My Encounter with Spirituality-5

Oct 31, '07 9:48 AM by Thimmappa for everyone

It is often said that the purpose of yoga is to quieten the mind - that is always reverberating with thoughts fed by the sensory objects from the external world - to offer space for the inner divinity/wisdom to surface.yet, at the same time, it also offers optimum condition for effective perception of external reality as well. In fact, the eight limbs of Patanjali Yoga just provides such a possibility.
1.Yama : Self-restraint consisting of being non-violent,truthful,non-misappropriating,religious studentship and non-possessiveness. These are universal norms unconditioned by place,time and class.These contribute to a guilt free mind that can attend to the objects unhindered psychologically, an essential condition for perceiving the objects.
2.Niyama : Observance that are well established such as cleanliness/purity,contentment,a burning desire,self-study and surrender to the Universal Reality/God. All these enhances alertness and keep ready for the task ahead.
3.Asana : Posture that is steady and comfortable is essential for any prolonged activity of perception.Experiments have shown the erect posture contributes greater span of attention.
4.Pranayama : Regulation of breath.Shallow and faster breathing come in the way of accuracy of perception.Slower and deeper breathing freshens the mind and quietens the body to attend.
5.Pratyahara : Withdrawal of the senses from its object toward its opposite,i.e.,inner awareness.This process help overcome external distraction,another condition suited to perceptual activity.This process culminate in the control of sensory activity.
6.Dharana : Focusing on the object of perception, binding mind to a space.With the complete readying the body and mind to the perceptual activity with the above,mind is now ready to concentrate on the task.
7.Dhyana : Meditation,a steady and continuous flow of attention towards the directed.This is the core of perceptual activity.
8.Samadhi : A higher state of consciousness in which the object of meditation engulfs the meditator,appearing as the subject,where self awareness is lost. Here, with the fusion of subject and object, the object of perception is illumined objectively,as things as they are without biases and prejudices, all of which has already been subdued by the earlier processes.
An ordinary example will illustrate further the employment of all the above eight 'limbs' in perception.Imagine a very loud and strange sound is suddenly heard and immediately we turn our self towards the sound(postural adjustment),breath is arrested(regulated breathing),not aware of anything else in the surrounding(withdrawal of senses),focus on the sound(mind bound to space),dwell continuously on it(mediation) and then the reality dawns(subject/object fusion),not otherwise,not with the opposite process to the  above eight,that would disturb our mind and spoil the perception leading to to false perception too.  

RE VISIT - Autobiography 1.

Oct 31, '07 9:48 AM by Thimmappa for everyone

Autobiography.              1. INTRODUCTION.
Year 2006. I was in my 64th year of age when I completed my tenure as Vice chancellor of Bangalore University and retired from Service. Many friends asked me to write story of my life. They wanted me to put out my experience as a dramatist during my childhood, as clinical psychologist, as teacher for more than thirty years, as activist in teachers' movement, as writer, as Registrar and later as Vice Chancellor of one of the biggest university in the Country and also, as a spiritual practitioner. Yet it was not enough of a motivation for me to write as they are all past, what use in beating up a dead horse, I thought.
Days passed by and with greater leisure and peace,  mind frequently moved to the past, not as reverie, not to fill the being, but there was a pull from the places, people and events as if they all wanted to speak to me, to complete the interaction of which I had missed then out of my focus on my assumed pursuits. I am feeling that the forest I passed through often during my childhood, the rivers I crossed, the animals I tended to, the people I was surrounded and many more happenings there was something that was there for me I have missed getting it owing to my preoccupation. I have decided to go back mentally there and gauze with all my silence, surrender and humility, and with an apologetic mode for not being total then to imbibe all that was there.
I do not know what 'they' are going to tell me now, I only 'know' that I have been 'called'. The narration to come is the discovery during my re visit.

RE VISIT. Autobiography - 2. Birth, Name, Place and Time.

Oct 31, '07 9:48 AM by Thimmappa for everyone

Autobiography -  2. Birth.
Born on 14th November 1942 at a village, Manchale, near Sagar, some ten kilometers to Sagar off the road to Shimoga, but only officially at Manchale, the actual birth took place at mother's mother place, Kanale, a village some fifteen kilometers to Sagar off the road to Jog Falls as the practice is to go for delivery to parent's house, especially if it was the first delivery, as mine was. I was born at midnight on a Saturday. Lord Krishna was supposed to have born on a similar day, they named me as Krishnamurthy, although it is the prerogative of the Father to do so in a naming ceremony based on a standard practice. The practice was to name by father's father name and that was Thimmappa. That became my official name and as is the practice, my name had to become M.S.Thimmappa, M standing for Manchale, S for my father's name, M.T.Suryanarayanarao( his T stands for his father's name, Thimmappa). Yet, even to this day places from my mother's side know and call me as Krishnamurthy only. Those days there was no practice of celebrating birth day, it was considered as Western practice that is picked up here too much later. Some thirty years later, when on job where knowing and celebrating birthday in vogue, I was made to realise it was the birth day of Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime Minister of independent India(1947), a very cultured, urbane, visionary statesman. The birthday is celebrated nationally and mine is drowned in it always.
I was born to a rural agricultural joint family. Two cousin brothers, who were no more when I was born, had two male children each and all the four brothers  lived together with their families. There must have been too much of a tension in the family, two brothers belonging to one parent, my father and his brother, and the other two of another parentage decided to part and separated when I as very young, may be three/four years old. They became poorer too with this, their status in the village being devalued a bit as well. There was a struggle to regain the wealth and status, they were toiling hard and I had a feeling that it was telling on my care too. It was permeate with new kind of tension, new kind of hardship.   

My Autobiography : Revisit-3

Oct 31, '07 9:48 AM by Thimmappa for everyone

People I have begun with.
My father M.T.Suryanarayana Rao, was a highly orthodox in religion, used to conduct worship, puja, three times a day, each time after a bath. He was associated with a great sage, Sridhara Swami, with whom he used to travel all over the Country, keeping away from home weeks and months together. He had very little time to look after family affairs of tendering the areca garden and paddy fields. His younger brother, my uncle, M. T. Govindappa, used to take care of all the agriculture part as he was well versed in it too. He was a very short tempered man, used to shout and threaten workers as well as family members. It had become his managerial style and often used to get things that way fairly efficiently. My mother, I was told by my father, was a great pious and noble lady, " used to recite  Bhagavadgita in toto by heart". She died when I was about five year old leaving me and my four year old sister. She died during delivery of her third child, that child also did not survive long. We grew with my grandmother's care who was my father's step mother as my grand father had married second time after his first wife died. My father too married second time after the death of my mother as " he was too young not to marry ". During the vacation we used to go to my mother's place as my maternal grandmother, a widow herself, was deeply attached to me; she used to manage the affairs all by herself. Family upheavals, men preoccupied with their business of lifting themselves to past, pre-partition status, my young step mother having problems of adjusting to a joint family system, our care taken by widowed but harassed ladies - all perhaps contributed greatly to a feeling of an orphan. I was a highly sensitive, labile person  during my childhood feeling bit scared and insecure.  

My Autobiography: Revisit - 4

Oct 31, '07 9:48 AM by Thimmappa for everyone

My Schooling Days :

There was one and the only Primary School run by the government in my village, Manchale. All the classes of all the four years of the school was conducted in a single hall, years divided by the rows of benches only and handled by a single teacher. Teacher used to announce classes he conducts before hand directing to the appropriate benches. The teacher I remember there is one Sridhara who was a strict disciplinarian and short tempered. He beat children for slightest lapse or provocation and often he made student stand on the road side in front of the school with a 'monkey cap' on. I was no exception to it and probably more so because of my misadventure in mathematics. I was afraid of him and yet, he was my hero because he used to act in drama a hero's role. My father and uncle were great drama enthusiast and even be called activist. They had established a drama company, Sri Rama Pattabhisheka Krupa Poshita Nataka Mandali, where my father was the Chairman and my uncle used to play a major role in the drama, our teacher being a hero. I have seen drama in endless nights. Besides, my father used to recite at night to the gathering of family members the Bhagavata. There used to be frequent staging of Harikathas at night too. Yakshagana troupe used to visit at least once a year for a week long camp playing through whole of the night. Culture went hand in hand with the curriculum in my school days. There was no Middle School in the village and from now on all most all of my education were done staying outside of my family and village.
Middle School was studied staying in a house of a distant relative, a old lady who had lost her husband without any children, now living with adopted couple, in a place called Mungaravalli, some 10 kms away from my village. I had to travel on foot some five kms to reach the School in Bhimanakone and the lunch was to be taken in another distant relative staying in that village. Later, my sister joined for the same Middle School and stayed in the same place where I was taking lunch. Four years of Middle School was spent that way. The three years of High School was studied in Sagar Town, the only place where a High School was there at that time. The school culminated in,for the first time, a State level Public Examination Examination conducted by the Government. I used to travel on foot from my village Manchale some 10+10 kms. daily, along with a few school mates, amidst thick forest and crossing rivulets in rains and shines. However, the last(third) year, I was put in a community Hostel in Sagar itself to enable me to study longer for the Public Examination. I used to spend my vacation in my maternal grandmother's place, Kanale, reading novels of Tarasu, Anakru and detective stories of Narasimhaiah and Ramamurthy. Besides, we used go on long distance by bicycles to see plays or movies, I also started acting in dramas. Culture, Literature, drew me more and more inward, partly because of not too comfortable outside and partly, the experience of inner being offered greater joy and freedom

My Autobiography: Revisit - 5 Taking Charge.

Nov 5, '08 6:47 AM by Thimmappa for everyone

Taking Charge of Self!

The joint family was in a state of turmoil being in the process of rebuilding itself after the partition. Family wanted me to stop education after school and remain in home to assist them, I being the eldest son. Schooling, studying living in outside home most of the time has already kindled a vision of a new world for me. I wanted to pursue my college studies and not to get 'messed' up in the agriculture at home. I took the case to my brother-in-law. He was a wealthy man but being the only child could not pursue higher education after his father's death. He could empathize  with me easily and convinced my father to permit me for higher studies, financial constraint not withstanding as brother-in-law would chip in too in this regard. And how well he did, I can never forget.

I joined the first grade college in Shimoga for my Pre University studies in 1957, stayed in a private hostel there. Wanted to take up medical practice but did not get seat in science combination in the first list. On my return dejected and yet hoping success in the second list, I chanced upon a booklet on the pavement shop entitled manovishleshana shastra / Psychoanalysis by Prof. Narayanashastri. It shook me deeply. I never knew a subject called Psychology existed. What is more, I have haunted by a case of Possession phenomenon in the family and several sleepless night I had spent in fright imagining it. Here is a book that unravels the mystery for me, calls it Hysteria, analyses its causes and assures cures. A big weight of fear had fallen from me to realize that ghosts do not exist! Mu future was carved right there, it has to be Psychology. I never bother to look up the second list for science combination. Psychology belonged to Arts stream then. I opted for History, Economics and Logic combination to enable me to take up Psychology for my degree. I felt alone in the decision and yet responsible for myself out of my choice. Perhaps, the bug of 'freedom' started biting me since then

ಮತ್ತೆ ಮುಖ್ಯಮಂತ್ರಿ ಆಗುತ್ತೇನೆ / I Will Be CM Again

ಮತ್ತೆ ಮುಖ್ಯಮಂತ್ರಿ ಆಗುತ್ತೇನೆ - ಮಾಜಿ ಮುಖ್ಯಮಂತ್ರಿಯ ಹಾಡುಗದ್ಯ.

ಮತ್ತೆ ಮುಖ್ಯಮಂತ್ರಿ ಆಗುತ್ತೇನೆ
ಗಣಿ, ವಂಶಜರ, ಲಂಚ ದಾಖಲೆ 'ಸರಿ'ಮಾಡಿ
ಕೋರ್ಟಿನ ಎಲ್ಲ ಕೇಸುಗಳ ಗೆಲ್ಲುತ್ತೇನೆ
ಅದಕ್ಕೆ ಮತ್ತೆ ಮುಖ್ಯಮಂತ್ರಿ ಆಗುತ್ತೇನೆ.

ಎಲ್ಲ ಪಕ್ಷಗಳ ಎಲ್ಲ ಮುಖಂಡರೂ ಮಾಡಿದ
'ಮಹಾ ಪಾಪ'ವೇ ನಾನೂ ಮಾಡಿರುವುದರಿಂದ
ಅದು ಅಪರಾಧವೇ ಅಲ್ಲ. ಆದ್ದರಿಂದ ನಾನು
ಮತ್ತೆ ಮುಖ್ಯಮಂತ್ರಿ ಆಗುತ್ತೇನೆ.

ಲಂಚವನ್ನು ತೆರಿಗೆಮುಕ್ತ ಕಡ್ಡಾಯ ಗೌರವಧನ
ಎಂದು ಘೋಷಿಸಿ, ಒಂದೇ ಘಳಿಗೆಯಲ್ಲಿ
ರಾಜ್ಯದಲ್ಲಿ ಭ್ರಷ್ಟಾಚಾರ ನಿರ್ಮೂಲ ಮಾಡುತ್ತೇನೆ
ಇನ್ನಷ್ಟು ಜನೋದ್ಧಾರ ಮಾಡಿ ಮುಗಿಸುತ್ತೇನೆ

ಅದಕ್ಕೇ ಮತ್ತೆ ಮುಖ್ಯಮಂತ್ರಿ ಆಗುತ್ತೇನೆ.

ವಿ. ಸೂ.ಃ ಇದನ್ನು ಹೇಳಿಯೇ ಇಲ್ಲ, ಇವೆಲ್ಲ ಮಾಧ್ಯಮದವರ, ಆಗದವರ ಮಾತು, ಇಂಗಿತವನ್ನು ಊಹೆಮಾಡಿ ಬರಯಬಾರದೆಂದು ಮಾ. ಮು. ಮಂ. ಹೇಳಿಕೆ ಕೊಟ್ಟಿದ್ದಾರೆ.

I will be Chief Minister again - Former CM's prosaic song

I will become Chief Minister again
Mining and my people's corruption records
Will be 'corrected', all Court Cases will be won
That is why I will become CM again.

All leaders of all Parties have committed
The 'great sin', I too have done that
Hence it is no crime of mine at all
That is why I will be CM again.

I will declare all corruption
Tax free mandatory royalty
Making State corruption free in a moment
Will finish making more people's welfare

That is why I will become CM again.

P.S.: The former CM has denied the above statement and said that it is all handiwork of the Media and the enemies, and people should not imagine the implications and write.