Kannadasan – A Realized Master (Part 27)

Let us briefly examine a few more songs—without disparagingly labeling them as mere "copying"—to appreciate how Kannadasan drew upon complex, ancient Tamil verses, simplified them, and made them enjoyable even for the common folks. If one touches upon the Alvars, the Nayanmars might take offense; likewise, if one engages with Kambar but leaves out Valluvar, he too would be displeased. Let us look at them all, albeit in brief. 

Elements from *Silappathikaram* entered cinema through the song "Fear is but folly; fearlessness is the birthright of the Dravidian" (“Achham enbathu madamaiyadaa”) (Film: *Mannathi Mannan*), where Kannadasan’s lyrics recounted: "The Chera prince crushed the crowned heads of Kanaka Vijaya and made them carry the stone; the Pandya king hoisted the Fish flag upon the Himalayas and lived a life of enduring fame." To honor Thiruvalluvar, Kannadasan presented three Kural lines in the single song “Nee Unnai Arindhaal” (Film: *Vettaikkaran*). If he used three verses for Thalaivar, for the 'Lion-like' voice, he doubled that count and brought together six *Kural* verses as "God's Commandments" in the song: "Oh mind, there are six—six commandments from the Almighty!" (“Aaru maname aaru”) (Film: *Andavan Kattalai*). 

In the song "Sonnathu Neethana?" (Film: *Nenjil Oor Aalayam*), the lyricist—a poetic sage—distilled the philosophy of *Dvaita* principle and simplified it for cinema through these lines: "Should a garland once worn upon the Divine's chest fall onto the street? And even if it falls, may another hand touch it? Is it not a blossom that blooms but once on the vine? Is it not a bond that grows but once within a heart?" The song “Kaalangalil Aval Vasantham” (Film: *Paava Mannippu*) is also a description of Krishna; the poet simply cast it in the feminine gender and framed it as a romantic song. 

"One day I asked for his name; the next, the town where he dwells. To this day, I have not seen his face—yet I shall not rest until he comes seeking me!" (“Androru naal avanudaiya perai ketten”)—so sang the poet (Film: *Kudumba Thalaivan*). This song was penned based on a *Thevaram* hymn "First, she heard His name" by Thirunavukkarasar. Another Nayanmar-inspired verse "We are subjects to no one; we fear not the Lord of Death" made its way to the screen thus: "The snake around Paramasiva’s neck asked Garuda, 'Are you doing well?' Garuda replied, 'All is well if one stays in one’s own place'—words that held deep meaning" (“Paramasivan kazhuthilirunth paambu kettathu”) (Film: *Soorya Gandhi*). 

My goodness, what a vast number of songs! Just as Vaali sang, "Did the beautiful deity step forward ever so gently?" (“Azhagu Deivam mella mella”) (Film: *Pesum Deivam*), and Kannadasan responded with, "As love’s poetry was being recited, did [the beautiful deity] provide the very first step?"—we, too, marvel just as Vaali did, wondering, "What words are left in literature to describe this?" 

It is truly amazing how Kannadasan effortlessly churned out over five thousand songs in such a seamless ‘flow’! If we examine ourselves with a bit of self-awareness, we realize that we, too—albeit only at certain times and while performing only specific tasks—become immersed in that very same state of 'Flow'. As our friend Ramesh Thiagarajan pointed out in the beginning of this series, Eastern wisdom from Zen meditation calls it Mushin. ‘Wu Wei’ is also another name for this 'flow' which is effort less action. Western Neuroscience calls it Transient Hypo frontality, i.e., Reduced activity of the Prefrontal Cortex of humans. The temporary silencing of the self-monitoring, narrating, interpreting human mind, which makes up 'stories' to store up in the brain as memories for future use. Indian Wisdom of eons, our own Bhagavat Gita in Chapter 3, Verse 19, names as 'Nishkama Karma', i.e., action flowing out of an unattached mind, regardless of focusing on future outcome or purpose of that action. 

In his Best Seller Indian Book, "The 5 AM Club: Own Your Morning – Elevate Your Life", author Robin Sharma says, "Protection from distraction is precisely how you need to work if you’re serious about dominating your field and winning at your craft. Neuroscientists call this peak mental state we’re speaking of, where our perception becomes heightened and our availability to original ideas rises and we access an all-new level of processing power, ‘Flow’. And rising at 5 AM promotes The Flow State gorgeously." Our Indian Wisdom also urged people to wake up early and do meditation (focusing of mind on a single point) in the 'Brahma Muhurtham'. 

In his book with the same title, "Flow: The Classic Work on How to Achieve Happiness" author Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (to make it easy, you can pronounce as 'six-cent-mihal-yi) shares the purpose of his discovery: "The intent of this book is to use some of the tools of modern psychology to explore this very ancient question: When do people feel most happy? If we can begin to find an answer to it, perhaps we shall eventually be able to order life so that happiness will play a larger part in it. Contrary to what we usually believe, the best moments in our lives are not the passive, receptive, relaxing times – although such experiences can also be enjoyable, if we have worked hard to attain them. The best moments usually occur when a person’s body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile. Optimal experience is thus something that we make happen." 

On human Consciousness which is only powers our mind and in turn our body, Mihali says, "The function of consciousness is to represent information about what is happening outside and inside the organism in such a way that it can be evaluated and acted upon by the body. In this sense, it functions as a clearinghouse for sensations, perceptions, feelings and ideas, establishing priorities among all the diverse information. Without consciousness we would still “know” what is going on, but we would have to react to it in a reflexive, instinctive way. 

With consciousness, we can deliberately weigh what the senses tell us, and respond accordingly." Then if you ask, what our dreams and their usefulness, the author clarifies, "despite the fact that I perceive, feel, think and form intentions in the dream, I cannot act on these processes (by making provisions for checking out the truthfulness of the news, for example) and hence, I am not conscious. In dreams, we are locked into a single scenario we cannot change at will. The events that constitute consciousness-the ‘things’ we see, think and desire-are information that we can manipulate and use. Thus, we might think of consciousness as intentionally ordered information." 

Should we wait for the 'flow' moments to happen in our everyday lives? Which means we need not have any purposes or goals in life? The author is succinct in pointing out that "we may call intentions the force that keeps information in the consciousness ordered. Intentions arise in consciousness whenever a person is aware of desiring something or wanting to accomplish something. Intentions are also bits of information, shaped either by biological needs or by internalized social goals. They act as magnetic fields, moving attention toward some objects and away from others, keeping our mind focused on some stimuli in preference to others. Individuals who depart from the norms-heroes, saints, sages, artists, and poets (like Kannadasan), as well as madmen and criminals-look for different things in life than most others do. The existence of people like these shows that consciousness can be ordered in terms of different goals and intentions. Each of us has this freedom to control our subjective reality!" 

Naming the 'Flow' as an "Autotelic experience" Mihaly defines that "the key element of an optimal experience is that it is an end in itself. Even if initially undertaken for other reasons, the activity that consumes us becomes intrinsically rewarding. The term “autotelic” derives from two Greek words, ‘auto’ meaning self, and ‘telos’ meaning goal. It refers to a self-contained activity, one that is done not with the expectation of some future benefit, but simply because the doing itself is the reward." Sounds very similar to our own wisdom from Bhagavat Gita, which says "Do what you have to, in the meanwhile, accept what is!". 

The Western author also touches Indian Spirituality with practical examples: "The similarity between Yoga and Flow are extremely strong; in fact, it makes sense to think of Yoga as a very thoroughly planned flow activity. Both try to achieve a joyous, self-forgetful involvement through concentration, which in turn is made possible by a discipline of the body. Contrary to what we tend to assume, the normal state of the mind is chaos. Without training, and without an object in the external world that demands attention, people are unable to focus their thoughts for more than a few minutes at a time. 

It is relatively easy to concentrate when attention is structured by outside stimuli, such as when a movie is playing on the screen, or when while driving heavy traffic is encountered on the road. If one is reading an exciting book, the same thing occurs, but most readers still begin to lose concentration after a few pages, and their minds wander away from the plot. At that point, if they wish to continue reading, they must make an effort to force their attention back to the page." 

The author, like Indian sages, also points to the mind monkey's tantrums: "We don’t usually notice how little control we have over the mind, because habits channel psychic energy so well that thoughts seem to follow each other by themselves without a hitch. After sleeping we regain consciousness in the morning when the alarm rings, and then walk to the bathroom and brush our teeth. The social roles culture prescribes then take care of shaping of minds for us, and we generally place ourselves on automatic pilot till the end of the day, when it is time again to lose consciousness in sleep. 

But when we are left alone, with no demands on attention, the basic disorder of the mind reveals itself. With nothing to do, it begins to follow random patterns, usually stopping to consider something painful or disturbing. Unless a person knows how to give order to his or her thoughts, attention will be attracted to whatever is most problematic at the moment: it will focus on some real or imaginary pain, on recent grudges or long-term frustrations. Entropy is the normal state of consciousness-a condition that is neither useful nor enjoyable." 

How to control the monkey mind and what happens if we distract it? Mihaly shows the trap: "To avoid this condition, people are naturally eager to fill their minds with whatever information is readily available, as long as it distracts attention from turning inward and dwelling on negative feelings. This explains why such a huge proportion of time is invested in watching television (or scrolling through social media), despite the fact that it is very rarely enjoyed…. While people watch television, they need not fear that their drifting minds will force them to face disturbing personal problems. It is understandable that, once one develops this strategy for overcoming psychic entropy, to give up the habit becomes almost impossible." 

Quoting Mihaly's research, famous writer Dainel H Pink, in his book, “Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us" concurs on the flow, "In an autotelic experience, the goal is self-fulfilling; the activity is its own reward. Painters he observed during his Ph.D. research, Csikszentmihalyi said, were so enthralled in what they were doing that they seemed to be in a trance. For them, time passed quickly and self-consciousness dissolved. Most important, in flow, the relationship between what a person had to do and what he could do was perfect. The challenge wasn’t too easy. Nor was it too difficult. It was a notch or two beyond his current abilities, which stretched the body and mind in a way that made the effort itself the most delicious reward. That balance produced a degree of focus and satisfaction that easily surpassed other, more quotidian, experiences. In flow, people lived so deeply in the moment, and felt so utterly in control, that their sense of time, place and even self, melted away. They were autonomous of course. But more than that, they were engaged. They were, as the poet W.H. Auden wrote, “forgetting themselves in a function”. 

Now we understand clearly as to how Kavi Gnani Kannadasan achieved his 'Flow' state easily on almost every day basis when he sits to say the songs, even as the story context, characters and music score was being explained to him by directors, film producers and music wizards. Literally he was in trance that poetry with all wisdom was 'flow'ing through him, as if the Divine was speaking to mortals. In a similar revelation, mathematics genius Ramanujam was saying that he got his complex formulae from the Goddess, directly, in his trance. 

I can go to the extent of imagining that all scientists achieve this 'flow' state and hence the discoveries flow through them to the humanity. This is not to undermine the enormous research work they do in their labs, but only to point out that when they are in trance that they get to the Truth of what they are searching. Whenever I heard Sir Issac Newton's famous story of him discovering the gravitational force by 'thinking' why the apple fell on his head instead of flying upwards, I suspect, under the apple tree, he achieved his flow state to discover the truth of the earthly force and worked later in the lab to prove it. Just like our own Lord Buddha, after years of search finally found the Truth when he sat under the tree in a state of ‘flow’; rather it dawned on him when he went into a trance state. 

‘Sir, you seem to have become so 'lost in a trance'—much like Kannadasan—that you’ve forgotten about our couple for a while!’ Newlyweds ought to be left 'free' and undisturbed for a short spell. After all, only then can one ask, 'Won't two grow into three?'—just as Kannadasan sang (“Irandodu Moondru Valaraatho?”). Let’s see if the couple returns with some happy news... in the next episode…. 

-Jeyes (www.jeyes.in)