A COUPLET OF FIRAQ GORAKHPURI

                                           

        

A Couplet OF Firaq Gorakhpuri

"Zabt keekiye to dil hai angaara,

Aur agar roiye to paani hai." ....Firaq Gorakhpuri

(If I suppress it, 

the heart is a burning ember.

If I weep,

 it is water.)

Firaq is no ordinary poet. His knowledge of the western thought and the  ancient Indian wisdom was exceptional. It is reflected in his prose and poetry. In the above couplet,  Firaq compresses the entire paradox of human suffering into one impossible substance that is both fire and water at once.Let us analyse this couplet through the philosophical prism of Schopenhauer, Marcel Proust and Nagarjuna.

1. Schopenhauer – The Will That Burns

For Schopenhauer, the world is Will, an endless, blind, hungry striving.

When Firaq says 'Zabt', suppression, the heart does not become calm. It becomes angaara. The Will, denied its object, does not disappear. It turns inward and burns. This is what Schopenhauer calls suffering by willing. Weeping or 'Roiye', is not a solution. It is water, dissolution, the Will momentarily exhausting itself. Tears are the Will negating itself for a second. The water extinguishes the fire, but it also drowns the self.

Firaq leaves us with no exit: to contain is to burn, to release is to dissolve. This is Schopenhauer's pendulum, swinging forever between the pain of wanting and the emptiness of release.

2. Proust – Involuntary Memory in a Tear

Proust would hear this couplet differently. For him, the heart is not a metaphysical Will, it is an archive. 'Zabt', what we suppress, does not stay suppressed. It hardens into an ember, a 'mémoire involontaire' waiting in the dark. It stays hot for years. A smell, a name, a season can make that ember glow again after twenty years. That is why the past never passes. And 'roiye to paani hai'. When we finally weep, the heart becomes water. Water is fluid, it flows, it loses its shape. In Proust, tears are the moment when the hard, stored past finally liquefies and becomes present again. We do not weep for what is happening now. We weep because the ember has finally melted into time regained. The tear is time itself becoming liquid.

3. Nagarjuna  Emptiness of Both

Nagarjuna in the Mulamadhyamakakarika would smile at Firaq and say, you have seen it. Fire and water are opposites. They cannot exist together. How can the same heart be both angaara and  'Paani' ? Only if the heart has no Svabhava, no inherent self-nature. The heart is not essentially fire, nor essentially water. It is 'Shunya' , empty of a fixed essence, and therefore it can appear as fire when conditioned by 'Zabt', and as water when conditioned by 'Rona'. The suffering is not in the fire or the water. The suffering is in thinking that one of them is the true, permanent heart. Firaq's couplet is a perfect statement of Pratityasamutpada, dependent origination. The heart arises only in dependence on conditions.

To hold on to the ember as me is suffering. To cling to the water as me is also suffering. Freedom is seeing that the one who is both burning and dissolving was never a solid thing to begin with.

That is why the couplet hurts so much. It leaves no solid ground to stand on.

(Avtar Mota )

CHINAR SHADE by Autarmota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License.

Based on a work at http:\\autarmota.blogspot.com\.

INDIANS IN GRENADA

                                    

                                           

                                      

Indians in Grenada

Grenada is an archipelagic country in the West Indies in the eastern Caribbean Sea. It is the southernmost of the Windward Islands. It lies directly south of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and about 100 miles north of Trinidad and Tobago and the South American mainland. The country consists of the main island of Grenada itself plus two smaller islands Carriacou and Petite Martinique and several small islands that lie to the north of the main island and are a part of the Grenadines. Total land area is 344 square kilometres. Capital is Saint George's on the southwest coast. Grenada is known as the Island of Spice because of production of nutmeg and mace. There is no land border. Nearest neighbours are Saint Vincent and the Grenadines to the north, Trinidad and Tobago to the south, Barbados to the east, Venezuela to the south across the sea. The island is volcanic in origin with a central mountain range and the highest point is Mount Saint Catherine at 840 metres.

Climate and neighbours

Climate is tropical tempered by northeast trade winds. The tropical climate is especially pleasant in the dry season February to May when trade winds prevail. Rainy season runs June to December when hurricanes may occur. Grenada lies on the edge of the hurricane belt and hurricane season lasts from June to November. Temperature and rainfall vary with altitude with much heavier rainfall in the mountains. The average temperature is around 27 degrees Celsius year round. Neighbours influence culture and economy. Many Grenadians have family in Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Saint Vincent, New York, Toronto, London and Montreal. Grenada is a member of the Commonwealth and the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States.

Original Inhabitants

Before Europeans Grenada was inhabited by Indigenous peoples from South America. First were Arawaks and later Kalinago also called Caribs. Christopher Columbus sighted Grenada in 1498 during his third voyage. French settlement began in 1649 and continued for a century. French colonists attempted to control Kalinago and in 1651 there was a famous event at Sauteurs in Saint Patrick where Kalinago jumped from a cliff rather than surrender to French. Between 1669 and 1808 about 127600 enslaved Africans were brought to Grenada by British and French. In 1763 Grenada was ceded to British under Treaty of Paris. British rule continued until independence on 7 February 1974. With emancipation of slavery in 1834 planters looked for new labour.

When Did Indians Arrive

British Grenada legalised immigration in 1856 to facilitate arrival of indentured migrant workers. Planters in West Indies began using indentured workers from British India as labour on plantations. Learning of success of approach planters in Grenada also sought to hire Indian indentured workers.

The first ship carrying indentured workers from India the Maidstone departed from Calcutta on 27 January 1857 with 375 Indians on board. It arrived at Irwins Bay in Saint Patrick Parish Grenada on 1 May 1857. Eighty six Indians died during the voyage and only 289 arrived alive. Most workers on the Maidstone were distributed to plantation estates in Saint Patrick and Saint Mark parishes as well as other parishes. None were sent to plantations in Saint John parish.

The Fulwood brought 362 live Indian workers to Grenada in 1858 and the Jalawar brought 249 workers the following year. Between 1857 and 1878 ships transported a total of 3033 Indians to Grenada excluding those who died during voyage. The last ship carrying 175 indentured Indian labourers arrived on the island some time between 1881 and 1885. In total nearly 3206 Indians were brought to Grenada excluding those who died during voyage. Only about 15 percent returned to India while rest remained even after indenture period ended in 1890. These Indians are the origin of the Indo Grenadian community.

Routes

Route was long and harsh. Recruitment was mainly from North Indian states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh and also from Bengal Presidency and later from Madras. Workers were taken to depots in Calcutta, Bombay and Madras under Act V of 1837 and Act XXXII of 1837. They signed a five year indenture agreement promising modest wage between 8 shillings and 20 shillings a month plus accommodation and promise of return passage. Ships sailed from Calcutta around Hooghly River into Bay of Bengal across Indian Ocean round Cape of Good Hope or via Atlantic depending on season, then across Atlantic to Caribbean. Voyage took about three to four months. Conditions were crowded and mortality high. On arrival in Grenada medical inspection was done at Irwins Bay and then distribution to estates. Estates were in Saint Patrick, Saint Mark, Saint Andrew, Saint David and Saint George. After five years workers could commute return passage for land. Under land commutation scheme of 1859 Indians who completed five years plus seven years residence could opt for ten acres of land in lieu of return passage, later modified to five acres plus five pounds cash. Much land given was of poor quality.

Population of Indians viz Total Population

Total population of Grenada in 2024 is estimated at about 114621 to 126000 depending on source. In 1991 census most of population was of African descent 82 percent or mixed African and European descent 13 percent. Remainder made up of small European and Asian groups. US government estimates about 90 percent of Grenada population is of African descent. An additional 8.2 percent are of mixed East Indian African and or Caucasian ancestry reflecting history of African slaves, East Indian indentured servants and European settlers. An additional 2 percent of population considers itself East Indian which includes descendants of indentured servants brought from 1857 to 1890 as well as immigrants arriving from Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana and India since 1970s. A small community less than 1 percent of descendants of early European settlers resides in Grenada. Another estimate says South Asians or Indo Grenadians are about 3 percent and trace Arawak Carib Indian is present. So Indo Grenadian population in strict sense is about 2 to 3 percent but with mixed it is up to 10 to 11 percent. This makes Indo Grenadians the second largest ethnic group after Afro Grenadians.

( Old Photos of Indians in Grenada )

Religious Break up of Indians

Original indentured Indians were majority Hindu and minority Muslim, about 70 percent Hindu and about 30 percent Muslim from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Over time due to small numbers, distance from larger Indian communities in Trinidad and Guyana, and due to conversion by Christian missionaries and intermarriage with Afro Grenadians, many Indo Grenadians became Christian especially Roman Catholic and Anglican and also Presbyterian. Today among Indo Grenadians religious composition is mixed. About one third remain Hindu, about 10 to 15 percent remain Muslim, and about half are Christian, mostly Catholic. Some also follow Evangelical and Pentecostal churches. Despite conversion many retain Hindu and Muslim cultural practices in modified form. Recent Indian nationals arriving since 1970s for business and medicine have revived Hindu and Muslim practice.

Festivals

Indo Grenadians celebrate both Indian and Grenadian national festivals.

Indian Arrival Day is celebrated on 1 May. For first time since centenary celebration in 1957, it was celebrated in 2007 on 150th anniversary. Government and Indian community organised cultural programmes in Saint Patrick and Saint George.

Diwali or Deepavali is celebrated by Hindu families with lighting of diyas, prayers to Lakshmi and distribution of mithai. Although not a public holiday in Grenada it is marked in temples and homes.

Holi or Phagwah is celebrated with coloured powder and water especially in Saint Patrick and Saint Andrew where Indian descent is higher.

Eid al Fitr and Eid al Adha are celebrated by Muslim Indo Grenadians. Mosques hold special prayers and community feasts.

Hosay or Muharram processions were observed in past but now rare in Grenada compared to Trinidad.

Christmas, Easter and Carnival are celebrated by all Grenadians including those of Indian descent with mixed traditions.

Cultural Continuity

Despite small numbers and assimilation, cultural continuity is strong. Language retention includes Bhojpuri and Hindi terms still spoken among Indian descendants mostly pertaining to kitchen. Words like aloo, geera, karela, seim, chownkay, baylay remain common. Term bhai meaning brother in Hindi is common greeting among Indo Grenadian males of equal status. Food is main continuity. National dish oil down includes turmeric misnamed saffron, dumplings, callaloo, salted meat and is cooked in karhee or curry pot. Popular street foods include aloo pie, doubles and dal puri served wrapped around curry commonly goat and fried bakes and fish cakes. Sweets include kurma, barfi, guava cheese, tamarind balls, rum raisin ice cream and spice cake. Nutmeg and mace are used in abundance. Family structure remains relatively strong with respect for elders. Music includes tassa drumming at weddings and funerals, and Chutney Soca influence from Trinidad.

Important Temples Mosques And Other Centres

There are no large ancient temples as in Trinidad or Guyana because community is small. But important places of worship exist.

Hindu temples: There are small mandirs in Saint Patrick especially around Rose Hill, La Tante, Hermitage and Saint Mark. Shiva Mandir in Saint Patrick, Kali Mandir in Saint Andrew and a small mandir in Saint George near Springs. Most are simple structures with flags. They serve as community centres for Diwali and weekly puja.

Mosques: Main mosque is the Jinnah Mosque or Masjid in Saint George built with help from Trinidad Muslims. There is a mosque in Saint Patrick and a small prayer hall in Saint Andrew. Muslim population is small about 0.5 percent of total Grenada population but active. 

There is no permanent historical gurudwara built during indenture because Sikh numbers among indentured were negligible. Today Sikhs in Grenada are recent migrants mostly doctors, business persons and students affiliated with Saint George University. 

Arya Samaj has a small presence in Grenada compared to Guyana and Trinidad where it is strong. Arya Samaj was introduced in early 20th century by reformist preachers from India and Trinidad who visited small Indian communities in Windward Islands to revive Vedic teaching and oppose conversion. In Grenada a small Arya Samaj branch was formed in Saint Patrick in the 1960s with support from Trinidad Arya Samaj and later from Indian High Commission in Port of Spain .

Key Persons Of Indian Ancestry

Due to integration, Indo Grenadians have contributed in many fields though often identified as Grenadian rather than Indian.

Politicians: Theophilus John, former minister with Indian ancestry; Chester Humphrey, labour leader and former Senate president of mixed Indian and African descent; Senator Arley Gill, former minister with Indian heritage; Lawrence Joseph, former Speaker of House with Indian ancestry.

Businessmen: Many small business families in Saint George and Grenville of Indian origin run spice shops, grocery stores, textile shops, hardware and restaurants. Names include the Bhola family, the Madoo family, the Ramdhani family who run supermarkets and nutmeg export.

Players: Cricket has strong Indo Grenadian presence. Devon Smith, former West Indies opener born in Hermitage Saint Patrick, is of Indian descent and one of Grenada most capped players. Junior Murray, former West Indies wicketkeeper, born in Saint Patrick, also of Indian descent. Andre Fletcher, Grenadian cricketer, has mixed Indian ancestry. In athletics, several young athletes of Indian descent represent Grenada at CARIFTA Games.

Social workers and education: Doctors include Dr Vikram Ragbir, Dr Rajiv Prashad at General Hospital. Teachers like Mrs Anita Steele in Saint Patrick preserve Indian culture through school programmes. Community leaders like Mr Ibrahim Abdur Rahman for Muslim community and Pundit Stephen Maharaj for Hindu community.

Contribution of Indians in Building Grenada

Indians contributed significantly despite small numbers. In agriculture they helped sustain sugar, cocoa, nutmeg and banana estates after emancipation when many former slaves left estates. They introduced new farming techniques, rice cultivation in small patches, and vegetable gardening. They introduced Indian spices and curry methods that became part of Grenadian cuisine.

In commerce they pioneered small shopkeeping and later spice trade. Grenada nutmeg and mace trade to India had some links via Indian merchants.

In medicine and education recent Indian migrants have filled gaps. Saint George University has many Indian origin faculty. Indian doctors serve in rural clinics.

In politics and trade unions Indo Grenadians participated in labour movement from 1950s onwards.

In culture they added Tassa, Chutney, and Indian culinary vocabulary to Creole culture.

Further Migration to the US, Europe And Other Places

Like all Grenadians, Indo Grenadians have migrated. After end of indenture about 15 percent returned to India. About 30 percent of Indians who arrived in neighbouring Saint Vincent emigrated to Trinidad by 1875 and similar movement from Grenada to Trinidad and Guyana where larger Indian communities offered higher wages. In 20th century many Indo Grenadians moved to Trinidad, Barbados, United States, Canada and United Kingdom for better opportunities. Estimates suggest at least 110000 Grenadian born live abroad equal to population on island. Among them Indo Grenadians form small but noticeable part in Brooklyn New York, Toronto, London. Many Indo Grenadians in Trinidad are counted as Trinidadian but maintain Grenadian family links. Further migration to US includes students who go to Saint George University and stay. Migration to Europe includes UK where Grenadians of Indian descent settled in Yorkshire and London in 1960s and 1970s.

Bollywood Influence

Bollywood influence in Grenada is strong relative to size of Indian community because of Trinidad media link and satellite television. In 1970s and 1980s Indian films were shown in Grenville cinema. Today Star Plus, Zee TV and Sony via cable and internet are watched in Indo Grenadian homes. Bollywood songs are played at Indian weddings and at Carnival fetes in Chutney Soca mix.

Music and Bollywood dance classes are held in Saint George community centre. Chutney Soca artists from Trinidad like Sundar Popo and later Drupatee Ramgoonai are popular. Local Grenadian Soca includes Hindi words.

Food and fashion: Bollywood fashion influences wedding wear. Saree and salwar kameez are worn at Diwali and at Indian Arrival Day. Mehndi art is popular among all Grenadian girls for weddings.

Young Grenadians of all ethnicities know Bollywood stars like Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, Deepika Padukone due to social media. TikTok and YouTube have increased Bollywood reach.

In conclusion Indians in Grenada are a small but historically significant community. From 3206 indentured workers arriving between 1857 and 1885 from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh via Calcutta to Irwins Bay, only 15 percent returned. Their descendants numbering about 2 to 3 percent pure and up to 10 percent mixed have shaped agriculture, commerce, cuisine, music and multicultural harmony of Grenada.

( Avtar Mota )

CHINAR SHADE by Autarmota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License.

Based on a work at http:\\autarmota.blogspot.com\.

ALBERT CAMUS AND HAPPY CHILDREN

                                      

Happy Children and Albert Camus with his own poor childhood

The world needs smiling children not as sentiment but as philosophical proof. In Camus this proof is central. The absurd tells us that the world is silent and offers no final justification. The smiling child answers not with argument but with presence. He does not need heaven or history or ideology to affirm life. Sun and sea and play are enough. This is what Camus calls fidelity to the earth. Scholarly thought has often sought meaning in transcendence. Plato sought it in forms, Augustine in God, Hegel in history, Marx in revolution. The child refutes them all by simplicity. He is immanent. He lives in this day alone. His smile is not naive. It knows hunger and fall and fear and still returns.

 Ethically the smiling child becomes a criterion. A politics, a religion, a system can be judged by whether it increases or diminishes the number of smiling children. Ontologically the child shows that joy precedes reason. Joy is not the conclusion of thought. It is its origin. The world needs smiling children because without them we forget why we revolt and why we must continue.

Albert Camus was born on 7 November 1913 not into books and salons but into absolute poverty. His father Lucien, an agricultural worker, was killed in the First World War at the Marne in 1914 when Albert was less than a year old. His mother Catherine Sintes, illiterate, half deaf, working as a domestic servant, moved with baby Albert and his elder brother Lucien to a tiny dark three room flat at 93 rue de Lyon in the working class district of Belcourt in Algiers to live with her domineering mother Saint Brieuc.

There was no bathroom, no electricity at first, no books, no toys bought from a shop. Water had to be carried. The grandmother ruled with a whip. The mother could barely speak French, she communicated in gestures and silence. Camus would later write, Poverty was never a misfortune for me. Light was poured over it.

Yet that very poverty gave him his idea of happy children.

In The First Man, his autobiographical novel found in the mud after his fatal crash, he describes that childhood as rich because it was happy without reason.

He remembers football games played barefoot in the dusty streets of Belcourt with balls made of rags. Winning and losing was everything and nothing, the present alone.

He remembers swimming at the beaches of Algiers, diving from rocks, bodies brown in the sun, shouting, the sea close by, the same images that return in Noces and L Ete.

He remembers his schoolteacher Louis Germain who saw the intelligence of this poor boy and gave him free lessons and books. Without him Camus would have gone to work. He never forgot that a poor childs happiness needs a hand to protect it. He dedicated his Nobel speech to Germain.

He remembers that there was no future in that house, no plan, no inheritance. And therefore there was only today. The children of Belcourt did not need metaphysics to be happy. Sun, sea, a game, a laugh, that was enough.

This is why when his own twins Jean and Catherine were born on 5 September 1945 he understood them so deeply. He knew what it was to be a poor child who is nonetheless happy and what it was to be a father who wants that happiness to continue. All his life he was happiest in the company of Jean and Catherine at Lourmarin listening to their laughter in the garden. In his late Carnets and in his letters to Maria Casares he writes, "Their laughter saves me from my own reasoning" .

( Teaching chess to his daughter )

( With daughter Catherine )

For Camus the happy face of a child, whether the ragged boy of Belcourt or his own Jean and Catherine, was philosophical proof.

First, the present alone. "The poor child has no tomorrow to rely on. He has only this sun. Camus loved sun and sea and blue sky and this day alone".

Second, innocent revolt. "The poor child falls, is hungry, is punished, and still runs to play. That is Sisyphus pushing the stone without appeal".

Third, joy without justification. "The happy child does not need a doctrine to be happy. He demonstrates life" .

In his Carnets I and at Tipasa, ,"gods speak in the sun and the scent of absinthe and children still play" . In Carnets III covering 1951 to 1959, "Jean has fever. Catherine laughed all evening. I am saved" .

In L Ete, Return to Tipasa and The Sea Close By, "boys diving and shouting are sacred without religion" .

In The First Man, Jacques Cormery ,"poverty is not misery because a childs happiness under the sun is wealth" .

In The Plague," the death of a child watched minute by minute is the moral centre. When that happy face is crushed every system collapses" .

Hence his axioms:

"Perhaps we cannot prevent this world from being a world in which children are tortured. But we can reduce the number of tortured children."

"Children will still die unjustly even in a perfect society. Even by his greatest effort man can only propose to diminish arithmetically the sufferings of the world."

The happy child was for Camus the final answer to the absurd, not an argument but a face. A poor boys face in Belcourt, a laughing face in Tipasa, above all the faces of Jean and Catherine in the garden at Lourmarin, a face laughing in the sun needing no reason, no heaven, no tomorrow, saying yes to this day alone, to sea and light and play.

( Avtar Mota )

CHINAR SHADE by Autarmota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License.

Based on a work at http:\\autarmota.blogspot.com\.

HUMAN EMOTIONS ARE SIMILAR ON THE PLANET: "RETURN OF A VIETNAM WAR POW TO HIS FAMILY"

                                    

HUMAN EMOTIONS ARE SIMILAR ON THE PLANET: RETURN OF A VIETNAM  WAR  POW TO HIS FAMILY 

On 17 March 1973, at Travis Air Force Base, Lt Col Robert L. Stirm( POW) ,  shot down over Hanoi in 1967 and held for 1,962 days , stepped off a C-141 during Operation Homecoming with a" Dear John"  letter from his wife folded in his pocket. Fifty yards away, his fifteen-year-old daughter Lorrie, who had not seen him since she was nine, tore from a station wagon with both feet off the ground and arms too wide for her body, whilst behind her, her mother clutched crushed white flowers and her three siblings ran, laughing. AP photographer Sal Veder, who later won the Pulitzer for this  frame he called it "Burst of Joy" ,  said he could feel the energy in the air. For that five-hundredth of a second, there was no war, no letter, no divorce to come: only a father who had returned from the dead, and a daughter  who had finally learned how to fly.

( Avtar Mota )

CHINAR SHADE by Autarmota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License.
Based on a work at http:\\autarmota.blogspot.com\.

ALBERT CAMUS AND THE ISHA UPANISHAD

                                                                              

ALBERT CAMUS AND THE ISHA UPANISHAD 

Gandhi Ji famously declared the Isha Upanishad to be the summit of human wisdom. He said if all the scriptures in the world were lost, as long as the first verse of the Isha Upanishad remained, then Hinduism would last forever. In the Book “ Notebooks 1935-1942”, translated by Philip Thody (Ivan R. Dee, 1963), on page 162, Albert Camus condenses the Upanishadic doctrine of Maya into a secular ethic:

"It is legitimate to glory in the diversity and quantity of experience, only if one is completely disinterested in the object of one's desires. There is also the leap into material things; and men who glory in the senses do so only because they are slaves to them. Here, too, they embrace the vulture that is eating them away."

The source is the Isha Upanishad Mantra,” Ishavasyam idam sarvam, tena tyaktena bhunjitha.” "All this world is enveloped by the Lord; enjoy through renunciation," later named as Maya in the Shvetashvatara Upanishad 4.10 and the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad. What is striking is that Camus retains the structure but removes the Lord. The theistic frame, Ishavasyamis excised and  the message is secularised.  Disinterestedness no longer derives from devotion to Brahman but from lucid indifference to possession. For Vedanta, detachment frees one for the Self; for Camus, it frees one for the world itself. To cling to sensory experience as an absolute is thus to remain a slave, embracing the vulture that devours us, mistaking Maya for fulfilment.

Few comparisons in modern comparative philosophy appear as improbable—and yet as intellectually rewarding—as that between the thought of Albert Camus and the philosophical vision of the Upanishads. Separated by more than two millennia, formed within entirely different civilisations, and speaking in radically different philosophical idioms, they nevertheless converge upon some of the most enduring questions of human existence: What is the nature of reality? How should one confront death? Can life possess dignity in the face of suffering? What constitutes authentic knowledge? Above all, how should one live without illusion?

Camus’s return to the Upanishads in 1959 is especially significant because it reveals the persistence, rather than the passing novelty, of his engagement with Indian thought. He had encountered the Upanishads decades earlier, reflected upon them critically in his notebooks, and continued to revisit their philosophical vision throughout his intellectual life. In Albert Camus, Notebooks 1951–1959, translated by Ryan Bloom, he records with striking simplicity: “Rereading the Upanishads. A strange peace.” The sentence is important precisely because it contains neither polemic nor philosophical judgement. The younger Camus had often examined Indian wisdom through the categories of negation, absurdity and escape. The mature Camus records an experience of inward stillness instead. His repeated return to the Upanishads deserves emphasis. They were not a casual Oriental reference, but part of a sustained philosophical engagement spanning decades and reaching into the final year of his life, touching on questions of consciousness, mortality, detachment, and peace.

( Avtar Mota )

CHINAR SHADE by Autarmota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License.
Based on a work at http:\\autarmota.blogspot.com\.

RAKSHA BANDHAN GREETINGS

                                        

Raksha Bandhan  Greetings

"Karunakar Draupadi pukari

Patt mein lipat gaye Banwari

Nirakh rahe nar naari

Jai Madhav Madan Murari"

(Draupadi called out to the Lord with compassionate  hands, 

And Banwari wrapped himself into the fabric of her Sari,

All the men and women stood watching in wonder,

Victory  to Madhava, Madana and Murari.)

The Indian festival of the protective bond celebrated on the full moon of Shravana in August, where a sister ties a consecrated thread, Rakhi, on her brother's wrist as a Kavachaor protective armour, invoking lifelong mutual duty. Its religious background lies in the Hindu concept of *Rnanubandha, a sacred bond created through mantra-charged thread, with Puranic roots in Sachi tying such a thread on Indra for victory over the Asuras, and its history is traced in Sanskrit literature and royal traditions as a domestic rite that renews dharma within the family. 

Its most revered theological archetype, central to Pahari painting, is the **episode of Sri Krishna and Draupadi: when Sri  Krishna wounds his finger on the Sudarshana Chakra, Draupadi tears the border of her Sari to bandage it, and Sri  Krishna vows "Akshayam Bhavatu" that her honour shall be endless ,  a vow fulfilled during her vastraharan in the Kaurava court when he renders her garment infinite; this bond by choice, not blood, is therefore considered the first Rakhi and the purest expression of sacred protection.

RAKSHA BANDHAN GREETINGS 

( Avtar Mota )

PS

*Rnanubandha means a bond formed by past debts.

In Sanskrit, rna means debt and anubandha means connection or tie that follows. It refers to the belief that relationships in this life arise because of Karmic debts or obligations left unsettled in previous births, which draw souls together again to repay, resolve or fulfil them.

**Draupadi tying cloth to Sri  Krishna is not in the critical Mahabharata. The canonical text has only her Vastraharan and Sri Krishna's protection. The finger-cut and Sari-tearing episode comes from later folk Kathas and Puranic retellings, now celebrated as the first Rakhi by tradition.

CHINAR SHADE by Autarmota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License.
Based on a work at http:\\autarmota.blogspot.com\.