Ashadi Ekadashi – Vithoba of Pandarpur

July 11, is the day of Ashadi Ekadashi (the eleventh day of the month of Ashad). The day is significant according to the Hindus as it marks the beginning of Chatur-masa (four months). On this day, Lord Vishnu goes to sleep for four months and thus these four months are considered to be inauspicious for any religious or social activities like marriage. Many people observe fasts and abstinence of different sort during these four months.

However, for Mahrashtrians, this has another significance which is associated with Vithoba or Vitthala of Pandarpur. As per the Bhakti cult of Maharashtra, two main exponents of the Bhakti movement, Sant Tukaram and Sant Jnaneshwar are supposed to have reached Pandarpur on the day of Ashadi Ekadashi. The day till date is commemorated by undertaking a pilgrimage to Pandarpur by the devotees which is better known as the Pandarpur Yatra. The unique feature of the temple is that the shrines of Vithoba and his consort, Rakhumai have two different temples. Let me tell you the myth associated with this.

Vithoba’s (a name for Lord Vishnu) wife was fondly called Padubai and was always busy with her household chores. Once she was so busy with her work that she did not attend to Maliraya, a guest of Vithoba. Vithoba’s anger knew no bounds and in his anger he cursed her that she would go mad and be separated from her. True to her curse, Padubai went to a forest and died. Vithoba was so angry that he took the form of a snake and came in between the corpse of Padubai and her parents who had come to see her at the sad turn of events. He then had clouds turn to rain and wash away her bones into the sea, after allowing the kites and vultures eat up her body.

All this upset Maliraya to no end as he felt guilty for the events. He took severe penance for twelve years at the sea-shore and then got the release of Padubai’s bones from the lord of the sea. He then immersed the bones in the Chandrabhaga River and a beautiful lotus emerged out of it. Meanwhile Vithoba was sad and guilty for his acts, was roaming and looking for Padubai all over, till he reached Chandrabhaga River. When he saw the lotus, he plucked it and Padubai emerged as Rukmini. But by then Vithoba had renounced family life and could not undo his own curse and so they decided not to live under the same roof, but decided to meet regularly and speak to each other. The two separate temples symbolize Vithoba’s non-attachment and a life of suffering and a life of duty, devotion and forgiveness.

Many see Vithoba as a pastoral deity, who got assimilated in the Hindu pantheon in due course of time. Many have said that Vithoba is a form of Shiva, like majority of the pastoral deities and this could be based out of the fact that Pandarpur has many Shiva temples. However, the exponents of the bhakti cult like Sant Tukaram and Sant Eknath have identified Vithoba with Vishnu and Rakhumai with Rukmini.

Vithoba is also associated with his devotee Pundalik and as a savior of the Varkhari community. Next time we will go thru the myths associated with Pundalik.

Modern Day Dronacharyas

A recent news item of students who have secured more than 95% in their Board exams, not getting admission in ‘good’ colleges has set me thinking. A particular college even had a cut-off of 100% - just what is ‘cut-off at 100%’?

This and some other colleges sound like Dronacharya’s (of Mahabharata) school. Dronacharya used to teach only children of kings, the family of Bhishma to be precise. When an equally qualified, if not more, pupil like Eklavya tried to take ‘admission’ in Drona’s school, he was denied admission, however, fees was extracted out of him. Nobody questioned the faulty education system and the injustice meted out to a deserving student, by a well-known ‘head of an institution’, rather, an elitist institution. This was similar to rejecting a deserving student because the son(s) of the trustees or the governing body feel insecure of other students’ capabilities or the head of the institution’s loyalties lying elsewhere. Such biases are seen even today, except that the bosses have changed, and at times this is not done so openly.

Further down, when a qualified pupil, like Karna tried to appear for exams in what seemed to be an ‘open-exam’, he was disqualified from the same on the grounds of unknown caste of birth or lower caste to be precise. This is similar to someone who is inherently intelligent and qualified, but cannot produce his domicile certificate or other such credentials! This is exactly why many students leave their own states and go to other states or some deserving students decided to leave the country due to such inherent impediments in our Education system, like reservations for example.

How long will deserving students be deprived of good institutions? Are students who secure anything above 80% not supposed to be good in studies? Are the above-average students now becoming mediocre students, as certified by a few ‘academics’?  Are students who get 95% any less better than those who secure 98%? Just who decides such ‘cut-offs’ and who authorizes such people to occupy such seats of learning, who sow the seeds of discord and end up creating an education based caste-system?

Dronacharya himself jumped his caste by fighting the war of Kurkshetra, which was the domain of Kshatriyas, even though he was a Brahmin. But he deprived Eklavya and Karna on grounds of not-deserving of education for similar reasons, which were unethical. Dronacharya got away with such petty acts, but why are we letting the modern-day Drona’s get away with such academic bias? Why are we allowing them to create a rift between all deserving students, by making some feel more gifted than the others? The modern day Drona’s are creating new set of haves and have-nots amongst the academic-haves.

It would be a service done to the nation, if the Education Minister takes firm steps than just laughing the matter away. We know he would not get admission if he had to secure one today, but why not take steps to stop such a menace unleashed by the modern-day Drona’s? Stop them before they create a new unviable educational eco-system, where many deserving students will be made to perish.

The (un)Health(y) Minister

The Honourable (?) Health Minister says that man-to-man sex is unnatural. By this statement, he implies that man-to-woman sex is natural. I have the following questions for him –

?         Is forced man on woman sex natural (rape)?

?         Is marital sexual violence meted out by a man to a woman natural?

?         Is father raping his daughter natural?

?         Is an older man having sex with younger women (at times minors) 

       natural?

?         Is one man having sex with many women (read harem) natural?

?         Is having unnatural sex by a man with a woman, natural?

The honourable minister would do good not to question one supposedly unnatural act, when hundreds of ‘natural’ acts need to be questioned!

I hope he doesn’t become a ‘gulam’ of popular notions and soon becomes ‘azad’ from ancient prejudices!

Coffee House

My non-mythological short story which was published in a Blog -


Coffee House – By Utkarsh Patel

http://www.litizen.com/StoryReading.aspx?StoryId=33
 

http://litizen.wordpress.com/2011/06/22/coffee-house-by-utkarsh-patel/

Please feel free to send in your comments on the same.

Hunger-strikes – Modern-day Relevance (Part 2)

In the last article we read about the historical and mythological references of hunger-strike. Today we will talk about the present-day relevance of the same.

Is fasting-unto-death a good means of protest?

Let’s say it is. Just as occasional fasting cleanses our physical self, fasting for a cause will cleanse our national self, at least that’s the initial belief and we will go ahead with that. It will give vent to the cause to surface and gain recognition especially when the nation is going thru such a terrible crisis. After all Gandhiji did manage to get freedom, stop riots, etc. didn’t he?

Let’s say it is not. Why should a nation fall prey to an individual’s idiosyncrasies of trying an archaic weapon to hold sway to a democratically elected government? In the current times, is this a matured way of fighting for a cause? Why should the state machinery be invoked to tackle a potentially huge law and order situation which can get riotous at the slightest of provocation at such ‘congregations’?

Is this really a potent weapon? As long as some of these fasts are undertaken by the well-known members of the civil society, it’s ok. Morphine when used pharmaceutically, converts into analgesics or painkillers used for many medical purposes. The same morphine can be abused by creating heroin for illicit usage leading to drug abuse. What if we have some key criminals in Tihar Jail resorting to fasting unto death if they are not given bail? Should the government decide to sit at the discussion table to negotiate with them? (This is not to be taken in a derogatory sense nor should be seen as a comparison of the Tihar Jail inmates with the recent followers of hunger-strike, this is just to bring a theoretical reference to the abuse of a potent weapon, something akin to a kitchen knife being a kitchen implement for a cook but a sharp weapon in the hand of a deranged violent person). The whole idea of the said analogy is to impress upon the fact that the times of fast-unto-death are probably over. It does not work well, especially in a democracy. Please note that all the hunger-strikes that we have seen in history were against autocratic and fascist regimes. A democracy gives you many more weapons to fight the war – condition that the electorate has to remember the issues that matter to him/her and not given in to short-term material gain and idolization of individuals. Today we have elections, referendums or plebiscite, judiciary, media, etc. to resort to. A fast-unto-death is no more a potent weapon in a modern democracy, and we have seen that in the case of Jessica Lal murder case, where judgment was reversed due to media and social pressure.

In the current scenario, let us examine as to how helpful was the fast by Anna Hazare and the role of the government, who henceforth will be referred to as politicians to drive home my point. Anna Hazare’s fast received a nation-wide support, unexpected to both Anna’s team and the politicians. Before the initiative became a movement and Anna earned his halo, the politicians bent down and so-called accepted his demands and decided to talk. The politicians decided to give in to their demands and agreed to form a joint group. The fast is called off and Round 1 goes to Anna! Round 2; groups are formed; marred by initial comments by the politicians and their plants leading to some discomfort, but tackled. Allegations and mud-slinging goes on and off, and cross-discussions lead to minor squabbles. Round 2 is a draw with nothing significant happening. The discussions begin and the politicians now show their true colour by not agreeing to anything that Anna’s team said and behind the closed doors there is chaos. The matter is debated and dissected to no end till the sheer brute force of the politicians frustrates Anna’s team to withdraw from the discussion table. Round 3 go to the politicians. Now Anna wants to go on fast again. People are beginning to get bored with the whole issue, and the movement has been reduced to an activity by a well-meaning person, with little sustaining power. Round 4 seems to be going to the politicians. This is the classic artwork of true-bred Indian politicians! Outwardly they bent to concede a short-term victory, but internally made life difficult by creating roadblock every moment, till the subject matter had taken a backseat in the collective mindspace of the people in general. What happened with Baba Ramdev was no different and to quote a leading newspaper which sums up the whole episode – “first the licking then the kicking”! That’s our men who we take pains to elect or rather do not take pains to elect by staying away from the process of elections.

It is important to remember that the current day politicians are not Nehru, Patel and Azad anymore just as the fasters are not Mahatma’s any more, needless to say that the India of 2011 is not India of the 40’s anymore. In such changed scenario, does fasting-unto-death work?

You tell me.