Saturday, May 16, 2009

New Car and Gas Tanker



New Maruti Suzuki Swift DZire VDi diesel sedan and an LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas) tanker. Somewhere on NH48 between Kunigal and Hasan, at 8AM.

© 2009, Abhinav Agarwal. All rights reserved.
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Sunday, May 10, 2009

Upanishads - Kena and Katha


The Upanishads

See my previous post on the Brihadaranyaka and Mandukya Upanishads.

KENA UPANISHAD
Kena, the title and opening word of the text, means "by whom?" - that is, by whom impelled do all the motions of life stir? Shankara gave this question a suitably profound interpretation: "By whose mere presence does that desire arise which moves the universe?" [page 66]

I.3 The ignorant think the Self can be known
By the intellect, but the illumined
Know he is beyond the duality
Of the knower and the known
I.4 The Self is realized in a higher state
Of consciousness when you have broken through
The wrong identification that you are
The body, subject to birth and death.
To be the Self is to go beyond death.

I.5 Realize the Self, the shining goal of life!
If you do not, there is only darkness.
See the self in all, and go beyond death.
Notes
... the Kena contains one of the two mysterious Upanishadic names for God which have no (or almost no) literal meaning... The name, an answer to the opening question of the text, is Tadvanam, explained as the coming from tatam and vananiya, meaning "the all pervading lover" or "beloved". (The other mysterious name occurs at Chandogya III.14.1)
KATHA UPANISHAD (KATHOPANISHAD)
If there is one Upanishad that can be called a favorite in all ages, it is the Katha. [page 75]
1.1.22 Nachiketa: This doubt haunted even the gods of old;
For it is hard to know. O Death, as you say.
I can have no greater teacher than you.
And there is no boon equal to this.

2.2.21 Though one sits in meditation in a
particular place, the Self within
Can exercise his influence far away.
Though still, he moves everything everywhere.

2.2.23 The Self cannot be known through study
Of the scriptures, nor through the intellect,
Nor through hearing learned discourses.
The Self can be attained only by those
Whom the Self chooses. Verily unto them
Does the Self reveal himself.

2.3.3 Know the Self as lord of the chariot,
The body as the chariot itself,
The discriminating intellect as charioteer,
And the mind as reins.

2.3.4 The senses, say the wise, are the horses;
Selfish desires are the roads they travel.
When the Self is confused with the body,
Mind, and senses, they point out, he seems
To enjoy pleasure and suffer sorrow.

2.1.14 As the rain on a mountain peak runs off
The slopes on all sides, so those who see
Only the seeming multiplicity of life
Run after things on every side.

2.2.15 There shines not the sun, neither moon nor star,
Nor flash of lightning, nor fire lit on earth.
The Self is the light reflected by all.
He shining, everything shines after him.

This famous model of human life as the conduct of a chariot recurs in the framework of the Gita, where Krishna himself drives as Arjuna's charioteer... [page 102]
Book Details:
  • Paperback: 311 pages
  • Publisher: Nilgiri Press; 1 edition (June 1987)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0915132397
  • ISBN-13: 978-0915132393
  • Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 4.5 x 1 inches
Tales from these two Upanishads have also found their way into two Amar Chitra Katha comics:

- Tales from the Upanishads

- Nachiketa and Other Stories



Books on the Upanishads
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Friday, May 8, 2009

Upanishads - Brihadaranyaka and Mandukya


The Upanishads
The Upanishads are Hindu scriptures that constitute the core teachings of Vedanta. ... The Upanishads speak of an universal spirit (Brahman) and of an individual soul (Atman), and at times assert the identity of both. Brahman is the ultimate, both transcendent and immanent, the absolute infinite existence, the sum total of all that ever is, was, or shall be. The mystical nature and intense philosophical bent of the Upanishads has led to their explication in numerous manners, giving birth to three main schools of Vedanta.
Bс╣Ыhad─Бraс╣Зyaka (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brhadaranyaka_Upanishad)- page on Wikipedia

What I have in this and other posts to follow on the Upanishads and the book are snippets from the different chapters, where each chapter covers one Upanishad. Also to be included will be excerpts from the introduction and the Afterword by Michael Nagler, a student of the author, Eknath Easwaran.

BRIHADARANYAKA Upanishad
Among the Vedic mantras the Brihadaranyaka contains there contains a famous refrain which has sustained millions of aspirants:
Lead me from the unreal to the Real;
Lead me from darkness to light;
Lead me from death to immortality.

which may be better known to most people in its Sanskrit transliteration:

Asato ma sad gamaya,
Tamaso ma jyotir gamaya,
Mrtyor mamrtam gamaya


рдЕрд╕рддो рдоा рд╕рджрдЧрдордп
рддрдорд╕ो рдоा рдЬ्рдпोрддिрд░्рдЧрдордп
рдоृрдд्рдпोрд░ рдоा рдЕрдоृрддं рдЧрдордп
реР рд╢ांрддि рд╢ांрддि рд╢ांрддि

CHAPTER III - The Imperishable
Gargi
6. In what is space itself woven, warp, and woof? Tell me, Yajnavalkya.
7-8 The sages call it Akshara, the Imperishable. It is neither big nor small, neither long nor short, neither hot nor cold, neither bright nor dark, neither air nor space. It is without attachment, without taste, smell, or touch, without eyes, ears, tongue, mouth, breath, or mind, without inside or outside. It consumes nothing, and nothing consumes it.
CHAPTER IV
The States of Consciousness
Janaka
6. When the sun sets, Yajnavalkya, and the moon sets, and the fire goes out, and no one speaks, what is the light of man?
Yajnavalkya
The Self indeed is the light of man, your majesty, for by that we sit, work, go out, and come back.
Janaka
7. Who is that Self?
Yajnavalkya
The Self, pure awareness, shines as the light within the heart, surrounded by the senses. Only seeming to think, seeming to move, the Self neither sleeps nor wakes nor dreams.
...
9. The human being has two states of consciousness: one in this world, and the other in the next. But there is a third state between them, not unlike the state of dreams, in which we are aware of both worlds, with their sorrows and joys. When a person dies, it is only the physical body that dies; that person lives on in a nonphysical body, which carroes the impressions of the past life. It is these impressions that determine his next life. In this intermediate state he makes and dissolves impressions by the light of the Self.
21. The Self is free from desire, free from evil, free from fear.
23-30. In that unitive state one sees without seeing, for there is nothing separate from him; ...
[4]
2. ... He who is dying merges in consciousness, and thus consciousness accompanies him when he departs, along with the impressions of all that he has done, experienced, and known.
5. The Self is indeed Brahman, but through ignorance people identify it with intellect, mind, senses, passions, and the elements of earth, water, air, space, and fire. This is why the Self is said to consist of this and that, and appears to be everything.
As a person acts, so he becomes in life. Those who do good become good; those who do harm become bad. Good deeds make one pure; bad deeds make one impure. So we are said to be what our desire is. As our desire is, so is our will. As our will, so are our acts. As we act, so we become.
6. We live in accordance with our deep, driving desire. It is this desire at the time of death that determines what our next life is to be. We will come back to earth to work out the satisfaction of that desire.
7. ... When all the desires that surge in the heart Are renounced, the mortal becomes immortal.

The Medium of Awareness: The MANDUKYA Upanishad
One of the Upanishadic mahakavyas or "great sayings" occurs in the second verse: ayam atma brahma, "the Self if Brahman." ... Shankara declared that if one could only study a single Upanishad it should be this one; similarly in a late Upanishad, the Muktika ("Deliverance"), Rama appears and tells a devotee that "the Mandukya alone is sufficient for the deliverance of the aspirant,"... [page 59]
1. AUM stands for the supreme Reality.
It is a symbol for what was, what is,
And what shall be. AUM represents also
What lies beyond past, present, and future.
7. The fourth is the superconsciousness state called
Turiya, neither inward nor outward,
Beyond the senses and the intellect,
In which there is none other than the Lord,
He is the supreme goal of life. He is
Infinite peaace and love. Realize him!
Extremely condensed, it was and is considered the most difficult of the Upanishads to understand accurately. Although Shankara does not mention it for some reason in this commentary on the Brahma Sutras, his teacher's teacher, Gaudapada, had written a 215-verse commentary which was to become one of the most influential documents of Indian philosophy, being the earliest expositions of the Vedanta we possess (and a brilliant demonstration of its validity by intellectual methods alone, independent of scriptural authority or dogma). [page 62]

  • Paperback: 311 pages
  • Publisher: Nilgiri Press; 1 edition (June 1987)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0915132397
  • ISBN-13: 978-0915132393
  • Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 4.5 x 1 inches


Books on the Upanishads
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Sunday, May 3, 2009

Bandipur National Park

The Bandipur National Park is one of nine forests in India that were designated a Tiger Reserve in 1973-74 as part of the Project Tiger initiative of the Government of India.

This park is contiguous with the Nagarhole National Park in Karnataka, the Mudumalai National Park in Tamil Nadu, Muthanga Reserve in Kerala, and the Mukurthi and Silent Valley National Parks. I had previously blogged (Bandipur and Mudumalai National Parks) on the Bandipur and Mudumali parks in March, with lots of photos.


View Larger Map


Map of the Bandipur National Park (available on http://projecttiger.nic.in/bandipurmap.htm)

The Bandipur Safari Lodge of Jungle Lodges and Resorts is a good place to stay at. It is on the outskirts of the Bandipur National Park, and some 17 kms from the Gundalpet town limits. As of April 2009, a room cost Rs 2750 per person per night, and the charges include "Stay, Lunch, Dinner & Breakfast, Jeep safari into Bandipur Tiger Reserve, Guided Nature Walk, Forest Entry Fees, Camera Fees & Taxes"

http://www.cicadaresorts.com/ is another highly recommended though (very) expensive place to stay.
Bandipur Tusker Trail Resort also crops up often enough when you do a search for hotels in and around the park.








JLR guide at the Golghar giving a talk before the tour into the national park.







Without knowing the precise lat-long coordinates of the place, it is awfully difficult to pinpoint precisely on a map where the lodge is, but if memory serves me right, this map below from Google Maps is where the Bandipur Safari Lodge is located. The distinctive golghar is visible in this satellite imagery, hence my confidence that this indeed is the JLR lodge. I may be wrong, but I think I have nailed the location...

View Larger Map


The Golghar at the Bandipur Safari Lodge. (Canon XSi|@30mm|1/4s|f3.5|ISO200|-2ev)


(Canon XSi|@30mm|1/50s|f5.0|ISO100|-1ev)
Almost the same camera angle, but this time at ISO 100, spot metering but with the focus on the light, 1/50 sec, and -1 step exposure compensation






Inside the park, in 2002

The Indian 'gaur' is mistaken for the bison, which it is not. However, the word 'bison' seems to have stuck, which is wrong, and wrong. This is the first thing that the safari guide at the Bandipur National Park took pains to make us aware of - the term Indian bison is the result of safari tourism. Anglicized names are better than Indian names like 'gaur', or it seems that the guides finally tired of repeating the word 'gaur' for the foreign tourists, and found it convenient to refer to the giant beasts as 'Indian bison'.

In case you are wondering what this gaur is doing, it is licking the wet mud on the ground. Why? No, not because it is thirsty and this is the only place that has any amount of water. But because the mud is rich in salt, and by licking this mud the gaur ensures that it gets whatever sodium its body needs.





The gaurs are massive beasts, reaching upto six or even seven feet and more in height at the shoulders. The females weigh in at 800 kgs, while the males can top a ton. Yes - a ton. 1000 kilograms. 2200 pounds. That is equal to 14 adults. Or the weight of a Maruti 800 car, with weight remaining for a driver, a passenger in each seat, with weight left for the luggage, and a full tank of fuel. You get the picture - these are massive beasts. Only the elephant weighs more among land animals in India. The rhino doesn't weigh as much. Nor the hippo. The elephant weighs at 3,000 to 5,000 kgs. That is almost equal to the wight of a large Detroit built SUV. And the elephant can swim. And is prettier to look at. And is environmentally very friendly, not ruinous like an SUV.

Other animals to spot are sambhar, deers, langurs, peahens, peacocks, eagles.








The tiger is very, very difficult to spot, and requires a good degree of luck and a good dose of perseverance. Firstly there are not that many tigers left in the wild. Even the latest tiger census figures seem to indicate that poaching is steadily but surely driving the tiger to extinction in India. In some reserves like Dudhwa and Sariska there is not a single tiger left; all have been poached, and for several years the forest officials were parading out fake numbers. A physical count, based on actual sightings, revealed there were no tigers left. These tiger reserves, which had upwards of 50 tigers each a decade ago, have probably less than a dozen each now. Some environmentalists argue that the tiger population in the wild has dipped below the point from where the tiger can be expected to survive in the wild. A tragedy, and not likely to be reversed.

The other reason behind the tiger's elusiveness is the season. During the post-monsoon months when the vegetation is lush and there are lots of small water holes and ponds all over the jungle that have water, the tiger does not need to venture much to get to water. The lush vegetation also makes it difficult to spot the tiger from the trails where the jeep travels on. Unlike humans, the tiger does not have any curiosity to watch urban slickers in the wild.




(Canon XSi|@83mm|1/30s|f/9.0|ISO200|0.0 ev)
Unless the tiger sees the need to venture out into the open you are most likely not going to spot the tiger. As someone once remarked, it is the tiger who decides if he wants to be seen. It remains a near-mythical beast, its presence felt more than seen. It is the tiger that makes a jungle a living entity.

Perseverance and patience is not something that you can expect when you are bundled in a jeep with half a dozen other people. Of course, all of them are there in the jeep, in the jungle, for the same purpose - to sight animals, and the tiger above all. The collective might of the expectations of a dozen humans is still not enough to stir the king of the jungle to come out and bless us with a sighting. Getting out of the vehicle is a no-no, and is anyway not something that city slickers are likely to do. Alcohol is prohibited, so that precludes any alcohol aggravated act of attempted self-annihilation.

The other thing to notice, and you notice it more by its absence, is the complete absence of plastic or other man made waste. It feels blessed to be in the jungle, and one is thankful for these few remaining tracts of land that have not yet been destroyed by the inexorable march of civilization.











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