[Before starting, this was a strange journey. Of course, music is a strange journey.
Every thing started with the song number “Kora Kagaz Tha Yeh Man Mera” in the Hindi film Aradhana (1969). The song starts with a flute like music, which I mistook for the strong nasal sounding flute, which has a very important place in North-East Indian states, famously called the seven sisters of the North-East. The flute could be a derivative of chinese Dizi, sometimes called Di or Hengdi or its other variants.
It was the time when DoorDarshan (public television broadcaster of India) was bringing amazing sights and sounds from all over India and SAARC countries and sometimes occasional Iranian and Chinese movies. This particular strong nasal sounding flute made me to love North-East India, China and their respective musical traditions. This is the same flute variety introduced me Nawang Khechog, the great Tibetan flautist, who came to Dharmashala, India along with Dalai Lama, and it is he who made me to love Tibet and Ladakh and their traditional musics.
So, what is the story all about? Well, when I first heard Khongorzul singing, her voice immediately brought the pictures of vast never-ending deep plains, a typical geographical wonders of Mongolia and the Himalayan sacred kingdoms, cold deserts. Her voice, like the Ladakhis’ and Tibetans’, belongs to great plains. It is unique! And found nowhere in the world.]
Khongorzul Ganbaatar is a singer from Mongolia. Her tradition is long song (Mongolian: Уртын дуу, Urtyn duu, sounds like OOr tin DOO) traditional songs. Since, Mongolia has deep vast plains and people shepherding on the back of horses needed a very good way of communication as well as entertainment, they developed this long song tradition.
They are called long songs not because the songs are long, but mainly because each syllable of the text is extended and stretched for longer duration. But in some cases they are indeed long. It is developed and evolved in this way for entertainment along long journeys on vast plains. A four minute song may only consist merely ten words. The long song tradition is declared by UNESCO as one of the Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.
But the beauty is the majestic voice of Mongolian people, like Khongorzul. To penetrate the deep plains or simply because one can sing at one’s own will since the mighty plains absorb any sound no matter how loud it is, the voice turns into something unique, unique in a sense it does reach not only the other end of the plain but perhaps even the heavens.
I first heard her singing in the album When Strangers Meet by Silk Road Ensemble founded by Yo-Yo Ma. My goodness, it not only cuts deep through the vast plains, but also pierces one’s soul bringing tears of joy. Yes Khongorzul, on hearing your country's music I started to love Mongolia.
Thanks Yo-Yo Ma for introducing this majestic voice and for the initiative of Silk Road Project. Let the Strangers Meet and exchange knowledge and culture.
Why intellectuals toss their quotes? Dictionary says repeating or copying the exact words spoken or written by someone is called quotes. What they really have in their mind while tossing such quotes? Do they consult and drill through many pages of a dictionary, a thesaurus, trying to put right words in right place, wasting stack of papers, filling the dustbin, emptying the ink-bottles, scratching their heads while pile of hairs comes off between their fingers and nails so that the particular phrase could stand out in their books or article and have a chance to become a quote. Or as in some cases or often in speeches, it is like in-a-jiffy, “Ha! Here you go! Catch a quote!”. It is funny to think that why intellectuals toss their quotes or why we turn their humble phrases into famous quotes.
Any way, much burden to some intellectuals’ cardiac tissues and facial muscles to express deep sadness for not picking their quotes, I have my own way of selecting my “quotes”. They are:
Yâdhum Ooré Yâvarung Kélir(Tamil: யாதும் ஊரே யாவருங் கேளிர்) means “To us all towns are one, All men our kin”. It is the first stanza of a Purananuru (புறநானூறு) poem written by one Kaniyan Poongundran (கணியன் பூங்குன்றன்) who belongs to the laic Sangam literature community, ca. ~4th century BCE.
The non-secular Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam (Sanskrit) means “We all belong to one single cosmic family, from gods, demi-gods, other ‘exobiological’ entities, planets, galaxies, ‘humble’ human beings to neutrinos, neurons, dust and mist.” We all belong to one single cosmic family. It is from Hindu philosophy. Time unknown.
Though the above two are my favorites quotes, the following quote, which is also from Hindu philosophy (Rg Védâ, ca 1500 BCE), on creation amazes me all time.
“Who knows and who can say whence it all came and how creation happened? The gods themselves are later than creation. So who knows truly whence it has all reasoned? Only he, who surveys it all from the highest heavens, only he knows. Or perhaps even he does not know.”
What made this particular philosopher to wonder that the god himself may not be aware of creation or he himself is a creation of creation. He does not start his humble phrases with “God knows everything”, but instead he starts with “Who knows and who can say”. How bold it is? It seems he is not aware of hell, I suppose. And he continues with “The gods themselves are later than creation”. And the final phrase is such an audacious one. “Or perhaps even he, who surveys it all from the highest heavens, even he does not know it. The creation. The origin of creation”. What kind of freedom he enjoyed from his faith to think like this? That too few thousand years ago!
So god, who are you? Where are you? I am left with questions, but no answers. Why do you fascinate us, divide us, or creating an illusion that seems you are dividing us? Why not stand shoulder to shoulder with man and beast? Why do you haunt us? Why don’t you just leave us making us immortal fearless spirits? Just questions, nothing more. Or perhaps even he does not know the answers for the above questions.
Anyway, it is too funny to think about quotes and the intellectuals behind them.
Recently someone added a comment to one of my videos on YouTube. The video is about lyrics, translation and explanation of a music/dance number of one Indian regional language film. The person whose mother tongue is that regional language itself, expressed his inability to understand the lyrics and the literature of that language. And interestingly, this person lives in that region and not in other country where he is obliged to learn things in that country’s language.
The language in question is one among the eight classical languages of the world. Among this eight elite group, it is one of the few living classical languages and holds a unique position that, among hundreds of thousands of world languages, this is the one and only language which held conferences, intellectual and academic gatherings to beautify it and ameliorate it in the fields of literature, music, dance and theater. This language is often discussed among linguist - for a possible motherhood - to create a link from this language to other languages like Japanese, Finno-Ugric, and even isolated languages like Korean and Basque, but not the other way around. This language has an unbroken literary tradition spanning over more than 3-4 millennia till current date, as few film songs employ some 4th century BCE poems as if they were written just the day before.
Same kind of elaborate discussion on the above language can be attributed to the two great music tradition of India, folkloric music traditions, the eight classical dance forms and other folkloric dances, Indian gastronomy, other Indian arts like painting or martial arts, Indian lifestyle and dress codes, the Indian sacred texts like the four Vedas, more than hundred Upanishads, the two great epics, numerous Puranas, Mimamsas, Smrithis, Siddhantas, Samhitas, Sruthis, Shastras, Sutras, Stotras, Tantras, Vedhantas, Aranyakas, Brahmanas, their sub categories, sub-sub categories, the secular and non-laic literature available in classical languages and other more than thousand languages. And the dimensions of the very soul of everything, the Indian civilization, themselves are something truly mind-boggling.
For every Indian, no matter of religion, caste, creed, or language, the proud moment of joy must be to understand that this vast, time-tested, incredibly subtle and genius, error corrected, refined, re-refined knowledge has survived all the odds since the civilizational foundations were laid and passed on to us. It is a great privilege bestowed on Indians, and not on any other parts on the earth, to have access to this ancient knowledge, store it in our brain and process it. Imagine how capable would be Indian brains to process such a huge amount of knowledge, say since some five thousand years, if Indians go by their own tradition and culture. Additionally there is still enough room in brains for the Indians to be lawyers, doctors, poets, mathematicians, pilots, IT geeks, tourist guides, humble drivers, be faithful to other religions, to learn other languages or to appreciate other cultures whatever the form they may take. In plain words turning our attention to our own culture is a great invaluable exercise for the gray muscles, which is available only to Indians. Imagine what kind of new generations the Indians can produce?
But what the Indians (I don’t prefer the words “majority of Indians”) do is, they simply abandon everything Indian and go for “look west” policy since their childhood and having difficulties understanding their own culture and mother tongue, like the person who posted comments on my video (I guess he would have probably been sold to “English medium” and have taken a “western path” to acquire knowledge). The Indian tradition is absorbing everything and turning it into uniquely Indian anchored deeply in Indian tradition. This was the case till the colonization, the worst episode of the Indian culture, before which we didn’t lose the economic might.
It’s justifiable to admire economically superior nations and upto some extent imitate their culture, when a nation has an inferior economy. The Mesopotamians did so when the Harappans were placed at the peak of their civilizational comforts. The Romans, Greeks and mainly the Arabs did the same, heavily borrowed and propagated Indian riches and knowledge, of course adding their own contributions. The Europeans followed the course, borrowed heavily from the Arabs and got a renaissance. Even the redoubtable Japanese did the same after the World War II and got more or little americanized. But no one abandoned their culture or the languages of their own mothers.
If we just have a glance at the Indian film culture, music industries, media, it is stuffed with western influence, from language, music, stealing Hollywood bikini culture, to McDonald’s, Pizza Huts and Coffee Shops. I really don’t understand what NY caps and T-Shirts got to do with Mangalore or Shilong or Tawang. Since the media is city dwellers puppets, it corrupts even the remotest villages in Tripura and Ladakh. I hate the media most when I happened to see advertisements like these (shame on people who endorse such ads):
It is pure and simple cultural eunuchism. No matter what you try, skin level or effin’ li’l English, you are not going to be an American or European. Neither an Indian, with a thick skull of no cultural values. Foreign languages and cultures are supposed to complement someone’s knowledge and his cultural background, but definitely not to replace them.
India, such a great civilization, mother to great thoughts, philosophies and sciences, while still very much ready to be alive with her traditions, why her younger generations more and more abandoning their cultural values? Why not proud of Indianess? Why not proud of belonging to a great civilization?
It is because of this cultural values, the processing ability of tonnes and tonnes of information by our brains passed on to us by our fathers and fore-fathers, India shattered her quasi-socialist protectionism, plugged herself into the global economy, faced all the consequences and now in result getting respect from every corner of the world. Is it permissible to turn the fertile minds, the new generation who are going to represent the new India, into barren consumerism-drugged monotonic wasteland resembling some vague occicentric pathetic egos?
In Indian mythology, Mâyâ, the illusion, is considered as the sister of Lord Vishnu, the protector among the divine trinity: Brahmâ – the creator, Vishnu – the preserver and Shîva – the destroyer. They are the three important manifestations of the Nâdha Brahman, the ultimate reality, the origin of creation, which wears the form of sound. They occupy certain sort of ‘posts’ than being gods. Or, in other words, they represent three important phases of the life cycle of any objects: birth, existence, and death. A star born out of gaseous stellar clouds by acquiring gravity, starts to fuse hydrogen to fuel it’s existence, and finally dies either as supernova burst or neutron star, or black hole (one fine day even the neutron star or black hole dies out). This divine trinity applies from humans, five elements, protons to even the large scale cosmos.
Vishnu sometimes does the job of creation and destruction to maintain harmony (dharma), but it is more or less like a human body creates and destroys cells between ultimate beginning and ultimate annihilation, that is during its existence. He employs the power of his sister, Mâyâ, the illusion to fine tune his job to hide the secrets of birth, death and existence. And makes the humans a bunch of morons for thinking that they possess the dominating intellectual superiority among other beings.
Mâyâ creates an illusionary world, where a 4D space looks ultimately real for a being who is gifted to sense just only the 4Ds and this applies to 2D, 3D up to nD. In other words, whatever the capacity of a given species to sense things, it is unable to look beyond it’s capacity and the world within it’s range of ability looks supreme real to that species. Par example, for humans, what we see, sense, invent, our maths seem real, but for the species who can sense 6Ds, all our observations seem ridiculous and primitive.
The dance of Mâyâ is everywhere. Observe, how just the distance reduce our ability to see things differently. A sun or moon close to our earth, at the same time distanced by few astronomical units looks no more like a sphere, but a round two dimensional disk. The stars further away, look point like single dimensional objects. If I am a scorpion, from earth perspective the constellation may look like a scorpion. But if we bring the entire constellation in 3D or nD to our table, from X axis perspective it may look like a peacock and Y axis it may look like a tiger.
Strange even, how the same distance distorts the time and makes us believe the past as present when we observe the stars. A star viewed from earth dieing today is actually died out millions of years ago and the light simply took such a long time to reach earth due to the mind boggling intergalactic distance. But we see it as an event of that night!
The color of my red sweater looks red to you and me. But for an ox, which is color blind or for a butterfly, which can see even beyond the VIBGYOR spectrum, my attire looks differently. For a being which is equipped with sophisticated organs to see and sense 4Ds and much more see my red pull differently. So, the red garment looks red to only the human beings. But not forcibly for all the beings on earth, let alone other species of this entire cosmos.
It is just because of the dance of Mâyâ, Newton’s theory became false when Einstein revealed his models of relativity. One great day Einstein’s theory will definitely become absurd when someone starts to see things differently. It is just because of the dance of Mâyâ, so many technologies became obsolete. What we have devised so far, our modern mathematics, our modern science and research, all are just hopeless tools, which help us to lead just a comfortable life for humans (just only for humans) on this planet earth, but not to find the truth behind our life on this mighty cosmos.
Is it possible to find the elementary particle of this illusion? Just like the graviton for gravity? It seems that Mâyâ continues to dance her dance of illusion in this consumption driven stale modern mad world, which contributes a large number of devolution factors affecting our genes. That is why the wise Hindu philosophers said in one Upanishad:
Om, asato ma sad gamaya Tamaso ma jyotir gamaya Mrtyor ma mrtam gamaya
Om, Shanthi, Shanthi, Shanthi
Oh! Om, the ultimate reality, From delusion lead me to truth, From darkness lead me to light, From death lead me to immortality. Oh! Om, you who wear the formal form of music, the sacred sound of this mighty cosmos, Shanthi, peace, to the interior world, Shanthi to the exterior world, Shanthi to the world which I have no ability to sense.
It was one of my friends who asked me to write more as she wants to hear from me more. Since I have no time to write something afresh, I dusted down this poem written in early 2002, which I tried in French as I wanted to augment my vocabulary (which never worked anyway). I was in third level and it was after 160 hours of class in French (around 4 months) I wrote this poem entitled “Quand l’amour m’engouffre...” meaning “When love engulfs me...”.
I really have no clue at all about what will happen when love engulfs someone since it never ever happened to me. The Indian cupid, Manmatha, got bored of and turned his back to me very long ago, after trying with all his pretty interesting equipments: sugarcane as bow, line of honeybees as bowstring, five fragrant flowers as arrows, cuckoo and parrot as his companions and attended by nymphs, spring as his preferred season, breeze as his chariot displaying fish banner, rainbow as his horse or whatever and so on.
The poem pasted a smile on my face as I went through it. It was full of mistakes, naive and stupid words as any French can observe it from the very title, strong vocabulary in inappropriate place, etc. So, here you go. I didn’t change much while translating from the original. If it set a tiny smiley on your face, I would be more than happy.
When love engulfs me...
Melting are my heart and soul. Lakes turned tender long ago. Arrogant are cherries of blossom. Care a damn bees. To the humming, butterflies dance. Oh! Danseurs nobles! I am hopping here and there. It is flower strewn trail. Excuse me, calls someone. I scan trees for cuckoo. I turn to see this girl approaching. Descending fresh from paradise. Pretty shame, I lost my language. Beautiful! Just sighs my mind. My heart does thousand leaps as she hops avoiding flowers down. Are you lover of flowers, plays she harp. Carnivore eyes feed my heart. Yes, never seen such huge flower say I searching her eyes. She smiled, making flowers drop dead of shame. We did the path together. Eyes crossed swords. Mind swung me to her. Sun menaced to fall westward. Worried I of his envy. It is time to go, said she making void inside me.
Sun showers gold on splendid landscapes, spreading warmth till heart. We meet in park, speak a lot, discover days are short. I strip my senses as her thoughts replace them, like serpent. I occupy little space in this mighty world, but I traverse everywhere. Day was drizzling. Sun set himself amber. There a rainbow in east. That day, I told her I started counting all stars in sky. I started counting all bubbles in my bread, she replied. I live in cocoon, I revealed. Am I in your heart asked she. Our troubled eyes met. She kissed me. I hugged her to my soul. That moment we exchanged the parole of life. The language of heart. Paths in heaven, clouds, moon, stars, all started to know me well. Hillside, rocks, lakes, trees, feathery friends, started to know us well. Fairies speak in my ears, nowadays. Always telephones speak to us. Don’t ask me where I live. It is warmth of her heart.
Hill-scape turns sad as maples already caught fire. Sombre clouds promenade together. Wind tries to hunt them down. Vague desire grows like waves. Serenity disobeys. Air is chill. Misty fogs embrace hill. But the pines seem negligent. When rains we prefer go out under a single umbrella. When is brumous we prefer chase-snailing inside one single jacket. Fallen leaves ride wind-horse. Not forgetting their destiny, earth. Some hides-and-seeks with breeze. Some plays with me. I await her. There she is at distance. She replies me to my waving. No, wait! She is not my girl. But she approaches me even so. Who is she, a Venus? No doubt! Where goes the path, asks she. I guide her. Thanking me she sends a kiss in air from distance. I reply same. True beauty say I turning. There stands she, my other part. Speaking null, menacing tears heavy in eyes, she left me ahead I utter word.
Sail-powered snow flakes combat storm. Pines bear whitey white caps. Deafening silence all around. I am all alone. Worthless my explanations. Far from her, bleeds my heart. I am no more in her heart, but head. Frigidly frosty cruel love engulfs me. Take a pen I commence writing. “Lakes get-go freezing. Glaciers turn emerald feeding on worthy algae. The swan awaits his female. But, more glacial is she than icy poles. Nevertheless he waits. Dying is he of biting cold. Bit by bit his soul faints. Heart-mind distance pains his soul. No dreams. Painful wings. No flight. Determined is he, will wait her forever. His life worth void without her.” I cried aloud calling God! Fine sunshine warmth inside! Replied she finally. “Nemesis at game. Swan turns dream, ethereal, thinning, thinks of you. Fragile she dying chanting you. Send her breath, a word of mercy. Present your presence, warmth of kiss. Lives she, hugging tight your soul.” Glorious is sky. Wind opens window. Dripping are ice icicle.
Kalari is a very tiny and surviving fragment of ancient Indian martial art called 'Varma Kalai'. Varma is the mother of all martial arts which spread across Asia through Hinduism and Buddhism.
Proof:
Similarities could be found in Chinese, Tibetan, Sri Lankan, etc. dance, music, martial arts with Indian arts. E.g. Therukootthu, Kathakali (flamboyant facial make-ups), Kerala Chenda drums, the rhythm all are adopted in China, Tibet, Japan and other south-eastern countries in the form of Lion, Dragon dances' flamboyant decorations, drums, rhythm, etc.
Similarities could be found between martial arts and Mudras (symbolic gestures) of yoga & Indian classical dances, and their movements. Probably dance, martial arts and yoga all might have evolved at the same time along with music, meditation, etc. They share the common property of being melodic.
There are several categories in Varma: NOkku (vision) Varmam, Thattu Varmam (deals with treatments and defense based on vital points), Chandra (moon) Varmam, Surya (sun) Varmam, usage of weapons on vital points, Varma treatments for animals, etc. In local tongue often Varma is called as "Marma", which may not be correct. The word "Varma" doesn't have a Sanskrit origin as in "Varn(m)a - color". Varumam in Tamil means vital points (there are other meanings too).
These techniques are extensively developed by Siddhas (well known for their Ayurvedic and alchemy works), who dwelt in mountains of South India, especially Tamil Nadu. Even today, there are legends around Courtralam, Suruli, Pazhani and Nilgiri hills, which speak about surviving Siddhas till date, who have eventually achieved longevity through their knowledge in Ayurveda, alchemy, meditation, etc.
Sadly, many of these techniques are lost due to the Guru's fear of misuse on co- species (as we humans are notorious for turning any scientific works, bar none, into weapons of destruction), and thus they refused to transfer the knowledge to others, including to their own descendants. This happened particularly, when Buddhism turned into political movement and the Buddhists started to learn these arts for their political gains.
However tiny fragments of Varma survived in the form of literature, mainly Tamil & Malayalam, and got the attention of Gurus in Kerala, a small state in south India, arround ~15-17th centuries, and became Kalarippayattu. This famous traditional training of Kalari of Kerala, is always done inside the Kalari (literally, threshing floor or battlefield), which is a specially constructed practice area. Payattu means 'exercise in arms or practice'.
A few centuries back in Kerala, quarrels between local kings were resolved by fixing an Ankam (war), a duel to the death, between two Ankachekavars (Kalari fighters), each ruler being represented by one Ankachekavar. The ruler represented by the surviving Ankachekavar was considered the winner.
Below is a poem I wrote late monsoon 2004 and got published in my former employer's magazine. It was after a trip to Koorg (State of Karnataka, India), where I got drenched till my heart content in the slapping, acupuncturing monsoon rain at Thala Kaveri, a serene place where the mighty Kaveri river takes birth and where the misty clouds give her a motherly hug. Always!
After the return, I sensed the emptiness and the deafening silence in the cities and in office, stacked with traffic, competition, politics, mud slinging, leg pulling, ignorance and the irritating long list of words which are the essential part of cities. So that goes here.
Clouds drizzle the rainy scent. Golden rays illumine the ornamental world.
There shines a rainbow.
With one single whip, greatest heights of the mighty city fall hastily
behind the noble horses.
Criers of war cry a war cry. Battle is taken as the gust of dust takes
the sand dunes.
It passes through the deaf carrion birds, the sour melody of sore death hymn.
Along goes the gentle breeze.
Not the whetted swords, the adept wrists wearing shinning bracelets
exhibit a dexterous brutality.
Flocks of migratory birds migrate. Painful wings let fall their feathers,
all the way down the windy town.
Leaving them dance a paper dance. Fingers spend lifetimes. Stanzas are re-refined.
Criticism engulfs the world.
Lungs gulp down blackened air. Gills breath heavy water. Plastics gnaw the gorgeous
lush green meadows.
Extinction is the finalized destiny for fragile species. Purpose of industry and its
revolution meet the standards.
Two vigorous arms of time slap back and forth, ensuring the everlasting
slavery of human kind.
In the name of progress and chic, under their cruel regards, traditions and cultures,
once coloured a beautiful world, vanish.
Ashes of native communities, their gods, their fairy-tale believes and even their death
beds of existence-struggle mound.
Key to beauty path is ever lost. Shattered and battered, the splendour of tireless
and timeless ancestral foundations.
Grandchildren’s dreams are devoured, letting them having nightmares of a
mesmerizing blue planet turns into red.
No innovations and inventions left untransformed into weapons. No exclusion. The
religions and even Ahimsa.
There smiles a ghastly smile, the sixth sense. And weeps the humanity.
Where hides the harmony?
Bees buzz. Trees stand in perennial blossom. Springs pass through the golden wheat.
The world is breathtakingly colorful when we see it through different cultures, languages and believes. Even if the entire world is transformed into some sort of hippie or rainbow culture, at a certain point we will start feeling ho-hum and try to turn back the time wheel and reinvent our made-extinct cultures. No one likes to watch a BW TV once they have watched the color ones.
We lost so many cultures, its followers and their believes in the name of progress and our quest to dominate our own human race. Many of the remaining cultures and their hopes of survival are hanging by the edge of a worn thread. Even if we have the sense of rebuilding them, we prefer sorry-no-time excuse since we are all well set to chase hard every single step of technology and bourses’ ups and lows. And so it goes!
Following words are taken from the album “Ahimsa” by K.J. Yesudas and others. The song “Beauty All Around” in the album is based on the American Indian poetry edited by late George Cronyn.
Adapted from traditional poetry of the Dineh people (Navajo), this composition is dedicated to all the native communities that have vanished in the name of progress, and to all those descendants that are now rebuilding their cultures on the timeless foundations of their ancestors. The Native American’s “Beauty Path” is peace, stewardship, and a reverent awe for life.
Beauty behind me As I turn, Beauty before me Now I learn. The timeless dance, The song of wonder, Oh... Beauty All Around. Ageless creation Below, Endless horizons Above, A shining star, With it I wander, Beauty Above me, Beauty Below me, Oh... Beauty All Around
You and me are now encapsulated in a very convenient cosmic bubble floating through an imaginary (or really exists?) space called ‘Undom’ which houses numerous cosmoses. Every single cosmos is a home for multiverses, not single 'uni'verse but many universes. Trillions of billions of galaxies float amidst a strange dark matter which fills each universes.
Now our bubble starts moving towards a cosmos and then enters into one of its universes. It seems that it is under the command of some unnatural power which guides it towards a zillions of star studded galaxy called Milky Way. The bubble is attracted towards the habitable zone of a middle aged star called Sun. If planets exist within this zone then they can home evolved life forms. Planets falling under such zone are rare in other stars. But we are fortunate enough. Two planets falling under sun’s habitable zone, a red Mars and a blue Earth, come into our view. We finally realize that the supernatural power is the spell of the blue beauty. Our other friends are directed towards some other planets of unknown cosmoses.
Now where did we see god during our journey? Where he lives actually? Beyond cosmos? Beyond ‘Undom’? Does he have a farm house where he cultivates these cosmoses, or a sort of experimental laboratory, or an aquarium? Who lives with him? His spouse, a gay companion with all his lovely children? How many cohabitants live with him? What is that place called? Under whose command he works? Where his master lives? Question are infinite as our imagination is infinite.
If he lives beyond ‘Undom’ how did we come to know about his very existence. We are not even sure about our own world. In some part of the world some believed that the world was flat. There could be intellectual beings living beneath the unfathomable depths of mighty oceans. Did god show up in the world and gave us some commandments to convert all people to some religion by giving them soups, rice and medicines? Or gave us Veda and ordered us to practice caste and creed. Or created man first and then from his ribs woman next? Or handed over some sacred texts to master slavery to build Pyramids?
Or does he live everywhere? Inside neutrinos, neurons, dust and mist? If yes, that means he is energy. If that is the case, he has to share his power with demons. In other words, god and devil are one and the same since force is made up of energy and anti-energy. Or energy is made up force and anti-force. Like matter and anti-mater or day and night or masculine and feminine. So there is no room for god alone. Who is plus and who is minus is again a question. Why not devil possesses plus and god tries to eliminate him since he got minus? If god rules the world then there should not be male chauvinism (It is terribly pity to know how crooked human minds are, since they dominate their own female counterparts), slavery, color of skin, religion, political borders, and so on. Under demon's reign we cannot even witness a bit of order everywhere in the chaotically complex world. Or god is goddess and demon is god!? And both are man and wife!!!
Does he reside somewhere inside the cosmos? Then he is a mere space traveler from some other planet, an alien, just landed on earth accidentally and tried to reproduce (or experimented) with the species of this planets. So there came people with elephant head and human body (Indian Ganesha), human head with lion body (Egyptian sphinx), eagle or hummingbird head and human body (Aztec’s belief)? One such reproduction turned monkey into apes and then into humans?
This could be more than a mere possibility. While leaving earth they erased all concrete clues of their visit. Or, in the course of time, humans quest to dominate their own race and other species, they destroyed numerous evidences (To prove they are superior. Not you and me). Ask historians, they will lament how just one single religion made vanished so many evidences and how that hurdles their researches.
Or, are we mere chemical process, evolved from membrane protected simple organism to viruses to fishes to mammals to apes from the result of complex random evolution process, and finally achieving higher level consciousness thanks to superior neural evolution? And then, human beings, like other species, are consumed by fear. Fear of nature, of fire, of sun, of lightning, of sea, of earth quake and so on. Our intelligence fueled this fear up to extreme extend. And our power of imagination added heads, hands, legs, bodies and soul to this fear. Our ability to represent imagination in pictorial form finally created god and demon. Another possibility! But, sure something unnatural happened in the remote past. And our fear fueled remaining.
In India, one of oldest worship form is goddess worship (As in most of the ancient world. Later replaced by god worship). Goddess Kâli or Shakti (The very word Shakti literally means energy) is depicted with ten hands holding various weapons, sitting on a lion and the overall setup gives a fierce look. But yet her face and her eyes gives a motherly look. A possible fusion of force and anti-force? Most of the ancient world believed in such figures. Egyptian god with cat head and human body (since cat helped farmers of Nile delta by killing rats) and snake god worship (snakes did similar job as their Nile counterparts) and so on.
So, seeing good in bad or bad in good is up to the individual’s choice. And we know good (no matter it has plus sign or minus sign) means not hurting others, including other species of moving or immobile in nature and contributing to the cosmic harmony. And believe it for sure, every wrongdoing has its own punishment, just like every force has its counterpart anti-force. Sooner or later it is sure imminent.
We don’t know when this turn happened. Or why it happened. We started believing in things if only approved by modern science. We try hard to find equations everywhere to reason things. Why not just trust the good old ancient world? Why the ageless cultures are getting thin and fading? Recently, I happened to hear a hot discussion on astrology by some young college kids who were lavishly commenting on the imbecility of Chinese, Greeks and others.
So, why ancients believed that stars control life? I firmly believe that our forefathers are no stupid as we folks think. We know astrology is pure math. Moreover, in biological point of view, all beings are made up of cells, DNA, etc (primarily proteins, bases and acids). The bonds between proteins, bases and acids are vulnerable to changes due to heat, chemical reactions and chiefly radiation. Any changes in these bonds during cell division are called mutations. Good mutations, say germline, somatic and neural mutations, lead to evolution, from simple being to complex being. Bad mutations cause diseases like cancers. Stars are the main sources of radiation and planets absorb, sometimes modify and then reflect these radiation. So, every day, every nanosecond stars and planets affect each celled organism and thus their behavior. Astrology (True ancient astrology. Whether it exist today is a question) could be considered as a tool to calculate these very changes.
Now, who told our ancestors such things? As an Indian, I always wonder about Indian mythology. Ten incarnations of Vishnu (see Avatar) actually speak about evolution. For us, Kaalachakra (circle of time) is the seed of the cosmos. In modern science time stretches from minus infinity (infinite past) to zero (present) to plus infinity (infinite future). Whereas, in Kaalachakra, time is not regarded as a straight line but a circle and any points can be considered as past, present or future. This is why anything related to time is regarded cyclic in nature: incarnation, musical notes, etc. Also they believed in the existence of many worlds (not a flat earth) and time in these worlds differs accordingly. Some man days is equal to one day in Indra’s (king of gods or angelic people) world, some Indra days is equal to one day in Brahma’s (the creator) world, etc. Today we know massive bodies like planets and stars make shrink not only space but the time as well and thus time varies in these heavenly bodies.
Likewise, other great ideas exist in other venerable cultures like Egyptian, Mayan, Chinese, Inuit (the right word for Eskimo, since Eskimo is considered pejorative and even racist) and so on. We cannot simply reject these believes as lunatic thoughts since we cannot explain each and every thing using mathematic formulas with our so very limited knowledge. The main problem is, modern science originated in a place where the good old traditions and cultures are completely made extinct due to war between tribal people, then by invading Romans and then by religions. Even in this scientifically well advanced world we have hard time to understand these notions and other people’s culture (or even our own). This we call as Maya, the illusion, the illusionary world!
