Language, Culture and Philosophy

I guess this is a post on random thoughts, triggered by the Karnan Movie. Its been actually quite a gap before I saw a full feature film in Tamil, that too an old movie. A few first impressions...

(1) The dialogue and action may be alien to the current trends etc, but the language is fabulous
(2) The lyrics for the songs are just out of the world. I must admit that I have always loved Kannadasan's lyrics (Duh...)
(3) As usual, I had the usual conflicting emotions on seeing Sivaji on screen. Sometimes just brilliant and some times plain silly/funny. I guess its probably just me. As I can clearly see my dad getting annoyed whenever I speak about the silly/funny side of Sivaji's acting. Maybe we should just attribute it to the director. Didn't Bharathiraja get the best out of him by restricting what he did before camera?

Anyway.. coming to our main theme. Two things focused my attention. First one is on language.

The Scene.....

Karna replays to Kunti, the episode where he was playing dice with Bhanumathy (wife of Duryodhana). When Duryodhana enters (to the back of Karna), she tries to get up. Karna thinks that she is trying to escape from the game and grabs her. The pearls which are attached to her cloth rips open and scatters on the floor. Both Bhanumathy and Karna are stunned at this inappropriateness of Karna's action. Duryodhana is quiet/smiling, asks if he should "எடுக்கவோ  கோர்க்கவோ ". Basically he highlights that he trusts both his friend and wife.

When Sivaji as Karna refers to the cloth that Banumathy was wearing around her hip, he mentions மேகலை .

I thought back to இப்பால் கைவளையும்  மேகலையும் காணேன் . From the commentary I read, I knew this was a piece of cloth, more specifically one worn as a covering cloth. When this dialogue was playing, I understood that this is really a cloth worn around the hips and can get easily undone. When parakala nayaki says she lost her cloth, the commentary made more sense as the cloth can get easily exchanged with perumal when they are embracing/ கூடல் !!!

Till I read the commentary (and confirmed it with this movie), I knew Mekala as just a name for the ladies!! I never knew that this actually means cloth. Suffice to say that my knowledge mother tongue is very limited :-(

Moving to the கண்கள் எங்கே நெஞ்சமும் எங்கே, கண்ட போதே சென்றன அங்கே  song, this has straight contra-reference to the "Love at first sight" blog posting. It also has reference to the same pasuram நைவளம்  referred above for மேகலை .

Here both eyes and heart have left the heroine to go to the hero upon "sight". In Parakala Nayaki's case, the eyes feasted on the Lord  and இளையாழ்வார் in the previous திருநெடுந்தாண்டக pasuram (மைவண்ண ). She steps backwards thinking they are verily the gods and are too elevated for her to reach!!. However after seeing his simplicity / approachability (despite his infinite greatness), her heart first and then her eyes rushes to him  மனமும் கண்ணும் ஓடி .

You can also make a further argument that the heroine in this case was first impressed with Karna's valor in saving her from the chariot when horses run scot free. However the attraction here is only based on physical appearance and valor. In Parakala Nayaki's case, physical appearance and greatness makes here wonder if she can even approach such "gods". Attraction comes only when she realizes the simplicity/approachability of bhagavan and more importantly the importance Bhagavan attaches to reach out to her.

I guess in the human endeavors, eye takes precedence and the results are questionable!!

Meaning or Goal of Life

Not surprisingly there is a wikipedia entry for this topic. At the end of the large material from across time and geography covering greeks, western, eastern , contemporary, Physics and all such topics.. there was a summary of sorts. my choice is "To find the meaning of life". Clearly this means different things for different people and the objective is find one's own. I stand corrected. It should be "to seek to find the meaning of life" as the journey is the key than the end. Even within religious context, the options are plenty than just get to god. So what do you pick?

Quote from Wikipedia

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"What is the meaning of life?" is a question many people ask themselves at some point during their lives, most in the context "What is the purpose of life?"^[4] Here are some of the life goals people choose, and some of their beliefs on what the purpose of life is:

[edit] To realize one's potential and ideals

• To chase dreams.^[6]
  To live one's dreams.^[133]
• To spend it for something that will outlast it.^[134]
• To matter: to count, to stand for something, to have made some difference that you lived at all.^[134]
• To expand one's potential in life.^[133]
• To become the person you've always wanted to be.^[135]
• To become the best version of yourself.^[136]
• To seek happiness^[137][138] and flourish.^[7]
• To be a true authentic human being.^[139]
• To be able to put the whole of oneself into one's feelings, one's work, one's beliefs.^[134]
• To follow our destiny.^[140]
  To submit to our destiny.^[141]
• To create your own destiny.^[142]
• To achieve eudaimonia ^[143], a flourishing of human spirit.

[edit] To achieve biological perfection

• To survive,^[144] that is, to live as long as possible,^[145] including pursuit of immortality (through scientific means).^[146]
  To live forever^[146] or die trying.^[147]
• To evolve.^[148][149]
• To replicate, to reproduce.^[6] "The 'dream' of every cell is to become two cells."^{[150][151][152][153]}
• To be fruitful and multiply.^[154] (Genesis 1:28)

[edit] To seek wisdom and knowledge

Philosopher in Meditation (detail) by Rembrandt

• To expand one's perception of the world.^[133]
• To follow the clues and walk out the exit.^[155]
• To learn as many things as possible in life.^[156]
  To know as much as possible about as many things as possible.^[157]
• To seek wisdom and knowledge and to tame the mind, as to avoid suffering caused by ignorance and find happiness.^[158]
• To face our fears and accept the lessons life offers us.^[140]
• To find the meaning of life.^[159]
  To find the purpose of life.^[160]
  To find a reason to live.^[161]
• To resolve the imbalance of the mind by understanding the nature of reality.^[162]

[edit] To do good, to do the right thing

• To leave the world a better place than you found it.^[6]
  To do your best to leave every situation better than you found it.^[6]
• To benefit others.^[12]
• To give more than you take.^[6]
• To end suffering.^{[163][164][165]}
• To create equality.^{[166][167][168]}
• To challenge oppression.^[169]
• To distribute wealth.^[170][171]
• To be generous.^[172][173]
• To contribute to the well-being and spirit of others.^[174]
• To help others,^[7][173] to help one another.^[175]
  To take every chance to help another while on your journey here.^[6]
• To be creative and innovative.^[174]
• To forgive.^[6]
  To accept and forgive human flaws.^[176][177]
• To be emotionally sincere.^[134]
• To be responsible.^[134]
• To be honorable.^[134]
• To seek peace.^[134]

Dante and Beatrice see God as a point of light surrounded by angels; from Gustave Doré's illustrations for the Divine Comedy

[edit] To attain spiritual enlightenment

• To reach the highest heaven and be at the heart of the Divine.^[178]
• To have a pure soul and experience God.^[134]
• To understand the mystery of God.^[140]
• To know God.^[179]
• To know oneself, know others, and know the will of heaven.^[180]
• To attain union with God.^[181]

[edit] To love, to feel, to enjoy the act of living

• To love more.^[6]
• To love those who mean the most. Every life you touch will touch you back.^[6]
• To treasure every enjoyable sensation one has.^[6]
• To seek beauty in all its forms.^[6]
• To have fun.^[174]
  To enjoy life.^[140]
• To seek pleasure^[134] and avoid pain.^[182]
• To be compassionate.^[134]
• To be moved by the tears and pain of others, and try to help them out of love and compassion.^[6]
• To love others as best we possibly can.^[6]
• To love something bigger, greater, and beyond ourselves, something we did not create or have the power to create, something intangible and made holy by our very belief in it.^[6]
• To love God^[179] and all of his creations.^[183]
• To glorify God by enjoying him forever.^[184]
• To eat, drink, and be merry.^[185]

[edit] To have power, to be better

• To strive for power^[31] and superiority.^[182]
• To rule the world.^[141]
• To know and master the world.^[186][187]
  To know and master nature.^[188]
• To fill the Earth and subdue it.^[154] (Genesis 1:28)
• ...To crush your enemies—See them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women! ^[189]
• To obtain freedom (Romans 8:20-21)

[edit] Life has no meaning

• Life or human existence has no real meaning or purpose because human existence occurred out of a random chance in nature, and anything that exists by chance has no intended purpose.^[162]
• Life has no meaning, but as humans we try to associate a meaning or purpose so we can justify our existence.^[6]
• There is no point in life, and that is exactly what makes it so special.^[6]

[edit] One should not seek to know and understand the meaning of life

• The answer to the meaning of life is too profound to be known and understood.^[162]
• You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life.^[6]
• The meaning of life is to forget about the search for the meaning of life.^[6]

[edit] Life is bad

• Life is a bitch, and then you die.^[135]
• Life sucks and in the end you die.^[169]

End quote from wikipedia

Morbid thoughts..or is it - Part III

Before I start typing in my conclusions/thoughts I need to provide two additional episodes of both my chittappas (dad's brothers)

Elder

This was a case where there were a lot special interactions. He was diagnosed with throat and went thru the radio/chemo drill. Was declared fine and then it hit him back.this time to the tongue etc. Two or three incidents that I wanted to highlight

(1) When I visited him once at home, as usual he was quiet. This time I noticed he was supporting his jaw strongly with his palm. I thought this was unusual and asked him if he was in pain (I guess it was a dumb question). He simply nodded. Knowing him, that is something. Somehow more than anything else I have seen this disturbed me. But there is no sound/complaint or reaction overtly from him!

(2) Second time, I met him he was in a hospice kind of environment as the oncologist had declared that further treatment can only harm him. He wrote in a piece of paper that he was hungry!! Of course he was clear in his mind that he did not want simply prolongation of life via feeding thru a tube etc. Despite I felt this was a new low.

(3) The last was probably the event which will remain long. I was returning from office and somehow I felt I should visit him and took a detour to the hospice care. By this time, he was almost to his bones due to lack of nutrition. When he realized I was there, he wanted the notebook. In fact my chitti (his wife) was telling that he did not try writing for couple of days and so he must be trying to say something. Unfortunately he was so weak that he could not hold the pen to write anything legible. I could trace out P and in tamil பீ. I kept asking him if it was priya (for my cousin) other possibilities. He shook his head and finally resigned to keeping quiet out of frustration. To this day this is a mystery as to what he wanted to convey. Incidentally he passed away the next day. I will never know what he wanted to convey.

Younger

The younger chittappa (Dads brother) was in many ways similar but different. The stages described above were almost similar. his reactions were the same but in addition he was a loyal follower of Swami Raghavendra. So anytime anything uncomfortable or painful happened he will just tap the photo he had in his pocket. In fact during his final days, I was pressurized to ask him about feeding holes. I was very reluctant as he had made it very clear. Deferring to the family wishes I asked him. :-) If looks could burn you that would have happened. I laughed and told him that I understand but I had to ask as the family wanted me to. He simply nodded and changed topics. We were communication via me speaking and he just nodding or rolling his eyes.

My thoughts/Conclusions

Apologies if I am stating the obvious but the difference is that it is buttressed by actual experience

(1) Death is not only inevitable (this everyone knows but dont realize till something hits you personally) but it can be real sudden.
(2) Birth is an equally tough event to handle even in the absence of criticality as in my son's case
(3) Given (1), the only thing that can be done is facing it with dignity, though the disease tries to destroy your dignity.
(4) My elder chittappa was not a religious person. In fact I wonder what his actual preference was as he always respected others faith and feelings but never expressed his own. The younger one was his exact opposite. But both handled themselves almost exactly when faced with inhuman odds.
(5) I have had interesting interactions with my elder chittppa though. During his initial treatment when he could talk, he mentioned once that the only thing he has done in his life was financial planning and nothing else. He said due to that, my family may be fine but I have not done anything else. He did not give me any conclusions for his statement. So I was left to derive what I can. Was he regretting he did not do something else? Did that mean that his entire working life provided financial security  and in the process there were other things which he could not do?

So what does all this mean?

No matter what, s*** happens. So it really does not help worrying about it or getting scared. There are far more important things in life than celebrating failure.

More than the negative event, what matters is how you face it?

In addition, time will move on and before you realize you are at the end of the cycle. People have asked me. Why temples, kainkaryams and other stuff so early in life. There is a belief that all these should wait for retirement. But what happens typically after retirement?

• Health issues/Sickness distract you
• Taking care of grand kids distract you
• Sheer boredom or lack of any interest areas prevents you from taking any new steps
• If not anything, the sheer unpreparedness kills you

So it is better to have your focus area by the time you are 35. Needless to say, this is not an absolute number. It merely indicates that you can probably start after you education and initial job/money related distractions. The focus area is something that you will sustain during your work years but this is something that will become your full time interest post retirement. This way you are prepared and you can even have a roadmap of how you can plan this? In addition, you can do a financial planning to include this :-)

If you look closely all talk is on action (doing something). In one of the discourses on Karma yoga (by Sri Vellukudi Krishnan Swami), I heard that you need the following

(1) Thought behind the action than just doing something
(2) Doing it without the feeling that "I am doing"
(3) doing it without the feeling that "I am doing it for my benefit")

(2) and (3) frankly are too esoteric, I am afraid, if we lesser mortals can ever reach that stage. I have also heard about கர்மம் கைங்கர்யத்திலே புகும் meaning even your karma can be for the service to the god. We cant say this is easier as the thoughts of me doing for myself is still there. no matter if you are religious or not, doing things that interest you because it is part of the well being of your larger eco system is high philosophy. In my belief system, anything that you do is god's work. So whats the issue now? Select your focus area, plan for it (monetary, physically or otherwise). Start doing it early and make it full time after retirement (early retirement? :-)). In the process s*** happens and so what!

Just do it! Never realized that  a commercial ad would have such a deep philosophical meaning.

Morbid Thoughts or is it... Part II

I am covering two episodes in this post, one after my sons birth and one before.

The One after

My mother had valve disease for long and was under medication.It was progressively deteriorating and the physician recommended that medicines alone wont work any more. So we were asked to see a surgeon. We went to the hospital. Before the surgeon could see my mom, we were recommended by the cardiologist to admit her to stabilize her symptoms. She was fine for two days. On the third day, she was supposed to be moved to her room for the surgeon to assess future course. At 6PM she was talking to me and played with my son. Suddenly there was pandemonium as one of the patients in the critical care unit passed away. Unfortunately few of the relatives entered the unit crying and screaming loudly. The nurses and the orderlies were taken aback and it was quickly put in order. (I am not blaming that caused it) But it definitely triggered a panic attack with my mom. She got uncomfortable and her monitor went crazy. I called the nurses and she was shifted to the critical care section. Around 9 PM she was pronounced dead due to heart failure and other causes. The death certificate probably had a 100 reasons for death! I spoke with the attending doctor as to what went wrong as she was fine at 6 PM chatting with me. He said something about the heart functioning at only 20% and such patients are like cat on the wall. But the event etched in memory is the panic that was triggered.

One before

I was in school 8th grade. This is another event that is still vivid. My grand father asked for my grand mother. She came in and asked him what he wanted. He said he is having chest pain. She immediately asked for Iodex, Amruthanjan and other such lotions/oinments. He said it does not matter as it looked serious. She started getting worried and was asking him for further details on what he was going through. This one is a classic. He looked at her and said " it is gone". Immediately there were some bubbles/froth in his mouth. By the time I had brought in the local doctor, he confirmed death by massive heart attack,

This time, what is etched in my memory is the quiet confidence even when he was under a massive heart attack. Of course the mute point is if he had given the indication an hour earlier the result would have been different. But still the way he faced death was very impressive and I was just 13 or 14.