jkmrao's blog

This was supposed to have been written a week ago. Better late than never! There are several stories as to how vinAyaka was born. Of course, the most popular one is that of pArvati kneading a human shape out of the sandal paste on her body and breathing life into it and asking that male child to guard while she was taking her bath. In the mean while Siva appears there and was refused entry into his own house.

For more than four decades. two songs haunted me. They are set in the same rAga, sindhubhairavi. Whenever I listen to them, I feel like listening to them again and again and again …. It is possible to do so nowadays on the computer.

Krishna is perhaps the god favoured by all Indians irrespective of age. Children can identify with him for his childish pranks, so can the teenagers for his adventures, so can the lovers for his love of music and dance, so can the adults for his sagacious advice and so can the very old for his profound teachings. In that sense Krishna is a sampUrNAvatAra, a complete manifestation of self. Since it is gOkulAshTami time, here is a puraMdaradAsa kriti on Krishna.

My parents were religious; my father used to pUjA quite regularly, offer sandhyAvandana, and recite a lot of stOtras and explain their meanings too. My mother was very religious observing all vratas and fasting on EkAdaSi and other days. My parents-in-law too were very religious. Have you heard the expression of a ganjA (incidentally ganjA is a Sanskrit word) plant growing in a garden full of tulasI plants? I am that pot plant in the holy garden! I am not a great follower of religious practices. At the same time I respect religion, all religions.

This blog has reference to the star of David drawn by latAjI (http://ikolam.com/node/297?p=5851) and my response to it. The star of David is the centre piece of the Israeli flag. I mentioned this in a different context while explaining the hexagonal yantras (http://ikolam.com/node/5387?p=1930). Before trying to draw the interpenetrating star of David, we must learn how to construct a Mobius strip (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Möbius_strip ). Mobius strip is a ribbon with only one surface. Normally a strip of paper or a ribbon has two surfaces, But Mobius strip has only one surface.

I am narrating a story that may be taking place everyday in many houses. The mother gets up in the morning and goes out to decorate the front yard with a beautiful rangOli. The child follows her and wants to help the mother His (her) help consists of coming in the way of the mother’s efforts, stepping on the rangOli dots or wiping them with his (her) tender hands. Finally, the mother has had enough of this. She takes the child and ties the child with a loose string to the nearby pillar.

Normally, we in India arrange the dots for rangOlis using either the white rangOli powder or the wet rice flour. There is one more way of doing this. One can use the medium of sand and the dots can be arranged on the sand with fingers. Try this at home or when you go the beach. This is the method followed by some tribes in Angola. Angola, a former Portuguese colony, is in western Africa. They use their index and ring fingers to arrange the dots (see figure). After a certain number of rows are arranged, they continue this process to obtain the desired number of rows and columns.

Though I had seen from distance leaders like Nehruji and Rajaji, even though I was born a few years before Gandhiji passed away, I never saw him in person. I very vaguely remember the day he was killed. It is only from books and from people like my father who saw him that I know about Gandhiji. Later I was mesmerised by Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. whose voice beckoned millions on his peaceful marches. What a great orator, writer and human being he was!

Line:
As the moon revolves around the Earth
and as the Earth revolves around the Sun
I revolve around you
countless times and in countless ways -
up and down and in and out
north and south and east and west
straight and cross
over and under
and round and round ...

Dot:
Unless you are present
and unless you go around me
my existence does not count

Line:

Subhadra is Krishna's sister, Arjuna's wife and child warrior Abhimanyu's mother and related by marriage to the mighty Pandava clan. In her outer as well as her inner self, she always worshipped Krishna. She felt, if she worshipped Krishna no other form of worship is really necessary. I am reminded of the purandaradAsa kriti "kR^ishNA eMdare kashTavu baMdite kR^ishNA enabArade". You may be wondering what all this introduction has to do with rangOli as these blogs are always rangOli related in some way.