Friday, October 6, 2023
Aye jaeyo
Monday, October 2, 2023
108
Friday, September 29, 2023
KA
Kiratarjuniya is a well-known Mahabharata story. It is divided into eighteen cantos that describe Arjuna's battle with Lord Shiva. During the Pandavas' exile in the Mahabharata, Sage Vyasa advises them to use the exile period to appease Gods and grow stronger.
stoic.
Of all people only those are at leisure who make time for philosophy, only they truly live. Not satisfied to merely keep good watch over their own days, they annex every age to their own. All the harvest of the past is added to their store. ” — Seneca
The private diaries of one of Rome’s greatest emperors, the personal letters of one of Rome’s best playwrights and wisest power brokers, the lectures of a former slave and exile, turned influential teacher. Against all odds, some two millennia later, these incredible documents survive. They contain some of the greatest wisdom in the history of the world and together, they constitute the bedrock of what is known as Stoicism—an ancient philosophy that was once one of the most popular civic disciplines in the West, practiced by the rich and the impoverished, the powerful and the struggling alike in the pursuit of the Good Life.
Except to the most avid seekers of wisdom, Stoicism is either unknown or misunderstood. To the average person, this vibrant, action-oriented, and paradigm-shifting way of living has become shorthand for “emotionlessness.” Given the fact that the mere mention of philosophy makes most nervous or bored, “Stoic philosophy” on the surface sounds like the last thing anyone would want to learn about, let alone urgently need in the course of daily life.
It would be hard to find a word that dealt a greater injustice at the hands of the English language than “Stoic.” In its rightful place, Stoicism is a tool in the pursuit of self-mastery, perseverance, and wisdom: something one uses to live a great life, rather than some esoteric field of academic inquiry. Certainly, many of history’s great minds not only understood Stoicism for what it truly is, they sought it out: George Washington, Walt Whitman, Frederick the Great, Eugène Delacroix, Adam Smith, Immanuel Kant, Thomas Jefferson, Matthew Arnold, Ambrose Bierce, Theodore Roosevelt, William Alexander Percy, Ralph Waldo Emerson. Each read, studied, quoted, or admired the Stoics. The ancient Stoics themselves were no slouches. The names you encounter on this site in our daily email meditations—Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus, Seneca—belonged to, respectively, a Roman emperor, a former slave who triumphed to become an influential lecturer and friend of the emperor Hadrian, and a famous playwright and political adviser. What have all these and countless other great men and women found within Stoicism that others missed? A great deal. Primarily, that it provides much needed strength, wisdom, and stamina for all of life’s challenges. Around 304 BC, a merchant named Zeno was shipwrecked on a trading voyage. He lost nearly everything. Making his way to Athens, he was introduced to philosophy by the Cynic philosopher Crates and the Megarian philosopher Stilpo, which changed his life. As Zeno later joked, “I made a prosperous voyage when I suffered shipwreck.” He would later move to what became known as the Stoa Poikile, literally meaning “painted porch.” Erected in the 5th century BC—the ruins of it are visible still, some 2,500 years later—the painted porch is where Zeno and his disciples gathered for discussion. While his followers were originally called Zenonians, it is the ultimate credit to Zeno’s humility that the philosophical school he founded, unlike nearly every school and religion before or since, didn’t ultimately carry his name. Agasicles, king of the Spartans, once quipped that he wanted to be “the student of men whose son I should like to be as well.” It is a critical consideration we need to make in our search for role models. Stoicism is no exception. Before we begin our studies we need to ask ourselves: Who are the people that followed these precepts? Who can I point out as an example? Am I proud to look up to this person? Do I want to be more like them?
The Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius, the playwright and political advisor Seneca, and the slave turned prominent teacher Epictetus—these are the three Stoics you need to get to know first. Once you do, we’re confident you will want to follow in their footsteps.
Thursday, September 28, 2023
old age.
By Pranav Khullar
What does it really mean to be old and aging? Why do we avoid thinking about growing old, an inescapable fact of life, and focus on staying young? Simone de Beauvoir defined the notion of aging by seeing aging as society’s secret shame, stating that we don’t have a culture of aging; that it is a cultural construct which imposes a feeling of separation and distance of the elderly from their family and community, and masks it up as if it is a natural inevitability.
Beauvoir’s The Coming of Age explores the phenomenology of aging as the internalisation of this sociocultural construct, wherein everyone avoids and almost ostracises the old, and this then becomes the new normal.
She postulates age as an essential aspect of personal identity, since we tend to define ourselves in generations, and our sense of age is formed in relation to others and in our being interdependent. Since old age is somehow looked upon as different from other phases of life, the aged and elderly are naturally marginalised from families and communities, as if this dehumanisation is meant to be.
Beauvoir’s treatise further posits the change required in the psychological make-up of the aging themselves. Is there a way out of being pushed aside by the next generation as we age? She believed that if old age is not to be an absurd parody of youth, then we have to continue pursuing ends that give our existence meaning – devotion to individuals, to groups or to causes, social, political, intellectual or creative work. Old age should arouse these passions more. Is not the maturing of wisdom associated with old age?
She alludes to the Buddha in this awakening of maturity and wisdom, in this seeking of the meaning of life and writes, “What is the use of pleasures and delights, when I am myself the future dwelling-place of old age, said the Buddha.” Beauvoir positions this awareness of the Buddha within her modernist paradigm. The Buddha, to her, is a rare, enlightened Being, born to save humanity, taking upon himself the entirety of the human state.
While the Buddha saw old age as inevitable but meaningful,Beauvoir juxtaposes it with this modern cultural construct which denies the notion of old age. While the Buddha saved the world, we are out to save ourselves only, our stubborn ideas of who we should be, where we need to define everyone within a youth matrix, which turns the old into the other.
Jan Baars expands on this idea of how there has been this obliteration of respect for aging in the modern world. In his Aging and the Art of Living, Baars sees the aging narrative being traditionally driven by the idea of chronometric time. Calendars and clocks have circumscribed human lives, and this chronological time, this calculative approach to time, Baars writes, has tragically undermined the human capacity to experience life fully.
Listening to the actual voices of aging human beings is the key to seeing them as social beings and not isolated individuals. This will enrich their lives with new possibilities and aspirations. Baars’s image of the Owl of Minerva – goddess of wisdom – spreading her wings at dusk, aptly sums up this new paradigm of aging.
October 1 is International Day of Older Persons.
Tuesday, September 26, 2023
Kuvialaithal
kUvi azhaittAl kural koDuppAn
raagam: valaji
16 cakravaakam janya
Aa:S G3 P D2 N2 S
Av: S N2 D2 P G3 S
taaLam: Adi
Composer: Vaalee
Language:
pallavi
kUvi azhaittAl kural kOduppAn (kumaran) param kunram Eri ninra kumarA enru
anupallavi
pUvizhi malarndaruL punnakai purivAn puNNiyam sheidavarkku kaNNediril terivAn
caraNam
dEviyar iruvar mEviya guhanai tingaLai aNinda shankaran maghanai
pAvalar yAvarum pADiya vEndanai pon mayil EriDum SaNmukha nAthanai
If we stand on the divine hill and call him loudly,
He will answer us back
Anupallavi
To those doing blessed deeds,. He would come before them,
And present them a smile with his flowery lips.
Charanam
Oh Guha who was loved by two divine damsels,
Oh Son of the God who wore the moon,
Oh king who has been sung about by all great poets,
Oh Lord Shanmuga who has climbed the golden mountain.
LLG
Sri Parasara Badri Bhattar Swamy said in a discourse that enjoying the divine bliss of Sri Mahalakshmi includes that of Lord Vishnu. Mangala Deepa Rekha means the blissful divine qualities radiating as a ray of light from the Goddess. The great Acharya, Parasara Bhattar, had written Sri Gunarathna Kosam highlighting the qualities of Sri Ranganayaki Thayar. The qualifying word ‘Sri’ is used by all the Acharyas in their works. Koorathazhwan praised the Goddess in his work Sristavam. Alavandhar says, “Sri: Ityeva Nama te Bhagavathi”, implying the name of the Goddess is Sri. Thirumangaiazhwar says that Narayana is the Lord of Sri (Thiruvukkum Thiruvagiya Selva). Saint Ramanuja says in Gadhyathrayam, “Akhila Jagan Matharam, Asman matharam“ — She is the Mother of the universe.
The heart of the Lord is the most beautiful palace called “Lakshmi Lalitha Graham”, which she resides in. The Mother always shows kindness. In His difficult work of creation, the Lord undergoes various tribulations, and She removes them. It is said that the Goddess approves the deeds of the Lord through Her divine eyes.
Sri ramayana is famous because it tells the qualities of Sri Sita she saved the ogres from Hanuman out of compassion, she pleads with the lord to pardon our mistakes.