THE FINAL DELIVERANCE

His body lay there quite majestically with the head facing the south. They had clad him in a neat white dhothie with his favourite brown shirt.But they had disfigured his face with a piece of cloth tied from his head to neck to keep in place his lower jaw with the upper one .His nostrils were plugged with cotton making it doubly sure that he wont breath again.Also his ears were plugged to prevent him from hearing what they said about him .Funnily a lamp was alighted beside him to keep him guard in broad day light symbolizing the fraility of life.Most of his kith and kin sat surrounding him as if seeing him for the first time or was it the last time?The sun had come out early that day to see him off .The smell of agarbathy pervaded the whole visiting room signaling death .
He felt sorry seeing his body lyiny so helplessly with out any EGO , any senses,or any desires.He could also visualize all the usual worldly rituals associated with any death for that matter,being telecast underneath him ,rather an aerial view of what is happening down below.He could clearly recognice his blank faced,teary and visibly tired wife ,the insecure bewildered sons,the sad and compassionate glances of his parents.He could also hear his friends ,colleagues whispering as to future conduct of the immediate task of disposing the now decomposing body .The TRUTH dawned on him and he felt dumbstruck.HE WAS ALIVE, ONLY THE BODY HAD DIED AND THE FUNNY THING WAS NOBODY KNEW .He cried aloud “I am here only,just take a look above”.Nobody responded .He sailed all over their heads yelling fiercely with out any result.He was desperate ,but was helpless.He swam to the front of the mirror but no more could he visualize that familiar face which used to stare back at him with contempt.So he was a" bodyless” him.He took time to compose himself and the truth frightened the hell out of him.How is he going to live in such a fashion? He vainly tried to wriggle out a cigarette from his nonexisting pocket .He once again lowered his gaze to the body below.He began to miss it for the first time in his life.How much taken for granted attitude had he shown to it in the first place .How much had he abused it.Inspite of all that negligence it had paraded him every where with a sense of pride and belonging .It had given all the pleasures and pain, his identity and vanity .Now there was no use crying over spoilt milk .Now another thought seized his mind .All these years he thought he was the body,but now he could exist with out the body.But then how is he existing in a formless manner.Was he existing as an ego with its mind comprising of desires or as the self as depicted in the scriptures?It should be more of the first than second.He felt a little better now.
Now they were bathing his body and applying the ashes to his forehead and his sons were whispering RAM RAM in his ears their eyes cloudy with tears .What sentimental fools were his sons who couldn’t recognice him and his immortality.Why aren’t they rejoicing at his final deliverance from all bondages and his ultimate voyage to freedom and bliss. He felt sorry for them and for all the mankind .
Still he felt a strong bondage to his body and was truly reluctant to part from it.He shuddered at the idea of it being going to be burnt to ashes.He desperately wanted to get in to it and lead a fresh life ,not the one which he had wasted ,but a fresh beginning in which he promised he will live each second of it with pleasure and not wander about in past or future wasting precious seconds .He wont even go to sleep unless it slept automatically .He will live and die each second . He will give most respect to his senses and will command them to give him back the sensual pleasures as one will sip a precious wine sip by sip.Since life is TIME glorified ,he will never again wear a watch or keep a clock .He will never again work unless it gives him satisfaction or a sense of creativity .He will always be at peace with his world around him.
The four pall bearers lifted his body up to their shoulders and slowly trudged their way to the ambulance followed by the ones near and far.He gave a last parting glance at the body and tearing himself away in a last gasp from the rotten mass of life below he circled the earth in the form of a core of THOUGHTS or IDEAS or VASANAS as described in the holy scriptures and a sudden pull of a gravitational force outwards pushed that mass towards another world where only thoughts and ideas lived.

AM I A BRAHMIN

AM I A BRAHMIN



Recently one of my uncles had the audosity to ask me whether Iam a true tamil Brahmin ?The nature of enquiry though justified the circumstances I was in ,put me immediately on my backfoot since I have never bothered about it for the last fifty years of survival.Ihave pondered over more trivial issues like whether you believe in god ? whether you have been a good doctor? A successful man? A good husband? A good family man? Blah blah ..For all these trivia I had come to a satisfactory conclusion of the answer being a big NO except for question 1 where after much psycho analysis I have come to a vague answer , that being I don’t know whether I believed in god ,but I am a godfearing man.But the recent attack by my uncle resulted in insomnia and restlessness and agitations lasting for a week before I could analyse my mind under saner conditions and the observations are being declassified in these rantings.
The answer is a categoric yes in capital letters .yes I am 100%sure that I am born of two tamil Brahmin parents,I can show you the third page of my S S L C certificate in defence .I have also undergone the POONAL ceremony the second birth of a true Brahmin identity of the sacred thread and also when my father turned guru whispered the sacred GAYATRI mantra in my ears .It was this ceremony which raised some queries in my young mind as to the least importance given by the great rishis to the caste of my parents to becoming a true Brahmin, in literal meaning, one who knows or seeks Brahman the ultimate.I have also married a true no hybrid Brahmin woman who will help me in carrying out my dharma as a Brahmin in quest of the ultimate .I have inturn able to produce two great Brahmin boys who also have undergone the poonal ceremonies at around the cost of a lakh of Indian currencies,since again the scriptures suspected our parentage .I can prove all these through the photo albums which I have kept under safe custody in my locker .
I have been doing sandhyavandanas daily with 64 gayathries for around 8 yrs nonstop. And had to discountinue out of sheer monotony since I never knew the meanings of what I was doing . Ofcourse I can recognize the mantra even now when I hear it through Jesudas.I am an avid reader of the HINDU newspaper a true tamil Brahmin identity .I have studied some vedic mantras in my childhood which has been conveniently forgotten . further I perform the tharpans every month cursing the super charge of the family priest, for not incurring the curses of my great great forfathers , the yearly sraddhams for feeding the starved pithrukkals by repeated chanting of mantras and tantras and feeding three true brahmins looking at my emptying pockets and the casual leaves depleating. Also promptly I do the UPAKARMA ceremony to change my soiled sacred thread and doing prayachitha for all the evil deeds done physically as well as mentally and dumping the whole to the feets of Kesava for one whole year,so I can wash the slate clean for a new series.I am a very strict rictualised Brahmin AND I am born , live and die through RITUALS.that is the boon and curse of the so called Brahmin .Ofcourse I drink only coffee and am a strict vegetarian at HOME .Nobody can dispute that.Yes I smoke since no Vedas has any reference to that and inhaling smokes from homas has been advocated as good for your lungs and also for the society as well .As for as heavy drinking is concerned though it is banned for Brahmins is general incase of extreme circumstances like tension through spouses or children you are permitted to consume sura or amritha as termed in the manusmriti not in the public but privately you can have a go at it after removing the sacred thread and covering your face later you have to sacrifice the result of your KARMA at Kesavas feet, that is an absolute must , you have no right to enjoy the result of any karma or it will bind you to this sansara .For a Brahmin love and sex is a sin.He is permitted to have sex only at certain muhurthas which can be ascertained from panchanga and only for procreational functions ,I mean with his legitimate Brahmin wife .For other females these rules are not applicable.I have been following all these rules to the hilt.I have forgotten to mention section84 which permits a Brahmin to dirty his nose or home with snuff and also suparis and beetal leaves is a must preferably after a sumptuous feast.. If you are doing all the rituals then there is no need for God since you are his custodian .I am so elated by our culture that as for as marriage is concerned the gurus have gone to that extend of modernday scientific advancement that in brahminism you cannot marry from the same gothra itself but you can marry your first cousin in the sense that they belong to another gothra..Or else there will be kula nasa and the noble culture will be extinct ,what a loss for the world . Who will look after the GODS,PITHRUS,RISHIS &DEVAS .Every thing will be lost and hence the whole world will collapse.So now you know that I am a true tamil Brahmin.Besides I read kumudam and anantavikatan every week and visit the temple for sasthaprreethy and ramanavamy mainly to see my old friends and occasionally pray to god in times of need and crisis and wont leave the house without applying the sacred ashes to the forehead.The one tamil culture I hate is carnatic music,I dont know why..As per other customs I enjoy cricket and strictly follow untouchability. I can never allow the servant to cross the six foot barrier between us except at night ,but I will take a bath after the divine act to uplift her .It would be great injusice if I don’t mention the great concept of seethakom alias pelai prevailing in our culture.In case of births or deaths in the family all rituals like marriage ceremony or any auspicious functions includind death rites have to be postponed from around three days to ten days depending on the relationships. So when ever a marriage or poonal is to be celebrated, we keep a daily medical scan of elderlies all around praying to all types of gods either to keep them alive till the function is over or togive them visa at the earliest.Recently we didn’t know whether to cry or laugh when we heard that the ongoing death ceremonies{these functions take about 13 days} of a distant relative had to be cancelled because of another death of a distant relative!
So when concluding my submission I stake my claim for being a true tamil Brahmin and AM PROUD OF THAT .