A Drama Played As Designed

Ingrained in me these few happy memories
With us when you were around
The rest were cause for many worries
As father and daughter we were bound

I wonder how you are coping there
Since you are no longer in the physical dimension
Everyday when I say my prayer
You are the first one I mention

I shall not rake up the past
Let bygones be bygones
The lesson learnt; let that last
Lest fresh karma spawns

I have known this to be true
The peace which forgiveness begets
Whatever unpleasantness we went through
For that I have no regrets

In the silent darkness of midnight
On my bedroom wall shadows cast
The night games played by trees and the streetlight
In fear my heart beat very fast

I heard a stray dog howl and a yelping pup
Petrified I lay still with no other choice
With all the courage I could muster up
I called out to you in a feeble voice

You came running to the side of my bed
It was only a shadow; to my senses you made clear
With a gentle smile you lovingly stroked my head
I slept peacefully with no more fear

Decades have passed and I have wondered
Where your heart lost its tenderness
If only you had sat and pondered
On fleeting illusion and your own blessedness

With no judgment I do however opine
You did what you thought was right
A drama we played perfect to the design
With your memories I no longer fight

Pepal Tree
May 2009

Aging with Grace

As years go by

I look back and sigh

Not for my hair which has now turned grey

But for what could have been done in a better way

Not for the eyes tipped with crow’s feet

But for those deadlines I didn’t meet

Not for the dry, sun tanned skin

But for those prizes I never did win

Not for slowed down hobbling gait

But for those I preferred not to wait

Not for the fingers frail and bent

But for those moments in vain I spent

Years gone by are never a waste

One life at a time I’m given to taste

If not now there is always the next

A wish, a hope, of being the best

Lifetime upon lifetime given to surmise

To become wise and break all ties.

Pepal Tree
16.05.2011

Roses

A man with a question wandered around

And finally the man with an answer he found

He who had the answer was none other than the Buddha

He walked the earth long ago; The Tathāgata

The man with all the courage he could muster

Stood with folded hands before the Great Master

With all compassion the Enlightened one enquired

For what was needed to be done as required

“What is the difference between your love and mine?

I ask you humbly, Master, please do opine”

The man with all humility the question he poses

The Master replied with an example of two roses

“Your love”, said the Master in all compassion,

“Is still devoid of all dispassion”

The Master went on for the man to understand

“Your love is like a rose you hold in your hand”

“My love”, the Master continued to explain,

“Is intended to give Joy, never pain,

Like a rose in a bush left alone

With no intention to possess or own”

Pepal Tree

23^rdDecember, 2009.

Stillness

Never lose touch with the inner stillness

Lest you get lost in the worlds wilderness

This stillness is who we really are

For caste and creed there is no bar.

What is good and what is bad? What is this duality?

Illusions causing vitality

Stillness is equilibrium

In this Time-Space Continuum.

Listen to the silence all around

To the listeners it is so profound

With this stillness when we do connect

Everything seems so perfect.

Life is neither a comedy nor is it tragic

Be still and allow the Universe to do its quiet magic

Time and place; Never and Nowhere

Stillness is when we are Aware.

We only have to be open and properly see

That everything is as it has to be

Nothing really needs to be changed

In time and space we are not framed.

The culprit is not the mind

It is but a naughty child; Be kind

Befriend it and it will succumb

To your charm; It will open up new vistas with aplomb.

Against this stillness the outside world is perceived

As impulses in the brain the world is received

This stillness is the background of reference

Words are insubstantial to express, to this Stillness, my  reverence.

The created Universe is rushing back to its Source

Every unit of matter taking its own course

Can we compare, differentiate or divide?

When All is One, whom do we deride?

The mind is running nowhere on a treadmill

We have to be aware of this and make it still

Breaking away from eons of conditioning

Beyond thoughts, words or reasoning.

The space around us allows everything to Be

The Universe is not all what the eyes do see

What we see out there is not ultimate reality

Simple yet difficult, self created  complexity.

Thousands of possibilities; Each moment is new

No beginning or end, if only we Knew

Awareness disguised as a person

Realize and break free from our conceptual prison.

Physical matter when it is frozen

As mind and thoughts, when allowed to loosen

The same is however always formless

Who we are as pure Consciousness.

Reverberating through the vast galaxies

Every blade of grass and the seven seas

The only One rooted in this quantum program

“I Am”, “I Am”, “I Am” ,”I Am”

Pepal Tree

April 2009

Sir M. Vishveshwaraiah and Engineers day

Dignitaries on and off the dais.

Sir MV was a legend in his life time and the legacy continues.  So, I should better skip his biographical details here and focus on his greatness as a human being. We have here with us today many distinguished personalities who in most certainty know more about the great Sir MV than I. But for the young people gathered here today, the student fraternity, who are probably yet to read about his great achievements I wish to share just a few important facts about the legend.  It is rather difficult to talk about his greatness given the constraint of time.  And once started it is more difficult to stop. He has painted a broad canvas with the lovely colours of values, vision, discipline, diligence and ethics in which one loses the sense of time altogether.

Early years and graduation:

Sir  Mokshagundam Vishveshwaraiah was born in 1861 in Muddenahalli, Chikkaballapur Taluk, Kolar District in the then Mysore state, to Srinivas Shastry and Venkatalakshmamma. His ancestors hailed from Mokshagundam, which is an Agrahaara, an abode to Brahman families, in Siddanur village, Kurnool district, Andhra Pradesh. Engineers day is celebrated as an honor and respect to Sir MV and it is a reminder to us engineers to follow even a few of his principals.

 Srinivas Sastry was a Sanskrit scholar and an authority on the Hindu Scriptures. While on a pilgrimage in Andhra Pradesh he breathed his last leaving a 15 year old Vishveshwaraih and his mother behind. Vishweshvaraiah completed his lower secondary education in Chikkaballapur. The helpless widow had no means to bring up her intelligent son. It was then that her brother H. Ramaih, who was in Bangalore, took Vishveshwaraiah under his care. Vishveshwaraih completed his high school in Wesleyan Mission High School in 1875.

He went to Central College and to see himself through college he tutored the sons of Muddaih who was one of the ministers to the Maharaja of Mysore. He completed his BA in 1881. He later completed his Engineering in the College of Engineering in Poona in 1883 and stood first. He was then 22 years of age.

The greatness of a man can be seen in the small things he does, the way he treats his subordinates and those with fewer privileges. Only a great soul can completely understand another great soul. So, let us try to understand his greatness through his simplicity, in the everyday little things he did. So, I have collected here anecdotes which tell of the small things he did with profound intent and greatness.

Ingenuity and ethics:

Throughout his life many incidents have been recorded which tell us about his ingenuity and his strong code of ethics. One of these incidents was when he was posted in Poona. The river Moosa provided drinking water to a military station at Karkee and to Poona. During summers this river would dry up and during the rains it would overflow. Karkee would get filtered water and Poona unfiltered water. The water was insufficient for the growing city of Poona. Lake Fife stored water from the river Moosa. One way to meet the need of drinking water was to increase the height of waste water weir. But the weight and pressure of the water this wall could not withstand. It was Sir Vishveshwaraiah’s invention that was installed as an automatic gate which would open and allow surplus water above 8 feet to flow through and close when the level of water fell below 8 feet. He obtained a patent for his invention but he refused any royalties as he thought it was unfair as he was in the service of the government.

Simplicity and self respect:

His food habits were simple too. He loved the famous Nanjangud banana and ate them at lunch. He displayed discipline right from the way he partook his meals to the way he handled his job.  He never ate a spoon less or a spoon more and his routine was like clockwork.

However, he dressed immaculately.  There used to be a joke which went around in those days. C. Rajagoplachari, the independence activist and the last Governor-General of India, used to tell Sir MV that he had a doubt whether the clothes Vishveshwaraiah wore were pressed before he wore them or after he put them on.

When he was the Dewan of Mysore it was the custom that the Indian officials will be seated on mattresses on the floor and the Englishmen would be seated on chairs in the durbar during Dussera. Sir MV was a little peeved by this and he walked out of the gathering. The next year, during the same durbar, the Maharaja  of Mysore saw to it that  chairs were provided for the Indian officials as well.

Constant drive for excellence:

Sir MV noticed “waste” in different spheres of social life. Interpreting society through the lens of productivity, he made an unusual observation: “Mental energy is wasted in caste disputes and village factions.” For him, caste inequality was wrong as it did not allow for the optimal use of individual energies toward building a society. A popular anecdote has it that he exclaimed, “What a waste!” when he beheld the Jog Falls in Shimoga district. Hydro-electric power could be harnessed at the site of the water falls. Aesthetics had to be subordinated to considerations of utility.

He never used the office for personal gains. As old folklore goes, he used two lamps to read after nightfall; one which was provided by the state he used for his official work, after which he would put off, and the other lamp was his own which he used to do his personal work. In this context I’d like to tell you that the Mysore Palace was the first building to be electrified in India.

Swadeshi and Technology:

Gandhiji initiated the Swadeshi movement to discourage all use of goods made by the British. But Sir MV liked using those articles manufactured by the British, partly because he admired technology and partly because it improved quality of life. His stand was that a country like India  with a huge population could not sustain itself on cottage industries alone. While Gandhiji said “Industrialize and perish”, Sir MV iterated “Industrialize or perish”.  We see two great men with different perspectives, nonetheless paragons in walking their talk.

His resignation:

When he was appointed the Dewan of Mysore by the Maharaja of Mysore, he invited all his relatives to dinner one day and told them never to come to him for favours from the state through him. He disliked nepotism and favouritism.

As Dewan of Mysore all affairs were running smoothly and just when times were shiny and bright, dark storm clouds gathered. There was a slight disagreement between the Maharaja of Mysore and Sir MV over the appointment of six probationary commissioners. The list sent by Sir MV was not honoured by the Maharaja and it became a caste issue later on. This led to a rift between them and eventually Sir MV’s resignation. This, for Sir MV, was one of the saddest events in his life. Not because he would lose his office but that he would no longer be able to serve his country through his acumen. But he was not a man to mope over the past. He applied himself to the sphere of education to set right the imbalance between the communities divided by education.

He insisted on following the Japanese secret of education which applied “the cultivation of the moral character, the development of the spirit of loyalty and patriotism and the acquisition of knowledge necessary for practical occupations”, which is close to the purushartha concept in India; dharma, artha, kama and moksha.

Industries and Banks:

Today we have the State Bank of Mysore, Mysore Sandal Oil Factory, Mysore Soap Factory, Mysore University and the great Krishnaraja Sagar Dam in Mandya District because of him, just to mention a few milestones because of time constraint. Behind every institution and organization that he initiated there lies the saga of his effort and tremendous motivation, again which cannot be delved into because of the time constraint.

Here I’d like to mention that if one has seen the great KRS reservoir we can say that his scientific mind was not devoid of aesthetics which is displayed in the beauty of the Brindavan Gardens there.

IIT Muddenahalli:

And with great happiness I discovered that there is an Indian Institute of Technology being constructed at Muddenahalli, the very birth place of Sir MV. It may be completed in 2012.

Passing:

He could climb the Nandi Hills in 45 minutes at the age of 73 and read without spectacles even till he was 100.

Serving his country diligently he had become as fragile as sandalwood. He passed away not from any ailment, but, out of sheer weariness of body and spirit at the age of 102 years in 1962.

Can we emulate the greatness of this great son of India? As engineers if we do, he will continue to live among us.

I thank our beloved Principal for giving me this opportunity to talk about Sir MV. It has been an immense pleasure. Thank you, Sir.

Alone, Not Lonely

I love being alone, but I’m not lonely

I sit with my Love which is my one and only

When alone, in the spring of Life I am rooted

To ward off attachments I tread in this world, with aloneness I’m booted

Aloneness is to be with oneself comfortable

It only costs me my presence; what could be more affordable?

In my aloneness I’m one with my breathe

The stillness is inexplicable, I could even welcome death

On the other side of nowhere my Beloved will rejoice

To be alone when I consciously make a choice

Seeking perfect companionship for long I have been deluded

Only through my aloneness I seek my perfect Beloved

Pepal Tree

09.07.2009

Death

At the hour of Death

 The parade of Life

Seems so unimportant

What a relief!

Roles played

Emotions experienced

Hopes and aspirations

To strengthen our Belief.

Were it not for this make believe

True effort, True feelings

Would never perhaps

Be invested into Life.

Knowing the purpose

Of manifested Reality

Does it not indeed

Remove all strife?

Calm and peaceful

Warm darkness

All is well

We are really Alive.

Welcome Death

It is what we lived for

Anticipate and enhance Alertness 

When Death does arrive.