என்னை தூங்க விடுங்கள்!

என்னை தூங்க விடுங்கள்!

நினைவுகளை மறக்கவே அதிகம்
நித்திரையில் ஆள்கிறேன் நான்.
தாலாட்டாய் எனக்காக
இரவு இசைக்கும் மௌன ராகம்.
விடியலை நோக்கி தொடரும்
என் விழி மூடிய பயணம்.
கனவுகளில் தெரியும் கலங்கலான காட்சிகள்
கண்கள் திறந்தவுடன் மறந்து போகும்.
விழிப்பின் மயக்கத்தில் எப்போதும்
கடந்தவைக்கும் கற்பனைக்கும் இடையில்
மனம் மயங்கியே கிடக்கும்.
கனவிலே கலங்கலான காட்சிகள், விழிப்பிலே தெளிவற்ற காட்சிகள்.
எது இங்கு உண்மை?
கனவா? விழிப்பா?
எனக்குள் எழுந்த கேள்விகள் தேடிப்பார்த்த போது
பதில்கள் அறியாமைப்போர்வைக்குள் ஒளிந்து கொண்டன.
நினைவுகள் என்றும் நித்தியமில்லை, தெரியும் எனக்கு.
நித்திரை, மீளாத நித்திரை மட்டுமே இங்கு நிச்சயம்.
எனவேதான் அடிக்கடி ஒத்திகை பார்க்கிறேன் நான்.
என்னை தூங்க விடுங்கள்!

Dedicated to frightening sand trucks

மணல் லாரியர்கள் -
அவர்கள்
மரணத்தின் கேரியர்கள்
யமதர்மராஜனின் கூரியர்கள்
மக்கள் தொகை குறைக்கும் வாரியர்கள்
ரத்தத்தில் படம் செய்யும் ஓவியர்கள்
கண் மூடி வண்டி ஓட்டும் ஜாலியர்கள்
கத்தியின்றி கொலை செய்யும் பாவியர்கள்
அவர்கள் கைகளிலே
சாலையெங்கும் அப்பாவியர்கள் !

I don't think nobody takes it personally ;-)

Kannagi - Epic Heroine turned Goddess

Kannagi Statue in Chennai

 
I planned to write this post four years ago after a trip to Kodungallur in Kerala. Recently I watched the Tamil movie "Elaam Arivu (7th sense). That movie inspired me to execute my four year plan now. With the (imagination mixed) information from Elaam Arivu, now we all know that "Bodhidharma", a Buddhist monk from South India (Kanchipuram) went to China to transmit Zen/Mahayana Buddhism, who is worshipped as a great master in the shaolin temples all over the world. But how many of us know that a Tamil epic heroine, Kannagi, is worshipped as goddess in the neighboring Kerala and Srilanka?

That was August 2007. I was on my way to Cochin from Guruvayur on a 4 days trip to kerala with my family. As per the itinerary, we had a plan to visit Kodungallur bhagavathy temple before reaching Cochin. When we reached Kodungallur, I saw a name board "Kannagi guest house". The board was written in English, Malayalam and Tamil. I told my wife that the name could be because of a Tamil donor who would have offered huge contributions to this temple's guest house. It was around 3 p.m. The temple was closed and we had to wait in the hall of temple's inner entrance. Above the main gate of the entrance I saw a painting.

Kannagi in the royal court of Pandya King

 In the portrait (realistic than the one shown here) I saw a furious woman with wide red eyes and a hand in raised position with an anklet. She was standing in the mid of a King's court. Anyone who knows Silappathikaram (One of the 5 great Tamil epics written by Elango Adigal, a prince turned Jain monk) can immediately understand that the portrait is nothing but the depcition of Kannagi in the court of Pandya King Nedunjcheliyan. I wondered why this portrait is placed at the entrance of this temple.

When I was walking through the inner prakaaram of the temple, I saw an idol with a name "Kannagi". I got a little surprised to see that. I called an old woman (believe me.. I called an old woman only!) to understand more about it. Though I could not understand much her Malayalam, I understood that the idol is nothing but Kannagi and she is considered as the sister of Bhagavathy. I thought I should collect more details about it later.

Few days after coming back to Chennai, I started searching the internet for the connection between Kodugallur and Kannagi. The following findings of my search showed a larger image of Kannagi than what I learnt in my school.

Goddess Pattini with anklets

After cursing and setting ablaze Madurai, Kannagi leaves the city. She attains salvation and wanders in the western ghats. Finally she reaches Kodungallur and remains there as Bhagavathy. The temple at Kodungallur is said to be built by Cheran Chenkuttuvan (Kodungallur had a port which was known as 'Musiris' by Greeks. When I read about the port 'Musiri' in my 9th standard history, I used to get confused that with another 'Musiri' in Trichy district, though the 'Musiri' port was part of Chera kingdom and 'Musiri' in Trichy district should have been a part of Chola kingdom). Kannagi on her way to Kodungallur, gives dharshan to the people of Attukal. They built a temple for
Kannagi. The Attukal Bhagavathy temple and it's Atukkal Pongala festival is very popular. Attukkal pongala festival is attended by millions of women every year.

Goddess Pattini

On further search about Kannagi, I found that she is worshipped as goddess in Sinhala Buddhism too. She is known as 'Pattini' in Sri Lanka. She is worshipped by Hindus and Buddhists of Sri Lanka.

There are some more references, which compare Kannagi and Egyptian Goddess Isis.

It is not about Kannagi's chaste and loyalty to her husband that we need to talk about. It is about the courage of a woman that questioned the king and punished him and his kingdom for his mistake. While she is worshipped as a goddess outside Tamilnadu, there were problems in keeping her statue in the same state where she lived.

I am not sure whether the story of Kannagi is taught in the schools now. Unless we tell the stories of the great legends lived in our own soil, our children will always look towards  West for role models.


References:

http://www.storytellinginstitute.org/
http://www.sripambattisiddhar.com/articles/kodungallur.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kodungallur
http://www.hindu.com/2006/06/16/stories/2006061603461100.htm - Kannagi statue in Marina
http://groundviews.org/2011/01/11/female-deities-of-theravada-buddhism-kannagi-and-pattini/
http://poonaattukaldevi.com/kannagi.html
http://www.scribd.com/doc/17679901/Isis-In-India
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pattini
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kannagi
http://www.attukal.org/

Ghosts - Some thoughts

Having written my first blog on a Temple, i was thinking that what could be the topic for the next blog? I decided it should be about Ghosts. Why... What made me to write about Ghosts ? When i was clueless about what to write, it happened.. i just saw that.

Look at the picture here .It was taken by me during one of the late nights I stayed in my office. I started shivering when I took this photo. I will tell you about this more in detail. Continue reading till then.


What are Ghosts actually?

As we all are told, ghosts are the souls of humans which exist in the astral plane. This may raise a question in our minds... why ghosts are always referred as souls of humans alone? What happens to the souls of other living species like animals, birds and insects? To answer this question, I can relate something which i read from the book "Autobiography of a Yogi" by Swami Paramahansa Yogananda. In this book, Swami Yogananda says "Souls of animals, birds etc do not stay in the astral plane (non-physical plane where the souls reside) because they do not have any karma. The souls of such mortals take birth immediately". It may be because animals, birds etc are not given sense to understand and classify good and bad of life (Again, this explanation raises a question in my mind... If animals do not acquire karma, on what basis they are 'promoted' as humans? I will get back to you if i get an answer).

But do Ghosts really exist? I remember, we, a group of disciples asked the same question to our yogic guru, a few years ago. The entire gathering went into silence when we asked that question. Everyone in that hall was keenly looking at the face of the Guru for the answer. After a few moments, the guru said "Yes, THEY EXIST. But their existence should not be a concern for you my children! Lets talk about something else".

Linda Goodman, a popular author on astrology, says about her personal experience with ghosts in the chapter of "Ghosts, Gurus and Avatars" in the book "Star Signs". She sees a ghost called "Maggie", a young beautiful girl, at one of the haunted houses of Cripple Creek where Linda preferred to settle down. Linda explains about ghosts with explanations about the experiences she went through.

The theory of Theosophy says that the composition of a reincarnating unit (mostly i can relate this to humans alone) contains seven bodies. They are: Sthula Sarira (Physical body), Linga Sarira (Astral body), Prana (Energy of Atman, The radiating force, The life), kama (Desires and
aspirations, The driving force which can be good or bad depending on how the soul uses it), Manas(Ego consciousness), Buddhi (Spiritual conscience, the vehicle of Atman), Atman (Self; pure consciousness). From this theory, probably i think we can interpret that Ghosts are the combination of Linga Sarira and Kama, wherein the Kama (Desire) drives the astral body, Linga sarira (Is that why the ghosts in our films are always wandering with feelings of either romance or revenge ?)

There is a belief that there are different types of Ghosts classified as Poltergeists, Atmospheric ghosts, Phantoms, Spirits and many more. Also there is one type called 'Photographic' ghost ! It is said that these types of ghosts can't be seen through naked eyes, but they appear only in photographs (may be people like actors, models etc. usually join this category? Thinking further on this, i think we can come up with more types... Telephonic ghosts: They will call you at midnight and ask you to take a credit card. Even if you say 'No', they will call you next day. Money Ghosts: They will fight within themselves to appear in the currencies; all politicians will join this category. email Ghosts: These ghosts will appear only in forwarded emails; all software professionals form this category of ghosts.)

In those days, villagers used to tell many stories about their or others' experiences with Ghosts. Nowadays no such incidents are heared much. Is it just because our villages are now illuminated enough and the fear due to darkness has vanished along with the fear of ghosts? Or the light and noise pushed the ghosts away? Linda Goodman says that ghosts can't live in highly polluted places becuase they are made up of fine etheric substance, which will get collapsed in pollution.
(Pollution has not left ghosts too! Attention automobile manufacturers! By producing low emission vehicles you are not only making them eco-friendly vehicles, "ghost-friendly" vehicles too!).

During my school days, my cousins and I used to make attempts to "contact" ghosts using Ouija Boards. Ouija boards consist of alphabets, numbers and symbols. We made Ouija boards on our own by reading tips from some Tamil books on spirits. In this method, all the people who are participating have to keep touching a glass with their fingers, which is placed at the center of the board. After praying for the presence of a particular spirit, we have to start asking the questions. The glass will move around the board across the numbers and characters. We have to note down these alphabets/numbers/symbols, which will form the answer for the question. In some of our attempts, we have succeeded in getting replies from spirits ! ( I still believe that the glass was moving automatically and none of us have moved it! ) After having few sessions using Ouija, we felt bored and thought of moving to other seance methods like 'Spirit medium' (After reading some literature for writing this blog, i came to know the name of this spirit medium method, which is called as "Channeling"). But we were told that channeling is dangerous to perform and hence we deserted the efforts without trying further.

I started browsing through various articles on ghosts before writing this blog. It goes on and on... It goes through many disciplines like Parapsychology, Metaphysics, Pseudoscience, Occultism, Theosophy, Esotericism etc.

Finally.....

Finally....

Finally...

Finally now, i will tell you about the photo i took. Actually what you saw at the top is only a part of the photo. Here is the complete photo.

During that night, i was just looking at the mouse closely and the light reflections on the surface of the mouse appeared like a ghost to me. From there i got the impression of writing about ghosts. The reason why i was shivering is because the AC was blowing at full capacity and i was alone in the office!

The moral of the blog is:

1. Never look at any object closely (Not even your partners!).
2. Never stay late in office
3. Most important: Do some work while you are alone. Else you will start blogging like me.


Take care.

Thennangur - The Temple

Everytime when i visit some places near Vandavasi, i get an opportunity to go to Thennangur, a small village in the district of Thiruvannamalai, Tamilnadu, India. Thennangur is known for its famous temple for Panduranga. This temple is found by Swami Haridas Giri. There is a "Thapovanam" ( Thapas + vanam; a place where sages do meditation) with meditation hall and garden. Swami Haridas Giri has built a memorial for his guru Swami Gnananda giri here.





This temple is an architectural master piece, which has been built similar to the architecture of Puri Jagannath temple. The kopuram of this temple is around 120 feet high. The inner walls of the temple are decorated with beautiful paintings of Lord Krishna.






The dieties, Panduranga and Ragumayi are decorated everyday with different ornaments, which reflect the ethnic wear of various Indian regions. The temple is kept with clean surroundings. One should maintain strict silence inside the temple. Unlike other Tamil temples, here men are expected to remove the shirts before entering to temple premises.









I was fascinated by the beauty and tranquility of this temple and Thapovanam, which makes me visit there many times. The tall strcuture stands in peace amidst the haste and noise of the world.





Try to visit Thennangur. I'm sure, you will like it.

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The panoramic view of Thennangur temple:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dc/Thennangur_Panduranga_temple_panorama.jpg

More on Thennangur:

http://www.chennaionline.com/toursntravel/placesofworship/panduranga.asp

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thennangur


Where Thennaugur is located?

http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=12.5463,79.6083&spn=0.1,0.1&t=h