Warrier's Collage 29122020: Optimism

Welcome to Warrier's Daily COLLAGE December 29, 2020 Tuesday Good Morning Only select responses to yesterday's Collage have been included. Will try to clear backlog tomorrow. Many Thanks for the support and encouragement. 🙏 M G Warrier A Quote for the day: "An optimist understands that life can be a bumpy road, but at least it is leading somewhere. They learn from mistakes and failures, and are not afraid to fail again.” ―Harvey Mackay ( Harvey Mackay (born 1932) is an American businessman, author and syndicated columnist with Universal Uclick. His weekly column gives career and inspirational advice and is featured in over 100 newspapers. Mackay has authored seven New York Times bestselling books, including three number one bestsellers. He is also a member of the National Speakers Association Council of Peers Award for Excellence Hall of Fame) More Quotes at G B Interaction 1) V R Chittanandam Cheñnai Your New Year's Message in Today's Collage is heart warming. We had only negative thought during this year mainly because of the pandemic. For instance I have not moved out of my house since the outbreak of the virus. An idle mind is devil's workshop. I had many bad thoughts. Your advice to shed all these unwanted thoughts and enter the New Year with confidence and hope is most encouraging. Let's sincerely hope the New Year will have newer things for us to celebrate. Thank you Chittanandam 2) V T Panchapagesan Chennai What is Upanishad? UPA ‘by’ ni-shad ‘ sit down, receiving knowledge, esoteric doctrine/ Secret doctrine from a Guru.. There were many but out of those, there are only ten now available.. Eyes see The world, Mind sees The Eyes, Inner soul. Perceives The working of the MIND... Dengya, Japanese priest in the 9th century says: Mi- Zaru. Don’t see Iwa- Zaru. Don’t talk Kika- Zaru. Don’t hear SEE THE REALITY through Sun. HEAR The Vedic sound, Aum, Speak. Observe silence with SMARANAM.....SILENCE UPA nayanam, UPA Vasam, UPA Nyasam, UPA nishad, THERE ARE SIMILAR WORDS WHICH CONVEY THE SAME MEANING. Human brain grasps when they are in threes..... Through Sareeram, Manas and Buddhi , understand / learn through A Guru , who is called a UPADHYAYA , THE REALITY OF TRUTH AND THEN HAVING LEARNT YOU BECOME A GURU WHOSE DHARMA IS TO CYCLE the same TO YOUNGER GENERATION WITHOUT AFFECTING THE MAIN DHARMIC VALUES.... 🙏 Be Well, V. T. Panchapagesan (Many Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Your contributions enhance the quality and content of Collage) 3) K Ramasubramanian Mumbai Receiving 2021 "A very good advice. I respect very much . I have undergone transfers both in my career days and after retirement too. When we were shifting from one centre to another my wife asked me pointing out to the collection of files and books as to whether we should pack this also to be sent to new place. Yes yes no doubt we have to. They contain valuable information on FEMA, monetary economics etc etc . My wife understood my serious interest and in her own innocence ( actually intelligence) made a remark that since the last two transfers I have never seen you opening any of these files and books. It is now your imagination that can determine my predicament . The reference to this is the ability to decide what is really useful and what is not which is an art or science or a skill? The problem is to identify which is necessary and which is not and the wisdom to differentiate and choose. This skill well understood to have and not attained till now can be started for 2021 . Yes very seriously" RAMASUBRMANIAN (Thanks. Murthy in the write-up is late C Harikumar's(Ex-ED) elder brother. C Krishnamurthy was with Kerala Financial Corporation those days. One of the conduct certificates (two were needed in lieu of Police Verification) I submitted to RBI while joining was from him. He jokingly said: "I don't mind telling a lie to help you 🙏" He is a partner in Moorthy & Moorthy Associates, Chartered Accountants-Warrier) 4) Dr T V Surendran Mananthavady "Your welcome note to 2021 is special and refreshing, with nostalgic tea party of those days." (Thanks for posting online comments @WarriersViews) 5) Janardhana Warrier Talassery Yes, I am waiting for that great moment to "welcome 2021 with an open mind with a positive attitude". C Readers Write 1) V Babusenan Thiruvananthapuram A matter of great regret Towards the end of the year 1938, the eminent physicist Dr Niels Bohr had a problem weighing heavily on his mind. It was connected with a recent discovery called 'nuclear fission' by the great scientists Otto Hahn and Lise Meitner. They found that, if the nucleus of an uranium atom was bombarded with a neutron, it would yield enormous energy based on Einstein's famous equation E = m c square. Left to itself, it was not much of a problem, but, if with the resultant neutrons similar process can be repeated on a continuous basis, the scenario changes. One is confronted with the possibility of a terrible weapon, the atomic bomb. A megalomaniac like Hitler would certainly jump at this opportunity and he should be prevented at any cost. The only natural element on the earth that could be used for this purpose was uranium. It was a scarce element available only in a few places in the world. Uranium mines were functioning in Belgian Congo. Hitler, as a first step, would take possession of Congo. Belgium should be suitably warned. There was yet another problem, equally grave. The naturally available uranium would not yield to fission. In scientific parlance it is known as 'uranium-238 ' which simply means that its nucleus carries altogether 238 protons and neutrons. There is another variety known as uranium-235 (3 neutrons less) that serves the purpose, but it forms a very very low percentage of the uranium ore. Segregation of uranium-235 from the ore to make the bomb would be an extremely arduous job needing sophisticated technology and huge sums of money. Hitler could do this, if he wanted, but, in the free world, only America could afford. Dr.Bohr went to Princeton in August 1939 and met Einstein. He was accompanied by Leo Szilard, a very brilliant Hungarian physicist who, like Einstein, took asylum in the US. They explained the situation to him and sought his help. They wanted him to suggest to President Roosevelt the urgency of making the bomb before Hitler could do so as they were convinced that the President, who held Einstein in high esteem, would listen to him. They also wanted him to write to his close friend, the queen of Belgium, about the need for protecting the uranium deposits in Congo. Einstein obliged although he was hesitant to exploit friendship and regard. The strategy worked. The President formed a secret working group of great nuclear scientists and technicians to make the bomb. This was known as the 'Manhattan Project.' The project got uninterrupted supply of uranium from the Congo mines. It made three bombs of which one was tested successfully in the New Mexico desert. The other two were dropped on Japan-one in Hiroshima and the other in Nagasaki to end the war. Einstein felt very bad about it. It was true that he was not directly involved. He was mercifully avoided from the Manhattan Project. About the human tragedy he said only this much: "Organized power can be opposed only by organized power. Much as I regret this, there is no other way." The pity is that the thought of making an atomic bomb did not occur to Hitler at all-not because of any human consideration, but because he laughed away E=mc square, splitting of the atom, etc. as Jewish madness! 2) M G Warrier "Spiritual wellbeing" https://www.speakingtree.in/blog/spiritual-wellbeing A 2013 Blog Post. Thought, may be of interest on the New Year eve. Excerpts: " We will find that the burden of life is much lighter than we imagine and as part of the whole existence, our job is just to be in attendance and do our duty." D Reader's Contribution 1) Received from Balasubramanian Coimbatore : Very nice email from Jerry Rao, which I got as a forward at two degrees of separation.... From: Jaithirth Rao Indic concept of debt Our classical texts talk of five “runas”(debts) Deva-runa: Debt to the Divinity and Divinities---the source of the energy that pervades the universe and of each of us. Without this energy, we do not exist. Paying this debt involves a continuous encounter with the sacred and the transcendent—a stout refusal to buy into the theories of materialism and hedonism. Sripadaraja says: "Kangalidyaatako Kaveri Rangana Nodade” “What is the point of having eyes if one does not have the darshana of Ranga, the Lord of the Kaveri”. Kierkegaard talks about the early Christian Fathers “deliberately” setting up sacred ideals a tad beyond human reach. Ramana Maharishi says somewhere: “Arul-nagai ittru ennai pair, Arunachala” “Look at me with the smiling jewel of your grace, O Mountain of Dawn”. Scruton advised his contemporary troubled Christian friends about what they can do in the face of the assault on them by moral relativists. Scruton suggests that they imitate early Christians who gathered together in secret catacombs as they kept their tryst with the sacred. Pitru-runa: Debt to our ancestors who literally “conceived” us. Again we are a link in the chain of which they were a part and we exist because they existed. Remembering our ancestors both recent and distant (some even mythical) forces us to re-dedicate ourselves to ideals beyond ourselves. Kipling combines Deva-runa and Pitru-runa concepts when he refers to “Lord of our Fathers, be with us yet”. Rama is frequently referred to as Raghu-kula-nandana, Surya-vamshi, Ikshvaku-kula-ratna. Arjuna is Kaunteya, Bharata and so on. Even Krishna is Varshneya, Vasudeva-suta. Burke captures it well when he posits that we owe “debts” to our ancestors and “proper legacies” to our descendants. Acharya-runa: Debt to our teachers. Our minds are the products of the inputs of our teachers. Ramana Maharishi has pointed out that a teacher need not be a human. One can visualize Shiva-Dakshinamurthy as one’s teacher. Subrahmanya was the teacher who his father, Lord Shiva sought. Svetaketu’s father was his teacher. Death itself was Nachiketa’s teacher. The Lord Himself was Arjuna’s teacher. Incidentally Krishna also taught Abhimanyu, when the latter was still in his mother’s womb. Ramakrishna Paramahamsa has a story where he sends a learned person to go live with a butcher and observe the butcher, who ends up becoming the scholar’s teacher. If I remember right, a barber was Sir William Jones’ Sanskrit teacher. Every time Abdul Kalam came to Madras, he would make a late evening detour to Loyola College to pay homage to his Guru (who had taught Kalam at Saint Joseph’s College, Trichy) at the Guru’s grave. Kalam understood the concept of Acharya-runa. Bhuta-runa: Debt to the Elements (Nature, Environment, Eco-system). The Five Elements (which have parallels in Greek thought) are Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Ether(the subtlest of all elements). Our relationship cannot be one of crude exploitation. It has to be one of mutual respect. Our ancients even humanized the elements. The Earth is our Mother. The Atharva Veda requires us to be gentle with her and to take from her gently what we need, not violently or rapaciously. Fire is the Messenger of the Divine. We frequently request Agni to take our messages to the Lord. Waters are our Mothers and Sisters.If we lose our rivers and water-bodies, we lose a bit of ourselves. Air/Wind is our protector interceding for us with the Divine. The figure of Hanuman as our special friend comes on account of his association with Vayu. I once read an essay by a Hyderabad Muslim woman who offers a Rakhi to Hanuman, who is her friend and protector. Ether is the ultimate secret, the Rahasya—the Divine Dancer with the raised leg at Chidambaram who keeps the universe alive at this very moment. Ether is also the silence that pervades interstellar distances. The concept of Bhuta-runa is radically different from the biblical Old Testament view that “Man” was given “dominion” over the earth and its creatures. Bhuta-runa implies that humans are seen as being in a symbiotic creditor-debtor relationship with the universe and its inhabitants. Humans are by no means the rulers of the earth. Manushya-runa: Debt to other humans. We are not lonely predatory denizens. We are in debt to other humans who in turn are hopefully in debt to us. Even the Sanyasi with a begging bowl is indebted to the charitable woman who gives him food for sustenance. In return, the Sanyasi presumably gives her blessings. Those of us who are not Sanyasis are profoundly intertwined with other humans. There are some scholars who believe that Bhuta-runa and Manushya-runa run across lives and incarnations. A debt not paid in this life catches up in the next. I once had a Multani borrower who was in financial trouble. When I went to see him he said in Hindi: “Rao-sahib, mein aapka karza chukaa-ke jaaoonga. Mein upar-wale ke paas maathe pe kalank lagaake nahin jaana chahta”. “Mr. Rao, I will pay your debt and then go. I do not want to go the Lord above with a blemish on my forehead”. Raja-dharma requires that the Sovereign pay his/her debts scrupulously. The modern fashion of creating inflation and paying State Debts in debased currencies would not have been approved of by Bhishma. Sorry for the long, meandering response. It is indeed sad that there is not a single school or college in our fair and fractured land where the Five “Runas” are part of the curriculum. But then Sandipani ran his school with no royal patronage. We must all do our little bit. 2) A Poet with Passion and Compassion*: T.P.Sreenivasan Most images of the poet, environmentalist and charity activist, Sugathakumari (SK) that flashed in the media since she passed away were sad, thoughtful and grim. She had a charming and affectionate smile by nature, but weighed down as she was with compassion arising out of anxiety about the plight of the poorest, lowliest and lost, the physical decay of the human habitat and increasing depravity of mankind, she could not find joy even in the magical world of poetry. She might have believed that she should take on the sins of mankind and suffer on their account in the same way as Jesus Christ did. Her final years were like the Passion in Christianity to “suffer, bear, endure", like in the short final period in the life of Jesus. The heart breaking picture of the funeral of SK was her body covered in black plastic being wheeled into the raging fire by seven human forms draped in white plastic to save themselves from the pandemic that took her life. The scene was the depiction of the times, which in a way reflected the way the earth had struck humanity back for the depredation of nature, a kind of vengeance by the earth. It was the height of irony that a person, who dedicated her life to fight for justice to mother earth should have been struck down by the same pestilence, which was nature’s punishment to those who caused havoc to the planet. The other irony was that her dear ones, relatives, friends and an army of admirers did not fulfil her last wishes, provided in writing, regarding her funeral. Going against her specific instructions, they decked the place of paying last respects to her with flowers plucked in their prime, policemen, in white plastic, fired into the air in an empty gesture of “state honours” and promptly held a commemorative meeting. However noble the intentions, these rituals would not have gladdened her heart. She left this world with many unfulfilled wishes, but she should not have been denied her last wishes, which arose from her sense of humility, simplicity and concern for others. Soorya Krishnamoorthy, a friend of the family expressed these sentiments at the funeral itself. Of the three daughters of the revered freedom fighter and poet, Bodheswaran, I was closest to Hrdyakumari, who was my favourite teacher, and then Sujatha Devi, my contemporary in college. SK was not in Thiruvananthapuram during my days in the University College and I met her as she was the role model for my wife, Lekha, for her charity work. SK guided her in setting up the Kerala chapter of Karuna Charities, Lekha had set up in New York, Nairobi, Washington and Vienna. We were overawed by her towering personality and looked upon every opportunity to meet her in public functions and privately as a blessing. She was the embodiment of karuna for us and we rarely discussed poetry or environment. At our first meeting, I tried to share my experience of international negotiations in which we gave primacy for development on the basis of Indira Gandhi’s dictum that “poverty is the worst polluter.” But I sensed that her passion for the environment was unidimensional- save trees, animals, birds, water bodies etc. I have not heard her speak about the science of global warming and emission of greenhouse gases. An eminent literary figure remarked that if she was not distracted by her compassion for the poor and environmental activism, SK would have been a greater poet. But her three spheres of interest were interconnected and she could not have sacrificed one for the others. She realised that writing poems alone will not help the environment or the poor and became an activist in both. Other poets in Malayalam like ONV Kurup and Ayyappa Paniker wrote with feeling about the impending demise of the earth, but did not lead any movement from the front. I enjoyed her poetry immensely, but we did not discuss poetry as such except that I expressed admiration for her meditative and lyrical quality, which I enjoyed in the renderings of Chithra and Venugopal. Her Krishna image and divine love have a special charm. Her portrayal of the unconventional Radha, who admires him from a distance, loves him deeply and finds ecstasy in the fact that he stops by her home to signal his recognition of her love is most poignant. But her conversations were basically on the instances of acute suffering and misery she had seen around her. She often spoke of cases of unspeakable cruelty to women, young and old, and the callousness of the authorities. SK did not confront the ruling governments, but led multi-party movements in the expectation that strong public opinion can bring about changes. The description of the sad state of affairs of the environment and poverty in her poems moved many people into helping her out. The Silent Valley project was abandoned by the Government solely because of the strong popular pressure she engendered. The same was the case with the Aranmula Airport project. But many of these will be taken up again when development projects become inevitable. The Airport project has moved out of Aranmula, but it is now being proposed in a more fragile area near the popular Sabarimala temple. I quoted Jawaharlal Nehru’s words about the Mahatma to express my anguish when SK passed away. “The light has gone out of our lives,” I said. But we should feel comfort in completing the quote from Nehru that the light will still last, for that light was no ordinary light and “it represented the living truth ... the eternal truths, reminding us of the right path, drawing us from error.” (Highlights by Collage) *Forward received from Sudha Warrier Mumbai E 2020 in Review Notes from a year of unease: https://thg.page.link/39HFyxYgpwJNzYsRA Excerpts Restoring confidence Next year must be the year in which a serious attempt is made by the government, and Delhi in particular, to restore confidence in constitutional proprieties, practices and principles. There is an impression amongst those who have differences or disagreements with the ruling dispensation at the Centre that the latter is violating the principles and rules sanctified by the Constitution, and that the Opposition’s rights are being steadily undermined. The intention, according to the latter, is to achieve single-party rule across the entire nation. F Leisure Great Expectations* Three things to remember in life: 1. First one : People are not so bad as seen on 'PAN-Card' and 'Aadhar Card'. And are not so good-looking as seen in 'Facebook' and 'WhatsApp'. 2. Second one : Men are not as bad as their wives think. ...And not as good as their Mothers think. 3. Third one: Male criteria for life partner : They expect their women to Look like "Miss Universe" and Work like" Kanta bai" Female criteria for life partner : They expect their man to earn like Ambani & behave like Manmohan Singh. *Forward received from Yashodhan Mujumdar Mumbai G Quotes about Optimism 13 Optimistic Quotes to Stop Being So Negative | SUCCESS" https://www.success.com/13-optimistic-quotes-to-stop-being-so-negative/