Inspiring Indians

“Inspiring Indians” – this should have been the title of my first blog! Anyways, even now it is not late.

Being an Indian is something really great! Indians have reached great heights in almost all fields and it feels very nice to type that here. A democratic and a secular country, one of the fastest growing economies, and above all, the country with so many people to encourage and inspire the present generation!

Here, I would just like to mention about a few people who have inspired me in many ways. So, here we go….

1. Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam

Simplicity, humble in thought and noble in action! I am very particular on listening to his speeches, especially to the student community. “Rameshwaram to Rashtrapathi Bhavan” – a must read biography! Who would forget his words – “Dream dream and dream and make your dreams come true!” Salutes!

2. Mahakavi Subramanya Bharathiyar

An Indian then a poet or a poet then an Indian? Ask this to him. Even he would not know the correct answer. (And this has become the topic for most of the Tamil debates…) “I know what I do is right, it is all for mother India”, his typical words. Even after 88 years of his death, he lives in everyone’s heart. Salutes!

3. Mr. Narendra Modi

Longest serving chief minister of Gujarat, Mr. Modi is also the best chief minister among all CMs of India. Indeed a role model for other politicians. His views on compulsory voting in elections, non-free electricity for farmers etc. are fantastic. I love the way he addresses his opponents. Salutes!

4. Dr. R.D.Sharma

Most of the engineering students forget his name after stepping into college. But for sure, they would have used his unmatched books on Mathematics in school life. I have not even seen his face on a photo, but I can tell you, this maths genius’ way of presenting different concepts on different topics is too good. I just loved the problems from his text book. It would be incomplete, if I do not mention his qualification for you to know – B.Sc. (Honors) (Gold Medalist), M.Sc. (Gold Medalist), Ph.D.!!!! Salutes!

5. Bagavath Ramanujar

A great philosopher, teacher, scholar, therapist and what not! For winning over the previous vedantha philosophies namely the Dwaita and the Adwaita to produce the third one with special qualities of both and removing the errors from them and composing the Bhashyam for “Visishta” Advaitham! The best role model for any man on this earth! Salutes!

P.S. :- Though the personalities have been listen from 1 to 5, I give equal respect and seek inspiration from everyone to the same extent !

Wishing all a very happy new year! Wishing to see India in great heights this year! Jai Hind!

- ∫.∫rikrishnan

A TERRA BYTE memory!

I was promised an external hard disk of memory space 1 TB by my father days ago. I was too happy about it and I even started planning how to create partitions in it to store movies, songs and my college files’ backups. 1 TB is actually more than enough for me but each time I see 1 TB as 1024 GB, I get excited and when I see each GB as 1024 Mb I still get excited.

As the saying goes “necessity is the mother of invention”, we required devices to store memory so that the task of remembering most of the things could be avoided. And after necessity, it got modified on its own to luxury. I say this because, we now use hard disks not only to store important information, but also for less important information like movies, games etc.

And we now have changed so much, that we now depend entirely on these memory storage devices, and any failure or a problem in retrieving data from it would irk us a lot! We even have the facility of “reminders” on mobile phones which make us lazier. “Laziness to remember things”! And is it for this reason that humans have been given a great amount of memory space in brain??

A quote from some researchers:

"The human brain contains about 50 billion to 200 billion neurons (nobody knows how many for sure), each of which interfaces with 1,000 to 100,000 other neurons through 100 trillion (10^14) to 10 quadrillion (10^16) synaptic junctions. Each synapse possesses a variable firing threshold which is reduced as the neuron is repeatedly activated. If we assume that the firing threshold at each synapse can assume 256 distinguishable levels, and if we suppose that there are 20,000 shared synapses per neuron (10,000 per neuron), then the total information storage capacity of the synapses in the cortex would be of the order of 500 to 1,000 terabytes. (Of course, if the brain's storage of information takes place at a molecular level, then I would be afraid to hazard a guess regarding how many bytes can be stored in the brain. One estimate has placed it at about 3.6 X 10^19 bytes.)"

It is the human tendency to do away with all that one has, and search for the non-available ones! Man must understand that it is absolutely impossible to compete with nature. All his inventions have their roots with nature. Seeing a bird, he invented the aero plane, seeing a human, he invented the robot, seeing a caterpillar he invented the train and so on…

Such inventions may look amazing, but the real appreciation must go only to nature!!!

Cheers :)

- ∫.∫rikrishnan

The 26 journey!

It was the day when I had to choose a convenient bus route among the 43 available ones, for traveling all the way to college from my place, and that would be my bus for the next 4 years. I was really annoyed doing that because it was a hectic job for me, looking into each bus route and then finding that it would not suit me.

Moving my eyes down, I reached bus 25, the Triplicane bus, and then Sekar Emporium bus which is the bus 26! As, was looking at the stops available in that route, I was astonished to see a stop named “Perthavan Street”! There is no such street anywhere in Mambalam.

Then, it was my mother who took time to interpret it and convince me that it was “Brindavan Street” and not Perthavan. As, the street is just parallel to mine, I was very much happy as it wouldn’t take time for me to walk to the stop, early in the morning as the bus time mentioned was 6.37 am.

After a few days of ragging, and well defined relationship with bus seniors, we had the Bus Treat! We were had to the Dhabba Express, Nungambakkam. A day not to be forgotten! By then all first years had developed very good comradeship and never even had enough time to exhaust all the energy to enjoy during the journey.

By the end of the year (2k8), study holidays had commenced for the seniors, and it was perhaps the perfect time for us to enjoy. And we did. Days before Diwali, we could reach home only by 8 in the night due to a human chain protest in Chennai, and each one of us still love to remember those “golden” days.

There has never been a day when we felt bored of the bus journey. Intriguing arguments are a common feature. Prominent ones are those arguments against Vijay, some related to studies, football (I am inert to it) Indian architecture, politics and what not….

At times, there would be great discussions on subject matters when each one would present his view very strongly. Very interesting it would be. I still remember the day when there was a discussion on network theorems and it had consumed the entire return journey. Dumb charades at times would also add to our glee.

On the whole, I am very lucky to be a part of Bus 26 with PJ, RamC, Venky, OG, AKJ, VSR and GV. Cheers mates!!! Cheers !!!!

-∫.∫rikrishnan

Am I the doer or an instrument?

One of my favourite topics of discussion with my cousins and friends is this – “Am I the doer or the instrument”.

All the worldly things can be classified under on of the following 3 things – Chit, Achit and Eshwara. Chit refers to materials with knowledge, like our soul, whereas Achit are the things that have got no knowledge with them naturally like the human body. “Eshwara” refers to the Almighty. This is the basic principle of Visishtadvaitham, and that is the reason why visishtadvaitha sanyasis hold a staff called “Thruthanda” [ Advaitha saints hold ekathanda as they believe that all the above 3 are the same ! ]

As the soul resides in our body, it the combination of them that make us work. Now, when I perform an action, definitely God knows it is. He also knows how a person will lead his life. Therefore, is our life pre-determined? Or since there are Karmas (good and bad deeds in one’s life) accumulated as per our acts, is our life not pre-determined?

So there starts a debate as to whether I am made to act by God i.e. I am an instrument or are my actions independent of God’s will i.e. I am the doer.

As I said earlier, it is the combination of both the soul and the body that makes us do our work. So the soul for our body is a gift given by God! It is acting as a tool to perform many tasks. Without the soul, I may not be able to read or write blogs. So in this case, we are only instruments and not the doers of anything because this soul does not belong to my body. Lord Krishna says this in the 11^th chapter of Bagavath Gita.

But then what happens to all my actions? In case I slap someone and say that I am only an instrument and not the doer of that action will it become right on my part? Then what will happen to all the good and bad deeds of mine? I am supposed to experience for all my sins. So in that case I am only the doer of the actions and not an instrument. Lord Krishna also talks about this in Bagavath Gita.

But when I agree that I am responsible for all my actions, why at all should there be God? Why should I be dependent on him? I can be independent. Here comes the conflict. So am I the doer or the instrument?

So here is the conclusion. I am the performer, but all my actions are dependent on God. My actions have got no absolute independence. It is a dependent independence. Take an example of a company where a CEO has the full control. He has control over every person in the company. But he cannot decide on the action of every single individual worker. Does that mean the workers are independent and can do any work they like? Thus they are given some independence which is what I call as dependent independence. Therefore I am an instrument as well as the doer.

I am a doer because I have got the independence to do certain things, and I am an instrument because I have got independence to do only certain things! Hope you get the meaning right here.

Similarly, though God has full control over me, he will not control on all my actions. Therefore, I also need to take responsibility over the things that God does not take care of. I need to perform good deeds; only then this cycle of birth and death is broken.

Therefore, I am solely responsible for the present condition of my life, which depends on the deeds that I performed in my previous birth. It does not depend purely on the deeds of my present life. A child may be born rich, but does it mean it has done all good deeds in its present life?

So, to have a better life, or to break up from the continuous birth-death cycle, we need to perform certain good deeds. What could be the good deeds then? Lord Krishna also gives answer to these questions in Bagavath Gita. He says that the only way to attain his lotus feet is “Bhakhthi” or devotion to him.

So lets be his true devotees and perform all good deeds as he wishes!

- ∫.∫rikrishnan

திருவரங்க யாத்திரை

முன்பு திருவரங்கம் சென்றோம். அதன் விஷயமானதே இது. திருவரங்கம் என்னும் ஸ்ரீரங்கம் என்றாலே மனதில் ஒரு உற்சாகம்! திருவரங்கம் அடைய முதலிலே திருச்சிராப்பள்ளிக்கு பயணம் செய்ய வேண்டும். அதற்கு "ROCKFORT EXPRESS" ரயில் வண்டி. மாம்பலத்தில் புறப்பட்டு திருச்சி வரை செல்லும் ரயில் அது. மாம்பலத்திற்கு "போய் வருகிறேன்" என்று சொல்லிக்கொண்டு ரயிலிலே ஏறினோம்!

படுத்து எழுந்தால் திருச்சி வந்துவிடும்! அங்கிருந்து பேருந்தில் பயணம் செய்தால் ஸ்ரீரங்கம் என்ற என்னதோடே உறக்கம். ரயிலும் புறப்பட்டது. திருவரங்கத்தை தாண்டியே திருச்சி. ஆகவே திருவரங்கம் ராஜகோபுரத்தை அங்கிருந்தே காணலாம். மின் விளக்குகளால் அலங்கரிக்க்பபட்ட அழகிய கோபுரம்! இத்தேசத்தின் மிக பெரிய கோபுரம்!

பின்பு திருச்சியை அடைந்தோம்! அங்கே உறவினர் வீட்டுக்கு சென்று நீராடிவிட்டு தயாரானோம்! அடுத்து திருவரங்கதிற்கான பேருந்து தான்! "இதோ இப்பொழுதே உம்மை அழைத்து செல்கிறேன்" ஏன்னு கூறுமாபோலே விரைந்து வந்தது பேருந்து! மனதில் மீண்டும் உற்சாகம்!

காவிரி ஆற்றின் பாலம்! மீண்டும் அங்கிருந்து கோபுர தரிசனம்! திருவரங்கம் என்றால் என்ன என்பதை விளக்கும் விதமாக இருந்த அந்த இயற்கை காட்சி! எவ்வளவு அழகிய நகரம் திருவரங்கம்!

" வண்டின முரலும் சோலை

மயிலினம் ஆலும் சோலை

கொண்டல்மீ தனவும் சோலை

குயிலினம் கூவும் சோலை,

அண்டர்கோ னமரும் சோலை

அணிதிரு வரங்க மென்னா "

என்று அழ்வார் சாதித்தார்.

திருவரங்கம் சேர்ந்தோம்! தெற்கு ராஜகோபுர வாசலில் இறங்கினோம். ஒவ்வொரு கோபுரத்தை கடந்து "ஸ்ரீரங்கா ஸ்ரீரங்கா ஸ்ரீரங்கா" என்று இருக்கும் அந்த உத்தர வீதி கோபுரத்தை அடைந்தோம்! அங்கிருந்து திருக்கோவில் தொடக்கம். அழகிய மதில் சுவர்கள்!

முதலிலே கருடாழ்வார் சந்நிதி. இக்கோவில் கருடன் மூர்த்தி மிகவும் பெரிது! திருவரங்கம் என்றாலே பெரியது தான்! கோவிலோ பெரிய கோவில். பெருமாளோ பெரிய பெருமாள்! நாச்சியாரோ பெரிய பிராட்டியார். மண்டபமோ பெரிய திருமாமணி மண்டபம். உற்சவமோ பெரிய திருநாள். இது மூன்றாம் பிரஹாராம்! அங்கிருந்து ஸ்ரீரங்க நாச்சியார் சந்நிதி. அங்கே 5 குழி 3 வாசல் சேவை! அருகே சேஷராயர் மண்டபம், ஆயிரம்கால் மண்டபம் சொர்க்க வாசல் மற்றும் வெள்ளை கோபுரங்களின் அழகை ரசித்துகொண்டோம்! பின்பு வலம் செய்து முதல் பிரகாரத்தை அடைந்தோம். அங்கே தெற்கு கோபுர வாசல் - "நாழிகேட்டான் வாசல்" .

கிளி மண்டபம்/அர்ஜுனா மண்டபத்தை கடந்தால் அழகிய மணவாளன் சந்நிதி. வாசலிலே ஜெயன்-விஜயன் த்வாரபாலகர்கள்.

நாயகனாய்நின்ற நந்தகோப னுடைய

கோயில் காப்பானே ! கொடிதொன்றுன் தோரண

வாயில் காப்பானே !

என்ற பாசுரம் நினைவுக்கு வந்தது.

அடுத்தது பெரிய பெருமாளின் சேவை! அவரே பெரிய பெருமாள். அவரே அழகிய மணவாளன். அவரே ரங்கராஜன். இவ்வையத்தை படைத்தவன். நான்முகக்கடவுள் பிரம்மாவை படைத்தவர்! அவ்வளவு ஆச்சர்யமான சேவை! ஸ்ரீரங்கநாதன் கிடந்த திருக்கோலம்!

குடை திசை முடியை வைத்து, குண திசை பாதம் நீட்டி

வட திசை பின்பு காட்டி, தென் திசை இலங்கை நோக்கி !

என்ற பாசுரத்தின்படி சயணம்! அவரை கண்டாலே உடல் உருகி போகும்! அவ்வளவு அழகான திருமேனியை கொண்டவர்! பவள பாதகங்கள்! அஞ்சண வண்ணன்! கமலச்செங்கன்! அவருடைய பார்வை காவிரி ஆற்றை போன்றது! நம்மை அடித்து சென்றுவிடும் அதற்காக அவர் சந்நிதி முன் இரண்டு தூண்கள்!

கூடவே உற்சவ மூர்த்தியான நம்பெருமாளின் சேவை! அழகையே உருவமாக கொண்டவர்!

எழில் உடைய அம்மனைமீர் ! என்னரங்கத்து இன்னமுதர்

குழலழகர் வாயழகர் கண்ணழகர் கொப்பூழில்

எழுகமலப் பூவழகர்

என்று அவர் அழகை வர்ணிக்கும் பாசுரம்.

நம்பெருமாளின் திருமேனியிலே ரத்னங்கள். திருமுடி மேல் பாண்டியன் கொண்டை! நேற்றிலே அழகிய கஸ்துரி திலகம்! திருமுடியிலிருந்து திருவடிவரை வர்ண தோமாலை!

பின்பு அந்த பிராகாரத்தை வளம் வந்தால் ஸ்ரீரங்க விமானம். அர்ச்சுதன், அநந்தன் மற்றும் கோவிந்தனை கொண்ட ஓம் வடிவதொடே இருக்கக்கூடிய ப்ரனவாக்கார விமானம். மேலும் துலுக்க நாச்சியார் சந்நிதியும் கண்டோம்.

இவ்வளவு வைபவம் கொண்ட திவ்ய தேசத்தை விட்டு புறப்பட தான் வேண்டுமோ? என்ற எண்ணம் மனதில் !

இச்சுவை தவிர யான் போய் இந்திர லோகம் ஆளும்

அச்சுவை பெறினும் வேண்டேன், அரங்கமா நகருளானே !

என்று ஆழ்வார் சாதித்தார் அங்கேயே இருந்து விட முடியாதா?

என்னால் இயன்றது திரும்பும்பொழுது ராஜகோபுரத்தையே பார்ப்பது தான்!

- ஸ்ரீகிருஷ்ணன்