Such tiny little columns to bear the weight of such a chunky house - how is it possible?
6 February 2008
Funny House
Such tiny little columns to bear the weight of such a chunky house - how is it possible?
Arunachala Grace News, February 2008
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5 February 2008
Balaji at Tiruvannamalai
31 January 2008
Mantra Jam
To find out more about the group and events, read in the following in his own words.
“A month ago I left for Bangalore for a recording of 3 mantras for the Dances of Universal Peace's workshop at Sao Paulo, March 15-22nd. I am hoping to have at least one of them, if not all eventually, to be incorporated in a Dance designed around the sacred meaning exuding off each mantra.
My maternal cousin, is the founder and Lead guitarist of a trio, progrock band, which was rated the Best Band by World Space Radio for 2007. I had jammed with his group [Thermal and a Quarter] at some varied venues, and it had sounded and felt good on every occasion.
After completing the recording and mailing them off as .mp3 attachments to email, I got to witnessing the next act in the slick and simple Studio of my cousin's Band in downtown Bangalore. There was to be a rehearsal of ‘The Karthik Mani Fusion Group,’ [a motley group composed of skilled musicians from across genres]. There was Prakash Sontakke, a triple graduate from BHU [veena, vocal and guitar] and honoured with several awards [his website is worth a visit, vast and well endowed as he himself is]. He is a consummate artiste, and freely flows across cultures.
Rzhude's electric Bass can pack a mean rhythm and yet alternate with ethereal softness.
Adarsh on Tabla, youngest of them all, is a perspicacious player, providing exciting Northern foil to the Southern percussion,. and oozes romance in the rub.
gaNapati gam havAmahE
kaving kavInAm
upama sravastamam
Thou art the Lord of all groupings
To thee we offer Worship
O Poet of the poets
Whose fame is well-known
jyEshTha rAjam brhmaNAm
brhmaNaspata AnasruNvan nUtibhih sIda sAdhanam
mahA gaNapatayE namah
The Foremost thou art among the Great groupings
O thou Lord of the Chanters
Come to hear us
Heal the road by thy Presence!
It was an electric moment. When the chant got over, there was unanimous exclamation that the chant should start the song at the show.
As I returned, I was witness to a miracle in the form of an amazing coincidence ...A Concert video had been placed on my table at the Library by a friend on the day of my departure to Bangalore. When I returned I found it was the fusion concert of the group Khanda-5, with Karthik Mani's parents [both of whom are the founders of the Karnataka College of Percussion] jamming with Bulgarian and Irish musicians. What a coincidence that the parents of a person who was outside my domain of contacts had 'arrived' at my space in a DVD, weeks before I met the son incorporeal jam.
When I returned to the ashram and spoke about the concert and the rest of it, I found the President and Sri Mani very positive about having such a concert in the Ashram.
It was obvious that The Mantra-JJam Sextet would have to work out its game within the restriction of the impossibility of group practice before a concert, given the facts of location and careers. Pushing decision easily onwards to a focus on Spontaneous Unfoldment was the fact that the none of the five had ever been exposed to Ramana lore's poems while most of us here are well acquainted with their resonance. It was obvious it was a momentum intended to flow on its own powered by mantric vibratory presence amplified thru the manifested rhythm ornamenting the self-declared metric structures of the mantras.
The rest just flowed...and what followed as an unfolding flower was there for all to hear and see.”
THE MANTRA-JAM SEXTET
[Composed of]
Vocals: J Jayaraman [ashram]
Slide Guitar: pt. Prakash Sontakke [Bangalore]
Tabla: Adarsh [Bangalore] "
The above narrative is all in the words of J Jayaraman. The Mantra-Jam Sextet hope to be performing soon in Chennai. Will post information as to venue and dates of their performance as soon as it is available.
************************************************
Excerpts highlighting metres and enunciation so that meaning flowers as experience as one sings along.
From:
[1] Arunachala Mahatmyam/Navamani Malai/Ashtakam
[2] excerpts from Sankara's small poems which Bhagavan had translated into Tamil verse
In original Sanskrit followed by Tamil
[3] Appalap-paattu/Anma Vidya Keertanam
[4] excerpts from 40-verses Anubandham
[5] excerpts from Kavya Kantha's Ramana Chatvarimsat, Guru Stuti, Ramana Gita and UMa Sahasram.
This is a Fusion which aims at manifesting the foot-tapping rhythms inherent to all metres. These lie hidden in most our metres since Indian metres are on hierarchical [binary] structure and so are very vast in their 'progeny'.
The duration allotted to a guru is twice that of laghu
The duration allotted to the gap at the end of each pada is more flexible, even a laghu could be uttered as laghu and the gap that follows before the start of the next pada, is solely a function of the filler needed to complete the counting of say a given number [say 32, or 16, or 8 or 4 for an even gait
OR
36, or 18, or 12, or 9, or 6 or 3 matras of matras per pada, for a Waltz-like gait [all Tamil venbas, for example].
Mysterious Neem Tree
Arrived at the pretty Gokulam at the back of Ramana Ashram and headed for the much discussed Neem Tree.
And here it is, exuding some strange kind of white liquid - which is not the colour of Neem sap - and also the tree has been exuding for nearly three days. Frankly, people are rather perplexed by the strange phenomenon of this 20 year old tree. What is going on? Certainly ashramites are regularly visiting the tree and some are taking little drops of the exude, in the form of a kind of prasad.
Speed of Development
Thiruvoodal Festival
An important festival connected with Arunachala occurs during the time of Pongal and is known as the Thiruvoodal Festival. This Festival is celebrated on January 16th and is ennacted inside the compound of Arunachaleswarar Temple, on the streets delineating the perimeter of the Temple, and on the girivalam pathway itself, by iconic representations of Shiva/Parvati in order to convey moral and social truths to their devotees.
The word 'Voodal,' means 'petty quarrel' or 'tiff' and emissaries are employed by both of the Divine Couple to convey messages between the deities and participate in ‘brokering a deal’ between them.
A variety of sagas (all listed below) concerning the Gods are used to create the scenario of the 'petty quarrel' that needs resolution.
And at the end of their quarrels, finally:
Returning to his residence at the Arunachaleswarar Temple, Shiva knocks at the door but it has been bolted by Parvati. As if he didn’t know, Lord Shiva asks,
‘Oh my darling why have you locked the door?’
‘Sir after we came to an understanding still you went without me. And see now look you have lost everything there is no ornament or clothes. Not, only that but you went and gave darshan to all kinds of people. So, I am now requesting you must establish your manliness to me and retrieve everything that is lost and give the special one-legged dance.’
Shiva starts the dance, Parvati forgets everything and opens the door.
******************************
Thiruvoodal Sagas
Story of Ganga
Goddess Parvati is happy watching the one-legged dance of Lord Shiva, but on noticing Goddess Ganga in the matted locks of her Lord, Parvati becomes recalcitrant and withdrawn. Shiva asks his emissary Sundarar to;
‘Please go and tell her the reason. My dear friend Sundaram, I do not do anything for my own self-interest; Bhagavati did intense tapas to bring down the river of the Gods, the Ganga, in order to pacify the souls of the 1,000 ancestors that had been burnt by the look of Kapala Rishi. Because Bhagavati did tapas, the Ganga was brought down, I had nothing to do with it and when the water came down it was so forceful, everyone said it had to be stopped or it would destroy the earth. So, what was meant to be the medicine is turning out to be another story. So they asked me to do this thing, so please explain this to Parvati. Tell her that all the creatures of the world, her creatures would have been destroyed unless I had helped negate the power of the water cascading unto the Earth.’
Mohini and the Sages
Because the Rishis of Dwaraka got too proud in that they had technology that could yield anything and attain all fruits, they started to believe that there was no need for any divine person as they had the use of; ‘yagna’ technology. In addition they had wives of unquestionable chastity.
Shiva informs Sundarar to convey to Parvati that;
‘To show the Rishis, that they are born of you (i.e. Parvati) and me and are our progeny and shouldn’t think that power is coming to them on its own. If their activities bear fruits it is because we have laid down the laws for it.
To show this, I ordained that the enchantingly beautiful Mohini (a manifestation of Lord Vishnu) appeared to the Rishis, who were completely ensared by her, as too were the rishis’ wives to my own Form as an mouna ascetic. I did this to the reduce the ego of these rishis and also grace their wives by affording them darshan of my mouna ascetic manifestation.
Shiva’s ascetic manifestation
Shiva says in the course of the Thiruvoodal;
‘Don’t put your trust into anything, everything is reduced to bone – all is reduced to ashes. So this is the symbol of the final residue. So, that is the reason I am found with this skull, no other reason.’
Sage Bringi
In order to give darshan and blessings to the Sage Bringi, Shiva sets off to perform circumbulation of Arunachala, and thus enrages Parvati who is angry with the sage for his refusal to worship her.** Parvati’s anger, creates maya (Maya Swarupa), and from that maya emerge thieves who strip Shiva of his ornaments and clothes, whilst he is performing pradakshina. This stripping of Shiva is actually yearly enacted at the same spot (during Voodal Festival) upon the idol that is being carried around the Hill.
Shiva explains to Parvati (through his emissary Sundarar) that, to satisfy the desire of devotees, he has taken a vow to appear in the form in which he is worshipped. In accordance with that vow he has given darshan to Bringi. He further tells his emissary Sundarar to convey to Parvati;
‘My darling you know Sakti can never be separated from Shiva in just the way the mud pot can never be separated from the mud. You can’t say, “Give the pot without all that other stuff!” You cannot have the form just like that. You know it my dear that Shiva-Sakti can never be separated, so in accordance with the understanding of devotees, I am appearing in this form.’
‘Sundarar please explain to Parvati so that she will reduce this tiff.’
Returning to his residence at the Arunachaleswarar Temple, Shiva knocks at the door but it has been bolted by Parvati. As if he didn’t know, Lord Shiva asks,
‘Oh my darling why have you locked the door?’
‘Sir after we came to an understanding still you went without me. And see now look you have lost everything there is no ornament or clothes. Not, only that but you went and gave darshan to all kinds of people. So, I am now requesting you must establish your manliness to me and retrieve everything that is lost and give the special one-legged dance.’
Shiva starts the dance, Parvati forgets everything and opens the door.
Story of Bringi’s maya**
“Sage Bringi considered that Shiva’s Grace the ultimate source for existence. He was an ardent votary of Lord Shiva to the exclusion of any deity in the worship including Parvati! He refused to worship Shakti, a woman. Even during his daily worship, he would circumbulate only the Lord ignoring Mother Shakti, with a flashing spark of arrogance.
The divine couple wanted to enlighten the sage and hence assumed a unique form sharing his body with Parvati. The couple took the form of Ardhanareshwara and stood unified inseparable to every atom. Even then the egoistic sage took the form of a bee (Bringa is a Sanskrit for Bee and the sage came to be called Bringi because he once became a bee) and tried to pierce through the body of the Lord so that he could go around only the Shiva part.
In every human body the static force of Shiva constitutes the bone and the skin and the dynamic force of Shakti triggers the blood and flesh. Goddess Shakti, being the power as the name indicates, pulled out her energy from Bringi's body. Now he was a mere skeleton and was even unable to stand. The Lord pacified Parvati and gave the sage one more leg to stand. The sage soon realized his folly and understood that life becomes dynamic only by the blending of both grace and force which are not contradictory but complementary to each other.”
[Sage Bringi story with thanks to Aravind Venkatraman]
29 January 2008
The Nandis
Pongal, Harvest Festival is followed by Mattu Pongal; the Cow Festival and Thiruvoodal Festival. The below photograph is of a decorated Temple Nandi during the recently celebrated Pongal Festival.
28 January 2008
Big Temple Photographs
26 January 2008
Topsoil disappearing
The current easy access of existing groundwater is also encouraging farmers to indulge in continuous crop rotation, never allowing the soil to rest and revitalize and exacerbating the disappearance of topsoil. In ths respect, the below abridged article from the U.S. investigates problems faced there with the gradual disappearance of topsoil.
“Call it the thin brown line. Dirt. On average, the planet is covered with little more than 3 feet of topsoil; the shallow skin of nutrient-rich matter that sustains most of our food and appears to play a critical role in supporting life on Earth.
The estimate is that we are now losing about 1% of topsoil every year to erosion mostly caused by intensive agriculture. To combat this some farmers in the U.S. are beginning to adopt ‘no-till’ methods, which involves not tilling the land between plantings, leaving crop stubble to reduce erosion and planting new seeds between the stubble rows.
David Montgomery has written a book entitled, "Dirt" to call public attention to what he believes is a neglected environmental catastrophe. A geomorphologist who studies how landscapes form, Montgomery describes modern agricultural practices as ‘soil mining’ to emphasize that we are rapidly outstripping the Earth's natural rate of restoring topsoil. The National Academy of Sciences has determined that cropland in the U.S. is being eroded at least 10 times faster than the time it takes for lost soil to be replaced.
Healthy topsoil is a biological matrix, a housing complex for an incredibly diverse community of organisms; billions of beneficial microbes per handful, nitrogen-fixing fungi, nutrients and earthworms whose digestive tracts transform the fine grains of sterile rock and plant detritus into the fertile excrement that gave rise to the word itself ("drit," in Old Norse).
As such, true living topsoil cannot be made overnight and grows back, very slowly, at a rate of an inch or two over hundreds of years. Erosion rates in some U.S. regions have recently improved because of better conservation farming practices, including leaving some natural ground cover in areas of high erosion. Another way of losing soil is by paving it over with regards to urban development. But while some land is lost to development, pollution or changing weather patterns, it is believed that global soil loss is a crisis mostly rooted in agriculture. Soil tilling also seriously exacerbates mud and muddy runoff.
Every year fields are tilled and rains come, washing away the soil - which is just powder, brown dust. It's dead. There's no worms, no life in it. However in no-till fields the dirt is coarsely textured, darker and full of roots, debris and bacteria.
Switching to ‘no-till’ farming requires investment and learning new techniques and also depends more on herbicides because weeds are no longer controllable by ploughing them into the soil. Organic farming methods also can reduce soil loss and has been shown to increase soil health, water retention and regrowth when organic methods are used rather than the traditional methods.”
[Abridged from a report by Tom Paulson)
25 January 2008
Sowmyanath Temple
Nandalur is a village in Kadapa District, Andhra Pradesh and on the west bank of the Cheyyeru River. It was once a famous Buddhist Centre and in 1913 Buddhist caves were discovered there.
Blessing Hand
The same photograph but in more close up so you can see the beautiful detail of the jewels and dress of the idols.
24 January 2008
Normal Service Resumed!
23 January 2008
Bamboo Roof
A bamboo roof on top of a house will reduce the internal temperature of the home by about 5c degrees - so both ecofriendly and aesthically pleasing. The below is of a bamboo shelter around the sides of my little farmhouse. You can see papayas way up on the tree through the bamboo framework.
A couple of the crew tying the leaves to the bamboo framework.
A nice view of the bamboo structure around the sides of the house. Its really interesting watching the men create the bamboo structures. I've even seen little bamboo houses made with separate little rooms.
And the below is a photograph of the more complicated bamboo roof on top of the house. A big, heavy, complex cover that took several days to complete when I had it made two years ago.
It gets really windy close to the Hill, and often lightweight furniture can get blown right off a roof. But this roof is a solid and immovable. Two years ago someone wagered that if my roof lasted longer than 6 months he would pay me Rs.50 and take me for a lunch at one of our better hotels. Well two years later, I'm waiting for my cash and lunch! The roof did so well that it hasn't in fact been necessary to take down the bamboo, instead we only needed to replace the bamboo leaves.
21 January 2008
Cow Pongal
In the below is Lakshmi, who is a young cow belonging to one of the ladies of the family. Already Lakshmi's future has been decided and she will be kept as a pet, no rigours of constant motherhood and commercial milk production. Artificial insemination is commonly used to impregnate cows. In this respect a visit to the Government Veterninary Centre in Tiruvannamalai is an interesting experience as that is where many of the local cows are artifically impregnated.
As to Lakshmi, as she is not a trained animal she definitely must have some kind of regal karma, notice over the next photographs, how she presents herself for her Pongal flower garland. What a diva!
The next photograph is of one of babies of the dairy. Its an interesting experience having a dairy so close to my home because I can reminded first hand of the business of 'milk production'. And I must admit to being guilty of perpetuating the whole dairy cycle, because my dogs and I, do get through alot of milk products. The neighouring dairy is wonderful compared to most, and the cows have a comparatively lucky, peaceful life, however its a constant reminder of just how badly we exploit our little bretherns.
Whatever it is - one thing is for sure the below calf is a 100% knockout - what a darling.
The below is the inside of the little rustic dairy. Happily most of these cows get to spend the days outside in the nice sun and peaceful surrounds.
In the below some goats, who don't actually have such a protected life as the dairy cows - as an animal activist from Andhra Pradesh once told me, 'Everytime you see a goat - you see meat on the hoof - they are all for slaughter.'
One of the ladies making last minute preparations for Pongal puja at the cow shed.
A worker at the dairy had prepared a lemon, by incising a cross on the top which is then filled with red kumkum powder and packed with camphor. The camphor will be lit and then waved as jyothi during the puja.
Once the lemon is used, then the same thing happens with a white pumpkin. After the camphor is burned off, the pumpkin will be smashed and broken on the ground to ward of evil and negative vibrations.
The smokey haze in the below, is that of frankincense which has been wafted as a purifying agent all around the cow shed. These little ones are just hanging out together in mutual companionship, wondering at all the madness of the day - well one big plus for all the cows is they had their fill of special treats including LOTS of bananas.