Last month was a wonderful journey through SL Bhyrappa's eyes : 'Vamshavruksha'. Written with the imagination that would make sit and wonder whether Bhyrappa has met god! Everyday went by with a chapter or two, living the characters and their thoughts. Though he does play god in the novel, he leaves us with chilling thoughts of man's internal fights( easy to say 'dwandwa' in kannada).
Had heard somewhere that for being creative, one needs to have tolerance to ambiguity. Though it didn't sound interesting at that moment, this book really proved the point. I cannot explain. Buy it and read it.
We have become very lazy; so lazy that it can drive us out of our well-being. Lazyness was something to be desired in earlier times, and thats what made people do smarter things. It feels as if centuries of civilisation has done little to help a man live a good life. Good life was always possible, it was there to be taken and yet most of us don't have it, because of our laziness.
Our ancestors might have had a higher concept of well-being that we may now ignore as stupid rituals. There may also be areas of thought and feeling that we wouldn't have recognized at all in our lives.
Sometime back, on NDTV, they showed a guy who bent spoons, broke them with just mental power. Given that it is possible, would it not be believable that munis in ancient times could, as a curse, burn things?
We may also see that our forefathers used to do some really smart things which, in course of time, lost its meaning, and people couldn't identify reasons for doing them.
* Having lit light near gods in the evening which
a) would serve as a constant source of fire
b) would maintain a constant temperature when you sit for prayers
c) would be the best place to keep, since the place would be usually least disturbed due to wind
* Doing the parshyanchami before lunch/dinner so as to prevent insects from entering the food plate.
* Vedic mathematics which make our normal maths taught in schools silly.
* Treating animals, trees as gods, and thus protect them from destruction. ex: elephants, coconut trees etc.
* Treating a piece of paper as godess Saraswati, thus respecting it as a source of knowledge.
* Doing suryanamaskars which would keep the entire body fit
* Having to server a bit of salt before anything else is served, so that it may account for different tastes of people
* The concept of inviting friends, relatives to homes keeping a festival as a reason, making scope for socialising.
* The concept of making children join gurukulas, keeping them away from homes, in a disciplined environment and making them suitable to lead the rest of their lives.
We may never know the reasons for so many things that they used to do...but let us be open and not just discard whatever they did.
2 comments:
Vedoo, I dont know if you approve these comments. But, I personally feel gurukula concept was not very great. If I would stay away from my parents for 12 years or so(in the name of discipline), I would not feel anything for them, right? I truly believe in - out of sight is out of mind. If you happen to meet your best friend from school days you are not in touch with, you will have nothing to say to him. Would the same thing not apply for parents in case of gurukulas? I am not against old practices, per se, but doing parishinchane sitting on a dining table is equally stupid. We can respect our elders for their thoughts and practices (which were absolutely meaningful in their times and their circumstances) but need not follow all of them. Lets talk about this when we meet.
Vasu,
I think the process of leaving children at Gurukulas was an effort to give exposure to all the Vedas and in general to increase the spiritual awareness. I also think that it was an effort to learn the Vedas, and I believe that ppl at that time were more spiritual. I think that they lead somewhat of a detached life. I am not sure about the relevance of Parshyanchami, but probably I can find out more.
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