On learning another tongue....

   

     I saw in a Malayalam daily, articles about Ramayanam, in the festive season of Adi-month . I had been trying to learn  Malayalam, by writing down the 108-namavalis of Ganesa, Subramanya, Shiva, Vishnu and Devi. 

     That did help. But that was not sufficient. Now I tried to read and write Malayalam by reading the articles on Ramayanam and copying down the text of the articles everyday. Initially it was a little bit difficult. But later it became easy to read the sentences. I felt better and at ease because I knew the story. Another contributing factor was that Malayalam has a strong base in Sanskrit, a language which I studied with interest in school. I copied down the words correctly. This helped me gain better perfection in writing down. First my interest was to learn to write the aksharams of malayAlam correctly.While copying the first 10 articles I struggled a lot. Later only I started following the meaning. Fortunately I got enough guidance from friends to follow the meaning of each word and sentence. Then writing itself was enjoyable following the meaning.

    

Three different writers presented these articles, choosing specific events. insights of the chosen events and different interpretations were available.   

     When I enjoyed the thrill and depth of the  of the cream of the epic's thought force, in malayalam, 

I was really enjoying the epic. I was enjoying the beauty  of the language which was giving the required literary depth of the epic efficiently. Other than the oft chosen topics and events there were out of the ordinary, but important topics were presented with special care. One such topic was Barathan and Mandavi. They are the third son Baratha of Dasaratha and Mandavi, the brother's daughter of Janaka and given in marriage to Baratha, 

      One B.Sandhya, I.P. S. presents thus. The life of Baratha after Dasaratha's death was totally different after he returned from his grandfather's kingdom, when Rama was gone on 14 years 'vanavasam' and immediately Dasaratha giving up his mortal body. Baratha chose not to take the throne but only to bring back Rama and coronate Rama as the king. The grand efforts he took, were laudable. Vasishta the Guru with his group of sages, the 3 queens cum mothers,the people of Ayodya, were all taken along to bring back Rama. Baratha's  love and gigantic sincere efforts only brought him the responsibility of the kingdom to be administered; the pair of Rama paduka were Baratha's friend and solace, until Rama returned after 14 years.

     He lead a simple forest life with Jata-mudi and bark garment. He helped the paduka-pair to rule the   kingdom. He enjoyed reporting accounts and administration to Rama's revered paduka-pair. All this he did achieve only by the moral support and contributive  shining subtle helping hand of Mandavi. Unless some one points out this current of Baratha's life, it passes off unreflected in the flood of the main stream of Ramayana. We are telling the truth, when we point out that Barata felt Rama's divine presence in the Paduka-pair, vibrant on the throne.

     Ravana the scholar, devotee of shiva, had in his hands sangeetham; he had invented a violin known as 'Ravanahastham'. Many years of austerities, and boons lie at his credit. He hadcomposed on Lord shiva a sthothram WHICH ADORES SHIVA'S DANCE; it is known as 'Shiva thandava sthothram'. His Lanka city flourished with all that he desired to possess. When Rama came to Lankapuri and first saw Ravana, for one minute, Sri Rama forgot himself. The strength of all the victories of Ravana was his queen- Mandodhari's pathivrathyam, her love and dedication to her husband Ravana. She is one among the five pathivrathas, adored in the early morning by great souls, for auspicious beginning of the day.

  

"Transcendence": A few takeaways Part-1

     1. This book"Transcendence" , is designed with a great vision for our India; it is the love for our country of a great soul and a unique visionary, who dedicated his whole life sincerely with all his soul's might, offering his intellectual wealth, for the upliftment of the people of India. This great soul, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, the 'peoples'president', is adorned with more than a dozen achievements in his field of science, space-adventures. Why he is a unique great soul among the great son's of the soil is that he offers ALL THE CREDITS OF HIS SUCCESSES TO THAT ONE SUPREME BEING WHO CREATED THE WHOLE universe AND ALL IT'S CONTENTS. He never claims his acchievement as his succcess. Instead he immediately credits it to that One Supreme Being; why?
 We have to take guidance from the words of of that great soul, "Each individual creature on this beautiful planet is created by God to fulfill a particular role. Whatever I have achieved in life is through His help, and an expression of His will. He showered His grace on me through some outstanding teachers and colleagues, and when I pay my tributes to these persons, I am merely praising His glory. All these rockets and missiles are His work through a small person called Kalam,
in order to tell the several million masses of India, to never feel small or helpless. We are all born with a divine fire in us. Our efforts should be to give wings to this fire and fill the world with the glow of its goodness.' These words occur as the last few lines of revered Kalam in his introduction to his book, 'Wings of Fire', (An Autobiography)
     One is to take a humble journey through this book'Transcendence'; The different subjects that are interestingly taken up and woven in the design, of the broad major and deeper thought forces form a treat. Dr.Abdul Kalam had fully utilised  all his mental faculties with love for the global humanity, to develop and build their future, rooting them fully on faith in God and faith in scriptures.
     The very meaning of transcendence that which one cannot understand  through normal ways of acquiring knowledge , by understanding with intellect or by experience.Anything transcendent can be understood only by intuition. Now we can hope that we have understood what the word transcendent, means.
     In the introduction to his book 'Transcendence' Dr. Abdul kalam says, "Starting with my father, Jainulabdeen, I have been blessed with some great teachers, who appeared at different stages of my life.....My father lived a simple life as it unfolded before him but never lost sight of the underlying divinity. Throughout my life, I have  tried to emulate my father in this regard. My experiences of eight decades have validated the teaching I received from him. I do believe that all human beings carry divinity inside themselves, and that this can lift us out of confusion, misery, melancholy, and failure, and indeed guide us when it is contacted."
     In all his writings, Dr.Kalam who lived more than 8 decades, with full reinforcement and partnership with God, invites the reader to develop the the same faith and love for God and to be free from all anxieties and confusions in our lives. Many great scientists, who were nation builders had shared their experiences in building up faith in God along their untiring efforts to uplift our nation in
in the global race of scientific and technological advancements.
     He shares his experiences with the great souls, their faith, their anxieties, experiences and benefits of team work; all these contributed in his life as a scientist,  and a team leader in projects. As and when  his life was being chiseled by Almighty, he was carrying in his inner self the problems, sufferings of Indian masses. How our nation was strugling to face the problems and lead the nation in the path of development was also in his consciousness.
     We can learn many important, beneficial lessons, disciplines, thought patterns from the simple, but lovingly friendly sharings by Dr.Kalam. Reflections of ancient and modern thinkers, expressions of truth by many great scientists, are gems lying strewn along the planned unique efforts to lead the nation to the goal-point, presented in the book.
     I am interested in sharing a few of the reflections, expressions of truth, and interesting quotations that aptly throw light on the relevant points. Kalam was giving an account of proffessor Sathish dhawan, who was his project director."His academic  Accomplishments were awesome" says Kalam. I am listing-B. A. (maths), B. Sc.(phys.), M.A.(Maths.); augmented with B.E.(Mech.), M.SC(AEROSPACE ENGINEERING) AND DOUBLE PHDS IN MATHEMATICS AND AEROSPACE ENGINEERING. When I asked him the secret of his brilliance, he told me:'Academic brilliance is no different than the brilliance of a mirror. Once dust is removed, mirror shines and reflection is clear. We can remove impurities by pure and ethical lives and serving humanity, God will shine through us.'"
     If only one cares to understand these words of Professor Dhawan, any one who chooses to live a pure ethical life, reinforced with service to humanity is blessed with outstanding knowledge in many fields; not only  many fields but any field. When God is ready to bless one with knowledge one wants to specialise in, we are stuck up at the very first step itself asking, "Where is God?, I have no proof of His existence." The matter ended there and we have thrown overboard our age old ancient faith in God.Our ancient lore had gone a step ahead and engraved, "ThEna vinA thruNamapi nachalathi". But for His input, even a bit of the blade of grass can cannot move ."
     KalAm had an important question ever shining at the back of all his activities.He himself had firm faith and a handful with him too had. But that alone is not sufficient to move a mass of our Indian    
population as a whole, forward in all the required phases of development. This is a gigantic task.  We require faith in God as a necessary principle in the very foundation to achieve our goal. Since Kalam
felt the immenance of the national faith in God to succeed in the sincere efforts of many great souls,
his effort was to have the combined strength of spirituality and social service as the universal phase changer to establish peace, felicity, health, education, and allround creativity.
     In the year 1962 Vikram Sarabai was searching for a site for a space Research station in the equatorial region. Thumba in Kerala seemed ideal.It was nearest to the 'Equatorial Electrojet' (EEJ).
How this is important, we will try to understandHere a narrow ribbon of an aircurrent, flowing eastward during the daytime in the equatorial reagion of the eaqrth's ionosphere.This would fecilitate ionospheric research in the atmosphere. But this area Pallithura had many villages and thousands of fishing communities. It was also the location of an ancient saint Mary Magdalene church and the bishop's house. This land was to be requisitioned for scientific purposes. Vikram Sarabai who was heading the mission decided to present his case to the bishop of Thiruvananthapuram. Vikram Sarabhai the scientist met the Bishop On saturday; the bishop invited the scientist to attend the service at the church, the next day, (SUNDAY).  I am giving you the minimum but imortant development, afterwards.All the residents around attended the service. The bishop introduced the scientist to the residents, and gave his message thus, "Dear children, science seeks the truth that enriches human life. The higher level of religion is spirituality. Spiritual preachers like me seek the help of the Almighty to bring peace to human minds. In short, what Vikram is doing and what I am doing are the same-both science and spirituality seek the Almighty's blessings for human prosperity in mind and body. Our abodes and church will be newly built and given to us. Children, can we give them God's abode, my abode and your abodes for a scientific mission?" There was pind-drop silence, followed by a hearty 'Amen' from the congregation, which made the church resonate. The bishop took the noble decision to dedicate the church for  the establishment of the Indian Space Research Organisation (I. S. R.O ) in recognition of our national scientific goals.
     The acquisition of land for establishment of the scientific institution ISRO was smoothly achieved.
Many more Satellite launching, for different social and scientific purposes were achieved. Today these satallites provide instant communication, weather forecasting, and the ability to locate water resources for the country. 'Today  neither Vikram Sarabhai nor the bishop Reverend Father Peter Bernard Peraira is with us, but the evidence of their nobility and unity of minds remains, and will continue for generations.' So writes Kalam in his book 'Transcendence'. We all know neither A.P.J. Abdul Kalam is with us now.
     Later thinking about this event, Kalam evaluates it against the need of India and the parallel timely response from 'The convergence of the enlightened spiritual and scientific leaders in thus giving reverence to the meaning of human life.' It is a hall mark in the history of a nation as well in the struggle by great souls to lead the country to the forefront of the global  advancement in science, technology and space research.