Carnatic music, Cockroaches, Cars, Canteens and
Creating Overnight Celebrities
“Get out of your own
way… stop the paralysis by analysis… decide what you want, create a simple
plan, and get moving!” - Steve Maraboli.
I beg you… to have
patience with everything unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions
themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign
language. Don’t search for the answers, which could not be given to you now,
because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live
everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future,
you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer. ~
Rainer Maria Rilke.
Rainer Maria Rilke.
“Across planes of
consciousness, we have to live with the paradox that opposite things can be
simultaneously true.”
― Ram Dass.
― Ram Dass.
I start with these
three quotes whose relevance I would like the readers to infer at the end.
The ideology which preaches a comfortable car to
redesign itself in speed, design etc to render justice to bullock carts to bridge
the gap of disparity is putrefying growth and petrifying to a 21st
century human being.
All that I write below are merely observations and
not judgments on anything as correct or wrong.
Everything is inherently embedded with certain basic
and fundamental steps which one cannot by pass [of course this too has
exceptions] but to deprive things of these fundamental steps would be
emasculating them of their very vitality.
Everything in any process of growth is just a
step, important and inevitable, but not a stop. It is so with
mother’s milk [our biological aspect of life]; it is so with learning of
alphabets, words and numbers [our intellectual aspect of life]; it is so with
hugging, kissing and cajoling as babies [our emotional aspect of life]; it is
so with our learning and understanding of different concepts [ our
philosophical aspect of life]; it is so with all forms of worship, devotion and
all its concomitant rituals and religious practices [ our spiritual life] and
so on. This is the inherent wisdom. A normal human being has to go through a
process to grow in everything or into something. There may be exceptions like a
Adi shankara, or a Bhagawan Ramanamaharishi.
We can neither avoid
the steps nor get struck to them. That’s why I cannot accept the snobbism of so
called intellectuals parroting pet slogans like religion without rituals, god
without religion or religion without gods, spiritualism without god or religion
etc. In fact I have books titled in each part of the slogan.
This does not mean
that we must stop questioning or doubting anything in real earnest to get
answers or get further enlightened. Fortunately we are from a philosophical background,
I mean Indians, wherein the religion is Sanathana Dharma which allowed also
carvaka philosophy which almost advocated atheism when the word atheism itself
did not exist in any language.[1]
Incidentally my New Year Greeting for 2014 itself is
about questioning.[2]
Here even in the
arena of spirituality I would suggest to those who cannot digest the high
philosophical exposition of reality as explained by a J.Krsihnamurthy or a
Neale Donald Walsch to read Swami Chinmayananda’s wonderful and very simple
book ‘Logic of Spirituality’ as it can help us make a true evaluation
of what type of human being we are and which type of approach will be appealing
to us and make us access our spiritual roots easily. For some it is rituals and
devotion; for some it is philosophical enquiry; for some it is pure meditative approach
etc. Here are the links but better still to buy the book with CD and gift it to
parents. [3] This applies to all fields.
Take for example the food in a hotel. Some may like
the food in a hotel just as it is to satisfy their hunger, some may like its
ambience , some may get attracted by brand name, some may appreciate the
presentation of the food, some may like the hospitality of the waiter, some may
like the dressing of the food, some may like the color of the food, some may be
interested in analyzing the ingredients, some may be bothered about whether
they were prepared in hygienic conditions, some may be bothered about the nutritional
content of the food, some also may like the taste etc. It is difficult to satisfy all these categories
and many more such seekers. If a hotel starts analyzing all these factors in the food that they plan to offer then the hotel business can never takeoff.
In any evolution in general and in individual in
particular certain metamorphic changes could be at times spontaneous, sudden, intense,
intermittent, linked to some hidden agenda or ulterior motives etc but
nevertheless they create an impact. Sometimes it has produced the greatest
souls who have propelled the course of history like a Valmiki or a Voltaire [read
Will Durant's story of philosophy wherein he introduces Voltaire as 'Italy had
renaissance, Germany had reformation but France had one man called Voltaire'].
But mostly when public pronouncements or publicity of such supposed
metamorphosis especially when it pops out of people who merely seek popularity
and prominence through short cuts without necessary experience -based maturity,
sound knowledge and groping about in irrelevant territories desperately seeking
identity it does not augur well either for that person or the cause[s] which he
is supposed to be promoting and it could even be counterproductive.
Everything that has ever existed and continue to
exist or anything that has happened or continue to happen quiet often has its
own inherent logic, principle, purpose, value, strength etc. In addition they
are or act as some pieces to fit into the jigsaw puzzle of life.
These two important factors inherent logic and being
part of the jigsaw puzzle of life are attributes of everything starting from the
various forms and names of Almighty to all things in the universes.
Unfortunately the whole or complete picture of life is
yet unknown to many of us [if we are honest and humble enough to accept] but
not unknowable. This unknown mystery is so because of various factors of which
the two most glaring are our chronologically limited mortal body frame and the
limited abilities and perceptions of our mental frame and this prevents us from
simultaneously perceiving anything at both the micro as well as macro level.[4]
But despite the limited existence of our individual body
and all the limitations of our mind, we as human beings have explored the
unmapped atlas of life enjoying, experiencing and enlightening ourselves in the
process. Life as whole has been constantly reciprocating us with both sweet
melodies and bitter tragedies in the course of our explorations and
experiences.
Life has manifested its splendor through the
excellent contributions and developments leading humanity to the zenith of
advancements and enhancement of living conditions as well as pushed humanity to
the nadir of existence because of some destructive and decadent activities.
The destructive and decadent activities are not only
the tangible material ones but the psychological
ones too and the purpose of this article is to address one such
psychologically destructive activity which is promoted by vested interest
groups.
Fortunately, at least in our country, most things
and individuals have remained unencumbered by political ideologies formed and
framed to homogenize everything and everyone and exercise control over and
dominate and rule.
This long preamble is necessary to drive home
certain points that I would like to explain now.
For want of time, space and in order to confine
myself to the topic I am addressing, I am limiting myself only to a very small
area of psychological destructiveness which by itself is too vast staring from
catchy slogans which block thinking and reasoning to constant propaganda and
brainwashing techniques which prevent perception and many such destructive
tools adopted to control a whole population to fall in line with a particular
or specific ideology through homogenization. [5]
These ideological invasions are done through various
means to curb the manifestation of law of nature which is variety, and freedom
of individual thinking which is the natural process of inward flowering of
every individual soul expressing itself through the body and mind it has
chosen.
Many religious institutions and political outfits
have used these techniques to propagate, preserve and promote their vested
interests.
From the vast sky of these vague generalized
observations let me dive down to the specific clouds.
Persons, things, events are the different clouds
that dot the sky of life. What happens is out of an attitudinal problem when we deal with or
resort to apply or evaluate wrongly [6] different clouds then our overall perception[7] of the cloud is
clouded and before we realize the cloud either moves away or explodes or
evaporates. So, great havoc is created through psychological fallacies. How?
Let me explain.
That is, we cannot apply to study things or events
out of context however exalted or revered tools we may use, be they the Vedas
or bible. To drive home this point let me take a very crude example. Can they
[Vedas or bible] explain or do they contain literature about methods and morals
of cyber usage? The answer is a definite no. Obviously cyber activities did not
exist at the period when Vedas or bible came into existence. So to evaluate
them [Vedas or Bible, however great, good and useful they are, or however much
you hold them with reverence and sanctity] with reference to their relevance to
cyber activities will only make these texts of no use or value. If anyone who
attempts to use the Vedas or bible in such a way is resorting to adopting wrong
tools of application or using wrong methods of evaluation. We have to only
laugh at his ignorance or ignore his laughable behavior.[8]
Cockroaches have their
own inherent attributes like being nocturnal creature with a chain of hearts,
in all totaling to 13. Some regard it as a single heart with 13 chambers. These
are funnel shaped chambers with a pair of tiny holes called ostia. The ostia
allow blood into the cockroach hearts. The hearts push the blood forward, in
the direction of the head. Beneath the hearts are rhomboid alary (i.e.
wing-shaped) muscles. Contraction and relaxation of the alary muscles pulls the
blood nearer heart and Suction pressure fills the heart with blood entering
through the ostia. We cannot complain about cockroaches having a heart
throughout its body with more than a dozen chambers and having an ability to
live longer without air or food and even their ability to withstand radiation
better than human beings can be explained through the cell cycle. Cells are
most vulnerable to the effects of radiation when they are dividing. A
cockroach's cells divide only once each time it molts, which is weekly at most
in a juvenile roach. Since not all cockroaches would be molting at the same
time, many would be unaffected by an acute burst of radiation.
It is these very unique
features or attributes that have made them survive, as probably only species
over several millions of years. We cannot complain that they have unfair
advantages like they are only nocturnal preferable inhabiting dark but dry as
well as wet places.
We cannot apply or need
not apply and expect cockroaches to fit into our political ideology based on twisted
logic and demand that cockroaches must also like many other insects be made to
be present at day time, on all environs and so on. We may not like the
cockroach’s filiform antennae or its anal cerci and therefore we cannot expect creation
to redesign a cockroach’s anatomy to suit our taste or liking. Cockroach’s worthiness or value is dependent
on the above cited aspects of its own unique
features.
Cockroaches and mango fruit sambar have their own
inherent logic for existence.[9]
All bubbles and balloons are very attractive
spectacles but we can never erect structures using them as a foundation, the
Indian brand of Marxist leftist ideology is one such bubble or balloon to which
all of us are attracted but trying to claim it as a panacea or use to as a tool
to evaluate everything or as a reference manual to explain the correctness or
justify everything is to live in a world of delusion and muddying the water.
Some migratory birds may fish in these troubled waters whether we view their
acts as noble or otherwise [pun] intended.
One can combine the use of the gift of the gab,
mastery of language and google’s search engines and produce excellent
literature on cardiac surgery and neuro surgery which can put to envy even
great cardiac surgeons and neuro surgeons but that does not mean that that
person has the least bit of knowledge about either the heart or brain much less
can be expected to even witness either a cardiac or brain surgery without
shivering, leave alone doing the surgery. There is nothing wrong in such
literature or persons producing such literature.
But it would be grave mistake to give more
prominence or importance to such writers over real cardiac and neuro surgeons
especially to people who are confused as to which specialist doctor they need
to approach for their cardiac problems.
Unfortunate trend is the TV anchors and media promoted
personalities are tending to be considered as experts in all fields and some turn out as
overnight celebrities, heroes and even chief ministers.
The platform that gives more importance to such
writers is contributing to the psychological decay of the human race. Damage is
more if a majority of innocent people look up to such platform.
The subject I am touching upon is a frustrated
carnatic vocalist and the prominence given to him by a particular newspaper.
I beg to disagree with you respected author of this
article who makes lofty comparisons of a small fry.[ http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-editorialfeatures/an-open-letter-to-tmkrishna/article5494768.ece#]
I can quote a few hundreds of eccentric geniuses
like flute Mali in India in various fields and a few thousands across the
globe.
Their eccentricities were psychological or emotional
manifesting either as inherent natural attributes of their individual self or
out of their reaction based on the actual realization or presumed perception
that their extraordinary talents were not appreciated to the extent that they
deserved or expected.
For those who believe in astrology there are certain
combinations of Venus [ sukran] which
endows one with both extraordinary talent and eccentricities.
But then in the case of TMK, with all respects to
him [ I too used to enjoy some of his concerts] let me make it very clear,
avoiding comparisons [both in terms of voice quality or musical expertise] that
he is not even anywhere near many others of his time and of even those much
younger to him. They are all far more talented than him.
His eccentricities could be probably out of
frustration that he is not able to perform as well as many others or his over
ambitious short term prominence seeking and cheap publicity seeking mentality
through short cuts or is the result of his having got influenced and getting
confused by a totally conflicting and irrelevant ideological fixation based on
a social philosophy which has proven track record of colossal failure in actual
application even in domains for which it was intended and that ideology needs
to be kept in the attic of a Museum, not even anywhere else in the museum,
namely Leninist Marxist ideology which has failed even in USSR.
Or perhaps he is consciously aware that he cannot
compete and excel among his peers and other great singers that he has resorted
to, thanks to his family background and being well connected to some media
houses to these tricks.
Incidentally I have written this way back without as
much of fanfare or publicity as TMK more or less on same lines in certain
aspects with suggestions that my small brain could think of but without trying
to pose as a messiah read the link patiently [http://contentwriteups.blogspot.in/2012/08/carnatic-music-too-must-reinvent-itself.html]
Here is one interesting write up I found
“How will a deaf man understand music?
He will bring a sound detector, that might
have some graphical intruments. The deaf man will make graphs of frequency vs
time, and then he will merely say "THIS IS MUSIC!".
IS MUSIC MERELY "frequency vs
time"?
Ask a musician to decode the frequency vs
time and reproduce the music. He won't be able to. I compose music. I have
tried to record my music on paper(during these vacations!) like a deaf man.
Sometimes when I forget my own music, these written texts(that contain in great
detail, everything) are of no use. It is dead. You need inspiration to remember
the music back.
Sound forms a minuscle part of music. What
matters more is the bhava(emotions and expressions) .Music requires
inspiration. It requires a connection to the nature and this world. Music is
never created, it is ever present, you just need to listen to it.
Music has a soul. The sound is merely its
carrier.
There is the same soul within everything.
Somewhere its carrier is the sound, while somewhere its carrier is the body.”[ http://prateekraj.blogspot.in/2007/10/charvaka-philosophy_02.html]
[1] http://www.mahavidya.ca/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/gajdostik-megan-carvaka-philosophy.pdf
and http://www.slideshare.net/ajitceo/the-carvaka-philosophy
[2] New Year with a
New Realization of Reality
[3]http://chinmayasaaket.org/articles/gurudev/LOGIC%20OF%20SPIRITUALITY.pdf
and http://www.hinduismworldwide.in/2013/05/logic-of-spirituality-swami.html
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