The Purpose of Pious People

"Brahmanai kandavan Brahmanan.
Theivatahi Paarpavan Paarpanan."

I think these lines hold no meaning nowadays... When I go to a temple, I see madisar maamis with Srichurnam more interested in gossiping about other sthrees than about the SRI herself! Maamis chatter and Maamaas sleep even as Aacharyaas like Azhagiyasingar or Andavan Swamigal share their pearls of wisdom... Makes one feel that more than half of the attendance is for the Dhonnai and Dhudhiyonam only...Ishatam illenaa ethukku anga ellaam poganum? Paesaama Kolangal paarthundu aathulaye ukkaara vaendiyathu thane..

Ellam oru jambam... “Naan anga ponen theriyumaadi, Chandra... Nee Varliyaa? Achicho... Romba miss pannaittadee... Enna Azhasingar paesinathaiyaa... Athu illa... Namma Kamali irukkaalonno, ava oru vastrakala pattu viduthindu vanthurunthaa paaren... Enna thimiru... Perumal paarkka varum pothu apdi varlaamo?”
Gossiping is not an avocation for girls. Everything else is.

Evaa than ipdinnaa maamaas ellaam enna solrathu... Muthugu sorinjundu, athuvum poonala vaechu...Thoppaiya thadavindu, kaathu kodanjindu.. kottaavi vittundu... Eppodaa antha Dhonnai varumnu paarthundu...

That’s when I realised that they attend the temples and lectures as a duty (Karma) and not due to Bhakti... But then this social showcasing is also required, because its only numbers that sustain a community, culture traditions and allied practices... The 80% serve a purpose – and a noble one at that – it is to sustain the temples and mutts, so that the rest 20% who come there out of Bhakti are able to get one more step closer to the Lord...

So next time I see a maami gossiping or a maamaa thoppathadaving, I will remind myself not to frown... Instead I shall smile in my heart momentarily and then revert my focus back upon the real reason I am there...


PS: I have certainly not written the above post with a ‘Holier than thou’ attitude... Just a mere observation of how things are and why might they be so...

OMG! Was this also planned?

"“There are no accidents”. Have heard infinite variations of the words..--- There are no coincidences, everything is planned … yadda yadda yadda."
-borrowed from a blog I admire.

Right now I am feeling a little eerie... It is as though everything is planned. And if indeed everything is planned, doesn't that render all our actions moot? Not sure...

Why am I a little confused now? It is because something just happened an hour or so ago. I have already told my "Bacon soup" story quite elaborately and how I was saved by a friend from accidentally having non-veg soup... But the events of today were as though there was an epilogue left for that story...

I was standing in the canteen wondering which soup to buy. That’s when I realized that both options were non-veg (After my earlier near mishap, I devote considerable thought and analysis before selecting my soup). Disappointed that I could not have the only remotely tasty item in my office canteen, I moved away from the soup section to the Entrees. I was standing in queue immersed in my own day-dreaming world that I didn’t even notice the guy in front of me.. Accidentally he turned around, saw me and said 'Hi', thus waking me up from my open-eyed slumber... It was the same guy (Lets call him V) who saved me the other day from having bacon soup... So as I was waiting in line and chatting with him I noticed that he had already bought soup.. Since he is also an Ambi (Veggie Hindu Brahmin, in case you have forgotten), I pointed out to him that today it was indeed he who has become the Ammaanji (Gullible Hindu Brahmin, in case you have forgotten)... So this time I saved him from having meat, just like he saved me last month.

So I ask yet again, what are the odds? Is it merely coincidence that I end up saving the same guy from having non-veg soup exactly one month after he saved me? We rarely meet in the canteen...The times we go for lunch are mostly different. So was this planned? By who? DESTINY? KARMA? KRISHNA?

Do They really care about the soup we have? Man, If They really do care even about such minute details, we am indeed privileged…

KRISHNA! Soup vishayam ellaam irukkatum, konjam matha vishyathuleyum aaseervadhi!!! ;-)

Action, inaction and a little compunction...

"Life is a lot more fun when you are not responsible for your actions..."
- that improbably inquisitive imaginary six-year old


I am a great fan of 'Calvin and Hobbes'... Well, everyone who has read the comic strip would obviously be. The brilliance of Bill Watterson's profound and perennially funny creation is the subtle manner in which he laughs at certain acquired traits and misconceptions of human nature which we can very well do without.

One such popular misconception is about 'Fate' and 'Destiny'. People think or comfortably assume that fate means you are not responsible for your actions. But that’s so not true... What you are actually not responsible for are the results of your actions and not the actions themselves.

Fate or Destiny can and should never be given as excuses for wrong actions or for inaction, for that matter. After all isn't this exactly what Lord Krishna tells Partha…

"Karmanyeva Adhikaryascha Maa Phaleshu Kadhachanaa"

English Translation:

"You have a right to perform your prescribed duty,
but you are not entitled to the fruits of action"

What's equally important is the 'not-so-famous-as-above' line that follows.

"Karmaphalehtur bhurma te sangostvakarmani"

English Translation:
"Never consider yourself the cause of the results of your activities,
And never be attached to not doing your duty"

So I am left pondering here, which category would I fall into (wrong action or inaction) because right now I am at my office desk, supposed to be doing my job. Instead here I am letting my mind wander from Calvin to Krishna in the guise of understanding destiny!!!