2013-07-19__39

[[Mohan K.V 2013-07-19, 06:41:05 Source]]

सदास्वादः

सशपथम् अनुनीय ब्रह्मणा गोमयांभः

परिमृजित-निजोरौ आशु संवेशितोऽस्मि

(saśapatham anunīya brahmaṇā gomayāṃbhaḥ

parimṛjita-nijorau āśu saṃveśito’smi)

Meaning

“Brahma immediately cleaned his own lap with a sacred paste, swore a hurried oath, and insisted that I sit there!” ‘saśapathaṃ’ – ‘with an oath’ – is a very intense form of insisting, employed only when the person being accorded hospitality is held in very high esteem. What’s more, the Creator himself is cleaning his lap with a sacred paste! How illustrious must the speaker be! Who might he be? Read on!

Context

Today’s phrase is taken from the play Prabodha-Candrodaya of Kṛṣṇa Miśra. Kṛṣṇa Miśra was a sannyāsi-poet from Mithila, and lived about 1000-1400 years ago. The sheer range of his estimated time almost leads us to the next sentence: we know nothing more about him.

The Prabodha-Candrodaya is an incredible play about the ideas of sense-objects, renunciation and liberation. What makes it very unique is that all its characters are all personified concepts, and boy, does it feature an ensemble cast! Its hero is Viveka (discrimination), heroine Upaniṣad-devī (the knowledge of the Upaniṣads personified) and villain Mahāmoha (great delusion). The goal is Prabodha (awakening). Minor good characters include Śraddhā (faith), Śānti (peace) and Karuṇā (compassion), while minor evil ones are Kāma (lust), Krodha (anger) and Lobha (greed). There’s even a guest appearance by Cārvāka, the great materialist sage!! All these characters are very nicely related to each other, and have great back-stories to them. For example, Peace is the daughter of Faith and Compassion is a friend of Peace. Just such a relational arrangement is poetry by itself, but Kṛṣṇa Miśra goes much further in giving each one mannerisms and personalities.

The whole story is quite ingenious. Mahāmoha the villain has conquered heaven itself, and is now all set to set up shop in the holy city of Vārāṇasī. He has a whole army of servants like Kāma and Krodha working for him, and looks quite unstoppable. The hero and king Viveka must find a way to stop him! But how? He is in a conversation with his dearest Queen, Mati (intelligence). He hesitantly tells her this:

मानिन्याः चिर-विप्रयोग-जनितासूयाकुलायाः भवेत्

शान्त्यादेः अनुकूलनाद् उपनिषद् देव्या मया सङ्गमः ।

तूष्णीं चेत् विषयान् अपास्य भवती तिष्ठेत् मुहूर्तं ततो

जाग्रत्-स्वप्न-सुषुप्ति-धाम-विरहात् प्राप्तः प्रबोधोदयः ।1.30।

māninyāḥ cira-viprayoga-janitāsūyākulāyāḥ bhavet

śāntyādeḥ anukūlanād upaniṣad devyā mayā saṅgamaḥ |

tūṣṇīṃ cet viṣayān apāsya bhavatī tiṣṭhet muhūrtaṃ tato

jāgrat-svapna-suṣupti-dhāma-virahāt prāptaḥ prabodhodayaḥ |1.30|

“If I could unite with Upanishad-devi, who has probably become angry and confused at my long separation from her, then, with the help of her friends like Śānti, Prabodha can arise. I have to request you to stay away from the lures of the senses, and stay quiet to help me get away from the bonds of this world.”

It is very apt that Mati is depicted as Viveka’s wife. Intelligence and discrimination work very closely, and yet are distinct. Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert, once said, “Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep”. Even if we decide what the right thing to do is, convincing ourselves to do it can be quite challenging. Here, poor Viveka has to convince his own queen that he must find another wife!! This may seem like exaggerating the difficulty, but any of us who has ever tried to stick to a diet will nod silently :-)

The play is filled with small scenes where the minor characters trace the outlines of the philosophy of renunciation and liberation. Each character has distinct mannerisms and personalities, and are very endearing. For example, Dambha (meaning deceit or hypocrisy) is a young and strong general of Mahāmoha, and has just conquered the city of Vārāṇasī on his orders. Symbolically, the poet is bemoaning the decline of the city’s spiritual values and the ascent of the rule of frauds. One day, he sees an old man, Ahaṃkāra (meaning pride), approaching. He sends a boy well-trained in the art of posturing and hypocrisy to greet him, but Ahaṃkāra turns out to so haughty that the boy is no match for him! Dambha himself comes out and a war of words about who is purer and nobler ensues. Ahaṃkāra lays down the gauntlet and says:

नास्माकं जननी तथोज्ज्वल-कुला सत्-श्रोत्रियाणां पुनः

व्यूढा काचन कन्यका खलु मया तेनास्मि ताताधिकः ।

अस्मत्-श्यालक-भागिनेय-दुहिता मिथ्याभिशप्ता यतः

तत् संपर्कवशात् मया स्वगृहिणी प्रेयस्यपि प्रोज्झीता ।2.9।

nāsmākaṃ jananī tathojjvala-kulā sat-śrotriyāṇāṃ punaḥ

vyūḍhā kācana kanyakā khalu mayā tenāsmi tātādhikaḥ |

asmat-śyālaka-bhāgineya-duhitā mithyābhiśaptā yataḥ

tat saṃparkavaśāt mayā svagṛhiṇī preyasyapi projjhītā |2.9|

“My mother wasn’t from a very illustrious family, but by cleverly marrying a girl from a great paṇḍit’s family, I became greater than even my father in status. But then, a false allegation was raised against my wife’s nephew’s daughter. I promptly threw out my wife even though I liked her, because she was tainted by that relation!”

This is very much like what we’d expect Pride personified to say! His own mother is measured by the status she accords, and if she fails, she is cast aside in bigger designs. A relation as important as marriage is again just a calculation of status, and even one’s father is merely a benchmark to be bettered. So proud is Pride that even if he hears an allegation that he knows to be false about a very distant relation of his wife (who is the cause of his high status in the first place), he promptly throws her out because she might taint him!

But wait! Dambha has a perfect retort anecdote! Ha, that is nothing, he says, and utters this verse with today’s phrase:

सदनम् उपगतोऽहं पूर्वम् अंभोज-योनेः

सपदि मुनिभिः उच्चैः आसनेषूज्झितेषु ।

सशपथं अनुनीय ब्रह्मणा गोमयांभः

परिमृजित-निजोरौ आशु संवेशितोऽस्मि ।2.10।

sadanam upagato’haṃ pūrvam aṃbhoja-yoneḥ

sapadi munibhiḥ uccaiḥ āsaneṣūjjhiteṣu |

saśapathaṃ anunīya brahmaṇā gomayāṃbhaḥ

parimṛjita-nijorau āśu saṃveśito’smi |2.10|

“Once, I went to the creator Brahma’s house.

As soon as I arrived, all the sages there instantly jumped up in respect.

Brahma immediately cleaned his lap with a sacred paste, swore a hurried oath, and insisted that I sit there!”

Pride is all about what he did and how his actions lead him to a high status. He is very particular that his account is believable, because he himself thinks he’s achieved all that. In contrast, Hypocrisy doesn’t care as long as a grand image is portrayed. Brahma sees himself as impure when he sees the great Dambha, and cleans up his lap, and insists that he sit on it!

Ahaṃkāra retorts to this with another haughty verse. When we’re faced with somebody who challenges us beyond our expectations, sometimes we suddenly have a change of heart about the challenger. “Hey, this guy is good. I actually like him!” we think, and the dynamic takes on a completely different path. A similar thing happens here. Dambha is very impressed by his challenger’s haughtiness, and upon close observation, realizes that Ahaṃkāra is actually his long-lost grandfather! He immediately falls at his feet, and says,

अये, आर्यः पितामहोऽस्माकम् अहङ्कारः । आर्य, दम्भो लोभात्मजोऽहम् अभिवादये !

aye, āryaḥ pitāmaho’smākam ahaṅkāraḥ | ārya, dambho lobhātmajo’ham abhivādaye !

“Oh, this is our grandfather, Ahaṃkāra! Respectable sir, the son of Lobha salutes you!”

Lobha (greed) is the son of Ahaṃkāra, and Dambha (hypocrisy) is his son. Note that Dambha uses the plural to refer to himself! Again, very apt and meaningful!

Grandpops is super-thrilled at the reunion, too:

वत्स, आयुष्मान् भव । बालः खल्वसि मया द्वापरान्ते दृष्टः । संप्रति चिर-काल-विप्रकर्षात् वार्धक्य-ग्रस्ततया च न सम्यक् प्रत्यभिजानामि । अपि त्वत्-कुमारस्य अनृतस्य कुशलम् ?

vatsa, āyuṣmān bhava | bālaḥ khalvasi mayā dvāparānte dṛṣṭaḥ | saṃprati cira-kāla-viprakarṣāt vārdhakya-grastatayā ca na samyak pratyabhijānāmi | api tvat-kumārasya anṛtasya kuśalam ?

“My dear child, may you live long. You were a small child when I last saw you in the Dvāpara yuga. Now, because of our long separation and my old age, I couldn’t recognize you easily. How is your dear son Falsehood doing?”

We’d mentioned Dambha was young and strong, and that Ahaṃkāra was old. Here, all the implied meanings of that become clear. Pride has been around since the beginning of creation, and so is very old and primordial. Hypocrisy however is a more recent phenomenon, starting only in the Dvāpara-yuga. Before that, people were still proud and haughty, but apparently felt no need to lie and deceive anyone about their status. But with time, Hypocrisy grew strong. Pride has some difficulty identifying Hypocrisy – Pride is of the old world, and expects to compete on relatively fair terms. But Hypocrisy knows no such bounds, and freely uses deceit to get its way. In fact, Falsehood is depicted as the very child of Hypocrisy! The whole family tree is brilliantly done!

The play continues in this vein for a total of six acts, and ends happily with the long-desired birth of Prabodha (awakening). The dhvani (implied meaning) at every turn is very deep, and the play can be fruitfully read multiple times, each reading offering more juicy insights than the last. In all, a gem of Sanskrit literature!

In reading this play, a curious fact dawns on us. If we observe his personified characters – and they are really the single most distinctive features of this play – we find that they are much more similar to Greek mythology in concept than they are to Indian mythology! How is this?

Both Greek and Indian mythologies are extraordinarily broad and deep in their total sweep, and cover a tremendous range of very refined thinking. There is, however, a subtle difference: if we liken mythology to flavorful chocolate (an aptly chosen classical metaphor can be as satisfying!), Greek mythology appears like a pile of small, individually-wrapped pieces of very specific, very clearly defined flavors. In contrast, Indian mythology appears to be an undivided slab, with all kinds of flavors intricately connected and influencing each other. Let’s look at three separate levels of abstraction to see this.

At the first level, consider images. The reader would most likely have come across a symbol such as this before:

This is called a Caduceus. Two snakes are intertwined around a rod which has wings. This is a symbol of trade and commerce. The snakes represent cunning self-interest, with poison ready at hand, but here they have to work with each other and negotiate – otherwise they will fall off the flying rod. However, if they do stick together and bargain on equal terms (their heads are at the same level), they can rise to the great heights the rod can fly to. It’s a very apt representation of the fine balance that exists between parties in a market transaction, and its place as a symbol of trade and commerce is perfect. Curiously, some decades ago an American doctor used it as a symbol of medicine by mistake. That mistake got propagated all over, and today many medical institutions mistakenly use this as a symbol of medicine. A commentator quipped that this is no longer blameworthy as the mistake has been rectified by time – medical institutions are brazen businesses today, no less cut-throat than any commercial enterprise!

This is a classic Greek image – very specific and self-contained. Contrast this with any Indian image. There isn’t a widely popular symbol for just trade and commerce, but there is one for the larger concept of wealth: Lakshmi. The mythology of Lakshmi’s birth during the churning of the ocean is probably one of the greatest allegories about the nature of wealth. As Bāṇabhaṭṭa writes in his celebrated Śukanāsopadeśa,

इयं हि सुभट-खड्ग-मण्डलोत्पल-वन-विभ्रम-भ्रमरी लक्ष्मीः क्षीर-सागरात् पारिजात-पल्लवेभ्यो रागम्, इन्दु-शकलात् एकान्त-वक्रताम्, उच्चैःश्रवसः चञ्चलतां, कालकूटात् मोहनशक्तिं, मदिराया मदं, कौस्तुभमणेः नैष्ठुर्यम् इत्येतानि सहवास-परिचय-वशात् विरह-विनोद-चिह्नानि गृहीत्वा इव उद्गता ।

iyaṃ hi subhaṭa-khaḍga-maṇḍalotpala-vana-vibhrama-bhramarī lakṣmīḥ kṣīra-sāgarāt pārijāta-pallavebhyo rāgam, indu-śakalāt ekānta-vakratām, uccaiḥśravasaḥ cañcalatāṃ, kālakūṭāt mohanaśaktiṃ, madirāyā madaṃ, kaustubhamaṇeḥ naiṣṭhuryam ityetāni sahavāsa-paricaya-vaśāt viraha-vinoda-cihnāni gṛhītvā iva udgatā |

“This Lakṣmī is like a fickle bee hopping around in a pond of lilies, except that her lilies are the bloody swords of battle (i.e, she hops around nonchalantly as battles rage and people are killed). When she was born of the milk ocean, as if she was collecting mementos to remember her long friendship with them, she took passion from the sprouts of the Pārijāta flower (i.e, she always appears in an overly passionate, never calm setting); crookedness from the moon (a whole month is spent in watching a crooked moon waiting for it to attain fullness for just a day); fickleness and constant motion from the divine horse Uccaiśravas; the power of delusion from the Kālakūṭa poison; the power to intoxicate from Wine; and inveterate harshness from the Kaustubha jewel.”

All these objects were also born of the churning of the ocean, and Bāṇabhaṭṭa has brilliantly related all their natures to the nature of wealth. Now this is fantastically detailed stuff – however, in order to appreciate it, we must know a lot about Indian mythology in general. We must know that Kālakūṭa was a deadly poison that Shiva later drank and saved the world from (he then got the name Nīlakaṇṭha because Pārvatī clutched his throat to prevent the poison from descending to his stomach). We must know that Uccaiśravas is the famed white horse of Indra, capable of tremendous speed. The imagery is very dense and interrelated. Bāṇa goes on to great lengths in this vein, and to those who have that requisite background, he gives a joy unparalleled by anything else in literature.

Thus we see the difference emerging – small, individually-wrapped, distinctly flavored pieces vs. a large monolithic slab with all flavors imaginable intermingled.

Let’s now look at the second level. This has to do with characters and their roles. They are many, many Greek characters that are about just one particular concept, like Cassandra, Sisyphus and Procrustes. In contrast, virtually all Indian characters symbolize a multitude of ideas, sometimes all at the same time!

Take the example of Cassandra. Smitten by her beauty, the god Apollo gave her the boon of seeing the future. However, when she refused to succumb to Apollo’s seduction, he cursed her saying that no one would believe her predictions, even though they would be turn out right. This caused endless pain and frustration to her.

Cassandra symbolizes the helplessness that a wise man feels when no one listens to him. This is a very deep and nuanced idea, and is very popular in modern discourse, as our systems increasingly disregard intellectuals and pander to the masses. But we observe that this is all what Cassandra is about – a distinctly-flavored, individually wrapped concept-chunk.

There is no one famous character in Indian mythology who stands just for this one emotion of ‘helplessness of the wise unable to act’. But there are several characters who have articulated a very similar sentiment. Take Vidura in the Mahābhārata. He is arguably one of the most level-headed, most competent, most far-seeing elder of the lot. And yet, he is barely listened to. In one pointed instance, king Dhṛtarāṣṭra can’t sleep during the time of negotiations before the war, and summons Vidura and asks him to talk about morality!!

जाग्रतो दह्यमानस्य श्रेयो यदिह पश्यसि ।

तद्ब्रूहि त्वं हि नस्तात धर्मार्थ-कुशलो ह्यसि ॥

“I’m sleepless and burning [with worry]. Tell me something you think is good for me, O wise one.”

This is when Vidura delivers his famous Vidura-nīti, that is studied even today. What a powerful message the poet Vyāsa is sending us! The greatest condensed knowledge of the wisest elder of the Kurus is being used as a lullaby!

Clearly, the sentiment is there, and is there in great force. But Vidura is not just about helplessness – he is about so much more! Again, we see the contrast between small, individually-wrapped pieces vs. a large monolithic slab with all flavors imaginable intermingled.

Consider now the third level. This is where the maximum divergence is seen. Greek mythology has a truly enormous number of personified concepts, emotions and ideas. Such personification is relatively rare in Indian mythology, and this is why today’s work stands out.

There are Greek deities of Hope, Fear, Prayer, Wine, War, Marriage (we wonder if they were being redundant), Childbirth, Sleep, Dreams, Military Strategy, Agriculture, Starvation, Hunting, Blacksmithy, Rainbows… in short, if you’ve felt it or thought of it, there’s probably a Greek deity of it! The Greeks appear to have created deities at about the same rate as the ancient Indians created fine subhāṣitas. Note though, these deities are not mere names, they are extremely cleverly thought through and have amazing poetical thinking in their back-stories.

Consider for example the Goddess of Hope, Elpis. She is the daughter of the Goddess of the Night and the mother of the Goddess of Fame. She is depicted as a young woman carrying flowers. The most interesting element of her story interlocks with another: When Pandora opened her famous box of troubles, all manner of bad things flowed out of them. We are told that Hope was actually inside the box, but didn’t escape it. The dhvani of this story is incredible: we don’t know if hope is a good thing or not – it can make one optimistic, but at the same time false hope crushes one far more than plain reality. We also see that Hope isn’t loud and eager to jump out of the box – hope usually is a quiet voice within us, and many times we are even hesitant to speak out our hopes! As the Architect quips in The Matrix, “Hope, it is the quintessential human delusion, simultaneously the source of your greatest strength, and your greatest weakness.”

All this is contained in the myth. Even if we take minor deities, like the Goddesses of Prayer, there are enough elements to make one think. The Litae, “prayers”, are depicted as lame healers who vainly run after Ate, the Goddess of Folly. They are never able to keep up with the fast-running Folly. The allegory is clear and concise.

Indian mythology doesn’t have much of this kind of personification. Sure, we have Kāma and his flower-bow and his ‘Viṣama-bāṇas’ – he has an odd number of arrows, because he delights in setting up scenarios where A loves B but B loves C :-) He also has something of a family, and characters like Rati (his wife), Tṛpti (satisfaction) and Tośa (joy) are briefly outlined, but the level of detail is quite low. However, his link to the main mythological corpus is very strong – the burning of Kāma by Śiva and his connection with Viṣṇu are written out in great detail. Here again, we see the familiar intermixing inside the large monolithic slab.

Thus, not only does our poet’s skill at personification delight us across the yawning gap of a millennium, it also speaks across entirely different cultures!

Thought for today

While on the topic of boasting, a conversation between two friends trying to one-up each other:

“ज्ञातं भो नु पितामहस्य मम किं तुङ्गत्वं अभ्रंलिहं ?”

“भो! स्वस्त्यस्तु - अपि कर्कशं च परुषं स्पृष्टं नु तन्मूर्धनि ?”

“आम्! स्पृष्टं! खलु मेघ-लक्षणमिदं ? तावच्च तेनेरितं – "

“नैवं भो प्रपितामहस्य मम तत्कूर्चान्तरोमाङ्कनम् !”

“jñātaṃ bho nu pitāmahasya mama kiṃ tuṅgatvaṃ abhraṃlihaṃ ?”

“bho! svastyastu - api karkaśaṃ ca paruṣaṃ spṛṣṭaṃ nu tanmūrdhani ?”

“ām! spṛṣṭaṃ! khalu megha-lakṣaṇamidaṃ ? tāvacca teneritaṃ – "

“naivaṃ bho prapitāmahasya mama tatkūrcānta-romāṅkanam !”

“Do you know how tall my grandfather was? His head touched the clouds!”

“Oh, that’s wonderful. Did anything rough and knotty touch his head?”

“Yes, yes, he told me, surely clouds are rough and knotty…”

“No my friend, that was my great-grandfather’s beard!”

The second chap’s great-grandfather is so tall that his beards drop down to the clouds, and brush the head of the first chap’s grandfather!

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