Book-Release Function - II with Video Links

I have a peculiar way of life. I deal with figures – I mean those figures in accountancy – during day and with words during night.

‘Being an auditor, how can you write?’ People have been asking me for the last fifteen years. I am tired of answering them.

Nowadays my answer to that hackneyed question is another question :How can you not write?

You might have seen some people in our weddings carrying a camera or a handycam and shooting whatever that interests them. Well, I don’t mean the professional photographers.

I mean those amateurs who want snapshots of everything – the cook lifting his hands, the bridegroom stealing some time to have a cup of coffee..

When you are armed with an eye for the camera, and a mind for the film you really want to shoot whatever you see.

Their shooting results in photos and videos; mine in books. That’s the only difference.

But it is pretty difficult to handle these two diverse professions. I remember seeing a martial arts demonstration in Chennai a few years ago.

It was not the usual ‘breaking the bricks with bare hands’ show. It was different. Way different.

The person had to stand on a wooden plank which was placed on a dozen eggs and then break the bricks in front of him. There should be enormous power in his hands and virtually none on his legs.

The idea was to break the bricks without breaking the eggs. For if he pressed his legs a little hard the eggs would break; and if the pressure on his hands was a little less the bricks would not break.

I need to be soft on writing and hard on accounts. Many times I mix up these things and mess up with my work in both the fields.

Agreed. You have come to writing. But how come you chose to write on spirituality is the next question. We understand your writing stories, novels and even motivational essays. But what made you turn towards God?

I am fed up with the present day spirituality. It has become more like pharmacology. What is Pharmacology?

It can be condensed into the form of a table where the left column lists all the diseases and the right, the medicines to cure them.

We have a spirituality table now.

Thus we have a God for coming out of debt;
Another to win our love.
A God to succeed in your ventures
And another to get married to your beloved
Daughter’s marriage delayed, there is another God.
And for son’s campus, there is yet another
There is one for promotion and another for life’s luxuries
There is one for making money and another for winning the lottery
There’s one for healthy living and there’s even one to retire without any hassles

[FONT=TSCu_Comic]கடன் தொல்லை தீர ஒரு கடவுள் [/FONT]
[FONT=TSCu_Comic]காதல் கைகூட மற்றொரு கடவுள்[/FONT]
[FONT=TSCu_Comic]காரியத்தில் ஜெயிக்க ஒரு கடவுள்[/FONT]
[FONT=TSCu_Comic]காதலனைக் கைப்பிடிக்க ஒரு கடவுள்[/FONT]
[FONT=TSCu_Comic]மகளுக்கு திருமணமா, மற்றொரு தெய்வம்[/FONT]
[FONT=TSCu_Comic]மகனுக்கு வேலை கொடுப்பது இன்னும் ஒரு தெய்வம்[/FONT]
[FONT=TSCu_Comic]பதவி உயர்வுக்கு ஒன்று பகட்டான வாழ்க்கைக்கு ஒன்று[/FONT]
[FONT=TSCu_Comic]பணம் சம்பாதிக்க ஒன்று பந்தயத்தில் ஜெயிக்க வேறொன்று[/FONT]
[FONT=TSCu_Comic]நோயில்லாமல் வாழ ஒரு தெய்வம் பணி[/FONT]
[FONT=TSCu_Comic]ஓய்வு பெறும் போது வழக்கில்லாமல் இருக்க ஒரு தெய்வம்[/FONT]

My NRI friend had come down from the US. His ten year old son was visiting India for the first time. We all visited the Parthasarathy Temple at Triplicane.

My friend gave a five dollar bill to his son asking him to deposit in the Hundial. The son complied. While we moved away from the place the boy was still standing near the Hundial.

He was furiously tapping the steel box that contained offerings for God. He was clearly pissed off.

“What happened sonny?”

“Uncle, you see, I deposited a five dollar bill into that machine. I thought there would be some coke coming out, or at least some chocolates. See nothing is happening. In the US if I drop a five dollar bill you know how many things will I get?. India is a bad country, Uncle. Nothing works here.”

Poor boy! He thought that Parthasarathy Temple’s Hundial was another vending machine. My friend had a hearty laugh.

“You are no better than your son.” I chided him.

“How do you say that?”

“You never visited India during the last fifteen years. Why did you come all of a sudden and why all the way to this temple?”

“Well, Sridhar, to confess the truth, the CEO post in my company is vacant. I am one of the contenders. There’s a very brutal selection process ahead. I have come here to seek God’s help.”

“Your son is far better. He just tapped the hundial whereas you are trying to tap Lord Parthasarathy himself.”

When you are friends with a person for some hidden gain or for an ulterior motive, or just to increase your range of contacts, then there is no difference between that friendship and prostitution.

No other literature in the world, except ours, has stated the maxim with such abundant clarity. Our Thiruvalluvar roars, “A friendship forged for a secret gain, prostitution and theft are crimes of the same order.”

When a friendship with a hidden agenda is in itself prostitution, devotion to Lord for ulterior motives is only worse prostitution.

Then how should be our relationship with God? If we chant his name thinking of the gains we might have in this world or in another, it’s mere prostitution practised in a different form.

Let’s suppose there is a law which lays down that if you utter the name of God you will be killed. And then you say, ‘it is better to die than to live without telling his name.’ And you risk your life telling his name, that’s devotion.

That and that alone is Bakthi.

I wanted to tell this to this world and hence I wrote this book.

Jalaludeen Rumi is a human bomb. Don’t ever try to go near his verses without proper protective gear. I did that mistake and I am yet to recover from the shock.

This book was born out of that shock. Who knows what else will be born out of it?

This book is available in stall numbers 205, 206, 255 and 256 in this fair. The book costs Rs.200.

A friend told me that the book is pricey. What is Rs.200 today? Just 3.25 litres of petrol. If you had come by car from Adyar that’s the quantity of petrol you would have spent for this trip, assuming you are not caught in a traffic snarl.

200 Rupees is the cost of one and a half Ghee Roast Dosas at Saravana Bhavan, Pondy Bazar. It’s the cost of three fourths of a cheese pizza at Pizza Hut.

As a part of this book I have written a poem on death. I have boasted in that poem that I am ready to die any time.

But of late I want to live for some more time.

Of late I have taken up three major tasks and want to live till I complete them. What are they?

I am attending Thiruvaimozhi Vyaakyaanam classes of my Guru Dr.Arangarajan. I have completed 400 paasurams and there are about 700 more. That may take another 2, 3 years.

I am translating Kalkiyin Ponniyin Selvan. I have completed 22 chapters in the First Part. There are Five Parts and it may take more than three and a half years.

I want to live till I finish it as I have promised to the kind ladies of Indusladies.com to complete the translation. I need to live for that at least.

I have another dream. I want this book to be the first of a series of five books. I want to write the remaining four books in the next four years.

Then with Shri Kavitha Chokkalingam’s assistance publish all the five as one large hard-bound volume. Anyone who has a problem, who feels let down by their near and dear, (mind you, God never lets us down though we have let Him down a million times) any who feels difficult to cope up with life should be able to open a page at random and find solace at what he reads there.

Then and only then my mission as a writer will at least be half complete.

Thank you for your time.

Here are the video links for the function

Part 1/6

Part 2/6

Part 3/6

Part 4/6

Part 5/6

Part 6/6