7. From dohA cometh a Singer

Muhabbat ka iqraar chahiye,
Ishq ka mauj nahin!
Saakshaat Krishna chahiye,
Krishna ki fauj nahin!

These couplets, more commonly known as dohA in the Hindi/Urdu speaking belt, were the inspiration for this blog posting. I heard them during a spiritual discourse by Sri Morari Baapu on a TV channel today. I hadn't originally planned to view the channel at this hour, but then fate decided upon my free-will to view it!

For the non-Hindi/Urdu speaking reader, here is my shot at the meaning of these verses (I don't know who authored them) :

Muhabbat ka iqraar = Bond of Affection/Love
chahiye = is needed

nahin = not
Ishq ka mauj = physical love

Saakshaat Krishna = Real Krishna
chahiye = is needed

nahin = not
Krishna ki fauj = Krishna's army

This dohA reflects on Prince Arjuna's choice in the Mahabharata epic when he was offered by Lord Krishna to either have the Lord Himself as his charioteer, or the Lord's vast army. Arjuna chose Lord Krishna to be on his side (the Pandavas), while Lord Krishna's army fought alongside Duryodhana (the Kauravas) in the Battle of Kurukshetra. (Also read Sri Chinmoy's brief discourse on this subject)

From here, my mind takes me to a very beautiful and enchanting Krishna Bhajan (Bhajan = Devotional Song) which my mother often sings. Here are the lyrics of this Bhajan:

Radheshyam Radheshyam,
Radhamadhava Radheshyam (2)

Eesha Ramesha Radheshyam,
Keshava Achutha Meghashyam (2)
Vasudeva Sutha Radheshyam,
Vasuki Shayana Meghashyam (2)

Radheshyam Radheshyam,
Radhamadhava Radheshyam (2)

Kaurava Shikshaka Radheshyam,
Pandava Rakshaka Meghashyam (2)
Aadi Deva Hari Radheshyam,
Anaadi Purusha Meghashyam (2)

Radheshyam Radheshyam,
Radhamadhava Radheshyam (2)

Radheshyam Radheshyam (High),
Radhamadhava Radheshyam (2)
Radhamadhava Radheshyam (2)

Listen to a rendition of this Bhajan in my voice, if you dare!

betarecords.com/aham.asmi

6. "Who Am I," asked the T-shirt

?
????????
????????????????????????
At first it was dark on the face of the deep.
A Question arose: Who Am I?
The answer was in the Questioner.
When there was this realization, there was light!
A filament of primordial origins glowed from within,
Whose light soon pervaded the heaven and the earth.
The Questioner ceased to exist
And a Guru was born!
AUM TAT SAT!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!
!

____________________________________________________

Trivia
About the Art

• Central design was conceived and drawn on a White T-shirt; hence the name of this blog posting.
• Added the 4-colored frame using a graphics software after taking a digital snap of the T-shirt.

About the Verses

• Language usage - Influenced by the Bible, Old Testament in Basic English. Do you see a palindrome in there?
• Line 1 - Influenced by "And the earth was waste and without form; and it was dark on the face of the deep: and the Spirit of God was moving on the face of the waters." -- Genesis 1:2 Old Testament, Bible in Basic English. 'Deep' in Hindi language (Consonant 'D' pronounced as 'the' sound) stands for lamp as in Deepawali, the Hindu Festival of Lights!
• Line 5 - Referring to the filament shape, OM, or AUM written in Devanagari script. AUM is considered to be the primordial sound in the Hindu tradition.
• Line 8 - "guru" - Sanskrit: Dispeller of Darkness; 'gu'= darkness, and 'ru' = dispeller. A spiritual teacher is called guru in Sanskrit.
• Line 9 - Influenced by "AUM TAT SAT" (Bhagavad Gita 17.23)
  

  AUM is the mystical symbol supreme.
  AUM is the real name of God.
  In the cosmic manifestation is AUM.
  Beyond the manifestation, farthest beyond is AUM.
  TAT means 'That,' the Nameless Eternal.
  Above all attributes, majestic 'That' stands.
  SAT means Reality,
  the Truth Infinite.

5. Mind works in humorous ways

Read following two stories. In what way are they similar?

---
A Zen fable I read in a book:

The pupils of the Tendai school used to study meditation before Zen entered Japan. Four of them, who were immediate friends, promised one another to observe seven days of silence.

On the first day all were silent, but when the night came and the oil lamps were growing dim, one of the pupils could not help exclaiming to a servant: "Fix those lamps."

The second pupil was surprised to hear the first one talk. "We are not supposed to say a word," he remarked.

"You two are stupid. Why did you talk?" asked the third.

"I am the only one who has not talked - thank God!" concluded the fourth.

---
A humorous story I read on the web:

In an ancient monastery in a faraway place, a new monk arrived to join his brothers in copying books and scrolls in the monastery's scriptorium. He was assigned as a rubricator on copies of books that had already been copied by hand.

One day he asked Father Florian (the Armarius of the Scriptorium), "Does not the copying by hand of other copies allow for chances of error? How do we know we are not copying the mistakes of someone else? Are they ever checked against the original?"

Fr. Florian is set back a bit by the obvious logical observation of this youthful monk. "A very good point, my son. I will take one of the latest books down to the vault and compare it against the original."

Fr. Florian went down to the secured vault and began his verification. After a day had passed, the monks began to worry and went down looking to the old priest. They were sure something must have happened. As they approached the vault, they heard sobbing and crying. When they opened the door, they found Fr. Florian sobbing over the new copy and the original ancient book, both of which were opened before him on the table. It was obvious to all that the poor man had been crying his old heart out for a long time.

"What is the problem Reverend Father?" asked one of the monks.
"Oh, my Lord," sobbed the priest, "the word is 'celebrate'!"

---

This is what I can say about the similarity of the two stories:

In both stories, the lead characters failed to understand the very essence of their abstinence; they were supposed to do their abstinence (silence in the first fable, and celibacy in the second) at the thought level!