Saumitra-II

For most part of Ramayana, Ram and Lakshmana, by most accounts, are believed to be exceptional kshatriya (warrior section of the society) princes but nothing more; they behave and feel like humans and are not known to speak explicitly of any supernatural elements they might have within them.For 12-13 years of their exile, they live quietly and slowly, unknowingly getting better and better; their bedrock of patience getting stronger;their knowledge and use of weapons, better.

Ageing has its effects on Ram and Saumitra who slowly begin to spend more of their time worshiping Shiva while still as a discipline, practicing and maintaining their weapons and tools in good shape. Saumitra is known to mirror Ram in his conduct during this period. It is only towards the end of this period, in dandakaranya , when Surpanakha abuses Sita beyond limit, an angry Saumitra cuts nose of Surpanakha. But this time, he is fully aware of his words and his actions.

After some time passes by, one day Sita manipulates Rama emotionally to chase a golden deer and bring it to her. When Sita hears Ram's cry from deep in the woods, she forces Saumitra to look for his brother. Saumitra senses some abnormal situation and does not believe that anyone could put Ram in trouble. He is not ready to leave Sita alone in the woods.When forced to leave the hut, Saumitra is known to draw a line around the hut; this is the line which Sita must not cross come what may, and any unauthorized entity crossing this line towards the hut would get destroyed. Saying this he leaves for the woods. Ravana, waiting for Laxman's departure realizes from his knowledge and senses that this was a line even he could not cross. In this flurried period of felicitous narration by Valmiki, the readers get , for the first time, an implicit indication of supernatural element in Saumitra.

On losing Sita, Ram immediately goes into shock and seems to be discombobulated. He loses self-control and self-esteem.In agitation he threatens to destroy this creation by his power. Seeing such uncharacteristic loss of self-control, Saumitra is known to have boldly and tactfully tell Rama, that destroying this creation was a very unfair view of the situation because this creation has no special interest in conspiring against Ram for his misfortunes. Ram becomes very weak and blames himself for every misfortunes and ills affecting his family. Saumitra displays level-headedness and suggests searching for Sita to be a better option.

The search for Sita and their journey further southward provide, although not definitive, evidence of the divinity of the brothers when Rama frees Devi Ahilya and some demons from their curse who are known to be waiting for ages for Ram for their salvation.

During the war in Lanka, Saumitra is known to take up initiative for killing many demons including Ankpan, and Indrajit. His encounters with Indrajit ( Meghnad) have been described vivdly in Ramayana. He has to use indrastra to beat Meghnad in the penultimate battle.

(concluded)

Saumitra-I

Ramayana is full of interesting characters. Each of them have their background and some bring their own stories to gently merge with the epic, where their stories meet their ends. Let me write about one of the very important characters of Ramayana today. The very nectar of this very great epic is a north indian prince's southward journey in exile with his younger brother and wife and ultimately waging a war against the most powerful king ever born and winning this war, to free his wife. Ramayana is too good a story to be wasted by narrating or reciting it in one monosyllabic way. It has to be looked from different angles and one might eventually ponder that who's story is it, Ram or Ravana's. For, in a broader context, several parallel stories run for generations, all of which find a climax in a special immortal combat in Lanka.

Saumitra is the prince of Ayodhya who accompanies his elder brother to a life in distant forests for 14 years. He is married to Urmila, sister of Sita. With a quiet and unnoticed separation from Urmila, he leaves for exile which was his destiny,as Saumitra, without Urmila, was to be part of a mythology to be sworn by Asian landscape for perpetuity.

Blessed with a silvery look and an unrivaled physique, commanding knowledge and practice in archery and other weapons, he is known to possess a very good demeanor. He is known to lose temper and become aggressive sometimes. Saumitra , none-the-less, is an extension of Rama's controlled aggression and manifestation of 'maryada purushottam' (the best among men in terms of behavior).Many believe that, he and some other characters of the story are incarnations of divine souls who come together to end Ravana's reign as the emperor of all worlds.Unknown to Ravana, thus is a divne plan which gradually takes shape and the story builds up , so that divine forces in a particular combination find way through the loopholes of boons granted to Ravana.

ballad

जिस से कोइ एक न जीता;

चेतक था एक राणाजी का;

जिस ने रण से पैर न खीचा;

चेतक था एक राणाजी का;

जब चेतक को एड लगा दी;

हर दुश्मन को धूल चटा दी;

राणाजी से उस का रिश्ता बडा अतूत था;

वो एक क्षत्रीय था ! वो एक राजपूत था !

Culmination

Gift as perceived or understood is not always a substance of material value, or not always even any gesture or deed which brings emotional benefit to others. Gift is simply something for which nothing is expected in return from others and at the same time it brings benefit to others through conscious action.

Thus any information which is knowingly given can qualify as a gift as that information can straightaway increase the knowledge of the recipient.It is noteworthy that these are often the most valuables of the gifts. A candid expression of a person like a confession of a murderer in the church is a gift to the priest who listens quietly . It helps in his learning on how and why the person on the other side of the wall turned to crime, and committed sins, on the situations and circumstances which led him to this path, on his failures to resist the temptations life offered and so on.

To borrow a thought from an animation movie , our mind is like water, when its agitated or polluted with unnecessary things, thoughts and emotions it becomes difficult to see, to 'get into our own minds'. But when we allow the water to settle, the answer becomes clear. To settle our mind means to reach the state of pure void and calm in our mind. For this , we have to remove our unwanted superficial thoughts and emotions like agitations, excitements , happiness, laughter, sorrow, one by one just like you peel away the skin to reach to the fruit. As we do this, we begin to realize that for the sake of one intense state of void, we cannot keep any 'necessary thoughts ' in the vicinity of our mind and that all thoughts are unnecessary.We then reach where we feel something that is akin to sitting in a bullet train trip of thoughts comprising of long past events and people to reach one idea that we want . That core state exists for a very short period of time.it may lead us to think in different directions. Sometimes it may make us weak, sentimental, or sometimes it may be so inspiring as being a Toruk Makto of the Avatar movie where the protagonist took himself to a whole new level.

Nadal-ism

It's that time of the year again. French Open, Roland Garros, appropriately sponsored by BNP Paribas (20th Century's Bank of France), time kept by Longines.The French watch companies are not good enough and the Swiss Companies continue to be official time-keepers. Roland Garros marks the end of the clay court season, the trophy itself the biggest reward for all the hard work and every clay court specialist looks forward to it.

This time, I could not pay much attention to the initial rounds although i knew some basic information that Nadal and Djokovic were placed in different half of the run-up.For the first time perhaps the legendary Roger Federer is no longer in spotlight. He is playing quietly there, strong enough to reach the quarter finals. The rivalry has shifted from Nadal-Federer to Nadal -Djokovic because of the supreme form Novak is in.But besides these big names which one cannot ignore, there are a couple of great players to watch out for. Del potro lost out to Novak, but I am waiting for the french player Richard Gasquet to display his lofty backhand drives, the flat,just- over- the -net forehand winners and the top-spin serves. he is much admired by the tennis watching community , though he is not very much used to absorb all the attention. He is also prone to be overwhelmed by the occasion and lacks tenacity when the situation is still not clear by the fourth set.

Rafael Nadal is indeed very special in this respect. He never takes any point for granted, never gives up till the last point has been won . He not only manages an impossible return to the most difficult of serves , but also he returns them so well that the Serving players find it impossible to play. He covers a lot of ground to nullify even the drop shots. He dispatches his opposition ruth-lessly for he knows the importance of winning the grand slams. Perhaps every player does, but rafa's intent is intimidating. The most special thing about him is that he did not get mesmerized or cowed down by Federer in his infallible form in 2004-2005. That made him famous and you can say, Rafael is probably the reason we all continue to watch the sport.

Rafael is now big enough a person to speak about the rules of the rankings and the tennis season schedules.

कृष्ण की चेतावनी

ageless,spellbinding

वर्षों तक वन में घूम-घूम,
बाधा-विघ्नों को चूम-चूम,
सह धूप-घाम, पानी-पत्थर,
पांडव आये कुछ और निखर।
सौभाग्य न सब दिन सोता है,
देखें, आगे क्या होता है।

मैत्री की राह बताने को,
सबको सुमार्ग पर लाने को,
दुर्योधन को समझाने को,
भीषण विध्वंस बचाने को,
भगवान् हस्तिनापुर आये,
पांडव का संदेशा लाये।

‘दो न्याय अगर तो आधा दो,
पर, इसमें भी यदि बाधा हो,
तो दे दो केवल पाँच ग्राम,
रक्खो अपनी धरती तमाम।
हम वहीं खुशी से खायेंगे,
परिजन पर असि न उठायेंगे!

दुर्योधन वह भी दे ना सका,
आशिष समाज की ले न सका,
उलटे, हरि को बाँधने चला,
जो था असाध्य, साधने चला।
जब नाश मनुज पर छाता है,
पहले विवेक मर जाता है।

हरि ने भीषण हुंकार किया,
अपना स्वरूप-विस्तार किया,
डगमग-डगमग दिग्गज डोले,
भगवान् कुपित होकर बोले-
‘जंजीर बढ़ा कर साध मुझे,
हाँ, हाँ दुर्योधन! बाँध मुझे।

यह देख, गगन मुझमें लय है,
यह देख, पवन मुझमें लय है,
मुझमें विलीन झंकार सकल,
मुझमें लय है संसार सकल।
अमरत्व फूलता है मुझमें,
संहार झूलता है मुझमें।

‘उदयाचल मेरा दीप्त भाल,
भूमंडल वक्षस्थल विशाल,
भुज परिधि-बन्ध को घेरे हैं,
मैनाक-मेरु पग मेरे हैं।
दिपते जो ग्रह नक्षत्र निकर,
सब हैं मेरे मुख के अन्दर।

‘दृग हों तो दृश्य अकाण्ड देख,
मुझमें सारा ब्रह्माण्ड देख,
चर-अचर जीव, जग, क्षर-अक्षर,
नश्वर मनुष्य सुरजाति अमर।
शत कोटि सूर्य, शत कोटि चन्द्र,
शत कोटि सरित, सर, सिन्धु मन्द्र।

‘शत कोटि विष्णु, ब्रह्मा, महेश,
शत कोटि विष्णु जलपति, धनेश,
शत कोटि रुद्र, शत कोटि काल,
शत कोटि दण्डधर लोकपाल।
जञ्जीर बढ़ाकर साध इन्हें,
हाँ-हाँ दुर्योधन! बाँध इन्हें।

‘भूलोक, अतल, पाताल देख,
गत और अनागत काल देख,
यह देख जगत का आदि-सृजन,
यह देख, महाभारत का रण,
मृतकों से पटी हुई भू है,
पहचान, इसमें कहाँ तू है।

‘अम्बर में कुन्तल-जाल देख,
पद के नीचे पाताल देख,
मुट्ठी में तीनों काल देख,
मेरा स्वरूप विकराल देख।
सब जन्म मुझी से पाते हैं,
फिर लौट मुझी में आते हैं।

‘जिह्वा से कढ़ती ज्वाल सघन,
साँसों में पाता जन्म पवन,
पड़ जाती मेरी दृष्टि जिधर,
हँसने लगती है सृष्टि उधर!
मैं जभी मूँदता हूँ लोचन,
छा जाता चारों ओर मरण।

‘बाँधने मुझे तो आया है,
जंजीर बड़ी क्या लाया है?
यदि मुझे बाँधना चाहे मन,
पहले तो बाँध अनन्त गगन।
सूने को साध न सकता है,
वह मुझे बाँध कब सकता है?

‘हित-वचन नहीं तूने माना,
मैत्री का मूल्य न पहचाना,
तो ले, मैं भी अब जाता हूँ,
अन्तिम संकल्प सुनाता हूँ।
याचना नहीं, अब रण होगा,
जीवन-जय या कि मरण होगा।

‘टकरायेंगे नक्षत्र-निकर,
बरसेगी भू पर वह्नि प्रखर,
फण शेषनाग का डोलेगा,
विकराल काल मुँह खोलेगा।
दुर्योधन! रण ऐसा होगा।
फिर कभी नहीं जैसा होगा।

‘भाई पर भाई टूटेंगे,
विष-बाण बूँद-से छूटेंगे,
वायस-श्रृगाल सुख लूटेंगे,
सौभाग्य मनुज के फूटेंगे।
आखिर तू भूशायी होगा,
हिंसा का पर, दायी होगा।’

थी सभा सन्न, सब लोग डरे,
चुप थे या थे बेहोश पड़े।
केवल दो नर ना अघाते थे,
धृतराष्ट्र-विदुर सुख पाते थे।
कर जोड़ खड़े प्रमुदित,
निर्भय, दोनों पुकारते थे ‘जय-जय’!

- रामधारी सिंह “दिनकर”

Afridi fell and the match was won.

Afridi's departure was the turning point. It changed the game even in 2003 World Cup India Pakistan match. It is not like he does not realize the importance of his wicket. When he comes out in the middle in such a world stage like this he takes the 'center-stage' . Everything in india and pakistan becomes secondary. His shot high into the air assumes epic proportions and it looks like as if around 2 billion hearts have been thrown into the air with uncertainty of falling safely back into the chest or breaking into pieces. The pain of breaking cannot be described i am sure. And every time he gets caught out, for only he can destroy himself. When in rhythm, he creates the performance of the year or a new record in terms of longest six or one of the fastest 100 or 50's. The prospect of which is a crowd puller, world over.

Earlier he had a dangerous addiction, more self destructing than the LSD injection. For narcotics take time to destroy. Of hitting the first ball he would be facing for a six. More often than not, he would end up throwing his wicket. He followed this even in the 2003 historic encounter. Nothing was going wrong for pakistan. The great Saeed Anwar, persuaded by Pakistani people was for once and for the last time pulled out of his renunciation and abyss to score a master craft century. Indeed he had set it up for Pakistan. Out of nowhere India came back good with a couple of wickets. Still Pakistan had afridi with them. And even then...you know what happened.

Year 2011. India-Pak WC Semi-final:

The situation was different here though. He was the captain of a fine side which had lost 5 wickets and was under intense pressure to chase the indian tally of 260. Afridi was matured enough not to toss the first ball and that is what i had primarily feared to come true. Presure got to him as they needed to score runs. Still i feel he shouldn't have played that shot. It could not possibly carry to the fence with that medium pace of the ball, and neither it came from the middle of the bat with the full power of hands not transmitting to the bat.

Afridi, the giant, the big-hearted, the talisman, the performer, the leader, the hope , the all rounder had fallen.

The crowd had broke loose. I knew india would be winning the match soon.

Near Perfect Pic

The one I found on the internet. The anonymous sculptor's effort is note worthy

Tathagath, Siddharth, Gautam, Sakyamuni,Bodhisatva, Buddha. From a prince to a disillusioned king to a vagabond and then to a God.

Book reading or anything

Why are some books easy to read while others are difficult to complete. Without loss of generality, compare Jeffery archer and Frederick Forsyth or to make my point more clear let us take Sidney Sheldon and Orhan Pamuk. I am not trying to draw these writers into my silly comparisons, but perhaps you would understand the point I am not trying to say. A passing thought is like a shooting star, it ends as soon as it begins, and we are left trying to make sense of it. One passing thought makes me write something like this. Some books are indeed unappealing to us because we are not in a good mood or because we do not like the subject, the story or the style of prose. But I am talking about the ones which we like and still are not able to complete. To many readers, a Jeffery archer book can be completed in one sitting or in maximum two sittings. Why? Because the plot is engaging and keeps their interests alive till the end. It satisfies the curiosity of outer layer of our brain immediately. However reading the book of the other kind becomes a challenge. Understanding what is written, what is emphasized requires more labor. In some way, it is like probing deeper into layers of our brain and trying to prepare a report card for our brain.

The prospect of which brings fatigue within us.

Reading is as much an art as writing. Completing an interesting piece which is difficult may require one to be in a trance, and be switched off to everything else. Like a doped recluse trying something all by himself.

The actual comparison then, is between the different layers of our mind. It is very natural to extend this beyond the subject of book reading. I think it is about the effort required to contrive sync between the task at hand and one layer of our mind. The one which is obvious and strikes rhythm with our outermost layer is most tempting and serves instant understanding. We require more effort to break into a different level of harmonic. I know that what I have said is nothing new, but just that I again wrote about warp and woof of our thought process.

Haldighati-II

Mann Singh , kunwar ( prince) of Amber was one of the nine gems of King Akbar and he was the bravest general at Akbar's disposal.Still, Mann is not spoken in the same breath as the Rana is , by the people. Mann 's sister was married to Akbar and thus Akbar had control of his province. In fact, Akbar had married Jodhabai to annex Mann's region into his empire and Mann Singh had easily given in , to escape the fate of other Rajput rulers who had themselves crushed by the mighty Akbar's army.Mann had no autonomy thus.

At the behest of Akbar, Mann Singh, the prince of Amber, goes to Rana Pratap's place.( Rana Pratap Singh is the king of State of Mewar) on the pretext of having lunch with him, and to ask Rana to give up his protocol and submit to Akbar. Pratap Singh does not chose to dine with the slave of Akbar and sends his son prince Amar Singh for lunch. He also follows the protocol of sending the prince to have dialogue with another prince and does not find it fit that an independent king should dine with a prince. The real reason , of course is his disapproval of Mann Singh's submission and lack of self-pride. Now Mann Singh and Rana Pratap are of same generation and relatives. Mann realizes that Rana is trying to avoid him. He directly brings the point. This enrages Amar Singh. He ridicules Mann Singh and his cowardice.Rana now comes into picture and reprimands Mann Singh and asks him to leave Akbar instead. Taking this as a personal insult, he leaves the lunch and goes hastily, saying that they will meet in battlefield.

The news spreads like wild fire in whole of northern india and rajasthan. Akbar orders Mann's Singh to get his troops ready. He also asks his troops under Abdul Rahim Khaninkhana ( Rahimdas, well known snippet writer) to get ready.The troop comprises of Turks and Afghans.

Situated in Mt Abu, not far away from Udaipur, is the most beautiful temple of India, in terms of architecture and concept. The Dilwara Temple, treasured huge wealth collected in form of precious metals and their jewelery.It is one of the most sacred temples for the Jains. With the unanimous consent of people of Mewar, this wealth was given to Rana to be used for battle exchequers, to prepare armours and weapons etc. More was contributed by the general people. Everybody realized the significance and the dire situation they were facing by not giving in to the demands of the Monster sitting in Agra.

Rana quickly combines his army with the bhils of the region and they plan to attack the Mughal army from three sides. Abdul rahim backs off, just prior to the battle, realizing that he is fighting a noble person and partially saves himself from the blot which the history is to put on the Mughal Empire.

The Mewar army divides itself in five parts, two parts were on each of the side of the hill, one part was to block the path lest the mughal army starts retreating. This part would attack once the Mughal Army comes into the ravine, or the ghati. The frontal attack is divided into two parts.

Mann Singh's army comes in, and it already outnumbers the Mewar army. Yet they are surprised by the sudden and strong assault from all the four sides and they panic.Legend has it that Bhama shah and Rana himself are such ferocious fighters that enemy troops are panic-stricken.Rana wearing 14 kilo armour and on Chetak,the super quality horse looks dangerous.Everyone in the land knew of chetak and his affection and faith towards his Master.The local people say, Chetak was very crucial to Rana's war skills and his agility.The mughal army quicky goes down in numbers and morale. They send the message to the turks and Afghans stationed outside the battle field.

And so the huge army of mughals comes in, and this is where numbers begin to matter.The battle slowly but steadily is turning in favour of Akber. Realizing that if something is not done quicky, the battle would be lost, Rana marches with chetak putting its front legs on the head of Mann Singh's elephant and Rana throws his lance. Mann would have died but for the loyal mahout who takes the assault on hinself and saves his master and dies.

If only the Mahout's loyalty had been more towards self pride and motherland, there could have been a different history.

While coming down the elephant's head, one of the fore limb's is seriously injured by the sword tied to the tusks. This becomes a turning point of the War. With Chetak injured, all on the side of Rana realize that battle cannot be won that day. Rana himself is mentally broken seeing chetak's injury. Jhala Singh, able commander of Rana forces him to leave the field. He wears on the armour of Rana and masquerades himself as Rana meanwhile. Chetak understands all this and takes his Master on back and runs tremendous speed fast for 5 kilometers and crosses a brook to take his Master to safety and dies immediately after landing across the brook. Chetak Smarak in Udaipur is to commemorate his valliant effort. Poems and local snippets have been written, and songs sung, to honour chetak.

For the brief battle of Haldighati, the Mughal army had suffered heavy loss, and Rana had left a lasting impression. He might have lost but had won the hearts of his people and enemy alike.

Haldighati -I

(mann singh, pratap, jhala singh, chetak,mahout)

There are very few occurrences in our history which are as defining as battle of Haldighati. This was said to have taken place in 1576. It brought the best out of the society, helped us identify what was right and wrong, and provided new dimensions to ethical behavior, self-pride and courage.

Nathdwara is a small habitation ,if i am not wrong,some 46-48 kilometers away from Udaipur. It holds immense significance to Hinduism because of Sri Nathji Temple. From Udaipur , first comes Delwara, then Eklingji. I have been lucky to tread that road many a time. ( another very sentimental temple for Hindus, specially Shivaites.) People of Mewar worship Eklingji as a god of course and also as a the current owner of the throne of Mewar.

Geographically , ancient Rajputana was divided into four regions and thus four lanquages, Mewar, Haroth, Marwar, Mewat. Most significant being Marwar and Mewar. The region of Mewar chiefly comprising of Udaipur, Kumbh, Chittorgarh. I have been fortunate enough to visit all these places.Now,along that road which runs from Udaipur to Nathdwara, there is a left turn, nearer to Nathdwara. That turn leads one to Haldighati, a dry area, of hills and ravines.