Thus the Way of the Cow

I see a flock of cow
Their head ducked and eyes fixed
Looking only to the grass with mouth chewing
They are busy grazing

The vast green field, the colorful flower
The blue sky, the warm sunlight
Notice them, they do not
They are busy grazing

Down to the water hole they go
Up to the grass field they return
By the bark of the herd dog they moved
For their mind knows nothing but grazing

The perilous nature, the hungry predators
Away from them they stay
But aware of them they do not
For only the bark of the herd dog they obey

Dare not to venture, dare not to separate
By the flock they stay, by the herd dog they rely
Aimless moves they walk, mindless moo they utter
Thus the way of the cow, the way of the unaware

Thus I Honor the Wisdom that is spoken by the Ancient

WARNING!!! SPOILERS AHEAD!!! (But who cares anyway since this is a very old tale that I think too many people should have known how in general the story goes and ends)

And know for the negative boring and surely what most modern popular novel would have thought sort of comments about this tale:

1. The storyline is too rigid and unrealistic.
2. It progress too slowly that most will find it boring.
3. The Indian sure is a very over-melancholic race that lamenting and tears-shedding are heard too often from both gender, and for both joyful and sorrowful event.
4. It makes to many unnecessary detours with the need of Rama to keep lamenting and seeking help everywhere when He is in fact the living Vishnu whose power can overwhelm the entire Rashasa army by himself.
5. If only Brahma the Creator God hasn’t gave Ravana the Rakshasa King the special power, none of this conflict would’ve happen. Hence the Creator God Himself is the one to be blame.
6. It is mostly a Love story which over-spiced with Gods and stuffs.

Those are general comments that I think most simple readers will have in mind. Why? Because most reader seeks thrill, adrenaline provoking plot, or tears shedding love story, or sometimes religious obedience fostering tale. Yet I seek the other, I seek whatever values and wisdom that are offered by the ancients who first recite this tale in their poems.

And now what do I think about it? I think it is awesome, marvelous, outstanding, period!! This one tale alone has so many values to be told; so many religious aspects can be learned; and so many messages that can be used as tools of self-introspection (or in-sight). Its teaching about virtue easily surpasses any other literature that I have in my disposal. The valor and loyalty of the characters are certainly no less if not better compare to the bushido from Japanese samurai stories. It describes very well the weakness of human mind and heart under some unfortunate circumstances even from the mind of the incarnation of God Himself. It depicts the work of fate in such way that series of joyous fortunate and sorrowful unfortunate events are all within the grand plan of God and eventually reveal the true purpose of everything, it is the mystery of fate that even the Avatar of God Himself is bound to follow as well.

I am astounded by Bharata – the brother of Rama – who was described to have a spotless virtue, sometimes even compared to Sri Rama Himself. I am astonished by the loyalty and valor of Jatayu, who fought to defend Sita with no fear of death. I greatly salute Hanuman – the son of Vayu (the Wind God) – the minister of the Vanara’s Kingdom – for his unequalled intelligence, wisdom and loyalty, and not only because it was claimed as such by the author, but because of the series of deeds and wise decisions he had made along the story, and I even almost shed tears at one of his scene (I’ve forgot which one) not out of sadness, but out of awe. If one day I happen to found myself in front of a Hanuman worship temple, I could probably do no less then to stop and offer a respect toward Hanuman by heart. Yet it is not the physical statue of Hanuman that I honor. But the values which are carried by the Hanuman character themselves.

And as for C. Rajagopalachari the author of this version, I am grateful by how in many events the author always describes the ancient Tamil poets – Valmiki, Kamban, and sometimes Tulasidas – differences in how they describe the events, then explain the context and the message of each version, thus saving the need to read the original version from all three poets. Even more, the author also gives his personal opinion about the moral of each event without subtly changing the story according to his will, but to explain it separately.

Thus said, this is not a synopsis, this is not a review, but a humble expression of my sincere amazement. I am unworthy of judging a tale of wisdom that has been developed thousands of years ago, yet has stood the test of time and still dwells in the heart of some delicate readers in this modern age. Thus I honor the wisdom that is spoken by the ancients.

And if I travel to Bali again, or India (perhaps one day). I will surely wont just simply enjoy the beauty of the beaches or the unique and colorful culture, but I'll deeply appreciate the rituals, and worships that has always been a part of Hinduism. Now I see cultures and rituals in quite a different perspective, even if the pious devotees who held the worship were probably do it out of habit of inherited tradition from their elders, or perhaps even just to satisfy the tourists, those rituals still are the embodiment and symbolization of values and wisdom inherited from their Sages.

I’ve only read Ramayana once for now, but I will surely reread it again sometime in the future, both to enjoy its beautiful utterance and to remember the wisdom that it offered. And now, I shall progress on reading the other Tale which is Mahabharata.

The Wisdom of Old India

During my last trip to Ladianta, I had managed to finish the whole tale of Ramayana retold by C. Rajagopalachari. I’ve wanted to read about both Ramayana n Mahabharata since several months but can figure out which version is the best and which author (or translator) that would suit my purpose of reading. So I browsed the Wikipedia to find out more about these two books where I finally discovered about C. Rajagopalachari’s version. Actually this is not the first time that I heard his name. In fact his is the first version that I found when strolling around Gramedia bookstore but still hesitated to buy since I have a little doubt about the author’s background and quality in cultural and religious literature. But from Wikipedia, I found out that I have nothing to doubt about. To quote Wikipedia:

"Chakravarti Rajagopalachari (Tamil: சக்ரவர்த்தி ராஜகோபாலாச்சாரி) (10 December 1878 - 25 December 1972), informally called Rajaji or C.R., was an Indian lawyer, Indian independence activist, politician, writer, statesman and leader of the Indian National Congress who served as the last Governor-General of India. He served as the Chief Minister or Premier of the Madras Presidency, Governor of West Bengal, Minister for Home Affairs of the Indian Union and Chief Minister of Madras state. He was the founder of the Swatantra Party and the first recipient of India's highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna."

“Rajaji was an accomplished writer both in his mother tongue Tamil as well as English. He was the founder of the Salem Literary Society”

“In 1916, Rajaji started the Tamil Scientific Terms Society. This society coined new words in Tamil for terms connected to botany, chemistry, physics, astronomy and mathematics. At about the same time, he called for Tamil to be introduced as the medium of instruction in schools.”

“In 1951, Rajaji wrote an abridged retelling of the Mahabharata in English, followed by one of the Ramayana in 1957.”

“Rajaji often regarded his literary works as the best service he had rendered to the people. In 1958, he was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award for Tamil for his retelling of the Ramayana - Chakravarti Thirumagan. Rajaji was one of the founders of the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, an organisation dedicated to the promotion of education and Indian culture.”

Nuff said. And even better, his version is available in PDF online for free, so what is it that needs to be considered anymore? Here is the link:

So why are all the sudden with this Ramayana and Mahabharata? It is because of my friends influences. One of them said about his father in-law who always teaches about religion by using the Ramayana, the Mahabharata and Son Go Kong (Which I wish to reread also some time in the future) yet he is a Moslem. Another friend of mine is a Jogja-nese who always poised me with the Java version of these tales from “Pewayangan Jawa” hence increased my interest to both stories. Well he mostly boasts (sorry :D ) about Mahabharata, but why not read both tales when I can, considering these Tales are strongly related to each other both in their storylines and in “Dharma”. But the problem is I couldn’t care less about the Java version (pardon me) yet since it has always been my personal policy since the dawn of my personal study to read a literature as original (if not close to) as I can get. So yes, I’m searching for the Hindi version, but in English - I’m not Karan Johar or Shahrukh Khan, don’t expect me to read in Hindi, Heck, even for reading the Gospels I still wouldn’t want to learn to read in Greek (Yes the four Christian Gospels are originally written in Greek, not Latin nor Hebrew), and I don’t even think that Russell Peters could speak Hindi other then Hindi accent-English, so English version is enough.

Another factor is that I inherently have deep love and respect toward great ancient literatures, doesn’t matter whether it’s a mythology or history, I honor both of them. When a mythology has stood the test of time and even stands as one of the groundwork of one of the oldest religion ever on earth, then it must have some great wisdom in it.

Relax O Ye my fellow Christians for I would never converted to Hinduism, since I don’t think any conversion is necessary to learn the wisdom of any religion from any culture. Wisdom and teaching have been here in the universe since the beginning of time, and no human categorization including religion can confine it, it surpass every worldly boundaries provided one ready to learn from it with an open heart. And truly I tell you, woe to you who judge a teaching or religion other than your own before even care to lake a good look at it and understand about the teaching of that certain religion (simply put – negative prejudice).

The Vows of a Bird

What is the purpose of my writings? That question has always intrigued me. And it goes even deeper to: what is the purpose of my study? Is it true that I want to search the truth? Or is it just to makes me feel better? Like a new hobby, a new toy to me. And about the writings and all their publicities, what is it that I aim for? Do I wish to spread the truth? Is it just a share? Or perhaps it was just some ego of to be seen as the one who knows more? And upon thinking about that, I finally reach some conclusion.

It doesn’t matter how good and systematically proven my writings are. It will get the job done to explain my ideas but the reader will still only grasp them to a point of logical reasoning. What I am trying to communicate is something that can only be seen by those who has finally choose to seek for it and discover it “by themselves” in this chaotic journey of life. So it doesn’t matter whether they agree or not, because even when they do agree, they will still not “see” what I “see”. And worse when they don’t agree, it will trigger some meaningless theological debates that will lead to nowhere since they haven’t seen what I have seen anyway and hence will never speak in the same “language”.

Understanding something merely with logic is entirely different with actually “seeing” it. And since the beginning, Anthony de Mello can’t describe it better when he said, “Observe, then you will understand” or shall I say truly “sees” it. Bhodidharma the founder of Shaolin temple, upon finishing his nine-year meditation and reach enlightenment said to his disciples “There is no use of logical and theological reasoning. To reach enlightenment, one shall just practice diligently until one finally understand”, and in martial art, practicing will always leads to self-observation, it is a tool used by the Buddhist monks to assist themselves to be more “observant” about the law of nature.

And even Jesus said something regarding how hard it is to speak of the truth to those who haven't experienced it first hand when he said, “The reason I speak to them in parables is that seeing they do not perceive, and hearing they do not listen, nor do they understand” (Matthew 13. 13, NRSV), and so “Jesus told the crowds all these things I parables, without a parable he told them nothing” (Matthew 13. 34, NRSV), and hence the parables about the Kingdom of Heaven (scattered everywhere in all four gospels).

So now I will make my vows about my attitude in theological writings:

1. I shall not write to prove that I am right and the others are wrong.
2. I shall not write with expectation to be fully understood.
3. I shall not write to satisfy my ego to be seen as the one who understands more and gain pride from it.
4. I shall write as a result of my natural learning process and as a way to systemize my understanding.
5. I shall write as literal records about my learning process so that I can one day reanalyze them in my future study.
6. I shall write as an expression of my awe toward the grandiosity and sacristy of the Word of God.
7. I shall write only from The Spirit.

"A bird doesn't sing because he has a statement. He sing because he has a song" - Anthony De Mello