August 2022
कूजन्तं राम रामेति मधुरं मधुराक्षरम् ।
आरुह्य कविता-शाखां वन्दे वाल्मीकि-कोकिलम् ॥
[Continuously singing the sweet syllables rāma, perched upon the branch - poetry, is the cuckoo - Vālmīki, we bow down to him]
Prologue
It is well known that the author of Śrīmad-rāmāyaṇam is maharṣi Vālmīki. It is known as the ādikāvya i.e. the first poem. The word ādi has two meanings - the first and the cause. Since it is the first poem it might have...
ಘನಪಾಠಿಗಳು ಶಾಲೆಯ ಮುಖವನ್ನು ಕಂಡವರಲ್ಲ. ಇಂಗ್ಲಿಷನ್ನು ಕಲಿತವರಲ್ಲ. ಅವರು ಅಪ್ಪಟ ಗುರುಕುಲದ ವಿದ್ಯಾರ್ಥಿ. ಅವರ ತಾತನವರು ತಮಿಳುನಾಡಿನಲ್ಲಿ ನ್ಯಾಯಮೂರ್ತಿಗಳಾಗಿದ್ದರು. ಅವರಿಗೊಬ್ಬ ತಮ್ಮ. ಆತ ಮಾತ್ರ ವೇದ-ಶಾಸ್ತ್ರಗಳನ್ನು ಬಲ್ಲವರಾಗಿದ್ದರು; ವೈದಿಕವೃತ್ತಿಯಲ್ಲಿಯೇ ಉಳಿದಿದ್ದರು. ಅವರ ಹೆಸರು ಕೂಡ ರಾಜಗೋಪಾಲಶರ್ಮಾ ಎಂದೇ. ನ್ಯಾಯಮೂರ್ತಿಗಳಾಗಿದ್ದ ಅಣ್ಣ ಚಿಕ್ಕ ವಯಸ್ಸಿಗೇ ತೀರಿಕೊಂಡರು. ತಬ್ಬಲಿಗಳಾದ ಅವರ ಮಕ್ಕಳನ್ನು ತಮ್ಮ ರಾಜಗೋಪಾಲಶರ್ಮರೇ ಸಾಕಿ ಸಲಹಿದರು. ಅವರಿಗೆಲ್ಲ ವೇದಾಭ್ಯಾಸ ಮಾಡಿಸಿದರೂ ಲೌಕಿಕವಿದ್ಯೆಗಳಲ್ಲಿಯೇ ಮುಂದುವರಿಸಿ ಕೆಲಸ-ಬೊಗಸೆ...
[07.04.2007ರಂದು ಗೋಖಲೆ ಸಾರ್ವಜನಿಕ ವಿಚಾರ ಸಂಸ್ಥೆಯಲ್ಲಿ 1857ರ ಸ್ವಾತಂತ್ರ್ಯ ಸಂಗ್ರಾಮದ ನೂರೈವತ್ತನೆಯ ವರ್ಷದ ಉತ್ಸವದ ಅಂಗವಾಗಿ ಖ್ಯಾತ ಇತಿಹಾಸಕಾರರಾದ ಡಾ॥ ಕೆ. ಶ್ರೀಪತಿ ಶಾಸ್ತ್ರಿಯವರ ಉಪನ್ಯಾಸ ಮಾಲಿಕೆಯನ್ನು ಏರ್ಪಡಿಸಿತ್ತು. ಅವರ ಉಪನ್ಯಾಸವನ್ನು ಶ್ರೀ. ಎಸ್. ಆರ್. ರಾಮಸ್ವಾಮಿಯವರು ಲಿಪೀಕರಿಸಿದ ಕೃತಿ ಇದಾಗಿದೆ.]
ನಮ್ಮ ದೇಶ ತುಂಬಾ ಪ್ರಾಚೀನವಾದದ್ದು, ನಿನ್ನೆ ಮೊನ್ನೆ ಹುಟ್ಟಿದ ದೇಶವಲ್ಲ ಇದು. ಸುಮಾರು ನೂರೈವತ್ತು ವರ್ಷದ ಹಿಂದೆ ಜರ್ಮನಿ ದೇಶ ಇರಲಿಲ್ಲ; ಮುನ್ನೂರು ವರ್ಷದ ಹಿಂದೆ ಅಮೆರಿಕ ದೇಶ ಇರಲಿಲ್ಲ; ಎರಡು ಸಾವಿರ ವರ್ಷದ ಹಿಂದೆ...
Story 24
31. The king Trivikramasena carried he corpse for the twenty-fourth time on his shoulders and left. The vetāla started narrating another story –
There lived a māṇḍalika by name Dharma in Dakṣiṇāpatha. He had a wife called Candramatī and a daughter named Lāvaṇyavatī. As his relatives captured his kingdom, he escaped with his wife and daughter to his father-in-law’s house. He took all the jewellery and valuables along with him. On the...
Integrity and Competence
Now, for the kind of State we are discussing about, these two duties are sufficient – the destruction of the wicked and the protection of the good. A facet of ‘protection of the good’ is the nourishment of wealth creation by noble means.
If a State has to fulfil this duty towards its citizens, what the ministers need right at the start is integrity. The second requirement is a rudimentary worldly wisdom (political...
The phrase hita-nirata (engaged in welfare) does not involve merely uttering homilies. It means those who internally resolve to act towards universal welfare and ensure that those resolutions are acted upon externally. It is thus not necessary for a saṃnyāsin to give up activity that yields in the well-being of the world. But such activities have to be performed with an extraordinary mindset. The activity referred to here is interacting with the...
ಪರಿಚಿತರಿಗೆಲ್ಲ ಅಡ್ಡಹೆಸರನ್ನಿಡುವುದರಲ್ಲಿ ಎಸ್. ಕೆ. ಎಮ್. ಅಗ್ರಗಣ್ಯರು. ಒಬ್ಬ ಸಂಗೀತವಿದುಷಿಯನ್ನು ‘ಎನ್. ಬಿ.’ ಎಂದು ಕರೆಯುತ್ತಿದ್ದರು. ಆಗೆಲ್ಲ ಅಬ್ರಾಹ್ಮಣರನ್ನು ಸೂಚ್ಯವಾಗಿ ಹೀಗೆ ನಿರ್ದೇಶಿಸುತ್ತಿದ್ದುದು ಲೋಕದ ವಾಡಿಕೆ. ಇದನ್ನು ಗಮನಿಸಿದ ನಾನು “ಇಲ್ಲ ಸರ್; ಅವರು ಬ್ರಾಹ್ಮಣರೇ” ಎಂದೆ. ಆಗ ಕೃಷ್ಣಮೂರ್ತಿ ನಗುತ್ತ “ನಿಮಗೆ ವಾಸ್ತವ ಹೇಳಿದರೆ ಬೇಜಾರಾಗಬಹುದು. ಆದರೆ ಸತ್ಯವೇ ಮುಖ್ಯ ಅಲ್ಲವೇ! ಇದರ ಅರ್ಥ ನಾನ್-ಬ್ರಾಹ್ಮಿನ್ ಎಂದಲ್ಲ; ‘ನಿತ್ಯಬಹಿಷ್ಠೆ’ ಅಂತ!”
ಇದನ್ನು ಕೇಳಿ ನಾನು ಮೂರ್ಚ್ಛೆ ಹೋಗುವುದೊಂದು ಬಾಕಿ.
ಹೀಗೆಯೇ ಅವರಿಗೆ ಚೆನ್ನಾಗಿ...
We will need to search for an object at the place where we have lost it – this is inevitable and also expected. We can examine this from the perspective of music. It is needless to say that music is inevitable for dance and in a sense directs dance. In a dance recital, even if the dancer is below par, we can relish the performance to some extent if the music accompaniment is good. On the contrary, if the dance is good but the accompanying music...
Story 21
28. Trivikramasena, for the twenty-first time, hauled the corpse on his shoulder and head out. The vetāla began narrating yet another story:
There lived a merchant named Arthadatta in the city of Viśālanagara. He had only one child – a daughter named Anaṅgamañjarī. He had her married to a merchant named Maṇivarmā who hailed from Tāmralipti. Since he was extremely attached to his daughter, he had made arrangements for his daughter and...
For people of the sanātana-dharma, the whole of creation is an embodiment of divinity – the creation is pervaded by its Creator and both are equally divine; they are, in fact, not two different entities. It is for this reason, there is hardly any object that is not worshipped in the sanātana culture. From a vedāntic perspective, the nirguṇa-parabrahma is the only Reality and needs to be realised within oneself. While the Ideal of realising the...