Shiva: Living with all

Writing this exactly in the middle of the Shivaratri, sitting alone in my room and watching a rare photograph (in fact a snapshot of a painting) of Lord of the lords Shiva; is something really thrilling for me. Just got this photograph of the Mahadev somewhere on the internet; and with it, got a flood of different thoughts and feelings in my mind.

Shiva is the oldest worshipped deity in the world. Unborn and immortal, the most powerful destructor yet the savior, he is being worshipped everywhere by all, since infinity. Right from the tips of the Kailas where they say, he resides, to the southernmost corner of the land at Rameshwara, Shiva is worshipped everywhere in India. While he is the deity of Sadhus who forsake materialistic world in search of the spiritual or sometimes of the ghostly world; he is also being worshipped by the people who enjoy family life. From warrior Kings to Vaidik Brahmins, from rich to poor, from technocrats to tribals, all worship the Mahadeva. Shiva accepts delicate flowers from the artists as he is the master of all fine arts while on the other hand, Ghost catcher Tantricks offer him skulls and ashes and he accepts that with equal pleasure.

Shiva rules over ghosts and also rules over arts. He blesses the demons and also blesses the gods. He forsakes the worldly relations; still is a family man. He is destroyer and creator, too. He is hot tempered and naive too. He is fearful. He is lovable. He is ugly. He is attractive. He is mystic. He is simple. A brutal killer, a passionate Lover, a caring husband, a loving Father; still out of all this, Shiva is a Yogi who enjoys Samadhi for ages together. How many personalities reside without any conflict in this one person? I think this is what makes him a Lord of the lords.

In fact, all personalities of Shiva do reside in every human being, too. But, Shiva becomes the God of all Gods because he lets all the personalities groom and show. Like us, he never lets the injustice happen with any emotion of himself, he never suppresses any of his personalities. When he wants to win fear, he wanders through the crematoriums, and embellishes himself with hot ash of incinerated corpses. When he wants to dance, he forgets whole world and makes it a ‘Tandav’. When he wants to make love, he makes it with all passion for ages. When he wants to express grief, he lifts the dead body of his wife in hands and walks whole world screaming in her remembrance. When he is pleased with the penance, he gives anything and everything asked by the devotee. When he is angry, he beheads his own son. When he wants peace, he goes into Samadhi, and if someone tries to disturb, he burns him into ashes.

Instead of indulging into the futile exercise of winning the emotion, Shiva goes natural and lives with the emotion, giving the emotions the due respect they deserve. He stays with all and this is the way how he stays out of all. Like in Dvapar Yuga, Shrikrishna stays with all -- with thefts, with Rasa Leela, with running away from warfront, with sixteen thousand and one hundred and eight wives, -- and still he becomes 'Yogeshwar’ by staying out of all. Shiva, too, is a Yogeshwar.

Just think once about people like you and me. Countless of personalities and infinite emotions we murder day and night. How many of us kill artist in ourselves for money-making job? How many of us suppress our tears just to show that I am strong. How many of us don’t laugh and don’t dance on being happy; just to show that I am modest or mature. How many of us need liquor to be strong and speak truth. How many?

Well, no one, even other deities could not become Shiva because Shiva is the free soul. He is living ‘with’ all emotions and all differentiated personalities, without keeping them aside. What we can do is just a try to give justice to as many emotions, and as many different aspect of our own personality. I think, one can do this much, for sure.

Respect for Love

Most of us celebrate it as a day of love while others ridicule saying that love is for all the time, and why to restrict it for one day? With number of people in its support, and many in the opposition, Valentine’s Day, probably enjoys (?) its most controversial status when it comes to India.

Views may defer completely on why and how to celebrate Love on this one particular day; but, Valentine’s Day provides a fresh opportunity to write on the most beloved subject of the writers – Love! Right from a three-line haiku to an endless epic, everything has been, can be, is being, and will be weaved around this phenomenon since the ages and for the ages to come.

Well, the day faces criticism for sure; but the phenomenon called Love for which it is celebrated, never (ever) faces any controversy even if being so diversely understood and explained. There are countless, completely contradictory expressions, explanations and stories of love, still, it is accepted with all different views and expressions universally that Love is something best, one of its kind, and greatest!

So, if all understand that all believe in superiority of love, then why fights are still there?

This is what comes into my mind. Everyone agrees on the fact that no one opposes Love. No country, no religion, or no philosophy says that Love is bad. The opposition, the controversy, conflict and quarrel begins with the way to express love. Elders hate it when youngsters hug and kiss each others publically. Conservative people find it as an insult of Indian culture if Indians follow the foreign customs like Valentine’s Day. Simply, not Love, but the way of expressing it creates controversy. Then what is the way out?

Recently I was reading the Marathi translation of Dr S L Bhyrappa’s milestone novel ‘Parv’. It explains Epic Mahabharata with an Aanthropological point of view.  In Mahabharata, every human race (The Kshatriyas of different clans, Rakshasas, Nagas, Gandharvas, Devas and many more) has its own customs and traditions and it proudly maintains those. Other races, too, respect those traditions, even if they may be having complete contradictory practices in their respective clans.

This respect is the reason why many races, traditions, civilizations prospered in India making it a great land of unity in diversity. If we start respecting others’ traditions, without disrespecting our own; there will be ‘zero conflict’, on most of the issues, including Valentine’s Day.

Literature and life

Writing this piece from a well updated and swanky media centre established in the campus of Rajiv Gandhi Engineering College Chandrapur, which is all decked up to host the annual extravaganza of Marathi literature – The Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Sahitya Sammelan; is simply a great feeling. While roaming around, I can see reporters from various media groups – some new faces, and some very well known; taking notes, filing reports and sending emails. Being an insider of this media brigade gives a proud feeling. And this proud feeling doubles, when I realize that I am here to be a part of a literary event – one of the most prominent literary events of the modern age – The Sahitya Sammelan.

Millions and millions of books around on hundreds of stalls; and if one starts taking a round of this exhibition seriously, even three full days of the festival would fall short. One after another, the symposiums on various subjects and orations by literary greats would be the special attractions. Poetry summits, story telling events, and cultural events will add more colour. Literature is something out of the world phenomenon and traditionally it has influenced one and all. Literature has initiated revolutions – social and political, it has shown path to the change-makers; and it has done probably the greatest work of documentation of changing thought-process of human race. Still, the organizers have to call film stars and theatre actors to attract crowds at the festival. Well, whether this huge number of college-going youths was there to see them, or due to the compulsion (probably made by their respective colleges), is still an unanswered question though; because, film stars are no more crowd pullers these days. Does it mean that the youths were there for the love of literature? This probability also fades as the number of youths turned in to visit book exhibition was very less than those who participated in the rally. Then why they were there? As I said before, just because it was made mandatory to them.

The event began in the evening with eminent speakers stressing mostly on the thought-process of youths. They said it is dire need of today to let youths know about the literature and its importance. They took blame on themselves saying that the generation of seniors failed to produce literature attracting youths. But, is it really true? Is only the so called low quality of literature responsible for poor reader-connect?

What I think is what I experience. I used to read a lot during my school days. My parents made me read some trademark novels of Marathi (Mrutyunjay, Yugandhar, Rau, Chhava, Yayati, Swami, etc) when I was in high school. Then, as soon as I started going to college, I suddenly stopped reading. Even if being a student of English Literature, I preferred to refer the ready-made notes as reading original text was very much time-taking for me. But, I used to concentrate the lectures very carefully to note down anecdotes shared by my lecturers, who, most probably, must have read all the original texts.

If someone used to ask me, what I was reading at the moment, I used to answer – ‘Nothing. And why should I read?’ I used to think that with Internet, all information is there on my finger-tip and I should not waste my time in reading. Well, my memory, or say, anyone’s memory is not like computer’s, that remembers everything read. So, why to stress the memory and read when the ready-reference is available right besides you?

Well, well, well! I started my professional life and realized that I was a biggest fool. Human memory is not like computers, yes. And believe me; it is better than the computers’. When we read something good, it pleases us. Then we forget it and read something else. And to our own surprise, the thing forgotten re-appears in our mind suddenly, at some moment, catching us unaware! Our brain captures something interesting, stores it somewhere in an unknown zone and re-sends it to our main memory box whenever we need it. This exercise of brain is very interesting. Once, we start reading, we start realizing this amazing capability of our brain.

One book gives thousand reasons to think. Our brain starts interlinking the books, comparing the thoughts, and much more, which we don’t even realize. All this happens automatically. Hence, now, I again read, just to see the amazing qualities of brain.

Accessing Internet gives instant information, and that is very important for that particular moment. But, reading literature teaches life.