Warrier's Collage 11072020 : Flowers

Warrier's Collage 110720 : Flowers Good Morning Some flowers for you. They don't go anywhere. Butterflies come to them. They don't worry about the thorns. They spread fragrance. Who enjoys is not their concern. Most of them live just for a day Some live longer They are totally detached They surrender to the person Who picks them up first Travel with the first person Who plucks them No questions asked Journey could be, To the temple, To the Church or Mazjid Or to be part of a garland or wreath. M G Warrier Note : There'll be no "Collage" on Sunday, July 12, 2020. Responses 1) Shri V Babusenan writes : "The reference to my literary effort in the Collage (July 10, 2020) has kindled in me a desire to say something more about it. I wrote the following books: Bertrand Russell Nuclear Yuddhavum Bertrand Russellum Kuttikalude Bertrand Russell Russellinte Soukhyasankalpam Bertrand Russell (for easy reading) Kuttikalude Kunchan Nambiar Aanavarangavum Indiayum JeevassuttaJeevasaastram Naam, Nammude Masthishkam A.K.Ramanujan Swarlokahamsanum Vathasenanum (An Appreciation of Sherlock Holmes stories) "Elementary,Watson"(in English) All the books, except the last one, is in Malayalam. As for the English book, drafting has just been completed. The first book earned three awards including the one from Kerala Sahitya Academy. The book 'Jeevassutta Jeevasaastram' written in collaboration with a professor in zoology, was adjudged one of the best ten books in Malayalam published in that year. Financial benefits : nil. Other benefits : One, inclusion in the 'retired- but -not -tired' category and the other, occasional calls from pleased readers unknown to me. Forgive me for this trumpet -blowing. Before I conclude : I would not surely have written even one of these books but for the Pension Scheme introduced in the RBI by Governor Malhotra. I have mentally dedicated all these books to his memory. Regards." 2) Shri P P Ramachandran's response to Warrier's Collage 10072020 I thank my good friend Shri.M.G.Warrier for giving so much space to me in his daily Collage. Here are some valuable inputs from me. Hope Warrier will have space for an old friend. I have divided it into three parts. PPR Part One Forewords by Shri.S.S.Tarapore and Smt.Usha Thorat P.P. Ramachandran, ‘Chandru’ as he is affectionately known, was an official of the Reserve Bank of India for forty years. The stereotyped view of a central banker is that of a dry, humourless person focussed exclusively on his profession. Ramachandran is one of the rare birds, who just cannot be classified into a cubby hole. Ramachandran’s canvas is the whole wide world and he paints life with a vignette and readers will find this collectors’ item an unputdownable book. The sheer breadth of his vision is wonderful to the point of bewilderment. In this slim volume, Ramachandran deftly handles subjects as widely variegated as contemporary issues, religion, science, the fine arts, mythology, social issues and biographical sketches. Ramachandran is a reconnoitre of events and encounters with eminent personalities. He is at his scintillating best handling vastly different subjects, and in one life time he has successively performed as central banker, journalist, social worker, critic, biographer and more. At the Reserve Bank of India functions he would regale the audience with his amazing memory of events and interaction with prominent personalities. Like the village school master in Oliver Goldsmith’s The Deserted Village, it could be said of Ramachandran: “And still they gaz’d and still the wonder grew, that one small head could carry all he knew.” • A Bunch of Fragrant Roses Ramachandran’s writings are a sonata—a sheaf of memories—and the reader’s appetite would be whetted by this book and look forward to future volumes by him. Ramachandran is truly a man for all seasons. July 31, 2012 (S.S. Tarapore) Former Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India; a columnist and the author of “Financial Policies in Everyday Life” . Foreword PPR, as we all affectionately call Shri.P.P.Ramachandran, is one person you can always count on when you want stories and anecdotes of persons in or connected with RBI. He is thus a favourite at farewell functions. He has an amazing memory which he calls upon at such events. He is also the person who keeps close track of events in the lives of RBIites and always lets us know when they say farewell to this world! Furthermore, in his unique way, he got the RBI Governor to honour the centenarian Nair in Kochi. It is therefore, fitting that he has brought out his second book on “ An Anecdotal History of RBI”. History, it is said, is drab without it helping us to understand why events took the course they did, who the persons were behind the events and the decisions shaping those events and why those persons took the decisions they did. What was the interaction between those at the top in RBI, the political leadership, the bureaucracy and industry? What were their personal preferences and prejudices? These are questions that you and I would like to get answers for, but invariably do not. His pen portraits of the 23 Governors of RBI are fascinating and in few pages he has taken us through the history of the 80 year old lady of Mint Street. In this book, PPR has given us some insight to the personal aspects of the folks in RBI and some anecdotes from their lives. I was quite amused to read a story of the temper of a grand uncle of mine PVR who worked in RBI and was apparently quite a legend! He has been a popular reviewer of books written by former RBI staff especially Governors and Deputy Governors and he has included many of the important reviews that have been published in this collection. I am sure the reader would enjoy PPR’s book as much as I did. Usha Thorat. Former Deputy Governor Reserve Bank of India. ****************************** PART TWO— ASIATIC LIBRARY. I have close association with this prestigious Library— The Asiatic Library--of which I am a Life Member. For over two decades I was a Member of the Library’s Book Selection Committee which had distinguished members like Shri.Soli Sorabjee---later Solicitor General, Justice Smt.Sujata Manohar—later Judge of the Supreme Court Justice Ursekar of the Bombay High Court Smt.Nalini Pandit, Head of the Department of Sanskrit, Elphinsone College Prof . David, Head of History Department St Xaviers College We were 24 members and we used to meet once in a month. Sorabjee used to fly in from Delhi just for this. Selection was most democratic—each book would be discussed briefly. Though I was a comparatively young member I was given importance and Fiction books were mainly left to my judgment. Since RBI transferred me to Trivandrum I resigned from membership of the Committee. I have happy memories of association with this Great Library. PART THREE— BOOK REVIEWS Since 1958 I have been reviewing books--they were published in Financial Express. Then reviews appeared in Without Reserve, IIBanker's Journal, CAB Calling and Shanmukha, For 12 long years every Sunday my reviews were published in Free Press Journal. I have crossed 750 reviews. Reviews of books written by RBI Executives and connected with RBI--published Post Platinum Jubilee are 69. I have had excellent support from several Governors,Deputy Governors,Executive Directors,distinguished intellectuals like Dr V.V.Bhatt,A.G.Chandavarkar,Deena Khatkhate and others. I have reviewed both the books of Govinda Warrier. I will quote from two letters –from Deepak Mohanty and Dr.Y.V.Reddy on my book “RBI An Anecdotal History” One is from Executive Director Deepak Mohanty. He says “Your book is an impressive addition to the central banking literature and gives us a glimpse of the aspects that would normally have been lost to History”. The second letter is From Dr.Y.V.Reddy ex-Governor who wrote – “ I have enjoyed reading your book. There were many things that I did not know before. You have done a great service not only to RBI but to many others. Please keep it up.” P.P.Ramachandran, 10/07/2020 A. Flowers love you https://www.speakingtree.in/allslides/the-spiritual-signficance-of-flowers I have something personal about flowers. "Warrier" is one of the communities assigned with the duty of collecting and providing flowers in Kerala temples and preparing haars/garlands for decorating the deities and temple premises. This makes me nostalgic when I see certain flowers. Not just flowers, even the "Darbha" Grass (see link below) used as thread to link flowers to make garlands in temples bring nostalgic memories. https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Tiruchirapalli/darbha-grass-a-natural-preservative/article7000098.ece B. Festival of flowers Watch "Festival of Flowers | Onam Celebration | Pookalam Timelapse | Onam Sadya" https://youtu.be/R3AR8THQV2k Onam the harvest festival in Kerala is all about flowers and "Sadya" (Feast). Have a look. C. Kanikkonna and Vishu Watch "Vishu Greetings - Vishukkani and the important rituals associated with Vishu" https://youtu.be/88MevguZXt8 Kanikkonna flowers have a significant role in celebration of Vishu in Kerala. During Vishu season (Vishu comes around middle of April) Kanikkonna trees carry only golden yellow flowers and no leaves! D Poems about Flowers https://www.familyfriendpoems.com/poems/nature/flower/ Interesting poems about flowers E. Guest Column MAYA* Maya is a word which is very familiar to us all, but very few know what it actually means. It is a word which was used by the rishis (sages) of ancient India to describe the nature of this universe of changing forms. The rishis have always been telling us that matter is not as real or as solid as we think. It is only an illusion projected by our senses. They called it “maya” or the magical creative power of the “Brahman”. With the dawn of the 20th century, we find that physics started to support this view. The theory of relativity showed us that we can only know the relations between objects, and quantum theory declared that we can only see probabilities. What we think of as solid matter is an illusion created by our eyes. In fact, it is the “maya” which the rishis talked about. Matter is actually made up of particles and waves that merely indicate the different types of knowledge that can be derived from that object. Scientists finally realized that our senses do not give us a true picture of Reality. This is exactly what the rishis of ancient India had been telling us more than five thousand years ago. We see the pictures in TV through the screen. The screen itself has no qualities. It is unmoving and unchanging, but without this solid support, the play of light and shade which we are watching would have no form and no meaning. Similarly, the drama of our life and the drama of the world taking place in front of our eyes would have no meaning without the solid stage of the steady, unchanging state of the Pure Consciousness of the Brahman on which it is being enacted. The quantum world of science, which is a strange, unbelievable dance of particles, solidifies into a semblance of concrete reality when an observation is made by someone. In the absence of an observer, the atomic world is only a possibility. The particles materialize only when we look for them. Another strange fact is that when scientists looked for the location of a particle they were able to find it at a particular place, but they could not gauge its speed. When they wanted to gauge its speed, the particle turns into a wave and they could see it in motion. However, the scientist could not fix both its location and speed at the same time. Both depended on the observer! We cannot observe a thing without influencing it. This takes us back to the truth which had been declared by the rishis: that each of us is really creating our own world. Modern science has corroborated the statements of the rishis that this is actually a shadow world, which can be called real only when the consciousness of the observer comes into play. Normally quantum particles act in a haphazard fashion of chaos and disorder; but when individual consciousness is focused on them, they lose their individuality and begin to act as a single unit. This coherence extends into the world. Thus, human consciousness represents the greatest form of order known in nature and can help to shape and create order in the world. The modern physicist corroborates the claim of the rishis that the world exists only because we who are the observers are actively participating in it. The world is a creation of the human mind. Each of us creates our own world. These words are used both by Vedanta and by the quantum physicists. Vedanta says that the universe is an illusion created by the participators in this drama taking place on the stage of the universe! The question now comes up as to how the Supreme, unchangeable Being of the Brahman turned into the changing world. Vedanta explains this unique phenomenon by postulating “maya” as the cause of the superimposition. Maya has two powers- one to veil and the other to project. It veils the nature of the Brahman and projects pluralities on the screen of the non-dual. We can understand this only through examples. Light exists, darkness does not. The latter is only the absence of the former. Although darkness does not exist in reality, it has empirical existence. Similarly, the world also has empirical reality. According to the theory of relativity, continuous activity is the very essence of matter. Hence in Hinduism, maya is described as a state of “becoming” whereas Brahman is the state of “Being”. The Puranas describe this relationship in a very poetic way. Shiva in his essence is the Absolute and is known as Bhava or “Being”, whereas his consort Parvati, who is the essence of maya, is known as Bhavani or “Becoming.” There can be no change without expenditure of energy. The Sanskrit word for energy is “Shakti” and this also refers to maya, as we have seen. Maya is thus the enchantress who has cast this spell on us and made us believe in the solid reality of this universe of forms. She has made us believe in the reality of the forms and forget that formless that is upholding the forms. The only way to break free from the spell of the enchantress is to realize that all the forms we see are aspects of that one Reality, just as all the rays of light emanate from just one sun. This is known as moksha or liberation and is the goal of Hinduism. Liberation is when the individual experiences that he or she is nothing but that Brahman. This is the very essence of Hinduism. The sage of Arunachala known as Ramana Maharishi said,"Just as the spider emits the thread (of the web) out of itself and again withdraws it into itself,likewise the mind projects the world out of itself and again resolves it into itself.when the mind comes out of the Self, the world appears.Therefore,when the world appears to be real, the Self does not appear;and when the Self shines, the world does not appear. When one persistently enquires into the nature of the mind, the mind will end leaving the Self shine, as the residue. “Who am I?” is the question that he asked his disciples to use. By negating all those parts of our selves that are transitory or superficial, we will come to the realization that we are nothing other than that Supreme Consciousness of the Brahman.This is the final liberation from all the fears that haunt the mind of the human being. If this knowledge is made a part of our everyday life, all our basic hang-ups like the fear of death and extreme attachment to people, places, and objects can be banished forever. Our inquiry into the true nature of our selves will make us realize that the Supreme Self is present in all beings irrespective of any perceived differences. Meditation and yoga can only give us occasional glimpses of that Supreme Self, but the abiding knowledge and realization that our existence is not separate from that universal existence, can at one stroke remove all our mental agonies. *Received via group mail from Vathsala Jayaraman, Ex-RBI