary journal Muse India, to which I had been introduced by my friend of 40 years and more, Professor Sethuramiah Abburi.. The good Professor is well versed in Japanese culture and ways, having stayed in Japan long enough to pursue his D.Sc. in an Engineering subject.
My friend Sethu is settled now in Bangalore and stays with his son, but this residence is close enough to his daughter’s too so that he gets time to play with his granddaughter Avani, not quite three years old, whenever she feels like it and telephones him, by taking a quick walk across to his daughter’s. He visits an Engineering college in Tamil Nadu some 3, 4 days every month to give some special lectures. More than 25 days of each month of his are available to Avani.

Among things Japanese that have stayed with Sethu is his love of haiku. He reads loads of them and also creates a few very leisurely and with love. I would like to share a few of them with our friends.

The weather features in these three haikus

1. summer noon –
-
the crow merges into
its shadow.
2. After the shower
cuckoo calls for
another spell
3. Poplar tree--
lone yellow leaf
signs autumn

The first of these was penned on Sept 3, 2008, after summer had become a memory. But Sethu’s mind had held back the crow and the shadow that was not separate from the bird. Perhaps it was raining then. On 5th September he hears the cuckoo when he has just stopped hearing the shower. Haiku number two comes out with the cuckoo.

A month passes. It is autumn still, but, not of the colourful kind Sethu had been used to in Japan. He remembers the first leaf that coloured in a poplar tree and the third haiku results.
Mainichi, Japan published the rain haiku. The autumn verse was published by Asahi Haikuist, Japan.

Smoke and fire form the theme in these two haikus

1. chimney smoke-
toy train spins
a fairy tale
2. Fireworks lift
new year hopes
sky-high

The chimney and the train haiku was published in Muse India, a poetry blog.
With the fireworks haiku, Sethu was heralding New Year 2009, some two days in advance. Ashahi Shimbun, Japan, published it on 16th January in the New year

Walking forms the subject of the following four haikus
1. So many
steps to temple
ascension
2. temple steps
lined with seekers
of alms

3. seashore
white carpet welcomes
bare feet

4. wearing snowflakes
black and white penguin
catwalks

Haikus number 2, 3 and 4 were created in 2007, of which, number 3 was for Muse India journal. Number 1 was published by Ashahi Shimbun in February 2009.

Movements, quite different from walking, were described in three lovely haikus by Sethu.

1. Ah! the ocean

of life and death

tides forever

2. between me
and the mountain range
a train passes

3. transparent lift —
sadhu in yellow robes
descends
The third of these got an honourable mention in the Mainichi haiku contest 2009!
You will notice that the second and third haikus relate to mechanical motion, while the first talks of the philosophical movement of life and of death, not unlike tides in ocean waves. There is suddenness in the appearance of a moving mechanism between man and nature in the second haiku, and of a man in bright robes descending from a moving mechanism that has just stopped in the third haiku. Sethu thinks that the piece number 1 is not characteristically haiku, but several of his friends acclaimed the depth of meaning in it.

Avani, Sethu’s granddaughter, hogs Sethu’s attention in the following haikus and haiku-like verses. Watch the flow or flow along with it. Most of these were published by Muse India over the past 3 years.

The Bond (Museindia)
Bangalore, 2008)

In anguish
two tears roll
down the cheeks
halfway, waiting...
And the mother
embraces the bundle
of inseparable
Emotions

First birthday (Museindia)

Bangalore 2009

Avani pulls
and throws
the spectacles…
I collect
the twisted frame
glasses intact
as the baby smiles
in innocent triumph…

I hold her again
and itching for action
she bites
with two teeth
half-formed…

With bent frame
I am ready
for yet another round
of child play

Avani

Bangalore, 2010

Playing hide and seek
showing tata*
his place!

Asking for more sweet
and every time
it is the last time

Giving the doll
time-out
for the nasty bite

Helping tata
to the floor
of animal world

Thumb in mouth
demanding mamma
the ‘parrot’ story

Bowing again and again
at Toddlers’ school
in welcome

Wondrous tiny steps
of one child
every child

* Grandfather
And Grandfather must have anticipated 2008, even in 2007. He writes already in 2007
present
wrapped in time
for birthday

Was Grandfather himself the present, waiting for Avani’s birth-day?

We have talked of Sethu’s daughter’s daughter, Avani, but what of Ishaan, Sethu’s son’s son?
We do not have a haiku on this person yet, because only last week this baby, less than two months old, got named Ishaan in a properly vaidik Namakarana ceremony. And your Partha Desikan attended and blessed the child.

May both Avani and Ishaan inspire Grandfather to keep writing haikus about them and in turn learn to write haikus themselves!

As most of you would know, Avani means the Earth. She means the earth and more to her grandfather. Ishaana has the same meaning as Isha, Ishvara, names referring to the Lord of everything, namely Bhagavan. These names are however used more popularly to refer to Shiva than to Vishnu, though Vishnu Sahasranama has both Ishaana and and Ishvara as names of Vishnu present in it. The aishvaryas of Bhagavan, of which we read in my blog on the giant figs of India are called aishvaryas only because they are the vishesha gunas of Ishvara, namely Bhagavan. So grandson Ishaan should mean something divine to his grandfather, a divine gift, should he not?