Kannadasan – A Realized Master (Part 11)

(Note 1: Many thanks to friend Ramesh Thiagarajan for his continued encouragement/feedback which takes the discussion and exploration to a higher level for both the writer and the readers. He had rightly felt sad for Gen-Z missing out on the pleasures of knowing Kannadasan's wisdom lines and their profound meaning. It is in fact with this in mind that I am writing this series simultaneously in English and Tamil. Many of our children and Gen-Z in various Indian States and abroad would be speaking broken Tamil but may not be able to read or write in their mother tongue. However, I am sure, they would have heard their GenX parents, uncles/aunties, grandparents humming happily the Tamil melodies in blissful moments or would have heard these songs in radio, TV or any other place and enjoyed the music, not fully knowing their deep meaning. This series may re-kindle their feelings and hence they may take the help of YouTube to check on the listed movie songs in their leisure hours to reconnect with their GenX and fill in the missing pleasure pages of their lives. 

Note 2: Grateful to TDRTimes Editor S Muthukumar for his inspiring words on 'Great Homework' (which we never did in schooldays!) 'Rome was not built overnight', they say. In fact, all the references are from my 35 years of reading and Learning & Development work. They are flowing out from the archiving cupboards of my readings and noting’s over these decades. Current effort is only seeing the resonance in ALL the wisdom from East or West (but at Home Kannadasan is the Best!). After all, for everything and everyone, the ultimate source is only ONE! Call it Supreme or whatever). 

Can we read a person like a book? Internationally renowned expert couple in human relations and body language Allan and Barbara Pease say it is possible. In their book 'The Definitive Book of Body Language', they say, “Body language is an outward reflection of a person's emotional condition. Each gesture or movement can be a valuable key to an emotion a person may be feeling at that time. When we meet others for the first time, we need to assess quickly whether they are positive or negative towards us, just as most other animals do for survival reasons.” Most of the deceit in human relations will fail if even basics of understanding others’ intensions is taught from childhood, as a curriculum. 

Knowing how to read people - picking up on and interpreting their hidden cues - is a tremendous asset for virtually anything you do, from your home life to your work life to your love life. In his book, “I Know What You're Thinking: Using the Four Codes of Reading People to Improve Your Life”, author Lillian Glass, the best-selling author who is a psychologist and communications expert, helps us develop a tremendous new set of skills that will make us more perceptive, more powerful, and more successful. In his own words, “Each of us has an innate ability to detect the truth in others and be in tune with circumstances and the world around us. Reading a person comes naturally. The problem is that most of us don't know how to translate what's behind that feeling and use the information to empower ourselves in a particular situation. If that little voice inside tells you something doesn't look right, sound right, or feel right, that little voice is probably right. Listen to it! Your body knows it. You can feel it in your stomach.” 

English writer and humorist Jerome K. Jerome funnily said, “It is always the best policy to speak the truth, unless of course you are an exceptionally good liar.” But why people lie? The Pease couple say in their book, “If you told everyone the complete truth all the time, you'd not only end up lonely, you might even finish up in hospital or prison. Lying is the oil that greases our interactions with others and let us maintain friendly social relationships. These are called White Lies because their goal is to make others feel comfortable instead of telling them the cold, hard truth. Research shows that social liars are more popular than those who continually tell the truth, even though we know the social liar is lying to us.” 

Coming back to Kannadasan’s songs on man-woman relationship, let us now take up a series of songs. This one is from Film Iruvar Ullam (“Nadhi Engey Pogirathu, Kadalai Thedi!”):

“Where does the river go? In search of the sea.

Where does the day go? In search of the night.

Where does the moon go? In search of the flower.

Where do thoughts go? In search of a bond.”

 

Man chasing Woman has been happening since the chance-encounter (or planned by Nature?) between Adam & Eve. Both Eckhart & Jaggi point out that “at the physical level attraction between the opposite energy polarities is compulsive and natural.” But Kaviyarsar points to a subtle movement of thought which keeps chasing that in which one’s emotions are invested. What a blast of philosophy! Looking at humans, whatever we ‘desire’ and identify with, whether, our possessions such as, car, house, spouse, children, religion, nation, tribe, our thoughts naturally go after them. An early morning observation of our thought patters will reveal easily that we all think of ONLY things and people where we have developed a bond. Particularly where we have attached our ‘I’, including the physically body which is the immediate recognition on waking up. Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev in his book “Inner Engineering” says, “Once your intellect – or buddhi, as it is termed in the yogic taxonomy – gets identified with something, you function within the realm of this identity. Whatever you are identified with, all your thoughts and emotions spring from that identify.”

Some readers may argue that my mind ALSO thinks about people, places, tribes, religion, communities, countries I dislike. Eckhart Tolle confirms that these are negative forms of attachment. So, our like-dislike, good-bad, right-wrong & want-don’t want are also part of our logical format of personality from where thought picks up when NOT watched/observed and fills the idle Random Access Memory during our waking hours. This is how the idle mind becomes a devil’s workshop and drains the vital energy of consciousness which is dependent upon the biological condition of the organism, viz., food, rest, exercise, inputs from senses, and reactions to them, etc. 

Come to think of it, do you ever think of Tombouctou or RusGazDobycha or  РусГазДобыча ? Never! Because, there are NOT already wired into your memory. But if I say, the first one is a place called Timbuctoo and the second & third ones are name of a Russian Energy Company, your brain has already started associating them with the existing knowledge bank inside your gray matter. Next time, someone mentions that they went to Timbuctoo or are working with Rosneft, you will immediately recognize and respond. If you had been to Timbuctoo earlier or worked in the Russian Energy Company, you would have ‘attachments’ of personal experiential anecdotes and hence your mind will sure think of those attachments. The great revelation is that we can think on ONLY what we know or experienced and hence our minds ONLY create OUR worlds. 

Kavignar goes further in this song to show that ALL this attachment starts in the mind:

 

“A myriad of thoughts arise… yet the heart is one.” 

We have already seen the poet singing, "The heart has a thousand doorways; within it, a thousand thoughts arise" (“Ninaippadellam Nadandhuvittaal” song). Nisarga Datta points out in his talks, the sequence of emotional thought creating memories, which trigger imagination and anticipation leading to desire. Romantic love between a man and a woman is essentially a spell cast by nature at the right age—a state of infatuation. The 'King of Poets' (Kaviarasar) did not overlook this aspect either, as seen in the following song (Film: Kudumba Thalaivan) (“Etho Etho Oru Mayakkam…Eppadi Eppadi Vanthathu Enakkum”):

“Some kind of trance—

How, oh how, did it come over me?” 

Love is an intoxication. It is commonly said in the Western world that when romantic love arrives, reason goes out of the window. Humorously, Eckhart Tolle and Jaggi point out that we don't 'stand in love’, but 'we fall in love' head over heels, meaning, we surrender our thinking head to the feeling heart and to the partner. Literally the romantic chemical dissolves our personality, although temporarily, to find a mate for sustaining life cycle on this planet. What happens AFTER marriage is that the personality baggage slowly creeps in for both to 'see the earlier unseen differences' and the friction starts. We will deal with this phase in the later episodes and now enjoy the romantic interlude. Kannadasan captures this beautifully in his song ("Theru vanthathu pol irunthathu nee vantha pothu") (Film: Anbalippu). 

But even in this love song, Kannadasan points out the flow of the mind in this line, “The moment I laid eyes on it, a thought crossed my mind.” Love is an intoxication. It is often said in the West that when love arrives, reason flies out the window. Kannadasan beautifully captures this sentiment in a song (“Theru vanthathu pol irunthathu nee vanthapothu”) (Film *Anbalippu*): 

“It felt like a chariot arriving when you appeared;

It felt like intoxication taking hold the moment I saw you...

It bids one to fall in love without questioning the reason

or looking at the practicalities.” 

Poet Vaali sings about this very infatuation of adolescence in this manner (Film: Panam Padaithavan) (“Paruvathil konjam, uruvathil konjam, pennukku azhaku varum”): 

“With the onset of youth and the blossoming of form,

a woman acquires her beauty;

In the way he looks and, in his interactions,

a man begins to feel desire.” 

Turning to Kaviarasar, we find him marveling—"Is this the same vision I once saw in a *pavadai-davani*? Is this the bloom of youth wafting the fragrance of flowers?" (“Paavadai-Dhavaniyil paartha uruvamaa!”) (Film: *Nichaya Thamboolam*)—and then asking: 

"Does love not arrive without being beckoned?

Does it not give without being asked?

Does it not speak without being told to speak?

Does not delight grow, becoming ever more exquisite?" 

In another song (Film: *Karnan*), he describes how the heart follows wherever the eyes wander: 

"Where the eyes went, the heart followed—

They went there the moment they saw!

Though the feet and body remain here,

They arrived here unguarded!" 

Vaali warned that one's feet should not follow the path taken by the eyes (“Kann pona pokkiley kaal pokalaama?”). Yet, isn't it a law of nature to follow the one who catches your eye? Kannadasan brings it in another duet song how desire triggers expectations ('Nee varavendum endru ethirparthen') (Film: Raja):

“I waited for your arrival;

I looked for your face all along the way.

There is joy in waiting,

And there is pleasure in keeping someone waiting.” 

Though we have dealt with the subject of ‘expectations’ & ‘fulfilment’, there more resource books on the topic of Psycho-Cybernetics for interested people: 1. Ask and it is Given, 2. The Power of your Subconscious Mind, 3. Feeling is the Secret, 4. The Law and the Promise and if anyone wants to read a fictional type, there is the famous Celestine Prophecy. 

About waiting for lover and desperately seeking union of the opposite energy polarity, in her book “The Female Brain”, Neuropsychiatrist, Louann Brizendine says, “The classic symptoms of early love are also similar to the initial effects of drugs such as narcotics trigger the brain’s reward circuit, causing chemical releases and effects similar to those of romance. In fact, there’s some truth to the notion that people can become addicted to love. Romantic partners, especially in the first six months, crave the ecstatic feeling of being together and may feel helplessly dependent on each other.” 

About the line on ‘pleasure in waiting’ for the lover, there is another good song by Kavignar’s son, Kanmani Subbu, in the film “Ninaithaaley Inikkum”: 

“What a waiting what a waiting,

Lovely birds tell my darling

You are watching You are watching,

Love is but a game of waiting” 

Love blossoms even as the ‘interested parties’ keep their minds wide open enough for it to enter. Eckhart says in his book when in love, one’s center of gravity shifts out of one to the other. In his book, "The Honeymoon Effect" by Dr. Bruce Lipton says “the blissful, healthy, and energetic state of falling in love is not a matter of random luck, but a biochemical and personal creation.” 

Kannadasan deals with this in his sweet melody, “Pani Padarndha Malaiyin Meley..” (Film: Ratha Thilakam): 

“Upon the snow-clad mountain, I lay still as a statue;

Like a garland of ripe blossoms, A maiden appeared before my eyes.

I stood yearning for peace, Overflowing with a flood of love;

From the Himalayas to Kumari, I laid my heart wide open.” 

Furthermore, in the following song (from the film *Kulamagal Radhai*), Kavignar intertwines love with psychology and the enigmatic nature of the unknown future (“Iravukku Aayiram Kangal…”): 

“The night has a thousand eyes, The day has but one;

Wisdom has a thousand eyes, Relationships have but one.”

 “In counting, there are two eyes, Yet in vision, they see as one;

A woman’s gaze holds a myriad facets, And the words she speaks are countless.” 

“In human life—swaying daily Like waves, drifting here and there—

Where will things unfold? What will come to pass?

And where will it all end? Who can truly know?” 

I can hear you thinking, "We are very happy that you chose romantic songs this time, Sir." Let us listen to it—as a song penned by the 'Kaviarasar' (King of Poets) himself! (Film: Ooty Varai Uravu”) “Happy.. Indru Mudhal Happy”): 

“Happy—happy from this day on.

May this continue delightfully,

May well-being spread soothingly;

May this continue delightfully,

May well-being spread soothingly;

As eyes gently close and dreams arrive,

May it all play out beautifully.” 

Let this continue delightfully in the next episode, and let a pleasant sense of well-being spread gently. Let us play beautifully... 

-J Jeyes (www.jeyes.in)