God save the King

I read this as a facebook status some time ago , "what does Queen Elizabeth say during the British national anthem. God Save me???."

This reminded me of our very own national anthem. Well I don't like controversies so I usually abstain from putting forth my views on any of the topics that might result in the declaration of a reward for putting my head on a spike. However india's national anthem is one issue that I would like to write upon(People if I go missing don't blame anyone panga maine liya tha J ).

Now coming to the point there has been a controversy surrounding our national anthem and national song for quite some time. Both of these are in a language that is not easily understandable, highly sanskritised Bengali. To add to this the creators of both of these were great poets and as we all know a poem has many meanings (which can be the subjects of Dan Brown's next novel). The controversy about vande mataram is mainly due the fact that it was from a book that favoured the british and told of rebellion by sanyasis aginst the muslim ruler. In the story Vande matram was their say theme song aginst the nawab. So the song has been branded as hindu. Because when I read it I found nothing wrong with it. Read for yourself and decide

(the devnagri version has been taken from Wikipedia

वन्दे
मातरम् // I bow to the mother land
सुजलां
सुफलां
मलयजशीतलाम् // full of natural riches(rivers and fruits)
शस्यशामलां
मातरम्
।

शुभ्रज्योत्स्नापुलकितयामिनीं // moonlight enhancs the night's beauty
फुल्लकुसुमितद्रुमदलशोभिनीं //of the trees and the flowers on their branches
सुहासिनीं
सुमधुर
भाषिणीं // the giver of pleasure divine is the motherland
सुखदां
वरदां
मातरम्
।।
१
।।
वन्दे
मातरम्
।
कोटि-कोटि-कण्ठ-कल-कल-निनाद-कराले // millions of throats sing her praise
कोटि-कोटि-भुजैर्धृत-खरकरवाले, //and millions of arms to protect her
अबला
केन
मा
एत
बले
। //who can call her weak
बहुबलधारिणीं
नमामि
तारिणीं //She is strong and protects us from enemies
रिपुदलवारिणीं
मातरम्
।।
२
।।
वन्दे
मातरम्
।
तुमि
विद्या, तुमि
धर्म // you are the knowledge you are my religion
तुमि
हृदि, तुमि
मर्म // you are my heart and the love that is in it
त्वं
हि
प्राणा: शरीरे // you are my soul and body
बाहुते
तुमि
मा
शक्ति, // my arms have your strength
हृदये
तुमि
मा
भक्ति, // my heart worships only you
तोमारई
प्रतिमा
गडि // I see you image in every shrine
मन्दिरे-मन्दिरे
मातरम्
।।
३
।।
वन्दे
मातरम्
।
त्वं
हि
दुर्गा
दशप्रहरणधारिणी // you are like durga the protector
कमला
कमलदलविहारिणी //you are like Lakshmi the giver of riches
वाणी
विद्यादायिनी, नमामि
त्वाम् // you are like saraswati the giver of riches
नमामि
कमलां
अमलां
अतुलां // I bow to you o incomparable
सुजलां
सुफलां
मातरम्
।।
४
।।
वन्दे
मातरम्
।
श्यामलां
सरलां
सुस्मितां
भूषितां

धरणीं
भरणीं
मातरम्
।।
५
।।
वन्दे
मातरम्
।।

Not all of you are going to agree that this is neutral and secular. But as I said earlier it's the viewpoint. And this is why I wrote some 400 word nonsense on view points. However rest is upon you to decide.

I take your leave again

Take care

Philosophical Gibberish I: The eye of the beholder

You can call it peer pressure if you want to as this post and the few that will follow it were planned after I read some really good blogs in the past few days.(if I read your blog in the past few days and you are reading this then thanks.)

Beauty lies in the eye of the beholder. Is a common saying and I have found it true in many situations throughout my life. But the way I have found it to be true is not only eye but every sense organ. Or rather I should say the mind of the beholder. It is how we train our mind that determines how we look at different situations or events. I must again quote (mind you this post contains a lot of quotes) and SMS that I got "an optimist sees an opportunity in every problem and a pessimist sees a problem in every opportunity. Point of view matters in how we interact with the world around us. To a large extent this point of view or attitude of perceiving the things around us depends only upon us but there are certain situations beyond our control that affect this. The things in our control are our temper and patience that allow us to take the best out of certain situations. Our optimism to a large extent is also in our control. Based upon this we say that the world around us is a large mirror. And now about the things that are beyond our control are our society and upbringing. They do not affect our attitude in general but do enhance or diminish our ability to see the beauty in certain things around us. As an example of this I will take up some examples that I found interesting.

First of all a simple example if you were born and brought up in a hindu family will consider the swastika as sacred an and worship it. But if in Germany they find you worshipping it you might even land up in prison. In the lost symbol there is a line said by Robert Langdon "every Sunday I bow before an ancient device of torture." He was talking about worshiping a cross in a church. So the things actually sound different when you have different cultural mind-set. Apart from the symbols there words in languages that can trigger a totally different as another example the word B**d is an integral part of the human anatomy to us hindi speakers but to the Germans it is their parliament. Thus I can end by saying that the world around us depends partially upon how we choose to look at it and partially upon how our mind has been setup to look at it. But if we learn to appreciate others point of view as well as ours this world might become a slightly if not a much better place to live in.

This post over but the topic is not out. Because my next post is somewhat related to the point of view. In that case it would be the point of view of interpreting a couple of songs.

What songs….. you will know (if by an infinitesimally small chance you are interested)

Until then

Take Care