Golden Lotuses in Bangalore

The Foundation for the Revitalisation of Local Health Traditions, or rather more manageably the FRLHT, has a grand vision: “to revitalise Indian medical heritage”.  A large and well-equipped campus spread over 15 acres in North Bangalore and a 100-plus team of medical and horticultural experts suggests that realising this goal is well within the FRLHT’s grasp.

The Foundation is active in promoting the use of traditional medicine systems – including siddha medicine, a system similar to ayurveda but based on mercury (rasa-aushadi), as well as ayurveda – and in re-establishing the traditional methods of transmitting this knowledge.  The executive chairman, Mr Darshan Shankar, distinguishes between the very sophisticated Sanskrit oral tradition and that of other cultures and languages, Indian and otherwise, which focus more on practical knowledge.  “There are tribes in India that are totally illiterate who can set a broken bone, whether of a man or an animal, pretty well; but the Sanskrit tradition is much more than that.”  He stresses the importance of sound for the oral tradition and likens reading a Sanskrit manuscript to reading sheet music – much of the meaning of the notation cannot be brought out without sound.  It is the sound of the words which, he says, engage with the mind.

A large part of the organisation’s work involves conserving the plants used in Indian medicine for thousands of years and the campus is dotted with all manner of trees and flowers each with a particular medicinal quality.  The team has endeavoured to identify and catalogue each plant in several Indian languages, including Tamil, Marathi and Hindi, as well as Sanskrit.  There are perhaps 400 plants on campus out of the 2,000 they have positively identified; another 3,000 estimated species are said to be known to various local traditions.  

Three Ayurvedic doctors, a horticultural expert from Kerala and a Sanskrit poet-cum-psychiatrist reveal just there is to learn from each plant: the different types of medicinal usages, the parts you can eat and how to prepare them, the varieties of the plant and which part of India it comes from, and how to reconcile this reality with the at times fantastical descriptions of flora found in Sanskrit poetry.  Dr Suparna explains how the ishvari, a plant with bizarre purple flowers that resemble a brain (above), cures snakebites; while the nirgundi is used for arthritis.  Dr Shankar, who leads the team responsible for translating Sanskrit texts into English, notes that the names match the plants’ morphology, so the asti-shrnkhala (literarly ‘chains of bones’) is a shrub with small green tubular leaves separated into several joints (below). 

Some take their name from other characteristics, the ugra-gandha for instance is a type of kasturi, or musk, so called because of its fierce (ugra) smell (gandha).  The parijata, one of the five divine trees which were produced at the churning of the ocean and which was later brought to earth by Krishna, is happily found to be alive and well – on the FRLHT campus at least.  Its tiny white flowers have a bright almost fluorescent orange stem, justifying its alias as the coral tree. 

The lotus pond though brings a disappointment as the botanist, Mr Ram, explains that lotuses and water lilies grow only in still water.  The golden lotuses that Kalidasa has growing in the divine river, Ganga, may owe more to poetic licence than botany but nature here reveals so many weird and wonderful that it is easy to forgive the poets their overactive imaginations.

For more about the FRLHT click here

The Concept of Yoga

YOGA AS A CONCEPT

Dr Varanasi Ramabrahmam

Yoga is currently a very popular pastime. Many gurus and many systems of yoga are presently in vogue. Many innovative titles are given to their respective methods of yoga by yoga teachers. Before trying to enter yoga and practice it, you need to know what exactly yoga is.

Indian spirituality is replete with many systems of thought about God and mind. Yoga and Samkhya (a system in which the mind is split into 24 parts: the sense organs, action organ and so on) are two systems of thought which view God and the mind in their own way. The Yoga-Samkhya system views mind and its structure in a slightly different way to the Upanishads, the source books and guides to spirituality.

Yogaha chitta vritti nirodhaha  - ‘Yoga is the prevention of mental activity’ – is one of the most famous Patanjali yoga sutras. Here chitta vritti refers to mental functions. Technically vritti means antahakarana parinama – ‘transformation of the inner mental tool’ (antahakarana). The four antahakaranas are respectively manas, buddhi, chittam and ahamkaram.  Manas handles cognitions, their reception, storage and retrieval.  Buddhi takes care of all intellectual operations.  Chittam deals with the reception, storage and retrieval of all cognition-related experiences which include the meanings of words and senses of utterances, thoughts and ideas which form understanding and insight.  Ahamkaram is concerned with self-consciousness, i.e: the identification of the individual with one’s body, gender, mental traits, social status, nationality and so on. All these four together constitute the mind. The activities theses perform are the antahakarana parinamas –transformations of the inner mental tools – which account for all our mental functions.

Our mental functions start with mood, insight, remembrance, understanding, experience, urge, intuition and instinct – our direct perceptions and experiences. These are then converted into thoughts and feelings which are then expressed. We cognize and know through our sense organs: through the eye we detect forms and scenes, through the ear sounds, through the tongue tastes, through the nose smells and via the skin touch and heat.  These cognitions are received in accordance with manas, and perceived.  Together with the experiences they create, they are stored within us as remembrances and memory. When our memory is activated, they generate moods, thoughts and feelings.

This is at least a summary of how the mind works.  Yoga is designed to understand this working of the mind and cultivate it so that its vagaries are understood and taken care of and that psychological remedies are prescribed and implemented. Yoga is not merely about doing physical exercises. Physical exercises are just a starting point just as primary school is a starting point for more complex learning. Unfortunately, many practitioners and gurus of yoga teach and promote an incomplete type of yoga which starts and ends in physical exercises.

Praanayaama – a focused inhaling and exhaling – is a way of calming the mind.  The mind is reined in by a proper understanding of its nature and functions. The mental make up of the individual plays an important role in this regard. There are many methods of yoga each of which is appropriate for a different type of individual. The simplest and best way is chanting the name of the favorite deity continuously while listening to sruti.  The chanting must continue as a background to our mental activity or when we are resting, just as sruti is kept and goes on in the background of the singing in the music concert. Many of today’s yoga practitioners choose their guru and yoga method more based on current trends than according to their individual mental make up.  Thus their practice of yoga is in vain.

As above, yoga is by definition the prevention of mental activity.  Yoga involves not allowing antahakarana parinama – transformation of the inner mental tool – to take place. This is what you call a negative definition. The positive definition of yoga is: cheto vritti rupetya tisthati sada -   ‘transcending chitta vritti (mental activity) is also yoga’. The technical term for this state is nivritti - the absence of mental activity. Yoga is a form of communion with divinity. Yoga is efficiency in mental activity; yogaha karmasu kausalam - yoga is skill in performing various assigned actions and duties.  Yoga thus is also about being able to control your thoughts, feelings and moods.  Managing these efficiently is yoga.

Yoga is of many kinds. That means we can manage the functions of our mind efficiently in more than one way. The various systems include: bhakti yoga (devotional yoga), Karma yoga (interpreted popularly as yoga through one’s actions) and jnaana yoga (yoga through knowledge). We are attracted to a particular yoga method depending on our mental make up, genetic composition and ultimately God’s grace. Raja yoga – learning, practising and performing yoga as a series of exercises (both physical and mental) as described and professed in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras – is now the most commonly “sold” method of yoga. But unfortunately, as mentioned earlier, this type of yoga focuses more on physical exercise. Yoga is an inquiry and practice for attaining peace of mind and has to be knowledgeably cultivated and practiced. Nothing is impossible if we will it. But one must realize that yoga is designed to be practiced to transcend worldly concerns and to remain peaceful and blissful throughout all – good and bad – unaffected by the outside world. 

Yoga is tuning our “selves” and ourselves with the divinity within us, and finally merging into that divinity. Meditation is the conscious cultivation of mind in this direction.  And the conscious or unconscious merger of mind in its source is what yoga (literally ‘union’) really is.

On Devotion – Dr Varanasi Ramabrahmam

ON DEVOTION

Dr Varanasi Ramabrahmam

Bhakti (devotion) is one of the most profound human emotions which merges the individual’s identity with the Divinity. Bhakti has many definitions, two of which are discussed here:

“Sa (bhakti) tu asmin paramaprema roopa” –is the most famous and popular definition of bhakti from the Narada Bhakti Sutras. This means that bhakti is the unalloyed love for God. This love is paramam (ultimate). Paramam also means that this love happens and exists without expecting anything in return. It is loving for the sake of loving. In this process we employ our sense organs (eyes, ears, nose, tongue and skin) to learn about God and Divinity. Our eyes see his Divine Form. Our ears listen to his Divine Name and deeds and so on.  We also employ our action organs (movements of hands, movements of legs, movement of vocal chords, etc) to reach God through daily worship and by chanting His Name and other prayers. In Mukunda Mala, Kulasekhara Alwar puts this very beautifully.

Jihve keertaya Kesavam – My tongue! Sing the praise of Kesava!

Muraripum cheto bhaja – My mind! Always think of the Enemy of the demon Mura!

Sridharam panidwandva samarcha – My hands! Worship Sridhara!

Achyuta kathaha srotra dwayam tvam srunu – My pair of ears! Listen to the stories of Achyuta!

Krishanm lokaya lochana dwaye – My eyes! Behold Krishna!

Harergachanghriyugmaalayam – My feet! Go to Hari’s abode!

Jighra ghraana Mukunda paada tulaseem – My nose! Smell the fragrance of tulasi at Mukunda’s feet!

Moordha nama Adhokshajam – My head! Bow to Adhokshaja!

We perceive through our sense organs and all this information is stored as our inner mental world. We form our thoughts and feelings based on this accumulated information. If we accumulate mundane information our thoughts focus on mundane matters. If we accumulate sensual information our thoughts will be on sensual matters. If we accumulate information about God and Divinity our thoughts turn to God and Divinity. We also act and react through action organs (hands, legs, speech etc) depending on the information gathered through sense organs and accumulated within us. This inner mental world with information about the outside world grows with us from birth. We can consciously change this inner mental world by overwriting our current information with details and knowledge about God and Divinity. This we can do by employing our sense organs as described and accumulating Divine Information. We then automatically get pleasant and blissful thoughts and feelings. That is how our predecessors started the tradition of bhakti in which all our faculties and organs are involved with Divinity.

A simple sloka from Mukunda Mala such as:

Namaami  naaraayana paada pankajam – I salute the lotus feet of Narayana

Karomi  naraayana poojanam sada -  I always worship of Narayana

Vadaami  narayaana nama nirmalam – I always utter the crystal pure name of Narayana

Smaraami  narayana tatvam avyayam -     I always contemplate the unchanging nature of Narayana

brings about communion with the Lord.

In Sivananda Lahari, Sri Sankraacharya says:

Amkolam nijabija santati ayaskantopalam suchika

Saadhvi naija vibhum lata kshitiruham sindhussaritvallabham

Praapnoteeha yatha tatha pasupatehe padaaravinda dwayam

Cheto vrittihi upetya tisthati sada sa bhaktirituchyate

“Just as the seeds of the Amkola tree stick to it again, just as the iron needle is attracted to a magnet, a youthful woman comes to her husband, a creeper entwines a tree and the river flows into the sea, so an individual is attracted to and reaches Pasupati’s  (Siva’s)feet . Bhakti is the state of the cessation of antahkarnas (inner mental tools- manas, buddhi, chittam and ahamkaram) and remaining thus always.”

Many more beautiful expressions about bhakti are available in our literature. The most famous bhaktas (devotees) are spread throughout our country.  The alwars and nayanamars of Tamil country; Chaitanya Maha Prabhu, Jayadeva, Tukaram, Sakkubai, Purandaradasa, Annamayya, Ramadasu, Kabir, Suradas, Haridas, Meerabai, Narayanateertha, Sadasivebrahmendra, Tyagaraja and many such eminent personalities.

This is all saguna bhakti.  Saguna bhakti involves using manas and other antahkaranas to pray, chant, sing and use poetic and intellectual abilities to express the devotion. Here the auspicious qualities of the favourite deity are meditated upon, chanted and sung during the spiritual journey.

In nirguna bakti the antahkarnas are trained to be tuned to their source, the state of Atman/Brahman, and no personal God or Goddess is worshipped. It is complete concentration on tatvam – tat tvam –and involves only Jnaana marga (the path to God through knowledge).

Swaswaroopa anusandhanaam bhakti iti abhidheeyate (“Tuning the mind to its source, its original state is bhakti“) is a famous nirguna definition of bhakti. This has interesting implications. Bhakti is tuning ourselves into our original state and thus experiencing shaanta rasa (the emotion of peace). This original state (rasa sthiti) is the state of bliss, peace and silence. In these experience states, our identity as an individual is merged in the real identity that is ego, time and thought transcending state of mind. This happens when we contemplate spiritual expressions and arrive at our intended destination, rasa sthiti. This approach is the path of artha bhaavanam (contemplation on the meaning). When we understand we experience. When we experience we understand. Experience and understanding are simultaneous. By experiencing the meaning of uttered (heard) sounds and sentences or by comprehending divine utterances and their implications we are able to reach the tatpara (absorbed and being one with Tat) or taatparya (purport or import or rasa) state of language. We must be aware that we use the same mind to learn and master languages and other disciplines as we use for doing routine tasks. The state of thoughts or feelings is known as the vibhakti state of mind. Of course in grammatical terminology, vibhakti refers to nominal case terminations. Patanjali and Bhartruhari have initiated, nurtured and developed a theory of language acquisition and communication making use of the same Advaita concept of Vedantins. This will be dealt with in another article.

Bhakti thus is a description of devotion to a personal Deity and also the path of Jnaana as contemplation by mind and absorption of mind in its source. The Jnaana aspect is also an essential part and essence of the theory of language in terms of bhakti and vibhakti.