चंपा सिवराज है!

Recently, listening to Ninadrao Bedekar deliver his lecture on Kavi Bhushan has been an immense source of inspiration. Kavi Bhushan, as I have said before, really captivates ones imagination, as he is only one of the very few poets who has veer ras as the backbone of his poetry. The veer ras guna combined with the ornate use of language really is sensational. Bhushan has an ultimate eye to draw comparisons with nature. the following Chhanda has left me speechless.

कूर्म कमल कम धुज है कदमफूल गौर हे गुलाब राणा केतकी बिराज है|

पांढूरी पवार जुही सोहता है चंदावत तरत बुन्देलेसौज चमेली साज बाज है|

भूषणभंड कुञ्जपर गुजर है बघेले बसंत सब कुसुम समाज है|

लेई रस एतिल को बिठी न सकत है अली नवरंगजेब चंपा सिवराज है||

The meaning of the above lines is as follows:

The Kings of Jaipur- Kachhavas(Kurma) are like the lotus flower, the Kadamb kings are like the Kadamb flower. similarly, Gaurs are likend to Rose while the Rana of Udaipur is like the Ketaki flower. The Pawars are like the 'Pandhari' flowers, the Chandawats are compared to the 'Jui' flowers, whereas the Bundelas are the 'Chameli' flowers. The Gujars are like the 'mukunjphool' and thus, Bhushan goes on to say that the regional kings from all over India are just like a collection of flowers. Navrangzeb Ali(King Aurangzeb) collects revennue and money from these flowers, but he gets nothing from Shivaji, who is described as "Champa(Chapha)".

Well initially the shloka may seem inconculsive, but, if we look at it carefully, 'अली' in Sanskrit means a 'भुंगा'. Thus, Bhushan wants to say is that Aurangzeb, like a bee, collects money from all regional kings, but, whatever he does, he avoids Shivaji Maharaj. It is key to note here, that a Champa flower, although very sweet smelling, doesnt contain any nectar. If you observe nature closely, you will come to see that Bees tend to avoid 'Chaphyachi phule'. In a similar way, knowing that he is going to be rebuked if approached, Aurangzeb avoids Shivaji Maharaj.

It is very rare that one gets to listen to or hear such remarkable poetry. We are tremendously blessed that Ninadrao Bedekar is working tirelessly to propogate the work of Bhushan and thereby give the true picture and the immense importance of Shivaji Maharaj, to the common man. I found the following links on the internet, which directly provide Ninadrao Bedekars speech on Kavi Bhushan. Its worth listening to .Trust me, you listen once, and you will get hooked to good poetry for the rest of your life. 

Shivaji ani Kavi BhushanPart 1
Shivaji ani Kavi BhushanPart 2
Shivaji ani Kavi BhushanPart 3.

I make a sincere request to all people who read Bhushan to share his chhandas on the internet. Also, in the above chhanda, if I have made a mistake, forgive me for that, for I have typed in what I have heard. If you have the right words, feel free to contact me, and make me do the necessary corrections.

City Under Threat!

We all know that Pune was under attack. Its really sad, that a city considered as an educational heaven is being targeted by terrorists. But they will target anything. They are not humans after all- they all are Rakshasas. Its sad indeed that the country is being attacked right, left and centre, and there are internal problems as well. People are staying out of these issues- and concentrating more on mundane things like movies, money, and such other things which provide only temporary satisftion. How could anyone not get instigated by such attacks and fight back? Why do we have to "Talk"? Clearly, the authority, in order to maintain, and probably increase its vote bank, is not doing anything.Can anybody tell them that the policy that should be used is "खटासी पाहिजे खट, उध्दटासी उद्धट, खटनटासी खटनट, अगत्य करी." While blaming the government, people also should be blamed, especially youngsters like ourselves. It seems that in pursuing our dreams, we keep forgetting our duty towards our nation. Thankfully, God has blessed India with a huge youth power. But whats the use of it? "आजच्या तरुण पीढ़ीच्या कानांवर सिनेमा ची गाणी पडण्यापेक्षा, ढोल, ताशे, मर्फे, करणे, या रणवाद्यांचे नाद कानी पडून जेव्हा आपण धडाधड आवाज करत रस्त्यांवरून जाऊ, तेव्हा या देशाकडे वक्र दृष्टी करुन पहाण्याची हिम्मत कोणामधे येणार नाही." Its high time to realise that the world is not so rosy afterall. Wake up my fellow countrymen! Wake up!

Ill end my post by sharing yet another poem written by Savarkar. Its a sincere request to God to come back on earth once again, and restore order and peace!(very appropriate, since the government is unable to take action, and the public is not bothered!)

जय देव, जय देव, जय जय शिवराया

या, या अनन्य शराणां, आर्या तराया!

आर्यांच्या देशावरी म्लेंछांचा घाला

आला आला सावध हो शिवभूपाला

सदगदिता भूमाता दे तुज हा गेला

करूणारव भेदुनी तव ह्रदय न का गेला

जय देव, जय देव, जय जय शिवराया

श्री जगदम्बा जी तव शुम्भाधिक भक्षी

दशमुख मर्दुनी ती श्रीरघुवर संरक्षी

ती पूता, भूमाता, म्लेंछा ही छळता

तुजविण शिवराया तीज कोण दूजा त्राता!

जय देव, जय देव, जय जय शिवराया!

त्रस्त आम्ही, दीं आम्ही, शरण तुला आलो,

परवशतेच्या ठाई मरणोन्मुख झालो

साधू पारी प्राणा या दुष्कृति नाशाया

भगवान भगवतगीता सार्थ्य कराया, या

जय एव, जय देव, जय जय शिवराया!

-सावरकर.

Dating the Mahabharata

Whenever the topic of Mahabharata arises, I, for some unknown reason get sucked to the core of it, in trying to understand what exactly it is. It is, by itself the longest poem ever recorded. Experts agree that it is ten times the length of Homers Iliad and the Odyssey combined, and roughly four times the length of the Ramayana- another epic poem. We all know the well rehearsed story of the Mahabharata. So I will not plunge into details about it. This post is written with a view of the scientifically occurring phenomena mentioned in the poem, its relation to the modern world, and to some extent, using scientifically available data, speculate the date of the Great War.

For me, the Mahabharata is a complete package. Estimating occurrences and instances needs the help of astronomy and the understanding of star gazing- two of my vivid interests. Many schemes (kootneeti, one can say) by a whole bunch of people, good or bad, can be studied, which is essential if we are to survive. Then there are curiosities about the fantastic weapons mentioned. There are some interesting rituals which may be directly compared to some of modern experimentation. This arouses the science seeker in me. We have Krishna neeti- which stimulates my intellect- it prompts me to think out of the box while making any decision. And then there is this war, which has attained mythical status. The Mythological and History seeking qualities I have get awakened. I am still to read a book of such nature, and I guess I’ll never read one other than Mahabharata itself.

Coming back to the point of the post, I’ll turn my attention firstly on the scientific riddles presented. The first one that pops up to the mind is that of Kunti calling upon various Gods to give her Sons. Even Madri, the other wife of King Pandu calls upon the Ashwinas for obtaining sons. Does this mean that Pandu was infertile? It would seem so. And could this calling of Gods be experimentation in artificial insemenisation? We can only speculate. Another startling experiment can be the birth of the Kauravas. The book mentions that a sage made a hundred and one pieces of the “garbha” of Gandhari, and suspended these in Ghee. Sounds more like a test tube baby and cloning doesn’t it? Could this be a part of an elaborate experiment of genetic engineering and embryonic study? There are numerous mentions to growing of broken limbs, creating new eyes, etc. Could this be manipulations such as using stem cell or creation of prosthetic limbs? We can only get fascinated by this.

Coming out of the biological world, and thrusting ourselves in a more physics related world- Firstly I will talk of a mind blowing idea- that of Sanjay narrating what he saw in the war to Dhrutarashtra, and then turn my focus on a special weapon- the Brahmastra.

 It is said, that Sanjay got a picture of everything that was going on at Kurukshetra- all important events, happenings, planning etc. However, he was only able to receive. Neither he nor Dhrutarashtra were able to contact the Kauravas (assuming they would to present a broader picture). Was the war broadcasted? How else could Sanjay be in Hastinapur, and provide a live commentary to Dhrutarashtra regarding the events at Kurukshetra? Did a technology for video transmission exist? There is no other plausible explanation! It really is fascinating.

Moving over to the second point, there are mentions of numerous powerful weapons- but one stands out. The Brahmastra. It is said to destroy everything. What is more is that it’s mentioned that it was used. The description goes that when the Brahmastra was shot, it glowed with the “Brightness of a Thousand suns.” Everything in its path obliterated. People were mutilated-nails and hair fell off abruptly, to escape from its fury, those who possessed its knowledge, hid underwater (citing the example of Duryodhan). Everything in the impact region was charred and birds were burnt alive. There could not be any more dramatic description of an event. The only possible weapon which could wreak a havoc of the scale mentioned above, and whose after effects are similar to those mentioned is a nuclear weapon. The first line regarding the brightness of a thousand suns is so true, that when the Manhattan project was successful, the scientist who headed it is said to have said that very shloka as it is in Sanskrit. So, could there really have been a nuclear war at the time of Mahabharata? Did the technology exist? Or was it used before that, and the poet was inspired by that to include it in his ballad?

The thing is that, when it comes to science, I am a believer in the school of thought of “Believe what you can see and visualize”. But then, ideas of the magnitude mentioned above are indescribable without prior knowledge. This strengthens my view, that such technologies must have existed, or at least there was know-how of such things. It really is interesting. But then, a bigger question arises. If such things existed, what was the time period when they were being carried out?

Well, it’s a difficult question to answer. Websites such as Wikipedia, based on the books of Max Muller and other western historians, place the date of Mahabharata somewhere between 1200-800BC. I, however, differ with this view. If there was an epic war of the largest nature, we would have proof for it, somewhere. Indian texts do however mention that 137 generations have passed since the war to the start of the reign on Chandragupta. Detailed calculations regarding the date of Mahabharata have been meticulously carried out by Shri. Dr. P.V.Vartak. (If you want to have a look at the proof, click here). I was skeptical when I initially read it, and I thought I had a point. However, with a new tool- The Starry Night Enthusiast at my disposal, I set about checking for facts. To my astonishment, it yielded wonders. Every description regarding the planetary position- of all the visible planets, as well as those given for Uranus, Neptune and Pluto, which are mentioned match. What’s more fascinating is that around the date calculated by Dr. Vartak, there indeed was a solar eclipse-The same one which led to the death of Jayadrata. There is also a mention to a bright comet in the Mahabharata. Astronomical data confirms the presence of the Halley’s Comet in that year.  Moreover, the fact that all planets were aligned in a line also holds true. The only mind boggling thing is that, if assumed to be true, these calculations and software simulations set the date of onset of the Mahabharata War to 16th October 5561 B.C, which is astounding, baffling, but ultimately, verified, and probably true.

This whole saga has inspired me a lot. I will be spending a lot of my time in the next holidays carrying out my own research in establishing the time period of Mahabharata. You are free to contact me if you have any inputs/suggestions/remarks(click here to mail me) But then it again raises the question- Was the Mahabharata just an elaborate poem born out of pure imagination? Or was it a fact rather than fiction at a point so far off in history? If it is, then it shakes the very foundations (and rightly so!) on which the present hocus-pocus Indian history is based. In any case, we have a lot of work to do, if we are to understand it better.

The Magic of Kusumagraj

Just heard an amazing 1 liner by kusumagraj, in one of his cds..


मस्तक ठेवून गेलीस जेव्हा, अगतिक माझ्या पायावरती,
या पायांना अदम्य इच्छा ओठ व्ह्याची झाली होती...


-कुसुमाग्रज

can it get any more expressive than this?

घेता

Recently, the marathi poetry bug has re hit me with full force(considering i was doing GRE words and all :)), and its literally undescribable how good I feel when I switch over to this mode. Its like living in a parallel world, where all the literature just comes alive.

I came across this wonderful poem written by vinda karandikar and was extremely touched by it. Went straight to the heart. Its all about taking and how to evolve from taking to giving. the last 4 lines say it all. The poem is called "Gheta"

घेता


देणाऱ्याने देत जावे;
घेणाऱ्याने घेत जावे.

हिरव्यापिवळ्या माळावरून
हिरवीपिवळी शाल घ्यावी;
सह्याद्रीच्या कड्याकडून
छातीसाठी ढाल घ्यावी.

वेड्यापिशा ढगाकडून
वेडेपिसे आकार घ्यावे;
रक्तामधल्या प्रश्नांसाठी
पृथ्वीकडून होकार घ्यावे.

उसाळलेल्या दर्याकडून
पिसाळलेली आयाळ घ्यावी;
भरलेल्याशा भीमेकडून
तुकोबाची माळ घ्यावी.

देणाऱ्याने देत जावे
घेणाऱ्याने घेत जावे;
घेता घेता एक दिवस
देणार्याचे हात घ्यावे!