This is the story of E.K JANAKI AMMAL

SOME WOMEN

 A girl who would be the Superstar

Yes, she was the first heroine of Malayalam Cinema. It got released in 1928. Of course it was a silent movie!

"Vigathakumaran", that was its name, it simply meant 'the lost child'.

Totta Vaikuntam

HAPPY NEW YEAR

 

Let’s ring in the New Year with a joke. This one happened while I was doing my

nine-to-five grind with a govt-run R&D Institute (JNTBGRI) at Palode, T’puram. We had a hexagon shaped canteen, looking something like a pyramid which was open to all, including contract labourers. Everybody shared the same food, self-served and one could go to any place of the spacious area enjoying the beautiful view outside. The ambience too was good, mainly due to the absence of loud popular music.

Sunrise at Kanyakumari

One must go to the service-counter first, order one’s choice from the limited menu which will be served hot in a minute or two. The main players would be paraded before your eyes in an attractive way. For example, “puttu” (steam-cooked ground rice, layered with coconut shavings, cylindrical in shape) in a triangle-like formation with just one piece at the vertex. I moved towards the plantain-leaf, show-casing puttu, but one of the ladies standing nearby interrupted.

Oh Sir, please move away from “puttu”. It might give way like a land-slip and you would be six feet under.

Hearing this the other one remarked,

Oh no! When your time is up, Sir, even a puttu-slide is enough.

I was flabbergasted. Those illiterate women doing manual labour on daily-wages had understood the “ungraspable phantom called life” in a much better way than me!

Perhaps education has got nothing to do with wit & wisdom, who knows!

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ONE AND ALL!

VANISHING INTO THIN AIR

 

VANISHING INTO THIN AIR

 

The unique contribution of Sree Narayana Guru is to change the concept of Sannyasa. We have the image of the Sanyasi from times of yore - saffron robes, rudraksha adorned neck, “kamandalu” (a vessel for receiving alms) in hand and contemplating on “Aham Brahmasmi” without break. Sree Narayana Guru, though he doesn’t invalidate this model says there is more to sannyasa than meets the eye.  One can’t, sanyasi included, stand alone like an island in ocean. 

 

Everybody seems to be having a single-point agenda, i.e., to amass and sustain what is dear to us. Needless to say, others are adversely affected by this process. A sanyasi cannot sit idle. He should be a Kripalu , a selfless and infinitely compassionate  soul  and  his first priority is to give weightage  to others. He works out ways for others happiness thereby attaining his.  

Now he is experiencing the non-dual state by virtue of his karma.  Extrapolating this, one can reach at the core of adwaita by treating others as reflections of your Self.

 

Everyone and everything are blood-related. Even an electron is not alien. In fact, adwaita is rooted in Love.  One who practices it can feel the pain as well as happiness    of others as that of his own.  One need not go to Himalayas to get the right ambiance.       One can do the nine-to-five grind and still practice adwaita.  Of course, the ultimate aim is self-realisation. The first step for that goal is to do some real good work for the benefit of others. Wherever there is a manifestation of divisive tendencies, one works towards its nullification by applying the principles of adwaita pragmatically.

Love, if confined to limits, can be counter-productive. You are treating some people as 

blood-relations and all others as aliens. People-Like –Us (PLU) Syndrome is the ideal body for the cancerous growth of hate.  One takes false pride in one’s caste, religion, language, nation etc. Everyone outside the PLU bracket is an enemy.  Hate might take a subtle form, might not be visible but it shows its ugly face from behind the veil.

 

What does that mean?

The life and times of Millennium Men, a failure?

We can’t say either ‘Yes’ or ‘No’. Surely, one can make one’s life meaningful for oneself following their teachings. It may require a slight alteration as per the need of the hour.   However, the tragedy exists for all gurus who changed the course of history.

They pale into oblivion. Nobody follows their teachings in letter and spirit.

In fact, history of humankind is written well in advance.

The end-point of evolution is already projected.  Sri. Aurobindo defines evolution as an “Ascent in Consciousness”.  You and I are racing towards this goal.  We’ll all become Super Humans (Perfect Masters) in our own right. Just a matter of Time.  The retarders (negative elements in evolution) will be ejected out periodically. Prior to the ejection, it reaches its peak! We are living our lives witnessing one such peak and that explains why we are at each other’s throat!

Now cheer up ! This can’t go on forever.  The cleansing starts just after the peak period.

All bad things must come to an end.

 

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