Creation and Destruction: Varanasi

 

THE WAY FORWARD

Creation and Destruction: Varanasi

The expectant and frenzied denizens – opulent, paupers, devout, seekers and tourists all lined-up in the labyrinths of Varanasi to witness the astonishing and stupendous road shows of Shri Narendra Damodardas Modi, prior to the 2017 assembly elections in the most populous state of India, Uttar Pradesh.

Manic and tumultuous crowds had similarly greeted Shri Modi in 2014, when he was still to scorch the electoral tracks during the epoch-making hustings that year.

The ancient town of Varanasi is a paramount spot for tourism and the celebrated Ganga-Jamuni culture or tehzeeb. The legendary ancient town is also notable for Raja Harishchandra, the fabled and iconic Indian king, who appears in several texts, such as Aitareya Brahmana, the Mahabharata, the Markandeya Purana, and the Devi Bhagavata Purana.

The most famous of these stories is the one mentioned in the Markandeya Purana. Legend has it that Raja Harishchandra gave away his kingdom, sold his family and agreed to be a slave – all to uphold a promise he had made to the sage Vishwamitra.

Myths and history apart, the mellifluous strains of Bismillah Khan’s shehnai, quite similar to that of an oboe and Pandit Ravi Shankar’s sitar still strike a resonant chord with lovers of Indian classical music. Women of all hues, shapes and sizes swarm the ancient town to drape themselves in Benarasi sarees.

Pilgrims throng the now expanding town to pay obeisance at Kashi Vishwanath, Kaal Bhairav and Sankat Mochan Hanuman temples to parry all misadventures in life.

Aeons ago and for several years thereafter, the devout in the vanaprastha (the third of the four ashramas as per Hinduism) stage of their lives retired to this township to cast away their mortal selves and to seek salvation from the perennial cycle of birth and death.

The sutra of the Art of Living that opposite values are complementary is ideally epitomized and emblematized at the ghats of Varanasi. As the dead are consigned to the flames at the Manikarnika Ghat, at the other end of the spectrum the high priests of Varanasi chant mantras to invoke the benediction of Lord Shiva and Ma Ganga. This dynamic equation represents the creation and destruction of human life, which a discerning seeker can perceive.

Some distance away is the pious place of Sarnath. Prince Siddhartha, who metamorphosed into Gautama and upon attaining enlightenment became the Buddha, delivered his first sermon on the Four Noble Truths and the Eight-Fold path to his first five disciples at Sarnath. Buddhism gifted to humanity the Vipassana meditation, a technique to understand the true nature of reality by maintaining sublime silence.

Varanasi, Kashi or Benares, the bustling town is a cradle of cacophony and symphony. Through continuous creation, destruction and experiencing sublime silence, the human mind is transported from the clangour of modern life to the calm of the sublime.

 

 

Harbinger of Hope - 2021

ॐ द्यौ: शान्तिरन्तरिक्षँ शान्ति:,

पृथ्वी शान्तिराप: शान्तिरोषधय: शान्ति: ।
वनस्पतय: शान्तिर्विश्वे देवा: शान्तिर्ब्रह्म शान्ति:,
सर्वँ शान्ति:, शान्तिरेव शान्ति:, सा मा शान्तिरेधि ॥
ॐ शान्ति: शान्ति: शान्ति: ॥

Shanti Mantra in English:
Om Dyau Shanti-Rantariksha-Gwam Shantih,
Prithvi Shanti-Rapah Shanti-Roshadhayah Shantih।
Vanas-Patayah Shanti-Vishwed Devah Shanti-Brahma Shantih,
Sarvag-Wam Shantih Shanti-Reva Shantih Sa Ma Shanti-Redhi॥
Om Shantih Shantih Shantih Om॥

 

A Shanti Mantra is a prayer or chant for peace, often recited before and after Hindu religious rituals or ceremonies. The word Shanti comes from Sanskrit, which means peace and the word mantra means prayer or song of praise, often recited repeatedly. There are various Shanti Mantras mentioned in Hindu holy books known as Upanishads. Shanti Mantra is chanted to calm the mind of the reciter and the nature around her/him. Traditionally, a Shanti Mantra ends with three recitations of Shanti, which is believed to remove obstacles and calm the three reals: Physical, Divine, and Internal.

One invisible microorganism caused havoc across continents, wrecked countries, economies, lives, political and social systems. This is indicative of the frailty of humans. We seemed to be at war from within and without.

I was numbed after losing my mother and am still to come to terms with the tragic loss. Millions of others too lost their loved ones. But humans have the ingenuity to bounce back and today we have a vaccine which can counter the pestilence with some efficacy.

However, as the story pans out, it is evident that humanity would be at peril if it plays with nature. Nature, divinity and the universe has it plans and man would be sagacious to adhere to the norms laid down.

Stephen Hawking’s was immensely troubled that humankind would eventually fall victim to an extinction-level catastrophe - perhaps sooner rather than later. What worried him were so-called low-probability, high impact events - a large asteroid striking our planet is the classic example. But Hawking perceived a host of other potential threats: artificial intelligence, climate change, GM viruses and nuclear war to name a few.

In 2016, he told the BBC: “Although the chance of a disaster to planet Earth in a given year may be quite low, it adds up over time, and becomes a near certainty in the next thousand or 10,000 years.”

 

 He added, “We are just an advanced breed of monkeys on a minor planet of a very average star. But we can understand the universe. That makes us something very special.”