But then, as two new books on the strange history of yoga in America show, even the most esoteric and ancient spiritual tradition mutates weirdly when it meets a modern culture pursuing happiness with ever diverse means.

We have a case where the authors of both the books have gotten it wrong because Mishra bases his entire column on these books. Either that or Mishra is being his usual misguided-missile self: misreading, and misleading.

As I’ve shown in an earlier post, Yoga has been badly mauled today. To call it esoteric is, well, a Mishraesque concoction. In addition, the mutation that Mishra mentions is no mutation: the American culture, which needs newer fads to feed itself doesn’t need anything to mutate. What Americans follow in the name of Yoga is neither the pursuit of happiness nor Yoga. It’s not even fitness. It’s just a fad.

After meandering for sometime with a few quotes from the book, Mishra proclaims that

Still, this conflation of yoga with the Kama Sutra — India’s most famous exports to the West prior to information technology — would have startled not only its Brahman practitioners in the Himalayas or along the Ganges but also the sages of Walden and Concord who first embraced Indian ideas of nondualism, the indivisibility of mind and matter, and the essential oneness of the universe.

Mishra would have us believe that only Brahmins (Brahmans/Brahmanas) practice Yoga in the Himalayas. We’d like him to show us some evidence as to the non-existence of people of other castes who practice Yoga in the Himalayas or along the Ganges. To address his “conflation” bit, anybody with even the basic theoretical knowledge of both Kama Sutra and Yoga would call Mishra’s bluff. The end of both Yoga and Kama Sutra is Moksha. In other words, you cannot view any concept of Hindu philosophy in isolation. Remember, it’s the West that interpreted the Kama Sutra as a Sex manual, the author of which was a celibate. What does that tell you, Mishra?

Turning his attention to the second book, Pankaj Mishra drops these precious pearls:

The earliest Indian vendors of spirituality, like Swami Vivekananda, who lectured on Hinduism at the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1893, looked down on the asanas, or poses, of hatha yoga as a defective path to yoga’s goal: the union of the individual self with the divine Self.

Isn’t it interesting how he reduces Swami Vivekananda to a mere “vendor of spirituality?” Given Mishra’s stellar record it is entirely possible that:

a) He has read Swami Vivekananda’s works in full or in sufficient depth.
b) He feels highly elevated by showing the world that Swami Vivekananda was “after all a human being like you and me.”
c) Both a & b

Because it’s superfluous to comment on the secret workings of Mishra’s mind vis a vis Swami Vivekananda, let’s find out for ourselves what Swami Vivekananda said about Hatha Yoga.

But the main part of the activity will lie along the spinal column, so that the one thing necessary for the posture is to hold the spinal column free, sitting erect, holding the three parts — the chest, neck, and head — in a straight line. Let the whole weight of the body be supported by the ribs, and then you have an easy natural postures with the spine straight. You will easily see that you cannot think very high thoughts with the chest in. This portion of the Yoga is a little similar to the Hatha-Yoga which deals entirely with the physical body, its aim being to make the physical body very strong. We have nothing to do with it here, because its practices are very difficult, and cannot be learned in a day, and, after all, do not lead to much spiritual growth. Many of these practices you will find in Delsarte and other teachers, such as placing the body in different postures, but the object in these is physical…The result of this branch of Yoga is to make men live long; health is the chief idea, the one goal of the Hatha-Yogi. He is determined not to fall sick, and he never does. He lives long; a hundred years is nothing to him; he is quite young and fresh when he is 150, without one hair turned grey. But that is all. A banyan tree lives sometimes 5000 years, but it is a banyan tree and nothing more. So, if a man lives long, he is only a healthy animal. One or two ordinary lessons of the Hatha-Yogis are very useful. For instance, some of you will find it a good thing for headaches to drink cold water through the nose as soon as you get up in the morning; the whole day your brain will be nice and cool, and you will never catch cold. It is very easy to do; put your nose into the water, draw it up through the nostrils and make a pump action in the throat.

Please spot a single syllable in this paragraph that shows the Swami “looking down on the asanas” and calling them a “defective path to Yoga’s goal.” If anything, the Swami clearly says that Hatha Yoga is beyond the ambit of his current focus (Raja Yoga). He neither recommends it nor condemns it conclusively. If anything, he actually recommmends taking a few lessons from Hatha Yoga. Mr. Mishra, words have meanings: “to look down upon” means “belittle, condemn.” Clever phraseology fools no one.

After hurriedly dumping Swami Vivekananda, Mishra rambles on, paragraph after paragraph resembling a Quoteathon interspersed with tidbits of his own “commentary.” He says nothing we already don’t know: the Hippies and the new-age guys completely tarnished Yoga…blah blah blah…Yoga is now equated (he says “demoted”) with fitness…more blah blah blah…middle class America made it hugely popular in the ’90s and so on until he gets to this:

But such a fetish of the “authentic” assumes that people in the country of yoga’s origin have upheld a timeless and unchanging yoga rather than practicing what Wendy Doniger, the distinguished historian of Hinduism, calls the world’s greatest “have your rice cake and eat it” religion.

Note the barely-disguised tone that, addressed to Americans, says: listen guys, don’t get worked up. You know, it’s ok, it’s just the so-called puritans that berate your Yoga. Back home in India, they’re equally screwed up. Even they don’t know what real Yoga is. And lo! who does he quote? The High Priestess of Chicago School of Indology, who has left us no record of calling Christianity “have your wine and drink it” religion. We’ll examine this in a bit when we get to what Mishra says next:

It was in India that the tradition of Tantrism first exalted the human body as the source of this-worldly liberation.

Really? And what evidence does Mishra give in support? Nothing. Nobody. The importance of the physical body as a vehicle for spiritual liberation was emphasized in the Vedas as I’ve briefly shown in the past. And further, writes Mishra,

The generation of semi-Westernized Indians who brought about the renaissance of yoga in the early 20th century were themselves syncretists, combining ideas from both East and West. Even the physical aspects that dominate yoga today are partly reimports from the West. T. Krishnamacharya (the South Indian teacher of Indra Devi), B. K. S. Iyengar and K. Pattabhi Jois borrowed from gymnastic postures introduced to India by British colonialists.

Again, Mishra doesn’t care to explain what the curious beast called “syncretist” is. Interestingly, he calls B.K.S Iyengar and Pattabhi Jois as Yoga teachers while elsewhere in his article, he takes pains to explain what “true” Yoga is:

…yoga, which in India, the country of its origin, is identified as one of the six main schools of classical philosophy as well as a form of intellectual training, ethical behavior, meditation, alternative medicine and physical culture. (The Sanskrit word itself means “union,” of the individual self with the cosmic Self.)

Mishra needs to make up his mind: either his understanding of Yoga is incorrect or BKSI and Pattabhi Jois are real Yoga gurus. Either way, Mishra contradicts himself.

In the end, Pankaj Mishra does what’s best known for: writing ultra-long pieces that serve as the perfect vehicles to confound, contradict, dismiss, mislead, and generally tax the brain to the utmost. In this case, the reader will take away this message about the “essence” of Yoga–that it’s all about prolonged lovemaking, nonstop bedroom athletics, deeper orgasms, oral sex, and “have your rice cake and eat it.” Perhaps this is Pankaj Mishra’s way of venting his anger against everything that was denied to him.

Tags: Commentary, Hinduism, India, Indian Philosophy, Pankaj Mishra, Politics, US, Wendy Doniger, Yoga, Yoga in the US

Radical Islamic outfit Popular Front of India (PFI) is aiming to convert Kerala into a Muslim majority state in the next 20 years, Kerala Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan said here Saturday.

“For achieving that goal, the outfit is pumping money to attract youth and give them weapons. They also try to convert youth from other communities and persuade them to marry Muslim girls,” Achuthanandan told reporters here.

Quite a revelation.

The ever-awake cynic in me questions the context, circumstances, and timing of this thoroughly unsecular (Note: to be distinguished from “Pseudosecular” and other variants thereof) revelation. It isn’t like on the morning of July 25 he had this startling wake up call. Going by the record of his party, there are at least three factors at play:

• The Christian stealth lobby that is both pissed off and shaken at the brazen cutting off of the lecturer’s hand.
• The Left, which has seen massive erosion of its vote bank in West Bengal, is desperate to preserve its other traditional stronghold.
• The prospect that the Islamic threat is, you know, actually real in Kerala and that time is fast running out.

Giving due credence to the last factor, the first two prospects seem more likely to have elicited this bold statement from a sitting, secular Chief Minister of a revolutionary party. His boldness doesn’t end there. Read this.

The chief minister said the outfit [Popular Front of India] tried to create a clean image by organising freedom parades on independence day.
Various district administrations have already banned the parade organised by the PFI every Aug 15, he said.

This in a state with a hoary record of appeasing even known terror-enablers like Madani. The PFI has spread its tentacles to a peace-loving city like Bangalore by organizing “justice” and “social harmony” rallies from time to time. Among others, here’s a partial list of luminaries who have lent their fair names to its “cause.” One such recent “cause” was a protest against the anti-Cow slaughter bill that was passed by the Karnataka Assembly.

CK Jaffer Sharief, journalist Gauri Lankesh, DS spokesman and MLC YSV Dattha (Deve Gowda’s sidekick), Prof Rahmath Tarikere, Girish Karnad, and U R Ananthamurthy (surprise!).

Now that some of their own naughty boys have chopped off the lecturer’s hand and invited the wrath of the Kerala Chief Minister, will these luminaries stand up and disown their errant boys? These worthies who, at the mention of “BJP,” instantly jump up in indignant self-righteousness like monkeys whose bottoms have been singed, have remained mum for over 3 weeks.

Back to Achyutanandan who seems to have also discovered “Love Jihad” here:

The chief minister was responding to a question whether the ongoing crackdown would not prove counterproductive. Achuthanandan’s statement also points an accusing finger at the PFI for encouraging ‘love jihad’, something the organisation has been vehemently denying.

Perhaps Achyutanandan only needs to get a count of Love Jihad cases in Kerala. And while he’s at it, it’ll be good to ask him the reason for the studied closure of all his five senses when similar Soldiers of Allah went on a rampage converting, threatening, and killing innocent Hindus in Kerala. Or the reason RSS workers in Kerala need to walk around inconspicously, almost in fear because their identity will well mean amputation and/or death and the police would just “close the case.” Didn’t it occur to him that these cases were also part of Islamizing Kerala in the next N years? Or isn’t the life of Hindus worth anything given there are 800 million of them? This is one of the reasons for my said cynicism. A Marad massacre attracts little attention in the political and media circles. A perfunctory case is filed and blissfully forgotten ever after while the chopping of a lecturer’s hand elicits tremendous pressure from the (gasp!) Chief Minister in less than 3 weeks. The reason is anybody’s guess.

As I said in my earlier post,

Communist governments in India are powerless to counter the brutal forces that teaming up with Islamists inevitably unleashes. What was once a mere electoral/rhetorical gimmick is today an evil that is both indispensable and a force that they cannot fight against–like riding the tiger and all that.

Riding the tiger begins rather innocently. Here’s an example of how it works. Look no further than Martha Nussabaum who provides a loathsome sample of how to intellectually masturbate to the vilest affront to human dignity. Her 83472983743298 lines of tedious prose and self-defined “premises” are meant to “show” why banning the Burqa is a bad idea because the ban is “utterly unacceptable in a society committed to equal liberty.” She’s an academic superstar and I’m sure she’s aware of the consequences of this kind of “argument” but she does it anyway. In a line, the consequence: it plays directly into the hands of the Mullahs who are more than delighted to have a “white” “educated” woman on their side. See! Your own Phd women say what we’re saying: that the place of a woman is in the kitchen and bedroom and behind the Burqa. Apply the Nussbaum Principle in every other case: Satanic Verses, Danish cartoons, Halaal meat, allowing the Muslim Personal Law to exist as a parallel law, and you have the perfect recipe for creating an atmosphere where people’s hands are chopped off in broad daylight. Successive governments in Kerala did this and now they’re only facing its logical consequences.

However, the political climate being what it is, the Kerala Home Minister’s statement only shows he’s not in a hurry to learn:

Meanwhile, Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said here that the police were trying to find out whether the PFI was a reincarnation of the banned SIMI.

“The organisation was trying to attract Muslim youths towards the path of terrorism. However, a majority are not following them. The state government’s policy was not to harass or victimise the Muslim community in the name of the ongoing investigations as the Opposition had alleged,”

One wonders why, if the majority of Muslims wasn’t following the PFI/SIMI, the Home Minister felt compelled to give this justification: “The state government’s policy was not to harass or victimise the Muslim community.” Will the appeasement ever have an end other than gory?

Tags: Achyutanandan, Commentary, India, Indian Politics, Indian Secularism, Islam, Islamic Terror, Islam-Watch, Jihad, Kerala, Kerala Politics, Kerala-Islamic Terror Lab, Love Jihad, Media Watch, P T Joseph, P T Joseph Hand Chopped Off, Pseudosecularism, Pseudosecularism Hall of Shame, Secularism, Terrorism, War on Communism

…a college lecturer, T J Joseph, was attacked by some unidentified men who [...] waylaid their vehicle and pulled out the lecturer, after bursting explosives to create a scare. While Joseph was being attacked, his mother and sister were warned not to step out of the vehicle. The gang fled the scene after severing his right hand.

The well-educated, professionally-successful, newly-prosperous, noble-cause-supporting, resort-going, and eco-tourist urban middle crowd has blissfully closed his/her eyes to the Islamic underbelly that lies beneath the bourgeoning tourism industry of Kerala.

Lecturer T J Joseph’s “crime” was to frame this question in the BCom exams.

The question paper, for an internal degree exam in March, contained a text taken from an article written by P T Kunjumuhammed, a director of several award-winning films and former CPI(M) legislator.

Referring to his film Garshom, Kunjumuhammed explained in the article that the thread for a scene in the movie, in which the protagonist speaks to God, was picked from his own experience about a madman who used to speak to God. While reproducing the conversation as a passage for punctuation, Joseph replaced the mad man with Muhammed, thus making it seem like a dialogue between God and Muhammed.

The question paper in the original Malayalam can be viewed here.

It’s a miracle that poor T J Joseph is still alive, presently nursing his wounds after a marathon 15-hour surgery. Needless, Muslim organizations of all hues condemned this “heinous” act etc but, the subtext is clear: Joseph deserved this for insulting the Prophet.

Protesting against the question paper, Muslim organisations, particularly the Popular Front of India and Jamaat-e-Islami, had said it was an insult to Prophet Muhammed.

But of course, the Prophet’s name must be mentioned in nothing except the most profound, flattering, and reverential tones. Anything less is an insult deemed fit for Talibanesque punishment by self-appointed guardians of Islam. To be sure, Kerala currently teems with such self-appointed guardians. And this state of affairs is only the logical outcome–given the nature of forces at play–of what transpired over the past few decades.

The rampant Islamization and all its attendant hooliganism-at-will remains a timebomb waiting to explode. Kerala lost the plot the day communists established their stranglehold in the state and perpetuated it with hook and mostly crook. Following the grand dream of establishing Red Paradise in India, it teamed up with Christists and Islamists to “fight” the common enemy, the Hindus the result of which we’re witnessing today. While it once commanded huge majorities, the Left in Kerala has begun to depend heavily on the support of all kinds of thugs and declared terror-enablers to form a government and stay in power. This includes teaming up with the Kerala Muslim League, the direct descendant of the same Muslim League that said, less than 100 years ago, that Muslims couldn’t stay in a Hindu-dominated country and sliced off that portion of India that is Pakistan today. Then there’s Abdul Nasser Madani, the man allegedly behind the 1998 Coimbatore serial blasts, the 2008 Bangalore blasts, is suspected of having links with LeT, and has served prison for 8 years, booked for sedition. This man heads the PDP, which has an alliance with the ruling LDF. Kerala has today become God’s own laboratory of Islamic terror. The SATP website provides us this intelligence (I provide just a sample below):

[March 17, Kannur & Ernakulam] 185 people from Kerala were reportedly selected by the LeT and provided preliminary training at camps conducted in various centres. The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the terror link to Kerala obtained this information from three Kashmiri youngsters, identified as Fiyaz Ahammed (26), Sajad Ahammed Reshi alias Hanzulla and Shabbir Ahammed Tali alias Abu Saquib (20). These three youngsters took part in the terror camp organised by the LeT in Kupwara and Dorusa forest areas in Kashmir during October 2008, along with a five-member team from Kerala. The Lashkar camp had 17 members, including seven Pakistanis and three Kashmiris. Yasin, Fayaz, Shakeer alias Rahim and Fayiz who were killed in encounters with the Police in Kashmir and Abdul Jabbar, who had escaped the scene, constituted the militants’ team sent from Kerala to Kashmir. “The Malayalis joined the camp in the second week of September. Shakeer alias Rahim was their leader. He could speak Urdu,” said Fiaz Ahammed. Shabbir Ahammed Tali told the Police that 180 more youngsters were waiting in Kerala after the preliminary training to join the Jihad. “One Ustad had indoctrinated them,” said Tali.

[Feb 27, Kottayam] Two suspected Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) cadres, identified as Shibili and Hafeez Hussain, who were arrested for reportedly attending a secret training camp held by the outfit in 2007, were remanded to a 15-day judicial custody. About 40 cases were pending against the duo in various parts of the country, including in Gujarat, Indore in Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Malegaon in Maharashtra. Nearly 40 SIMI cadres had participated in the camp for about three days, the Police mentioned, adding that till date, ten cadres were arrested in this connection.

I don’t need to separately comment on the extent of penetration and network these worthies have managed to establish.

To be sure, Kerala is not alone. It has its “sister” state, West Bengal for company, where the Communist government has both teamed up with the Islamists and allowed massive influxes of illegal Bangladeshi Muslim immigrants. This influx has almost overnight, altered the demographics of several towns bordering Bangladesh. The conclusive fact being that Communist governments in India are powerless to counter the brutal forces that teaming up with Islamists inevitably unleashes. What was once a mere electoral/rhetorical gimmick is today an evil that is both indispensable and a force that they cannot fight against–like riding the tiger and all that.

T J Joseph’s case, like those Love Jihad cases, wouldn’t have received such widespread media coverage if not for the powerful Christian lobby. It would’ve gone the way of the Marad massacre and numerous other Love Jihad cases where victims were Hindu girls–buried in an obscure column on Page 5. T J Joseph had apologized on an earlier occasion for “insulting” the Prophet but this time around, some extra-devout servant of the Prophet had decided enough was enough. Despite this coverage, it is anybody’s guess which direction this case will head. The fact that Christian fundamentalists like John Dayal, all the way up to Ratzinger..err..the Holy See have pressed the self-mute button shows the Muslims have bet their money on what has historically worked for them: brute force. Fear of death is infinitely more potent than fear of God.

The same applies to the cocktail-sipping and self-righteous secular protest-mongers. Why aren’t they courageously taking up cudgels on behalf of poor T J Joseph like they did on behalf of Qatar’s newest star citizen? Where’s that fire that they once directed against the French President because he said disgusting things about the oh-so-chic burqa? Given all this evidence, why aren’t they calling Kerala as the Islamic terror laboratory the way they labelled Gujarat as the “Hindutva” laboratory? Will Sagarika Ghose stand up and condemn these barbarians as “sullying the fair name of the Religion of Peace” the way she routinely chastises Hindutva fanatics (sic) for “appropriating the fair name of Hinduism?”

However, I apportion a large part of the blame on the expanding middle and upper middle class for blissfully closing its eyes to the reality terror show unfolding before our eyes almost on a daily basis. How did we come to this pass where this class places higher priority over distributing panties to a third-rate, & small-time wannabe politician over being watchful about the more real dangers that it faces? What will it take for them to wake up? A family member’s hand similarly chopped off?

Our apathy will cost us dearly.

Tags: Commentary, India, Indian Politics, Indian Secularism, Islam, Islamic Terror, Islam-Watch, Jihad, Kerala, Kerala Politics, Kerala-Islamic Terror Lab, Love Jihad, Media Watch, P T Joseph, P T Joseph Hand Chopped Off, Pseudosecularism, Pseudosecularism Hall of Shame, Secularism, Terrorism, War on Communism

Jnanpith awardee U.R. Ananthamurthy on Wednesday warned the Bharatiya Janata Party Government that the controversial anti-cow slaughter Bill…

The anti-cow slaughter Bill issue is not new. Karnataka Chief Minister Yeddyurappa who had mooted this a few months ago had put it on hold only to revive it now. As it is wont to, tremendous empty shrillery has issued from the usual quarters. But let’s see the list of who’s who who’re against the anti-cow slaughter Bill.

Back then, the Congress party had made the perfunctory noises strictly following the dictum of “we will oppose anything that the BJP tables no matter how noble or worthy it maybe.” And then the Congress party pretty much left it at that. But Deve Gowda Inc wielded the “slaughter cows” baton ferociously. Which is rather interesting but unsurprising. He’s known to traverse any murky depth to achieve his ends but he has on several occasions advertised his deep faith in rituals, havans, and yagnas and has himself donated a few hundred cows (Godaanam) in his lifetime. And it is anybody’s guess that he doesn’t eat beef. However, he’s a practising prosti..err..politician so I guess it’s okay.

Which brings us to said secularist damage-dealers. Girish Karnad and U R Ananthamurthy, both hallowed members of this blog’s Hall of Shame. Let’s see their “objections” to the anti-cow slaughter Bill.

…anti-cow slaughter Bill, if implemented, would discourage farmers from rearing cattle and lead to a shortage of milk…Mr. Ananthamurthy said the piece of legislation, which had been passed in the Assembly, was “communal in intent and anti-farmer in consequence”… Playwright Girish Karnad said he opposed the Bill as it deprived citizens the freedom to choose their food. “As long as their choice of food is not affecting others, why should its (the food) consumption been prohibited?” Mr Karnad sought to know.

URA needs to urgently examine his logical faculties. The last I heard, farmers here don’t earn their livelihood by slaughtering cows. If anything, they, like millions of other Hindus, revere and worship the cow as Mother Goddess. Only aged cows and other cattle are sold off after which nobody knows what happens to them. Girish Karnad does have a valid point which we shall soon examine.

The intent of this post isn’t to support or oppose the Bill but to lay on the table the kind of mischief that our well-known worthies are raking up in its name.

Cow slaughter has become hugely controversial because over the years, it has morphed into a manufactured controversy–a non-issue made into an issue. Also because the cow is held sacred by millions of Hindus. That brings up the question of appeasing members of one religion, a democracy has to remain religion-neutral etc. Or if the state does ban cow slaughter, it needs to also ban the slaughter of pigs to, you know, balance things out. I do subscribe to the view that the government has no business legislating stuff like food habits of people. However, here’s the thing: there is such a thing as local traditions, customs, and a shared cultural consciousness over millennia, which keeps a country united. The cow is one such symbol of this cultural unity in India and you cannot equate that with the pig. Most Hindus don’t eat beef because they hold the cow as their Mother if not as a Goddess. However, Muslims don’t worship the pig–Mohammad (PBUH, yeah, I wanna live) prohibited eating pork on the grounds of hygiene–you know, the pig eats pretty much everything including excreta. Also, like most things, abstention from eating beef is not a strictly-enforced religious sanction in Hinduism. You don’t get penalized for eating beef. Yet majority of Hindus don’t eat beef because the stimulus stems from within. But then, religion is a subject of intense and endless debate which ends in nothing but heated exchanges and foul moods.

However, if you look at the cow in terms of economics things begin to get clearer. There’s a reason Hindus call the cow the Kamadhenu (the giver of all that we desire). Like the coconut tree, there’s no part of a cow that cannot be utilized for economic gain. From being employed in the fields to transportation to diary purposes to using its dung as manure to using dried dung as a disinfectant to using its hide (after death) for leather and its horns as musical instruments, the cow is useful both during its lifespan and after its death. Little wonder then that a predominantly agrarian India treats cows with such reverence. It feeds families. Compare the investment required to maintain cattle for these purposes versus the investment required to rear cattle purely for the purpose of using its meat as food. And there’re additional costs of processing the meat of the slaughtered cattle.

Our Jnanapith-award-winner duo has neither time nor inclination to examine this, nay, any issue with the seriousness it deserves. Their hoary proclamations are just refined versions of Deve Gowda’s political pamphleteering. The last I heard, there was exactly no “spontaneous mass uprising” against this Bill in Karnataka. That includes Muslims. Apolitical–or the “layman” Muslims didn’t raise a din against the anti-cow slaughter Bill. Yet, the prominent and fast-fading stars crowding Karnataka’s secular galaxy have begun to holler like somebody yanked their underwear off. For the record, almost all states have banned cow slaughter and this ban has happened during the secular party’s rule. Why don’t our left..err..right-thinking secular intellectuals “reopen the case” and subject it to the same intense scrutiny they’re now doing here?

“Gandhian principles” ranks high among the several garbs that URA and Girish Karnad wear and shed as the occasion befits. But cow slaughter and Gandhi don’t go well together in this case. Hence the well-oiled intellects of Jnanapith #6 and #7 completely refrain from mentioning the fact that Mahatma Gandhi abhorred cow slaughter and sought its ban rather passionately. Jnanapith #6 and #7 on various occasions have also championed that chic cause now very much in vogue: saving the environment. A few years ago, Jnanapith #7 spearheaded a public rally to “save Cubbon park’s green lung space from being demolished to make place for Legislators’ homes” while Jnanapith #6 lent his fair name to save the “precious ecology of the Western Ghats.” Saving the environment includes saving animals. It follows that the bleeding hearts of these secular luminaries really bleeds for the mute animals. But then, the cow is an animal, too. Did I just mention “hypocrisy?” On yet another stage, URA dons the robe of the Preserver of Local, Folk and Native Traditions. As a long-time remote controller of Ninasam, he has managed to inject communist/socialist poison into the veins of at least two generations in the garb of preserving rural and/or folk tradition. He should know more than anybody that cow-worship and the tradition of reciting stories and puranas (mythology) honoring the cow is an inseparable part of the rural tradition.

Actually there’s a simpler method: does URA or Girish Karnad have the guts to procure beef in any village in Karnataka?

But as we see, the real issue here is the “communal” intent of this Bill, cows be damned. Had a Prohibition of Slaughter of Pigs Bill been passed, the perverse intellect of these muck-rakers would’ve still managed to find something communal in it. A common hatred for the BJP unites the worst of scum who are otherwise engaged in petty feuds with each other. Actually, issues like this are what keeps these out-of-job “litterateurs” in business. More photo-ops. Wider media coverage. Renewed invitations to seminars and conferences. Free publicity. Taxpayer Money. The likes of URA and Karnad are truly made of sterner mettle because ordinary mortals would cringe to appear in public after being shamed just once. But then these eminences have super Phds in self-deception. Only, their self-deception has inflicted grievous wounds on the society.

I’d love to attend that public meeting on the 28th. The last time Girish Karnad championed a similar courageous, society-saving mission in Bababudangiri alias Datta Peeta, much fun ensued.

Tags: Anti-BJP, Anti-Cow Slaughter Bill, Communal, Communalism, Cow, Cow Slaughter, Girish Karnad, Hindu, India, Indian Philosophy, Indian Politics, Indian Secularism, Karnataka Politics, Local Traditions, Pseudosecularism, Pseudo-Secularism Hall of Shame, Secular, Secularism, Secularists, U R Ananthamurthy, UR Ananthamurthy, URA

One of the more unfortunate but widespread phenomena today with regard to Hinduism is that we now need to produce elaborate evidence for things accepted as evident truths just thirty or forty years ago. In other words, writing defenses instead of doing original, constructive work. Yet the devil must be given its due lest it unleash more mischief upon us.

I admit I was surprised by some of the responses I received for my piece about what I called the Yoga Disease. A common refrain in my comment space and elsewhere on the Internet is that Yoga is almost always equated to Asana, Pranayama, and meditation (Dhyana) and never as a separate system of philosophy. The glittering empires of most of the 5-star Yoga gurus today would instantly come crashing down if they acknowledged this because it would mean admitting that Yoga forms one of the Six Darshanas (or revelations or systems) of Hindu philosophical thought.

Yoga is Rooted in the Vedas

Like everything in Hinduism, Yoga has its roots in the Vedas. A cursory reading of the Vedas and the principal Upanishads shows the widespread usage of the word Yoga therein. It is used in different philosophical contexts, and conveys different meanings and it’s not as a one-size-fits-all theory as these Yoga gurus claim it is. In no particular order, the word Yoga is used liberally throughout the Rg, Yajur and Atharva Vedas, and the Aitareya, Katha, Mundaka, Mandukya, Brhadaranyaka, Chandogya, and the Mahanarayana Upanishads. These apart, there are about 50 Yogopanishads–Upanishads specifically dedicated to various aspects of Yoga like the Amritananda, Amritabindu, Yogatattva, Yogasikha, Pasupatabrahma, Hamsa, and Varaha Yogopanishads.

In the Vedas, Yoga is used in the sense of tapas (literally, “to burn” but it usually means intense penance). The Mahanarayana Upanishad, which has a separate section dedicated to Tapah Prashamsa (Glory of Penance) terms Tapas variously as rta (the Cosmic Order), truth, and self-restraint and upholds the importance and glory of Sanyasa Yoga or the Yoga of renunciation. Other principal Upanishads refer to Yoga in terms of Shravana (concentrated listening), Manana (revision, reflection), and Nidhidhyasana (intense contemplation on that which is learnt), all essential qualities that an aspirant of Vedanta should possess. The Katha Upanishad carries this celebrated verse, expounding the nature and aim of Yoga:

AtmAnam rathinam viddhi shareeram rathameva tu |
Buddhim to saarathim viddhi manah pragrahameva cha ||

The soul/Self is the charioteer, the body the chariot, the intellect the driver,
the mind the reins, and the senses are the horses||

The Mandukya, a short and terse Upanishad of just twelve verses, expounds on the meaning and nature of OM. It describes the states of Jagrat (wakeful), Swapna (dream), Sushupti (deep sleep), and Turiya (the Fourth state beyond deep sleep, the state of pure consciousness where only non-duality exists). The focus of this Upanishad on meditating upon OM in a way, forms some of the roots of Yoga Darshana. Similarly, we find a reference to Nadis in the Chandogya Upanishad, which says:

A hundred and one are the arteries of the heart, one of them leads up to the crown of the head. Going upward through that, one becomes immortal. (8.6.6)

The “crown of the head” mentioned here is the precursor of the widely ill-understood Kundalini Yoga. The whole of Brihadaranyaka Upanishad is indeed, the exposition of the Moksha Yoga or the Yoga of Liberation. The Aitareya Brahmana mentions the Brahmarandhra, or the Gateway of Bliss located at the center of the skull, which again has a parallel with the Sahasrara Chakra found in Kundalini Yoga.

Yoga in Hindu Lore

Another definitive source that help us trace the foundations of Yoga is the mammoth Yoga Vasishta (The Yoga of Sage Vasishta) attributed to Sage Valmiki, author of the Ramayana. The Yoga Vasishta, dated earlier than Ramayana, is a conversation between Rama and Sage Vasishta and forms one of the main pillars of Hindu philosophy.

We don’t need a text other than the Bhagavad Gita to look for ample references to Yoga. Celebrated verses about Yoga include

Yogastah kuru karmani sangam tyaktva Dhananjaya… (Perform your duty/actions being steadfast in Yoga without getting attached to your actions, Arjuna)

Yogah karmasu kaushalam…(Yoga is doing things right)

Samatwam yoga uchyate… (Being balanced in both success and failure is Yoga)

These apart, the chapter on Dhyana Yoga (Yoga of Meditation) is a veritable guide on the aims, method, and goals of Yoga. In a way, the entire Bhagavad Gita is a treatise on Yoga.

Tracing it

The tedious, and cataloging kind of exercise so far was necessary to underscore a crucial point: that this vast range of literature of meditations on Yoga in a few thousand verses spread over several centuries occured before Patanjali systematized Yoga as an independent school of Hindu philosophy.

A distinctive mark of anything that can be called Hindu is its origins in the Vedas. The discussion so far proves beyond doubt that Yoga does possess this mark. More importantly, Patanjala Yoga doesn’t really deal with what modern day Yoga salesmen say it does–Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras do not have instructions to perform various Asanas and Pranayamas. More on that in a while.

There’s even more direct evidence as to the undeniable Hindu roots of Yoga as it is (mis)understood today. Sage Patanjali is worshipped as an avatar of Adishesha, the thousand-headed serpent upon whom Lord Vishnu reclines. Representations of Patanjali in pictures and sculptures show his lower body coiled like a snake. See an example below.

Now, if you argue that Adishesha is not connected with Hinduism….

Later day scholars, philosophers and saints of Hinduism interpreted Yoga Sutras in the light of Vedanta. Bhoja, Vignanabhikshu, Adi Shankara, Sadashiva Brahmendra and Ramana Maharshi are prominent examples.

Conclusion

Today’s Yoga Enterpreneurs, instead of being grateful to the religion, culture and land that enabled them to earn their mega bucks actually revel in dissociating with it and in denigrating it. As I’ve repeatedly said, they are gym and/or fitness instructors, not Yoga teachers. If they really taught Yoga, they wouldn’t have paid lipservice to the basic requirements imposed upon a practioner of Yoga: Yamas and Niyamas. Aside, I’m not sure how many of these snakeoil salesmen even tell their students about Yamas and Niyamas. It’s all about “meditation,” “vibrations,” “cosmic energy,” “quantum” nonsense, and “super consciousness.”

Yoga is deeper and learning it properly takes an entirely different spirit. Actually, you don’t really “learn” Yoga. You realize it. Like most other disciplines in Sanatana Dharma, Yoga needs to be learnt traditionally. Under a Guru who is himself a Yogi in the truest sense of the word. Most philosophical traditions including Yoga forbids a person to declare himself/herself a Guru. One of the basic qualities such a Guru possesses is Aparigraha (non-possession), one of the five Yamas (Abstinences) identified by Patanjali. Additionally, every Guru always recites the name of God, his parents, the ancient Rishis (Seers/Sages) and his own Guru at all times as a way of showing deep reverence and gratitude to the tradition and people that enabled him to become a Yogi. In a way, it is his way of repaying a debt, which you can never really repay. This in short is how Yoga (in the fullest sense of the word) is taught and learnt traditionally.

Now we need to take a count of the number of Yoga Peddlers who practice Aparigraha. Their Gurudom, and what they hawk as Yoga violates every known precept, tenet, and principle laid down by Patanjali and other sages. And the vilest yet is what Deepak Chopra did recently–spitting on the very religion that enabled him to build his swanky empire. People like him, Bikram-whatever, and the rest of the patent mongers are deserving candidates for this Sanskrit saying:

||KrthaGHnasya na Nishkrutih||

There is no atonement for the ungrateful

Tags: Commentary, Deepak Chopra, False Yoga Gurus, Hindu, Hindu Philosophy, Hinduism, India, Indian Philosophy, Meditation, Patanjali Yoga, Patenting Yoga, Pranayama, Hindu Roots of Yoga, Yoga, Yoga Disease in the US, Yoga can’t be divorced from Hinduism, Sanatana Dharma, History

The real issue is the manner in which Census 2011 is being conducted and the specific information that’s being collected. Like in previous censuses, primary, middle, and high school teachers from government schools and government-aided schools don the dual role as the enumerators.

What the enumerator revealed startled me.

Apparently, the government promised a princely sum of 10,000 for backbreaking work of visiting every door on foot and the mindnumbing drudgery of asking the same questions again and again and again. This was then reduced to 8000 and further down to 6500 and it currently stands somewhere at 3000 or 4000.

If that’s not bad enough, read on about how the system works. Census work has always been carried out at gunpoint. The government has made Census duty compulsory for these school teachers. Non-compliance results in an FIR being filed in the police station, which may further result in the teacher being sent to prison with the possible risk of suspension and/or dismissal. Additionally, these teachers have to get everything right the first time. The supervisor who checks the accuracy and validity of the data these enumerators collect will send them back to the houses if he/she suspects even a minor inaccuracy–say, if age is recorded as 65 instead of 64, go back! The poor supervisor has no choice: he/she faces the “FIR fate” for similar lapses. During the NDA regime, some relief was accorded to these poor schoolteachers. People from other fields were also allotted census duty: employees of various government departments and public sector banks.

However, the UPA has overturned this and reverted to its time-honoured tradition of scavenging on just the poor schoolteachers. This segment of the overall middle class and lower middle class population remains the most powerless, and the most exploited of all. Their payscale is piteous and they have absolutely no facilities–go visit a government school and check out the state of its toilet and the sorry excuse that’s the teachers’ “staff room” and the chipped-off floor of the classrooms. Public sector banks have powerful unions, which can paralyze public life at will and bring the government to its heel. To be sure, schoolteachers have their own unions but they are mostly toothless tigers. And in true Congress culture, they have been decades-long victims of naked oppression. Additionally, it doesn’t help if such moronic judgments are passed justifying the tyrannical, compulsory census duty:

Disposing off a PIL, filed by UP Madhyamic Shikshak Sangh, the bench consisting of Acting Chief Justice Amitava Lala and Justice Shabihul Hasnain, remarked that the census work is a national work and therefore the teachers cannot keep themselves away from this national work.

If it is national work, why is it made mandatory only for a section of the nation? We have a separate department for Census so how long does it take for them to put the thousands of national-resources-eating bureaucrats working there on census duty once in ten years? And why don’t those conscription-hating intellectuals cast their all-knowing eyes on the plight of these poor schoolteachers?

And it doesn’t end there.

Compared to the previous censuses, this census appears sinister and scary–if not for anything than the kinds of data being collected. Own house? Have any other properties? If yes where? How many cars? How many two wheelers? Fridge? Washing machine? Fancy laptop? Airconditioner? Expensive LCD TV? Expensive music system? Sure, we know how they’ll justify this. The point is why is data of this nature and at this micro-level detail being collected? And why is there absolutely no debate on the implications of this? How will this data be used?

My cynical mind suspects lots of statist motives working behind this exercise. Your thoughts?

Tags: Census 2011, Census Data, Census Duty, Congress, Congress Party, Democracy, India, Indian Politics, Plight of Schoolteachers, UPA, UPA 2.0

It began with this factual article by Dr. Aseem Shukla who exposed the “theft of Yoga” in America. Dr. Shukla details out what we already knew: that Yoga has been appropriated by self-proclaimed “Masters” and “Yogis” and that it is a flourishing, $6-billion enterprise. But Dr. Shukla’s more crucial point is that Yoga has been steadily delinked from Hinduism or Sanatana Dharma from which it originates. And it’s pretty much free for all today, as Dr. Shukla notes that there are “themed (sic) Yogas:”

“Christ is my guru. Yoga is a spiritual discipline much like prayer, meditation and fasting [and] no one religion can claim ownership,” says a vocal proponent of “Christian themed” yoga practices. Some Jews practice Torah yoga, Kabbalah yoga and aleph bet yoga, and even some Muslims are joining the act.

And look who first took exception to Dr. Shukla’s piece: the millionaire “mystic,” and “healer,” Deepak Chopra. Which is logical given that Chopra is one of the early birds to cash in on the yet-unharvested bounty that Yoga offered to the materialistic mind. More on this in a little while.

Dr. Shukla in turn, responded to Chopra’s poorly-written, illogical, and accusatory piece, and calls Chopra’s bluff thus:

Indeed, Chopra is the perfect emissary to fire a salvo against my assertion that delinking Hinduism from its celebrated contributions to contemporary spiritual dialogue…The right messenger because Chopra is a principal purveyor of the very usurpation I sought to expose.

Deepak Chopra and his brand of highwaymen are ultra materialists who did two things phenomenally well: they made a near-perfect diagnosis of the societal ills of the USA and packaged their snakeoil to a similar level of perfection. They worked at the level of individuals. They didn’t say “you know, you and your family is fucked up and I have the cure,” but “you know, this healing/soul-body/consciousness/Yoga thing really works. And this is how it is done. It improves your health, reduces obesity, makes you flexible, puts you in touch with yourself…” In other words, How to win friends and influence people: the Yoga Edition. And Chopra & co were equipped with the right tools: a convent education back in India and stints at prestigious hospitals across the US. The tag of a medical doctor counts for a lot in the US (he’s a doc, he must know what he’s talking about) not to mention this:

IN Los Angeles a radio station plays tapes of the lectures of Deepak Chopra, the world-famous mind/body guru, late into the night. Chopra’s mellifluous, seductive, pukka Anglo-Indian voice wafts across the nocturnal southern Californian airwaves, dipping here into Ayurvedic medicine, there into quantum physics, offering simple connections to the “unfathomable mysteries of karma”, gentle guides to better health and intriguing promises of a body that will never age. A deliciously soothing cure for insomnia.

Read the underlined words again. The mellifluousness and seductiveness is an undeniable crowdpuller. All Google searches revealed one unanimous quality about Chopra: his masterly oratory, a quality common to successful politicians and leaders and among others, self-styled Gurus: remember Osho?

So is Deepak Chopra’s–and similar folks’–empire built only on sheer oratory and fluff? Does he know any Yoga and Hindu philosophy at all? As Dr. Shukla shows, Chopra is aware of these concepts and philosophies but refuses to as much as acknowledge them as rooted in Hinduism. Worse, he seeks to divorce them from Hinduism.

Which brings us to the next question: what exactly do Deepak Chopra & co teach/preach?

The Rape of Yoga

Most self-styled healers, Yoga and spiritual Gurus teach physical exercise not Yoga. In Yogic terminology, they teach asanas or postures and add some doses of Pranayama (breathing techniques/practices) and meditation. But their main ingredient is the generous booster-dose of “consciousness,” “liberation,” “ageless body,” “timeless mind,” “perfection,” “enlightenment,” “deeper aims of Existence,” “creation,” “Karma,” “afterlife,”….. However, they have no idea of the actual meaning of these terms, their origins, context of usage, and the philosophical systems that underlie them. But if they do know it, it’s even worse because they’re then consciously committing fraud.

But here’s the beauty: folks like Deepak Chopra don’t need to know the actual meaning of these terms because the average participant who enrolls in these courses is actually looking for this: a sense of hope and reassurance, and a solution to overcome the emptiness that has come to characterize (mostly) the Western society post the early 20th century. Yogasanas, meditation, and pranayama guarantee a sense of calmness, stability, and inner peace, which can only be experienced and is repeatable. However, this doesn’t mean those are the only benefits it bestows upon the practitioner. But to an empty mind, these positive benefits have an avalanche-like, and in some cases, a life-altering effect. And once people have experienced this, they’re willing to believe any tripe that’s packaged in the garb of Yoga.

The extent to which Yoga has been mangled today, especially in the US is incredible. It’s fashionable among even the lay folks to speak about stuff like the “different systems and schools of Yoga” and other balderdash out of absolute ignorance. The blame for this lies squarely on the doorstep of folks like Deepak Chopra.

At the very basics, we need to clearly distinguish between Yoga as a darshana, a system of philosophy from Yoga as we find in texts like the Hatha Yoga Pradipika. This difference is akin to looking at the arati performed in temples and concluding that Santana Dharma is just this. A genuine Yoga teacher/Guru will explain this difference at the outset. Patanjali, the father of Yoga-as-a-system-of-philosophy, in his terse Yoga Sutras, talks about asanas in just two or three places in a total of 196 aphorisms. Even there, he simply says that it is recommended for a Yoga practitioner to sit in an asana that allows the mind to concentrate.

A genuine guru will also tell you about adhikari bheda, something I mentioned in an earlier post, from which I quote:

…Adhikari bheda, which simply means that a student should first successfully complete all the previous courses before attempting to sit for an Engineering exam.

This is equally applicable in this case. Yoga is not for everybody: and I’m talking about aspirants who want to reach the final state of Yogic bliss or Samadhi. Asanas, pranayama, meditation, etc are merely aids for attaining Samadhi. According to tradition, only a person who has actually experienced Samadhi is qualified to teach them to others.

But what are the self-proclaimed Yoga Gurus actually teaching? “Healing,” “wellness,” “well-being,” “being attentive,” “mindfulness,” and related nonsense in the name of Yoga. For good reason. The purveyors of such terms are not self-realized souls, I suspect they haven’t ever experienced Samadhi (I challenge them to prove me wrong). They are but mere traders. Their mantras of “healing,” and “wellness” simply means: “I need to keep you coming to my classes, I want you to buy my CDs, DVDs and books.” This also explains the filthy trend of branding/patenting/trademarking–Bikram Yoga, Iyengar Yoga, etc–that has tarnished the original aims and goals of Yoga. Read this vomit-worthy “guideline” of using “Iyengar Yoga brand”:

I.6. Iyengar Yoga Teachers refrain from using the “figure and temple” trademark design registered with the United States Patent and Trade Mark Department in BKS Iyengar’s name. The use of this service mark is reserved for use by non-profit organizations comprised of students and friends of BKS Iyengar who meet the criteria of I.1 and are approved for such usage by the Service Mark Committee (Asteya).

This beautiful instance showcases the Art of Defecating in the Plate that You Eat out of. Asteya (non-covetousness), as one of the Yamas (absentions) of Patanjali Yoga, is twisted to mean “non-covetousness of BKS Iyengar’s brand of Yoga!” While Patanjali laid down this as one of the principles to be strictly adhered to in order to attain Samadhi, the “Iyengar brand” lays it down to prevent the leakage of a single dollar/cent/rupee/paisa from its coffers. And these Gurus lecture millions on righteousness, soul, rebirth, ego, Karma, and peace. The gulf as it’s already clear, lies in precept and practice.

Branding/claims of ownership goes against the very spirit of Yoga and indeed, the entire Indian ethos. Why does a guy who talks about liberation need to enter into multi-million dollar businesses with Richard Branson? Equally, why didn’t Patanjali or any other sage claim ownership on individual asanas and breathing practices?

Yoga is a Disease

A common factor characterizes most of these self-styled soul-savers and agents of liberation: they rarely, if never, enter into public debates. They’re content to ignore genuine criticism directed at them. For instance, read this biting dissection of Chopra’s “expert” views on Genes.

Deepak Chopra really is an embarrassment. I’ve tussled with his weird arguments before, and now he’s flounced onto the Huffington Post with another article (prompted by an article on human genetics in Time, but bearing almost no relationship to it) in which he reveals his profound ignorance of biology, in something titled The Trouble With Genes. Chopra is a doctor, supposedly, but every time I read something by him that touches on biology, he sounds as ignorant as your average creationist. He also writes incredibly poorly, bumbling his way forward with a succession of unlikely and indefensible claims. This latest article is one in which I think he’s trying to criticize the very idea of genes, but it’s more like he’s criticizing his own lack of knowledge. [...] Instead, though, what we get is the maunderings of a third-rate mind with no understanding of even decades-old ideas. Instead of revealing any working knowledge of biological thought, Chopra gives us a list of questions about the gene that he is wondering about, and also claiming that no one else understands, and babbling foolishly. Some of these would be good questions coming from a student who seriously wanted to learn, but coming from an M.D. who routinely pontificates on how your body works, and stated with such a stunning certainty that because he doesn’t know, no one else does either, this is an infuriating list. Can we get Chopra’s license to practice medicine revoked, if he has one?

This criticism needs to be taken really seriously because it is about Deepak Chopra’s primary area of expertise/profession. This criticism exposes his (lack of) credentials in that area. Given his unintelligible pontifications on his current area of “expertise” as a Guru/Healer/Mystic, we have a fairly reasonable conclusion: that Chopra relies more on his oratory and confidence in the power of the igorance of the masses (how many educated, laymen can understand genetics? If Dr.Chopra spins something about connecting it with past lives, it must be true. After all, he’s a doctor). This explains why he doesn’t engage in anything that seriously challenges him. But like most similar Gurus, he lets his loyal band of blind followers speak for him. Once in a while, when questioned, he comes up with acrid and illogical rejoinders.

Secondly, yoga did not originate in Hinduism as Prof. Shukla claims. Perhaps he has a fundamentalist agenda in mind, but he must know very well that the rise of Hinduism as a religion came centuries after the foundation of yoga in consciousness and consciousness alone. Religious rites and the worship of gods has always been seen as being in service to a higher cause, knowing the self.

The preacher of daily inspirations, and the unveiler of Spiritual Laws loses his cool so easily that he is compelled find hidden agendas in peoples’ minds instead of giving a factual rebuttal! And that, when Dr. Shukla hasn’t named anybody. Guilty conscience, doctor? Tch tch tch. Dr. Shukla has already given an effective rebuttal so I won’t touch that portion again. But, Dr.Chopra, the “fundamentalist” term has been hurled at Hindus enough times for us to know that you have a sizeable repertoire of jokes, your anger notwithstanding.

Before you accuse me that I’m singling out Deepak Chopra, let me tell you that I’m using him merely as an example, a celebrity case study if you will, of what I call the Yoga Disease that’s spread across the United States. It has been transformed into a disease because of the vile potion that Deepak Chopra & his ilk have injected into an otherwise noble philosophical system. On the other side, as Dr. Shukla says, Chopra doesn’t have even the basic gratitude to acknowledge the roots of the source of his magnificent empire. Now, some folks say that “Yoga doesn’t need his gratitude.” This is a braindead argument and it simply encourages others like him to steal from, and appropriate native traditions without acknowledgment.

Here’s something to Deepak Chopra who rants incoherently about Yoga being rooted in “consciousness alone.” By this token, Chopra must not sue me if I use one of his patented/trademarked/copyrighted snakeoil techniques and claim that it is rooted in “consciousness alone.” This applies equally to any self-proclaimed Guru trying to hide under a similar umbrella. I do not decry or call for these Gurus to stop teaching whatever techniques they are teaching but for heaven’s sake, give credit where it’s due, don’t misrepresent and most importantly, don’t blabber about things you don’t know. Teach asanas, etc by all means but call it by its name: don’t package it as philosophy or Yoga.

In parting, here’s a very fundamental point even the most informed critics of Deepak Chopra & co miss: a true Yoga Guru will not advertise his/her Gurudom. Think about it.

Tags: Commentary, Deepak Chopra, False Yoga Gurus, Hindu, Hindu Philosophy, Hinduism, India, Indian Philosophy, Meditation, Patanjali Yoga, Patenting Yoga, Pranayama, The Rape of Yoga, Yoga, Yoga Disease, Yoga Disease in the US

In the first part, I mentioned that monuments “represent vibrant showcases of the deep commitment, which a nation displays in preserving the memory of people and places these nations have much to be proud of.” In a way, they are the true representatives of the soul of a civilization. I had also lamented that in India, these true representatives continue to remain in a state of unforgivable neglect.

In case of Ajanta and Ellora, a few additional layers are at work as we shall see. But first, it’s important to remember always that both these are UNESCO World Heritage sites. With that, it’s time to examine some basic issues regarding the politics of monuments.

The State of Ajanta

Early in SL Bhyrappa’s seminal Vamsha Vruksha, we find a few pages of factual, rich, and insightful commentary about Buddhist art as found in Ajanta caves. This commentary is nicely interspersed with the sheer difficulty of physically visiting Ajanta caves. Vamsha Vruksha was published in 1965 and the specific sequence involving Ajanta caves occurs around the 40s-50s. Some 60 years later, when I visited Ajanta I was in for a pleasant shock. I expected an arduous trek going by Dr. Bhyrappa’s descriptions. However, nothing really prepares you for what you see if you’re a first timer to Ajanta caves.

The tourism department has converted the entire site and the surrounding “village” into a model of top class tourism. The actual caves, nay, the face of the Sahyadri mountain that couches these caves is not visible when you land there. A sprawling and nicely-manicured parking lot greets you at first sight followed by a neatly-done pathway that leads to the ticketing counter. However, to get to the ticketing counter, you need to pass through a large canopy, which shelters shops selling tea, coffee, milk, curios, juices, “handicrafts”, prepaid SIM cards, mobile Internet cards, a browsing center, south and north Indian food, “fast food,” fruits, home decoration items…a mini-world with all urban creature comforts in less than half-an-acre of land. Given the general state of public hygenie and cleanliness that begins with Maharashtra and characterizes much of North India, Ajanta is a great specimen of cleanliness. No spitting. No paan stains. No smoking. No litter. The ticketing counter is comparable in discipline to say Waterworld at San Diego or the Louvre museum in France. Once you’re past the ticketing counter, you need to wait for a bus which takes you 4 kilometres to the actual caves. Again, the same line discipline is followed. Buses aren’t allowed to be overcrowded. Once the seats are filled, you need to wait for the next bus, a wait that doesn’t exceed 15 minutes. Private transport isn’t allowed beyond the parking lot. When you complete the 4-Kilometre journey, you begin a modest climb of steps. For those unable to do the climb, you have staff who carry you on palkis (palanquins) until you sight this.

And then you begin your journey of caves. The entrance of every cave carries a significant amount of documentation detailing the significance, history, legend, art style, and assorted information pertaining to that cave. Because most caves contain exquisite paintings now in danger of permanent destruction, flash photography is strictly prohibited. Regular maintenance work is done to preserve them. Guards are stationed inside the caves and they mericlessly insult you in public if you try to click pictures. One of the caves (forget which) has a large screen and projector to show an exhaustive video showcasing the glory Ajanta. A tourist information bureau sells books on the subject and lets you hire guides to show you around the place. In short, a “tourist” experience of Ajanta is on the same level as any of the well-maintained museums and historic sites in the West.

The State of Ellora

When you finish the last leg of journey after the Daulatabad fort, you don’t realize that you’ve actually arrived at the site of Ellora caves. Parking is chaotic. The parking lot is untarred, uneven, and the ground beneath your feet/car is dented and potholed. And it suffers from the same, permanent illness that most pathetically-maintained historical sites suffer. The government staff who gives the parking ticket is in cahoots with auto drivers, “tourist guides,” and assorted wheeler-dealers. As he tears the ticket, he’ll “suggest” some “recommended” tourist guides and “knowledgeable” auto drivers who’ll size you up first and quote rates accordingly.

As magnificient as the Kailasanath temple is, its upkeep and crowd management is thrown to the winds compared to Ajanta where only 20 (?) people are allowed in a cave at a time. As a result, you witness a sea of human chaos, hear an incredible cacophony of loud, jostling and rude people, and equally, witness people spitting at will inside the temple complex. A large ASI board stands perfunctorily outside the cave describing it and declaring it as a UNESCO heritage site but that’s it.

Given the 3-kilometre expanse of Ellora caves, we are shocked by the utter apathy–barely-tarred roads connecting each cave, no guides/guards, no signboards, and some stretches are almost gutter-like. Along a few stretches of these caves, I sensed an air of incredible desolation, an almost weeping plea to save them.

Exhibit 1:

Apart from the ticket-tearing guard at the entrance of the Kailasnath temple, none of the other caves have anybody to even look over them. Here’s an instance. Notice the superbly-done Nandi sculpture.

You can walk around and sit on the Nandi and consume liquor or indulge in any similar activity, not a soul will question you. You can stamp on it with your foot and get away with pretty much any desecration your mind comes up with. This is largely true for most of Ellora except perhaps Kailasanath. Which brings us to the rows upon rows of mutilated temples, sculptures, and idols. Here are two good examples.

These are the mother Goddesses, their heads, and limbs chopped off. A casual glimpse at history tell us that Aurangzeb,

In 1690 AD . ordered destruction of temples at Ellora, Trimbakeshwar, Narasinghpur, and Pandharpur.

Our benevolent government today is simply carrying forward Aurangzeb’s torch by a more effective method: neglect, and allowing it to decay. This story is repeated in the nearby Grishneshwar where you need to first pay a kind of obeisance to the mini-mosque that towers over the Shiva (Grishneshwar is one of the names of Lord Shiva) temple. Even to the untrained eye, this comparison reveals an obvious truth.

See this first and observe the areas right at the bottom of the picture.

Now see this.

The items I pointed to in the first image clearly shows a chakra/wheel and the other a shankha/conch, both part of the Sanatana Dharma milieu. The second image shows a mosque. The chakra and shankha are located near the base of the mosque. Additionally, the overall architectural style clearly shows that apart from the standard dome, pretty much most of this mosque resembles more a Hindu structure than an Islamic one. I leave it to your intelligence to figure what happened.

And this is a wholly insignificant mosque is but another clear revelation of the character of Nehru’s court historians.

Concluding Notes

At the end of this rather tedious exercise, some conclusions are inescapable. The reason for the stellar maintenance of Ajanta caves owes a lot to the Buddhist lobby, whose power is perhaps not known widely enough. A good pointer is the way Sanchi is preserved–actually a hundredfold better than Ajanta. Check this news item from last year to know the extent of mischief whose result, needless to say, will further weaken Hindus. Additionally, the so-called revival of the Nalanda university under the aegis of Dr. Expert-on-Everything Amartya Sen is purely a political gambit in the name of Buddhism. And yet, none of these worthies talk about the industrial scale extermination of Buddhists at the hands of Islamic butchers, the same yardstick they apply in whitewashing Islamic destruction of Hindu temples.

This one-upmanship game is one of the chief reasons why Hindu monuments continue to languish this horribly. The other reason though is the near-complete deracination of Hindus. As I mentioned in the opening part, Ellora is simply another drop in the sea of similar monuments across the country. Take any state, city, town and village: the two magnificient Hoysala temples in Nagalapura village (in Karnataka) are orphaned but for a moronic ASI signboard. The state of most of the grand temples in Tamil Nadu evokes tears of blood.

Modern day Hindus throng a street-corner Sai Baba or Ganesh or Hanuman temple than give a few minutes thought to revive active worship/pooja in places like the Kailasanath temple. That one change will automatically ensure simple things–like preventing people from wearing footwear when they enter the Kailasanath temple–no law or security guard will be necessary then. The other area where urgent change is necessary is the braindead policy of our government, which treats these monument-temples as tourist places not dissimilar to a zoo or aquarium or museum or art gallery. But the reason all these won’t happen in a hurry brings us back to the same square: lack of a unified Hindu political voice, which in turn is because Hindus are terribly splintered, which in turn, is because we’re deracinated….you get the drift.

CONCLUDED

Tags: Ajanta, Ajanta & Ellora, Ajanta Cave Paintings, Ajanta Paintings, Architecture, Art, Buddhism, Commentary, Field Notes, Hindu & Buddhist Art, Hinduism, Hinduism & Buddhism, History, India, Indian History, Preserving Heritage, Preserving the Past, Sanatana Dharma, Sculpture, Travel, Travelogue, UNESCO World Heritage Sites

The Ajanta Caves

The well-known story of how John Smith, a British officer belonging to the Madras army regiment, (re)discovered Ajanta caves doesn’t bear repitition. However, it suffices to say that he accidentally discovered it during a tiger-hunting expedition with his soldiers. And to him we owe our gratitude for unearthing yet another magnificient monument of our heritage. A case of unintended consequences turned out immensely rewarding in this instance. A viewpoint facing the caves has been erected to honour Smith’s discovery of 28 April 1819.

Ajanta Caves are a series of rock-cut cave monuments numbering about 30 “caves.” Again, I use the word “cave” very broadly. However, in this case, we can quite accurately narrow down the meaning of “cave” to chaitya-grihas and viharas (rest houses and monasteries), set on one face of a formidable, stooping cliff in an imposing valley overlooking the Waghora river. When I visited it, the Waghora “river” was a tiny stream, not different in colour, texture and stench, from the gutter-water we see by the side of urban India’s slums. Actually that’s not true: it’s an accumulation of filthy, still water. But I’m an incurable cynic. See for yourself.

Buddhism Sublimated in Stone

If anything, Ajanta caves are the perhaps the proudest and the most sublime, rock-cut evidence of Buddhism. Gautama Buddha rules every rock, every orifice, every monument, every sculpture, and most paintings in these caves. While Saranath is more famous as a site of pilgrimage, Ajanta caves are eminently notable for entirely different reasons. Ajanta is a grand and enduring display of both the Hinayana and Mahayana sects Buddhism expressed in rock-art and painting. The climb of the first few steps that lead to the actual caves opens a vast sweep of just one face of the sheer cliff of the Sahyadri mountains.

As with most surviving Indian monuments, which belong to the early period, Ajanta caves cannot be dated precisely. However–and reverential thanks to the numerous researchers and scholars–the generally accepted timeframe in which these caves were constructed and the artwork done, falls in the range of 200 BCE–650 AD. During this period, these caves were continuously inhabited by Buddhist monks, teachers, and scholars. This makes sense because even as we see it today, we don’t fail to notice structures designed for the express purpose of allowing monks to engage in undisturbed silence and meditation for extended periods. This period also marks the zenith of Buddhism in India. History also credits the best of the artwork done in Ajanta caves to the rulers of the Vakataka dynasty starting mostly with Sarvasena, founder of the Vatsagulma branch of this dynasty. However, Harisena who ruled betwen 475–500 AD was responsible for giving us some of the finest paintings the walls of these caves display.

Peerless Wall Paintings

Which brings us to the topmost reason to visit Ajanta: the exquisite wall paintings. Although most of these paintings are faded, discoloured, hazy, and disjointed now, they still evoke our astonishment at an era that made these possible. To think that these paintings were made from colours extracted from natural dyes (from plants), rocks and minerals and yet managed to survive the ravages of centuries makes us question our notions about magic. I don’t exaggerate. See for yourself.

The artists achieved minute colour variations by mixing and matching only some basic colours: black, white, blue, brown, yellow, red, and green. But they gave us some extraordinary and lasting examples of fine art.

The real accomplishment of these paintings lies in not just a combination of a few factors: they show a perfect blend of colour, proportion, form, geometry, and the entire scenery, where all these factors perfectly amalgamate. In fact, they faithfully adhere to the ancient Indian treatises that lay down exact rules for composing paintings and drawings. One cardinal rule is to achieve perfection in lines. Our casual experiences of looking at paintings shows that exactly one inaccurately-drawn line is enough to totally ruin an otherwise beautiful picture. These paintings are living instances of this perfection. What earns our greater adulation is the fact that most of these paintings show elaborate scenes and entire stories: of a day in a King’s court, the Buddha preaching to his disciples, Gautama Buddha’s days as a child, and so on. Some of these scenes cover an entire wall, end to end, both lengthwise and breadthwise. Oh and if it interests you, these caves carry paintings on the ceiling as well. You can do two things as you look at them: travel back in time or simply imagine. I purposely omitted technical details such as pillar design, whether it’s a mural or a fresco, mathematical measurements of the caves and halls because this is not a piece of art criticism. If you are interested in that kind of stuff, head here.

The scenes depicted in these cave paintings contain stories from the Jataka tales, an inseparable part of Buddhist lore. In this context, the role of the mammoth Brihat Katha (literally, Large Story) by Gunadhya is worth mentioning although the Jataka tales were composed in an earlier age. However, the point is most Indian folklore in one way or the other can be traced back to Brihat Katha as the source of their origin. Brihat Katha is not extant today. The closest we have today to the Brihat Katha is Somadeva’s Kathasaritsagara. However, a rich repertoire of folk tales existed as early as the Vedic period from which the Jataka tales derive their inspiration. Gunadhya’s Brihat Katha is arguably the definitive source not because the stories consume as much as 6,00,000 verses and is a gigantic agglomeration of most Indian folklore. As with most things about ancient India, folklore wasn’t a watertight compartment. Any sect or religious school or local custom freely borrowed from the existing folk tradition and tailored it to suit their needs. If this wasn’t the case, the Jataka tales wouldn’t narrate stories of the Buddha’s previous avatars as various animals, a la Vishnu’s avatars as fish, boar half-lion, etc.

Sculpture in Ajanta & Closing Notes

Ajanta caves contain their share of delicate sculptures but that’s not what you need to look for on your visit. The indisputable attraction and raison de etre of visiting Ajanta caves is to savour the elegant paintings. The sculptures while pretty, are consistently prosaic: cave after cave contains sculptures of varying sizes of the Buddha in different meditative poses. The Mahaparinirvana and the temptation of Mara (both in Cave 26) are the finest Buddha-sculptures in Ajanta while the rest are…well, rest.

This is not so much a comment on the artistry of the sculptures as it is about the monotony it quickly induces. As I mentioned earlier, the reason for this monotony is because these were viharas and chaitya grihas. Meditation halls are not places where you can anticipate viewing some nuanced art. However, more fundamentally, the “art value” is significantly lesser in most Buddhist sites across India because Buddhism rests on a foundation of renouncing the world: fine art ensues from embracing the very bosom of life, not relinquishing it.

The caves at Ajanta are serially numbered but the numbering isn’t based on any well-defined system like chronology, etc. A cave’s number simply denotes its proximity to the village where the site of Ajanta is located: thus, cave #1 is the closest to the village. This minor technical (non)detail apart, not all caves are complete with respect to paintings, sculpture or other artwork. Caves 3, 4 (the largest), 5, 6, 14 & 15 among others are in various stages of completion. Only the door work is complete in one cave (forget the number) while another has a massive hall with a partly-done stone-mound of sorts.

The ASI and the Maharashtra government’s tourism department deserves our accolades for its surprisingly amazing maintenance of this invaluable piece of Indian heritage. Every cave carries a fair amount of description about its significance, history and related details. But more of that in my next part. Credit for renovating, restoring and (re)documenting the history and heritage of Ajanta caves should go to the team led by Dr. S.R. Rao, the same archeologist instrumental in discovering Lothal and Dwaraka.

Continued in Part 3

Tags: Ajanta, Ajanta & Ellora, Ajanta Cave Paintings, Ajanta Paintings, Architecture, Art, Buddhism, Commentary, Field Notes, Hindu & Buddhist Art, Hinduism, Hinduism & Buddhism, History, India, Indian History, Preserving Heritage, Preserving the Past, Sanatana Dharma, Sculpture, Travel, Travelogue, UNESCO World Heritage Site, Vakatakas

What’s common to Stratford-upon-Avon, Westminster Abbey, Mount Rushmore, Drumcliffe, Walden Pond State Reservation, Alcatraz Island, Jack London State Historic Park, Hauteville House, and Zentralfriedhof among others? Equally, what’s common to Hampi, Badami, Bhoja Shala, Ambernath, Grishneshwar, and Ellora? The former represent vibrant showcases of the deep commitment a nation displays in preserving the memory of people and places in which these nations have much to be proud of. The Walden Pond State Reservation is spread over 462 acres of land to honour the memory of just one man, a man who would’ve probably committed suicide if he saw the America of today. It’s also a tribute to the people of America who continue to preserve his legacy in this manner. The latter examples represent the exact opposite of the former. They are classic instances and living reminders of the mass assault on the symbols, monuments and memories of an ancient and hallowed civilization. The magnificent fort at Chitradurga is encroached by an ugly mob of huts that completely blanket one side of the mountain while Hampi, a ridiculous apparition of a UNESCO World Heritage Site is a free-for-all haven: the Bahamani barbarian hordes who physically vandalized it couldn’t have done a better job. And so it is with the Ellora caves, which I visited on a recent trip, which also included Ajanta caves and the Grishneswar temple.

Ellora

To be fair, Ellora caves don’t suffer from the same shocking apathy that characterizes most historical monuments across India. However, the difference in the apathy differs only in degree. Together with the Ajanta caves, Ellora, a UNESCO World Heritage Site is one of the world’s finest architectural splendours.

The 34 “caves,” built between the 5th and 10th century represent the perfect model of Indian rock-cut architecture and stand unrivalled till date. They are really not caves in the strict sense of the word but temples and sculptures carved out through the basalt-rich Charanandri mountain located some 30 Kilometres from Aurangabad in Maharashtra. These artistic expressions of the finest of Indian spirit are spread across an enormous 2-Kilometre expanse.

The Crown Jewel of Ellora

The most spectacular of all of Ellora architecture is undoubtedly the Kaliasanath temple. I use “temple” here to mean both Hindu and Buddhist. To begin with, here’s a side view.

[Ed: Click the thumbnail to view the full size of the picture]

The Kailasanath temple in itself is a study not just of art and scultpure but a living instance of what Ananda Coomaraswamy said about Indian art: its impersonal nature and how an all-encompassing religion like Santana Dharma brings out the best of expressions in every field of human endeavour. It takes several days to make a detailed and serious study of this one temple. This view shows the 90-foot tall central pillar that’s always visible from any corner of the temple complex.

The Alas inscription dated 770 AD tells us that the Kailasanath temple was commissioned in 757 AD (or 773 AD ) by Krishna I, an uncle of the founder of the Rashtrakuta dynasty, Dantidurga, and took about 150 years to complete. Because Krishna I was a staunch Shaivaite, he modelled the temple after Mount Kailasa, the abode of Lord Shiva. The Kailasanatha temple in the height of its pristine glory–and I don’t doubt it–must have recreated Mount Kailasa because archeological evidence points to the use of white plaster all over, signifying the snow-clad abode of Lord Shiva. While the entire temple complex looks like it’s a cluster of temples and pillars and sprawling halls, all of this actually was carved out by vertically excavating some 200,000 tonnes (some folks say 400,000 tonnes) out of a single, mammoth rock. The greater and tougher achievement is that this was excavated, not constructed.

The knowledge of mathematics, engineering, building technology, craftsmanship, artistry, design, planning, and what we today call “project execution” of those days is certainly unfathomable to the present mind–it helps to recall that this “project” was executed over 150 years and spanned several generations of experts. If you are a trivia/quiz buff, the Kailasanath temple covers twice the area of the Parthenon in Athens.

This singular temple is enough to teach us almost all of our major Puranas, Gods and Goddesses. In a way, it is the architectural encyclopaedia of Hinduism. Impeccable sculptures of Nandi who stands at the entrance, the Indra Sabha, the awesome majesty of Ravana trying to lift the Kailasa mountain, the Sapta Matrukas (the Seven Mother Goddesses), the various avatars of Vishnu (see the picture below), celestial damsels, and the Rudra ganas (attendants of Shiva) are enough to teach you pretty much everything about the vitals of Hindu mythology. While they do that, they also leave you awestruck at the intimate knowledge these architects, artists, and artisans had about Sanatana Dharma and how they used stone to bring it to life. Carving such immaculate works of art was both an expression and the fulfilment of the religious and spiritual needs of these artisans as well as a highly sacred duty they felt fortunate to perform. But the Red History of India says they were the oppressed classes who beaten with whips and chains and made to work. Aside, that kind of work produces faceless skyscrapers not this.

[Picture: The Varaha (Boar) avatar of Lord Vishnu]

The reason why I dwelt so much upon just the Kailasanath temple is simply because it is the grandest of all in Ellora. Its richness of art, vividity in depicting life in all its moods and possibilities, and the sense of sheer elevation it brings to the mind dwarfs the rest of the caves. To illustrate what I mean, the following sculpture is an enduring reflection of the genius of the artist who created it.

This amazing scultpure shows the lighter side of life–Nandi, (Bull) Lord Shiva’s vehicle being tormented by pesky monkeys–one pulling his tail, the other his horns, yet another yanking his leg–while the overall scene will bring a hearty grin on even a grown-up’s face. After you come out of the Kailasanath temple, you can’t help feeling that minus this, the overall grandeur of the temple would be the poorer minus this.

This doesn’t mean other structures/temples/sculptures in Ellora are qualitatively inferior–they all are consistent in proportion, form, artistry, and beauty but in terms of breadth, depth and richness, the Kailasanath temple is truly the crown jewel of Ellora. The Buddhist caves though are uniformly boring. This is not to berate them but they cannot realistically be categorized as works of art. They were designed to be viharas (monasteries) and sculptures there are merely by way of an embellishment. More on this when I talk about Ajanta.

Note: While I abhor the copyright game, it is polite to ask me if you want to use these images.

Continued in Part 2

Tags: Ajanta & Ellora, Architecture, Art, Buddhism, Commentary, Ellora, Field Notes, Hinduism, History, India, Indian History, Kailasanath Temple, Kailasanath Temple: Ellora, Preserving Heritage, Preserving the Past, Rashtrakutas, Sanatana Dharma, Sculpture, Travel, Travelogue, UNESCO World Heritage Site