Sankranti is celebrated in many states and in different ways.

In the south it is essentially a harvest festival.

In our traditional way cattle have a honoured place. so it is common to see decorated cows and bulls being taken out in processions.

We also have a native version of barbecue when families gather in their fields and have a feast. in some states it is celebrated over three days.

“Bhogi” as it is called, in Andhra Pradesh gives prime importance to fire.

Fire is always a cleansing agent .It is our way of saying that the past be buried and a fresh beginning made !

That beginning again is symbolised by sesame seeds though polished for the occasion. accompanied by jaggery or some sweet figurines they are shared with friends and relatives.

Is it another way of stregthening bonds?

Or our way of thanksgiving to the almighty who is marching forward by changing the course from south to north.

That is also the start of auspicious period, an event looked forward to by Bhisma Pitamaha resting on his bed of thorns.

So it is generally believed that the people who pass away during this period reach higher realms.

This is all about beginnings.

In yet another ritual the sesame seeds play a prominent part.

That is when we bid goodbye to our dear and near ones.

Punarapi Jananam, Punarapi Maranam as the saying goes is the underlying message , or so I understand.

It is not advisable to club the auspicious and the Inauspicious together

But the awareness of the greater truth perhaps will resore us equanimity.

The poise to treat both success and failure in life alike because in  one  sense they are imposters.

It also enables us to live aright.

As a wag once remarked , life is a passing show.

So enjoy what comes to our lot but with the feeling that it may or may not last.

Better still, ponder over the goal of life , Yours as well as others , so that proper relationships are established.

Happy Sankranti and may this season Herald a Happy new year for all of us, that is my prayer.

#bhogi #sankranti #newyear #festive #festivities

 

 

 

Happy New Year!!

 New year !!

Life is an opportunity bestowed on us to make good. To make for happiness , of others as well ourselves.

The biggest stakeholders in this business are ourselves, none others.

it follows that a measure of responsibility be displayed by us while living it and while forfeiting the right to it.

i am not intending to be cruel when i say far too people are giving up easily,too easily the sacred gift earned over several centuries of living in various forms.

Saint or sinner it matters not, we are here and we have to make most of it.

As the saying goes , a saint has a past and a sinner has a future.

meaning , at any point of time there may occur a turnaround.

that is why patience is so much commended .

we live in the world of dualities.

health, disease, prosperity, poverty, success, failure, friendship, betrayal, love, neglect , hatred are all facets of this phenomenal world.

it is as real as we think, as unreal as we may make it.

the first line is adopted by people who think this world is everything, the second line by people who think beyond this apparent world.

unfortunately there is  no school which teaches us these basic truths.

comparisons ruin us.

comparisons with others as well as juxtaposing our present with the glorious past we may have gone thru.

or stupidly thinking that the night of despair we are going thru will last and last for ever.

What after death is a question not for theologians alone. It is for all of us.

Our past was the base for our present and our present will shape the future.

Commonsense suggests the action is in the present, the results in the future.

Again, if we were to focus on  results  our work style alters and we put a brake on nature’s flow.

Stripped of rhetoric this is what Nishkamakarma , propounded by lord krishna , means.

Ours to work, HIS to reward.

A simple truth twisted out of shape.

It pains me to see so many lives lost thru suicides, and worse.

Life is a continuum , so is death.

Many mistakenly think that by ending their present lives their suffering would end.

The wise say the effects would be carried forward into whatever future form we may have.

There is evidence to support this. Theists or atheists or agnostics, we have to face this truth, that we are in large part responsible for our present condition.

It follows that we do have the time and the opportunity to reshape it and rebuild it.

This is optimism at its basest. This is positivity in action.

This is the path of happiness, of ourselves as well as others.

What we have not created , in the physical sense, we have no right to terminate.

It pertains to our families  also.

What right have the adults who are parents to destroy the offspring ?

And who gave  them the right .

It is time the civil society wakes up to this threat as a threat to extinction .

#newyear #life #philosophy #responsibility #karma #2023

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Ramamurthy