2018, ANOTHER YEAR, ANOTHER OPPORTUNITY TO TRAVEL IN THE JOURNEY CALL LIFE

I am not sure why everyone celebrate the beginning of a New Year. Is it because the previous year brought them great Joy that they want to have another year of greater Joy, or is it because that year was full of misery that they hope the New Year would bring them out of it, or is because celebrating the New Year has been a norm year after year that everyone just follows it like herd.

If it is about hope, then every waking day should be an impetus for a new beginning. One does not have to wait for one whole year to end before making resolutions for a new beginning. 

The Human rush seems to overwhelm life itself. Everyone is preoccupied with chasing something, to a point that many have forgotten how freshly cut grass smells, or even what colours that a Rajah Brooke butterfly have, and the list may go on. 

Life passes day by  day in a self centred cocoon, neither giving a chance for wrinkle to come due to mirth and laughter  nor having any empathy that something is actually wrong with the state of Denmark.

Sad it may seem but when that one day comes, when reflection is forced upon, alas it may be too late to realize that the path taken was a one way ticket and no backtracking is allowed, but the journey continues. Any changes has to come in the forthcoming travel, any changes has to be for the future and not about the past. Mind and body are wonderful things, both matures with different outcomes. Hence as one ages the equanimity between them goes of tangent, which makes change even more perilous.

Just thinking of the poem by Rabindranath Tagore,

Where The Mind Is Without Fear

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high

Where knowledge is free

Where the world has not been broken up into fragments

By narrow domestic walls

Where words come out from the depth of truth

Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection

Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way

Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit

Where the mind is led forward by thee

Into ever-widening thought and action

Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake. 

This poem though was written in Bengali in 1910 (an English translation ensued in 1912) , it was one of the many that inspired the independence movement in India, nevertheless it still pulses meaningfully today. 

So what am I doing now, well its 12.16am, right after this I am going to make fruit jelly for New  Year, and then going to catch some sleep, before waking up in the morning to make  onion sambol (condiment) which accompanies kiribath (milk rice) which Greeja will be preparing. The fragrance of coconut milk, pandan leaves (screwpine) and rice, boiling on the cooker is something that reminds me of how wonderful life is. 

For now I am toasting to an old Irish proverb that goes like this, "What Whiskey Will Not Cure, There is No Cure," Cheers To Jameson and CHEERS To ALL.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE.

ravivarmmankanniappan
@123001012018 

caption courtesy:anonymous.  

GURU, TEACHER, SIFU, an Educator by any other name would ................

Lord Dhakshinamoorthy is an epitome that represents the ultimate Guru (Teacher) from the perspective of Siddha/Vedic philosophy. 

Even he in the Skanda Puranam had to bow down to his son Murugan when the latter was giving an explanation on the meaning of Pranava Manthiram (AUM). 

The philosophy behind this story signifies that the role of Guru (Teacher) and Disciple (student) is not only symbiotic but it also interchangeable. Regardless of age a student has to have humility in learning and at the same time a teacher should treat all students the same in sharing knowledge. 

Robert Evans (producer of Godfather), said, "There three sides to every story; your side, my side and the truth. And no one is lying, Memories Shared serve each differently." Educators are known to have the biggest ego. Well that is an understandable outcome, when one has mastered his/her area of expertise, and begins to believe that they are invincible. 

But sometimes this elevated feeling can detach the teacher from grounded footing and drift him/her far from reality. So a reality check is essential to progress further. 

There is a Tamil proverb that goes like this, "what is learned is the size of a palm, but what we have not learned is the size of an ocean." The "Maya" called "Arrogance" can be the biggest deterrent in the pursuit to achieve intellectual liberation.

  Shiva Cosmic Dance

by AV Elango

The abstract illustration above of Shiva Thaandavam (Cosmic Dance of Shiva) explores the exponential probability of knowledge, hence it symbolizes the vastness of knowledge that can be explored for the curious mind.

Analogizing from the Cosmic dance, teachers should be open minded to go beyond the known, and in turn inspire their students to be articulate and instill independent thinking. The greatest service a teacher could do is not to give the student a fish nor to teach the student how to fish but give him/her the faculty to think that fish can be bred, and in all conditions too. 

We are at the crossroads where repetitive actions are programmable and can be automated. Today technology is moving towards creating artificial intelligence, a step closer to make human thinking redundant. 

So as teachers we are no longer going to compete with fellow brethren's but also with the artificial kind as well. Therefore our task as educators has upped multi fold to create a versatile and dynamic thinking students who would be capable in creating a sustainable eco-system, that will preserve and perpetuate all living being.

The road ahead will be challenging, but as teachers I believe we have weathered many, but by making that small ripple, definitely, we can create a tsunami that can make the difference. 

So lets STRIVE for a better tomorrow, and for now lets bask in GLORY and CELEBRATE, that one (or many) thank you note you received from your student, whom you have made the DIFFERENCE.

HAPPY TEACHERS DAY.

GURU, TEACHER, SIFU, an Educator by any other name would ......................(fill in your own experience)

Ravi Varmman

16 May 2017.

WESAK GREETINGS

Today signifies the birth, enlightenment and death of one of the greatest GURU, who's teaching prescribed to ones conduct. 

Moving away from worship based salvation, Sidhartha's spiritual journey brought him to conclude that ones 'just' conduct would determine his/her salvation within.

So what do we mean by just conduct? To that the Gita says, "Do everything you have to do, but not with greed, not with ego, not with lust, not with envy, but with love, compassion, humility and devotion." Devotion here refers to committing with whole heart and effort and not to be mistaken for it's literal meaning. 

But isn't all these obvious as part of an evolved human socio-psychological construct? However what ought to be and and what it seems to be, are poles apart. I guess we all know what we need to do. to create a just society, but we stop short from executing it because the "maya" of self centredness envelopes our thoughts and actions.

We are so caught up with day to day survival that we fail to live. When personal conduct is governed by actions needed to survive, opportune to stray may not even be seen as a moral issue.

So a day like Wesak, should be an avenue to jolt our existence to remind us of the "maya" that has drifted humanity apart.

Sidhartha journeyed to decipher the dotted line between birth and death, and he discovered the truth of living, he says, "No one saves us but ourselves,  No one can and no one may, We ourselves must walk the path." 

So on this auspicious day, whilst wishing each other, and singing praises of  the Buddha, I believe a little reflection on our thoughts and actions would definitely pave the way to create a just society as epitomized by Ambedhkar, "A just society is that society in which ascending sense of reverence and descending sense of contempt is dissolved into the creation of a compassionate society."

Ravi Varmman
10 May 2017