Warrier's COLLAGE July 20, 2021

Welcome to Warrier's COLLAGE On Tuesday July 20, 2021 Global Spiritual Science Research Community : Morning Meditation https://youtu.be/Eh-9k3_FkCU Good Morning Nice Day M G Warrier A Satsangam with Dr Kamala Unnikrishnan, Bengaluru Navadhā Bhakti* Class 3: We are in our third Class of Navadhā Bhakti. In the first Class we took Bhakti in general; in the second Class we started the explanation of Navadhā Bhakti. There we stated that Navadhā Bhakti is to be understood with slight changes of Bhakti. They are Sravanam, Kīrtanam, Smaranam, Pādasevanam, Archanam, Vandanam, Dāsyam, Sakhyam and Ᾱtmanivedanam. These are the nine types of Bhakti. These can be understood as gradual steps or the levels of devotion. The first five are at the sadhana level; the next three are that of the Paraabhakta’s level and the last is the ultimate knowledge, that is the Jnaani’s bhakti. (Continued at H2) *Received from Dr T V Surendran Mananthavady B Select Responses 1) S Nallasivan Hyderabad Appreciation : S Venugopal Chennai Dear Venu, You have been doing exceptionally well, of late, by forwarding the most intelligent, clean and enjoyable Jokes*. Your forward of stories on moral are no different as they are absorbing and convey messages that help in making one's life more worthy and meaningful. (Continued at H1) *Collage has been sharing select contributions from S Venugopal received via Group mail with thanks-Warrier 2) Muthulakshmi Srinivasan Thanks to Vathsala Jayaraman for enlightening us about Mr Ganapati and his warkari links. I like abhangs but will be happy if their meanings are also given. 3) R Jayakumar Mumbai Warkari Pilgrimage.... Warkari Pilgrims walking through Pune roads is a common sight in the month of June/July every year.. I think it is customary for the pilgrims going to Pandharpur to visit the holy place at Alandi, Pune also and take a dip in the river. I was staying in Pune for three years at a place called Vishrantwadi, near Yerwada which is famous for the Pune-Alandi Road. All Warkari Pilgrims pass through this road on a particular day to reach Alandi. (Continued at H3) 4) M G Warrier Aryavaidyasala Kottakkal Some readers recently enquired about the activities of Aryavaidyasala Kottakkal. The link below gives a broad picture : https://www.aryavaidyasala.com/about-us.php AVS has 26 Branch clinics in major cities and towns of the country where medical consultation and authentic Kottakkal medicines are made available. These medicines are also made available to the patients through 1650 authorised Dealers. The book "Chikitsa Sangraham" available in English and Malayalam is informative. Consultation by correspondence is also possible. Their Publication Division is fairly large and have books on a variety of subjects : https://www.aryavaidyasala.com/publications.php?page=2 C Readers' Contribution 1) Printer's Devil : V Babusenan Thiruvananthapuram Very few place-names indicate where they are. The best example that comes to mind is Stratford-upon-Avon in England, the birthplace of Shakespeare. It tells you plainly that it is located on the bank of the Avon river. A similar case in Kerala is Neyyattinkara, a busy town situated on the bank of the river Neyyar. As Vadakkunnadhan is to Trissur, there stands the well-known Sree Krishna temple, constructed two and a half centuries ago by a Maharaja of Travancore state as a mark of gratitude. Legend has it that Lord Krishna as a boy showed him a big hollow on the trunk of a jack fruit tree to hide from his enemies, before he became king and he had the temple built near this tree. The town is about 20 km south of the capital city on the way to Kanyakumari. The town is the birth place of many eminent people. Swadesabhimani Ramakrishna Pillai, journalist non-pareil, Dr.G.Ramachandran, Gandhian-cum-social reformer and Neyyattinkara Vasudevan, the renowned Carnatic singer are the three names which immediately occurred to the writer. Of these, a few words about the first-named K.Ramakrishna Pillai, editor of a newspaper by name 'Swadeshabhimani' that flourished in the early years of the last century, was an extra-ordinary person. Learned,straightforward, brilliant and totally fearless, his razor-sharp pen did not spare even the ruling family. His main target of attack was the Dewan P Rajagopalachari who, despite being a good administrator,was something of a Don Juan. This aspect of the Dewan irritated many but none, except Ramakrishna Pillai, had the courage to criticize him. Ramakrishna Pillai wrote an acerbic editorial in which he called the Dewan 'Jaragopalachari' referring to his sexual promiscuity. The insulted Dewan filed a libel suit against the paper and he won it. The paper was ordered to publish an apology prominently on its front page. It obeyed, but the apology was like this Rajagopalachari happened to be Jaragopalachari because of printer's devil for which the paper is extremely sorry. For printer's devil the word used was 'atchippizha' which also means 'fault of one's wife.' This gave another meaning, a mischievous one, to the apology that the Dewan happened to be so because of his wife's shortcomings! The Dewan approached the court again. The paper argued that by'atchippizha' it meant only printer's devil as, according to Malayalam grammar, atchil + pizha =atchippizha ('atchil' means 'in the print' and 'pizha' means 'error') After taking expert opinion,the court rejected the appeal! Ramakrishna Pillai continued his constructive criticism, though sharp, and the Dewan his efforts to oust him from the state. The latter succeeded and Pillai was banished from the princely state of Travancore in1911. He spent the rest of his life in Kannur as a sick man and died there in 1916. 2) Remembering Bank Nationalisation The link below will lead us to a July 19, 2019 report in the context of completing 50 years after Bank Nationalisation : https://www.indiatoday.in/amp/news-analysis/story/bank-nationalisation-50-years-indira-gandhi-narnedra-modi-1570803-2019-07-18 "More than 360 banks had failed between 1947 and 1955 -- the rate of collapse was 40 banks a year. The trend continued through the 1950s and the first half of 1960s. This had forced Morarji Desai, the then finance minister, to launch a massive bank consolidation drive. It brought down the number of banks from 328 in 1960 to 68 in 1965. Banks were failing largely due to speculative financial activities but when Indira Gandhi became the prime minister in 1967 and brought back Morarji Desai as her finance minister, she faced another problem that posed a political challenge to her. The banks were not giving credit to agriculture and not enough to industry. The banks were more interested in extending credit for trade. The collapse of banks were causing distress among people, who were losing their hard-earned money in the absence of a strong government support and legislative protection to their money. Indira Gandhi saw a rare chance to become people's hero at a time when she was being challenged within the Congress party." India is waiting for a leadership to evolve which will have the WILL to deploy the talent, resources and power to serve public interest. It's happening. D Collage in Classroom Edited out E M G Warrier : Blogs & Books a) Blog now dedicated to Warrier's COLLAGE : www.warriersblog.com b) Latest article @ WarriersViews Times of India https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/readersblog/warriersviews/cost-and-pricing-34862/ c) Books https://notionpress.com/read/restoring-trust-in-governance F Leisure/Jokes 1) Early Bird : Vathsala Jayaraman Early bird catches the prey It was a psychology class. The teacher was taking lessons regarding habit formation. He was describing in detail the benefits of sleeping well and getting up very early in the morning. He cited the example of birds quoting a proverb : "Early bird catches the prey". A student immediately stood up and said, " Sir, what you say is absolutely correct when I am compared with the birds. But if I am placed in the position of the worms, the proverb may not be applicable to me. If I get up late, the birds would have come and eaten the other worms. I would keep alive for more number of days. Life is as precious to a worm as to a bird. Is it not true, master?" The master was stunned. Is this called 'out of the box thinking' in psychological terms? The truth wakes up during protests in an organisation and widely applied in interpretation of Labour Laws. The rule is the same. Affected parties are different. That is why 'law' wins and 'justice' gets defeated on certain occasions. Vathsala Jayaraman 2) R Jayakumar Mumbai PRESENTATION MATTERS** Girl's father : What does your son do? Boy's father : My son has an assembling and retailing business. He has his workshop and showroom in busy market area. Girl's father : What does he assemble and retail ? Boy's father : He gets tea leaves from Assam and Darjeeling, milk from Anand in Gujarat, Sugar from Maharashtra. Then he assembles them in his workshop where he has his own furnace. Then he retails them in small paper glass & clay cups...... (Girl's father* very much impressed ) **Forward received from R Jayakumar via Group mail (*I remember this man. He gave a large earthen pot and 20 clay cups as dowry. It was in Lalu's Bihar, when serving tea in earthen pots was a fashion-Warrier) G Quotes about quotes https://medium.com/@Storyzy/15-quotes-about-quotes-36897f50377d Like : “I love quotations because it is a joy to find thoughts one might have, beautifully expressed with much authority by someone recognized wiser than oneself.” — Marlene Dietrich (Marie Magdalene "Marlene" Dietrich was a German-born American actress and singer. Her career spanned from the 1910s to the 1980s. In 1920s Berlin, Dietrich performed on the stage and in silent films.) H 1) Continued from A1 The Robe trick man's story though very simple, his posture to the crowd make us wonder what exactly it is belief and faith though many perceive both to be the same or synonymous. But now we are made to under stand that there is an Ocean of difference. Was it not the same that Baghvan Krishna pronounced Faith means absolute, total and complete? But our sense of belief and faith varies mainly to suit our mood and convenience! Have we not heard of the Special Yagna conducted in a rain starved Village, where we found a small child alone came with an umbrella hoping the sky to open at the end of the Yagna? But for the rest of the Village it was a mere ritual sans any faith. Have you heard of the Swiss folklore of Willam Tell shooting the apple placed on the head of his darling son with an arrow. It was a punishment imposed on the man who rose against the tyrant King. The boy who believed that his father's arrow would not harm him remained strong, was unhurt and in the process saved his father from the King too. Lord Krishna had commited Himself to support stoutly the Pandavas as they represented righteousness. He therefore came down as the Charioteer to Arjuna. Arjuna believed and had faith in Lord Krishna but one doubts, was it absolute and total! Otherwise why should Arjuna think of giving up fighting before the war started. He was only back to commence the Kurushetra War when the Lord recited 700 Stanzas in the middle of the battle field to goad Arjuna. And as if it was not enough He had to exhort Arjuna in an intimidating way and show His Vishwarupa! Faith, belief and unwavered commitment should be like that of one of the staunchest Devotees of Lord Shiva, Chiruthonda Nainar. This Ciruthondar and his equally pious spouse would not eat unless and until they entertained another Shiva devotee and fed them whatever they prefered and demanded. This childless couple after long penance and their die hard devotion to feed religiously other worshippers of Lord Shiva was blessed with a son. As it is His wont, the Lord decided to test their commitment, devotion and undying faith, arrived one day as a Bairagi seeking to be fed. But His demand was unusual, unique and unorthodox and plain cruel. He wanted a child in the tender age group of less than 5 years, healthy, active and intellgent. Chiruthonda Nainar knew whom the Bairagi wanted to be served. Without any sense of gloom or sadness they cooked their precious son and happily served to their guest. The Bairagi had again desired the father too to partake in the Special Feast. When Chiruthondar sat to eat when his wife was serving the flesh of their darling son, the Bairagi had another request to the parents to bring their son to the room. The parents obeyed and called their son by name and the strangest thing happened, a happy one though, the son came running and hugged the weeping parents when the Bairagi had already vanished so also the meat served. Then Lord Shiva presented Himself and praised their faith and devotion and they were blessed to reach His Lotus Feet! S Nallasivan 2) Satsangam with Kamala Unnikrishnan continued from A... Now we will take up Navadhā Bhakti one by one in detail. What comes first in Navadhā Bhakti is sravanam. Sravanam- the first stage or level to attain true devotion is listening. Sravanam is listening to God’s names, devotional songs, stories about the Lord or anything that creates the feeling of devotion in us. One should try to listen to such virtuous talks or chanting whenever possible. Whatever we listen to constantly, our mind will be inclined towards it. A person who constantly listens to chanting of God’s names develops in himself an interest to start chanting by himself. One should not only try to listen to divine names, he should also refrain from listening to negative things or things that may hinder the effort to move towards true Bhakti. Human beings who live under the influence of Prakriti ( nature), have two types of power- Daivee Sampathi (divine) and Aasuree Sampathi (demoniac). We have, in us, special samskara [cultural features] that take us to a divine level, to bhakti, to viveka or discrimination, and to knowledge. In the same way we also have in us some opposite samskaara which pull us down to materialistic objects, to senses of pleasure and to lack of discernment. Out of these two whichever we allow to grow in us, we become like that. Remember that. So using discrimination, one should abandon the circumstances and powers that make us grow the demoniac nature in us and accept circumstances and powers that help us to grow the divine nature. To do this, the important factor is Sravanam or listening. In order to listen to subjects related to the Lord, we have to try to be in the company of virtuous people, as far as possible. Those who have enjoyed the experience of God’s presence in their lives, will only have subjects related to the Lord to tell us. They will tell us about this and this is what we have to hear. Hence, we should always try our best to be in the company of such virtuous people and also to avoid the bad company of those who may tempt us to lead a life of enjoyment of physical pleasures. Make maximum use of opportunities to listen to Puraanas, Itihaasas and other religious scriptures which help us to develop our devotion more and more. Participate, whenever possible, in chanting God’s names, hearing stories and singing stotras and devotional songs. The greatness and benefit of listening to religious scriptures cannot be described in words. Maharshi Narada who advises Bhaktisastra says- ‘भक्तिशास्त्राणि मननीयानि तदुद्बोधककर्माण्यपि करणीयानि’ - (Naradeeya Bhaktisootram-76). Meaning, books on devotion must be reflected upon and these instructions must be pursued religiously. If one has to think about their essence, one has to first listen to them; it goes without saying. Here the word Sravanam should be taken in Upalakshana meaning and so all activities of the senses (seeing, touching tasting, etc.) should be included. This means whatever we take in, should be related to God, mainly listening or seeing and it should help in developing and nourishing devotion in us. From the first step of constantly listening the saadhaka naturally moves up to the next level of Keertanam. Whatever we always hear or see, naturally we also talk about it. We see in this world people behaving differently according to the circumstances they live in. Maximum importance is given to do satsang. So try to be with satsangam which means being in the company of virtuous people in order to listen to noble thoughts (सद्विषय). So, सत्सङ्ग is most important. The next is Keertanam. We will talk about Keertanam in the next class. ॐ पूर्णमदः पूर्णमिदम् पूर्णात् पूर्णमुदच्यते | पूर्णस्य पूर्णमादाय पूर्णमेवावशिष्यते || 3) Continued from B3 Wakari Pilgrimage The entire stretch of Alandi Road, about ten kilometres, is set up with hundreds and hundreds of food stalls for free distribution of food, drinking water, tea etc for the pilgrims by individuals, associations, political parties and others. Both sides of the road are filled with saffron clad pilgrims walking towards and returning from Alandi. It is a great sight to watch the people singing bhajans and walking in small and big groups formed of families or coming from different villages. My son-in-law is a permanent resident of Pune from birth and has his business office close to Alandi Road. He has the habit of distributing 300 to 500 Vada pavs and water bottles to the pilgrims every year. The local church at Kalas, near Alandi Road keeps its premise open on that day for the pilgrims to take rest, use toilet and water. I don't know the exact situation last year and this year due to restrictions created by Covid. (My Son-in-law's name is David!) I have seen groups leaving Mumbai for Shirdi, but I don't know if Mumbaikars also undertake Warkari Pilgrimage. R Jayakumar