Swatantra Party and Thiruvalluvar's birthday

Thanks to Seetha for her wonderful article on the case for "The Swatantra Party’s relevance today comes through in Rajaji’s inaugural address to the party, where he warned of the dangers of the state becoming a Leviathan, “menacingly poised against the citizen, interfering with his life at all points...hypnotising the people with slogans that are mistaken for thought and wisdom, a scheme of government in which it is taken for granted that the citizen is ignorant of what is his own interest”. 

Thanks to the great imprinting voice by Shri.Tarun Vijay, who spoke in the upper of the Indian Parliament about the need for learning of southern and other regions languages by northern Indians. The following are from his speech in the parliament on 31st July, 2014:

"The glorious history of all Indian languages is unique and supremely great. We must work to develop feelings of appreciation and respect for each other.

In this regard it is necessary that people from North India be encouraged to learn any one Southern language through a free choice option.

For example the incomparable golden heritage that we have in the form of Tamil should make every Indian proud.

Tolkappiam, ,app 5000 years old. And on a broad spectrum Silappadigaram, Chintamani, Manimekalai, Valayapathi and Gundalakesi are great classics of Tamil literature.

The onus of the greatest classic in Tamizh literature undoubtedly goes to Kambar's Ramayana, the epic poem

One of the greatest works in Tamizh, which is widely preached even to this day, is Tiruvalluvar's Tirukkural .

Its imprints are found in various parts of the globe. How many of us know about the global influence and public services of great emperors likeChera, Chola, and Pandya kings ? Only Ashoka and Vikramaditya are not India, unless we have an all encompassing respect for Cholas, Krishnadev Rayas and Pandyas also. Similarly we have great history of Bangla, Malayalam, Telugu and other languages.

I demand observing Thiruvalluvar's birthday as Glorious Indian Languages Day in all parts of the country symbolising respect for all Indian languages and introducing Tamil also in North Indian schools as an optional subject for strengthening national unity. Mr Tarun Vijay ended his special mention with Palamaiyana Tamil Mozhiyar Vananguhiren."

Don’t read the comments!!!

That is not my suggestion yet I ponder the mindset behind the writer of this piece that followed the nasty comments!!

Before going to read the piece just muse what the following Kural means.

• “Silent about virtue and swift to act wrongly/A man may yet be declared good who does not slander others.” Thus spoke the great Tamil poet, Thiruvalluvar.
• Anyway, let me leave you with a few inspiring lines from Thiruvalluvar: “If those who think to achieve/Have a firm and focused mind/They will realise what they thought of.”

Ideas exist around the world. The knowledge is scattered among persons. Let’s not muse through the region or place, person, caste, time, etc. these will block your imagination.

Thought on Edification!

Any one who read and understand the “Thirukkural” (couplets) written by Thiruvalluvar a Tamil poet and saint, can be said as literate! Because it deals with all sort of mans life.

In the original Tamil version it has total of 1330 couplets each couplets have four words in first line and three words in second line. It’s a well thought through words.

Take for example some couplets on “Education” (Translated by Yogi Suddhananda Bharati):

The learned foster learning more

On seeing the world enjoy their lore. (Kural 399)

Learning is wealth none could destroy

Nothing else gives genuine joy. (Kural 400)

Lore worth learning, learn flawlessly

Live by that learning thoroughly. (Kural 391)

Letter, number, art and science

Of living kind both are the eyes. (Kural 392)

As deep you dig the sand spring flows

As deep you learn the knowledge grows. (Kural 396)

All lands and towns are learner’s own

Why not till death learning go on? (Kural 397)

Teachings of Prof. S. Ambirajan: Happiness, Ethics, and Economic Values

The second paper which I was talking about here and here is from the paper on “The Concepts of Happiness, Ethics, and Economic Values in Ancient Economic Thought” this paper was published in the edited book Ancient Economic Thought by B.B. Price, in 1997. This book is available in Google book.

Some of interesting paragraphs:

• “During the early epochs (circa 3000 BC to AD 500), both in the East and the West, the production and exchange of material goods were uncomplicated affairs. The economy was basically composed of selfsustaining autarchic units. As custom determined most of the activities (including economic), there was hardly any scope for individual initiative.
• why individuals everywhere in the past and present have preferred happiness, and think of it as the ideal to aspire to. It is, simply stated, a preferred mental state by definition, for even a masochist is “enjoying” pain, since that to him is happiness!
• The Indian philosophers seemed to have made a distinction between happiness in relation to the body and to the soul, in other words, happiness secured through material goods and services, and happiness as a result of non-material spiritual endeavours. The question to be asked is: which is the preferable and according to what standard of “better”? The thinkers of ancient India drew a distinction between the Good and the Pleasant, as the Kathopanishad says:
• One thing is the good and quite another thing is the pleasant, and both seize upon a man with different meanings. Of these whosoever takes the good, it is well with him; he falls from the aim of life who chooses the pleasant.
• The good and the pleasant come to a man and the thoughtful mind turns all around them and distinguishes. The wise chooses out the good from the pleasant, but the dull soul chooses the pleasant rather than getting of his good and its having.
• When Hiuen Tsang, the seventh century AD Chinese pilgrim visited India, he found that even Kshatriyas and Brahmins were clean-handed, unostentatious, simple and frugal in their lives. People lower in the socio-economic scale would not have been any different.

Swami Vivekananda also had similar view like the Tsang one which I will post soon separately.

• There is a vast body of writing—both in the West and the East—to show how human beings should lead a purposeful life. Whereas in ancient Greece it was in the form of philosophical texts, in India it was in the form of epics, hymns and sacred literature, all with one unique purpose—to make the individual realise his duties, potential and role in the society. In short, their aim was to tell man how to live out his life.
• In India, during the early period when States had not yet come about, the dissemination of good ideas through preceptors was prevalent. In the later period (circa post 300 BC), systematic law codes were prepared to say what should be and what should not be done.
• The couplets of Thiruvalluvar (circa 50 BC to AD 50), for example, were described by a contemporary poetess Avvaiar as an achievement similar to boring a hole in the atom to make it a receptacle to hold the seven seas.
• Many of the classical Indian writings on ethics, economics, law or philosophy are somewhat like mathematical theorems whose proofs have not been written out. Hence we have to work out how and why these terse statements came about either in the form of poetry or sutras. This is not easy, partly because of the inherent difficulties of fathoming the minds that considered these issues millenia ago, but also because of the numerous interpolations that have taken place since their original composition.
• Learning in the classical Indian style meant learning to memorize texts. This was not a mechanical process, because in the process of the rote learning, the meaning and context of the portions were explained with detailed crossreferencing. Everything was done from the teacher’s memory.
• The lawgivers did not recommend an ascetic mode of life for everyone regardless of the individual’s circumstances because every human being, according to the four-stage prescription of life, has to take Sanyasa (the ascetic mode) in his old age anyway.
• Any deliberate cultivation of poverty, except by a class of holy persons seeking the ultimate transcendent truth, was considered sinful. Thus the Mahabharata: “Poverty is a state of sinfulness…. From wealth springs all religious acts, all pleasures, and heaven itself, O, King! Without wealth, a man cannot find the very means of sustaining life.”

Basic Newton’s laws of motion applied to a public issue

Ramesh Ramanathan has good piece on “unveiling of the statue of Tamil poet Thiruvalluvar” in Bangalore.

• The “social conflicts can only happen through political processes. Politics is, therefore, not a bad word, but a term that we need to embrace more and more, as we begin to talk more openly about our conflicts, and seek their resolution. The Thiruvalluvar statue issue was not one that could have been resolved informally by two groups of people sitting and having tea and samosas—the underlying emotions ran deep, the conflicts had a genuine core which were exacerbated by other factors. The other examples I listed earlier also fall into the same category.”