Thursday, May 01, 2014

004 Who are to be abandoned?

Topics for discussion: 004, cars, human body, relatives, functions, God, Horses

ENGLISH SCRIPT

akkaraku raani cut`t`amu,
mrokkina varamiini veelpu, moharamuna daa
nekkina baarani gurramu
grakkuna vid`avamgavalayu gadaraa Sumatii !

akkaraku rAni cuTTamu,
mrokkina varamIni vElpu, mOharamuna tA
nekkina bArani gurramu
grakkuna viDuvamga valayu kadarA SumatI.

Telugu script

అక్కరకు రాని చుట్టము
మ్రొక్కిన వరమీని వేల్పు, మోహరమున తా
నెక్కిన బారని గుర్రము
గ్రక్కున విడువంగ వలయు కదరా సుమతీ.


ENGLISH GIST


FIT TO BE ABANDONED?

1. A relative who will not be present on ceremonial occasions and when other necessary occasions arise (such as marriages, deaths etc.)

2. A God who does not fulfil desires or grant a gift in spite of praying.

3. A horse which does not move after mounting.
akkara = necessity, a family function; ku = to; raani = not turning up; cut`t`amu = relative; mrokkina = even after abegging and praying; varamu = gift; iini = not giving; veelpu = God; mooharamu = battle; na = in ; taanu = oneself; ekkina = even after mounting; paarani = not galloping or at least moving; gurramu = horse; grakkuna = without delay; vid`uvamga = to leave; valayu = required, necessary.


COMMENTS



ABANDONING UNRESPONSIVE RELATIVES

A century back, relatives used to reside in nearby places, and they used to assemble whenever auspicious or mournful functions take places in relatives' houses. Today, world has become a global village, and relatives may get scattered over a radius of thousands of kilo meters. Very often, the body of a dead parent will need to be preserved for some days, pending arrival of son(s), daughter(s) who are to pay their last obeisances or perform funeral rights.

The poet Jakkanamatya wrote this Sumati Satakam in 14th Century A.D., when relatives resided nearby and it was customary for relatives to flock together during events of merry or misery and share everything together. Today, after the advent of telephone and internet both greetings and condolences are communicated over mobiles or through tweets. Receiving a telephone from a relative living at a distance, itself has become a great favor. Hence, where is the question of abandoning them simply because they have not turned up for some function.

ABANDONING UNRESPONSIVE GODS

Whether God is one (monotheism), or whether Gods are many (polytheism or pantheism), humans expect the God(s) to rise to the occasion and help when in crucial need.

Let us take the example of Karabe Kunta Kinte in Alex Haley's monumental novel Roots. The protagonist Karabe Kunta Kinte was captured by Euro-American slave traders when he went to a forest outside his village, never to return back to his native land. Shackled like an animal in the slave-ship, he might have prayed to all the Gods in this world in right earnest, and yet nobody could save him. Ultimately he had to be sold as a slave in U.S.A. and taken inland. Later under duress, he might have shifted to praying the alien God in U.S., but never really deliberate.

When Islamic and European invaders, bandits like Thugs and PinDAries ransacked Indian villages, the villagers might have prayed to the dearest of their Gods, albeit without results.

The period of Jakkanamatya (poet) represented times of Great Strife, when Persian and Turkish invaders were tromping the villages of Telangana (in Andhra Pradesh), and the Kakatiya Kingdom was reduced to ashes by Juna Khan.

It was, therefore, natural that there was great alround despondency and disconsolateness.

This despondency in India , continued upto 15th August 1947, till it was freed from the clutches of the British.

CASTE SYSTM IN INDIA

Whatever be its genesis, caste system in India oppressed the lowest castes and made their lives not worth living. Suddenly, the missinaries who arrived from Europe and U.S. seemed to provide relief through hospitals, and schools, and above all a new God. Unable to bear the torture from the upper castes in the villages, and unable to resist the monetary temptations offered by the foreign religions, many persons of opppressed castes might have shifted to foreign religions and started worshipping foreign Gods.

But, their poverty remained where it was, because poverty does not change in tune with change of God. Religion cannot undo injustices which feudalism and Capitalism do to those who do not have means of production.

Thus we come across three or four options:
Abandoning old God completely, take up new God right earnest and persist with him till death. Absolute shift and rigidness takes place. This can, sometimes, mean replacing one millstone around neck with another millstone. At some stage during life, one will have to realise that substitution did not really help.

Worshipping old Gods and new Gods alternately or concurrently. Today, this has become popular in India. Absolute shift does not take place. Flexibility makes shifts easy. Even this may not really help, because Gods are imaginary concepts.

Realisation of God, should really mean getting an awareness that the concept of God itself is a human creation. Once this realisation dawns, a person need not and will not pray Gods, and occasions will not arise to shift God X with God Y.

ABANDONING UNRESPONSIVE HORSES

We can now replace the word 'horses' with the word 'car/bike'.

One can always say that there is no use of hanging around with the old bike/car , when it gives trouble at a most inconvenient moment. Now-a-days, filthy rich Indians are aping the Euro Americans, in changing cars quite recklessly and whimsically. Such extravagance and profligacy is understandable in filthily rich countries. But, it cannot take place in a poor country like India, which is surviving yearly inputs of foreign investments. If foreign investments dry up, India will be in dire straits. Its reserve may not be sufficient to pay even for six months imports.

Spiritually also, changing cars as a habit is not desirable. We get only one body, when we are born. It grows, matures, gets old and ultimately atrophies and withers away like a dry ripe banian leaf. According to Bhagavadgita, human souls change their bodies, just as humans change their soiled/torn clothes. This has not been proved. When a person dies, simply the body gets merged with the cosmos, and nothing else.

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