Pravritti or Nivritti

Pravritti –personality –behavioral traits – is often considered as someone’s nature. This explains how a person reacts to a situation. The key in this scenarios is the external stimulus. Nivritti on the other hand defines abstinence or denial of acts that have no meaning. All acts in Nivritti state comes from the internal stimulus.

The hindu scriptures have very well laid out the two paths of life as Pravritti and Nivritti and have as usual left it to us to decide the way.

External stimuli or the desire is abundant all around us. The more you satisfy it, the more it grows. Knowing the purpose of your actions will help performing the actions better. This is where we can combine the external and internal stimuli.

Vishnu on one hand, indulges himself with the creation and helps the worldly creatures to lead their life meaningfully. In his acts, not only he desires he also plays along with the humans. Shiva on the other hand, meditates and turns his back on Brahma’s creation knowing that this is all fake and has no meaning. He knows Brahma created the world and the universe looking for answers to his existence and these creations would have no meaning more than that. While Vishnu displays the pat of Pravritti, Shiva shines the light on Nivritti.

Since Vishnu involves in the worldly matters and plays along, he has an outwardly gaze without leaving the sense of himself. In this process, he procreates and generates warmth all around him. Shiva on the other hand meditates and indulges in himself. He has an inwardly gaze and does not involves with anyone. This creates heat in himself. The inwardly heat or fire, which is expected to come when he opens his third eye. Since all the heat around him is converged inside him, everything around him turns cold into ice. Remember his abode on Mt Kailash.

Prajapati or Pashupati

Long time since my last post. Actually I have been reading less these days and watching more television.

I have been looking at the news channels too sometimes and watched how the media has been covering the so called crime stories. More or less every time a crime is reported, the reporters use the word “animal like behavior” to depict the criminals acts. Along with the same, the media is full of developmental stories displaying the progress the mankind is making today.

The question is what progress have we made? What instinct have we understood and how have we conquered?

As the story of the Hindu Trinity goes, Brahma had multiple sons who were born of his thoughts. Each of the son was born with a purpose. Narada, Sanaatan Kumars were amongst the glorious ones. And also was Daksa Prajapati. Many would remember Daksha as the arrogant father who did not relent to acknowledge the love of her daughter Sati. Due to which, Sati had to jump into fire causing Shiva to take the Rudra Avatar.

Daksha is Brahma’s son with the purpose to instill an order into the nature. Thus he tries to bind the nature into the set of rules. In other words, he tries to domesticate the nature. Daksha leads the humans and shows them the way. Hence he is termed as “PrajaPati” = Master of the People. However, as we understand, humans are an evolution step from the animals. And hence, even humans do have the animal instincts and display animal like behavior. Nature gave humans a powerful brain and the power of imagination through which they can shed off their animal like behavior. But, only a very few have mastered their animal instincts. It is said that one who conquers his or her animal instincts is known as “PashuPati” = Master of the animals. Shiva has been known as the Pashupati forever and has been mentioned in the puranas with that name.

Daksha tried to rule people through the set of rules or laws. In his view, all abiding by the rules are good. He tried to dominate people in order to rule them. However, we see no efforts being made by him to outgrow the development of nature and the humans all around him. He thinks outwards and seeks compliance from others. He does not applies the same rules onto himself. He is not looking onto himself to comply and grow. This arouses a fear in him of losing his safety net. Unable to understand and failure to introspect forms a delusion in front of him and he lives in the same.

Nature created all creatures and with that it created the imbalance so that it can renew itself. It is but natural that lion runs after the deer to feed itself. And the deer runs away from the lion to save itself. While lion eats the deer, the deer eats the grass. All animals hunt when they are hungry. They eat and live and eventually die. They kill but only to satisfy their hunger or when threatened. Humans have a brain to understand this cycle and hence to breakout of the cycle. Humans imagine a day when they would not be able to feed themselves and hence start saving for that day. Later the human mind conjures up the stories to create wealth for children, grandchildren and so on. We accumulate more than necessary and in the process take away from others. We start fighting for the larger share for ourselves. Unfortunately, somewhere we forget where this all has to end. And hence we never give up the animal behavior. 

To be able to grow, we must look inwards. We must overcome the animal in our self and give up the play of nature.

Being a Prajapati is easier, try being a Pashupati.

Taming the pride

In my previous post – "Main or May", I started a thought on the pride. Pride can come to a person in many forms – overconfidence being one of them and probably the most destructive too. Pride is a great feeling to have and is a great asset if in moderated quantity. Being a necessary evil, it helps one to move forward and overcome the inherent fear of failure, and at the same time, creates a path for self-destruction through complacency and too much of confidence on self or other. Pride comes with the sense of belonging and ownership. However, the nature makes no such claim. This is a human mind construct and creates boundaries.
We have all seen both the benefits and the destruction caused by pride. Let's see the symbolism of the same as seen in our scriptures!
Who better to kill pride or tame the feeling than Lord Shiva. Shiva took the form of "Bhairava" as a young child devoid of all the emotions of ownership and pride. Bhairava is always accompanied with a dog. A dog is a faithful companion of its owner. One would have noticed that the dog never walks away from the owner and strives for the owner's love. The dog wags its tail when it needs to be loved or petted and barks when it needs attention. Bhairava's dog is a parallel to human pride. The more you pet it, the stronger it grows. And like it or not, it always follows you. Bhairava, however is unmoved by the dog. The scriptures also represent the innocent looking Bhairava with a severed head in his hand. The severed head belongs to Brahma (Brahma's fifth head) which was severed to curb his pride.
History is full of examples where the great achievers became great losers just because they let their pride take over themselves. One must realize that we are all mere actors in the nature fulfilling our part in the grand scheme. If we do achieve something today, someone else shall be able to do the same sometime later or someone would have done so many times in the past.
Indra – the king of gods, was very happy with his arrangements and his rule. He had built the most amazing palace in the heaven and had all the very best apsaras in his court. This filled him with pride. The pride grew so much that he forgot all the steps required to keep heaven in shape and move forward. To make him realize, Vishnu took form of a small child and visited hi palace. Indra, the proud guide to his riches asked the child at the end of the tour – "how do you like my palace? Isn't it great". The child answered – "Yes. Definitely it is. But probably, the earlier Indra's were better". This made Indra realize that he too is part of the nature and the pride could be his destruction too.
Pride is a great motivation. Use it with caution!

What do I want - "Main" or "May"

I took a little time thinking on what do I want and what do I need. While doing so, I thought whether am I looking for "Main" (myself in hindi) or "May" (pride in hindi). Though a very glib pun on the sounds, yet a very profound meaning that changes the character of a person.

Below is my attempt in penning my thoughts.

कुछ ढूँढ रहा था मैं ,
कुछ पाना चाहता था मैं,
श्रम से बीज बोता मैं,
सोचता था फल खाऊँगा मैं।
                                       कभी मन को समझाता मैं ,
                                       कभी खूब मचल जाता मैं ,
                                       दूर भी जाना चाहता था मैं ,
                                       और अमर भी होना चाहता था मैं।
मन को शांत करता मैं ,
सब कुछ शांत करना चाहता था मैं ,
चाँद को चूना चाहता था मैं,
सूर्य से भी ज्यादा तेज चाहता था मैं।
                                         थोडा कुछ तो पाया भी मैं,
                                         और साथ ले आया मय।
                                         जिस मय से डरता था मैं,
                                         उसी मय मय हो गया मैं।
सभी कुछ तो जीत चूका था मैं।
फिर भी सबसे दूर हो चूका था मैं।
क्यों सब कुछ प् सका हूँ मैं?
क्यों अकेले रहने को अभिशप्त हूँ मैं?
                                           एक उत्तर ही तो चाहता हूँ मैं।
                                           वही एक सत्य तो ढूँढ रहा हूँ मैं।  
                                            प्रेम ही तो चाहता हूँ मैं,
                                            इस मय को ख़त्म करना चाहता हूँ मैं।

Devyani

I am sure that all of us have been stirred by the Devyani Khobragade arrest incident that has shaken the diplomatic ties between India and US for now. I spent much time yesterday reading through the news reports and talking to people with experiences into diplomatic scenarios. We spoke at lengths on the measures being taken by the various authorities and the excessiveness being exercised in matters deemed necessary. We all concluded that there were some gaps in the manner the situation was handled. This article today is dedicated towards the lamentation of these gaps.

In the Devyani case, the US officials have reported to have acted as per their rules and regulations. Their reports said that since the Indian Diplomat failed to align with their rules and regulations, they were supposed to take a corrective action and force the punishment on the accused. What were these rules? Putting appropriate salary to the domestic help (which is allowed as per US rules and regulations) in the visa application. However, the standards for the salary are too high and cannot be meted out since the employer is not paid enough. In such a case, the rules and regulations leave a case by allowing the domestic help to a diplomat, yet cut it down by raising the salary bar too high. In any case, the fact of the matter is, Devyani is in trouble which she may or may not have caused at all. She is at the center of mayhem being caused by someone else with different other motives that what is evident at this time.

At the same time, we ought to ask the question – how do you determine what is right? In the case above, it is seen that aligning to the rules makes a person right. If so, what makes the rule right? If following the rule makes a right or a good person, all law abiding people would be good people. If following the rule made good people, why did Jesus broke the law of the land? Why did Moses break the law and guided Jews out of slavery from Pharaohs? If the rules were good and following them made you a good person, why does every government changes the laws or rules set by the previous ones?

Rules or laws cannot be definitive. They are context based and time and place sensitive!

Sri Ram followed the rule of his ancestors to follow the word of his father. He went to exile renouncing his claim to the throne for fourteen years. Bhishma later followed the same rule to uphold his father's wish and renounced his claim to the throne forever and decided not to have children. The same law! In one case is considered great boon and in the other a great disaster! Had Bhishma laid claim to the throne, the entire Mahabharata could have been avoided. Duryodhana always followed the law. As per the law, he won Draupadi. He could do whatever he wished with her. She was no different than other courtesans in principle. However, we do consider him evil and his act of disrobing Draupadi the most evil of all – Why? He was just following the law. As per the law, Duryodhana was the eldest son of Dhritrasthra (elder of the two brothers – who ruled Hastinapur). Lawfully, he was the rightful heir to the throne. Yet we understand that he did injustice to the Pandavas. Following the law but not the principle behind it, will not make you a good person. Any rule or law which is applicable to a set of people in a particular timeframe at a place will not be applicable at other place as the parameters or the environment has changed. When Shabari fed half eaten fruits to Sri Ram, he ate them fondly. Though Lakshmana was enraged that how could a old, uncivilized woman offer leftover food to Sri Ram – future king of Ayodhya! Sri Ram pointed it out to Lakshmana that they and not Shabri were privy to court manners. It was they and Shabri who knew who they were. How could they expect the same court manners from Shabri when she hadn't been informed of the same? Thus the same rules do not apply to both! At the end of the war between Sri Ram and Ravana, the gods poured Amrit – or the nectar of life. Though Amrit fell on both the monkeys and demons, no demons got their life back. Doesn't the same rule applies to both?

Similarly, even in the US, every state has its own set of rulings with respect to certain topics. It is because the same rules do not apply to people when the environmental and social factors change. While such a dichotomy over the rules exist in a country, how could one be so sure that they take steps to jeopardize the relationships in a grave manner as this?

 

The Vishnu Avatars – looking through the glass

Last night we were watching the movie "Dashavtaram" for the umpteenth time. We love the movie and also have many good memories attached with the song – "Mukunda Mukunda". My wife taught dance to this number and the kids performed beautifully on the stage. Now that we watched it again and again, we tried to make sense of the name – "Dashavtaram" which undoubtedly refers to the 10 incarnations of Lord Vishnu.

Interestingly enough, Lord Vishnu is known to have descended upon the earth many a times to uphold the dharma or the laws of nature. Though our scriptures and wise learned people have often differed on the number of times Vishnu took different forms, there is no difference in understanding the common themes and the principles in each of these avatars. My attempt shall be to just have a look at those and understand the same.

As per the most well-read purana scripture – Bhagwat Purana describes 22 avatars of Sri Vishnu. While the most commonly known 10 avatars of Vishnu referred in multiple purana scriptures as per their appearance on earth are categorized as -

Yuga	Avatar Name	Story
Sata Yuga	Matsya	Vishnu appeared as the fish who saved Manu and the accompanying creatures on a boat during the great deluge.
	Kurma	The tortoise or the turtle on whose back, the mount Mandar was set so that it could be used as a stirrup to churn the ocean.
	Varaha	The boar who fought Hiranyaksh and rescued the mother earth (Bhudevi)
	Narsimha	The half man, half animal with the characteristics of lion infused into a man – appeared to save Prahlad and kill Hiranyakashyap
Treta Yuga	Vamana	A dwarf Brahmin appearance who went to the Asura king Bali asking for land covered in his three steps
	Parashurama	Another Brahmin appearance who vowed to free the earth of Kshatriyas with diminishing values and even beheaded his own mother when she digressed from her values
	Rama	The king of Ayodhya who laid the rules and established an order of living for the society
Dwapara Yuga	Krishna	The most colorful appearance of Lord Vishnu, where he plays roles of rule breaker, upholder of values, romancing the people and guiding them through the intricacies of the society
	Buddha	Well known as Gautam Buddha, who enlightened the man kind of a middle path to attain salvation while fulfilling their worldly duties
KaliYuga	Kalki	Kalki avatar is expected to appear in Kaliyuga or the present era. He is expected to end the world of its miseries and establish the laws again.

 

Now that we have the ten most important avatars categorized, let's look at the evolution in them.

• Number of avatars
  
  • SatYuga saw four avatars
    
  • Treta saw three
    
  • Dwapara saw two
    
  • Kaliyuga is supposed to see only one.
    
• Form of avatara
  
  • The Satayuga's avatars were evolving from the body of an animal and slowly developing as a human.
    
  • The Treta avatars were well formed humans who displayed their supremacy over other forms of nature.
    
  • The Dwapara avatars displayed supremacy over other humans or self.
    
  • The Kalyuga avatar is yet to be determined
    
• State of society at the time of avatara
  
  • During the Sata Yuga, there was no society. The nature was just forming and taking shape. The need was to develop the laws and set the principles based on which the further creations can live and coexist.
    
  • As the nature evolved, the different groups of people formed and so did their beliefs. The avataras played the role of binding them together
    
  • During the Treta Yuga, the society was formed however in the initial stages. The concepts of settlement and developing the culture was taking form. At the same time, the need was to move from the barbarian or animal instinct to a more humane instinct. This is seen in the act of Parashuram killing the Kshatriyas when they debased themselves using their power and refused to protect the other forms of the society. Sri Rama at the same time, took help from the animals (mainly monkeys and bears) to fight with Ravana – the king of Asuras. Thus displaying the growth or evolution of the human being from the animals.
    
  • During the Dwapara Yuga, the society was well formed and the human kind had progressed much further. The laws set by Sri Rama for the society were well followed. However, the requirements of the society and the nature were changing yet again. The laws applicable in the Treta Yuga were no longer applicable. They were still being followed though only in the form of letter and not in principle or philosophy. This is where the advent of Krishna infuses the fresh air. Sri Krishna, often viewed as rule breaker, broke the unmanageable rules and laws and taught to follow what you understand and what is right. In his teachings to Arjun (Sri Madbhagwat Gita), he lays the principles for the human beings. This is the same theme seen in Gautama Buddha. When the rules of the society became too rigid and impractical to follow, he infused a new path breaking all beliefs to lead life in a better manner.
    
  • The society today is the most advanced as compared to what we have seen in the past yugas. At the same time, we have seen the degeneration as well. Which is nothing but the turn of the time. Time runs in a cycle. What is up today will go down tomorrow and what is down today will come up someday.
    

I also wanted to touch upon a very sensitive yet important aspect in here, along with the evolution and maturity of the society we should also notice the change in the way the incarnations have appeared. At the time, when society was yet forming, the incarnations took the form of Brahmin as the source of knowledge. When the society was a little mature, they appeared as kings or Kshatriya as protectors. When the maturity reached even higher and society was looking for their path on deeds, Sri Krishna appeared – born as a Kshatriya, lived as a Viashya (cowherd in Vraj) and acted like a Shudra (Charioteer for Arjuna). I understand the forms of the society are a touchy topic and I may be hurting someone's sentiments, but when God himself made no difference, how can we?

Jeevan

Now that you got me started, I will croon out another one from my pocket. This may not be a fantastic piece of work, but is definitely close to my heart and in a way quite true to its meaning!

The best part is when it was composed? Almost 20 years ago!

                      आज जीवन का अर्थ कहो तुम ?
                      किसी कि हंसी छीनना ही क्या जीवन है?
                      किसी को दुःख देना ही क्या जीवन है?
                      अत्याचार करना ही क्या जीवन है?
जीवन तो एक अमूल्य धन है,
मानवता के निर्माण का साधन है। 
जीवन का तुम लाभ उठाओ,
संसार के मार्गदर्शक बन जाओ।। 
                       सच्ची राह बतलाना तुम,
                       हृदयसेतु बन जाना तुम,
                       जीवन का अर्थ प्रेम बतलाना,
                       नहीं किसी को द्वेष सीखना।।