IRAI ANBU ARTICLES

Published in ‘THE HINDU’ Newspaper

(Written by V.IRAI ANBU IAS) Presently Secretary, Tourism Department, Govt of TamilNadu, India

Compiled by M.Raja radioraja.m@gmail.com

GOD is a Verb

Our prayers are both conditional and conditioned. The viscosity of fear and gravity of grief determine the density of prayer. Prayer is popular, as it is easy to preach and practice. We are comfortable with rituals because others can perform them on our behalf. Affluence is the affordability to maximise sloth.

People prefer deification as it gives consolation and confirmation. It is an escape and not liberation. One who comprehends it, as a short cut never reaches the destination. Assumption of suffering as a form of prayer presupposes God as a sadist. Prayer belongs to the mass and meditation to the individual. Only the individual is indivisible. Meditation is the last leap to reach the celestial.

It is prayer without praying. J. Krishnamurti calls it, silencing the mind. Words and sounds dominate prayer and in meditation, the medium is serenity. The purpose of the former is purgation and the latter prophylactic. Prayer denotes duality and meditation means merger, coalescence, dissolving and disappearing.

Prayer has profiles. A few sing hymns for selfish ends; a few kneel for the benevolence of others; a few prostrate for avenging their archrivals and only a handful fawn for global peace and cosmic tranquility. Some pray, as they do not know what to do. Our supplications are effective when they are espoused for the cause of others.

Prayer rooted on trust and grafted on bliss is a love affair. Everything in existence is admired as an act of almighty. God is more of a feeling and less of a concept. Genuine prayers are meant not to avoid sufferings but to consolidate our strength to withstand the torrent of torment. We pray in distress and not in joy. Our miseries are imputed to evil interventions and victories are viewed as fruits of indomitable efforts.

Prayer could be transformed into pursuit of a higher plane of awareness by refining the mind. When our communion becomes gratitude expressed through gestures, we are showered with blessings. Vote of thanks is not the penultimate agenda in life; the programme often comes to a grinding halt. One who asks alms at the corridor and the other who pleads for boons at the sanctum sanctorum are both mendicants seeking from different sources

From begging and bargaining and from beseeching and petitioning, it can be elevated to a stance of ecstasy. Singing with celebration and dancing with delight for no reason and with no expectation takes invocation proximate to meditation. When prayer disappears and praying vanishes, something beautiful burgeons. Then one glows like camphor and floats like incense. The art of bringing the quality of prayer into all actions happens on its own without any enervating effort. Respecting the responsibility and discharging it with diligence are worship delivered through deeds. Counting the beads for countless times is of no use, if we miss the manifestation of the maker in all the innocent incarnations.

God is our attempt to give finite configuration to the infinite formlessness. It is an exercise to limit the limitless and an endeavour to explain the abstract. We worship both the dead and the God. We place them on par. It is said that dogs could visualise their God only in the form of a dog, may be with an additional appendage or a straight tail. The devotees debate to decide the power of the deities. The dispute is more about the structure of buildings and not about the nature of supernatural.

Bharathi proclaims, there is more spirituality outside our temples. By writing the name of God, we feel like scribbling our own name and derive ego satisfaction. God has no name. Attributing a gender would also give a form. God is nameless, formless and even Godless.

All our communal riots erupt when sounds of prayers of different denominations clash and when their timings overlap. Spirituality is a personal issue and not a public policy. Compassion is prayer lived and devotion demonstrated. The whole world can meditate at the same moment without any single whimper. A man of meditation sees his own reflection on everything around him. He never plagiarises the pleas of others to trace the tracts of the providence. R. Buckminster Fuller said, God is not a noun but a verb.

When God becomes a verb, we will have no quarrels over his feature or stature.

-- V.IRAI ANBU IAS

Knowledge is not Learning

Knowledge is always borrowed and is second hand, writes V.IRAI ANBU ALL OF us accept learning as a continuous process, not to be forsaken till the end. But at the same time on introspection we would discover how resistant we are to learn. J. Krishnamurti says, "Learning is one thing and accepting knowledge is another. Acquiring knowledge is a bondage and learning is never a bondage. Knowledge is always in the past, knowledge implies the past."

It is true that knowledge is not a stepping-stone to learning but a blocking hillock at progress. The knowledge gained in the initial stages makes us prejudiced and prevents us from exploring, experimenting and experiencing the truth. The real learning process never gives complacence. We feel a vacuum and get inspired to probe further in the path of life. Knowledge is always borrowed and is second hand.

Unlearning and learning

`Knowing' is entirely a different phenomenon. One has to unlearn and be prepared for it. Unlearning is another dimension of learning. Forgetting is the first step towards memory and ignorance is the gateway to knowledge.

As someone remarked, knowledge is nothing but ignorance made visible. Even the apprehension we have about knowledge is not authentic. Memorising is not knowledge and knowledge is not understanding. One can give an eloquent lecture on computer without any know-how. There are four kinds of knowledge. Appearance knowledge belongs to the ignorant.

Relative knowledge to the philosophers. Perfect knowledge to the enlightened. Transcendental is the inner stage in which perfect wisdom is realised. This intelligence blossoms out of realisation at the deepest level of consciousness. Knowledge gets transformed into wisdom only at the fourth level.

Patience and Perseverance

Learning requires patience and perseverance. How patient remains the water? While flowing it encompasses all the hurdles on the way and acts continuously on all hard and rough surfaces, slowly but

steadily to turn them smooth and polished. One should be humble enough to grasp, absorb and assimilate, what one observes all round.

Tao says that the ocean is the mightiest and largest of all the waters on the earth as it lies low and is ready to receive. Ambition and avarice create anxiety and anguish. Then learning loses the lustre, becomes lull and dull. We get catapulted to the zone of fear and tension. We miss the beautiful breeze, sanguine sky, the verdant vegetation and all the other lovely things around us.

Unless we enjoy education -- may be anything, from music to mysticism or mathematics to metaphysics - it will remain at the empirical level without any impact. Dr. Deming, a famous management expert, emphasized that real learning process helps to lead us from unconscious incompetence to conscious incompetence, a sign of great progress. Then we move from conscious incompetence to conscious competence and finally to unconscious competence.

The Goddess meant for symbolizing and signifying learning, in Hindu mythology is said to learn still. It is just to illustrate that learning is a continuous process sans barriers and boundaries. And that, and even God cannot be perfect in the wisdom.

-- V.IRAI ANBU IAS

Laughter - Not a Laughing Matter

Laughter is a melodious message to the mind, says V. IRAI ANBU Laughter is a language by itself. When we laugh, we are in harmony with nature and the whole existence reverberates with celebration. As Victor Borge said, laughter is the shortest distance between two people. Sense of humour is a rare quality and exists at a higher plane of intelligence. The ability to laugh at oneself is the real sense of humour.

One who laughs at one's own mistakes remains innocent. We giggle alone and laugh together. We are at our best at the time of laughing. While laughing we are child like. Rest of the time we are childish. We could be sincere without being serious. Many have sense of rumour, but only few have sense of humour. A sense of humour creates a lasting impression. As mark H. McCormack says, in his `What they don't teach you at Harvard Business School', a single humorous, self-effacing comment can immediately let some one know that we don't take ourselves seriously and that is the sort of thing that people remember.

Internal jogging

According to American cardiologist, Dr. William Fry, one minute of laughter is worth 40 minutes of deep relaxation and 100 laughs a day are equal to a ten minute jog. That is why it is called `internal jogging'. It reduces stress, enhances immunity, decreases pain, regulates pressure and cleanses the lungs. Thus, laughter is therapeutic. It keeps us in the present moment. Hence it is both medicine and meditation.

Laughter is a melodious message to the mind and mollifying massage for the muscles. Every laugh takes us closer to enlightenment. Bliss is nothing but laughing inwards as hiccup is coughing inwards. It is not happiness that fetches laughter. It is actually the other way round.

Smile is an individual phenomenon and laugh is a gregarious formula. Smile could be spurious but laughter is genuine. Many a time we smile as a safety mechanism. Nine separate smiles have been recorded so far. Three of them are quite common. They are simple smile, upper smile and broad smile. One should be aware of the oblong smile. A brand smile is the distant cousin of laughter.

Only one laughter

Laughter has only one form and shape but the style differs from person to person like the left hand thumb impression. All the animals can smile. Even the inanimate can smile in smiles. When wind smiles, it is breeze. When the bud smiles, it is flower. When birds laugh, it is their song. However, men and chimpanzees alone can laugh vociferously. Tears can be triggered. Crocodile tears are false but not the laughter of hyena. Tears are forgotten but laughter remains a reminiscence.

Tragedy depicts the flaw and fall of great men. Comedy points the follies and foibles of middle class. It is true that humour belongs to ordinary people. Those who have over-vaulting ambition cannot enjoy life.

Shakespeare is read even today for his unique sense of humour. His wit and wisdom remain unparalleled. His fun with pun and repartees with rhetoric were not momentary utterances but monumental achievements. He excelled all University wits by virtue of his great sense of timing. All eminent men had tremendous tendency to sparkle with humour. Scintillating jokes they cracked are remembered today. They are fondly quoted not for their words of wisdom but for their lines of laughter. They lived long as they did not age with rage.

The subtleties of Mullah Naseeruddin, the fables of Aesop, the parables of La Fontaine, the anecdotes of Birbal and the like are cherished today for their tinge of humour. They accelerate the alchemy in our being in an unconscious way. If we think of deriving happiness only by a particular accomplishment, we close other channels forever.

Dropping all the notions about life is a prerequisite for becoming blissful. The secret of life lies in transforming wail into a smile, tears into laughter and agony into ecstasy. A big joke and a belly laugh could put everything in proper perspective. One should always learn to laugh.

-- V.IRAI ANBU IAS

DESIRE TO BE DESIRELESS

Ascetics describe desire as devil and hedonists, as preface to pleasure. Many acknowledge desire as driving force and striving source for all progress.

Needs are to be distinguished from wants. Needs are limited and wants are infinite. When one fulfills needs, one is not labeled greedy. The basic requirements need not be sacrificed to become? Master of Austerities Human mind is an abyss, never overflowing with contentment. Men tend to become the very personification of desire.

Desires are the byproducts of a conditioned mind. They transport us to future. We constantly travel between reveries and dreams. People who read this article also read. Hence, our literature of life is full of anachronisms. A goal oriented mind lives for others. It tries to prove. It is calculative all the time

and misses the beautiful moments of existence. Even in a picturesque path, it does not saunter and always sprints. Goals are short lived and after attaining them, confusion creeps in. A cause-oriented mind remains fresh and vibes with vigour.

Ambition itself is an overvaulting expectation. Distance always distracts and proximity retracts. We long for things out of our reach. The distant objects captivate, capture and capsize. We justify our ambitions and do a systematic gradation. We graduate in desire and our aspirations constantly become outdated as we go up in life. Desire need not be for things; even revenge is a desire. Some may desire disasters. They love them for the benefits they bring. Desire seduces and sedates. It metamorphoses into a Frankenstein, self-consuming and self-destructive.

Desire is called so, only when it is disproportionate. Emotions experienced and expressed at the appropriate age with the correct magnitude are not condemned. Postponed feelings are more dangerous. Belated desires are not gratified easily and they remain insatiable forever. They erupt as excitement, manifest as mania and aggravate as addiction.

Power is considered as the greatest aphrodisiac, for it can propitiate all other cravings. Today, many spiritual denominations are prospering as authorities of affluence and institutions of influence. The abnegation of a particular physiological need has led to the accumulation of all other materialistic fancies. It is not sacrifice but compromise.

To be desireless is the greatest desire. Those who desire the other world have made it their mission. If it is a conscious process, it is counterproductive. The more we decapitate, the more it regenerates like a hydra. While fasting, food becomes an obsession; during celibacy, women are fantasized. Desires are not to be repressed and suppressed but are to be transformed and transcended. It is not done by compulsion, coercion or confession. It is accomplished by correcting, convincing and converting.

The moment we understand a desire, it sheds on its own. Understanding the futility of a desire will dispel all darkness and obliterate all obscurity. Desire should drop on its own like a drooped leaf. Then simplicity ascends like dawn. Even the thought of renouncing does not rush like a passing cloud. There would be no turning back. At that point of time, gruel and sumptuous victual taste the same; floor and floral bed afford the same comfort. Pleasure comes from things, happiness from fellow human beings, merriment from joint action, joy from self-pursuits and bliss from non-action. Non-action is not to be confused with in-action.

All pleasures are mind oriented. The gustatory, olfactory, the tactile are all creations of mind. They are enticing. However, when one evolves, they become superfluous and vestigial. Maturity lies in remaining with detached attachment. Objects fade into oblivion and adversaries pale into insignificance, when we experience bliss from no thought and non-action. When there is no mind, we become serene like a tranquil lake without waves and ripples.

-- V.IRAI ANBU IAS

Obey to Disobey

V. IRAI ANBU writes on obedience and disobedience

ABSOLUTE OBEDIENCE is considered a valuable virtue and disobedience is condemned as vitriolic vice. If this concoction is correct, slavery is not savagery.

Society tends to mend and amend rebellious spirits and wants to play safe. Anyone who throbs with life and quivers with zest is ostracized. Acquiescence is advocated to protect vested interests and propagate superstitions. Like fruits and vegetables, standardisation is attempted even among men and women.

Albert Camus defines rebel, in his marvellous masterpiece, `The Rebel,' as one who says no. The one who refuses to get into the quagmire of conservatism is termed a revolutionary, a radical and an insurgent, for questioning the tenets of fundamentalism and extirpating the foundations of authoritarianism. When answers are absent, we take cover under conventions, tradition or heritage. Negation is revulsion to those who are always accustomed to affirmation.

Disciplined person

Obedience becomes beautiful, if it flowers out of discipline. A disciplined person refutes to be conditioned and is repulsive to external threats. He does not require orders and hierarchy. One who masters himself never requires a mentor. The social insects, like bees, ants and termites, have a categorical division of labour eschewing the authorities of supervision. They work with swarm intelligence where their brains merge and actions amalgamate to make a bigger enterprise.

Obedience is a response

Obedience is not a condition but a response. When it becomes a prerequisite, it is equated with subservience. It is not like water, which flows from a high level to a low level, but wind, which flows from an area of abundance to a space with scarcity.

Any one who is right deserves to be obeyed and stature is crucial than cadre. Wisdom should take priority over positions and qualifications. Obedience is to be issue based and not person oriented. Men of conviction, imbued with impeccable integrity, elicit spontaneous approval and approbation from everybody without flexing their power and authority.

Only those who know the innate intricacies can understand the difference between flexibility and pliability, firmness and rigidity, resoluteness and recalcitrance, acceptance and succumbing. They are similar in semblance but are quite different in semantics.

Obedience today is at peripheral level. Exhibiting obedience is more than executing accordance. Many feign obedience and act contrarily. They talk to impress and not to express. "One may smile and smile and be a villain," living up to the lines of Shakespeare. Their obsequious posture is a mere pretension. At times, defiance is better than deference. Desired deviation should not be confused with vehement violation.

Disobedience alone creates checks and balances like the banks limiting transgression of the river. Only individuals with guts and courage become infidels and iconoclasts. They put a halt to

atrocities perpetrated by organised fundamentalism. Balance of power is needed to curb any sort of extremism.

Unconditional obedience aims at good citizens and desired disobedience creates good individuals. Good individuals need not always be good citizens. Their subscription does not confirm to any prescription. They rise against establishment for espousing the cause of truth. Fawning persons are applauded as good natives for they voluntarily submit to get their voice strangled for a few pieces of bone. Good citizens belong to the state and good individuals are proprietors of the universe.

A man of compassion and consciousness obeys when the situation warrants his submission. When he does it, it will be a `zero ego state' experience. His obedience buds as contemplation, burgeons as approval and blossoms as surrender.

-- V.IRAI ANBU IAS

Circumnavigating the Circle

The surrealistic structure of circle is the cycle, writes V. IRAI ANBU

Circle is a unique geometrical representation. The very term geometry, according to Greek roots, designates the measurement of Earth. Circle is the closed curve with all the points equidistant from the Centre.

The bisection of the circle by its diameter was delineated by Thales, one of the seven sages of Greek philosophy. Pi, the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter was computed and calculated to a million decimal places in 1973 by the French mathematicians Jean Guilloud and Martin Bouyer. The value was published as a 400 page book-the most boring book in the world.

Unlike other geometrical figures, in order to draw a circle one has to start from the Centre. In astronomy it symbolizes universe and in life it signifies continuity. In Biology it is the feminine archetype, the egg, the origin of all creations. In mysticism, it represents eternity because a circle is sans beginning and end. In mathematics, it is the basis for inversive geometry and certain non-Euclidean geometries.

Conscious awareness

Sacred geometry speaks about the spiral shape of the conscious awareness. Halo is the circular projection or externalisation of the personal aura. The circle in iron and steel is the wheel. As literature is to grammar, wheel is to circle and it preceded the latter.

The oldest known representation of a wheel to have survived is that on a tablet of clay in Mesopotamia and dates back to 3500 B.C. Wheel was the basis for all the scientific inventions. `Success is going straight-around the circle' says the Chinese adage. To instruct or inform, the executive issues circular. The circulation of blood for health and currency for economy are crucial.

One has to circumspect to circumvent an unpleasant circumstance. Circumstantial evidence is crucial in law of evidence. Even to draw a triangle or a square one has to circumscribe the limits. The courageous circumnavigate the world to ferret the secrets of the earth.

Study circle for academics, quality circle for industries and inner circle for in camera decisions are well known and widely used. Elliptic, oblong and oval are the loose forms of a circle-a circle slightly skewed from its rigid course. The circle was the same but what should be at the centre made the difference till Copernicus discovered and deciphered.

Surrealistic structure

The surrealistic structure of circle is the cycle. Trade cycle, business cycle, product life cycle... all signify the continuity of change and consistency of inconsistency. Organic recycling in agriculture, waste recycling in industrial production and harvesting water for recycling are the latest topics highly insisted.

The circle on the ground is round and is the second dimension. Rounding the culprit, speaking in a round about way are the popular usages. In negotiation one insists for a round figure. Working round the clock, firing three rounds, entering the last round in games... all have significance in life. Even the square meals are served on a round plate and the person squarely responsible must be rounded off. Round table simply means, all the opinions are equally weighed. The participants could be unequivocal in their expressions. The rotating chair is the modern concept in management, by which every member of the meeting group regularly have the opportunity to lead.

Globe - third dimension

The third dimension of the circle is globe. The sphere is the most comfortable form for all liquids and hence rain falls as drops and honey oozes as droplets. Revolving planets and rotating stars are all spherical. C.J. Jung acknowledged the power of the circle as an archetype of wholeness and integration. Circle helps the people to feel a sense of community. Joyful learning happens when the pupils sit in a circle.

Right from time immemorial, humans have gathered in circles to pray, celebrate and seek spiritual union. To reach the centre of a person is love and stand at the periphery is infatuation. To circumnavigate to the core of a being is friendship and to remain at the circumference is acquaintance. It is the centre that supports the whole structure. The change that takes place at the centre is transformation and it is irreversible. The nucleus of atom is more powerful and the yolk of the egg is more nutritious. If we travel to our own centre, it is `returning to the source' and `discovering the face we had before we were born'.

Becoming innocent like a child, free from prefixes and suffixes and dropping all the belongings will enable us to complete the circle. The outer journey brings success and the inner journey brings solace.

The whole purpose of life is to jump from the periphery and reach the Centre. `Start from you and the whole world will change' is the message conveyed by the concept called `circle'.

-- V.IRAI ANBU IAS

ENVY - A Master Killer

Envy steals the zeal of an individual

Envy is a master killer. It creeps in as comparison, consolidates as denial and culminates as slander. It is the offshoot of inferiority disguising as faultfinding mechanism. It is obsession in passion, pessimism in attitude, narcissism in perversion, sadism in pleasure and thus the crest of all the demeaning dimensions and the crust of all deplorable degradations.

Nature is never partial. It has evenly distributed capabilities and potentials. Some probe in light; some grope in darkness and that makes the difference. The dearth of parameters does not mean paucity of aptitude. Talents do not have patents. In some, talents are latent and in a few they are manifested.

Immaturity begets malice; jealousy, contempt; hatred, enmity; animosity, acrimony and the family tree never comes to a stop.

Ejaculation of eye

Francis Bacon calls envy as ejaculation of eye. Despite all the garish garments and glaring apparels, it stands naked. It is difficult to confine and cover it up. Smiling lips and caustic eyes are not uncommon. Shakespeare calls it `green eyed monster'.

In Othello, Iago, `the motiveless motive hunting villain', remarks, that it mocks the meat it feeds on. Portia of `The Merchant of Venice' refers to it as `green eyed jealousy.' Envy is linked with green. There is a notion that the secretion of bile increases when a person is vile. An envious person always finds the other side of the fence green. He remains frustrated and unsatisfied forever.

Heart burning

Heart burning started with the second generation of mankind. Cain was jaundiced towards his own brother Abel. Cain means `Smith' or `craftsman' and Abel, `short lived'. It only reveals that one becomes envious even with only one by his side. A person burning with resentment meets the fate of Actaeon, and turns into a stag to be ravished by his own hounds. It may prove dangerous to receive `a kiss on the cheek' from a jealous crackpot.

Competent people contest to hurl sweets and not to sling mud. Clash of knowledge can create an enlightening experience in the minds of onlookers. They play with admiration and do not prey with aversion. The biggest drawback in malignity is that it slogs overtime. It is `wisdom consumed in complex'.

It continuously negates the self and unknowingly accepts the superiority of others. It dwells in imitation and seeks pleasure in irritation. One tries to catch his own shadow and becomes an egotist. As J. Krishnamurthy condemns, `I' is the urge to continue and the desire for permanency. Covetousness enriches it. Thiruvalluvar personifies jealousy as an evil doer causing extrication of all wealth and happiness. Generally, a spiteful person cannot be generous.

Excuse for failure

Jealousy is an excuse for fiasco. One would invent reasons for one's own failures. He blames the auditorium for poor performance and abuses the audience for dismal delivery.

We attribute our own feeble feelings and despicable emotions to our Gods and Lords. We tend to paint our Gods as icons of jealousy with less forbearance. They cannot stand their creation prostrating before other idols. They lie, compete and quarrel and not much difference exists between our deities and demons. We create Gods in our own images.

A feeling of grudge can occur due to parental predicament. Discrimination among children and the tendency to rank will pave way for ill feeling and inkling for irksome nature. They conclude that they cannot succeed and settle as defaulters. One who knows that he is unique and special in the eyes of existence never resigns to his fate. Envy per se is bad for it steals the zeal of an individual. It may erupt for many reasons. Beauty, opulence, fame, charisma, heroism, valour, strength and stamina are a few that figure in the endless list of eternal grounds for breeding envy.

It results in possessiveness, propriety, insecurity and a sense of obscurity. We waste our time and energy by contemplating more on others ignoring our individual pursuits. In the aspiration of converting our life into a spectacle, we end as a debacle. It becomes too late when we discover that love is the actual `road to Damascus.'

-- V.IRAI ANBU IAS

Destroy to CREATE

Creativity happens in all walks of life, writes V. IRAI ANBU

Creativity is to bring something new into being. It is the very quality that distinguishes the divine from the bovine. `Cosmic dance' implies the nuance that God is both the creator and the created. The concept is called `The wisdom of balance'. It leads to the inference that creator and creativity are one and the same and is the `balance of wisdom'. Only through creativity we can reach the creator. It is told that the moment we approach the painting on the wall to read the name of the artist, we lose the beauty of the mural. One has to dissolve entirely to engross in it to enjoy the art.

We believe that only talented people are creative. The recent study at Exter University confirms that the notion that geniuses like Shakespeare, Picasso and Mozart were gifted is a myth. Excellence is enhanced by opportunities, encouragement, training, motivation and practice.

Programmed mind

As Saint Exupery says in his `Little Prince', creativity in a child is brimming to the brink. The child wonders at everything with an eye of creativity. The adults see them, name them and forget them. It is very difficult to deprogramme the already programmed mind. The average adult thinks of 3 to 6 alternatives for any situation whereas the average child thinks of 60 alternatives. Hence the greatness of a head need not always be associated with greyness of hair.

Creativity happens in all walks of life, from literature to science and from philosophy to business. It is the root of all innovations. Instinct induces stereotyping, intellect produces the average and intuition culminates in the extraordinary.

Six phases

William J.J. Gordon identifies six phases in creativity namely, Involvement - detachment, Speculation, Deferment, Autonomy, Purposiveness and Use of the commonplace. The process of creation requires both involvement and detachment but neither can be allowed to prevail over the other. There must be a continual shifting back and forth between them. The speculative nature of the creative process affirms that what is not yet actual is possible. The object being worked on begins to have an independent life of its own. To progress to a final product that is new, place to begin is the commonplace-the well-worn, the comfortable, the unimaginative, the mediocre that does not standout in its context.

Every act can become a creative one; into a prayer, a meditation, a dedication, and a labour of love. Human brain is known for `use dependent plasticity'. Acumen alone could take it to a new horizon from the beaten track. We can forcibly create something. But it would lack the flavour and fervour. The nightingale cannot warble even if the cage is of marble.

Craft and art

There is a difference between craft and art. The former is carefully carved, cultured and nurtured whereas the latter is casually chiselled with the inner fire and innate flare. That is why, for some, their autobiographies seem to be their best fictions.

Everyone is a born creator. Those who know this fact, make full use of the potential. Creation requires insight. Insight refers to the action of the mind when it is freed from the blocks of accumulated knowledge. It overflows with high mental energy generated by passion. Hence too much knowledge destroys the tenets of creativity. Nature is the creator par excellence. Existence exhibits a great sense of proportion and there is an immaculate order in all its actions. One learns creativity by properly observing the intricacies inherent in nature.

Margin of destruction

Every creation has a margin of destruction. We operate to cure, chisel to hew, pluck to spin, cut to stitch, plough to sow, peal to heal and scrub to polish. Unless we puncture a bamboo, we cannot relish the music of flute. `Destroy to create' and not `create to destroy' is the apt axiom for happiness.

There is a beautiful fable worth pondering...

The master sculptor surveyed the different blocks of marble at the quarry. He had been searching for the "Buddha Block" for over 40 years in vain. The Zen monk who visited his gallery heard the plight and assured the availability of the block. He pointed to a well in his own courtyard in front of the sculpture school. The excited master sculptor ran to the well and looked down. There he saw his own image looking back at him.

The pinnacle of creativity lies in bringing out a new being from us. It requires the courage of dissolving the self, extinguishing the ego, and losing the head. That ultimate destruction leads to a

creation; a new being born out of us - utterly fabulous, fresh, and fragrant. What we leave of us is more important than what we leave behind us.

-- V.IRAI ANBU IAS

Colours

Colours

Colours make the world beautiful and rich. Indiscriminate ill treatment to nature may leave the globe black and white. Creative attempts are mere imitations, as per Aristotle. It is impossible to mimic the innumerable varieties of inimitable nature. No master craftsman can paint the sparkling snow clad peaks in dawn and dusk either with words or with brush. Firmament is a kaleidoscope changing its endless patterns from moment to moment offering infinite varieties to gaze and wonder.

Our categorisation of colours is just illustrative and not exhaustive. They comprise just the major heads. Language is inadequate to name the minor divisions and minute shades. We have even invisible colours. Infrared radiation is immense use in medical field. They help both in diagnosis and treatment. Insects like bumblebees could perceive ultraviolet rays invisible to human eyes. Scientists have developed UV index to help people protect themselves from harmful ultraviolet waves.

We stumble upon the fact that we should be more cautious with the invisible and hidden dangers.

The colours are nothing more than the vibrationary rebound of frequencies, which a particular object has refused to absorb. Hence, the one that appears red is not actually red, as it absorbs all colours except red that is emitted. Colour is abstract and cannot exist on its own. It requires a medium to get manifested. White and black are not colours; one is the agglomeration of all and the other being the absence of any.

There are glaring colour truths to be pondered. Colours can be combined together in structured, systematically ordered arrays with a distinctive character. There are general causal truths with regard to materialisation of colours. Different colours have different specific aesthetic effects including principles of harmony, balance contrast etc. They vary in emotional effects.

We attribute aspersions to colours. Red signifies anger, blue sadness, black fear, pink happiness, green jealousy and saffron sacrifice. People respond to different colours in different ways and these responses take place on a sub-conscious, emotional level. In occidental cultures black denote death and in the oriental, white is associated with mourning. Colours have a purpose. Flowers bloom with captivating colours to attract bees to facilitate pollination. Colour of the victuals activates the appetite. Colours influence us. Coffee served in dark containers is assumed to be strong in composition. Colours can replace slogans and act as motivating conduits. Red triangle for small family and green triangle for increased agricultural productivity have come to stay as impressive symbols. Traffic signals have substituted verbal regulations and have contributed in saving life and energy. Red is related with rebellion. Green, white and blue revolutions are associated with vistas in agriculture, animal husbandry and fisheries respectively. Their contribution in feeding the hungry and weak is quite laudable despite the alleged controversies. White collar refers to jobs with more brainwork and blue collar, with physical cumbersome jobs.

Our language is filled with colorful phrases and idioms. Men with ‘green thumb’, have talent for gardening. ‘Blue blood’, denotes nobility. In Spain rulers looked at the arms to verify whether the blood was blue. Luxurious life left them with fair skins and blue veins. Murderers should be ‘caught red handed’ with the blood smeared hands. Now, corrupt delinquents are trapped ‘pink handed’. The phenolphthalein powder dusted on the currencies would turn sodium carbonate solution pink. One who ‘gets a pink slip’ will lose the job and we cannot expect him to be ‘in the pink of health’. Blue moon is not seen even ‘once in a blue moon’. Special treatment is ‘red carpet treatment’ and special day is ‘red letter day’. One who changes colours resembles a chameleon. ‘Showing the true colours’ was the phrase derived from the chicanery practiced by the pirate ships which would hoist a colourful flag to entice the other passenger ships to come closer. Brain is referred as gray matter but matters incomprehensible are called, ‘gray areas’. Obscenity is associated with blue movies, yellow magazines and red light areas. We have prejudices about colours. Research indicates that there is a gender difference in response to colour.

Our history is the account of hysterical racial aversion. Presumption of the suzerainty of fair skin over the dark has led to the painful pages of slavery and savagery. All colours have a role to play. If leaves are yellow, then the plant must be suffering from a disorder. A balanced food will have the correct combination of all colours. A judicious mix of vegetables in green, orange, red, yellow and white will strike a healthy balance. A colourful food will lead to a colourful life. Similarly, a balanced life is contributed by balancing the mind. Vision should be rich without colour blindness but ‘coloured vision’ is awful. Our failure to appreciate the beauty of each and every creation in the universe has made us grope in a lack lustre world and our colours have been restrained and confined to the television sets we have. More love, attention, empathy and understanding towards everything that we encounter can make us come out with flying colours.

-- V.IRAI ANBU IAS

Courage and Cowardice

Physique has got nothing to do with boldness

Courage is the connecting corridor to palatial fearlessness. It is the via-medium between apprehension and audacity. It is not absence but subjugation of fear. One is courageous with lurking fear. Courage means to dare unmindful of consequences. When one is absolutely free from fear, fearlessness flowers. It may happen either due to naivety or enlightenment.

Courage is not the result of functioning of muscles but programming of mind. Some put on muscles and some sport majestic moustaches to cover cowardice and suppress their tremors. Physique has got nothing to do with boldness. Bony Buddha was more daring than muscular Angulimal. The robust British perceived fragile Gandhi more powerful, as he had truth on his side. When he chose to languish they were forced to anguish.

Inner phenomenon

Strength is an inner phenomenon and not an exterior gimmick. Mind cannot be trained in gymnastics or acrobatics. Strength and weakness are not opposites. Opposites simultaneously survive

and independently exist. Strength is just an alibi of weakness. Weeding out of weakness leads to luxuriance of strength. Unfortunately, we have Achilles heel all over. Every soft corner is a pitfall. Soft corner is a misnomer as it turns hardcore.

Inner courage is circumstantial and not perfunctory. One exposes it when a crisis creeps in and a problem props up. Many a time external boldness will remain a rhetoric. It will be more of showcase stuff and less of utility material. Tusks are elements of masculinity for elephants and are used to fight and not to chew.

Children are born fearless. They are daring and dashing. They are like unbridled bulls. We castrate them in the name of taming and under the guise of grooming. We are scared about their venturesome varieties and intrepid traits. We like them as portables and are comfortable to have them as laptops. With food we feed fear and with milk we inject horror. Fear nurtured nags the mind and proliferates into phobias.

Triskaidekaphobia has rendered apartments being baptised without thirteenth floors. Fear is not always ominous. Retaining it for upholding values and averting violations is essential, lest the whole world turn berserk. One who understands fear can transcend it with ease. Dependence leads to fear. Psychological dependence gnaws confidence and nibbles self-respect.

Fear, a secret host

Freedom from panic cannot come from outside. Fear is not a guest but a secret host, which becomes a pest, turns into a parasite and preys as predator. When we cut the moorings that tie us to attachments and bind us to ambitions, we become free like a white cloud. Our fears of `tomorrow' branch from the trunk of `yesterday.' We cling too much to our past for we have the qualm of losing grip. Fear wants to prove constantly that it does not exist. It conceals with cosmetics and veils with hoods.

We acquire titles, wealth, fame and the like, becoming nervous of losing importance. We are enslaved by our own makings. We are masters of our own serfs. We run into the swords we galvanise. Bodyguards have become our burdens and the first priority is to safeguard them and to get us safeguarded from them.

Courage is a mirage. When we go near, it vanishes. It thrives on the assumption of others. Courage is not the manifestation of brute force and accumulated animosity. Slaying, exterminating, destroying, trampling or rampaging do not require courage. Any moron can achieve it with borrowed bravery by mustering a majority. A pack of dholes can ravish the proud lion when it is not with `pride.'

Planting a tree requires more grit than breaking a jar. Guts lies in creating, shaping, caring and becoming responsible. Enthusiasm exhibited by diving deep to save an innocent in inundation is an act of gallantry and not the flamboyance shown in firing the unconnected victims of aliens.

Courage born out of integrity is self-dependent. It never wavers. It has an unflinching, undaunted, steadfast loyalty. Firmness lies in unrelenting inexhaustible compassion and not in crude cruelty. History will remember only invincible individuals who spent their life in constructing with indomitable spirit and not indiscriminate men who left diabolical, demonical and devilish destruction behind.

Real courage lies in remaining humble without any pretensions and projections. It is the maturity to accept faults and to own up mistakes without the tendency to foist them on others. To be like a crystal clear dewdrop with an open mind, absolutely receptive without any notions about the future and hangover of the past, requires nerves. Courage is to face life as it comes. Liberty is got from others. Freedom is earned on our own.

-- V.IRAI ANBU IAS

Darkness Deciphered

Darkness is beautiful. It is ubiquitous and universal. Light highlights and darkness hides. Light is shallow and darkness is deep. Light was begotten by darkness. Light is not absolute. We have darkness dispersed even during the day and the intensity decides the hour. Transparency is a utopia and translucence is the reality. Shades of trees, shadows of beings, shelters of buildings are all darkness dissolved in doses.

Aversion for darkness is the apartheid we practice towards nature. It is the apathy for darkness, which led to abhorrence for black. We are scared, for darkness requires awareness. It is mysterious and leaves the location unpredictable. Darkness is an equalizer. Differentiation disappears when darkness descends. Anyone who wants to be supercilious prefers light and limelight to project and proclaim his features.

Lights have gradation. Man started with torches and ended with high mast lamps. It is the journey from hurricane lamp to halogen bulbs: florescence to phosphorescence. Lights have a line of intriguing evolution; from mud to mercury. Darkness is the same. It cannot be maneuvered or manipulated. It is infallible, impeccable and immaculate. It is omnipresent. The darkness of the womb is creative and that of the tomb is putrefying. Place prefers utility.

Darkness united men to lead a social life. Men united due to fear and fragmented because of envy. Sharing the fear induced by darkness led to congregations. Light brought civilisation but destroyed culture. More the intensity of dark back ground, more is the shining of light. Every sound and light show banks on darkness for effect. All our books are imprints of darkness. Wisdom has only dark footprints to leave. White paper gets honoured just when the black ink caresses it. What we click in brightness is carried to dark to develop. Opposites make the organic whole.

Death is the greatest black hole. Phobia for death is the fear to face the ultimate darkness. Darkness helps to rest, whether temporary or eternal. Sleep the counterfeit of death requires outer darkness to facilitate and the real one creates inner darkness.

Darkness brings light. In spirituality, dark night experience precedes awakening. Light is a distraction and we close our eyes to listen to absorbing pieces of immortal music. Meditation, the en route to enlightenment is possible only by shutting the sense of sight. Extremes beget extremes. The light, which makes buds to blossom, causes them to scorch in excess. Night is the natural shelter for the homeless and orphans. It upholds an umbrella to provide relief to labourers. We are all the children of night.

Time is an ever-flowing endless river with no confluence. We measure the immeasurable and count the incalculable. If greater lights were created only on third day, how was it distinguished as the third day? The longevity of time elongates in night and diminishes in day.

Darkness hints at the agony of blindness. Lack of vision is permanent darkness. In the dark, the tips of finger become the pupils and the tactile substitute the visual. Excess illumination is also dizzying for it first dazzles and then blinds.

Dawn is fabulous and it conveys activity and urge. Dusk is equally marvellous for it represents rest and fulfillment. The chipping birds set out for pray in morning and return to nest for rest in the sun set. They view sky as their innumerable net work of invisible nest work. Darkness has got nothing to do with obscurity. All shady transactions take place in broad daylight. Our screens deceive more. Light has become decorated deception and is darkness is disguise.

Darkness is relative. What is darkness is sparrow is light to owl. Nature of nocturnal or diurnal quality decides visibility. Night and light are not competitive but complementary to each other. They are the two sides of the same coin. In nature, pine and grass are of the same height. Weed was not the creation of existence. It was the invention of men. The gloomy heart is more harmful than the pitchy room.

-- V.IRAI ANBU IAS

ENTERTAINMENT ETHICS

It should `maintain' the spectator, if not `elevate' him

Entertainment is to energise and not enervate. It should sprinkle fragrance and not spread odour. It is for projecting the better aspects and not the bitter facets.

Etymology

The word `entertain', originated from French `entretenir' and it is based on Latin `inter' meaning `among' and `tenere', `to hold'. The word originally meant `maintain'. This is reflected in Henry VI of Shakespeare; "I am sorry, that with reverence I did not entertain thee as thou art". The noun, `entertainment' dates from the early sixteenth century; its use for a public performance intended to amuse an audience is recorded from the early eighteenth century. Entertainment should `maintain' the spectator, if not `elevate' him. It is deplorable if it degrades, denigrates and decimates him. It should not be a diversion or distraction but a reflection and recreation. It should refresh and rejuvenate the audience apart from giving them a relief from their rut. Entertainer should also enjoy the event. In fact, he should be more joyous than the onlookers.

Coliseums had poignant stories in stock and pathetic episodes to recapitulate. Gladiators made the public happy staking their lives. The province, which sponsored such gruesome sports, to our horror traduced other civilizations `barbaric'. Even in Elizabethan era, `bear biting' was conducted to amuse the audience. Shakespeare says in his `Twelfth Night' that Puritans banned this sport not because they pitied the torment of bears but because they could not bear the merriment of audience.

Grades of entertainment

There are various grades of entertainment. Many steal time and offer nothing. They are simply to while away the time. Such programmes sell dreams and blind the people in bright light only to return them to their own obscurity. Some proffer pittance and appropriate equally. Their impoverished balance sheet has assets and liabilities on par. Only a few donate more, consuming less and they are extraordinary entertainment.

They transform the individuals and their quality of life. A few obnoxious amusements consume the partaker and leave him perennially poisoned. A healthy entertainment will not have imminent enjoyment .One has to seek, probe, analyse and synthesise to enjoy the essence. It cannot be like a lollypop to taste effortlessly. On the other hand, it will be like a jack fruit — hard to handle but delicious, worth the try. Juicy fruits always have tough rinds. Some may be edible but not eatable. Some actions may be credible but not creditable. Portrayal of realism is not to distort the minds. It should clip the nails and not severe the fingers. An excellent piece of art produces ripples in the subconscious mind and effects a desirable change in attitude.

A cheap entertainment glistens like termite wings and gets withered in minutes. It induces and seduces pandering to the baser instincts. It is said, "Most virtue is the demand for greater seduction". All great ideas, to begin with, sound ridiculous and impracticable. A novel thought that questions the establishment is first condemned, then condoned and finally concurred with by the society. Any river in its origin runs narrow and can be easily crossed by a lamb. One who sees its panoramic view at confluence will never be able to believe it. Entertainment should bring out the best in a person. Then it will be an awakening.

Etymological meaning of the word `educate' is to `bring out'. After achieving the desired result, it may become irrelevant. That will be the greatest accolade it can receive. In such noble endeavours, the artiste will not protrude and project himself. He should be invisible. He will not be conspicuous even by his absence. He disowns it after completion. The whole art will be beautiful without a part getting magnified.

Entertainment should encompass ethics. Even unethical acts must be ethical. One should not cheat in gambling and adulterate in poison. If a note of music or an act of play or an expression of dance inspires, motivates and kindles the connoisseur, it is said to have served its purpose. When the spectator also becomes a participant and then a contributor it turns into revelry as well as a celebration.

-- V.IRAI ANBU IAS

FRIENDS ARE FOR EVER

A relationship with no extortion or distortion

Friendship is a unique relationship. All other relationships are physiological and friendship alone is psychological. Relationships destined and dictated by blood are imperative in nature and friendliness decided and delineated by mind is optional. `Friend', as the word ends with `end', is be all and end all of all relationships. A friend can fulfil the role of all other relationships with no extortion or distortion. A friend is the other half, which we lacked at the time of our birth.

We can have thousands of acquaintances circumnavigating the periphery of our being but only a very few can enter into the core of our heart.

Soulmate

Acquaintances laugh with us when we laugh and friends not only cry with us but also try to expunge our tears. A real soulmate is not for just exchanging pleasantries but for experiencing harmony. Booze or smoke may bring people closer. We find easy to vibe with each other with an addiction and difficult to associate by virtue of intellectual pursuits. Some gather together for destruction; a few assemble to solve and save. Association to annihilate cannot be friendship by any means. In all the fruits, except jack, the rind is more alluring than the pulp. Hence the idiom, `all that glitters is not gold'. Surface should not be the criterion for the choice. One should be meticulous in choosing a friend and be slow in discarding him.

A good companion can be in communion without words, gestures or even thoughts. The `best communication' is actually `no communication'. A confidant is not needs answered, as he is the very need itself. Under the canopy of friendship, both the souls are benefited. But it is just incidental. Modest persons have more bosom friends than the over ambitious. Selfish giants use every link for establishing connection power for their continuous furtherance. Many are close like immigrating birds and leave the pond as it dries.

Only a few are like the plants, which share both prosperity as well as adversity. Kural compares noble comrades to limbs that set right the clothes. They are swift in solving the troubles before they become prominent and unmanageable. No one announces the audience before correcting the loosened loin robes. Trustworthy pals help with utmost confidentiality and never reveal the assistance rendered. They forget the benevolence and never harbour its hangover. Friendship is not like barter system. No accounts are maintained between friends. Friendship is not payment in kind but bestowing kindness in leaps and bounds. Men assembling due to weakness and fear cannot evolve as friends. They integrate to disintegrate.

Oscar Wilde ascertains, `Between men and women there is no friendship possible. There is passion, enmity, worship, love, but no friendship'. It is actually the other way round. Every good relationship commences with a benign note and culminates with a friendly disposition. An understanding father, an appreciating mother, an affectionate spouse, an able pedagogue, a dexterous demagogue and a charismatic master all affable appealing to the inner most feelings and subconscious insights of our individuality.

Existentialists divide things into `being in themselves' and `being for themselves'. Friends constitute the third category, `being for comrades'.

Boons

Men are like colours and can be comprehended only in form. Their true mettle comes out at the time of crisis when they work as a team. Friendship is born on trust, it lives on love and dies on vanity. Committed friends are boons. One who remains loyal in all other relationships acquires excellent friends. His sincerity finds its zenith in friendship. The very presence of a friend is soothing and soul kindling. We learn more from friends than from books. Every friend is a philosopher and guide. They inspire, ignite and incite us into action.

The so-called, `cultured' person will talk ethics when we are in an imbroglio. He would quote thousand and one reasons for not joining our hands at the time of calamity. They list our faults to highlight their own virtues. The rustic will stand steadfast by our side and guard us against odds. A friend will definitely point out our follies and foibles way before the event. As Shakespeare remarked, a friend will bear his friend's infirmities.

Sacrifice is not a term equated with friendship. One who considers friend as precious will find the objects forsaken as frivolous. No secret, no envy and no competition exist between friends.

Cannot be mended

A friend may part but never gets separated. They `meet to create memories and part to preserve them'. It is said that friendship is like pale blue china; beautiful, delicate and rare. Once broken can be mended. However, the marking will always be there.

Responsible persons will never allow a small crack to develop into a crevice and finally erode into a gully and then degraded into a ravine. As `Almustafa' proclaims, we should not grieve when we part from our friend, as our love most in him will be clearer in his absence, as the mountain to the climber is clearer from the plain.

Life-time achievement

Education never ends with syllabus and progress cards. This life is lived only once, in this form and in this name. Formal education helps in sharing and celebrating the life with friends. One can acquire any number of degrees in distance education but they will not have peers to relate and reciprocate.

One should not get disillusioned with too much competition injected into his veins by the curriculum and try to earn earnest friends. Friends cannot be numerous like hair and could only be a few like fingers. One good friend is a life-time achievement.

-- V.IRAI ANBU IAS

GIVING IS RECEIVING

V. IRAI ANBU shares his views on pleasure of giving.

GIVING IS beautiful. To provide without pride is more pleasing. To grant with gratitude is much more graceful. When we give, the capital `I' becomes ordinary `i,' for the receiver becomes important. Here, the second person becomes first person and hence flouts all rules of grammar. However, the grammar of life is more precious and sacrosanct.

There are a few people who know only to give. They consider acceptance a taboo. They are like predators as they consume the self-respect of others. A few are known only for receiving. They are like parasites. A few give so that they may also receive. They are symbiotic and accountants of life. Only a very few give and receive without keeping a track of their transaction. For them it is sharing. They know that they are mere doors and their hands are sheer counters.

Giving is a pleasure

Milarepa, a tantric mystic, summarizes spiritual knowledge in four stages. The final stage indicates flowering of an individual. Then the mind unfolds, self becomes illusory and the distinction between self and others is also recognized as illusory. It is only at this stage, giving becomes a response and not recognition; an action and not reaction.

Life is a strange balance sheet. What we give is credited and what we get is debited. Hence giving is synonymous with receiving. When we do not know the face of the ultimate beneficiary, giving becomes a donation. Blood donation, eye donation etc. fall under this category.

Different kinds of giving

Some give the useless; a few, the excess; a few, the surplus; a few, the leftover and only a very few, the essential. A few give out of guilt; a few give to expiate; a few to exhibit and a few with motive. At times, those who give are the cause of the plight they want to relieve. Some give from hands and not from minds. Some keep on recapitulating what they have gifted. It is not like chewing the cud but eating vomit. Extortion is not the only exploitation. To give for psychological imposition will also jeopardize a relationship.

Only a very few extend their hands with love and compassion. Currencies are easily given but care is not always bestowed. Judging the receiver is not to be done. If existence decides to estimate our earnestness we would become paupers. We receive in abundance and give in pittance. The famous aphorism, "Let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth," should not be taken per se.

It should be construed as a description of hypocritical behaviour. The advice is not to deliberately keep our left hand ignorant of our right hand's action.

`Left hand' means something like "ego" or "public persona" and `right hand' signifies "private charitable instincts." We expect nature to be in accord continuously. When it rests for a while, it results in famine, drought, starvation and holocaust. When it is copious and prolific, it leads to flood, inundation and deluge. Nature echoes our emotions and reciprocates our reflections. It is bountiful, if we are generous and parsimonious if we are selfish.

Man made disasters are more in number than nature-created calamities. Hoarding, storing and accumulation have aggravated men manipulated destitution and caused the demise of weaklings in millions. Surrender envisages dedication of the total being to the ultimate existence. It is the convergence of instinct, intellect, intuition and intelligence at one point without any resistance or refusal. When body, mind and soul act in unison, even floods can be countered and famines overcome.

Then sharing is celebration and contentment, devotion.

-- V.IRAI ANBU IAS

LOVE AND COMPASSION

Love is the enlarged self and compassion is the absence of self. In love, the other person becomes important and in compassion, the object becomes the subject. In love, we have affairs but not

in compassion. Compassion never hankers for continuity. Love arises out of a longing to weave a relationship and craves for permanence. Relationship is often a fountainhead of problems, conflicts and agony. Liking is the precursor of love. For love, hatred is the antonym but compassion does not even have synonyms. Cruelty is the opposite of kindness. Love can have repercussions. One can reject love but not compassion.

Compassion is a moment to moment phenomenon and at the same time not a momentary feeling. It neither leans over the past nor bends towards the future. Thich Nhat Hanh, Buddist master, uses the term mindfulness to refer to keeping one’s consciousness alive to the present reality without being sucked into the future Compassion exists in totality without prefixes and suffixes. It has no adjectives, as on its own it is superlative. We can trace the invisible umbilical cords to love. It comes either due to bondage or to have bondage. It expects at least reciprocation in return.

Every one loves; some are sincere and some are casual. Infatuation is also love in its premature form. It blinds the reason and blurs the senses. Mutual dependence and psychological clinging may be misinterpreted as platonic love. If one prefers to die for lack of reciprocation, one is purely neurotic and there is no divinity attached to it. It is just emotional blackmail.

In love, one becomes possessive and suffocates others. It may breed envy, accentuate anxiety, accelerate adrenaline, increase palpitation and precipitate perspiration. Many a time, men are in love with the projections as T.S Eliot observes in his 'The Cocktail Party' Projection entices projection and results in rejection and dejection.

Compassion is a sustained and practical determination to do whatever is possible to alleviate the suffering of others. It treats the other person on an equal plane. There is no distinction as to race, sex, creed or even life. A compassionate person would not pull even a chair with force. Ramalinga Vallalar felt sad for a clod, which broke into dust though it is only from dust to dust. A wilting plant gives pain for the one who overflows with compassion. One would not harm others even in the wildest of his dreams. His hand stretches from his heart and his eyes are anchored in his soul.

Compassion is instantaneous. One cannot have rehearsals to convey compassion. Tao says, To have without possessing, to do without claiming credit, to lead without controlling are the mysterious virtues and compassion facilitates them. It is obtained by finding a perfect balance of virtues. It signifies equitable distribution. Meng Tzu, a Taoist said, Starvation occurs not through lack of food but because of improper distribution.

Compassion does not impose and is a detached attachment. Compassionate persons are always grateful to the receiver. They know that everything comes back. It can come only out of total awareness and at that moment a person becomes extremely beautiful with a graceful face and glittering eyes. Dr. Samuel Johnson gave a silver coin to a mendicant whereas Oliver Goldsmith took him around his arms and shared his meal with him. Compassion is not proportionate to the quantum of financial assistance. It is the attitude that counts.

A few so-called philanthropists long for disasters to strike. Then they might exhibit their exuberance. Emerson remarked, My life is for itself and not for a spectacle. The best way to mourn the dead is to take care of their survivors. Sosan, a Zen mystic, said, To return to the root is to find the meaning. Compassion is the journey from self to self to drop the self. Avalokiteshvara, the Buddha of

compassion is often picturised in Tibetan iconography as having thousand eyes that see the pain in all corners of the universe and a thousand arms to reach out to extend his help.

The easiest way to reach God is to have abundant compassion towards all beings. One day while doing walking meditation during winter in his garden, St. Francis of Assissi witnessed a bare almond tree. He went closer and closed his eyes in a meditative fashion. He prayed to the tree to tell him about God. Suddenly, the almond tree was covered with blossoms. A person flowers with compassion and spreads his fragrance, transmitting divinity to translate Godliness.

Compassion is a passion; a quality. It is neither charity nor a benefaction. It is the basic human quality with which we are born. Aging denudes it due to selfishness and gluttony. With the presence of a compassionate soul, one can imbibe the spirit and become mature in disposition. Temporal and spatial limitations are not applicable to compassion. One could be compassionate to innumerable beings and there is absolutely no competition for compassion.

-- V.IRAI ANBU IAS

WOMB TO TOMB

Security is the greatest form of insecurity and is jeopardy in disguise. It is actually Janus-faced. There are only two places absolutely safe and secured: one the womb and other the tomb. They are also not entirely protected due to advent of science and paucity of space. Foeticide has become rampant and burial grounds are overcrowded. In some sepulchers, bodies are buried in standing posture. Some mausoleums are found encroached. There is a grave threat even to graveyards due to occupants in advance. At times, abortion too becomes an aborted attempt and after discovering the intention, the foetus shrinks, wriggles and disintegrates.

Security means stagnation. Free flow accompanies insecurity in installments. The river in spate carries buds and blossoms, hives and lives, fragrance of herbs and sweetness of fruits. The pool of water without channels to flow deteriorates with foul smell and breeds worms and flies. Security denotes slavery. Freedom and insecurity are the two sides of the same coin. The bird in captivity is safer than its tribe in wilderness. Cage symbolizes security and assures guarantee while nest signifies insecurity and provides no warranty. Birds without wings are like lions without manes.

Security brings seclusion. The more we are secure, farther we are from the reality. The food we eat, the water we drink and the air we breathe are all vicarious experiences and become counterfeits. Chrysalis is secured and the butterfly is insecure; egg is safe and the bird unsafe; seed is stable and the plant is subjected to the vagaries of weather. Higher the elevation, greater the insecurity.

Security implies status quo. The present affords affirmation and the future remains unpredictable. Security is the longing for present to continue the future. Security comes out of repetition and repetition never leaves reputation. Life is not a schedule to be followed but a thriller to be watched. It has narrow scope for horoscopes. It is not a programmed excursion and is a trekking for treasure hunts.

Security is obscurity. Light is an anathema to one who loves to grope in darkness. We are happy with the mirror images. We feel secured with identical entities. Fragmentation gives fomentation to the pain of isolation. A person of extraordinary calibre lives ahead of his time and those

around him feel highly insecure. They either poison him or persecute him only to worship him later. We have a knack to postpone awards to confer them posthumously.

Walls are not sureties for safety. They are insignias of endangerment. They prevent entry and simultaneously forbid exit. Every fort is a decorated prison. Multi storeyed mansions that accord safety during inundation and hurricanes are vulnerable to quakes and infernos. Slums, the targets of floods and cyclones are asylums at times when the globe quakes and the earth shakes.

No one can give security for security. Even the Great Wall of China would become a sheet of cardboard, if trust were absent. One can guard the body and not the ghost. Innumerable instances are there, where bodyguards terminated the boss and servants stabbed the savants.

Men tend to become greedy to tie over uncertainties. They accumulate affluence, increase their influence and propagate their popularity to counter calamities. As Seneca said, men do not die naturally but kill themselves with their own knives and forks. Even elixir in excess is toxin without an antidote. Security and insecurity differ only at the breadth of hair.

Security belongs to the mind and not to the body. All insecurities are for the body and not for the soul. Here, the flesh is willing but the spirit is weak. The ultimate security comes from within. By thoroughly understanding the nuances of insecurity one grows secured. Security comes not by isolating but dissolving in everything that we encounter. It comes not by adding but by dropping. We are the masters of what we have renounced and serfs of what we have acquired. When we are on our own, no one can harm us and anyone who comes across us will not be threatened by our presence. Then sky becomes the foolproof roof, earth the celestial bed and the whole world our womb, as our deliverance is definite.

-- V.IRAI ANBU IAS

LABOUR WITH LOVE

Performance is the signature we leave for posterity, writes V. Irai Anbu Work is the connecting thread in the cobweb of co-existence. It is the umbilical cord to the

mother universe. It is attitude expressed explicitly and willingness voiced visibly. The purpose of work is to add to the beauty of the world. It is to bring a smile on the lips of the child, delight on the face of a destitute and contentment in the heart of deprived. It may wipe the tears of a widow and ward off dangers of a victim.

If work is viewed as work, one gets worked up. On perceiving it as a pursuit, one gets geared up. Performance is the signature we leave for posterity. A few scribble, a few script, a few scribe and a few scratch, what others have already signed. A few leave them on waters and a few mark them on mountains. Some do it on the seashore, only to be easily effaced.

Rest does not mean remaining idle. It simply denotes the inclination to change the activity to get replenished. Too much rest makes one rust. Body may get exhausted but not the mind. Enervation out of rest is more harmful than exertion due to work.

Assignment is not just an avenue for earning revenue. When money becomes the criterion, mind craves for completion rather than consummation. Quantity becomes important and quality gets sidelined. Number game tends to numb the instincts and fatigue the faculties. Work is self-discovery The hidden self in hibernation comes out with flying colours. Toil is the oil for the lamp of life to glow and radiate. One sheds tears for not exuding sweat.

Work is an expression of our gratitude. Unless we work, we would remain indefinitely indebted to every one. Every object we consume is the contribution of some unknown noble soul. We have to respond by reciprocation with regards. Trees shower flowers on earth only to commemorate its contribution.

Work is meditation

Work is neither worry nor worship. It is meditation where the doer dissolves and doing surfaces. If we water the plants with care, they blossom more. It we irrigate the crops with interest, they yield more. Luxuriant lawns are mown with love, tended with affection and sprinkled with passion. We should thank the tree before tasting the berry and be grateful to the vine before grating the gourds. If plucked with disgust, even flowers will be foul smelling. With a cause, breaking rock will also be cakewalk.

Bread baked with compassion will quickly appease the appetite. When the service provider has the empathy by assuming him as the user, quality control becomes redundant. Labour is not laborious for one who does not brood over the task. Only a Himalayan blunder converts a trivial one into a Herculean task. Work spot becomes a dungeon by considering duty as drudgery and a paradise, by treating it as a privilege.

A few distill scent and a few dispense dirt and both help in averting odour and abetting order. Honour lies not in the type of vocation but in the degree of dedication. Equal respect is to be accorded irrespective of the cadre of service. Machines need to be substituted for men who are faced to observe obnoxious practices and slog in subhuman conditions.

Alcoholics and workaholics, both belong to the same breed.

Addiction

Addiction is bad, whether it is liquor or dollar. The art of converging body, mind and soul renders job as joy and sweat is presumed as the perfume showered for efforts. Workaholics are carried away by career planning. They suffer for result and in the process miss the journey. Hence, at times, they are cent per cent efficient and zero per cent effective. Their dynamism is dubious. A book printed without space between words could never be read. The organisation comes back to square one and never takes off.

We dedicate first, delegate later and abdicate subsequently. One who retains the tempo from the date of joining to the day of retirement is remembered forever. When we stretch the muscles of body and membranes of brain, our endurance improves and resilience increases. Occupation is an opportunity to unfold our individuality. The employment we profess should become, if not labour of love, at least labour with love.

-- V.IRAI ANBU IAS

Paradoxes of Growth

Growth per se is insignificant. Proliferation has to be proportionate. Aptitude should match the age and spiritual advancement, mental calibre. Single dimensional expansion is baneful and worse than regression. We identify bulge with strength by mistake. Swelling should befit the girth of the finger, lest something must be incongruous. Growth is not always positive. It may be malignant, lopsided and horizontal. There is a thin difference between extraordinariness and abnormality. No tumour can be benign; at the most it can be non-malignant. Anything that grows extra is deleterious and detrimental at least in distorting appearance, either in the form of gall, lump or wart.

Uniform growth is symmetrical. Unnatural aggrandisement is ugly, awful and horrible. Growth is not an absolute phenomenon to exert or exact authority. It is always relative and dependent. One is taller or shorter with one more around. Affluence or apartheid is a comparative contemplation. In a few cases, growth and decline are the two sides of the same coin. Increase in supply decreases the demand and vice versa. Every growth is linked with some other improvement. Increase in prosperity results in reduction in poverty. Economy is a cobweb with every fibre intricately woven. Rise in money circulation aggravates inflation with too much currency chasing too few a goods. Surge in one may have ripples all over.

Copious flowering in bamboo groves increases fertility, and thereby fecundity in rodents. Simultaneous blossoming of this bizarre grass has led to luxuriant multiplication of rats in a region. Pilferage of food grains paved the way for famine and inability of authorities to rush relief resulted in rebellion, riots and revolution. Hence, bamboo has the potential to become both cannon and flute, depending upon the manifestation of circumstances.

Uneven growth is an anomaly, causing concern for the top echelons from time immemorial. A Tibetan chief pooled the properties of all his subjects and shared them equitably among the families. He tried thrice, in vain, in his mission to strive for equanimity.

Still, he found a few waxing rich and many waning poor after the lapse of time.

Physical unevenness too has repercussions. Fatty or plump physique will have hidden disorders yet to be diagnosed. Obesity is ‘stretching sideward’ that fails to commensurate with vertical elongation. Man may also vegetate without unison of mind and body. Unproductive growth may lead to depletion of resources. The first truth in breeding is ‘cut short the size; it will improve the yield’. Excess foliage causes sterility in plants. Pruning and training are must to kindle reproductive faculties in shrubs. Nature is unique. When we try to outdo a plant, it musters enormous strength for resilience.

Weed seed lies dormant for years to germinate at the conducive climate. Lower forms of species have more capacity for regeneration. Nematodes and lizards recuperate their severed organs expeditiously to regain their shape. Cockroaches remain undaunted in the midst of nuclear holocausts. Evolution of man occurred not by mere growth but through loss of many appendages. Hence, growth is not just gaining the essential but also losing the superficial

No growth is growth in some stipulations. Malthusian theory suggested three phases in population growth. The first phase had more birth rate and death rate. In the second phase birthrate increased with diminishing death rate due to medical intervention. The third phase is characterised by

declining birth and death rates. It stabilises as zero growth rate and all developed nations have attained this ideal stage. The fourth phase is bound to occur sooner or later, with death rate exceeding the birth rate and we are heading towards it, with our own makings.

Growth is meaningless unless we have correspondent distribution. Otherwise, it is akin to elephantiasis. Growth orchestrated with distribution is development. A country can boast of its development only when it has cultural, scientific and spiritual progress with hale and hearty citizens. Per capita satisfaction is far more important than per capita income.

-- V.IRAI ANBU IAS

INTELLIGENCE

Intelligence is neither inherited nor inborn. It is not a prerogative or proprietary of a particular person. Intelligence or imbecility is a moment to moment phenomenon and it is purely one’s own choice. Shrewdness or stupidity, sharpness or bluntness is a frame of mind. Acumen has got nothing to do with ancestry. No one knows the parental performances of prodigies. The family tree of outstanding musicians, poets, scientists and painters is still an arena of obscurity. The word ‘genius’ is not a derivative of ‘genes’. Imputing intelligence to racial ratings, communal chords and facial features assume it as a concrete concept.

Arithmetic ability or computing dexterity alone is not the indicator of intelligence. Solving an equation is one type of brightness and carving a sculpture, another type. Intelligence is one and it finds its expression in different ways through different men. Nevertheless, none is inferior and are like different brooks that confluence in the same ocean.

Intelligence is unique: quantity and quality are one and the same. Attempt to measure it is done in vain. It is like trying to freeze the moment. Moments are always momentary. Before we finish uttering the phrase, ‘present moment’, we are in the next moment. Filling up a moment upto the brink with attention and awareness is brilliance. Mind is not clay moulded into a form forever but like a knife to be whet for every grating. It is like the pencil to be sharpened continuously for excellent results. Anyone can become intelligent at any moment and foolish, the very next moment.

No one is destined to be dismissed as a dunce. Some sparkle due to the preference of their perfect pursuit and a few fail for they have a knack of choosing the wrong venture. Search within is the greatest research. To become aware of one’s own potential is the stepping stone to intelligence. It is just an instrument and not the ultimate. Aptitude of man grew in exponential proportion with increase in his stamina to adjust and understand the environs. He tempered fire, harnessed wind, refined water, reclaimed earth and explored sky.

Intelligence and innocence are the two sides of the same coin. They are the extension of the infinite into the individual. All great inventors preserved their pristine purity and their creations were born in ecstasy. They toiled with joy, perspired with perseverance and celebrated even their failures.

Anything associated with creativity is intelligence. Gardening is noble and felling is baseness. One who breeds fruits is better placed than the one who makes bombs. The sophistication of the instrument does not matter. The end product decides the efficacy of the endeavour. Money can be

devalued but not human standards. It is said that standard of life is more important than standard of living. Intelligence is to link with the whole. Every whole is a part of a bigger whole and the chain continues.

Smartness simply means fluidity. To sound solid and appear colossal are the signs of becoming obsolete and extinct. Fluid cannot be broken because it never sticks to a shape. It is absolutely ego-less. Distinction is the humility to accept ignorance. One who is full of oneself will leave the marks of fallibility everywhere. Idiots alone could afford to be arrogant. A real wise person never hankers for recognition. It is the urge to find pleasure through others. It signifies the inner vacuum.

The chisel held with love is better than a burette wielded with disgust. A fool could be tolerated and not the crafty. Involvement is the pre-requisite for intelligence. A man with inclination towards mathematics nurtures nature in numbers and one with keenness on paintings see clouds as collage.

Intelligence cannot be grouped, categorised, graded or ranked. Every type of intelligence adds to the beauty of our existence. Perversion is intelligence doing somersault. The poesy of verses and vistas of technology are all equally significant in the sphere of enhancement. If the heart is made of hardware, the brainy software is of no use. We require both culture and computer. One may remove intellectual impoverishment and the other may accentuate procedural accomplishment.

By becoming creative, attentive and compassionate, one can enjoy study, work and leisure. Then a great quality gets added even to the epistle that is written. The receiver will read it several times, preserve it for posterity. Every product will be novel, useful and will have immense beauty attracting the attention of every passerby. Longevity is not the record of years that are spent but the number of days that are lived.

-- V.IRAI ANBU IAS

SELFISHNESS - The First Deadly Sin

Selflessness is a mild manifestation of selfishness

Every one is selfish and selfishness differs only in degrees. Even our selflessness is mild manifestation of selfishness. It is not subjugation of self but its subtlety. Self-centeredness is the pinnacle of narcissism, its nefarious version. No one could be totally selfless. We breathe and dine, toil and perspire to survive and thrive.

We place the mitigation of misery of our beloved above our travails and tears. Psychological satisfaction gains supremacy over physiological well being. A mother alone can remain entirely selfless. At times, a sow is found suckling the orphans of a canine - a love transcending not only the species but also the genus. One has to become motherly, to drop self.

Cantankerous quality

Selfishness is the most cantankerous quality and is the fountainhead of all seven deadly sins. Covetousness, pride, wrath and lechery are all offshoots of meanness. A child is absolutely self-seeking

due to innocence. Its behaviour looks beautiful; recalcitrance is relished and its anger attracts admiration, as it does not share any duty or responsibility.

The fish is so selfish that it eats its own species to subdue hunger. Snake is slimy and was chosen to seduce Eve to provoke her to taste the forbidden fruit. Serpent also feeds on its own brethren. Hence it could verbalize like men and both have cannibalism in common. Human cannibalism has more eccentricity than the expediency in other beings.

Man strangles for power while the beasts kill for prey. Men carry their venom in mind and the quantum increases with usage. The `law of increasing marginal returns' influences it. As Nietzsche says, man is more of an ape than any ape. Anarchy is often referred to as "The law of the jungle." The wilderness of forests has more order than the chaos in our civilized cities. People cite competition as the cause for selfishness. They paraphrase their panic and justify that they have to run for life as others are after them. There is enough space for everybody to branch out. But many of them vie with one another for the same space and turn out to be "the best of the cut throats."

They compete not because of the crowd but due to an urge to prove their competence. Even if the whole world were offered to them, they would still like to fence it. They want to be adjudged the `most selfless,' so that they may feel proud of being the most humble. They want to be unanimously declared magnanimous.

Commission of suicide

Commission of suicide is also due to selfishness. At last, those who commit suicide muster courage to accept their cowardice. Often, it is resorted to as an emotional black mail. For them, death becomes more important than the life of others. Their self-interest dominates the consequences on their dependants.

If we efface the concept of God, all would become utterly ungenerous. Our philanthropy and benevolence arise out of allurement of `Paradise.' We make our life a hell on earth to enjoy the heaven above. We budge now to bounce later. We prostrate before a few to trample on many.

They are our footstools. The altruism of agnostics is more majestic than the yeoman yearnings for purgation. The real selfless act should not strengthen the self. It should not solidify but liquidate the ego.

One should not try to become somebody but get transformed into nobody. Dropping the over bearing `I' is to be done effortlessly. We should disperse and dissolve in compassion and it is the only magical fluid in which all distinctions disappear.

It extends to herbs and shrubs, crabs and canaries. Men of maturity never choose. It is said that even refusal to choose is a choice. But accepting what is offered without grudge or grouse is not choosing. Those who have dropped their self will be selfish or selfless as the situation warrants. At times they are `cruel to be kind,' niggardly to be generous and cunning to be innocent. They are paradoxes as they talk in parables and speak in metaphors.

-- V.IRAI ANBU IAS

PLAYING WITH FIRE

Fire is beautiful. One gets enthralled at viewing the sanguine sky during dawn and dusk. Fire maintains its eternal pristine purity. Air gets congested, water gets poisoned, earth gets polluted and sky becomes saturnine but fire remains untouched. Water tends to go down and fire always flares up. It aims high and stays pointed. If energy is directed upwards it is meditation and when it flows down the lane it is indulgence. Water cleanses but gets turbid. Fire distills without getting disturbed or distorted. Fire burns but also purifies, destroys but distills, scorches but synthesizes. Fire multiplies on its own. A spark can become an inferno and a leak can lead to a holocaust.

Light envisages god and enlightenment implies realization.

Water extinguishes fire but heat evaporates water. Stream should become steam to bring the cheers of rain. Hence water and fire are complimentary and not competitive. It is a simile symbolizing chastity, integrity, purity and hints that those who approach them with evil intention would be deciphered and decimated. That is why, in East Baptism is done with fire so that the spirit is not diluted.

Civilization started with the discovery of fire. Plummeting of the flint stones in nomadic life enlivened the whole gamut of human lifestyle. Fire creates, updates, sharpens and improves the finesse of our aesthetics. It helps in welding, galvanizing, igniting, molding and joining. The culinary skills differentiated the civilized from the Neanderthal. Fire has different faces. It can be lit as a lamp, held as a torch and it all depends on the user.

The spiritual dimension of fire is inspiring. The Katha Upanishad says, The sun does not shine by its own light nor does the moon nor does any star nor does lightening, nor does any fire lit on earth. All these things shine by the reflection of the soul. The soul is light and every light derives from the soul. Svetasvatara Upanishad claims that fire is always present. It is not produced but manifested. Rig Veda propounds that fire arose within god and in the fire arose love.

Kumarasambava says how fire was cursed to burn everything. Guru Grantha Sahib says that endless stream of individual souls comes from god like sparks from one fire; they fly away from him and then sink back into the flame from which they arose. Zarathustra, the Iranian prophet, advocates fire as the medium of worship to reach the frontiers of Ahura Mazda.

Greek mythology talks about the audacious attempt of Prometheus by outraging the other gods in giving the secret of fire to mankind. Icarus flew close to the sun with his wax wings. His overvaulting ambition led to his fall and downfall. The Phoenix, a metaphorical bird, is famous for rising from its own ashes. It originated from an Egyptian solar myth. The 1461-year cycle of the sun versus the Egyptian calendar was mythologized into long-lived flaming bird, which, after 1461 years died and gave rise to a new bird like itself. The expression Ethiopian� is from Greek word meaning burnt faces�- faces that have been darkened by exposure to sun. The Greeks classified fire into two kinds: one friendly Hestia, Goddess of the hearth and the other hostile Hephaestus, God of destructive fire.

People are more afraid of flood than fire. Arthashastra names fire as a divine calamity whose effects are unpredictable. Hot stove rule and management by firing are common phraseologies in disciplinary procedure. It was the great flood and not the great fire that led to mass destruction and the Noah's Arc had to rescue the representative samples as a rehabilitation measure. People walk on fire as a measure of penance and as a token of vow. Fire does not burn their toes due to Leiden Frost effect.

The water on the soles provides the layer of steam that helps to insulate the foot from the full heat of the coals. The coal has low heat capacity and poor thermal conductivity. If they walk on plates of steel, they will limp forever.

Fire indicates life, warmth and dynamism. One who retains the inner fire intact remains unscathed and emerges flamboyant even if he walks through the flames of slander and conflagration of criticism.

-- V.IRAI ANBU IAS

TOLERANCE

Ego creates imaginary issues and vandals reap the harvest from organised animosity

Our tolerance is skin deep - artificial, superficial and made up. It is a dagger hidden below a scintillating smile. The word `tolerance' comes from Latin `tolerate' meaning bear or endure.

It originally denoted the action of bearing hardship or the ability to bear pain and hardship. Therefore, it suits more to physical pain and if one enjoys it, he is a Masochist and it is not patience. It is easy to suffer external aches and difficult to forbear mental agony.

Hypocrisy

Tolerance is negative and acceptance is affirmative. We subjugate out of incapacity and agree due to magnanimity. Imperturbability is implicit irritation and it always borders on bigotry. Stoicism means fuming and fretting with simmering blood and gnashing teeth. It is always hypocrisy. It is repressed resentment and suppressed repugnance. Fear creates it, apprehension aggravates it and circumstances certify it with lurking future plans in mind. It hibernates as brewing volcano and erupts when chance favours.

Tolerance is worse than aggression, which is at least apparent. It waits for the opportune moment to burst and blast. It precedes violence. A sealed mind is ready to reject current concepts, advanced ideas and different faiths. It wields a shield and is bound to swirl the sword sooner or later. It remains inflammable forever.

`Mine' and `I' factions

The feeling of `mine' and the domination of `I' in us create factions. They divide, separate and differentiate. We start clinging firmly to our conviction even after understanding its triviality. Blind beliefs will not be ready to wear spectacles to set right their myopia. Fanaticism can be for anything - religion, language, race, sect, caste or tribe. Antagonism can arise even for difference in admiration.

We fight with fists for asserting our affection. Attachment of any type is awful as it blinds the reason and blurs the senses in the long run. We want to affix the stamp `mine' on the universal truth and try to restrain the ocean in our tiny tumblers.

Our fight is not for the truth but for our own suzerainty. We relish the fight and enjoy overpowering others. Hence, we invent a reason to subvert a person. We ruffle our feathers readily to

cross others when conditions are conducive. That is why we have two countries with same communities, race and language at loggerheads.

Every vested interest unites people by identifying intersecting hatred. Our unity is intact till a common foe is around. Thus, fabricated fraternity is administered like artificial insemination. Mao said that our stratagems are decided by our rivals. As a matter of fact, even our integration is influenced by them. Our solidarity and consolidation are the outcome of weakness and not a demonstration of strength.

Every individual has his belief system. Being irreligious is also a religion of its own kind. Atheists and agnostics too have their postulates on religion and it differs from person to person. Their concept need not match with those of the members of their denomination. Religion is the sum and substance of beliefs, faiths, expectations, fears and notions. Non-belief is also a belief.

Those who deny have their own concept of hell and heaven. Prison is hell and palace, heaven for a few. Sin is unregistered FIR for crime. We have thousand and one ways to console and compensate our failures and disappointments.

Actually, there are no issues to remain divided. Ego creates imaginary issues and vandals reap the harvest from organised animosity. An open mind appreciates the best that creeps in from various corners and assimilates them wholeheartedly. When religion cannot spread love, it is not religion at all. If conversion is construed as violence, rendering one vulnerable and amenable for it is equally poignant. Gods are never at the mercy of human beings and do not crave for their protection.

Hence, we can have as many religions as there are individuals in the world and even more allowing allowance for defection and conversion. With this framework of mind there will be no trials or riots.

-- V.IRAI ANBU IAS

Joining the Majority

Majority go by the facts and only a few go by truth

Ignorant belong to the majority and the intelligent remain a minority. If majority is the main criterion, crow should be our national bird and dog our national animal. Kauravas should have emerged victorious in the Kurukshetra war.

Joining the majority means to join the dead. The dead would outnumber the living at any point of time. One should kill one's individual spirit and quell the quest to side with the majority. One tends to follow the majority in traits concerned with human nature. In a few cultural aspects, it happens as Hobson's choice. But in individual characteristics, each and every human being is unique.

Temporary phenomenon

Majority may appear to win. But it is a temporary phenomenon. Minority lose in the short run, to win forever. Their sayings, findings, discoveries and inventions are the guiding light for humanity, though they were found to be acrimonious at the time they were propounded. As they think ahead of

their time, the inane and insipid may not understand their calibre. The world has to revolve several times to make them understand the truth.

Crowd oriented

The size looks fascinating. We are, in general, crowd-oriented. It is better to have one individual with awareness instead of a multitude with mundane attitude. More hands may be more powerful; more heads need not be so. Hands can strangle the throat to suppress the voice but not the functioning of the mind.

It is only the individual who thinks and knows when to stop thinking whereas the mob shouts, yells, bellows and brays. That is why Tagore said, "Man is kind but men are cruel." It is true that crow cannot be white if majority unanimously vouch so. Majority go by the facts and only a few go by truth. Fact is what we perceive and truth is what it is.

All beautiful things are less in number, scattered and rarely seen. They are seldom gregarious and are never egregious. They would prefer to become endangered rather than remain dormant. Many a man remain as fossils. They lack succulence and exuberance, vivacity and vitality. Only those who are conscious and confident know to remain as an individual even in a group. They preserve their identity. They resemble the leaves of the lotus despite being rooted in water. Like `water-proof' they are `world-proof.'

Inclination to be included in the majority arises out of insecurity. All the fragile live as flocks, herds or packs with fear to cover up their cowardice. The agile lead a solitary life or wander as pride with pride. Men are totally fragmented and their every segment looks for an identity out of psychic crisis. Their settlements are congregations of segregation.

They feel absolutely safe when some one with the same schizophrenia is available. Second opinions are sought when first opinions are dubious. The best in a person comes out at the time of a crisis. He knows to strive against the odds.

It is said that only a dead fish swims along the current. The audacious people work against resistance and fulfil the meaning of their lives. The deer sprints at the maximum pace when it is chased by the tiger.

Breed boredom

Majority tend to breed boredom. Their choice will be detrimental to body, mind or soul. Victuals consumed by the most constitute unhealthy, anti-nutritious, cholesterol-rich, carbohydrate-ridden items. The awakened one finds taste in every dish that is offered and it becomes a prasad for him.

It is wise not to follow the majority in individual pursuits. Very rarely the best seller happens to be the best one. Joining the majority is rarely an integration and mostly a disintegration.

-- V.IRAI ANBU IAS

Culture and Agriculture

It converts every drop of sweat into a bead of grain

Culture commenced with agriculture. Man remained mad and was a nomad before embarking upon cultivation. Tillage initiated the era of non-violence. Land was reclaimed and labour acclaimed while learning the secrets of nature. It transformed soil and soul.

We began as carnivores, became omnivores and ended as herbivores with the advent and advancement of agronomy. We moved on to farming from hunting and relished consuming usufructs instead of blood and flesh to satiate quench our hunger.

Woman taught man about nature. She wondered at the sprouting of fallen seeds and pursued their growth meticulously. Still, she retains the art of wondering intact without any adulteration. She learnt how nature suo moto proliferates. She inherently understood the intricacies of reproduction as she had firsthand knowledge of procreation. She contemplated and conceived the idea of farming to avert poaching and avoid danger.

Domesticated animal

Man became her pupil and woman his pedagogue. She paved the way for safe settlement with peace so that men need not congregate to fight with wolves for the same piece of meat. All docile animals were domesticated by her. She helped them in shedding their claws and ferocity by stroking them constantly and administering copious doses of love and warmth.

Man learnt compassion, affection, sympathy and empathy from her. As Will Durant said, man was the last animal to be domesticated by woman. He moved from caves to homes, matriarchy to patriarchy, movement to settlement and segregation to family by virtue of his proprietary over land.

All social institutions were offsprings of his attachment to land. Even today, women for minimum wages do crucial cropping operations. Men plough, sow, manure and thrash whereas women plant, transplant, weed and harvest. Thus, cumbersome and backbreaking practices are dexterously done by women, constituting the backbone of husbandry.

Rousseau acknowledged, "The first and most respectable of all arts is agriculture". Gibbon remarked, "Agriculture is foundation of manufactures". Shakespeare appreciated, "Let me not assistant for a state but keep a farm and cater". Whittier eulogised, "Who sows a field or trains a flower or plants a tree is more than all". Thomas Jefferson proclaimed, "Those who labour in the earth are the chosen people of God". R. G. Ingersoll declared, "To plough is to pray". Emerson concluded, "The glory of farmer is that in division of labour. It is his part to create. All trades rest at last on his primitive activity". Oliver Goldsmith prophesised, "But a bold peasantry their country's pride when once destroyed can never be supplied".

Learning from nature

Seed is miracle in miniscule and universe in capsule. Every new leaf it turns enriches environment. It establishes a link between terrestrial depths and celestial heights. It demonstrates that roots are always invisible and if they endeavour to show off, the tree gets extirpated. Tree offers

sanctuary for aviary, asylum for apiary, shelter for wayfarers, and refuge for cattle. It provides podium for our winged brethren to conduct their orchestra.

It lives upto the `parable of sower'. Fragrant flowers fall to prostrate roots, the root cause for their forthcoming. Soil educates us that it takes years to build and minutes to erode. Silviculture binds us with existence. Growing a plant or vine or shrub connects us with the soul of nature. We too foliate with their luxuriance.

We become harmonious with our surroundings. We feel elated and delighted. It becomes an act of great creativity and a fulcrum for life to revolve around. It brings mirth in our vague routine affairs and colours our black and white moments. Labour on land is a productive exercise par excellence. It converts every drop of sweat into a bead of grain.

Toiling, reaping and sharing are three fundamental norms essential to convert earthly existence into a heavenly experience. We can plant if not a tree at least an herb so as to repay one millionth of what we have derived from our cosmos. It will be a real fruitful venture and, with dedication, a meditation.

-- V.IRAI ANBU IAS TRUE LIE

Truth is stale for it lacks variety

There is no difference between a lie and truth unless and until their difference is deciphered. Lie is neither transparent nor opaque but translucent. Perception decides the veracity of an utterance. Truth hibernates and sprouts whereas lie remains dynamic and gets silenced. Lie is always proactive. Truth owns a bullock cart but lie, a fleet. Lie cranes its neck while truth lies low.

We live in the midst of lies. We have started adoring and admiring them to the core. Paid lie is advertisement and sponsored one, publicity. It is flattery in felicitations, sycophancy in interactions, statistics in reports, adulteration in production, adultery in relationship, myth in theology, metaphor in literature and manifesto in electioneering. Consummate liars are perfect to the finish; glib fabricators convince opponents; incorrigible fibbers are addicted to lies; cantankerous perjurers spread the nemesis and chronic prevaricators are progressive in their perfidy.

Coloured lies

Lie has colours. A black lie is a statement made after knowing its falsehood. A white lie is not in itself false but leaves out a significant part of truth. Coloured lie adds falsehood to facts and concocts truth. White lies are accepted in relationships with a view to eschewing embarrassments. In fact, all our relationships are sustained and maintained by white lies.

Lie can be vegetarian or violent. Vegetarian lies are harmless, intended to avert adversity. Violent lies could be cannibalistic, consuming the opponent. We have fibs, which can mesmerise and make megalomaniacs out of simpletons.

People like lies as truth hurts. That is why Socrates was poisoned, Galileo ostracised and Bruno trampled. We drape garlands around lies and place wreaths on truth. It requires tremendous courage to face the truth. It is unfortunate that burden of proof is always on truth. Reality is saddled with burden

and mendacity sprints sans onus. Truth is stale for it lacks variety. Lies range from slander to scandal, gossip to rumour, fiction to fabrication and deceit to fraud.

Truth is simple for it does not require both memory and maintenance. It is effortless and uncomplicated. Tagore said, "Truth disclosed with a bad intention is also a lie". Thiruvalluvar commented, "Lie told with good intention is also truth". However, it should be rarely used. Lord Hervey concurred, "Whoever would lie usefully should lie seldom". William James clarified, "There is no worse lie than a truth misunderstood by those who hear it". Truth is what it actually is and fact is what we perceive. Truth is accurate and fact is precise. Hence, there is always a gap between reality and perception.

People are comfortable with lies. They give evanescent solace and ephemeral relief. As life has become a transit camp, we, as refugees, are satisfied with temporary relief rather than permanent rehabilitation. Stamina to tread further on the path of liberation is lost in extravaganzas. Truth is not bitter but certainly it is not sugar-coated. It walks naked without ornamentation, as its anatomy itself is divine and beautiful. Ugliness alone requires cosmetics and decorations to portray sophistication and pretend innocence. Still, it discloses more vulgarity than symmetry.

Lie lived is hypocrisy. Oscar Wilde remarked, "Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation". Negating the true self and aping others has become the order of the day. Cultured behaviour is to utter polished lies to please others and onlookers are also aware of them. Mutual stroking till the back is broken is considered modern outlook and model behaviour.

True lie is not just an oxymoron. Benjamin Jowett declared, "The lie in the soul is a true lie". Difficulty lies in the fact that after several repetitions the protagonists themselves construe them as truth. Buddha cautioned that a lie could not become truth even if it was vouched by thousands of people.

The irony is that even liars are hopeful that truth would triumph someday or other.

-- V.IRAI ANBU IAS

The Beauty of Beauty

Physical appearance becomes an ephemeral epithet

Beauty is an abstract idea. It simply means sense of proportion. Any organ out of shape and anything out of place is considered repugnant. However, proportion is the concept concocted by constant conditioning. Region specific stipulation renders chunky physique, chubby nose or bulky lips appealing or repulsive.

Elegance lies in the eyes of the beholder. It emanates from the mind and not from the sight. All of us were born charming and have grown vile. Beauty and ugliness have a marginal difference. A fluttering butterfly comes out with flying colours from a horrid pupa. A larva which feeds on disgusting milk weed matures into a marvellous monarch that probes the petals to ferret pollens of flowers. Grace is not just appearance. A cuckoo pushes aside its appearance by forging its melodious voice to the forefront.

Glamorous

Everything in the universe is glamorous and gorgeous. Nature gifted iron and man created handcuff. God gave hunger and man manipulated famine. Children are beautiful as they are not aware of their appearance. Even the babe of an ass captivates, as it does not bray to brag.

Sparkling of diamond is the result of its willing gestation for millions of years. All the beautiful things are enthralling for they are not conscious of their countenance. As Tao teaches, when beauty is identified as beauty, ugliness arises. Angle of apprehension predates connoisseurship of a being. Admiration of a grasshopper is ominous and adoration of a bee advantageous to plants. One is a predator and the other, a facilitator.

Comeliness cannot be manufactured but manifested. When innocence shines in the eyes and serenity surfaces on the face, one glows with exquisiteness. Physical appearance becomes an ephemeral epithet. It can immortalise as eternal epitaph by virtue of actions, deeds and gestures. An appeasing behaviour and a comforting character are enshrined in memory with enhanced longevity.

Exterior symmetry is matter of opinion. Every one has his dictionary on beauty. Stereotype makes things stale. Difference in creation makes everything unique and alluring. A patch with same species of flowers is not garden but a field. Distinction in appearance is associated with evolution.

All earthworms look alike and there is no concept of Miss Earthworm among them. All of them are hermaphrodites. Man tends to break the sprinting legs of time in vain and craves to prevent aging. Appearance should befit age. One who poses and pretends like twenty at the age of forty should be prosecuted and imprisoned for violating the laws of nature.

Not skin deep

Beauty is not skin deep. Strong bones, sound heart, powerful lungs, active liver, sharp ears and luminous eyes are the real components that embellish an individual: lest one would be a bundle of bones and parcel of problems.

Facial dimensions are due to chance and genes. Complexion need not be a reason for complex. Selling dreams is lucrative commerce. `Fairness business' is not always fair business. Beauty is neither earned with effort nor achieved with diligence. It is not a degree or doctorate to be ostentatiously displayed. Arrogance moderates and modesty enriches loveliness.

Beauty is relative and not absolute. There is no grammar prescribed for it. It cannot be defined or delimited. Anything natural and spontaneous is pleasant. It should not be stage managed. All beautiful things in the world were created by people who were disdained obnoxious. For some, a thing of beauty is headache forever.

Nations with plethora of wealth and abundance of resources were plundered by invaders and devastated by aggressors. Their pages of history were smeared with blood, soaked with tears and punctuated with poignancies. Love makes a person appear beautiful. Love is not the aftermath of beauty and the obverse is true.

The essence of life lies in searching for the everlasting beauty that never fades into insignificance. When we stop making deliberate efforts to appear delightful, beauty occurs on its own

accord. Liberal hands, smiling lips, consoling shoulders, compassionate eyes and dynamic legs alchemise a person into an extraordinarily beautiful one.

Right perception and broad mindedness will make all beings on earth embodiments of elegance and icons of handsomeness.

-- V.IRAI ANBU IAS

Role models

Retrospection leads to regrets and introspection, insight

Adopting an archetype transports us to a distant future. We nurture inferiority and entertain an ambition of becoming somebody at some point of time. A discontented self tends to remain begrudged and creates restlessness and ruthlessness. Paragons and averages do not exist in the real world. They are fictitious with projections and imaginations.

No one is an exemplar. Assuming role models negates the very principle of existence. Nature has no counterfeits. It limits our performance. It endorses encumbrance rather than providing impetus. We get enslaved by our own hankering and miss the joy of unique individuality. Imitation is futile in life. Churning out carbon copies is not an objective of creation.

Hero image

Models have become our role models. It is easy to replicate the exterior like long sideburns, loose shirts and tonsured heads. Our craving imputes `a larger than life' image to our heroes. Many of them happen to be tax evaders, law-breakers or rule violators. Niceties cover their nefarious nature.

We tend to be swayed by a single aspect in choosing the ideals. Diamonds and pebbles - both produce the same splash on dashing with water. Man is a function of innumerable variables and assigning superiority to a particular attribute may cause disappointments. Persons at a distance attract our attention and distract our concentration. We often miss the outstanding people around us.

There is no such phrase as `wrong role model' for all prototypes are wrong. Roles are not identical and cannot be related. One has to assume a role depending upon the compulsions. Performance is decided by juxtaposition of circumstances. Situations are always unprecedented. However, precedence predominates in decision making. Hence, every error is repeated and every possibility is throttled.

All achievements are transient. The remark of Thomas Gray in his Elegy that "All the paths of glory lead but to grave" is not a pessimistic parody but an optimistic observation.

We do not remember, recapitulate and rejoice the achievers but the affectionate. As Charles Schultz observed, "Applause dies; awards tarnish; achievements are forgotten. Accolades and certificates are buried with their owners. The people who make a difference in our life are not the ones with the most credentials, the most money or the most awards. They are the ones that care."

Revelation

Pre-eminence can be admired and not the persons. Love can become a revelation. Service, dedication, sacrifice, warmth, hard work and all other admirable qualities can be learnt, assimilated and absorbed. Individuals do not matter. The worst of the universe has the best of a few remarkable qualities.

We have to be like decorticators. Inspiration could be infinitive. Inspiration and imitation as well as replication and reflection sound similar but are miles apart in their actual meaning. Every creature around us offers invaluable lessons.

Division of labour from bees, steadfastness from spiders, continuous effort from ants and perseverance from cranes are worth learning irrespective of their total mettle. Every metamorphosis is a mini evolution.

Standards are not available outside. Marble statue cannot be an icon for granite to work with. They vary in structure and texture rendering sculpting different for sculptors. Let us be our own mannequins and begin with the premise that we are still boulders. Some may be basalt and some shale, yet to be hewn and carved into beautiful statues.

We should become both chisel and sculptor to achieve this venture. Sculpture is got by eliminating the extra. Saving the essential and sacrificing the redundant is the essence of discovering art in grit. Every unwanted portion is to be removed. Beauty descends by administering the process of distillation and deletion.

Retrospection leads to regrets and introspection, insight. Polishing our positive points without any urge to prove our calibre and competence to the world will make us seasoned and relevant. Our path is ever traffic free and any congestion is our concoction. An enlightened individual neither chooses a model nor prefers to be one. He is simply as he is, absolutely contented, blissful, serene and sane.

-- V.IRAI ANBU IAS

Handwriting

The invention of the alphabet was a significant step in the human history. It constituted a better way of representing speech in any articulated language. It allowed all words to be fixed in written form with only a small set of phonetic signs. Before the advent of printing press, knowledge was transmitted only through hand written manuscripts and the mistakes were also meticulously carried over to the next generation. Employees were recruited with legible hand writing as the sole criterion to undertake such cumbersome work. All of them were rendered redundant with the invention of print medium. The practice of linking characters of the alphabet to produce the small letters used today in writing originated in the monasteries. Scribes found it easier to write whole words without intermittently lifting their pens from the paper.

Handwriting is not handwriting but mind writing. They are the imprints in brain expressed through the hand. Even if one attempts to write with his leg, the same pattern would follow in suit. An ambi-dexterous would write in same configuration with both the hands. One who writes neatly in one language would be capable of writing equally well in all other languages.

Handwriting introduces the writer to the reader before the contents are perused. The form comes before the content and the colour influences before the dish is tasted. It is both invocation and introduction. They tend to colour the opinion. It maximises efficiency and minimises the drudgery. It is

the first glance of scanning done for any black and white presentation. The writings of a few look like manicured gardens and some, bushy thorns. Some writings look like abtash cipher-difficult to read and impossible to comprehend. A good handwriting facilitates a person to read the message with ease. It creates curiosity, induces interest and sustains them. One would comfortably flow with the pages without expending energy to decipher the correctness of letters.

Graphology is the study of the character of a person from his handwriting. A steady handwriting with beautiful letters uniformly spaced and appropriately sized reflects the care calibre and capability of an individual. One can find whether the individual is stingy, stringent or a spend thrift from the way he writes. Some would write a novel in a post card and a few, a haiku in the inland. Some scribble with frequent corrections and it indicates the wavering mind. Some may have too many insertions punctuated with leading arrows and the page would look like a treasure hunt material. Some would scrawl liberally and the presentation would be like a crossword puzzle. Some would write in a diagonal manner and they would require a line to be drawn even to affix their signature. Some write beautifully with legibility missing. They are like unpalatable colourful dish.

Too much ornamentation will mar the script and spoil the spirit. Calligraphy is used to captivate and not to dissuade the reader. Some have the knack of highlighting important phrases in italicized letters, whereas a few have their entire writing in an italicized fashion. There is a Sanskrit slogan, which conveys the conversation between two women. One brags that the handwriting of her spouse could not be read by anyone else and the second surpasses by saying that her husband's handwriting will be incomprehensible even for him.

Temper tantrums will cause minor tilts in the writing pattern. A missive expressing obituary and an epistle intimating intimacy will vary in the loveliness of letters. Mahatma Gandhi regretted forever for his awful handwriting. Handwriting can be improved at any point of time provided we have patience to bestow attention. A child should be taught to draw before it starts writing. Pictorial writing preceded symbolic writing. Hence drawing and painting discovered in caves of antiquity predated inscriptions on stones of monarchy. Figures are fathomable from the collective subconscious mind. We still read to relate it to figures and shapes. In the Chinese, the picture of two women in one house implies quarrel.

Observation in the early phases of life strengthens the acumen to write and paint. It provides the power to watch keenly and admire aptly to grasp each and every object. Exercises to observe can improve the capacity of discernment. The skill of observation can find its expression through different ways ranging from humour to wit and wisdom. One who has relentless determination can transcend the limitations of nature. With will power, a disabled can become differently abled. A blind can become a visionary and a blind can lead the blind in a better way. Louis Braille, the man who devised an alphabet of raised letter for use by the blind was himself blind from the age of three.

Tagore learned painting in the later part of his life. Vinoba was learning languages even after completing fifty years. Hence, no need to entertain frustration for the clumsy handwriting. One can always make it reader friendly by adopting uniformity by setting the upper limits and lower boundaries with proper space between the letters. Ultimately, our writing is nothing but maneuvering of circles and lines. Anyone who maintains his superb handwriting in the examination papers in addition to the quality of answers will become an outstanding student in all the spheres.

-- V.IRAI ANBU IAS

Battle and war

Exploitation is ubiquitous. It is found both in flora and fauna. Parasitic vines and insectivorous plants are not rare. Every organism fights, strives, struggles and exploits for survival and continuance. Tussle is inevitable among beasts to claim control. The strongest will lead and the submissive will follow. It is the show of strength that determines the premiers of the herd, flock, pack or pride. The victor leads and the vanquished vanishes into solitude. The attack is to earmark territorial jurisdiction. The moment one surrenders, the other stops the onslaught. Animals of the same species assault not to kill but to rule the resources. Exceptions cannot become examples.

The female, after copulation, preys upon the male scorpion, which is its style to exhibit gratitude for gratification. Lions kill the male cubs to retain their hold in the pride. The canines swallow the weak offspring after delivery to compensate the weakness suffered during gestation. Otherwise, they kill not for pleasure but to satiate their hunger. A contented tiger hardly harms the docile deer . Man alone enters the fray to kill, destroy, devastate, ruin and annihilate. It is not instinctive. He premeditates, broods, plans and nurtures violence and sees that it proliferates and enters into every cell of his being. He fought initially to usurp resources and usher his multiplication. Battles in the beginning were to covet cattle, loot cash and empty coffers of the loser. Later, it graduated to rule more heads and extend tentacles of power by which all his lust and greed could be fulfilled. Battle was still reasonable with able bodied men of both warring countries deployed in a predetermined place wielding their swords, holding their shields and hurling their spears, from dawn to dusk. Nobody who decides not to be a part of the army was injured. This was the ethics of warfare. It was real display of gallantry and bravery. Youth sacrificed their lives amor patriae. Nomadic warriors broke the discipline of organised battle field codes. They came in multitude mounting on steeds by surprise and ransacked the wayside villages and built pyramids with severed heads of innocent victims. It was invasion ad nauseam and aggression uncalled for. Thus, all norms of organised combat were flouted. The uninvolved citizens were massacred to leave a macabre scene. Enhanced scientific knowledge helped battle metamorphose into war. Today, waging war is not a one-time affair. There is no ceasefire. It may be a series of skirmishes or episodes of encounter. The one who starts would not know when to end. It may last for hours or prolong for years. Sometimes they do not have a climax. War has no spatial or temporal prescriptions. It is a targetless hatred unleashed in abundance. Even a baby may perish or an octogenarian may get maimed. In war, every resident is involved. The person who decides to declare the clash and shouts patriotic slogans hardly participates in the actual event. We need not swirl the sword and it is enough to press the buttons. It is fought with brains and not with bodies. Machines fight and men operate. Subjugating and not governing is the goal. Besmirching fame and tarnishing glory have become the hidden agenda. War continues in the form of clandestine attacks and rebellious retaliations. Any reasonable man will find it illogical and neurotic. Peace today lies in preparing for war. It is akin to advocating treatment for insanity as the best way to keep sanity intact. All the outer wars are just repercussions and reflections of inner conflicts. Our unquenched anger is responsible for antagonism rampant in the whole world. When we are not at peace with our

own self, we fight to seek it outside and get more and more intrigued. When we realise that wars we entertain within us are more ominous, we become tranquil like a serene lake. We never try to prove our mettle. One who is always ready to lose can never be won.

-- V.IRAI ANBU IAS

MEMORY

Memory is a poor substitute for intelligence. It does not have the slightest semblance to ingenuity. It helps in flaunting the spurious and foiling the obvious. Exhibiting power of memory and protrusion of muscles are similar gestures and both are superficial. It magnifies the encoder and mesmerizes the decoder. Glib talkers use memory as a tool to impress, influence and imposture. Mediocrity masquerades with memory to feign mastery.

Learning by rote helped in oral transmission before the advent of paper. Grasping with mind was felt convenient than writing with hand. Palm leaves were not an easy medium like parchment to scribble and script. We carry the boat after reaching the shore.

Memory blocks expertise and portrays a proxy projection of command and comprehension. It is wrongly epitomized as the end of knowledge and erroneously termed as the terminus of learning. Many great men did not strain to remember even their personal phone numbers. Their absent mindedness is not an accident by chance but a preference by choice. They were very close no mind. They were worldly foolish and universally wise. Some of them were academic dropouts but students of the University of Universe.

Memory gives complacency. What one recites after recapitulation is not the pearls of wisdom but droppings of the wise. Borrowed knowledge is artificial and ornamental, lacking in freshness and fragrance. Verbose reciting is verbatim vomiting and is a great sign of incomprehension. Anyone can reproduce after repeated reading. Reputation is built by innovation and not by repetition. Mavericks alone moulded civilization to monumental dimensions.

Memory leads to prejudice. Conditioned conduct is inflicted as the mind keeps on rewinding. Remembrance denotes past. Some harbour so much nostalgia that they have hallucinations of their previous births. Relationship is spun with fibres of contemporary issues and animosity is woven with threads of antiquity. One never keeps the wounds green and allows them to heal. Our memory mostly preserves trash and proscribes treasure. We save skeletons and spend spirit. Our brain turns to be a garage for garbage. Men with less care to reminiscence remain young in words and deeds, as they live moment to moment.

Learning commences where memory ends. It is not the be all and end all. It is not the landing spot but a boarding point. Inventions did not come out of recollection. They were the results of interpretation. Every phenomenon in nature was observed, analysed and understood to produce the best. Exploration and inquiry, the essential traits, are missing links of memory.

Our education system and examination exercise have become barometers to measure the pressure of students in tackling a volley of bouncers in the form of questions and queries. Meaningless slogging means so much in curriculum. Even in mathematics, the problems could be predicted and learnt by heart. Without referring to the original works of Shakespeare one could distinguish with distinction in English. At times, the volume of answer takes predominance over substance. Parroting is

the best form of performance and apt answers are photocopies produced with hands. The best machine gets the first place. Proficiency never matters where efficiency alone is evaluated.

The more a person is for memory, the less he tends to be original. Remembering becomes an addiction beyond reclamation. It brings cheers on the stage and ovation from the crowd. Applause for a wrong cause tranquilizes more than approbation received for a genuine endeavour. It requires tremendous courage to travel on the correct path despite obstacles and opposition for probing the truth.

When memory fails, intuition works. When accumulated knowledge fades, acumen shines. Creativity comes by dropping the hitherto existing concepts and mechanisms.

Memory per se is not bad. However, it should be invisible like the sugar in caramel and not apparent like cherry on the ice cream. Mind is a great filter. It, on its own, retains the essential to leave out the superfluous. No one remembers one's address by effort. Retention should be the outcome of understanding. Herbs and drugs can hardly improve the power to grasp. If it is so, buffaloes, which graze them more, should be scholars and scientists par excellence. Important events and enlightening information listened to with interest remain forever.

An attentive mind can have a grip over facts and figures without any ordeal of memorizing. One who knows the nuances of memory will not be for it. He would not be against memory but would be above memory.

-- V.IRAI ANBU IAS

Revenge, a two-edged Weapon

Civilisation is the conversion of poaching into fighting

Revenge is a two edged weapon. It is a blade without handle. It is always a reaction. It requires an action replay for refreshing the memory and aggregating the acrimony. It is an imitation. In "tit for tat", one reciprocates and never discovers. The protagonist also gets affected.

Revenge is self destruction. Every thought for avenging causes organs to orchestrate heavy secretion of fluids and the excess strain leaves a stain. Vengeance is not a welcome venture. It is neither original nor creative. It is always secondary and borrowed, tutored by others and watered by hatred.

History is revenge retold and rebuttal recollected. It repeats itself due to the inexhaustible spirit of retaliation and vindictiveness. Abomination breeds revulsion, anger hatches wrath, injury induces bruises and they are elements of a vicious circle. It is an afterthought and becomes an acquired quality transmitted through generations.

If we dig the earth after a few years, blood would spring, instead of water. Civilisation is the conversion of poaching into fighting. Hunting for flesh substituted by hunting for power. Decapitation is adopted as the short cut for capturing the capital. Men act in haste with a feeling of repugnance reigning over the senses. Reprisal is often referred to as upsurge of animal's instinct. Animals never avenge and do not harbour animosity.

All riots arise with a priority to prove physical power. Revenge has so many faces. It can be a simple verbal exchange. Quarrel and altercation are its alternatives. Rebukes, rebuffs, retorts, repudiation are all vengeance verbally vent out. A few cross words and leave them there. Many cross swords, continue the contention and aggravate enmity. At times scurrilous language is more wounding than swirling sword. Vituperative tongue lashes more than what a whip injures and bleeding of the mind never clots.

A misguided missile

Revenge can be a misguided missile. It misses the culprit and targets the innocent. The victims are not even onlookers. Students rag the fresher for treatment meted out to them by seniors. Generally, the arrows are blamed and the archer goes scot-free. The feeling of bitterness never subsides after eliminating the target. It does not rest as it has an insatiable appetite and unquenchable thirst.

Revenge is the function of ego. We assume supremacy and presume, `holier than thou' attitude. Our relations are equations that never balance. We want our balance sheet always to be lop-sided with more assets and less liabilities. One who knows that man is not a static phenomenon does not nurture any ill feeling. We do not deal with the same individual twice.

What was once a rock could have got sculpted into a carving and what was once mud could have bloomed into a lotus. There is nothing called non violent revenge. The very thought to attack is violent. Pregnant anger is worse than delivered action. Our senses dim and brain paralyses by channelising all our zeal into irksome emotions.

Very often, only the proximate persons turn into deadly rivals. Revenge comes back in speed post. Biographies proclaim that one who handles the gun will be gunned down sooner or later. Some are so timid that they restrict their retribution to mosquitoes. Mahatma opined that rats can hardly think of forgiving cats. When condoning comes out of strength, it inflicts more pain than punishment.

Recapitulating the good moments we spent with the objects of our aggression and nice gestures they extended can ameliorate our urge to react with the same amplitude. Real revenge lies in extending a bouquet when a dagger is expected. Causing to get reformed is better than cutting to bleed. Fire cannot be extinguished by fuel. Seed of hatred remains dormant till the correct moment comes and it is like a potential volcano or a tickling time bomb.

By love we can nullify hatred and by compassion we can neutralise wrath. Man appears beautiful when he laughs. At that moment, he overflows with innocence. Even Miss Universe would look ugly in the grip of anger. The grace of the great is due to love that radiates from their eyes. We should make this world filled with the music of laughter and joy and not with noise of wails and travails.

-- V.IRAI ANBU IAS

LISTENING

Man learns less by reading, more by observing and the maximum by listening. Research proves that we learn 80 per cent of what we know by listening but most of us absorb just 25 per cent of what we hear. Books are vocal words told in black and white. Speech is not always lip service. It can motivate, enlighten, guide, clarify, provoke, educate, inform and entertain.

Listening requires to be learnt. Everyone talks but only a few listen. We hear to overhear and drop to eavesdrop. Gettan, a Zen monk used to say, When you have a talking mouth, you have no listening ears.� People love their own voice more than the symphony of Mozart. Transaction cannot be consummated without listening. If discretion is better part of valour, listening is the best part of communication. One may be extraordinarily endowed with mastery of language and a gallery of vocabulary. Still, without listening, he would be dismissed as a dismal failure.

Listening occurs only when we value the importance of the other person. While listening, the second person should become the first person. One who feels superior with an aura of snobbish attitude can never be attentive. The disease of not listening exhibits several acute symptoms and chronic disorders. Some are selective listeners. They grasp the chaff and blow the grains. Some will constantly interrupt, miss the juice and taste the rind. The day dreamers dwell in their own imaginary world. It is said that hallucination is not vision. Poor listeners are attracted and distracted by all the unwanted occurrences. A few are lazy even to listen.

Listening requires empathy. Rulers become unruly by turning a deaf ear to the problems of people. Listening warrants magnanimity. Constructive criticism well received with an open mind will obviate mistakes and clear misunderstanding. Active listening is the silent salute that encourages the speaker. Our silence is mostly superficial. Our lips are tight and mind is loose. It is called disagreement fallacy and is termed illusion of communication. We converse within us. Attention engulfs us when we remain without duality. Undivided focus occurs at that moment. When the mind is free from prejudices and preconceived notions, concomitant converging of all the senses at one point happens. Then, every word uttered enters into the soul and becomes a part of the system.

Listening activates the subconscious mind. Conscious mind is just the tip of an iceberg. When the conscious mind fails, subconscious comes to the rescue. Noam Chomsky’s transformational generative grammar elucidates it. One never makes an effort to recall the words in mother tongue as it has become a part of the subconscious mind.

Listening requires a keen discernment and an eye for observation. In a typical communication, 7 per cent of the content is verbal and the rest is non-verbal. Man conveys more by facial expressions and through body language. If we tape all the sounds that we utter in an ordinary day and run the tape would run only for 11 minutes. Language may be the same but the meaning may be different. Bernard Shaw said that England and the United States of America are two countries separated by the same language. People differ in tongue but resemble in emotions.

Reading can only give a vicarious enjoyment. We will miss the gestures, body movements and eye expressions by reading a delivered speech. While reading we miss the electrifying presence of the person. Continuous reading may render the eyes tired and exhausted. Ears never become worn out and there is no such thing as excessive listening. Hence, blindness is sympathised and deafness is dug at. Sight strays and clasps whereas ears stay and grasp. Eyes have lids to close, mouth has lips to shut but ears have no mechanism to shun sounds. Yet, we shut them with a hermetically sealed mind. Unless we close the eyes we cannot enjoy the melodious music. Synesthesia may be mixing up of senses in neurology but not for virtuosos of art and literature.

Speaker also has the responsibility to deliver a spell bound oration. One who listens to his address should glisten with wit and wisdom. A belligerent voice may not convey, convince or convert. Brutus goaded his countrymen to hear him for his cause and be silent so that they may hear. Mark

Antony wanted them to lend him their ears. Humility always pays rich dividends. Listening cannot be enforced by summoning the senses.

Milo, an athlete of Croton, was a legend for his feats of strength. He lifted a particular calf onto his shoulders everyday. It grew heavier with age and finally he was lifting a full-grown bull. The student who attentively listens to the class finds the exam light like a calf and others feel it as a burden like a bull on their shoulders.

-- V.IRAI ANBU IAS

AN EYE ON THE EYES

Eyes reign supreme among the physical faculties. Nostrils function for the continuance of life. However, parents prefer to refer their wards as eyes. Eyes are special for they shed tears for aches and pains of all other organs. They are known for sacrificing their self-interest. They help in perusing the other parts but see not themselves.

In kinesics, eyes dominate. Nobel Laureate, Singer eulogized eyes as the windows to look at the soul of an individual. Assamese language has a proverbial statement that a person with colourless eyes is not to be trusted. Some do not look at but look through. Eyes reflect attraction and aversion, affection and apathy, contentment and covetousness, satiation and gluttony, passion and callousness, compassion and impatience.

Words may envelop but eyes reveal. Speech is scabbard but sight is sword. Eyes can recite poetry, chant hymns and sing songs. Eye contact is important in communication. While conversing, proper orientation of eyes will make the presentation convincing. Gouging the eyes was the poignant punishment awarded by the invaders. It was a grave punishment before their departure to grave. Mahatma (not the School) remarked An eye for an eye would only end up making the whole world blind.

The first cataract surgery was done in India. Kannappar was the first to donate his eyes. He wanted the almighty to peruse the world with the human vision. Eyes have many references in daily usage . Those who are at loggerheads do not see eye to eye. The preferred becomes the blue eyed boy. Keeping an eye on skeptical individuals is an important ingredient for an administrator. One who ignores the genuine demands, turns a blind eye. Sometimes, a startling experience may be an eye opener. Statistics may mislead and keep us blind folded to reach wrong conclusions.

One who plans for the next generation is a visionary. People who do not foresee the probable contingencies suffer from myopia. Argus eyed men could not be hoodwinked by others. In a few instances like ventriloquism, we trust ears more than the eyes.

Eye lids are immortalized as symbols of security. Blinking lubricates and steadfast watching of the visual media obstructs blinking, thereby exhausting the eyes. Cleansing the eyes with crystal clear water retains the retina free from infection. Eyes act as thermometers of our system. Heat or acidity or diabetes is expressed through the eyes. Colour blindness is a trait associated with sex-linked genes. The women act as carriers to transmit them to their male off springs.

The poesy of love finds its fluency through eyes. People say, love is blind�. Some draw analogy by reading the two usages, love is blind and god is love, in conjunction and conclude that god is

blind. Love cannot be blind as two falls in love by exchange through eyes. Love is the meeting of the minds and marriage of souls. Shakespeare justifies, Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind and therefore is winged cupid painted blind�. As Saint Antony Exupery said love is not two persons gazing at each other but both looking together towards the same direction.

Eyes are crucial in improving the awareness. A few have eyes all over their bodies and they could see what happens on their back. Blindness is divine injustice. A few individuals with gifted intellectual profundity and rare creativity have overcome the limitations imposed by existence. They performed miracles by the power of their inner vision. They tilted their eyes inward. Dr. Johnson, though highly biased and critical about Milton, could not help acknowledging his genius. He had to confess that the great works of Milton were performed under discountenance and in blindness but difficulties vanished at his touch.

The best way to preserve one’s eyes is by donating. One could donate, something alive in him even after his death. The continuation of vision quenches the quest for life after exile. It is the best of all donations, as one does not know even the face of the recipient.

-- V.IRAI ANBU IAS ANGULARITIES OF ANGER

Anger is the mother of all evils, writes V. IRAI ANBU.

Anger symbolizes helplessness. When things are beyond our reach, exasperation envisages an excellent shelter. We express our emotions through rage and resentment to cover up deficiencies and defects. Very often targets of our annoyance are not the causes for it. Apathy travels in a trajectory and hits the most vulnerable targets. Inanimate objects are attacked with vehemence for no fault of them. We sling slippers, slam doors, bang windows, hurl files and push chairs to show our antagonism. We may skip a meal and forego a need to send signals about our temperament.

Anger is against human nature. Those who are furious have to recoil their self to reach resilience and the results are deplorable. It is the mother of all evils. "Anger is a short madness" according to Horace and he is correct in his definition. It is an ill feeling, which functions against human nature and hence one gets all kinds of disorders due to the constant companion, anger. To love is a basic tendency of human beings and an inclination to remain soft and flexible indicates life. Anger leaves footprints in the mind as it is like sprinting on sand. Compassion does not have imprints, as it is analogous to a flight. Anger is an ailment and compassion is therapeutic. One burns in anger and glows in love.

State of unawareness

It is true that anger can only exist in a state of unawareness. The moment a person becomes aware of his outrage, it drops on its own. It requires tremendous sincerity to observe one's own self when anger rises. The real mettle comes out at the time of anger. It is not the tip of an iceberg, as the rest of it is made visible. As Henry Ward Beecher, US author and editor, said, "Never forget what a man says to you when he is angry." anger is different from hatred. Anger sustained and wounds kept green without being allowed to heal graduate into hatred.

Unadulterated anger

Children and sages look beautiful when they become angry. Their anger is authentic and unadulterated. They are personification of anger itself for a moment and it helps them in shedding it immediately. They never brood over rage to hatch hatred. Their anger is born out of love. It is to condemn incidents, which go against their consciousness. It is an altruistic act without even an iota of egotism. Hence, their emotion lasts for a minute and is lost forever.

Anger is not always bad. It may be spontaneous without any hangover of the past. On seeing inhuman injustice and incredible cruelty perpetrated on a group, one may lose one's temper. Well-founded anger with mighty forces adds a quality to the being and it shines like a golden sword on a velvet cloth. To attain that high degree of anger is a Herculean task as otherwise it may become a Himalayan blunder. As Aristotle mentioned in his `The Nicomachean Ethics,' "Anyone can become angry— that is easy. But to be angry with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose and in the right way— this is not easy."

The word Danger

The word danger has only one alphabet added to anger. It signifies that the results of wrath will be detrimental either to the experiencer or the person at the receiving end. There is a thin difference between anger and hunger. The forces which render people a hungry lot can make them an angry lot and they may stage a coup d'etat. It may lead to sabotage, assassination, riot, rebellion or revolution. Then history would be written with serum and blood instead of pen and ink. Anger remains concentrated as endemic for a while and gets manifested manifold as epidemic in a suitable environment. Individuals may form groups, swell into a crowd and turn into a mob to destroy and devastate.

Efforts to control anger are worse than anger itself. The attempts will accentuate adrenalin secretion, increase palpitation, double blood pressure and triple medical expenditure. It becomes anger directed towards self and is suicidal. One should understand nuances of anger and try to transcend it. Suppression and repression, avoidance and evasion lead to unexpected eruption at an inopportune time and results are disastrous.

Silent posture and sincere introspection can dilute anger and make its exit permanent. Patient hearing and empathy for others help in over powering diabolical, demonical and devilish feeling. Mind becomes light as it need not have to carry unnecessary burden. One should know how to pretend to be angry without being actually angry to get things done. If such an art is mastered, anger becomes a slave and relinquishes its position of a dictator.

-- V.IRAI ANBU IAS

A Cup of Tea

An ounce of tea has gallons of antiquity. It is replete with resplendent history, mesmerizing mythology and appealing anecdotes to its credit. It is the oldest beverage and still widely drunk for its rejuvenating capacity and refreshing quality. It triggers the dimensions of our dynamism. To day, it competes only with water in consumption.

The origin of tea and the discovery of its taste were purely serendipity. Chinese emperor Shen Nung was a serious stickler for boiling water. Once, it was done in garden and the leaves from a nearby

plant accidentally fell to render the water brown. The emperor drank the mixture and declared it a delicacy. He eulogized it as donor of vigour of body, contentment of mind and determination of purpose

Respite during any session is always referred as tea-break High tea, tea party are common usage. The evening tea led to entertainment outside and thus tea dances came into genesis. The phrase teetotal is said to have been derived from tea-meetings organized to skip alcohol. Teaspoon is the standard measurement for administering medicines. Only Prufrock of T. S. Eliot would measure his life in coffee spoons.

Tea leaves have a few vitamins and more fluoride to fight dental decay. Intake of tea checks halitosis. It helps in digestion and aids in reviving the stressful eyes. It moderates muscle relaxation. It is heartening to heart by improving circulation. The decoction of tea diffuses diarrhoea.

History notified an event as tea party in which no cup was served but barrels were thrown aboard. On December 16, 1773 a group of patriots threw the export cargoes of tea sent by East India Company into the sea, in Boston. All other American cities exemplified Boston. The stakes became skirmishes, escalated into battles and culminated as war for independence and authorization for autonomy. It demonstrated that a storm may brew in a tea cup.

Tea grew accidentally with coffee in Sri Lanka in the plantations of James Tailor, a Scotsman. He found it as an ugly little shrub. After a couple of seasons, a virulent leaf disease devastated the coffee plantation. The ugly little shrub remained invincible and tea industry got a start. Emigration of workers to plant tea plantations and supplant coffee stubble led to their permanent settlement and cascaded into racial discrimination and rebellion for liberation.

When the tea plantations of Kenya wilted due to severe drought, the demand for Indian tea was on the increase. The incredible demand paved way for unbridled greed. The planters in Nilgiris exported the condemned quantum to exploit the situation. It exploded and resulted in shutting the doors of entry forever. Nature balances and it helps to moderate even human nature. Ineligible profits will lead to inevitable loss.

According to Indian legend, Bodhi Dharma, in the fifth year of his seven-year continuous sleepless contemplation to develop insomnia, plucked the leaves of a proximate bush and chewed to ward off his weariness. The bush was the wild tea tree. As per Zen, Bodhi Dharma peeled off his eyelids to avert drowsiness and threw them away, which sprouted as a tea plant. Hence, tea helps in enhancing awareness and effacing slumber.

Why Zen alone considers tea as sacred and sipping it as a ceremony. In Japan, tasting tea is a kind of meditation to be done attentively with love. Washing the limbs and entering into the meditation hut with a sense of devotion is a pre-requisite. Seekers sit silently and sip the tea drop by drop with utmost sincerity. At that moment they themselves become the tea they take and the distinction disappears. Serenity dawns in the Zen garden and the whole environs is filled with joy, tranquility and peace. The tea ceremony helps the individual to have a taste of the divine. He extends this attitude to every endeavour that he pursues. He becomes a lesson when he reads, dance when he dances, game when he plays, and flute when he sings. He observes without duality. He is not even a witness.

As J. Krishnamurthy says, the observer becomes the observed Then being and doing become the same. Thus early morning tea is not only a stimulant but also a symbolic nirvana.

-- V.IRAI ANBU IAS

BOREDOM

Boredom is a sign of intelligence. The utterly stupid and the highly enlightened both never get bored. Only the brilliant feel doldrums with the regular routine things. The ordinary people crave for stereo typed events and long for the status quo to be maintained. Anything new shocks them and change would upset them.

Animals never feel the pinch of monotony. Donkeys and monkeys, dogs and ducks, hyenas and mynas are perfectly complacent what they are and contented with what they have. They bray and gibber, bark and quack, laugh and chirp not out of boredom but to alarm, assert and attract. Boredom is the phenomenon of the mind. Beasts have the brain and men have the mind.

The quick-witted look forward to new occurrences and the unique features captivate them. They get exhausted with the predictable events. They are the ones who become changed agents, question the existing dictums, shake the foundations of authority and remove the clutches of slavery. They are the harbingers of transformation.

Edward De Bono, the profounder of lateral thinking process, cites two reasons for a conversation to become boring. The first is that no one has anything to say about the subject. The second reason is that what is said is routine, trite and expected. James Bridie Mr. Bolfry says boredom is a sign of satisfied ignorance, blunted apprehension, crass sympathies, dull understanding, feeble powers of attention and irreclaimable weakness of character. This remark is applicable to the common men in their day to day affairs. Repetition, familiarity, predictability and too much of exposure results in boredom. When a couple on the road is found very happy talking to each other, one could conclude easily that they must not be husband and wife. Love becomes thrilling as it flows like a river and marriage brings boredom as it hardens the relationship like a glacier. Hence marriage becomes the easiest way to subjugate love.

The people who talk about themselves will be boring to others. Braggadocios will never interest any one. If the conversation becomes a process for mutual sharing and incessant learning, it will be a nourishing experience. One should guard against becoming irksome to others. Any one who suffers from inferiority complex is bound to beat his own trumpet to others. Superiority complex is nothing but inferiority complex disguised under the garb of superciliousness.

Existence itself is evolving. The largest desert in the world “the Sahara was once a pleasant land with rivers and brooks forest and grass land. Similarly Himalayas was not snow clad once. Status quo tantamount to death and growth is signified by mutation, modification and moderation.

It is in the womb of boredom; imagination got conceived and was delivered as discoveries and inventions. When walking became tedious, riding came to rescue. While sailing became weary, flying became the passion. The people who got bored are easily satisfied with the best. Creative individuals keep expressing their alacrity to overcome their ennui through various means. They either flourish or perish but simply do not vegetate.

All the sculptures, paintings, poems and architecture were created out of the urge to overcome the feeling of remaining idle. They viewed rocks as figures, walls as murals, words as rhymes, stones as monuments. Epoch-making inventions are the echoes of efforts to overcome drudgery. The

creative people had to overcome the hurdles created by the society to prove the utility of their innovation. The famous dictum of Max Planck in the philosophy of physics reads an important scientific innovation rarely makes its way by gradually winning over and converting its opponents. What happens is that its opponents gradually die out and that the next generation is familiarized with the ideas from the beginning.� Sometimes, the scientists have to lure the rulers with taxation that would accrue as the main attraction than the benefits which would be bestowed. It was not to be or not to be but whether survival or surpassing.

Restlessness is different from boredom. Restlessness is negative and devolution of mind. Youth are often restless due to the mismatch between the fast thinking and slow action. If the speed in thinking commensurates with the pace in action, then it becomes dynamism. Youth wants to fast forward and the aged like to rewind the film of life. Restlessness is the friction between the youthful half and the aged remains. Youth is not just a stage of life but a state of mind.

A man of awareness never gets bored. But to reach that stage is not possible through the quantum jump. One has to cross the corridor of boredom to enter the sphere of bliss. Men of awakening live dangerously and for them every minute becomes a thrilling experience. They consider repetition as death decorated and future has rebirth assured. They could enjoy every gulp of food, every drop of water and every breath of air. Life is a continuous renewal for them. They add the quality of attention to every moment of their life. Even the ordinary thing is become extraordinary in their presence. They look at even a blade of grass with reverence and respect for the existence. When they keep quite they do not talk to themselves. They feel aloneness and are absolutely happy with the universe. They do not want to prove anything to others.

It is a state of satisfied innocence and not the stage of satiated ignorance.

-- V.IRAI ANBU IAS

WITH A PINCH OF SALT

Salt signifies synergy and acts well in addition instead of solitary isolation

Salt stands as a symbol of immutable, incorruptible purity. It is distilled by a process of elimination and not through enhancement. Salt preserves, purifies and protects commodities and improves their endurance. One gets cloyed with sweet but not with salt. Sweat, tears and serum, all have significant quantum of salinity. Salt preaches equanimity and its intake is uniform irrespective of effluence of the affluent. Hence, it was satyagraha for self-distillation and not for sugar extraction.

Salt's history

Salt has a history apart from the mystery around it. In ancient Greece slaves were exchanged in lieu of salt and thus the expression, `not worth his salt,' came into existence. Special salt rations for early Roman soldiers were known as `Salarium argentum.' The term became the forerunner of the word, `salary.'

Salt enables our bodies to perform a variety of essential functions. Sodium in salt maintains the fluid in our blood cells. They generate and transmit electrical impulses in nerves and muscles, thus rendering us to vibrate with vigour. Chloride is necessary for digestion of food.

At any movement we have around 250 grams of salt to keep our system agile. It works out to a cup in quantum. So a cup of salt in the body is a joy forever. Even elixir in excess is poison. Salt is the outcome of adversity. It is not actually, `sweet are the uses of adversity' but `salt is the output of adversity.' When evaporation exceeds precipitation, salt works succeed. Where nature perishes, there salt flourishes.

Dead Sea is not really a sea but a great salt lake. Due to salinity, its water is so buoyant that no one drowns and it is even difficult to get under the surface. Hence, one does not die in Dead Sea though it is deadly. The name is a misnomer.

The economic dimension of salt is quite interesting. Ten per cent of all the salt produced in the world is applied to American highways for road de-icing. It is the principal de-icer as it is the most available and cost effective. Erie Canal was constructed out of the tax collected on New York State salt and tolls charged for salt shipments. Spiritual dimension of salt is soul kindling. Greek worshipers consecrated salt in their rituals. Jews included salt on the Sabbath. By turning back, Lot's wife turned into a pillar of salt.

About turn is restricted to regiments and prohibited in religion. Jesus called his disciples, `The salt of the earth.' In `The last supper,' Judas spilled a bowl of salt, a portent of misfortune. People still spill salt on the left shoulder to ward off devils and wipe off evils that may be lurking behind. In Buddhism and in Shintoism salt is used to drive off malevolent spirits.

When iodine content was fast depleting in food grains it had to be supplemented to vitalize cerebral function, vision and dynamism of human beings. Iodine does not distort the taste. At the same time, it should not exceed the requirement.

When sugar was proposed as the medium to be mixed, it was dismissed due to differential consumption between haves and have-nots. Those who could afford eat more sweets and the deprived, once in a blue moon. Hence salt was propounded as the correct component for it is consumed in adequate volume by every one. Salt signifies synergy and acts well in addition instead of solitary isolation.

The pouting between couple should be like the quantum of salt in food and this concept was advocated by none other than Thiruvalluvar. Salt dissolves and disappears not revealing its presence. Similarly, the affectionate tussle between spouses should be subtle and not known to outsiders.

-- V.IRAI ANBU IAS

Zeroing in on Zero

Zero is not to be conceived as a negative factor, writes V. IRAI ANBU.

Mocking at somebody's capability or intelligence, we at times call some one a "big zero". What significance does zero bear? We need to examine in detail. Discovery of zero is considered a pioneering step in the field of mathematics. Cartoonist R.K. Lakshman used to say: "We Indians have invented `Nothing''. The statement, as it turns out, is important both metaphorically and figuratively.

In mathematics, zero is a place holder in computation. It is a cardinal number associated with an empty set. It is a divider between the positive and the negative numbers. It is the power index which

converts any number into unity. It is an identity element in respect to the addition of real numbers. And, it is the number which cannot be a divisor.

Crucial in democracy

In economics, zero based budgeting is advocated. In demography zero growth rate is ideal. In democracy zero hour is crucial. In Physics, absolute zero is significant. In investigations, zeroing on the culprit is crucial.

Zero is not to be conceived as a negative factor. It can be positive. As Thich Nhat Hanh says, "If you have a debt to pay, it is negative. But when you pay it back, your balance returns to zero. That is wonderful because you are free." Even when the chronological order of the years was devised, after the completion of B.C., zero was omitted to be included and hence one year has been added to the actual number to be denoted.

Spiritual insight

It is to be remembered that Indians discovered zero not out of accident but due to spiritual insight.

To attain nothingness is the ultimate objective in spirituality. Chandogya Upanishad reveals the mystery of nothingness. `Bring me a banyan fruit,' Aruni said, and his son brought him one. `Cut it into two,' Aruni said and his son cut it into two. `What do you see,' Aruni asked. `I see some very small seeds,' his son replied. `Take one of the seeds and cut it into two,' Aruni said and his son cut a seed into two. `What do you see,' Aruni asked. `Nothing at all,' his son replied. Aruni said, `within that seed is the essence, which makes the entire seed to grow. Yet it cannot be seen.'

Meditation is zeroing on thought process. Dhyana is the attainment of `no-thought'. All great discoveries arose from the "no thought mind."

Physical manifestation

Emptiness is the physical manifestation of zero. Tao says, the room is useful not because of the walls but because of the emptiness within the circumference. Unless one becomes empty of his preconceived notions, one cannot learn any thing new. People feel happy to remain full even if they are stuffed with garbage. Buddha said, `Form is emptiness and emptiness is form'. There are seven kinds of emptiness, starting from the emptiness of mutuality to the highest emptiness of ultimate reality.

Lankavatara Sutra claims `when perfect wisdom is realized, the mind is empty of all conceptions and notions'. The Indian tradition trusts `learning zero' as the final step in the education process.

For them, to know existence is knowledge and to know the non-existence of existence is wisdom. West talks about silence as the absence of words and East names it as the absence of thought. Tilopa wants us to become the hollow bamboos to allow the divine to pass through us. J. Krishnamurthi says, `When you listen to sound, the very listening is the silence, silence and sound are not separate'. Love is nothing but the emotional experiencing of zero. It is a sudden collapse of a section of an individual's ego and boundaries and permitting one to merge one's identity with that of another.

Death is considered as the zero point of life. It is actually the pinnacle of life. Passed away does not mean gone. If one practices the art of looking deeply into a drop of water, one would see the whole

ocean in it and life will be full of music, dance and celebration. This is what zero teaches us, as the final lesson.

-- V.IRAI ANBU IAS

Scarecrow and Straw-Calf

Men of shallow sensitivity are equated to a scarecrow

A scarecrow stands undaunted, sans feelings and emotions. It is an apology for a human figure; still birds mistake them for watchers. They forget to fight and take recourse to flight.

All pretenders are like scarecrows. They are more of a projection and less of profundity. A slight dig will reveal their profile and render their mettle. Despite their ignorance, they march ahead with glee. They are ebullient with overconfidence. It is an irony that both cream and scum could float and flaunt. Scarecrows can be inscribed as insignias for charlatans and mountebanks. They promise more and perform less.

Useful but lifeless

Scarecrow never gets bored. It stands still insulated from insolation and precipitation. It never moves, does not scream but remains effective. Some times, it is more productive than men who guard. Men may embezzle but with the scarecrow, there is no pilferage.

"A scarecrow in the field so useful yet lifeless," thus reads a beautiful Zen haiku. One that does not throb with life will not drop with death. Scarecrow implies that one who has died already cannot die further. Scarecrow never shouts slogans nor indulges in social dialogue for wage hike. It neither complains nor grudges. It pleads not for rest and stages not an agitation. It is absolutely loyal for it is thick skinned and inanimate.

If men are reduced to things, they remain useful. We can possess them, exploit them and discard them at our will. Men are always the best disposables.

Blissful

If bestowed with soul, scarecrow would be blissful. In the words of Khalil Gibran, its pastime lies in the posture of threat. It derives joy when others are in a jittery mood. Only those who are stuffed with straw are puffed with pride. They gain pleasure not by commanding respect but by inspiring fear.

Scarecrow serves to prevent leakage but `straw-calf' subserves to facilitate exploitation. The calf is no more but the greed is unbridled. `Straw-calf' helps to extract up to the last drop of milk. Men would milch the cow dry till the udder bleeds. Our gluttony is more than the grief of the mother.

We cannot hoodwink the cow. She knows the difference between the real calf zealous with life, jumping with joy, nibbling the nipples and the bogus one mum like a mummy. She certainly differentiates the hardened human hands from the tender tongue of her offspring. But she endures the pain of bereavement and touch of treachery.

She consoles herself that death of her heir at the invisible fingers of nature is an easeful one than in the tyrannical hands of her master. Once in a while, the bovine is equated with the divine but its garland is found irksome for it rubs on the lashes she suffered on her soft neck. Men of shallow sensitivity stuff themselves with straw and go on parade with pride. Their whole life is spent in proving themselves and impressing others. They stuff others also with straw to extract, extort and exploit.

Personality is like a scarecrow. It is pseudo and not original. All appearances are always deceptive. If we scratch the outer `Erich Berne layer' of culture and civilization, we discover the depths of barbarism. Personality has its root in the Greek word, `persona,' which means mask. Greek actors used to wear masks to portray anger, courage, love, compassion, timidity etc.

A few people are comfortable only on stage. They are livelier in photographs. We develop personality by deftly masquerading, consciously concealing and correctly camouflaging. We start trusting our pseudo-self as the real one and that too when the whole world showers the fake with gasps and claps as accolades. We are taught to smile, stroke and cajole artificially for receiving approval.

Men of awareness

Men of awareness prefer to remain as individuals. They live according to their super consciousness. They smile from their hearts and speak from their souls. Their compassion is congenial; their love is genuine; their affection is real and their anger is authentic. They neither dictate to exploit nor abdicate to surrender.

They are neither sadists nor masochists. They do not want to be either scarecrows or `straw-calves'.

-- V.IRAI ANBU IAS

WINDING UP THE WIND

Wind with its invisibility makes its presence felt, writes V. IRAI ANBU

WIND IS the air in action. It is a source of energy which remains to be tapped. In flute it becomes music, in whistle it becomes caution, in siren it forms the call, in cyclone it becomes a calamity, in clock it transmits alarm and in nature it brings seasons.

Wind can put off fire, produce clouds, erode the soil, enrich the earth and thus orchestrate action in all forms of nature. We can use wind to draw water from the ground, light the lamps with energy and thus can understand the ramification of different facets of existence. Nothing comes from vacuum including the vacuum cleaner. Without air there will be no music, no harmony, and no sweetness for the ears for sound travels in air. Wind teaches the middle path. When it flows as breeze, it sways the trees. When it blows with rage, it slays them all.

Correct approach

Wind teaches the correct approach. It puts off the candle in excess and cuts off the light in its absence. Oxygen supply decides the burn and glow of the fire and breath. The same wind which strangles the wicks of lamps can light them as electrical flow after metamorphosis in the wind mill.

Wind is the pedagogue to preach against possessiveness. Closing the fist to hold the chill breeze makes the palm warm and render it sweating. The open hand can enjoy the coolness forever. Wind denotes dynamism. The air that stagnates in the pit stinks and the one which flows freely has a sweet odour. Wind transports the sound, heat, vapour and fragrance.

It spreads the winged seeds and breaks the backbone of their dormancy. Pollination, propagation are the handiwork of wind. The direction of wind decides the incidence of locusts.

Rebellious too

Wind is rebellious. It can neither be arrested nor curtailed. It is socialistic in fervour and altruistic in temperament, transcending artificial barriers. Time and again, it warns men against manipulating the fragile arms of nature by its fury.

It strikes as cyclone, circles as whirl, terrorizes as typhoon, wanders as wily-wily, hovers as hurricane to send signals to preserve, conserve and reserve the fresh pages of its heart and soul. There is no provision to take shelter, if the wind decides to wind up the weary settlements. But nature protects nature. The mighty palaces are devastated by strong super cyclone but not the tiny wings of butterflies. Invisibility is the essence of importance. All the vital parts of body are invisible and the visible ones accord protection to the invisible. Wind with its invisibility makes its presence felt. What we send through wind comes back manifold whether music or noise, elixir or poison, perfume or pollution, petal or rag, returns to us with double the force.

But still we crush the air, squeeze the wind, and spoil the atmosphere. We want short term survival to forego the long term prosperity. It is said that ears, sky and sound are related; nose, wind and sensation have linkage; eye, fire and light have correlation; tongue, water and taste can be categorized and body, earth and smell can be grouped. The relationship is well understood from the fact that bud yawns to blossom when it holds the breeze to its bosom. The olfactory sense can feel the scent and send the SMS to mind.

Components of wind

Components of wind are crucial to decide the sensation of body and sensitivity of life. Depletion of ozone, increase in carbon dioxide, suspension of poisonous particles, green house effect, global warming are all due to the vagaries of wind and results in trampling and tampering with air. Weather brings wind and weathering occurs through wind.

In our body we have five types of wind, including the breaking of wind. When we breathe in, life blossoms and breathe out last to expire.

Every inhalation is a symbol of continuance and every exhalation is suspension of life. Breathing is a physical process and respiration is a chemical phenomenon. If we could understand that life exists between the two intervals, the desire for permanence and longing for immortality will automatically subside. Then every breath becomes a bonus and every moment becomes an opportunity.

-- V.IRAI ANBU IAS

The Seventh Sense

When the mundane disappears, the sublime surfaces

We experience the essence of existence through the senses. The tactile, gustatory, visual, olfactory and auditory senses aid us in enjoying the elegance around us.

Significance of tactile is realised during temporary numbness. We crack the knuckles, massage the calf, swing the foot, jerk the knee and foment the muscles to bring back the flow. Deafness robs the music and blindness snatches the spectrum. The sixth is commonsense and sole prerogative of homo sapiens.

First five senses

We get identified through our bodies. Body degenerates, perishes and ages whereas mind regenerates, invigorates and matures. The first five senses are physical and produce feelings. The sixth rests on mind cascading emotions. We place visible over the invisible by default. The remote control lies in the pouch of the invisible. Hair is visible and heart is invisible.

Tactile is the lowest with which even microbes are endowed. Men who derive maximum bliss through carnal pleasures are rooted in it. They will be libidinous, lascivious and licentious. Gustatory comes next and it dominates in gluttons. They mostly munch, chew, lick, bite and drink. Food is their altar and their tongue extends up to their rectum. Visual differentiates advanced from the primitive. Colour blindness is common to animals and gradation increases with evolution.

Auditory occupies a higher plane by virtue of discrimination. We filter and hear what we want. Consumer hears the haggler; musician the melody; ornithologist the chirping; entomologist the fluttering; passenger the whistle and wayfarer the wind in the never-ending cacophony of life. Bats hear the ultrasonic and avoid collision. Olfactory declines with progression. Wolves can sniff a carcass miles away from their zone. The aborigines can sense cataclysmic downpour before meteorologists predict. Nostrils are their best weathercocks.

No superstars

Nature has blessed all beings with equanimity. Apes jump to spot the predator and alarm the herbivores by gibbering. The peerless pace of cheetah is for a few minutes but the indefatigable deer can sprint for hours. A few animals can smell; a few run; some climb and there is no superstar among animals. A pack of dholes can ravish a solitary lion with ease. Man withstood the test of survival through his judicious balancing of senses by employing logic. He understood, appreciated and adjusted with the vicissitudes of environment deftly. Civilisation commenced with man realising the magnificence of sixth sense. He was able to discriminate, decide and deliver. He distinguished good from evil, danger from safety and useful from waste.

Sixth sense

Sixth sense holds the reins of lower senses to reign supreme. It controls, cajoles and conditions the physical faculties. It tends to suppress them at odd hours and repress them using coercion. It streamlines their urge to maintain privacy.

Loopholes in society have become our firmament to spread out our desires. Our pleasures are discrete and pains made public. Commonsense moderates and transgression is eschewed. Anomaly leads to schizophrenia, lunacy and eccentricity. Madness is an aberration of sanity. No beast suffers from mental ailment. The moment a carnivore devours a man, it becomes a man-eater and homicide is so contagious. Sixth sense leads to pretension, hypocrisy and chicanery. When reason fails, feeling triumphs and man devolves to fall into abysmal depths.

Transcends the senses

When we cross the sixth, the seventh is available. The sixth controls but the seventh transcends the senses. In the seventh, we understand them and they drop on their own. It is like removing the clothes and not peeling off the skin. We surpass desire, lust, greed and gluttony without any effort.

They never make backdoor entry. When the mundane disappears, the sublime surfaces. We smell the extraterrestrial aroma and hear the extraordinary concert. We stumble upon super consciousness and communicate sans words, signs and gestures.

Transmission takes place at the speed of thought and subconscious acts as an antenna for telecasting. We can operate through intuition and the inner voice will guide us to purity. Then bliss becomes a 24-hour phenomenon. Freshness of fragrance will be found in our breath, words and deeds. Consequently, even a broom can become brush; walk, dance and sleep, meditation.

-- V.IRAI ANBU IAS

THE LAST WORD

The last is also the latest and the current

Last but not the least. It is a phrase invariably uttered by organisers who propose the `vote of thanks'. It is a ceremonial statement without realistic connotation. On the other hand, last cannot be the least. In fact, it is the `most.' The last number is always greater than the previous ones. Last is the maximum and is ranked as minimum. The last place seldom requires any reservation, as there is absolutely no competition. One is sure of staying there and no one would push us behind.

Last is the latest

National anthem is not insignificant for it is played at the end. Death is not unimportant due to its arrival at the fag end of life. The last is also the latest and the current. The last scene facilitates the success of a film; the last act determines the depth of a play and the last stanza, the profundity of a poem. Titles are formal in a movie and even in them the name of the director, crucial for the creation, figures last. Climax becomes important in literature and life. Conclusion decides the density of any fiction. The acceptance or repudiation of a theme rests on the closure.

While evaluating a performance, the ultimate behaviour of the incumbent dominates and the superiors influenced by `recency effect.' The last event remains green in memory and colours our opinion.

To remain last is the most difficult task. No one can succeed by effort. It has to be an effortless endeavour. When we strive, we may fail, fumble and tumble down. We can predict the first but not the last. Today becomes important, as it is the latest in our life.

Mysterious dimension

The term `last' has a mysterious dimension. Life is not linear but circular. Hence, the last becomes the first. At times, the order becomes meaningless. The first is always to support the last - whether it is the rungs of ladder or garments worn in order. Here, the last becomes precious and apparent. Old age is beautiful in its own way. Butterfly is enthralling than the young larva. On aging, fruit becomes captivating, juicy, edible and delicious whereas at the prime of its youth, it is raw and pungent.

Dessert is the final dish in a sumptuous feast. We want a pleasant taste to linger on. Qualification is what we acquire in the end and not with what we begin our academics. The last post a person officiates is the highest in his job ladder. Cadre at retirement is the pinnacle of power an employee could enjoy in his career. Seed is the first and fruit is the last. The last begets the first and vice versa. Seed is sown only to reap the fruit. There is always a question as to whether egg came first or the hen. As per evolution, transformation took place on a step-by-step basis and the species evolved first to procreate its progeny. Hence, hen metamorphosed from its previous form.

Finishing is important both in race and art. Elevation in architecture, finesse in art, intricacies in painting, sharpness in sculpture, chiselling in poetry, economy in literature, lace work in apparels, ornamentation in furniture and binding in printing render final touch to the product and enhance the loveliness of creation.

The inclination of a few to become premiers and reign supreme forever resulted in bloodcurdling battles and gruesome wars. In Tamil, an adage describes the aspirations of such schizophrenics. They want to be grooms in halls of marriage and the deceased in houses of mourning. Those who prefer to lag behind cause no harm to anyone around. They can vibe with the centre of universe at ease. Life has secrets in stock. One who never rushes madly is found rewarded amply.

Quality of the bassinet is not in our hands but the magnificence of tomb is the result of our own deeds. In life, cradle is pronounced by destiny and coffin, by our dedication. We are born crying and if we could die laughing it would be an achievement par excellence. In the long run, there is no difference between the last and the first and some times, they are the same.

-- V.IRAI ANBU IAS