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January 18, 2024 Leave a comment
Playing to no fans, cheer, smile or nod.
No siblings to throw arms over shoulders.
Seeing many moons, sadly, not your lot.
For sun’s shine bend to give you a gentle kiss,
and, for the touch by soft hands of a sweet little Miss!
I wish for you, child…
Kayor
June 12, 2020 6 Comments
…prayers excepted.
**
‘Don’t forget. Next Tuesday is Rama’s birthday by our calendar. Take Rs 500 with you and pay it at the office for a one-day upayam on that day. I wonder if you remember – hers is kettai nakshatram and gothram is vaadula, yours. They’ll need these details. Her exams are coming up and she must do well…make sure you collect the receipt.’
To let you know, we celebrate birthdays according to Srirangam panchangam (a well-known authoritative traditional calendar cast in the town of Srirangam), the date determined by the month and the star at the time of birth, with gothram specifying the lineage. Most temples have this scheme where one pays a part of that day’s expenses for conducting special prayers and rituals in the name of a person specified. In this instance, my daughter.
‘Also pray for your father. The poor man is suffering from joint pains, unable to walk like before. And, of course, for yourself so He may bless you with the promotion you’re seeking.’
You guessed right, that was my wife filling up the order-book for me.
Forty minutes later, I was back all done, after praying for my father and myself and, for my daughter, enrolling for the one-day upayam coming up in the following week. Also included, of course, was a non-specific prayer for my lady’s well-being. Did not forget to collect the receipt. Domestic bliss assured with a 10/10 performance, I thought.
But there was something else…though not hell-raising and luckily I was not on stage.
As I let myself in, I heard her voice coming in from the kitchen.
‘Only two months ago you came asking for Rs 200 for buying medicines for your husband. I gave you without saying a thing. Last month it was another 200 for your child’s school uniform and now you want 300 for some repairs in your house. Helping out someone in need once or twice is fine. But don’t make a habit of asking, asking, asking…No one will oblige all the time. I’ll give you this once – but don’t come back with something else anytime soon.’
It must be the maid talked to.
A thought crossed my mind as I collected the kumkum and the flowers brought from the temple and the all-important receipt for handing over: It was my hope our kind Lord in the skies above didn’t listen in and get ideas, abandoning His good old ways.
End
Image from gyanyogbreath.com
December 29, 2018 Leave a comment
…like how!!!
There lived a Queen who wanted to understand Bhagavad Gita – its essence.
‘How many shloka’s (verses) make up the
Gita?’ She asked a Pundit at her court.
‘700, my lady,’ he said.
She summoned the minister: ‘Kindly get 700 gold coins ready from the treasury. Tomorrow as the venerable Pundit here explains each shloka, he be given a gold coin. That makes it 700 coins.’
700 gold coins for him? The Pundit was elated at his good fortune. He returned home in high spirits and pulled out all his notes for perusal so he may best explain the shloka’s to the Queen.
Next day he made it to the royal court
at the appointed time. His eyes popped on seeing before him the pile of
glittering gold coins on a plate.
He mentally prayed to Lord Krishna to be on his side and help him out in…
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May 13, 2018 3 Comments
Isn’t it strange…
we make Ravana to set him on fire (later)?
End
source: Pinterest
May 6, 2018 1 Comment
The two sishya’s (disciples) were arguing over some matter.
The voices and the tempers were raising, not realizing the seer was close by.
The seer hoped they would quickly reach a closure.
But it was not to be. It went on for a while.
The seer decided to intervene. He walked up to them and requested them to sort things out amicably without sullying the decorum of the Mutt (institution).
A visitor around at that time observed all that happened.
Politely approaching the seer he asked him why he did not order the errant sjshya’s sternly to behave themselves. After all they were followers of the Mutt. Why make a polite request?
‘You must have read stories about our Rishi’s,’ the seer said to the visitor. ‘And, how predators (tigers) and preys (deer) drank water from the same pond side by side in the ashram’s of our venerable Rishi’s.’
The…
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January 1, 2018 3 Comments
It was early morning on the 16th day of Margazhi (the month). The day’s discourse concluded on the 16th Thiruppavai paasuram (see note on Thiruppavai at the end), peeling away its literal sense to uncover its manifold metaphorical allusions:
*naayaganaay ninRa, nandagOpanuDaiya
kOyil kaappaanE!* koDit tOnRum tOraNa
vaayil kaappaanE!* maNik kadavaM taaL tiRavaay*…
The audience dispersed, some to the adjoining temple for darshan and some spilling onto the street heading homewards.
The man and the woman, the first to emerge, paused at the gate where footwears were left behind on the outside before entering the temple.
She saw here and there and said: ‘I can’t find my chappals. Had left them right here.’
The man: ‘Look carefully, it must be somewhere here.’
‘I’ve seen all around…it’s not here. It is a new one.’
‘Whoever told you to wear a new pair to the temple?’
Losing one’s footwear, especially new, at public places like temples is not uncommon.
The man turned to the meek looking Nepali in a crumpled ill-fitting khaki standing at the gate: ‘Watchman, did you see anyone take off wearing her chappals?’
The poor immigrant was used to rudeness: ‘No, Sir. No one was here in the time I’m standing here on watch. You’re the first to come over here.’
Giving him a disdainful look reserved for an erring domestic, the man to his wife in Tamizh: ‘Who knows, this fellow may have swiped it himself. You can’t trust them at all. Days are such…’
The Nepali guessed they were talking about him, none of it complimentary. Mumbling to himself: ‘Don’t they know I’m here to guard the temple’s things and god’s against theft and not for keeping a watch on footwears left outside?’
Just then the woman cried an excited ‘Eureka’: ‘Oh, I found them…thank god. Some mutt had left his jumbo shoes on top of my chappals. That’s why…’
They left, not looking back.
Back at home, his mother to the woman: ‘So how was it today?’
Every day when they returned from the discourse, his mother always wanted know. It would not be out of place to mention she had been to at least half a dozen discourses on the subject before her knees gave way. Still…
The woman summed it up for her: ‘Amma, it was very nice today. In today’s paasuram, the thOzigal (cow-herd girl-friends) are up and ready – they have assembled in front of Nandagopan’s palatial house, also Krishna’s residence. And you know what? This is so much like what happens today…to gain entry into the house for Krishna’s darshan, they try to enlist the support of others who matter – first, the guard at the main gate, then another watching the courtyard and the inner door. That’s not all – once inside, they now appeal to Krishna’s elder brother Balram too and mother Yashodha. Even here, see how smart they’re: when they address the guards, it’s not by their names, but by describing the important job they are doing – remember how Krishna is under constant threats from asura’s assuming unimaginable forms – massaging their professional pride! The operating principle here’s: ‘When you go to seek favors (god’s grace), don’t offend others on the way. In fact it helps to get them on your side!` Just like what we do today, isn’t it? Digressing briefly at this point, the upanyasakar (the speaker at the discourse) pointed out, how many of us understand and appreciate, whenever we go to temples, the job dwarapaalakaa’s (the two iconic door-keepers depicted on the doors at the entrance; full-sized stone moorthy’s (icons) in bigger temples) do – keeping watch on in-comers – and are worthy of our serious devotion as noble servants of god? And, we hardly notice them much less bow to these watchmen…’
End
Source: Image from United We Blog!
On Thiruppavai (from Wiki):
The Tiruppavai is a collection of thirty stanzas (paasurams) written in Tamizh by Andal, belonging to the pavai genre of songs, in praise of the Lord Vishnu. Andal assumes the guise of a cowherd in these 30 verses and is intent upon performing a particular religious vow to marry the Lord, thereby obtain His everlasting company, and inviting all her girl-friends to join her. Sri Vaishnavas sing these stanzas every day of the year in the temple as well as in their homes to bring peace, prosperity and Divine Grace. This practice assumes special significance during Margazhi: each day of this month gets its name from one of the thirty verses. There are references to this vow in the late-sangam era Tamil musical anthology Paripadal.
October 4, 2017 3 Comments
He asked the old man for some advice.
The old man turned to him: ‘Have you ever washed utensils?’
What an odd thing to ask! Mildly irritated he said, ‘Yes, what of it?’
‘What did you learn?’
‘What is there to learn from it? All that one does is to scrub it clean.’
The old man smiled at him: ‘Yes, you’re right…but it’s done harder on the inside than on the outside.’
End
Source: Strictly not a word-by-word translation of the original from Pinterest, possibly a zen story.
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