Kannadasan – A Realized Master (Part 5)

 Shiva Shambho!

We had ended the last episode with 'Shiva Shambo!' We will begin there only. Kaviyarasar Kannadasan not only 'wakes us up' by his series of questions in some songs, but also gives answers in his other songs. For example, the next song to be broadcast in this radio is from film 'Ninaithaale Inikkum'. And these lyrics will also answer questions that may have been raised in our minds in the earlier chapters:

“Sambo... Shiva Sambo...

The world is a game of tricks; pleasure is its only mantra.”

 What is seen by us as the world/universe and things in it are nothing but a trick played by our brains. Mahakavi Bharathi termed it as ‘Optical Illusion’ in his song referred to by us in Part 2 of this series, i.e., “Nirpathuve..Nadappathuve..”.  The very purpose of their creation is to experience blissfulness (Sat-Chit-Anandam).

                 “Man is but a machine—Shiva Sambo...”

The human organism (and other living systems too) is nothing but a biological/cell machine (which repeatedly manufactures cells copying from the ORIGINAL CELL). From Epigenetics, Cell Biologist Dr. Bruce Lipton in his books “Biology of Belief” and “Honeymoon Effect”, AFTER his personal research in the laboratory, writes that we humans are nothing but a skin bag of ’50 trillion living cells’. Our very own Pattinathar—the philosopher of the village *thinnai* (veranda) from our hometown temple (Thiruvidaimarudur)—sang of this very truth: "Oh, my mind! You have wandered astray, having placed your affection upon this bag of skin with nine openings!"

 “The heart is a temple; one's thoughts are the deity within.

Every day is a drama—Shiva Sambo...”

The human Heart is the Centre from which the Consciousness/thought stream flows to generate the everyday drama of our lives. Ramana Maharishi in his Q&A sessions explained about this Heart Centre (not the biological blood pumping machine).

“Oh Man, in this lifetime of yours,

Every single day is a good day

Do not dwell on tomorrow; let this very day be your golden day.”

 These lines confirm the various Spiritual Masters’ pointing to the indisputable fact that ‘the Present moment is the ONLY one there is’ and everything else produced by the movement of thought is a figment of imagination. Contemporary Spiritual Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudeo in his book ‘Pebbles of Wisdom.’ says “"Memory creates a hallucination of the past, desire creates a hallucination of the future."

What Sadhguru means by this is that:

• The past exists only as memory in the mind; what you experience is not the past event itself, but your present recollection of it.
• The future exists only as imagination, expectation, fear, or desire projected by the mind.
• The only reality directly available to experience is the present moment.

He expresses the same idea elsewhere in slightly different words:

"You cannot suffer the past or future because they do not exist. What you are suffering is your memory and your imagination of them. The only thing that you experience is what is right NOW."

                         “Do not merely carry the palanquin—

Instead, ascend and ride within it!

Though your lifespan may span ninety years,

Let your spirit remain forever sixteen.”

Kannadasan advises us through these lines that we must search for and ‘experience’ ourselves the Truth instead of depending on books/lectures offered by others (including this write up!). For this meditation to happen, we have to sit in the Brahma Muhoortam (early mornings) because that is when we can easily watch the tantrums of the thought process.

                         “Father and grandfather came and went...

Always play, what is right or wrong?”

As said earlier, trillion life forms have come and gone before you from this planet but the purpose of ‘your arrival’ here is to only remain curious and playful all the time (like Krishna). Kannadasan says don’t worry about the so-called ‘right’ and ‘wrong’. What is the basis for the logical structure of human mind:

         “The three famous words given by Aristotle to the Alexander were:

 “Ethos, Logos, Pathos”.

Equate the three Operating Systems of our mind to:

ETH-OS                -           Good Vs Bad (Credibility)

LOG-OS               -           Right Vs Wrong (Logical Reasoning)

PATH-OS             -           Like Vs Dislike (Emotional Positioning)

We humans ‘interpret’ every ‘personal experience’ using the above three Operating Systems (OS) and wire (by thinking) our software (personality), store the classification in our memory and ‘suffer’ with the buffer. Besides the OS, we have an ‘application software’ to make instantaneous decisions in our life – I ‘want’ or ‘don’t want’ this material, person, experience or situation and so on.

ALL actual learning happens when we transcend the OS of our minds and ‘detach the pin’ (thinking) that keeps creating ‘gramophone records’ in our head (memory). Till such time as we use this software, we are ONLY thinking and NOT learning or living.

In fact, ALL learning happens ONLY when our mind STOPS thinking (falls silent) as we are immersed in the thing, person, situation, like the toy in the hands of an absorbed child.

Fun situations and creative challenges are created when we STOP judging and storing instances as good or bad, right or wrong, and like or dislike - the dichotomy that makes up our entire personality. Life is after all NOT pure BLACK or WHITE, but various hues in between.”

         “They may call you naïve—do not take it amiss...

Whichever path you choose to tread, never turn away from joy...”

People may mock your innocence, but no matter which way you go in life (work/profession), never avoid Happiness, says Kaviyarasar. Eckhart Tolle also repeats that the mind/society will ‘warn’ you of the dangers of your plain and simple nature, but don’t mind it and never waver from the ‘inner body’ realization to remain blissful.

In the next episode, let us take a look at a popular song by the "Master of Questions"—Kavi Gnani—that pokes fun at human society itself.