THE HARMONY
Harmony is the most beautiful word. Harmony
is the most melodious utterance. Harmony represents, rejoices and manifests
love, romance, togetherness, pleasantness, tuning, rhythm, music, dance and the
like delighting moods, senses, tunes, steps and the like pleasant rhymes and
rhythms. Harmony is peace generating and peace sustaining pleasantness, in mind
and among communities.
Harmony is not only the most beautiful word
but also is the most needed element in the Universe. Harmony is present in nature
around us, in our human nature, in love, in faith, in understanding, in
insight, in affection, in various dealings and doings of animate and inanimate
subjects and objects.
The inbuilt rhythm in harmony as tuning
between two or among many, makes hearts rejoice, gives hearts and societies
peace, joy, and well-being. The welfare of the humanity and the Universe is
harmony-based, -related and -presented.
The harmony or rhythm is manifested in the
motions of heavenly bodies in the cosmos, in the onset of seasons on earth, in
the growth of plants and animals, in the notes of music, in the steps of the
dance, in the notes of the writers, poets, intellectuals, in the Compassion of the
Divinity for the creation. Many such pleasant and useful happenings are possible
because of harmony between and among the persons and things involved.
Serenity is the harmony between the
individualistic ego and Divine originality and essence. Bliss is the harmony
between two hearts and minds. Melodious music in its rhythmic harmonious notes
in steps, gives base and basis for all tunes in music and steps in dance.
Disruption of harmony in nature around us
through pollutions of all kinds, by modern humans,is causing climatic change
which is hanging on us like scepter. We are depleted of clean water to drink,
fresh air to breathe and comfortable climate to live in. Noise pollution
disrupts the harmony of Music.
Pollutions of water systems, atmosphere and
the like are disharmonious acts disturbing the harmony created as treasure through
trillions of years of evolution. To these pollutions are added pollution of
minds and hearts by the selfish perpetuation of divisions among humans in the
name of complexion, gender, region, language, nationality, religion, faith,
“spirituality” - leading to sanction of criminality on these divisions.
Lack of harmony among communities and
societies is leading to terror and is causing tremendous damage to the fabric
of human civilization and culture. The tearing of societal fabric like this is
creating many damages which are not stitched by intellectuals, scholars,
philosophers, poets, writers in the various societies on the globe. All are watching
the chaos helplessly and are ending up blaming respective divisions, instead of
recognizing and realizing the missing harmony and working towards it.
Harmony, between men and women, between
spouses, between parents and children, between students and teachers, between
the ruled and rulers, between friends, among near and dear, between and among
communities, between man and nature, is unfortunately missing in all societies,
nations, and on our globe. We do not know what disharmony is going on in this
vast Universe.
We are allowing the leaders, narrow-minded
intellectuals-scholars-ideologists-movement organizers, and fanatics to create
disharmony among us and are not able to prevent these damaging acts of these
selfish individuals. There is no universal guidance available to us; which
counsels us to work for harmony among us. We are not attempting for one such
harmonizing word, thought, understanding, faith or deed.
We are more emotive and less objective in
matters of our affiliations to our gender, caste, community, region, language,
religion, faith, ideology, and the like; and so we are easily divided and separated
and we ourselves with our lack of sense of togetherness are mostly responsible
for disturbances around us. These things are easier said, than done, but an
attempt must be initiated to transcend these divisions; else our peaceful
existence or co-existence becomes a rare commodity. In our interest we must
devise, design, give shape to, and implement a work plan and program. The flow
chart, programing and execution are immediate necessities for harmony among us.
Harmony, the tuning of minds and hearts, and
rhythmic togetherness with nature and fellow living and non-living beings, understanding
among us, must become our breath, insight, experience and expression. We, the
old and the youth, can work in harmony to achieve such much needed state of
affairs.
We must dissuade persons from all “isms”
who are hell bent on dividing us based on gender, caste, region, religion,
language, nationality, color, faith, rational movements and the like
sophisticated words. We cannot make languages, religions, faiths, regions,
nations disappear and should not attempt at such an impossible task; but can
make these divisions disappear from our hearts and minds so that harmony
prevails and shines in us as love, understanding, fraternity, togetherness,
affection, friendship, brotherhood, comrade-ship, sweet bonds, delighting
unions and compassionate Divinities. Let harmony and harmonious relationships
be liveliness in our lives and give life and joy to our lives and enliven us.
Harmony between mind and Self leads to
peace of mind. Harmony between man and woman leads to love and bliss. Harmony
between and among all divisions brings down heavens and makes earth a paradise
and our hearts and minds Divine.
THE
HERB IN THE BACK YARD
There
is a popular proverb in Telugu – “intimokka manduki panikiraadu - meaning the
herb in the back yard is not considered for use as medicine. The reason being,
as we all know, is its proximity, familiarity to us, and a feeling that it is
“ours”; this feeling of ours makes us negligent of its value and use. It is
really a very good reflective insight of peculiarity of human attitude.
In
a similar way, we rarely recognize the value, ability, capabilities and use of
a person around us. We normally quote and refer to great minds living or
non-living to assert a point and many times to denounce our person near us. It
is a human tendency that contemporaries rarely acknowledge the merits of the
individual as he is alive and is not famous then. Many things are done to
degrade or downgrade his capabilities, intentionally or unintentionally.
It
is a fashion, culture and civilization to eulogize “greatness” of the dead and
already famous and popular. There are many instances in every field of human
endeavor, every society and every civilization when many persons who became
“great” later after their death were never popular or famous as there were
alive. This is a peculiar thing common to all civilizations and societies.
Why
it happens is a thing not much clear. Very few people become famous and popular
when they are alive. This can be because the great minds of the day do not
accept the individuals or their works because of ego problems rather than
intellectual reasons. The famous happening of Newton overshadowing Leibniz in
the invention of calculus is a case of interest. Tyagaraja also was not as
popular as he was alive as he is today. He was criticized for addressing God as
“eraa” “raaraa”, the endearing words used for a near and dear one; but the same
words and Keertanas are now famous and are enjoyed. Contemporaries will have
some mental inhibitions which completely vanish in the next generation, and
later people and intellectuals see the merit of the work and not the
individual. And hence the individual gets recognition.
We
all prefer to quote Shakespeare, Keats or the like poets in comparing poetry
and never the living poets who are not so popular. The same is true in all
fields. Mostly we ignore our people around us and always want to show our
scholarship rather than our understanding of individuals and their work in our
proximity and their abilities. This is a very interesting societal trait.
Many
individuals have suffered non-recognition for their great works while they are
alive. Even now we are interested in quoting Sankaraacharya or other great
masters and not current commentators. We prefer to quote Einstein even though
we understand little about theory of relativity. We go more by names than our
understanding of their works.
Actually
ancient Indian tradition informs us we have three pramanaas- the ways of
knowing and accepting truth: pratyaksa, anumaana and sabda. Pratayksha is our
knowing through sense organs; anumaana is by our inference; and sabda is by
authority. We rely more on authority as we have faith and belief in the
eminence of the great minds rather than our understanding of the subject. But
we quote the authority to denounce any new and revolutionary contemporary
innovation, invention or discovery or commentary and our denouncement mostly
never based on our understanding of the significance and value of the work under
consideration.
But
having faith on authority of famous seers, saints, scientists, philosophers,
poets and the like eminent personalities saves us lot of stress and strain; our
understanding of the intellectual subjects or aesthetic works may never happen
because of our limited intellectual or aesthetic abilities and it is always
better to accept what the greatest minds have said and revealed.
But
we must not use our faith in eminence to berate or criticize any current
attempts to innovate, revolutionize or shape our understanding and insight
about many concepts and subjects. We must show the same respect we show to
earlier great people. But somehow we rarely show grace in viewing contemporary
works and mostly end up in non-recognition of the merit contained in the work.
And our contemporary intellectuals, poets, philosophers, and the like suffer
pain arising out of non-recognition as was the case since the start of the
civilizations. After all every individual expects his or her work to be
recognized and if possible commended after proper scrutiny and criticism.
We
must also give room for recognizing our near and dear in family, around us, or
in proximity and connection with us as herb in the back yard also can be used
as medicine.
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