ഉണർവിലേക്കുള്ള പടവുകൾ - 18

                                    മത്സരം : അദൃശ്യമായ മഹാമാരി

കുഞ്ഞുനാൾ മുതൽ, വളർന്നു വയസ്സായി മരിച്ചുപോകുന്നതു വരേയ്ക്കും ചുറ്റുമെമ്പാടും കേട്ടുകൊണ്ടിരിക്കുന്ന പല്ലവിയാണ് ജീവിതത്തിന്റെ വിജയവും പരാജയവും. ഈ പല്ലവിയുടെ ഹിപ്നോട്ടിക് ഊന്നലുകളാണ് L K G കുട്ടിയോട് പോലും 'വലുതാകുമ്പോൾ ആരാകണം?' എന്ന ചോദ്യം. ആരെങ്കിലും ആയേ തീരൂ, അല്ലെങ്കിൽ താൻ തോറ്റുപോകും (മറ്റുള്ളവരുടെ മുൻപിൽ) എന്ന ധാരണ അവനിൽ വേരു പിടിക്കുകയാണ് . 'എനിക്ക് ഞാൻ ആയാൽ മതി' എന്ന് പഠിച്ചു പറയുന്ന കുട്ടിപോലും അനാവശ്യമായ, മിഥ്യാ-മത്സരത്തിന്റെ ഇരയാവുന്നുവെന്നതാണ് സത്യം.

മനുഷ്യനെ ബാധിച്ചിട്ടുള്ള മഹാമാരിയാണ് 'വിജയം'- success - എന്ന് പറഞ്ഞത് തത്വചിന്തകനും മനഃശാസ്ത്രജ്ഞനുമായിരുന്ന വില്യം ജെയിംസ് ആയിരുന്നു. ജയ - പരാജയങ്ങൾ എന്ന പ്രയോഗങ്ങളിലൂടെയല്ലാതെ യാതൊന്നിനേയും നോക്കിക്കാണാൻ കഴിയാത്ത വണ്ണം നമ്മുടെ ഇന്ദ്രിയങ്ങളൊക്കെയും രോഗഗ്രസ്തമായിത്തീർന്നിരിക്കുന്നതിനെയാണ് അദ്ദേഹം ഓർമ്മപ്പെടുത്തുന്നത്. അതായത്, നമ്മുടെ ഇന്ദ്രിയങ്ങളിൽ മത്സരത്തിന്റെ വിഷപടലങ്ങൾ അപായകരമായ അളവിൽ കയറിക്കൂടിയിരിക്കുന്നു.

ഈ മഹാമാരിയെ പണ്ട് മുതൽക്കേ തിരിച്ചറിഞ്ഞിട്ടുളള ധാരാളം പേരുണ്ട്. ഉപനിഷത് ഋഷിമാർ മുതൽ ലാവോത്സുവും ബുദ്ധനും യേശുവും മഹാവീരനും കബീറും ഐസക് ന്യൂട്ടണും ഐൻസ്റ്റീനുമെല്ലാം അവരിൽ പെടുമെങ്കിലും ജീവിതത്തിൽ വിജയിച്ചവരായി അവരെ നാം അംഗീകരിക്കുന്നുണ്ടോ എന്ന് സംശയമാണ്. ആ പേരുകൾ വല്ലപ്പോഴും നാം ശ്രദ്ധിക്കുന്നുണ്ടെങ്കിൽത്തന്നെ, അത് മിക്കവാറും ആ പേരുകൾക്ക് ലഭ്യമായിട്ടുള്ള പ്രശസ്തിയും മഹത്വവും കൊണ്ടാണ്; അവർ ഈ ജീവിതത്തെ അർത്ഥവത്താക്കിയ ഉൾക്കാഴ്ചകളിൽ  ആകൃഷ്ടരായതുകൊണ്ടല്ല. 

വിജയത്തിന് നാം മുൻകൂട്ടി തയ്യാറാക്കി വെക്കുന്ന മാനദണ്ഡങ്ങളുണ്ട്. ഒരു ഘട്ടത്തിൽ അത് സമ്പത്തും പ്രശസ്തിയുമാണെങ്കിൽ, മറ്റൊരു ഘട്ടത്തിൽ അത് ആരോഗ്യവും സൗന്ദര്യവുമാണ്. ഒരു ഘട്ടത്തിൽ അത് ബഹുമാന്യതയും അംഗീകാരവുമാണെങ്കിൽ, മറ്റൊരു ഘട്ടത്തിൽ അത് ഇണയെ കണ്ടെത്തുന്നതിലും പ്രീതിപ്പെടുത്തുന്നതിലുമുള്ള പ്രാഗല്ഭ്യമാണ്. നാല് വയസ്സുള്ളപ്പോഴും എൺപതു വയസ്സുള്ളപ്പോഴും ട്രൗസറിൽ മൂത്രമൊഴിക്കുന്നില്ലെങ്കിൽ 'വിജയമെന്ന്' കണക്കാക്കപ്പെടുമ്പോൾ, എഴുപതാം വയസ്സിലും കാറോടിക്കാൻ കഴിയുന്നതാണ് ജീവിത വിജയമെന്ന് വിചാരിക്കുന്നവരുണ്ട്. നമുക്ക് വേണ്ടി വിജയമാനദണ്ഡങ്ങൾ നിശ്ചയിക്കുന്നത് നാം അനുമതി കൊടുക്കുന്ന ചുറ്റുപാടുകളാണ്. ഫലത്തിൽ, നമ്മുടെ മാനദണ്ഡങ്ങളെല്ലാം നമ്മുടെ പരിമിതിയെ അനുസരിച്ചുള്ളതാണെന്നു വരുന്നു.

ജയപരാജയങ്ങളെപ്പറ്റിയുള്ള നമ്മുടെ മാനദണ്ഡങ്ങളിൽ ബുദ്ധനും കൂട്ടരും ഒതുങ്ങുന്നില്ലെന്നു മാത്രമല്ല, അവർ മത്സരത്തിൽ (ഇല്ലാത്ത മത്സരം) പങ്കുചേരുന്നുമില്ല എന്നതാണ് വാസ്തവം.

ഒരു സംഗതിയെ മത്സരത്തിന്റെ ഭാഗമാക്കണമെന്നുണ്ടെങ്കിൽ, അത് വിജയിച്ചുവെന്നോ പരാജയപ്പെട്ടുവെന്നോ എണ്ണിയാൽ മതി. അങ്ങനെയൊരു മത്സരം യഥാർത്ഥത്തിൽ ഉണ്ടായിരിക്കുന്നുണ്ടോ എന്നത് വിഷയമേയല്ല. വിജയവും പരാജയവും ജീവന്മരണ പ്രശ്‌നമായിരുന്ന അതിദീർഘമായ ഒരു ഭൂതകാലം മനുഷ്യനുണ്ടായിരുന്നു. (ഒരു പക്ഷേ, ഗർഭധാരണം മുതൽ തന്നെ ഈ മത്സരാഭിമുഖ്യം ഉടലെടുത്തിട്ടുണ്ടെന്നു വെക്കുക) അതിന്റെ ബാക്കിയിരിപ്പാകാം സകലതിനേയും മത്സരത്തിലേക്ക് വെട്ടിച്ചുരുക്കി, താൻ ഒന്നിനും കൊള്ളാത്തവനല്ല എന്ന് തന്റെ ഗോത്രത്തെ ബോധ്യപ്പെടുത്താനുള്ള ത്വര.

രണ്ടാം ലോകമഹായുദ്ധം അവസാനിച്ചതറിയാതെ 29 വർഷങ്ങളോളം ഫിലിപ്പീൻസിലെ കാടുകളിൽ ശത്രുക്കൾക്കെതിരെ യുദ്ധം ചെയ്തുപോന്ന  ഒരാളുണ്ട് - ജപ്പാൻകാരനായ ഹിരൂ ഒനോദ. 1945 ആഗസ്തിൽ യുദ്ധമവസാനിച്ചിട്ടും അതെ പറ്റിയുള്ള അറിയിപ്പൊന്നും കിട്ടാഞ്ഞതിനാൽ ലെഫ്റ്റനന്റ് ഇന്റലിജൻസ് ഓഫീസറായിരുന്ന ഒനോദയും അയാളുടെ കീഴിലുണ്ടായിരുന്ന മറ്റു മൂന്നു സൈനികരും 29 വർഷങ്ങളോളം ശത്രുക്കൾക്കെതിരെ ജാഗ്രത പാലിക്കുകയും, ശത്രുക്കളെന്നു ധരിച്ച് തദ്ദേശവാസികളായ കുറേയാളുകളെ കൊന്നുകളയുകയും ചെയ്തു. ഒടുവിൽ ജപ്പാൻ അധികാരികൾ അദ്ദേഹത്തെ തെരഞ്ഞു കണ്ടെത്തുകയും യുദ്ധം എപ്പോഴേ അവസാനിച്ചുവെന്ന് അറിയിക്കുകയും നാട്ടിലേക്കു മടങ്ങണമെന്ന് അഭ്യർത്ഥിക്കുകയുമുണ്ടായി. 1974 മാർച്ചിൽ അന്നത്തെ ഫിലിപ്പീൻസ് പ്രസിഡന്റായിരുന്ന ഫെർഡിനൻറ് മാർക്കോസിന് മുൻപിൽ തന്റെ ആയുധങ്ങൾ തിരിച്ചേല്പിച്ച്‌ സ്വതന്ത്രനാവുന്ന ഒനോദായുടെ ചിത്രം 'മറക്കാനാവാത്ത നൂറു മിലെനിയം ചിത്ര'ങ്ങളിൽ ഒരെണ്ണമായി ചില പത്രങ്ങളെങ്കിലും

തെരഞ്ഞെടുത്തിട്ടുണ്ട്, 2000 ജനുവരിയിൽ. അവസാനിച്ച യുദ്ധം അറിയാതെപ്പോയതാണ് ഒനോദായുടെ കാര്യത്തിൽ സംഭവിച്ചതെങ്കിൽ, ഇല്ലാത്ത പന്തയത്തിൽ മത്സരിച്ചുകൊ ക്കൊണ്ടിരിക്കുന്നവരാണ് നാം മനുഷ്യർ; വിശേഷിച്ചും ജീവിതത്തിന്റെ ആന്തരികത -interiority- യെ കണക്കിലെടുത്താൽ. 

ജീവിതം വിജയിക്കാനുള്ളതാണെന്ന് പറയാൻ തുടങ്ങിയ അന്ന് തന്നെ ഇക്കാണുന്ന വിജയങ്ങളെല്ലാം നിരർത്ഥകമാണെന്നും സ്വന്തം മനസിനെയാണ് ജയിക്കേണ്ടത്, സ്വന്തം ഇന്ദ്രിയങ്ങളെയാണ് ജയിക്കേണ്ടത്, ഇഹത്തെയല്ല അഹത്തെയാണ് ജയിക്കേണ്ടത്, 'പര'ത്തെയാണ് ജയിക്കേണ്ടത് എന്നിങ്ങനെയുള്ള ആത്മീയ ധോരണികളും ഉദ്ബോധിപ്പിക്കപ്പെട്ടു പോന്നിട്ടുണ്ട്. സൂക്ഷിച്ചു നോക്കിയാൽ മനസ്സിലാവും ഈ ഉദ്ബോധനങ്ങൾക്കു പിന്നിലുള്ളത് നേരെ ചൊവ്വേ വിജയിക്കാൻ പറ്റാത്തതിലുള്ള അപകർഷതയാണെന്ന്. ഈ ഉദ്ബോധകരൊന്നും തന്നെ ജയപരാജയങ്ങൾക്ക് ആധാരമാവുന്ന മത്സരം വെറും മിഥ്യയാണെന്ന് തിരിച്ചറിയുന്നില്ല.

വിജയമെന്ന് നാം എണ്ണിപ്പോരുന്നവയെ പരിശോധിച്ചുനോക്കാൻ ധൈര്യമുണ്ടായാൽ, ഒരു കാര്യം വളരെ എളുപ്പം വ്യക്തമാവും. വിജയമെന്ന് നാം ധരിച്ചുവെച്ചവയൊക്കെയും ഓരോരോ കെണികളായിരുന്നുവെന്ന്; എന്തെന്നാൽ, തൊട്ടുമുന്നത്തെ വിജയങ്ങളായിരുന്നു നമ്മുടെ മുന്നോട്ടുള്ള നീക്കങ്ങളെയെല്ലാം നിയന്ത്രിച്ചുകൊണ്ടിരുന്നത്. ഓരോ വിജയവും അടുത്ത ഒരുപാട് വിജയങ്ങളെ അത്യന്താപേക്ഷിതമാക്കിക്കൊണ്ട് നമ്മെ വരിഞ്ഞുമുറുക്കുകയായിരുന്നു. ഒരുപക്ഷേ, വേദനയുണ്ടാക്കിയിട്ടുണ്ടാവാമെങ്കിലും, നമുക്ക് കൂടുതൽ സ്വാതന്ത്ര്യം സമ്മാനിച്ചിട്ടുണ്ടാവുക പരാജയങ്ങളായിരിക്കാം. പാരാജയമായിരിക്കാം, തീർത്തും പുതിയതായ മറ്റൊരു ദിശയിലേക്ക് നമ്മെ നയിച്ചിട്ടുണ്ടാവുക. പരാജയങ്ങളായിരിക്കാം, വിദൂരസ്ഥമായ ഒരു കയത്തിൽ നിന്നും നമ്മെ രക്ഷിച്ചിട്ടുണ്ടാവുക. വിജയത്തേക്കാളേറെ പരാജയമായിരിക്കാം നാം അകപ്പെട്ടിരിക്കുന്ന ഈ മിഥ്യാ - മത്സരത്തെപ്പറ്റി നമ്മെ ബോധ്യപ്പെടുത്താൻ കാരണമായിട്ടുണ്ടാവുക. വിജയം പൊതുവെ നമ്മെ കൂടുതൽ കൂടുതൽ അന്ധമാക്കുകയേയുള്ളൂ. എന്തിനെപ്പറ്റിയും വാഗ്വാദങ്ങളിൽ സമർത്ഥനായ ഒരു വ്യക്തി, ആ കാര്യത്തിൽ 'successful' ആയതുകൊണ്ട് മാത്രം, വാദിച്ചു ജയിച്ചുകൊണ്ടേയിരിക്കുകയും, തനിക്കു സംഭവിച്ചുപോകുന്ന തെറ്റുകൾ മനസ്സിലാക്കാൻ ഇട വരാതിരിക്കുകയും ചെയ്യുന്ന അവസ്ഥ.  അങ്ങനെവരുമ്പോൾ, വിജയിച്ചുമുന്നേറിക്കൊണ്ടിരിക്കുന്നുവെന്നു വിചാരിക്കുന്ന ഒരാൾ ഏറെ വൈകിയാണ് താൻ വന്നെത്തിയത് തികഞ്ഞ പരാജയത്തിലാണെന്ന് അറിയാൻ പോകുന്നത്. വിജയത്തിനെതിരെ പരാജയത്തെയാണ് കാംക്ഷിക്കേണ്ടത് എന്നല്ല പറഞ്ഞുവരുന്നത്. നാം അകപ്പെട്ടിരിക്കുന്ന ‘മത്സരം’ എന്ന മിഥ്യാബോധത്തെ

ഓർമ്മപ്പെടുത്തുന്നില്ലെങ്കിൽ, ഏതൊരു വിജയവും ആത്യന്തികമായി പരാജയമാണ്; ഓർമ്മപ്പെടുത്തുന്നുവെങ്കിൽ പല പരാജയങ്ങളും വിജയത്തേക്കാൾ മഹത്തരവുമാണ്.

‘NOTHING FAILS LIKE SUCCESS’ എന്ന ഓർമ്മപ്പെടുത്തൽ കേവലം ഒരു 'success quote' അല്ലെന്നുവരുന്നത്, ഈ സന്ദർഭത്തിലാണ്. ഇല്ലാതിരുന്ന ഒരു മത്സരത്തിൽ വിജയിച്ചുമുന്നേറുവാൻ വേണ്ടിയാണ് താൻ തന്റെ സന്തോഷവും സമാധാനവുമെല്ലാം വേണ്ടെന്നുവെച്ചത് എന്ന തിരിച്ചറിവിലേക്കാണ് മേല്പറഞ്ഞ വാക്യം ഒരുവനെ എടുത്തെറിയുന്നത്; ജയപരാജയങ്ങളെവെച്ചുകൊണ്ട് മാത്രം പടുത്തുയർത്തിയിട്ടുള്ള ഒരു സമൂഹക്രമത്തിൽ ഈ പ്രസ്താവം ഒരു വലിയ ചുറ്റിക പ്രഹരമാണ്, a hammer on the rock.

സ്വാഭാവികമായും ഈ സന്ദർഭത്തിൽ ഉയർന്നുവരുന്ന ഒരു സംശയമുണ്ട് - വിജയിക്കാനല്ലെങ്കിൽ ഒരു പ്രവൃത്തി ചെയ്യുന്നതെന്തിനാണ്? പരാജയപ്പെടാനായി ഒന്നും ചെയ്യാനാവില്ലല്ലോ. ജയ-പരാജയങ്ങളെ അകറ്റി നിർത്താനായി, യാതൊന്നും ചെയ്യാതെ ജീവിക്കാനുമാവില്ല. 

ഒരൊറ്റ കാര്യമേ ചെയ്യേണ്ടതുള്ളൂ- ഏതൊരു പ്രവൃത്തി ചെയ്യുമ്പോഴും അതിന്റെ ഫലത്തിൽ കവിഞ്ഞ യാതൊരു ജയവും പരാജയവും ഇല്ലെന്നോർക്കുക. ജയ-പരാജയങ്ങൾ എന്ന വാക്കുകൾ ഒരു പ്രവൃത്തിയുടേയും  പരിസരത്തുപോലും ഇല്ലെന്നുറപ്പാക്കുക. അപ്പോൾ, അപ്പോൾ മാത്രം, ആ പ്രവൃത്തിയിൽ നമുക്ക് മുൻപത്തേക്കാൾ ആർജ്ജവത്തോടെ, ബോധപൂർവ്വം പങ്കെടുക്കാൻ സാധിക്കും. നമ്മുടെ ധാരണക്കപ്പുറം വ്യത്യസ്ത ഫലം നല്‌കിയ ആ പ്രവൃത്തി മിക്കപ്പോഴും ജയ-പരാജയങ്ങൾക്കപ്പുറം, സന്തോഷത്തിനും സന്താപത്തിനുമപ്പുറം, ചില ഗ്രാഹ്യങ്ങൾ പകർന്നിട്ടുണ്ടാകും, the very understanding ; തീർച്ച.  

                                                            

                                                    

OSHO AND KERALA - STORIES OF BOUNDLESS BOUNDARIES - 4

Mystics 

A Master, an enlightened being, might not be missing anything. It doesn't make any difference to him if he is reading or not reading a book, or interacting or not with the outside world. As he himself is centred within, the world we are talking about is merely a namesake one. That’s all what we assume about that phenomenon. But, as a person from Kerala and also a few of my friends always feel that we really do miss some wonderful discourses of Osho, as nobody had brought to his notice certain myths, ballads, poems, legends and some mystics from this part of India. (I am sure that anybody from any other place would have the same feeling. Is there any land without stories and legends and myths? Is there any land where a Zorba was not born? A Buddha was not born?) 

Here too, there were some mystics - Narayana Guru and Chattambi Swamikal who were contemporaries of Ramana Maharshi - whose works are considered to be of the same heights of Shankara. At least two spiritual poems - Harinamakeerthanam (author yet unknown) and Njanappana by Poonthanam can be compared to any Upanishad or Songs of Kabir. 

Osho has talked about a meeting of two enlightened individuals, Kabir and Farid, which happened in the 15th century. Another such incident happened in 1916 at Tiruvannamalai, Ramana Maharshi’s place. Narayana Guru from Kerala went to meet Ramana Maharshi. The only talk that happened between Narayana Guru and Ramana Maharshi was when the latter approached Narayana Guru, who was sitting in the shade under a tree, and asked him to come for lunch.

No other interaction happened between them during that 3-4 hour visit. But they were in close contact with each other until Narayana Guru left his body in 1928.

Art, the stepping stones to witnessing  

Kathakali and Koodiyattam, the traditional performing arts of Kerala are of some meditative significance which Osho would have mentioned for sure; not because of their perfection as an art. In these two art forms, which is a combined form of dance and theatre, acting is taken to the height of pure witnessing. It is totally different from the acting generally performed in a movie or drama, where the actor is almost identified with the character. Generally, when a character laughs, the actor laughs and he wants to make it as real as possible. When the character wants to cry, the actor tries to shed tears from his eyes. But in Koodiyattam, or in Kathakali, the actor acts as if he is laughing, or he is crying. In reality, he never laughs, or cries. The whole attention of the actor is to convey the emotional climate of laughing or crying to the audience. He will be using all possible gestures which are called mudras, face muscles, body movements, and will use the help of live background music.

Importantly, the actor never gets identified with the character the way it is performed in other art forms. To be more specific, the actor in these artforms is really challenged how NOT to get identified with the character, and at the same time he must be totally into it!

When Osho states that “Acting is one of the most spiritual professions in the world,” it seems Osho was emphasizing the non-identification of an actor with his character. Not all actors of these artforms are meditators or are into the realm of witnessing. But it will be very easy for them to at least understand what is meant by the term ‘witnessing’, and seeing that art, it will be easy for the spectators too. 

Simple Statements

With Kerala, Osho has also some other ‘distant acquaintances’ or trivial connections. Osho used to joke about a ‘big belly’ Baba. That was Nithyananda, who was the master of Swami Muktananda, who became famous in the USA. Swami Muktananda had some contacts with Osho in the early days. Nityananda was born in Kozhikode (commonly called Calicut) and established one ashram in the northern part of Kerala and another, close to Mumbai. 

Osho mentions ‘Kerala’ and ‘Malayalam’ in a few discourses and also in the Last

Testament. Speaking on Ramana Maharshi, he remembers that his father had discouraged him from going to Ramana Maharshi’s place as Osho, as a young boy, had to cross many places in which people speak languages different from Hindi, like Marathi, Telugu and Malayalam. (From Personality to Individuality, Ch 6)

 

I was very happy to read in one darshan diary about a person from Kerala receiving sannyas from Osho. Speaking to the new sannyasin, he asks Deva Vedant to start spreading the message in Kerala, “Which meditation is going well with you?... Dynamic? Very good. Continue it, and in Kerala, much has to be done. Now start spreading the message: you have to become a vehicle for me there!” (The Shadow of the Bamboo, Ch 25) 

Myths / Legends 

Perhaps, Osho’s most cherished connection with Kerala is the following: 

There is a great series of legends/ folktales in Kerala about a 12-member family, Parayi Petta Panthirukulam (twelve clans born of a pariah woman), who were the sons and one daughter born to a brahman man and his lower caste wife. His name was Vararuchi, his wife was called Panchami. 

Vararuchi was the half-brother and close confidante of Emperor Vikramaditya (57 BCE -78 CE) in Ujjain (today’s Madhya Pradesh). Because of some unusual events in his life, Vararuchi married Panchami, not knowing that she is a lower caste woman. But after some time, he recognized that his life was unfolding as per the fate which had been predicted to him earlier. 

Although he had tried in many ways to avoid his fate, he finally understood that life is not in his hands at all and was moving in its own ways. He immediately left the palace together with his wife to spend the rest of their life on a pilgrimage and started walking towards the south. At last they reached Kerala. Meanwhile Panchami conceived her first child.

 

After nine months on their path, she delivered a boy near the side of a small jungle. Vararuchi, who was waiting outside, called out to her, 

“Does the baby have a mouth?” 

“Yes, of course!” she called back. 

“Leave him there and come with me. God will provide him with food and shelter since he can cry,” Vararuchi said and his wife complied. 

They continued their journey ahead. Thus, in twelve years she delivered eleven children including a baby girl but discarded all of them as per her husband’s instruction. 

When she was pregnant for the twelfth time, she wanted to keep the child for herself. After the delivery, when the husband asked her the usual question, she told him a lie, “No, the child is born mouthless.” 

Vararuchi asked her to take the child with her. Holding the child tightly in her arms, she walked along with her husband. But before taking eleven steps, the infant suddenly became mouthless. She started crying loudly. Realizing what had happened, Vararuchi took the child to a hilltop and consecrated it there, which became the famous Vayillakkunnilappan (the deity of the mouthless hill). The couple continued their pilgrimage and finally attained moksha, the ultimate, absolute freedom. 

The entire legend can’t be shown here as it is very lengthy, including the early days of Vararuchi, the meeting with Panchami and several wonderful anecdotes about their children. And that’s not the scope of this write-up either. All these children were twelve unique individuals. They were scattered in different regions of the state, and grew up in different castes, religions and in very different backgrounds. All of them were leading an enlightened life of their own, discarding the society around. They have left many signs and landmarks of their life in society; as far as Kerala is concerned, they are no more a legend, rather, they are almost a mysterious history; a reverberating myth. 

The main reason for bringing up the legend here is that every tale of these twelve children (and there more than a hundred of them) is simply awesome and enriched with sharp insights like Zen anecdotes. We wish Osho had heard them! He would definitely had given a long series of discourses on them. 

NARANATHU BHRANTHAN: 

A LEGEND COMPARABLE TO GREEK SISYPHUS

Osho always reminds us that a myth is more valuable than a historical fact, as a myth carries the truth, while the fact merely shows some data. While talking on the Myth of Sisyphus, Osho expressed the poverty of that story as a myth, a kind of incompleteness. And he has visualized how it should have been and explained it in much detail. 

In this legend, we have a Sisyphus-like character, Naranath Bhranthan. Bhranthan in Malayalam means a mad man. He was called so because of his activities and behaviour which was generally considered eccentric. But all his stories are simply superb, showing tremendous insights. His daily activities and courageous approach towards the unknown, god, was exactly like Osho visualized. When I read those lines from a discourse for the first time, my immediate feeling was that Sisyphus must be closely related with Naranath Bhranthan. Before going into the story of that mad man, let’s look into Osho’s words: 

“The myth of Sisyphus is significant. It was written in Greece. If it had been written by a Zen Buddhist, he would have given it a totally different flavour. Sisyphus would not have bothered about the rock slipping back into the valley, he would have enjoyed the whole trip to the top and back into the valley. It is beautiful: flowers are blooming by the side, the birds are singing, and the fresh morning air... one is ecstatic. And Sisyphus is singing a song - a shodoka, a song of enlightenment. He would have defeated the gods if he had been a man of Zen; the gods would have cried and wept, because they had punished him, and he is enjoying! He would have enjoyed the trees by the side of the road, and the rocks, and the rock itself that he was carrying - the texture of it. 

And if it were a morning like this... and the raindrops, and the smell of the freshly wet earth, he would have sung a beautiful song, he would have shouted a few haikus, he would have said 'This is it!', he would have danced with the rock, around the rock. He would have enjoyed it. And when from the top the rock slips back... the sound of it! And again a new thrill, and the adventure of going down into the valleys and bringing the rock up again, and all that beautiful journey. Then the whole perspective changes.”

                                                                    Osho, The Sun Rises in the Evening, Ch 5 

Now to the story: 

Naranath Bhranthan was the fourth son of Vararuchi, perhaps the most rebellious among the whole clan. He is the ‘lion’s roar’ of ‘Parayi Petta Panthirukulam’. His parents had left him on the banks of Kunthippuzha (a river) immediately after his birth, in a village in Palakkad. But he was brought up by a woman from a nearby high class family ( Narayana Mangalathu Mana). That is how he started known as Naranath, and Bhranthan, as a suffix added later because of his abnormal behaviour and mysterious way of living. He was very knowledgeable in tantric sciences and all. 

He lived the life of a vagabond and earned his living by way of alms. He would make a hearth wherever he reached in the evening, cook some gruel and sleep there on the spot. In the morning he would reach a nearby hill and would embark on his hobby of rolling big stones to the hilltop. From there he would push those stones to the valley and would roar with laughter, clapping his hands. In the evening he would go around for alms.

 

One evening he reached a nearby cremation ground; a pyre was still burning there. He brought water from the nearby river, made a hearth and started cooking his dinner gruel. His left leg was a little painful because of dropsy. So he stretched out that leg and kept it near the fire to enjoy the warmth. Along with the boiling sound of the rice in the pot, he began to hum a folk tune. As the night became darker and darker, he heard some fearsome noises, cling-clang, cling-clang. It was Badhrakali, the Goddess of the cremation grounds who, together with her demons was on her nocturnal rounds. They were surprised to see a human sitting there with a doughty expression, staring at them with a fearless face. 

“Who are you?” Badhrakali demanded to know. “Can’t you see? I am a human. People call me Naranath Bhranthan,” he replied. 

“Get out from here immediately,” she ordered. 

“Why should I?” he asked. 

“If you don’t leave, we will scare you away.” She started frightening him with some gestures. 

“I won’t be afraid of anyone. Better you leave me alone,” he said with a sarcastic smile. “We are different from others,” she shouted back. 

Settling into a more comfortable posture on the side of a tree, he said,” Go ahead. Do what you can.” 

Badhrakali and her demons charged at him, showing their fierce eyes, hot and reddish like

burning coal. Their canines appeared like hot iron, their blood-red tongues danced like serpents. But Naranath sat there fearlessly, with a nonchalant smirk on his face. TheGoddess was amazed about his behaviour. 

He asked, “Finished? Or is there any other stuff to frighten me with?” 

Badhrakali said, “Oh, great soul, I think you are not an ordinary being. So I plead with you to go away from here. It is our privilege to continue with the ecstatic dancing ceremony and celebration in the cremation ground at night.” 

Naranath said, “You can go on with your activities. I won’t disturb you.” 

She replied, “But we are not supposed to dance in the presence of a human.” 

“If so, you may entertain yourself tomorrow,” he said, “I won’t move from here.”

 

Badhrakali said that they cannot postpone their ceremonies and Naranath told her, “No need. You can start dancing right now. I will sit in a corner without disturbing you.” 

The night was going to end soon. Badhrakali went on and on requesting him to go away, but he didn’t listen. Finally, she had to give in. 

She said, “Oh, great one, we are leaving. But I cannot leave without either blessing or cursing you. Since I am convinced of your greatness, I would like to bless you only. Tell me, what boon do you wish from me?” 

Naranath replied, “Nothing please. I don’t need your blessings. Please go away with your friends. My dinner is already late now. Let me have it in peace.” 

Badhrakali insisted, “Please don’t disappoint us. Unless I grant you a boon, I won’t be able to go back.” 

Naranath retorted, “To hell with you and your boon! OK, then tell me when I am going to die,” to which she answered, “You will die after 36 years 7 months 3 weeks 2 days 5 hours and 3 minutes from now.” 

Naranath said, “All right, then postpone my death for one more day.” 

Shaking her head, the Goddess said, “I am sorry. I am unable to grant that boon.” 

Naranath sighed, “Then take away one day from life span,” and Badhrakali said, “I am helpless to do so.” 

Naranath, now irritated, “That’s why I told you that I don’t need your boons and bonuses.” Badhrakali pleaded, “Please have mercy upon me. Ask for anything else.” 

Naranath said, “If so, grant a boon to shift the swelling on my left leg to the right leg.” 

By then, it was day break. He left happily to the hill with his now swollen right leg and started his daily activity of rolling stones up to the hilltop. The valley was again filled with the sound of the falling stones and the echoes of his hands clapping, his roars, his loud laughter. 

There is one memorial for Naranath Branthan in Rayiranellur Hills in Palakkad, Kerala. Once a year, on a special day generally in September, hundreds of people climb the hill to pay tribute to him. 

                                       

                                            *                     *                     *

Meditation may dissolve all the boundaries in and around us, it is said. But surely better than that, by dissolving boundaries of space and time, one comes closer towards meditation. 

                                        Yes, that's the word for the moment;

                                        Exhilaration, the very

                                        Oceanic Exhilaration.

                                

OSHO AND KERALA - STORIES OF BOUNDLESS BOUNDARIES - 3

 

 

SHANKARA

‘Na punyam Na Papam Na Soukhyam Na Dukham

Na Mantro Na theertham Na Vedo Na Yajnjaha

Aham Bhojanam Naiva Bhojyam Na Bhokta

Chidananda Rupa Shivoham Shivoham’

(Without sins, without merits, without elation, without sorrow;

Neither mantra, nor rituals, neither pilgrimage, nor Vedas;

Neither the experiencer, nor experienced, nor the experience am I,

I am Consciousness, I am Bliss, I am Shiva, I am Shiva)

 

An eight year old boy was wandering to find a guru. When he reached the banks of the Narmada River at Omkareshwar, Madhya Pradesh, there were flooded; he placed his water pot on the ground, asking the river to recede to the boundary of the pot. By doing so he saved a man who was in deep samadhi in a nearby cave. When that man opened his eyes from the samadhi, he asked the boy, “Who are you?”

The poem quoted above is one of the eight stanzas of boy’s answer, which later became very famous as Nirvana Shatakam. (Deva Premal has chanted it very beautifully, available on youtube). Written between 788-820 C.E

The boy was Shankara, the Indian mystic-philosopher of the first half of the 8th century CE. And the man he had saved, Govind Bhagavad Pada, became his guru.

Shankara, generally known as Adi Shankaracharya, was born in Kalady, a small village near Kochi, Kerala. In the Malayalam language, kalady means footprint. According to historians, many parts of Kerala were dominated by Buddhism in those days and instead of Buddha statues, people worshipped a stone with footprints they believed were of Buddha. Such stones were called kalady. There were many other villages of that name in Kerala, but when Shankara’s name was connected to this place, the name at all other locations disappeared over time.

Shankara was the pioneer in having written a large body of works central to the Advaita Vedanta interpretation of the Prasthanatrayi, the canonical texts consisting of the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita and the Brahma Sutras. Later, many more interpretations were written on Shankara’s interpretations! He has written many works of his own, which are considered gems in Indian scriptures. Bhaj Govindam (Song of Ecstasy) is one of his philosophical poems which is very popular, especially in south India. It seems, only Osho could reveal the gist of insights contained in it. It is, perhaps the only mystical door having been opened into the world of Shankara, among the thousands of philosophical exercises tried by the so-called scholars and religious representatives.

Osho has mentioned his name many times during his discourses along with other western philosophers and eastern mystics. According to Osho, Shankara is a rare integration of meditation and devotion. Saundarya Lahari (Waves of Beauty), considered a major tantric work by Shankara, is a great example of this.

In Books I Have Loved, Osho is counting another of Shankara’s works, Vivek Chudamani (The Crest Jewel of Awareness) as one of the great books he loved. Osho was supposed to give a long series of discourses on it, at least for eight months, as it is a very large book. But Osho dropped it at the last moment, feeling that it carries too much logic than love.¹

I remember, Vivek Chudamani begins with the emphasis to be aware of the rare or unique opportunity we have as a human being, and not to waste it with the immeasurable trivia in life. A few years back, there were attempts by some scientists to calculate the probability of being born as a human being. In a blog, Dr Ali Binazir, inspired by a TED talk given by Mel Robbins (American self-help author), calculates the probability of being born as we are right now, and came up with an amazing figure of  550,343,279,001! This calculation is not easy for me to comprehend. But keeping in mind that beings like Shankara had a much deeper understanding about this probability, then that number must be far higher (i.e., even less probability) than this one, as the universe in its experience would simply be infinite; the very thought gives me goose bumps within.   

There are many stories about Shankara, very much loved by Osho. One of them is the story that young Shankara went to a river with his mother, Sivataraka, to bathe, and was caught by a crocodile. Shankara called out to his mother to give him permission to become a sannyasin or else the crocodile would kill him. The mother agreed and Shankara, saved from the crocodile's jaws, leaves home.

Another one is a very famous. One day he was coming out of the Ganges after his early morning bath to go back to his hut, when a sudra, an untouchable, touched him. Shankara became angry and he said, ‘You have destroyed my bath. I will have to go again and purify myself.’

The Sudra said, "Wait just a single minute. I would like to ask you - if there is only one, if the whole existence is one, how can I and you exist? How can you become impure by my touch? Who has touched you? Who has touched whom?’

As if from a deep sleep, the sleep of the man of knowledge - and it is one of the greatest sleeps, it is almost a coma - Shankara was awakened.” Osho added that this man became his guru.²

For years, Shankara travelled widely within India, participating in public philosophical debates with different orthodox schools as well as heterodox traditions. His debate with Mandan Mishra in Mandala, an ancient place of pilgrimage situated less than 80 kilometres from Jabalpur is, perhaps, one of Osho’s favourite stories. He has talked about it in many discourses with different interpretations.

When the debate which had been going on for many weeks was coming to an end with the defeat of Mandan Mishra, the latter’s wife challenged him to answer her questions about sex. Being a celibate, Shankara said that he has no practical experience, and if permitted he would come back within six months for the debate to be continued.

Osho explained, “Shankaracharya was in a predicament. He knew his body was no good for the challenge at hand. He asked his friends to go and find out if anyone has just died so that he may enter his body. Then he told them to guard his own body zealously till he returned. He entered into the dead body of a king, lived through it for six months, and then came back.”

Osho said that it was foolish to enter into another body to experience sex. He gave a wonderful explanation which was impossible for any Shankara scholars to come up with by stating that to come down to the lowest level from such a height of awareness and understanding was inconceivable for Shankara:

“One may ask, ‘Why could he not have learned through his own body?’ He could have, but his entire life energy had become so introverted, the entire flow of energy had moved so deep inside, that it was difficult to draw it out. He could have, of course, related with a woman using his own body. If he had set out to know what sex was all about, he could have related with any woman by means of his own body, but the problem was that his whole bioenergy had turned inward. Drawing it out would have required more than six months. It was not a simple thing. It is easy to draw the energy within from without, but to draw it out again is very difficult. It is easy to drop pebbles and pick diamonds, but very difficult to give up diamonds for pebbles.”³

That’s why he tried in this way!

As part of his sadhana, Shankara was on the way to Kodachadri, a mountain peak in Karnataka. In the middle of the journey, he stayed at the home of a poet for the night. The hos thad immense respect and love for Shankara, and thought he would show a recently completed poem to Shankara to get his approval before releasing it to the public. It was a huge work with almost two hundred stanzas and of a

philosophical nature. Until late into the night he read the whole poem to Shankara, but as the latter was in a vow of silence, he didn’t make any comment. Early morning on the next day Shankara left, continuing his walk. The poet became desperate because he thought Shankara hadn’t shown any interest or made any comment, that definitely this work might not be good enough. He threw the entire manuscript into the fire.

Six months later, Shankara was on his return journey and came to the same home for a night’s stay. Having completed his vow of silence, he explained to the poet, “That day I didn’t say anything, because I was in silence. But your poem was immensely beautiful!” The poet burst into tears. He said, “Forgive me. As you didn’t say anything about it, I thought it is worthless and so I burnt the whole manuscript.” Shankara said, “So what, you can write it down now,” and recited the entire poem while the poet rewrote it!

Within such a short span of life - Shankara died at the age of 33 - he had covered the whole geography of India, on foot, from south to north, from east to west, three times. Going through the account of Shankara’s life, the influence he had on this land, his works, the impacts… the one word most suitable is the same which was solely propagated by him - MAYA.

¹ The other mention in Osho’s Books I Have Loved  is Shankara’s Bhaj govindam moodh mate (O Idiot).

² Tao: The Three Treasures, Vol 1, Ch 9

³ And Now, And Here, Vol 2, Ch 15, Q 5 (translated from Hindi)

 

 

KABIR DAS

After Shankara, another seeker from Kerala had gone to the same place of Mandan Mishra - Benaras. But this happened almost 600 years after Shankara. His name was Sarvanand. Where Shankara continuously met with scholars for debate and would win, Sarvanand had gone to debate with an illiterate man, a weaver, who was residing on the banks of Ganges, surrounded by scholars. That man was Kabir Das, about whom Osho stated, “Kabir, I love you as I have never loved any man.” ¹

It was Kabir, who proved himself that the search for truth is possible only if you free yourself from the clutches of institutionalised religion, and became a great inspiration all over the country, especially for the so-called ‘Bhakti Movement’ which originated in South India a few centuries ago. In spite of there being many variations on the path of all those who were associated with that movement, it can be noted that ‘Freedom’ was the fundamental element all of them aspired for. Perhaps, with Kabir, spirituality had been more specified as ‘seeking and searching for truth’, than the worshipping and praising of Gods and performing rituals. Kabir stands as a major landmark on a seeker’s path. In Osho’s words, that landmark is called sahaj samadhi, the spontaneous ecstasy.

‘Songs of Kabir’, generally known as Kabir Dohe are the mystic poems sung by Kabir during his journey with disciples, during his weaving work and many other occasions. Almost 8000 songs were collected and preserved during his lifetime, a priceless treasure for the people on the path. And almost all of songs were collected by that boy Sarvanand, who had come from Kerala.

Sarvanand was born in Thiruvananthapuram, the present capital of Kerala, in 1438. In those days the region was known as Venadu. He was a very studious boy, who had learnt all Sanskrit scripture by heart and was an expert in many languages. He used to wander all over the country, which was a trend in those days, debating with  so-called scholars, aiming for the title Sarvajith, which means ‘the conqueror of all’. His mother, Rajeswari Devi was worried that her only son was wasting his life in debates and arguments.

Once, when her son was away from the state, she got a chance to meet Kabir, who was roaming throughout the south with his disciples. (It seems historians have not yet explored Kabir’s presence in south India.) She shared her anxiety about her son with Kabir, and Kabir asked her to send him to Benares.

When Sarvanand returned from his travels with the title sarvajith and showed it to his mother, she said she would only call him a sarvajith if he would win against Santh Kabir in Benares. Sarvanand said, “Yes, I had heard about him when I was in Banares, but he is just a weaver, a Muslim, who doesn’t have any idea about the Vedas and isn’t at all a scholar. ”Rajeswari said, ‘Maybe, but you go and win against him.’

Sarvanand put all his scriptures into a bag, put it on top of his bull and set out on his journey. Upon reaching Benares, Sarvanand searched for Kabir’s house and when he saw a girl drawing water from a well he asked her, “Where is Kabir’s house?”

She immediately recited a poem of two lines: “ Kabir is staying so high, that even an ant cannot reach there. And there is no question of a scholar and his bull reaching there.”

She was Kabir’s disciple, Kamalika.

When Kabir was invited for a debate, he immediately said, “I am not a man for debate and argument. I don’t have any knowledge about scriptures.”

“If this is so,’ Sarvanand demanded, ‘give it in writing that Kabir failed, Sarvanand won.”

“That can be done,” Kabir replied. “You yourself can write it on a piece of paper, and I will sign it.” In his own words, masi kagad chhuyo nahin - I have never touched paper and ink.

Sarvanand had the paper signed by Kabir and immediately left for his home in Thiruvananthapuram. When he took out the paper to show his mother that he had won against Kabir and can now claim to be a as Sarvajith, he couldn’t believe his eyes. He saw that on the paper was written that ‘Kabir won, Sarvanand failed.’

That was a moment of transformation for him. With the permission of his mother, he left home immediately (of course, this time he didn’t have a bundle of scriptures with him), and reached to the feet of Kabir Das. When he purified himself through hours of tears, Kabir initiated him and gave him a new name, Shruthi Gopal. (In colloquial slang, most people called him Surathi Gopal). He never again went for any debates, nor did he read any scripture for the rest of his life. It was he who listened to Kabir, copied his songs and preserved them.

When Kabir decided to leave his body, it was at a distant place called Maghar in Uttar Pradesh, two hundred kilometres north of Benares. Sruthi Gopal followed him on the walk to there. Kabir’s samadhi was built on the shores of the river Ami (Gautam Buddha had left his royal clothing and all his princely insignia on this same riverbank!).

He brought some flowers (bone fragments from the cremation ashes) from Kabir’s samadhi back to Benares and built another samadhi there. Guiding the Kabir Panthi (lineage), he lived in Benares until his death at 113 years of age.

The Kabir Monastery in Benares has some sculptures and artworks in the

compound. One of them is of Sarvanand, drinking water from Kamalika, near the well, with his bull carrying a bundle of scriptures.

Let me remember one song of Kabir, in which he sings about the mysterious love between  master and disciple:

"There is a strange tree, which stands without roots

and bears fruits without blossoming;

It has no branches and no leaves, it is lotus all over.

Two birds sing there; one is the Guru, and the other the disciple:

The disciple chooses the manifold fruits of life and tastes them,

and the Guru beholds him in joy.

What Kabir says is hard to understand:

“The bird is beyond seeking, yet it is most clearly visible.

The Formless is in the midst of all forms. I sing the glory of forms.”

 

 ¹ Books I Have Loved, Session 5

                

                                          

 

OSHO AND KERALA - STORIES OF BOUNDLESS BOUNDARIES - 2

SHIVAPURI BABA 

There was a sentence that hit me strongly on the first reading of Books I Have Loved, Series 3, Session 16: ”Shivapuri Baba was certainly one of the rarest flowerings, particularly in India where so many idiots are pretending to be mahatmas.” Osho was talking about John G. Bennett’s book, Long Pilgrimage. Still, I didn’t pay much attention to that name, as baba was not an impressive word for us South Indians; any idiot mahatma was effortlessly called baba on the northern side. 

 

Then, after a few years, somehow this book Long Pilgrimage came into my hands as a gift from Mr. Giridhar Lal Manandhar. He is the son of Mr. Thakur Lal Manandhar, who helped J.G. Bennett write the book. Thakur Lal was living in close contact with Shivapuri Baba for many years, like a disciple.

From Long Pilgrimage I came to know that this ‘rarest flowering’ happened in Kerala. Not only that, on some deeper googling, I came to know that it happened just in our neighbourhood; merely a forty minutes’ drive from our home! Yet it would make no difference were it a one hour journey or a two days’ journey. But I was wondering because never mind forty minutes, even as close as a four minutes’ walk, we have missed a Buddha, and surely that happened also many times in the past! 

Shivapuri Baba was born 1826 in Akkikavu, a village in Kerala, into a devout and wealthy Brahmin family. Join me in a short pilgrimage into Shivapuri Baba’s life: It is said he was born with a smile and when he was brought to his grandfather Achyutam, a great astrologer, he announced that the signs of his birth and the smile on his lips show that a great sannyasin had come into the world, and his family line would come to an end, as it had fulfilled its purpose on earth. He received the formal name of Jayanthan Namboodiri. 

At the age of eighteen, he made a deed to hand over all his paternal properties to his twin sister and left home to join his grandfather who had become a hermit living in the forests of Amarkantak, the origin of the holy Narmada River in central India. While his grandfather was immersed in his practices as a sannyasin, Jayanthan was preparing himself to become a sannyasin. One day his grandfather handed over to him a large amount of precious stones and diamonds as well as a large amount of money, and asked him to keep these riches until his own jivanmukta - self-realization - and left his body. 

Jayanthan buried his grandfather and completed the obligatory duties he felt to perform, and then left to Sankara Mutt (monastery) in the South. He received his initiation and became Govindananda Bharati. Shivapuri Baba commented on this, “It was not necessary for me, but I did it as an act of piety.” 

Govindananda Bharati entered the deep forest near the banks of the Narmada River and lived there for more than twenty years, without seeing a single human being, sustained by self-grown vegetables, without counting the seasons coming and going… absolute solitary living. 

Shivapuri Baba never spoke about his life during that time and the years of deep meditation. If there is a phenomenon like enlightenment, we have to assume that he left the forest after achieving it. He then embarked on a long walk; literally, he was walking for almost forty years across the world and only on very few occasions travelled by ship or train. He headed first to the northern part of India, from there to Afghanistan, to Persia, to Mecca, then to Jerusalem, walking 800 miles through a semi-desert. Further on to Istanbul, and from there through the Balkans into Greece. When he arrived in Rome coming from Athens, he visited the Vatican and continued through Italy and almost all European countries. 

He crossed the Channel to England and from there took a ship to North America, where he spent two or three years. In 1904, he made his way on foot towards Mexico. He continued towards Andes through Columbia and Peru. He explored a route by the side of Lake Titicaca. Till that time, it says, that highest great lake was unknown to the world! 

And From South America he travelled to the Pacific Islands, New Zealand, Australia, Japan. Through Xinjiang in China he came back to the Himalayas and reached Benares. (According to him, following the ancient pilgrims’ way, he discovered the ascending route to Mount Everest and finally that same route was taken by John Hunt and his party in 1952. It was John Hunt who led Edmond Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing in 1953 to reach the summit.) 

The details of his world tour, which were briefly revealed by Shivapuri Baba himself, are simply incredible, and cannot be brought to a small write-up like this. But still, some remarkable personalities he met during his journey are mentioned by Bennet: He met Bal Gangadhar Tilak, the first leader of the Indian Independence Movement. In Calcutta, he met Ramakrishna and in Baroda, Aurobindo. He met Agha Khan in Afghanistan and in Turkey, Abdul Hamid II, 34th Sultan of the Ottoman Empire. He spoke to Kaiser Wilhelm II (German Emperor) and Queen Emma of The Netherlands. He met George Bernard Shaw who sneered at him, “You Indian saints are the most useless of men; you have no respect for time.” Unruffled, Shivapuri Baba replied, “It is you who are slaves of time. I live in Eternity.” He also had a talk with Albert Einstein.

During the four years from 1896 to 1901, while he was in England, he had eighteen

personal meetings with Queen Victoria. Bennet states the reason that Shivapuri Baba stayed in one place for such a long period was because of Queen Victoria’s insistence that he should not leave England during her lifetime. Apparently, all details of their meetings were removed from the Queen's diary by Princess Beatrice, her fifth daughter and youngest child. 

It was after seventy five years, he came back to his birth place in Kerala, in 1915. His around-the-world ‘pilgrimage’ had covered tens of thousands of miles and taken forty years. He was almost ninety years old. In the meantime, his twin sister had sold most of the family properties and distributed money to the poor, and had died. 

He again went to the Narmada forest, still in possession of some of the money his grandfather had given to him, buried it among the trees and proceeded to walk to Nepal. In those days, Indian pilgrims were not permitted to stay in Nepal for more than a week after Shivaratri. On his way back, an Englishman recognized him as he was walking on the road. He leaned out from his carriage and asked him, “Are you not Govinda?” It was Mr. Wilkinson who, while still a schoolboy, had met Govindananda twenty years earlier on the Isle of Man where he had stayed with the Wilkinson family). Wilkinson had much influence on the authorities and made all arrangements for Govindananda to stay in a place near Kathmandu. That forest area was known as Shivapuri and thus he became Shivapuri Baba. 

During this period of his stay in Shivapuri, many householders, religious, scholars and famous people from nearby countries started visiting him. One of the main figures among them was professor Ratnasuriya, a learned Buddhist from Ceylon. Ratnasuriya had met P.D. Ouspensky and had talked with him about Shivapuribaba and his teaching. Once Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, India’s second president and a famous philosopher, once made a visit to Nepal in order to attend some function in the Royal Guest House. But, no sooner alighted from his plane, he asked to take him to Shivapuri Baba’s retreat. It became big news in Nepal and India.

 

After a few years, Shivapuri Baba was contracted gum cancer. He then shifted himself to a small hut in a nearby place called Kirateshwar, taking some treatment. After a few years, seeing he is not recovered fully, he healed himself through certain yogic procedures. 

Baba left his forest retreat in 1955, at the age of 129, and flew to Benares. That was the only occasion he flew in an aeroplane. Around Easter 1961,J.G. Bennet, a disciple of G.I.Gurdjieff met Shivapuri Baba at the age of 135 years, alert, quick and graceful, with a phenomenal memory and an inspiring spiritual presence. One of the most remarkable features of his teaching was his ability to communicate spiritual wisdom in only a few words in the idiom of his questioners. 

The book Long Pilgrimage is a lengthy interview Shivapuri Baba gave in which he explains his message. If, to convey it in a single phrase, it would be - the right life. I would understand the same through Osho’s words, perhaps a more beautiful one - the spontaneous life. 

Shivapuri Baba left his body on 28 January 1963 in Dhruvasthali, Kthmandu; he had lived on this earth for 137 years. 

Together with friends I recently visited his birthplace, Akkikavu. A small granite

memorial with a plaque is there that had been placed a few years ago, at the spot where his house had been. That’s all. 

Let me complete my scribbles with a funny incident from Shivapuri Baba’s life, shared by Osho: 

“Just a few days ago I was reading the memoirs of a very rare man. He was a saint who died a few years ago. He lived for a really long time - almost one hundred and forty years. His name was Shivapuri Baba, Shivapuri Baba of Nepal. In his memoirs he tells a story. When he went to Jaipur a very rich man gave him a box full of notes, hundred-rupee notes. While in the train he looked into the box; it was full of notes and he wanted to know how many notes he had. So he started counting. In the compartment there were only two persons, Shivapuri Baba, a very old ancient man - at the time he must have been about one hundred and twenty years' old - and an English lady, a young woman. She became interested. This old beggar was in the first class and was carrying a whole box of one-hundred-rupee notes? An idea came in her mind. She jumped up and said, 'You give me half the money otherwise I will pull the chain and I will tell them that you tried to rape me.' Shivapuri Baba laughed and put his hands to his ears as if he were deaf. And he gave her some paper and said, 'Write it down. I cannot hear.' So she wrote it down. He took it and put it in his pocket and said, 'Now pull the chain.' This is presence of mind! It is not functioning out of the past because this has never happened before and it may not happen again. But, in a flash, like lightning, a man who is really present will act out of his presence.” 

(Osho,Tao: The Pathless Path, Vol 2, Ch 3.)

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Thomas the Apostle 

 “Be passersby.” 

Already as a child, I was hooked by this statement, (42) from the Gospel of Thomas. The gospel was only translated into our mother tongue, Malayalam in the 1980s. It was the first book I purchased other than the text books and study materials for school, where I attended eighth class. It was a school run by a Christian organization, as part of their ‘religious works’ and once in a while Christian books exhibitions would be organized. I remember, the only reason to buy this small book was that it was the cheapest, less than a rupee in those days. 

I hadn’t fallen in love with that book, but still, not knowing why, I always kept it with me as essential reading. Years later, especially after I shifted to Mumbai, I found the book entitled ‘The Mustard Seed’ by Osho in which he speaks about the same Gospel! And immediately I felt an inexplicable intimacy with my small book and started reading those maxims. Before The Mustard Seed reached me, the Gospel of Thomas had begun to reveal by itself, the sharpness, the urgency, the insightful glimpses of beauty, the simplicity, the silent peaks of a source beyond. And after listening to Osho speaks on the gospel, this small book became an unending ‘book of gratitude’ for me. Even though I had imbibed the statement, “Be passersby,” I had not absorbed it at all. But when I heard Osho explain what tathagat means… that was it. Ah, this! 

Thomas was one of the twelve apostles of Jesus. It is believed that he travelled

outside the Roman Empire for many years to preach the gospel and travelled as far as the Malabar Coast of India, which is modern-day Kerala State, arriving in 52 CE. From there he is said to have preached the gospel throughout the Malabar coast, where there were Jewish colonies. In accordance with apostolic custom, Thomas ordained teachers, leaders or elders. Higher caste brahmins were those who had converted first. Thomas was very much impressed by their lifestyle, and adapted some of their hair styles, clothing, and practices such as yoga and martial arts. 

Osho explained: “Thomas adapted himself completely to the Hindu way of life. He changed his clothes; he was even wearing the Hindu thread that symbolized the Hindu. He was using the red mark on his forehead that symbolizes a certain sect of Hindu. He shaved his head, and he was using wooden sandals which only Hindu monks use. He tried to learn from Hindu masters whatever he could manage. And he tried in the south of India to teach Christ translated into Hindu terms, and he succeeded.” (Osho, The Transmission of Lamp#32 Q1) 

It has been stated that the well-known term ‘Seven and half Churches’ (Ezharappallikal in Malayalam) relates to the affirmation of Thomas’ gospel activities. Actually eight churches were built;’half church originated because of a wrong translation from the Tamil language.They were established mainly on the Periyar River and its tributaries and along the coast – in Kodungalloor, Niranam, Kollam, Chayal, Kottakkavu, Kokkamangalam, Kanyakumari and Palayoor, the latter considered the oldest church, in place since 52 CE. The façade of this ornate building is rather small- just 10 metres wide, but more than 60 metres long. The bell tower next to it has an opulent interior. An interesting factor is that all the churches in this group belong to the different congregations of Christianity. 

The historical facts and beliefs about Thomas were not clear to me until I heard Osho talks about the conspiracy behind Jesus’ death and his life after crucifixion, in Pahalgam, Kashmir. But many historians don’t agree with this. A few sections of Christianity don't agree even to the fact that Thomas had landed in Kerala. Even those who agree, aren't ready or not happy to hear that Thomas had come from Kashmir. All of them are in fear that they finally will have to agree that Jesus did not die on the cross. To avoid inquiries about Pahalgam where Jesus’s tomb was found(as stated by many, also Osho), the priest circle is hiding the fact that Thomas had come from Kashmir and simply say that Thomas came through northwest India and then travelled south to Kerala, or allege he must have come from China! 

There is no information available during which time Thomas write his Gospel. It was discovered in northern Egypt in 1945, as part of the Nag Hammadi texts. Christianity in Kerala is dominated by Thomas, yet church authorities from Vatican to local priests are still reluctant about the Gospel written by him. It is not considered as religious as other gospels in the Bible. Thomas reports Jesus as being a rebellious figure and that naturally contradicts with the ongoing activities and intention of the established clergy. 

After twenty years’ travelling and teaching in Kerala, Thomas was martyred by being stabbed with a deathly spear at St. Thomas Mount in Chennai on 3 July 72 CE; his body was interred in Mylapore, near Madras (now Chennai).

altar of st. thomas catheedral, mylapore.
photo:rajan paul

Originally published in OSHO NEWS ONLINE , on 25/04/21.